Chapter Text
Tom had expected his father to come get him in a shiny black car, wearing a nicer suit than the moron that had adopted baby Jamie or the man with the shiny watch from church. Not this shabby man. Mr. Doe. The outer stitching of his pants is starting to fray and his glasses are crooked.
“We are related, but distantly.” The man says, looking at the door Mrs. Cole had just closed behind her on her way to leaving the two of them trapped in the boy’s dormitory together. Maybe the man was just picking him up to take to his real family?
“Are you my uncle?” Tom asks. The man’s lips twitch. “You can call me Harry.” Tom bites his tongue to avoid calling out “ may”.
Tom can tell when people are dishonest and he knows that this man is. His hair is dark like Tom’s, but is practically a rats nest with the way the hair falls in every direction. What did this messy stranger want with Tom? Tom glares into his eyes, somehow surprised again by the bright color in such an ordinary face. But all Tom gets is an odd image of a train station. He can read nothing of the man’s intentions.
The man sighs and runs a hand down his face, before pulling a stick from his pocket and flicking it toward the door. Tom flinches back. Does the man intend to rap his knuckles with it?
No, he just returns the wood to his pocket before raising his hands as if to show he means no harm.
“You may have noticed that you have some abilities that your peers don’t share.”
Tom can feel his lip pull up into a sneer. He has many abilities that his peers could only dream of. The man is silent brow furrowed for a moment, before he continues.
“There is a- world, a community, of people with these abilities, that you and I belong to.”
Tom feels his hands clench into fists. He may not really believe everything the priests say but he knows better than to go along with any blasphemy.
“I’m not a Mormon.”
The man’s eyes widen before he makes a funny choking sound. Tom can feel his face begin to flush with rage when he realizes this idiot is laughing at him.
“Sorry, no, I mean- er-” the idiot stumbles over his words before pulling out the stick again and waving it now towards Tom, saying “Expect opatronum.” Tom’s brow furrows at the unfamiliar latin until he sees the silver mist stream from the stick.
It forms a beautiful silver deer, big and majestic. The creature prances lightly around the room before brushing gently against Tom’s frozen side, leaving a trail of an unfamiliar feeling, warm and something unnamable. Something clenches in Tom’s chest as the beast returns to the man, touching the man’s outstretched hand before dissipating. The man’s lips are soft and smiling now, light lines around his eyes and he doesn’t look ordinary at all.
“I meant magic.”
Tom had never once thought of his powers as magic. He thought they were a manifestation of his will, proof that he was better - it never felt like magic, it felt the same as breathing, talking, scrubbing pots and pans, the scrape of cement against his palms, knuckles against his ribs, hunger in his belly. Magic was just silly make believe for idiots, but that deer had been-
“I can do that?” Tom barely recognizes that the words come out of his mouth. He didn’t mean to say them.
The man’s smile doesn’t fade. “You will be able to.”
Tom feels- different. Everything feels different, like the world had shifted on its axis into something better. The man suddenly sits on the floor, and Tom feels his neck lower back down so his green eyes stay in view.
“Let me start again. I’m Harry Doe. Tom, you’re a wizard.” There’s an odd glint in the man- Harry’s- eyes and Tom scrambles internally to find his balance, his control, when everything seems to be spinning gloriously out of control. Wizard. He’s a wizard.
“And you’re my relative?” Tom can feel his heart hammer against his chest. It’s like the moment before the first sip of cream, won through his own wits and superiority. He came from a family of wizards. “You knew my father?”
His father must have been a wizard. But if this man was here instead of him, something must have happened to him.
The man’s face flickers. “Er- yes. I’ve met your father.”
“And he was a wizard like us.”
“No, Tom. Your father is a muggle. A person without magic. Wizards and witches can be born from muggles, or magical parents. Magical parents can have children without magic.”
Muggle. Tom frowns. The world seems to be tilting back to normal. And Tom’s mind furiously clicks through the new information he’s been gaining. He usually hates asking questions, admitting the things he hasn’t learned yet. Normally he just listens and watches to find out what he needs to know like anyone with a working brain should do, but this man has so easily answered everything so far.
“But wizards live in a community. A different world?”
“I guess its more that wizards hide in this world?”
Tom’s nose crinkles. “Hide?”
“There are a lot more muggles than magical beings. And people tend to be afraid of things they don’t understand. An envious of things they don’t have. It’s easier to keep our worlds separate. Although of course there are muggles who know of magic and wizards that interact with the muggle world.”
Tom feels the rage begin to refill his empty chest. “But if I’m a wizard, why was I left here? With the muggles? Why did you come now to tell me all this?”
Tom glares harder when he realizes what the man’s expression means- he doesn’t need pity. But the man doesn’t flinch in pain, no matter how much Tom wills it.
“I’m sorry. I was- preoccupied.”
Tom frowns at the unfamiliar word but he can guess the meaning. He can feel his nails digging into his palms.
