Hello there :) Back with chapter 10! :) I actually finished the story yesterday, all 25 chapters are done now- it was sad to end it, but I am already thinking about what to write next- I have two ideas, I just need to organize them in my mind lol.
Thank you lilyflower101, Anonymous Again, Ilse for your reviews!
Hope you like this chapter! :)
Sirius blinked, and then he slowly opened his eyes. He felt good, great actually- well rested, and cozy, and warm, and the sun was shining right into his face, so he blinked again and carefully shifted to the side, touching something.
"Hmmrr…"
He froze.
Shit, shit, shit, I did not dream this?
He swallowed hard and slowly turned around, praying that he did not wake Aurelius up- and he sighed with relief when he realized that the older boy was still sleeping peacefully.
Aurelius looked different when he slept- his face was…softer somehow, and friendlier, and he actually looked…nice.
Sirius knew it would be the smartest choice to get up, get dressed, and get the hell away from here, but for some reason, he kept staring at his fake brother and when Aurelius grunted again in his sleep, a tiny, adorable grunt, he had to smile.
"You are not scary when you sleep", he whispered, and Aurelius mumbled something in response, tossing his head.
Sirius saw that his pillow had fallen off the bed, so he slowly bent over and grabbed it, and then carefully placed it close to Aurelius' head.
Aurelius kept grunting and tossing around, and Sirius did not know why, but he started to gently touch his hair, raking through it, "shshsh…it's okay, I got your pillow...are you having a bad dream?"
Another grunt, and seconds later, the older boy tossed his head again, turning, and this time, his head fell right on the pillow.
Score!
Sirius smiled, noticing that his fake brother had immediately stopped moving, he was breathing evenly again, fast asleep.
"Good boy", he whispered, chuckling to himself, "you are really nice when you are asleep, do you know that?"
He got no response, Aurelius just kept sleeping peacefully, and Sirius kept looking at him.
He was not ready to get up and leave- instead, he wanted to indulge in the illusion of having a big brother who cared about him, who loved him and let him sleep in the same bed with him for just a little bit longer.
So, he snuggled into Aurelius' side, laying half across his body now, and he could hear Aurelius breathe, and he could hear his heart beat, and he closed his eyes, feeling warm, safe, and content.
I hope I never have to wake up again.
And for the next hour, he did not. Both boys were sleeping quietly, with Sirius laying on top of Aurelius now, a huge smile on his face.
He was dreaming again, and his dreams were happy, and fun, and full of adventures, and Aurelius was throwing him into the air again and he squealed with joy, and again…and again…
"Wake up, Scipius!"
"Rrrnnn…wha…what?"
"I said wake up!", someone was shaking him, and he reluctantly opened his eyes.
Aurelius was standing right in front of the bed, dressed in an expensive looking gray suit with a gray shirt. His hair was so neatly combed that it looked almost fake.
"What…you…want?"
"Do you know what time it is? You can't spend the whole day in bed."
Sirius yawned, "it's…Sunday…", he mumbled, "so…chill out…so cozy…"
"It does not matter that it is Sunday- there's work waiting for you, Scipius", and now Aurelius' voice sounded impatient, "come on, time for a shower."
Sirius flinched, a memory appearing in front of his eyes, "no…cold shower…I am…getting up…", he stumbled and almost fell out of the bed, "I'll be…good…"
Aurelius sighed and picked him up easily, "hurry up then- I can't waste my whole day taking care of you."
Yeah of course not.
"I am sorry, Aurelius", he sounded resigned, "I'll be fast, I promise."
Aurelius carried him into the bathroom and put him back on his feet, "I sure hope so- Dumbledore has asked me to attend a circle meeting today, and if I leave a good impression, he will ask me to join his circle of scholars", his voice was smug, "and I intend to leave a very good impression."
Sirius just nodded, and he quickly jumped into the shower, "I…I could come with you", he eventually said while he grabbed the soap, "I…I could help you leave a good impression."
Please say yes, please let me come with you…
Aurelius snorted, "you? And what good impression would that be? Your grades are average, your popularity is average, you are average- and you did not even make it into the Quidditch team- so tell me, what exactly qualifies you to help?"
Sirius did not respond, he stood completely still in the shower while the water was splashing down on him, soaking his hair and soaking his face- and the only good thing about that was that Aurelius could not see he was crying.
"This is boring…boring…booooring…", he sighed and tore out some more pages from the book Gryffindor had given him to study, "I want to go outside…"
The worst part was, from the library he had the perfect view of the park- and knowing it was there, right there, but he couldn't go was torture in itself.
