Enjoy!

Chapter 4

London 1942.

Tom was back at the orphanage after his fourth year at Hogwarts. He had made a lot of changes that year. Tom had gotten very good at charms, he had even found a way to charm his shoes to last longer so he didn't need to spend his well earned money on buying a new pair. His long walks to the factory and back to the orphanage every day the previous summer had worn his shoes down very quickly. He had spent most of the summer wearing shoes with holes in them and would go to bed every night with sore aching feet.

He had also made good friends with the elves at Hogwarts, and they had given him a magical bag full of food for his departure, so that he wouldn't go hungry when he was away from the school. Every once in a while, when the bag was getting low on food the bag would magically fill up with food again. It had been nice to eat properly with Mary, and it made Tom happy that he could provide for her. She had gotten old, and had started to forget most of the things that happened around her, but she never forgot Tom. She was always happy when he was around.

He had been home for three weeks now, and was on his way to her home. It had become their Sunday ritual. To spend the entire day together, and he loved it. It was the best part of his week and he looked forward to it all week long.

Every morning Tom ate his breakfast at the orphanage, the porridge was quite tasty, not even the house elves at Hogwarts could make porridge quite as good as the ladies at the orphanage. He was always down to the kitchen first, before any of the other children had even gotten out of their rooms. Being the only orphan down there he would flirt with one of the younger helpers that was sweet on him. She had long blonde hair, and was quite nice to look at. She was always happy to give him a bit more porridge than the other orphans. That was another thing that Tom had learned while he was at Hogwarts, how to flirt with the ladies to get what he wanted. He and Abraxas had enjoyed making use of that new skill that year at Hogwarts, and had flirted with several young witches. Tom had even stolen a kiss from a pretty little hufflepuff girl. Abraxas had been so jealous when Tom told him about it. They were both good looking men, Abraxas with his long blond hair and gray eyes, and Tom with his black hair and dark blue eyes. They had had such a wonderful time at Hogwarts, flirting and enjoying the attention they were getting from all the girls in the school. It was clear as day now, they were teenagers and their hormones were having a great time in their bodies. Tom was very pleased to discover that his newfound skill in flirting was paying off at the orphanage as well. This morning he had even managed to sweet talk the young kitchen helper into giving him two slices of the cake that they had made for Mrs Cole and Tom planned to share that with Mary during their visit later in the day.

Tom was quite excited to see Mary that day and share the cake with her, but something was off as he got there this time. The lights in the house were off, and the door shut. She always kept the door open for him. Mary always turned the lights on in her house as soon as she woke up in the morning, her eyesight had gotten too poor to see in the dark.

"Mary? Are you in there?" Tom asked as he knocked on the door. No response. He tried to look inside the windows, but with no luck. Without the lights on he couldn't see a thing. He had no idea how Mary would be able to get around in her home without any lights on.

"Are you Tom?" a voice suddenly asked behind him, making him turn around.

"I am, who are you?" Tom asked and looked at the woman behind him.

"I am one of Mary's neighbors. We never met, but she always spoke very fondly of you." the woman said with sadness in her voice.

"Where is she? The door is shut, she never shuts the door on Sundays, she knows I'll come." Tom asked and tried the doorknob again.

"I am so sorry to be the one telling you this, Mary died Tuesday, she was buried at the cemetery behind the Church yesterday. Her solicitors have been here already, they cleared out her house, but she left something for you. I have it in my house, if you come with me I can give it to you." the woman said and started to walk. Tom had to take some deep breaths, he felt like his heart would break. Sweet old Mary, who had taught him so much, was gone. She would never be back. He felt a tear run down his cheek, but quickly removed it. He would not cry here.

He went after the other woman and inside her house, she quickly found a small package with Tom's name on it, which Tom took from her.

"Her grave is easy to find, she is buried right beside her husband. It is right next to the church, if you want to visit her. I know you meant a lot to her, I wish I would have known how to get in touch with you when she passed, but I couldn't find any way to reach you." the Woman said with a sad smile on her face.

"Thank you," Tom said as he quickly got away from there. He wanted to get away from everything, to be sad and miserable alone. But soon he found himself in front of the old church.

Tom went inside the cemetery, and tried to locate her grave. He found it soon enough, there was fresh dirt on the ground, and some flowers that had started to wilt.

Tom took out his white wand, and quickly vanished the wilted flowers, charming a bunch of fresh roses in their place. He sat down, putting the packet on the ground next to him, as he read the tombstone.

Together at last.

And then beneath that were the names of both Mary and her husband and their dates of birth and death. It was a simple headstone, clean and classic.

"I am going to miss our Sundays together, you have brought me much joy these last couple of years. I promise you, I'll come by every Sunday when I am home from school to visit you and keep you up to date on everything that is happening with me. I promise, I'll keep on playing the piano, just like you wanted me to, " Tom sadly said. He went to open his package, with the things she had left for him. When he managed to get it open, he saw some clothes inside, alongside with her favorite picture. It was the one of Mary and her husband at their wedding. He also found her wedding rings inside a small envelope, with a small snippet of text "for when you find your love". He was grateful that she left something for him, but sad that she was gone.

Tom didn't know how long he sat there, but it soon turned dark. He quickly gathered his things and some of the food the elves had prepared for him, and started to walk home.

It wouldn't work if he was too tired for tomorrow, he was planning to meet up with Abraxas to do some shopping in Diagonally.

Tom had forgotten all about his charms he usually would apply around him, so as he got near the orphanage, a growl made him stop in his tracks. Tom Slowly turned around and he noticed a dog that looked mangy and sickly, it was looking right at Tom and growling at him. Tom tossed the dog his food he was eating, the dog was clearly just starving as the rest of London was and could smell the food that Tom had been eating. But as soon as Tom turned his back to the dog it lunged´straight at him! Before he knew it, it bit him in his calf, and Tom had fallen to the ground. He pulled out his wand and tried to stun the beast as the dog continued biting him and trying to drag him off somewhere. Tom started to use some stronger spells against the dog, and eventually the dog released his hold on his leg and rolled a few feet away, momentarily stunned. Tom stood up trying his best not to put too much weight on his injured leg. He quickly waved his wand gathering all his stuff from Mary and took a hold of it. It was then that Tom looked up and saw the full moon. He looked at the "dog" and noticed it starting to get back up. He noticed that the dog was still alive and moving, even after Tom had hit it with some dark spells that should have incapacitated it. Quickly he fired off a few more hexes at the animal and started running. Tom decided to just run straight to the Leaky Cauldron, where he was supposed to meet Abraxas the next day. It was a 3 hour walk from the orphanage, but he just ran as fast as he could. He didn't know if the dog/werewolf, sweet Merlin, please don't let it be a werewolf, it was just a dog! Just a dog would come after him, but he wouldn't take the chance. As he finally got to the Leaky Cauldron, the adrenaline in him was starting to wear off. He quickly got a room for the night and went straight up to assess the bite. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, already it looks to be healing. But he cleaned it and bandaged it anyway. When he woke up the next morning, it was all healed, nothing but a faint scar could be seen. He quickly got ready for his day, taking care to pack away the things that Mary had left for him and went down to the pub to meet his friend.