Star Crossed

Chapter 10- Two lives

My opened my eyes weakly as the light of dawn shone through the large window panes, illuminating the fiery red dormitory, I groaned as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and sat myself up, I jumped as I accidentally knocked off a pile of books I had been studying from the night before.
"Sorry," I whispered sheepishly as the red headed girl, Amber Weasley glared at me from her bed to my left.
Remembering, I quickly swung myself out of bed and walked over to the window looking out of it wishfully, but no there was no sign of Juniper my faithful owl, returning with a letter in her beak, I sighed in frustration. I had written to my Father, asking how he was and how work was going, a cover to discover if he was home from traveling yet or not, or more precisely was Leo, Leo was our family's house elf. He was traveling with my Father as he often did, doing various tasks for him, tasks of which were never shared with me, in fact I had always knew very little about my Father's work, but what was certain was that I needed Leo if I was to find the information that I needed, that Tom needed, but I couldn't summon him if he was still by my Father's side my Father was not to know what I was trying to do, still there was time yet.

It was our first Hogsmede visit of the New Year together, me, Wiglaf, Lazarus and Tom, we had arranged it a couple of weeks ago, it was rare for Tom to come to the village with us, usually out of our private gatherings he would only be seen with his Slytherin party. The days were certainly getting warmer now, as we made our way through the month of May; I had opted to wear a simple pale green knee length dress with a princess neckline. I had put my hair up into a messy bun to keep it off of my back; I left a few stands falling down around my face untidily.
I stood leaning on the balustrade in the entrance hall for the others, I was always early! You would not think I was the girl, who would typically take longer to get ready. I picked at my finger nails absentmindedly as I waited.
"Hi Grisha," a friendly face beamed at me, I laughed,
"Hi Lazarus," I replied, smiling at him. He was wearing a pale blue short sleeved shirt tucked into a pair of brown slacks.
"I can't wait to get to Honeydukes! I heard they have a new line out!" He was almost bouncing on the spot; me and Lazarus shared a very sweet tooth. I licked my lips and bulged my blue eyes out exaggeratedly, we both laughed.
"Urgh, where are they!?" Lazarus complained,
"Who? Us?" replied a familiar silky voice, I smiled turning around, Lazarus jumped,
"Stop doing that!" He cried in exasperation,
Tom merely smirked, I was happy to see that he seemed to be in much higher spirits than a few days prior out in the forest. He and Wiglaf were both stood side by side on the bottom step of the stairs; they wore very similar attire, a long sleeved white shirt tucked into black trousers. The only difference was that Tom's shirt sleeves were rolled up to the elbows and his trousers more slim fitted, I had to admit that I found myself staring at his attractive form, though I could have sworn I found his eyes lingering on me also, looking me up and down, I could feel myself blush, annoyed with my involuntary reaction I averted my eyes. 
"Shall we be off then? The carridges will be leaving soon," said Wiglaf,
"Yes please!" Lazarus replied dramatically, as if he had been waiting his entire life, I exchanged a look of amusement with Tom.

