Exams were eventually over and done with and both Frankie and Tom had passed, with mostly "Exceeds Expectations". Miraculously, Frankie had woken up and really turned it around in their Potions final. Quin had offered up some of this sketchy draught he bought Zonko's that was good for staying awake when pulling all-nighters. Tom was desperate enough to accept his assistance in bringing her back to life for the examination. She was able to return slightly, to take it of her own free will, and immediately jolted up, like she'd chugged seven cups of coffee. They ended up doing well and thankfully Slughorn didn't notice her manic energy that Quin and Tom spent the hour trying to reign in. Once Frankie was fully back to her senses, she wouldn't dare answer Tom's question about the Mirror of Erised. They might've been unnaturally close, but there was no way she would tell him something like that in her right mind. Tom didn't press on the subject too much, anyway. He didn't even want to think about that mirror again, now that he knew exactly what it was. It had been much too revealing.
Now, the two mentally and physically braced themselves for yet another summer at Wool's Orphanage. Although, it was merely meant to be the summer leading up to their fourth year, something in the air had changed while they were away. Nothing really seemed too different when they first returned. The older kids still hated them, vehemently, remembering the old days of constant 'cursing' and mass hysteria. The girls had gotten more obvious with their resentment towards Frankie. She always came back with nicer clothes, a clean face and a thousand interesting stories, like she was better than them. Meanwhile, their time was running thin, and Mrs. Cole could only hire so many to stay and work. She would get out and have a better future and it wasn't fair because she was supposed to be cursed trash even lower than the rest of them.
Mrs. Cole hadn't changed in the slightest. She was still constantly scolding them for various incidents and strange happenings they weren't even causing since they couldn't do magic. A new happening she enjoyed scolding Frankie for was the 'parade' of owls flying through all the orphanage windows,
"You're lying! Who sends mail by owls?"
Mrs. Cole was just being overdramatic, like usual. It was really only one owl who was frequently flying into the orphanage. Daphne had badgered Frankie for the address to the orphanage, so they could keep in touch this summer. Frankie was always sitting calmly on the playroom floor, surrounded with small kids petting the owl on her lap, reading a letter. No ruckus or mayhem in the scene, despite Mrs. Cole's incessant need to turn them into these bad characters. Meanwhile, Tom would be sitting slightly off to the side in the only adult chair, reading the nothing-of-interest book and ready to retort Mrs. Cole on Frankie's behalf. When they weren't fighting off that wretched woman, Frankie and Tom would sit at their little table in the garden and try not to watch as London burned. Air quality usually forced them back inside an hour or two later, but they tried to be out as long as they could bear it. On Sundays, when Mrs. Cole took the orphanage to church to pray for the city, they'd sneak off on little walks. Why go to church when they were already thought of as sinners? As a young witch and wizard, they were not exactly welcome in God's house. Tom often made jokes about his father, "The Devil" as they passed London's many churches, which he knew amused Frankie despite what she told him. Even with the city in war strung ruins, they acted like everything was normal, completely uneventful from any other summer,
Then, an east wind started blowing.
─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
It was nearing midnight on a cool, mid-summer night. Tom was sitting on his bed reading one of his various textbooks in the dim light, when he heard someone knocking on his bedroom door. He sighed. He shoved a spare scrap of parchment in the book he was reading and reluctantly went to go answer the call. There was only one person it could possibly be at this hour. Surely enough, there Frankie stood in his doorway. Her long hair was messy and knotted, her hazel eyes drooped and tired. She was holding the white rabbit, Rue, tight to her chest. A noble companion, but not strong enough for this night apparently. She needed him.
"What is it?" Tom asked, although he already had a good enough idea. This was not the first time she showed up at an unreasonable hour of the night. It was a constant occurrence since day one. One time, in her first year at the orphanage, she came to his room at midnight just because she couldn't sleep and wanted to play Scrabble. However, nowadays, this was much more of an unhappy affair. "Another nightmare?"
She nodded, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Ever since the summer began, she had been having terrifying nightmares. She wouldn't tell him what they were about, but he had a hunch that it was probably about what Dumbledore had shown them in the Pensieve. Now that they were back in London, the memories must have been starting to get to her more than they had at school. Her old house was not far, and they often passed it on their Sunday walks. Frankie didn't cry out or make a visible fuss, but raised her pace ever so slightly and Tom just knew that she was still bothered by it.
