𝙎𝙊𝙐𝙇 𝘽𝙊𝙉𝘿 || 𝙏.𝙈.𝙍

Chapter 12

Yo, it's me, Rowena! I know I've been MIA for a while, but I finally got the motivation to pick up this book again. I hope you like this chapter!

-Time skip to fourth year-

Grace sighed as she stood on the platform with her friends. Here she was, yet again, about to head to Hogwarts for another year of being bothered by Dumbledore and his goons. She really wished she could just stay back and research different magical subjects that seem to have been lost to time with Tom, but after all, she had to go back to school in order to make sure Dumbledore was not suspicious. So far, Regulus and Tom were the only ones who knew the truth about her past. For some reason, she felt as if she could trust Tom no matter what. She had decided to tell him the truth during the winter vacations of her third year.

She wanted to tell her friends and her family, but she felt that it was a bit weird for her to just go, "Oh yeah, by the way, I was raised by the founders of Hogwarts and Hecate," so for now, she decided that she wouldn't tell them.

Over the past two years, Tom and Grace have managed to build a fantastic relationship with the Goblins. Due to this, they were given access to ancient goblin tomes, which helped them gain more knowledge about the wizarding world.

Due to the amount of time Grace and Tom spent together, their bond had grown immensely stronger, and he could no longer stay away from her for long periods of time. Not that Grace knew that, of course; it had been decided by Grace's parents that she would not know of the bond until it naturally came to her when she turned 17. Tom understood why they decided to put this rule in place, and he agreed with it. While he felt fondness for Grace, he was in no way a pedophile and didn't want to make any sort of move at her until she became old enough to understand stuff.

Grace walked towards an empty compartment with her friends and smiled as she saw Tom sitting on one side of the compartment, near the window. Grace's friends, while they were fond of the two and found them cute, didn't really want to sit in a compartment with their Lord. As friendly as he was, they didn't feel at complete ease around him and decided it would be best if they left the two alone.

Grace sat beside Tom and tapped his shoulder to gain his attention.

"Hi little one, I was wondering when you would come along and sleep in again, I believe?" Tom said it in a teasing tone as he put his book aside. Grace's face flushed red as she dramatically said, "You're saying that as if I always sleep in and am obsessed with sleep or something."

Tom chuckled and ruffled her hair slightly. "Of course not, little one; you're the most punctual person I know, and you always wake up on time and go to sleep early." He said in a sarcastic tone.

Grace huffed and pouted slightly. "Tch, tch, Thomas, this is sad. I didn't think I would get made fun of first thing in the morning. I didn't even sleep properly, and now you're bullying me."

Tom furrowed his eyebrows. "You didn't sleep properly? why?" He asked in a concerned tone.

"I don't know," Grace sighed. "I just tossed and turned all night for some reason; I couldn't sleep."

With a flick of his wand, Tom closed the blinds in the compartment to make it darker and put wards on the door to make sure no one would disturb them. "Here, come lay your head in my lap; we still have a long journey to Hogwarts; make sure you get your rest till then."

Grace smiled and thanked Tom as she laid her head on his lap, slowly falling asleep to the feeling of Tom running his hands through her hair. Tom smiled at the sleeping girl. He wanted to make sure she was always happy, healthy, and safe, and he was willing to do a lot of things to achieve that.

About 2 hours later, Grace felt someone lightly shaking her; she soon recognized that it was Tom. He looked down at her with a smile and said, "Wake up, little one. I think you should eat something. I got you a few snacks from the trolley, and I also have some sandwiches that I packed for you."

Grace sat up with a smile on her face. "Okay, thank you, Tom," she said while grabbing the sandwiches from him. Everyone knew how much Grace loved Tom's cooking, and they also knew that she was the only one, other than himself, whom he cooked for.

She bit into her sandwich and hummed with delight, "It's so good, Tom."

Tom smiled at her antics and thanked her. When she finished the sandwich, he wiped the sides of her mouth with a napkin. She looked at him with a pleased look.

They read books and ate some snacks for a while until Grace went to change into her Hogwarts uniform. She came back and sat next to Tom. For some reason, she felt uneasy whenever Tom wasn't in her line of sight. She always felt comfortable in his presence, and she decided that it must be because of his strong magical aura that made her feel safe.

Tom's attention was taken from his book when he felt a light weight on his shoulders. He looked and saw that Grace had fallen asleep again, and he chuckled. The girl sure does love her sleep, he thought.

He shifted a bit to make sure she was comfortable. Grace, subconsciously, held his arm when he moved and mumbled incoherent sentences in her sleep. Tom looked at her fondly before returning his attention to his book.

Just a side note, everything happening right now is 100% platonic; none of them feel any sort of romantic feeling towards the other; in fact, the bond makes it so that they won't be able to feel romantic or sexual feelings toward each other until both of them are of age. I do not endorse pedophilia. It is a very disgusting act.