𝕬 𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝕷𝖔𝖗𝖉 𝖎𝖘 𝕭𝖔𝖗𝖓 | 𝑇𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 |

Chapter 33- Hidden Friendships

The winter holiday continued without much worry or strife. Tom and Frankie said nothing of the incident the next morning and were able to fake normality until things eventually felt better again. Although, the vacation period was generally a time they didn't need to worry about being seen together by the rest of the student body, they didn't spend too much time with one another besides meals and Sunday walks. Frankie spent most of her supposed vacation days helping out Ogg and doing many of the odd caretaker jobs around the school. There was much more work to be done during the winter season. Also, heeding Tom's sarcastic advice, Ogg had quickly knit a few winter accessories for the various creatures around the school and recruited Professor Kettleburn to help distribute them. Luring out Nifflers to try and put sweaters on them seemed like a task right up his alley. Frankie made sure Nougat's had a bright golden 'N' stitched into it, so they could quickly identify him when he inevitably got himself into trouble.

Meanwhile, Tom went to the library most days, with Peter to accompany him. He would've told any of the other boys to shove off, but he actually didn't really mind Peter joining him during his research. He was quiet and helped Tom gather books. Peter was the only one who he didn't have to put up as much of a front around. He was the last name of their year and still commonly thought of amongst the Slytherin's as 'the spare' nobody wanted. Peter had literally no influence and, unlike Malfoy, was simply too kind to expose Tom's most valuable secret to obtain status. He actually confided to Tom that he'd somewhat known about their friendship since first year. However, he thought Frankie was nice, so he kept it hushed in front of the other boys. She was at least better than Lyra, in his opinion. They'd both go down together to pick her up from Ogg's cabin for supper, since they didn't have to be even somewhat of a secret. Peter was also now welcomed to dine at Gryffindor table with the rest of their winter group. This year there was a lot of reminiscing about Rodger Day and his crazy winter holiday antics. They pretty much unanimously agreed he had been the idiotic life of the party and that things were a little lonely without him.

It had been fun and, once the long December had passed, January went by just like that. February didn't start out so bad; the 3rd was Frankie and Ethan's birthday. People always joked about how they were twins, despite not looking anything alike. However, moving further into February, it was unfortunately once again time for the most dreadful holiday they had to endure at school,

Valentine's Day.

                                                  ─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Classes ended early for the day. There was far too much pandemonium to continue with regular operations this year. The big incident causing all the fuss was what was already being referred to as "The Fourth-Year's Four Founders" incident. In their year, four people had been slipped Transfiguration potions that would turn them into the animals their house represented. Prue Thompson accepted her transformation into an eagle with grace and levelheadedness, like she did with almost everything. Isabelle Lalonde was having a lot of trouble getting to class with her short badger legs, until Kenneth Cadwallader returned the favor from last Valentine's Day and carried her to class. Monty parted the hall like the Red Sea as a majestic lion. He looked fearsome and strong, yet also had that warmth that if you sat next to him in History of Magic you'd want to cuddle in his mane and fall asleep. The last victim was Tom, he didn't know how, but whoever had planned all this had somehow got him. Tom was a small silvery serpent who wasn't able to travel down the hallway without some screams of terror and the risk of getting stomped to death. He would've barely made it to Transfiguration class alive if Monty hadn't been going there as well. He quickly noticed Tom was not a regular garden snake and let him slither safely into his book bag, which someone had been kind enough to sling over his neck. It was miraculous the four had managed to show up to their classes at all. They couldn't even hold their wands and Monty was the only one who was even able to carry his books.