AN
Another year has gone by.
April to August 1944, 6th year
Perseus Black's next letter to Naenia took on a rather concerned tone and the part about Naenia's brother wasn't even that big. Most of the letter made vague mentions of requests Tom had sent his or Mulciber's way and things Tom had been doing outside Hogwarts, as well as some suspicious character by the name Dolohov.
Naenia read through it carefully, but it didn't contain a lot of information that could prove useful to her in any way. She extended the usual 'Hi.' to Amelia and wondered about the letter some more, but ultimately pushed it aside. Their end-of-the-year exams were slowly approaching and with them the workload the teachers assigned them increased significantly. Rosier and Nott were as busy as Black and Mulciber had been the year before and basically holed up in the library all the time.
They fell into their old study-group pattern fairly quickly and this time no one was surprised when Tom and Naenia assisted the older students with their problems. In fact, once Jenkins noticed what was going on, she commended them on it and promptly joined their group.
They pulled off the Apparition exam without a hitch – if you didn't count yet another girl asking Tom to attend the next Hogsmeade weekend with her and Tom shamelessly using Naenia as an excuse 'because he already had made plans with her'.
Naenia sighed. "Soon the whole school will think we're actually involved."
"They already do," Tom said amused.
"Great," Naenia said dryly.
"Would that truly be so bad?" Tom asked softly.
Naenia raised one eyebrow. "You are aware what that entails, right?"
Tom laughed. "Yes. I am no fool, Naenia, even though I don't care for such trivialities. I didn't mean to imply that we should truly start courting each other anyway."
"Oh. You were asking whether the rumours themselves bother me." She inclined her head thoughtfully. "It bothers me when our friends think about us that way, because it implies that they don't know us that well, after all. But I don't really care about the rest of the student body, I suppose."
"Then there is no harm in simply not dissuading them from that notion," Tom said smugly.
Naenia could only sigh in defeat at that.
The next two months passed by in a mix of homework and studying and trying to find the time for a quiet moment of light reading in-between. Amelia's insistence on taking regular walks over the grounds made for nice breaks as well and allowed Naenia some rare time alone with her Hufflepuff friend.
"He's already talking about marriage, even though we're barely seventeen."
"Most purebloods marry directly after graduation," Naenia said with a shrug. "Some don't even wait that long and marry as soon as both spouses are of age. It is what is expected of them."
Amelia frowned. "I'm not a pureblood, though."
"I am aware. And so is Longbottom. You should talk about this with him and not me."
"I know, I know," Amelia sighed. "And I am going to. But I wanted to discuss this with my best friend first, rather than accidentally upset him because there was some unspoken pureblood-rule I wasn't aware about."
"Couldn't you ask your parents as well? Your father, at least, should be familiar with pureblood politics."
Amelia averted her eyes. "I haven't told them about this development, yet."
Naenia raised an eyebrow. "They don't know that you're involved with a boy, yet?"
"No? Not exactly?" Amelia kicked a stone out of her way. "I mentioned him once or twice, but didn't tell them any details."
"Your parents will want to meet him. Before any decisions about marriage are made."
Amelia winced.
Naenia sighed. "Do you want to marry him?"
"I don't know?" Amelia raised her face to the sky. "It's all so soon, I don't feel like I'm ready for that yet – tie the knot, settle down and start a family. It always seemed so far away."
"I can't help you there, I neither want to marry nor start a family."
"Something I will never quite understand," Amelia said, finally looking at Naenia again. "But that is your decision to make. Everyone has their own way of finding happiness, after all."
"Wise words," Naenia said, smiling. "And now we should return to the castle and join our lovely study group again, before a certain someone falls into a panic, because she 'didn't study enough'."
"Oh, please," Amelia whined. "That was one time."
Their exams were as easy as always – for Naenia and Tom anyway. The seventh years grumbled their way through their N.E.W.T.s, but Nott was quite confident in his success and Rosier reluctantly admitted he thought he did rather well, too.
