I hope you all will forgive me - I was going to have this be longer but as I wrote this I felt it waa better to leave it where it currently is. Really good things are coming and there's going to be a lot of Newt spam starting next chapter!
In response to the reviews...
KirikaAndo - well in that case if you usually don't review I appreciate all of your reviews even more 3 I think everyone ships Victoria with Newt more over Tom (including me - so you know where this story is going... ;) )
Guest: thank you for your continued reviews on both of my stories! You don't blabber on at all and even if you did - I like it! I love reading your in depth analysis of each chapter, it really helps me write! All your analysis always come to the same conclusion I'm trying to portray so it's really nice to read. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
AnadoraBlack- This chapter slightly hints about Newt's marriage with more to be revealed soon - hopefully it makes you feel better :) your comment about Tom "boning" Mary in the corner so we could have more Newt goodness made me burst out laughing.
Kavernista- I absolutely love that you use the words "Fantastic Beasts" to describe creatures! My fiance and I keep calling our cat "Fantastic Beastie" - I think the cat is sick of our crap but I don't care.
Lele23- I've updated the other story since your review but I can promise another one for that story is coming really soon :) it's halfway done.
CarlyLynn - thanks so much for the kind words :) great to have you on board.
"You abandoned me, Andrew abandoned, everyone abandoned me so I had to dance with the teacher." I pouted, wanting to downplay the interactions that Newt and I had just had.
For a second I pondered on the fact I had to lie about my dealings with Newt – were they inappropriate? However I quickly let it go as I realised I needed to have this conversation with Tom.
I tried to read his face to see whether he would show anger or pity towards me. As always his face seemed so neutral, he was a very hard boy to read compared to Newt who I was always able to read like a book.
"I didn't abandon you – I was requested to dance with Figglestill by Slughorn and out of respect to my dear teacher I fulfilled that request." Tom responded fairly formally.
I stayed silent hoping he would continue on as I still was unsure of the emotions brewing inside of him and thus I wasn't sure how I was supposed to respond.
"I must say I'd rather you dance with Scamander than Hartwell, it's nice that your professor would ask you to dance." Tom concluded quickly changing his tone as he grabbed my hand and led me to the dancefloor, and I quickly abandoned my Firewhiskey glass in the process.
The rest of the night seemed to go quickly. Tom and I downed quite a few drinks and did the rounds speaking to people. I had lived in my Slytherin bubble my whole time at school and had never really conversed with others outside my house. It was actually very enjoyable – no one from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw (the latter who's students I always envied for being intelligent) cared that my mother was a Veela and thus I was half-blood and perhaps not worthy of my surname.
I was a little shy and let Tom dominate all of the conversations but a few girls did pull me aside when Tom spoke wizard politics and other intellectual topics with the other men to speak with me directly, Mary Figglestill was one of them.
"So, how did you and Riddle happen?" she asked me nicely as we made our way to the comfortable couches together and sat down.
I looked towards him as he seemed submerged into conversation across the room with Slughorn and a few of the other boys, Lestrange and Avery included.
"Oh, I don't know really. We've always been on very friendly terms but this school year he's began to court me in a very friendly manner. It's been quite nice." I explained with a big smile on my face. Tom made me feel giddy and I enjoyed this feeling.
"If I must be honest, I was so relieved when you both began to see each other. I do genuinely believe you look nice together, but there's some selfish motives behind my happiness too." Mary began to explain to me.
"Oh?" I asked out of curiousity, cocking up an eyebrow.
"Yes," she began and I saw her go bright red "I've had a huge thing for Andrew Hartwell for years, but he had always seemed to be infatuated with you. Now that you're finally with someone he seems to have let it go."
"Oh! No, Andrew was mostly joking when he kept asking me out. He knows I'm shy and reserved so it was a prank to ask me out, he knew I'd be uncomfortable. You know, Gryffindor and Slytherin rivalry." I spoke up quickly, wanting to help out Andrew with his date by minimize our previous interactions and make Mary more confident in him. I even swatted my hand in the air to use body language to emphasise my point.
I saw Mary's face light up, this is definitely what she wanted to hear. She decided to return the favour and tell me something I potentially wanted to hear.
