A/N: Thanks for the response so far guys, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Just in case some of you were a little confused, this is less a straightforward linear story and more a collection of key scenes during Emily and Tom's life, but it goes right through to the very end. There are eleven, possibly twelve chapters. And yes, there absolutely WILL be a companion piece to this fic, it's been started already - when you get to the end of this chapter you'll know what I mean. ;)
The Years that Followed the Morning After.
by Flaignhan.
"We're going to need to stop this," he said to her.
Emily turned around, not needing to ask what 'this' meant. All she wanted was a reason.
"Why?"
Tom sighed and leaned against the trunk of the beech tree they were standing under. "We won't see each other," he said simply. "I'm leaving, you've got your OWLs next year, you'll need to put all of your efforts into those –"
"You had NEWTs this year," Emily argued, "and you had Head Boy duties."
"Yes but I also had plenty of free lessons so I could juggle it all, you won't."
"Right," Emily said, turning back to the lake. She didn't bother to argue, she had knew as soon as it had begun that he would grow bored of her eventually. That it would end like this. She supposed she should be grateful that he was making those excuses, that he was trying to not hurt her feelings. It all felt rather empty though.
"I have to pack my things," Tom told her.
"Okay," she replied. She didn't turn around.
He walked up behind her and placed a kiss on her jaw. She didn't react, and he admired her for it. It was why he had liked her in the first place, nothing phased her.
He left, and a short while later, Emily headed back to Ravenclaw tower to check her trunk one final time before the leaving feast.
"How did she take it?" Arcturus asked from under his bed.
"Fine," Tom said, frowning at Arcturus' legs.
A dusty textbook shot out from under the bed frame and collided with Tom's foot. He reached instinctively for his wand, but decided it would be a bit of a low note, to end his gleaming career at Hogwarts with the murder of a fellow student.
"What about you? You're not too heartbroken, are you?" Arcturus sniggered.
"I believe I'll be able to cope," Tom replied with a smirk. "It'll certainly make a change, sleeping on my own, but I managed it before, I'm sure I'll manage now."
"Are you going to miss cuddling up to her?"
Tom breathed in deeply, eyes closed, hands clenched into fists. "You're making it very difficult for me to keep my temper, Arcturus. I would recommend that you shut your mouth before I remove it altogether."
"Did you shag her?" Abraxas asked, entering the dormitory with a tower of books and dumping them carelessly into his trunk with a loud crash. "Girls always try harder if they know it's the last time. They think if they're really good you'll change your mind."
"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer," Tom said, picking up a pile of freshly laundered robes from his bed and placing them in an expanded pocket of his suitcase.
Abraxas tutted. "Where are you going anyway? Do the muggles kick you out now you're eighteen?"
"He's staying at mine," Arcturus called, still under the bed. "Did one of you put a permanent sticking charm on this? I can't get it off at all!"
Abraxas smirked and raised a finger to his lips. Tom shook his head and wondered whether he would find more maturity in the first year dormitories.
She didn't look at him at all during dinner. It wasn't in an obvious way, either. She laughed at the jokes she was told, listened to her house mates' stories, smiled when she was supposed to and showed no sign that anything was remotely wrong. Her friends constantly glanced over their shoulders at him, and if they caught him watching they would scowl, making sure he knew how displeased they were with his behaviour.
"Wow, nothing like fourth year girls to put you in your place," Abraxas smirked. "Stop staring, you're looking desperate."
"I'm supposed to be heartbroken, remember?" Tom murmured. "I'm doing what's best for both of us, even though it hurts. I care that much about her future that I'm willing to deprive myself of the love of my life...or something."
Tom frowned as he saw one of the boys in her year put his arm around Emily's shoulders. She frowned slightly, and reached forward to grab the bottle of tomato ketchup on the other side of the table, though his arm was still waiting for her when she returned to her previous position. She shot a look towards her friend Annabel, who shrugged her shoulders.
"That little toad," Tom narrowed his eyes at the boy, his fists clenching under the table as he watched him lean over and start whispering in Emily's ear.
"If you're going to kill him, I'd wait until after the feast," Abraxas murmured, his eyes following Tom's line of sight. "Dumbledore might cause a fuss."
Tom barely heard him.
Abraxas shook his head, his attention too on the blaspheming fourth year. "Merlin, you don't mess with the Head Boy's ex five minutes after they've broken up. What's he thinking?"
