A loud ruckus was what had awoken Tom from an admirable dream the next morning - Bellatrix's head on a stick. His eyes shot open and he sat up, smoothing down his hair and moving his scowl around the dormitory. All the other boys had awoken beforehand and were getting ready for the day or studying without a speck of consideration.

"I suggest you lot keep it down and sleep for the next hour or I, as Head Boy, will take points," Tom threatened, feeling his glare harden as a couple of the boys had tried to restrain themselves from sniggering.

"You wouldn't take points from Slytherin, Tom," said Abraxas, huffing to blow his long, blond hair out of his face. "Besides, it is better to study now than at breakfast. People will think you actually care about the exams."

"For your lack of information, many people are aware of how much I intend to pass my exams, Malfoy. Now keep it down or I will take points. I have no care for the House Cup, and you lot should already be aware of that." Tom scowled one last time before tucking himself in for the rest of the early hours, rolling on his side so that he faced away from the trumpet of boys.

If anything, and unlike the other boys, Tom didn't need to study anymore. He had already studied from the beginning of the year 90% of his free time. In fact, as most others should have expected, Tom already had the knowledge of a seventh year in his fourth year. Possibly even his third. Being alone in an orphanage where not many kids wanted anything to do with a 'mad' boy, where the guardians wanted nothing to do with a 'mad' boy, the mention of Hogwarts the very first time Dumbledore had spoken with him sparked him with a mixture of excitement and relief. He did his research on his mother's bloodline, on Salazar Slytherin, on the dark arts, and many other things, and along the way, had unintentionally picked up a fair bit of knowledge that remained stored in his mind. Tom wouldn't even mind returning to Hogwarts as a Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. He knew he'd be great at it. He knew more than he probably should have. He knew more than most teachers and he even knew more than his Defence against the Dark Arts teacher.

Tom woke again from a blank dream much to his disappointment and threw off his covers and set himself up for the day. Avery and Abraxas were still studying together while the other boys had already gone off to the Great Hall. Huffing, Tom glanced at the round clock up on the wall, and it told him that he had got ready in time for meeting up with Abigail before she left on her own - something she wasn't afraid to do which annoyed Tom greatly.

He swept past the empty, green common room and strode silently out of the dungeons. When he got to the west side of the castle and spotted the portrait to the Ravenclaw common room, he had to look back twice to make sure the blonde was actually outside of it, leaning lazily against the wall with her bag strap slipping down her shoulder. Abigail exhaled loudly at the sight of Tom, followed by a loud, stiff, "Morning," and then she walked quickly past him before he could even reach and greet her.

Shrugging it off, Tom spun on his foot and followed closely behind the blonde, unable to keep up with her pace even after all those time he had outpaced her. It seemed as though she was learning from him. When he reached the Great Hall, he watched as Abigail dropped herself at the Slytherin table beside Avery without complaint, and, confused, Tom slowly sat on her other side.

Brianna Marshall had, to Tom's surprise, waved at him with a big smile on her face. Tom scoffed and ignored the redhead, most people already knew how strange and dopey she was. His Knights who followed closely behind Bellatrix as they entered the Great Hall greeted him with nods, which Tom did not return, and they took their seats.

"They're so stupid it's almost hilarious," Avery leaned over and uttered to Tom, seemingly enough tried making his conversation with Tom look casual. "Not once have they said a thing about her sitting with us."

It was a bit odd as Tom put some thought into it, and he had many times before. Though he was pleased that perhaps they'd thought Avery was still very close with Abigail instead of Tom. Avery leaned back over and ate his meal in silence as he read through his Potions book. It wasn't normal to see Abigail so tense and unlike her usual, chirpy, content self. She had very blank, expressionless features, and it seemed as though her eyes had changed it's normal tone of blue. Not even her plate was piled as it usually had been, and it consisted of one egg and a pancake. Tom almost grimaced; an egg and a pancake was definitely a terrible mixture of a meal.

It was very unusually quiet in the Great Hall, seeing as many of the students had been reading over notes and revising, whilst the rest of the school was considerably silent and allowed them to revise in peace.

Abigail didn't even glance over at Tom, and he was trying his best to make it obvious that he'd been staring at her for a whole minute. But, still, she kept to herself and ate in silence.

"Come on," Avery finally broke the uncomfortable silence. The bell had started to ring just after Avery stood. "We have Potions."

