Author's Note: I think it prudent to put a warning on this chapter as there is a scene that contains a very blurry line between what is consensual and what is not. It's easy to see Tom as a complete monster (and I believe he mostly is). But sometimes he's just a boy who misreads signals and pushes boundaries. At the same time, Dorcas isn't completely a victim. She uses Tom sometimes and can make selfish and wrong choices. Their relationship is not clear cut and well-defined at all. Trigger Warning: Dubious Consent.
Chapter 57
11 February, 1942 Secret Room, Seventh Floor, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Dorcas placed a cushioning charm on the bag she was packing as she crouched in the furniture and blanket cave in the secret room. Her mind was occupied watching Tom closely as he ladled Felix Felicis into small glass phials.
She bit her lip as she counted the number of phials he filled with the glittering gold mixture. Once she'd decided that Jack should have some of the Liquid Luck, she thought of little else besides acquiring some.
Still undecided how she would get it to him in Africa, Dorcas determined to go ahead with her plan to steal some and then she would conceal it until she'd worked out the rest of the plot.
"How long do you think that stuff will last?" Dorcas called out to Tom.
"About five hours," Tom's disembodied voice called back from a distance behind the quilted cave.
"Do you think we'd better pack extra Luck just in case the venture takes longer? How much do you have?" Dorcas bit her lip, hoping that her prodding would work on him.
"I have five-hundred milliliters," Tom explained, ducking into the tent with four phials. "We'll take two extra, just in case," he said, handing her the molten gold that shifted to bronze slightly when it was jostled by the exchange.
Dorcas wondered if just holding the stuff was lucky. So far, he was playing right into her strategy. She wouldn't use an extra phial, but claim she had. Then she could sneak it into her room and hide it until she could figure out how to get it to Jack.
"How did you manage to buy the ingredients, some of them are quite dear?" she queried, packing the phials carefully in the bag around the Cushioning Charm. She was thinking of the Occamy eggshell specifically. It was pure silver and extremely rare and expensive.
Tom shrugged. "I made a trade."
"A trade for what?" Dorcas pried.
"I have rare potions ingredients, too," he offered cryptically.
Dorcas was about to ask for clarification when Tom's new pet, Slytherin's basilisk came into her mind.
"Turned out to be quite a goldmine, your little friend in the chamber?"
Tom laughed. "Should I name him Midas?"
"Midas the Basilisk," Dorcas repeated, smiling at Tom.
She wanted to keep him talking, keep him in a good mood, stroke his ego a bit.
"This is going to work, Tom. I can feel it!" Dorcas wondered if she was overselling it a bit.
Tom didn't seem to think so.
"I know what you mean. I have a good feeling about it too!"
Dorcas bit her lip and looked over at him. He was scanning the plan of the Newcastle factory once again.
They spoke at the same time.
"Make sure that–" Tom had begun when Dorcas said, "Have you been–"
They both stopped and chuckled self-consciously.
"Go ahead," Dorcas allowed.
"I was going to say, make sure that you've told Meadowes you can't meet tonight in the library for tutoring." He made tutoring sound like a euphemism for something else entirely.
She rolled her eyes dramatically before responding. "Cal has Quidditch practice on Thursday nights. We don't tutor tonight."
She drew out the word playfully, rolling her eyes again.
Tom smirked at her. "What were you going to ask?"
"Oh. I was just wondering if you've used the Chameleon Charm to go all around the school," Dorcas leaned closer to him, giving him her undivided attention.
Tom didn't seem suspicious of her question. But, she reasoned, he had no reason to be. She specifically wanted to know if he'd ever been inside her dormitory before. She wanted to find out if it was a safe place for her to hide the stolen Luck.
"I've gone most places without it. But I've used it to go to the Restricted Section of the library and into Professor Dippet's office."
Dorcas's eyes flew wide and she flipped her plait back off of her shoulder.
"You snuck into the headmaster's office?" she asked, impressed.
Tom winked at her.
"Have you snuck into the girls' dormitories before?" she pushed, smirking conspiratorially.
Tom laughed. "Birdie! You really think I'm a pervert and a wanker, don't you?"
Dorcas raised her eyebrows in challenge. "That wasn't an answer to my question!"
Tom reclined next to her and toyed with the hem of her skirt.
"No!" he scoffed. "But not for lack of trying. All of the girls' dormitories are spelled to keep the boys out."
Dorcas's jaw dropped and she sat back, stretching her legs out in front of him, brushing her thigh against his fingers.
"And Tom Riddle has never found a way around the enchantments?"
"Do you want me to sneak into your bed at night, Birdie?" His pinky finger traced a pattern on the side of her thigh.
Dorcas wondered if she was laying it on too thick. She shouldn't give him false hope. She had her answer. He couldn't get into her dorm. The potion would be safe, hidden inside her school trunk.
"No, Tom. Of course not," she finally said. "Just curious as to whether you sneak into other girls' bedrooms, or not."
Tom looked up at her and considered her for a moment. His expression was serious.
"I've only ever snuck into one girl's bed, Birdie. And besides, we have our own lovenest right here. We don't need to sneak around where other students could catch us." The finger kept tracing its pattern on her thigh.
It was time to put an end to this.
"Lovenest," she snorted, shifting her weight onto the hip away from Tom with a pretense of packing the bag for their trip. "We've never done more than snog in here!"
"Wanna change that?" he asked hopefully, lifting his eyebrows.
"No, thanks," responded Dorcas cooly, crawling away to retrieve her wand that lay close to the entrance. She stuffed it into the bag and held her hand out for Tom's. "Wand!"
"You're asking me to put my wand in your hand?" Tom raised his eyebrows and gave her a lecherous grin.
"Don't be stupid!" Dorcas laughed. "Your magical wand."
Tom sat up and reached into his pocket. "That still doesn't clear up the confusion."
"Oh my God!" shouted Dorcas. She was blushing and refused to look at him. "No more penis jokes. Put your wand in this bag!"
She tossed the bag to him and crawled out of the cave.
He was such a child!
But, she had encouraged the banter to start. It was her fault, really, that he'd risen to the occasion. She screwed her eyes shut as she thought how he might use the phrase "risen to the occasion" if she'd said it out loud.
She stood and straightened her jumper, feeling Tom right behind her, shrugging the bag's straps onto his shoulders.
"No more magic from here on out," he said.
"No more jokes from here on out," countered Dorcas.
Tom's mind cut into her own thoughts. "I make no promises! If you insist on throwing out bait, I can't help but bite."
"Arse!"
:::
Dorcas was surprised by the effectiveness of the Liquid Luck.
She had no sooner raised her phial of Felix Felicis to her lips as Tom whispered "Bottom's up!" and tipped his own potion back then she'd had the most overwhelming feeling of optimism.
The feeling of fearlessness emboldened her and she strode confidently forward, throwing the door of the Vanishing Cabinet back and climbing inside.
"Time's a-wastin', Riddle!" she called, beckoning him into the darkness with her.
"Shh! Birdie, not so loud!" he chided in a mock whisper.
He was being just as loud as she was. But no one would hear them in the Charms corridor, she was sure of it.
Once Tom had revealed his plan to her, including the addition of the Felix Felicis, Dorcas went to the library and looked the potion up. She wanted to be as informed about the effects, the warnings, and the dangers of the mysterious concoction as possible.
