A/N : Hey, everyone! Finally, after having it done for months and months (it was written last July, I believe) I am posting my one-shot, which takes place Tom's fifth year somewhere during the fall term…the reason I didn't include it in my actual fic, though, is because it's more "fiction" than the rest of the story is…do read it and tell me what you think (I'll respond to you in this story next chapter if you do)…^_^
Chapter #7 – His Time in Rome
Over the next few days, Cavius got Tom to help him with the shop more than anything else. There were several things that needed to be cleaned (mainly the jewelry), and finding out what some of those things did were interesting enough to keep his attention as he listened to the stories the shopkeeper told him about the pieces. There was a necklace that had been owned by several ancient Roman women that had kept them barren. One green glass sphere was fabled to hold the power to steal Muggle souls, though Cavius had never tried it out (Tom eyed it with longing though never purchased it). And a large yellow topaz that was beautifully cut and very dusty was completely ignored by the proprietor. He said that anything organic that touched it withered into nothingness, which explained why there was a thick piece of metal between it and the wooden base of its display case.
After the shop started to seem spotless, Cavius seemed to be pleased with all their work then started to quiz Tom on his knowledge of the history of the Dark Arts. Tom could nearly recite all the major Dark witches and wizards from the Mediterranean world. He could explain the general history of the Dark Arts at length. Though his new teacher was very impressed, Tom did not think it was that amazing. He had spent three years studying all of that and had written extensive essays about it on both his OWLs and NEWTs. But the next thing Cavius quizzed him on was something that Tom had only limited knowledge about.
Devices of Dark magic was something that Sig. Riservas seemed to know a large deal about, but he was the owner of a shop that sold and bought such things, so he had to know all about them. Tom learned how to differentiate between the apparatuses just by their look or the sounds they made. He learned how to make devices to do an array of things. Tom loved studying all these things, though in the beginning his knowledge and handling of the devices was far from perfect and he was quite glad that his teacher knew all the counterspells for the devices he was learning about.
Above all other things, though, Cavius was a potion master – or, more precisely, a poisons master. Even though Tom was not as good at this as Lena was, he rather liked what he was making, knowing that some of these might one day come in handy. A few times Lena had come into Cavius' workshop and tried her hand at some of the more complex potions and poisons that she found in his books and she always made them perfectly. Sig. Riservas, though, said he would expect nothing less from the daughter of Korbin Westbrook, who he knew to be a great potion master and he was sure that his daughter would have learned a thing or two from him. And it was his teacher's high praise of Korbin more than anything else that made Tom stop worrying so much about Karl's accusations before they left Denmark.
There was also the "necessity" for Tom to learn Greek. Melantha's native tongue was Greek and it was her primary language, though she did also know Arabic, Russian, and several native African languages. She did not know either any of the five languages Tom and Lena knew, but Sig. Riservas taught them a spell that would aid them in learning any language. With the use of this spell, Tom and Lena learned to read and speak Greek fluently in a matter of three months.
Yet no matter how busy he was, he always made time to respond to his friends when they wrote him letters. He had thanked Rex especially for arranging the meeting with his grandparents and always let him know what was going on in Rome. Crinis wrote as often as he could, which was at least once every two weeks. His other friends were often too busy with work to say too much when they did write, but when Tom did get letters from them they were happily received. Tom even still got a few letters from Korbin, though he kept his responses short. Lena was saying plenty to her father, as they sent letters at least once every few days to each other.
Between keeping the shop clean and tidy and learning all the things that Cavius had to teach, the months before Tom real teacher returned from her journeys in Africa dwindled away. He did not at all regret staying with Cavius, though he had not been a great teacher he had been quite good nonetheless. He had also gotten to meet an array of Dark witches and wizards that came to the shop. Another good thing about his being halfway in charge of that shop kept Lena from spending her money in it, for he refused to sell her anything.
It was mid-July when Sig. Riservas received a letter from Lady Eirino, letting him know that she had returned from her visit to Africa and that she was ready for Tom to come see her. She had, of course, known for some time about the young man's desire to learn about the Dark Arts and she had heard many wonderful things from her Italian friend, so she was sure that he would be a good student for her to teach. She was very interested in meeting this promising young man.
"Tom," Cavius said, walking into the back one evening after closing up the shop, "I just got finished reading and responding to a letter from Melantha."
The young man was polishing a silver ring, which had allegedly killed some Italian aristocrat centuries before, as well as other more recent Muggles. The small band had just been traded in that afternoon for a book. Tom looked up at his teacher, wondering what she had said. "Does she have a date when she will be returning to her home?"
"Actually, she's already there."
There was a slightly surprised look on Tom's face. "But just last week…"
"She had to return home to deal with a little something."
Tom nodded, understanding how such things could happen. "How do I find her home?"
"What you'll need to do is fly due east of here across the Adriatic. She lives in the mountains of Albania in a large manor house. Most people that fly near her home cannot miss it. It like an oasis in the dense forest."
The mountains of Albania? Tom smiled, looking at Lena who was reading a potions book she had just bought that day, making a list of the ingredients she did not have already. Being in the middle of nowhere in Albania would keep her from spending her money. This could be a very good thing. He turned back to his teacher. "So when is she expecting me?"
"Within the next few days. She's already prepared a place for you and Lena."
On hearing her name, Lena looked up, having not been paying a bit of attention to their conversation before that. "Yes?"
"Get your things, ready, Lena, we'll be leaving tomorrow."
"Why?!"
"We're going to Albania."
The young woman was suddenly puzzled. What could there possibly be in Albania? "Why?"
"Melantha is back at her home. She is expecting us soon."
"But…"
"Do not question me…just do it."
"Alright." She stood with a sigh, closing her book, marking the spot she had been reading at with her list of ingredients she still needed. "I'll go pack now."
As she left, he smiled after her. He knew exactly why she did not like the thought of going to Albania, there was no major shopping areas there for wizards. And she had become rather lazy when it came to her going out to shop and she refused to travel very far to go shopping anymore. And with her being hundreds of miles from any good shops, she would hopefully be forced out of her shopping addiction.
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To reviewers –
Lady Mandara Snake – master's concubine? No, sorry, Lena still fills that position….but would you really want to be that? I mean, that's not really safe, you know…
Aurdomiel, Ravenstar – yes yes, that's what I thought you meant, that it's bad for Tom if Korbin's a spy…and no one would be happy if they found out they had been being used without their permission…
Liv – hmm…you make a good point, but, no, I can assure you that she is just shopping (at least as far as I know, and I know a good deal about my own OC, you know…^_~)…well, Tom will be learning from books a lot too, but, well, if he does nothing but be reclusive and study from books, how will he fulfill that "consorted with the very worst of our kind" part Dumbledore talked about? There are just some things about being a Dark wizard that you can't learn from books…but, I agree with you, that does make it seem like anyone could be a Dark wizard…
(insert name here) – made my point? ^_^ I'm glad…though I hope you weren't lying about that…:-P Eep! My one-shot…nearly forgot about that…I knew there was something I need to make an author note about in this chapter…*goes to top and adds it*…so it should be up sometime today…I tried my hardest on it, so I do hope you like it…
lord archimonde – well, snow's good too…even if it's enough to bury a house…^_^ The snow wouldn't go away so quickly then…*depressed sigh* All my snow got rained away last weekend…that's really sad, you know…I like snow…and we had had snow on the ground for nearly a full month it had been so cold…