Not Alone

Disclaimer: Do I have to?

Jealousy

Tom and Grace fell into a comfortable routine over the next few weeks. The pair of them were consistently at the top of all their classes, earning them admiration from all the other Slytherin first years as they kept earning Slytherin points, placing them a head and shoulders above every other team in competition for the House Cup. After Tom had explained to Grace that a 'mudblood' was a person of non-magical birth and that they were looked down on in Slytherin, the pair had decided to play ignorant of their births. In Tom's case this was no stretch, but for Grace they said that her father was a wizard and her mother had died and she had never asked her father because he was so sensitive about it (in reality her mother had run off with another man and her father was prone to long rants about her). Strangely, rather than earning suspicion from the unquestionably pureblood Slytherins, it seemed to have the opposite effect. The mystery surrounding the two best students in the class intensified the admiration of them.

This culminated in Franny Parkinson using a charm to turn her hair black and make it thick. It failed, instead turning her hair into thick, matted yak hair, which took several weeks of drinking a potion from Madam Gosling to return it to its long, blonde beginning. Grace and Tom's newfound admiration extended beyond the students. Professor Slughorn could often be heard loudly proclaiming the excellence of Slytherin students to other Professors in the halls after their classes, giving long winded explanations of the difficult potions they had produced. Willoughby almost always asked Tom or Grace to demonstrate for the class after their second lesson where they had performed the Lockpicking Charm, the Levitation Charm and the Repairing Charm perfectly where others struggled throughout the lesson, trying to unlock the padlock Willoughby had provided. Avery got confused between the Lockpicking Charm and the Levitation Charm, exclaiming "Alohom Leviosa!" sending pieces of the locking mechanism flying across the room, one of them creating a hole in Willoughby's hat.

Tom's jealousy of Grace had increased tenfold when Farrow had delivered a large parcel from home containing homemade sweets but he had softened his internal rant about her and her father when she immediately offered him the best toffee he'd ever had in his life. It was not until their happy routine of being equally good at everything, sitting by the fire at night and helping each other (which really consisted of finishing quickly, checking each other's work then eating the sweets from Mr McDermott and making each other laugh) and sitting next to each other receiving equal praise was interrupted that Tom and Grace's friendship was tested at all.

One morning Tom emerged from the dormitory passage way, grumpy, as usual in the mornings, to see a large crowd of first years huddled excitedly at the pin board whispering and gesturing to each other. Tom looked around the common room and saw the people from other year levels looked thoroughly uninterested. He frowned and began to walk across to the crowd of first years when movement behind him made him turn. He saw Grace, her hair as wild as ever, emerging from the girl's dormitory, sighting him and ambling over to him sleepily. He frowned slightly as he watched her. She'd learnt to tie her tie with magic and no longer needed to fit it over her head after Tom had tied it so her hair had gone back to wild curls. He sighed and shrugged, at least Marcella and Franny had given her some hair product that made her curls much more defined and pretty, as opposed to a knotted, matted mess. As she reached him she yawned and muttered, "What's goin' on?" Tom shrugged and took her hand, pulling her over to the pin board. Malfoy sighted them and bounced excitedly.

"Look! Guys, look, we're getting flying lessons!" Sure enough, as Tom and Grace reached the board they saw a piece of parchment tacked to the board reading:

First Year Flying Lessons
Tuesday, Week 4, sixth period
Meet on the Quidditch pitch

Grace turned to Tom, her large eyes looking fearful but excited, "Tom, that's tomorrow!!!" Tom shrugged and smiled at her.

"You'll be fine, Gracie," he reassured her, pulling her away and off to breakfast. Unfortunately for Tom, Grace was fine. Better than fine, she was brilliant. He was decent. By the end of the lesson Grace was by far the best flyer, even better than Malfoy who had bragged about flying around his family's manor since he was a baby. Tom could fly as well as Malfoy, but Grace ran rings around everyone, wowing them with rolls and loops, her hair flying out behind her. At the end of the lesson when they touched back down Grace ran over to Tom breathing heavily, "TOM! Wasn't that BRILLIANT? I'm writing home to Daddy immediately! It was amazing! Wasn't it?" but Tom didn't answer. He was seething. He didn't mind being equal with her, but the fact that she was better than him was unacceptable.

