Tom started to return to his dorm room, but changed his mind halfway there. There was no hurry to get back, since he already had all of his homework finished, and there wasn't really any other reason to return. He knew that his friends were probably mad at him, and he would prefer to have civil conversations, which was something that he wouldn't be able to get while their tempers were still hot.
The prefect decided that since it was a nice day out, he may as well go outside. Maybe watch whatever quidditch practice that was going on, because there was sure to be one on a day like today. The captains might have even agreed to all use the field together, since everyone seemed more amicable when it was such a nice day.
He walked outside, and went over to the quidditch pitch. Everyone was on the ground, holding their brooms, and Tom wondered why they weren't flying around. He saw that the Ravenclaw captain, Simon Bulrong, had his hands on his hips, and a stern look on his face. He was looking down at a familiar Ravenclaw, and Tom rolled his eyes.
Ever since she had stormed out of the library last week, Tom had been seeing Susanna almost everywhere that he went around the large school. He had written it off as a coincidence the first time, but now it was just plain weird.
She currently seemed to be arguing with the captain for some reason, and Tom wasn't quite sure who was winning. Susanna raised her eyebrows as she turned on the full effects of her puppy dog eyes, which Tom had never even seen before.
That didn't seem to work though, because the captain just shook his head, and pressed his lips together. Tom went a little closer so that he could hear what was actually going on. Susanna crossed her arms over her chest. "It's not bloody fair, and you know it!"
Simon closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before looking at the girl again. "I didn't make the rules, Susanna. Unless you fancy marching down to the Minister of Magic and demanding that he change the entire bloody law, you can't play with us."
Susanna whined. "But you're not even playing, it's only practice! Surely even that can't be illegal?"
Tom was almost contemplating interfering, though he wasn't even sure what he would say or which of the two Ravenclaws he would side with. Probably Simon, so that he wouldn't be encouraging criminal activity. Tom was pulled out of his thoughts as someone rudely brushed by him, and Tom recognized Susanna's older brother, Henry.
Henry looked pissed, though it was hard to say who exactly he was currently mad at. He made a growling sound under his breath, alerting Susanna and Simon to his presence. "Bulrong!" he snapped. "Stop harassing my sister!"
The captain threw his hands up in frustration. "If anything, she's harassing me. She wants me to let her play, even though it's illegal, and has been for as long as anyone can remember. I just don't know what you expect me to be able to do in this situation. I hope that you can talk some sense into your sister, Matheus. Because someone certainly has to."
Henry rolled his eyes, then turned to Susanna. "What is wrong with you?" he hissed. "You've never shown any interest in quidditch before, and you certainly have never been bold enough to blatantly ask someone to break the law for you."
Tom listened carefully, and he was pretty sure that Henry had to have known that his sister was intent on learning the wizard sport. Susanna glared at her brother, and didn't bother keeping her voice low the way that Henry was. "This is so stupid! You're going to side with him, aren't you? Well that's no bloody fair! I deserve a chance to prove that I can be as good as any boy!"
Henry sighed, and pulled his sister into a hug. He whispered something to her that Tom couldn't hear, and her face went blank. He began to walk away, though he kept a tight grip on the girl's wrist so she wouldn't have the chance to just bolt away. Susanna was just staring at the ground as she walked away from the quidditch pitch, and Tom felt safe.
Suddenly her head darted up, and she was staring straight at Tom. She scowled, since she was already in a bad mood, and his presence was clearly not helping at all. She yanked her arm away from Henry's grasp, and stormed over to Tom. "Have you been following me? It seems like everywhere I turn, there you are."
Tom sighed at the accusation. He didn't want them to keep bumping into each other any more than she did. "Is it really so hard to believe that I'm not just here to watch the practice?"
Susanna nodded. "Of course it is. This is the Ravenclaw team, meaning you have no business to be watching their practice, and it could even be considered cheating. Cheating is just a form of lying. Lying can have some serious consequences, Tom. But of course, you already know all about that, right?"
Tom couldn't help the small frown. "I never lied to you about anything."
Susanna snorted. "Whatever helps you sleep at night. I don't know why I ever thought that you were different than the others. I should have known not to trust a weasley pure-blooded Slytherin prat! I can't believe that I ever trusted you!"
Tom frowned at that outburst. Not because of the content of her words, but because of the smell of her breath. It was the familiar scent of butterscotch, and Tom sighed. "Susanna, as much as I'm loath to ask this… have you been drinking?"
