Chapter 95: Making up with Hermione

When Tom and Natasha woke up, they were not in the mood for anything so they simply stayed in their bed, lazily cuddling with each other.

As they idly enjoyed their time with each other, Tom suddenly found himself gazing at Natasha's hand resting on his chest and his eyes slid towards her fingernails as he remembered them gleaming with ominous crimson color when she talked with Kingsley.

"Hmm... green nail polish?" Tom hummed with a slight interest gleaming in his brown eyes.

"You always said you love my eyes." Natasha replied, feeling giddy that Tom noticed the change so quickly. She usually wore black nail polish since she knew her partner really liked it even if he never explicitly said so.

"That I do." Tom smiled, taking Natasha's hand into his as he played a bit with her fingers while looking into her emerald eyes that curiously hung on him, "It really looks nice on you."

Natasha loved to hear that and her lips stretched into a wide smile at the praise but she knew Tom. She knew him too well. That's why her good mood was not affected by his next sentence because she totally expected it from him.

"Now, coat your nails in the Power of Destruction please." Tom said, showing his interest in her fingernails was not exactly the simple kind that would make a girl happy.

Of course, it had to be more complicated than that when it came to Tom. Natasha knew he would have never praised her nail polish of all things if there wasn't some deeper reason.

Rolling her eyes, Natasha fondly sighed, saving in her heart the nice feeling Tom's praise evoked in her before she did as he asked of her and her green fingernails instantly turned crimson under his scrutinizing gaze.

Tom was obviously back in his researcher mode and whatever romance in bed she would have wanted would simply not come now. Alas, it wouldn't have been her Tom if he didn't act this way.

As Tom intently observed Natasha's now crimson fingernails, probing them with his magic a bit by inserting wisps of his mana into the Power of Destruction, only for them to quickly fizzle out the second the two energies came in contact with each other and Tom's eyebrows started to furrow more and more with each passing test.

"Of course. How did I miss this? That was stupid of me." Tom mumbled, a little cross with himself. He prided himself in being observant so missing something so obvious felt...

"What?" Natasha worriedly interrupted Tom's thought process, completely clueless about what he meant, "Is something wrong?"

Coming back to reality, Tom blinked before he threw Natasha a calming smile, "No. Nothing of the sort. Tell me, how hard it is for you to form these... claws?"

"It's quite easy?" Natasha frowned, inwardly wondering what was the problem. This was one of the easiest magical techniques in her repertoire and she never noticed anything wrong with it so Tom's behavior was throwing her for a loop, to be honest.

"Easy, huh?" Tom wryly smiled, his lips twitching at Natasha's cluelessly cute expression, "Energy coating should not be so... tangible? This energy 'coating' of yours is far too thick and solid. I have no idea how you did this but this is not a simple energy coating but a complete energy construct, which is on a completely different level."

"And that's bad?" Natasha slightly tilted her head in confusion, still half-lying on Tom's chest.

"Bad?" Tom muttered in bewilderment.

Frankly, he had no idea if he should feel proud or be completely baffled. He was even a bit peeved that Natasha accomplished something like this so easily because even he would be unable to create such a tangible energy construct out of his mana.

Something like this required a massive amount of control.

Or talent...

"My dear Natalia," Tom helplessly sighed, "it seems that as little talent you have for actual spells," Because to be blunt, she was really almost completely inept in this regard, "you compensate for it by having an incredible talent for creating energy constructs."

"Oh... good to know I am not a complete good for nothing when it comes to magic." Natasha easily quipped.

"Sorry, I should have noticed way sooner. Maybe then you would have been much stro-" Tom guiltily started only to be stopped by Natasha weakly pinching his side.

"It doesn't matter." She rolled her eyes at him. "At least now I know in what direction I should train. Any tips?"

"Er... not really. I am good at alchemy. Energy constructs are really not my thing." Tom sheepishly shrugged and Natasha groaned, burying her face in Tom's chest from exasperation.

In the end, this was practically barely helpful at all!

...

