"You haven't heard a word I've said."
Tom blinked and turned back to look at Tammy and Mia who were both staring at him expectantly. They were repotting the bouncing bulbs and Herbology was enough of a practical class that it was usually easy to carry on a conversation without being overheard.
"I-" Tom paused and raised one of his gloved hands to wipe some dirt off his nose before nodding and sighing. "Yeah, sorry."
"Is something wrong?" Mia asked, her large eyes looking worried. He didn't know if she made that face on purpose or not, but either way it was always effective at making him feel guilty.
"Nott hasn't been giving you more trouble, has he?" Tammy growled, forcing the bouncing bulb into the pot, some of her hair falling into her face, causing her to spit angrily.
Tom shook his head. "Just the normal amount," he said, which wasn't a lie. It wasn't Nott who'd shoved him into the broom cupboard in the main hall and used a sticky charm to shut it up, causing him to miss his afternoon classes the day before. It had been his older cousin, Victor Hewitt, a fourth year with a nasty streak as bad as his cousin's. And it hadn't been Nott who had "accidentally" pushed him down the last landing of the stairs in the Great Hall before lunch that day. It had been a third year girl from Slytherin, one he recognized as one of Hewitt's friends.
"Good, I'll tell Justin to hex him if he is," Mia said, holding the pot steady as Tammy hissed at the bouncing bulb.
"Sit still!" She snapped, burying it under some dirt.
"So what's the matter then?" Mia continued, ignoring the way Tammy was trying to murder the poor plant via asphyxiation.
"Nothing really," Tom said, not that he didn't trust telling the two girls about what was going on. Tammy took care of herself well enough, she'd already punched one of the Gryffindor boys in the nose in one of the Charms classes, something multiple of the Hufflepuffs has told him with glee, leaving Tammy to look fairly smug the rest of the week. Mia had Justin glaring at people over her shoulder if they so much as looked at her wrong and she was too nice overall to draw any sort of bad attention. They'd just worry and he didn't want them to.
"Are you worried about that Defense test?" Mia continued on, "Cause you're going to get everything right again, y'know Professor Merrythought told us we should have you tutor us if we needed help because you get top marks."
Tom felt the tips of his ears grow red and he ducked his head. Defense Against the Dark Arts was one of his favorite subjects, but he also spent an absurd amount of time in the library, reading and studying. He didn't want any excuse to be kicked out of Hogwarts and sent back to the Wool's.
"Come off it," Tammy snapped and Tom wondered if he should take the pot and unearth the bouncing bulb before she killed it, "Like I said, you're already helping me pass Potions and Astronomy is absolutely horrible if I don't get to spend the entire time mucking up your telescope."
"Is that your way of saying you need help with the Potions homework again?" Tom deadpanned.
"I will trade you my firstborn," Tammy said back, just as serious, causing Mia to choke on some spit.
"You already traded me that to help you with the first test," Tom said flippantly, taking Tammy's pot from her and gently clearing dirt off the bouncing bulb, enough so it would get air and sunlight, but not enough that it could bounce out of the pot.
"My second born then," She said and paused as Professor Beery swept passed them, checking their bulbs, giving an approving nod before heading off to the next group.
"You're getting the short end of this deal," Mia quipped when he walked away, "She's basically making you liable to take care of all her future children."
"Who said I'd even end up having kids," Tammy grumbled, pulling off her dragonhide gloves. "Sounds boring, getting married and being some housewife."
"That's the trick then, you promise me all these unborn children and don't have any," Tom said with a smirk, sliding the pot onto its spot on the shelf. "Besides, I'd never trust you with a child the way you handle plants."
"Fair enough," Mia agreed. They all paused as the bell rang and cleared the dirt off using the spell Professor Beery had taught them and gathered their things.
"I'm hungry," Tammy complained as they trudged out of the greenhouses. Tom shivered as he felt the slight nip in the air, wishing he'd brought his scarf along with him.
