A/N: I told you updates would be fast. ;) Thanks for the reviews so far guys!

The Years that Followed the Morning After.

by Flaignhan.

"What do you do on a date?" Tom was pacing in front of the fire, hands clasped behind his back. "How do I even ask her?"

"Why are you even bothered with her?" Arcturus asked, his feet resting on the table in the Slytherin common room, a book open in his lap. "I mean she's quite good looking, but she's innocent as a bloody saint, she's not going to be –"

"I think Tom's issue is more to do with the fact that he will be receiving considerably less cards this year, after last year's debacle. How's that scar by the way?" Abraxas smirked from his lazy position in the armchair closest to the fire.

Tom stopped pacing and shot a death glare at Abraxas. Eventually he turned his attention back to Arcturus. "I think I actually like her," he said.

Arcturus put his book to one side and sat up straight. "Excuse me?"

"She's..." Tom said, waving his in the air as he tried to find the right word. "Sweet."

Abraxas snorted, instinctively flinching when Tom whirled around to face him.

"I think you should go to the hospital wing," Arcturus said, standing up. "I'll take you, come on."

"Tom's in love," Abraxas said in a sing song voice. "They can't even cure that at St Mungo's."

"I'm not in love you dolt," Tom retorted. "I just...last year was quite stressful and I won't deny the pickings will be rather slim this year –"

"The complete opposite to Alexandra Curtis then," Abraxas quipped.

Tom ignored him. "There's something about her that just makes me curious."

"And you want to shag her," Arcturus added. "You do want to shag her, right? None of this 'we'll wait until you're ready' business."

"Of course I want to," Tom said, waving Arcturus' concerns away, "I just don't mind when she talks. It was always so awful when the others did it, but she's actually rather intelligent...very intelligent actually, considering she's a fourth year. D'you know she's read half the books in the restricted section already and actually understands the stuff that's written in them?"

Arcturus sighed and fell back onto the sofa, rolling his dark eyes pointedly.

"Anyway, you're yet to answer my question," Tom continued, resuming his pacing. "How do I ask her?"

"Just ask," Abraxas said exasperatedly, pulling a lock of bright blonde hair in front of his face and frowning at it. "D'you think I should get it cut?" he asked.

Tom stopped, his mouth open in disbelief. "Hardly the issue, Abraxas!"

Abraxas huffed and dropped the section of hair. "Oh yes, let's just sit here and listen to you whine about your little girlfriend. Bloody hell, you could probably just grunt at her and she'll still think it's the most amazing thing in the universe."

"Girls love it when guys get all shy and awkward, come on, you've done it loads of times before to get what you want, it won't hurt if it's actually genuine this time," Arcturus said, picking up his book once more and flicking through the pages with little interest.

"What do I say though? And what can we do? What is there in this castle that could remotely be classified as romantic?" he pulled a face as he said the word and then sat down in the nearest armchair. "I'm so used to them coming to me and only wanting one thing, I just don't know where to go with this one."

"Dinner," Abraxas said. "Have dinner with her."

"Oh yes, that's a sure to get him a one way ticket to Orgasm City, dinner with a thousand other people and a bunch of nosy teachers," Arcturus shook his head, rolling his eyes again.

"No," Abraxas argued, "have dinner with her privately. Set up an empty classroom to look all nice, get the House Elves to knock something special up for the two of you, she'll love it."

"That's not a bad idea," Tom murmured. He turned to Arcturus, "you arrange it, I'll send her a card."

"Why do I have to arrange it? I'm not the one who's getting shagged."

"Because I told you to," Tom said, as though this were obvious. "We're not going to want to be disturbed so make sure you choose a really empty classroom."

"Yes my Lord..."

Tom smirked and headed up the spiral staircase to their dormitory.

"Oh wow."

Tom stepped forward and took her by the hand, closing the door behind her and locking it. He led her over to the table and pulled out her chair for her. She sat down and looked around at the dozens upon dozens of candles floating above their heads giving the room a warm glow.

"Did you have a good day?" Tom asked as he sat down opposite her.

Emily nodded. "It's even better now," she said with a wide smile. "Nobody's ever done anything this special for me before."

"Really?" Tom asked, pouring some Butterbeer into a goblet for her. "You surprise me."

"Did you do this when you saw all those girls last year?" Emily asked, not meeting his eye.

