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A/N: Hello, people!
I don't own Harry Potter.
I have no beta.
ENJOY!
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Politics, politics, politics.
It's always the bloody politics, and always the 'vision for the future', and 'this is necessary' and 'this is what's best for us'.
Harry was sick and tired of hearing about necessity and politics and how things had to be this way. He understood what it meant to have ambition and to want to strive for something greater in life and to not be trapped in the same hellhole as you have been since your life began, but there was something twisted about lacking respect for your partner.
Just completely throwing your partner and everything you've been through with them to the side because you want to gain a slight political advantage.
Harry Potter had ambitions of his own, and he had things that he wanted to strive for in life, but never once did it come to his mind that he should cheat on his significant other. Not once had he ever thought of turning his attention to somebody else to get ahead.
Make no mistake that he wasn't unaware of the fact that this was purely transactional on Tom's part, and that he definitely did not give a damn about any of the people he had chosen to sleep with for benefits. Tom viewed nearly everybody as either goldfish or sheep that were meant to be used to propel him forward and that was it.
But that wasn't enough for someone like Harry, because he didn't care about all these lofty goals. He just didn't want to be stuck in an orphanage or end up homeless. He didn't want to have a job in the Ministry, and he didn't want to be in Auror, and he didn't want to be Minister for Magic, and he didn't want anything to do with politics. And he couldn't understand why Tom was so dead set on this particular career path.
He was so talented. He had so many things going for him, and even his connection to Slughorn could get him a foot in the door in basically any industry if he actually applied himself. But for some reason it was politics he focused on!
And Harry had to deal with the injustice and the embarrassment of knowing that his partner of several years had been sleeping with pretty much anybody and anything. Charming money off of them. Slithering his way into promotions Anything he could use to get himself ahead in the Ministry, he would apply.
And despite knowing that he would always come back to Harry at the end of the day, or the week, or the month, or whatever ridiculous self-imposed mission he was on, that wasn't romantic. It wasn't something sweet or cute or understandable. 'Well, I know he's doing all this and it's hurting my feelings, but at least he's coming back to me in the end, so clearly he chose me.'
No!
Harry was there for Tom's first murder. Harry was less offended by Tom using murder as a way to get ahead, and he had no idea why Tom had tossed aside his tried-and-true method of getting what he wanted all to pursue this! Especially when Tom typically wasn't interested in sexual intercourse.
Political gain was worth all of that discomfort he was forcing himself to go through.
And he was just expecting Harry to be a supportive partner who understood why he was doing these things and how it was going to benefit them both later on. So, he just had to make do with the fact that all of these people were aware that Tom could be bought and that he wasn't loyal in the slightest.
Whatever Tom had managed to convince himself of didn't matter, because the message he was sending with all of these dozens of people he had slept with, he basically told them that he could be bought and that he did not have a shred of loyalty to anybody. Wave money in front of his face, or wave a promotion around, or the possible connection to someone very important and he would dance.
He was like a monkey on a leash, and for some reason he didn't see it for what it was, and that was especially frustrating. So, not only was Harry being disrespected in the public eye with so many people aware, but now he had to deal with how it made Tom, and by extension him, look?
The two orphans with no family and no money to their names when they graduated. They were already at a disadvantage in society because of their placements in life and then the fact that they were sorted into Slytherin when they got to Hogwarts made it worse. But now Tom had to do this. Harry couldn't even imagine what was going through his head and how he did not recognise this particular situation for what it was.
What kind of shite was he telling himself?
Tom was supposed to be a genius. Tom was supposed to be able to evaluate every situation and all the possible outcomes. How could he not see this?
Was he so blinded by greed? Or by his fear of dying? Or by the fear of ending up as a nobody that no one could remember?
Did these things really supersede his intelligence?
Of course, Harry being Harry, he had to get his frustrations out. In a normal way at first.
Tom was the one who did all the murdering, and Harry wasn't really invested in doing stuff like that in order to get his anger out. Instead, he sat down and he wrote an incredibly long letter full of many invectives and many threats that he probably would not follow through with, addressed it to Tom, and then tossed it into their fireplace. A good and healthy way to get all of his frustrations out without having to actually address them with Tom.