And then they were boarding the train and on their way to London and Naenia suddenly realized that there was something very important she had forgotten to discuss with Tom. There was, after all, still a Muggle war raging in London and while Tom was seventeen now, which allowed him to use magic outside of Hogwarts and therefore protect his own life, that did not make him invincible – especially not with the new rounds of bombings that had started in January and gotten more severe in June.
Although her parents had kept her up to date and given her more detailed insights during her stay over the Easter Holidays, it had simply slipped her mind.
She brought the matter up during one of their patrols of the train.
"They did not allow you to stay for the summer once again, I take it?"
Tom pulled her a little closer to him and smiled. "I have plans for the summer. Do not worry, I will be as far away from London as soon as I can."
Naenia returned his smile. "That is a relief to hear. Where are you going?"
"Albania. Helena told me some fascinating stories that I wish to investigate."
"I am still surprised that you managed to hold a proper conversation with her," Naenia said with a shake of her head. "She always refused me, whether I was using Marin's body or my own. And I'm not entirely convinced it was because of my acquaintance with the Bloody Baron."
"It was quite tricky, I admit, but worth it in the end – or so I hope."
There was an excited gleam in his eyes that Naenia rarely saw paired with such an innocent joy.
"Will you tell me of your findings?"
"Depending on what I do find in the end…" His face softened. "Of course I will."
They didn't talk about it any further and from the way Tom evaded all questions about his plans for the summer, Naenia surmised that he wanted to keep it a secret from the other boys, although she couldn't think of a reason as to why that was. Since Black and Mulciber had graduated, it had become a lot easier to fit them all together in one compartment – well, mostly. It was Naenia, Tom and his flock minus Malfoy (and Carrow, but Naenia didn't really count him anymore).
Malfoy had wanted to join them, but, thankfully, there hadn't been enough space. Naenia still didn't quite get along with him – their relationship certainly hadn't improved since she had reprimanded him for harassing a muggleborn over a year ago. Naenia had long since come to some kind of understanding with both Rosier and Avery, even managed to become friends with Lestrange somehow, but Malfoy and her just did not seem able to hold even one friendly conversation with each other.
Considering that there would be two spaces opening up with Nott and Rosier being absent next year, they might want to do something about that. But that was for later and right now she could simply enjoy listening to the boys' discussion about Grindelwald's newest campaign while outside the countryside flew by.
Naenia made the next round with Nott, which was a relief, because the blushing girls still had not gotten over Tom and it was frankly very annoying to patrol the train followed by their barely concealed giggles. Nott and her were actually able to get their duties done.
"I can't decide whether I'll miss this or be glad I don't have to do it anymore," Nott commented after the third time they had to confiscate a banned item from another student.
At least this one hadn't run screaming at the sight of Naenia – one of the things she hadn't had to worry about when she was with Tom. But it had gotten better of the years, so she was now at a point where she would rather take the occasional frightened student than a bunch of giggling girls. (She would not admit that it was fun watching them run in unwarranted fear.)
"I'm certainly not going to miss it," Naenia said. "Too much work."
Nott chuckled. "You're not going to like next year very much, then. Especially not with Slughorn all set to make Riddle and you into his perfect pair of Head Boy and Head Girl."
Naenia huffed a short laugh. "Oh, he'll be so disappointed when Dippet assigns the position to someone else."
"You don't think he'll choose you? You're the second best of the whole school and only slightly behind Riddle. I dare say you could even surpass him if you really wanted to."
Naenia shrugged. "I don't know about surpassing him, but my academical prowess is not the problem."
There was a small group of students blocking the corridor. Nott had already opened his mouth, when they spotted the two prefects approaching, took one look at Naenia and quickly disappeared into their compartments, slamming the doors behind them in their haste.
Understanding dawned on her friend's face. "Dippet is one of the fools who fears or at least judges you because of the Lémures' reputation."
"Yes, precisely. And even if that wasn't the case, he still needs to take our reputation into consideration. A Lémure as Head Girl? What would the parents say!"