He glanced sideways at her and saw her expectant smile and muttered, "Yeah, something," before striding off the Quidditch pitch and marching up the grounds to the castle before Grace could follow. That night at dinner Tom sat between Malfoy and Mulciber. When Grace approached, Mulciber began to move before Tom jerked his head and shot Mulciber a glare that would stop anyone in their tracks. Grace stood behind them and Mulciber shot her an apologetic look and glanced to the remaining place next to Gertrude. Shocked, hurt and confused, Grace ambled over to Gertrude in a daze, sitting down and finding her appetite had disappeared. "Trouble with the twins," she heard Gertrude mutter and her head shot up.

"What do you mean 'twins'?"

"Oh come on," Gertrude snorted as she shovelled steak and kidney pie into her mouth, "you and Tom are the wonder twins. You always do everything together and always get the same marks. You even look the same!" Gertrude said scathingly, eyeing Grace's dark hair and pale skin, glancing over at Tom, who had his face turned away from them. "You did something to upset your twin. Wonder what it was; dare to be better than him at something?" Gertrude teased.

Grace was silent for the rest of the meal, picking at her mashed potatoes half-heartedly. Franny and Marcella gave up trying to engage her in conversation eventually. Grace was musing on what she could possibly have done to upset Tom. She was always sensitive to him and careful not to talk about her family too much and to share any treats she got from home. They had never gotten different marks from each other so he couldn't be jealous of that. She hadn't said anything cruel to him. He just suddenly turned cold after their flying lesson! Grace sighed, maybe he would be better after dinner and they would do their homework by the fire as usual.

When she returned to the common room Tom was already there, huddled in a corner working on an essay for Merrythought with Rosier, Avery and Dolohov. Grace stared at the four of them for a few minutes. The green light that permeated the common room that usually seemed warm and comforting was suddenly eerie and made her feel lonely. Grace turned on her heel and ran straight to the Owlery, crying her eyes out to Farrow. He fluttered into her lap and gave her hand a series of comforting nips and she sobbed, lamenting about Tom.

Tom watched Grace leave the common room, her large eyes looking hurt and her lip trembling. Rosier cleared his throat uncomfortably; his eyes were flitting between Tom and the entrance to the common room. "Are…ah…you and Grace-", he quickly fell silent as Tom glared at him. Tom felt a twinge of guilt tug at his heart. It wasn't Grace's fault that she was good at flying. It wasn't as if he was bad at it. For a moment his resolve began to fail and he almost went after Grace but then he heard Franny talking to Malfoy from across the room.

"I had no idea Gracie was such a good flier! For once she and Tom weren't neck and neck in something!" Tom felt a surge of rage fill his chest and slammed his book shut, storming off to the dormitory, leaving Rosier, Avery and Dolohov with stunned faces.

Tom threw his bag down and sat on his bed seething. He felt extremely hot and pulled a chair over to the wall so he could reach the high-up windows that were around the top of the dormitory. The cool breeze calmed him slightly but rage still filled his chest, raving like a mad creature inside him. The window, which was level with the ground outside, creaked slightly and Tom looked up, his eyes flashing. A small green snake was at the window looking at Tom curiously. Tom's face softened. He loved snakes. Before Grace they were his only friends, and now they were his only friends again, he thought angrily. "Come here," he hissed in Parseltongue. The snake obeyed, sliding in through the window and dropping down onto the chair, slithering over onto his bed from there. Tom lay down and the snake curled around his head on the pillow.

"Something wrong?" it enquired in its breathy, hissing voice. Tom turned his head to look the snake in the face, it stuck its tongue out, tickling his face. Tom screwed up his face and tried to remain angry, stifling the giggles that threatened to escape him. He sighed and twisted around onto his stomach.

"What's your name?" he said to the snake.

"Salamae," it hissed, "and you?"

"Tom," he smiled at the snake.