Frankie had finally finished rubbing all the sleep from her eyes and decided to suddenly dive under his bed. Tom would've thought she was still half asleep if they hadn't been doing this all summer. He merely returned to the top of his bed and waited for her to resurface with what she was looking for. She returned to his side seconds later with the Monster Book of Monsters in hand.
"What will it be tonight?" Tom sighed, petting the spine of the book and undoing the binding buckle that secured it. They would start on a random page, then skip to the beginning and read properly. It was a weird system, but not highly unreasonable. She didn't speak but flipped through the book and opened to the page on Thestrals. "Thestrals—again?"
"I like Thestrals, though," Frankie smiled, as she hugged her knees tightly together. Tom could not see them. Apparently, the death of his mother didn't count towards the weird conditions surrounding them. But, according to Frankie, they were what pulled the invisible carriages at school and sometimes she would go out to the forest with Ogg to feed them. Even though they were featured in the Monster Book of Monsters in the first place, they were actually kind and gentle creatures. "They're not as frightening as everyone makes them out to be. They're just a bit misunderstood, that's all."
He began to read on about things like Acromantulas and Porlocks, while she sat quietly listening. His voice was apparently somewhat calming to her, rather than cold, harsh, and murderous. Tom was tired, but he endured it for her sake. Frankie eventually fell asleep. She usually was still awake by the time they finished and could walk back to her room, but today she had fallen asleep before they even hit Norwegian Ridgebacks. She lay curled up beside him. He wasn't sure if he should wake her or not. Of course, if he let her sleep there was always the risk of Mrs. Cole finding out and the start of filthy gossip around the orphanage. They were no longer kids. They both were fourteen, soon to be fifteen, and would be starting their fourth year at Hogwarts in a matter of months.
He ended up covering his blanket over her and sat on the floor. He didn't really care what the muggles thought, but it was a precaution to make sure she was not given the wrong idea as well. He dozed off after a long while of watching her serenely snoozing face.
Night suddenly turned to day and soon Frankie woke up from sleeping. She looked around rapidly, taking a second to realize she wasn't in her room. She was still in Tom's room on his bed, while Tom sat on the ground, leaning against it.
"You could have woken me up, you know." Frankie yawned, rubbing the new sleep from her eyes.
"It's not my fault you wouldn't wake up." Tom lied, sounding rather defensive. "You sleep like a rock."
"We better get going. It's the first showing day since the war started." Showing days were days where several couples could come in without prior appointment to look at the children. It was like an open house of human misery for the unadoptable, like Frankie and Tom.
"After fourteen years stuck in this orphanage, I really don't think I need to go." She gave him a pleading look, but he wasn't about to go to another one of these things. Even before his powers started emerging, no one had wanted him. It wasn't going to change if he went downstairs, and by this point, he really didn't want it to. War wasn't exactly prime time to adopt, either. If anything, people were dumping their kids on the doorstep, glad to be rid of the hassle. Tom doubted anyone would be showing up, yet she still pouted. He sighed, "I'm not going."
"Mrs. Cole is going to kill you." Frankie reasoned. Last year a little boy hadn't shown up. Apparently, he had "accidentally" sliced his hand open with the letter opener. The cut wasn't very deep, but he was now currently six feet under from starvation.
"I'd like to see the bitch try. If anything, my continued survival is purely meant to spite her." Tom smirked. She frowned at him even harder. "—Oh, come on. It's not like she actually wants us there. We're cursed, don't you remember?"
He might've been right, but it didn't seem worth it to risk possibly dying before they were able to return to school again. Mrs. Cole wanted them out of the orphanage much more than she wanted to hide them away and keep them till graduation. It'd be worth it to have them adopted and to do that, she had to have them on display just as much as the others. But Tom was stubborn and resolved to defy her, as always, so it looked like Frankie would have to endure this torture fest alone. She sighed and walked back to her room to get ready. She got dressed in one of her nicer looking outfits, a pale pink, pointed-flat collar dress with long cuffed sleeves. Daphne had given it to her in this year's "Frankie's-still-an-orphan-let's-give-her-all-our-muggle-clothes" event. They were nicer hand-me-downs then the ones she got from the orphanage. She brushed her hair and tried to look as presentable as she could for a girl who just woke up. For sleeping in a bed that wasn't her own for half the night, she'd managed to get a little too comfy and she looked very disheveled. Frankie wasn't expecting to get adopted. Most people were looking for young little kids nowadays, if at all. Frankie had been just a little over the age when she arrived and, now that she was fourteen, it was pretty much just waiting until they could not legally detain her here. Looking nice was just part of the show.
