As Slughorn promised, the castle was cleared before dinner on Friday and on Saturday they found themselves walking to Hogsmeade. It was already getting cold, and they wrapped their cloaks tightly around themselves as they made their way.
"Did you know it's the only all magical village in England?" Abraxas said, turning back to look at her.
"I didn't," Alexa said, feigning surprise. Alphard turned to say something but immediately slipped in the slick mud. Alexa lunged forward, catching him before he fell. For a moment he just stared up at her, thoroughly befuddled.
"I knew you cared," he said, grinning.
Alexa snorted, letting him go, "Next time I let you fall."
"I'm surprised you could hold his fat arse," Abraxas commented, "Careful Al, you'll make Tom jealous."
Riddle made a noise that sounded like her was choking and flushed red. Alexa was sure her cheeks were burning as well.
"Any more from you, and you'll be the one on the ground," Amelia snapped as she gave Abraxas a fierce glare. There was a moment of very uncomfortable silence.
"I heard there was a candy shop?" Alexa said, a touch too loudly.
"Yes!" Riddle seized upon this, "Honeydukes. Best in the world."
"Candy, so novel," Alphard commented, "Americans are precious." Alexa bumped him with her shoulder, once again nearly sending him to the dirt.
"It's candy," she laughed, "we won the war, we make the rules."
"Which war?" Amelia asked, confused. Alexa glanced at Riddle who was biting his lip, probably to keep from mocking Amelia.
"The...the revolutionary war?" Alexa filled in, "Y'know, the shot heard 'round the world. America was a British colony, we declared independence, and kicked your ass?"
"Oh! The muggle war," Amelia said, snapping her fingers, "Right. There weren't many wizards involved in that, it's not really important."
"I think I read about that once," Abraxas nodded. Alexa looked straight ahead, trying to keep the amazement off her face. She hadn't expected them to know American history by any means, but she had at least...expected them to know that had happened? She fell into pace with Riddle, the other three purebloods walking ahead of them.
"How can they be so smart and so oblivious?" Alexa shook her head.
"They barely know we're at war now," Riddle spat, "Don't expect too much from them." She wasn't surprised by the vitriol in his voice. She wondered how he could stand it, having lived through the bombings and the rationings in London while these rich assholes barely paid any attention.
"And these are the people who think their breeding means they should rule the world," Alexa muttered. She pressed her lips together. She probably shouldn't have said that.
"If wizards were in charge, as they should be, do you really think this would be happening?" Riddle's eyes were blazing as he looked at her. As they should be.
She stopped, looking up at him, considering. "I think there will always be war as long as there are humans. Magic or no. People are animals when they get pushed into a corner."
"Wouldn't it be better if somebody had control of the animals then?" he asked, stopping with her.
"You can't control them." Alexa looked out to where their friends were walking away, still not noticing their absence.
"Magic is might," he countered, leaning in, "Get the wizards under control, unite them, then the muggles."
"Sounds like you want to start a war, not end one," Alexa's voice was low, and she did not break away from his gaze.
"Would it be much of a war?" His words were like honey.
"Yes." Her answer was not meant to leave room for argument.
"Not if you were fighting, I think," he was almost smiling as he spoke. Her blood ran cold. He didn't know, he couldn't know. He was trying to get her to reveal something.
"Couldn't you at least wait until we're there to start snogging?" Abraxas turned and yelled back to them. Amelia gave him what was slightly more than a playful shove and Abraxas landed solidly on the ground, lucky they had reached the paved street and were no longer in the muck. Alphard doubled over with laughter.
Riddle had leapt away from her, red all the way to his ears. She found a sliver of satisfaction that he had broken eye contact first. They hurried to join the others, Alexa's heart pounding.
"You presume," she murmured to him, while the others were still out of earshot, "who I would be fighting for."
He looked at her and grinned, "I suppose so."
What the fuck was she supposed to do with that?
Amelia wouldn't look at Alexa, and it was hard to ignore. Part of her wanted to shake the girl and tell her that she could do much, much better. The other part of her was deeply annoyed at the level of teenaged pettiness. Riddle also wasn't looking at her, but his cheeks were still pink.
"Where to first?" Alphard asked, looking over the lot of them.
"Honeydukes?" Alexa suggested.
"I think I'm going to head to the stationary shop," Amelia announced, "Anyone else?" Alexa refrained from rolling her eyes.
"I'll come, I'm out of ink," Abraxas replied. This was not the person Amelia was hoping would accept, but regardless they all made a plan to meet back at the Three Broomsticks at two pm.
