Star Crossed

Chapter Twelve- You can't choose your family

The sun shone through the large stone arches the lined the outside ground floor corridor as I made my way towards the greenhouses, for Herbology. My mind not on my studies but instead drifting to the task that I had set Leo, it had been almost a week and I had heard nothing from him.

Tom was beginning to send me questioning looks whenever we met but I had not managed to get myself alone with Tom, we seemed to always be surrounded by either Lazarus and Wiglaf, Tom's 'friends' or just general busy bodies rushing here and there around the castle. I was half contemplating arranging to meet up with Tom alone but I did not want Tom to think I had information that I did not; I did not want Tom to think that the mission had failed...

I arrived at Herbology early as usual; I took out my textbook and thick dragon hide gloves and placed them on the worn workbench.
"Grisha," Lazarus snuck up beside me grinning, the Gryffindor's shared Herbology with the Hufflepuffs.
"Hi Lazarus," I smiled back,
Half an hour into the lesson and myself and Lazarus were in fits of laughter unable to focus on what had to be done.
Lazarus was searching around on the floor trying to catch the small jumping seeds as I wrestled with the wriggling stems that tried repeatedly to snatch themselves out of my grasp.
"I can't bloody get them Grisha! Ouch!" Lazarus called through laughter, as he patted around the tiled stone floor aimlessly. The students around us were not having much more luck, the greenhouse was in chaos.
"Focus!" shouted Professor Milton; she was a tall spindly woman, with rather short curly grey hair that poked out in all directions. She had a thin face with very defined cheekbones and deep brown eyes which protruded slightly from her face, giving her an uncanny likeness to a frog.
"Lazarus do get up off the floor and Grisha you are supposed to stroke them!" She huffed, demonstrating the correct way to take control of the stems.
"Oh," I spluttered, "Thank you Professor," when she had walked away to attend to another struggling pair, I looked towards Lazarus who had stood himself up as we fell into a fit of laughter once more as Amber Weasley and Florian Brown, entered a heated row as Florian had pulled out a chunk of Amber's flaming red hair as he tried to detangle one of the uncooperative stems.

I trudged back across the grounds towards the castle alone, still giggling to myself as I went all worries from before had been forgotten at the back of mind, Lazarus had Magical Creatures with the Ravenclaw's to attend and so had set off in the opposite direction. Crack. I stopped dead, my eyes wide as I spun around, there stood behind me was Leo, looking tired and frenzied,
"Leo!" I gasped, I looked around panic stricken,
"We can't meet here!" I gasped,
"Mistress said as long as she was alone or with the boy Tom," Leo replied matter of fact,
"Well yes I did but-" I realised my error, "We may not be alone for very long! Meet me in the room of requirement at six pm," I instructed, hurriedly.
"As you wish Mistress," the small elf bowed his head and disappeared with another ear splitting crack and a puff of smoke, which I quickly wafted away from the air with my hand, still looking around me for unsuspecting eyes. My heart was beating hard, had the elf managed to find anything?