After brushing her teeth and one last hair check in the bathroom mirror, she headed downstairs to find it empty except for the voices of Mrs. Cole and a man. Frankie froze like a statue on the stairs. If she went all the way down and interrupted them, she'd be in trouble. Instead she stayed silently on the stairs, watching them converse from over the banister.
"Are there any more kids I can look at? I'm looking for someone a little bit older. I had to let a few of my housekeepers go and I'd like someone who'd be able to help me out around the flat." He wasn't the usual type of person you would expect to find here. Aside from the strange desire for an older child, the man was wearing a very nice, tailored suit and looked to be in his early thirties. His wife wasn't with him either. He was alone.
"Um...let me think..." Mrs. Cole stalled, wondering if she would even dare mention the two absent teenagers. Of course, the decision was made for her as the man noticed Frankie leaning on the banister, watching them. The man's face instantly lit up when he saw her, while Mrs. Cole's face grimaced. Evidently, Tom had been right. She didn't want them there after all. She gestured Frankie to get down and she had no choice but to run to the bottom to meet with him.
"Frankie Dickson?— my word—is that really you?" the man exclaimed, sounding a little unsure.
"Yes, that's me. Good day, sir." she smiled, giving a small curtsy. Then, she paused. He had just said her name. She had been listening in on their conversation and Mrs. Cole hadn't mentioned it, of course. How did he know?
"Don't you remember me?"
"I'm sorry, sir. I can't say that I do."
"That'll be the retrograde amnesia, I should've known better. I was the one who diagnosed you after all. We fixed your eyes, but the brain was a little trickier." the man remarked, with a small grin. Frankie looked at him with curious eyes that had apparently been fixed. Brain damage? She couldn't remember a lot of things from the past, but she never considered it to be that drastic since the magic world literally had a spell for memory erasure. Who was this man? "Allow me to re-introduce myself. I'm Doctor Harry Fields. I was your doctor after the accident."
"My doctor?"
"Yes—your doctor. Hello again."
"What are you doing here then, doctor?" she asked, in attempt to make conversation and try to look as if she wasn't eavesdropping. Why else would anyone be at an orphanage? Mrs. Cole wouldn't call a doctor here, even if one of them sliced their hand open with a sharp object, or punched themselves so hard they broke their own nose.
"I've always wanted children of my own. Unfortunately, you need a wife for that and mine was killed in a bombing not long ago." Fields explained. Mrs. Cole immediately straightened her posture as if it weren't straight enough already and did her best to put on an attractive looking smile. Frankie rolled her eyes. "I've decided to adopt a child, despite my recent change in marital status."
"A marvelous decision. I hope that any child you pick will be able to grow up in a better environment and live a happy life." Frankie smiled, giving the perfect answer. Orphans were very good actors and being who they were not. The 'perfect' little child. They even were forced to rehearse lines on occasion. It's what got them adopted, most of the time. Although, Tom—the best liar of them all—refused to read them. Some lies were too great even for him.
"Why thank you," Fields smiled, obliviously unaware of how insincere and fake her words had been. "Tell me, are you happy here?"
"Of course not. This place is awful." she admitted, truthfully. She was going way off script and of course that wasn't the greatest idea in front of Mrs. Cole. She shot Frankie a vicious glare for her truth, silently insinuating she would pay for it later, but Fields looked at her with sorrow and pity. "Six years here and I've only had one person that makes it somewhat bearable."
"Have you really been here for six years? I could've sworn you left the hospital with a distant great uncle." he added.
"He was unable to care for me. He left me here..." Frankie replied, trying her best not to sound horribly bitter at Dumbledore. She couldn't blame him for not being able to be her caretaker, but to think of the life she could've had under his care was hard to swallow.
"How tragic..." he mumbled. She had never seen someone look at her with so much pity before. Of course, even though she couldn't remember him, he had cared for her for an entire year. He had some right to look at her like that and continue caring. Then, he suddenly took Frankie's hand. "Mrs. Cole, I've decided I want to adopt this girl."
