Hey! Thanks for all of the wonderful comments, they really made my day/week. I hope you all had a wonderful week celebrating either holidays or just having time off of work.
I fell asleep around 2, woke up at 3:30 from a night terror that I have absolutely no idea what it was about, only that it is now 4:45 and I can finally breathe once more. So, I decided since sleep is a huge No-No for the next 16 hours AT LEAST, I'd post early.
This chapter answers questions.
By the way Crystal, here are the cookies I promised you. (I didn't even have to work to add them because they were in the first draft *stupidly proud of myself*)
Have fun in the Dark side. We have cookies now.
Saturday, February 24, 1945
Head Dorms
"Pensive. Now."
The hissed demand was made the moment she reappeared in his room, a mere fifteen minutes after she left it—although to him, it wouldn't have been fifteen minutes (she wasn't entirely sure, but she thought it might have been around twenty minutes for him, maybe a bit less).
She laughed softly. "Are you sure that I'm actually safe to do so?" she questioned wearily. Despite the Core deep exhaustion that she had never felt before, and the fact that she was on the cusp of passing out—never mind the fact that she couldn't do that while with him—she couldn't help but tease him.
His eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms over his chest. "Are you?" he hissed.
Huh. She thought he would have been more worried. "I'm out of the water if that's what you're asking. However, we do need to account for the fact that I am currently surrounded by pissed off schoolmates and bleeding out."
He paled—there he was—before he ran to her and started to check her over. He started chanting and she did nothing to stop him as red mist—that she now knew was actually fine drops of his blood mixed with Raw Dark Magic—oozed out of his wand and around her injuries.
He stepped close and caught her as the soul-scorching fire faded, and her body turned to jelly. "What happened?" he demanded as he laid her down on his bed. He climbed in next to her and pulled her close and held her painfully tight—well, it would be painful if she could actually feel.
"I was stupid. Foolish. I made a huge mistake," she whispered before she broke out into sobs. "I was so scared, Tom—" She proceeded to explain that the treasures were people, and that she had gone to save the last one after Flower had gotten injured.
She shakily described how the Grindylow's had attacked just as the time had finished, and the mess that had come from that. "If I hadn't saved her, she would have died, Tom. She wasn't even a competitor and she almost died!"
He pressed the tip of his wand into her stomach, right in the center of her Core, and pulled away a moment later with a frown contorting his beautiful face. "You are completely Drained, Eden. What the hell did you do?"
She grabbed her own wand and pressed the tip of it to her temple and pulled out a wispy blue strand before she handed it to him. He reluctantly untangled himself from her with a playful groan before he moved to the pensieve and watched the memory she willingly gave him.
While he watched the Task, she reached into her bag and pulled out a purple Gringotts pouch that she had removed all of the charms from—no thanks to Lucius and Narcissa—and wandlessly levitated it over to his nightstand—that was not one of her best ideas, as her vision temporarily turned black as she manipulated the pouch and the nightstand.
After she slipped it inside the top drawer where the diary typically lived, she closed her eyes and counted her breathing and easily fell into the closest state of sleep that she could achieve while she was with Tom.
Sometime later, she was jolted 'awake' when Tom climbed back into the bed next to her and slipped the memory back into her mind. She held onto his hand as she relived the Second Task all over again. She squeezed her eyes tight and a few tears slipped out. He pressed his lips to her cheeks and kissed away the tears.
"I am so proud of you, and so infuriated with everyone else, that I am beyond words. Not to mention I'm going to kill that boy who dared to Curse you. I can't believe he'd cast something so dangerous."
She smiled softly and tried turning onto her side from her back to face him, and only succeeded when he wrapped his arms around her and maneuvered her. She reached up and pressed a kiss to his lips. "You need to sleep, Tom. And I need to recover. Can we leave the scolding until later?"
He laughed softly and gently returned the kiss as he bundled her closer. The covers they laid on top of magically covered them as he pressed another slow kiss to her mouth.
