the Gambler

Harry was on a roll these days, he never knew he could cram so much knowledge into his head in just two weeks, and soon the fateful moment came.The atmosphere at the long table in Gryffindor was so heavy that it was hard to breathe. All the students covered their heads and read books, muttering a few words from time to time.Neville's panic caused him to spill the whole bottle of pepper on the pie.Harry's heart was also pounding, maybe Tom's guidance helped a lot, he was the calmer one except for the bags under his eyes which looked terrible.

The morning was the theoretical exam and the afternoon was the practical exam. All the classrooms had been rearranged. Harry noticed that the desks were arranged exactly the same as in the Pensieve. It just so happened that the desk he was sitting on was the one that James had used back then.That's a good sign, Harry thought, transfiguration was the thing father was best at.He looked up at the serious Mag standing on the podium. The huge hourglass beside the witch hadn't started counting down yet.Harry flipped through the parchment and scanned it roughly. It was obvious that Tom's guess was correct. The content of the Hogwarts exams did not change much from year to year. He was glad that he answered all the questions smoothly.

The practical exam in the afternoon went more smoothly, or in other words, except for potions and divination, Harry was quite sure that the next exam would not let him relax. The relaxed atmosphere around him was in sharp contrast to Ron's depression. Huh? Even after the exam, Min kept thinking about whether she might have made a mistake.

The weekend was supposed to be the only chance to rest between the two exam weeks. The chess match between Harry and Ron was roughly interrupted by Tom. The latter didn't even bother to explain, and directly took Harry to the Response Room. Boy, pay attention The entire room is empty, only a strange magic circle is drawn on the ground.

Tom took out a stone with a strange color from his pocket and placed it in the direction due east. After the hiss of the crawling language, the strange green flames enveloped the stone. Tom took a step back and slashed open his palm with a dagger. It spread out like a spider web, and soon the entire magic circle was surrounded by golden magic patterns.

"What's that?" Harry exclaimed, a strange magical power caressed his whole body, making him involuntarily want to get closer.

"The ritual of summoning the soul mate." Tom's unsteady voice came from behind Harry, and the boy turned around in shock. He was sure that Tom was still standing in the center of the magic circle just now.

"F-what happened?" Harry covered his heart, honestly he was taken aback.

"It sent me to you again. I can't explain the result. Why didn't you come?"

"Perhaps because of the use of your blood?"

The flash in Tom's eyes made Harry shiver, and he had a bad feeling. Sure enough, Tom pulled Harry's palm away without any explanation and repeated the action just now. The pain made Harry stomp on the culprit hard in retaliation. .Harry watched the flames ignite again, a strange feeling tearing at his body, his vision blurred, and he saw Voldemort's and Tom's shocked faces crossing each other, the former's spidery fingers were about to touch His time suddenly disappeared, and the next moment he fell into the familiar embrace again.

"Are you okay?" There was undisguised panic in Tom's voice, "You disappeared for a moment just now."

Harry gritted his teeth hard to clear away the residual dizziness, so he did see Voldemort just now.This realization was so terrifying that he felt as if the blood in his body was frozen.Harry looked at the magic circle in horror, the lines on the ground had been erased, noticing the boy's gaze, Tom also frowned.

"I destroyed the magic circle just now, and you reappeared in the air." Tom answered Harry's silent question, "When you disappeared, you saw the future me."

It was a statement, and Harry nodded, suppressing the discomfort in his stomach.

"Maybe you should take a break, you look nervous." As soon as Tom said that, a white leather sofa appeared in the room out of thin air, "It seems that this project will not be completed in a short time, I thought it would be completed after success." It would be a handy tracking weapon, and the two of us would be able to get to each other in the moment of danger."

The word "tracking" aroused Harry's interest. If he could complete the task, Harry could provide Voldemort's location at any time, or even better, get Voldemort's blood. Harry could even lead the Dark Lord into the trap of the Order of the Phoenix.It's a perfect idea.He grabbed Tom's hand and interrupted the complaining: "We need to finish it, even if it's just your blood to trigger the experiment."

Harry smiled brightly, "I've always been a troublemaker, so you're more likely to save me, aren't you?"

Perhaps because of the successful design of Tom, Harry's joyful mood lasted until Tuesday night when his scar burned again.In the same dream, he walked slowly down the dark corridors of the Department of Mysteries, to the room filled with crystal balls, and he could hear the clock ticking.He turned around this time, and Harry saw 97 written on the shelf in front of him, and he knew he'd get what he wanted in no time.His heart was beating violently, and the pent-up excitement prompted him to pick up his pace and walk toward his goal.A beautiful crystal ball appeared in front of him, and that was probably the only one covered with a red cloth.He carefully lifted the fabric to prevent himself from touching the crystal ball. Although he didn't know the reason, he slowly moved closer, closer——

The sharp pain woke Harry up instantly.