Even though there were over twenty screaming kids in the next room, everything went silent.
"I'm—afraid you can't adopt her, Mr. Fields. Frankie goes to an exclusive boarding school in Scotland with another—"
"It's alright. I'll take care of it."
"But she'll be gone most of the—"
"It won't be a problem. I'll remove her as soon as I can." he replied, refusing to take no for an answer. You could see it in his eyes that he was absolutely certain of this. He was going to save her from enduring anymore pain. Little did he know how much he was actually the cause of it. Her life had been far from perfect, but everything that was perfect in her life required her to stay in this awful place.
"I'll have the papers ready by tomorrow then." Mrs. Cole answered, having no choice but to concede. While the orphanage girls thought Frankie's fancy education would be enough to secure her a bright future, Mrs. Cole knew that she could only enter real society if she was adopted into wealth and took a good name. She really didn't want Frankie to be adopted. It was better to have her stay there and rot, rather than have a chance at a good life with a rich and handsome doctor. Not to mention, she was the only thing holding the reins of Satan's hell spawn. She left and Tom would go back to hanging bunny rabbits and terrorizing the other children half to death. Maybe even a little more extreme than that. He'd finally start hanging the children off the rafters.
However, then she looked over at Frankie's constrained expression of hidden horror and suddenly grew a Cheshire Cat grin.
"Fantastic..." Frankie remarked, clutching her hands into fists. Her mind was still processing what had just happened. The whole room was spinning and the panic alarm in her mind had started ringing so loud it was all that she could hear.
"Isn't it though? You won't have to suffer here any longer."
"Of course."
"I've got to run off now and get things sorted at home, but I'll be back for you in the morning." he smiled, with a small wave goodbye. Mrs. Cole escorted him to the door, and he left just like that. She shut the door and shuffled past Frankie towards the kitchen.
"Mrs. Cole, you can't do this..." Frankie remarked, following behind her. She sounded desperate and she certainly was. Mrs. Cole could stop all of this. She had too.
"Do you know how many kids here want what just got dropped in your ungrateful lap? How many girls you've just steamrolled over, without even lifting a pinky?" Mrs. Cole answered, huffily. She took a glass out of the cupboard and grabbed a bottle of gin from the highest shelf. "Be grateful and go pack your bags."
"I don't want to go."
"You don't really have a choice. This is an orphanage, after all."
"But, what about Hogwarts? He won't be able to take me." Frankie protested. Mrs. Cole frowned at the mention of the name. She thought Tom and Frankie were just joking when they said that was the name of their school, clearly Dumbledore had told her something different.
"Take you?—Honey, didn't you hear him? You're done with school," Mrs. Cole scoffed. She may have acted blind to cope with the horrors created by two mad children, but she wasn't really so stupid. The one person who made this place bearable? He was the most unbearable boy and Frankie would finally be cleaved from him. That would be a victory, not a defeat. "Now, go upstairs and start packing your things—say goodbye to Tom while you're at it."
You'll never see him again...
Frankie stormed up the stairs, as she was told. She didn't have a choice. How was she supposed to tell that man that she went to a wizard school? He wouldn't believe her even if she told him. He'd probably re-admit her to the hospital, or worst, send her to the asylum. She kicked the wall with surprising force. Then she kicked it again, and again, and again...
"What's going on? What're you doing?" Tom asked, emerging from his room to see what the fuss was. The little ones could scream at the top of their lungs, but no one else had the nerve to actually kick the structure of the orphanage. Frankie walked right past him to her room. He followed her, but she slammed the door shut in his face. She fell to the floor, blocking the door from any further entrance.
Don't let him in...
She just couldn't tell Tom yet. She was still processing the news herself. How was she supposed to tell him that she had been adopted? He was trying to open the door, but she wouldn't give in. Tom demanded for her to open up, with a few agitated remarks about how badly she'd smacked his nose sprinkled in every now and then. Eventually, he stopped shouting and wiggling the door knob. Frankie heard him slam the door to his own room shut. He was angry. Good. She would rather have him angry at her and have him never want to see her again. If she cut what tied her to this place now, it'd make it slightly easier to leave it tomorrow.
