His lips were dangerously close to hers. Both of them were caught off guard as stunning brown eyes met loving blue ones. Several students clambered over them, some even daring to pretend to step on the pair. They were getting too many odd looks for either of their likings. Tom wanted to lean closer, to close that tiny gap between them. But instead, he pushed himself off of the ground with force and began to shout, "Who the hell did that?"

A few teachers gave him disappointed looks. His bad language was only occasional, but there were just some times when Tom couldn't keep his inner frustration from revealing itself. He turned back to Elizabeth, who was just staring up at the plain, golden brown ceiling in shock.

Let's set the scene. Tom and Elizabeth were travelling to Potions together like they always did when someone bumped into them at an awkward angle. This fall resulted in Tom grasping Elizabeth at the last second so she didn't smash her head open on the concrete bench to the side of the hallway. Tom mentally noted that from then on, he should walk on that side of the hall.

It was clear that no one was going to answer Tom when the hallway was cleared of students and teachers. He checked the time, mentally cursing when he realised they'd be fifteen minutes late for class even if they ran. He walked back over to Elizabeth and held out a steady hand. She gladly took it, even if she couldn't help but blush when she brushed his chest as he helped her stand.

"It's okay," she whispered, "You don't have to find out who did it."

"Fine. If I do, they're dead," Tom growled, a little annoyed that she had ordered him not to investigate further, but it was Elizabeth. He was never mad at her. In fact, she was about the only person that he could tolerate.

"Tom, seriously," Elizabeth giggled, "It was probably a mistake."

Tom frowned. He began to complain again, "And if it wasn't?"

Elizabeth laughed again, Tom marvelling at the sound that he thought could make even the saddest of people smile, "And who do you suppose would be trying to hurt me?"

"I don't know," Tom replied sarcastically, "Any one of those girls who tries to woe me?"

"I doubt woe is what they have in mind," Elizabeth sighed, "They like you."

"I don't want them to like me. There is only one person I am in the slightest interested in."

Elizabeth raised a dark eyebrow, genuinely confused. It couldn't be her because he'd rejected her confession - well, he'd just not let her speak her mind. There was no way that he'd regret it, either.

"Who might that be?" Elizabeth asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. She loved Tom and didn't really want to know who he was interested him because of it, but she was just too nosey.

Tom was silent. Elizabeth considered that he might have been embarrassed but in reality Tom didn't know how to confess to a girl. He contemplated lying to Elizabeth, then realised that he'd ruin any chance he did have with her. After all, she was going to tell him that she loathed him.

"Just a girl who wanted to tell me she loathed me."

A thousand thoughts entered and left Elizabeth's mind at the same time. A scene of her beginning to say 'I love you' but only being able to get out 'I lo-' before getting cut off by Tom flashed before her eyes, and she giggled. She inquired, "You mean me?"

Tom's gaze drifted to the floor when he became overly enthusiastic about his shoes. He wouldn't look away. He couldn't look at her. She was disgusted by him, or so he thought. Elizabeth burst into laughter again as she watched him look at the ground intensely. He believed she was mocking him and could feel exasperation boiling in the pit of his stomach, but then her soft, velvety voice filled his blessed ears.

"Tom, that wasn't what I was going to say. I guess we were both prepared to be rejected by each other, weren't we?" Elizabeth purred, her desperate eyes pleading for him just to meet her stare. Eventually, Tom lifted his head and a few brown waves fell in front of the blue orbs that Elizabeth had come to love so much.

"You mean to say that you, too...?" Tom answered. He felt nervous. His palms were slick with anxiety and he felt butterflies fluttering around in not just his abdomen, but every part of him. This was the effect that a mere girl had on him. But of course, to him, she was so much more than just a girl.

"Yes," Elizabeth told him, her voice barely a whisper. Tom's hand reached for hers. When they were this close, they were like magnets. They just had to close any space between them.

"Elizabeth, I-" The words just weren't working for Tom. They stuck in his throat and made him feel like he was about to choke, "I lo-"

"Don't force yourself," Elizabeth crooned, "Please, Tom. Take your time."

"You won't get impatient?" Tom questioned as he pulled her into his arms.

"No. Tom, did you know that a hug is just a way to hide your face?" His lover responded. He felt his cheeks burn an even brighter shade of red - of course, the fact that he was blushing was actually the reason he hugged her in the first place.

Tom chuckled and Elizabeth chuckled as she felt his throat vibrate against her shoulder, "Yet again, you're exactly right."