"We only just had lunch," Mia said simply, walking between the pair, wrapped her cloak more tightly around herself.
"She's only saying that because she forgot her Potions homework again," Tom said, earning a rough whack from Tammy's bag. He tried not to wince too much as it struck his side where he could feel a bruise forming from his trip down the stairs.
"Well, we have a break between now and Potions, and you don't have a class until Astronomy tonight," Mia said, blocking the bag from whacking Tom a second time, "Why don't we go to the library and we'll help her and I'll finish up the last paragraph I need to do."
"And don't you dare complain, you spend all your time in there anyways," Tammy grumbled, slinging the bag back onto her shoulder, what with Mia blocking her target.
"I would never," Tom said, smirking.
"You hanging out with your girlfriends again, Tom?" A voice called from behind them. Tom groaned, mostly inwardly but he may have made a noise out loud with the look Mia was giving him.
"Can't I curse him?" Tammy asked quietly, pressing her palms together as she looked back and forth between Mia and Tom, "Pretty please with sugar on top?"
"You don't know any curses," Tom grumbled, staring ahead of them decidedly, trying to avoid the other Slytherin.
"Oye, I'm talking to you!" Nott snapped, getting closer, "Don't think you can just ignore me you freak."
"Shove off, Nott," Tammy snapped over her shoulder, "We have better things to be doing with our time than dealing with you."
"I wasn't talking to you, pretty Hufflepuff Princess," Nott sneered. Avery and Mulciber were on either side of him, Avery looking decidedly uncomfortable and Mulciber looking bored, but neither seemed willing to stop their roommate, as was the norm. "Heir of Hufflepuff and Misses Ansel are a bit out of my pay grade."
"Come on," Tom said, turning again, "We don't have time for this," he said to Tammy, grabbing her elbow and turning her away to the doors of the Entrance Hall.
"I told you," Nott snapped, leaning forward, grabbing onto Tom's sleeve and jerking him backwards, "Don't. Ignore. Me."
Tom stumbled, his bag spilling everywhere, his books and papers tumbling out and his inkwell shattering, soaking everything. He tried to overcorrect himself and stumbled forward, his knees hitting the stone path and he scrunched up his nose as he reached to save his books from the ink.
Nott chortled and Avery made a snorting noise. The three Slytherin boys and other students coming up behind them all sidestepped the mess as Tammy and Mia kneeled down.
"Oh Tom…" Mia said. Tammy scrambled to grab papers out of the way of the spilling ink and the footsteps of other students coming up the path behind them.
"It's fine, I can get McDermott to fix it when we get to the library," he said, grabbing up the books that hadn't been soiled and shoving them back in his bag.
"No…" Mia made a face and looked down at his arm. Tom blinked and followed her gaze. Nott had torn his robe when he'd yanked it, revealing the large green and purple bruise on his arm.
"It's fine," Tom said quickly, yanking on the fabric to cover the mark, "I'm fine."
"What?" Tammy asked, looking up finally, "What do you mean?" She looked quickly from Tom to Mia. Mia bit her lip, clearly upset, torn between whether to tell her friend or not.
"I tripped earlier," He said instead, looking to Tammy, "I have a bruise on my arm and she's worrying about it."
Tammy blinked, pushing herself to her feet and holding the ink-soaked papers out in front of her. "Tom, don't lie to me like I'm an idiot."
Tom felt his ears burn again and he frowned and looked away. He was usually so good at lying, but the more time he spent with Mia and Tammy the easier it was for them to tell when he was. He didn't like it. It was the only thing he didn't like about their friendship.
There was a long pause between the three. Mia looked like she might cry and Tammy and Tom were both glaring anywhere but each other like their lives depended on it.
"Fine." Tammy finally said, turning to the doors, her face set with annoyance.
