[HP] Comparative

Tom heard Harry's words, but he just looked at the map more carefully - most of the people were in their beds, only a few were awake.It was similar to what he had seen in Harry's head once, which meant that their ink dots were very close together, as it was now.Finally, and most importantly, this map does not show the Room of Requirement, nor does it show the Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets.

That's probably why Harry hasn't figured out what the hell he's doing so far...

I have to say that Tom was relieved from the bottom of his heart.Although Harry found out about his multiple nocturnal excursions, that could all be explained.If the basilisk is involved, the nature of the matter is completely different.He didn't want to run into anyone's muzzle, whether it was old Crouch or Dumbledore...

Thinking of this, the sound of "Padfoot" with great restraint sounded in Tom's head again.If he hadn't remembered those big green curving letters—"Suppliers of Aids to Makers of Magical Mischief/Gentlemen of Moonface, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs/Proudly presented/The Marauder's Map"— I'm afraid it's really impossible to match these code names with the people behind them.

Sirius Black is, without a doubt, Padfoot.And considering the stag in the Forbidden Forest with its large, forked horns, James Potter was probably a prong.As for the remaining two, most likely among the mutual friends of Black and Potter...

That's good news, not only does he know who his opponents are, but that they're probably all illegal Animagus; it's bad news, too, given that Harry might tell James everything he knows - although at the moment It seems not yet.Although they had only met once, James was obviously not as naive as Harry: as an Auror, he was likely to combine all the clues and easily guess that the Chamber of Secrets and the monsters in it really existed.

Although Crouch Jr. had come to this conclusion long ago, he was on his side.Tom suspected that if it was James, the other party would definitely notify Dumbledore as soon as possible.

Tom had realized this in the blink of an eye when he was still in Hogsmeade.Thinking of it now, he still instinctively tightened the muscles on his cheeks——

Confronting Dumbledore head-on is definitely the stupidest idea, bar none.Likewise, exposing his secret to Dumbledore meant putting himself in dire danger.He was sure that the basilisk only obeyed the heir of Slytherin, but he wasn't sure that the trap in the ladies' bathroom sink would stop Dumbledore if he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Chamber of Secrets entrance was there.

He was still too careless... thinking that Harry did not pose any threat to him, let alone knowing that Harry had the Marauder's Map in his hand, unknowingly leaking too much information...

Maybe he should really consider taking the Basilisk away from Hogwarts...not to dispel the last lingering doubts of those pure-blood families supporting him, but to preserve the strongest evidence possible that he is the heir of Slytherin...

After a while, Tom made up his mind.He stuffed the map into his cuff conveniently, and looked up at Harry in the pool.The Gryffindor boy was glaring at him, his face flushed, but the damp hair and shoulders seriously undercut the deterrence - if there was one at all.

Tom's eyes flicked to the half-exposed thin chest, then to the clothes (with the holly wand mixed in) which he had just kicked far away. "Want to take it back, huh?" He smiled knowingly.

"You..." Watching the Marauder's Map being taken away, Harry's initial shock turned into anger.He really wanted to do that, but both of them knew that the current situation would not allow him to come out of the bath at all-the dense and thick white foam was the last covering of Harry's body. "How on earth did you get in?" he asked loudly, gnashing his teeth and staring at the sleeve of the tall boy's robe, as if he could see the map inside through the fabric.

As for Tom, he couldn't help cheering up at the thought that no one would ever be able to spy on him without his knowing it. "This is the prefect's bathroom, and I happen to be a prefect."

The words were full of ridicule, and could even be called dry humor, but Harry was not in the mood for joking at all. "Give me back the map!"

Tom was almost amused by Harry's righteousness. "What if I don't?" He suppressed a smile, pulled a chair out of the air with his wand, and sat down calmly. "Or can you tell me where you got it from? I guess—" he drew a long voice, raising his eyebrows, "it must not be very legal."

Harry wanted to keep asking Tom to return the things to him, but he choked suddenly.The Marauder's Map had been given to him by the twins, who, according to the twins, had dug it up from a pile of confiscated contraptions in Filch's office.The way is really not very legal. Is he being hacked?

