Tom was walking in his common room. To say he was angry was an understatement. He was insanely furious. No one had slapped him. Not even those muggles in his orphanage had the guts to do so. And here he was getting slapped by some pathetically shy badger. Tom rubbed his hand on his right cheek.
It was past midnight. The Slytherin common room was deserted. Everyone was asleep, but Tom was not. If not for his impatient footsteps the room was completely silent. The only companion Tom had was the fire in that old fireplace. He stopped near it. Perhaps too near, because he could feel himself getting warmer. However, the heat of that almost dying fire was nothing compared to the rage that was burning him.
"Aguamenti" He muttered pointing his wand toward those burning woods. Clean, fresh water poured out of that magical stick killing the only source of warmth in that dungeon. The smoke filled the room.
"Tom? What are you still doing here?" A small, very tired voice asked him. Tom didn't bother to turn and acknowledge his best friend. Anthony was skipping the stairs. His hands were busy rubbing his sleepy eyes. After giving him one week of the silent treatment, Tom realized that he was acting childish. He was not foolish enough to lose his best friend over the girl who was not yet claimed by him. Well, yes he had acknowledged that Alexa belonged to him, but that was done only in his mind. It was not like he was going to be this generous every single time.
"What are you still doing here?" Anthony repeated himself. He continued when he saw Tom's very troubled expressions "What's wrong?" The concern laced to every word he spoke. His ocean blue eyes were looking at him expectantly. This was the first reason he tolerated Avery. That boy was caring. And though Tom was never going to admit it aloud, he liked to think that someone was there to look out for him.
Tom lifted his hand from his now swelling cheek. A gasp left Anthony's pink lips, parting them in the process.
"W-What? H-How?" Words left him, seeing his best friend like that.
"She slapped me." Tom hissed. "That stupid, annoying, -"
He was cut off when Anthony exclaimed, "Alexa slapped you!"
Tom turned to look at his friend to see that his friend had placed both of his hands in front of his mouth. His eyes were wide open. Disbelief was written all over his face. Tom turned away. His not-so-swollen cheek was getting a colour. A hearty laugh echoed through the room, embarrassing him even more.
"Oh, Salazar! Did you get slapped? That too by a girl? How is this even possible?" Anthony continued laughing.
Tom composed himself. He wanted to take revenge. Revenge for all the humiliation he was feeling.
"Whatever" Tom replied sternly. "Now tell me what did you find?"
Anthony composed himself "I am just going to pretend you didn't just change the topic very abruptly," The annoying smirk was still in its place. "and tell you that I didn't find a lot."
Tom looked at him. He was completely let down by his friend. Antonin Avery, Anthony's father was an Auror, and Anthony was his father's favourite, so it was pretty easy for him to get his hands on the ministry related stuff. Even the most private stuff.
"But I did find something," Anthony added.
"What is it?" Tom ordered.
Anthony placed a copy of some muggle newspaper in Tom's hand. Tom looked down at the cutting which was at least a year old. The headline read "Sienna Winters was found dead in the dark alley near Leaky Cauldron, London."
Sienna Winters. He found that name familiar, but from where? Ah yes! It was there in Alexa's school record. Her guardian was some woman named Sienna Winters.
"Is this -" Tom muttered.
Without giving him the chance to continue, Anthony interrupted "Sienna Winters nee Goldstein. The article said that she used to live with her daughter. I am guessing that Alexa is pretending to be that anonymous daughter."
Tom read that news. He reread it. Though he lived in a Muggle orphanage, he was not accustomed to their newspapers. To be honest he found them dull. Maybe that's the reason he didn't come across that news before.
"Daughter? But she was mentioned as her aunt in the records. If she was her mother, why was she mentioned as an aunt?" Tom asked himself. Tom looked at the photo of the dead woman. The similarity that her face had with that of Alexa's screamed that there was a connection between those two females. "Why wasn't anything of this mentioned in Daily Prophet?"
"I don't know. Maybe they just missed it?" Anthony replied clearly unsure of himself.
Missed? It was impossible. A murder, that too this close to Wizardry world, was not something Daily Prophet was going to miss. Was someone trying to hide this news? If yes, then who? And most importantly why? There were so many unanswered questions. And there was only one person who had answers for them. That was her, the same girl who seemed to own his mind. The same violet-eyed witch. In the next meeting, he was going to confront her. And he was going to make sure that there was no place for her to run away this time.
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