A Little Help from a Snake // Tomarry

36: Something of a Riddle

"Aw, Moony, but that's what made us so cool."

"In your dreams, Padfoot."

"Want to know what else happens in my dreams?"

Remus coughed, glaring at Sirius, who simply grinned. "That's enough out of you," he said, giving a quick flick of his wand.

"But—" was all Sirius managed to get out before he transformed into a donkey.

Remus stood up, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "Do be quiet, Sirius. You don't want to make more of an ass out of yourself."

The donkey brayed indignantly.

"You say the sweetest things." Remus smiled and made his way out of the dining room, the donkey continuing to bray insults after him.

On the morning of the Quidditch World Cup, it was Harry who woke up the others, starting by slapping a wet sponge he borrowed from Dobby onto everyone's faces.

"Har har," Sirius deadpanned as Remus yelped and bolted upright.

"Seriously?"

"Nope, just me!" Harry grinned mischievously. "Now hurry up, will you?"

Sirius groaned, wiping his face with his arm. "I stink."

"Sirius, love, you've always stank," Remus replied.

"I thought Pick-on-Sirius Day was July 31st."

"Not anymore."

While the adults were bickering, so were the teens.

"I am not going to have spiky hair," Tom deadpanned.

"All right, all right." Harry took a step back, hands raised in surrender. "Go on, Tomling. Show me what you got."

Within seconds, Tom had made himself have dark blonde hair with hazel eyes. His height had been reduced, but he was still slightly taller than Harry.

"What do you think?" Even his voice had changed, though anyone who knew him would recognize the way he spoke.

"Perfect. Now, on to names. Tom Riddle is certainly going to raise red flags," Harry said thoughtfully. "Maybe we can call you Rob Tiddle."

"That's a horrible idea. You, Harry Potter, are terrible at naming things."

"Well, I gave Azure her name. Do you think that sucks?"

"There's always an exception for everything."

"You would know, Tomalongadingdong."

Tom inhaled sharply. Why, just why was he destined to be the most infuriating person on the planet?

As if he knew what he was thinking, Harry stepped forward and planted a quick kiss on his lips. "Come on. We're going to be late."

They rejoined the adults outside.

"All right, we got Tom a new makeover and the wonderful name of Rob Tiddle."

Tom pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just call me Cody or something."

"Fine, Something. How are we getting there?" Harry asked.

"Since there's only four of us, we'll be Apparating," Remus said. "So each of you grab onto me or Sirius."

Harry grabbed onto his arm, while Tom took Sirius', and they disappeared from sight briefly. Moments later, after the sensation of being sucked through a tube, they landed in misty moors.

"There should be a Muggle up ahead," Remus said. "Let's go."

Twenty minutes later, they came across a small stone cottage next to a gate. Hundreds of tents lay beyond it.

A man stood in the doorway of the cottage.

"Morning," Sirius said. "Are you Mr. Roberts?"

"I am," the man said."And who're you?"

"Black— one tent."

"Aye," said Mr. Roberts, consulting a list tacked to the door. "You've got a space up by the wood there. Just the one night?"

"Yes."

"You'll be paying now, then?" said Mr. Roberts.

It was Remus who answered, handing over some notes.

"You're the first person in a while to not to have had trouble with money," Mr. Roberts remarked.

"Really?" Remus said.

"Two tried to pay with great gold coins the size of hubcaps, and there was this large group of redheads that took a while to sort through their notes."

Mr. Roberts fished out the change and a map and sent them on their way.

The four trudged on between the tents. Harry wondered how many times Mr. Roberts had to be Obliviated. Most of the tents looked inconspicuous enough, but here and there were tents that were obviously not Muggle-made.

"Time to set up the tent," Sirius said, rubbing his hands together.

Having never been camping, it took a while to figure out what went where, but together, they managed to prop up a decent looking tent.

"Teamwork," Harry said smugly, high-fiving Tom. "Now we can go exploring."

"Bring back some water," Remus said, holding out a saucepan and a kettle.

"And no sneaking off," Sirius added.

"We won't," Harry promised. "Let's go, Something."

For the umpteenth time that week, Tom rolled his eyes heavenward and followed.

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Reminder that I am not accepting translations for this fic or Eagle's Flight. Partly because they are super long but mostly because of the revisions I've been making. There's no point in you translating a chapter then having to redo it because I've decided to change something up.