"Yes, of course, we can."
|}(){|
Several hours later found Eden and Tom on the couch while he ate breakfast and she nuzzled his neck. They hadn't spoken yet, even though he had woken up nearly an hour prior, and had just basked in each other's presence. The book on Bard Magic she had been reading was long forgotten on his bed. "How are you feeling?" he eventually asked after he finished his breakfast full of magic enhancing foods.
She shrugged slightly and curled into him. "Stupidly weak and empty, but other than that I feel mostly fine. Am I still Drained?"
He paused for a moment before he pressed his wand to her Core and Scanned it. He pulled away with a frown. "It seems that your Core is a little over one third of the way recovered, but . . . it's also Expanded by an alarming amount."
"What do you mean?"
"How to explain . . ." he trailed off as he looked at the ceiling. "You have two apples of equal sizes, okay? You leave one, and cut the other into fifths. The whole apple is your Core before the Task, and the cut up one is your Core doubled. If you were to take two of those fifths and add it to your Core, that's how much it's Expanded."
"Oh . . . why . . . . Why did it grow so much?"
"There have been debates about this all the way back to Ancient Egypt, after the Fae left us and took their knowledge with them. There are some treatises that I've read that have debated the growth of a young witch or wizards Core when they are in life threatening situations. Some say that the Core Expands permanently, others say that it's only Expanded for a temporary amount of time.
"The one that I've read that makes the most sense is that it first explains that the Core is always growing, and that it's like exercising a muscle. It Expands with tears, and it won't Expand without tears. It goes on to suggest that if a young witch or wizard is in a life-threatening situation that Drains them completely of their magic, that it will grow a significant amount to protect them in case it happens again in the future."
"Why?"
"I heard it once explained that Magic is like a parasite, only instead of killing the host, it will do everything in its power to protect the host. It appears that this fits what just happened. You were in a very life-threatening situation, and you Drained your Core completely trying to protect yourself."
"But . . . if that's true, why didn't my Core Expand immediately after the First Task?"
"It's simple: you didn't completely Drain your Core. You just received an insane amount of damage, and because of how long it took for the initial healing after the damage was inflicted, your magic put you into a Coma to protect you and itself. It didn't see the need to Expand to protect you, only the need to keep you safe.
"It must have felt that the potions were no longer keeping you healthy and decided that it would be safer to risk you up and about than in the isolation it put you in."
"How do you know all of this?" she asked as she started to run her fingers through his hair.
He sighed and leaned into her touch. "I've done research on it. After you were gone . . . I needed to find out why you were in a Coma, and those were the only explanations that made any amount of sense, with all things considered."
"Do you think, that maybe my magic sensed that I was stronger after training with you for all of that time, and Expanding my Core that way and decided that I was safe then?"
He was silent as he thought. "It's a possibility. A very high possibility now that I think about it."
"Did you happen to find out what a Magical Coma was while you were doing all of that research?" she asked after a moment of comfortable silence between the two of them.
He shook his head and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. "No. It must be something that was discovered later. There were some cases that implied something similar, where a young witch or wizard in a coma couldn't be touched, but, I don't think that it was the same thing as a Magical Coma."
"Why not?" she nuzzled his neck and breathed in his unique and slightly smoky scent. It had changed from the first time she met him, and now instead of being a minty smoke scent, it was now that, only it had a heavy dose of ozone with it.
He didn't answer, and it was only after she prodded a few—fifteen—more times that he finally did. "I don't think they're the same, because those in the coma never woke up."
Her heart stuttered in her chest and her stomach completely disappeared. "What?"
He pulled her close. "They died three to six months after they went into the coma. Nothing the healers could do could get them out of it."
Eden's heart pounded painfully in her chest, and she broke out into a light sweat. It took Tom telling her that she was awake—semantics—and fine, and alive, multiple times before the panic finally subsided. "What if they are the same thing though?" she demanded once her thoughts were clear. "If I hadn't been with you, training, I would have died, Tom."
He grabbed her face and pressed his lips to hers in a desperate kiss. His tongue swept along the length of her own before he pulled away. "You are not going to die, Eden. I'm not going to let you die, Eden. Do you understand? You are mine, for eternity. Do you understand?"
She nodded as she stared into his oceanic eyes. "For eternity."
