Chapter 7
Tom didn't think he'd ever had so much happen to his advantage in such a short time. Naturally, he was suspicious of it, because he'd learned early in his life that good things rarely happened without some sort of dreadful consequences.
The cook at the orphanage passed him an extra apple when he was four after he gave her a drawing he'd made for her at school, but before he was even able to take a bite one of the older orphans had taken it from him by force.
Tom found a small grass snake while they were at a local park for a day out, and he was happy to make a new friend who was eager to talk to him, and within the hour some of the older orphans spotted him and stomped his new friend to death.
And so on, and so forth.
Even finding out he was a wizard was overshadowed by Dumbledore's obviously negative reaction to finding out he was a parselmouth. Tom wasn't stupid. He'd seen Dumbledore's whole face tighten when he'd mentioned he could talk to snakes. Tom had been very careful who he told about being a parselmouth ever since then. He hadn't even mentioned it to his classmates until his second year, when a fourth-year had summoned a rattlesnake to attack Tom in the common room, because all the older Slytherins just loved making the mudblood of Slytherin's life as difficult as they could. Tom had simply told the snake to bite the person who brought him there, which the snake had eagerly done, and ever since then his fellow Slytherins had started treating him a bit better. They still looked down on him for his supposed muggle heritage and his poverty, but they also realized Tom had the makings of a great and powerful wizard and perhaps it was best not to piss him off too much.
This was also the reason why Tom hadn't yet told Newt and Tina he was a parselmouth. Newt genuinely loved all sorts of magical creatures, even those most people avoided like the plague, but Newt also spoke highly of Dumbledore, so Tom didn't completely trust his opinion to be welcoming when it came to parseltongue.
Aside from that small insecurity, Newt and Tina had been nothing but welcoming, especially when they realized Tom was an orphan who lived in an orphanage. While normally Tom would bristle at the idea of charity, he wasn't stupid enough to dismiss a genuinely good opportunity when it presented itself. Like travelling to Africa with his distant cousins.
Africa was, as it turned out, very hot and very big.
It was so much bigger than Tom had ever imagined, and the people were so much more varied. The culture in Cairo, where they'd spent a day wandering around waiting for a connecting portkey, was completely different than what they saw in Nairobi, Kenya for example. Tom took everything in with wide eyes and endless amounts of curiosity while he trailed after Newt and Tina, who had apparently been to Africa more than once already.
The food took some getting used to, and some people spoke English with heavy accents that made it hard to understand them. Others spoke no English at all, but that never stopped Newt from communicating with the people around him through intricate gestures and bizarre animalistic sounds as he tried to explain why they were there. Tina, as ever, watched the whole thing with enormous amounts of patience and an amused little smile on her face.
Newt had gotten word that there was an impundulu in trouble near a village in Tanganyika. Impundulus were otherwise known as lightning birds, closely related to the thunderbirds from the Americas. They could summon storms and their feathers were popular as wand cores with many African wandmakers. Their eggs held many magical properties that made them useful as potions ingredients, and over the centuries the eggs had been over collected to the point that the impundulus were now critically endangered.
Hence why Newt was determined the save the one that had gotten into trouble with a local village for apparently causing too much bad weather. Or, as Newt believed was the case, had simply been blamed for bad weather that wasn't its fault at all. When crops failed because of droughts or unexpected floods, the locals were usually all too eager to put blame where it didn't belong instead of accepting that sometimes nature caused trouble without rhyme or reason.
Tom didn't really care why he was there. He'd happily have gone along on the expedition even if Newt had wanted to study the day to day behaviour of the most boring species of African ant.
Parts of Tom were still in slight disbelief that he was even there at all as they put up the magical tent somewhere in the wilds of Tanganyika. The previous night had been the first time they'd camped in the wilderness, and Tom had spent hours wide awake, listening to all the amazing and slightly terrifying sounds of wild Africa after dark. Lions roaring and elephants trumpeting and hyenas whooping.
Never in his life had Tom imagined himself in such a position and he owed it all to the amazing and mysterious Harriet Hubble.
Now there was a true enigma.
After Harriet had offered him the ancestor potion in return for a favour, Tom had racked his brain to remember anything he could about the girl who he'd shared classes with for four years already. Yet he couldn't come up with more than some vague images of a quiet girl who stuck to the periphery of any situation she found herself in. Tom didn't think he'd ever even heard her speak before she showed up in the bookstore. He did know she was one of the mudbloods his Slytherin friends liked to bully, but Tom had honestly not paid too much attention to that.
