Dream a little Dream

Chapter 21

Harry happily raced outside to the stables, glad that he had thought to place a cooling charm on himself until the heat was over. He still couldn’t bear the thought of having one of the more dominant of his friends, or Tom around him, but at least he could sleep and function by himself.

He slipped into the tack room to look at the groom’s schedule for the horses. He looked under the exercise column and saw that one of his favorite mares, Rosie, was due for a ride. He gathered up her tack box and left it by the crossties on his way to her stall. He snagged her halter from its hook next to her stall, and went in to call her.

Tom heaved a huge sigh as he watched from a window as Harry traipsed down to the stables without him. He was having a terrible time without his kitten, but Lupin had managed to convince him that forcing his presence was a bad idea. So he took out his frustration on those around him, which was just the house elves and Lupin. For the past two days the Malfoys had locked themselves in his infirmary, because Howitzer had decided that moving Severus and the baby was a bad idea.

So Tom just watched Harry from a distance, and harassed the house elves in the morning, demanding to know how Harry was, if he had eaten that morning, if they had remembered to give him food that day…

They were beginning to hate him.

Harry had just led a brown Arab mare out to the large ring and mounted from the block. Tom looked on in adoration as Harry first warmed the mare up, and then slowly moved on to more complicated exercises. He tried to read through the bond what his mate was feeling, and couldn’t reach Harry. ‘Well, what’s the last thing I remember him feeling?’ thought Tom

‘Toys and chocolate!’ he thought excitedly. He had a purpose now! If Harry couldn’t stand to be around him, it wasn’t as though he had to forget about Tom. Sure they had air written to each other at least a hundred times a day, but that wasn’t enough. Harry had to have something to hold onto that would remind him of Tom. So, with one last look at Harry, who was galloping madly around the ring, with a grin from ear to ear, he turned to go find Sirius.

He decided to floo to the Malfoy’s manor, because that was the last place he remembered seeing Sirius. He was ejected into the atrium, and wandered about the house looking for his wayward spy. A very blond and affronted portrait informed him that there were two animals in the dining nook, and asked that he remove the dog from the table.

Tom automatically assured the deceased Malfoy that the dog was an animagus, and probably very bored to be eating in his dog form.

Slipping unnoticed into the informal dining space, he was shocked at the sight that greeted him.

Sirius was shoveling food into his face at an amazing speed, and looking very pleased to be able to do so. Beside him, Prince, Draco’s Great Dane had his face buried in a plate of what looked like ham.

“What on earth are you doing?” asked Tom.

“They – mmf- hold on –“Sirius swallowed the food he had in his mouth, and kept his eyes trained on his plate as he talked to the dark lord.

“The house elves wouldn’t feed me unless there was a Malfoy at the table, so I found some animal healers invoices that named the dog Prince Malfoy. And as long as he’s at the table, they’ll feed me.”

“It took me two long days, but I finally tricked them!” Sirius laughed madly at the house elves that weren’t there, and returned to shoveling food into his face.

Tom wondered whether or not Sirius had cracked while he was in Azkaban. “Why didn’t you just go out to the muggle village and get yourself some food?” he asked

“We’ve still got wizards in the dungeons, couldn’t leave them alone. Let me eat.” Sirius responded testily.

“I’ll just go visit with them, how does that sound?” Tom said casually. His only response was a thumb raise from Sirius and a wag of the tail from Prince.

He left to go see the prisoners, and whistled a little tune once he was out the door. He heard Sirius shriek, and Prince ran to the whistle as he’d been trained. As the dog happily danced around him, Sirius ran towards Prince and made to grab his collar to bring him back to the table. Prince turned and ran, seeming to think that this was a game of tag, and Sirius tore after him yelling,

“Two goddamn days, dog! You mean nothing but food to me! If I have to take you out back and roast you I will!”

Tom watched them disappear down the hall, and thought it was counter-intuitive that his life had gotten stranger after he regained his sanity through Harry’s and his bond.

Thinking that he would get no help from Sirius today, he decided to go visit the prisoners and then go shopping for Harry.

He made his way down to the dungeons slowly, savoring the triumph that he felt. Harry had managed to recover from almost everything that life had thrown him, though he still hated to be alone before he’d gone into heat. He was so proud of his mate, and he would do anything to see Harry develop into the great man he was destined to be.