Sunday, February 25, 1945
Head Dorms
Eden yawned.
In response to that very natural and not at all life-threatening phenomenon, she squeaked softly and clutched onto Tom as if that would prevent her from waking up. "Don't make me go!" she whined through another deep yawn.
Tom chuckled and put his book to the side. "Darling, you need to go. Your Core is fully healed, and we don't want them sending you back to St. Mungo's, now do we?"
"But—I've been here for 24 hours, Tom! You're going to be alone—" she yawned "—for like—three days!" Exhaustion quickly crept up on her and she desperately fought it.
"Two days, darling."
She scowled and yawned wide. Her eyes watered, and he kissed away the tears. "But—" Before she could protest further, he pressed his lips to hers and slipped his tongue into her mouth near immediately. He wrapped it languidly around her own and rolled over so she was pinned to the bed beneath him.
"No buts, my love. Sleep. Sleep, and soon you shall see me again."
She groaned, yawned once more, and closed her eyes. Just as she faded away, she heard three words she didn't think she was meant to hear.
"I love you."
Monday, February 27, 1995
Hospital Wing
I love you.
Eden shot up and with gasping breaths as her heart pounded rapidly in her chest, and the three words echoed near painfully in her head.
I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you.
I love you, too.
Why did she have to wake up right then?
She needed to say it back.
"Miss Potter. It's good to see you awake again so soon. How do you feel?" Through the rapid thoughts in her head and burning feelings in her chest, she blinked her eyes, startled to see Madam P as she stood right next to her.
"I—uh—I feel—uh—" She paused with her head tilted to the side and her left brow slightly furrowed as she noted that the usual answer of 'fine' was actually not correct. It didn't describe exactly how she felt in any accurate sense of the word.
She felt…something.
She wasn't entirely sure what it was, only that it made her feel good. "I uh—I feel good. Really good, actually. Really great . . . I feel . . . different." She looked at her hands and body and noticed nothing different, but she indeed felt very different. "Like a good different, you know? Like, like, like . . ."
"Like you could take on the entire world and win?"
"Yes!" she agreed as she perked up at the woman's suggestion. Her brow furrowed once more and her head tilted to the right this time as her shoulders slumped. "Why is that?"
Madam P laughed softly and sat on the bed next to hers, and she turned to face the matron fully. "Your Core grew by almost half of what it was. It makes sense that you would feel that way. You might also find that you'll have issues controlling your magic now, until you get used to the Expansion of your Core."
"Do you know why my Core grew?"
"There are many theories, but nothing concrete." She proceeded to explain the theories that Tom had given her, only they were more than slightly dumbed down. She wasn't that stupid. "Does that makes sense?"
Unfortunately.
She could have used bigger words. "Yes, it does."
"I'll be running some tests on you today and tomorrow to make sure that everything is alright, but it seems like everything is fine, dear."
The woman stood to leave, and Eden panicked for a moment, and the air thickened with it, and her eyes began to burn. "Wait—! Is there a chance that I could go back into a Magical Coma again?" she asked once she had the woman's attention again.
The matron smiled comfortingly at her with a hint of pity and assurance in her eyes. "Oh, no, sweetie. You're not going to go back into the Coma."
She turned to leave once more. "What is a Magical Coma?" The woman paused and remained silent as she turned back to Eden with her face uncomfortably blank. "Please, Madam Pomfrey, I need to know. I can't sleep at night because I'm so scared of going back into it. I don't even know what it is or what causes it to prevent it from happening again." She blinked the Tears out of her eyes, and hoped that she succeeded, and that there weren't black smudges by her eyelashes.
Madam P sighed and returned to the bed that she had previously occupied. "A Magical Coma is where a witch or wizard has survived an . . . event that they shouldn't have been able to, and their magic hides them away in their mind and body in a foolish attempt at protection. There is no . . . known way to force them to wake up. Either they'll wake up on their own, or they won't."
Her eyes narrowed at the obvious information gaps, but assented that it sounded similar to what Tom had found. "And . . . how often does one in a Magical Coma wake up on their own?"
Madam Pomfrey was silent for a moment. "No one has."
