AN
So Naenia apparently decided to make sense of JKRs worldbuilding surrounding the Trace.
Its hard working with something we have so little information on and that contradicts itself several times – hence why I don't delve too deeply into the topic. There are more important matters anyway.
December 1943 to January 1944, 6th year
That Tom's birthday was on the thirty-first of December, the last day of the Gregorian calendar, sounded like something very special at first, but in reality it was not.
There was no power to it, no magical rite or sabbat or anything like it – because the Gregorian calendar held not significance in the great history of the world and especially not in the history of the magical community. Nothing shifted in the magic of the world when the thirty-first of December turned into the first of January of a new year.
It was different with the eight sabbats, different with Samhain – which was why it would have been special, had Naenia been born on that day as her parents had wished. Tom still thought his birthday was special, though.
They weren't ones for birthday celebrations, the two of them, but one only turned seventeen once.
There was a tradition among the wizarding families to gift a special watch to wizards coming of age. Naenia knew the boys had had a lengthy discussion among themselves who would have the privilege to give one to Tom as he had no parents that could uphold the tradition. It had become rather heated by time Lestrange had asked Naenia to step in.
She had eventually convinced them to split the cost among themselves and make it a joint effort and give Tom an additional present each just as usual. She, herself, had not joined in and was therefore surprised to see her name mentioned in the letter accompanying the gift-wrapped watch.
"And that marks the end of the Trace for you," Naenia said.
They had taken an early breakfast in the nearly empty Great Hall and retired to their private room up on the seventh floor after several members of the staff, including a twinkling dear old Professor Dumbledore, had congratulated him.
"I have yet to learn the mechanics behind that magic," Tom mused, playing with his new watch, not masking the greedy glint in his eyes as he watched the light being reflected from the golden frame.
"It is highly complicated and very unreliable," Naenia said. "It doesn't even work consistently most of the time." She paused. "I'm not sure whether the Ministry or the general wizarding population actually agrees on how it is supposed to work. I distinctly remember different people telling me different things, but I couldn't tell you who it was."
"What about your ability to sense magic?"
"Ah, well," Naenia averted her eyes. "The very nature of the trace and how it is activated in the first place is a very huge and well-kept secret only a select few have access to. My family does not wish to paint another target on their backs by proclaiming they figured it out ages ago."
Tom stilled beside her.
The room had been providing them with a singular couch for several weeks now, instead of usual set of armchairs. The two of them were therefore sitting right next to each other everywhere, these days – maybe with the exception of the library sometimes. While Tom sat in a perfectly straight and upright position, Naenia had her legs drawn up, resting her head on her knees. Although the position was getting somewhat uncomfortable, so she shifted to ease the pressure on her knees.
Tom took a deep breath and hushed his voice. "Do you mean to imply that you have never had the Trace on you to begin with?"
"I never said anything like that," Naenia replied, but the look on Tom's face told her he knew better.
"Very well," was what he said, before changing the topic. "Actually, I've been thinking about something. Now that we are both seventeen, we don't need to stay at the castle during the holidays anymore. We could leave Hogwarts, travel around, do anything we wanted and more."
There was a restlessness in his mannerism that Naenia couldn't place and she wondered whether there was more to his suggestion than he let on.
"Why," she said, "was there somewhere you wanted to go?"
"No," he answered and pulled her closer by the waist, "not at all. It was just a thought."
"On that matter," Naenia began and trailed off as Tom put his chin on the top of her head.
She could not shake the feeling that something was off. There was something she was supposed to remember, but she couldn't, for all that she tried. Something about summers and visiting places…
"Yes?" Tom prompted her, when it became apparent she wouldn't continue.
Naenia took a moment to gather her thoughts and remember what she had wanted to tell him. "I will spend Easter at home. As well as all the other holidays henceforth."
Tom pulled away and Naenia felt the coldness in his absence. In return, she experienced a weirdly conflicting sensation somewhere between missing the touch and enjoying the cold. When had she become so used to this that she would actually miss the touch instead of flinching away?
"All of them? For their whole duration?"
"Yes. There are only four left and it is not like we spent the summer holidays together anyway."
"Why, all of a sudden?" Tom asked and then answered his own question. "Because you're of age now. You will have access to realms of magic you did not have before, deeper and deeper until you can truly call yourself a Necromancer. And as you can't do so at Hogwarts you will be returning home every chance you get." His mouth twisted into bitter smile. "Back to a place where you belong, leaving me behind."
Naenia sighed. "Don't be dramatic, Tom. No one is leaving anyone behind."