As long as the Slytherins left Tom alone, he didn't care who they bothered.
Of course, that had changed rather quickly now that he'd gotten to know Harriet Hubble a bit. Somehow the thought of Mulciber giving his special kind of unwelcome attention to Harriet bothered Tom a great deal nowadays, while before he couldn't have cared less.
Another thing that mystified Tom was the magical connection he'd felt with her the moment they'd pushed magic in each other while making the magical promise. He'd never felt something so familiar before, as though they'd known each other for years and years and she was the most important person to him in the world.
He'd mentioned this to Newt and Tina during dinner a few days ago, to see if perhaps they understood what had happened. Tom worried Harriet may have used magic to influence him in some capacity. But Newt and Tina had merely exchanged an obviously amused look and told him they didn't think Harriet had done anything to influence him directly. Instead, Newt carefully suggested perhaps Tom found Harriet so intriguing because she was well suited for him.
Whatever that was supposed to mean, Tom hadn't a clue.
Tom didn't believe Harriet meant him any ill will, and he was genuinely grateful for what she'd done for him, so he decided to let that strange incident slide. For now.
He'd sent Harriet two letters, after receiving hers giving him permission to do so, and Tom quickly discovered he enjoyed corresponding with an intelligent witch without the need to kowtow to any pureblood supremacy that was expected whenever he communicated with his Slytherin friends.
Tom liked his Slytherin friends, for the most part. Abraxas Malfoy could be an arrogant, selfish arse, and Konrad Mulciber often was an insufferable fool, but Theodorus Nott had a clever sense of humour and Orion Black was surprisingly warm and generous to his friends, and Maximus Lestrange was a master of sarcasm. And while at first they'd treated Tom like they'd treat any mudblood, they had come around over the years and nowadays their friendship seemed genuine.
Still, it was expected of Tom that he shared their pureblood ideals, and up until that point Tom had happily parroted their prejudiced ideas simply to keep the peace. Tom himself didn't believe purebloods were better than others, especially not now that he'd discovered he was a half-blood himself. Tom was magically more powerful and talented than all his Slytherin friends put together, and that would have been impossible if their pureblood superiority was even remotely true.
But with Harriet, Tom could simply talk about whatever caught his fancy. He could complain about the local food and wax poetically about the natural world around him, and Harriet wouldn't judge him for any of it, or cast him out as a friend because he didn't meet some invisible standards of prejudiced behaviour.
It was…refreshing, to be able to just be himself, even through an exchange of letters. Tom genuinely looked forward to talking to her in person again once Hogwarts started.
Tom was busy with getting the campfire going while Newt and Tina were getting their tent set up. Their local magical guides, Ambokile and Darweshi, were setting up their own tent. Ambokile was an older man, mid-fifties at least, and he was their head guide. Darweshi was in his twenties, and he was full of energy and confidence, but he easily deferred to Ambokile when it came to any major decisions that needed to be made.
Just as the sun set behind the horizon, while Tom got the fire going, Tina let out a bloodcurdling scream.
"What?" Newt yelped, running towards his wife at once.
Tina had her wand in her hand, shooting red flares, probably stunners, at something that was moving at an incredible speed towards her. She kept missing, and even Newt, who also shot off a number of spells, couldn't hit the creature.
"Mamba!" Ambokile shouted in alarm. "Black mamba! Run! They are too quick to curse!"
Tom finally realized it was a snake, long and quick as lightning, that was targeting Tina, now so close it definitely was within striking range. Tom rushed towards Tina and Newt, and yelled with as much command as he could put in his voice, "Stop! Now!"
The olive-grey snake, which had its mouth opened, showing off why they were called black mambas by exposing its black gums, came to an abrupt halt and stared at Tom while it slowly closed its mouth.
"A speaker!" The mamba glided towards Tom, raising itself up high enough that it could look Tom in the eyes. "Never before have I met an ape that could speak my tongue. How interesting."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Tom said, because it never hurt to be polite. "And thank you for not attacking my kin."
"Oh, I wasn't attacking her," the mamba said, ducking its head a little as if suddenly feeling a bit bashful. "I was simply hunting a rat when I suddenly found myself surrounded by apes. I wasn't expecting that, so I panicked. Sorry."
Tom chuckled and aimed his wand at the bush. "Accio rat." Within moments a squeaking rat came flying towards them and Tom hovered it in front of the mamba. "For you. As an apology that we accidentally disturbed your hunt."
"That is very kind of you. Thanks." And with that the mamba bit down on the rat, injecting it with venom and holding it tight in its mouth while it disappeared into the darkness to eat in peace.
