Death Himself | Tomarry

Chapter 15: Lying In Wait

Tom turned another page of his history tomb. This edition was about a series of vampire attacks in the 19th century and what lead up to them.

The author somehow managed to turn the accounts of bloodsucking living dead men preying upon innocent families into something dreadfully boring and Tom was fighting the salvation of sleep that had been slowly creeping up on him.

He took out some parchment and drew a crisp line in black ink.

One side would be filled with what happened back then and the other with similarities of the sudden outburst of renewed vampire attacks over the last two decades.

It wasn't very intellectually stimulating work but he took care to complete it thoroughly and add some other facts he'd already read about privately.

'Human disguises have vastly improved over time. Hard to tell apart from the living.'

While he wrote, his foot tapped up and down under the table as he waited for the Warren girl to come find him.

What was taking so long?

A sharp burst of annoyance shot through him at the sheer incompetence of everyone around him.

How come no was able to do one simple thing he asked of them?

He guessed the saying 'if you want it done well, do it yourself' was true and he was reminded of this fact every single day.

"My Lord?"

He bit back an annoyed sigh and turned around to face Algernon who was standing ramrod straight as always.

"Yes, what's going on?"

"Have you been able to locate Evans yet?"

"Algernon", he replied dangerously, "don't you think he'd be here with me if I did?"

"I...yes of course my lord, my deepest apologies. It's just that everyone is talking about what happened. We need to start minimizing the damage now."

"Dammit", Tom hissed, "I had hoped professor Rose would be able to keep those fools in check. The students seem to respect her."

"The gryffindors seem especially interested."

"Of course they do. Its always the gryffindors, isn't it?"

"Indeed. What should we do?"

Tom thought about it, putting his quill down.

Yes, what should they do about this?

He wished he'd already had a chance to talk to Harry, at least then he would know what exactly happened back there.

Being in the unknown himself made coming up with a plan much more difficult.

"Alright", he said eventually, "for now just make it clear that no Slytherin is to speak of this until I say so. For the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs you can plant seeds of guilt in them. Knowing that the boggart must stem from severe trauma will keep those saps from gossiping too much. And the Ravenclaws won't care, they keep to themselves either way."

"Yes my lord, I'll get on that right away."

"Make sure Rigel and Jonathan actually help this time. Don't think I don't know that they snuck off to Hogsmeade when they should've been working."

"Don't word my lord I'll make sure to put them in their place", said Algernon with a dark glint in his eyes and the beginnings of smirk pulling his lips up ever so slightly.

It wasn't a full on thing, Algernon never smiled, remaining impassive as always.

Tom barely kept from rolling his eyes at the boy.