This hesitation fell into Tom's eyes, and the smile on his face deepened a little. "Is it really right?" He stroked his sleeve, quite satisfied with the answer he got, "Very good."

Harry couldn't see the good in it.Even if Tom was a prefect, how could they run into each other so coincidentally?There is no place to hide in the house, and it's so late...

"But then again, how do you know the password here?" Tom put away his smile slightly, and stared at Harry researchingly, "Don't tell me it's Diggory?"

Harry, who was still annoyed, couldn't help but widen his eyes. "How do you know..."

Although he cut off the thread just in time, it was enough for Tom. "It's really Digory?" He couldn't believe it and was full of doubts, "This is the Triwizard Tournament! You guys are not comparing some kind of bloody demeanor, are you?"

No matter what he said, it sounded far from admirable, and Harry pursed his lips tightly.He admitted that Cedric wanted to return the favor, but he couldn't admit to Tom that he hadn't figured out the secret of the golden egg until now-you know, the other party understood it as soon as he heard it.

Tom opened his eyes slightly.To say nothing was to acquiesce, and he read Harry's silent answer very clearly. "You two are the most..."

Harry thought there must be no good words to follow. "It's none of your business!" He interrupted the other party in a rough voice, feeling that he had been humiliated.

But Tom didn't care, and turned to the unopened golden egg by the pool. "And you don't even know what the sound of the golden egg means." He said firmly.

Hearing the last thing he wanted to hear, Harry was almost furious. "Nonsense! Of course I know!"

"Don't be so stubborn, Harry," Tom looked at Harry again, his expression and tone were full of pity, and he even shook his head, "You know, it's hard to hear why it's in the air."

"What..." Harry was about to protest strongly against this attitude, when Tom waved his wand, and a swift golden light hit him.Reflexively, he stretched out his hand to block it, but he bumped into something heavy and hard, and his whole body was suddenly smashed to the ground.Because he was caught off guard, he choked on half of his saliva, and quickly pinched his nose with his hands after realizing it.

Just when Harry was about to curse as soon as he floated up, there was a strange chorus singing in his ears——

"Look for us, where our voices sound,

We cannot sing on the ground.

As you search, think carefully about:

We stole your most beloved baby.

You only have an hour,

To find and recapture what we took,

After an hour there is no hope,

It is completely gone, never to appear. "

……What does it mean?

Harry wasn't ready in the first place, and it was even more uncomfortable to barely hear the voice in the golden egg.Before he had time to think carefully, he kicked his feet on the marble at the bottom of the pool suddenly, and his head immediately rushed out of the water. "Cough, cough, cough!"

"Understood now?" Seeing Harry appearing, Tom said nonchalantly, completely unaffected by the violent coughing.

Harry managed to catch his breath, and noticed that the tall boy had stood up, without the slightest hint of apology from his words to his actions.He looked at the edge of the pool he was holding, and then raised his head to look at the condescending handsome face. He was so angry that he was about to say something: "I admit that I didn't tell the truth just now, but can you understand that kind of innocence in the air?" Does it sound like an Italian harp?"

Tom spread his hands and didn't feel disobedient at all. "Why do you need to understand? I just need to know where the breakthrough point is."

This unexpected candor barely quelled Harry's anger at being thrown into the water so suddenly.He thought Tom was going to seize the opportunity to laugh at him... "What can't sing on the ground?" After a few seconds of memory, he asked wonderingly.

"Really, you still want to ask this?" Tom showed a look of extreme surprise at this.

Harry's emotions that had just calmed down were suddenly stirred up again.He hated the tone, it made him feel ignorant and Tom was so far away from him. "How would I know?" He said angrily, without thinking, "Unless there are mermaids in the Black Lake!"

Tom took a step toward him, then crouched down. "Don't you know that?"

"...There are really mermaids in the Black Lake?!" Harry was taken aback.He tried to read some clues of possible deception in Tom's expression, but found that the other party was paying attention to something behind him.He turned his head suspiciously, and saw a female mermaid inlaid with stained glass on the window at a glance—she was sitting on the reef and fiddling with her hair, flying over shyly from time to time.

Harry didn't think she was winking at him.He turned back to look at Tom, the tall boy was still staring at the posing mermaid, with a vague smile on his lips. "I guess," he commented playfully, "the mermaid in the Black Lake is definitely not as good-looking as this one."