Tom froze, but recovered quickly. "Emily, the girls I saw last year didn't get any special treatment because they aren't special. They were all only after one thing and then they decided that I was to blame for that. They all came to me, I didn't ask them, and I certainly didn't have dinner with any of them."

Emily nodded and smiled. "Sorry," she said, "I just...I don't really know why you asked me, I mean, all those cards you got today, you could have got any girl you wanted."

"Believe me, some of the girls who sent me cards...well, between you and me, I wouldn't even touch them with somebody else's hands."

Emily giggled.

" And why would I want to? None of them can hold a coherent conversation, let alone an interesting one, hence me being here tonight with you."

"I'm not interesting," she said with a frown. "I'm just...I just read books all the time and do my homework and try out spells that I haven't been taught and –"

"Snap," Tom said quietly, a small smile on his face. "Now, what would you like eat?" he passed her a menu, making sure he brushed his fingers against her own when she took it.

"Can people actually do it then? I thought it was just a theory."

"Well they're hardly going to go round bragging about it are they? I'm sure Dumbledore can do it."

Emily's eyes widened. "Are you serious? What, he reads my mind?"

"No, probably not. Not unless he's got a reason. But if you get in trouble, he'll be able to tell whether you're lying or not. I believe certain troublemakers find him quite the inconvenience."

"Can you do it?" Emily asked, awestruck.

"I've been reading the theory but it takes a lot of time and practice."

"Wow," she breathed. She glanced down at her watch. "Oh! I was meant to be back an hour ago! Oh Merlin what if Pringle catches me on my way back? He'll have me hanging by my ankles in the dungeons!" she got up quickly, in a panic.

"Hold on, hold on," Tom said, standing up. "You won't get caught, trust me. I'll take you back to Ravenclaw Tower myself and put a Disillusionment charm on us; he won't be able to see us even if he walks straight past us."

"Really?" she asked, biting her lip.

"Really," Tom said, walking around the table towards her, taking her hands in his own. He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers.

She reacted instantly, pushing her body against his as he deepened the kiss, one hand resting lightly against her jaw, the other keeping a firm grip on her waist. He broke away from her, his lips descending to her neck, littering kisses all over her soft skin as she sighed into the material of his robes.

He moved her wavy hair aside and kissed her neck gently. She rolled over, stifling a yawn and looked at him with sleepy eyes.

"Time to get up," he whispered, his hand coming to rest on her upper arm, stroking her skin with his thumb. "Breakfast is in half an hour and you don't want to be seen down here by anybody."

"Okay," she mumbled, and instead of getting up, she just moved closer to him, her skin warming him right through when it came into contact with his chest.

He considered telling her to blow off her lessons, that they could stay in the Slytherin dormitory all day, but he knew that some fairly accurate rumours would probably have spread by morning break and he didn't fancy dealing with those.

"Come on," he said, shaking her gently.

She groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes as Tom made himself comfortable against his pillows.

"Aren't you getting up?" she asked.

"I haven't got any lessons until after break," he said with a smirk. "Try not to make too much noise, will you?" he winked and Emily scowled.

"That's not fair."

"Life isn't fair," he reminded her. "I'll see you tonight."

"Well?" Abraxas demanded, pulling open the curtains around Tom's bed.

Tom smirked.

"Excellent," said Arcturus, "how was she?"

"I'm seeing her again tonight," Tom told them.

"That good?"

"Mmm," Tom replied, covering his eyes with his forearm. "Now let me get some sleep, she kept me up half the night."

Abraxas snorted before he disappeared into the bathroom.

Alison grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to one side.

"And where did you get to last night?" she hissed.

Emily frowned and decided to play dumb. "What d'you mean?"

Alison shook her head, glaring daggers right into Emily's face. "You know perfectly well what I mean. Did all those girls last year teach you nothing? He only wants one thing, and bloody hell, Em! He's a seventh year! That's gross! What's he doing messing around with fourth years?"

"You're just jealous," Emily said, tugging her arm out of her elder sister's grip. "I bet he rejected you last year, didn't he?"

"Did you sleep with him?"

"What? No! Leave me alone, Al," she turned away and disappeared as quickly as she could into the crowds of students heading to their first lessons of the day, leaving her sister standing at the side of the corridor looking murderous.