Tom and I get to the store as Verity is leaving. She greets me excitedly, I haven't been here since I told the twins about my pasts six weeks ago. There's only a few customers left in the store, and they're already in line to check out with George and leave. Tom is highly amused as he walks in and sees all the products and displays.
"Come, I want to show you my Revenge section." I grin and tug Tom towards my own products I created.
"No Darling, I don't think I want to know what you have concocted for Revenge. I've heard enough of your tails of revenge to give me nightmares." Tom jokes to me but follows me all same.
"You haven't heard anything yet." I smirk challengingly at him.
"She has stories that could give a Dementor nightmares." Fred calls out once the last customer leaves, coming to join us as George also turns our way.
"When I face a boggart, it turns into Abby." George adds in teasingly as he joins his brother. I grin proudly at them both and turn Tom around to properly face them.
"Guys, this is-" I start to say but Fred holds his hand up to stop me, his joking demeanor gone in an instant.
"So this is him." Fred says coldly, staring daggers at Tom. Tom is taller than the twins, but they're both quite stocky, so when they are standing side by side like they are right now, they can look imposing, even in their bright fuchsia robes.
"Tom Drake." Tom introduces himself, his hand outstretched. Both twins just stare at his hand coldly, but Tom doesn't let it drop.
"Guys." I say threateningly. George is the first to relent, and he shakes Tom's hand for a fraction of a second before he releases it. "Fred." I add challengingly, and said boy finally rolls his eyes and shakes Tom's hand, but not without using a prank product that makes Tom's hair stand on end. I suppress a chuckle as I look at Tom's floating black locks while he just sighs tiredly.
"This is how I shall always remember you." Fred snickers out.
"Saint Tom, and his glowing halo of locks." George adds on while smirking. I grab the counter for the product and touch it to Tom's hand and laugh as his hair falls back into place neatly.
"Tom, these are Fred and George." I point them out while also snickering. "Best get used to pranks, you're officially surrounded by pranksters. You might find solace in Adrian, Roger, and Cedric though, they don't prank as much." I had told him about those three more during lunch and since I already had plans to see them next month before Bill and Fleur's wedding, he was excited to meet them.
"I am very honored to meet Abigail's oldest friends and family." Tom says politely, his tone cordial.
"This stiff?" George scoffs at me incredulously. "Seriously?"
"You'll be bored to death." Fred adds on with a mean smirk to Tom. I was about to counter when Tom stood up for himself. He wrapped his hand tightly around my waist and pulled me flush to him, tilting my chin up to look into his face.
"Oh I think she'll be plenty entertained, don't you agree, Darling?" Tom smirks at me, and for once today my asshole brain takes charge over my flustered brain. I manage to deadpan at him despite how much it really is making me flustered and give him a casual shrug.
"Eh." I say plainly to him. "Gotta do better than that." I add with a smirk of my own as his face falls in disappointment his ploy failed.
"Challenge accepted, my love." Tom grins once again once he regains his confidence and turns back to the boys. "Though perhaps not here." He adds with a wink to me before he releases me. "Fred, George, I have heard many wonderful stories about you both, and I promise you I will never let her grow bored in her life."
We move the conversation up to our apartment above the store from there. The twins eventually stop throwing random prank items at Tom once I start using random prank items on them. The real end of it was when Tom actually pranked them both to be stuck to their chairs right as I was about to chase them, so they had to sit there and get tackled by me at full force. I gave him a high five for the team work, which was adorable explaining a high five to him and making him do several until he learned it.
Fred and George eventually found topics they could enjoy with Tom, which was unfortunately all about roasting me. They were highly entertained to hear about the stories he had of me in the realm, which were entertaining to hear about from his perspective. I was happy my love was getting along with the twins and vice versa, these were all incredibly important people to me and it made me happy they got along at least a little.
We did spend the night at the apartment, but George stole me away to sleep in his bed with him while Fred threatened Tom to stay in my room and not come near me. I just shrugged it off and crashed like a starfish over George, an action I've done dozens of times before.
"I'm beginning to think all your friends and family are trying to keep us apart, Darling." Tom says lightly in the morning after we left the apartment and headed towards my bike.
