A new years day post! Happy New Year, everybody!

"Everybody" is a stretch though...it's like CRICKETS in here!

Chapter Twenty
"Something Borrowed"

Before the three teenagers separated to freshen up—Vin and Sophie excused themselves to their bedrooms to sleep off the previous night. The morning had been amusing—and downright frustrating, given Edna's visit and the words exchanged—but they were utterly worn out.

As they left, they could be heard bickering about the brassiere incident, Vin scolding Sophie for humiliating their young guest and Sophie just giggling about it, saying, "Okay Edna"—which caused her to receive a zap of magic to her rear end as they went upstairs.

"Ouch!" Sophie said, rubbing her behind.

Buffy also quickly excused herself. Downstairs in her room, she picked through her clothing, trying to decide what to wear. After choosing something simple—a summery dress and a pair of sandals—she decided to bathe. As far as she was concerned, the boys could just wait!

In the lounge, sitting on opposite ends of the sofa, Tom and Edmund just waited.

"I bet Buffy takes an hour," Edmund predicted, glancing at the dark-haired boy.

Tom blinked. "An hour? That long?"

Edmund shrugged. "She's...a girl," he said, as if that explained his prediction.

Tom scoffed. "Buffy isn't much like the girls I know," he said.

Edmund laughed. "Maybe not, but girls and primping..." He shrugged again.

Tom smirked, despite himself—and the fact that he didn't want to like this other boy. He was a Muggle—which should speak for itself—and he was monopolizing too much of Buffy's time. But, other than the things he'd said the night before, Edmund Giles was quite nice.

"To be honest, I don't know many girls," Edmund admitted.

Tom frowned. "Aren't there girls at the school you attend?"

"No. Even before the war, I was educated by my parents and the Council," Edmund said. "When I was younger, I went to an all boys school."

Tom nodded understanding. It made sense that Edmund Giles parents would send him to a private school.

"What are the girls like at your school?" asked Edmund.

Tom snorted. "Nothing like Buffy," he said. "Mostly spoilt and rotten."

Edmund grinned. "You like her."

Tom frowned. He didn't want to acknowledge the statement. He didn't want to like Buffy—but he did. "Yes," he said quietly. "But..." Tom frowned. He knew he should not like this strange, out of time, girl. It couldn't work. I wouldn't work!

"But...what? She's nice. And funny. What's not to like," asked Edmund. "And the way she deals with my mother... no one behaves like that around mum." He chuckled. "And she's very... pretty!"

"Pretty!" Tom said at the same time—having to force himself not the smile at the other boy.

"Yes." Edmund sighed. "Look Tom, I am genuinely sorry about...everything I said to you and Buffy last night...and not just because she slapped me," Edmund said as he lifted his hand to touch his still sore cheek. "I shouldn't have said any of it. Or thought it was all right to give away your secrets...if they'd been secrets. It was wrong of me."

Tom nodded. "I appreciate that."

Edmund sighed again, then stood up. "I'm going to use the toilet," he said with a gesture in the general direction of the small bathroom on the floor they were on. "If you'd like to wash up, there's a larger bathroom on the ground floor," Edmund informed Tom. "Just beyond the dining room. Vin and Soph keep everything you might need in there."

Tom looked at the other boy and nodded. "I think I'd like that," he said, standing. He felt really self-conscious by the way he was dressed compared to Edmund Giles. "I left my bag downstairs."

Edmund nodded. "I didn't bring anything. I didn't expect to stay," he said, then started away.

Tom watched him go, then hurriedly left the room and went downstairs. As he went, he thought about the house. It was quite large for just two women—three, now that Buffy was living here—with a toilet on each floor. That was unheard of. He should have known the moment he arrived at the Fairweather house that they were not ordinary Muggles—or normal women, for that matter. There was clearly magic everywhere in the house, weaved into all parts of it. The walls practically hummed with a current that was not just electricity. How did he not feel it the moment he stepped inside?

In the ground floor lounge, Tom grabbed his small bag and went into the bathroom to wash up. Once in there though, he decided to shower. He'd heard that, unlike boarding schools, most houses only had bathtubs—which he'd have loved to experience—but this room did not. There was a shower head sticking out of the ceiling in the corner of the room and a drain in the floor—and no curtain. Again with the use of magic, he thought. Vin and Sophie had to have altered their home, he decided.

After turning on the water, Tom went through his bag and pulled out clean undergarments, then stripped down while he waited for the water to heat up. Looking around the bathroom, he thought about all that had happened in the last ten days. He could not have foreseen this! Or dreamt it. Not even in his wildest dreams.