Tom sat at the table in the corner of the Leaky Cauldron. This time he was completely alone since Natasha decided to spend her time tending to her new garden, not interested in this meeting with Hermione at all.

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Yes, Hermione sent Tom an owl that she wanted to meet... which really surprised both Tom and Natasha because they thought her teenage rebellion would last much longer than just a few short days.

Still... Tom took Hermione as his responsibility so despite being a bit peeved at what she had done, he decided to meet with her.

It didn't take long for Hermione to show up and when her and Tom's eyes met, she ducked her head down with a small embarrassed blush adorning her face as she slowly walked towards his table.

"Hi." She subduedly mumbled as she sat down and Tom raised his eyebrow at her.

She could be such a kid at times. Tom already suspected this new behavior of hers was due to the redaction and apology in the Daily Prophet from the Minister aimed at Tom and Natasha.

"Hello, Hermione. What brought this up?" Tom asked, keeping an amiable smile on his face to not scare her off.

Hermione sullenly looked down and stayed silent for a second, finding it hard to admit her mistake... but eventually she started speaking, "We have seen the Daily Prophet-"

'Called it.' Tom inwardly deadpanned.

"-and Harry made me realize that while we know each other only for a short time, you took me into your family, and I... I am sorry for acting like that." She admitted, visibly ashamed.

Tom was inwardly very surprised because by reading between the lines, he realized it was only Harry's words that made Hermione come here. The girl was far too stubborn to come to such a conclusion herself.

"And Ron?" Tom couldn't help but ask. He was far too curious about that.

Hermione instantly grimaced and Tom inwardly snickered at how expressive the girl was. It would need to be adjusted later on because Tom didn't want her to continue being so easily read but... right now he had no idea how to even start with it.

"He wasn't exactly... thrilled." Hermione turned her head to the side and Tom smiled at her.

"He is still proclaiming us dark wizards to whoever is listening, isn't he?" Tom amusedly asked, imagining the situation where a chibi devil Harry is sitting on Hermione's right shoulder, trying to talk some sense into Hermione while a chibi angel Ron is sitting on Hermione's left shoulder, telling her how awful of a person Tom, her last remaining family, is.

When Hermione heard what Tom said, her eyes widened in surprise and she managed to let out only a confused, "Er..." She really wondered how Tom could know that.

"I can see it on your face." Tom chuckled at her questioning look, answering the unasked question because he found the entire situation funny.

Hermione opened her mouth in a prompt retort... only to deflate like a balloon when she couldn't find the right words to rebuke Tom.

This was new to her. With Harry and Ron, she always dominated their conversations but now Tom was handling her as if she was a child. It irked her to no end while also making her feel extremely embarrassed.

"You should really work on hiding your thoughts better, Hermione." Tom added, making the girl even more embarrassed than before.

Content to leave it at that, Tom stayed silent and Hermione's embarrassment slowly eased as she got more comfortable with the situation. But then, the girl started suddenly fidgeting more and more with every passing second in silence.

"So..." Hermione unsurely started, awkwardly looking at her clenched hands on the table, "Are we good?" She asked with such a hopeful expression that Tom had to resist an urge to chuckle.

"Yes, Hermione. We are good." Tom rolled his eyes at her. It wasn't as if he expected to have no problem between them when he took her in.

Alas, she was his last remaining family so, at the very least, Tom wanted her to not get lost in the grown-up world once she hits adulthood. He had no idea how he could teach her the lessons he deemed important but if the girl stayed as she was now, her life would be one massive hardship.

That said... he wasn't keen on holding her hands throughout her life. That's why Tom decided to take the distant approach and let her get burned by her own mistakes. He would be there to offer help and direct her but he wouldn't interfere with her life. He wasn't her father.

With the important and serious stuff over, Tom decided to give Hermione a break and lead the conversation to a lighter note, "Now, tell me, did you have fun at Weasleys the past few days?"

Hermione understood Tom's intentions and instantly brightened up as she started to regale him with the tales of friendship and summer holidays spent with friends...

Soon enough Tom started regretting even asking about it. But it was far too late to stop her.

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