Tom licked his lips and briefly looked down before slowly glancing between the others. Tina stood staring at him with her mouth opened in shock, Newt was looking at him as though Christmas had just come early, and Ambokile and Darweshi both rushed towards Tom with huge smiles on their faces.
"My friend!" Ambokile grabbed Tom in an enormous, bone-crushing hug while Darweshi slapped him on the back time and again. "You have a very welcome talent."
"To speak to the mamba and to halt it in its tracks." Darweshi kept patting Tom's back while Ambokile finally released him. "My cousin is a potioneer that makes the antidote for mamba bites, which only works half the time. Getting the venom of the mambas is the most difficult part for him, because black mambas are the fastest of all the snakes in the entire world and even with magic they are hard to catch, and if you get bitten you will die unless you take the antidote, and then you have a 50 percent chance to live. You, my new friend, could become rich simply by selling venom of all the snakes here in Africa."
"Thanks," Tom muttered, unsure how to respond to all this sudden positive attention.
"You're a parselmouth," Newt said as he stepped up to them, looking at Tom in awe. "That's an incredible gift."
Tom shrugged and ducked his head again. "I've never really had a chance to put it to use, aside from chatting with a few British snakes I've met throughout my life."
"I'm glad you put it to use," Newt whispered, grabbing Tina's hand as she joined them, still looking a little pale. "You saved her life."
"Thank you," Tina whispered, and she gave Tom a smile that lit up her entire face.
"You're welcome." Tom wasn't sure what to make of that strange, warm feeling in his chest.
Later, as they were all sitting around the campfire after a meal of rice, beans and some salted meat, Newt cleared his throat while he gave Tom a hopeful look. "Now that we have a parselmouth as part of our expedition, perhaps we could find a grootslang after we rescue the impundulu."
"Ooooh," Ambokile said, eyes wide in the darkness. "A grootslang! They are rare, my friends, but if young Tom here could chat with one of those, we would all be richer than our wildest dreams."
"How so?" Tom asked, wondering what on earth a grootslang was. Well, he guessed some sort of snake.
Darweshi threw his head back and laughed. "The grootslang lives in a cave filled with diamonds. Talk to it, Tom, and perhaps it will let you collect some."
"Ah." Tom looked back to Newt, who was having a whole silent conversation with his wife, which involved lots of frowning from Tina and lots of pointed looks towards Tom from Newt.
"But we have a parselmouth now," Newt finally said, gesturing gently at Tom.
"How big of a snake are we talking here?" Tom asked, genuinely curious. He wouldn't mind going to find a rare snake to talk to it. Receiving some diamonds for his troubles was a nice little bonus.
"Huge!" Ambokile said with a wild gesture of his hands, spreading his arms apart as far as they could go.
"At least 60 feet," Darweshi said, laughing again. "It could swallow us all whole."
"Newt," Tina said, shaking her head.
"Parselmouth." Newt smiled between Tom and Tina as though the decision was already made.
"And where do we find it?" Tom asked, really curious what a 60 foot snake would even look like.
"In the Wonder Hole, in South Africa," Ambokile said, looking just as eager as Newt. "We can go there once our mission here is done."
"Sure," Tom said easily. He didn't mind where they went, and talking to a giant snake seemed like a perfect way to spend some of his holidays.
"I'm afraid you're outnumbered," Newt said, giving his wife an apologetic smile.
"Fine." Tina sighed, shook her head, and then gave her husband a smile in return that seemed to convey both her frustration and her admiration for Newt.
And that was that. Apparently they were going to look for a 60 foot snake so Tom could chat with it. Tom couldn't wait to write about what had happened to Harriet, sure she would enjoy hearing this unexpected turn of events.
The next morning, for the third day in a row, they trekked through the wilderness on their way to the remote village where the impundulu was supposedly causing trouble.
"Why can't we just use a portkey to get there," Tom asked as he and Ambokile brought up the rear of their expedition.
Ambokile laughed in response before giving Tom a wide grin. "Ah, my young friend, the tribes in this area used to wage war all the time. And then the colonizers came, and they believed they now owned this land. So the villages made sure to ward their territories as best as they could. You can only reach them on foot."
Tom nodded in response, looking around again at the amazing landscape before them. He didn't mind walking all day long at all, when the reward was to personally view some of the most amazing animals in the world.
They saw a large herd of elephants more than once. Giraffes occasionally turned up. There were plenty of wildebeests and zebras all around them. And once they saw a pride of lions lazing beneath an acacia tree. The lions had learned long ago that the people in that area could defend themselves, so they left any humans travelling by alone.
