"Snake Venom."
The door to the Slytherin Common Room opened, allowing Buffy to walk into the greenish gloom. Down in the main chamber, the fire that was normally lit and crackling in the grate had gone out, and there was a chill over the room. With a shiver, Buffy took out her wand and cast a Warming Charm over herself, a small flare of light in the semi-darkness of the room.
"Been sssomewhere nice?" Tom called from the shadows. The only sign of his frustration was the slight hiss when he pronounced his words.
Buffy visibly jumped. "Tom! I could have -. Um, why didn't you cough, or yodel or something instead of sneaking up on me?" She peered over at him, having worked out his exact location from the sound of his voice.
Tom moved away from the pillar where he'd been hiding, his light steps making no noise on the thick rug. Purposely, he stepped closer to her than what was polite, and cast a muted Lumos orb. Never taking his eyes off her, he threw the light upwards, where it hovered above their heads.
Buffy tilted her head and watched him in return. Her green eyes ran over his face – taking in the tousled, uncombed hair, the dark shadows beneath his eyes, and – no doubt – the pinched set to his lips. He made no attempt to keep the anger off his face, something most would find unnerving. Buffy simply regarded him placidly, although he noted that she eyed his wand and then angled her body better to defend herself. That surprised him. She'd yet to duel, so how did she know anything about defence?
"Tell me, where you have been?" he asked coldly. "Don't bother to lie. Believe me, I shall know if you do."
"Um, I wasn't about to."
Surprisingly, Buffy stepped forward and closed the distance between them. They were so close now that he could feel the warmth from her Warming Charm and the chill from her body beneath it. She smelt of the forest, of the lake, and – oddly – of horses. Tom checked her over surreptitiously, searching for signs of injury and berating himself as he did so. All the time she'd been gone, he'd been imagining different scenarios where she'd been injured and lay, unable to get help. He'd spent the night anxiously watching the clock and was just about to give up and inform Slughorn when she'd waltzed in; her hair mussed, clothing in disarray, and a faraway look in her eyes.
"You were about to lie," he ground out angrily. "Admit it." He was angry at himself as much as her. She'd no thought for him and he should know better than to care.
"Tom, I..." Buffy reached for him, saw the flash of resentment in his eyes and lowered her hand.
Gritting his teeth, Tom folded his arms – to stop himself from becoming an even bigger fool and touching her. "Kindly explain where you've been until now."
Buffy peeked at him from under her lashes. "The answer to that... depends."
"Depends?" What in Merlin's name was she on about?
"Are you asking me as a prefect or as Tom?"
He stared at her stonily. "There should be no difference."
"Oh, but there is!" she exclaimed, giving him an arch look and a little smile.
He didn't return the smile. Why should he? She hadn't thought to take him into her confidence earlier and tell him where she was going.
Undeterred, Buffy continued, "Because if you're gonna be Prefect-guy, I only went to find a favourite quill that I dropped... um, in the hall... just outside the door. On the other hand, if you're asking as the Tom I know and love –." Her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. Dropping her eyes, she spluttered, "Ig-ignore that! I-I didn't mean... I'm not saying... I don't..."
She didn't consider him worthy of love? Why? Because he wasn't a 'nice' person? He knew he wasn't – and had never been according to Mrs Cole. She took great delight in telling him that all the couples who'd come seeking a child, had looked at him, and walked away from his cradle. That they'd known straight away that there was something wrong with him.
Buffy regained her composure and went on, "Yeah, so now we've got that straight, where was I?"
His dark eyes met hers, betraying none of his hurt. "Hopefully, explaining where you'd sneaked off to and why."
She caught her lower lip between her white teeth. "Um... if I tell you, are you gonna go prefect on me?"
"I may be a prefect, but..." he reached up to tap the badge pinned to his lapel.
It had gone!
"My badge!" Tom cast another Lumos and scoured the floor where they were standing. "I don't see it. Do you?"
He'd worked so hard to get that badge and now he'd lost it. He'd need to tell Slughorn. Slughorn would think him careless. Panic set in. The panic of an orphan who'd grown up with no real possessions of his own and treasured the few that came his way.
Buffy grabbed his forearm. His magic jolted as hers touched his, and then soothed as she said, "Tom, it's right here." She opened her hand, showing him the green prefect badge lying in her palm.
Tom frowned. "How did... Oh, never mind."
When he reached for the badge, Buffy closed her fist and put her hand behind her back. "Promise me... promise you won't go to Sluggy if I give it to you."
"You took it off my robe?" How, without him noticing?
She didn't try to deny it.