"She seems to particularly dislike me today," Riddle mused. Alphard and Alexa looked at each other. Alphard burst out laughing first, and she covered her mouth to stifle her giggles. Riddle turned red once again.
"What?" he asked, irritation evident in his tone.
"One day we'll teach you about the birds and the bees, mate," Alphard assured him. Riddle gave them both a withering look, and set off ahead of him.
"Do you think he really...doesn't get it?" Alexa asked Alphard, watching Riddle walk away.
"Your prospects aren't good, that's for sure," Alphard gave her a very cheeky look.
Her stomach twisted, "I cannot possibly express to you exactly how not interested I am in him."
Alphard chuckled, and they began to follow after Riddle, "Sure.."
"I'm really not interested in dating anyone," Alexa snapped. She exhaled, trying to calm herself. Alphard was just a friend teasing her. "I just, I'm new here, y'know? I'm in a new country and I don't have solid enough footing to want anything like that. And Amelia seems to have staked a claim there anyways."
"Riddle has never taken to any girl before, that's all. Hell, before you got here he barely hung around anyone," Alphard shrugged.
"Are you coming, or not?" Riddle demanded from the top of the hill, arms crossed.
"It's my turn to lollygag with Alexa, you've had yours!" Alphard yelled back, giving her a wink. They hurried to catch up.
Honeydukes was predictably filled with students. Every wall was lined with a plethora of colorful treats, display tables piled high with glistening lollipops, stacks of chocolate frogs, and boxes of sugar quills.
"Woah," she murmured, looking around. She let Alphard pull her wherever he pleased, Riddle trailing along behind. Alphard was picking up more boxes of sweets than she was sure he should have, while she selected some liquorice wands. Riddle had very carefully looked through everything, and she watched the way his eyes flicked to the price each time. He'd worked over the summer, so he had to have some money. But not much.
Alphard had taken to looking through the boxes of chocolates, decorated like they were intended to be birthday presents.
"Aren't these lovely?" he asked her, "My mum's birthday is next month. Do you think this would be a good gift?"
"Yeah, if she likes chocolate," Alexa shrugged. Alphard nodded to himself.
"Hey, when is your birthday?" he asked, looking between the different colors.
"Oh, uh, it's the thirteenth," she answered sheepishly. She hadn't wanted to tell anyone.
"Of this month?!" Alphard demanded, eyes growing wide, "And you didn't say anything?" he crossed his arms, looking supremely offended.
"It just...didn't come up?" she shrugged, "It's not that important."
"Riddle, you tell this woman that it is absolutely important!" Alphard turned to Riddle, a pained expression on his face.
"It's very important," Riddle deadpanned.
"We're going to celebrate," Alphard decided, "leave it to me. I should have known you were a scorpio."
"I really don't-Alphard, c'mon-Do I have a choice?" she groaned.
He gave her a positively wicked grin, "No." Alexa pursed her lips, but Alphard only laughed and went back to shopping.
"I was thinking of heading to the secondhand bookstore," Riddle mentioned, glancing at her, "They usually have something in Latin." Alexa weighed her options. She could go alone with Riddle and likely have another very irritating and confusing conversation, or she could stay with Alphard who was sure to ask more about her birthday.
"Lead the way," she sighed. She set the liquorice wands back down on the display, the idea of sweets suddenly unappealing. Riddle let Alphard know they were heading out, and out they headed.
They walked in silence, students and denizens of the village milling about all down High Street.
"Alphard is going to make this a thing, isn't he?" Alexa asked, scowling down at the ground.
"Oh, absolutely," Riddle replied. Then he paused, suddenly serious, "Do you want me to have a word with him?" It was a sharp reminder that Riddle still had some amount of power over the Slytherins. Although, the more he actually hung out with them, the more that seemed to be decreasing.
"Nah," Alexa sighed, running a hand through her hair, "I'll just kill him."
Riddle paused for a moment as if he wasn't sure if she was kidding or not, then laughed.
"Might make neater work of it," he acknowledged. She supposed, however, that if Riddle actually did say something, Alphard would probably drop it. Not out of fear, but because he liked Alexa and he liked Riddle.
Alexa was about to respond when they saw Amelia and Abraxas across the street. Amelia's scowl was evident from even a distance, and she grabbed Abraxas's arm and pulled him into another store.
Riddle looked at her, deeply uncomfortable. "I wish she wouldn't do that," he muttered to himself.
Alexa turned to him, an eyebrow arched, "You could try telling her that."
Riddle looked at her, suddenly nothing but a very awkward teenager, "Absolutely not."
"Scared?" she teased. Riddle gave her a very dirty look, although there was no malice behind it.
