Chapter 66: Key-induced and ticklish family drama

"Are you really sure this is ok?" Hermione hesitantly asked for the n-th time as they were leaving Gringotts, holding her new Vault Key so tightly her knuckles went white and heavily frowning at it.

The girl didn't like that Tom practically gave her limited access to his Gringotts account. Especially after knowing how loaded it was. Or rather, she did like it but she didn't think she deserved it, which made her feel inadequate and insecure.

Taking even a Galleon out of it felt like accepting charity and that made her uncomfortable.

"I promised to take care of your financial needs. Just take it as me fulfilling that promise." Tom casually said, his hands in his pockets.

"But..." Hermione disgruntledly trailed off, not finding proper words to complain.

It was hard to complain about getting access to sixty million Galleons. Tom's nonchalance was not helping her hard feelings at all.

How could he not care about becoming the wealthiest man in the British Wizarding World... probably even in the entire Wizarding World... Hermione would never understand. He was acting as if these sixty million Galleons had no value for him!

Little did she know that Tom earned at the very least forty million pounds, which was eight million Galleons, every time Sarael came to him with a new contract to heal the Sleeping Sickness.

And Sarael came on a daily basis. If he could, he would have come twice or thrice a day even. Devils wanted their relatives cured asap and they spared no expense for it. The only reason why Tom didn't have any of those visits from the grumpy old devil in the past few days was that he took a week-long break because of his situation with Hermione.

When one earns more than the entire worth of the House Malfoy in one sitting, money quickly loses its initial appeal. Tom recognized money as necessary but he was not penny-pinching. He was too busy to do that.

"Eh, stop complaining. You still have a limit to how much you can withdraw anyway. It's not like you could drain my account in one sitting. Or even in a thousand sittings, really." Tom rolled his eyes at the petulant reluctance of his cousin.

Seriously... she could be such a kid sometimes.

Her spending limit was a thousand Galleons a month so she couldn't really use up all the wealth in his account even if she withdrew her entire limit every month until the end of her life. Tom really didn't see what her problem was...

He took his promises seriously. He didn't make promises lightly. In fact, he avoided making them with extreme prejudice.

But since he promised to take care of her, this was his way of doing it. With a thousand Galleons a month, Hermione could do nothing her entire life and still have more income than even an average pureblood wizard who worked in the Ministry.

Tom also knew the girl would not stomach being lazy and doing nothing with her life. She would earn her own money eventually. If only because she was too stubborn to rely on his support.

She was no Ronald Weasley, after all.

'Hmm... now that I think about it, I should add a clause that would cut off her access to my Vault if she marries that weasel.' Tom hummed as he inwardly nodded, his decision made.

It didn't matter he never met Ron. He simply didn't like him from the story and movie and that was that. Tom never boasted about being righteous. In fact, he could be a very petty bastard and he was proud of it too.

"That's not the point." Hermione exasperatedly argued, narrowing her eyes at the nonchalant Tom.

Getting annoyed by Hermione's incessant complaining, Tom sighed and went for the kill, "You can buy hundreds of books now." He dryly said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes as he saw the young witch's eyes instantly brighten as the gears in her head started turning.

Of course, her face showed a myriad of expressions, the most regular of which was hesitation, reluctance, embarrassment, and so on... but in the end, Hermione just clutched the key to her chest as she mumbled, "I think I will gratefully accept. For now." She quietly added.

"Good to know. Now, shoo~, shoo~." Tom waved his hand at Hermione in a shooing motion. "Aunty Nat and I want to have a magical date and you are old enough to do your shopping by yourself."

Rolling her eyes, Hermione separated from them. Tom was right. She was old enough to do her shopping alone.

Seeing that the family drama was resolved and the kid left, Natasha leaned into Tom, pushing her chest against his arm while her green eyes mirthfully gleamed with amusement as she sweetly spoke, "Darling? And where is my key?"

'Kill me now.' Tom inwardly groaned.

"My key is your key and you know it." He bluntly said, knowing Natasha was acting like that for kicks and giggles.