She felt as if she had been punched in the gut. "What about me?" She almost instinctively grabbed her right wrist and pressed her thumb against the small, circular, white hypertrophic scar that rested on top of a small vein.
The woman was silent for so long that she was about to repeat the question when she began to speak. "There was an unknown potion Attached to your Core when they were doing tests before and after you woke up. That was why you were kept under observation for so long. We were trying to discern the effects of it. The day that I let you out, was the third day that your Core was clear of all foreign Magic."
She felt like she was falling into a deep dark tunnel with nothing to catch her at the bottom—as if she were falling into the cosmos. "Do you—" she swallowed and blinked the tears out of her eyes with a silent spell. "—did you figure it out?"
I'm so sorry . . . She couldn't remember who had spoken. Who was that?
"We believe someone developed a potion to force someone out of a Magical Coma. We also believe . . . that whoever did it . . . both developed . . . and tested it . . . illegally."
Bile rose in the back of her throat with such an acidic burn that no spell could possibly repair the damage—pain hurt stop help—it wrought upon her flesh. "They tested it on me . . . didn't they?"
It wasn't a question.
"We believe so, yes." The woman had reverted back to her training and now refused to look at her. Eden saw the tears in the woman's eyes as she rapidly blinked.
"Why did no one tell me?"
"We weren't entirely sure what it was at the time and didn't—"
"I mean about the Coma. Why did no one tell me about the Coma?"
She wished she had never known about that damn potion.
"We didn't want to worry you, but, if what you said about your sleeping habits is to be believed, we just did the opposite."
She nodded her head and a part of her wondered when she stopped feeling guilty about lying to those she was close to. "Thank you for telling me now. I'm sure I will sleep much better now."
As soon as the medi-witch was in her office, Eden was off of the bed and in the bathroom. She heaved yellow bile into the porcelain bowl and wondered if someone had turned her tears to some corrosive potion and didn't tell her.
|}(){|
"You child of a banshee I am going to brutally kill you and I am going to laugh and eat cookies while doing so."
Eden looked up from her light lunch and lifted a brow as she gazed at Draco. "Is it that time of the month, darling?"
He paused for a moment before pure rage shattered his already cracked Mask. "Oh, don't you give me that shit you idiotic bitch!" he hissed.
Wow.
He really was pissed if he was using muggle curse words—Sirius was not the best influence on him (or her, really).
She pouted playfully and ignored the snickers she could hear from the hallway. "Do you need a hug?"
His hard, silver eyes watered before he launched himself at her after a singular, mercurial tear fell. The two held onto each other as they both shed tears as they finally convinced themselves that the other was safe and alive.
"I'm going to kill you," he whispered through choked gasps.
A wet laugh left her throat and she nodded against his shoulder. "Okay. If it will make you feel better, you can kill me."
(they both ignored the giggles from the doorway)
The two stayed in each other's embrace for an additional 2 minutes and 46 seconds before he pulled away and flicked her on the nose. She grabbed her neck, pretended to choke for a minute, before she flopped back on the bed with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth, her arm dangling over the side of the bed, while choking gasps left her throat before she finally 'died'.
"Oh dear."
"Darling, I think she's dead."
"I do believe she is."
Eden broke her admittedly poor acting and sat up and grinned at Padfoot, Moony, and Wings. "You're here!" she lithely leapt out of bed and launched herself towards Uncle Sirius. He caught her and hugged her as he spun her in the air, and then tossed her small frame to Uncle Remus who did the same before he put her down. She wrapped her arms around Aunt Mariea before she launched herself at the silent and brooding Snakey-Snape—who immediately softened upon receiving her attention.
"Draco, I see your . . . murder attempt was unsuccessful," he commented as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
"I found that a hug and a flick on the nose was really all that was needed."
"Good. We have invested far too much of ourselves into this darling little hellion of ours to have her suddenly expire on us."
She wrinkled her nose and laughed as she wrestled her way out of Snakey-Snape's arms. "You're so weird, Snakey-Snape."
"You love me."