Tom inhaled slowly. I wanted to console her, lie, or tell a half lie that everything was fine and nothing weird was happening that he wasn't telling them about. It felt easier than them worrying about him, or the mental exhaustion that came over him when he thought about telling them about how Nott was trying to escalate things. Instead, he stayed quiet and followed the girls up to the library, where the fussy matron happily fixed up Tom's sleeve and his papers and books, fixing the broken inkwell and returning the ink to it. She even accepted Tom's excuse about the bruise on his arm without question, despite Mia's frown.
"Right as rain," the woman said happily, levitating Tom's items back to him. "Now don't get ink on my books, they're liable to bite if you do.
"Yes Madam McDermott," Mia said dutifully and the matron moved off to finish checking in books that had been left.
"Do you have any transfiguration homework?" Tammy asked, pulling her books out of her bag when they grabbed one of the tables.
Tom paused and then nodded as he slid into a seat, "Just about done with it."
"Give it here," she said, holding her hand out, the other already flipping her potions books open. "I'll go over it for you since that's the only thing I think I'm vaguely better than you in."
Tom swallowed and nodded pulling the parchment out. He could hear Mia getting out her book and parchment as well, but Tammy was staring at him.
"If you don't want to tell us what's going on- you don't have to," Tammy said quietly, looking down at the parchment he'd handed her. "But… just don't lie about it, okay?"
Tom paused and then nodded, "Okay."
"No," she snapped, looking up at him, her eyes glaring daggers at him, "I'm serious, you can say you don't want to tell us but don't just lie or say you're fine when you're clearly not."
Tom shifted uncomfortably and looked over to Mia, but she was still staring at her parchment, refusing to look at either of them.
"Okay," He said finally, "I promise."
Tammy visibly relaxed and nodded. "Thanks… Are they all like that?"
"Who?" Tom asked, taking Tammy's open potions book.
"Slytherins," She said. He'd never heard her say the word like that, like some kind of bad title, dripping with venom.
Mia's head finally shot up, her eyes narrowed, "Justin's not-"
"I know Justin's not, he's been giving me piggyback rides for the last seven years of my life," Tammy shot back at her best friend before looking at Tom again. "But what about the rest of them? I know Avery, Mulciber, and Nott are all shits, but I've talked a little with Sable and Delaney in class, they seem decent enough, even if Eaton and Hornby are both a bit… rough."
Tom blinked. He knew the names, obviously, he'd been at Hogwarts for two months, but he'd honestly had very little interaction with anyone besides Tammy and Mia, and his day to day avoidance of Nott, Mulciber and Avery. Even the girls in his year he'd only had the briefest of conversations in passing, usually about classes or homework. They avoided him like the plague and he returned the favor. He had two friends and that was more than he'd ever had before, he didn't particularly feel the need for more.
"I've never been good at making friends, I just… ignore them for the most part," he said simply instead.
Tammy snorted. "That's an understatement."
"I think he means he's quiet and introverted," Mia said simply, looking at Tom with something that he couldn't place. "I think he intimidates them."
Tom frowned, his eyebrows knitting together. "Me?"
"Well, yeah," she said, tapping her quill on her book. "Think about it- they all know each other- Nott, Muliber, Avery, Eaton, Royston, Jennings and Hornby," She said, ticking off all the Slytherins in first year besides Tom, "Along with the rest of the purebloods from the other houses. We all grew up knowing each other, even at least just vaguely, but they have no idea who you are, and they can't just ignore you like they would with someone from another house, because they have to share a bedroom and a common room with you- you live in their space."
"That doesn't explain why I'd intimidate them," Tom said, jotting down the main points of the potions homework for Tammy to rewrite as her own.
"Because like you said, you ignore them." Mia said with a shrug, "I don't think Nott has ever had someone he considers an equal or a lesser ignore him. So that puts you in a category off on your own, something they don't know quite what to do with," she explained, taking the parchment from Tom to add to her own homework. "And you're also topping out in almost all our classes, a nobody from London they've never heard of beating all of them in the game of grades."
There was a stunned silence as Tammy and Tom stared at Mia and she blinked back at them. "What? Did I say something rude?"
