As promised Tom was next to her when she woke up again. Tom teased the girl as they walked hand in hand to the Great Hall.
"Careful darling it sounds like you might fancy me more than you think."
Conscious face flushed red. "I was only saying that because I find comfort with you. Is that a crime?"
"It is a crime to steal hearts which appears to be what i've done." Tom teasing her again.
She huffed, but a smile still sat on her face. "Someone woke up extra cocky."
"It's my specialty." He grinned.
Conscious rolled her eyes and she sat in their usual seats in the middle at the Slytherin table. Nott, Avery, Malfoy and LeStrange already sitting.
"Look at the love birds, finally arrive!" Avery whistled. Tom narrows his eyes at his comment as more colour seem to grow on the girls face.
"Meeting tonight remember." Tom spoke, the boys nodded.
"NEWTS and OWLS are tomorrow, will the meeting be long?" Nott asked.
"It will be one of the last before summer. Have you all decided where you will be going?" Tom explained.
"I will be returning to the Manor, again Riddle the doors are open for you. I believe my mother is throwing another ball which you all are invited too." Abraxas spoke.
"A ball?" Conscious asked.
"Yes most pureblood families host balls, or dinners for other pureblood families. It's very elite and I would suffer alone if you didn't show." Abraxas explain eating his breakfast. "I had ask Tom for the two of join the Yule Ball my family hosted."
"I had other plans Malfoy, but we will be attending this one." Tom confirmed. "Of course if you'd like to darling."
Conscious nodded with a smile. "Oh yes!"
"Beautiful." Abraxas smiles right back.
"I'll be returning home as well I believe most of us are going home." Avery said, the others nodded.
"Where are you going Conscious?" Abraxas asked.
"Back home too I suppose."
"I will be joining her." Tom said. "I think after the ball at Malfoys we all plan to move into Conscious home she has grateful offered. Gives you all to spend a week or two with family then we can set off on our plans."
"Where is your home Conscious?" Nott asked.
"Just outside Russia." She said.
"Your family would be alright with a bunch of boys living with you?" LeStrange scuffed.
Conscious glared at her. "Hm, let me see i'll go ask my mother's grave and i'll get back to you."
The table got silent very quick and the tension in the air was very unstable. Tom could see her knuckles turn white as it was wrapped around her fork.
LeStrange cleared her throat, she hadn't expected this answer from her. "Oh, I didn't know."
"Because you have been to stuck up to get to know me." Conscious spat standing up.
"Darling it's alright." Tom said holding her forearm trying to calm her anger.
"It's not alright!" Conscious spoke her voice raising. "I've with held so much power on you LeStrange and you are pushing every ounce of me not to hex you."
Tom noticed her bright blue eyes swirl with black.
Crap.
If he allowed more, the teachers would surely notice, he could see Dumbledore already looking at their table and a few other students as well glancing to see what was happening.
"I think you should leave LeStrange." Avery said.
"I'm sorry Conscious I didn't inte-"
"Ballox!" Conscious laughed with a dark tone. It was something none of the group had heard before and it definitely didn't sit right with them.
Tom snapped his head to LeStrange. "Leave now." He hissed. She nodded quickly taking her things and fleeing the Hall.
Tom tugged for Conscious to sit down, pulling head onto his shoulder. "Calm down."
She let out a shaking breath. "I'm going to hex her one day, and no one will be there to protect her."
"We were protecting you." Abraxas mummers. "We've seen your outbreaks before and we know you don't enjoy them."
She closed her eyes allowing them to open bright blue instead of a dark sea of madness. God her emotions were killing her and she needed to fix it quickly.
"She isn't worth it darling." Tom cooed.
Nott snickered. "Riddle you give everyone that look."
Tom shot him a look of 'stop talking' but it was to late as Avery and Malfoy soon joined in teasing Tom for his antisocial behaviour. He almost proved them right before noticing Conscious giggling, hearing the sound of her happy cancelled out the pain of hearing his idiotic friends tease him.
"We'll meet tonight to discuss further plans, if you need us though we'll be studying in the library. Make sure you all are well prepared." Tom instructed. The boys nodded, mumbling about how Tom was a kiss ass nerd earning each of them a glare.
Conscious stood up following Tom out of the hall towards the library. "Do you even need to study?"
Tom glanced at her. "No, but it's best to review and for you to take your mind off murder."
She stayed silent. "Thank you, for erm that." She ran her hands through her blonde hair a sign escaping her lips. Her emotions have never been to intense before, she should make a calming potion.
"You need to control that temper." Tom stated.
"Do you think the hospital wing could supply me with a calming potion?" She asked.
He shrugged, digging his hands into his pockets, pulling out that silver tin again popping a cigarette in his mouth. "I don't see why not." She eyed him as the cigarette dangled unlit between his lips.
"Let's ask Slughorn if we can brew one, it'd be good practice as well." Conscious suggested. "We can review after lunch. I don't want another.. explosion again."
Tom nodded. "Sure but follow me first I want to show you something." He was signalling her to turn which she did.
They walked outside, warm sun hitting their faces. Tom took the cigarette out of his mouth placing it behind his ear as they walked towards a wooden bridge.
She frowned a bit. "Why are we here?"
He leaned forward to look out one of the slots that overviewed Hogwarts. "You said you like nature no?"