Besides, it wasn't as if addressing them with Tom was going to do anything anyway. Harry already did that once he found out what was going on and Tom tried to gaslight him. There was no hope. He would not understand.
He was practically committed to not understanding because he thought that he was right and he thought that between the two of them he was smarter and more talented, and therefore that meant that his opinion and his decisions took precedence, over Harry's. It did not matter that Harry's feelings were hurt, because at the end of the day Tom would always come back to him, so his actions should be okay.
If he wanted Tom to truly understand what it was like, then he had to do something so far out of his usual comfort zone in order to get the point across.
And Harry had just the idea. A tit for tat kind of idea.
Was it morally questionable? Of course. But after everything Harry had been through recently, he couldn't find it in himself to care.
Maybe this was proof that at the end of the day, he was actually no better than Tom was, but again, he couldn't bring himself to care.
The one thing that would truly drive home just how disrespectful and disgusting this behaviour was, was for Harry to go over Tom's head and do something that Tom would abhor. Something that Tom would not be able to brush off and ignore.
Magic had come a long way. They'd been able to learn a lot of things about themselves and about the past of their world. Muggles had even come a long way. The advancements on both sides were truly astonishing, and while the magical community was still a bit behind because people were so resistant to change, that did not mean that every magical individual was behind.
Magical Britain had finally graduated to silent films. Cameras that had been magically tweaked, now capable of recording for extended periods of time. They could not capture sound, but they certainly captured visuals just fine. In black and white and sepia!
Harry was one of the first people to acquire one of these lovely devices. They were simply easier to use than those purchased on the Muggle side because despite their efforts, magic and electricity still had a bad relationship.
It was better that someone with the relevant know-how could disassemble the object to learn how it worked, and then reassemble it in such a way that it could be used by someone with magic.
Harry was going to use this special camera and he was going to record a very special interaction.
Cameras weren't the only advanced tech that magical people had access to these days. One of Tom's many conquests on the road to power earned him unfettered access to a very special kind of Time Turner that he should not have access to. The Unspeakables had been working on it for decades to try and find a way to cross time that was more than a 24-hour time span.
This was a prototype, but it functioned just fine. And it could go back years.
Tom had already made use of it a few times to further his career path, and he always returned just fine each time regardless of Harry's concerns on the matter.
Since he wanted to play these little games and he wanted to throw his weight around for money and benefits, then so be it. Harry was going to teach him a hard lesson, and it all went back to the 80s.
Back to a time Tom hated to be aware of.
After graduating, Harry and Tom had been able to trace their ancestry. It took a bit of money that they had to save up, but they were finally able to find out the truth of where they came from.
They weren't Muggleborns in the slightest. They were actually descendants of Pureblood lineages. Tom was related to Salazar Slytherin, and Harry was related to the Potter family though the details were a bit sketchy.
With a clear trail to follow, Tom followed it all the way back to his place of origin and he found out most of what happened that caused his birth.
From his understanding, his father was a Muggle, and his mother was a Pureblood, and his father abandoned his mother sometime after finding out she was pregnant, and Tom had never gotten over this since. That was probably where his actual distaste for non-magical people came from. He thought that his father abandoned his mother because he found doubt that she had magic.
In fact, one of Tom's first murders was literally his own father and his grandparents. He had been throwing a bit of a tantrum at the time.
Harry had decided to mind his own business because it was technically Tom's family business and it wasn't really his right to criticise anything. Not when Tom was avenging his poor mother in his own mind, while also avenging himself of the suffering he had to endure as a magical orphan surrounded by non-magical, judgmental people.
One thing was for certain, and it was that Tom Marvolo Riddle hated the man he was named after. If anything could get through to him, it was something to do with his father.
So, Harry took that cute little Time Turner that Tom was so proud of and he took himself back twenty-four years. Before Tom was born, but definitely during his mother's pregnancy.