And on one occasion, Ambokile pointed out a leopard hidden high up a tree, where it was lazing on a large branch, a half-eaten gazelle carcass dangling beside it. Tom didn't think he'd ever seen a more amazing animal in his life and not for the first time during their trip wished he had a camera.
"I'm going to teach you how to apparate," Tina said when they stopped for the midday meal. "I know officially you're too young for that, but I think it's more important that you can get yourself to safety instantly. We have no idea what we might run into."
"Thanks," Tom said with a grateful smile. Knowing how to apparate would absolutely help him, not just during their expedition, but also back home where it might one day save his life while staying at the orphanage. Being able to apparate away when the Nazis dropped more bombs on London was something Tom looked forward to immensely, especially now that he'd broken the trace, thanks to Harriet.
A fucking aging potion.
The moment Tom had opened the vial and smelled the potion and realized what it was, he'd let out an enormously frustrated groan that had made Newt stare at him in worry and curiosity. When Tom told him about the potion, Newt simply chuckled and said, "Ah, yes, they usually don't tell you how simple it is to break the trace until after you've left Hogwarts."
That had made Tom groan again right before he drank the potion. Neither Newt nor Tina had objected to him doing so, and that was what mattered in the end.
It took them a whole week to reach the village, and during that time Tom had taken to calling out in parseltongue anytime they took a break or camped for the night. Newt was always right beside him, eagerly waiting to see who or what would turn up to talk to Tom.
Mostly it was green or black mambas, or Egyptian or black-necked spitting cobras, and the occasional boomslang, who all seemed quite curious to meet a talking ape, as they called it. Newt stood at the ready with notebook and quill, asking the snakes all sorts of questions through Tom and writing down their answers meticulously.
Tom quickly learned that the puff adders and gaboon vipers they met usually weren't all that eager to socialize with humans, but they were willing to make a small donation of venom in exchange for a mouse or a rat. Tom transfigured rocks into vials and milked every snake he encountered, growing a collection of venom that made Darweshi sing and dance with joy.
They also learned that Nile monitors, large lizards which also had forked tongues, could speak parseltongue as well, though they had strange accents, and they were only really interested in any food Tom had to offer. As soon as the food was gone, so were the monitor lizards.
Once a huge African rock python answered Tom's call. That snake was not at all interested in talking to them, but instead seemed intent on having one of them for lunch. A few stinging hexes quickly changed its mind, though, and it ultimately slid off back into the bush, muttering all sorts of curse words under its breath.
And on one memorable occasion a kongamato responded to Tom's hissed calls. The huge magical flying reptile cast an enormous shadow as it came gliding down towards their camp, sending Ambokile and Darweshi scrambling for cover while Newt stood gaping up at the sky with wide eyes and a bright smile.
The kongamato most resembled a pterodactyl and stood about as tall as a man once it landed in front of Tom.
"Pleasure to meet you," Tom said, still in a bit of a shock at suddenly being confronted by such a unique animal.
"Pweep, pweep," the kongamato said, tilting its head back and forth as it gazed curiously at Tom. It quickly became apparent, mostly through Newt's eager questions, that the kongamato understood parseltongue but didn't speak it. This bit of information sent Newt into quiet fits of joy.
"No one knew this," Newt kept saying, long after the kongamato had taken off again. "This is a huge discovery."
After they had eaten dinner that night and were sitting around the campfire, Newt turned towards Tom. "If you want to keep one of the snakes you meet, I'll have a word with Dumbledore so you can take it to Hogwarts with you."
Tom couldn't help himself and he released a disbelieving snort. "I appreciate the offer, but Dumbledore would sooner eat his own wand than do me any favours."
Newt frowned at hearing this, while Tina leaned a little closer and asked, "Why is that? I've met him a few times and he seemed like a perfectly nice gentleman."
Tom shook his head and stared down at the ground, pulling his knees up and resting his elbows on them. "Perhaps if you're not a parselmouth and a Slytherin. But he's never said a kind word about me since the day he met me."
"Ah." Newt gave a thoughtful nod before glancing at Tom. "I had a friend, who was a Slytherin. She complained about this as well, that Dumbledore showed quite a bit of favouritism towards all houses except Slytherin."
Tom shrugged and stared into the flames in front of him. "I'd like a snake as a companion, but I think it's better if I wait until after I finish Hogwarts."
