Chapter 12

Tom seemed rather unaffected by Harry�s hands on his throat, squeezing the life out of him. If anything, he seemed rather amused by the whole thing.

"Look at me! I�m committing suicide!" Tom laughed. Harry narrowed his eyes and pulled a hand off of Tom�s throat to punch him hard in the face. Before the blow could connect, one of Tom�s hands came up and caught Harry�s fist. "Now, now, none of that. You wouldn�t want to bloody up this beautiful face of yours, would you?" Harry growled in response.

Severus returned with the headmaster to find Harry in the same condition he�d left him. The headmaster hurried over to Harry�s side and disabled Severus�s sealing spell. Waves of energy began pouring off of Harry once more, and Severus made a sound of protest.

"Relax, Severus. The sealing spell must be down. He needs to work off the excess energy, or else once he wakes up, he�ll end up having quite the explosion," Dumbledore explained. Severus sighed and looked at Harry warily.

"What is happening to him?" he finally asked after a pause. Dumbledore shook his head.

"I cannot be absolutely certain, but I believe Harry may be suffering through quite the inner struggle," the old wizard replied.

Severus sat down hard on a chair beside Harry�s bed, looking as though he was about to be sick. "My fault�" he muttered. Albus shook his head again.

"Now, Severus, this is hardly your fault�"

"I made the potion. I left the potion where he could get to it, knowing full well how desperate he�d become. It. Is. My. Fault."

Albus sighed and looked back at Harry. "I�ll go fetch Poppy from her lunch break," he said, then left. Severus didn�t move.

Both of Harry�s hands were back around Tom�s throat, but their grip was looser than it had been. Tom grinned up at his other half.

"You do know what would happen if you actually managed to kill me, don�t you?" he said, his tone more mocking than Malfoy ever managed. Harry�s eyes narrowed, but he didn�t respond. Tom�s grin became a smirk. "Ever heard of the Dementor�s Kiss, Self? I know you have. In fact, weren�t you almost on the receiving end of one?" Harry glared and his grip tightened. "Careful now, Self. Because if I die, you go with me. There�s no halfway with something like this. And somehow, I don�t think either of us would appreciate walking around as a soulless husk." Harry thought about that for a moment, then released Tom with a disgusted look and a growl. Tom smiled and rolled his head around in circles as if to remove stiffness. "Ahhh, much better."

Harry sighed and sat down, wrapping his arms around his legs and resting his head on his knees. "I don�t understand this at all�"

"Don�t you?" Tom said. Harry looked up at him wearily. He suddenly felt incredibly drained.

Back in the hospital wing, Harry�s body had ceased floating and pulsing out energy. Severus noticed this immediately, of course, and moved to perch on the edge of the bed by Harry�s side. He gently ran his hand through Harry�s hair, whispering apologies to the unconscious young man. That was how Dumbledore and Pomfrey found him upon their return.