"That I do. You're my favorite tata." He flushed a delicate pink, before he reached out and rubbed a thumb under one of her eyes. He pulled it away, and it was black. He lifted a brow, and she shrugged and sheepishly smiled.
"What about me?" Sirius whined from where he sat draped over Draco on the hospital bed. She wasn't entirely sure what the two had been doing, but she was pretty sure it was some sort of wrestling match—it was something they did often.
"Of course! I could never forget about you. You're my favorite dogfather, Paddy."
"What about me?" Remus demanded softly from where he stood next to Mariea with a playful smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes.
"Oh, that's easy. You're my favorite godfather."
Sirius sputtered as his wife spoke over him. "I already know I'm your favorite godmother." Eden nodded her head with a grin as she began to unBind her magic. She stopped when a Magical Tear streaked down her cheek, and she forced herself to reBind the magic that strained almost painfully.
When she was alone. She would let it free when she was alone.
"Does that make us the favorite Aunt and Uncle then?" Narcissa questioned from behind her.
With her magic fully Bound, she turned and hugged the two new comers. "Of course it does, Auntie Cissica and Uncle Lucy."
The eight laughed and chatted for hours as they basked in the comfort of family, and safety.
She chose to ignore the hole from Harry's absence.
|}(){|
Eden curled on the bed with the sleeping aid in her hand. Why was she so nervous? She had never been nervous to sleep before, and besides that, she had been wanting to tell Tom how she's felt about him for a while now.
Why was now so different?
Because he said it when he thought I couldn't hear him.
What would he do if she showed up with confessions of her love for him spilling from her lips? Would he force her awake? Would he be happy?
She hated all of these unknowns. She despised not knowing something, and she didn't know what—
"Miss Potter?"
She flinched and looked up from the light blue potion. "Yes, Madam Pomfrey?"
"Is everything alright?"
"I—yes. Everything's fine. I'm just . . . not . . . too anxious to sleep."
"Is it about the Coma still?"
"No—" she quickly scrambled for a reason and ended up with something that wasn't entirely a lie. "—I have nightmares, sometimes, and Dreamless Sleep makes me too groggy to take it during the school year, so . . . yeah."
Before the woman could interfere any further than she already had, she downed the sleeping aid in a large, painful gulp. Her eyes watered as the matron shook her head fondly before she walked away.
Eden fell into the past with anxiety eating away at her very Core.
Tuesday, February 27, 1945
Head Dorms
When she opened her eyes, she was in Tom's room—like usual.
Only, instead of being there at stupid-o-clock in the morning, she was there about the time she typically left. Tom sat at his desk as he worked on something, and looked for all the world like he hadn't just confessed his love to her before she fell asleep a mere 14 hours previously.
Granted, he had had two days to get over that little slip of his.
She didn't know how long she stared at him, but after some time, she noticed that he continually checked his watch. After he had done it for the fifth time, in a ten minute period, she decided it was high time she spoke.
Her heart jumped in her throat as she licked her lips and then bit them. "I love you, too."
He flinched violently—he spilled his inkpot (a first as far as she was aware)—before he turned around. He stared at her wide-eyed for a moment with his mouth dropped open. "I—you—what—pardon?—what?"
Her lips twitched as her heart settled back into her chest with a slightly faster than usual beat. "I love you, too," she repeated.
He cleared his throat and scratched behind his ear and bit his lip—(stop that stomach, now!)—before he cleared his throat once more and swallowed. It was then that she decided that this might have been the best decision she had ever made, or will ever make.
"I—I—I," he cleared his throat once more. "I—I heard—heard that . . . the uh . . . the way, um . . . the, uh, the—the—the, uh, way that you, uh—ahem—uh—uh . . . uh . . . said that," his voice squeaked, and she had to pinch herself to keep herself from laughing at him. "Uhm . . . it uhm . . . it implies that—that—ahem, sorry—I uh . . . uhm . . . said—said it . . . first," his voice squeaked again, and she nearly lost it.
"That's because you did, love."
He paled and shakily stood. "You heard? How many times have you heard? Why is now the first time that you've said something?" he continued to babble semi-incoherently as he started to pace. He said the same thing over and over as he used his insanely vast vocabulary, and even though she didn't know the meaning of quite a large number of the words—mainly the ones in different languages—she got the gist.
