Tricky Business

Alli could tell that she'd broken Tom, which was a good sign. The sooner she destroyed him, the sooner she could rebuild him however she wished. In the mean time, she would have to keep him close so that she could reinforce what she had taught to him.

Looking down at the list in her hands, she got an idea. "Tom, how would you like to do a few errands for me?" she asked with a sly grin.

Thomas held in his breath of relief as Alli didn't just tell him to buzz off and get out her way. He felt pretty stupid and utterly destroyed about the whole thing oddly enough, but tried to keep his mind off it. What had happened had happened. He raised an eyebrow at running errands for Alli. "Errands?" He asked, thinking it could be a way for him to redeem himself. He hoped it would be at least. "Of course I would." He said, eager to help now he had the thought of it redeeming him in his head.

She smirked as he agreed. Of course he would want to redeem himself to her. He'd probably burn down the caretakers cabin and write naughty poems on the staff table in the Great Hall if she asked him to.

Sadly, her task was not so fun. She handed him her list. "Anyone with a star next to their name owes me money. The amount that they owe is in parenthesis next to their name. I want you to go collect it for me," she said. There were only 4 or 5 people left on the list, but it was enough to keep Tom busy and for her to get her money.

Thomas nodded, taking the list carefully. This would be how he'd prove himself, so this is something he would need to keep safe. He looked at it for a moment, putting faces to names for later use, before nodding. "Understood." was all he said, leaving the Common Rooms with the list, he would try the Great Hall, chances were he'd find most of them there.

Alli kicked her feet up and watched as Thomas left. She had somehow perfected the art of being a go-getter and a fundamentally lazy person at the same time. She was still new to the whole having a pseudo-minion thing, but so far she found it to be quite enjoyable. If it gave her more time to sit around and do nothing, she'd take it. She fiddled with her new watch, setting it to the correct time while she waited for Thomas to return.

Thomas came back into the Common Room with a slight grin on his face, going to where Allison was and giving her the Galleons. "Found them all, a couple might have even forked over a little extra." He said, hoping he had done okay. If he hadn't then he'd likely lost his last chance, which wouldn't be good at all. He wanted to ask if he had done alright, but guessed that would be against one of the lessons or rules about being a Slytherin, mostly the 'Never second-guess yourself' one. He supposed that was where he did his worst at, seeing as he didn't always have the best self-esteem levels.

Allison hadn't been kept waiting for a horribly long amount of time. She'd expected it to take a few hours at least for Tom to complete her little task, but he was back within the hour. She took the list and the money back from him and counted it out. Sure enough, there was some extra money in the pile. She slid a few sickles across the table to him, as if she were tipping a waiter.

"You did well," she said. In her mind, the compliment was worth more than the actual money was. "How did it make you feel?"

Thomas blinked at seeing Allison passing a few Sickles across the table, was this another test? He hesitated for a moment, before taking them. There wasn't a lesson to be learnt in not taking money if you could get it, right? He thought not at least. "Thank you." He said, accepting the compliment, which to him was worth a lot more than a few Sickles, it meant he hadn't blown his chance.

"How... Did it make me feel?" He asked... "Was I meant to feel... Anything in particular?" He asked. He had been feeling quite a whirlwind of emotions at the time, from the feeling he was better than those he took money from to the tiniest spark of regret he had felt at the start, which was quickly extinguished. Those people had owed money and weren't paying up, so that's what happened to them.

"People feel all sorts of things when they start to take control of their own lives," Alli replied. She was starting to feel like some sort of mob boss training his son to take over the family business or something. "I'm merely asking what emotions you felt. Describe it to me," she said.

Thomas struggled with how to put it in exact words... It was actually harder than it seemed, but he was determined to explain it. "Well... It was pretty sudden and shifted a lot, first there was a tiny shred of doubt, but that disappeared quickly, and then... I would guess it was the feeling of control, to know you're the one who's in charge there for once... With thousands of other feelings wrapped up in between." He tried to explain, though he knew he hadn't done particularly well with it. He wondered what Allison would get him to do next.

It was a difficult question, Alli knew; she'd had to answer it herself once, though she hadn't been answering to anyone else, only herself. "It's a nice feeling, isn't it?" she was starting to relax around him. They were done teaching and learning for the day; she was worried that stuffing any more knowledge into his head would make it explode.

"What do you like to do, Thomas?" she asked him. She needed to know what he liked if she was going to reshape him into something different.

Thomas nodded at Alli's question, it was an amazing feeling to be in control for once. "Definitely." He said aloud, before noticing Alli seemed to relax a little more, though he didn't know why really. He wondered why Alli asked about what he liked, shrugging in reply. "I like to read for one, and I used to write a little, but no-where near as much any more really. I don't mind looking at Muggle stuff from time to time, mostly just how they get photographs though, they can make them, but they don't move which is a shame." He realised he had started to ramble a little, and cut himself off. "There's probably myriad other things, but they aren't really big things. How about you Alli? Anything in particular you like to do?" He asked, relaxing slightly.