"You are always welcome here, my young friend," Ambokile said with a gentle smile, while Darweshi nodded in agreement. "Return as often as you like. Someone with your talents will always find friends here."
"Thanks," Tom whispered, ducking his head, feeling oddly emotional that apparently there was a whole country, if not a whole continent, that welcomed someone like him, no matter what prejudiced bastards like Dumbledore might think.
They reached the village after a week and were welcomed like kings once word got out they were there to hunt the impundulu. It was a term Newt strongly objected to, but no one cared to listen to his explanations once it became clear they were there to take the impundulu away. A goat was slaughtered in their honour, a huge feast was cooked, and while they ate there was lots of singing and dancing and a few blessings performed by the local shaman.
Tom turned to Ambokile, who sat beside him while they ate their roasted goatmeat. "Are these wizards performing magic in front of muggles?"
Ambokile laughed, as though Tom had just told a very funny joke. "Of course, my young friend. The wizards and the muggles have always lived side by side here in these remote villages. That magic exists is no secret here."
"But what about the Statute of Secrecy?" Tom asked with a confused frown.
Ambokile waved Tom's comment away. "The local muggle population already know about magic and have since the beginning of time. There is no putting the crocodile back in the river when its presence has already been spotted by everyone. And once the colonizers came, they thought all the talk of magic in these villages were just local superstitions." Ambokile threw his head back and laughed. "They were not very bright, these white man who came here, thinking they could now own the land. We simply warded our lands. The colonizers could not steal land they could not see."
"Clever," Tom agreed with a chuckle.
Catching the impundulu was a rather uneventful affair, as it turned out. Newt lured it closer with a dead chicken, a bowl of cockroaches and lots of ridiculous calls. He'd created some sort of rune trap, with rocks previously inscribed with runes.
"It's not a trap," Newt insisted when Tom had called it such as they were setting it up. "It's a guide, that will funnel the impundulu inside my suitcase where it will be safe."
It was a trap, but Tom let Newt believe what he wanted to believe. Anyway, the impundulu came soaring down and disappeared inside Newt's suitcase without a problem. It turned out to be a female that looked more than a little bedraggled.
"The locals have been disturbing her so much she's barely been able to eat," Newt mused as they all took in the thin animal with its missing feathers and dull eyes. "But I'll get her healthy again, find her a mate and a safe place to live and breed."
Newt was happy to have his enormous magical bird safely locked up, and after another feast in the village, this time because they'd actually caught the bird, they made the journey back to the closest portkey point, a week of travelling on foot away. Tom added many, many more vials of venom to his collection, and once they were able, they port-keyed to Bukoba, a town on the shores of Lake Victoria, where Darweshi's family lived, including his cousin the potioneer.
Darweshi's mother, once she found out what Tom could do, insisted he sit in the place of honour at her table while they had dinner at her house. Darweshi's cousin Kafil the potioneer also stopped by and just about broke down into tears of sheer gratitude when Tom offered to sell him his collection of snake venom. Gold was exchanged, and Tom went from penniless orphan to young man with enough money to see him through Hogwarts and at least a few years beyond that overnight.
Newt sent him many glowing smiles that evening, while Tina beamed at him more than once.
A huge weight fell off Tom's shoulders that night, one he hadn't even known was there. But poverty, as it turned out, put a lot of stress on a person, and knowing that at least for a few years you didn't have to worry about money provided an enormous sense of physical relief.
They got up early the next morning, to catch the string of portkeys that would get them to South Africa.
"You swear you know where the Wonder Hole is?" Ambokile asked while he narrowed his eyes at Darweshi while they were hanging around during a stopover in Swaziland.
"Yes, yes," Darweshi said with an impatient gesture. "I've seen it myself from a distance when I was part of another expedition. The leader pointed it out to me."
"All right." Ambokile went to arrange for the portkeys that would take them to the north-east of South Africa.
They landed in the Richtersveld a day later, where they were met by a desert landscape full of rugged canyons and high mountains. They followed the orange river upstream for a few days, and Tom went back to calling for snakes and filling up more vials with venom, though he didn't think he'd end up selling those. Perhaps Harriet would enjoy having some snake venom in her collection. Tom could always wrap up a few vials as a Christmas gift. He was sure Harriet would appreciate that more than a gift basket of chocolate or something generic like that.
"There it is," Darweshi said, pointing at a huge opening on the side of a cliff across a wide canyon. "The Wonder Hole."
"You can apparate," Tina suggested as they all stood staring at the cave. She gave Tom a look full of encouragement. "You've got more than enough power."