"Beginning to?" I tease him with a laugh. "It will be better once we have our own place. Besides... we technically aren't dating yet." I say as I thought about it. "Wow, strange to think about. You've only been reborn for not even three days."
"We aren't together yet?" Tom asks in confusion. "I assumed I was already courting you."
"Well, yes, but you never asked me out." I counter teasingly with a smirk. He stops in his tracks and grabs my hand tightly, standing very close to me and using his free hand to tilt my face up to his.
"Abigail Black, will you do me the honors of allowing me to court you?" Tom asks in a low voice, his lips only inches away from mine.
"Yes, Tom, I will date you." I smile at him. "We don't say court any-" He cuts me off by kissing me deeply right there in the middle of Diagon Alley. "You really like cutting me off." I point out with a dopey smile when we part from our kiss.
"I like to take charge." He smirks at me and I frown.
"So do I." I say disgruntledly.
"Then we shall have an ever lasting battle." His smirk grows to an arrogant one.
"Ah, dangerous choice of words." I grin at him wickedly. "In case you haven't heard, I'm a dragon riding, fire breathing warrior of the fiercest nature. Battle with me, and I send you to hell." I laugh evilly then.
"Your grandiose reputation will not-" This time I cut him off with a kiss, a smirk on my lips as I deepen our kiss, my tongue instantly winning in our battle for dominance before I pull away. "Then again... perhaps defeat isn't so bad." He says with a happy grin on his face.
"Yes, I think I'll be quite entertained by you, Mr. Drake. I have no worries about that." I grin at him as I continue to head towards the bike. He caught up and joined out hands together, peppering mine with kisses as we laugh and stroll hand in hand together.
"So, what career plans sound appealing to you?" Remus asks Tom the day after we came back from our shopping trip.
Tom is unsure what he wants to do with himself now, and since I will be returning to my part time work back at the joke shop, he can't exactly shadow me around everywhere. He hasn't left my side since he was resurrected, which while endearing, is letting me know his world is still very small. He needs to branch out and find his purpose, and the sooner he can so that, the more he can grow as a person.
"Well... I think I want to work within the Ministry." Tom says lightly. Dad had picked up a stack of pamphlets from the Ministry and Minnie had sent us a packet of other career options. Tom picks up one of the pamphlets off the table and holds it idly, a pensive look on his face. "The Department for Experimental Charms."
"What does that department do?" I ask in confusion, moving to look over his shoulder since I've never heard of it before.
"They create and regulate new charms." Tom reads off. "I've done my fair share of inventing spells in my past." I give him a knowing and judging look at that and he rolls his eyes. "Not all spells I made were dark magic, as you well know. That ice magic spell wasn't dark, and you certainly benefited from it if your boasting was anything to tell about it." I grin innocently at that.
"Yeah, probably start with regulating that spell, it's way overpowered and dangerous." I say smugly and move about making lunch for us as Tom and Remy keep talking about the Ministry and current events there. Remus has been the first to really warm up to Tom and accept him, giving him a real chance.
"They're having interviews for positions next week, I can drop your application off in the morning when I head in." Dad says that evening at dinner. "You'll need documents though."
"Made them already!" I say cheerily and run and grab them, throwing them down on the table in front of Tom.
"These are perfect." Tom says with suspicion as he scrutinizes the school transcripts and even a few letters of recommendation I faked. "Completely flawless. And thorough. How did you make these?"
"I have many talents, Mr. Drake." I say with a smug smirk. "The less you question things, the happier your conscience will be."
I made him fake Hogwarts transcripts, a new muggle ID card, medical records, everything he could need. I gave him good fake marks on his OWL's and NEWT's so he can have different career options. I didn't give him Ancient Runes or Alchemy ones though since he doesn't actually know those topics, everything else I have confidence in him learning easily for the two years he missed from school.
Tom spent the next week readying my old textbooks while I was gone at work. The Hogwarts students were all doing their back to school shopping right now, and the stores in Diagon Alley were all reopening from when they were closed during the short war. Fred tasked me to being in the back room creating either new products or just making more of ones we have. Apparently, I'm not warm and friendly enough to handle selling joke products to children. I made one kid cry once and now I'm off floor duty, which is just plain rude. It's fine though, since everyone is out shopping in troves and enjoying the post-war freedom, we are selling significantly more products than last year and it's flying off the shelves faster than we can make them, so my skills are better put to use back there.
