Chapter Text
To Mr. Riddle,
We regret to inform you….
Rejection. Rejection. Rejection. That is all he can see. Despite his constant high marks and extracurriculars, Dippet said no.
Tom doesn’t even have to finish reading the letter to know that he didn’t get the position he worked so hard for. Hogwarts is his home. The only place he could ever say he felt safe in. And now, he can’t even have that.
The letter is crumpled under his tight grip and his palms go white from the lack of circulation. Before he knows it, the parchment & the bedsheets he’s sitting on dampen as tears fall from his eyes.
Tom’s crying.
He almost laughs in disbelief. He gets told no, and his first reaction is to cry? He should be stronger than that. He is stronger than that.
This is only a setback. Tom tells himself. I've planned for this.
Tom didn’t become the most respected person in not only his house, but also his entire grade on his good looks alone, especially as a half-blood. No, Tom was incredibly smart. So despite the Defense professor position being his primary goal, he had multiple contingencies in the case he didn’t get it. If not Hogwarts, then the Ministry. Tom had received numerous offers from the Ministry of Magic. He’d take one of those and continue to build his connections until he could one day take over. Then eventually, he would become the new Minister for Magic and have all the power to guide the future generation of wizards under his mentorship.
Sure, it wouldn't be at Hogwarts, but Tom surmises that becoming the next Minister for Magic would more or less serve the same purpose. Not that Tom thought that the Muggles were any better, but he believed the Wizarding World to be corrupt and archaic in its traditions and beliefs. Despite having greater intelligence than the rest of those in his generation, it wasn't until he was revealed to being the direct line to Slytherin that doors for Tom opened. The doors that would allow Tom to garner strength and power, paving the way for him to become leader that he believed himself destined to be. Only then would he be no longer able to feel as helpless as he did as a child.
He continues to dwell on his future plans until he’s interrupted by the door to his dorm room opening. Just from that he immediately knows that it’s Harry. No one else in the Slytherin house would dare to enter his room unannounced. He quickly composes himself and wipes his tears away lest he show any signs of weakness, especially in front of his boyfriend.
Of course, Harry Evans would be by my side through it all. Tom thinks to himself, almost like an afterthought.
“Tom? You ok? You’ve been in here for quite a while.”
Tom feels his bed dip, and some of the tension in his body leaves as he feels Harry peeking over from behind him—his head resting on his shoulder.
“What’s that?” Harry asks, leaning to take a long at the now crumpled letter in Tom’s hands.
He doesn’t verbally respond, but he does allow Harry to unclasp the letter from his hands without protest. Tom’s too ashamed to say it aloud, but Harry deserves to know the truth.
Tom knows Harry’s read it when he hears the hitch in his breath. Shortly after, he feels a pair of arms wrap around his waist, pulling him back into his chest, and leaving no space in between them. Tom allows himself the satisfaction of enjoying the pleasure of having Harry at such an intimate proximity. He basks in Harry’s presence and focuses on the warm feeling that grows inside him as he feels Harry’s breath on his nape. It’s not enough to stop his inner turmoil, but it helps.
“Oh Tom. I’m so sorry. I know you really wanted the position too.” Harry tells him sympathetically.
Had this been anybody else, Tom would’ve cursed them with no hesitation, but from Harry, he welcomed it. And while he would never admit it to himself, yearned for it.
“Yes Harry, everything will work out. No matter what, the future I have envisioned will come to fruition.”
And of that, Tom would ensure himself of. No matter the cost.
The summer after graduation is as uneventful as Tom could expect. After the initial sting of the rejection letter, Tom had gotten his bearings together and taken an entry position where he could one day work under the Minister.
He and Harry had also made the big decision to move in together. They had roomed together throughout the entirety of their time at Hogwarts, and are both going to work for the Ministry. As long term boyfriends, it felt like the natural next step moving forward. It didn’t help that Tom was strapped for funds, and Harry had received a generous inheritance from his late family. It also kept them safe, away from having to return to the warring Muggle world.