"You seem to be rather agitated Tom. What's wrong?" the snake repeated. Tom sat up and crossed his legs, looking down at the snake on his pillow.

"It's not fair!" he complained, "She's supposed to be my friend but she has everything better than I do! I don't like coming second but I always do with her. Sure we get the same marks but her things are all new and shiny, mine are all tattered and second hand. She has a family and gets all these sweets from home all the time!"

"She doesn't share?" Salamae cut in.

"Well…she does but that doesn't make it better! She still has people sending them to her and I have no one. Getting her leftovers is hardly any good. She even says she'll share her owl with me. Like I have any use of an owl. Who am I going to send letters to? No one loves me. I'm all alone."

"Are you really?" the snake asked, "It sounds to me that she loves you. She shares everything with you, doesn't she? Always tries to make you feel better. You also have snakes. There aren't many like you that talk to us you know. It's nice to talk to someone once in a while. We don't tend to group together often, snakes."

Tom was looking at his feet, thinking. Maybe she did love him. She always seemed to be very in tune with his feelings. Maybe she shared with him not because she felt sorry for him but because she knew he was worth just as much as her? Tom shook his head, "It's still not fair. She's better than me at flying. She has everything better and I can't beat her at anything. I can be her equal in school work but she can beat me. She beats me in everything but school work."

The snake looked at him and sighed, "It sounds silly to me," it breathed, "but if flying and new books are so important to you, ignore her. You have somehing she doesn't. Something she can never have. Snakes. We make you unique, you know. I wasn't lying when I said there aren't many that can talk to us. Sometimes it's better to be better in a quiet way. Then you impress everyone all the more when you succeed." Tom was silent. What Salamae said made sense. He didn't want to hurt Grace either. She seemed to rely on him a lot. Maybe he was being stupid. Tom sighed and got up. He was going to find her.

Grace was ambling back to the common room, puffy eyed and red faced. She had been in the Owlery and noticed it was past curfew. She wiped her eyes, received a goodbye nip from Farrow and hurried out of the Owlery, down to the dungeons. She was trudging down the main staircase when Tom appeared out of the dungeon corridor. "Gracie!" he hissed, "It's past curfew, come back here, you'll get us in trouble!" Gracie stopped dead.

"You're…You're talking to me again?" she asked, hopefully.

"Yes," he muttered, "Look, I was silly, ok? But get back into the common room now before some teacher comes along and we get in trouble!" Gracie practically skipped down the staircase and along the corridor to the common room. She chortled "serpent" at the wall and it opened up. The common room was practically empty. She had been up in the Owlery for longer than she thought. Tom grabbed her arm and pulled her around angrily, "Where were you?" he hissed, sounding livid, "I looked everywhere for you! I searched all the dungeons and classrooms I could find! I've been looking for hours! Do you realise what could have happened if either one of us had been caught?!" he ranted. Once he had finished his tirade Gracie giggled, and he shot her a look which suggested another tirade was coming because of that.

"Sorry, sorry!" she said quickly, "I was up in the Owlery. I…I was upset," she looked down at her toes. Tom blushed and muttered that they should go to bed, it was past midnight. Gracie looked at him and whispered, "You're not mad at me anymore?"

"No. Now let's go to-" but he was cut short. Grace had flung her arms around his neck and was hugging him tightly. Tom stood there stunned, not quite knowing how to react. No one ever hugged him. The women at the orphanage never did and he had no parents. Grace continued to cling to him tightly and eventually he wrapped his arms tentatively around her middle and squeezed her. "Right now," he said, blushing, "bed. We'll never wake up otherwise." Gracie grinned and skipped off up to the girl's dormitories. He watched her go and wandered down to his dorm. Salamae poked his head out from under the bed where he had curled up for the night.

"All better?" he hissed.

"Yeah…all better," replied Tom, smiling, as he fell into bed.

Chapter 4! Review please. Not overly proud of this chappie, it feels stilted to me. Tell me what you think. IF I DON'T RECEIVE REVIEWS THIS STORY WILL BE DISCONTINUED.