After All These Years

Chapter 11

Tom sat near me during class, though did his best to show how much he didn't like it.

 As we were dismissed, Tom spent the entire class just writing in his journal and occasionally staring at my book as I wrote in it.  I gathered my books and stood up from my chair, looking down at Tom as I waited for him to stand up as well to head for the library.

He was just writing in his notebook but I began to get impatient, I slowly raised my hand up to the top of his head, thinking of what consequences might come to me if I did this, but I just brushed them all back, what's the worst he would do?  I placed my hand on his head, ruffling and messing up his hair, knowing I had just signed my death wish, I didn't stop.

He quickly turned around to face me, grabbing my wrist to stop me. "Stop it, don't do that."  He said, holding on tighter to my wrist until I said-    "Then fucking hurry up, you're taking forever." Pulling my wrist from him. He clenched his jaw, visibly mad. "Fine." He agreed before fixing his hair, standing from his chair and gathering his things before we walked out and towards the library.

Once we entered the library, Tom led the way towards a small table with a few chairs around it as I followed from behind. He sat in a chair before looking back up at me. "Come, hurry up." I hurried to sit in a chair next to him before taking my text books out and flipping them open to what I learned for today. As I went to grab my notes, Tom grabbed my text book, bringing it close to him as he began to read from it. Instead of trying to get it back, I just decided to do some homework from my previous class until he was ready to give my book back. 

Midway of my work, I got stuck on a word. I read it over and over again, trying to remember what it had meant, making me feel duller by the second. I felt I should ask Tom but when I looked up at him, still next to me, he looked so concentrated in his work, reading page by page then copying the important parts onto paper from his journal, I didn't want to bother him.  I tried skipping the word and just reading the rest of it, but I just kept going back to it, wondering what it meant, That was my problem. I finally gave in after 5 agonizing minutes of trying to figure out what it meant and turned back to Tom, hesitantly lightly tugging at his shoulder for his attention. "Tom."  I whispered before he finally looked down at me from the books.

"What?" He seemed a bit annoyed by the tone of his voice from me distracting him.           "I um, I need a bit of help, can you help me for just a second?"  He stared at me confused for a minute before raising an eyebrow and saying-    "Ok.... What is it?"            "Ok, it's a bit embarrassing but I just need help with this word here, I.. I don't know what it means.    I said as I pointed to the word, Tom leaning over my shoulder to closely have a look at it before quickly leaning back and saying-   "Petrichor?"       I nodded in response before he went on and said-       "It means that scent you smell after a long rain fall, you've smelt it before haven't you?-"   Before I can answer, someone interrupted us-   "(Y/N)?"

The voice came from in front of my table, when I looked up over there, It was none other than Henry, standing there, his hair looked like a mess, his eyes looked stressed and tired.  "Henry? Are you ok?" I stood from my seat as I spoke.  He glared at Tom for a minute before looking back to me-   "Yeah just quidditch, I've been meaning to talk with you for a while, but I can see you've been busy." He said, glaring back at Tom.   I could see Tom slowly pulling out his wand from under the table from his pocket. I was confused, I didn't know what was going on.

"I- um what's happening?-"  "Leave William."  Tom interpreted, his voice sounding stern and serious as he brought the wand up higher above the table, slowly rising from his seat.

"Can we talk , (Y/N)?"  Henry asked, finally averting his gaze from Tom.   "Um yeah sur-."    "No."  Tom interrupted once again, still glaring at Henry.        "I wasn't asking you, (Y/N)?"        "Uh yeah, we can."  I quickly said, looking back and forth at Tom and Henry.

"No, she can't, we have work to do."   Tom said, still staring down Henry, you could tell he was mad but had a sort of calm sounding tone in his voice.  "It can wait, this will only take a few moments, (Y/N)?"     I was so confused, I didn't understand why Tom was so defensive towards this, I didn't understand why Henry needed to talk with me so badly, I didn't understand any of this.     "No."   Tom said, louder than before, causing everyone in the library to turn and stare at us, murmuring to each other as Tom pointed his wand directly at Henry.  

"Lets go, grab your books."  Says Tom before grabbing my arm just as I hesitantly gathered up all the books, pulling me away from Henry and out of the library. I gave him an apologetic look as Ieft.  Thankfully Henry didn't follow behind.

I was so confused but didn't question it at first, not until he slowed down and let go of my arm as we walked through a partly empty hallway, far away from the library.   "Tom what was that? What's wrong with you? He just wanted to talk."   He didn't respond, didn't look at me either, just kept on walking.   "Tom?!"    "I don't like him, I don't trust him. You shouldn't trust him either. "

"I- he's my friend!" He scoffed at my response. Who was he to say this.  Though I was mad, I kept quiet the rest of the way, just quietly following behind him until he led me to his dorm.

"Not my dorm?" I asked, finally breaking the unbreakable silence as we both entered his dorm room. He slightly shrugged his shoulders before saying- "Your neighbours are too loud."        "I don't think they're even in there at the moment, it is lunch after all." He shrugged his shoulders once again before saying-  "I don't want to take that risk, do you?"

I shook my head before handing him his books as well as some of mine, well at least the ones he was reading, I just placed the rest in the corner of his desk and began looking around his dorm. His room looked more stuffed than mine did, but of course that's just because of the two more beds his dorm has than mine.                           I could easily tell his side of the room from his roommates, he was very neat and organized, meanwhile his roommates had things everywhere, clothes, papers and, a few bits and pieces of who knows what here and there.

I heard him mumble before I walked back over to his windowsill.