I woke up the next morning thinking the entire previous day was a dream. It wasn't until Nix slithered up my arm to my neck and grew to his full length, which he does often and it still freaks me out, that I realized I was in my own room instead of in Poland.
I sat up quickly, ripping the meter long snake off my neck and jumping out of bed. Nix began to shrink back down to his usual ten inch length as I squeezed him angrily and left my room. I ran towards the kitchen where I heard voices and spotted everyone sitting there. They all stopped mid casual conversation to look at me, which I realize I must look crazy standing there with bed head, wide eyes and a death grip on the snake as I held Nix aloft in my hand.
"It wasn't a dream." I say in relief as I look at Tom, who is simply raising an amused brow at me. I thought he would maybe greet me, but instead he just started hissing in my direction in Parseltongue. Whatever he was saying to Nix was making Harry chuckle though, so I just narrowed my eyes as I walked closer.
"Darling, whatever has that poor tiny little snake ever done to you?" Tom asks me as I approach them.
"So many things." I glare at said snake as I dump him on top of Harry's head. Nix happily slithers down Harry's arm and wraps around his wrist on the table, still seemingly talking to Tom.
"My word, he is quite possessive over you." Tom says with a chuckle, talking back to the snake again. I just look to Harry for an explanation as the boy is choking on his juice and looking at the snake in shock.
"Um... I'm not repeating that." Harry says to me while nervously chuckling.
"Keep your stupid, disloyal familiar in your own damn room." I threaten the snake with one of my daggers, and all Nix does it hiss his little tongue out at me, trying to look cute. "No." I say in Parseltongue. I don't know what he said, but I can at least respond with what I know.
When I speak though, this time it's Tom who chokes on his drink and stares at me with wide eyes which form into a seductive smirk. Easy to say he likes hearing me talk in his second language.
"Where did the knife come from?" Tom asks after clearing his throat and shaking his head, clearly trying to change whatever subject the snakes were talking about or maybe just clearing his current lustful thoughts.
"Oh right, these are my cursed blades, the Shadowborn Daggers." I go on to explain all about them and how I got them, Dad adding in his two cents along the way of the story, still not a fan of the blades.
"The look on Voldemort's face when you summoned all the daggers and called him out at the end was bloody brilliant." Harry laughs out at the end of my explaining.
"Evil mastermind, right here. I bamboozled the shit out of Voldemort!" I grin and point at myself. "Come, my little Ken doll, we must head out now." I pull Tom up off the table after we finish eating and I got a moment to brush my hair and change my clothes. He's already wearing the suit from yesterday, so we're ready to go. "We're taking the long way there." I grin smugly at him as we step out the door and I hand him one of our spare helmets.
"You want me to get on this muggle contraption?" Tom asks in uncertainty. "I already experienced it once in your mind, I think that was enough."
"Quit being a scaredy cat." I taunt him, a challenging glint in my eyes that immediately works. I get on the bike in exaggerated slow movements, and don't miss how his eyes follow my every move. "Come along now." I wave one finger to entice him over, and resolutions sets in firmly as he slams the helmet on his head and quickly gets on confidently, but then stalls when he feels the bike tip slightly. He quickly and nervously wraps his hands around my waist. "Hold on tight." I give him one last grin before I take off like a bullet. He gasps audibly before he tightens his hold on me.
"After the initial horrible take off, I must say it wasn't too bad." Tom says after the two hours of riding to London. "You drive like a maniac though. But... I can't say I minded getting to hold you that closely." He takes my hand in his after I lock our helmets to the bike outside of the Leaky Cauldron. I stand up and give him a brief kiss in response. "Hmm... have I told you yet today that I love you?"
"No, you haven't. I was second to a snake this morning, I feel neglected." I say with a smirk and he leans down and kisses me again.
"I love you, Darling." He smirks at me and I find myself grinning like an idiot as we walk right past the pub and head towards the muggle shops.
Tom may have started out with grumbling on our outing, but after six stores and several hours, he was admitting some good things about the muggles. I can't say the resurrection magically turned him into a muggle loving saint, but he is now at least able to appreciate little things about them. We eventually found a pub to sit at after we grew a little tired and hungry from all the shopping.
"It's still taking some getting used to, being in this new body." Tom says after we ordered our food. We happened to find quite a charming little pub not too far from the Leaky Cauldron, and I was having fun people watching and also watching Tom's reactions to all the new things.
"Is it because you're taller or because you're older?" I ask curiously as I sip my drink.
"Both, I think. It also feels, I guess weaker?" He says while trying to find the right term. "Like, my muscles are hurting just from that walking, and I'm fatigued."
"That could just be because Oskar wasn't at his healthiest for that last month there." I admit with a frown. "I had to force him to eat, and he certainly wasn't doing any exercise, let alone moving very much. Give it some time to feed his body- uh, your body back up." I correct myself from my mistake. "Alexei mentioned that Oskar used to be a Chaser, so he should have strength underlying in his body. I can see it's there, you just need to nourish it."
