The Marauders' Sons

With that thought firmly planted in Harry's mind, the Trio took their leave. Tom was making his own inferences on them, especially Harry, when he caught himself staring at Hermione's ass as she left. Good going, perv boy, you better hope Dumbledore didn't catch that. He may just fire you before you even get a chance to do anything. He then, however reluctantly, looked away and turned to his new boss.

"Now that you have met them, however briefly, I would like to hear your thoughts," Dumbledore had picked this particular sixteen-year-old for several reasons, not the least of which was his ability to read people. On their only previous one-on-meeting a few weeks ago, Tom showed a knack for gauging someone rather quickly. This was a good trait in a bodyguard and the Headmaster wanted to see it in action.

"Harry seems depressed, angry, though he tries and fails to show it, but a little happy to be here, probably because you have put him under lock and key previously. Ron looks to be all fired up about something, but I really don't know what it is. Could be the war, might be something less dramatic, but he is definitely ready to do something. Hermione..."here he stopped for a minute. Tom liked to think that he was indeed good at reading people, nevertheless, he knew that there were some that he could not get a bead on until he knew them well. Experience had taught him that these were the women that he found himself interested in, whether this was related he knew not, but he had a general idea. "Hermione, I think I will have to investigate further."

Dumbledore smiled and said, "Tom, I think Harry and myself got the feeling that you would investigate the young lady either way."

"I thought that I was being fairly objective," he responded without a shred of shame in his voice, but a slight tone of sarcasm. He had been around women his whole life, and though certainly not a ladies' man, he knew his way around. His relationships were always doomed before they started, because he had a tendency to get bored with people and not trust them and when you spend a lot of time with someone, boredom comes easy. He hoped that he would not repeat the mistakes of the past, even though he did consistently. Anyways, he had zero intentions of not making his interest known, though at the same time he was not going to shout it out.

"You did somewhat, but I digress," Dumbledore retorted, at the same time pulling out a package from under his desk, "these are my gifts to you. I appreciate your willingness to help and I thought I would provide you with some useful tools, as these things are hard to come by. This is an invisibility cloak, it is rather self-explanatory," he then covered his torso, which subsequently disappeared.

Tom was used to this sort of thing, after all he was a wizard, and was getting a little frustrated, again, because he was being talked down to, again. He knew he was the youngest member of the Order, and he also knew that there were some who were totally against the idea of him being a fully fledged member of the Order of the Phoenix at then age of sixteen. He knew that he was better qualified for the job than some of the members who were twice his age, but that was a touchy subject, one he had no intention of breaching. Then Dumbledore pulled out an old looking piece of parchment, Now this could be interesting...

"This, Tom, is compliments of Remus Lupin. It is a map of Hogwarts, though you will notice that it has some rather interesting properties," Dumbledore added with a slight smile on his face at the young man's reaction to the map before him.

Tom was, albeit against his will, absolutely amazed at this map. Holy Shit! It not only showed its examiner the castle and grounds, it revealed the location of everyone in the castle, and their name. he looked back at Dumbledore.

"Harry has an invisibility cloak and this map's older brother," he said gesturing to Tom's new best friend, "and I surmised that you should too, so that he cannot give you the slip for long, as he has done to more powerful and smarter wizards than yourself with their help. He has a habit of going out late at night, hence the invisibility cloak." All Tom could do was stare at the headmaster. He was eternally grateful for the help of playing babysitter for such a rambunctious person and, as he was just informed, he would be following an invisible Harry around at night. At least if I get bored I can always use the map as emergency entertainment.

"The password," Dumbledore continued, placing his wand on the parchment, "is 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.' To make it look like just another piece of old parchment, the password is 'Mischief managed,'" at this, the ink of the map slowly sank back into the parchment.

"Thank you, sir, I appreciate the help and you lending me these things, I will guard them with my life and I will return them to you as you gave them to me," he said, fully aware of the rarity of his new toys.