While Harry wouldn't consider himself as bad as Tom, he had never really considered himself to be that great of a person. After all, he was willing to overlook many of Tom's crimes, simply for the sake of having a future. It said a lot about him that his one and only issue thus far was Tom sleeping around when he was supposed to be with Harry only.
He was not above using magic on a Muggle if his wiles couldn't work.
He didn't expect someone like Tom Riddle Snr. to be interested in men and he was pretty much on the money. He just needed a few alcoholic drinks, a potion or two, and a spell to make himself look a bit more feminine and it was easy to get him interested in a quick lay.
From what they knew of Tom's family's history, Tom Snr. had returned to his home village, claiming that he had been bewitched and forced into marriage. He spent the rest of his life trying desperately to move on from the scandal of his sudden marriage out of nowhere and then the abandoning of his parents despite all they did for him.
He wanted to assure people that he had standards and that he wasn't a turncoat.
All Harry had to do was present him with a pretty face while he was somewhat under the influence of alcohol, and it was very easy to get him into position.
With his trusty camera set up at a distance, and a newspaper and clock in frame so the date and time were visible to any future viewers, Harry took Tom Riddle Snr. to bed.
The man was older. Much older than the parents of any of Harry and Tom's contemporaries. Well-seasoned might even be a better way to describe him. A bit of grey hair sprouted from his fabulous full head of hair as well as his beard.
He was just an older Tom. That was a fact that Tom had come to hate, to realise that the man that abandoned his mother was the man whose face he had grown into. Every time he looked in the mirror, there would be no escaping the fact that he looked exactly like his father, and that fact was never more obvious until now.
Tom Snr. babbled something unintelligible as he shoved Harry down on his cock, greedily watching as it disappeared deep within Harry's body. He hadn't asked any questions or tried to establish any sort of control. Harry merely stripped naked and Tom Snr. joined him with ease, thanks to the whiskey and the potion. Just a little bit of both to lower his inhibitions and make him a lot less present mentally.
It was wrong, and Harry didn't care.
He wanted to get fucked. He wanted to prove a point. He wanted his partner to stop being a piece of shite. He wanted life to be better overall.
So, if Harry had to fuck his boyfriend's dad to get what he wanted, then damn it all he'd do it however many times he needed to.
The benefit to this was the fact that Tom Snr. was actually really good in bed!
For a pampered Muggle who grew up without having to work at all, he was unfairly fit. And he was basically Tom if Tom was older. It was like the perfect mix of details to put Harry in this situation, and he didn't mind in the slightest.
A dick bigger than Tom's bullied into his body over and over, filling him like he wanted. He bounced on Tom's father's lap, trying to take more inside and allowing himself to enjoy this for what it was.
At least Harry could console himself with the knowledge that Tom in general, was not interested in sex, and he would not be enjoying it with all these people he was sleeping with. But just because he didn't enjoy it or necessarily didn't really want to do it didn't mean that his behaviour was acceptable.
Hands grabbed onto Harry's hair, pulling it right at the roots and forcing his body to bow backward as he was fucked almost brutally. No inhibitions meant no need to control himself. Or a desire to. Tom Snr. was getting out whatever frustrations he was dealing with, so in a way, they were both using each other to get what they wanted.
No words were necessary between them. It was transactional and that was that.
But damn did he know how to use his cock. Something even bigger than Tom's.
Harry had to wonder if it was possible for Tom to still grow, or if he was fated to have a smaller dick than his dad. It'd be funny to consider at least.
He was brought to completion pretty quickly, probably because he'd been feeling especially needy but had to deal with the fact that Tom was borderline Asexual and didn't want to initiate sex most of the time. Harry was often left to his own devices in handling his needs, so it was nice to slake his thirst in a fulfilling way for once.
The room spun as he was turned around and forced onto his stomach. That thick cock speared him again without hesitation, and he squirmed as Tom Snr. held him down. He could fight back with magic any time he wanted, but it was so much better to think of the camera and the recording Tom would be forced to watch. To see his father take what he always believed to be his, even though he didn't appreciate it enough.
