ethereal | tom riddle.

counts

Abraxas and Eliza occupied a secluded table in the back of the library. He had spent two hours showing her books and diagrams while explaining how it works. He taught her everything from the actual practical part of it to the biological aspect.

Even though he didn't show it, he was really surprised by how little she actually knew. He pitied the girl, wondering why she was never taught even the most basic of things.

By the end of it, she was overwhelmed with how much she had just learned, unable to process how little she had known earlier. Abraxas put all the books he took out back in their place.

When he returned to the table, he found Eliza sitting still in her place without having moved. "Abraxas, why did I not know about any of this? Did I miss a lecture of sorts? How do you know all this?"

Abraxas kneeled in front of her, almost reaching her face level as she sat on the chair. "It's not your fault, Lizzy. Don't panic like this. Boys tend to know more about these things.You just have all your closest friends as us, so these types of things don't come up in conversation when you're there." He realised how he sounded so he tried making it sound less like they excluded her, so he quickly tried added. "We all love you, but it just doesn't come up that often and when it does it's usually in our dorms at night, or in the common room. And you're usually with Tom, and they avoid talking about these things when he's there."

"How many girls has Tom been with?" She asked, ignoring most of what he said.

"Well- I can't just tell you that. He can tell you himself if he wants but you should know not to compare yourself to them. He will definitely not compare you with anyone, ever. It's very obvious how much more he cares for you than for anyone else. I really doubt he would ever do something that you weren't comfortable with."

"What could he do that I wouldn't be comfortable with?" She frowned at him, curious again.

"Let's have that conversation another day, love." He grimaced.

"How many girls have you been with?" She asked, his pale face turning a tinge of pink as he ran a hand through his pale blonde hair.

"I'm not telling you that either."

"What? Why? That's not fair."

"It is plenty fair. Now come on. Let's go before Tom burns the school down because he couldn't find you."

"He wouldn't do that. Don't be so dramatic."

"He always knows where you are. He would lose his head if he didn't." Abraxas lightly hit the back of her head as she walked, laughing at her.

She chased him all the way down to the Slytherin common room, both entirely out of breath by the time they reached, stumbling into the common room.

Rosier, Theo, Orion, Zabini and Tom all sat in their usual corner of the common room, their feet propped up on the coffee table or the arms of the couch or chair.

Eliza sat down beside Tom, as usual- a space saved for her right next to him. Abraxas sat on his favourite armchair, having to force Rosier to sit somewhere else.

"How many girls have you all been with?" Eliza asked abruptly, making everyone's conversations stopped.

"What?" Orion asked, making sure he heard he right.

"How many girl have you all been with?" She repeated, slower.

"Okay well, Rosier has been with 6, me with 8, Orion with 7, Zabini at 6-," Theo was cut off by Zabini correcting him.

"7 now." He said, smirking.

"Who?" Rosier asked, tilting his head back to look at Zabini.

"Dewer." He said, a hum of approval rising from Theo.

"Nice." Theo grinned, before carrying on. "So that's Zabini at 7, and at the top of the leaderboard, Abraxas at-," Abraxas kicked Theodore in the shin, making him yelp. "Ouch! What was that for, you utter twat?!" Theodore reached over to smack Abraxas on his head, leaning against his armchair but toppling over and falling to the floor with a thud. Everyone burst out in laughter as Theodore sat on the floor rubbing his head. "I swear to Salazar, Malfoy. You better have had a good reason to do that."

"Abraxas refuses to tell me how many girls he's been with. It's not fair. You all seem to know all about each other." Eliza glared at them as they smiled at her, avoiding laughing.

"11." Tom whispered in Eliza's ear. "He's been with 11." He pulled back, doing that thing where he tucked strands of her hair behind her ear as everyone stared at them.

Everyone's mouths dropped open and conversation stopped completely. They exchanged looks with each other, and then they looked at Abraxas that just nodded to confirm their sudden realisations.

Theodore stood up, gasping as he pointed a finger between Eliza and Tom. He shrieked again, looking around their group to see if everyone was freaking out too. They were, just less dramatically.

"Calm down, Nott. They're not in love or anything. You still have a chance." Rosier snickered, shutting up upon receiving a glare from Tom.

"Tom, how many have you been with? Abraxas refuses to tell me." She looked at him as she waited for a response as she ignored Theodore freaking out.

"I'm not telling you that." He said, unbothered by her pouting.

"None of us know, now that I think about it. Only Brax, probably." Rosier shrugged. He really should watch his mouth or he wasn't going to live for long.

"And you never will." Tom said as Eliza lay down on his lap. She played with her ring as the rest of them spoke about whatever boys spoke about. She wasn't bothered anymore with that. She just wanted to know how many girls Tom had been with.

It was normal for no one to know things about Tom. Abraxas and Eliza knew different things about him, but no one really knew the whole picture. Eliza probably had most of it though.

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