Now that he had given up, Frankie moved over to her bed. It wasn't a good bed. It wasn't the type that you could hide under the covers and feel comfort in. It wasn't even good enough to curl up into a ball and cry in. However, it was the best she had at the moment. Tom came in a few minutes later, regardless of the fact she just flat out ignored him and tried to shut him out. Acting angry was just a ruse, mostly. She couldn't keep him at bay forever. There was something wrong and she was going to tell him absolutely everything.
"You're not as pretty when you cry, you know. It's repulsive and very loud." he remarked, as he shut the door behind him. In his younger years, he always found pleasure in watching the girls he tormented cry for the mothers they no longer had, or about the pain he inflicted. However, he discovered that she was not the same. Frankie hadn't seemed to notice until Tom had mentioned it, but tears were leaking out of her eyes. She wasn't able to hold them back this time. She was losing not only her best friend and the friends she had made, but the only place they had ever considered home. "Tell me what's going on."
"I won't be returning to school with you."
"Why not?" Tom asked, surprisingly maintaining a calm voice. Despite her distressed tears, he obviously didn't believe her.
"I've been adopted. I'm supposed to leave tomorrow," Frankie answered, sniffling. "He's already planning to take me out of Hogwarts, and he doesn't even know it's a wizarding school."
Tom's face was weirdly expressionless. Frankie thought that he'd have some sort of reaction, most likely anger. He suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the bed. They ran into his room, and he slammed the door behind them both this time. Tom grabbed his trunk out from under his bed and started throwing whatever he could find in his room that was not already in there.
"What are you doing?"
"Packing—what else does it look like?"
"Why? I'm the one who is—"
"I will not allow you to leave here with some delusional muggle, who's under the assumption he can own you with a few measly papers and completely uproot your whole life. " Tom replied, sounding furious. "You promised me that the day we left this place that we would leave it together."
"I know but—"
"You're not going anywhere without me," he added, with a tone of finality. He sounded even more decisive then when Doctor Fields said he wanted to adopt her. "If you're being forced to leave, we'll just run. We don't belong here anyway."
"Where are we supposed to go?"
"We're wizards. We'll be fine."
"We're underage wizards, Tom. We won't be able to use our magic out there." Frankie argued. He was being irrational. She knew he wouldn't take it too well, but she didn't think he'd react like this. It was a crazy idea.
"We just need a place to stay until school starts." Tom added, not listening to her remark about them being underage.
"They're dropping bombs out there, Tom! We can't just walk out without any plans. We'll be killed!"
He didn't have any counter arguments that could assure her they could find safe shelter. However, he wasn't going to give up. She looked skeptic and upset, so he stopped his angry tossing of supplies and held out his pinky, "You promised, remember? Nobody breaks deals with me."
Tom didn't really have a plan other than running out. Not of where to go, or how they would survive in the warring world on their own. She knew that. However, unless she wanted to spend her life as some normal muggle girl and never see her friends or Hogwarts ever again, it was her best and only option. Frankie returned to her room and started to pack all her belongings into her trunk. Then, a few minutes later, she met Tom at the top of the stairs. Sadly, Mrs. Cole was not yet drunk enough not to immediately notice the two as they clunked down the stairs with their luggage.
"Where do you two think you're going?" Mrs. Cole asked, getting up from the kitchen table to stop them.
"Anywhere else, but here. Maybe the moon. We haven't decided yet." Tom replied, trying to go past her to get to the door.
"No! You're not going anywhere!" Mrs. Cole yelled back, making a surprisingly good roadblock for a thin, slightly inebriated woman. "Dr. Fields is coming to get Frankie tomorrow and you will be staying here until school starts again."
"You can't stop us." Tom hissed. He took out his wand and pointed it towards her neck. Hopefully, the mere look of it could intimidate her. He couldn't actually use it, but she didn't know that. She didn't even know what it was but sensed the dangerous air and backed out of the way of the pair, slowly. "We'll be going now—I'd send you a postcard when were settled, but after the shit you've pulled today, I feel I can now safely say: You're a cunt."
"Goodbye Mrs. Cole..."
"Thanks for nothing!"
They walked out of Wool's Orphanage for the final time into the smoky, polluted air of London. They still had absolutely no idea where they were going and were walking into a war tattered city, with only useless magic wands and pockets with wizard money.
But they finally had their freedom and that was more than enough.