"Then she's not going to stop doing that, as you put it so eloquently," Alexa shrugged. They reached the bookstore and he opened the door for her. "Thanks-did you ever date or anything?"
"I mean, she asked me out to Hogsmeade last year, but…" he looked at her haplessly.
She was going to have to explain girls to Voldemort. She was really, really, going to have to talk the darkest wizard of all time through Amelia's crush. Once again, she contemplated how much easier it would be to kill him. She felt like she had whiplash. One moment he was spouting his pureblood bullshit, digging into her secrets, and trying to unnerve her on purpose, the next he was just...fifteen. How different had he been, at this point in time, if she wasn't there? Alphard had said Riddle had been self isolating before she got there.
"And," she began, as he led her through the shelves, "you said no, right?"
"Well," he paused, looking through the dusty volumes, "I said I wasn't interested in dating-they might be over there?" He pointed.
"Is that all?" she asked, looking through the stacks he had indicated.
"Yeah, I mean," he paused, "I didn't want to upset her."
"What does that mean?" she asked, pulling a Latin copy of the Aeneid from the shelf.
"I just said that I wasn't interested in dating at the time!" he shrugged.
"Tom," she turned to him, holding the book to her chest, "You're so, so smart. But that was so, so stupid."
He spluttered, unable to respond for a moment, "What was I supposed to do?" he hissed, turning back to the books.
"Just say you weren't interested in her?" Alexa suggested, "This is Vergil's Aeneid. It's not about magic but it's good for learning. If you don't want it I'm going to get it."
"What's it about?" he asked, eager to change the subject.
"The founding of Rome. After the fall of Troy, Aeneas leaves the ruins of the city and after being played with by the gods for a bit he ends up in Italy. He settled there, married a princess, and a dozen or so generations later his descendent Romulus founded Rome."
"Not helpful," he sighed, "Anything else? I found this-De Natura Deorum?"
"Sounds familiar, lemme see," she took the book as he offered it. "Cicero. It's about the nature of the gods-they're assholes, if you were wondering. Reading Cicero is a pain," she shook her head, "unbelievable long winded."
"Hm."
"You should probably say something to Amelia," Alexa continued, turning back to the shelves.
"Why would I do that?" he asked, looking at her in horror.
"Because I'll tell you about the book I just found," she waved the tome at him, "and because she's decided to hate me too." Riddle looked at the book, then looked at her.
"Why would she dislike you?" something switched in his voice and she knew he was trying to play games with her.
"Because apparently you've never spoken to a girl before me," Alexa said dryly.
"That's not true-" he gasped, "I talk to everyone!" He had not expected her to be blunt, and now she was on the offensive.
"Do you lead everyone into dark corners of dusty bookshops too?" she smirked, turning back to the book and flipping through the pages.
"I didn't-I don't-that's-"
"Breathe, Tom," she laughed, "I'm only joking. Here," she offered the book, "De natura magicae, On the nature of magic. It seems like there's a nice bit about the relationship of language and magic."
He took the book from her without meeting her eyes. She was teasing a mass murderer. It was a little bit of a rush. Maybe she was getting too brave with him. It was hard, after knowing Riddle, to look at him still awkward and a bit gangly, and reconciling the image with the man who fell in the Great Hall.
"Why didn't you tell anyone about your birthday?" he asked suddenly.
"It's just a birthday," she huffed, "I didn't think it was a big deal. I'm not a big birthday person." It was only ever Blaise and Theo who had known about her birthday, and they'd always had a small celebration for her. Granted, it took at least two years before they found out.
"Not fond of parties?" Riddle asked, flipping through another book.
"I just… haven't really had any," she shrugged, "It's never been a big deal. I guess I must have when I was little, but I don't remember." Riddle had stopped and was looking at her with an intensity she didn't like.
"Sorry," he said quietly, "I shouldn't have-"
"No, it's fine. I did have a couple of friends back in California. I wouldn't tell them either. And finally, Blaise got so annoyed at me he broke into student records to find it," she smiled at the memory, "and when he got caught because he was twelve and probably the least stealthy person you've ever met, he looked straight in the teacher's eyes and told them that he couldn't recall his own birthday, and that's why he was in there." She was sure that was the day Snape gave up on his Slytherins for good.
Riddle burst out laughing, covering his mouth to try and muffle the sound, "He said what?" he asked incredulously.
"That he had forgotten his own birthday," Alexa snickered. "After that, he and Theo always just…" she trailed off, looking back at Riddle, "sorry, I'm rambling."
"No," he said, "I'm interested." But was he interested because he believed they were friends, or because he was suspicious of her?