"I know a lot of people thought Tom and I would get together, but I can tell you that won't happen, no matter how many Head Boy and Head Girl duties push us together. He is very handsome but I just don't think he's my type." Mary explained with a small smile on her face.
I tried to not read too much into her statement. What is she insinuating when she said he wasn't her type – is that an attack towards me considering I'm seeing him? But I didn't bother to dig deeper – maybe she wasn't attracted to something about his appearance. Tom was strikingly handsome whilst Andrew had friendly and boyish good looks, maybe that's just what Mary preferred – a youthful and cheeky face over one that looked sculpted by angels.
"That Professor Scamander really is a looker though isn't he? I was swooning when we were talking before, he was so flattering towards me too. If I wasn't with Andrew and if he wasn't a Professor, well. I can tell you I would certainly be with him." Mary gossiped towards me, saying her statement in a whisper and then giggling loudly towards the end.
"Yes, too bad he has a wife." I responded, trying my hardest to not say it through gritted teeth or too coldly.
Once again Mary Figglestill had made me dislike her, even though I had no real reason to. She was allowed to find a teacher attractive, even if I thought the same thing about that same teacher. This wasn't even what bothered me. What I didn't like was how confident she was about it – blankly stating if situations were different she would be with him, not even pondering on whether he would want her back. I think the worst part was that I truly believed in a hypothetical situation he would certainly pick Mary over me. Veela charms were weak on someone who knew how to not let it affect them, an esteemed Magizoologist like Newt would see past my looks. Mary also had exotic beauty, a traveller like him would appreciate that. She was also highly intelligent and motivated, she was the full package. I would never stand a chance against her when it came to Newt.
"But he's come to Hogwarts without her, hasn't he? All the happily married Hogwarts teachers stay in Hogsmeade with their spouses. He told me tonight his living quarters are behind his office, and he stays in the castle on weekends. That's got to count for something, right?" Mary smirked as she gossiped with me further.
I sent her a look of disbelief as I didn't know what to say. I was happy she shared this information with me but out of respect for Newt I didn't want to discuss his private life with Mary any further. She wasn't even one of his students, she didn't take Care of the Magical Creatures. I also didn't like that he was telling Mary about his living quarters – why would he do that?
"But I guess that's irrelevant anyway, right? Us girls can dream, but we've got Riddle and Hartwell, much better than chasing after a professor that's probably too old for us." Mary cheerfully stated.
I was torn about my next action. I didn't want Mary to know (or to admit to myself) how far down the rabbit hole I was in terms of my feelings towards Newt. It may still not be an inappropriate crush, just lots of respect towards him. But I knew if I didn't speak up and ask what I was about to I would regret it later.
"Did he refer to you by first name, or let you call him by his first name?" I asked suddenly, not knowing any way of asking aside from being blunt.
"No, he didn't. He didn't refer to me by anything. He asked my name twice and introduced himself as Professor Scamander," Mary responded but then turned a little suspicious towards the end "Why? Does he call you by your first name a lot, or let you refer to him as Newt?"
"Of course not. Sometimes in class he might call me Victoria if asking me a question, but that's it. It would be highly inappropriate for a teacher to break teacher-student boundaries but I feel if he were to do it, it would be for you." I quickly retorted, lying through my teeth to cover my tracks, hiding the smile I wanted to display at Mary's revelation. He didn't even remember her name moments after she told him.
Mary's suspicion seemed to disappear and she smiled before changing the topic briefly before she bid me goodnight, saying she would seek out Andrew and have a few more dances with him.
Not too long later Tom joined me. Grabbing me by my shoulders he did his rounds of saying goodbye to everyone, when it came to Mary and Andrew he purposely ignored Andrew's existence and only said goodbye to Mary as we exited Slughorn's office and began our descent down to the dungeons where the Slytherin common room.
Tom was ahead of me, leading the way with our hands entwined. He however caught me off guard as one moment he was pulling me towards our destination, the next he had spun around and had lifted me off the ground, twirling me around and earning a loud giggle from me.
As he put my down I noticed something I had never seen from Tom before: a smile. I had seen him look amused previously and even a few smirks cross his face, but I had never seen him look happy and smile brightly. This is what he was doing right now, after showing me a sign of affection he looked happy. It made me smile also.
