CHAPTER FOUR

"What are we doing here?" Araminta thought fast. "We're trying to get away from these emos!"

"Maybe we should try to blend in," Tom said carefully.

"Okay--oh, why did you have to throw away your glasses?" Araminta ripped the Slytherin crest from Tom's sweater and shrunk it with her wand. "Shoes good--let me see what I can do with your hair...do you have any grease on your hands? Rub it in. Hey, you look pretty hot."

"Thanks," Tom said, smiling shyly. They walked past another gang of emos, who stared openly at Araminta but didn't pay much attention to Tom except to say, "He looks kind of old."

"I should hit them with Cruciatus until their tiny little dinosaur brains fall out of their ears." Tom inhaled deeply and made a face. "What's that smell?"

Araminta looked over a fence. "La Brea Tar Pits. Maybe they're descended from the dinosaurs trapped in there?"

Tom laughed. "You know, Araminta, you're kind of funny. And when you're funny, you're cute."

"You're not so bad yourself," Araminta replied, blushing from her toes to the tips of her shell-like ears and feeling a little...tingly...all over.

"I get it from my granddad, or so I'm told." Tom twined his fingers with Araminta's, and they stood looking into each other's eyes as the swiftly-moving traffic blasted them with hot clouds of exhaust and ruffled their hair and clothes.

Araminta had never experienced such sensations of warmth and headiness. It didn't occur to her that it might be the Tar Pit fumes and carbon monoxide that made her dizzy--Tom was standing too close. His eyes were mysterious and shiny and he whispered in her ear: "You woke me up inside, woke me up inside, called my name and saved me from the dark."

"Yes, well, Evanescence is very nice, Tom," she said, taking a step back, "but there's something more you need to know. You see, you're dead."

"Huh?"

"You trapped a version of yourself in this diary, and it's lucky you did. You see, in the past, but before your present, you tried to kill the Potter family. You took care of the mom, Lily, and the dad, James, with ease, but when you tried to kill baby Harry, he got you instead and your spirit had to wander the earth until Peter Pettigrew--I don't know if he's even born in your present--got your back and helped to resurrect you.

"Then, I was--thought I was--born to Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. You'll probably know Draco's dad, Lucius. Anyway, a Time-Turner took me back in time, and I thought I needed to help Harry and Draco get together, because there was a prophecy saying that Potter would find love in the arms of a Malfoy--only, we misinterpreted it. Draco had to fall in love with my mum Hermione so I'd be born, and Harry was for me. Only..." Araminta wasn't sure she wanted to let Tom know she'd helped kill him. Or that Harry had killed him, sort of, in the Chamber of Secrets (which was one of her favorite bedtime stories as a child)."Only, when I went back in time, things happened. You didn't rise to be a powerful wizard, you didn't kill Lily and James, and you didn't rise more powerful than ever."

"Ah, I can see where you'd want to correct that." Tom nodded understandingly. "I'd like that to happen, too. So, what are we going to do about it?"

"I think we have to get rid of Lily and James," Araminta mused. "They're the wrongest thing about this time."

Tom walked behind Araminta and pressed himself to her back, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Eek. Tom, I'm not sure we know each other well enough," she protested as he raised her skirt above her knees and stuck out her hand so she had a thumb up.

Bang!

Suddenly, a huge purple bus pulled up to the curb. "'Ow do 'oo do?" said a boy with acne, but Tom punched him on the nose. Then, he clambered aboard, grabbed the driver by the collar, and threw him bodily off the bus.

"We'll be taking this," Tom said. Araminta hopped aboard and the doors of the bus closed behind her. She climbed into the bed behind the driver's seat as Tom pulled into traffic with the words, "I tram lord. V. Old emo."