Tom reached down to grab Abigail's bag from the floor to hand it to her, but she was already there and snatched it up away from him, and stalked off quickly out of the Great Hall before he could even stand from his seat. Tom sat there for a moment, frozen and confused. Even Avery was frozen for a moment before he cleared his throat and rotated his finger spirally beside his head. Tom quickly grabbed his bag and left the Great Hall with Avery, and headed toward the dungeons.

The desks in Professor Slughorn's classroom had been rearranged, and each was further apart from the one beside it and behind it, set in a strange set of rows. Many of the seats were already taken, even the ones beside and behind Abigail's seat. She was in the very front.

Professor Slughorn motioned for the boys to sit down quickly, and he began to hand out the exam papers, telling the students not to open them just yet.

Both Tom and Avery watched Abigail for a moment, her head looking over her shoulder for a brief second before she rolled her eyes and quickly twisted back around fully in her seat, her back tensing.

Avery scoffed from beside Tom, loud enough for Tom to hear it even with their desks a meter apart. "What's her problem?"

"That is what I'm trying to figure out," Tom admitted, chewing the inside of his cheek. Abigail seemed perfectly fine the last time Tom and her had spoken with each other, what, in less than twenty-four hours, could possibly have set her off?

"Read through the questions carefully, and thoroughly, and do not rush through it - that is just taking your knowledge for granted and you will answer incorrectly, mark my words. I know that many of you will get through the exam without any troubles, but for the few of you who might struggle with this," Professor Slughorns eyes darted to Avery for a moment, and Tom heard him cough awkwardly, "don't hesitate to ask me anything but the answer to the question. You may begin."

There was no hesitation as the class had opened it's exam booklet and the sound of quills against paper moved quickly. Many people groaned as they continued to read on through the exam, and Tom was not one of them. These questions seemed like first-year stuff to him and he had no trouble answering any question right away. It was the exact same as when he was in his fifth year; he never struggled with anything and was, quite obviously, the smartest boy in his year. He always was. At some point later, Avery grew envious and had even tried to get a few answers out of Tom, but Tom chose to ignore his friend.

"Just give me the answer to question six," Avery had mumbled quietly. "I don't even know how to pronounce that word. Come on, Tom, I studied really hard for this, I don't want to fail."

"You should have studied harder, Mr Avery," Professor Slughorn had scolded, waddling his pudgy body over to the confused boy and helping him as best as he could.

The seventh years continued to their next class, Transfiguration, and then went on to Herbology to finish the end of their exams from yesterday's lesson. Nobody went to lunch in between the two lessons, and stayed behind to finish as most as they could in the lunch hours thirty minutes.

"Thank you very much, Tom," Avery scoffed jokingly, throwing his bag on his shoulder as the two made their way towards dinner that evening.

Avery frowned when he noticed the taller boy was not paying attention to him, it didn't even seem as though Tom had realised he was there. Tom had a frown himself, and he was looking over the crowd that swarmed in the Great Hall. There was not a sight of blonde hair, other than Abraxas who was already at the Slytherin table, sitting beside another blonde who couldn't have been Abigail because Abigail's hair was a much lighter blonde. Avery seemed to notice what Tom was doing, and scanned the students himself, until he utter an audible, "oh no."

Tom whipped over at him. "Oh no, what?"

Avery was biting his lip, as though he were trying to double check what he was looking for.

"Avery!"

"It's probably just a coincidence that both Bellatrix and Abigail aren't present this evening."

Tom didn't bother scanning over the crowd for the two and immediately left the Great Hall in a hurry, Avery trying to keep up with him. He skidded down the halls, turning in directions, not knowing where exactly he was going. If Bellatrix and Abigail were together, where exactly would they be? The Slytherin common room was a possibility, so was the Room of Requirement, and ironically enough, so was a bathroom. He decided to bolt to Slytherin first as it was closest, and when he arrived at the portrait, he was sweating, Avery panting as he caught up with him.

"Mudblood," Tom said loudly, hurrying in as the portrait granted access to the common room.

He walked into a nearly empty common room, despite Bellatrix being seated in her usual armchair, a plate of food on her lap and a book in her hands. She looked up and nearly jumped out of her chair, probably not used to seeing Tom so riled up out of nowhere.

"Tom? Are you all right?" she said.

Tom ignored her and looked around. Part of him was relieved to see that Bellatrix and Abigail were not together, and he backed away out of the common room with Avery still trailing behind him.

"Come on - look it's fine, they aren't together, see? - Tom, where are you off to, now?" Avery panted heavily. Clearly the boy was unfit.

