TORMENT (Harry Potter Sequel)

Chapter Four

The moon shone beautifully in the sky. The sun had now dipped below the horizon and all traces of its shining yellow hue were gone. The Hogwarts Express still hurtled across the landscape as it had done for the past few hours. From within the lit compartments of the steam train, the outside world looked like a black void; devoid of all things. Tom leaned his head on the window and stared out of it. His eyes struggled to keep open as his whole body began to shut down. He had been experiencing these more recently now. He never had enough energy to make it through the day so he usually went into something of a hibernative state before 7pm. But now Tom did not wish to fall asleep. Today was a big day! He was going to Hogwarts! He had made a friend! He was not going to miss any of this by falling asleep.

"Tired?" the voice forced Tom's head to jolt up. His head was spinning and his vision blurry.

"Huh?" Tom's voice was soft and tired. He could hear how exhausted he was himself!

"It's only half-an-hour until we get there," Aubyn said supportively, "Come on, you can make it."

Tom leaned his head back and briefly shut his eyes. He immediately regretted it when he had to force them open. Tom exhaled slowly. He kept repeating mentally to himself about how he needed to keep awake.

"Did Dante tell you how it looked?" Aubyn asked suddenly, "Hogwarts, I mean," he clarified. Tom sat up abruptly.

"H-how do you k-know about-"

"You told me, remember? He's from the same home as you," replied Aubyn casually. He had grown more and more accepting of Tom's 'weirdness' over the course of the journey. Tom rubbed his temple awkwardly.

"Oh... yeah," he said, embarrassed at his forgetfulness. Aside from the fact that he was almost too tired to move, he'd never really spoken to anyone for this long.

"So... did he?" Aubyn pushed the question forward yet again.

"What?" Tom looked up, slightly disoriented.

"Did he tell you what Hogwarts looked like?"

Tom put a finger to his chin in thought.

"Yeah..." he replied slowly, "He told me that before he got expelled he liked to chill in this big forest. He said it was kind of scary but he liked it."

Aubyn chuckled, "I can see why he got expelled. Students aren't allowed to go in those woods. How did he really get expelled, though?"

Tom paused again to think.

"It was in his second year," explained Tom, "He said he was in Gryffindor... he had a lot of friends but didn't like the teachers. He doesn't like following the rules," Tom paused, "He didn't tell me much. He doesn't spend a lot of time at home anymore."

"So he was a troublemaker..." Aubyn said, "That's why your clothes are like that."

"They sent him money to buy his supplies but I didn't get any," proclaimed Tom quietly, completely out of nowhere, "I didn't get a list or anything so I begged him until he gave his old stuff to me," There was a brief silence. Tom suddenly realised how out of the blue his statements were and his eyes slightly widened with embarrassment, "S-sorry, I didn't mean to... I mean I didn't want to say that-"

"It's fine, it's fine. I can tell you're pretty tired. When did you wake up?" asked Aubyn. He was single-handedly carrying these conversations as he had done for hours. In a way though he kind of liked it. It was a change in what he was used to when talking to someone, especially someone of his own age.

"6 o'clock," responded Tom, rubbing his eyes again. Aubyn's jaw slightly dropped.

"Jeez! How far away do you live? You had to travel for 4 hours?" Tom gave him a weird look.