her dark soul

c h a p t e r 3 4

*cw: sa & abuse of a minor*

t h e   r e s t
            of the day was spent in the thralls of the fire and warm drinks; mugs cupped tight between cold hands. Bodies inched closer and closer on the long settee couch in the empty Common Room.

Evelyn was now pressed into Tom's side. Her head was on his shoulder, and her little black cat sitting in his lap. She had been teaching him a spell, something soft and different than the dark magic that she normally whispered about. But her words softened the further she tried to explain, and before Tom realized she had stopped talking altogether, she was completely asleep.

The moment reminded him of the time on the train when he had felt so annoyed when Evelyn rested in Malfoy's lap. How he had thought of ripping his hands off every time he had touched the soft silk of Evelyn's hair. And now it was him, rigid and breathing as shallowly as possible, anything to keep Evelyn's eyes closed and her body pressed to his.

There was this need in him that felt a lot like caring. Like Evelyn had dashed all of his beliefs of other human beings, he wondered if anyone would ever compare to her again. And then there was another part of him that felt cruel and vindictive. The part of him that saw Evelyn as the weakness festering inside. This was a girl that he would eventually need to get rid of. Someone he would need to remove just as fast as he had come to cherish her in his life.

But, now, he didn't care. He only liked the way she fit in the space between his chin and his chest and how she hummed in her sleep. He had never felt so warm, so fulfilled in his life. Not once was being with Calista like this.

He hadn't noticed he had dosed off himself until Evelyn was pushing away from him. They had fallen back onto the cushions, and Tom had to push himself up on his forearms to get a better look at her sleepy form rising from him. He groaned at the ache in his neck.

"It is very early," Evelyn mumbled, not quite fully awake. Tom had slept so deeply he had forgotten they were still down in the Common Room.

"Should we go back to sleep?" Tom spoke low, his voice not yet ready to be awake. There was a dark energy in the room that hadn't been there the night before.

"No, please. Can we go somewhere else?" Evelyn asked, and there was a plea in the question that made Tom sit up and come closer to her.

"Are you alright?" Tom tried to reach a hand up to cup Evelyn's face, but she pulled away.

"A nightmare," Evelyn said as she gave him a shaky smile. "I just want to go somewhere else."

"We could go to the Room of Requirments," Tom tried, trying not to feel too upset at Evelyn's sudden wariness of him. "We haven't ever seen it this early."

Evelyn nodded, and Tom immediately knew there was something more than a nightmare plaguing her. They had seen the room at this time, not because they had gone in the morning, but because there hadn't been any sleep the night before. She would be the first to point that out normally. Instead, she had turned and returned to the girl's dorms to change for the day without another word.