Shaking his body vigorously with both hands, Harry suddenly opened his eyes and stared at the red flannel curtain above his head. He panted heavily to calm his beating heart, and looked up at the concerned face of the person who came up.Ron's face was very ugly in the moonlight. He was obviously woken up by Harry's screams, and everyone else in the dormitory continued to roll over and sleep with murmurs.Harry gave Ron a sorry look. He knew that the other party hadn't been in such a situation for a long time. When Harry's scar hurt last time, he was still living with Tom.

"Do you want to talk?" Ron asked in a low voice. "Did you see the Dark Lord attacking people again?"

Harry shook his head: "No, it's still the Department of Mysteries room, it's no big deal, go to bed, Ron."

"Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm sure," said Harry firmly, "we'll all have to put that aside for a damn potions test tomorrow."

Ron nodded uncertainly, crawled slowly back to bed, and finally gave Harry a worried look.Harry lay quietly for a few minutes, and the snoring from Ron's direction told him that his friend had fallen asleep again.Harry quietly got out of bed and slipped into the bathroom, the cold water made him wake up a lot.There's no way to sleep tonight, Harry thought sullenly, and after putting on the clothes he found handy, Harry walked into the quiet drawing room alone, and the magic made the fire in the fireplace burn brightly again.He chose the warmest place to sit down, with a thick Potions textbook spread out in front of him, and the beautiful cursive words on it belonged to that Slytherin genius.

Maybe he should go back to the suite, Harry frowned, he and Tom were separated because of the duel that almost destroyed the cellar, now they have made up, living together is not a big problem - Tom's lips are soft The touch suddenly popped into Harry's mind, and the boy wailed and covered his face with his hands, obviously he couldn't face the situation of sharing the same bed!

Calm down, Harry, you need to calm down, watch Potions, imagine Snape's greasy hair and huge hooked nose!Harry roared mentally, the appearance of the potions professor quickly dispelled his cranky thoughts, but plunged the boy into deeper despair.He wasn't sure that using Tom's Potions textbook would improve his grades, that Snape's presence alone would disturb his calm.Harry nuzzled, seriously, who can make potions under the fierce eyes of the old bat?

The next day's situation was much better than Harry expected, Snape did not show up in the cellar, and Tom's instructions were well remembered.The potion invigilator was a chunky wizard, he looked about six or seventy years old, his hair was a little gray, and there were not many wrinkles on his face. Most importantly, he didn't look at Harry with that kind of venomous eyes .Without Snape's interference, Harry concocted the potion smoothly, and he even had the illusion that he would get an O.It seemed that Snape was not the only one who affected him. Before leaving the classroom, Harry noticed that Neville's cauldron had also produced a light blue liquid. It was the best Neville could do.

History of Magic was the last exam, and when Harry finally emerged from the classroom, he had the feeling that the world was spinning again.Hey, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you can't expect him to sit quietly in the lounge can you?Ron's idea of ​​playing Quidditch was unanimously approved by everyone, and soon, two teams were organized within Gryffindor to march towards the Quidditch pitch.When Harry just passed the corner, Tom pulled the hood again, and the latter seriously stated that Harry was not allowed to waste his precious time any longer.The boy sighed and waved goodbye to the others helplessly, and Ginny quickly took the Seeker's place.

Harry followed Tom to the library, because there was no sign of Ravenclaw here because he had just finished the exam, presumably the bookworm also decided to relax himself, which made Harry feel even more pathetic. It was obvious that Tom had no intention of letting him go.Harry could understand the tall boy's intentions. After all, the end of term was less than two weeks away, and their project was the only one that hadn't been handed over to Professor Babling, but that didn't mean he couldn't complain.

Slamming the book down on the table, Harry could feel Tom's sharp eyes piercing him. He hesitated to give up the seat opposite and sat down near the boy.

"After the last accident, I have been thinking about how to improve the ritual," Tom stuffed the parchment full of runes under Harry's eyes, and he circled several parts of it with a quill and continued to explain, "I doubt the destruction of magic. When you were in the formation, you were pulled towards me instead of the future one, the big reason is that the quality of the soul is not equal, obviously I occupy a greater gravitational force."

"What do you mean?" Harry was confused by Tom's explanation, different soul qualities?Shouldn't Tom and Voldemort be the same person?

Tom avoided the topic indifferently: "That's the domain of black magic, do you want to know?"

Sure enough, Harry flinched back suddenly as if he had been scalded, and Tom raised the corner of his mouth.He hadn't been able to trust Harry yet, and Tom wasn't afraid to speculate on the boy with the worst malice, even when he pretended to be innocent.Harry's attitude towards black magic can be described as extremely biased. He knows that he has to slowly become the savior of the black and light side.

He didn't know what kind of mind Harry had in insisting on completing this subject, and time would tell him the answer.

friend, foe.

Tom wasn't sure where Harry was, or both.