For some reason, this made Harry even more angry.He didn't want to think about whether Tom came to such a conclusion based on book knowledge, he just took a deep breath, grabbed one of Tom's ankles quickly, and pulled hard——

thump!

The two fell down together, and were instantly submerged in layers of foam.Although the light below the surface was dim, Harry still caught Tom's frightened and angry expression for a moment.The tall boy kicked his legs, trying to shake him off.Harry clenched his fingers relentlessly, he felt that the other party really needed to be taught a lesson.Then, there were bubbles coming out of Tom's mouth, as if talking about something.But the mermaid's singing was still looping, and Harry couldn't hear it clearly at all, so he could only focus on dragging him down——

Then Tom fought back.He swam towards Harry, apparently targeting Harry's head.Harry tried to go around to the other side, but the tall boy stepped on the water hard enough and he was pulled under him involuntarily.Their eyes watched each other across the rippling water; in the blur of vision Tom smiled.

Harry's heart skipped a beat, feeling that something was wrong.He hurriedly let go to hide, but it was too late: the tall boy stretched out his hands, grabbed his shoulders, and easily pressed him to the bottom of the pool.There was a huge difference between this posture and comfort, and he panicked a little, wanting to separate those two iron-clamp hands, and then tried to kick each other.

But these resistances proved futile.The lungs were suffocated, and the pressure of the water was getting bigger and bigger.Harry's eardrums were buzzing wildly, and the blood rushed to his face and flowed back, until it became cold.As the air bubbles around his mouth grew uncontrollably, he could feel his strength slipping away every minute...

Tom wouldn't want to drown him, would he?

Just as this vague thought flashed through Harry's head, the shackles on his shoulders suddenly disappeared.There was a white light like snowflakes flashing in front of his eyes, he couldn't see anything clearly, he just stepped on the water with the last instinct.Something brushed under his nose, he grasped reflexively, and used his strength to push up——

The tip of his nose hit something soft, then his lips.The need to survive forced him to open his mouth, sucking in the sweet oxygen he might have.It seems that he didn't expect him to be so active, and the other side froze.But he didn't care about anything else at all, he just greedily took everything he could get his hands on.

In the next second, air rushed towards him from all directions.Harry was momentarily dizzy, coughed on the side of his head, and spit out two sips of water.After finally relieving the burning sensation in his trachea, he realized that he was clinging to Tom like an octopus.If this is not embarrassing enough, his naked body is clinging to the wet clothes of the other party, and he can even feel the body temperature and heartbeat beneath it...

"Can you let me go?" Tom began, sounding resentful.

Harry suspected that it was because the other party originally wanted to retaliate against him, but did not expect it to turn into the current situation.He looked up and saw that Tom's glossy black hair was soaked in water, and now it was tightly pressed against his cheeks, and several small streams of water converged at the sharp jawline, dripping in small strands.Going down, I don't know if Harry's tossing is too out of order, and Tom's previous meticulous school uniform is also messed up, revealing a small half of his pale collarbone crookedly.

Drenched and disheveled, this should have been extremely embarrassing, but placed on Tom and in Harry's eyes, it felt a little different——

Maybe he has to think carefully about the process of being on the verge of suffocation, maybe he should back away immediately, but it is simply too difficult to ask him to remain rational at this time——

Facing those eyes that looked like cold stars and deep pools, Harry couldn't help but sink into them.He tightened his legs wrapped around the other's waist, stepped forward and kissed her.

The author has something to say:

Tom: You...

Harry: Isn't it just a forced kiss, I will too!

Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated the nutrient solution~

Thanks to the little angel who voted [Bazooka]: Tang Chen branded 1;

Thanks to the little angels who cast [grenade]: happy netizen Xiaohu, 1 mint tea grass;

Thanks to the little angels who voted [Landmine]: Happy Fat House, Wind Mark, 1 dozing little flower;

Thanks to the little angel who irrigated [nutrient solution]:

60 bottles of counseling and Erfei; 20 bottles of tuna; 10 bottles of Xie Xingyun, Fenghen, and Su Guqing; 5 bottles of Nanyuelou;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!