"Give it back, please," he asked tersely. With anyone else he wouldn't have bothered to say please, he'd have just snatched it. Stealing his badge? And was she really trying to blackmail him? Whatever she'd been up to tonight, it must be bad.
She beseeched him with her eyes. "Please, promise me first, Tom. Promise me you'll not tell."
His gaze hardened. Did she expect him to cover up her clandestine meetings? "Why should I?" he spat. The carved snakes on the fireplace writhed and lunged, angry at her on his behalf.
Buffy stared silently at him as if she'd never seen him before. When he saw the flash of disappointment, it crushed him more than she'd ever know. That wasn't the way he wanted it to be, but it was the way it was.
"What happened to you, Tom?" she asked quietly. "What happened to the Tom I knew from Wools? The Tom who snuck out under Coley's nose, broke into the town hall, and wasn't afraid of fighting his enemies?" She dropped the prefect badge into his hand. "You've let the badge go to your head."
Tom smiled thinly and pinned the badge back into place. She had him all wrong. "This isn't about being a prefect. You have no idea of the long game that I'm playing, Buffy. Never fear, the old Tom you knew from the orphanage is still very much in here." He patted his chest, knowing that she'd seen nothing yet. That he was far worse than she'd ever know – that he'd ever want her to know.
"What long game?" Buffy asked, curious.
"I want to be Head Boy." The answer would stave off further questions. He had so many plans for the future, plans that... Was she trying to deflect the conversation away from herself and onto him? That was sneaky of her, and he grudgingly admired her for it. "Where did you go tonight?"
Buffy sat on the arm of a sofa. "To seek revenge on my enemies." She peeked at him from under her lashes again, to see if he disapproved.
Tom sat down on the arm of an adjacent sofa. Revenge? Unexpected and interesting. "Explain further. Revenge on whom? And who were you with? Was it Lovell?" His voice unconsciously lowered. "Or sssomeone else?"
Caradoc's face had been in his head, but if his assessment of the boy was correct, the Gryffindor was too much of a goody-goody to help a Slytherin girl get her revenge. Now, if Buffy had asked him, he'd have willingly helped her.
She blinked in surprise, and he knew she was telling the truth when she said, "No one. I went on my own – ."
"Leaving behind a House-elf as your accomplice," Tom mused. "I've met your friend Tiptoes."
Buffy gave him a bright smile. "Isn't she nice?"
"She was distraught," Tom replied crisply. Could a House-elf be nice? He'd never considered it before. "She thought that she'd sent you to your death by letting you out. It took ages to reassure her. Once she'd calmed down, I sent her to bed and left the door unlocked for you." He didn't mention how Tiptoes had jumped onto his leg and kissed his kneecap. That was something he'd rather forget.
"Ah, guess I'll need to speak to her tomorrow." A strand of lake weed hit one of the windows, startling Buffy and making her frown over at it.
"So... this revenge you went to seek..." Tom prompted. A dark shadow darted past the window, and Buffy's eyes narrowed.
"Probably a Mer or a Kelpie," Tom said, quietly. "We often see them swimming past. Don't worry about it."
"Hmm." Buffy wrenched her head away, to look him in the eye again. "I went searching for the Dementors. Dippy said they'd been spotted around Hogsmeade and I wanted to find them."
Her answer made Tom's gut clench. "Are you completely insane?! It isn't your job to take those on!" She looked at him sadly, although he'd no idea why. It made Tom feel like ripping at his hair in frustration. He took a breath. "Look, have you forgotten what they did to you?"
After seeing her fall lifelessly from the sky, he'd had nightmares. He'd dreamt the Slowing Charm hadn't worked, that she'd hit the ground at high speed and died, broken and bleeding in his arms. He'd woken from it drenched in sweat and hugging his bed curtain. Merlin knows what Malfoy and Nott had thought about it. He hated death; he saw it too often at the orphanage and then again in the bombed streets of London.
"I had to," she responded a little too brightly. "That's what Dumbledore said I should do. He said, get back on my Hippogriff and overcome the trauma."
"Dumbledore is an arse," Tom muttered dryly. "But even he'd never tell you to sneak out in the middle of the night to face Dementors."
Buffy laughed. "Maybe not. But he's bossy. And he's nosy too."
"Unquestionably." A smile tugged at Tom's lips. "Looking at the shape of his nose, someone else thought the same as us and bopped him on it."
Buffy's eyes sparkled with mischief. "Yep, busted for putting it where it wasn't wanted. I know the feeling."
"So do I." Tom grinned, the thought of someone punching the powerful Wizard delighting him. He hoped they'd gotten a way with it. It was odd, though, that Dumbledore hadn't repaired the broken bone. There must be a story there. He wondered what it was.