"Alexei?" He asks me.
"My ex-boyfriend. The one from Durmstrang." I say casually. "He's the one who connected me to Oskar. Well, him and Oliver. I need to send them both a thank you gift..." I trail off in thought as I imagine a good gift for both of them.
"I'm scared to ask, but will there be many... ex-boyfriends I need to keep an eye out for?" Tom grimaces but tries to keep his face impassive.
"Just the one." I smirk at him. "I had to turn down several of my friends though over the years..." I say truthfully, a heaviness to my voice. "I wasn't... ready to let myself feel more. I didn't want to risk..."
I don't tell him that I thought I was going to die in the Battle of Hogwarts, and that I didn't want to risk falling in love and having to leave this world. I already am heartbroken enough I had to leave my friends and family in the last two lives, I couldn't imagine leaving someone I loved romantically.
"The point is, I wasn't ready for more." I continue on. "Alexei was a wonderful partner, but we both had learned and accepted that we didn't love each other, our relationship was mostly physical and light hearted. He is a very sweet and determined man, and we will forever be friends, but there wasn't that extra spark between us. Nowhere even close to how I feel with you." I add on as I take his hand in my own. I could see the flash of jealousy cross his face as I spoke, and I felt the need to remind him that I loved him. "I love you, Tom. You know... you're the first man I've ever said that to." I smile genuinely at him, and see him light up and smile warmly at me too.
And my words are true in the most sense. I did say those words back in my first life, but being here now and knowing how I feel for Tom, those past words feel like they were only an empty echo in comparison to my real feelings now. I had come close in both my other resurrections to loving someone else, but never quite made it to that level, either by my death or by forced distance separation.
"I shall make sure I am the last man you ever say that as well." Tom says sincerely, no trace of smugness in his voice, just pure confidence. "I love you very much Abigail, and I cannot wait to learn more about you and fall more in love with you. You should know," He starts to actually giggle lightly. "This feeling, this love, is rather addicting. I have never had it before, and now that I do, all I want to do is hold you and tell I love you every moment of the day." I was about to respond when our food was dropped off at our table, and the man who delivered it took a double take at me and his eyes bugged out.
"Bless my soul." The waiter breathes out. "You're Abigail Black." He reaches for my hand on the table and starts to shake it vigorously. "I heard about the battle, you're a hero. I can't believe I'm meeting you!"
"Oh, I didn't realize you were a..." I pick up my fork on the table and wave it like a wand. There are a couple other muggles in the pub with us, but they are outside of hearing range, but I still have ingrained to be secretive whenever possible.
"Could I please have your autograph? My niece, she's a huge fan, so am I." He asks me kindly, and I grin at him and nod my head. "Can you believe it?" He turns excitedly to Tom and points at me. "The real Abigail Black. In my pub! They say she rode a dragon into battle and breathed her own fire down at the enemy. And they say she cursed You-Know-Who to a 1000 lifetimes in hell." He bragged excitedly while I stifled a laugh and signed the paper he had handed me.
"You own this pub?" Tom asks as he smiles proudly.
"Yeah, I just recently took over it. Bought it off some muggles who were looking to retire." The man boasts.
"I'm sure we shall see you again then." Tom replies genuinely. "The location is wonderful."
"Here you go." I hand back the page and the man takes it.
"Thank you so much." He shakes my hand once more time. "I'll leave you to your husband here, my name is Matthew by the way. Please, enjoy the meal and come again soon." I was flustered slightly at his husband comment, and was worried it would make Tom uncomfortable so I was about to correct him but Tom answered for us.
"We'll come again soon." Tom says with a smirk to me. Matthew heads back to the kitchen with a bounce in his step. "You are quite adorable when you are flustered, I feel robbed I never got to see this side of you over the years." He teases me lightly as we begin to eat.
"I can't even remember the last time I've ever been flustered." I admit truthfully with a sheepish chuckle. "I usually have all the confidence in the world because I always know what's going on. Now, I don't know."
"You don't know?" He repeats curiously.
"We've stepped into a land of unknowns now." I say with a crooked grin. "Everything changed when the battle came early, and it all changed again when you were resurrected. I'm honestly... I'm honestly living in the moment now. And I quite like the moment." I add with a genuine smile, loving the way his whiskey brown eyes crinkle as he smiles warmly.
"This is a wonderful moment." He agrees softly. "And I do hope one day you will feel comfortable enough to tell me how you know so much of the future."
I smirk at him for that, "You only just figured out what a credit card is, let's not make your big brilliant mind explode any more for now." I deflect successfully.
We finish our meal and leave then, waving goodbye once more to Matthew before leaving. Once we get into the Leaky Cauldron, I used magic to store all our bags of shopping into one smaller bag to carry and handed it back to Tom.
"You couldn't have done that earlier?" He complains to me. We did have almost 20 bags between us both.
"I like to carry a lot of bags, makes me feel like I really accomplished something." I grin mischievously at him. "Besides, your wand doesn't work that badly, you could have done it too." I quip back at him.