"Oh, no, they are yours to keep," Dumbledore said simply, "I trust that my nephew is in good hands."

Tom was dumbfounded. Several thoughts raced through his head, all at the same time. Nephew??? I thought the Dursleys were his only family??? Wow...he is not only trusting me with the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter, this is his family. I can't accept these gifts, I barely know him. Does Harry know this??? Tom was completely lost in thought and couldn't shake the feeling that he did not deserve all this trust that was being given to him. He himself was not a trusting individual, and felt that Dumbledore was being a little foolish, just throwing all this at a newcomer.

"I don't know what to say...does Harry know?"

"No, he doesn't and, to be quite honest, I am afraid to tell him. I sentenced him to 11 years of torment under the Dursleys. I have hidden his very fate from him for another 5. My brother Aberforth and I had a falling out many, many years ago. One of his daughters had a son with a man named Potter, and James was that boy. I had no idea who he was until right before he and Lily were murdered, when Aberforth and I were reunited after a long separation. You see, I could not have raised Harry. I am on his father's side and the protection around him comes from his mother. He has forgiven me for all the mistakes I have made with him, and I am afraid to lose him at all, let alone to myself," and at this, a single tear rolled through the weary, old man's face, through his many and increasing wrinkles, and dropped down to his desk with a plop. Tom didn't know what to say. He barely knew this man, and here he was spilling his soul out to him. He knew Dumbledore to be a strong man, but in a strange way, this show of vulnerability washed away his doubt over whether or not he should go through with the gargantuan task before him. He now understood Dumbledore. He was not just protecting Harry from Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and by extension their children, he was protecting Harry and Dumbledore from each other. He owed it to the both of them, after the First War, so he accepted without question.

"I guess this means you are leaving Harry's fate to me," was all he could muster through the shock of these revelations so early in his tenure.

"I have failed him, I wish you the best of luck, for Harry's sake," replied Dumbledore, starting to regain his composure. Though that was he said, all Tom could hear in his head was For both your sakes.

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Tom was lost in thought as he sat in a window sill in Gryffindor Tower. The last thirty minutes of his meeting were about procedures, when and how to report, who to report to, etc., but the first fifteen minutes were the ones that he dwelled on. The fate of the world rests on Harry's soldiers, and his fate rests on mine. I barely know the kid, how am I supposed to get close enough to protect him? Though the majority of thoughts floating through his mind went like this, one small truthful voice in the back of Tom's head reminded him that Dumbledore chose him for a reason, and though he's far from perfect, Dumbledore was a lot closer than himself. The debate raged in his mind for God knows how long, when all of the sudden he felt a tap on his shoulder, and he awoke from his daze. It was Hermione.

She had taken an immediate interest in the American. She knew he wasn't that good looking, though she still caught herself looking at him from time to time. They had been living in the castle for a little over a week as pretty much the only people in the castle aside from the house-elves, and still he was a mystery to the Trio, and Hermione, being the most curious of the three, decided to take matters in her own hands. Even if he doesn't care for me, she thought, I'm still gonna find out all I can about him.

"Hi. Do you want to go watch Harry and Ron practice with me? I don't play Quidditch and its pretty boring there all by myself," she inquired, all the while getting lost in his eyes. Tom did not answer at first, as he was thinking about the sexiness of the British accent coming from a refined woman like Hermione. When he awoke, he realized that this could serve the dual purpose of spending time to get to know this girl, and observing Harry, as they had to become friends for all of this to work, so he accepted.

There was a bit of an awkward silence as the strolled to the Quidditch pitch in the summer air. Tom could sense that she was looking at him, and he would be lying if he said this did not make him just a little nervous, but he really had nothing to say. Luckily for him, Hermione had a habit of forcing her will.

"Do you play Quidditch? I didn't think so, since you didn't have a broom, but I thought I would ask," she asked her companion, whom she found herself dreaming of last night.