Buffy went on, "So... despite my best efforts tracking the dark and creepies down, it was a complete bust. I didn't find any sign of Dementors or Dumbledore's Hippogriffs."
"So what happened?" Tom asked, knowing there was more to this story. " You come back without your cap, your clothes are full of mud, and your coat is buttoned up all wrong..."
Buffy looked down. Quickly unbuttoning her coat when she saw he was right.
"Then there is your hair..."
"My hair?!" She let out a squeal, putting her hands on her head. "What's wrong with my hair?"
"It's stood up at right angles -."
Before he'd time to finish the sentence, Buffy rushed to the nearest mirror and cast a Lumos. When she saw the state of her hair, she gasped, let out a wail and began to press down the sections. No matter how hard she flattened or finger-combed them, they sprung back.
Her girlish panic made him smile until Buffy said, "I'm so gonna kill him for this!"
Instantly, his amusement vanished. "Him?"
"Rory."
"Who's Rory?"
Buffy stilled. "A... guy that I met. I, er, accidentally fell into the lake with him."
So that was why she smelt of lake water. "Is he a student?"
"Um, no," she replied. She went back to patting down her hair. "Rory is... older than us. He's also a bit on the weird side with a whacky sense of humour and I'm so gonna get him back for this." She stilled again; this time as if she was thinking over something. "You know what's crazy?" She laughed. "Every time I take a dive in the Black Lake I get a marriage proposal. Is that a British thing?"
"No." His eyes locked hers in the reflection. "Are you meeting this Rory again?"
Buffy gnawed her bottom lip, considering. "He's getting me some information on... Dementors and other things."
He must work for the Ministry, Tom thought. Marcus had told him that Lupin and others were in the area. Was Rory on their team?
"I don't feel comfortable meeting him near the Black Lake," Buffy continued, "so I said it had to be in a public place. Somewhere dry." She chuckled again, spotting a joke where he could see none. "He's arranged to meet me in the Hog's Head. I don't know when. Guess that depends on if and when he gets the info."
Tom rose from the arm of the sofa. "Ten points from Slytherin, for breaking curfew," he said mechanically. He had to get away from her. Why wasn't he strong enough to keep away from her? He was torturing himself.
"Hey! I thought you were my friend?"
"Friend?" Tom faced her, his wand half-raised. Looking for all the world as if he'd love to hex her with it when really he wanted to hex himself. "You're lucky that I'm not taking you to Slughorn and letting him deal with you. Not only would he dock you fifty points, but he'd give you nightly detention for the next six months."
She blinked, seeming surprised at his vehemence. How little she knew him. He could be worse, so much worse. Perhaps that was the way out of the situation for him? If he could make her hate him, she'd stay away again and he wouldn't have to deal with any of... this.
"If I reported you to the Headmaster, what do you think he'd say? A young girl, breaking the rules too meet older Wizards and returning at dawn with clothing in disarray? I'm sure he'd draw unpleasant conclusions."
He didn't see her draw her wand – she was lightning fast – but he heard the incantation for the Jelly-Legs Curse.
"PROTEGO!" Tom flicked his wand, blocking Buffy's spell easily. "That's pathetic, Buffy. If you want to take me on in a duel, you'll have to do much better than that."
And then he walked away, hating doing it, hating that he'd upset her. He told himself that he didn't care. At least now, she'd avoid him. Which was a good thing since he was too weak to keep away from her.
…..
Fuming, Buffy watched Tom walk out of the room without a backward glance. She tapped her wand against her hand, but didn't throw any more hexes. His parting words stung all the more because they were true. She did need to learn how to cast spells faster, silently if possible, and even without her wand. She had a lot of enemies out there who'd stop at nothing to kill her.
But what was eating at Tom? Sure, he'd been annoyed that she'd snuck out, but once she'd explained they'd gotten along fine. She frowned, looking at the mirror once more. Rory! Was he jealous of a Pook? And then she remembered, she hadn't explained that Rory was a Pook. Embarrassed at what happened with the Kelpie, she hadn't explained properly, knowing he'd scold her for lack of care. Annoyance settled over her. Tom had no reason for jealousy or possessiveness – he'd no right...
And then she thought of Wools: of the cell like bedroom he'd grown up in, the greyness, the strict routine, the fact that orphans had no possessions of their own – even their clothes were passed from child to child. You had to have lived there to know the unrelenting horror of it.
"Oh, Tom..." she whispered sadly. She shivered again and walked over to the fireplace, casting a Fire Charm and stretching out her hands to the flames to warm herself.
