𝕬 𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝕷𝖔𝖗𝖉 𝖎𝖘 𝕭𝖔𝖗𝖓 | 𝑇𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 |

Chapter 34- Where We Started

Frankie and Tom's relationship ought to have been flourishing from that point onwards. A confession should've been within a month, at the very least. However, everything between them was put on an unexpected pause...

After the hectic holiday season was complete, Slughorn and Beery had decided to form a kind of unofficial social club for the other professors, so they could gossip and have a bit of fun while enjoying some of the finer things in life. It was generally a student-free gathering, however, sometimes Slughorn invited Frankie to join them. She listened to the professors talk about their lives, their subjects, and of course, they just had to tell her all about their school years. It'd been such a long time since sharing the same old youthful stories with a fresh mind. As Frankie suspected from the Christmas party, Slughorn was actually in the same year as her parents at Hogwarts and were featured characters in a lot of his Hogwarts memories. This also made Frankie quickly realize who his Gryffindor bullies were. Her father and Ogg were a duo much like Monty and Quin. Righteously cruel, with straight edge views of what was good and evil. Exclusively kindhearted to their own kind. However, despite the amount of torment that befell anyone who tried to get within ten feet of her, Slughorn had nothing but lovely things to say about her mother, Elizabeth. Apparently, she was also constantly harassed by a Malfoy and had many similar philosophies to Frankie. She was eager to make friends with everyone, regardless of house, and bonded with Slughorn over a particular interest in Potions. They didn't talk much out of class, but she had a similarly warm glow that he couldn't help but let soak through his exterior. He warmed up a little more to her father after seventh year when he got serious and entered the Triwizard Tournament, but never was able to forgive him fully. Although, he didn't really know the couple too well, it was still nice to hear him talk about them in their day.

However, after a while, Frankie began to wonder why they were coddling her with tea and fond stories all of a sudden. It'd been over a year now since she learned the truth. Why had they decided to go through all this trouble now? Eventually, she figured out that it was actually because of Tom. He no longer had the time to spend with her and Slughorn felt bad. He'd been unable to free Tom from Pringle's clutches after an apparent incident that happened while Tom was in the trophy room. Although, Pringle cut him some slack after the Baron made Peeves confess to wrecking the room, it was actually Tom who insisted he keep up with the cleaning and repairs. His terms were that Prue be completely spared and that there wouldn't be any mention of the incident on either of their records, so they could both still be considered for prefects the next year. He also required Sunday off, so he wouldn't entirely miss seeing Frankie and still be able to keep his promise. Pringle didn't want to deal with the mess himself, so he agreed. Tom really didn't need to do any of it, but honestly, he needed a distraction from the dead end of his research.

While Frankie was flooded with information about her parents, Tom spent most of the little free time he could salvage, combing the library for even the littlest trace of his father. Past student records, Auror records, and records of various Ministry officials. Tom ravaged through anything he could get his hands on. He even got Slughorn to write him passes for the restricted section of books, in the case his father was a dark wizard. Although, he didn't really want to be associated with some lowlife, it would make some logical sense of why he abandoned his mother. Evil madmen couldn't love properly. Tom unfortunately had to give up the search completely around exam time. Exams were not especially hard, at least for people who had studied like him and Frankie. However, it was not time to get overconfident. Next year they would be doing their O.W.L's. Frankie watched even Minerva sweat about it and she never worried about tests before. Thankfully, they'd have nothing better to do for the next three months at the orphanage.

As much as they didn't want it to, summer came back around once again. Tom and Frankie were being forced to go back to Wool's Orphanage, as promised. It was an agonizing train ride to think that in a few hours they'd be going back to their old rooms and be living the same miserable lives they had tried so desperately to escape. Mrs. Cole had been waiting at King's Cross for them, acting even colder than usual, if that was even possible. Clearly, she was upset. Since Frankie wasn't on her way out of her life and she didn't have a big fat check in her hand. The doctor seemed to have called off the search and backed off the day they moved to the Leaky Cauldron. Barkeep Tom must have told Dumbledore they were there, just like Tom had predicted he would and made the necessary memory modifications.