"I beg to differ," he said. "I never felt like I belonged anywhere until I arrived at Hogwarts, until I met you. But you already had a place like that and while I had hoped you would share this with me forever, you are now telling me that you won't. You'll return to a place I can't follow and leave me behind."
"I don't understand why you are so persistent with this," Naenia said, shaking her head. "They are only two short holidays during one whole school year."
"Three in total and four if we count the summer."
"Why would you count the summer anyway?" Naenia asked irritated.
They had only spent their summer together once and only partly – and that had ended badly.
But Tom ignored her question. "What about after Hogwarts, then? After we graduate and leave this place forever?"
Naenia raised an eyebrow. "It's not like we can't see each other outside of Hogwarts."
Tom abruptly stood from the couch and strode towards the door.
"What are you doing?"
"Leaving. Are you coming?"
"No?" Naenia tilted her head. "I am quite comfortable here, thank you."
Tom watched her with an inscrutable gaze and then came back to take her by the hand and pull her with him. "It is my birthday, we shall do whatever I like."
Naenia huffed. "Birthdays are nothing special."
"This one is."
Ꝋ
"It is not a requirement to pass my class," Professor Merrythought said, "but rest assured that the extra credit will be worth it."
Naenia watched her classmates shift uncomfortably. Even Jenkins, the only other girl beside Naenia, looked a bit unsettled. The Ravenclaw was usually very confident in everything she did, but the prospect of producing a Patronus seemed to finally have caught her off-guard. Naenia couldn't blame her.
"Well," Avery said in a low voice. "There goes an easy chance at earning extra credit. What a shame."
None of the Slytherins – well, none of the present ones – would be able to perform the Charm, at least not to the extent of a corporal Patronus, so he was absolutely right. The question was, then, whether anyone out of the rest of their fellow Defence classmates would be able to pull it off.
Naenia felt comforted by the fact that the top three of their year would all be unable to. All three of them were calm people, less inclined to let their emotions overtake them – and Naenia might not have known Jenkins very well, but the girl seemed as stoic and indifferent as Tom and Naenia were. There was no way either of them could conjure up the amount of happiness needed to cast a Patronus, never mind a corporal one.
Professor Merrythought would be very disappointed to see her best students fail miserably – or not even attempt to try in the first place.
When she dismissed the class and they were all filing out of the classroom, heading to Transfiguration next, Avery turned to Tom and said in a teasing tone, "Must be hard, knowing all the studying in the world can't help you with this little problem."
"I have no need for this spell," Tom replied calmly.
Naenia wasn't fooled. The way he set his jaw and gripped his bag told her that he was not pleased by this in the slightest. Tom prized himself with always being at the very top. He 'graciously' let Naenia take the lead in two subjects, but even there he tried his hardest to best her whenever he could.
Avery hummed and glanced at Naenia. "Must be nice not having to fear a Dementor."
Naenia huffed. "Having no fear of them and fearing no harm from them are two very different things. It would still be highly inconvenient to meet one with ill-intend. Especially if you have no means to protect yourself against them."
Avery shrugged just as Tom nodded.
"Surely the two of you would have no problems facing off against a Dementor?" Lestrange asked.
"I wouldn't chance it," Naenia said. "Not worth the outcome."
"Really?" Tom said with an arch of his eyebrow. "Imagine the possibilities that would arise should you ever beat a Dementor into submission."
Naenia watched the awed glint appear in both Avery's and Lestrange's eyes and the pride in Tom's expression and frowned. "Vile creatures like that? No, thank you. I would rather keep to my Inferi – beings I can blindly trust, that don't feed on the happiness of others."
Tom shook his head fondly. "Not everyone has Inferi at their disposal, my dear."
Naenia's frown deepened when she saw Avery and Lestrange exchange a look at the way Tom addressed her.
"What could you possibly need Dementors for?"
Tom shrugged. "A lot of things. You never know what to expect of the future."
Naenia decided to let the subject drop. She knew she wouldn't be able to change Tom's mind once he had set in on something. She had tried and failed that often enough.
The staircase they were ascending changed its mind in that moment and cut off her train of thought.
"Bloody nuisances," Avery cursed under his breath.
"Seems like we'll have to take a detour," Lestrange said. "I know this staircase doesn't change directions very often, so waiting won't help us."
Avery scoffed. "Which founder thought it was a good idea to put moving staircases in a school?"
Naenia silently agreed with him.
Lestrange shrugged. "Maybe they only started moving later on?"
"That is highly unlikely," Tom said. "For one, the architecture would not allow it."
"Right," Lestrange agreed, "of course."