Suffice it to say, he was freaking out that she had heard him.
Eventually—probably longer than she should have, to be honest—she took pity on him and stepped into his path. "I heard just as I woke up. It was the first time that I heard you say it, and I wanted to go back to sleep instantly, but they had to run a stupid amount of tests."
He wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and pulled her close. He pressed his lips against hers in a deep kiss that soon had fire in her soul, and her toes curling into the plush carpet. His tongue deftly slid into her mouth, and when she pulled away for air, he trailed feather-light kisses to the left side of her neck and up to her ear where he proceeded to chant I love you between the firm kisses he pressed against her skin.
"I love you, so much, Eden."
She leaned into his embrace, and peppered her own kisses along his jaw. "I love you, too."
His grip tightened again, and before he could start to devour her mouth once more, she started to trail her own kisses along the underside of his jaw before she found a spot on his neck just below the corner of his jaw that made him gasp and tighten his hold on her. She smiled and quickly pushed him onto the couch and straddled his lap before she started on her sudden idea.
She pressed light kisses against the skin before they quickly turned to open-mouthed ones, and soon she nipped, licked, sucked, and kissed his neck until a deep moan left his lips when he realized exactly what it was that she was doing. His grip got painful, and she curled her fingers into his hair and tilted his head back further.
"Merlin, Eden, don't stop," he moaned. His fingers slipped beneath the top of her hospital pajamas and stroked the skin of her lower back. She hesitated only slightly before she opened her mouth wide and bit down hard. He groaned and tightened his hold on her while he simultaneously spread his hands, so he touched more of her skin.
She swiped her tongue against his slightly salty skin and began to suck. He muttered a prayer to the Olde gods when she tightened her hold in his hair and forced him to bare more of his neck towards her. "Eden, I love you," he moaned.
She pulled away long enough to whisper, "I love you, too" before she went back to his neck.
She wasn't sure how long she spent on her masterpiece—because that was truly the only way to describe the way Tom was because of it—but when she was done, he had a nice, dark hickey, and he was a complete puddle of goop.
As she stared at him, so relaxed and flushed from the creation of the hickey, she finally understood why he gave her so many. "You know . . . " she started slyly as she ran a finger along the tender skin and earned a soft groan for her efforts, "I'm tempted to spell this so you can't hide it."
A wicked smirk crossed his lips as he finally opened his eyes. The pupils were blown wide, and the blue depths were dark with lust. "Trust me, my love, everyone is going to see it." He pulled her close when he tugged on the collar of her shirt and pressed a few gentle kisses on her lips. "You said they had to do tests?" he asked a few minutes later.
She nodded her head and moved to sit next to him. It turned out he wasn't a fan of that idea. He picked her back up and placed her on his lap and wrapped himself around her in a Super Tom Bear Hug. "Yeah. Everything's fine. I'm leaving the hospital wing in the morning. Madam P was shocked with how quickly I healed, especially since she didn't use any Dark type healing spells, and can only just barely cast Neutral healing spells."
"That's the power of Medela Aer, my love," he teased softly. "Is there any chance that you'll go back into the Coma?"
She shook her head. "Nope. I even asked about that, and Madam P finally explained the difference between a coma and a Magical Coma."
"What is it?"
She had had over twelve hours to accept the facts as they were.
Now it was Tom's turn to have a life crisis.
"You know those cases you found, about the people who never woke up?"
His eyes widened. "Please don't tell me they're the same."
"They are."
"How the hell did you wake up then?" he demanded as his grip tightened. She took a deep breath and buried her face into his neck. "Eden?"
She wrapped her arms around his neck and rubbed at the small, raised scar on her wrist.
It was Confession Time.
Dammit.
"There was an unknown potion Attached to my Core upon waking. It's why I was under surveillance for so long. Tom . . . . Ow! Tom! Stop, you're hurting me!"
His grip loosened just barely. "Eden. Is there something you need to tell me?"
Most likely.
"About what?"