She was apprehensive about the listed side effects. If taken in large quantities or over an extended period of time, it could cause recklessness, giddiness, overconfidence, and a lessening of inhibitions.
But when Dorcas swallowed the golden brew, all misgivings fluttered out of her mind.
Her heart leapt at the certainty that they were going to be victorious.
This plan was foolproof. Their accounting for every contingency was flawless.
Nothing stood between them and the final Horcrux potion ingredient.
Even the jarring tug backward into space that she remembered being so terrifying before, was an exhilarating ride.
"Let's go!" Tom urged when they came to a thudding stop in the twin cabinet.
"Oh, damn!" Dorcas swore, her hand reaching out to stop Tom from opening the cabinet door onto the storefront of Borgin and Burkes.
"What?" Tom's voice hitched comically and they both snorted with laughter.
Dorcas bit her bottom lip to keep from sniggering too loudly. "We forgot to use the Chameleon Charm."
"Bollocks!"
She could hear Tom rummaging in the bag he was carrying, looking for their wands.
"Talpaer!" Tom's voice whispered. She felt the tip of his wand jab her in her chest. Then he repeated the spell.
"Am I invisible now?" Dorcas inquired.
Tom snorted again. "You're in the dark, so yeah!"
She heard some more jostling as Tom arranged the bag's straps on his shoulders once again.
Tom opened the cabinet's door with confidence. He did not cautiously peek out to see if either of the two shop's owners were about, or if any customers might spot a cabinet opening and closing of its own accord. He just opened the door, as one might open a cupboard to reach for something inside.
But there was no one in the shop. Dorcas wondered internally at her own unflappable confidence. She stepped out of the cabinet (presumably) behind Tom, surefooted and intrepid. She didn't for one second anticipate that they would be spotted.
This feeling could become addictive, she thought.
She wanted to grab Tom's hand and swing it back and forth in hers as they stepped out onto Knockturn Alley, but she couldn't be sure where he was. She assumed he was right next to her; there were small scuffing sounds on the pavement from his shoes and once, a puddle splashed beside her.
One peek into his thoughts confirmed that he was just as buoyant as she was.
"If we'd had this in Birmingham, I doubt the Luftwaffe would have even attacked the city that night," she observed in a hushed tone.
Tom grunted a small laugh. "You're probably right, Birdie."
In his mind, he added, "If I'd had it last year, I wouldn't have blown my chance with you!"
Dorcas felt herself grin at the thought.
The timing of one Leaky Cauldron patron leaving through Diagon Alley was perfect. Tom thought to Dorcas, "Birdie, you go through before the door swings shut."
And the moment she was through, another patron staggered past her and out the door, offering Tom a chance to slip in.
They dodged the Leaky Cauldron's patrons carefully and played the same game of chicken with the pub's street exit.
Then they were out in the brisk wind of Charing Cross.
"Tom," Dorcas breathed, hoping he was close enough to hear her.
There was no answer.
Dorcas felt a wave of panic and an alien reflex against that feeling, as if the potion wouldn't allow her brain and body to communicate in the language of distress.
The golden voice of Felix soothed her. "There is no way you and Tom have lost one another. It simply isn't possible."
Dorcas nodded swiftly once, deciding that the voice was right.
"Birdie?" Dorcas heard Tom's voice ring in her mind. His inner sight reflected the same view of Charing Cross as hers did.
"Tom?" she whispered once more.
"I'm right beside you. What's wrong?"
Dorcas wondered for a moment how Tom knew where she was, but then she remembered that he'd manipulated her ring. He could track her somehow.
"I forgot to put on my coat. It's freezing out here."
There was an exasperated inner sigh. "Birdie, I can't place a Warming Spell on you. We can't risk doing magic. I wish you could feel my arm around you. But you can't."
Dorcas stomped her feet and wiggled her toes.
"No. I just need my coat from the bag. But I don't know how we're going to get it now that it's invisible. Or how I'm going to put it on, come to think of it."
She began to feel foolish, like their plan was beginning to fall apart now at the first sign of adversity. Though her teeth chattered, she'd decided that they should just push on and do their best to ignore the cold.
"Hang on, Birdie!" Tom said.
Dorcas could tell from the concentration in his mind that he was taking the bag from his shoulders and focusing very strongly on the feeling of the fastenings with his fingertips. He opened the bag and felt around, noticing the hollow clang of the empty Felix bottles and the weightier feel of the full ones.
Then his fingers gripped wool fabric and he pulled out a coat.
"Close your eyes, Birdie," Tom commanded cryptically.
But she felt the warmth of her coat on her shoulders instantly.
"Tom! How did you do that?"
"The Chameleon Charm relies on a trick of the eye to fool the other senses that are connected. Touch, specifically. Your brain relies on your eyes to take in sensory information before your sense of touch can tell you what you are observing. So if you take away the dominant sense, the spell becomes less effective."
"Binns was right, Tom. You should be a teacher. You're brilliant!"
Tom didn't reply, but Dorcas noticed the bright gleam of pride in him at the compliment.
She had a nearly uncontrollable urge to kiss the smirk off his face, even though she couldn't see it. But she took a deep breath and opened her eyes, reminding herself that Liquid Luck had a tendency to break down inhibitions.
"Better?" Tom asked.
"Much better," whispered Dorcas.
"Okay, let's get across the street and into the train station. We're pushing it a little close."
Dorcas wanted to argue that it didn't seem possible to miss the train, her confidence was dizzying as the Luck coursed through her veins, but she kept silent.
They found the train to Newcastle without incident, as Dorcas knew they would.
She expected them to find two seats together in a corner of the train where they could hunker down and try to be as still and quiet as possible, but when Tom steered her toward the private cabins with his mind, she was surprised.
"Tom, won't we be discovered by the cabin's occupants?" Dorcas warned as the door to cabin 3A popped open seemingly of its own volition. "We'll never be able to be quiet enough. Maybe we should find the–"
She was about to suggest they find the luggage car where they would be well and truly out of the way of any observant passengers. But Tom spoke over her whispered challenge.
"We are the cabin's occupants, Birdie," Tom said aloud, closing them into the private space with a small table and two chairs that were positioned to face the window. In an alcove to one side was a bed big enough to fit two adults and the opposite end held a plush leather couch.
"You mean, you purchased tickets to this cabin?" Dorcas asked in wonderment.
This cabin was altogether finer than anything either of them had been used to sleeping in.
Dorcas eyed the bed and swallowed at the idea of sleeping there with Tom. It seemed far too romantic a notion for her. But she felt her heart speed up at the mental images that popped into her mind.
"We couldn't be in the dining car or the lounge car. There are too many people moving about in there. Here we can talk normally and relax. We have a four hour journey ahead of us." Tom's voice moved away from her and she saw the counterpane on the bed crumple as the mattress depressed with Tom's weight.
Dorcas moved to the window and pulled a chair away from the table.
"Birdie, come here and lay beside me," Tom purred. There was an accompanying pat of the bed.
"I'm comfortable here," Dorcas replied firmly. "I want to see the view."
The Felix Felicis warnings blared in her mind once again. Giddiness. Breakdown of inhibitions. She could see how sharing a bed with Tom while riding the beguiling wave of Liquid Luck might lead to trouble.
"Suit yourself," Tom sighed.
Dorcas could hear the disappointment in his voice. But she also knew that the potion's influence left him hopeful that he could wear her down.
