JOINT
After walking across the castle, Tom and Lucia finally made it up to the Astronomy Tower.
Lucia swung her leg over the stone parapet, sitting straddling it as she pulled the small bag from Lysander from her pocket. Tom sighed and joined her sitting on the edge.
It was late, and from the highest tower in the school they had a clear view of the velvety night-sky, stars scattered like glinting crystals across its expanse.
"Luna Lovegood is a fucking legend." Lucia chuckled, holding up rolling papers and filters from inside the small bag with the weed.
Tom rolled his eyes, "Trust you to be breaking the rules already. As a previous Head Boy I feel like I should be dobbing you in."
"You wouldn't." Lucia feigned shock, but let a smile creep onto her face as she began rolling with the paper, "As if me dobbing you in wouldn't be a million times worse than a student smoking on the grounds."
"That is true." Tom acknowledged, swinging his leg over to sit opposite her and stare out into the sky.
Lucia pulled her lighter from deep in her charmed extended pocket and lit the joint, inhaling it deeply before letting the smoke drift from the side of the tower up into the clear sky.
She offered it to Tom, who surprisingly accepted it and took a drag as well.
"So now that you're not lying to me..." Lucia began, "You can actually tell me the truth about yourself, and I can ask you questions."
"You are right I suppose." Tom agreed, brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"Okay... So you're a half-blood, right?" She started, "How does that work? By damning anyone but Purebloods aren't you then damning yourself?"
"First of all, throughout school there was nothing I hated more than the fact that my father was a muggle. It disgusted me, really. Not that my mother was much better," Tom explained, "You have to keep in mind that I am absolutely not the Lord Voldemort you read about. Yes I have indulged in the Dark Arts more than most, but the extent to which my later self has is a completely different level. But to be completely honest, for me, the beginnings of my building of followers didn't necessarily stem from my own beliefs, but instead it was a way to band together people based on their common beliefs. Blood purity is something those people were incredibly passionate about, so by giving them that opportunity for unity and enforcement of it, it was all too easy to get them to put me on a pedestal."
"I suppose that makes sense," Lucia sighed as she took another drag, "And I have to ask... Lord Voldemort? Why the eccentric name?"
"I've always hated the affiliation of Riddle just because of it's link to my father. And Tom... well it's just such a common and unoriginal name. Forgive my younger self for his arrogance, but I always saw myself as unique." He said, chuckling lightly at his childhood.
"I mean I kind of get it, but it seems a bit over the top." Lucia laughed along.
Tom took the joint from her fingers and inhaled from it, "Now my turn for questions." He spoke as he exhaled.
"Fire away." Lucia chuckled, bringing one leg up in front of her and leaning back against the stone behind her.
"Forgive my curiosity, but have you and Lysander... or Lorcan?" He began asking.
"Oh my God Tom." Lucia scoffed, "I'm here asking you about the philosophy behind world domination and you want to know if I fucked one of my friends."
"That doesn't answer the question." Tom cocked an eyebrow.
He was so used to having Lucia all to himself in their little bubble, and from seeing glimpses her previous life before him he couldn't help but feel slightly jealous. He knew he had been far from her first, and it's not as if she was his either. But the thought of someone who'd known her longer than him with their hands all over her made bile rise in his throat.
"Lysander and I may have had a couple of... slip ups. But they were nothing but something in the moment when we were both intoxicated." Lucia sighed, knowing that lying to Tom would just make it worse, "But Tom, you don't need to be jealous, this stuff was all before I even met you."
"And others... here?" Tom looked away pressed his tongue to the inside of his cheek. He both didn't and so desperately wanted to know the answer.
"A couple..." Lucia admitted, and his jaw tensed.
"Like who?" He returned his eyes to her and grabbed the joint to take a drag.
"Does it really matter?" Lucia rolled her eyes, "Just a couple of guys and girls, mostly from other houses. None of them meant anything at all, as I've told you before I'm not exactly chummy with everyone here."
Tom exhaled the smoke from his lungs and returned the joint to Lucia.
"What about you, then?" Lucia raised her eyebrows, "I know for sure that I wasn't your first."