"No, I'm actually more into Muggle sports. My mother was a Muggle-born witch and I never knew my father, so I was raised about 50-50. My dad was British and that is part of the reason I volunteered to be part of all this," responded the boy who also had dreamed about the other, though in a less proper way.

"To find him?"

"To avenge him. He was murdered by the Death Eaters." This was only a half-truth on his part. His main reason for coming to England was to act as the bodyguard of the Boy Who Lived, but if he happened to run into any Death Eaters while he was here, he was going to bring them in. Since he only knew that his father was killed by Death Eaters, let alone the circumstances, or even his father's name, he was going to settle on getting as many as he could into custody, if he wasn't going to get to kill the murdering scum.

This put an end to their conversation for a while, until Tom had a scary thought. Did I just scare her away!?!?!? Thinking fast, he decided it was time to finally turn on the charm, to compensate for the sudden end to their previous attempt at communication.

"So, I'm dieing to know, which one are you here to pay special attention to?" He thought it best to determine if he had any real rivals for her affection before proceeding further. Hermione was quick on the uptake, however, and cut to the chase.

"I'm not interested in either of them, if that's what you were so rudely implying," she did her best to sound offended, thinking it the proper thing to do, but nonetheless, she couldn't suppress a smile at the thought that he wanted to know. She decided to inquire further.

"So do you have someone back in the States?" Tom, who definitely noticed the smile, as it was as nice as her aforementioned body and hence he liked to see it as often as possible, took his turn to answer with a smile.

"No, but it would be a pity to spend a year in England and not a least get an English kiss," he knew he was being a little forward, but he couldn't resist the temptation to rile her up. He was a little surprised however, when she promptly kissed him on the cheek.

"There, and I wont have you going home telling your American friends that English girls are a bunch of prudes and gits," at this she gave him a devilish little smile, and he decided that this was an opportunity he could not pass up. She was pretty, smart, great body, nice person, and didn't mind kissing on the first date. However, he had more important things to attend to at the moment.

"Gits? What the Hell is a git?"

"It's an insult, and get used to it, Ron is a bit wise, though he wasn't got anything on the twins."

Ron and Harry, as it turns out, had watched the duo's progress with interest as they soon as they were in full view of them. They thought it very like Hermione to initiate contact with the newcomer, and very unlike her to kiss him on the cheek when they had never really had a conversation with him, other than showing him around the first day, and even then he didn't say much, just observed. Harry thought that this new kid was a bit odd, but at the same time, he had the feeling that he knew him, impossible as it was. They didn't even do their work together, as the Trio did theirs in the Gryffindor common room, and Tom did his in the Great Hall, which was fast becoming Tom's favorite room in the castle. He was fascinated with the ceiling that showed the sky outside and though he was critical of it before, the medieval charm of Hogwarts was setting in. Since there was not much going on at the moment, and since he wasn't really doing homework, this was fine with Dumbledore. He was planning on how he would manage to keep tabs on Harry without making it look like he was doing so. He was going to be in all his classes and would be a regular at Quidditch practice, but he still didn't know how he was supposed to manage to hang out with Harry's clique and not be noticed as an extra appendage. All of the sudden, Tom and Hermione were chatting happily on their way to the Quidditch field. It was all small talk, how the Trio met, how he felt about England and the castle. Ron seemed to be having thoughts of a less deep sort.

"Reckon they'll shag before term?"

"Hermione? Are you kidding me? She's gonna die a virgin. But I'm with you on one thing, she does seem rather interested, as does he. Let's go bother them." Harry decided recently that the best way to hide his depression from everyone was to act as happy as possible. This time, however, he really did want to bother them. Hermione was the only person that had always been there. After all, there was only so much emotional support that Ron could provide. Alas, Hermione was spot on when she said that he had the emotional complexity of a tea spoon. They were like brother and sister, and like all brothers, he wanted to find out as much as he could on his sister's new "friend."