"I think that's the most insightful thing I've ever heard you say," Tammy said, sounding impressed. "And that's a lot of years to hold that shite in- I didn't know you paid that much attention to all of it."
Mia frowned, dipping her quill into her ink. "Just because I'm nice and bubbly doesn't mean I'm dim. Mum and Dad took me to plenty of those pureblood parties with Justin and they all move around like hawks, waiting for a mouse to pop up."
Tom was also impressed. Mia was very emotionally intelligent, she always seemed to know what he or Tammy was feeling or what they needed to cheer them up, but he'd never noticed her paying attention to everything on a broader scale before.
"So what should I do then, in your expert opinion," Tom asked.
"Nothing," Mia said simply, and at Tom's frown, she elaborated, "Honestly, Tom, you think I'm going to tell you to act differently just because they're all a bunch of prats? Learn some spells and stand up for yourself so Nott doesn't do whatever got you that bruise-"
"It wasn't Nott," He said simply.
"Whoever it was then- if you don't do something he's going to keep it up." Mia finished.
Tom looked to Tammy, who was leaning her chin her palm, her elbow propped up on the table. "What are you thinking?"
"Honestly? No clue. Slytherins confuse me, if you want to say something, then say it to my face," she said, leaning back with a sigh, "I wouldn't be able to put up with this, I'd have already learned a book of curses and used all of them." She paused as Tom slid her the parchment paper so she could begin writing down her Potions homework. "Do you ever wish you were put into another house?"
Of course he had. He'd even put a little bit of thought into what the hat had said about being a Gaunt, but it was clear the hat knew more about who Tom was than he'd let on during the sorting, and maybe that was why he was sorted into Slytherin.
"A couple of times," he admitted, "But honestly, outside of Nott- I like it. It's quiet in the common room most of the time, people leave me alone. It feels like more of a home than I've ever had."
"Even with your uncle?" Mia asked, frowning.
Tom nodded, "We never got on great," he lied and hoped Mia wouldn't push it further. She'd only had asked a couple of times here and there before about the uncle he'd made up on the Hogwarts Express, and no one else had at all.
They spent the rest of the time helping Tammy finish up her Potions homework and she had just enough time to make a few suggestions on his transfiguration homework when the bell rang.
"Ugh, kill me now," Tammy groaned loudly, shoving her books into her bag, "I don't want to deal with Slughorn."
"Just focus on not blowing up your cauldron this time," Tom said with a smirk, watching the two pack up.
"One time!" She hissed, "That was one time!"
"It was actually the third time," Mia said to him quietly and the pair jogged out of the library, missing the wrath of McDermott for not walking. Tom smirked and gathered his belongings. The table was good for working, but he preferred the reading chairs in the back, so he planned to nip to the loo before settling down with the book on Medieval Wizardry he'd been reading. He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder, giving McDermott a small wave, but she was busy levitating books to their proper shelves.
He pushed the door open to the lavatory right beside the library and heard raised voices. He paused at the noise, instinctively pushing himself against the wall.
"I'll report you to a prefect!" Someone said. A boy, which made sense given they were in the boys' bathrooms.
"And what will they do?" Tom didn't recognize the other voice. They were likely from another house. He debated walking back out and going up a floor to another bathroom, but the boy continued on, "Nothing, that's what, you're just a scared first year, after all, no one cares, so pass it over and I'll leave you be."
Tom frowned decided against leaving. Instead, he turned the corner like he could hear Tammy in the back of his mind yelling at him to intervene. He knew the younger one, they had classes together- Lupin, right? "There you are Lupin, I thought you'd forgotten about me." He said loudly with a large smile on his face, "Come on, I need help with that Transfiguration homework."
Lupin, who was plastered against the corner of the wall looked from the taller boy in front of him to Tom and then slowly nodded. "Uhh, yeah, s-sorry."
The other boy, an older Gryffindor turned and glared at Tom. "Sod off, we're having a conversation, you can wait for him in the library." Lupin had begun inching his way out of the corner but the boy saw, drawing his wand and Tom drew his as well, pointing it at the throat of the boy in front of him.
