❦ 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐒 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐕 ❦

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Not long after their night at the library, Jannah blocks his path.

Immediately, he shrinks: she knows what he did. "What?"

"You cursed my notes! You think I'm fool enough not to look through them for two weeks straight?"

"I didn't do anything to your notes," he denies, his face a mask of innocence. For a moment, guilt flares in his chest, but at the thought of seeing approval on his father's face, it fades away again.

"Don't lie to me," she snaps.

"You can't accuse me of anything. You don't have prove."

"I could give you a single drop of Veritaserum," the girl threatens, piercing her eyes through him in a way that almost makes him step back.

A potion forcing the drinker to tell the truth.

"That's year seven lecture, and it's strictly forbidden by the Ministry of Magic."

He knows that because, once again, as his father made him drink Veritaserum, he also lectured Thomas all about it.

"It's not forbidden. It's controlled. But I'd say I have decent reasons to give you some of that. Because you messed with my notes!"

"I did not," Thomas repeats. He walks past her. Instead of leaving it, she follows along.

"You did! And even if I can't prove it, I'll make you pay for it."

He rolls his eyes. "So intimate, Lockhart." 

"You're just scared. You can't handle the fact someone might be better than you at something."

"I don't care if someone is better than me. It's about how they show it."

"So because I raised my hand a few times, I'm some... I don't know, egoistic brat who knows it all?!" She steps in front of him again, so suddenly that he nearly bumps into her.

"No, I—" frustrated, he runs two hands through his hair. "Just leave it."

"No. You're not sorry for what you did. You haven't even apologized. It's pathetic. You're so desperate for approval that you'd cheat to achieve it."

Pathetic. It is pathetic. The word hangs between them for a while. Thomas can't think of a retort— they both know she is right. His stomach twists in disgust at himself, but he shoved the feeling down, refusing to show any weakness.

"You don't know anything about me."

"I know enough."

"Leave me alone, then."

"No. I won't just forgive you. You still haven't apologized. And you're not the only struggling. Both of us want to prove ourselves. You know what?" She steps closer. "If we work together, we can nail this project. I'll forget about your sabotaging, and you will quit being stubborn. We'll get a nice grade or whatever Mr. Romanov is planning on doing with the outcome. Deal?"

Jannah holds out her hand. He stares down at it, eyes squinted. His father is the type of person to believe it was still Jannah who did everything, and not Thomas. On the other side, he will also immediately assume it's Thomas's fault if Jannah does something wrong.

It's pretty much impossible to prove himself in a group project.

But this might be the best way, so he firmly takes her hand.

One second later, she tugs at it with such force that his face gets send straight to the floor. He catches himself before his face lands in the mud. The rest of his body is completely covered in the brown stuff, though.

With a wide open mouth, he looks up. "What the hell!"

"That's what you get." Jannah scowls. "Of course I won't forgive you. You've chosen the wrong path. Maybe after the project, we'll be fine, but that depends."

Embarrassment sets his face on fire as he gets off the ground. "There was zero need for that. I thought we had a deal."

"No. Because you still don't regret what you did."

Thomas scoops a great patch of mud off his clothes and smashes it right onto hers, causing a loud gasp. "Whatever you say. See you."

"These clothes were expensive!" She kicks him in the back of the knees the second her turns around. Unfazed, Thomas resumes his walk back inside.

❧

"Petrificus Totalus."

Thomas freezes. Literally. The wall behind him catches him from dropping to the floor.

His jaw jams together, stopping him from speaking. No matter how hard he tries to move, nothing will. Just his eyes, which are focused on his father.

"Now you can go tell me what this is." The man reveals a piece of paper from his pocket, showing it to Thomas.

Father, you're a dumb man. I've been sabotaging classmates' work to get ahead, and you haven't even noticed. Honestly, it's a great solution. But I'm still very sorry— which is why I'm writing this. I hope you can forgive me. I felt bad walking around keeping that secret from you.

If his jaw wouldn't have been stuck, it would've dropped.

"Wait, you can't really talk right now," his father begins. "I'll loosen your jaw up a bit."

There is no 'before he can protest', because he literally cannot. And it probably wouldn't matter either way. His father will believe what he wants to believe.

Even though he is frozen, he can still feel the hard knuckles slam against his face, at least three times, until his body indeed starts to loosen up again. 

"Don't speak," his father interrupts just when his mouth opened. "I know enough."

"But I didn't—" now he cuts himself off with a loud shriek, bending down to his shinbone.

His father steps back, breaths slightly heaved. "Shut up. I'd tell you to go prepare for your presentation tomorrow, but I've already decided your grade. I'll see if Miss Lockhart makes something out of it."

Again, his mouth opens, but he quickly shuts it. It won't help. Will only make things worse.

Nodding, Thomas leaves the room, praying to find ice to hold against his jaw.

When he crosses the stairs that lead down to Slytherin's common room, he hesitates, though. Anger rises within his chest. Pushing him into the mud was deserved, but there was no need to put him in front of his father like that.

It's not like Jannah knows the real consequences— but still. It blinds him, the idea of giving making her feel the same pain, even if it's just for a second. So she won't do it again. Or get in his way again.

"Yo." Two hands press down on his shoulders from behind. It doesn't take long for Thomas to recognize it's his friend Minho. "What're you doing? Trynna sneak into our common room?"

"No," he says, his voice still a little tight.

"Now that you're here, question: will you join the tournament? You better! I want to compete against you— and win, obviously."

This again. He nearly rolls his eyes. "I don't know yet. I'm busy with other things."

"Winning from our brand new Jannah?"

"Look," at the mention of her, Thomas takes a step closer, "I despise her. Help me get revenge or something."

"Damn, what did she do to you?"

"Something that deserves revenge."

"But I like Jannah," Minho says, frowning. "I also like pranks, though. We can do a harmless prank, I guess."

Both things she did to him weren't harmless. It's not fair. "Harmful," he corrects.

"Harmless," Minho argues.

"Harmful."

"Harmless— dude, you're not some wild dog. What's going on with you? Act normal."

"Aren't you the one who pranked every living thing last year?"

"Harmlessly."

Thomas raises an eyebrow.

"Okay, not always, but they deserved it."

"And Jannah does, too!"

"First of all, she's my friend. That'd be betrayal. Second of all, she's a girl. You can't just harm girls. Not like that, at least."

"Not like that, at least?" Thomas rephrases. "What does that mean? You don't even know in what way I want to harm her."

"I may hope by just a quick hit or something."

"Yes, exactly. In what way do you think it isn't appropriate to harm a girl, then?"

"It's very remixed. It depends on the girl and the situation. We can't harm them but we also can't treat them as less. They want equality but also not the same treatment as us boys give each other. You following me?"

"Yes, but this isn't helping. I just need something to make her feel bad— even for just a moment."

"...okay," Minho says slowly. "Puking Pastille? Maybe she has some crazy phobia for puking. That would be harmful, but not extreme and still forgivable."

"I don't need her forgiveness."

"Alright, tough man. Imma head down. You go brainstorm about your sweet revenge."

❧

A/n: Let me know what y'all think Thomas RoMUDov should do to Jannah

Veritaserum will make an appearance later on, when they have even more rivalry and hatred