Disclaimer: I only own Apollymi and foreign plotlines.

She didn't like thinking about her death - the memory of it made her stomach churn and bubble - but when people like "Miss. Lattimore" (ha! As fucking if she was gonna call her that) opened their mouths and spewed vitriol she couldn't help but be reminded.

Her mother always told her to stay away from that part of town, why did she never listen -

And Apollymi cut through that thought with a sharp exhale through her nose and she dug her nails into the skin of her knee.

She hated thinking about it but she might have to. People who lived like that woman could hurt her again if she wasn't careful.

Pushing herself to her feet, she surveyed her most calm visage in the mirror and straightened out her braid. Lifting her chin she decided she had waited out here long enough, the greeting party had to be done and now it was time to plan.

But first, she hummed as she twisted and pulled on the knob to the door, she needed to talk to -

"Tom." She breathed, feeling shocked when she shouldn't have. She would have done the same for him.

Sitting just across the hall cross-legged on the floor with a book settled in his lap was Riddle - dark eyes upturned and unreadable and she closed the entryway behind her.

Gray met black and she took a step forward.

Hand outstretched she gave him a tentative smile - mind flashing back to how she had shrugged him off - and watched as he stared dispassionately at her fingers before she huffed in amusement.

"I apologize for what happened earlier - that brush off hadn't been for you even though you got it." She explained patiently before her voice took on a teasing lilt. "Besides you know you're my precious little witch boy and you'll never be rid of me unless we mutually decide that the other needs to fuck off."

His eyes flashed up to her and for a second she thought she convinced him - that was until he closed his book, stood, stared one last time at her hand and walked clean away down the hall.

Eyes wide with shock - because what in the actual hell was going on? - she gaped at the sight Riddle made as he strode away from her for a few seconds more before he stopped just shy of the end of the corridor and she felt uneasy.

"Now," He started lowly and she damn near flinched. "we're even."

God fucking goddamnit.

Blowing out a breath she ignored how hard her heart was beating and peered amusedly down at Tom as he turned around with a smirk hot on his smug face.

"You little shit." She laughed, feeling better than she had all day and when the boy held out his hand for her to take she rolled her eyes, walked up to him, and socked him in the shoulder.

And then she decided to grab hold of it.

"Violence is unbecoming of a lady." He sniffed and she snorted.

"Misogyny is unbecoming of a gentleman." She pointed out and he frowned.

"What?"

Apollymi shook her head.

"It'll be one of your lessons - along with misandry and toxic masculinity." She told him blithely. "It'll be right after the one on racism that I'm gonna give you today."

Staring resolutely forward she could see Tom staring at her before he nodded and she focused on moving quickly towards her room feeling shame curdle in her gut at how easily she let something as tame as that demon Cecilia get to her.

Never let them see you cry. Her mother - the first one - had told her all those years ago. Don't let them know they have hurt you, don't give them the satisfaction.

She wouldn't be caught out like that again.

Jaw clenching as she reached their quarters in record time, Apollymi barely resisted the dramatic urge to throw open the door and settled for stalking inside with Tom at her heels.

Pursing her lips, she briefly considered postponing the talk until tomorrow by throwing herself onto her bed and into sleep but she was all too aware of the quiet black eyes that were tracking her every movement and so instead she climbed onto her bed and patted the space next her.

He dutifully followed suit.

"Tell me Tom," She began, shifting on her bed to face him and he mirrored her movements. "what differences do you see between us?"

And at that, he seemed to pause and she blinked.

"I mean besides the obvious gender divide." She clarified. "What visually makes me different than you?"

A moment.

A beat.

Still, he stared and she sighed.

Reaching out she set her hand on the paleness of his knee and both of them eyed the contrast.

"It's my skin Tom." She answered tiredly. "I'm black and you're not and that matters to some people did you know?"

She tapped a single brown finger to her brown cheek and smiled sardonically.

"And did you know that race and skin color matter so much to people - to racists - that they base their insults off of it? That they'll kill people over it?" Apollymi asked and those black eyes watched her. "It's all really nasty business and I could go deeper into this but we'll save that for another time."

She leaned forward.

"Now the point of this little rant was to let you know that shit like that does not make you lesser." Her hands clenched into fists. "No one - and I repeat - fucking no one is better than you because of shit like blood or race or nationality - none of it."