Tom had only just learned to apparate very short distances, no more than a few yards at a time. But he trusted Tina's judgement, since she was a no-nonsense kind of person who would always prefer to tell it like it was instead of sugar-coating anything.
"Grab as many diamonds as you can," Darweshi said, slapping Tom on his back.
"Come back if you sense any danger," Ambokile added.
"Please ask it as many questions as you can think of," Newt said quietly, offering Tom a crooked smile while he briefly glanced at him.
Gathering his courage, Tom focused his magic and apparated towards the mouth of the cave. Thankfully, he made it in once piece and he stood still for a few moments as he took in his new surroundings. The mouth of the cave was huge, easily as big as Hogwarts' main hall.
"Hello, grootslang," Tom called out, wand at the ready just in case. "My name is Tom Riddle, and I'd like to meet you." Tom listened carefully, and almost at once he heard a sliding sound echoing deep inside the cave. Something huge was scraping across the stones and Tom held his breath knowing he was about to meet the biggest snake that might possibly exist anywhere on earth.
A black wall moved towards him at incredible speed, reflecting dark-green in the light, that slowly took the form of a giant worm. Just as the beast was upon him, Tom realized it wasn't a snake at all but something that resembled a giant eel, with a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth that bit down on Tom before he could even think about apparating away.
Tom screamed in pain as those teeth the size of daggers pierced his thigh and his side. He raised his wand, his arm trembling because of the shock setting in, and he managed to cast a few hexes and cursus, but which exactly they were Tom had no idea, his mind far too clouded with pain to think straight.
As the monstrous eel bit down again, moving Tom deeper and deeper into its mouth, Tom realized with a sort of calm understanding that he was about to die.
His first reaction was a deep sense of fear that sent a chilling wave throughout his whole body, but surprisingly the fear quickly made place for regret.
Tom felt regret that he wouldn't be able to become the powerful wizard he knew he could be, given more time and practice. But even that feeling ebbed away quickly, only to be replaced with a different kind of regret.
Tom saw, in his mind's eye, Newt and Tina sitting beside the campfire, smiling at each other, having whole conversations without even uttering a word.
And there, in the wilds of Africa, while he was being eaten alive by a monstrous eel, Tom realized that he wanted that sort of connection with someone as well.
The last thing he saw, before the whole world stopped existing around him, was Harriet Hubble's smiling face, giving him a cheeky wink right after she'd just threatened to curse Orion Black's cock off.
When Tom came to again, much to his own surprise, he was lying on the rocky ground, staring up at a perfectly blue sky, the bright sun warming his cold body.
"Pweep, pweep."
Newt sat near his head, one hand on his forehead. Tina sat near his side, both hands covered in blood while she waved her wand around across Tom's body. She was surrounded by empty potions vials. Ambokile sat on his other side, chanting in a language Tom couldn't understand while he moved a leather rattle with bright feathers hanging from it rhythmically up and down Tom's body. And Darweshi stood to the side, his wand out as he kept an eye open for any threats.
"Pweep, pweep." And for some reason a kongamato, the huge flying reptile Tom had accidentally summoned with his parseltongue a few weeks prior, was waiting a few yards away, its dark eyes keeping a keen eye on Tom.
"You're alive," Newt breathed, sounding as though he was only now able to draw in enough air again. "Oh thank Merlin, you're alive."
Tom swallowed against a dry throat, his whole body aching, every bone and muscle making its existence known in the most painful way. "When you told me you were a zoologist," Tom rasped as he looked up at Newt's pale face. "I'd imagined your job was a lot more boring than it turned out to be."
Newt bent his head and chuckled, leaning forward so much his forehead rested against Tom's chest.
Tom managed a lopsided grin while he looked between Tina and Ambokile, who both looked like they'd aged ten years in five minutes.
"You made a friend," Newt whispered once he raised his head again. He tipped his head towards the kongamato, which waited patiently to the side. "It showed up out of nowhere and dove straight for the eel, going for the eyes until the beast released you."
"That's when we apparated in to extract you," Tina added with a tired smile. "The kongamato kept the eel distracted while we fled." She sat back on her behind, releasing a deep sigh. "I've healed what I could with dittany, but you lost a lot of blood. And I'm afraid there will be some scarring."
Tom briefly closed his eyes while he tried to smile at her. He didn't care about a few scars. He was just happy to still be alive.
Later, once they had a fire going and tents set up, and Tom lay on a cot and drank some hot tea, Ambokile had some very strong words with Darweshi.