"You got the exact times down for whenever they'd give you potions. Did you get another injection at an abnormal time?" Before she could answer, he continued speaking. "If you did, it must have been while I was asleep." That was truly the only time it could have been—and was—as he'd warn her when they were training—so she didn't get blown to pieces—once she informed him of the times as well.
She pushed her way out of Tom's arms and grabbed the diary as she started to pace around the room. "You were asleep. It was . . . really painful . . . and . . . I fell asleep after I received it." The diary warmed slightly in her hands.
"Like, you left, fell asleep?" She could tell that even as he asked it, he knew it wasn't that kind of sleep.
"No. I stayed. I woke up just before you did that day. I almost woke you up while I was being injected, but . . ." she trailed off, "I passed out before I could."
"What was this potion?" He stood and wrapped his arms around her to keep her from accidently burning a hole in the nice carpet with her rapid steps.
"It forced me out of the Magical Coma."
"So . . . one of the healers waited two months before they gave you a potion that would force you to wake up, and didn't tell anyone about it?"
"No."
"What do you—"
"Someone decided to illegally test a potion on me. At least, that's what the healers think. They know it was illegally made and tested, they just don't know if I was the first test subject or not."
His magic exploded around the room with such an intensity she forgot how to breathe for a moment. "That's it. I don't care what you say, I'm finding a way to come to your time, and I'm going to track down the son of a bitch who put your name in the Goblet, and the dead bastard who tested an unknown potion on you."
He stepped away from her and went on a rampage, and because she knew he would be quite a while, grabbed a self-inking quill and sat down on the rug in the middle of the room. She knew she could sit anywhere, and it would be safe . . . but still . . . .
The rug had gotten her through a lot of his rampages this year.
Hey, Tom.
She didn't have to wait for the reply, because the second she lifted the quill, words were appearing on the page below her own, before they too, faded.
Eden. How are you, my little one?
Weathering another storm by yours truly.
If diary's—Horcruxes—could snort, she was sure that it would have—perhaps that was what it did, if the jump in her hands was anything to go by.
What did you do this time, little one?
She snorted softly. I'm insulted! Why do you always think it was something that I did?
Dear, it was always something you did. I doubt much has changed since I created the diary.
She fondly rolled her eyes and looked up at Tom to see that he was currently in the process of decimating his desk. It was quite adorable as he glared at it with his arms crossed over his chest, his weight placed on his left leg, while his right foot tapped a frantic rhythm. She looked back to the diary as he moved onto the couch.
Well, believe it or not, love, it wasn't me this time. It was someone in my time.
The diary took some time in responding as it steadily heated. Did you just call me love?
She snorted once more. Perhaps. I'm surprised that you're not wondering what someone did in my time to earn the complete and total decimation of the Head Dorms for the fourth time in six months.
The diary heated even more. Why worry when I can't do anything?
Tom love, you're getting warm. You are absolutely pissed. Stop lying before you set yourself on fire again.
Fine. I'm pissed. I can't do anything about it though. Now, you called me love again. Why did you do that?
She laughed loudly and Tom snapped out of his rampage. "Eden?
"When was the last time that you updated this thing?" She knew he still used it to make plans for the future every couple of weeks, because it was a different point of view, but she suddenly doubted that he actually had the time to do a complete update since November.
He sat down next to her and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "Before the Tournament, why?" The room started to slowly repair itself as he began to calm down.
"I may have just slipped and called him love."
Tom laughed and pressed another kiss to the side of her head. "Well, go on, love."
"Why can't you do it?" she hissed softly.
Eden? Is everything alright?
"You're the one who slipped up."
"You're the one who should tell yourself that you're in a relationship!"
She yelped when the diary heated up to a painful degree and tossed it to the floor in front of her.
EDEN!
She nudged a laughing Tom with her shoulder as she retrieved the diary. Yes?
Why. Did. You. Call. Me. Love. Twice!?
Tom leaned over her shoulder. "You know I don't like to be kept waiting."
She sent a silent and wandless shocking hex at him, and earned another kiss to the side of her head for her efforts of bodily harm.
We're dating.
