people love to shit on the failings of a classic protagonist in favor of more interesting side characters but what appeals to me about a harry potter is that he’s a huge bitch
Some time ago I’ve drawn the best (or the hottest hah) prefect for the banshee_.shop (inst) 💚
It happens by chance, and while Harry wishes it hadn’t, this will at least clear up any lingering uncertainty for him.
There’s a skirmish between Harry and some friends from the Order and Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and a couple stray curses happen to catch him – one slices shallowly into his upper arm, the other sends him rolling across the ground. The upshot of this is that the left shoulder of Harry’s shirt is now in ribbons and hanging down around his waist, leaving his chest – and soul mark – bare to the world. Including Voldemort.
Who looks like he’s having one doozy of an emotion.
And that basically confirms the dark wizard hadn’t known, but right now Harry’s bleeding sluggishly and wants to go home and have a drink and pass out for at least a few hours, so Voldemort can rage on his own time. Everyone else from his side has already buggered off, so he’s not abandoning anyone if he does the same.
Unfortunately, the blood loss – while not severe – is enough to slow his reaction time, which leads to him apparating himself and the Dark Lord latched onto him to his flat. Not ideal.
There are a tense few moments of staring at the snake man, waiting to see if he’ll attack or start destroying Harry’s home, but when he doesn’t take advantage – when he just stares and frowns and stares some more – Harry decides he’s too tired for this shit.
“You are just impossible to ward out, aren’t you?” he sighs. The curse of being so physically and magically intertwined with the other man. (Well. And at the soul level, too, but he tries not to think of that.)
Voldemort yanks him by his uninjured arm towards the kitchen light that comes on automatically and stares at Harry’s chest, and the elegantly written Tom Marvolo Riddle thereupon.
Harry scowls when the staring drags on. “Oi, could you quit perving on me and piss off already?”
“You were never going to tell me?” Voldemort demands, ignoring Harry’s half-arsed attempt at distraction.
“Of course not,” he scoffs. “Why the Hel would I? Either you already knew and it didn’t matter to you, or you didn’t – and I wasn’t about to risk baring my soul to someone who has a history of wanting me dead.” He shrugs. “I’m reckless, not suicidal.”
Voldemort opens his mouth with an angrily indignant look, and Harry looks to the ceiling for patience before pulling out of the other man’s grip and opening his emergency bottle of firewhiskey, hidden in the pantry, because this conversation needs alcohol. He pours two glasses (his to the brim) because he tries to be a good host, even to the bane of his existence. And if Voldemort doesn’t want it, well, it’ll save Harry getting the bottle out again.
All throughout this, Voldemort is ranting at him. Harry tunes most of it out – he’s had to hear enough of the man’s monologues to know he doesn’t need to listen to the preamble; the meat of his diatribe won’t come until a couple minutes in, at least.
After he casts a quick episkey on the cut on his arm, Harry leans against the counter, watching Voldemort pace around his modest kitchen. He takes a long, slow drink, welcoming the fire flowing down his throat and warming his belly. And either the other man is taking even longer than usual to get to the point or Harry’s more exhausted and irritable than he’d thought, because he’s suddenly completely out of patience with this situation.
He cuts in boredly, “It’s not like it changes anything. It doesn’t matter.”
Voldemort is immediately before him, looming and enraged. “It matters to me!”
“Why?”
“I’ve waited decades for you,” he says vehemently, leaning closer in an attempt to physically intimidate or pin Harry in place.
Harry barks a harsh laugh. “You waited for a fantasy. You’ve spent my whole life killing and hurting the people most important to me. Some silly mark doesn’t change that – it doesn’t make it better, it won’t make me love you.” He takes a sip and rasps through the burn. “It won’t change who you are.”
“I never received a mark–”
“And that’s unfortunate. Clearly it affected you. But plenty of people don’t get soul marks and they don’t commit mass murder and incite civil wars.” He gives Voldemort a dismissive look, standing up straight and slipping out from between the dark wizard and the counter. He can almost hear the other man grinding his teeth.
“You have no idea what it’s like, not having a mark,” Voldemort hisses caustically, face contorted in a furious snarl. “The contempt, the ridicule I had to endure. I was denied one of Magic's basic gifts and they took it as proof they were better than me, those worthless fools.”
It’s difficult to know how he would’ve reacted to not having a mark. His burden has been to have the mark of the worst possible person, and he thinks he’s handled it far better than anyone could’ve expected of him. Having no mark would’ve confirmed that he’s meant to be alone, that there’s no one out there meant just for him, but having Voldemort’s mark as Harry Potter essentially means the same thing.
“Maybe you mutilated your soul too much to deserve a mark,” Harry says in a fit of cruelty. Behind the wrath crackling in the other man’s eyes, he can see the misery bloom. As good as it feels to score a hit against Voldemort, he regrets it even more. And isn’t that the exact reason why this damn war has dragged on for so long?
(Harry pushes that thought away wearily.)
“You had choices, Voldemort, and you made yours,” he says quietly but firmly. “I’m making mine, and it’s that I don’t want anything to do with you.”
