It was a Thursday afternoon and Tom had one leg tucked under himself as he perched in his usual spot in the library at the back corner table. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the Slytherins had Potions with the Gryffindors in the afternoon and then a free period after that while the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had their Potions class, so Tom tended to end up in the library with any combination of Sable, Delaney, Chadwick or Lupin, depending on who needed help with what or if they had plans.
He had his most recent letter from Jack open and was skimming it again as he wrote his reply- at first he'd tried to be discreet and keep his correspondence secret from the group, but Sable asked once about it and he easily explained that it was to his uncle, or a friend in London, and no one bothered him about it again. Delaney had her Astronomy homework spread out, trying to finish it before they had class later that evening, and Chadwick was going over all of their History homework while Lupin pretended to read a book, though Tom was fairly certain he'd fallen asleep within five minutes of opening it. It was quiet and there were few words exchanged, but it was a kind of easy and companionable silence with no strained words between them.
Someone tapped his arm and Tom looked over to Delaney, who was to his left and followed her gaze. Sable had a hold of Avery's sleeve and was practically dragging him past the shelves and towards their table with Mulciber tagging along, looking just a bit smug. Chadwick elbowed Lyall, forcing him awake as they approached.
Sable dropped her grip on Avery's arm once they were at the table and stared at him for a moment before clearing her throat and loudly pronouncing, "Miles has something he'd like to say to Chadwick."
Delaney picked up her book and seemed to be hiding behind it like she hoped none of the Slytherins there would notice her and Tom pressed his lips together in a desperate attempt to not make a face. He managed to slide the letter from Jack and his reply underneath his History textbook and he hoped it wasn't smudging the ink all over it.
"Go on then, Miles," Chadwick said, dropping his quill and folding his arms behind his head and leaning back in the library chair, tilting it back on its hind legs.
Avery's face pinched slightly and he clearly gritted his teeth before he took a deep breath. "I apologize for calling you a mudblood. You're from the minor but notable pureblood family of Chadwick and I should not have insulted you so in front of our peers."
Tom didn't know whose eyebrows went higher- his or Chadwick's. Tom couldn't say he'd ever heard such a formal apology and wondered if it was an Avery thing, a pureblood thing, or a high-society thing. He'd have to ask Chadwick at some point.
"There, can you lot please help me with my defense homework now?" Avery asked, looking a bit flustered.
Tom turned and looked at Chadwick, gesturing that it was up to him, since he was the wounded party and Chadwick gave a sharp jerk of a nod and grabbed one of Tom's stacks of notes and tossed it quickly at Avery, making him have to jolt to catch it, some of the pages drifting to the floor. "If you look over my Charms assignment I'll look over your essay for History."
Sable seemed to take this as the end of the bickering between the two boys and took a seat beside Delaney, who was still half-hidden behind her astronomy book. Avery quickly placed his bag on the floor beside her and hurried to gather the fallen pages before taking a seat and skimming over Tom's notes.
"Is studying usually this hilarious?" Mulciber asked, smirking slightly as he looked between them.
"Only when one of the boys decides they want to be a particular brand of prick, then yes," Sable said- earning a snort from Lupin and a wide-eyed side glance from Delaney. "Did you need something Mulicber, or are you just enjoying the show?"
Mulciber gave another one of those casual smiles that all the girls in their year seemed to like for some reason and then shook his head. "Nope, just making sure Avery doesn't flunk out of school…" Even as he said it, he grabbed the chair on the other side of Avery and took a seat, setting his bag on the ground next to Avery's
"So then you can leave," Sable said, giving Mulciber a pointed look.
Tom felt his eyebrows begin to rise again- He hadn't realized there was an issue between Sable and the other Slytherin, and while Sable was fairly opinionated about most things, she rarely gave the cut directly to their housemates.
"You're not still sore about this summer, are you?" Mulciber asked, sounding put off. He folded his arms and leaned forward on the table. "You know it's only going to get worse from here, right?"
"Yes, but that doesn't mean she has to like it," Delaney said, surprising Tom and everyone else at the table given she was still half-hidden behind her Astronomy textbook.
"Will you explain what you're both going on about or are you going to continue talking in code?" Chadwick said, turning over Delaney's essay, now covered in corrections and notes and slid it back to her.
"Jennings is mad because my family inquired about a betrothal this summer," Mulciber finally said, when it was clear Sable wasn't going to explain. "And therefore we had to spend half the summer having polite conversations while our fathers tried to hash out the details."
Tom let his eyes go back to his text, not really reading as the gears turned- he'd heard the purebloods talk about arranged marriages before, but had never really witnessed any sign of it first hand or had it discussed to him directly. He tended to hear more about it from the Slytherin house, where much was measured by what could be gained through marriage, but had also heard Tammy complain before about it.