"Even so, I am hoping to get a better one soon." He requests quietly.
"Don't worry my love, we'll go right after... The bank." I grimace out when I see the bank. "Oh I haven't been back since I robbed them."
"Technically Darling you didn't rob them." Tom adds lightly as he looks all around the Alley. "It really hasn't changed." He adds softly, a genuine smile on his face as looks around at everything, pausing when his eyes land on the joke shop. "Perhaps it changed a little." He adds while looking at the bright purple building.
"That's the joke shop, but we'll head there last. The twins will want to rip you apart, might as well get you a working wand so you stand a chance." I wink at him as I grab his hand and trudge towards the bank.
I start to sweat lightly as I walk up the marble steps, just waiting for someone to recognize me and arrest me. "It's so much better to be the one stopping the robberies." I mutter to myself, but Tom heard it anyway and shot me a questioning look that I pointedly ignored.
Of course the goblin taking me to my vault today was Bragrast. He did freeze for a half second when he saw me, but he shook his head and greeted me like normal while I let out a sigh of relief. We all climbed into the cart and went to my vault then. I noticed all the damage was fixed from the dragon escape, so that was good to see.
My normal sphynx was still outside of my vault, waiting in all his regal elegance to give me a riddle or kill me. Bragrast informed me that the creatures were instructed to raise their defenses, so the riddles would be harder from now on. I quite loved his riddle today, it spoke a lot to me and I was able to answer it easily.
"I come silently, a thief in the night,
Full of peace, but often malice or spite,
I steal breath, life, and health.
Spirit away love, fear, and wealth.
I cast you down or up on high,
Into the bowels of the Earth or the womb of the sky.
What am I?"
"Death." Tom and I answered at the same time to the sphinx. Tom sent me a grateful look as we answered, and I gave him a soft squeeze to his hand. Both of us had a line or two within that riddle that spoke to us. We gathered some gold from the vault and left the bank quickly after that.
"Welcome back, Ms. Black." Ollivander greets us both when we walked into his shop.
"Mr. Ollivander, great to see you again." I greet the old wizard cheerfully. "This is my... uh frie- um, b-boyfriend, Tom Drake." I stutter out, and then internally curse myself for stuttering and being so awkward.
I don't know what it is about Tom that makes me all flustered, but I really hope the flustering moments pass soon, I'm beginning to look like a fool. I haven't given him the boyfriend label yet, and we haven't actually talked about it, I'm just assuming naturally that we're together.
"Tom... Drake." Ollivander greets Tom, a slight hesitation as he's looking at Tom's face. Tom keeps his expression neutral, but I feel his hand tighten nervously in my own. "Welcome, what brings you in today?" He shakes it off and greets him kindly.
"I am needing a new wand." Tom says politely. "I find my old one... is simply not working for me anymore." Ollivander looks at him as if he's seeing him under a microscope. His eyes eventually travel to me, and then to our conjoined hands before he smirks.
"Not often, but at times a great change in one's heart can cause a change in a wand's heart." Ollivander answer jovially, sending his measuring tape to whirl all around Tom while I give it some room to work. I stand off to the side and watch Tom's eyes follow the tape measure in minor annoyance, amused that I had the same reaction when I was a child.
"How has your wand been treating you, Ms. Black? I have heard some grand stories about you recently." Ollivander adds to me.
"My wand it absolutely wonderful, thank you." I thank him sincerely. "It truly is the Master of Life and Death. I can definitely say I have done some unpredictable but great things with it, just as you said I would all those years ago."
"I'm glad to have heard how you use the wand, and am proud of the brave witch you became, Ms. Black." He says sincerely, then turns his attention back to Tom.
They try out several wands while we are there, and it's similar to when I had to get my wand the first time, though none of Tom's burst into flames like one of mine had.
For a time there after the battle, I had almost debated giving Ollivander the Elder Wand, but I didn't think it was a good idea in the long run. I still have it though, and no one else knows that I do. I'm thinking the safest thing to do with it is bury it and let it be lost to the world. It has such a bloody and violent history to it, and since no one knows of its current owner, I am the perfect person to make sure it vanishes. The same with the resurrection stone, it's not a healthy thing to have. I already returned the cloak to Harry, he can keep that and pass that on to his children since it's his birthright.
"Oh my god, finally." I say tiredly after almost two hours in the wand store. Tom finally got the warm fuzzy feelings from a wand and he seemed satisfied with it. It had another Phoenix feather core, but was made of a different wood than his previous wand he had when he was a boy.
"Sorry Darling, that took far longer than the first time I received a wand." Tom says as we leave the store after paying and thanking Ollivander.
"It's fine, if it took you trying every single wand in the store to find the right one, then the only thing that matters is that you were successful." I say kindly to him. "But if you ever break that one, you're taking the next trip by yourself." I threaten jokingly. "Now come on, the shop's about to close, it's the perfect time to meet the twins."