“This is not a unilateral decision,” Voldemort says, the frustration in his tone edging close to desperation. “Do my wants mean nothing?”
"Your wants." Harry slams his almost empty glass down on the table; his voice comes out dangerously even. “Alright then. Can you bring my parents back to life? No? How about Cedric, or Sirius, or any of the dozens of others whose lives you’ve cut short?”
Voldemort’s mouth is pinched shut, a thunderous frown on his face.
“Hel, let’s start small. Stop this war, swear to never harm another person and get your followers to do the same. You want me to care about what you want? Start by addressing all of that.”
“You ask this of me and promise nothing in return?” Voldemort says bitterly.
“That’s the bare minimum it would take for me to see you as anything more than a murderous, blood-supremacist monster. And I honestly don’t think you can do it, but feel free to prove me wrong.”
That puts an unsettling gleam in the other man’s eyes. Harry thinks back on what he might’ve said to cause that reaction and feels his stomach drop. Oh bother. He’d challenged Voldemort. Harry knows exactly how he'd react to someone saying that; apparently Voldemort is equally competitive (and motivated by spite – he should’ve guessed that).
“...If I am able to–”
“You won’t–”
“When I fulfill your requirements,” Voldemort arrogantly says, face intense. “You and I will explore our connection, and you will meet with me frequently to do so.”
And now Harry is in a quandary. If Voldemort does what he’s been asked, Harry will have achieved what he’s been fighting for all six years of his adult life; if Voldemort doesn’t, Harry’s no worse off than he was before. And he knows the dark wizard won’t give up his cause simply because his soulmate asked, but if Voldemort does…
“You do realise that your soulmate is me, yeah?” Harry clarifies, unnerved by the shift in the other man's demeanour. “You don’t like me. At all.”
“Nonsense,” Voldemort says, waving off Harry’s really very logical point. “We simply haven’t had a chance to become properly acquainted.”
“...Because you’re always trying to kill me.”
“Details, details.”
Harry would very much like to strangle the megalomaniac who is still in his apartment. “...Uh-huh. Sure, you become a completely different person and we’ll talk.”
He sometimes forgets that magic occasionally disregards sarcasm. This appears to be one of those times, as the heaviness in the air snaps tight around them, signifying Harry’s flippant “sure” just turned this discussion into a magically binding agreement. Merlin’s pierced nipples. So much for intent over phrasing.
Catching sight of Voldemort’s smug smirk, Harry suddenly feels genuinely homicidal for the first time in his life. Sensing his non-existent welcome is well and truly worn out, Voldemort says, “I look forward to it,” and apparates away. Harry pitches a cushion through the space the dark wizard just occupied. It helps settle his irritation a little.
He drops onto his couch with a deep, bone-tired sigh and tosses back Voldemort’s untouched glass of firewhiskey.
He wonders if he’ll feel disappointed or relieved when Voldemort realises he’d rather keep trying to subjugate Magical Britain than have Harry as his soulmate.
Three days later, the war ends.
Harry "I came back from the dead" potter & tom "I was Resurrected " riddle
Harry "definitely shouldn't be doing this right now" potter & tom "I don't have any morals or values " riddle
Harry "harbinger of chaos and im fucking up your plans tom " potter & tom "harry why aren't you listening to my monolog" riddle
harry "i swear if one more thing in my life goes wrong " potter & tom "I'm completely innocent officer" riddle
Other Tomarry fanarts. Also in Twitter and AO3.
Harry Potter artworks I’m enormous proud of⚡️🐍
Harry: I’m going to need a human skull, and you can’t ask why.
Tom: Only if you also don’t ask why. *pulls out four pristine human skulls from his bag*
Harry:
Tom:
Harry: This one will do.
❝ I heard someone say, 'Do or do not'. There is no try. People could die. ❞
The Work: a tomarry lyricstuck. (please open to view for proper dimensions.)
song by Air Traffic Controller. art & video by me. lyricstuck art under the cut.
Cursed idea: The Little Mermaid AU with Lily Luna as Ariel and Voldemort using her to get not only the King's trident, but Harry as well.
My name is Harry. I have to be completely honest, I’m not exactly sure what to put in this letter. What do you even write to a stranger that you’ve never met before? My friend recommended me to this program and said that I should branch out more. I don’t get out of the house much, so maybe that’s one of the reasons for it. And it’s not that I don’t have a lot of free time, people just tend to exhaust me sometimes.
Is it like that where you are? I can only imagine that it must get overwhelming in there sometimes. Do you get a lot of free time? You mentioned that you liked to read, what books exactly?
I’ve never been that big of a reader personally, even though I work as a freelance writer. Is that hypocritical? I don’t think so, but some people think otherwise.
God, I'm so so late but here is my assignment for 2022 Tomarry BigBang!
Quotes are from the wonderful fic You've got mail by B_R_M. Completed fic is not uploaded but I hope to see the whole fic someday. (If you are curious, you can see the summary at @tomarrybigbang)