After a short journey, through which we chatted idly about school assignments and Lazarus the latest school gossip, we arrived at Hogsmeade with the rest of our peers. As we exited our carridge I spotted Tom's friends, a few feet away, they had stopped talking and looked directly over at us, a sulky expression on their aristocratic faces; I rolled my eyes, they really couldn't cope without Tom for a few hours? Looking back to Tom however I caught the end of what looked like a very stern look, and the group hastily looked away and continued talking animatedly, I frowned but was soon taken away from my thoughts as Lazarus shouted,
"Sweets! Come on then!" He clapped his hands together and almost ran over to the busy shop door, I followed him laughing. Tom and Wiglaf looked slightly less enthusiastic about the crowded sweet shop.
"How old is he again?" I heard Tom hiss to Wiglaf,
"It would appear that he is missing ten years," Wiglaf replied, I heard them both snigger, I turned around and shot them a playful pout,
"Behave, he's excited he has his pocket money to spend," I smirked,
"Run along then Mother hen, look after your child, he looks to be getting a little squashed over there," Riddle grinned,
"Oh no! There is no way you two are getting out of this one come on," I grabbed each one of them by the wrist and pulled them through the throng of bustling teenagers.
Tom huffed looking increasingly hot and bothered, as I, Lazarus and even very occasionally Wiglaf 'Oooed' and 'Awed' as we choose our confectionary.
"Aren't you getting anything Tom?" I asked as we got ready to cash out our items.
"No," He said simply, Tom never seemed to buy anything, I wondered whether he ever had the money to, I didn't know how much Hogwarts provided to students like Tom, I had never dared to ask, even though I would have been more than willing to buy him something, I knew he would be more offended than grateful.
Once out of the shop we sat on the curved bench around the large fountain of the founder of Hogsmede, a brute of a man who did in fact quiet resemble a Hog himself. Tom went to take a book out of his magically enlarged pockets,
"Oh put that away Tom, here try this!" Lazarus said, pushing a small beige coloured bean towards Tom's face,
Tom moved his face backwards slightly, blinking slowly at it, until Lazarus moved it a little further away from his face,
"I'm fine thank you," he replied flatly,
"Oh go on," I urged, "We are all having some,"
"You might as well Riddle, face it you are not going to get much reading done this afternoon, if you can't beat them join them as they say," Wiglaf smiled,
Tom sighed loudly, stuffing the book back into his pocket,
"Fine, what is it?" He said, gingerly taking the small sweet from Lazarus's hand.
"It's a surprise," said Lazarus, a mischievous grin on his face.
Tom raised an eye brow inspecting it, "Why does that concern me," Tom replied, clearly suspicious. I smirked, I knew exactly what that sweet was, and this could go either of two ways. Tom slowly put the small bean into his mouth and the reaction was instantaneous, "Urgh," He spat the sweet out onto the floor and covered his mouth with his hand, gagging, as we all roared with laughter,
"That's a sweet? That's disgusting! People choose to eat this for fun," Tom spat placing particular emphasis on the word fun.
"What did it taste like?" I asked through my continued giggling,
"What did it taste like?" He repeated an incredulous look on his face now, 
"Vomit? rotten egg?" Lazarus smirked,
"Or was it more ear wax?" Wiglaf added,
"Tasted like all of those," Tom grumbled, still a disgusted look on his face,
"Bertie Bott's finest every flavour beans those are," said Lazarus smiling, popping one into his mouth himself, "Ah cherry my favourite," he grinned,
Tom shot him a narrowed stare and snatched the bag of sweets from him to Lazarus's protests, he took out a green jumping snake and popped it into his mouth, smirking.
"Thanks Laz," He grinned back, Lazarus snatched the bag back off of him.

I skipped through the halls back towards the Gryffindor common room after what had been a wonderful day at Hogsmede, after another walk around the small village, pulling a reluctant Tom and Wiglaf out of the book shop, we had spent a couple of hours sat in the Three Broomsticks with an iced Butterbeer putting the world to rights as we always did; there had been no arguments whatsoever, the Heirs at their best I thought happily to myself, Tom hadn't even asked about my progress with our little private project, which gladly bought me a little more time. My good mood was not to last however as I stopped dead in my tracks as I rounded the corner into an empty corridor, it was very poorly lit and the sun had now set so the silhouettes were all I could see but there was no mistaking that voice,
"I had thought I had made it quite clear to you Malfoy," he hissed, his voice higher than usual, anger bubbling beneath the surface,
"Yes, yes my Lord but its proving difficult to-"
There was suddenly a loud grown, cutting Malfoy's blubbering short., as the second silhoette dropped to the floor in a crouched defeated position. 'My Lord'!?
I craned my neck a little further, trying to hear the conversation more clearly, maybe I had misheard...
"Your pitiful excuses do not serve me Malfoy, if we were not out in the open and I had not a reputation to uphold you would be in a regrettable position," Tom breathed, his voice was severe, I was frozen to the spot. I absentmindedly fingered my pendent, instantly Tom stopped, and looked around himself as if expecting to see someone, but she certainly hadn't made any noise... I dropped the pendant and hid myself around the corner my breathing fast. I needed to get back to the Gryffindor tower before Tom noticed me. What was he playing at!? Hearing him just was like hearing a different person to that I had spent time with earlier today.