His outwardly happy look disappeared moments later as a serious look fell over his face. Without any warning he grabbed both of my shoulders and really dug his fingers in, before attaching his face to mine for a rough kiss. I wanted to pull away out of confusion, I hadn't known what was happening between Tom and I tonight.
I may not be the brightest witch but I knew the reason why Lestrange had acted so eerily in the common room earlier and had come to the party late was because of Tom. It was nice he had stopped my Slytherin bullies but it concerned me that he hadn't spoken to me about it first. Although he had also paid some attention to me tonight he appeared stand off-ish, and I don't think it was just because Andrew Hartwell was present at the party and had put him into a bad mood. His reaction to Newt dancing with me was odd as well – he seemed to be mad about it one second and then his anger disappeared straight away – did he really know about my inappropriate rising feelings for Newt? He hadn't paid me much attention tonight, in fact he spent more quality time with Mary than with me. Don't get me started on the Firewhiskey incident.
Therefore after a few moments of his rough kiss I pushed him away. I expected him to stagger in bewilderment of my sudden actions but instead it was almost as if he predicted my move and went in for another kiss, digging his nails into my shoulder even more forcefully and even going as far as to my bite my lip as we were lip locked.
I was now the one puzzled and didn't have any time to react. Before I could even attempt to manoeuvre myself out of Tom's tight grip a voice spoke up behind us.
"Good evening Victoria, Tom. Fancy seeing you out at this part of the castle at this time of night." Professor Dumbledore stated pleasantly, his hands behind his back as he walked towards us, the torches on the wall lighting up his frame.
"Good evening Professor." Tom said politely, quickly letting go of my hand in the process.
"I was actually on my way down to the dungeons. See, I find myself a little peckish and craving muggle boiled sweets. Our talented Muggle Studies professor taught me a potion that makes a very worthy replica, so I was about to go down to the dungeons to brew it up." Dumbledore explained, as we all began to shuffle and make our way down the castle.
I sent Dumbledore a genuine smile. Even though Slughorn was the head of the Slytherin house and Dumbledore was head of Gryffindor, I preferred Dumbledore over Slughorn. There was something about his presence that always made me feel safe, if I ever needed a teacher's advice I would always seek out Dumbledore.
"Victoria and I were thinking of a late night stroll, actually." Tom quickly stated, grabbing my hand and subtly pulling my form away from the deputy headmaster.
"I hate to be the voice of reason Tom but I would hate for you to get into trouble with Professor Dippet. Whilst you're allowed to roam the corridors after hours as Head Boy, unfortunately this privilege does not extend to Victoria. I must strongly recommend you to reconsider your moonlit walk." Dumbledore responded, sending a warning to Tom but sounded friendly as he did so, he was the only one who could pull that off.
"Yes, very well. Tori and I can continue our chat in the common room in that case." Tom said, his smirk disappearing but he was attempting to still sound polite towards Dumbledore.
"Don't let me stop you from having conversation." Dumbledore responded.
The next few minutes felt very awkward, as Tom and I made forced conversation in front of Dumbledore. It was the only time that I had felt uncomfortable in Dumbledore's presence, and I sensed that perhaps Dumbledore wasn't coincidentally in the same place at the same time as us – maybe he wasn't even here to get boiled sweets?
Tom began to speak about Transfiguration and Dumbledore joined in with random musings. We finally got to the corridor that led to the Slytherin common room and said goodbye to Dumbledore.
"Good night Tom, Victoria. It may not be against any rules to stay up all night in the common room but I would strongly advise against it." Dumbledore cautioned us with an odd smile on his face before walking off towards the dungeons.
Maybe he did want to make some boiled lollies after all.
Tom said the password to enter the common room and we both clambered through the entrance. As it was now fairly late the room was empty. I hesitantly stood up awkwardly, unsure of whether Tom wanted to spend some time together or wanted to go straight to bed. Even I didn't know what I wanted, I felt a little mad at Tom on how the night had unfolded but wasn't sure whether I had the right to be upset or not.
"Come on, take a seat with me Tori. Let's talk." Tom said as he pat the seat next to him, taking a seat on the couch next to the fire.
I reluctantly took the seat next to him.