~oOo~

Not even knowing what was showing, the trio set out. Edmund had mentioned that he'd like to stop by his house to change and Buffy and Tom, curious about where he lived, readily agreed to the stop.

"It's close," Edmund said. "I mean, we'll have to backtrack, but it's not that far."

Buffy shrugged. "Whatever."

Tom just followed along, taking in all the Muggle sites as they went—and doing his best to avoid all the Muggles. He'd been out and about in London numerous times, but never with other people and almost always at night. This was all a new experience for him—and not nearly as repulsive as he'd always imagined.

Edmund had been correct, the place he lived was quite near—just five turns from Vin and Sophie's house to their sister's home.

Standing on the street in front of a tall Edwardian style building, Buffy looked up and whistled. "Wow! It's like...a mansion."

Edmund chuckled. "It's really not. It's a big building, but we just have a three room flat. Auntie Vin and Sophie's house is much larger by comparison."

Tom stared up at the building in awe—though he'd never admit it—until he felt Buffy hand grab onto his sleeve and pull. When he looked at her, she bobbed her head in the direction Edmund had gone. The other boy was standing at the building entrance, holding the door for them.

Together, Tom and Buffy went up the front steps, Tom moving slightly quicker so that he could grab the door from Edmund, to hold it open for Buffy. Smiling at him, she stepped inside, thinking about how much more gentlemanly boys were in the 40s over the 90s.

Edmund started up the stairs. "Just one flight, our flat is on the first floor."

Buffy frowned. "First floor? Aren't we on the first floor?"

Both boys shook their heads.

"That's the ground floor," Edmund said, pointing down. "First floor is one up."

"You British are so odd. I mean, makes sense and yet...not!" Buffy said with a shake of her head.

On his floor of the building, Edmund made a couple turns, then stopped at his door and unlocked it—then held the door open for his guests.

"You can wait in the library if you wish," Edmund offered as he back down the hallway, gesturing at the first open door—and then the next, "Or the reception room."

"Well, I've heard of a library, so...there's good," Buffy quipped, glancing into the room. "Besides...a library in a Giles home...sounds exactly accurate." She chuckled. "Oh look. Books!"

Edmund grinned, then turned and walked off.

Tom followed Buffy into the room. She went immediately to the windows to look out—the building across from them looked the exactly the same. He gravitated toward the wall of books and began to examine them.

"These are...remarkable," he whispered as he ran his fingers over the shelves. "At Hogwarts, we have some ancient tomes, but these are...quite a bit older. Some of them...primordial."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Okay Giles!"

Tom looked at her. "When you say Giles like that, you mean your Watcher?"

Buffy had plopped down on the couch, but she nodded. "Yep. Giles is...my Watcher. And he's like...I don't know, old and stuffy, but...I miss him."

"And he's Edmund's son?"

Buffy shrugged. "That's what they tell me. It's all very confusing. But he's like...my friend and a father figure all in one."

"That is odd," Tom said, his eyes going back to the books.

Several minutes later, Edmund returned—all spiffed up.

Both Buffy and Tom looked up when he entered the room—and they both paled.

"Um. You look... nice," Buffy said. "Maybe a little too nice."

Edmund frowned. "What? Why?"

Buffy stared at him. "Um. Look at you and then look at us? Everyday 40s sundress here and...ordinary day clothes," she said with a gesture at Tom.

Edmund frowned. "When I go see a film with mum and dad, we dress like this," he said.

Buffy shook her head. "Yeah. No. Go change into something normal. Tom, go help him," she ordered.

Tom eyes flew open. "Me? Why me?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Because you're a boy. Help Edmund find something boy-like, not stuffy old Gilesy attire."

Edmund blushed. "That bad?"

"Gawd, I think maybe you had tweed diapers," Buffy remarked.

Tom moved toward the door and disappeared with Edmund. He followed the other boy down the hallway and into his bedroom. It was light in color and relatively plain. Not really what he was expecting—though, he didn't know what he'd been expecting.

"So. What do you suggest," Edmund asked as he opened the door to his wardrobe?

Inching into the room, Tom glanced inside and frowned. "Do you own anything less...well, just less?"

Edmund chuckled. "Not really. I have an idea. How about, instead of dressing me down, let's dress you up!"

Tom blinked. "Er. I'd rather not. No."

Edmund laughed. "We're about the same size," he said as he started shuffling through his clothing and pulling things out.

Staring, Tom just watched as the other boy started tossing clothing on his bed.

"Take off your shirt," he said, holding up two other shirts. "Which one do you prefer?"

Tom shook his head. "Neither."

Edmund hung one of them back up and shook the other. "This one. It'll look better with your coloring."

