TORMENT (Harry Potter Sequel)

Chapter Eight

"Wingardium Leviosa!" chanted the class lifelessly. The professor that stood in front of them nodded tiredly.

"Very good," he said with equal lifelessness, "Now I want you all to practise that together. I will put you into groups-"
The teacher's monotonous voice droned on in the background while the large class of first-year students melted in their seats. Summer had rolled in and with it had come an intense heat. The windows were wide open, not that it helped and a multitude of mosquitoes and other insects flew around the musty classroom. Tom rested his body on his desk at the back of the class. He liked this lesson because no one ever paid him any mind. He was so out of the way that he was barely visible.

He hated the heat. Way more than the cold. He never thought a day would come where he would miss shivering. Even in the orphanage, when summer would come around, Tom would never ever get this hot; not even close. At least from the cold you could escape but from this incessant, overbearing heat... it was everywhere. A few beads of sweat dripped down Tom's small face as he looked lifelessly into the middle-distance. Somehow, he looked even worse than he usually did. Like he could die or pass out at any moment; not that anyone ever noticed. At least he wasn't getting thinner.

The other students in the class began chatting to each other, signifying to Tom that Professor Gilluk's ramblings were finally done. He was a short old man and was frequently called an elf by students that were taught by him despite him not being one. It says a lot about someone when the trait that everyone takes away from them is that they are boring.

Everyone, including that teacher, was practically done with this term. They just wanted to get it all over with. Now that it was summer and they had been dealing with the temperature for weeks, people couldn't help but wish to just go home. It was now after an eternity of waiting, the last day of term. There was only a few hours left before the Huge Summer Feast. After that there would only be one night left before, in the morning, they would all pack back onto the Hogwarts Express and be sent back home. Everyone was looking forward to it, including Tom Malumis.

Tom had already conceded that this year was and had been a lost cause for him for still held hope for, perhaps, a redemption next year. He'd have a second shot; a chance to turn it around. As his eyes darted around the classroom, observing the other students as they practised the spell they had been set, he couldn't help but ponder about the past year. It certainly wasn't the worst he had had. In fact, he would class it as one of the best years of his life. That still did not change the fact that he had a seemingly never-ending list of regrets. He knew it was his fault though. Ever since that fateful day he had ventured to the Leaky Cauldron and subsequently been told about the Wizarding World by Dante, he had set his expectations ridiculously high.

He had always recognised himself as a freak but, he supposed, deep down he had always had this hope; this dream that maybe in this other world with all these different, strange and magical things, creatures and people, he could find maybe something or someone that would consider him normal. But throughout this year, that hope had been squashed again and again.

Now though, Tom had finally come full circle. He had mostly accepted who and what he was and now, after his first year, was ready to get ready moving onto his next. He was lucky to have only gotten 1 beating this year. He couldn't do the maths exactly but he knew for a fact that he would've gotten way more if he stayed at the orphanage.

'That's probably because I've been under the radar,' Tom reasoned mentally, 'I haven't brought much attention to myself.'

Realising he couldn't spend the whole lesson lounging in the burning heat like an overheated dog, Tom pulled himself upright off his desk and picked up his wand. As expected, when he tried to cast the spell, a mere few white sparks shot off his wand before... nothing. Tom breathed a sigh of contempt and raised his wand lazily to try again. This was another thing he hated about himself; another thing that made him a freak. He was useless at all magic. He had thought maybe that it was his wand. It wasn't chosen for him but after overhearing some of the students in his dorms saying that their wands are hand-me-downs as well, he quickly realised that he was just well below average.