She watched people boarding on the platform and searched for a way to take Tom's mind off of the things he'd like to do with her on the train cabin's bed.
"Did Slytherin's basilisk pay for this extravagant cabin too?"
"It did."
"Quite a cash cow, that snake."
Dorcas felt the mental shrug. "I do alright. Better than alright," Tom snorted. In his mind he added, "Now that I have money like that ponce Meadowes, you're looking at me differently, aren't you?"
Dorcas rolled her eyes.
"So what will we be up against at the factory?" Dorcas asked, yet again, wanting to change the subject. Discussions of the plan seemed to be the only safe territory. Dorcas felt as if everything else turned to his attraction for her, wondering if she was attracted to him, or his jealousy of boys that she was friends with.
Did Felix Felicis affect people differently? Tom seemed extremely excitable under its influence.
"When I scouted it in December there were three guards on duty. The mercury is located in a basement vault where it's being stored for the duration of the war. They don't need it to make bullets, which is what the factory is producing now."
Dorcas could picture the vault's location from the map Tom had drawn of the place when he'd gone on his solo scouting mission for Christmas.
"And the factory is closed at night?"
"It was when I went there," Tom replied.
Dorcas nodded to herself and watched a porter stacking luggage on a trolley.
"How far is the walk from the station in Newcastle to the factory?"
Tom sighed. "About forty minutes."
Dorcas was doing the math in her mind. They would barely have time to leave the station and walk to the factory before the Liquid Luck wore off. She wondered how they would fare once the effects of the Felix Felicis wore off for her and only Tom was lucky after that.
A feeling of calming optimism washed over her when her stomach fluttered with the thought. The blood that coursed through her veins sang to her that everything was going to work out.
The platform had cleared and a set of wooden steps were being wheeled away from the train. Before long, Dorcas felt the shuddering jerk of the locomotive tugging the passenger cars into motion.
She was less anxious as the rocking movement of the train began to lull her into quiet confidence.
"You might as well get comfortable, Birdie. It's going to be a while."
Dorcas knew that his definition of "getting comfortable" meant crawling into his arms on the bed. She didn't want to test her resolve with this intoxicating Luck pulsing inside her. She was liable to throw caution to the wind.
Now that she knew they could feel one another's touch if they closed their eyes, her mind kept wandering to the possibility. Tom's mind might have put the suggestion there, but her mind was all too happy to entertain the thought further.
She saw the sense in Tom's wisdom, though. It would be a long journey and it might be a good idea to sleep at least part of the way.
Dorcas slid the chair back and heard the hopeful note of anticipation in Tom's mind.
But she moved to the couch instead, the leather creaking a bit as she shifted her weight onto the cold, smooth surface. The backs of her thighs tingled when they made contact before warming the leather. Closing her eyes, she tugged at her coat and spread it out over her, making herself a warm bed as far away from Tom as the cabin would allow.
"You're no fun!" Tom's mind pouted
Dorcas smirked to herself, taking pleasure in disappointing Tom.
She focused on the rocking of the train car and the rhythmic clank clank of the wheels on the track and felt the anxiety drain away from her as her eyes drifted closed.
:::
"See! This one's empty, doll!" a man's voice jolted Dorcas from her nap.
She sat upright, aware that the cabin's door had slid back on its track with a bang.
A man and woman, embracing one another frantically, stumbled into the cabin, the man reaching back with one hand to slam the cabin's door closed again. He pulled the shade down over the glass.
"Swanky room," the girl gasped, stopping her exploration of her partner's mouth long enough to draw a breath, before pressing herself against him once again.
Dorcas watched the girl's hand slip down between them and stroke the front of his trousers.
"Birdie! Didn't you lock the cabin door?" Tom asked mentally.
She could see the vantage point he had of the couple, it was the same as hers but to her left. He was on the sofa with her. Had he moved while she was sleeping?
It was fortunate that he'd shifted from the bed, Dorcas thought, as she watched the man throw the girl down playfully where Tom had been laying.
The skirt of the girl's dress rode up her thigh as she squealed, colliding with the mattress. Dorcas could see her knickers from where she sat on the sofa. They were blue and lacy.
"What if they come back?" the girl panted, propping herself up on her elbows. She was watching her partner undo the button and zipper of his trousers. Dorcas could hear him working to release himself, but was spared the view with his back to her.
"Who?" the man asked distractedly.
There was a giggle from the girl as the man's hand slipped under her dress.
"What do you mean who? The people who booked this cabin?"
Her heart was racing. She took the risk, while the couple spoke about the potential of being intruded upon to whisper to Tom.
"Ohmygod! Tom! What do we do?" Dorcas hissed.
The man turned in their direction for a moment and Dorcas screwed her eyes shut before she saw him with his trousers undone. She heard the man sliding the lock home on the cabin door and felt Tom's hand gripping her forearm.
"Be absolutely still and wait for them to finish? I don't know, Birdie! This wasn't part of the plan!"
It was no use closing her eyes. She could see everything through Tom's mind.
The man, a soldier, Dorcas noted, returned to the bed and pushed the girl's knees apart while she grinned up at him.
Dorcas didn't know what was worse, keeping her eyes open and focusing on what she saw before her, or closing her eyes.
With her eyes closed, Dorcas had the loud and vivid feelings and sensations of the couple in her mind. Tom was also a constant presence, frozen, but excited beside her.
She felt heat pooling low in her belly as she experienced the girl's eager anticipation. She could almost feel the man's hands sliding under her skirt and pulling down her knickers. Her thighs pressed together, causing her muscles to cry out in response.
"Oh shite! This is really happening!" Tom thought beside her.
"How do we get them to stop!" Dorcas whispered frantically.
She was afraid for a moment that she'd been too loud in voicing her panic to Tom. But a loud moan from the woman coincided with her question. She didn't think Tom had heard her.
Dorcas wasn't so innocent that she didn't understand sex. But, besides some light snogging with Tom when they dated briefly, she'd never come close to experiencing it. That time in the garden at Blackpool didn't count.
But the detailed and personal education that she was receiving right now was jarring.
She watched the man's trousers drop to reveal his pale arse cheeks briefly before the girl's legs wrapped around him and pulled him closer to her.
It seemed like hours had passed as Dorcas and Tom watched the man pump his hips and grunt as he drove into the girl. The sounds she made were confusing. Dorcas might have guessed that she was distressed or unhappy. Her voice hitched every so often as if she was in pain. But the impression that Dorcas had of the girl's mind told an entirely different story.
The man's hand squeezed her left breast through the fabric of her dress, twisting slightly. The girl responded by arching her back. Dorcas imagined that would be painful, but it didn't seem that way from the girl's reaction.
When the feelings within Dorcas had reached a point where she feared she might explode, she leapt up from the sofa, resolving to put an end to this.
She crept toward the door silently. But it was a wasted effort. She could have stomped and they wouldn't have heard with all the noises they made.
Undoing the latch, Dorcas ripped open the shade and flung the door back into its pocket.
The couple jumped and the girl tugged at her skirts, kicking the man away from her.
"Jeepers!" the girl cried, pushing herself up to a sitting position.
The man clamored to pull his pants up with an embarrassed look on his flushed face. "Lock must be broken."
