“Can I read it?”
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
Decimus and Krystal fought this never-ending battle all day. Runt, who was usually quiet and kept to himself, had told them to shut up many times. It only slightly worked, for Decmius and Krystal would pause in shock that he opened his mouth, but then the arguing would begin again. All this for a stupid note, Runt would think bitterly, then returned to the game of chess he played by himself.
For indeed, while the argument had progressed to different things throughout the day, it all began with the small note Tabitha had written Decimus. It made Krystal angry that he wouldn’t let her read it, and so she settled on driving him mad the whole day.
It wasn’t a very personal note, there was nothing in it that would embarrass him, but Decimus saw no need in Krystal reading it. She knew all his other secrets, thanks to her eyes, so he wanted to let her live without knowing this one.
“Why won’t you let me read it?” she asked again, this time without the hostility in her voice. “You say it’s not that big of a deal, yet you won’t let me read it. Ugh! I don’t understand you.”
Decimus was taken aback by how gentle her voice was. The calmest, warmest it was that day. He reluctantly handed her the note, thinking of how ashamed his father would be if he was there that moment and saw a Malfoy give in, in a fight. Although it wasn’t his fault; it was her eyes, which could convince you to jump from a cliff if she felt like it.
“Thank you,” the Ice Queen said happily, then she snatched the tiny piece of parchment from his hand and read in a scrawled handwriting:
Decimus,
Do you think we could meet tonight in the Astronomy
Tower? We have a sort of exam in Transfiguration
tomorrow, and I could use all the help I can get.
8 o’clock?
-Tabby P.
“Was there really a need for the last initial? I mean, what other Tabby is there that you meet with privately every night?” Krystal murmured, grinning.
Decmius grabbed the note back. “I let you read it, happy?” he said, then to protect his pride he added, “And I don’t meet with her every night. Just once in a while to help her with her homework, and only because Professor Cook asked me to.”
“Want me to play chess with you, Runt?” Krystal asked kindly, after seeing their friend in the corner by himself. “You’re playing by yourself, and you still manage to lose!” Runt was indeed horrible at chess. “By the way, Deci,” she added in an undertone. “It’s almost eight now. You better hurry.”
“‘Bye, then.” Decimus sprinted from the room, wondering why Krystal didn’t have any girl friends.
But he knew why. He had always known why. It was because Runt and Decimus were the only two people in the entire school, really, that could put up with her. Most people found her red eyes and moody temper intimidating, but Decimus got this all from his grandmother, and so he was used to it, and Krystal treated Runt gently, so he had no real reason to be frightened of her.
He walked quickly. It was almost eight, he saw, looking at his watch. He felt someone bump into him, and he looked up to complain. He opened his mouth then snapped it shut, his teeth chattering together. It was Trenton Potter, with his lackey Darren by his side.
Of course.
“Get up to the Astronomy Tower quick, Malfoy. Tab will go mad if she has to wait much longer,” Trent said. It was one of the few times he said something to Decimus and it not contain any sort of insult.
“How did you know that I was meeting Tabitha?” Decimus asked coolly. Following Trent’s lead, he kept the hardness out of his voice. He didn’t need to pick a fight with him now, not when he was already running late.
Trent was already halfway down the hall, but he called over his shoulder, “Because my sister tells me everything, Malfoy!
Decimus figured she probably didn’t tell him everything, because if she did, he would be dead.
~*~
Decimus arrived five minutes late. Tabitha was looking out the window, studying the stars with a telescope. “You’re late, Decimus,” she said softly.
“Sorry. I got held up.”
“It’s fine. Now, about this exam--”
“Don’t you mean ‘sort of’ exam?” Decimus asked, holding up the piece of parchment with her note on it.
“It’s to give us a taste of O.W.L.s. I’m doing much better now, and as painful as it is to say it, it’s because you have been tutoring me.” She blushed. “Now, it focuses mainly on the things we have been doing in class this past month, which is mostly turning our pets into tables. I’m getting better, I think, but my table still has a tail“”
“Do you really tell your brother everything?”
“Huh?” Tabby had no idea where that came from. She folded up her telescope and looked at Decimus concernedly. “Where did that come from?”
“I met your brother on the way here. He told me not to be late, so I asked him how he knew I was meeting you tonight, and he said you tell him everything. I was wondering if you really tell him everything?”
“Oh,” Tabby said, incredulous. “Yes, I s’pose I do tell Trent just about everything. He’s great to talk to; he has wonderful advice.” Decimus snorted“ the Trent he knew was as good of a conversationalist as a frog. “No, really!” Tabby insisted. “You don’t know him like I do.”
“And I hope I never do.”
Tabby tilted her head to the side and look at Decmius slowly and carefully. “Don’t you tell your family members things about your life?”
“No,” he replied coldly.
“Why not?”
