Splitting One's Soul

Wigtown, Scotland

The first job together was to be in Scotland, a place called Wigtown, home of the Quidditch team Wigtown Wanderers, as exciting as that was Quidditch had nothing to do with your presence. Tom had his eyes on a de-aging amulet and was convinced that a ball would be the perfect opportunity to get it.

"Very popular amongst older witches and wizards, they're willing to pay huge sums for those amulets, usually even outbidding each other," he had explained on your first briefing.

Now you stood in front of Borgin and Burkes with your bag slung over your shoulder, watching Tom through the dirty windows as he collected a few items from behind the counter, then he joined you outside.

"Are you ready?," he asked, holding out his arm to you.

You nodded and laid your hand on his forearm, immediately the world around you twisted in on itself and blurred, your stomach twisted too and you felt like you were suddenly dropping through the ground and being crushed by it. The feeling was gone as quickly as it came and you found yourself standing on a solid cobblestone road that was leading between a row of small stone houses.

With your hand still on his arm, you took in your surroundings, Tom watched you with furrowed brows and only when your eyes met did you let go of him and he headed off towards the houses, you followed him silently and looked around. A few children were chasing each other on a meadow, enjoying the afternoon sun. In front of the first house along the road was an elderly woman waving her wand to put up her laundry. Nobody paid you two strangers any mind as you passed the townspeople.

The silence that Tom was treating you with was unusual and made you uncomfortable, as you caught up with him, he had his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him, expression empty.

"I'm sorry about...," you started, looking up at him and gesturing back towards the spot you had arrived in.

"About what?" His eyes flicked over to you.

"I had to hold myself steady when we arrived," you lied. "I didn't mean to overstep."

"Don't mention it," he waved it away and then sunk back into silence.

So that had not been it. As you kept walking you were drawn into your thoughts, why he was acting so strange, he seemed fine before your departure so naturally you had assumed it must have been your lingering touch.

"Where exactly are we going?"

"The inn, obviously," he snapped at you.

Tom stopped in his tracks and grabbed your shoulder, bringing you to a halt. He took a deep breath.

"I should be the one apologizing, I was rude. I truly am sorry, I know this was my idea but I am so used to working alone that I spend these times thinking of my task ahead and not conversing with other people and any interruption tends to irritate me but that is not your fault," he explained.

You sighed, he had no right to snap at you but everyone has a bad day from time to time and you wouldn't let this ruin this job together, not this early in the game. And the way the words had suddenly come cascading out of him was just amusing.

"Alright, just tell me next time," you replied.

"It won't happen again," he said and continued walking, you had to hurry to keep up with his long strides.

Further down the road Tom stopped again in front of a big stone house held together by wooden beams, he knocked three times on the door and almost instantly it swung open, he let you in first before closing the door behind himself. The foyer was flooded with orange light from the afternoon sun falling through the windows, an old lady was standing behind a counter, she laid down her wand that she undoubtedly used to open the door and then greeted you with a warm smile.