Standing aside, Dorcas watched them leave with a satisfied nod. She bent out of the doorway to glare at the couple as they scurried off down the corridor. The girl self-consciously arranged her hair, while the man zipped himself up with one hand and stuffed the lace panties in his pocket with the other.
There were footsteps behind her announcing Tom.
"Be back in a few minutes," he muttered.
"Wait, Tom! Where are you going?" Dorcas hissed after the empty space that she imagined was his retreating back.
"To the loo, Birdie! I have to take care of something!"
Dorcas felt like an intruder in his mind when she began to understand that he'd sat with a throbbing erection in his lap the entire time the couple had carried on in their cabin.
She felt her cheeks heating at the embarrassingly intimate detail as she ducked back into the cabin and shut the door behind her.
:::
There was an awkward silence between them after what they'd witnessed.
Dorcas didn't know whether it needed to be acknowledged, the voyeurism that they'd both unwittingly taken part in or not. She decided to let Tom take the lead.
When he slipped back into the cabin after relieving his...discomfort, she watched without comment as one of the club chairs slid away from the table and then position itself facing the window and intentionally away from her.
So be it.
Dorcas didn't fully understand if it was nerves or the Felix Felicis, but after a silent moment, she burst into laughter.
It broke the tension between them and soon Tom snorted and chuckled too.
When the train finally arrived at the Newcastle station, Dorcas closed her eyes and pulled her coat back on by her sense of touch alone. She could hear the scuffling sounds of Tom positioning the straps of his bag on his shoulders too.
"Hang back a bit, Birdie. Let most of the crowd go out first."
Just as they had snuck onto the train without incident, their departure was carried off without a hitch as well.
Dorcas was hopeful that the mercury could be collected simply and quietly and that they would be back at Hogwarts before dawn.
Besides the porters who were busy unloading packages and loading on crates of cargo, Tom and Dorcas emerged from the train to an empty platform.
Tom led the way in the sense that he stepped off the train before Dorcas, but it wasn't as easy as trailing behind him. Dorcas had to remain focused on his mind and what he was seeing in order to follow him. Sometimes, when Tom wasn't concentrating on his surroundings, it became much harder for Dorcas.
During one of these lapses in connection, Dorcas's eye caught the letters of a label plastered to the wooden slats of a crate that was being carted on a trolley and loaded onto another train.
"Birdie, this way!" hissed Tom.
He must have been keeping track of her with the ring. Dorcas still didn't know how that worked.
She turned to follow him when his mind flashed on his surroundings. He was further to her left than she'd thought. But, she remained rooted to the spot and watched the workers like a line of ants on an anthill, moving crates. One after another, they trudged from a loading dock up the platform and onto a freight car.
The label that had caught her eye was a military label.
"Birdie," came Tom's voice, low in her ear. "The way out is over here. We don't have any time to waste."
Dorcas was shaking her head.
"No, Tom. We need to go this way." She gestured to the line of workers and crates, forgetting that Tom could not see her.
"That's not the way," he argued. "You've never been here. But I have."
She heard his shoes scuff on the platform as he turned to leave.
"No, Tom. It's this way!" Dorcas insisted. She didn't wait for him to argue. "This feels right. D'you know what I mean?" She walked the short distance from the platform to the cargo loading dock and saw a fleet of lorries lined up, engines running.
The painted letters on the doors of each of the lorries read: THOMPSON'S MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS.
"We can stow away and ride all the way up to the factory, Tom," Dorcas explained.
She expected him to argue for sticking with the plan, but he didn't. "It'll save loads of time," he conceded in his mind.
Dorcas hurried past the last of the crates making their way onto the platform and toward the lead lorry where the driver was already starting to climb behind the steering wheel. She figured it would be safest to keep away from the lorries further back where porters were still bustling around unloading the last of the ammunition. Plus, this one looked as if it was about to pull away. The first to head back to the factory.
She climbed onto the lorry's bumper and over the gate, looking over her shoulder briefly to check that no one was near enough to see the canvas over the bed being swept back by an invisible force.
When she heard Tom clamber up behind her, she smiled. This was going to work. It would spare them a long, cold walk from the station to the factory. They'd be in and out quickly and back to school. She couldn't believe how effective this Liquid Luck was!
"Why didn't I think of this when I came here a couple of months ago!" Tom asked. Dorcas could hear the smirk in his voice.
"It's probably the potion, right? That stuff wasn't being loaded onto trains the last time you were here."
"No. I think you're right." There was a moment of hesitation, then Tom added, "Close your eyes, Birdie."
She did. There was an instant of alarm when she sensed Tom very near her. He brushed her lips lightly with his, while his hand slipped from her shoulder to her neck.
"I'm so glad you're here with me tonight," he confessed.
His breath swept across her lips enticingly. Then he pressed them to hers, causing her heart to race in her chest. Before she knew what she was doing, she swiped her tongue along his bottom lip. Tom immediately responded by opening his mouth and pressing his tongue between her parted lips.
It was exciting to feel Tom's fingers winding into her hair and to feel his tongue exploring her mouth. Dorcas wanted more. Part of her mind warned her that it was Felix Felicis eroding her propriety, dismantling her inhibitions, but she didn't care what the cause was. She just knew she wanted him.
Blindly fumbling with her eyes closed, Dorcas's hand explored the space next to her, searching for him. Her hands felt the rough wool of his coat and her fingers worked on the buttons.
When Tom realized that she was trying to reach him beneath his coat, he removed his hands from her neck and hair to help her. She felt him roughly take her hand and slip it under the warm fabric of his jumper and his shirt. Her fingers were touching his bare abdomen.
Tom laughed against her lips as his hands found the buttons of her coat and began to slip them from the buttonholes.
"What's so funny?" Dorcas asked a little self-consciously.
"Your hands are cold," Tom replied.
Dorcas made to pull her hand away from his warm skin, even though she'd been enjoying how his body felt. But Tom's hand stopped her retreat by pinning it flat against him.
"I didn't say I wanted you to stop. I was merely pointing out that they're cold."
She felt herself smile against Tom's lips and playfully flicked her tongue against his. He grunted and pushed his hand inside her coat, pressing his palm against her right breast.
Dorcas responded by searching higher with her hand until she found his nipple and brushed her chilled fingers against it. Tom jolted and laughed again.
"We'd better stop before you have to excuse yourself to the loo again," Dorcas said, wanting to find a way to slow their progress down and bring them back to reality.
He gave her breast another squeeze, reminding her of the way the man and woman were in the train's cabin earlier. She thought it might hurt to be squeezed like that, but she was surprised that it felt good.
"You wouldn't want to help me out?" Tom teased, but he removed his hand from inside her coat.
Dorcas couldn't help imagining what "helping" him might be like. She chalked it up to the potion again when the next word slipped from her lips.
"Maybe."
Tom responded immediately by imagining Dorcas slowly unbuttoning and unzipping...
She felt him roughly grab her wrist as she stroked his abdomen under his shirt and pressed it against the front of his trousers. He was becoming hard and that aroused Dorcas. There was a corresponding reaction between her legs.
She pressed her thighs together in the same way she had when the sensations she'd picked up from the man and the woman having sex in front of her had overwhelmed her.
Pulling her hand gently away from Tom, she whispered. "I'm sorry, Tom. I think that Luck has done something...I don't mean to tease you."
"I like it, Birdie. I like the teasing," Tom said, his fingers beginning to graze the inside of her thigh.