She yelped once more and tossed the book onto Tom's lap when it heated up to painful levels again. He glanced at the words written and fell over laughing.
I need to talk to myself. Immediately.
Why?
Was it bad that she only felt amusement and vindication at those words?
I need to tell him that drugging you is a Big No-No and to be more careful with his own food and drink.
She snorted and bit her lips. Alright. He's currently dying of laughter though, so, I'll try and get him for you. Good luck.
You do that, little one. And thank you.
She shook her head fondly as the words faded and kicked Tom's thigh. She held out the diary. "Here. It's for you."
He chuckled some more before he sat up and took the quill from her. She stood and moved over to his bookshelves and grabbed a book on the first Tournament and settled in to read.
|}(){|
"Eden."
She bit her lip at the murderous tone. "Yes, lovely?"
"Have you been talking to the diary?" A huff of laughter left through her nose.
"Of course I have. It's probably lonely in there, and boring to only talk about plans of World Domination."
"What have you been talking about?"
"Oh, you know . . . stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Things."
Tom sighed when he realized that she was just going to avoid his questions unless he asked her directly what he wanted to know. Really, he thought she had gotten better, but he was wrong—how rare that was. "Did you teach him that joke?"
She snorted, and he knew.
He knew either he was going to kill himself, or he was going to kill her by the time he finished updating the horcrux.
"Which one?"
Yes, death was imminent.
Whose death it would be, exactly, was debatable.
"The bear one."
She tilted her head to the side in faux innocence. "You'll have to be more specific, love."
He sent a prayer to the Olde gods and spoke. "What do you call a bear with no teeth?"
That grin should be illegal. Unless he could devour it until the end of time. It did things to him.
And the way her eyes flashed . . . . He nearly died with the feelings that settled deep within him as he imagined taking—
"A gummy bear."
He looked to the heavens for strength, because damn if the way she said that didn't do things to him—she was killing him, and there was no way in Hell that she didn't realize this. He turned back to the diary that seemed to mock him as it sat innocently on his desk.
He flinched when arms wrapped low around his waist and he desperately suppressed the urge to pin her to the closest horizontal surface and—
"Why?" he asked with a slightly choked throat and a deep, husky voice.
"Because I could." He turned in her arms and narrowed his eyes at her. She started to fidget, and he lifted an eyebrow and tilted his lips just so, and she caved. "Fine. I did it because of the Blushing Game."
Oh Merlin help him.
"What do you mean?"
That delectable grin pulled on her lips and he throbbed—
"You'll just have to figure it out yourself."
He looked between the love of his life—because surely no one else would be able to do to him that which she could—and his small soul shard, before he bid adieu to the shard and sat down on the armchair and pulled his Eden into his arms. He resisted the urge to kiss her, because he knew that once he started, he wouldn't be able to stop. "Were there anymore clues for the Third Task?"
Yes, think about anything other than Eden sitting on his lap dangerously close—
She adjusted herself on his lap so she sat curled mostly on his left thigh and didn't push for anything more than his arms wrapped around her. It was obvious that she was now aware of his . . . struggles.
"Nope. I think it's going to be like the First Task where we have to figure it out on our own." He inclined his head and she yawned. "No!" she wailed softly as she nuzzled his neck.
Don't think about it.
"I don't wanna go!"
Don't think about it.
He sighed and despite his better judgement, pressed a chaste kiss to her lips, and he trembled as he held himself back.
Don't think about it.
"I love you."
She pressed another, slightly deeper, kiss to his lips—don't think about it—and smiled against them before she pulled away just barely. "I love you, too."
Think about it!
She left before he could do anything that she would regret later.
(he could never regret anything that he wanted to do with/to her)
Tuesday, February 28, 1995
Location Undisclosed
She seems to be happier.
Could he ever destroy her fragile happiness by telling her exactly what he's done? Would it even matter to her that it was done for her?
He knocked back his fifth glass of fire-whiskey, and went to bed with the picture of the two of them at King's Cross clutched tightly in his hands.
Hope you guys liked it :) Let me know what you think.
If you want to know what Tom sees in the Mirror of Erised, read Memory #3 in In My Memories.
See you all next week :)