LORD
The broad figure of Professor Hagrid could be seen emerging from his hut, heading towards a clearing where some students were already waiting for class.
"Ev'ryone gather round. I've got a real treat fer yeh today." Hagrid called, gesturing to the barrels set up across the grass.
Rubeus Hagrid was as tall as ever, wearing a dark brown fur coat. His hair was just as shaggy, and beard just as untamed. But his face showed lines of age, with grey hairs streaking through his once fully chocolate brown hair.
The students gathered around the open barrels, Lucia choosing to stay aside Victoire due to her lack of other friends in the class.
"Who can tell me wha' yeh think these are?" Hagrid asked the class, looking around at the faces for responses.
Inside the barrel were large, semi-transparent eggs submerged in water. There was a pearly sheen on the outside of them, but if you looked closely you could see a small sea-horse looking creature growing.
"Are they Hippocampi, Professor?" A Ravenclaw boy suggested after raising his hand.
"They are indeed, well done. Five points ter Ravenclaw." Hagrid responded cheerily, "A Hippocampus is a large water beast originating from Greece. These are jus eggs o' course, but a grown Hippocampus has the forequarters o' a horse an' the tail an' hindquarters o' a giant fish."
The class looked closer inside the barrels, and the developing shape of the creatures could be seen.
"Today we're goin' ter be assessing the progress o' the tadfoals, comparing 'em ter growth charts ter make sure they're all looking nice an' healthy." Hagrid explained, "Get inter house groups around each o' the barrels, an' turn ter page for'y-seven o' the textbook fer the growth chart."
Lucia sighed in disappointment, so much for standing next to Victoire. She walked around to where a couple of other Ravenclaws had already gathered around one of the barrels.
Some of them were already chattering, and Lucia opened her copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to find the page on Hippocampi.
The beginnings of a red or blue pigment on the skin and scales could already be seen through the eggs, with the beginnings of hooves developing in the forequarters. Thin red veins could be seen surrounding the egg, pumping blood around the sleeping tadfoal.
"They look like they are around 4 months along according to the chart." The Ravenclaw boy who'd answered Hagrid's question before raised to the small group.
"The hoof development is more in line with 5 months I'd say though." Lucia added, looking at the specific descriptions of each stage.
"Tha' would be righ' Lucia, well done." Hagrid said approvingly from behind them.
The Ravenclaw boy gave her a cold look, but returned to looking at the chart.
"Now we jus need ter change the water, as it would usually refresh itself in the wild." Hagrid instructed, "Because Hippocampi live in the sea, we'll have ter use salt water. Does ev'ryone remember the spell fer tha'?"
The class nodded in response, and moved to siphon the old water out with a charm, then replenish it with a variation of Augamenti. This took a while, considering there was a bit of a build up of gunk down the bottom or the barrels. But finally the barrels were clean and the eggs were returned to their place.
***
Lucia walked into the Great Hall for lunch. She was rather early, and there weren't many students already sitting down.
She took a seat at the Ravenclaw table and began to make herself a sandwich.
The bewitched ceiling showed blue skies, with fluffy clouds dappled across the wide expanse. The sun gave a warm glow to the tables, and Lucia suspected that this weather was a bit of an overexaggeration of the mild climate outside, but supposed that nice weather was a good way to raise moods for the first day back.
"Mind if I join you?" A masculine voice sounded from behind her, one that she'd grown to know all too well over the course of just the past few months.
"Not at all." Lucia smiled up at the figure of Tom, "Can't say I can control the glares of the other Ravenclaws when they see a Slytherin at their table though. It's a risk you'll have to take for yourself."
"Let them stare." He said as he slid beside her on the bench, a hint of annoyance underlying his tone.
"How did your classes go? Suck up to many professors?" Lucia teased.
"They were pretty ordinary to be honest. And I wouldn't use they phrase 'suck up', instead I would describe it as coercing into liking." He cocked an eyebrow, reaching for a bread roll.
"Of course." Lucia laughed.
"I must say, seeing you duelling in DADA was rather entertaining." He added, looking up from the butter he was spreading on his roll.
"Was it now? Do you mean before or after I had to sit on the ground to wait until I could walk again?" Lucia laughed at her own expense.
"Both actually." Tom acknowledged, tilting his head a little, "You could use a bit of work on your concentration though, I must say." He added with a smirk.
Lucia looked at him with a fake expression of offence to the statement. "Excuse me, but it was incredibly distracting to have you absolutely obliterating the Hufflepuff boy right behind my opponent."
Tom hummed in response, biting into his bread roll.
A couple of other students had now settled at the table, some giving a double take at the sight of Tom at the table, but most ignored it. It wasn't as if the houses didn't mingle, but the Slytherins had always been known for mostly sticking to themselves.
"So... detention with Slughorn this evening." Lucia raised with a chuckle.
"Not how I was imagining spending the first evening after classes. I still cannot believe you got me into trouble first night back, such a bad influence." He accused with a smirk.
"Deepest apologies, my lord." Lucia joked, then slapped a hand to her mouth in realisation.
Tom almost choked on the food in his mouth, his eyes going wide as he also processed what she'd called him.
My lord...
"Oh my God." Lucia gaped.
Tom took a breath. "I appreciate the expression of your devotion, young Lucia. However, I must reveal to you that my interest in our time together revolves around quite different motives than that language seems to imply." He spoke formally, but the glint of humour in his eye couldn't be mistaken, "I do not intend to have you as a follower, but instead I desire to take you out to dinner on the occasion and hopefully more often than that, get between your legs."
It was Lucia's turn to choke on her food.
"Tom!" Lucia gasped, looking around to make sure no one else heard.
"I'm glad to hear you don't have any objections." He smiled, his dark eyes reflecting the enchanted sunlight coming through the ceiling in a way that made them appear like warm coffee.
"I sometimes find it incredibly hard to believe that you... are you." Lucia spoke with her head in her hands.
"I'll take that as a compliment." Tom chuckled, taking a sip of water in the silence as Lucia brought her head back up and resumed her lunch, "I hope Slughorn leaves us be for the detention though, I hardly think it will be an enjoyable time if he's breathing down our necks the whole time."
"He's really not that bad in detentions to be honest. When I've had them with him before, especially last year, he's just made me do a pretty mindless task and let me go early." Lucia shrugged.
Lucia was quite used to detention, having sat them with most of the professors before. Slughorn was by far the most tolerable, considering many of the other professors treated it almost like a gruelling private tutoring session, on top of a day of classes already completed beforehand. Lucia was quite fond of a quiet evening sorting potions ingredients with Slughorn instead.
"I suppose we'll see tonight." Tom said, "Shall we meet at the entrance to the Great Hall at the end of the day to go?"
"Yes. I think I have Ancient Runes and History of Magic now, I'm going to need a coffee to get through this." Lucia sighed, getting up to walk to the end of the table, "Do you want one?"
Tom nodded, and soon Lucia returned with two mugs of coffee.
"I already miss having our own place." Lucia stated as she sat back down, placing Tom's mug of black coffee in front of him.
"I do too. It was nice to not have people around all the time." Tom agreed.
author's note
I know this is a bit different of a chapter compared to some of my earlier chapters, but I hope you enjoyed nonetheless!
thank you so much for getting this to #2 in tomriddle, that's so crazy!!!
also peep the inclusion of the hippocampus, my neuroscience student self just had to include it (the hippocampus is also a brain structure that's shaped like a seahorse lol)
I hope you're all enjoying reading as much as I am writing <3