"What you are born as doesn't make you any less deserving of human rights and kindness and opportunity." She breathed. "And yes, those circumstances may make it harder for you in life because those in power may hate people like you but that just means you have to be twice as good."

"And yes, maybe even when you're twice as good you'll only ever get half of what those bigots make despite the fact that you deserve it but you can't let that stop you Tom."

She blinked away the sheen of angry, hot tears and locked her jaw.

No more crying.

"You should always be proud of who and what you are and never let the people who wanna put you down see you down because fuck them." She hissed. "Because fuck them and fuck the system and fuck that racist bottle blonde bitch!"

Left fuming as the last word left her mouth, Apollymi gritted her teeth and rubbed at the back of her skull where she could feel a headache of hypertension coming on and she closed her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, she forcefully centered herself and smiled sardonically when she felt Tom wind his fingers hesitantly into hers.

"In case you couldn't tell I'm a little pissed off today and I just to once again clarify when I asked not to be touched earlier it wasn't directed at you." The young witch explained. "In fact, I welcome any and all physical contact you wish to initiate - so bring it in for a hug."

"No."

"But you held my hand!"

"So?"

"You were trying to comfort me!"

"And?"

"A hug would do that better!"

"And I said no."

"Brat."

"Like attracts like."

She laughed, high and reedy and full of joy and turned gleeful eyes towards the boy sitting on her bed.

"You are absolutely right!" She grinned and Tom cocked his head to the side.

"So then," He started and Apollymi paused at his darkened tone. "that means more people like Miss. Cecilia will show up to Wools?"

She stared at him.

"And what do you think Miss. Cecilia is like?" She asked him lightly and he glanced down at their clasped hands.

"A bigot." He said.

"A racist." He declared and she nodded.

"She hurt you." Tom said simply and she watched the dark anger brew in his eyes - on her behalf - for a few seconds more before she reached out and ruffled his hair.

"Yes, she did." She nodded as he shot her a disgruntled look. "But now that I'm aware of her, she'll never see me off kilter like that again."

She flicked his forehead.

"Don't do anything drastic yet okay?" She told him and watched his eyes narrow and his mouth open, ready to argue and she flicked his forehead again. "You heard me now obey - besides I said yet didn't I?"

He nodded reluctantly.

"Let me scope out the situation." She told him. "Let me see if I can charm her - and I doubt I can, changing an adult racist's mind is nigh impossible and it would be easier if she was a child or a teenager but I have to set a good example."

She leaned back into her pillows.

"I mean I'd rather cut out my own tongue than be nice to her but I made these rules and I gotta stick by them."

Tom frowned.

"You're talking as if you're going to be wasting your time." He pointed out and she nodded vigorously.

"Oh yeah, I almost definitely am." She agreed. "I've debated and argued with elder bigots a lot when I was Catherine and they almost never changed a single one of their stances."

"Then why try?"

"Because you should always try to educate the ignorant." She told him. "You just gotta make sure to take notice of when someone's a lost cause or not."

"And is Miss. Cecilia a lost cause?"

"Oh yes I think so but I gotta verify before we move on to the other plans."

"Other plans?"

She met his eyes and he looked so anticipatory - so predatory - that a shiver of raced up her spine.

Sometimes she forgot that he was dangerous.

"If all else fails then it's like I said," She shrugged. "fear is a right proper motivator."

And funnily enough, her little witch boy smiled at that.

And so did she.

The past two weeks have been hell.

Irritation burning in her chest as Apollymi heard someone calling at her - not calling for her because she would never answer to that - she waited until a hand yanked her around in a circle to grant any acknowledgment.

Staring up at the attractive face Cecilia, Apollymi felt something akin to hate bubble up in her gut.

"Didn't you hear me girl?" The woman asked lowly with narrowed eyes and the young witch didn't so much as blink.

"I didn't hear anyone call my name." She said, gaze steady and voice polite and she watched as the woman's eyes turned into ice chips before she yanked Apollymi down the hall by the arm and deposited her in the bathroom.

"Clean." She ordered succinctly as she slammed the door shut and once it was, the young witch grit her teeth and flinched as a keen crack echoed through the air and she glowered at the webbed indents lining the mirror to her left.

If that bitch called her 'the mulatto' one more time when trying to get her attention, she would scream. Ignoring the voice that told her that it could be worse considering what the woman could be calling her, she trudged over to the scrubbing bucket and resisted the urge to kick it.