"What are you going to do, snake?" The older boy taunted, looking at Tom out of the corner of his eye. "Shoot sparks at me?"
Tom felt the corner of his lip twitch. "Sure, want to see?" The older boy's eyes narrowed at the confidence in Tom's voice. "Incendio!" The boy flinched, dropping his wand as flames shot out of Tom's wand at him, setting the nape and the back of the boy's robes on fire. Tom leaned forward and grabbed Lupin's arm, dragging him out of the bathroom as the other boy cursed behind them. It wasn't until they hit the doors of the library, near the line of sight of McDermott's desk that they both paused, panting heavily.
"That was brilliant," Lupin said breathlessly. "Whenever I have to use that one I only get a few sparks!"
Tom swallowed and nodded, "I've been practicing."
"Well, it paid off…" Lupin trailed off and then straightened up. "Seriously mate, I owe you one, Clark's been on me all week."
"What for?" Tom asked.
"It was my birthday last week and my mum and dad sent me some money to owl order some things if I want, or to send my older brother with when he goes to Hogsmeade." He explained and then held out his hand. "I don't think we've ever talked outside of class, I'm Lyall Lupin."
Tom took the hand and shook it, "Tom Riddle."
"You're the one Nott has it in for, right?" Lupin asked, "Me and some of the guys have heard him talking about putting you in your place. What did you do to piss him off?"
"Existed?" Tom asked, shrugging his shoulders.
"Sounds about right," Lupin said and sighed. "Well, since I owe you, do you actually need help with transfiguration? Don't you have top marks in all the classes?"
"I don't think Dumbledore likes me," Tom admitted. He'd thought it would be nice, having met the man before having started classes but the ginger seemed to ignore him if he could and didn't act familiar with him. One of the older Slytherins said it was because Professor Dumbledore was the Head of Gryffindor, and disliked the Slytherins as a whole, but he wasn't so certain about it. He didn't pointedly ignore the other first years Slytherins when they raised a hand in class.
"I'm done with my homework for tomorrow," Tom added on, "but I'll keep it in mind for next time."
Lupin shot him a warm smile, "Great. I'll have to hit you up for help in Defense, Merrythought said you were the one to ask, but, y'know, you're kind of-" He waved a hand like he couldn't think of the right word.
"Kind of what?" Tom asked, frowning.
"Y'know, stand-offish? Like you don't want to be bothered by other people." Lupin explained, a bit of red coloring his cheeks, "Sorry, I couldn't think of a better way-"
"It's fine," Tom cut in, shaking his head, "I guess I am. I'm not used to people wanting to talk to me, I guess. I don't mind helping though."
"I'll pass the word around then," Lupin said with a smile, "Thanks again, see you tonight for Astronomy," the other first year said, waving as he walked off. Tom watched him go and wondered what Nott would do if he found out Tom was helping a Gryffindor.
A/N: Posting this tonight because I'm currently on a mountain in the middle of Nowhere Georgia for a family reunion. It's nice and I'm enjoying the trip, but we're in a cabin with no wifi and my sister needed a hotspot to do her homework so I'm stealing it to post the chapter a little early.
We're moving along and meeting more of the players in this chapter. Yes. Lyall is Remus's father, we don't know anything about Remus's family outside of his mom and dad so Lyall gets an older brother because why not. I deem it so. As always, this is something I'm doing in my spare time, but I do have all the chapter planned out up until the reboot of Empathetic, and a good bit already written out. If you want to support me or read more of my writing, I'd really appreciate it if you checked out my original works at Strongwind Academy dot com, or on our WattPad, if that's your preference (wattpad dot com (/) user (/)strongwindacademy) [remove spaces and parenthesis]
Part of the reason I write fanfiction is my need for a story that hasn't been written yet, but I also enjoy hearing feedback from the readers, and we really need that over on Strongwind Academy, so if you have any time at all, we'd love your feedback. Thanks!