"Good luck, love!" I wish Tom luck the next week as he's preparing to go to his interview.
"You're not coming?" Tom asks in surprise as I'm rushing around getting ready.
"No, Fleur's having me over to help with her dress fitting." I say as I drink my tea in large gulps, burning my tongue in the process. "Ginny's in the bridal party, but they both want me there for this today and it'll give me a chance to get my own dress for the wedding."
"Have fun then, Darling." He smiles nervously at me. I pause in my actions and walk over to him, giving him an encouraging peck on the cheek.
"The mighty Lord Voldey-tort, scared stiff for an interview." I tease him, poking his cheek obnoxiously. This makes him genuinely laugh out, and I can see some of the tension leave his shoulders. "I would say knock 'em dead, but you might take that seriously."
"Alright, I get it, I'm calm now." He laughs out to me, warmth in his whiskey brown eyes from my teasing. "Thank you, love." He kisses me on my cheek and starts to shove me out the door. "Go on then, I'll see you later. Um... for dinner. Just us. Tonight?" He asks me out with a still nervous smile.
"Why Tom Drake, are you asking me out on our first official date?" I say lightly, a smile on my lips.
"Yes, I realize we perhaps did things a little out of order, but it's better late than never." He grins at me more confidently.
"Then I'll meet you in London tonight." I wave over my shoulder, then Apparate to the Burrow.
I spent the day with Fleur, Ginny, Gabrielle, Molly, and Fleur's mother. I'm not actually in the bridal party since Fleur has her own best friends and we aren't that close, but her friends are back in France right now and this is just a fitting so I'm tagging along. Fleur and I get along great though, but I can tell I'm still the only one in the Weasley family that likes her. Since Bill never got attacked by Fenrir like in the stories, she never had her moment with Molly that bonded them. I took it upon myself to help mend that, since Fleur is actually great and I want Molly and Ginny to see that. Gabrielle hung on my arm the whole day like I was her hero, which I can see how in her eyes I am since I helped her during the second task. She was adorable, and is heading off to her first year at Beauxbatons after the wedding and spent hours telling me how nervous and excited she is for it.
The fitting went well, and Fleur had Ginny try on several different bridesmaids dresses. And I agreed with Fleur during the shopping, Ginny did indeed look 'orible in pink', and thankfully we found a gold dress for the redheaded girl. I myself found a wine-red floor length dress and picked up Harry and Tom some dress robes, getting Tom a matching red tie and Harry a gold one that matched Ginny's dress.
Molly took my shopping home with her since I'll be there in a few days and we were rapidly approaching dinner time by the end of the shopping, so I went straight to the Leaky Cauldron to meet with Tom.
"You know, I still have the habit to reach for my pouch for your diary." I say to Tom softly after we have finished our lovely meal at a nice restaurant in London. We are now walking hand in hand through Trafalgar Square, just strolling to enjoy the nice evening.
"Is it strange?" He asks softly. "To be here, with me?"
"Yes." I admit truthfully, "And no. It feels right though, and I'm glad I could have this moment with you. It must be much better to be here in person rather than seeing through my eyes."
"The view is better now." He says, and I turn and look at him to see him looking at me as he said that. "I got the job, by the way." He adds on with a casual tone and a confident smile.
"Congratulations!" I smile and cheer for him. "And you waited until now to tell me? We've been out for hours!" I slap his arm playfully and he laughs with me. "When do you start?"
"On Monday." He grins at me. "It does sound like it shall be interesting work. The position is only entry level, but I suppose I have skipped some levels already so that's fine."
"I'm proud of you, Tom." I say sincerely as I pull him into a hug. "And thank you for a wonderful first date, I had a great time."
"I did as well." He says in almost surprise, holding me tightly in his arms. "I've never... well done any of this. Actually... I've never even kissed anyone before you."
"That's ok, you're doing just fine without any experience." I reassure him, raising my face up to meet his. He closed the distance and placed a sweet kiss on my lips before pulling back and smiling at me. We left for home then, hand in hand and happily together.