"Too see where that stupid girl has gone off, too," Tom growled, slowing down to a fast pace instead as there wasn't really much of a need to run anymore. For once, could she not have just listened to him?

"She'll be OK, mate. Bellatrix was in the Slytherin common room, and I'm sure Abby's in her own common room. She's probably studying herself," the two boys rounded another corner, Tom not hearing any of what Avery was saying. "Yes, she is definitely in her common room. It seems obvious that she's sick of the two of us being so close to her all the time and she probably just wants her own space, since we invaded it. You know what girls are like. Wait, never mind. You don't know, I don't know. They're really confusing - always have been. Remember that girl Charlotte? The one I escorted to the ball? Yeah, she was whacked out. Smiling and laughing one minute and then bursting into tears the next. Hormones are probably slower than ours. But, I'm sure Abby -"

Both boys stopped immediately, Tom about to tell Avery to zip his lips had they not spotted a blonde, sweating girl standing in the middle of the corridor in front of them, pale, her wand hand shaking. Pants escaped her lips and her bag dropped from her shoulder, which both had slouched immediately. Her hair was a mess - she was a mess. Abigail looked up quickly, Avery jumping when he got a good look at her eyes. Abigail's eyes were already a dark blue, but now they seemed to be much, much more dark.

"Abby," Avery breathed out, stepping forward cautiously but stopping when Abigail took a step back, scowling. "What are you doing here? What have you been doing? What's the matter?"

"Avery, shut up," Tom said and approached the blonde immediately, not bothering to slow his steps and stopped right in front of her.

"We should do it now that she isn't expecting it," Abigail said, her features desperate yet furious. "You've done it before. You've killed people in the castle, what makes Bellatrix so different?"

"Bellatrix isn't as empty-headed as you might think. I've taught all my Knights to prepare for the worst even if the setting is most calm. Why are you talking all this nonsense for? Why are you just standing here drenched in sweat?"

"I'm just..." Abigail trailed off, her eyes darting in all sorts of places, her face became more desperate as she tried to search for the right words, her fists clenching and unclenching in the process. "I'm so angry."

"We all are, Benjamin."

Avery cautiously approached the two and stared at Abigail in curiosity. He had never seen Abigail this way before; unlike herself.

"No, no you don't get it!" she suddenly cried, both boys jumping back. "You don't get it, Tom! I'm beyond angry! There isn't even a word for what I'm feeling. Today has been awful. I've forgotten where I've walked off to. It's like I'm sitting in the Great Hall one minute, and then I've fallen asleep and awoke in a classroom. It's scary and I'm so angry and I just want to end it all, right now! You said you taught them to prepare for anything. They probably aren't prepared for you. They won't expect you to do it. So please, please...end it tonight, please."

Abigail now had tears falling down her cheeks, her nose red and her eyes desperate. Tom didn't know what to do or what to say and it seemed as though it was the same drill with Avery.

"I can't do that, I'm afraid," Tom finally said, frowning. It was like he wasn't even speaking.

Abigail's desperation transitioned into anger, and Avery took a step back from beside Tom. Her face burned a dark red and her wand shook violently in her hand as she glared harshly up at Tom.

"Fine," she growled, yet her voice was strong. The pupils in her eyes took over and she pushed past Tom. "I'll do it myself, then."

Grunting, Tom grasped Abigail harshly by the arm and ripped her back over to him, almost causing her to land flat on her face had he not hoisted her upright. Avery gasped as Abigail threw her wand at Tom's face and began to hit and scream at him, thrashing violently in his arms. What had possessed Abigail to do this was obvious, but Tom wasn't quite ready to admit it to anyone but himself just yet. Abigail continued to thrash and scream, her hair whipping around her head, hitting Tom's face in the process. Tom knew his face was bleeding at the sight of red in Abigail's hair that had just whipped him in the face, and he shook her, trying to stop her from being mental.

"Sh-should I go and get a teacher?" Avery whimpered, stepping back before Abigail could kick him, too.

"No," Tom snapped, using both arms to hold onto Abigail, who was still breaking down.

"Well what the bloody hell is wrong with her?"

"Wish I knew," Tom lied, before deciding to just pull Abigail's entire body against his own and wrapping his arms around her, squeezing her against chest in order to keep her from doing any more damage.

Abigail stopped moving, and Tom looked up at Avery, who just pulled a face and shrugged in return. Abigail began to sob and cry loudly, wrapping her own arms around Tom, trying to muffle it all.

Avery took this as his cue to leave, and giving Tom one last strange look, he awkwardly disappeared down the end of the corridor and out of sight.