AN
He didn't even buy her a ring.
October to November 1944, 7th year
"Excuse me?"
Tom settled into the other armchair, calm even in the face of her incredulity. "Surely you can see the benefits in this proposal?"
"Tom," Naenia said, trying to regain control. "You are asking me to marry you."
Tom nodded. "Yes. It was the logical conclusion I came up with."
"Logical conclusion to what?"
"What we're going to do after Hogwarts. It is improper for a young and unwed woman to meet with a young and unwed man, but if we were to marry that would pose no problem in the public eye. In fact, I believe it to be the most obvious solution. Neither of us has plans to marry after graduation, but there are already plenty of offers for the both of us. Which would all stop – another benefit to add to the list. Additionally, being unwed makes you seem lesser for some reason I do not quite understand."
Naenia leaned back and prepared herself for a lengthy discussion of a topic she had always made her opinion rather clear on. "Neither of these arguments seem relevant to me."
Tom laughed. "Don't look at me like that, Naenia. I am proposing a marriage purely of convenience, not a romantic or sexual relationship."
She raised an eyebrow. "What kind of convenience?"
"Apart from the ones I already listed? Just imagine all the power we could gain if we were to combine our skills and knowledge. We both are experts in our respective fields, strong and powerful in our own rights. But if we were to unite those… It would be magnificent."
So that was the true reason. Of course it was. In the end it always came down to power with him, didn't it? Power, respect and immortality. The three things Tom had wanted above all else for as long as Naenia had known him.
"I am not going to share my family's secrets with you," Naenia said sharply. "You know this, Tom. Even if you were to become my husband, I would not let you have that knowledge."
His expression hardened momentarily, but he quickly smoothed it over. "Do the Lémures' spouses not enter the family fully? Are they not brought into the family upon marriage, to be a part of it, to share their knowledge and receive the wisdom of a hundred generations of Necromancers in return?"
"That is true for those that are accepted into the family, Tom."
He arched an eyebrow. "And I won't be?"
"Obviously not," Naenia said dryly.
"But if I was? Would you accept my proposal, then?"
"My answer would still be no. It will always be no."
"But why, Naenia? Just tell me why!"
She sighed and closed her eyes, not answering his question. She simply did not want to marry. And, frankly, she didn't see why she should, either – even if Tom's arguments were reasonable. She could see the logic in his reasoning and he was right, there were several benefits to his proposal. But Naenia didn't need any of this. It was not necessary and she simply did not want to be married, not even to Tom.
"Naenia, love," he said when she didn't answer. "I beg you to reconsider. At least take some time to think it over."
Naenia only sighed.
Ꝋ
Nott, as evident in his next letter, found the whole situation hilarious. Naenia did not. Those of Tom's flock that were still attending Hogwarts didn't know, but were mostly still under the impression that Tom and Naenia were courting, so that didn't help either. Not even Amelia was in any way helpful. She thought Naenia was rather harsh for rejecting him without a second thought and no apparent reasons.
"Yes, I'm aware you don't wish to marry," she had said, "but you could at least give him a chance. He has always been so sweet to you."
Naenia gave it some consideration, decided once again that there was no real merit in it and rejected Tom's next proposal as well. Which happened to be on their way to Study of Ancient Runes.
Tom had just opened his mouth to retort when they came upon a group of Gryffindors maybe a year or two younger than them. Neither Tom nor Naenia paid them any heed, but a pair of boys apparently thought this to be rather offensive.
"Think you're better than us, huh?" one of them sneered, while the other laughed mockingly.
The one who had spoken deliberately bumped into Naenia as they walked by.
She blinked. Well, that was new. Normally, people were either afraid or indifferent towards her, but never outright hostile.
Behind them, one of the Gryffindor boys tripped and fell down the stairs as Tom gently took her hand in his and tried to lead her away. But Naenia stopped right there and turned back to the stairs, watching the other Gryffindors scurry around in a panic.
"We should help," she mused. "As the Head Boy and a prefect."
"We should," Tom replied, "but they wouldn't appreciate our help."
Naenia hummed. "Still. We're here. The whole group saw us pass them in the corridor. It wouldn't do either of us well if word got around that we just turned the other way."
Tom sighed, but relented. Together they managed to organize the Gryffindors so that someone would alert a teacher while the others helped the injured boy to the Hospital Wing. The two Slytherins didn't raise a single finger themselves, but no one could claim they hadn't lent a hand.