"They look exactly the same," Tom protested. "And, I'm not a girl!"

Edmund looked at Tom Riddle, then gestured at his wardrobe. "I'm going to go check on Buffy, you...choose something." And with that he left the room.

"Edmund. No!" he hissed—but the Watcher's son was already gone. Tom glanced at the other boy's clothing and frowned. He'd seen girls talking about this—the sharing of clothing—but never quite understood why. The idea of it was downright repulsive! It felt a little too much like the shuffling of clothing at Wools. Hardly having anything that belonged solely to him had made him a bit possessive of the things he did have—like his Hogwarts clothing—and severely reluctant to put on something that belonged to another.

But here he was, stripping down to put on something that was someone else's.

~oOo~

"You look... so not different than before," Buffy complained when she turned and looked at Edmund Giles. "In fact, you look exactly the same."

Edmund chuckled. "You're correct, I didn't change. But Tom...if he puts on the clothing I left him with... will look different."

Buffy snorted. "Okay, but...what about me. I still look like plain old 90s me, but in this ugly old outfit," she all but whined.

"I'd wager that Buffy Summers could not look plain in any outfit or any time," Edmund countered.

"Too casual then," she said.

Edmund grinned—then pulled out a hat. "This is mothers. Well, it was hers when she was younger and more fun."

Buffy glared at the hat. "Um. I cannot imagine your mom ever being fun."

Edmund laughed. "Dad says she was," he said as he reached out and put the hat on Buffy's head. "It matches your shoes."

Buffy looked down at her pale blue shoes, then reached up and touched the hat on her head. "I love hats on women in this time. In magazines, of course," she said, turning to look at herself in the wall mirror. "But this thing's going to give me hat hair."

Edmund chuckled as he fiddled with her hat veil.

Buffy grimaced and pushed the veil away, then took off the hat and glared at it. "The netting stuff needs to go," she insisted.

Edmund nodded, grabbed the netting and yanked it off, then held it out to her.

With a grin, Buffy took the hat back and put it on again. "Won't mother be upset about your alteration?" And that I'm borrowing it? she added silently.

"Mother doesn't wear hats anymore," he said. "She considers them frivolous."

Buffy snorted. "I like it more now," she said as she studied herself in the mirror.

"Wear it at a jaunty angle," Edmund suggested, making a gesture that she should tilt it. "That's how the women seem to be wearing them."

Buffy nodded and made an adjustment. "Like this?"

Edmund moved back a step and examined her, then nodded. "Lovely."

Buffy frowned. "I don't know. It's not really me."

"It looks nice with the dress and shoes," he said.

"Tom!" Buffy gasped, seeing him in the doorway. He was standing there watching them—and looking awkward.

Edmund turned and grinned.

"I..." Tom shook his head. "This is..."

"Brilliant!" Edmund burst. "I knew we were nearly the same size."

Buffy went to Tom and took the jacket he was holding and handed it to Edmund, then started adjusting his button up shirt.

Tom frowned at this and tried to push her hands away. "I know how to dress myself, Buffy," he hissed.

Buffy just smiled at him—and, with a light slap at his hands, exerted her strength of will and continued. "Stop it!" she hissed back.

Tom's dark eyes widened at her response, then went to the other boy to see his reaction—but there was none. Either Tom was imagining things or...well, he didn't know. There was no way he'd imagined what he'd heard come out of the girl's mouth. Edmund, on the other hand, clearly just heard the sound of objection.

"Best let Buffy do anything she wants," Edmund instructed.

"Yes. What Giles said. Always listen to Buffy," the blond restated with a grin as she finished straightening Tom's shirt, then tugging on his sleeves.

Edmund snorted. "That's not exactly what I said."

Buffy shrugged. "Same difference," she said. "You look very handsome. Do you guys use that word here?"

"I look...ridiculous," Tom said after a moment, ignoring her question.

Both Buffy and Edmund shook their heads.

"You don't," Buffy said. "It...suits you."

He pulled at his collar awkwardly. "I look like... him," he said with a nod at Edmund.

Edmund laughed. "I'm making every effort not take that the wrong way."

"Just ignore Tom. He's a wizard and totally out of his element here," Buffy said to Edmund.

"Buffy!" Tom growled.

She looked at Tom. "What?! You're uncomfortable. I'm uncomfortable. And the Muggle is amused by it." She shrugged. "Let's just...hit the streets before we find anything else to discuss."

This caused Tom to laugh—truly laugh.

"All right. Yes. We definitely ought to leave before I change my mind," said the dark-haired boy.

Edmund smiled. "Excellent."