The two of them descended and walked over to the pair, who were still chancing quick glances at the other. Against his will, Harry was happy to see Hermione's love life work out for her for once. Harry was nowhere near as good at telling about feelings as she, but he was learning, and he felt that this could work out. There was obviously mutual interest. She had given up on Ron, which was just as well, as his pride had prevented him from asking her out after she had shunned him for Krum, and now he didn't feel that way any more, though he was still bitter with Krum. This was fine with Harry, since it had led to a reduction in their bickering, but it would take a fool to think that it would stop completely. In the end, it was still Ron and Hermione.

After Hermione's little experiment, they all became good friends, for Tom's standards. He was a loner and proud of it. He was never one to trust and have many friends, he never had a real girlfriend, though he had had a few "special friends" in his day. This was different. He felt that they were all three decent enough and they accepted that he was going to be very secretive, very quiet, and very present, so they got along spectacularly. The only one that had a problem with this was Tom. He knew that it was a bad idea having romantic intentions with one of Harry's friends, but to be good friends with Harry himself, that was a horrible idea. Isn't this what happened to Dumbledore? What happens if I get to close to the likable little prick and cant be objective? He could no longer blame the headmaster for letting his feelings for the boy get in the way. Harry's life was, pure and simple, Hell. Yet, he was still one of the nicest people that he had ever met. I see why he's so popular. You have to admire the kid, whether you like it or not. He also feared what would happen if Harry discovered what was going on. He knew that Harry would be pissed at best, never forgive him at worst. The fact that this worried him, worried him. He slowly found himself with them all the time, as Dumbledore had wanted, but though he knew it sounded unbelievable in his own mind, he still felt that the others thought of it not so much as the Trio plus one, but the Quartet. They had accepted him into the group, though by force if truth be told. They spent much of their time together and even if he wasn't the main attraction in a conversation, Tom's presence was to be a given.

Life in the castle suited Dumbledore intentions nicely. One day, Ron's twin brothers Fred and George, now full members of the Order, offered to take them to Hogsmeade for the day. This was the first time Tom had been to a completely magical town, and he loved it there. It was like he was home for the first time. He would never live in a small town in Scotland, but he still felt that it would be a nice place for a summer home. As they all walked along, visiting the Three Broomsticks and Flourish and Blott's among others (the twins refused to go to Zonko's seeing as it was their main source of completion) Tom and Hermione brought up the rear and talked for the whole day. Tom was sure that she was interested, but he had yet to make a full blown move. He firmly believed in timing, so he waited, much to Hermione's displeasure. Their placing relative to Harry was not entirely by mistake either. This way he could talk to Hermione and enjoy his day while at the same time have Harry in his sights for the whole day.

Tom and Hermione's closeness did not, however, escape the notice of Fred and George.

"So, how long has he been stallin' for? She looks just about gone, and he's not doing a damn thing! Shame, really, girl like that goin' to waste," Fred cracked to Harry and Ron, gesturing to the pair a few yards behind and titling his head to get several different angles of Hermione, with his brother doing the same. They evidently did not think of Hermione as a sister.

"We brought it up to him last night as a matter of fact," Harry replied, "and he got very defensive, but at the same time he never denied that he wanted her."

"Bit fishy if you ask me," added Ron, "I wonder what he is really up to. I don't know about you three, but I never heard of any American exchange program, and he appears reluctant to get too close to any of us, even if he does spend a lot of time with us."

Now that Harry thought about it, it was odd that all of the sudden there was a Yankee in their midst. He too had never heard tell of an exchange program, but he wrote it off to Dumbledore wanting contacts overseas. He thought about this all the way back to the castle and decided not to bring it up with Tom because, as the argument the night before about Hermione attested to, he didn't like to be questioned. The only semi-useful bit of information that they got out of their altercation was that when he was angry, Tom referred to people with their last name only.