"It is easy to forget," Nott mused, "because you are not frightening at all – a bit morbid at times, but there's nothing scary about you."
"People have been telling me that more and more recently."
Nott smiled. "It's a good thing, though, isn't it?"
"I suppose," Naenia shrugged. "It doesn't really matter either way. Although some of the adults could really do better than judge me for my last name."
She thought of Dumbledore and how he sometimes invited her for tea to enquire about whatever Tom was up to this time, how the old man pretended he truly cared about her and wasn't partial to their reputation at all, while in reality he very much was.
Nott lightly clapped her on the shoulder. "You'll manage. You survived six years of this madhouse, what is one more?"
"Very little when one faces eternity."
"Don't remind me," Nott said with a half-hearted attempt at looking sour. "Some of us are only measly mortals with a mere century or two ahead of them – several, if we're lucky. We have a lot to worry about to stay alive."
Naenia shrugged. "You could always donate your body to become one of our Inferi after your demise."
"I don't know whether you're joking or actually serious."
"Both, probably."
Nott looked into the last compartment, deemed nothing worth commenting on and turned around, so they could make their way back to where Tom and the others were waiting for them.
"Does it not bother you, knowing you'll live on forever while everyone around you – well, everyone who isn't part of your family, at least – will age and grow old and die eventually."
"Wither away," Naenia said quietly.
"Sorry?"
"Nothing." She smiled darkly. "I came to this school thinking that friends were unnecessary. They would all leave me eventually. And it wasn't like I expected anyone wanting to be friends with me, a child of the infamous Lémures. I think I was more bothered that I would have to use a wand and incantations and pretend to be an uneducated little child that had no idea what it was doing."
"With your background knowledge I expect it was quite boring."
Naenia shrugged. "I had access to the library. That was all I needed."
Nott laughed. "Of course, the library."
He didn't even seem to notice that she had never actually answered his question.
The way back wasn't in any way shorter but faster, because most students wouldn't dare break any rules so shortly after being reprimanded by a prefect (or frightened by Naenia).
The other boys were still deeply immersed in their discussion about Grindelwald and Nott joined in almost immediately upon their return, while Naenia only smiled fondly and wordlessly took her seat next to Tom.
When it was time to say goodbye, she hugged Nott, shook hands with Rosier and nodded at the other two, before bidding farewell to Tom.
"Don't forget to write," Naenia said into their hug, "and take care of yourself."
In return Tom petted her head and smiled softly.
He kept his promise to tell her about his journey to and through Albania, but his letters came very infrequently and their contents were sometimes at odds with the excitement evident in his tone. Naenia's first thoughts wondered whether there was something he was omitting, but then why tell her about this journey in the first place? And he had never undertaken such a great journey before, so the excitement was entirely justified.
He returned briefly for the wedding of Rosier and Fawcett, but not that of Lucretia Black and Prewett. During Mulciber's wedding the Notts announced their son's betrothal to one of the Denbright girls and Naenia had to watch her friend force a smile through the whole ordeal – but that was the way of a pureblood's life and Nott had always known it would come to this. She was surprised the Black's still hadn't found a match for Perseus – or at least not made it public yet. More surprising, though, was the cancellation of the annual ball with no reasons given whatsoever.
There were several other weddings scheduled for July, though Naenia didn't attend them all. Among the purebloods summer was the wedding season, because many of them 'tied the knot' right after graduation. But August held other more important matters for her. She would finally get to visit Amelia, for one.
In late July the arrest of Morfin Gaunt made the papers and Naenia wondered what Tom would think about that once he got the news, but he was still in Albania at that point. Gaunt had apparently killed his muggle neighbours in a fit of madness, which was not surprising considering his history and that of his father. But that meant another tarnish on the Gaunts' reputation – the name Tom still planned to take one day.
And then, on the eighth of August, Naenia opened her door, intending to visit the cemetery, to find a special gift on their doorstep.