If it were up to Tom, he would spend the entirety of the summer studying more & more about all the Wizarding World had to offer, as well as preparing for his new position. However, as a consequence of living with Harry and being his boyfriend, Harry insists that the two of them have an event filled summer full of new experiences.
No matter the event, the two of them are nearly inseparable all summer. They go visit New York City, experiencing the culture shock of how different it is from London. How free they are from the war. They also go out to England’s countryside, where despite Tom’s distaste for it, joins Harry on a broomstick ride to view the landscape. Now free from the Trace, the two were also able to practice spells whenever they wanted. Countless days & nights were spent with many new experiences, exploring their new found freedom of adulthood, especially Harry.
Even during the more mundane days, the two stay together. Some days they spend entirely in bed, just enjoying the presence of having the other, both physically and emotionally. And in return for all the shenanigans Harry dragged Tom around for, Tom insisted that Harry join him in the bookstores and the libraries whenever he wanted to study. Harry often fell asleep, but having him by his side was enough for Tom.
The summer was filled with many moments that Tom would’ve never done on his own, nor does he think he’d ever enjoy on his own. Despite it all, he finds himself thinking that so long as Harry’s by his side, he doesn't mind it much.
Still, despite how content he feels, there’s another feeling of dissatisfaction that he can’t seem to get rid of that continuously lingers.
The summer ends and with it comes the return to reality.
Despite Harry’s best efforts to get him outside, Tom spends the entirety of the week before his orientation studying up on everything he could know about the Ministry and the people he’d be working with.
That later comes to bite Harry in the ass the night before when he bombards Tom with a flurry of questions as to what he needs before coming in. Tom makes a point of gloating, but nonetheless helps his boyfriend avoid making a fool of himself on their very first day.
The day quickly arrives, and once the two arrive at the Ministry, they go their separate ways working in different departments. Tom heads toward his department, while Harry goes off to train with the Aurors.
It starts off well enough. Tom has no trouble seamlessly integrating himself among the staff, with his quick wit and good looks winning over his coworkers in no time. It didn’t help that he had already won over half the staff back at Slughorn’s parties during their time at Hogwarts.
Harry tells Tom that he hasn’t had the same luck as he had when they meet for lunch later that same day. Tom simply reassures him that he’ll eventually win his cohort over in no time. He is being truthful about it. There isn’t anyone he knows that doesn’t come around to Harry’s brash charm at one point. Even Abraxas Malfoy, one Hogwarts’ most pretentious purebloods & unofficial rival to Harry Evans, had reluctantly come around to respecting Harry.
As the first few weeks roll by, the two of them continue this familiar routine. The two arrive at the Ministry together, go their separate ways, have lunch, go back to work, then leave for home together.
It comes to no surprise that once they begin to fully settle into their roles, they begin to see less and less of each other. Tom is the first to break their unspoken routine when he catches the eye of one of the high-ranking pureblood officials.
Edward Burke was an opportunistic man. Much like Professor Slughorn, Burke had an eye for picking out new recruits with great potential and bringing them under his wing. Then as those recruits would flourish, so would his reputation. Much like in Hogwarts, Tom knew how to play the game.
His lunches soon become preoccupied with meetings with Burke’s fellow peers in the Ministry where Tom plays his role as the starry-eyed new recruit with endless potential perfectly. He feigns respect for Burke, all while keeping an eye out for any other officials who could potentially help him ascend to even greater power, and planting seeds in any potential allies.
Tom starts with skipping lunch once a week to eventually skipping lunch almost every day. Similarly, as Harry continues to advance in his Auror training, his schedule starts to become unpredictable as well. On days where Tom is free from gathering connections, Harry is occupied with either training or precepting under a senior Auror.
The two of them eventually stop having lunch with each other altogether. They discussed it briefly, and decided it was fine as they were still able to spend their nights together.