He had been at Gryffindor Manor for more than a week now, and still, they had not talked about how long he would have to stay, or the things he had found out, or Dumbledore- every time he had brought it up, Gryffindor had told him not to worry about it, and that it was not a subject to discuss with naughty little boys.
He had told Gryffindor quite forcefully that he was not a boy, and not little, and definitely not naughty- he hated that word- but as always, Gryffindor had just laughed.
Today, he had taken him to the library and given him some books to study, telling him he and Salazar had to do something and to be a good boy until lunch.
The books were all incredibly boring though- he just longed to go outside, nothing else mattered to him- and he missed Thunder more and more every day.
He crumbled another page to a ball and tossed it at the window. Since there was nothing else to do, he had invented a little tossing paper ball game, he tried to get as close to a certain point at the window as possible, and he counted how many times he needed and wrote down how big the ball was he had used.
Turned out, the medium sized balls worked best- the small ones were too light and the big ones were not flexible enough.
He elevated the game to get to a certain spot within three throws, and collected the winning balls on one side of the table, which was soon filled with paper balls.
He wrote down the times and number of throws he needed, and that was also the reason why he did not see Gryffindor walk into the library.
He started another game, softly humming to himself and completely unaware that Gryffindor was watching him.
The first throw was great, and he let out a triumphant little noise, and went to grab the next ball.
I am gonna kill it with two throws this time!
"Having fun, Thomas?"
Something inside him turned into ice at Gryffindor's cold voice, and he slowly turned around, "you…you're back."
"Apparently."
"I…was just…trying something really quick", he tried to smile but failed, "did you know that a paper ball has to be the size of a fist to make the perfect throw?"
"I did not know that, no- but what I do know is that I gave you these books to study, not to destroy them. Care to explain that, Thomas?"
Tom swallowed, "I…the books were…they were…"
They were too hard to understand for me.
"They were…what?"
"They were boring", Tom responded, looking out the window, "so I thought…"
"So you thought you could spend the time until lunch destroying them? And speaking about destruction- did you finally clean your room?"
It's not my room.
"I…yeah…some…parts", he still avoided looking at the Founder, knowing that he was lying.
There was a silence, and eventually, Gryffindor sighed, "alright. You are grounded."
Tom blinked, he had no idea what that meant, "grounded? Does that have to do with soap again?"
Gryffindor had to smile even though he really did not want to, "no, Thomas, nothing with soap- that's only if you use naughty words. Grounded means you will go to your room and stay there, just like you did some days ago."
No, no, no, don't lock me up again!
"That's not fair! I haven't done anything wrong! I was quiet, I was just having a little fun!", he was yelling now, but he did not care, "I don't even want to be here! You…you can't just force me to do all this shit and…"
"Come. Here."
"No! No, I won't! I hate that room, and I am not gonna stay here any longer, I am sick of this, and I am sick of you!"
Gryffindor did not respond, he calmly walked over to him, and Tom tried to run, but Gryffindor was faster- and stronger.
He easily picked him up, and even though Tom was screaming, and kicking, and crying, he carried him all the way upstairs to his room and placed him on his mattress in the corner of the room, "you will stay here, Thomas- for as long as I think you have to."
"No! I am not going to stay here, fuck you!", he tried to crawl off the mattress, so Gryffindor picked him up again, just like he was some damn dog, and carried him back, "no, Thomas- I told you before, you don't get to do that anymore. You don't get to run away anymore. You will stay here and you will learn to obey me."
He cursed at him, and tried to get off again, and again, Gryffindor calmly picked him up and put him back on the mattress, "behave, Thomas- you are just making this worse for yourself."
"Fuck you!"
"Do I need to get the soap again?", his voice sounded dangerous now, and Tom sobbed, "just…just let me go! Let me go!"
"You know I cannot do that, Thomas- Dumbledore will…"
"I don't care! I don't care! Dumbledore can have me all he wants, can't be worse than this!"
"Well, I care- and that's exactly why you are going to stay here."
Tom let out an angry sob and attempted to get off the mattress once more.
"Try that again and I will spank you", Gryffindor informed him, his voice hard and threatening, "so think very carefully if that is worth it."
"You…can't spank me!"
"Try me, Thomas."
He sobbed again, but when Gryffindor slowly stepped back, he stayed on the mattress, his hands balled intro fists, his face wet with tears.
"Good boy- you can get off as soon as I left your room. And when I come back later, I expect this room to be cleaned, understand?"
No answer, Tom just kept sobbing, staring at him furiously.
"I think you understand quite nicely", Gryffindor remarked coldly, "I'll see you later, Thomas."