"You said that was the Wonder Hole!" Ambokile yelled at a visibly upset Darweshi. "Instead you sent that poor boy straight into the jaws of a inkanyamba, you fool!"
Darweshi gave Tom a pleading look. "I am so sorry, Tom. Please don't tell my mother. She really likes you. She'll never let me in her house again if she finds out what I did."
"Pweep, pweep." The kongamato gave Darweshi a narrow-eyed look, as though it knew exactly it was Darweshi's fault Tom had almost been eaten.
"Is it the same one we met before?" Tom wondered aloud as he stared at the kongamato.
"It is possible," Ambokile said, turning away from Darweshi to sit beside Tom. "It is said they can appear and disappear at will anywhere they want."
"Thank you for your help today," Tom whispered, because he was truly grateful that this animal had come to his aid. Without its assistance, Tom doubted he'd have made it.
"Pweep, pweep." The kongamato moved closer so Tom could reach out a hand to stroke across its long, pointy beak. Then it spread its leathery wings and took off into the sky, leaving a small cloud of dust behind.
"We'll arrange for a portkey home as soon as possible," Tina said as she emerged from the tent, freshly washed and wearing clothes that weren't covered in Tom's blood.
"No," Tom and Newt said at the same time. They glanced at each other and both chuckled.
"I want to find the grootslang," Tom said with determination, even though he still felt as weak as a kneazle kitten.
"Tom," Tina said, trying to sound convincing even when Newt was giving her pleading look after pleading look. "We don't even know where to find it. And you do have to go back to school soon."
"The grootslang will still be here next year," Ambokile pointed out, not unkindly. "Take your rest, my young friend. You have faced one of the most feared creatures on this continent and lived. You have earned a few weeks of recovery."
Tom closed his eyes and mulled over all that the people around him were saying. The thing was, Tom felt like a changed man. He was no longer a boy, first of all. And secondly, he had faced his worst fear and lived to tell the tale.
Tom had died, he had no doubt about that. Yes, thanks to the hard work of Tina, Newt and Ambokile he'd survived in the end, but Tom had felt himself die. All his life Tom had been terrified to lose his life, to become just another statistic before he could achieve anything worthwhile. Young, worthless orphan dead, quickly forgotten by everyone around him.
But that was no longer him. Tom had faced his worst fear, which had come to him in the guise of a monstrous eel, and he'd died and returned a changed man. Because before his death, Tom had very much doubted he needed people around him. He'd certainly never thought he'd want to have a family of his own and a partner by his side. He wasn't a young, naïve boy anymore who still longed to one day meet his real family, or to be adopted by loving people.
Tom had left those useless dreams behind a long time ago, and had decided that he didn't need anyone in his life except himself.
And yet, when his life had sat in the balance, when his existence was about to end, he'd seen his newly found family and the mysterious girl who'd so quickly wormed her way into his constant thoughts. So perhaps having a family and pursuing a girl were worthy goals after all, ones that did give him a sense of accomplishment and added meaning to his life.
Yes, the more he thought about it, the more Tom was sure he was a changed man. And he wanted to see this expedition through and meet the world's largest snake.
"I'll ask some of the local snakes if they know where to find the grootslang," Tom finally said to an obviously frustrated Tina. "If they knew its location, we'll go meet it. Otherwise, we'll go home."
"But first you will rest for at least a few days," Tina insisted, much to Newt's relief who immediately shared a victorious grin with Tom.
While he recuperated, Tom talked to any snake he could find in the vicinity of their camp. He quickly learned that the local snakes called the grootslang 'the One', and that he lived a few miles to the south.
They slowly but surely walked towards the actual Wonder Hole while Tom got his strength back. By the time they found the cave Tom felt strong enough again to face a new challenge. This cave wasn't nearly as inaccessible as the eel's home had been, so while Tom made first contact, the rest was not far behind.
"Hello, grootslang," Tom called, again, as he walked into the cave entrance that was possibly even bigger than the previous one had been. "My name is Tom and I would very much like to meet you."
"What sort of creature are you, Tom, that you can speak my tongue?" came the rumbled reply from deep within the cave. The voice sounded like a plane engine that was somehow capable of speaking parseltongue, loud, deep and roaring.
Tom grinned at once. At the very least they were now facing an actual snake, so that was something already. "I am a human, but I was born with the ability to speak your tongue."
"How fascinating. Approach me, human."
While his heart beat in his throat, Tom gestured at the others to wait, much to Newt's obvious disappointment, and then he slowly walked deeper into the cave, lighting the way with his wand.
