20

[joggernaut]

The Train to Nowhere (174644 words) by MayMarlow
Chapters: 23/?
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Characters: Harry Potter, Tom Riddle, Merope Gaunt, Albus Dumbledore
Summary:

In a world where Voldemort is the ruler, and pureblood supremacy is a rule Harry Potter thought that he was an ordinary person, not unlike his classmates at Durmstrang. But when things he doesn't understand start happening and the lines between the dead and the living aren't so clear anymore, Harry begins to doubt the world and reality he lives in. And then he catches the attention of a man he gets to know as "Tom"...

Я-то ГП давно не читаю. Но что начала, то у меня до сих пор в закладках на ао3.
И тут такое. Я уже не думала, что этот фик будут продолжать! Честно, я рада.
Конечно, как и во многих аушных гарритомах, полно бреда. Волдеморт не убивал Поттеров и спокойно правит Британией. Ок, не совсем спокойно, но не суть. Поттеры - ПСы или, по крайней мере, работают с ними. Сириус не сбегал из семьи. Ремус Люпин для них - всего лишь жалкий вервольф, третий сорт. Гарри Поттер поступает в Дурмстранг. Еще у него есть способность - не помню точно уже, попадать в мир мертвых, кажется.
То есть, если все вот так изложить, кажется бредом. На самом деле, написано довольно складно.
Что мне нравится в фике - так это, собственно, сам гарритом.
Лорд заявляется в Дурмстранг по каким-то делам, не помню. Инкогнито. Сталкивается с Гарри. Не ведающий с кем он разговаривает, в ответ на грубость Гарри сказал грубость. Вот как-то так и завязалось общение.
Гарри первое время думает, что Том - кто-то из Ближнего Круга. Том искренне впечатлен им, но скрывает это ото всех, даже от Нагини, которая у него заместо психоаналитика. Читать их совместные сцены - одно удовольствие (Тома и Гарри,я имею в виду, не Тома и Нагини. Хотя Нагини тоже прекрасна). Особенно запомнился эпизод, где Джеймс застал их в довольно компрометирующей ситуации.

1261 украденных слов

'I just came waltzing in,' Tom thought disapprovingly. 'The brat needs better wards. Someone will murder him in his sleep if they're not fixed.' He glared at a trembling house-elf that squeaked something or other and then vanished, presumably to fetch the boy. Well, at least Harry was home. If the brat hadn't been there, then Tom would have… done something. He wasn't sure what exactly, but he knew that it wouldn't have been pleasant.

"You." The word was said breathlessly, almost disbelievingly. Tom turned to look at Harry and frowned. The brat looked exhausted, pale, and messy. The expression on his face seemed to be frozen to express some kind of… horror and shock? What for?

"You look terrible," Tom said. "Do I really have to ask you about your sleeping and eating habits?"

"You're the Dark Lord," Harry blurted out, and Tom tried very hard to pretend that his grimace was a pleasant smile.

"Well…" he started, setting the bottle of spiked firewhiskey onto the table and nodding approvingly when two glasses appeared. "Well. "

"The first time we met," Harry continued, still standing at the doorway, "I called you simple-minded."

"And told me to not think on my feet lest I fall down and injure myself," Tom continued, sounding reluctantly impressed. Harry closed his eyes, and for a moment, the Dark Lord thought that the boy would pass out. Eventually, the child opened his eyes again and moved to sit down on one of the chairs in the lounge they were in. Tom, wary, sat down as well.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Harry asked, sounding desperate and confused. "You have had so many chances and so many reasons. Why haven't you? Is there a reason? Is… I just… And why didn't you deny it? You've been hiding it so far; why didn't you just tell me that I'm being stupid and that you're not him!"

"What does it matt er?" Tom sighed. "I have my reasons for doing what I do." Usually. Most of the time. Sometimes. Okay fine: that was what he said when he had no idea what the hell he was doing but didn't want to admit it.

"This is insane," Harry said, and alarmed, Tom looked at the boy sharply. Why was the brat sounding tearful suddenly? He wasn't going to cry, was he? He had absolutely no reason to cry! The boy was, however, hiding his face behind his hands, and his hunched shoulders didn't seem to be shaking.

"The truth won't change regardless of whether or not you like it," Tom said, pouring some firewhiskey into the two glasses on the table. He wasn't, of course, going to drink his own– the whiskey was doused with a modified calming draught that should work to make the boy agreeable and talkative.

"This is too much," Harry said, clenching his eyes tightly shut behind his palms. "This is too much. "

"What—?"

"Are you really the Dark Lord?"

"Didn't we already—"

"Are you?"

Tom stared silently at Harry for a few moments, his mouth slightly ajar, before swallowing and nodding. "Yes. I am."