"It doesn't even matter because my father decided we would not suit," Sable said testily, pulling the ribbon out of her hair and threatening her fingers through it.
"You mean you decided we would not suit," Mulciber corrected, "My father was quite peeved that your father dropped everything after a month simply because you didn't think we were a good match."
"If," Sable said, sounding like she wanted to strangle Mulciber, "And when I get married, it will be to someone I choose. And thankfully, my family actually cares about me and not just what they can use me for." There was a silence and Tom hazarded a glance at Sable- She was opening glaring at Mulciber, while playing with the tips of her hair- something Tom had noticed she did when she was particularly stressed and Delaney reached out a hand, squeezing it around Sable's.
"Are you wanting a love match or something?" Everyone whipped their heads around to stare at Lyall. Tom honestly thought the boy had fallen back asleep on his textbook, but he appeared to have been quietly watching the exchange.
Sable seemed to bristle at the question and then took a deep breath and appeared to pull the same cool exterior that most of the Slytherins adapted back on, withdrawing her hand from Delaney's and straightening up in her seat. "Not necessarily- I know my family will expect me to marry someone roughly in our social standing, and while I should hope whoever I marry I end up loving, I do not think I will swoon and fall in love with them immediately, but I should at least like them and not have to listen to their parents talk about me like I'm some sort of china doll." At this she gave one last glare in Mulciber's direction and then turned in her chair towards Delaney, clearly dismissing the conversation.
"Why on earth are we talking about marriage," Chadwick said, cutting into the tension. "We're twelve. We have five more years until we're of age- I don't know about any of you but I'm more worried about my midterms than who I might marry."
"You wouldn't understand," Avery replied grumpily, but then put a hand up dismissively when Lyall and Chadwick both whipped their heads over to stare at him, looking like they might argue, "Not- not trying to insult or insinuate, just- the more assets and resources a family has, the more it has to lose if a marriage is a poor match. Some of us were betrothed, without our permission," He said, practically growling in Sable's direction, "before we were old enough to crawl."
"You're engaged?" Chadwick said, looking a mixture of horrified and fascinated. Tom wondered if the same emotions were playing across his features or if he was able to keep up the mask of cool indifference.
"Who's engaged" Tammy said, slamming her bag onto the table, startling Chadwick enough he fell backwards off his chair, which he'd still been tipping back in nonchalantly. It almost knocked Lyall out of his chair in the process, and Tammy, who had appeared on the other side of the table beside Muliciber, ignored the two Gryffindors.
"Someone's engaged? Mia asked, appearing on Tammy's other side, looking around the table and then giving a slight frown in Avery's direction. Tom could see the Bates twins from Ravenclaw right behind her and the area was beginning to reach full capacity. It wouldn't be long before Madame McDermott found them and either kicked them out or made this disperse to other tables.
"So I'm going to assume studying truly is hilarious then," Mulciber said, giving a pointed look to Chadwick, who was pulling himself back to his feet. "I can't remember having this much fun in weeks."
"Will you sod off," Sable snapped, turning away from Delaney to glare at the other boy again.
"WHO IS ENGAGED?" Tammy demanded again, more loudly this time, causing all of them to shush her harshly.
"Avery is," Chadwick said, much more quietly, the rest of the group also realizing the same thing as Tom and collectively lowering their voices.
Tammy pulled out the chair in front of her and plopped down next to Mulciber, looking across him at Avery, "Go on then, who's the lucky lady?" She asked quietly in a fake whisper.
Carter Bates was dragging two more chairs over for him and his sister while Mia took the last seat next to Tammy. With the twins the table was officially crowded and Tom wondered if he should just pack everything up because at this point there would be no studying anything else before dinner.
"Emilie Selwyn," Avery replied quietly, glaring at the newcomers. "She goes to Beauxbatons."
"Likely story," Tammy said, in a clearly teasing manner, but Avery didn't take it as such, immediately looking riled up by the comment.
Mulciber cut in however before the boy could make a further ass of himself, "I've met her at parties. Miles' family makes him escort her in like a gentleman and everything."
"I've met her," Delaney said quietly from beside Tom before clearing her throat softly and adding, "She's quite nice."
"If you like that sort of thing," Avery said with a scoff.
"What, being nice?" Mia asked with confusion.
Avery rolled his eyes hard enough Tom half expected them to not roll back into place. "No- She's…" he trailed off and made a face.
"She's what?" Marla asked, finally settling into her chair, her brother beside her, the pair squeezed in between Mia and Chadwick.
"..She's a lot." Avery finally said and Tom had absolutely no clue what that was supposed to mean, but Mulciber and Delaney were nodding their heads in agreement.
"What does that even mean?" Tammy hissed with confusion.