The Gryffindor boy had to stay in the Hospital Wing longer than Naenia had initially thought, considering the severity of his wounds – something about making his injuries unnecessarily worse by being recklessly impatient. Neither he nor his friend ever so much as looked in her direction ever again and all Naenia could do was pretend that she hadn't noticed the smug satisfaction flicker across Tom's face at the sight of the crumbled body at the bottom of the stairs.
This would have presented a perfect reason for her continued rejection of his marriage proposals, but it was really not. She had tolerated this kind of behaviour since she had first learned of it and couldn't say that it actually bothered her. Naenia was aware what that said about herself, but as long as Tom didn't take another person's life, she honestly couldn't bring herself care.
That is to say, she didn't appreciate it, either. He had done it for her sake, this time, and he knew Naenia was aware of his actions, but neither expected her to thank him for it. Naenia didn't ask him to do this for her and for him it was just one of the things he did for her that he saw as self-evident. Like holding the doors open for her, offering his arm to escort her to their next class, or putting more food on her plate during meals.
Giving her small gifts was, however, unusual even for him.
It started on Naenia's birthday with a Basilisk fang (given willingly), some spiced chocolate two days later on Samhain and then a jar full of dead spiders he had collected in the castle about a week later.
Naenia accepted these little trinkets, knowing fully well what his intention behind them was and what their friends thought of them – because Tom made sure to present them to her in full view of the common room or the library every single time.
"You can't deny it anymore," Lestrange said, eyeing the char of spiders with disgust. "Gift-giving is a sure sign of courtship."
Tom was working on the potions essay Naenia had already finished, pretending that he wasn't listening.
Naenia sighed in defeat. "I know. And the gifts are intended as such."
Avery raised his head from his own Astronomy essay (which was a mess from what Naenia could tell). "Are you finally making it official, then?"
Naenia frowned. "No one is making anything official."
Avery rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. We all know you two have been making eyes at each other since first year."
"We were barely even friends in first year," Naenia retorted. "You need to rewrite the part about the lunar phases by the way. That's not how it works."
Avery looked down at his draft, on which he had already made so many corrections that it was barely legible anymore, and groaned.
"Would you mind taking a look at mine?" Jenkins asked, handing Naenia her potions essay and pointing at the paragraph about countermeasures.
She was sitting with them in the library most of the time now, because she found Tom's and Naenia's depth of understanding regarding their lessons rather refreshing. The Ravenclaw had already given up trying to keep them from unrelated chattering during their study sessions at the end of sixth year when even threats to tell the librarian had accomplished nothing. She was still shooting them annoyed glares every now and then, but mostly had resigned herself to simply ignore them. Sitting with the top two students of Hogwarts apparently outweighed the occasional disturbance.
Naenia nodded at her in approval. "You might want to expand your explanation on Occlumency – you could ask Tom, he has more in-depth knowledge about that than me – but it looks fine overall. Nice work on the antidotes."
Jenkins preened at the praise, before tentatively turning towards Tom, who was already waiting to answer her questions.
"We're not finished, Lémure," Avery said, pointing his quill at her.
Naenia raised an eyebrow. "Maybe focus on more important matters first? Like your Astronomy homework?"
Avery gave a frustrated sigh. "I dropped potions in the hopes of never having to deal with them again and now they want me to explain how the moon affects potions and their ingredients?" He threw his hands in the air. "Honestly! Our teachers know most of us gave up on that subject."
Naenia shrugged. "That's N.E.W.T. level classes for you. And I know about lunar cycles, even though I'm not taking Astronomy anymore."
"But you're a genius when it comes to potions."
"Because it is all based on logic."
Avery dropped his head on the table with a loud thud. Jenkins gave him an unimpressed glare, but didn't comment on it.
"It's a bloody nightmare, is what it is," he mumbled.
"Come now," Naenia said and took out her potions essay. "Here, take a look at this."
"Oh," Lestrange perked up. "Can I have a look, too?"
"Sure, but you should both make sure to use other examples than this. Our professors will know you've had help if you're writing about Veritaserum, even though you're not attending potions classes."
Avery sighed. "I don't care as long as I pass."
"Is there a book about this?" Lestrange asked.
Naenia nodded and wrote down a few titles for him.