He left the room, and as soon as the door had closed behind him, Tom got up and stormed to the door, banging his fists against the hard wood, "I hate you, Gryffindor! I HATE YOU! You hear me, you bastard, I HATE YOU!"
The Founder did hear him, as he still had not left- he was on the other side of the door, listening quietly to Tom's screaming and cursing and eventually, his crying.
"You'll see what you get from this, you'll see! I…I'll make you pay!"
There was a sob, and then Gryffindor could hear him cry in impotent fury, "I hate this! I hate you! I hate my life!"
The crying got quieter, and then- silence.
Gryffindor listened for a few more minutes, but there was no more sound coming from the room. He sighed, and finally turned around to find Salazar.
His partner was in the dining room, waiting for him to eat lunch. Salazar frowned when he walked in, "where's Tom?"
Gryffindor sighed again, and this time, I sounded tired, "in his room. He's grounded."
"What did he do now?"
"Destroyed the books I gave him and turned the pages into paper balls to play some…game with them."
Salazar snorted, "I don't like reminding you, but he's been here for over a week- and I do not see much improvement. Sirius would never have dared to act like this."
"He was too scared to act like anything."
"Are you finally admitting then that scaring him into obedience was wrong? I told you that he…"
"It's not like I had a choice, didn't I?", Gryffindor interrupted him, cutting his salmon, "he has to bring us the cloak- I don't know what else to do at this point. I tried to get Harry to give it to me, and failed- and I am pretty sure Dumbledore has been trying and failing, too. Harry might be naïve, but he is not dumb, and he has gotten suspicious. The cloak was definitely not in the dorms anymore, I searched everywhere. It's somewhere in Hogwarts, that much is certain, but the question is- where?"
"I know the plan is important", Salazar agreed, "but I hope after this is over, you will explain everything to Sirius. He is just a scared little boy, and I hate it that we have to put so much pressure on him and Aurelius."
"Aurelius does not mind pressure- in fact, he always seems to be more efficient under pressure."
Salazar gave him a strange look, "and you don't think that is because he is scared, too?"
"Aurelius? Scared? That's ridiculous. He is a teenager, almost a young man…"
"He is just one year older than Tom."
"Well, you can't compare them- Thomas is certainly not acting or behaving like a fourteen year old."
"You are being very lenient with Tom- way more lenient you have ever been with Aurelius or Sirius."
"I am- because Thomas is not part of the plan, and besides…"
"You like him", it was not a question.
"He…has his moments, yes", Godric admitted grudgingly, "even though I do want to put him over my knee about a hundred times a day."
Salazar gave him an amused glance, "do you think he likes you, though?"
"He just screamed at me that he hates me- so I doubt it. He just wants out, he is just tolerating me for now because I am the one feeding him and taking care of him- and besides that, he is a lot of work- I am talking months and months of discipline and training and punishments and I don't even know if I have the energy for that", Gryffindor took a sip of his drink and continued, "he is like a rubber ball- always jumping right back into his original form. Much worse to discipline than someone like Sirius- and Aurelius I almost never even have to discipline."
"He does seem really unaffected by most of his punishments", Salazar agreed, "just remember the other day when he refused to eat his lunch and you force fed him- when you did that with Sirius, he obediently ate the rest of his meal and never dared to leave even a tiny bit of food on his plate- and Tom on the other hand…"
Gryffindor sighed, remembering that incident. Tom had been stating that he hated green beans and simply would not eat them- so he had put the struggling boy on his lap, and force fed him the green beans- but as soon as his plate had been empty, Tom had stuck a finger in his mouth, effectively vomiting all over himself and the Founder until his stomach was completely empty of every single green bean he had been made to eat before.
"Well, being grounded certainly does affect him", Gryffindor replied, taking a bite of salmon, "he simply hates being put in his room- and this time, I certainly won't let him out until he cleaned it."
"Good", Salazar nodded with approval, "he needs to learn that he cannot get away with everything. The room is a disaster, and honestly, the sooner he learns some obedience the better."
They kept eating, but Gryffindor could not stop himself to look across the table where a plastic plate with food stood untouched.
Stubborn little boy…
Eventually, the house elves came in to clear the table.
"Master Gryffindor?", one of them asked timidly.
"Yes, Franny?"
"The food for Master Thomas…does Master Gryffindor want Franny to bring it to the young Master's room?"
Godric looked at the salmon, and the rice, and the lemons- and then he looked at the plastic fork and sighed again, "that's…alright, he…he will have something else. Can you make him a sandwich and bring it in here, please?"
