Chapter 28:
Harry felt warm, contented. There was a peaceful lull in his brain. "Are you awake?" a voice asked softly. He opened his eyes slowly, rubbing the last specks of sleep from them.
"Tom?" he questioned, sitting up. "How long was I out?"
"A couple of hours," the Slytherin heir replied carelessly. "My lap has gone numb, I don't think you realise how heavy your head is - especially when it's supposedly only filled with air." Harry smirked slightly."The dust rabbits breed, didn't you know?"
Tom rolled his eyes. "Are you okay?" Zevi asked quietly. "Fine," he smiled. "That was probably the best amount of rest I've had in months…why do you ask? Has something happened?" the grin faltered. "Zevi's a mother hen, didn't you know?" Tom said seriously, mimicking his earlier town.
The other snakes all laughed. He stared intently at the young Prince heir. Zevi offered him a reassuring smile. He let it go, wondering if he was missing something. It felt like it.
"Sure thing Tommo, we all know that you're a closet romantic and not the heartless robot that you try and pretend you are," he retorted. Tom snorted. "Tell the dust bunnies to live your mind alone, Evans, I don't think you can afford to lose anymore of your limited amount of brain cells to their clutches." "Aw! See, you say the sweetest things," he gushed sarcastically.
He was surprised when Tom never replied.
It was some days earlier, right before the cusp of Halloween, that the package arrived to his dormitory. It was a simply brown package, neatly wrapped with string and with nothing all that distinguishing about it. Hedwig brought it in. There was no name on the front, no indication who it was from and no handwriting to give any form of indication about who the sender may be. Just a H. A black, block capital H that left much to be desired in the way of information.
It lay innocently on his bed, half hidden from sight from where his owl had abruptly dropped it some five minutes later. He was unsure whether to open it - it could have been cursed, or a portkey or…he sounded paranoid even to his own ears, or was it mind?
In the end, curiosity won out.
After casting several tentative spells to try and check for any possible harmful elements, he carefully pulled off the string with a satisfying thwack. The brown paper was rough and thick beneath his fingers, the package small and hard. There was a small black box inside, with a small note strapped onto the top, folded several times in half until it was maybe the side of the fifty pence piece that Ron had once found so fascinating. He glanced around, the picked the prised the note from beneath the string and unfolded it.
Good luck, a friend. Use it well.
Well, that was helpful. The message was written in block capitals too, nothing to distinguish it - not even a special type of pen or anything else that he could use to play detective. The note was also written on simple standard parchment.
It was frustrating. He opened the box, then blinked once, twice. Nestled in the thick, velvety material within was a small round object. A remembrall.
Okay. Now he felt slightly weirded out.
AN: I'm sorry, it's only short and it's probably not that good, but I figured it was better than nothing? *looks hopeful*. I'm hoping the writing FF bug will pick up again with the recesses of my soul - currently, I've been doing a lot of poetry. It's quite cool actually, however lame it sounds, I enjoy it. Check me out at ?m=1&do=profile&who=13338
Anyhow, thanks for all the great reviews and the support and the alerts and favourites and everything. Much appreciated. This is for you. I hope you enjoyed it and that I didn't disappoint too terribly.
