Christmas break finished rather quickly after the incident with the man, who we later discovered to be Leilah and Tom's father. We spent the rest of break reading our books, trying to figure out a few questions that popped up.
We were, now, on our way to back King's Cross Station. Leilah, Tom, and I were all anxious to get back to school. After our discovery that the man we ran into was Leilah and Tom's father, we wanted nothing more than to be alone, back at school to get our wits about us.
Did you ever wonder what it would be like if we had never met? I asked him.
No, I mean, I don't want to or like to think of 'what if's. I do wonder what my life would've been like if I had both of my parents in my life but I think I am glad that my father isn't in my life. He seems like a bloody arsehole if you ask me. He thought back, smirking at me expression as he said the vile word.
"Oh, Tom, I don't think it's very nice to say that word." I scolded, wrinkling my nose at him.
"I didn't say it though. I thought it." He clarified, grinning at me now, one of his rare smiles.
He almost never smiled. It was extremely rare to catch Tom smiling. What I usually got was a smirk or half a smile. It almost always caused the same reaction for me. My heart began to speed up, my breath got stuck on my throat as if I had tried to swallow a rock, and my palms began to sweat. I smiled back, feeling slightly dazed.
"It would've probably been a disaster. Knowing Tom he'd probably do something like become a psychopathic murder." Leilah commented.
Bitch. He thought, scowling at her.
Why thank you, I try my best. She replied, throwing a smile his way.
"Sophie, I was wondering. Do you remember how when that man tried to attack us?" He asked, trying to ignore Leilah's jab.
"He's your father, Tom." I said, dryly.
"That man is not my father." He sneered. I opened my mouth ready to argue that the man is in fact their father when he scowled, before he interrupted whatever I was about to argue.
"Let me finish. When you thought of the words Stop and then leave now and he did so? Do you ever wonder what that could've been?" He asked, curiously, tactfully changing the subject. Not that I didn't notice.
"I thought you don't believe in 'what if's?" Leilah input, staring at him,
"I suppose, if I was scared maybe I accidentally did something I wasn't supposed to." I allowed, wringing my fingers together on my lap.
By that time, it was almost time to change into our uniforms, and coats. Seeing as it was very cold around this time. Leilah and I shivered in our stockings, wishing that we had some leg warmers on our legs instead that covered everything instead of just our shins.
"We should do some research. Maybe we can figure out what happened." He suggested, as we felt the express come at a steady halt right in the station in Hogsmeade.
We nodded in response to that as we all climbed into the carriage that would take us back onto the school grounds.
Since it happened to be Friday, late in the afternoon when we reached Hogwarts quickly. The second trip here seemed rather short than the first one. The ride back to the castle was rather short and quiet. I looked out the window, watching the see the sights of the castle as we reached the entrance to the castle. Without a word, we climbed down and walked into the castle towards the Slytherin common room. Leilah saying her goodbyes before heading to the Ravenclaw common room across the castle.
Ignoring all of calls as I walked to my room. Once there I threw myself onto my bed. I felt too many emotions at once, my head was beginning to pound, soon as my head hit the pillow I felt as if my body pulled off the bed, and my mind began to spin.
Images began to dance behind my eyes once more.
I watched as the man we now knew was Tom's father, threw a glass full of red liquid at the wall in a fancy looking house, angrily pacing.
His dark hair looked the exact shade of Tom's, his face was the older version of my dear friend.
"Why didn't you tell us you had a children with that wretched woman?" The old woman asked, her hair a salt and pepper color, watched as my friend's much older doppelganger paced in front of the older man and woman.
"They're not mine,mother." The man growled out, continuing as he paced back and forth.
"There's only one thing we can do. We must get rid of them, all of them." The old man said, a smirk pulling on his worn down face.
I gasped as my eyes fluttered opened, I looked at the fire in the hearth and shot out of bed, going to find Tom. I felt myself tense as I ran towards the common room, scared. Finding him in the corner with pile of books upon books before him.
"Tommy, I need you to come with me right now! Right now!" I squeaked , grabbing his hand trying to drag him behind me.
Watching my scared expression, his brows furrowed but he got up none the less. Following my back to my room as I made a quick letter to Merope and ran to the owlery.
"What's going on, Sophie?" He asked me worried.
"I-I had another dream, Tommy, that man, the one who we ran into a few days before your birthday, your father. I dreamt that he and these two elder people, who I presume are your grandparents, want to hurt your mother and you. I'm sending her a letter, warning her of this because I know she'll understand." I explained, as I handed the letter to my owl, giving it a snack and watching as it pecked my finger happily before taking the letter and disappearing into the dark evening.
He nodded and hugged me; he waited for me to calm down, and then slowly lead us back towards the Slytherin common room.
Tom asked if I was alright when we got back to the Slytherin Common Room before biding me goodnight and going back to the dormitories to bed.
"Are you going to be alright? I know this is difficult for you to see." He whispered as we stood in the common room.
"Yes, I was just a bit shocked of what I had seen earlier. I'll be fine Tommy, don't worry." I whispered back smiling at him.
He pulled me into a warm hug before stepping back and heading towards the boys' dormitories.
When classes commenced once more Tom and I threw each other back into our studies with the same vigor we had when we started school at the beginning of the year.
Leilah hardly had any classes with us. The very few times we'd see her were in the library in the afternoon, in the Great Hall for meals and sometimes after dinner in the library with a boy who looked oddly familiar, but I couldn't in point where I had seen him.
During the next few months, I did nothing but study for my classes. By the end of the year Tom and I were at the top of our entire year, Leilah coming in at second. When we first came back from break I met more people within the first week. My new best friends aside from Tom were Cissy(Narcissa), her twin sister Bellatrix, Lucius, Billy Avery, Rodolphus and his fraternal twin Rabastian Lestrange.
After Merope received the owl with my warning, she sent one back informing ,Tom and I that we would all be moving into my parent's home in Wales once the year finished, which we later had to inform Leilah of. Far from where Little Hangleton was located, thank Merlin for that too. We quickly responded to the letter and smiled, looking forward to the summer vacation. As the days slipped by we grew more and more excited.
Finally, the day had come for us all to go back home. I smiled as we all promised each other that we'd send each other as many owls as we could. With that we boarded the train, and sat down together in the same compartment talking for most of the ride back to London.
When we reached King's cross station Leilah and Tom's mother was already waiting for us as the train came to a stop. We quickly said out goodbyes, gathered our things including our owls, put them on two small trolleys. We then followed Merope out to the street where she proceeded to hail down a cab.
The ride was quiet, and I felt a nostalgic feeling sink into me as I watched my parent's house begin to appear in the horizon deep purple, pink, and orange hues turning to a deep dark maroon. Tom held my hand as the cab came to a halt, squeezing it one before he opened the door. We all got out and proceeded to go inside promptly after the cab left.
"Welcome Home, my dears." Merope said as we walked into the house.