Franny bowed his head, "of course, Master Gryffindor."
The house elves left, and Salazar had to chuckle, "a sandwich? You are spoiling the boy, Godric."
"I am not- he has to eat something, right?"
Salazar grinned from ear to ear, "something he does not need cutlery for apparently."
Godric got up, he was grinning too, "don't tell him that."
Franny came back at that moment with a delicious looking sandwich on a plate, and Godric thanked him and took the plate to bring it to Tom.
There was no noise from the inside of the room, and when he carefully opened the door, he found Tom laying on the mattress where he had left him, curled into a ball.
He did not look up when Gryffindor came closer, and he made no sound- but Gryffindor knew that he was not asleep.
"Hey Tommy…I've brought you some lunch."
"I don't want any lunch. I don't want anything from you."
Gryffindor just smiled and sat down on the floor, right next to the mattress and put the plate down, "what if I am telling you that you won't need any fork? Or a spoon?"
Tom stilled, and then he slowly turned around to face him, his eyes wide with fear, "no…please…I am sorry for being bad, but please…don't do that again, Sir."
Gryffindor knew the boy only called him Sir when he was terrified, "don't do what again, Tommy?", his voice was soft, "what are you talking about?"
"I…I really don't like green beans", Tom stammered, "but I'll eat them, I'll eat the whole plate, just…please don't make me sit on your lap again and make me…eat out of your hand, please please…", he forced back the tears, "I…I did not like that."
"Are you telling me you are going to eat all your vegetables from now on then?", Gryffindor asked calmly, "even green beans?"
"Yes, I'll eat everything, even green beans!", Tom promised hastily and Gryffindor had to smile, "that is good to know- and Tommy, I was not planning to force you to eat anything- I have a sandwich for you."
Immediately, the boy's demeanor changed, "wait, what? Why didn't you tell me that in the beginning?"
"Maybe I wanted to hear you promise me you'll eat all your vegetables from now on", Gryffindor replied amusedly, "here's your sandwich."
Tom just glared at him, feeling humiliated, "I am not hungry."
"Hmm…that's too bad- looks like it has all your favorites- tomatoes, lettuce, ham, cheese- and look, even some pepperoni."
Tom swallowed, hating himself for the fact that his mouth was watering now, "you can eat it yourself for all I care."
"Oh really? That's very generous of you- I've always loved a good sandwich", Gryffindor took the sandwich in his hand, "it smells delicious. I am going to have a bite right he…"
"Wait!", before he could attempt to take a bite, Tom pushed himself into his lap and snatched the sandwich right out of his hand, "I am gonna taste it first."
He took a huge bite, and chewed for a long time, and then he took another bite.
"Good?"
"It's…decent", Tom mumbled, taking another bite while he leaned back, touching Gryffindor's chest, "but definitely not decent enough to share."
"That's too bad", Gryffindor replied, pretending to be disappointed, "at least I already ate my lunch."
"Must have been a boring lunch", Tom remarked, but he was not looking at him and Gryffindor had to force back the urge to ruffle through his curly hair, "it was very boring- without anyone there I could tell to chew with his mouth closed, or to use a napkin, or…"
"Or to sit at the table until being dismissed", Tom finished, snuggling closer into the embrace, "at least I don't have to worry about that anymore."
"You still have to use your table manners now."
"Why? There's no table."
Gryffindor had to laugh, realizing how right Salazar had been- he did like this wild, obstinate, carefree, and sarcastic boy, and maybe he was worth the energy to turn him into a slightly less wild child, even though it probably would take months.
Tom looked at him now, smiling, his face covered in sandwich dressing, "are you thinking of letting me go outside right now?"
"Nice try- the room is still a mess, and you still have not apologized properly for being rude earlier, so the answer would be…no."
"But…if I clean the room, and apologize, then…"
He sighed, "alright, I'll make you a deal."
Tom blinked, "I thought you don't make deals."
"I'll make an exception for you."
"I am feeling honored- what's the catch?"
"There is none- if you really want to go outside, you have to do three things."
"Let me guess- one of them is to clean this room?"
"Precisely. And- apologize for being rude and for cursing is number two."
"And…the last one?"
Gryffindor looked at him, "you have to be good for two days straight- that means no rebellion, no cursing, no disrespect- and you have to wear clothes that actually match and do something about that messy hair of yours."
Tom bit his lips for about a minute, "alright, deal", he finally said, "I'll do everything you said- I'll be…good."
But only for two days- and as soon as you let me out, I'll run away.
yep...that's it for now! :)
Feedback would make me very happy :)
xoxo,
Antonie :)