She wrapped her hand around his to keep his fingers from progressing higher. If he touched her there, she might not have the presence of mind to stop him. She wouldn't want to stop herself.
But it wasn't really him she wanted. She was reminded of the boy that she wanted to kiss and touch and tease and it was not Tom. A wave of shame came over her and she turned away from Tom and opened her eyes, severing any contact between them.
"I'm sorry, Tom," she whispered again.
Maybe the Felix Felicis wouldn't allow him to brood or stoke a black mood over her rejection. She felt him shrug mentally and then his mind became occupied with next steps in their plan.
:::
It had been no problem at all to get into the factory.
They seemed to arrive at a shift change. Workers were leaving for the night as three security officers were waiting to lock the gates behind them.
"I don't believe this!" Tom whispered, in awe of their good fortune. "The last time I was here I had to scale that bloody wall and then pry a window open around the back."
"You arrived about thirty minutes later than we did this time," Dorcas pointed out smugly, reminded that it had been her idea to hide in the lorry.
They skirted the line of men, chatting and lighting cigarettes on their way home for the evening and slipped in behind the last security guard who held a ring of keys ready to lock them in for the night.
She supposed they may have to do some wall-scaling in order to leave this place later.
Dorcas had to concentrate to keep close enough to the guard in front of her, but not too close to bump into him. She knew from Tom's mental view that he was behind the middle guard and the final guard was not too far behind that.
"Did May like the restaurant last night?" the one before Dorcas asked over his shoulder.
Behind Tom, the answer came: "She did. Thanks for the suggestion, Vin."
"He knows all the best spots to wine and dine the ladies," the guard in the middle chimed.
The one called Vin dropped his cigarette on the stoop and toed it with his black polished boot, snuffing the light. "I took May there myself once, that's how I knew she'd like it, Bob," he joked.
Bob chuckled.
Tom and Dorcas stepped to the side when they reached the punch clock. Bob, Vin, and the third guard punched their time cards and Dorcas watched them heading off in different directions for duty. Vin was swinging his tin lunch pail and whistling as he went.
"Which way is the basement vault?" Dorcas hissed.
She saw Tom's mind flash toward Vin's retreating back in reply. "We'll give him a minute to settle in."
"Alright." Dorcas leaned against the wall and watched Vin slowly disappear around a corner. Her right knee began to jiggle, releasing nervous energy. They were so close to pulling this off. Then they would have the final ingredient Tom needed to brew the potion to make something into a Horcrux.
"Have you given any thought to the object you're going to use, Tom?" Dorcas asked mutedly.
"I have a short list of options," he responded. He didn't elaborate and he didn't think about what they might be either.
A silence fell between them.
"I've been wondering something, Birdie," Tom finally said.
"Mmm?"
There was a hesitation from Tom and Dorcas almost flickered into his thoughts to see what he wanted to ask her. Then he spoke.
"Why didn't you tell me that Jack Hardin visited you over the summer?"
Dorcas stiffened against the wall. She had not been expecting Tom to bring Jack up.
When she didn't respond, Tom continued. "Gemma couldn't wait to tell me that bit of gossip when we returned in September. But you never brought it up. Are you hiding it from me?"
"Hiding what?" Dorcas asked. Was her voice trembling?
"Have you been seeing Hardin?"
Dorcas's momentary surprise melted and she felt a curious self-assuredness wash over her.
"Seeing him? Tom, no. Did Gemma share with you how she came across me and Jack?"
"She mentioned that she and your aunt found the two of you in Diagon Alley."
"That's right. And maybe Gemma didn't understand the significance of the uniform Jack was wearing, but he'd enlisted. I was just showing him a bit of our world before he left for war, Tom."
"He joined up?" Tom asked. There was a note of grudging respect in his voice, but there was also an underlying current of jealousy.
"Yes. He writes to me on occasion. From Africa."
She could feel a little bit of Tom's relief at hearing that Jack was not a rival, or at least not a rival on the same continent.
"From Africa?"
"Yes, Tom. Remember that I wrote to him after his sister's death?" she paused, wondering how Tom would react to the mention of his half-sister's tragic end.
"Mm hmm," answered Tom.
"I let you read the letter. It was nothing. He was in London tying up some loose ends, and came by to say goodbye. I offered to show him a little bit of London's magical side. And now he's gone." Dorcas felt her throat tighten on the last words. She blinked her tears back and exhaled to calm herself again.
"Why did you keep it from me?"
Dorcas was glad that the Chameleon Charm hid her face. She knew her eyes were glassy, tears hovering on her bottom lashes. She felt her determination renew. She would get some Felix Felicis for Jack. She would find a way to make sure he had it with him.
"I didn't realize you'd want to know. Now you do." She added, "Are you angry with me?"
"No. I just wondered. My mind went to a jealous place for a while, imagining that you preferred him. He looks like me, but taller. But he isn't a wizard."
Dorcas had begun to feel guilty that she did prefer Jack over Tom. But she would never tell Tom that–Well, she supposed that one day she would have to break it to him.
Would he continue to be her friend, or not, once he found out?
"Would you ever be with someone who was not magical?" she asked it in a way that sounded like there was no question that she preferred wizards to Muggles. But she didn't have a preference at all.
"I don't think so," Tom admitted. In his mind, Dorcas heard what he didn't say: Not many witches could match up to him, so he doubted that a Muggle could reach his standard.
Dorcas rolled her eyes, thanking the Chameleon Charm again for her concealment.
"Do you think it's safe to go down to the basement?" Dorcas asked, disbelief washing over her that Tom had reacted levelly to Jack's visit. She was equally disbelieving of her own skills of subterfuge. She'd lied so naturally to Tom.
"Let's go," he said, all thoughts of Jack disappearing from his mind.
When they turned the corner, Dorcas heard Tom scuffling around in his bag while they crept down the corridor. She instantly tuned into his thoughts to figure out what he was searching for. They didn't need to take another potion yet. By her estimation, they still had about forty-five minutes remaining on their first dose.
But he was concentrating on the feel of a wand in his fingertips.
"Tom, you can't use your wand. No magic, remember?" she hissed. She wondered if the effects of the Liquid Luck got stronger before they wore off. This was certainly reckless behavior.
Her mind fluttered to their passionate snogging in the back of the lorry. Reckless.
"I'm not using mine," he whispered back, fingers closing around a thin stretch of polished wood.
Dorcas hurried her pace and came level with his footfalls. "Whose?" she snarled. There was only one other wand in the bag. He wouldn't risk her in that way, surely!
"I got it off some Ravenclaw bint–"
Dorcas interrupted him. "If you got it off this Ravenclaw bint, then I'm going to take your bits in my hand and–"
"I got it off some slag called Olive. But let's circle back to this conversation about my bits and your hand at a more convenient time."
"...pulverize them." Dorcas ground out the last bit of the threat, baring her teeth.
Tom laughed, out loud. "I wish I could see you right now. You're so cute when you're angry!"
"Close your eyes, Tom," purred Dorcas, deliberately recalling when Tom had made the same request in the lorry.
Then she swung as hard as she could with her fist, clubbing him in the center of his chest.
"Wanker!"
"Ow!"
"How did you get Olive's wand off her?" Dorcas asked.
She could picture Tom rubbing his chest where she'd struck him. But his mind was excited by this new and forceful Dorcas.