Naenia laughed. "I would argue that magic makes everything possible, but then again, wizards are known to make unreasonable decisions all the time – so it really is more likely that the founders are responsible themselves."
"Rowena Ravenclaw invented them," a female voice interjected.
They all turned around to see Jenkins appearing from behind a tapestry on the wall. Behind it was a secret passageway that ended right in front of their Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, as Naenia and Tom both had discovered years ago.
"She designed the whole castle, actually," Jenkins went on. "A brilliant feat – that all four of them accomplished by building it, of course."
She went on about the founders, but Naenia's attention went elsewhere. They had just passed the bathrooms of this corridor and although nothing seemed amiss on the outside, there was something that drew Naenia's attention. She stopped, trying to put her finger on it.
"Naenia?" Tom asked, walking back to her.
"Could one of you check that bathroom for me?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of the door to the boys' lavatory.
She saw Tom frown out of the corner of her eyes, but he did as she asked. When he opened the door there was a loud gasp, probably coming from Jenkins, as the heavy stench of blood emanated from within. The whole floor was covered with it. Tom wordlessly closed the door again and turned to Avery and Lestrange.
"Find a teacher. Professor Dumbledore should be the closest, if he's waiting in his classroom as usual."
The two boys nodded and went off immediately.
The scent of blood lingered in the air.
Naenia turned her head to Jenkins, who was deadly pale and looked like she was about to faint any second now. Tom followed Naenia's gaze and took a step towards the Ravenclaw. He put a reassuring hand on her arm and began talking to her in a calming voice. Naenia let his words wash over her as she closed her eyes and focused on the magic surrounding them, tried to sort out what she could to find the origin of what had attracted her attention earlier. It had felt like Death, somehow.
She didn't come very far until Avery and Lestrange returned, Professor Dumbledore in tow. He swept into the bathroom immediately and came back not a minute later, carrying an unconscious boy in his arms.
He wasn't dead, Naenia realized.
"Follow me," Dumbledore said and together they made their way to the Hospital Wing.
The five students were then told to wait outside while Dumbledore and the nurse took care of the injured student. No one said a word. Avery and Lestrange kept shooting furtive glances at Jenkins who was still being comforted by Tom, while Naenia just closed her eyes and leaned against the wall.
Naenia wasn't used to see the normally composed Ravenclaw so unsettled. It made her uncomfortable.
After what had transpired last year, this was not boding well for the school. She doubted that Tom had been so foolish and set the Basilisk loose again, but Naenia couldn't shake the feeling that he was involved in this somehow. She could only hope that her intuition was wrong.
But if Tom had been responsible, then the boy would not have wound up half dead in a public bathroom. Tom was more subtle than that. It had taken several months for the attacks of the Basilisk to be noticed as such and linked to each other. And Naenia had witnessed on a few occasions the planning or aftermath of Tom letting his flock put someone in their place – not a single word had ever been breathed about those incidents. So if Tom was involved in this matter it had likely been a mistake on someone's part. Or, and this was what Naenia hoped to be true, this matter had nothing to do with him and his flock whatsoever.
The boy would live. Professor Dumbledore told them that he was lucky they had found him, because he had been left behind by his attacker to slowly bleed out on the floor of that bathroom. He did not tell them anything about the cause of his wounds, but when he was questioning Naenia later, she could tell from his demeanour that they had been inflicted by another person. He also seemed to be under the impression – as he so often was – that Tom was somehow responsible.
Naenia was getting tired of the old man, but she couldn't deny that he had every right to question them in this case.
There was not much she could tell him, other than there had been something off and when Tom had opened the bathroom, they had seen the blood and called for him immediately. She was sure the others would tell him the same story – although she did not know whether one of them knew more than he let on. Jenkins was most certainly no more involved than Naenia, herself. The girl was ruthless when it came to her academics, but would never intentionally hurt anyone.
No one ever found out what had happened to the boy and he would not tell anyone, although it seemed like he did know who had done this to him. There had been no public announcement – there usually wasn't – but the student body naturally knew all about it anyway. At least there was no repeat of that incident and it slowly faded to the back of their minds.
Naenia returned to investigate the bathroom once, but by that point it had already been cleared out and the sheer amount of different magics and traces thereof couldn't tell her anything useful. Tom and his flock acted perfectly normal, too – there was nothing that would have given their involvement away, if there was any.
She eventually decided to let the matter rest and returned her attention to her otherwise busy school life.
AN
Naenia hopes her intuition is wrong but that is, unfortunately, not the case in this situation. We all know Tom had a hand in this – as does Naenia, though she doesn't want to admit it.
(sighs) What am I going to do with her?