Jenkins snatched the parchment before Lestrange could pick it up to copy them down, herself. He gave her a strange look, but then shrugged and went to search for the books. Avery, meanwhile, had started adding the paragraph from Naenia's essay to his draft, ignoring the dirty looks Jenkins was shooting his way. When he was finished, he handed the parchment to Lestrange who read through it carefully and then gave it to Amelia.
Naenia sighed and went back to her Transfiguration homework. Tom never offered his own work precisely because of this, but Naenia often found it less exhausting to simply hand hers over rather than to explain the same thing several times. It wasn't her problem if the boys got in trouble for copying it. Jenkins and Amelia were cleverer than that.
When Amelia was satisfied with her day's work, Naenia had already finished all her assignments and gladly took her up on the offer of a walk.
The evening air was a bit chilly, according to Amelia, but the sky was clear and the ground dry and that was more important than something a simple warming charm could remedy.
"You haven't told me about the gifts," Amelia remarked, puffing out air and watching her breath form miniature clouds.
Naenia didn't quite know how to answer the underlying question and therefore didn't say anything at all.
Amelia looked at her friend with furrowed brows. "He's really committed to this, isn't he?"
"It would appear so," Naenia said. "He has set his mind to this foolishness and Tom usually gets what he wants."
Amelia gave her a lopsided smile. "But not this time?"
"Not as long as I still have a say in this."
"But you're accepting his gifts anyway?" Amelia said with raised eyebrows. "That seems to me like you're not as averse to the idea as you want us to believe."
"They're nice presents. I know accepting them equals accepting his courtship, but Tom and I both know it's not that easy. And this is between us, after all, not how others perceive our actions."
"While that may be true, you should still keep in mind that you are giving the boy a sliver of hope by accepting them. And you can't deny that the two of you have become closer than any normal friends."
Naenia huffed. "That is mostly due to Tom ignoring social etiquette and personal space."
"But you're not discouraging him in any way." Amelia sighed. "I am not saying you should throw your own wishes regarding marriage overboard, but don't you think you should at least give him a chance? Would being married to your closest friend truly be so terrible? To me it seems like he desperately wants to be close to you, to cherish you and keep you forever at his side. That is a very remarkable trait."
"Keep me forever by his side," Naenia echoed and turned away from her friend. She shook her head. "My family wouldn't allow it anyway."
"Oh, come now. You can't possibly let that stand your way."
Naenia stopped and looked out over the dark lake. The stars and the waning moon reflecting on its surface made the sky seemingly endless, the picture only disturbed by the castle's lights.
"When did you change your mind about Tom?" Naenia asked the Hufflepuff.
"When he started growing up and acting more responsibly."
"That's –" Naenia turned to face Amelia. "You are aware that he has merely perfected his mask of the charming model student, right? Nothing has changed. Tom is still the same –" She exhaled. "He is still the same."
"Is he truly? Or are you just letting your doubts get to you? He could have truly changed, seen the errors of his way and decided to become a better man."
Amelia had always been able to sense, subconsciously, that something was off about Tom. But, apparently, he could even fool the most empathetic of people now. Naenia knew him better than anyone. She might not be able to see through all of his pretences anymore, but at his core he was still the same power-hungry orphan that had approached her because of the merits he could gain form her acquaintance and not who she was as a person.
Amelia didn't interact with Tom outside of sharing time with Naenia and her duties as a prefect, so it wasn't like her impression of him mattered all that much – she wouldn't be in any danger from him, Naenia was sure.
"I will not marry him," is what she settled on saying, "and that is the end of it. What about you and Longbottom? Any new developments I should know about?"
Amelia raised an eyebrow sceptically. "Are you genuinely interested in this or only trying to change the subject?"
Naenia laughed. "Both, obviously."
"Fine," Amelia huffed. "But think about my words, okay?" She turned to smile up at the castle. "Emery and I are doing well, but you already know that. He also agreed to giving me the time I need until I'm ready to even consider marriage."
"I would hope so," Naenia said dryly, "for his own sake."
Amelia laughed and nudged her lightly. "You like him, admit it."
"I will admit no such thing. I tolerate him, because he seems to make you happy. But other than that his existence is of no consequence to me."
"Wow," Amelia said baffled. "And here I thought you were actually starting to care."
Naenia raised an eyebrow. "Me, a Lémure, caring? Well, let me tell you, you are dead wrong on that account. Among many others."
"Sure," Amelia laughed. "Keep telling yourself that."
Naenia felt her expression soften as she returned her friend's open smile. They might not always agree, but they still understood each other. Mostly.