Sorry for the delay - college takes up a sizeable time of a person's life. But without further delay, it's review and reply time!
Love . Fiction . 2017 - I'm glad you do!
lilly2587 - Thank you so much for that comment!
Nothing feels different when she wakes up.
She's still the same old person, with the same likes and dislikes, the same sense of judgement with the same reactions to everything. Unlike those silly novels and films, there is no light feeling or enhanced beauty in the day; Hogwarts is still its same snowy, overcast self.
Merlin alone knows what potions or drugs these people were on.
Not only the guest schools, but also students who wish to spend Christmas with their family are going back. Those who live in the more sensitive Muggle-heavy areas (like her) are staying at school - there are no official reports, but the Luftwaffe may strike cities in the coming days. Hugs and handshakes are being exchanged everywhere - there are promises of keeping in touch, of visits and regular letters.
"Erik - do keep in touch." The person in question nods, patting Riddle on the back.
"See you soon, Kate," Erik shakes her hand, then pats her on the shoulder. "Do write to me as often as you can."
"I will," she smiles brightly. He then pulls her aside, lowering his voice.
"And tell me if he ever treats you wrong or gives you any grief. You two make an ideal pair, but humans are fickle." She looks at him, a puzzled look on her face and he smiles knowingly. "You two weren't the only ones out in the snow last night."
Alden, the Rosiers, Blacks and Malfoys were returning back to their respective residences, and once she had bid adieu to her friends, Kate retreated to the Great Hall for breakfast. Including her and Tom, there were about fifty of them at the table.
"So, the agenda for today?" Tom asked, sipping on a glass of water.
"Pardon?"
"Slughorn - the potion." Ah - that.
"Tomorrow - he has locked the apothecary and gone out to Hogsmeade, it seems. I checked in after waking up." He nodded. Rest of breakfast went in silence, the two heading for the common room afterwards.
"If you need to see me, I shall be in the library." Tom leaned in, placing a chaste peck on her cheek before exiting the room, satchel filled with numerous parchment rolls. Well, this is new.
Kate went back to her dormitory room and got out her textbooks and the index cards that she had prepared for the NEWTS, revising first from the textbooks and the class notes before moving on to the index cards. Defense Against The Dark Arts being her strongest subject, she set Merrythought's notes aside before moving on to Astronomy - a subject she took purely for personal interest, but was now worried she might not get an O in.
"Is this young lady planning on abandoning Christmas Lunch?" She looked up at the voice, Tom leaning by the doorway.
"Oh, no - I'll just pack this up," she muttered out a reply, mind half on Jupiter's moons and half on the remaining 66 of the 88 constellations. She shuffled the textbooks into her satchel, waving her wand at the parchments. "Let's go."
"What has got your mind in a muddle?"
"Huh? Oh - uh, Astronomy. I still have three-quarters of the star chart to learn properly, and we barely have weeks to the exam."
"We have four months before the practicals commence, Kate. I'm certain you can give yourself some breathing room."
"I am," she replied, waving her hand across at the corridor around them. "There is all this room I have to myself to breathe. Plenty of room." He shook his head, lips pressed together to stifle a laugh.
"You cannot be that miserable at the subject."
"A - assured. E - I'll make it somehow. O? Very skeptical."
"Then tonight's session becomes even more imperative." The suggestive look did nothing to ease her mind, and she gave Tom a suspicious look as they took their seats in the hall. "If this is your method of extracting exactly what we shall be doing tonight, you are losing a battle here."
"But not the war." She dug into a piece of roast chicken, studying having made her hungrier than she anticipated.
"Since you got me to publicly lie to Slughorn, I might give you the benefit of doubt on that."
They finished lunch quickly, heading back to the dungeon. "You've probably lied to Slughorn all the time. I haven't exactly held the sky by achieving that."
"You bought yourself unfettered access to the dungeon -"
"Because the professor underestimated me, Riddle. You are not that difficult or special."
"But you are the latter, Summers." She stopped by the door to the common room, shaking her head as she provided the password.
"Stop slipping veiled compliments - I might get used to them."
"And that we can never have," he flopped down on the sofa, smiling at her. "Heavens forbid Katherine Summers gets sure of her capabilities. Gods alone know what shall await humanity after that."
"And Merlin knows what shall befall the world if Tom Riddle ever attains the pinnacle of his powers," she mocked, extending her arms in a manner of making a proclamation before she sat down on the adjacent armchair. "I dearly wish to get back to studying."