It felt dirty and delicious in a new kind of way. Harry was going to cause so much pain over this, and he found the tingle in his stomach to be a sign of excitement! Either from anticipation or from arousal, he didn't know.
The camera could capture three hours of content. He didn't have to rush.
It wasn't like he had anywhere else to be.
Resolved, Harry settled himself in for a good and long fuck. Any residual guilt was waved away in the back of his mind, because Tom did it first. This was just a lesson he needed to learn.
Oh, what a lesson it was! It was a lesson that was driven home so quickly, Harry was almost surprised just how fast Tom got the point.
Or maybe it was the fact that Harry reappeared in their shared flat, holding Tom's beloved Time Turner while dripping with another man's fluids. And clearly, based on how poorly his clothes had been situated before he made the return trip, he'd been too busy to care about appearances.
The rage on Tom's face had been priceless. It wasn't exactly hard to guess what had happened, even if he didn't know the full details.
Harry slapped the camera into his boyfriend's hands and smiled. "It was necessary," Harry said, calling back to one of Tom's excuses for why he did what he did. "It was actually pretty fun, and I understand why you sleep around so much now. There's a certain thrill in fucking someone you aren't promised to."
His acting deserved an award. It was so easy to be callous to Tom, because once again, Tom did it first. He deserved it.
When Harry plopped down on their sofa, stretching out to give his limbs the necessary relaxation they deserved, Tom stared down at the camera screen and watched maybe twenty seconds of the recording, before his eyes snapped up, a betrayed look crossing his face.
"...Why him?"
"Why not?" Harry countered. "All the benefits of fucking you without being disrespected. It was much nicer than our little setup, that's for certain."
Now, he wanted to drive the point home for Tom, but he didn't necessarily expect that Tom would actually fall to his knees in despair. Truly, his father wasn't that bad of an option? At most, Harry had been expecting a bruised ego and an admission of guilt, not the dramatics.
"Him?" he asked, sounding disgusted and hurt, voice full of pain Harry had been aiming for.
"You have no business being offended when you sleep with people I especially don't like, all for money you don't need. Since my feelings didn't matter to you, yours certainly don't matter to me. You have no right to act like this. You brought this on yourself."
"But he's th-"
"I don't give a damn about him or your feelings about him or what he supposedly did to your mum. How about that?" Harry countered before Tom could speak. "Since you don't care about my feelings on your road to conquest, there is no reason for me to care about yours."
Harry stood then. He'd never been a tall person, but he was capable of being imposing when it was necessary for him to be. They usually let people operate under the belief that Tom was the bigger threat between them, but Harry was silent and deadly if he wanted to be. He had cultivated a character that people wouldn't expect anything nefarious from.
The freest person in all of Magical Britain, and no one but Tom knew it. Yet Tom thought all these shenanigans were worth it?
Like Harry would take it lying down?
Staring down at Tom's tragic face and the hurt he saw there, Harry couldn't help but feel darkly pleased. He had done what he set out to do, and the message was as clear as day. The ball was now in Tom's court. Was he going to keep up with his little games, or would he finally grow a spine and be the good partner he wanted the community to think he was?
"If you don't stop this embarrassing behaviour of yours, I will go back and I will fuck your father as many times as I want. And it won't be a great loss for me because he's better than you are in bed anyway. I might even let him get me pregnant with a sibling for you, so you aren't feeling so lonely that you need to seek out companionship elsewhere."
Harry had the power here, and it was time Tom came to respect that.
"You have the next year to get rid of Every. Single. One. Of your paramours. I don't care what it takes, I want them dead and gone. You are capable of making it happen, and if I were you, I'd be expedient about it. Unless you want me to give you a sibling then take your time! I wouldn't mind seeing Thomas again. At least he's a good lay."
And with that, Harry took himself and the Time Turner and flounced off to the loo to get himself clean.
Harry wasn't one to play these little games. He wasn't much for the drama of the chase; he just liked to win.
A/N: FINISHED!
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CHECK ME OUT ON TUMBLR. HELLY-WATERMELONSMELLINFELLON.