#if you look through my anon.ask tag i have people who asked almost the same things you can read through them if you'd like 💖💖

[mauveberries]

Hiya!

You mentioned you don't read Tomarry in another post. Because I'm super curious (but no pressure or judgment over here), may I ask why not? Why do you read Harrymort only? Why makes you prefer Harrymort so much that you'd ignore Tomarry altogether?

Also, what makes a fic Tomarry vs Harrymort for you? Because I can think of a lot of fics that I consider Harrymort where they switch the name from Voldemort to Tom and even switch his appearance sometimes. (Like anything Maeglin_Yedi writes or Of Your Making by purplewitch156)

I personally love both with all their various tropes, I read both, and I write both. However, in my case, my energy and focus is devoted to my long Tomarry time travel fic rather than my much shorter Harrymort arranged marriage fic.

This is all just genuine curiosity from me with no judgment attached. I wonder what keeps you away from Tomarry, yet what draws you to Harrymort. I find it fascinating. So curious! Haha! xD Anyhoo, if you answer, thanks for humoring me and I send you good vibes so that you may have a lovely day. <3

hiiiii ahh thank you for this ask!! it's so nice that you're actually curious about this. ❤ this may be a bit rambly, so bear with me, yeah?

one of the reasons why i don't read tomarry is because personally, i think that they are just not compatible. no matter what. tom riddle is an ambitious young man with a horrifically cruel streak. he is not afraid to take advantage and manipulate the people around him. he treasures loyalty above almost anything else, and likes when those around him fear him. harry has.. none of those.

i know that the point of enemies to lovers is to somehow make this compatible and to somehow make them fall in love with each other, but i can't see tom being attracted to... any of harry's character enough to get together with him. why would he do that when there are people willing to listen to him already? it's illogical in my opinion. and i know the whole dynamic is 'oh, harry's defiant towards me, what a brave, intriguing guy, i need to see what he's up to.' but the truth of the matter is, i think tom would just plainly dislike that. i know people think tom would like a challenge, and i agree, he does, but i just don't think that would expand towards trying to win people's feelings. he wouldn't care.

the context of tomarry is usually always time travelling and i stand by the fact that i think tom wouldn't think too much of harry. probably because if harry tried anything, tom would easily get harry expelled/killed. he would win easily. back in the 1940's harry wouldn't have enough plot armour to survive through everything. if tom can frame hagrid, he can frame harry, too, and dumbledore might be the only who cares enough to try and override an expulsion but obviously, dippet wouldn't have it. and then if harry's expelled, (which he most likely will be) tom wouldn't spare him a second thought. and i know that in canon, tom does, in fact, spare harry a second thought, but i think that's because he's already voldemort and he's paranoid. if he's young, and he comes across the prophecy, he would just kill harry, it's really not that deep, i promise you. if tom spared a second thought to plan a murder, 100% he would succeed and dumbledore can't say anything because he stayed silent when myrtle died too. it's not drarry where they're trying to hurt each other. this is tomarry where tom will kill harry if need be, and succeed because suddenly harry has no plot armour. it's not the same.

tom riddle isn't as incompetant as voldemort.

ALSO, just wanted to add that in COS, that is not the real tom riddle. that is a corrupted horcrux. obviously, it's going to sound deranged and obsessive after having been stuck in a diary for 50 years. i don't like it when tom is portrayed overly obsessive because people mistake him for the diary horcrux. i do think he was obsessive to a degree, but only towards something that benefits him, not people.

i just don't think harry is special enough to stand out to tom riddle. harry's duelling skills are mediocre, his studies are mediocre and his looks are average. i know in many tomarry fics, harry tries to get tom's attention and succeeds, but i don't think that's realistic because many other people are also always trying to get tom's attention 😭.

and i know many tomarry fics use the fact that harry seems to be the only one who dislikes tom and because of that, he takes notice of harry, but i strongly disagree with that. tom is assumed to be muggleborn/half-blood. back in 1940's, blood supremacy ran rampant. of course there will be purebloods who will never like tom! (prpbably walburga and orion) and tom knows this. he's not going to pay attention to every single person who dislikes him, he's not abraxas malfoy.