The carved snake on the right-hand side of the fireplace saw that she was within range and lunged. Without thinking, she snatched at it, caught it behind its head, and squeezed – hard. There was a snap and she stared down at the severed snake's head in her hand, its body still writhing on the stone column.
Her eyes widen. "Crap!" She'd broken a statue! An animated one! What should she do?
The other carved snake on the fireplace slid behind its column, peering at her with frightened eyes and in her hand the snake's severed head hissed weakly.
"Sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean it!" she cried. "I'll fix it – somehow. " Would it reattach if she put it back? She lined up the two pieces of broken stone and then let go. The head fell to the floor with a loud clunk and its eye socket broke. The other stone snake hid completely behind the pillar.
"Ooops! I'm such a ditz!" Picking the head up, she carefully replaced it onto the body and held it in place. How was she going to mend it? Would a general Sticking Charm work? She'd need something to hold it in place while she cast the spell.
Buffy looked around wildly, her eyes alighting on a tea tray left lying on a nearby coffee table. Tom must have had tea and toast for supper. Next to the plate was a small container that held the jelly. No, not jelly, she amended, it was called jam here. She'd once made the mistake of asking for jelly with her toast and been given something that wobbled and looked as if it might crawl off her plate. Fiona and Uma had thought it hilarious.
Buffy stretched out with her leg and hooked the table with her foot. Pulling it towards her so that it was within grabbing reach, she picked up the butter knife and used it to smear the snake's neck with jam. It hissed weakly and closed its eyes. Was it dying? Buffy hoped not. If she'd killed a magical thousand-year-old stone snake she'd be in big trouble.
"Nice snakey." She pressed the head back onto its body and it listed drunkenly to one side. "I'll soon have that fixed," she reassured it.
Her Sticking Charms were always a bit hit and miss, and the one she cast wasn't all that great. She regarded the snake critically. It looked gruesome with its head listing to one side, a broken eye, and strawberry jam around its neck. "You sorta look like Nearly Headless Nick," she told it, hoping it would feel better.
The snake opened its mouth and hissed feebly in protest.
"I have to say, that was better than watching clowns at the circus," drawled a boy's voice from the doorway that led to the boy's dorms.
Buffy jumped and let out a startled shriek. "What is it with you guys? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"
Travers pushed back his black hair, leaned against the door jamb and raised an eyebrow at her. "Silent and deadly, rather like vampires. Do you know anything about that particular type of demon, Buffy? I don't mean the ones who were magical, they tend to keep their souls and live on as a shaded version of themselves. I mean the ones who take over the bodies of dead Muggles?"
"Er, nope." Deny everything and act stupid, that was her mantra. "I know nothing."
"Then I have the very book to educate you. It's entitled 'Vampyre',"Travers continued. "It might come in handy for someone... like you."
The injured snake hissed weakly at him and wound itself tightly around the stone column. Buffy looked from the snake to the boy. "Um, thanks, think I'm gonna pass on that."
Did he know that she was a Slayer? He acted as if he did. He even seemed to have inside knowledge about the two kinds of vampires she'd met. Travers was a name long associated with the Watcher's Council and it seemed too much of a coincidence he was here...
God! Lovell would kill her if she blurted out that she was a Slayer to Travers. And what if the Watcher's Council still existed here in some form? Would they come and take her out of Hogwarts as they'd done with the last Slayer? What if they reported her to the Ministry for making unauthorised vampire killings?
"Um, I'm going to bed... back to bed." She walked briskly off in the direction of the girl's dorm, not daring to look at Travers. He couldn't follow her into the dorms – it was out of bounds to boys.
"Sweet dreams, Buffy."
Even that was vaguely threatening. Slayers' dreams could be prophetic. Was he hinting at it? What was she going to do? She couldn't avoid Travers forever.
…...
A/N;
A big thanks to my beta Deiticlast who worked his magic on this twice! The first time I decided to do a rewrite and write the bulk of this from Tom's pov. Poor boy is getting stressed. Bellatrix would be so much easier to deal with, a Slayer will never walk to heel.
So... let's hope he doesn't find the chamber whose entrance is in the girl's bathroom too soon...
And then we have Travers, who has also decided to poke Buffy. The boy is no idiot and has been silently observing her for a while. Will she trust him? Is he safe to trust?
Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter. (especially those who are guests and left lovely comments) I am glad you liked Rory.
okay.. question? Who'd like to see the original part of the chapter (Tom & Buffy) from Buffy's pov? I have it mainly written. If a few people would like to see it I can throw it up as a bonus chapter.
