"I think I'm getting the hang of this. This is what? Our fifth face to face meeting via dreams? Well, that you can remember."
Kagome nodded as she walked around the room modeled after the Slytherin common room.
"This is your dorm? Ryou?" If she thought she could die in her dreams, Kagome probably wouldn't have followed Tom down into the dungeons of the castle. He was giving her a tour that started top to bottom, and if this was all real, she would have been sure he was walking her down to get eaten by rats or snakes and tortured or something.
"Yes, ryou, dormitory. This is our common room."
"Isn't it….sad?" She examined the tapestries and couldn't help rubbing her arms at the cold atmosphere.
"Do you mean 'depressing'?" A sprouting fire startled Kagome and brought her attention to the emerald-eyed stone snake over the mantel. "We Slytherins find it cozy."
Kagome picked up a wolf skull and turned to Tom. "This is normal? Are Slytherins bad students?" To get banished to the dungeons, they must have done something wrong right?
"No no. Only the pure and best are sorted into Slytherin. We might live in the dungeons but I assure you, these are comfortable quarters." Tom lowered himself onto a dark green leather chaise and watched her explore the detailed recreation of his childhood hangout. The girl finally chose her own black leather sofa to lounge on.
"We did not go to the one common room? Grif...fodo?" The corner of his lips upturned at her butchering of the Gryffindor name. They had briefly glanced the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff common rooms (him having seen them while walking some girls back late at night) but he would rather have failed his O.W.L.s than be caught in the Gryffindor common room.
"Slytherins and Gryffindors have had a long history of rivalry. I have no memories of visiting their common room."
"Rivalry. And contempt?"
Tom raised an eyebrow "Oh? Contempt? Good word."
"But why contempt?"
And then Tom launched into the history of Hogwarts while Kagome quickly drifted off to the sound of his voice along with the gentle swooshing of lake water.
Tom rested his head on his hand as he observed the sleeping Kagome. "Hmm...Now how does that even work? Falling asleep in a dream?"