Tom felt guilt eating away at his insides yet again. He wanted to tell her that he loved her with everything he had left of him; that he'd change for her - but he wanted power, and he couldn't quite decide whether his desire for domination or Elizabeth was stronger. In spite of that, he kept his grip on her hand tight and urged her to stay close with his actions as they headed to potions, hand-in-hand.

They got a few stares as they entered, even a few nasty comments could be heard as their fellow students began to notice their intertwined fingers. Slughorn glanced at them with a sloppily raised, unkempt eyebrow and announced, "Tom, Elizabeth, I'll speak to you at the end of the lesson."

The pair sat in silence and took notes as Professor Slughorn spoke about the Draught of Peace. Tom considered making some in his own time to relieve his anxieties and agitation but then realised that everything would improve in terms of Elizabeth because she loved him back. He leaned over to her slightly as Slughorn turned his podgy back, "Pretend you hurt your head when he talks to us after class."

Elizabeth bobbed her head in understanding, scribbling down more notes as Horace Slughorn faced them again, his ageing blue eyes glancing over to where Elizabeth and Tom were sat. He smiled as he noticed that they both had their heads down and were working, but of course he'd missed their chat a few minutes before.

The lesson was soon over and the bell sounded. "I want an essay about the making of the Draught of Peace for next lesson, please!" Slughorn shouted out as students clustered and edged their way out of the stuffy, hot classroom. The only two left behind were Tom and Elizabeth, who patiently packed away their quills and equipment. Elizabeth dropped a piece of parchment and Slughorn watched with amusement as Tom reached for it and the couple (or so he thought) touched hands, Elizabeth giggling as they did so and he realised that the two students who had once been at each other's throats were undoubtedly in love.

"Right, you two," he said in his usual sing-song voice as he approached them slowly, pulling his ugly checkered suit jacket down, "Why were you half an hour late to my lesson?"

Of course, the first thought that ran through Tom and Elizabeth's heads were both something along the lines of, 'Oh, no reason really Professor, we just got pushed/brutally forced to the floor by some stupid kid/imbecile and then we stared into each other's eyes for a bit before I/Tom got mad/pissed and not long after that, we confessed our love for each other without actually confessing our love for each other. Nothing much'.

But neither of them were going to even say that in the slightest. Elizabeth held back a chuckle at her choice of words and knew that Tom would be thinking of a more literate, complicated answer so she waited for him to speak. His voice was entirely convincing and almost conniving (well, he was lying to the teacher who adored him) as he said, "Well, you see, Professor, we were on our way to this lesson when somebody pushed Elizabeth and I to the ground. I reached for her but it was too late, whoever it was had managed to force Elizabeth into the concrete bench. Luckily, there was no blood but she was left dizzy for about ten minutes, so we had to wait for her to come back to her senses before we could take a slow walk here."

Elizabeth mentally scoffed, extremely unamused by his choice of words. Come back to her senses, she thought, offended. What a cheeky git!

Of course, Tom meant none of it. It was just a fancier, more believable version of what could have happened. After all, who would tell their professor that they'd spent at least two minutes staring into each other's eyes lovingly? Who would even dream of telling a teacher they skipped a bit of their class just to tell someone they were in love with them? Definitely not Tom or Elizabeth.

"I see, I see!" Slughorn replied, impressed that the pair had been through so much just in order to get to class. He also shook his head of all thoughts that Tom and Elizabeth were holding hands because they were dating, although the fact that Tom picked up her paper for her did suggest that they at least fancied each other. Marvellous! Slughorn kept thinking to himself, I haven't seen such love in my lifetime!

He chuckled at his own thoughts, earning a curious look from both Tom and Elizabeth. He shook his head.

"You aren't going to give us detention, are you, Professor?" Elizabeth asked innocently, her large, doe-like eyes looking up at him desperately from under her thick, dark lashes. Slughorn wondered to himself how he'd ever be able to give such a good, honourable and faultless student a detention.

"Of course not, no!" The potions professor told her cheerily, patting Tom on the shoulder as he did so, "Off you two go! It's lunch-time, so I suppose I should head off to the Great Hall."

Tom and Elizabeth shared a look as Slughorn basically skipped out of the classroom, rubbing his rounded belly and most likely having some gluttonous thoughts about how much he could go and eat whilst chatting to the fellow teachers about the new gossip that was Tom and Elizabeth's budding romance.