"But food and the accompanying laziness make for excellent sleeping draughts."
"Not sleep, per se, but ennui."
"How about I quiz you?" Hm.
"Which subject?"
"Let's start with your strongest suit." She took out the Defense Against The Dark Arts set of index cards, thrusting them in his hand.
"Here you go." Tom propped his now-shoeless feet on one end of the long sofa, shuffling through the cards.
"Defining characteristics of an Inferius."
"They are resurrected corpses, white cloudy eyes without irises. They possess the physical characters of the reanimated individual with the exception of weight - they are all gaunt and skeletal."
"Couldn't have put it better myself. Now, counter curses to the Imperius curse."
"None, but Occlumens are less susceptible and find it easier to resist. Also, wizards skilled in Legilimency cast a spell of stronger intensity compared to most other wizards."
"Perfect. Dementors are created by."
"Killing an individual towards whom the killer possesses no previous animosity or grudges and with no other motivation other than murder and murder alone and derives pleasure from the act, making the act purely sadistic and evil in nature. Also, certain dark charms need to be cast in concealment to cement their creation and give them a corporeal form."
"Patronuses are fluid and not ideal identifiers of a wizard - give reasons."
"Since Patronuses spring from the strongest positive memory of the caster, these memories may change over time, hereby affecting appearance of the animal or the animal itself. Besides, for wizards whose strongest positive memory is an individual, the Patronus takes the form of the Patronus of the concerned individual, which takes away the essence of uniqueness and hence doesn't serve as an accurate identifier for a particular wizard."
"All right," he set the cards aside. "Now let us move to Potions. What colour is the correctly brewed potion of the Draught of Living Death?"
"Pale lilac upon brewing, then clear."
"Antidote?"
"Wiggenweld Potion."
"Olfactory indicator?"
"None."
"Veritaserum - colour?"
"Colourless."
"Olfactory indicator?"
"None."
"Antidote?" At that, she grins.
"None." But she cannot help but add, "until January 1945," and at that Riddle shares a matching grin.
"Amortentia - distinguishing features."
"Mother-of-pearl sheen, characteristic spirals in clockwise direction."
"Olfactory?"
"Smells like the things you love most, and one characteristic smell of your true love, or one of the contenders."
He cocks an eyebrow. "Mind telling me yours?"
"Petrichor, the smell of new books."
"And?"
"That is a secret you will uncover in due time. Mind telling me yours?"
"Thunderstorms, mint."
"And?"
"We shall decipher soon." He looked around, then sat up, lacing his shoes. "Meet me at the Astronomy Tower after 10." With that, Tom exited the common room, leaving her with six hours still to dinner.
At dinner, Professor Dippet greeted the students with a bright smile and tables littered with food, gifts and crackers. A second-year beside her twisted one of the candy-cane coloured crackers, chocolate frogs bounding out of the smoke and off the table - Riddle was nowhere to be seen.
She read for a while after, then headed for the Astronomy Tower as her watch showed 9:45, climbing the winding steps to the balcony. Leaning by the rails was Tom, looking out at the mostly clear sky, moonlight filtering through the clouds. At the sound of her steps, he turned, beckoning her to join him. She walked over, cold nipping at her face. "Not hungry?" He shook his head, turning to face her.
"That is Orion," he pointed out the constellation. "And that," he pointed at the leftmost star, "is Betelgeuse." A quick swish of his wand, and a blanket had been laid out on the stone floor of the balcony. "Which constellations do you know well?" They sat down, and she recited the list she had learned so far, stopping at Cassiopeia. Tom unfurled a large chart, the constellations neatly drawn and labeled. "Now follow me." They went through a series of mnemonics for each, the one for Ophiuchus reducing her to laughter.
"What's in there?" Kate picked up the bag beside him, gently poking it.
"I heard it on the grapevine that the Head Girl loves Fortescue's caramel torte, so Abraxas did me one of the many favours he owes." The gesture was heartfelt, and it touched Kate to a degree she was uncomfortable to admit. They stood up, Kate letting the icy wind cool her face.
"That third scent was juniper soap, you know," he murmured, warm hands holding her now-chilly face. "And I smelt a great degree of it in the common room."
"Well," she gathered up whatever vestiges of courage lingered, "I smelt mint and pine aftershave from that cauldron, and my nose can detect buckets off of you," and pressed her lips against his, the knot of doubt loosening a little with their warmth and the taste of salted caramel.
There is no studying happening here now.
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