Okay fine, she could deal with that - the name calling. She had dealt with it all her life in her old body so maybe it didn't get to her as much as she thought.

Now what did was how the woman would try to treat her.

Apollymi found herself getting used to being handled fairly by the staff despite her expectations for this time period and to have this new woman come into her life and all of a sudden try to switch that up on her was not acceptable.

She tried gave her less to eat but well, she had the head cook in her goddamn pocket so that failed and so next the woman took her favorite dress. The powder blue thing was a donation from a patron and well kept despite months of rough play and when she sent it to be cleaned and was given back a flimsy one Apollymi knew for a fact that she had seen being worn on another girl just days prior and she had rolled her eyes and waited. Naturally, it hadn't taken long for Martha to realize that another child had been given Apollymis dress and she made sure to give it back asap.

And when those efforts fell through the woman got downright petty and started trying to stop the other children from playing with her - which of course didn't last long because, in the mind's of all the kids here, Apollymi was their best friend even if they weren't hers.

She had worked long and hard to be recognized as such and no new face was going to change that.

Especially when it came to Tom.

Apparently, the bitch thought it was her life mission to save Tom from her and honestly watching her attempt and Tom expertly deflect was hilarious.

Naturally, Tom's unwillingness to leave her side made her even angrier - because why would a nice young boy like him want to stay with a dirty half-breed mongrel like herself - and obviously if he didn't want to stop being her friend it must be her fault!

But no matter what little disgusting things that didn't bear repeating Cecilia said, Apollymi never reacted with anything other a polite blank smile and she knew it was making her go nuclear. Especially since she couldn't quite coax the same response she got the first time out of her again.

But her lack of visible reaction didn't mean she wasn't frothing at the mouth inside.

See now, she didn't like to think she was easy to get to because in all actuality she wasn't. She just had her limits and she knew what she would do when they were reached.

And it wouldn't be pretty.

Which was why, after fourteen days of inaction and observation, it was time to do something about it.

She would have preferred to wait until the woman grew bored of harassing her but that seemed unlikely.

Of course, she tried to charm her like she said - gave it the old college try with every ounce of her being - but people like her, they were stuck in their ways.

And so she wouldn't continue to waste her breath.

Staring down into the murky water, Apollymi knew she was at the end of her rope.

The bitch had to go.

Okay so I'm just going to say this once: if you view how Apollymi reacted to a racist calling her, a black child, a racial slur as "out of character" then you have zero compassion and this story isn't for you.

And if when I try to explain this to you and you still reply with how its "so out of character and I had to re-read the story to make sure I hadn't gotten her personality wrong" then you're not someone I want interacting with a story that deals heavily with racism and discrimination. And I will block you.

I have experienced being called terrible things by people who think because I'm black that I'm lesser than them and it made me feel off and distraught and like I needed to clean myself.

And if you think Apollymi wasn't in some form of angry underneath all that shock and pain then I feel sorry for you.

I'm not gonna tell you exactly how she died but do know that it involved racists and when Apollymi realized that the caretakers around her weren't terrible bigots she relaxed and assumed people in English weren't as bad as the Americans. And yes to a degree they weren't but racists were and are everywhere and she's confronted with one whose in power over her.

And if you think Tom was OOC then you're also wrong. This boy has never seen Apollymi (the girl who he literally thinks is unshakeable) look so rattled and when he went to touch her she pulled away and told him not to. Now she thought it was Cecilia who was touching her but Tom didn't presently know that and he has severe abandonment issues so to be told by Apollymi (the girl who never denied him anything, his closest friend, who literally got another child in trouble for him) pull away doesn't feel good at all. He was scared bc of a new situation and Apollymi was hurt and angry because of an old situation.

So yeah I'm sorry if you don't have enough empathy to understand how a person of color would react to a racist or how a child would react to his only friend being upset but it's not my problem.

You will be blocked (as I have already done to ppl) and if you try to contact me in any way I will report you.

Now to my other readers, I love you all so much for understanding Apollymi and rooting for her! You're all amazing and I hope you continue reading!

Apollymi is gonna educate our fav dark lord about discrimination and started that convo here! Will it change his future stance? I guess we'll just have to wait and see lol. Also! It's 1932 rn and they're six so in a year, Hilter will become chancellor I think and the story will take another dark change.