She copied his stance, leaning out to look. They were awfully high up and the castle could be seen in its full beauty. Birds and insects flying in the distance, the trees bright green and the sun shining over the school.
"It's beautiful." She commented. Tom glanced at her, before grabbing his cigarette allowing a small fire again to light it. Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes holding the smoke for a few seconds before releasing.
"Are you excited to return back home?" Tom asked.
Conscious turned to face him. "No, well i'm not sure. I'm excited for you to join me but I hate that house now."
"Why?"
Her eyes dropped slightly. "My mother, she died in that house." He didn't know that. He didn't even expect that.
"How did she?"
She frowned. "That's not very polite to ask."
Before he could answer she continued though; "She jumped off the balcony, from the pressure of my father and what he stood for. She sought comfort in death inside of herself and her life."
His eyes filled with pity and even guilt for asking. "I'm sorry Conscious."
He'd stop smoking to, forgetting it even was lite before he saw her hands take the cigarette from his hands as she took a puff from it.
"It's alright, I miss her dearly though but she is happy now. She's with me now in her purest form." She smiled looking outward nature.
"You believe in Heaven and Hell?" Tom asked snaking back his cigarette.
She looked at him. "You literally use magic and you do not believe in other realms of power?"
He rolled his eyes. "I was implying if you meant she was happier in Heaven than Earth."
"She isn't in Heaven, she's around me even us right now she's here."
He looked at her with confusion. Was it a figure of speech he just didn't understand? Or was she high from one hit of the cigarette?
"I don't follow."
"She is nature Tom. Mother Nature is my mother." Conscious smiled.
Oh.
That would make sense. In an odd way, how connected she felt to Earth, wanting to spend days out on the grass, watching sunsets and sunrises.
"Mother Nature is real? I thought that was a muggle term." He questioned obviously still confused.
"Everything you've ever been told as a child is real Tom. Everything you could ever dream of is real." Conscious laughed.
He hissed as the flame from his bud burnt the tip of his finger. "You have quite the heritage."
She nodded. "I miss her dearly, but I can feel her warmth when it radiates from the sun, like she is here holding my hand in life."
It was rather odd to think about it. A child being the parent of nature, a father of darkness and the brother of light. What a weird family mix; he hasn't sure why this was a surprise as well- he was a wizard and magic wasn't meant to exist.
"Is your father Santa Klaus?" Tom teased.
"Very funny." Conscious grumbled. "He doesn't like me very much though."
He cocked a brow. "Santa Klaus is real too?"
"Everything is real Tom."
"Then who is your father?" Tom asked.
She glanced down over the edge, staying silent. Tom frowned, taking her arm pulling her away so she faced him. "You can trust me, I do not care who he is."
"He's cruel and vile." She whispered. "He is a man of dark and destruction, a man who crushes hope, dreams and happiness."
Tom tilted his head, taking his brain searching for a muggle term that could fit who she described before it finally clicked. Only one fairy tale describes of a man who sucks out the light and replaces it with darkness, destroying dreams and hopes of children for pure pleasure. A man who once upon a time haunted Tom in his childhood, just like he did with every other child who walked this Earth.
"The boogeyman." Tom stated. "Your father is the boogeyman?"
"Kozmotis Pitchiner, better known as yes the boogeyman, or pitch black."Conscious said looking off to the distance again, removing herself from Toms grip. "He is a cruel man and most likely haunted you as a child."
"How is this possible? I've never heard of children from each of these tales."
"Not everything is in books Tom; sometimes they only arise from tales or prophecies." Conscious explained. "My mother became one with nature after she took her own life, she died in a field of flowers and allowed her powers to drain into the soil from her bloody body after lunging herself out a window."
Tom looked wide eyed not expecting the tales of Mother Nature to have been so dark and cruel.
"My father use to be a good man, he collected all of the darkness in the world and imprisoned them, before he let fear overrun him and he allowed himself to be absorbed by the darkness and turned him into The King of Nightmares." She continued. "Lastly my brother, he wasn't really my family by blood but by trauma he became the only family I had left. He was a perfect child. He was the boy who never dreamed, and once my father got new of this he set off to make him The Prince of Nightmares after my mother and I refused to join his throne. They battled as my brother refused to join Pitch after he got news he slaughter his family to cause fear and devastation so my brother would have no other choice but to join him. He fought to protect his dreams and the children of Earth to make sure no child would live in a world of fear, after he had won the battle my remains on the moon to this day to protect children from my father."
Tom for once was left speechless, he hadn't seen this coming. He hadn't expected her to revel this to him either she always shut him down until today. He felt a sense of joy, feeling her trust him more yet something followed right after hearing all the pain her father caused her he couldn't help but wonder; why was she helping him?
"I had no idea nor would I have guessed this." Tom confessed.
Conscious snorted. "Obviously, but I told you time would come before I revel more to you."
Tom nodded. "You are incredibly strong darling and you are nothing like your father."
She smiled with pink on her pale cheeks. "Thank you, and you will become greater than just a Half- Blood wizard you will become great Tom."
He now understood better why she was so afraid to use her magic, not because she couldn't control it she just didn't want to end up on a darker path like her father had forced her to train to become. She may be dark but she refuses to surrender her morals to the darkness. And he now made sure he wouldn't allow himself to become something as dark as that.