There was a crash as the boy's goblet exploded, shards of metal littering the table, pumpkin juice soaking the table cloth. There were several shocked shrieks from the students who saw, gasps from those who heard their reactions, but above all of the noise, a loud agonising scream rang out. Everybody turned to look at the boy, whose face was bleeding profusely from underneath his hand, a large piece of metal sticking out between his fingers.
Tom's eyes widened and he looked away as Professor Merrythought rushed forward and led the boy out of the hall.
For the first time since he had left her standing by the lake, Emily looked at Tom, and he turned away, determined to not take any blame for the incident that had just passed.
The silence lasted for all of ten seconds, before hushed whispers began to simmer, eventually bubbling into a loud chatter once more.
"Still," Abraxas said brightly, "you're a single man now, you can play the field. I'm sure there are plenty of girls who wouldn't mind having a piece of the most successful Head Boy Hogwarts has ever seen. Why don't we go to Paris, the three of us? I hear there's an entire street that's full of wizarding bars and they're full of half naked witches desperate for –"
"I'm not interested in any girl that's desperate. Otherwise I would have got with Augusta Longbottom long before now. And I'm certainly not interested in the French. Besides, I've got more important things to be concentrating on."
"World domination?" Arcturus quipped.
Celeste rolled her eyes obviously.
"Absolutely," Tom said, "and when I'm ruler of the world, Celeste will be on her knees, begging me for forgiveness."
"Forgiveness for what? You're the one that needs forgiving and I'm certainly not going to do that any time soon."
"Forgiveness for your poor attitude and constant bratty remarks. Still, I believe this conversation started without you, and I wish for it to continue without you, so keep quiet, there's a good girl."
Celeste turned back to the other seventh year girls while the boys around Tom snickered at his remark.
"Why can't you plan in Paris?" Abraxas asked quietly. "I'm sure there's loads of interesting stuff there that'll help you. French curses and all rubbish like that. I mean, they eat frogs' legs, they've got to be a pretty messed up bunch. Sounds right up your street..."
"I like the sound of Paris," Arcturus said. "We could get jobs as gigolos so the girls are coming to us and then paying."
Abraxas wrinkled his nose. "The sorts of girls that pay for it are the female equivalent of the men who pay for it. Have you seen the state of my Uncle Tyran?" he pulled a disgusted face and pushed his dessert away from him. "No. Bad idea. You can go that one alone."
"It was just an idea," Arcturus said. "But I still like the sound of Paris."
"Why don't you two go to Paris, and I'll stay here and work?" Tom said, making sure to glance over at Emily again. She wasn't looking, and he would have smirked, were he not trying to keep up the façade of a heartbroken man.
"You've been working for the last seven years! Let's go to Paris for a couple of months, live it up, have a good time and then when we get back, we'll be ready to work. Besides, there's no point planning anything now, Grindelward's still trampling all over Eastern Europe, everyone's on red alert. If you get caught doing anything remotely questionable, they'll throw you in Azkaban and never let you out. We're going to Paris."
Arcturus nodded in agreement, smirking at Abraxas.
"I can break out of Azkaban," Tom told them. They snorted in disbelief and he continued. "And while Grindelward is busy trampling Eastern Europe, the Nazis are crawling all over France, machine guns ready to shoot anybody they consider to be an enemy."
"Machine what?" Arcturus asked, his face creased in confusion.
"They can kill you in an instant," Tom replied. "That's all you need to know. And we, British people, would be considered as enemies as there is a World War going on. We'll stay here."
"There won't be any muggles running around with machine buns in the wizarding parts though," Arcturus argued.
Tom opened his mouth to correct him but decided it would be a waste of his time. "You two go. Have a good time. Make sure you're back by the end of the summer."
"Come with us," Abraxas persisted. "I won't be able to deal with him on my own," he shot a glance towards Arcturus who flicked a cherry at him from the side of his plate.
"I can't..." Tom trailed off. "I can't afford to go to another country and mess about. I need to find a job and find somewhere to live. I'm not going to be living off of the hospitality of Arcturus' parents for longer than is absolutely necessary."
"Is that what this is about? Bloody hell if you'd said so sooner..." Arcturus sighed.
"Yeah," Abraxas added, "don't worry about it, we'll pay for you, and you can pay us back when you've got the money."
"No. No Paris. No girls. No frogs' legs. We're going to work. Success comes with hard work and perseverance, it does not come with messing about in France, catching Merlin only knows what from a bunch of filthy girls –"
"Filthier the better, I find," Abraxas interrupted.
Arcturus smirked, but managed to hold in his laughter.
"– and sitting around eating ridiculous food all day."
"All right Tom," Abraxas said, "you're the boss."