Northern Crown [t.r]

Chapter Nine

Meeting them back in the hall, Delilah's legs felt weak in a way that wasn't correlated with the previous night's activity.

It felt as if someone had ripped her bones out and stuck a stranger's in their place, reworking her nerves just enough but it still felt wrong.

Her eyes danced over everyone's curious gazes and landed on Tom, her hand clutching the envelope and she dragged her tongue off the roof of her mouth.

"Do you have the cigarette box I gave you?"

"Not on me," he raised a brow at her panicked expression. "It's back at the house, your brother nicked it off me the first night."

"Oh thank fuck," some small relief filled her and she shut her eyes for a moment, her head still churning over the new found information.

She wasn't exactly sure why it was important, but clearly it had something to do with this mess. Otherwise why would Dumbledore go through the trouble?

"What's so important about this case? Since when do you smoke?" Harry asked with arms crossed, a judgemental glint behind his glasses.

Delilah refrained from glaring at him, "I don't smoke. But Dumbledore mentioned it and I think it's important."

"How?" Hermione asked.

Biting at her cheek, she ran her fingers over the wax seal. "It's just a theory but..." she tried to picture the case as clearly as she could. Of the intricate detail and it's silver sheen. How she was drawn to it... "possibly, I don't know, it could play a role into why I was thrown back in time."

"How the fuck does that work?" Ron asked, scratching at the back of his head and Hermione sent him a sideways glance. She was never fond of him swearing.

"I don't know, there has to be something though. I need to see it again and maybe we can study it, see if there's any underlying traces of magic."

Tom shook his head, "there isn't."

"Well how do you-"

"I'd know."

Huffing a breath, she couldn't shove away the feeling she had in her gut that this was a trail she should follow. "Regardless, I need to see it."

"Fine, let's all get back and you can work on that while we go through all the new documents." Harry started off down the hall followed by the rest of them, Kingsley already much further ahead to check if it was still clear.

"And by we, you mean me." Hermione added, Delilah took note of the bags under her eyes but other than that the girl held herself together remarkably well.

Tom fell in step next to Delilah, hands shoved in his pockets and she gave him a once over. "You could probably use a change of clothing."

He'd kept clean thanks to a few smells but he could admit a new wardrobe wouldn't go unappreciated. Humming for a moment, he looked down at her.

"Do you really think the case is an element in all this?"

She thought back to the silver glint that showed through the package all those months ago. Note she wasn't sure how to explain that if she bought it in a shop in the forties, how would it end up in the nineties before she ever even left?

Time travel was a messy ordeal.

"I do, besides it wouldn't hurt to try."

After just finishing a cup of tea, the cigarette box was placed in front of her on the kitchen table with a dull thud.