“The only person in my family I like is Grandmother, but she’s sick and has been for a while, so I can’t really talk to her. My father is in Azkaban, as you know, so it’s not like I can just prance over there and start spilling out my lifelong secrets. Everyone else in my family is just plain mad.” This was possibly the most personal thing he had ever said to Tabitha, and he bent down to retie his shoe so she would not see him blushing.
“What about your mum?”
“I don’t know who my mum is.”
After retying his shoe ten times, he looked up, and saw what looked like horror, amazement, and sympathy in her expression. Her brilliant emerald eyes were wide, and her mouth was open. “You don’t know who your mother is?” She sank to the ground and stared at him as if she was going to cry.
“No. Father never told me.” He walked over sat next to her on the hard, cold stone floor, patting her on the shoulder lightly. He was not used to others showing off their emotions so lightly, and he had no idea on how to comfort her.
“How could you live without your mother, though? I could never live without my mum.” She stared at him fiercely. “I couldn’t live without any members of my family, actually. I love them too much.”
Decimus nodded slowly. “Yes, but many people live without mothers. They’re as mortal as anyone else.” He glared at her intensely. “You say you could never live without your mum, but the day might come where you’ll have to, Tabs.”
Tabby smiled. “With my dad being who he is, I’ve dealt with the idea of dying many times.” She lightly nudged Decimus. “But this isn’t about me. How come your dad never told you who your mother was?”
“Because he’s a prat.” He stopped when Tabby laughed, and he decided he liked the sound. Not loud and obnoxious like Runt’s, or evil and sinister like his aunt Bella’s, but happy and tinkly.
“No, really! How come. If you don’t mind me asking,” she murmured.
“No, I don’t mind, because I have no idea why he never told me. He says she ran off soon after she gave birth to me, and left him with me to take care of. Maybe she died, but I dunno. Whatever the case, I don’t care, nor do I miss her at all.”
“That’s brave of you, handling you situation like that,” Tabitha mused. “Why weren’t you sorted into Gryffindor?” She grinned at him because they both knew the answer.
“My father would have killed me.”He said this in a joking manner, but Tabitha wondered if he was joking at all. He hesitated before saying, “I’ve never told anyone this, but the hat wanted to place me in Ravenclaw.”
Tabby tried to hide her surprise. “Well, it makes sense. You’re top in most of your classes, and you’ve been a wonderful tutor, really...”
“It’s all right, Tabitha. You can laugh.”
“Who’s laughing?” she asked. “I sure as hell am not! So, why didn’t you want to be in Ravenclaw?”
“You ask a lot of questions, don’t you?”
“I wouldn’t have to if you would elaborate a bit more often.”
“Because I wanted to be in Slytherin,” Decimus answered, rolling his eyes. “It’s the family house that we’ve all been in, and it would cause a lot of controversy if I was the first Malfoy in three centuries to not be sorted into Slytherin, wouldn’t it? Being in Slytherin makes things easier.”
Tabby nodded. “I see. I didn’t really have that problem you had, though. The hat sorted me into Gryffindor right away.”
“Figures.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Of course a Potter would be sorted into Gryffindor right away!”
“My da wasn’t!”
“Oh, really?” Decimus said skeptically. “What house was he almost sorted in, then?”
“Slytherin, for your information.”
“What?” He looked at her in awe. “Harry Potter was almost in Slytherin?”
“Yes, but he asked the hat to let him be in Gryffindor,” she said triumphantly. “At least, that’s what he told me.”
“I never would have guessed.”
“Oh, but wouldn’t you have?”
The way she stared at him“ so intently, so fiercely“ made him turn away from her.
“We should probably start working,” Decimus finally muttered after moments of pause. “You don’t want to fail that exam. It’ll make me look bad.”
Tabby smiled. “Wouldn’t want to make you look like a fool.”
“Thanks.”
~*~
Decimus walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom just barely before the bell rang.
The talk around Hogwarts for the past week was about the new substitute professor in DADA. Rumors were flying around faster than owls, and Decimus didn’t quite know what to believe anymore.
“He’s late,” Krystal complained, her eyes flashing red for a split second. Only Krystal would be upset that a teacher was not on time.
But she didn’t have to lose sleep over it. The door to the room closed with a loud bang. A dark hooded figure walked down the aisle between the desks, and as it walked (or, Decimus mused, more like stomped) all of the open textbooks slammed shut. It turned toward the class, and Decimus looked up and let the horror wash over him.
He recognized those green eyes.
“Hello, class,” said the figure. It was a male’s voice. “You may call me Professor Potter.”
AN~ GAH!!! This took forever, and I apologize. The next chapter won’t take as long, I hope. But my beta has been uber busy lately.
Chapter is dedicated to later and jwman1986 for guessing the show in the last chapter right (and being the first two to do so)! The show, by the way, is Bewitched.
Once again, thanks to butterflykisses for being my beta.