Running Through Hogwarts (Harry Potter X The Maze Runner)

Thirty-Six

Thomas ran a hand down his face as he left the room. "I'm  exhausted!", Ron complained,
dragging his feel on the floor. "Can this day just be over already?".
"I'm with you there, Ron", Thomas agreed.

Thomas had managed to avoid Lora for the past few days. But now now it was inevitable. He lagged behind a little.

Thomas sat in the third back row, up top, Minho insisted on swapping places with him for the day, sitting next to his friend. And it was then that Lora - Professor Martinez - Cunningham - walked in.

"Class!", she called out happily. She stood at the top of the room, doing the whole new teacher introduction speech. Thomas cracked his neck.

Continuing the class, Lora did not make eye contact with Thomas even once, not that he would know, the way kept his head down for basically the whole lesson.

When the tell did eventually ring, the boys packing up their stuff, Minho turned to his friend. "I'll go and find Newt. We'll wait for you in the library, how's that?".

Thomas nodded, swallowing. He wasn't sure that this was such a good idea now.

"You've got this, Thomas. You'll be okay" , Minho sensed that Thomas was having doubts.

Thomas pushed all of this second thoughts away. "Yeah. Yeard, alright, see you".

Thomas slowly walked up the aisle, to where Lora was packing up. "Professor?".

Lora looked up, almost surprised. "I thought that it would be best if I gave you some space", she said, standing up straight.
"Yeah...I appreciate that". Thomas was determined to go through this like an adult. No raising his voice, no snarky comebacks, no interrupting.

And certainly no crying.

Lora nodded as the last student left the room. She motioned for Thomas to sit clown, and he did, awkwardly.

"I suppose I'll speak", she said. "Though I've told you pretty much everything already".

Thomas shook his head. "I'd just like to ask you a few things. Things I've been thinking about since before I met you".

Thomas head made a metal list in his head, tallying up questions he wished that he could ask his family.
He didn't think that the ever would be able to have the chance, yet, here he was.

"Okay", Lora agreed. She was being really calm comforted Thomas.

"Okay. Okay...", the boy didn't even know where to begin. "Did I ever have any siblings? Or was it just me?".

Lora shook her head. "Just you".

Thomas didn't know why he felt disappointed with that answer. "When's my birthday?".

"You don't remember your birthday?". "No."
Lora sighed. "The 28th of November"(I researched this. We don't know when his actual birthday was, but the day that his name was changed read 11/28- the way for writing Amerucan dates reads the month first. I saw this in The Fever Code. So I took that).

Wow. It was December 04th right now. He'd have to wait till next year. (I'm making the date up).

Thomas continued bouncing questions off of his mother. He wouldn't go as far as to say that he was surprised with the answers, but it also felt good to know the responses. But he was surprised, however, to find that he struggled to keep his voice steady.

And my father?", he asked, a crack threatening to form in his voice. "Tell me about him".

Lora smiled sadly. "Your father was probably one of the best people that I knew", she replied fondly. "He played Quiddech in his forth years, continued it all the way up when we graduated, we moved we together, and when you were born. He was the best father. You followed him around everywhere".

The newly- made Hogwarts professor shifted the hair out of her face, looking more closely at the boy.

"He loved you more than he loved me, I'd say, but when he caught the Flare, everything went downhill.
I tried to stay. I really did . But
he went crazy. I couldn't let him hurt you, even though I knew that that was the last thing he would ever want to do to you".

She leaved forwared "He loved you so much, Stephen".

Thomas looked away "Please", he said. "Please don't call me that. I need to hold onto that one memory".

Lora swallowed. But what else was she going to do? She had to call him Thomas whether she liked it or not.

And then Thomas continued with all of his questions.

I would just like to apologise. I basically forgot about this story for a while and it's been busy with school and whatnot. So sorry this chapter literally sucks. I've still got like half a notebook filled with the rest of this story, so I'll try and do that. Merry early Christmas!