When she looked up again he was grinning at her, leaning in to whisper in her ear.
"Well played Black, but although it seems you're smarter than me in every way that counts, I appear to be better than you in the humble game of noughts and crosses."
He withdrew from her once more, still smiling. But it wasn't the gloating, smug smile that Tom always flashed her way whenever he got one over on her, it was warm and kind. She was still thinking up a witty remark when the tone of Slughorn's drone shifted.
"Ok then, in pairs I want you to discuss what you think will happen when we combine the ingredients I've written on the board together; I'm going to work my way around the class, so make sure you have some ideas ready using what I've already told you, I'm interested to hear all of your ideas!"
Shit.
She flicked through her notes, inwardly kicking herself for letting the green-eyed boy distract her. She chanced a glance at him once more. He didn't seem at all concerned with the fact that he hadn't been listening for the last hour.
In fact, he was looking rather pleased with himself.
***
"Well done class, you've done a great job today!"
Finally, the potions lesson was over, and despite paying attention to every word that left the potion master's mouth, Tom was glad that Slughorn was dismissing them. He had just finished packing up his books when Slughorn turned towards his table.
"Bellatrix, can I have a word with you for a moment?"
"Oh great, now I have to stay even longer! I wonder what this is about..." Bellatrix muttered under her breath.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that you've spent the last hour and a half plaguing us all with your snoring?" Rodolphus teased.
"I don't snore!" Said Bellatrix indignantly, "And besides, I wasn't sleeping! I was just... resting my eyes!"
"Of course you were!" Lance laughed, he leaned towards her, making to wipe the corner of her mouth with his thumb, "Sorry, but I think you've still got a little bit of drool-"
Bellatrix swatted his arm away, making an exasperated noise before stomping to the front of the class to speak to professor Slughorn.
"Don't worry Bella, we all drool when we rest our eyes too!" Rodolphus called after her. He quickly shut his mouth at the glare she shot back at him.
The group of Slytherins filed out after the rest of the class.
"Ok, well I know that we're one down but do the rest of you want to go and grab some sandwiches from the great hall and eat them by the lake? We have a double free after lunch and it's really nice out." Evan asked.
"Well actually we're two down," said Lucius, pointing at Eva who was a few steps in front of them, flirting heavily with the Ravenclaw boy she'd been sat in front of during potions, and seeming to forget the existence of the other Slytherins, "But yes, aside from that lunch by the lake sounds like a nice idea."
"Actually, make that three down," said Lyra, "I need to write a letter to my brothers."
"Didn't you just write them one yesterday?" Evan asked.
"Well yes... but I have, a lot to, erm, say."
She waved them goodbye and headed off in the direction of the common room.
"Strange...Oh well, looks like it's just us boys!" Rodolphus said, slinging his arms around both Lance and Tom and grinning. Tom forced a smile onto his face, trying to hide the revulsion turning his stomach from the unwanted physical contact. God, he hated people.
He looked across to see Lance also looking uncharacteristically unenthusiastic about the set of circumstances. Odd, he hadn't seemed like the type to be put off by friendly displays of affection such as this.
The boys made their way to the great hall, picked out some sandwiches, fruit and a few other goodies and packed them up before walking through the castle doors and onto the grounds, heading in the direction of the lake.
"I can't believe we're finally here!" Said Lucius surveying the grounds looking like he almost couldn't believe his eyes, "It still hasn't sunk in properly, I've spent my entire life dreaming about this castle!"
"I know, it's exactly like I imagined it!" Rodolphus grinned, "Maybe even better!"
The five Slytherin boys picked their spot by the lake and began to eat.
"So, I'm curious, what do you guys think of everyone so far?" Lucius plucked a grape and plopped it effortlessly into his mouth, surveying the group.
They all sat in silence for a moment, unsure how to navigate Lucius' question. How much of his true thoughts did Tom actually want to reveal? But it was Evan who answered first, sparing Tom from the prickly question.
"I can't say I'm Mulciber's biggest fan..." he muttered, seemingly without thinking. His brain seemed to catch up to his mouth a few seconds later as the panic crossed his face, Evan had never been one to rock the boat or speak badly about others. He tried to recover himself in case the other Slytherin's judged him for speaking so brashly, "not to say he's a bad person or anything-"
"He's a terrible person!" cut in Rodolphus, "Yesterday in defence against the dark arts he tried to curse Dolohov, -again- but obviously he can't cast a spell to save his life, so he's flailing his arms around like this," Rodolphus mimicked Mulciber, the movement of his body giving the impression of a large, dancing chicken, "when he elbowed me in the face. And THEN, the cheeky fucker laughed about it. Thought it was real funny to until I stood up straight and he realised who I was! Then suddenly he was very apologetic..." He smirked, eating the final bite of his sandwich.
The boys hooted with laughter; Tom included. Throughout the week he'd noticed Mulciber being a kiss ass to the other boys in his dorm, but he had yet to figure out why when he was so quick to want to please them whilst being so abrasive to everybody else. He wanted to ask but hated the thought of the others knowing how little he knew about these newfound social dynamics.
"The joys of being part of the Sacred 28, no doubt. He's the exact same with me." Avery laughed and the other boys joined in, but Tom was merely confused. What was the Sacred 28? It was yet another thing he didn't understand, but it was clearly important he found out.
"I can appreciate that he knows his place and shows respect for our superior blood purity -as he should of course-" Lucius sneered, "but even I find it unsettling how he treats Dolohov. I mean as far as halfbloods go, he's not that bad, the hat did place him in Slytherin after all!"
So that's what this is about, thought Tom as he put the pieces together in his mind. Blood purity, yet again. He had known that Mulciber looked down on Dolohov because his dad was a muggleborn, but he hadn't known that the reason he treated certain other people so much better was because they were a part of this 'Sacred 28'. Being a part of this –what even was it, a club?- clearly put his roommates a step above the others in the eyes of Mulciber and the rest of the wizarding world because their blood was 'purer', whilst Dolohov's blood was 'dirty' because he was only a halfblood. The complexities of the ranking confused him, but he was determined to figure this out before he made an error and was ostracised for it.
"Is it just me or does he seem to suck up to Malfoy even more than everyone else though?" Tom asked nonchalantly, stealing one of Lucius's grapes with a smirk. The boys laughed.