I Was Younger Then

The Back Door

"Tut tut Penny, I thought we had an understanding?"

Tom knelt above her, looking down on her with a measured impatience, his hand brushing her long red hair out of her eyes.

Penny jolted upright, her heart racing. But how could it be racing when she'd felt it stop just a moment ago? She looked around, the familiar darkness all that could be seen except for Tom.

"Why am I here?" Penny said, breathlessly, grasping her chest as though to make certain her heart was still in there, though she knew this was not her physical body.

"You are here because you have incurred the cost of a rebound, and for the second time, I have brought here here for protection until that nosy Professor of yours restarts your heart," Tom replied, a hint of irritation in his tone.

"I'm dead?" Penny said, slowly, her eyes unseeing.

"Hardly, to die you must pass beyond the veil," said Tom, turning around to bring that small lounge back into existence.

Tom gestured that Penny should take a seat but she was too rattled to do so and remained firmly planted on the ground.

"Why am I here, then?"

"As I stated, because of the rebound," Tom said, his pretty brown eyes flashing.

"I don't even know what that means!" Penny said, not bothering to hide her irritation.

"You and I made a deal, Penny. Your little endeavor with Severus just then, violated it," Tom said, softly.

Though his face looked like a picture of composure and poise, Penny could not help but note how his hand grasped the chair beside of him so firmly his knuckles turned white. She got to her feet, her eyes narrowed.

"You'll forgive me, the particulars of this deal of ours remained conveniently absent the last time we met," she said, scathingly.

An unnatural smile spread across Tom's lips, accentuating his charming features, but it did not have the effect he'd hoped because Penny had already been put on guard.

"Penny, if you'd had questions, you only ever need ask."

He seated himself in the cushion before him, his legs crossed, waiting for Penny to take the seat across from him. She did so, sitting stiffly on the edge of her seat.

"Alright, start with the rebound, what is it?"

"A rebound is a toll extracted in order to rebalance our exchange. As I told you last time, for something to be gained, something of equal value must be exchanged. Your pool of magic was exchanged for my help controlling your expression," Tom said, as lightly as if they were speaking about the morning's daily news.

"Rebalance? But the exchange was already completed," Penny said, not liking where this conversation was going.

"If you'd paid attention last time, you'd have understood that the agreement was completed, through our markings," Tom replied, raising his hand to show Penny the back of his hand, wiggling his long fingers gracefully.

On it, Penny saw the raw scar which seemed to glow upon his delicate skin. "Our exchange, however, is ongoing."

"Ongoing? And if I'd like to put an expiration date on that?" Penny said in an attempt to test her hunch about Tom.

"We made a deal Penny," he said, his relaxed posture stiffening.

"It seems to me you were purposefully not forthright about this deal, so I think I will be looking at my options,' Penny said, looking away lazily.