The girl shrugged. "What's it matter if I was? That doesn't make it right for me to be excluded from quidditch, even though I could be so good at it if I was just given a chance, or for you to be following me around everywhere I go, like some kind of creep."
Henry grabbed Susanna's elbow, and tried to pull her away. "Come on. If you stick around here, you're going to get in trouble. You should just get back to the dorms and take a nap. I'll have a hangover potion ready for you as soon as you wake up."
Susanna shook her head stubbornly. "No, I want to stay here with Tom. He's my friend."
Henry attempted to tug his sister away, once again. "I'm not going to let you stick around here and bother this innocent bloke. Besides, I thought you said that you hated him?"
Tom kept his face the same, but inside, he felt a strange tightening in his chest at that. He couldn't blame Susanna for hating him, but that didn't explain why he felt so… guilty. About everything.
He cleared his throat. "If it's alright with you, Henry, I'll make sure that she gets back to her dorm safe, and that she does get a proper nap. I reckon she looks pretty tired, from lack of a decent amount of sleep."
The Ravenclaw shook his head emphatically. "It most certainly is not alright. And the only reason she hasn't been sleeping well is because she's still upset about something, I'm not quite sure what, but it's something that involves you. You're practically all that she'll talk about, and trust me, it's not very pleasant things that she's saying most of the time."
Tom tilted his head. "'Most of the time'? That implies that there are times where she does have pleasant things to say about me. What are some of the pleasant things that she's said about me?"
Susanna tapped Tom on the arm impatiently. "Are you stupid? I would never say anything nice about you, you lying, traitorous, murderous, backstabbing…" She sighed. "Tom… I had to break it off with you. I'm sure that somewhere deep down you actually do care, and I'm sorry, but there's no way that I could be friends with you if you're going to keep such awful company." She gave him a knowing look, but didn't elaborate, probably because her brother wasn't aware that she knew who had attacked her.
Tom smiled softly. "Just let me take her back. Maybe we'll talk along the way, and she'll stop being so mad at me."
Henry sighed, and stepped back in defeat. Susanna happily linked her fingers between Tom's. Before they could leave, he grabbed Tom's arm. "You know, she's my only sister, and if anything ever happened to her…"
Tom nodded. "I understand." He really did, despite the fact that he had no siblings of his own, and he had despised the other orphan children at Wool's Orphanage, he understood how sad it would be if anything else were to happen to Susanna. The poor girl had already been through so much pain, as much as she insisted on hiding it, and she didn't deserve anything else in her life to go wrong.
Henry stepped back, and allowed Tom and Susanna to begin the walk back to the castle. When they were halfway there, Susanna stumbled, and fell down before Tom could catch her. She was still gripping Tom's hand, and ended up pulling him down on top of her. She laughed. "Tom… I'm sorry about what I said. I've known who you are for a while, so it shouldn't have come as such a shock to me when that part of you was actually revealed. I guess I had just assumed that I would never see another side to you, that you would never let me see another side. But now I have." She frowned. "I know that we're still practically strangers, and I should ask anything so big from you. It isn't fair to you."
Tom raised one eyebrow. "Yeah? What were you planning on asking me?"
Susanna blushed. "I was going to… ask you to drop all of your violent, evil friends, and find some new ones. But it's not fair of me to ask you to choose."
Tom sighed. "Susanna, the truth is… you don't know everything about me, not even now. And I really don't feel like getting into all of that right now, when you're drunk and probably won't even remember this conversation in the morning."
Susanna frowned and shook her head. "Now that's not true, Tom. I always remember all of our conversations. I enjoy them so much, I can't bear to lose them. Especially since they're probably all I'll ever get from you."
The Slytherin shook his head. "You can't do that. You can't say that you've enjoyed all of our conversations when there were clearly plenty of times that I was just so awful to you."
Susanna darted forward, and before Tom had a chance to react, she whispered in his ear. "I'm only sorry that I'm a mudblood. Because I'll never be good enough for you, right?" She stood up without wavering even once. "Thanks for the help, but I think I can make it back on my own from here."
Tom nodded mutely. He couldn't help thinking that maybe the girl hadn't been nearly as drunk as he had originally thought. He wondered how much of their conversation was real, and what tiny parts were only brought on by the butterbeer that she had been drinking.
