AN: Thanks for the lovely reviews! Here is the second chapter. Hope you like it!
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Lovely Company
Lily cradled her second pint of ale and still didn't feel like returning home. Why did James insist on making everything so hard? Before they had married, he had never even hinted at what he now was insisting on. With a low growl of frustration, she turned around to look over the patrons in the pub once again. She would dearly love to talk to someone, flirt a little. The war and the pressure from James were grating on her nerves.
Suddenly the door to the pub opened, attracting the eyes of everyone sitting at the small tables. Lily was sitting at the bar, one of the only places left without having to sit with some stranger at a table, and watched as a man in his late thirties or early forties came into the pub, removing his hat and opening his cloak. He looked dashing.
It was obvious he didn't fancy sitting with a stranger at a table any more than Lily had when she had come in here to take a break, warm up, and think in peace. So he strode over to the bar, threw his cloak over one of the empty stools and sat on another, only one over from where Lily was sitting.
"One beer." With a small smirk Lily noticed that he had a nice voice, and sounded a little irritated. Maybe here was someone she could talk to, air her troubles without it getting back to one of her friends or, God forbid, James.
When a pint of beer had been placed before the interesting stranger, Lily boldly turned towards him with an easy smile. She hadn't been in Gryffindor for nothing.
"You look irritated. What's the matter?"
The stranger took a sip of his beer and then turned so he could look over to her. "Trouble at work," he answered her inquiry after studying her from head to toe.
"That has to be better than trouble at home," Lily snorted, taking a swig of her beer, emptying it before she gestured for the owner of the pub to bring her another.
"Not so sure about that. My subordinates keep getting everything wrong and don't even realize. And I have to go correct their mistakes again and again. I never have been in a more frustrating situation." It clearly was meant as a challenge to prove that her situation was worse than his.
Lily was only too happy to accept. "Well, I married right out of school, and now my husband, who I truly love, insists on having children right away. But I wanted to further my education, maybe work a while. And now we've been married a while, and still no children on the way. I told him to go to a doctor and get himself checked, because I already went. But no, that's not an option." She accepted the next pint, took another big gulp, quickly thinking how to present the concept of a fertility potion to a muggle without giving anything away. "Today I caught him mixing some herbal stuff promising fertility into my tea. We had a row. I left."
The stranger snorted. "You win. I only have to put up with stupidity, not betrayal."
And suddenly the knot that had sat in her stomach the whole time started to loosen. That was it, exactly. James had betrayed her trust. Had fed her potions without her knowledge. In fact, he hadn't even asked once. They had talked a lot about how to increase their chances of conceiving. Timing, food. Lily had been to see a healer. But not once had they spoken about using fertility potions.
She nodded slowly. "But still. I love that idiot."
"What will you do? Put some pepper in his tea?"
Lily laughed, and over the next two pints they shared more and more ridiculous ideas on how to get back at her husband with pranks. Lily loved the idea of changing his shampoo to something dying his hair something bright and glaring. Maybe she would add some hair-growing potion into the bottle.
By the time the pub started to empty, both of them had lost most of the tension and were talking like old friends. She had introduced herself as Rose. He had said his name was Thomas. She wasn't so sure if she wanted to believe him, but considering everything, she really didn't care.
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The evening had been a wonderful distraction. Rose had sharp wit, and was, for a muggle, a really good conversationalist. To his immense relief Rose had agreed to stay and take a room together with him in a small inn down the road. She clearly was out to get back at her husband, and Tom certainly had no moral scruples about taking advantage of the fact.
She was attractive, and the fact that with his two soul part back, his sexuality had made an appearance, meant that he had needs he couldn't ignore.
Intimacy of any kind brought a vulnerability that Tom couldn't really stand to open up to. Any kind of romantic relationship would offer up targets to his enemies. Even engaging in sex with someone as himself, without any romantic feelings, could get dangerous. It would open up the possibility for assassination attempts.
That was the reason he sought out Muggle women whenever he felt the need for closeness. Going to a pub, bar, or club, searching out someone who was looking for the same as he, chatting her up, and finding a place for some privacy. It wasn't always as easy as it had been today, but with contraceptive charms it was pretty safe, and better than living celibate or exposing himself to someone who had magic. In such intimate situations, it was a real possibility that he might be discovered or catch some of the magical maladies that were transferred through such close contact.
With a bow Tom opened the door. "After you, my Lady."
She laughed and assumed a snobbish pose, sauntering into the room and twirling in place. Tom grinned and followed. While her back was turned to him, Tom cast a contraceptive charm at her, contemplating that if she was a witch with a fertility potion in her system, such measures would be useless. Another reason why he preferred to be intimate with muggle women. He always told them he was unable to father any children if they even asked, and made sure to cast the needed charms.
Their clothes were discarded pretty quickly and they got to know each other. Soon she was enthusiastically urging him on to continue with what he was doing, causing Tom to feel smug. He made a point of perfecting his abilities in everything he did. He never had heard any complaints from his partners. It was kind of funny that he was as good at giving pleasure as he was in torturing his enemies.
Several very pleasant hours later, Tom had dressed again and looked at Rose sleeping with a satisfied expression on her face. This excursion in search for some much needed stress relief had worked out rather well. With a smile on his face and a spring in his step, Tom made sure that the bill was paid, and then apparated back to his home.
Meeting Rose had been a lovely coincidence. Now he would get rid of a few of his more useless idiots, and then hopefully he would be able to proceed with his plans. With his needs taken care of, Dumbledore and his Order looked much less like a problem and a hassle and more like a nice challenge. An easy victory was kind of boring anyway.
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Thanks to Jordre and Jake for helping to improve my spelling!