However, even their evenings begin to get occupied with their work. Tom gets invited to ministry gatherings, and Harry occasionally spends a few days away on assignments. It gets to the point where they spend more time apart than together.
Despite it all, Harry always goes the extra mile to make sure they spend some time together. On days where Tom’s out late at another event, Harry stays up late to greet him when he returns even if he loses out on sleep.
A warmth in Tom's chest arises whenever he comes home, slightly buzzed, to the sight of a drowsy Harry greeting him from the couch waiting for him to come home. To him, it makes all the pandering at work worth it. Tom’s slowly accruing power, and he has a loving boyfriend by his side to cheer him on. Harry never forgets to ask him about his day, and Tom eagerly shares with him on the progress he’s made. And on Tom’s end, he tries to do the same for Harry.
This routine continues for a while, but somewhere along the line, Tom fails to notice that eventually he stopped doing the same for Harry. At some point Harry began to become an afterthought.
I’ve had a long day. Tom reassures himself. I’ll stay up for him next time. Harry won’t mind.
But next time never comes.
His hard work comes to fruition when Burke tells him that he’s up for a promotion, and a few of the staff in his department decide to celebrate the newest recruit moving up the ranks so quickly.
“A young bachelor such as yourself deserves to indulge himself to the pleasures of youth, don’t you think? There are a few women that I’d love to introduce you to at the party.” Burke mentions with a glint in his eye. “Or men. You’ve certainly caught the eye of both. Unless there’s someone else who’s already captured your heart?”
While Tom realizes that Burke thinks he’s doing Tom a favor by setting him up like this, it also stirs an uneasy feeling inside of him. He realizes that despite allegedly being such a big part of his life, Tom hasn’t mentioned Harry’s existence to his coworkers once. Not that he’s thought much of Harry in recent times to begin with. The uneasiness increases as Tom has no doubts that Harry's talked about him with his coworkers, especially since Harry had asked him for permission about it before.
Tom brushes off the feeling, but has to take a moment to decide what he’s going to say next. Of course, a good boyfriend would immediately clarify the misunderstanding and reveal that he’s taken. On the other hand, blocking off any potential connections could do more harm than good for his future goals. In the end, Tom makes his decision.
“None sir. I can’t wait to meet them later tonight.”
Harry will understand. Tom once again reassures himself. I'll fix things later.
Tom is once again telling Harry about how successful work has been going. It all started when a man named Burke had taken him under his wing and introduced him to many higher ups in his department.
Harry’s happy for him. Truly. After all the suffering that Tom had gone through throughout his childhood, Harry thought Tom deserved the world. Hence, despite his power-hungry tendencies, Harry overlooked it because not only did he love Tom, but he also understood why he was so desperate for validity.
That happiness doesn’t stop Harry from hurting. No matter how happy he is for Tom, Harry can’t help but feel that as the more Tom advanced, the more he’s pushed away. At first, he tried his best to ignore it. Reassuring himself that things would go back to normal.
Harry knew that working would put some distance between them, but he didn’t realize just how much. Going into it, he knew having lunch together every day wouldn’t last. He even expected some of their nights to be taken. Hence why whenever he knew he got off on time and Tom had a late night, Harry would make the effort of staying up if only to see the warm affection on Tom’s face whenever he’d come home. It filled him with the same warmth whenever he came back from an extended assignment and Tom did the same for him.
Those small niceties were enough to reassure Harry’s worries, but even that was short lived. Harry immediately noticed when Tom began to slowly drift away. One night of sleeping in before Harry got home turned into numerous nights, and eventually he stopped waiting for Harry altogether–even when Harry continued to stay up for him. Harry can’t even remember the last time they had a genuine conversation.
It’s not until Tom gets a promotion that Harry is forced to face reality.
It starts when his partner, Nicholas Chang, confronts Harry about some news about his boyfriend. Nicholas was a Gryffindor from his year, and the two had immediately hit it off, with school rivalries meaning little now that they were both working together in the Ministry.
