Holiday From Real

Tom squeezed me tightly to him and looked over to where Abraxas stood. I firmly pressed my hands against his chest, but he didn't loosen his hold on me. "Isn't this cute?" Abraxas said sarcastically and sneered at us. Tom let go of me just to step in front of me.

"What do you want, Malfoy?"

"I was curious as to where you were."

"Why is my location any of your business?"

"I didn't mean you, Riddle." He snapped and quickly raised and lowered his brows while I peeked around Tom. "I meant Karma."

I gulped and slowly stood back behind Tom. I gulped while Tom snapped, "Her location is none of your concern."

Abraxas' voice became extremely cold very fast, "Such purity shouldn't be with such tainted blood."

Tom immediately reached for his wand, but I grabbed his hand tried to pull him up the stairs with me. Tom yanked his hand out of my hands and grabbed his wand anyway; before Abraxas had time to do anything, Tom hexed him. I gulped, cringed, and then dared to look at Abraxas. He was gasping for breath; I couldn't see anything happening, but I know Tom well enough to know that something was happening. I was going to ask what Tom had done, but I somehow suddenly knew. I looked at Tom and gulped before my trembling lips opened, "Stop that, stop it."

Tom ignored me and glared at Abraxas.

"You're above this, Tom."

Tom bitterly snapped at me, "Don't tell me—!"

"Stop it!" I screamed and grabbed a hold of his wand hand, but I didn't move his hand. "Stop it!" I looked into his cold, focused eyes. "To show concern is not showing weakness! To walk away from bullshit words that are designed to hurt you is not weakness! If anything, this is weakness!"

Tom didn't lift his hex, but he did look at me.

I drew in a deep breath and said, "Abraxas is trying to upset you, trying to hurt you. You're not punishing him with whatever internal pain you are thrusting upon him, if anything, you're hurting yourself."

Tom glared at me and growled, "How is this hurting me?"

A shiver of terror ran down my body, but I answered him anyway. "What you're doing isn't your job. Such a punishment isn't met for you to deal. He was trying to hurt you, Tom. He wants you to be upset, doing this is really just pleasing him. Save these actions for when you actually have to defend yourself."

Tom lifted the curse, but he didn't look away from me. My breathing quickened, but then it stopped. An odd variation of realization settled in my chest, somehow forcing me to start walking away from them. I absent-mindedly ran my hands through my hair from stress and walked around Tom. They both stared at me while I walked up the staircase, but I only had to walk up a few before Tom said, "Karma."

I stopped walking, but I didn't turn around.

Tom sighed and walked up the staircase and stood on the step below me; his light, quiet breathing made the back of my neck tingle. "Karma," he sighed and then drew in a deep breath. "I…" Tom sucked his lips into his mouth with thought. "I…"

I shook my head from left to right, "I will not accept an apology because I am not the one you hurt. I don't expect you to apologize to Abraxas, especially since he really wanted you to do something. I just need you to try, Tom." I turned around to face him and placed my hands on his shoulders. I lovingly squeezed them and said, "I'm falling in love with you Tom, but you're going to break my heart if you don't try to be a better person, if you don't try to control your urges to hurt."

Tom nodded and stared into my concerned eyes. He gulped and then whispered, "May I spend the night with you?"

"Wha—?"

"I know that sounds terrible," he rushed out and then placed his hands on top of mine, "but that's not what I mean. I'd like to be near you tonight."

I tilted my head to the left with slight confusion, but I said, "I guess so… Sure."

Tom smiled weakly and ignored Abraxas' slow attempts of standing back up. I probably should have stopped walking away, I probably should have gone back to help him, but I didn't. I couldn't. I needed to walk away. I can't be everyone's Goddamn hero all the damn time. Sometimes I have to act with my own best interest in mind. Tom and I walked up to the Gryffindor Tower; the staircase to the girls' dorms turned into a slide when he tried to walk up it, so I gave him an awkward, slightly difficult piggy back ride up the stairs. Tom laughed since I'm so short and he's so tall, but he didn't mock me. I told him that if he was going to criticize this method of transportation, then I could just levitate him up the stairs.

Tom and I quietly entered the dorm and undressed in the dark. Tom stripped down to his boxer briefs and undershirt, and I stripped down to my bra and panties. I quietly searched for a pair of pajama pants, slipped them on, and then found a clean, large, white T-shirt to wear. I took off my bra once I got the shirt on, and quietly and carefully found my way under my covers. Tom and I awkwardly situated ourselves in my twin size bed, but ended up not caring about personal space and semi-snuggled. We were slowly drifting into a peaceful, needed sleep, until all the lights in the dorm turned on and Lauren started yelling.

