The Not so Dark Hours (Tomarry)

CHAPTER 17

After we've explained the whole courting slash dating business to everyone it's gotten pretty quiet. Sirius went off to sort his thoughts, Remus just said he trusts me and went to follow Sirius and the twins just grinned and said something or other about "getting down and dirty with the dark lord".

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Now Tom and I are standing in his duelling room, waiting for the others. We gave them space for about three hours, but now we want to do some training since we are going to be planning against one of the most powerful wizards in the wizarding history in his own school.

As soon as everyone has gathered Tom begins.

"Alright, so who thinks themselves to be a proficient dueller?" He asks the other, not even looking at me.

I guess he doesn't know about me being trained by Salazar and Harriet. Speaking of my serpentine familiar, where is she? I haven't seen her in a while.

Either way, I'll just pretend that I can't duel and he'll have to get hands on to teach me the stances because I will be making mistakes. Oh yes, it'll be fantastic-

"Alright, the most inexperienced first so we can see where you stand. Fred and Harry, you're first." Tom states and all my fantasies are destroyed. I guess I'll win against Fred since I don't want Tom to think I'm completely useless. I'll pretend to put in an effort, a bit of heaving here and there etc.

Fred and I are standing face to face and he grins at me.

"Ready Harry-kins?" He taunts and I smirk at him.

"I was born ready, Forge."

Suddenly he sends a bat-bogey hex my way and I dodge it sloppily. On purpose of course.

"What the hell, what about formalities?" I say and look at Tom who just smirks at me and shrugs.

Oh I will show them!

I take a loose duelling stance and evade Fred's next few attacks with ease.

I shoot an impedimenta at him successfully, which prevents him from getting close to me. I generally do a bit worse at close combat duels. Then I use a fumos to create a smokescreen in front of myself. I have yet to come up with a plan, so right now my plan is to stall.

"Are you hiding from me, brother dear?" Fred taunts and I roll my eyes. Trust him to manage to get in a whole conversation during a duel.

I decide to end it quickly, since I want to see Tommy duel.

I apparate behind Fred and stun him, ending the duel. I turn to face the others, upon seeing their shocked faces I scratch the back of my neck.

"What? I had a murderous lunatic after me for my whole life, I ought to have learnt some form of self defence." I shrug and go to Tom. I lay my hands on his shoulders as he wraps his arm around my waist.

"You did well... For a beginner." He says and lets me go to test the others and I stand there, frozen. Was my performance that bad? He wouldn't want to date someone that weak, would he. I bet he'll have had enough of me within a week, this is just the beginning of the end.

I'm useless.

I quickly leave the duelling room and flee into the gardens where I find Harriet, laying on a large rock. She's bathing in sunlight when I take her into my arms and roll up on the floor.

"What's wrong master?" Harriet hisses and I bite my lip. I tell her everything and she hisses aggressively. "That stupid man!"

Suddenly she slithers away towards the manor. I'm too tired to follow and just close my eyes. Maybe I'll wake up at Hogwarts and realize, that all this was just a dream.

Yeah, that would be for the best.

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"Harry." I wake up, not to fiery red curtains and Ron hitting my face with a pillow, but to Tom scowling down at my from where he is sitting beside me.

I flinch and try scrambling up to flee again, but pulls me towards him. I stumble and fall face-first into his crotch. My face burns from embarrassment and I dare not look back up at him, but he grips my chin. He makes me look up at him and I see his suppressed smirk. Then he becomes serious again and so do I.

"Do you not trust me?" He suddenly asks and my eyes widen.

"No! What makes you say that?" I ask in return. Has he lost his senses? He scowls even more then and I bite my lip.

"Then why were you holding back so much during the duel? Did you not want me to see your secret little tricks, were you afraid to hurt the red-head? What is it?!" He almost hisses.

I start laughing. I laugh and laugh as he continues scowling. At the end of it tears are flowing down my face and I'm gripping my stomach.

"I'm sorry, but what? No, that's not it! I just wanted to leave the best for last and yes, I did not want to hurt Forge." I say easily and he visibly relaxes. He lays me down so that I am laying on my back with my head in his lap. He runs his hand through my hair and I suppress a groan at how good it feels to get a head massage.

"Then I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions. I didn't mean to make you scared or insecure, but I need you to show me what you can do so we can make an according training plan. So tomorrow only the both of us will do a practice duel, alright?" He asks and I just hum in agreement. "There is something you're not telling me? You didn't only want to leave the best for last, did you? Otherwise you wouldn't have ended the duel so quickly." I blush and turn my face into his stomach.

I will NOT tell him about my plans to seduce him. Just then he chuckles and brushes a strand of my hair behind my ear.

Then he bends down so his mouth is next to my ear and whispers:

"You are aware that I am a master legilimens, right? Your thoughts just now were very loud." I shudder and hide even further into his stomach.

"Whatever you think you heard is wrong!" I bite back, voice muffled.

"Oh? So you don't want me to grip your hips to correct your duelling stance, or give you a punishment when you do something wrong?" He breaths and I hold my breath.

"The second thought never even came to my mind!" I argue, voice pitched higher than usual. Then I realize my mistake.

"So the first one did then? Good to know."

I shudder at the almost-promise and relax to his ministrations at combing his fingers through my hair.

Tomorrow's duelling lesson will be interesting for sure.

A/N Hullo guysssss.... Sorry for being mia for so long, it's just been bloody busy these past few weeks. I had already written most of the chapter more than a week ago, but things happened and... Well, I've updated now, so. I hope you enjoyed and if you did please comment and vote xD As always stay happy and healthy!