Avery made a face and Tom noticed a blush creeping up his neck. Mulciber gave him reprieve again, "You'd understand if you met her- She's well versed in the arts and philosophy and speaks five or six languages and when you're talking to her you feel as if you aren't even meeting the bare minimum of acceptable for a human being, let alone a proper wizard."
"I've never gotten that feeling," Delaney said with a frown, tilting her head to the side.
"Yes, but you're a girl- maybe she just acts differently with boys." Mulciber said, shrugging his shoulders. "You're not wrong, she's nice, she's always nice and polite, but when she tries to talk to you and you don't understand a word she's saying she looks like she's encountered a small child or dog that she's having to speak slowly to."
"Have you ever bothered to read up on whatever arts she's interested in, or any philosophy," Tom asked, surprising even himself with the question. Everyone turned to look at Avery for his answer.
There was a pause and Avery frowned, "But I don't like philosophy and I don't understand the big deal about art…"
There was an immediate groan around the table and all of the girls seemed to move in unison to pinch the bridge of their noses or cover their eyes.
"What?" Avery hissed, looking between all of them, still attempting to keep his voice down, "What did I say?"
"You're complaining that she acts like you don't know about the things she likes because you don't know about the things she likes and then have the audacity to not even try to learn about the things she likes." Mia hissed from her spot, and Tom didn't know if she looked more annoyed or amused. Maybe a bit of both, since she rarely dropped her little nuggets of intellect when more people were around. Tom usually only heard her insightful comments when it was just him, her and Tammy.
"Well she has you there," Mulciber said, raising his eyebrows at Avery.
"You're not any better either," Mia said sharply. "You basically said the same thing."
"Yes, but I'm not betrothed to her, now am I?" Mulciber said with a shrug.
"Boys," Sable said quietly, "You'll all be the death of me in the end."
"I should hope not," Tom said quietly, earning a sly smirk from the girl.
Sable turned and reached over across Delaney and took Tom's hand in her own, not giving Tom enough time to pull his hand away before she began. "Tom, light of my life, you're the only sane member of the male persuasion at this time- never change."
Tom felt the corners of his lips tilt up slightly and he nodded his head and Sable patted his hand, giving him a faux serious look and then pulled away. "What about you?" Sable asked, looking at the other three girls who were squished together on the other side of the table. "Have any of your parents talked to you yet? Tammy is the Heir of Hufflepuff and of the Baggley name, and the Ansel family is also well off…" She paused and looked at Marla, "Though I don't know the name Bates, sorry to say."
Marla looked happy enough to be excluded from this conversation and Mia turned bright pink.
Tammy shook her head. "No- my dad must have gotten something in the mail at some point because I heard him talking to mum at the beginning of the summer about not even thinking about it until I'm fourteen, so I have a reprieve for a couple years, but my parents married for love so I don't think they'll ask me to do anything I wouldn't want to. I'm sure they hope I find someone well off, obviously, but… I don't know, I don't even want to think about having to do all those things witches are expected to do- marriage, no job, boring hobbies, raising babies. Sounds… tedious."
There was a silence at the table that Tom couldn't quite place- Mulciber looked lost in thought and Sable and Delaney were sharing knowing nods in Tammy's direction, though Mia was biting at her nails as if distressed.
Tom realized in that moment Lyall had fallen back asleep beside him.
"Well," Mulciber said, standing up slowly and grabbing his bag off the floor, shuffling out from where he was wedged between Avery and Tammy. "My work is all done and this went from fun to depressing, so I'll take my leave. Try to not have too much fun without me, and Riddle, do me a favor and make sure Miles doesn't fail- or else his father will send us a howler in the middle of the night."
The other second year tossed his bag over his shoulder and gave a lazy wave over his shoulder as he wandered off and Tom could see pink coming up Avery's neck again.
The group did finally get some studying done, but then had to head to dinner before turning in to get a little bit of sleep before their midnight Astronomy Class. Once Tom was sure the rest of the boys were asleep, he pulled back out the letter he'd been writing to Jack to try and finish it.
Today we found out that boy who's in my dorm (Avery) is betrothed to another girl. He finally apologized to Chadwick so he could get some more help with his homework. And it made me think about my own family. Mrs. Cole said my mother named me after my father and grandfather. Riddle can't be that common of a name, can it? I've never heard it before, certainly not like Johnson or Smith. Do you think it would be possible to find a Tom Riddle in the census or in the paper? I don't know if my parents were married or not, but if they were, then there would be a wedding announcement, right? Unless they were too poor.
Or perhaps an obituary? I can try to get to the library here, but it wouldn't be nearly as large as London's. I suppose I'll have to try when I come back in the Summer.
Glad to hear you're still safe,
Tom