He saw movement before he even realised how close he already was to the grootslang. What Tom thought was a wall turned out to be the side of the snake.
It was so much bigger than anything Tom could have imagined. It positively dwarfed the monstrous eel. It's head couldn't have fit through the entrance doors of Hogwarts, and it's mouth was big enough for Tom to stand up in, even with its jaws closed. The grootslang was a deep grey colour, with a lighter belly and crisscrossed black markings covering its back.
"You are the most amazing snake I have ever met," Tom said honestly while he stared at the creature before him. "Thank you for inviting me into your home."
"You're welcome, young human," the grootslang rumbled, its voice almost too loud for Tom's ears to process without pain.
Tom asked it some questions, so he'd have something to report back to Newt, but to be honest the grootslang didn't have much interesting to say. He didn't know how old he was, or if there were more like him still. He seemed content to slumber in his caves, feeding on the occasional animal that wandered inside his home. Thankfully, that didn't include Tom.
"Might I take some of these stones with me as I leave?" Tom asked, because he'd seen all sorts of things glittering in the light of his wand and he remembered Darweshi saying the grootslang lived in a cave of diamonds.
"If it pleases you, human, go ahead." The grootslang coiled its massive body, forcing Tom to run to the side so he wouldn't accidentally be squashed against the cave wall.
Without pause, Tom started hacking away at the nearest glittering wall with a few charms. He shrunk the rocks that fell away and quickly stuffed them inside his trouser pockets until both of them were filled to the brim with shrunken pebbles. He then said a quick goodbye to the grootslang, who barely seemed awake at that point, and he hurried back to the others.
Newt was practically bouncing on his feet with excitement while Tina released a relieved sigh to see Tom come out of the dark cave alive and well.
"It was so much bigger than I could have imagined," Tom said while he started trembling now that the adrenaline left his system. "It is so much bigger than 60 feet," Tom added while he glanced at Darweshi.
"Tell me everything," Newt said.
Tina quickly grabbed her husband's arm and pulled him away. "First we set up camp, then you can interrogate Tom."
Newt did interrogate him, and Tom told him every detail he could remember while Newt took furious notes, head bent deeply as he sat with his notebook in his lap.
"Tom," Tina said once Newt seemed somewhat satisfied and stopped scribbling for a moment. "We've been talking and we want to let you know that from now on, you always have a home with us."
"Yes," Newt said, looking up at Tom with a serious frown. "You will never have to return to the orphanage if you don't want to. From now on you can live with us when you're not at Hogwarts."
"I…er…" Tom found himself at a loss for words, which didn't happen very often. Tom prided himself on being able to talk his way in or out of every situation as needed. But now that his newly found family gave him the one things he'd always wanted as long as he could remember (no matter that he told himself he could do without for years now) Tom didn't know what to say now that he finally had a home of his own. "Thank you," he finally whispered, and then quickly thought of a way to change the subject. Because Tom might be a changed man, but he still didn't know how to handle anything dealing with emotions.
"I almost forgot," Tom said, and started pulling pebbles out of his pockets, enlarging them back into the big chunks of rocks as he went. Newt, Tina, Ambokile and Darweshi stared at the growing pile of rocks while their mouths dropped open. "I think there's diamonds in there," Tom said while he unloaded the last rock.
"It's true," Darweshi said, voice filled with awe as he stared at the glittering pile. "The legends are true!"
"You are a very rich man now, my young friend," Ambokile said with a proud smile.
Tom blinked at him, and then realized the others thought Tom was going to keep the treasure for himself. A part of Tom, that greedy orphan that lived deep inside of him, wanted to keep it all to himself. But the changed part of Tom understood that there was more than enough to go around. Even splitting the loot they would all end up very, very rich, assuming the glittering parts embedded within the rocks were actual diamonds.
Tom reached for a nearby rock and handed it to Newt. "We're going to be rich. We'll be busy cutting out the diamonds for the rest of the trip."
"Thank you," Newt said, eyes shining with pride as he smiled at Tom. "This will allow us to rescue so many more creatures that need it."
Tom handed the rest some rocks as well and was rewarded with tight hugs from both Ambokile and Darweshi. "I wouldn't have even known the grootslang existed if it wasn't for you two," Tom said by way of explanation while he ducked his head.
"We're a team," Newt said with an approving nod.
"That we are," Tom said while he started hacking away at the first rock of many. It quickly became clear that the glittering parts were indeed rough diamonds and that they'd all become filthy rich overnight.
And while Tom sat there, hammering away at his newly found fortune, he never forgot that he owed it all to one muggleborn witch.