"Nicked it in the library when she wasn't looking. Isn't that brilliant? Now, if we need to use magic we can't get caught."
Dorcas followed Tom down a flight of stairs. "Yes, but Olive could get into trouble."
"If she's at Hogwarts and her wand is traced here, the Ministry will probably think their Trace Charm has malfunctioned."
Dorcas was skeptical. "Stop," she commanded in a whisper. "Hold it out. I want to feel it."
"Birdie! You can't just demand to touch a wizard's wand. You have to have a bit of finesse with these things," Tom joked.
Dorcas sighed and closed her eyes. She found Tom's hand and ran her fingertips over the wand. There was a series of knots in the otherwise smooth wood. Not hers.
"Nnuugh! Yeah, like that!" Tom groaned.
Dorcas slapped his hand away. "No more of this potion for you. It makes you too randy!"
Tom laughed. "You thought that was funny!"
Yeah, okay. It was funny. But she wasn't going to encourage Tom further.
The joking and the innuendo tapered out the closer they came to the guard and the vault until there was only the faint sound of their footsteps in the corridor.
The vault was bigger than anything Dorcas had imagined. It had a safe door with a massive wheel. Dorcas thought it might have as many as twenty-four bolts holding it securely in place. She felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her.
In a low hum, Dorcas leaned toward Tom and asked, "D'you suppose Alohomora! works on that?"
"I think you and I are going to find out together," came Tom's mental answer.
"You should probably do a Silencing Charm on the bolts first," Dorcas whispered.
"We need to distract Vin before we can figure out what to do about the safe," Tom reminded her.
"I'll go to the end of the corridor and make a noise. He'll probably leave his post to investigate."
She could hear Tom's thoughts as he weighed the pros and cons of her suggestion.
"I'd rather not split up. What if you get into trouble?"
"I'll take my wand and some Felix with me. And you can track me with my ring, right?"
"Yes, I suppose it'll work," Tom conceded. He slipped the bag from his shoulders.
Dorcas kept her eyes on Vin as he flipped through a newspaper in a folding chair across from the vault's massive door. She could see Tom in her mind, rummaging for a phial of potion and Dorcas's wand while he held Olive's between his teeth.
"Okay, Birdie," Tom said mentally, "close your eyes."
She felt him take her hand and placed the potion in her grip first. He waited for her to place it in her coat pocket before handing her wand to her. Then he squeezed her hand.
"If you feel threatened at all, just find a place to hide. Don't worry about me. Keep yourself hidden and I will come find you."
"Okay, Tom," she promised, squeezing his fingers reassuringly in return.
"I mean it! Hide! Don't try to help me!"
"Okay!"
Dorcas adjusted her grip on her wand, but before she was about to open her eyes and dart away, Tom's hands gripped her by the upper arms and pressed a kiss to her lips.
"Let's do this!" he whispered against her lips before releasing her.
Dorcas's eyes snapped open and she ran, deliberately pounding the soles of her shoes against the rough cement floor of the basement corridor.
She was monitoring Vin's mind and knew the moment he'd heard her. The sound of the folding chair's legs scratching the ground announced that he'd taken up the pursuit.
It was anyone's guess if Tom could successfully get past that intimidating vault door. But she couldn't worry about his part of the operation. She had to keep Vin from backtracking to the vault's corridor.
Dorcas found another set of stairs and flew up them, hoping her steps were loud enough to keep Vin in the chase.
At the top of the first landing, she saw the guard turning the corner and peering up the stairs. He looked directly at her, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She had to remind herself that she was invisible. She turned and lost sight of him as her feet carried her up another flight. And then another.
His trudging footsteps echoed in the stairwell below her.
Dorcas could hear him two or three landings below her, but it was hard to keep track. Her ears were filled with the sounds of blood rushing through her veins and the heaving gasps of air she was gulping as she ran.
Her fingers kept a vice grip on her wand as she pumped her arms and soared down a random corridor.
When she couldn't hear her pursuer any longer, she stopped to bend over and clutch her knees, catching her breath.
Her lungs were on fire and her vision swam a little. She straightened when her heart rate slowed and she rested her forehead against the cool cinder block wall beside her.
As she calmed, her hearing became more attuned to the sounds around her. That's when she heard talking.
"Racing up the stairs, as plain as if you'd done it!" one of the guards was saying.
Dorcas wondered if she had the stamina to continue the pursuit, or if she should hide as Tom had instructed. Had she bought him enough time to get into the vault and retrieve the mercury he needed? She couldn't be sure how long she'd been chased by the guard.
Had she climbed three storeys or four? How many turns had she made?
She began to panic.
What if the spell Tom used to track her ring failed? What if he ran out of Luck before he could chase it with another phial of the potion?
Her heart rate shot up as she thought of all the ways their venture could go sideways and she became dizzy.
Her hand reached out to the wall to brace herself and fell against a doorknob.
It seemed to her that Felix was giving her an answer to her question: Run? Or hide?
Felix was saying, "HIDE!"
But when she turned the knob, it was unyielding. Locked.
She tried the one opposite her. Locked. Moving down the corridor, she tried three more doors. All were locked.
"Did you see anyone on the stairs at all?" another voice asked in response to the first one.
They were closer.
Dorcas tried the final door at the end of the hall. She held her breath as she turned the knob. This one gave way with a soft click, and Dorcas felt the door swing open with a faint creak.
She paused at the unexpected whine of the door's hinges.
"No, not a soul," the first guard (probably Vin) responded.
Daring only to open the noisy door a crack, Dorcas shimmied into the space and threw her hands out. She didn't know what to expect, didn't know what this room was.
She wouldn't risk reaching for a light switch or lighting the tip of her wand.
"Did you hear that?" came one of the voices.
Dorcas was sure they'd picked up on the rusted hinges protesting when she'd opened the door.
She couldn't do anything about it now. All she could do was find a spot to hunker down and rely on the Chameleon Charm to conceal her from the guards.
Concentrating on her outstretched hands and shuffling feet, Dorcas took tentative steps forward, closing her eyes since it was no good straining them in the dark. She could get a sense of the space. It wasn't large, maybe a broom cupboard.
"Do you think it was Benny?" came one guard's voice. He was in the corridor Dorcas had just fled.
There was a chuckle. "Fucking Benny! More likely, it's a vagrant looking for a warm place to spend the night."
Dorcas continued to feel blindly in front of her, trying to move further into the space. Something light touched her finger and fell against the wall. It was the handle of something, a broom or a mop.
She held her breath and listened for the guards' reactions. Maybe it was too faint for them to hear.
A key slid into a lock. A door was opened. Then the sounds repeated on the opposite side of the hallway.
They were checking, room by room, down the corridor.
She clutched her wand in her right hand and clapped her left over her mouth, turning to face the door that she'd just slipped through. Waiting.
If she had to stun them, she'd be ready.
Taking her shaky hand from her mouth, she plunged it into her pocket and gripped the phial of Liquid Luck. She should take it. She had no idea how much time had passed since she'd taken the first.
No. She had to resist. This phial was Jack's. She couldn't squander it out of paranoia.
The sound of a key slipped into the lock on the door that concealed her. She was standing just inside the door, she hadn't found a hiding place, afraid she'd make too much noise.
"This one's unlocked," a guard muttered from the other side of the door.
A sliver of light fell over Dorcas's face before widening with the opening of the door.
