At least he isn't stabbing anyone.

Harry blinks. "Um, yeah, okay. Did you want anything to eat in particular?"

Gellert says something in German.

"Um…" Harry trails off. "Toast it is."

He makes them eggs and toast with strawberry jam. Not normal strawberries, because Harry buys all the groceries from the magical side since this time period isn't exactly the best for the muggles. It tastes strangely like pear and Harry's not sure if he likes it.

Gellert seems to love it though.

The newspaper is delivered via owl. Harry flips through lazily for a bit, skim reading. Something about Dark Lord Dumbledore, and an increase of attacks in Europe but not connected to the muggle war, and the British Ministry is reacting by doing essentially nothing - but in more flowery words.

Harry folds the newspaper up, lays it on the table and then sets it on fire.

No thank you, not dealing with that. Harry has a more immediate problem. More like problems, plural, sitting across the table in front of him. Besides, Dumbledore can't be a Dark Lord, that's ridiculous because what could possibly make a man like him change so much?

Not that Harry knows anything about this world -should really get on that- but some things must be very distorted to create this timeline. Harry is going to concentrate on one problem at a time though. After he returns the children, he can then focus on the supposed Dumbledore issue.

Yes, Harry is thinking about returning them, because he doesn't want to deal with children. Is that a bad thing? He just doesn't think he can handle that much responsibility by himself.

And it will be all by himself because he doesn't like the thought of slavery with house elves (he's never going to be able to find one that will accept receiving payment or even barter). He highly doubts he'll find anyone else who is willing to put up with him and two young Dark Lord kids either.

Harry knows it's selfish but he's just so worried that he'll do something and irreversibly damage Tom or Gellert in some way. He has no idea how new parents can handle this because they don't get a chance to skip that part of their child's life - where the kids are so vulnerable and so many things can go wrong.

Harry isn't sure about Gellert but Tom is healthy when he arrives at Hogwarts…not exactly well adjusted but better than Harry thinks he could do for the child. Maybe it would be best to give them to an orphanage? Not Tom's orphanage? They'd have each other, Harry would visit…

But then Harry remembers the knife and the barricade and thinks that maybe the orphanage already has done damage, just not the kind most people can see.

Damn it. Keeping them it is then.

Gellert says something in German and Harry vanishes the ashes that were once a newspaper before putting down his wand to wipe the boy's face free from jam. Gellert is so cute, it's hard to believe he's a mass murderer.

Might possibly be a mass murderer in the future, actually, an important distinction that Harry needs to keep in mind.

"Come on," Harry says. "I guess we should get around to that language barrier issue."

Gellert says something else and pulls out the Elder wand. Oh, oops, Harry completely forgot about that. It's fine, not like a little child knows any dangerous spells.

Gellert sets the entire table on fire with sheer willpower and Harry quickly puts it out before he confiscates the wand, but loses his Holly one to Tom in the confusion, leaving Gellert wielding a knife.

"Let's..." Harry begins cautiously. "Let's switch back."

Because this just seems more dangerous to him.