"My first time was when I was in third year, with a fifth year Slytherin girl. Then the rest were just casual things or me trying to get something from them." He explained emotionlessly, leaning back against the stone wall on his side.
"An older girl? Young Tom was a player." Lucia shook her head, rolling herself another joint.
"I wanted to be the first of the boys in my year, so I just bribed her into sleeping with me." He shrugged, "It was rather easy to be quite honest."
"I'm not even surprised you used sex to get girls to do things for you." Lucia laughed.
Tom cocked his eyebrows with a smirk plastered on his face, "What can I say, it always worked."
"You're such an dick, I can only imagine what you would have been like."
Tom nodded in agreement, "Let's just say I've always been rather competitive."
Lucia laughed, lighting her next joint, "My first time was with a guy at a Summer Camp that my Mum wanted to send me off to the summer after fourth year. Much to Dad's dislike, she was always trying to ship me off over the holidays. He was two years older than me and the son of one of the leaders, I think it was the Australian accent that drew me in to be honest."
"And how was it?" Tom asked, looking up at her.
"Let's just say he avoided me for the rest of the camp. I don't know if it was because I obviously didn't come or because he moaned his ex's name when he did." Lucia chuckled.
"Right." Tom nodded, bringing the joint from Lucia's fingers to his lips.
"But seriously Tom, the stuff with Lysander... and anyone else, it's all well and truly in the past. You have no reason to be envious, just like I don't about your past." Lucia said more seriously, reaching over to rest her hand on his thigh.
"I know. I just don't like to imagine anyone else." Tom clenched his jaw.
"There is no one else, and anyway, no one has ever made me feel the way you do." She brought the hand to thread in his hair, and he instinctively leant into it.
"Good." He whispered.
"I really didn't see you as the jealous type." Lucia chuckled, inhaling from the joint again.
"No one you've slept with has been around us before." He cocked an eyebrow.
"Well that's not exactly true." Lucia said under her breath.
His head jolted up and his eyes focused sharply on her, "Who?"
"I probably should have told you about Darcy and I." Lucia admitted.
Tom put his head in his hands, "Are you serious?"
"We were lonely and I was staying with her for some of the summer after my Dad died." Lucia explained, "I was really drugged up on heroin that summer though, and in the end we both knew we were better as friends. It was more of a coping mechanism than anything else I think."
Tom sighed.
"Don't be immature. You've always known I wasn't exactly on the innocent side Tom." Lucia rolled her eyes.
"And those pictures on your phone... the ones I found accidentally. Who were they for?" Tom raised his head from his hands.
"No one actually. You're the only one who's seen them." Lucia said matter-of-factly, "I didn't take them for anyone in particular, but to be honest I'm glad I did from the look on your face every time they're mentioned." She chuckled.
Tom felt rather pleased with her answer, having felt angry at the thought of someone else seeing the photos he'd loved so much.
"Excuse me? It's past curfew, you both should be in your common rooms." A feminine voice came from the entrance to the open top section of the tower.
"Come on Aimee, it's first night back. Cut us some slack." Lucia sighed, looking over to the Ravenclaw Prefect.
"Lucia, you're out after curfew and you're smoking. You can't seriously think you won't get a detention from this." Aimee scoffed.
"Fucking hell, okay. Punish us if you must." Lucia rolled her eyes and put out the joint on the stone, before rising from the parapet, Tom's hand intertwined in hers.
"Expect an owl with the date and times of your detentions tomorrow at breakfast." The prefect said rather rudely.
"Great, thanks." Lucia gave an obviously fake smile, "Now if you don't mind, Tom and I are going to go shag in a broom cupboard, feel free to add that to the detention." She waved over-exaggeratedly as she pulled Tom down the stairs briskly.
Tom stared at her in disbelief, having not seen such a nasty side to Lucia since the encounter with her mother, he had to admit, it kind of turned him on.
"What was that all about?" He chuckled as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"She's just really stuck up. I think it's just because she hates muggles and everything to do with them." Lucia huffed.
"So what was it you said about a broom cupboard?" Tom raised his eyebrows.
author's note
omg 8k reads??? guys thank you so much.
this chapter is for a bit of backstory, since tom especially has been obviously really secretive for the first part of the book.
hope you enjoyed!