"Karma! Karma! Tom! Tom? Uhg!" She shouted in frustration and shook me awake, "Karma!"

"Whhaaaat?" I half yawned, half whined.

"There's something going on! We're all being called into the Great Hall!"

"Fuuuh." I groaned and slowly sat up. Tom didn't seem too excited to get up, but he didn't complain. He quietly stood up and dressed himself as I just slipped my feet into a pair of my near by shoes. Lauren watched Tom as he dressed, but she didn't ask any questions or make any comments. I yawned and then asked, "What's happening?"

"I don't know," Lauren quickly looked back at me, "What is going on?"

I tiredly rolled my eyes, "Tom and I are dating now. I'll explain later."

Lauren chuckled once, but then snapped back into reality. "Come on!" She rushed over to the door, "We have to go to the Great Hall!" Before I could ask her any more questions, she ran out of the dorm and down the stairs. I stretched and walked over to the door with Tom. He tiredly grabbed at my right hand with his left; I smiled up at him and walked down the stairs with him. That is, until they turned into a slide. We were too tired to be bothered by that, though.

Many people stared at us, and a few whispered, but we didn't really care. For one thing, we just had twenty minutes of sleep after staying up for nearly twenty-four hours. How I've been able to pull such nonsense off, I don't know, but my body is starting to get pissed, so I really need to start sleeping more. Tom didn't talk, he just led me down flights of stairs so we could go to the Great Hall, but once we were totally alone, I looked up at his handsome, tired, slightly stressed face and asked, "What's going on?"

Tom shrugged and then yawned. He swallowed the dry spit in his mouth before answering me, "I don't know—"

"Yes you do. Why are we being gathered like cattle?"

Tom laughed and then stopped walking, forcing me to stop walking, too. "Do you really think I know why we're—?"

"I know it, so please, just tell me already. I deserve the truth."

Tom smirked and stroked my face with his freehand. "What one deserves and what one receives are often two very different things."

I let go of his hand and angrily sighed. "Then I'll just walk down to the Great Hall by myself."

Tom grabbed my hands and pulled me against his chest, "There's no need to do that."

I looked up at him with tired, unconvinced eyes. "Stop beating around the bush."

Tom smirked, "I have a theory as to what is going on, but I don't really know."

I wiggled my hands free from his and pressed them firmly against his chest. "Tell me your theory then."

The corners of his mouth twitched as he whispered, "My theory is that the basilisk is up to something—."

I shoved him away from me and took three large, careful steps away from him. "Is that why you wanted to sleep in the Gryffindor Tower? Because it's too far away? Because it's too high up to get to you? To get… to get to who?" I gulped and then yelled, "Why are you hiding from it?"

Tom defensively put his hands up, palms facing outwards, and replied, "I'm not hiding from the basilisk—!"

"Then whom are you leading it to?"

"I'm not leading the damn thing anywhere! I just wanted to be with you!"

I stood there, quiet, but skeptical.

Tom sighed and ran his hands through his slightly messy hair, "I just wanted to feel loved. If I had known that you would explode like this I would have never—."

I sighed and walked back to him. I cuddled against his body while loosely wrapping my arms around him. "I'm scared. I'm not trying to point a finger at you, Tom-Tom, I'm just worried."

Tom wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me to him, "I'm a tad bit nervous, too."

I smiled and kissed his chest, "Finally, some regular human emotions."

Tom rolled his eyes and laughed, "We need to get to the Great Hall."

I yawned and then realized that I didn't check up on Nalo at all. Tom must have sensed the sickening feeling swelling in my gut, because he held me tightly and whispered,

"He's fine. They always personally evacuate the younger years."

I sighed out of relief and then yawned. Lets go before I pass out on these steps."

Tom laughed and basically supported me the whole way down the remainder of the staircases and to the Great Hall. Each student had an individual sleeping bag; we were separated by house, then by year, then by gender. To further organize us, they lined us up by alphabetical order by last name. I strained my tired ears, but quickly let myself rest when I heard Nalo respond to his name being called on the student checklist. Once Tom's name was called, he sneakily made his way over to where I am situated. I slid out of my sleeping bag and into his. He immediately wrapped his arms around me, and I did my best to absorb some of his warmth. I quickly fell asleep and ended up sleeping to around noon; a large group of people was sitting around us. They wanted to observe the odd pair, but they didn't want to bring attention to the professors about the oddity.