"Something has been bothering you for a while. Would you like to share?" Tom asked me, turning to face me with a very serious look on his face.
I stuttered a little as I was unsure whether I should mention anything. His intense gaze was making me feel nervous and it was also making me second guess whether I was reasonable to be upset or not.
I decided to speak up and get this over and done with so it wouldn't be a problem again.
"Tonight was great, it was lovely meeting people from other houses. I'm just a bit confused about a few things though." I mentioned.
Tom frowned a little but didn't say anything, he was giving me room to continue on.
"I felt you were a little...distant. You only danced with me once and you seemed a lot closer to Mary Figglestill than you were with me, you also didn't seem to hate the fact you had to dance with her. Then you forced Firewhiskey onto me, but then abandoned me to speak with some of your friends. I got a very hot and cold vibe from you." I stated.
Tom then began to chuckle and it annoyed me for a moment until he spoke up.
"I think you're a little jealous of Mary Figglestill and it's put you in a bad mood, so you were sensitive to things that normally wouldn't annoy you." Tom explained.
I crossed my arms in annoyance but gave him the same courtesy he had given me not too long ago and allowed him to continue with his explanation.
"You said it yourself, it was a good night. You did the same as I did, departed from me temporarily to speak to others. The Firewhiskey incident is merely being blown out of proportion – it was a suggestion. You seemed to like it, you went back for more." Tom continued on.
"I-er, well..." I stammered out.
Dammit, what he was saying made sense. The Head Girl and Head Boy dance happened towards the start of the night and thus my foul mood and insecurities started right at the start. It made sense that these negative emotions would affect how the rest of the night went.
"I must say that I like that you feel jealous. It means you're protective of me, the same way I am about you." Tom said, a very handsome grin appearing over his face.
I turned to give him my full attention and to look into his eyes as his statement caught me a little off guard. He used this opportunity to woo me further.
"I am absolutely crazy about you, Tori. You drive me wild. No other girl before you has managed to stir such utter desire deep inside of me, and I doubt any other girl will be able to." Tom stated.
I shot him a sceptical look as he gently caressed my face. I didn't have to speak up about this, as he already knew what my doubts were about.
"As for Mary Figglestill, between you and me – I've never been able to stand the girl. She's boisterous and too thirsty for attention. I stay civil to her as we share duties as Head Boy and Head Girl, but I certainly don't enjoy her company." He explained.
A wide smile appeared on my face. He had done it, he had won me over. I now knew there were no feelings between Tom and Mary, both had informed me of this tonight. It also cheered me up that Tom thought Mary was boring – perhaps Newt felt the same? I now also felt a little guilty for my silent dislike of Mary, she was nothing but kind towards me.
I was expecting more hungry kisses from Tom tonight as he had been having trouble keeping his hands off me when no one was around. But instead I was caught off guard when he gently put his hands on my shoulders and pulled me towards him so I would be leaning on him.
We were silent like this for a while, he would sometimes run his hands through my hair or hold my hand. He then began to speak up, and we started to have a few deep and meaningful conversations.
He told me about his childhood and how he had grown up in a muggle orphanage. He said as terrible as it was it could have been worse – there are muggle orphanages out there where the children are beaten, starved, locked up and generally tortured. He told me how he ended up there because his mother gave birth there before dying – and how his father was also deceased.
After that topic he told me about how two years ago he caught the offender that had opened the Chamber of Secrets – the third year rather large Gryffindor boy. He confessed to me he did it to ensure the school did not close down and not to be a hero and he wasn't prepared for the glory that came with winning a Special Services to the School award.
He then asked me about my upbringing. I told him about how I was outcast by the Black family for having a Veela mother – I was allowed to remain on the outskirts of their social circles but would forever be tarnished a half-blood. Tom kissed me at this revelation and comforted me about this dilemma.
It felt nice finally having someone to talk to about it. We were in the common room until the early hours of the morning talking and we both dozed off in each other's arms.
Unfortunately for me I did not wake up before the other students. I awoke to Drucilla making a snide remark, I missed exactly what it was as my groggy eyes began to open. Tom was long gone and had managed to manoeuvre himself from our embrace without waking me. Thinking it was sweet he wanted to make sure I got more rest I made my way down to my dormitory so I could get a bit more sleep before facing the day.