“You’re going to take me. To the wizard world. Our world.” Tom demands. He half expects the man to whack him a good one for his tone, but the stupid man just twitches his lips again.
“Yes. I would like to adopt you.”
“Where is your wife?”
The man blinks. “I’m not married.”
Tom frowns. He’d never heard of or seen anyone get adopted by a single man or woman. He eyes the man’s clothing. Occasionally rich couples would adopt “cute” babies or toddlers, but Tom knew that the poorer couples just adopted children to have more hands to work in the yard or house. His eyes narrow at the man’s unkempt appearance.
Surely someone with magic, that could conjure that glorious creature, wasn’t a farmer. Besides, what could Tom do, turn the man down? Surely he’d be able to find this hidden world himself, it was where he belonged, but it would be much simpler to just have the man take him there. He had answered all of Tom’s questions and hadn’t hit him once or complained about his tone. Tom couldn’t hurt him though, or tell what he was thinking. Tom suspected he wouldn’t be able to convince him the way he convinced the women here either.
“You can stay if you would prefer, of course. I could visit or leave you be. You’ll receive your Hogwarts invitation when you turn eleven no matter what you decide. That is, your acceptance for the British School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”
Hogwarts. Wizardry.
“Eleven? Primary school starts at six.”
The stupid man smiles again. “Young wizards and witches are permitted to have their own wands at that age. That’s when they begin formal instruction in magic. If I were to adopt you I would give you supplementary lessons in addition to attendance at Muggle primary.”
“Show me more magic.”
For once, the man doesn’t acquiesce immediately to Tom’s demands. Instead he gives Tom a look, one eyebrow quirked, as though Tom were a dog who was performing a trick humorously wrong.
Tom scowls, willing the man’s hair to light on fire. When nothing happens he bites out, “Please.” through clenched teeth.
The man pulls out his sti-wand again and weaves it in a delicate pattern before calling out “avis”
A cloud of big glossy black birds burst from the tip, wings rustling loudly as they fly. Tom flinches. The birds are nothing like the deer the man had summoned before. Aside from looking extremely healthy, the just look like the pests that pick through the garbage, with big curved beaks. The birds settle on the rails of the bunk beds. Tom scowls at the one bird that had dared to land on Tom’s. The bird stares back, cocking its head.
“What are they?”
“Ravens.” The man is frowning now, but not at Tom. He waves his wand again and the birds are gone with a last shuffle of feathers. “Just a conjuration, not real.”
Conjuration. Tom mouths out the unfamiliar word.
“And the deer?”
“My patronus. Still a conjuration, but of a different kind. Patroni are protectors, they come from our feelings. The avis charm is not tied to our emotions or soul, only our magic.”
Patronus. Patroni, avis charm. Soul?
Tom is distracted from his thinking when Harry suddenly turns to the door, flicking his wand again. He opens it and Tom is surprised to see Anna holding a tray with a pitcher of water. There is a flush high on her pale cheeks.
“Hello Mr. Doe, I hope I’m not disturbing you, I just thought you might be able to use a spot of water?”
“Thank you Anna, that was very kind of you to do for us.” The girl smiles foolishly at Harry before her eyes flick to Tom. She jumps so hard that the pitcher and glasses slide right off the tray, but Harry somehow manages to catch both without spilling a drop over the rim. Tom narrows his eyes. Magic?
“Oh! Goodness, I’m so sorry!”
Harry just smiles at the idiot, “Please set the tray down on the dresser and I’ll set these down.”
Anna complies. “Hello Tom. I didn’t realize Tom was the one you were here to see.”
The girl’s eyes flit between Tom and Harry nervously. Tom lets his expression remain stony and she scurries out. Tom rolls his eyes. He doesn’t need to worry about what she might tell Harry, Tom and Harry were the same kind. The superior kind.
Harry runs a hand through his hair before grabbing the pitcher of water and handing a glass to Tom. Tom frowns at it, heavy and cool in his grip. Did the man think it was poisoned? No, he was drinking his own glass now before Tom had touched his.
“Sorry, I think I was getting a little off topic there. If you would like, I could complete the adoption paperwork now and take you as soon as all the formalities are completed, or you could have as much time to make your decision as you’d like. I’ll send some parchment and stamps along with my address so you can reach me.”
Formalities. Parchment. Tom’s stomach lurches when he realizes what Harry is saying. The man was just going to leave him here?
“Take me with you.”
The man looks at him in surprise.
“Please.”
The look softens and Tom grits his teeth.
“I promise you, this is all real, and I will be back for you. There’s a certain legal- adoption has a lot of rules.”
The feeling in Tom’s chest overflows and he can feel his eyes burn in outrage.
“I mean- er- I could. Er- I’ll sort out the paperwork and take you back now?”
Tom feels as though he’s suddenly ready to sleep for a month, but he stays standing and nods sharply.
“Alright.”