the only way i can see harry getting tom's attention is through speaking pareseltongue. and then, after tom hears him speak parseltongue, he spirals. he desperately searches through every single geneology book and when he realises that harry isn't related to him, tom would kill him, because he's supposed to be the heir of slytherin, no one else, and now he is paranoid, because if not his relative, then who is harry? 🙁 so harry is fed to the basilisk. no fawkes and sword of gryffindor to save him now, since he's in slytherin, right?

i genuinely don't think tom would be interested in harry romantically. not when he already has a simpering crowd which worships him. as much as you want to say tom would think them beneath him, that is literally not true, he valued the lestranges for their loyalty. he gifted his notebook to the malfoys for safekeeping. he trusted bella enough to place a piece of his soul in her vault. he obviously appreciated them. what he doesn't appreciate, is being disrespected by someone he sees as wayyyy below his league.

but this is not to say that i have never given a tomarry fic a chance. i have read about 6 to 7 long fics and i figured that i did not like the dynamic at all. obviously the authors can write whatever makes them happy, this is not a them problem at all, this is a me problem. so i just stopped reading tomarry all together.

also, i feel like people characterize tom riddle softer than he actually is, and this makes tom and harry's dynamic more... levelled and i don't like that. even if tom riddle hasn't turned in voldemort yet, i need them to have some kind of imbalance with the scales tipped on tom's side. overall, the usual tomarry is kind of a nothingburger ship to me and it just ends up being murderous drarry.

the point of the hp series is that voldemort is the main, whimsical, mysterious main villian and i don't like that tomarry obliterates this dynamic.

also, i'm not a huge fan of timetravel because the ages mashing up is something i dislike. like, if harry travels back in time, then usually only ron and hermione come with him. it's fun, but i like it when everything is in its canonical place, you know?

you probably know my stance on same age aus at this point 😆.

now, moving onto why i like harrymort muchh more. as you could probably already tell, i love the doomed, dead-dovey aspect of this ship. the psychological horror aspect is really good, too. i adore the age difference and the grave power imbalance. i love that for this ship to happen, harry's morals have to be completely obliterated. i loooove post-war era, i love the potential for forced proximity. everything is just soooo good. the prophecy? epic. the power imbalance? count me in. with harrymort, there is usually a rigid structure i like, like there is no way harry can overpower voldemort in any way whatsoever. (personally, i don't think harry can overpower even tom riddle.) (i know most people don't like this, so now i avoid harrymort fics as well 😭) but yeah.

i really really dislike it when harry calls voldemort 'tom.' if voldemort hates it when even mighty dumbledore who knows almost everything about him calls him tom, how can he like it when someone who 'killed' him, and someone who is practically a stranger calls him that? no way. just.. no. if harry wants to get together with him, he better respect that.

as for voldemort's appearance, i like it when he looks like an older tom riddle. (snake-face is a joke to me 😭😭) it's more poignant when voldemort looks like tom riddle, there are more themes to explore through that, instead of evil = ugly. good = handsome. snake-faced voldemort is horrendously shallow to me.

oh, and i love love love the trope where after the war, harry becomes terribly depressed and he dreams about tom/voldemort, like, ohhh i love that trope so much. there are just so many interesting things to explore in harrymort that tomarry just doesn't have room for. in other words, tomarry is lowkey tame.

what makes a fic tomarry is when voldemort is younger, he's still inexperienced. (borgin's and burkes era, hogwarts era, wool's era) and harrymort is during the first war/second war/time during his travels era.

i hope my answer makes sense, i know you're writing a tomarry timetravel fic and i hope that i have not offended you 😭😭 i'm sure whatever you churn out will be absolutely amazing. people can and are allowed to have different interpretation of tomarry from me, and i completely respect that. people can and should write whatever they enjoy :)) i hope you enjoy writing your fic, i really admire how dedicated you are to writing!!

but yeah, i think i'll stop here before i descend into incoherent rambling yeah?

thank you for this ask!! ❤❤