• Romeo, Juliet & Cinderella • | Tomrry

Act. XX. Looking for something

Harriet enters Slytherin despite the risk it may mean. It is daylight, there are students coming and going. Harriet passes carefully so as not to be noticed by anyone. The only advantage of being short is that she can wear the invisibility cloak without having to crouch or slouch.

Harriet stops mid-stride, dropping her jaw slightly. Drakonys practically on top of Tom. There are details like Tom's book being almost on the ground and him, too meek despite having Drakonys on top of him. Tom reacts soon after, barely getting her off him with a simple, even calm gesture.

Tom pushes his hair back with one hand and closing the book, walks towards his room. Harriet saw Drakonys whisper something to Tom, but because of the distance she couldn't decipher what it was.

. . .

Tom could hardly sleep. The idea of staying with the Blacks no longer fascinates him, what prevents her from stopping that, is that she has no other choice. He is not going to go to the orphanage, that is more than ruled out. On the other hand, he keeps thinking that he needs this time away from Harriet. To make his brain understand that he can't have such intense feelings and desires.

It dawned on Tom that if it bothers him so much that Harriet acts in love with someone else, it's not just because of the obvious feeling of being replaced, but because he has something too intense for her.

It could be love.

The romantic one and the one they talk about in novels, in perfect fairy tales.

Love distracts, consumes time, consumes the person.

Tom doesn't want to be consumed.

He wants to consume Harriet, to have her completely, but not to let her disappear.

Let her disappear from everything else but him.

To be the only center of attention, the only important thing.

To be there...

And not let her abandon him.

Since when did his abandonment as a child matter to him? It doesn't matter! All those emotions didn't matter and now they don't, it irritates Tom almost as much as the jealousy itself. The thousands of twists and turns Tom has to make have him sleepless. As if all his impulses are directed at the same thoughts that satisfy him in his most twisted way.

The idea that after school, beyond all this, Harriet belongs to no one else, doesn't go out to anything else, is alone and only for him being as pretty and bright as she is... It turns out to be the first and most beautiful fantasy he has ever had in his life.

Tom hates it.

His fantasies should be about power, domination, supremacy. There is so much that should be, but isn't. It's Harriet's fault. It's only her fault.

Tom senses a different and unfamiliar touch. At first it brings him bewilderment. Tom is half asleep, does not think well and does not coordinate well either. The most unpleasant contact is between magics. It is smooth, like caressing silk, but it is unpleasant in some way. As if it gives him an allergy.

Tom wakes up enough to realize it's Drakonys. The blonde sways slightly in herself, uncomfortable, but Tom is not aware of it. She says; "you are invited to go to Malfoy Manor during this vacation. Any time you want. " she announces suspiciously shyly.

Tom says nothing about it, going to his room. His head is throbbing and he wants to spear it through. Maybe then the thoughts about Harriet and the emotions it produces will go away too. They will come out through the hole left by the weapon. He startles at the sound the door makes. Harriet removes her invisibility cloak.