“Harry, you and Tom Riddle are still together, aren’t you?” Nicholas asks, a look of genuine concern on his face. The tone of his voice coupled with his wording didn’t do much to reassure Harry.
Harry’s stomach drops in dread at what Nicholas’s next words could possibly be. While Harry and Tom’s relationship wasn’t quite public knowledge at Hogwarts, Harry, with Tom’s permission, had no problem sharing their relationship with his new friends at work. So for one of them to question it, Harry knew something must have happened.
“Yes, why do you ask?” Harry asks, afraid of the answer.
His friend gives him a look of sympathy. He opens his mouth to reply but hesitates for a moment as if he’s unsure if he should say something. Ultimately he decides to speak as he says, “Well… some people in the ministry had a celebration. Your boyfriend’s promotion to be precise.”
At the words of hearing that Tom had a promotion, Harry just feels humiliation. Tom hasn’t mentioned anything to him about a promotion. What kind of person doesn’t know about his own boyfriend’s promotion? Especially as they work in the same building. Of course, Harry realizes that for him to know Tom would actually have to talk to him.
Nicholas must have seen the pain written on his face, realizing that Harry didn’t even know about it, as he reaches over and squeezes Harry’s shoulder in comfort. “I’m sorry but there’s more. That wasn’t actually the news I wanted to share. The gossip is slowly making its way through the Ministry, and I was hoping to catch you before you found out from someone else.”
The Auror lets go of Harry and digs in his suitcase for something, before he finally pulls out a newspaper. He peruses through it before landing on the page he was searching for, then hands it to Harry.
The moment Harry’s eyes land the at the top of the page, the headline sears into his brain and nearly makes him lurch. All the doubts and emotions he’s been holding back for these past few months begin to surface all at once.
The Ministry’s Youngest Heartthrob Caught in the Arms of Mystery Lover?
In the grand scheme of things, it's just a small article, but to Harry it's his entire world. Below the headline there’s a moving photo attached of Tom in the arms of another man. While it’s nothing damning, the photo was taken in a position that could definitely be interpreted otherwise. Tom was learning into another man—much closer than he should be to anyone that’s not Harry. To make things worse, the man reciprocated the action and looked much too enamored with Tom. He’s taller than Harry, has blonde, clean cut hair, and has the sophisticated look of those pureblood aristocrats that Harry always caught Tom looking at in envy. Even Malfoy would’ve been envious of his looks. He was everything that Harry could never be.
The tears he’s tried so hard to hold back begin to fall, his chest tightens, and he can’t catch his breath.
How could you? Harry thinks. After everything they’ve been through, how could Tom betray him like this?
He thinks he hears Nicholas trying to say something to him, but his inner thoughts are too loud, and the feeling of betrayal is overwhelming all of his other senses.
How did things lead up to this? Just months before, the two of them were inseparable. And sure, recently Tom had been putting his career before Harry, but to betray him like this was something else entirely. Harry always knew Tom was power hungry, but Tom always put Harry first. When did that change?
Another man could promise Harry the entire world but Harry would still choose Tom over him without any doubts. He thought Tom felt the same, but clearly not.
He’s not sure how long he was trapped in his own thoughts, but eventually his mind has calmed down enough to hear Nicholas’s next words. “Take the rest of the day off Evans, I’ll tell boss that you caught a stomach flu.”
Harry can only nod, almost feeling numb. Nicholas takes him to the Floo, and ensures that he gets home safely. He is grateful that Nicholas was the one to break it to him, because otherwise he would have no clue how he’d have gotten home, nor does he know if he could have even taken the day off.
Now that he’s calmed down some, Harry is able to lay on the couch and work through his emotions before he has to confront Tom when he returns. This wasn’t something he could brush aside like he has been doing so for so long.
He admits to himself that their relationship was already shaky even before this, but to go and cheat on him? That was the hardest part for Harry. Had it been anything else, he would do anything and everything to try and mend their relationship, but infidelity was something that Harry knows he could never forget.