He had just finished dealing with one female. Did the other one really have to instantly use the opportunity to tease him?

"It's not as if you had something you wanted to buy in the Wizarding Community anyway." Tom mumbled under his nose, loud enough for Natasha to hear.

"What was that?" Natasha sweetly asked, her smile widening and gaining a warning edge while her grip on Tom tightened...

But Tom, who knew this game, only smirked in her face... and flicked her forehead which made her head snap back and forced her to temporarily release his arm, enabling him to gain distance from her.

"You heard me!" He smugly shouted as he walked backward, using his magic senses to evade the utterly pissed and panicking wizards behind him.

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Natasha rubbed her forehead, leveling a glare at Tom while pouting as she started running after him.

"That's not what a gentleman should have answered!" She shouted, causing Tom to start running backward rather than walking, still expertly evading the wizards and causing chaos all around the Diagon Alley, making people drop their things or try to jump out of his way...

Heh, the wizards definitely didn't expect some madman to run backward through the middle of the crowded street when they decided to go shopping today.

But Tom had more pressing matters than some frightened sheeple. The redhead on his trail was at the very least mildly pissed. He... might have flicked her too strongly due to his latest life energy absorption session.

Despite that...

"Bite me!" Tom cockily shouted back. Gentleman, his ass!

Natasha grinned at that, speeding up even more as she responded, "I will! Tonight!"

She was definitely not ashamed that the wizards around heard her. Nor did she care even one bit about all the kids on the street or the affronted mothers who tried to cover their kids' ears, giving her chastising glares.

Then again, neither did Tom. "Ooh~, I am so excited!" He shouted back but then his eyes spotted a particular shop and he involuntarily stopped in his tracks as his attention was attracted.

"As you should be!" Natasha exclaimed as she rammed into Tom, tackling him onto the ground and straddling him in the middle of the street before starting to mercilessly tickle him.

The people stared at them as if they grew a second head, this kind of behavior too weird even for the wizards who rode brooms and brewed potions... but both Natasha and Tom were already in their own fluffy world.

Or rather, in Tom's case, in the world of tickling nightmares.

"Hey, sto-!" Futilely trying to swat Natasha's hands away, Tom weakly managed to get through his tickling-induced laughter.

When Natasha didn't look like she was about to stop anytime soon, Tom put a bit more strength into his attempts and took a ragged breath, "Hey, you little..."

But Natasha only responded in kind and her knees locked onto his hips to keep him in place, while her laughing green eyes full of joy stared into Tom's brown ones, delighting in her momentary victory as she redoubled her tickling efforts, evading Tom's swatting hands to make sure he could not take hold of her arms.

Tom was starting to wheeze but much to his relief, he finally managed to catch one of Natasha's arms, gaining a second of reprieve so he could take a much-needed deep breath.

Seeing in Natasha's eyes that she was far from done, Tom knew he had to act swiftly and distract her if he wanted her to stop. Remembering why he stopped in the first place, Tom shouted, "Stop! Magical ice cream!"

Natasha suddenly froze.

"..." Tom stared at her.

"..." She stared at Tom.

"..." People stared at them.

"We are going there." Natasha abruptly said in a matter-of-fact tone and finally stood up, stopping straddling Tom, before she offered him her hand with a grin on her face.

Taking it, Tom rolled his eyes, also standing up, "As if that wasn't obvious." He answered with a grin of his own.

Just like that, the commotion in Diagon Alley got resolved on its own.

When the Aurors arrived an entire half-hour later, nobody really could nor cared to describe the two delinquents disrupting the peace in Diagon Alley.

Funnily enough, it was Tom and Natasha who gave the officers the most detailed description.

Tom described Lucius Malfoy, as subtly as possible for it to not be instantly obvious who he was describing but in a way that he would still get the point across while Natasha described Lucius's nonexistent evil female twin.

It was all in good fun...

The poor sods left with empty hands and sour grimaces upon their faces as they could not slap a fine onto anybody.

Maybe that will teach them to answer the calls on time?

Probably not...

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