Five minutes to six, I walked along the wide seventh floor corridor, with Tom at my side, our steps echoing off of the stone walls, we stopped in front of the large expanse of stone wall as the large oak doors began to materialise before us. I pushed them open, holding it a jar so that Tom could slip in behind me. Once inside Tom turned to face me,
"You have information?" his voice gravelly, his skin paler than usual and his bright blue eyes a little heavier, yet even in his worn down state, he still was strikingly attractive as he rested his weight upon one leg, his head tilted to the side as he looked at me.
"We are about to find out," I replied as the clock struck six, there was a crack, smoke and the wizened old elf bowed lowed in front of me.
"I am here as requested Mistress," contempt was swimming in the small elf's eyes as he looked at me under his saggy skinned eye lids. My breath hitched in my throat as I wondered if anything had gone wrong, but then if my Father knew of my actions, I surely would have heard from him by now, I shivered at the thought.
"Do you have what I asked of you Leo?" I prompted,
"Leo has searched through the many, many documents that belong to Master," Leo replied, bitterness hanging on every word.
"And?" I added impatiently,
"And Leo has found what Mistress has requested," He bowed low once again, retrieving from nowhere an A4 lilac folder and holding it out in front of him, still head lowered in a bow. Before I could outstretch a hand, the folder had been swiftly taken by another; Tom was now holding the file in front of him, looking at it as if he had never seen anything as plainly before.
Leo sprang into action looking furious, he launched himself towards Tom, who elegantly stepped to the side causing the poor creature to stumble into one of the leather armchairs,
"Leo no!" I shouted, "It's okay, Tom can have it," The creature dropped a small fist it had just began to raise, his little chest heaving. Tom smirked, looking down at it with an amused expression,
"Thank you Leo, you have done well, you may leave," I gave the elf a small smile of appreciation, as he disapperated.
We stood completely still in silence for a moment, facing one another.
"I guess this is it," I replied, "If there is any information to be had about your Mother's side of the family it is in that folder," I pointed with a shaky hand towards the battered, old cardboard sleeve in Tom's hands.
Tom walked over towards the desk without a word; he sat down on the leather chair and placed the file down in front of him. I slowly walked towards him and sat on the edge of the desk expectantly, but Tom did not open the file. I looked at him, confused,
"I wish to read it alone," He said flatly, his piercing eyes still firmly transfixed upon the folder in front of him. I felt a small twist within my chest but I reluctantly withdrew myself from my seat upon the desk and walked towards one of the leather armchairs, sitting down I summoned one of the books off of the shelves and pretended to begin to read it, of course I had no interest in the book and did not even know what the context of the book I had chosen was. I felt Tom's eyes linger on me a moment longer before he slipped a thin finger into the side of the file and pealed it open.
At least half an hour had passed, while Tom had sat staring down at the papers in front of him, pausing only to flick through to the next page of documents. I kept one eye fixed upon him, as I hid behind my book. His expression did not change, nor did it give anything away at all, he was completely expressionless. Finely there was a shuffle of papers; I looked up fully to find that Tom was placing the documents back inside of the folder. I caught his jaw tense and his lips purse as he sat finger tapping upon to the top of the worn folder.
"Did you find anything?" I asked,
"Enough," He replied, his voice was so low it was hardly audible, he did not seem happy with his findings, on the contrary he looked almost disgusted. There was silence, I wanted to ask what it was he had found, but I waited to see if he would elaborate himself, surely he would after the risk I had taken to get the file,
He stood up and stuffed the folder into his robes, before he walked over to where I sat; he looked down at me,
"I did not know you were particularly interested in the mating habits of Hippogriffs," he asked simply, pointing down to the page at which my copy of 'The breeding of Magical Creatures' had been turned to for the last half an hour, I felt the heat rise up in my cheeks. Great I thought bitterly, only I out of this whole library could summon a book about breeding. I closed the book gingery and sent it back to its place among the shelves deciding it was best just to ignore Tom's comment, I then sat resisting the urge to sink into the comfortable chair and disappear forever, Tom smirked.
"Your plan paid off, I'm impressed," he said intently,
"I'm glad," I replied, smiling at him.
He nodded, and turned his back on me to leave; He wasn't going to tell me anything!? He didn't even seem excited? Were they dead? I couldn't stop myself,
"What did you find?" I asked, it blurted out of my mouth before I could stop it, my hand flew to my mouth as if trying to trap the words before they left,
He stopped, but did not turn to face me, I bit my lip in the lingering silence.
"I told you that I found enough," He replied coldly, still facing away from me.
"Are any of them alive?" I asked, pushing my luck further, I could sense the tension growing in the space around us but still something was urging me forward,
"Yes," He replied, shocked that he had answered my question I chose to ask another,
"And are you going to try to find them?" I battled to keep my voice strong and steady,
he bowed his head,
"I do not know," his voice was muffled,
"You don't know!?" I cried, in disbelief. He turned to face me now; he was clenching his jaw so tightly that the veins at the side of his temples were protruding.
"You have to," I breathed, "You have to meet your family," I faltered a little, my voice dropping an octave or two in volume.
"I do not have to do anything," He hissed, through gritted teeth; I saw that his fists were also clenched beneath his bat winged robes, his knuckles whitened.
I fell quiet, "I'm sorry," I replied quickly, "I just... I just thought you would want nothing more than to get to know your family," I continued,
"Regrettably one cannot choose their family McLaggen," His voice was cold and numb.
"No," I replied quietly, I knew all too well about that. Tom had turned once more, this time however I stayed silent as he left the room without another word or as much as a backwards glance, in some way I understand how Tom felt. I didn't know what that file said but I understood feeling as if your own family was a curse...
I did not know the rippling impact that providing Tom with that information would have.