He entered the row of rooms and relished the strong aroma of fear and pain that permeated the area. He stopped at Ron Weasley’s cell first, and saw that the young man was much changed. He was emaciated, and filthy. He had been blinded, so that he would not know where the next blow was coming from, but he heard Tom’s heavy breathing. His only response was to curl in on himself and whimper. Tom left him and moved on.

Goyle had bore the brunt of the Malfoy’s and Sirius’ rage. He was barely recognizable as human (though that wasn’t much of a change) and wheezed at the door when he felt that someone was at the threshold. He was blinded and deafened, however those senses returned to him whenever he tried to sleep, with lights so bright he shrieked in pain and noises so loud they qualified as sonic booms.

Tom tried to think of a punishment to add to the current ones. Finally, he waved his wand, and from the roof poured a solid column of saltwater, all focused on Goyle. The man shrieked in pain, and Tom set the spell to occur once every two hours, and a slashing hex to activate every hour, so that Goyle always had open wounds for the salt water to burn.

Feeling much calmer because he had defended his mate’s honor, he set out to find the perfect gifts for Harry.

He apparated to Diagon Alley and stopped in the Wizarding branch of Godiva Chocolates. Looking around, he thought that Harry deserved more than a simple box! So he called over a store clerk, and bought a whole display wall. While he was dealing with the payment and shipping, he saw something that he was sure would fascinate Harry.

“Clerk, could you bring me two ten pound bars of chocolate? One white and one milk chocolate, yes, that’s good.” Tom smirked, thinking that there was no way that someone could ever accuse him of neglecting Harry.

Next he sought out a gift store, intent on finding the perfect toy for Harry. Something that would remind him of Tom…

He passed a display on a Wizarding children’s toy store, and then turned to walk back to it. They were selling stuffed snakes that slithered when the owner wished them to! It was as though he was meant to buy the toy. He went in, and found one with red eyes, and pale scales. On his way to the register, he saw that the far wall had a mound of random toys that were all soft and adorable, and decided that Harry had to have it.

So he called over a clerk, and bought every toy on the far wall. He went over and shrunk the mountain of toys, then sent it to his manor. Feeling better than he had in days, he decided to have lunch in the alley, and then head home after going to some shops for himself.

Meanwhile, Harry had just gotten out of the shower, and decided to nap until dinner. He curled into the bed’s numerous pillows and drifted off to sleep, dreaming of horses and free falls off of cliffs.

Remus was sitting in Tom’s office when he got back. “Where were you all day?” he asked, slightly miffed that he could smell Sirius on Voldemort’s clothes, and he’d not been able to see his wayward mate. He frowned and jerkily got out of his chair.

“I was buying things for Harry, Lupin.” Tom frowned back at him.

“Why didn’t you take me when you went to see Sirius?” Remus demanded. Really now, the man would snap at him for anything, and he had put up with it to see Sirius!

“Oh!” Tom exclaimed, “You’re waiting around here to see him? Why? He’s just over at Malfoy Manor. I’d thought you were waiting to see Harry.”

Remus hung his head. “I told you several times that I was waiting to see Sirius. What made you think I was talking about Harry?”

Tom got a dreamy look on his face. Lupin raised a hand and said “Because Harry’s all you think about, right? I’m leaving. Tell Harry goodbye for me the next time that you two start air-mailing each other.”With that, Remus floo’d himself to the manor through Tom’s fireplace.

Tom shrugged and sat at his desk to sort out all of the gifts that he had gotten Harry. He carefully imagined Harry’s room, and sent the toys and chocolates to various surfaces that he remembered. Once all of the new things were arranged in Harry’s room, Tom pulled out hard copies of plans for future raids. Now that he was feeling a bit calmer than he had in the past week, he could focus on the business of being the Dark Lord.

Harry’s room was darker than he had thought that it would be when he woke, and dinner was on a tray on his bed already. “Lumos.”, he commanded the lights. His eyes bugged when he got a good look at his room. He was surrounded by a sea of stuffed toys! When he got a good look the only one on his bed, he figured out who the culprit was. A pale toy snake with red eyes slithered up to Harry’s knees, then lay docile when Harry picked it up to look at.

Harry sighed and shook his head. He knew what Tom was trying to do, but the man had blocked his door with a mountain of stuffed toys. Harry stepped off the bed and sank up to his knees in stuffed animals.

‘Maybe I’ll just eat dinner and wait for a house elf to come help me with this mess…’ Harry thought.

Little did he know that the House elf that worked for him had been knocked out by a flying 10 pound bar of chocolate, so it would be a while before help came.