"They never… said anything. We had houses and a common room like Hogwarts," she took a deep breath, "So, every year after that, they managed to sneak dessert-cookies or something-into the common room and we'd stay down there by the fire after everyone had gone to sleep." She turned away, blinking back tears as she put away some of the books she had pulled down.
"That sounds nice," his voice was soft.
"They were great," she sighed, "Did you want The Aeneid?"
"No," Tom said, "I'm getting the magic one."
"You can always borrow it when I'm done," she said absently, looking at the faded cover, "We'd better get going, it's almost two." She was done being alone with him. Tom was confusing. She couldn't shake the feeling that sometimes he was just talking to her because they were friends. Were they friends? He certainly thought so. Was she so starving of connection that she was looking for it in him? So desperate for somebody that hadn't lived an easy, nonviolent, privileged life that she turned to the nearest orphan she could find? That was dangerous. She could reveal too much, give something away.
Perhaps the worst part was that Tom was a genuinely interesting person and she enjoyed being around him. Was she his friend? No. That would require far more honesty than she could ever give him.
By the time they reached the Three Broomsticks, it had begun to rain. Alexa cursed herself that she was stuck pretending to be underaged. She shivered, her cloak was soaked through despite the fact they had run half the way there.
Abraxas, Alphard, and Amelia were already sitting in the booth, butterbeers in hand. Abraxas waved when he saw them, and she waved back and gestured to the bar to indicate they were going to get a drink. Tom wandered over with her.
"You getting anything?" she asked, contemplating if she could get away with ordering something actually alcoholic.
"No, I'm good." He clutched the book tighter, and Alexa quickly made the connection. She glanced back at the table and watched Tom shift uncomfortable next to her.
"Hey love, what can I get you?" the bartender, a beaming blond man who couldn't be much older than them, asked.
"Yeah, two butter beers, please," Alexa asked, sliding the coins across the counter.
"You don't have to-" Tom began, voice strained.
"You showed me around when I got here," she shrugged, "please. Let me?" He stared at her, his eyes slightly narrowed. He didn't trust this, she could tell. There was no such thing as a free lunch, after all. What he didn't realize was the exchange for the drink was his continued friendship and hopefully growing trust. "I would have literally missed all my classes the first week getting lost if it wasn't for you," she added, looking up at him.
"I feel like this isn't so much an offer as an order," he chuckled, accepting the glass from her.
"Now you're getting it," she grinned.
The table fell into stony silence as they arrived, although Alphard was quick to break it. Amelia stared determinately at her drink.
"Guess what I found out!" Alphard declared in a sing-song voice. Alexa huffed, slumping down in the booth. Tom gave her a sympathetic look.
"Please, the suspense is killing me," Amelia said, rolling her eyes.
"It's Alexa's birthday next week," Alphard declared, smug as could be.
"Which isn't a big deal," Alexa said quickly. This was her first birthday in the past, her first birthday alone in years. She had planned to simply ignore it, but Alphard was now making that impossible. Not only was she away from everyone, but she was turning eighteen, a full two years older than anybody at the table thought.
"You should have said something!" Amelia admonished, seeming to have forgotten her earlier behavior, "We could have planned something." Alexa felt cornered. Abraxas, Alphard, and Amelia were all looking at her expectantly, as if waiting for her to say something. What was she supposed to say? She hadn't brought it up on purpose because she didn't like her birthday because she'd missed seventy years worth, and then when she got out there wasn't anyone who cared? That she was in mourning for people who hadn't been born? That she had thought this year, since the war was over, she might actually be able to have a job, maybe an apartment, and host an actual party for herself?
"I'm just not a big birthday person," she shrugged, drinking her butterbeer and trying not to reveal how upset this topic was making her.
"We'll have to put something together-"
"Please don't," Alexa cut him off, "I appreciate you all, but it's not necessary." This shouldn't be upsetting her this much. It was too warm in the pub, she wanted to leave, she wanted to leave-he face was hot, and her heart began to pound. Why had she thought trying to have friends was a good idea? It was stupid, absolutely stupid and she was stupid for doing it. It was getting hard to breathe, and she forced herself to take calm, even breaths even if it felt like suffocating. Tom, she realized, was giving Alphard a very severe look. The other wizard's eyes widened, and he turned back to Alexa.
"If you really don't want to do anything, then that's fine," Alphard's voice was breezy, and he waved away Abraxas's confused protests. Dead parents. Her cover story was dead parents. Of course Tom would remember that before the rest of them. That made her behavior make sense. That was good. She could play the traumatized girl with dead parents.
She sort of was, after all.