The light switch was flicked on the wall and Vin stood just inside the door, inches from her.
Dorcas inhaled and held her breath. A wave of calm stillness washed over her.
Vin looked around the small space, a broom cupboard as Dorcas had supposed.
"Benny, we've got better things to do than chase you, brother!" Vin said before flicking the light switch and dousing the light. He closed the door.
The other guard laughed from the corridor.
Dorcas sank to the cold tiled floor with relief, releasing the bottle of Liquid Luck inside her pocket.
The door opened sometime later to the sound of Tom's voice in her mind.
"Birdie?"
Dorcas stood, squeezing her eyes shut and throwing her arms around his neck.
Tom responded by wrapping his around her waist and pressing his lips to the warm place where her neck met her shoulder.
"Did you get it?" Dorcas asked, taking in a shuddering breath.
Tom's thoughts were radiant with victory. "Yes." He kissed that warm spot on her neck.
"Did you have any trouble?" he asked, the feel of his mouth on her skin made her shiver.
They were still holding each other and Dorcas didn't pull away. She was comforted by the feel of his familiar presence.
"They chased me here and I hid," she explained. "They thought I was someone named Benny."
Tom laughed at a joke that Dorcas didn't seem to understand.
"Who's Benny?" she pressed as Tom rubbed her back beneath her coat distractedly.
"Benjamin Thompson. He owned this factory until he killed himself during the '29 crash. I read about him when I was researching this place."
They thought they were chasing a ghost.
"You ready to catch a train?" Tom asked, placing another kiss on her neck, seemingly unable to help himself.
"Yes," Dorcas sighed, relieved to be heading back to school.
Her eyes opened and the connection to Tom was severed.
"Oh!" he added. "Did you take the second Felix? The first wore off about twenty minutes ago."
"Yes, I did," Dorcas lied. The lie didn't feel nearly as confident as the first several had, when she was under Luck's influence.
:::
Dorcas became extremely tired almost the moment she was aware that the Liquid Luck had worn off. Without the synthetic adrenaline coursing through her, her muscles ached, and the tension she'd unknowingly been carrying around weighed on her.
The bed was much more appealing to Dorcas now when they entered the cabin that Tom had reserved for them. She was reminded of the couple that had used it on their trip up to Newcastle and she double checked the lock on the cabin's door this time.
A club chair moved away from the table and Tom sat down silently. Dorcas could tell that Tom was preoccupied with the mercury and the new phase of his Horcrux plan that obtaining it would lead to.
She laid down on the bed after removing her coat, draping it over her cold legs. They'd had to walk back to the station as no more lorries were traveling between the station and the factory at this hour.
Warily, Dorcas watched the chair that she knew Tom was occupying. The back-to-back doses of Felix Felicis had made him unpredictable. She knew better than to relax onto the inviting pillow and close her eyes for the next four hours.
He'd insisted on hijacking a factory lorry, arguing with Dorcas that he could learn how to drive on the fly. She'd had to pull him from behind the wheel, trying to talk sense into him. In the end, it was the lack of keys in the ignition that convinced Tom that he could not drive them to the station in a stolen vehicle.
He bounced from one idea to another in a manic series of tangents. One moment, he suggested they switch trains at the station and take one bound for Dover and then board a ship to the continent. He wanted to see the world with Dorcas by his side. Nevermind the war raging around them.
Then he'd decided that he wanted to skip the train altogether and get a room in a hotel instead, romanticizing about how he'd like to make love to her all night while slipping his hands under her skirt as they walked.
Dorcas found it difficult to keep track of his hands with her eyes open, and she'd lost patience with him.
"TOM! Stop being such a knobhead! We have to make this train or we won't be back at school by morning!"
"We'll make it back, Birdie," Tom assured her with borrowed confidence. "Why are you so uptight? You didn't take the second phial, did you?"
Dorcas huffed, keeping her voice steady. "Of course I did, Tom."
"I don't believe you," he challenged her. "Give me the empty bottle to prove it!"
She swallowed hard, thinking. Of course, she hadn't taken the potion. She was saving it for Jack. She was as determined as ever that their use of the potion was frivolous compared to his need for it. She wrapped her fingers around it as it lay, completely full, the wax seal intact, in her pocket.
"Go on! Turn out your pockets and give me the empty bottle."
"I don't have it anymore. I dropped the phial in the broom cupboard where you found me," she lied. "It's freezing out here," she added in a playful tone, trying to match his frenetic change in mood. "Feel free to frisk me for it once we're on the train, but right now we need to move!"
She clutched the bottle tighter in her palm.
Tom laughed, his mood instantly lightening at her teasing joke. "Felix Felicis makes you rather randy too. I didn't read that in the paragraph about side effects."
Dorcas hadn't either. But she remembered how she'd wanted to climb onto Tom's lap in the back of the lorry and run her hands over his entire body. Her cheeks heated at how carried away she'd gotten.
Dorcas kept a close watch on Tom's thoughts as he looked out the cabin's window. He was calculating the timeline of beginning his Horcrux potion now, or waiting until next school year. Ultimately, he decided to begin as soon as he got back to the secret room. He would sneak into the school over the summer periodically to check on its progress.
When the train started moving, Dorcas was lulled to sleep by the gently rocking of the train car.
:::
Dorcas dreamed she was pressing the phial of Felix Felicis into Jack's hand.
"What's this?" she heard him ask, his eyes flicked from the bottle up to hers. His lopsided smile had been something she was afraid she'd forgotten.
"It's called Liquid Luck. I want you to keep it with you at all times, Jack. Take it if you're in danger. It will keep you safe for five hours."
"A magic potion?" he inquired, his eyes dancing with delight at another novel bit of magic from her world.
Dorcas nodded. She had the most overwhelming urge to kiss that amazed grin on his face. There was no reason to hold back. She knew how she felt about him. And she knew that he felt the exact same way.
She slipped her hand from his shoulder to the back of his neck and pulled him down to her, straining to meet his lips.
He braced himself on the bed with one hand and tucked her beneath him with the other, the Felix Felicis forgotten on the counterpane somewhere for the moment.
"I want you, Dorcas," Jack whispered against her lips.
Dorcas swallowed his words, tasting them with her tongue. "Take me, I'm yours," she replied, feeling a delicious anticipation flutter in her belly as he pried her knees apart gently with one of his, settling between her legs.
Just how much he wanted her became apparent when he rocked his hips into her.
An involuntary moan escaped her throat when he pressed tentatively into the sensitive place between her thighs.
"Birdie," he groaned into ear, taking her delicate lobe into his mouth and grazing his teeth against it.
Dorcas jolted awake, tearing her eyes open and panting, gasping for breath.
The ceiling of the train's cabin came into view after she blinked quickly three times. She could feel nothing but the gentle rocking of the train car.
She sighed and closed her eyes once again.
That was the moment she felt Tom on top of her.
"Tom," she gasped, tightening her thighs against his hips. He took her fear for enthusiasm and thrust his hips into her once again, the buckle of his belt scraping along the inside of her left thigh.
She barely had a moment to react with relief when she realized his trousers were still zipped and her knickers were still on. She registered the feel of his skin under her palms and was aware that she'd untucked his shirt and was stroking his bare flanks.
He hummed in response to her hands and flicked her ear once again with his tongue.
