Chapter 54
Moving in wasn't difficult. Neither Aidan nor Tom had much more than what they could fit into their trunks. It was only their essentials, nothing that would come even close to filling a house, but they had thought that they could get to that eventually as they looked through what they could get and choose between them. They hadn't really planned it, but it had been a vague idea in their minds that they knew that they would have to eventually get around to doing, unless they wanted to sleep on transfigured things for the rest of their lives.
The Court had, apparently, made their own plans and, as Dumbledore had not shown up to breakfast that morning, Tom had a sneaking suspicion that he was in the middle of it.
Again.
When Aidan and Tom arrived at the house that was supposed to be empty, they had to take a moment to wonder why exactly it wasn't as empty as they had left it the previous day. There were now pieces of furniture on the barren floors, and curtains on the windows. A flash of platinum blond hair told them that at least some of the Court were there, but how they had known that Aidan and Tom had finally chosen a house was beyond them. Neither Aidan nor Tom had mentioned a word to anyone when they had returned to Hogwarts the previous night, only the Professors there had known, and even then not where the house had been.
"How do you think they found out?" Aidan asked idly as they approached the house. They could have apparated straight in, but had decided against it. They didn't want to become accustomed to doing that and forget about it after the wards were put up, because neither wanted anyone to be able to apparate directly to their home, not even themselves as that left a potential weakness within the wards. Even with Grindelwald gone, neither Aidan nor Tom were willing to take a risk like that. There were still unsavoury characters running around the Wizarding World.
"Dumbledore, probably," Tom grumbled, his walk slowing. "They've probably made a mess of everything already. I don't know if I should expect everything to be horribly clashing and blinding to the eyes."
"You said that about the Gryffindor common room," Aidan pointed out.
"You are the only non-Gryffindor to like that common room. Even Xeno thought it was a bit too much!"
Aidan rubbed his hair with his free hand, his right hand was held within Tom's. Their trunks were shrunken and weightless in their pockets.
"I doubt Abraxas and Rachel would allow it to get that far, especially if only the Gryffindors like it. I don't know if I actually want to step and see what they've done right now…" Aidan said, staring at the door contemplatively.
"Like you said, Abraxas and Rachel wouldn't let anything they have their hands in look terrible," Tom said with a grim determination on his face that contradicted his words.
Aidan took a quick breath and swung the door open quickly. He was immediately attacked by a barrage of noise from the people within the house. There were a lot more than expected, and a silencing charm had clearly been erected within the house or Aidan was certain there would have been several people, their future neighbours, complaining about the racket.
"Surprise!"
Tom had to admit, it wasn't as bad as he had expected it to be, but the Court had tried hard. They had avoided the more garishly bright colours for more subtle ones: crèmes, off-whites, and shades of blue filled the entrance hall. The lounge had shades of green that were reminiscent of the Slytherin Common Room, but smaller.
"How did you know?"
"Dumbledore thought you would like some help with setting everything up here but, well, we got a bit carried away and did everything…" Xeno told them sheepishly. "Although, there are a couple of rooms upstairs that we don't know what you'll use for, so we just put the basics in there and left it empty."
Dumbledore had insisted on being their surety, and thus had to be told of the location of their home. Aberforth and Ariana had also wanted to help in some way. Ariana had pouted unhappily when Aidan told her that almost everything had been done already. Aberforth had accepted it, but informed Aidan and Tom that he would be visiting later that day – the only other person to be personally told of the location of their home.
"We thought that you'd like to celebrate a little. My father told us about your apprenticeship, Tom."
"Thank you," Tom smiled, "but I think all of you just wanted another reason to celebrate."
"And you gave us one, so thank you," Charlus grinned.
Tom had received the owl only that morning, but it seemed news travelled as quickly in the Ministry as it did at Hogwarts. Tom had managed to get an apprenticeship with one of the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries. There were only a rare few people who didn't get turned down immediately, and even fewer got accepted. Of course, Tom wouldn't be able to discuss anything he learnt or did within the Department of Mysteries, but Tom had sought the knowledge of the mysterious, and Aidan didn't mind the fact that they couldn't talk about it. There were several things he couldn't talk about either.
Tom would have to allow them to go through his mind to ensure he didn't have any secret motive behind working in the Department of Mysteries, which was the only reason Aidan didn't apply there himself. They would see memories of the future within his mind, and those memories would be safer not known to people of this time. Not even those sworn to secrecy. They probably knew some of it, not understanding the magic behind it, and Aidan thought it might be better that way. That still didn't help Aidan choose what he would like to do. He would probably end up trying to get a Defence mastery, and, perhaps, try to invent spells while trying not to create something that had been created by someone else, or that he remembered to be created by someone else. Or worse, building on a spell that hadn't been created yet. That would be difficult to explain.
"An Unspeakable, huh? I guess you'll just have to speak to Aidan in other ways, huh?" Dan said suggestively. Minerva hit him on the back of his head, causing him to wince, while Aidan and Tom flushed.
"You keep doing that and I'll never speak to you," Minerva hissed, causing everyone to laugh at the two, Dan especially when he paled.
"It looks like we all know what Dan's in for, now," Rachel laughed.
"How long do you reckon he'd last before Min kills him?"
"I think she'd just transfigure him into a toad, or something."
Minerva was too busy glaring at Brendan to be paying their words too much attention, which was the only reason why they were risking it. Even Aidan and Tom were snickering at them.