"Then why are you so nice to me?" Harry asked, finally looking at Tom. His green eyes were wide and… Well, not deranged exactly, but Tom did wonder fleetingly if the boy's sanity was under pressure of some kind. Perhaps Tom wouldn't need the spiked whiskey after all. Harry didn't seem to be up for any mind games anyway.

"I… have been alive for many, many decades," Tom finally replied, sitting down again. "I've seen thousands of people, achieved more than anyone else. I won't say that I'm bored, because there's still plenty to keep me entertained. The Rebels, general politics, that kind of things. You could say that there are many situations, numerous occurrences, several tasks that prevent me from dying out of sheer boredom, but when it comes down to people… I find them lacking."

"I think you told me something along those lines a long time ago," Harry said quietly. "Remember? When we met in Hogsmeade."

"Yes," Tom said softly. "People… always seek the easy way out. If anything is difficult or complicated or doesn't go as planned, they complain and whine and might leave the task unfinished. People judge, people think they're better than their superiors; they're never satisfied with what they have and demand more, more, and more. People are slaves to their desire to impress one another. They are so simple and weak and easy to figure out. Don't get too arrogant now, and I do not think of you as my equal, but you, in my eyes, are superior to the rest of them."

"How so?" Harry asked, frowning.

"I don't understand you. I can't figure you out."

"Well yes, that's mutual."

"That's pleasant to know," Tom said, leaning back on the chair and staring at H arry. "As I told you, I don't think you're my equal– I don't have equals. But… you might be the closest equivalent to what equal could be."

"You're the Dark Lord," Harry muttered again. Tom scowled.

"Yes, didn't we already establish that fact?"

"You're not as pompous as I thought you'd be."

"I'm never pompous. I simply know my position. I thought that you'd be far more scared, though."

Harry bit his lip and shrugged, then nodded. "I… don't know. I think I will be, as soon as I manage to wrap my mind around it. I… this is ridiculous. You're unbelievable. Are you sure you're the Dark Lord? Well, of course you are. And you don't want to kill me?"

"No, although, if you keep repeating yourself, I just might. You look exhausted, by the way. You should probably go to sleep," Tom said, watching Harry yawn and rub his eyes.

"And you look kind of pretty," the boy mumbled sleepily, making the Dark Lord's mouth fall ope n with shock. "I thought you'd be plenty uglier."

"Excuse me! "

"Oh my God, you're the Dark Lord."

"For Merlin's sake, boy!" If Tom hadn't already accepted the fact that he didn't understand Harry Potter, he would have done so now as the boy suddenly, for no apparent reason, burst out laughing. Granted, there might have been a slightly hysterical undertone to the laughter and it didn't last long. "How did you find out anyway?"

"I figured it out," Harry replied after he had calmed down. "I should have noticed it sooner. Are you going to kill me now, though?"

"What is it with you and getting killed?" Tom asked. "Do you want for me to kill you?"

"That's not it, I just… I don't know how to…," Harry sighed, shook his head and stood up, walking stand in front of Tom. "How am I supposed to treat you?"

"The way you've been treating me so far, I suppose," Tom said calmly. In all honesty, he himself didn't know what was going to happen next between him and Harry– he hadn't expected revealing his identity to go quite like this. "Although we might still want to keep this a secret."

"It's not like anyone would believe me anyway," Harry muttered and leaned forward to press his forehead against Tom's. "Thank you, though. Considering how busy you probably are all the time, you still came to my mum's funeral."

"I'm glad that you're being calm and reasonable about this," Tom admitted, moving his hands to rest on Harry's hips. "It's quite a shock, I'm sure."

And that was the scene James Potter walked in on.

@темы: jo reads

Comments

[Madlena Fox]

Чувство, когда сама обожаешь этот фик бесценно)

[joggernaut]

MadFo, приятно, когда кто-то понимает) мне иногда так жаль, что этот пейринг малопопулярный; с одной стороны - я-то не фанат пейринга, per se, просто мне очень нравятся некоторые фики с ним, в том числе и этот. с другой - был бы пейринг популярнее, были бы обсуждения, коллективный свун над каждым обновлением и кто знает, может даже арты)

[Madlena Fox]

joggernaut, гарридрачники и снарщики заполнили весь фандом, даже любители гаррилюца не знают куда от них деваться)
Мне кажется пейринг в основном не популярен из за Волдемортовской змеевидной внешности. Знаю авторов, которые любят гарритом, но не переносят Волдеморта.
Хотя во всех фандомах самое популярное лучшие друзья(Стив и Баки или тот же джонлок)/заклятые враги(шериарти)/братья(винцест)

[joggernaut]

MadFo, ну, что касается гп фандома, там и получается, что снейп и гарри или драко и гарри заклятые враги.
но при этом волдеморт все-таки убил родителей гарри - так мне объяснила однажды подруга, почему она не может шипперить гарриморт
не моя позиция, сразу говорю)