"Tom, we can't," Dorcas gasped, her voice hitching when his right hand crept down to her knickers and his fingers slipped between her folds. There wasn't even a second for Dorcas to cover her obvious arousal at the contact.
Tom reacted with another groan and a thrust of his hips. Dorcas's hands were no longer caressing his skin, but were pressing him away from her.
"Your body is telling me something very different," he teased, while his fingers teased too.
Dorcas panicked. She didn't want this but Tom assumed she did. He thought she'd taken an extra dose of Felix alongside him. But she was not rolling on the same high at all.
Actually, the effects of the first dose had worn off more than an hour ago and she was very clear headed. But his fingers were making a muddled mess of her reason and logic at the moment.
Beyond his fingers exploring her and his mouth nibbling her ear, Dorcas also felt the small bottle of Liquid Luck biting into her hip. It was in her coat pocket, but Dorcas wondered how much longer it would take for Tom to find it, pressed against her the way he was.
Dorcas was thinking about how to conceal the Luck from Tom when he plunged his fingers deeper. The pain and shock caused Dorcas to cry out.
"Ow, Tom!" she pleaded, her voice wobbling. "No more. I'm not ready,"
She pushed against his hips with her hands, elbows pressed into the bed on either side of her. But it was no use, she couldn't shift his weight without his help.
And Tom didn't seem to be in a mood to help.
Dorcas knew that if she didn't find a way to distract him that he would take what he wanted by force. Felix Felicis had carried away all ability to reason with him.
She remembered the way he'd taken her hand earlier in the night and pressed it to the front of his trousers when she'd joked that he'd have to excuse himself to the loo if he got too excited.
"What if I touched you instead?" Dorcas asked, feeling calmer now that she had a different course of action, one that she could be in control of.
She saw in his mind that he was going to be affronted that she wasn't enjoying his ministrations.
Turning her head, she found his cheek and kissed it lightly, explaining, "It just hurts a little bit. Let's work up to it." She struggled to keep the shakiness out of her voice and her hands as she removed them from his hips, trailing her fingers along the waistband of his trousers and finally to his belt.
Dorcas didn't know if she was selling this alternative well enough. But she sighed in relief when his fingers retreated from her and slipped out of her knickers.
Without the resistance that she was giving with her arms against his hips, he was able to press himself against her again. His hips rocked into her in a steady rhythm, only the thin cotton of her panties and his trousers barred him entry. She bit her bottom lip in concentration as she tried to unbuckle his belt without the use of sight.
She wished that she could just open her eyes and let the Chameleon Charm lure her into a false belief that nothing was happening. But not knowing would somehow be worse, Dorcas thought.
As her fingers slipped his belt through the clasp and worked to release the button of his trousers, she thought back on all of the banter that had led to this moment. She knew she'd encouraged him. First, she'd done it as a means to distract him and get him in a good mood when she was plotting to gain access to extra potion for Jack. Then the potion itself had lured her into a false sense of confidence with Tom. The jokes and suggestions became bawdier. The passage about the side effects had warned her that her inhibitions could be lowered. At the time, she'd convinced herself that she'd kept herself in check. After that, she'd been overly concerned that Tom would become suspicious that she'd saved her second dose if she didn't match him in his flirtatious behavior.
And it had all led to this.
Tom was impatient, grabbing her hand roughly once his zipper had been tugged down. He pushed it beneath the waistband of his pants.
Would she still steal the potion for Jack if she'd known it would lead to this?
She allowed Tom to guide her fingers around his shaft and she was faintly surprised at how soft and delicate the skin there felt in her palm.
He made a sound very similar to the one he'd made earlier when they were joking around with Olive's wand. "Nnuughh!"
She thought it was a good sound. A sign that he was pleased. She didn't want to peer inside of his head to find out.
He began to thrust into her hand. All that he required of her, it seemed, was to hold her hand steady. He was doing the rest.
"Birdie!" he breathed against her lips before pushing her mouth wider with his tongue.
A hand trailed up to her breast and squeezed. She remembered this feeling good when he did it before, but she didn't feel any sensations beyond terror now.
He shoved an image into her mind as he lowered himself against her, spreading her legs on either side of his. He was coaxing her to swipe her thumb over the tip of his penis.
She complied, hoping this would help him to finish quickly.
The pad of her thumb was met with a slick substance that caused her fingers to glide over his erection. This seemed to excite him more.
His hand left her breast in order to push the waistband of his pants and trousers lower. Then she felt him settle over her with his elbows propped on either side of her, almost hugging her to him.
Dorcas could feel his labored panting ruffle the hair against her forehead.
A change in his movement alerted Dorcas that he was close to finishing. She was glad of it, because her right hand was beginning to cramp.
"Birdie, I'm coming!" Tom panted against her forehead, kissing her briefly before he shuddered and then convulsed. Dorcas felt him throbbing in her palm and wondered what she was supposed to do.
Before she could ask, she felt warm liquid seeping over the waistband of her skirt and onto the skin of her belly where he'd pulled her blouse up.
She lay in silent shock for a moment until Tom finally rolled off of her and onto her coat.
Silently cursing, Dorcas sat up and reached for the coat. After all that she'd just done, he wasn't going to discover the goddamned potion now.
"Where are you going?" Tom asked. Dorcas was sickened by the tone in his voice. It smacked of ownership.
She ground her teeth and bit back her words, swallowing her argument that she wasn't his just because she got him off once. She tucked her blouse into the band of her bra to keep it clean. There was nothing she could do about her skirt. She could feel the stickiness running down her abdomen.
"To clean myself up," she replied instead. Now that she was no longer pinned beneath him, her words were not cloying or soft.
If he made a reply, she didn't hear it over the slamming of the cabin door.
Down the corridor, Dorcas found the lavatory and locked herself in. She hung her coat on the hook behind the door.
"Wash your hands, clean him off of you. You're alright, Dorcas" she whispered to herself as she ran the faucet until the water was hotter than she could stand.
She scrubbed her hands, her nails biting into her palms to scour the feel of him from her. Her fingernail caught on the ring he'd given her at Christmas; the one he'd been using to keep track of her. Slipping it off her finger easily with soap, she flung it hard at the washroom door, not caring where it landed. She wouldn't be retrieving it.
"You'll be alright," she said again, soothing her nerves.
There was a stack of linens beside the sink and Dorcas took one, wetting it in hot water. She closed her eyes and prodded her skirt with her fingertips until she found the sticky place where he came on her. She didn't know why this felt particularly insulting. She hadn't been expecting it. Maybe it was the surprise of the act. Or maybe it was the way she felt marked by it; claimed by him in a sense. She scrubbed at the spot, feeling the wool fabric soak up the water. It would be cold walking from the station back to Borgin and Burkes.
She wiped her belly and tucked her shirt back in, trying to shove down thoughts of Jack.
He wouldn't have wanted her to do this for him.
It didn't matter. She'd done it anyway.
She threw the soiled linen in the hamper and closed her eyes, reaching for her coat. Sliding her fingers into the sleeves, she immediately coiled her fingers around the Luck in her pocket, vowing not to let go of it for the rest of the night.
She'd fucking fought for this. She was going to make damn sure it got to Jack.
Dorcas pressed her ear to the door and listened for sounds in the corridor. She needed to get out of here before Tom came looking for her.
When he tracked the ring, it would lead him to this empty bathroom.
She knew how to make her way back to the school without him.