Yet at the same time, Harry doesn’t think he’s ready to let go of Tom yet either.
He continues to dwell in his thoughts until the day quickly passes into night, and Tom enters through the door. Harry immediately notes his flushed cheeks and the scent of alcohol lingering in his breath.
“I know what you did.” Harry blurts out before he can even think about it.
Tom stops in his tracks and raises his brow at Harry. “Care to explain what you mean by that?”
“The article. You in the arms of another man. What is there to explain? Looked pretty clear to me.” Harry tries to keep his voice steady, but the bite of betrayal slips through anyway.
There’s a flash of uneasiness in Tom’s eyes, but it quickly vanishes as if it were never there. “The article is nonsense Harry. The picture is just for show, it’ll help my status in the Ministry making these connections. You know I’ll do anything to get what I want, but cheating on you is a line I would not cross.”
Harry hates the feeling of relief that immediately rushes through him, because even if the photo was misconstrued, that didn’t fix any of the other problems between them. He has to push down the feeling because if he lets it go now, things will just go back to the tense uneasiness they’ve been treading on for months.
“Even if that were the case, that’s something you should’ve talked about with me. What boyfriend thinks it’s ok to pretend to be with someone else without running it through their actual boyfriend first? Maybe you didn’t do anything with the other man, but the betrayal still hurts all the same. And if it weren’t for that article I wouldn’t have even known you got a promotion!”
“You know I’ve been working very hard to move up. I will do what I must to get what I want, and sometimes that requires sacrifice. You know this about me.”
Yes, Harry gets it. It’s why he’s tolerated it for so long. Some careers do require sacrificing some of one’s own personal life to move ahead, which is why Harry’s lowered his expectations. But Tom can’t even do the bare minimum. At this point all he’s asking for is communication and some sort of reassurance that Tom still cares, but Harry can’t even get that.
“There’s a difference between sacrifice, and just completely tossing me aside Tom. And lately, I just feel tossed aside.”
“Well then, what do you want? For me to drop everything for you? I love you Harry, but that is asking too much of me. This is for my future. Our future.”
To that, Harry has no response. Before this conversation, hearing Tom say I love you would have kept Harry afloat for weeks, but now it just makes him sick. He didn’t want to hear it like this. He just bows his head in defeat. He’s clearly not getting through to Tom.
“I don’t know Tom.”
The silence stretches on, with the two of them saying nothing. Eventually Tom is the one to finally break the silence, where he makes the decision for the both of them.
“I will give you time and space to think about it, Harry.” Tom says, voice void of any emotion. “I’ll have my bags packed by the end of the week. Maybe some space will clear your head.”
With Tom’s words, every part of Harry’s body is begging him to stop Tom. To tell him to stay and to tell him they can fix things now. He just knows that if he lets Tom go now, then Tom’s never going to come back. This was too small of an issue to destroy everything they've built all these years. There was so much he wanted to say, yet all that comes out of his mouth is, “where will you stay?”
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll figure things out on my own.”
“Please take care of yourself. I love you Tom.” Because despite everything, Harry still does love him.
Tom pauses for a moment, as if letting the words sink in. He turns to look at Harry with an unreadable expression on his face.
“And I, you Harry.”
And with that, the conversation ends. Tom’s gone by the end of the day, and life goes on.
As expected, Tom never comes back. It fills Harry with regret, he thinks they were both rash, the ‘breakup’ too abrupt, but it’s too late now. They’re both on different paths. Harry has no doubt that Tom will flourish now that he’s not held back by Harry, and Harry’s doing quite well for himself with the Aurors as well. Still, it doesn’t ease the pain in Harry’s heart, and in times where it hurts a little more than usual, he wonders if Tom has those same regrets.
All he can hope for now is that the two paths they’ve chosen were correct ones, because everything inside of Harry is telling him that it's not.