Alli was expecting the question back and she had an answer at the ready, the one that she gave to everyone who asked it. "I like lots of things. I like fire and blowing things up, mostly. And I like getting other people to break the rules, that's always fun," she replied. There was another answer but she still wasn't about to give it to Tom; he hadn't quite reached that level of trust yet.

Thomas grinned slightly and raised an eyebrow. "Fire and blowing stuff up? Sounds pretty interesting." He said truthfully. Anyone who liked fire always seemed to be interesting, and that was a true fact oddly enough. He tried to think of something else to continue the conversation, but had nothing, he was never the best at coming up with new topics of conversation under normal circumstances anyway, meaning after going through the slight mental change he wasn't completely sure how to keep the conversation going.

Alli had nothing else to really say, so a silence fell over them. She got up and stretched, during the process of which she got a wicked idea. She silently declared an impromptu game of "see how long it takes to make Thomas extremely uncomfortable".

Rather than sitting in her chair, she went back to Thomas and sat in his lap once more without asking permission. She wrapped one arm around his neck to keep herself steady and looked him dead in the eyes. "Thomas, do you think I'm pretty?" she asked.

Thomas just stayed quiet as the silence started, before Allison had decided to sit in his lap again, and asked a pretty silly question, or at least to him it was. He wondered what she was trying this time... Maybe it was even a game. He shrugged to himself. He may not win, but he'd put up a good fight. "You're a good deal more than pretty Alli, if you don't mind me saying so, I'd say you're beautiful." he said, trying to stop the playful grin from showing on his face.

Alli ran her fingers through his hair. "You know, you're not so bad yourself," she grinned as it appeared that Thomas would be playing along for the time being, and he wasn't doing too poorly at it; it seemed as though he thought flattery might do him some good. "We should get married someday. We can get married, move to the Bahamas and live a lifetime of bliss. How does that sound, sweetheart?"

Thomas blinked slightly at the compliment, he could give them out easily enough, but he wasn't good with accepting them. He tried though, that much could be said. "Why thanks, but you're definitely a better sight to see." He said with a playful grin. "That sounds wonderful, plus we can just hire people to do all the work while we settle back and do absolutely nothing. It sounds absolutely perfect darling." He said in a mock-daydream voice, all the while idly wondering how long this game would go on for.

"I could live with that," Alli replied.

She spotted a wimpy looking first year who clearly should not have been placed into Slytherin. "Oi, you!" she shouted at him. "Get me some water!"

The first year scampered off and Alli turned back to Tom, smirking. "See? I would be wonderful at having someone to do the work for me." The first year returned with a glass of water, which Alli set on the table without drinking. She wasn't actually thirsty, she just wanted to make someone do something.

"Now, how many children do we want, dear?" she asked Tom.

Thomas grinned a little, watching the first year scurry off to do what Alli said. "Exactly. Means there's nothing that could go wrong is there? Everything will go without a hitch." He commented, he wondered why Alli didn't drink the water though... and hoped it wasn't so it could be used for something else later. "

You sure you want children at all? I hear that they can be bratty... But I suppose we could always teach them otherwise." He said, a grin still plastered on his face. "I'd say two then, with only a couple years apart. That way they can compete with each other more." He said analytically. He was pretty sure he was doing okay with this all so far... But time would tell if he was doing okay with Alli's response.

Alli pretended to think about what Thomas had said. "No, I think you're right, kids are awful. Maybe we just won't have any. Then we would be free to travel the world or do whatever else we want."

Out of the corner of her eye she could see that they had attracted some attention, but she didn't pay the gawkers any mind for the time being. That was something she could play off later if it came down to it. Just for show, she rested her head in the crook of his neck and held his hand. "How does that sound, muffin?" she asked him with mock-lovingness.

Thomas' eyes gleamed at the thought of travelling the world. It was something he was always interested in but never really voiced. It was always something that could wait after all. "No kids then. That sounds perfect, means we don't ever have to wake up in the middle of the night to get them to shut up." He said. He noticed that a few people seemed to be watching them, and tried his best to ignore it but felt a bit of a blush rise on his cheeks... This could end up rather embarrassing. He grinned though and kept hold of Alli's hand though. This was a fun game to play, seeing as it messed with everyone's minds. "Sounds perfect darling." He said, imitating her fake lovey-dovey tone of voice.

"You know, cupcake, I said that we should get married and you agreed. I think that means you're my fiancé now," Alli gave a fake yet realistic sounding giggle.

With another wicked glint in her eye, she turned her head slightly away from Tom and addressed the common room. "Hey everyone, me and Tom are going to get married!" she announced, sealing it with a kiss to Tom's cheek. "Right darling?"

Thomas grinned a bit more, being able to ignore the crowd of people and just focus on trying to win this little game of theirs. "Okay then, sounds like I'm engaged to be married then." he said with a grin, before blinking in shock at Alli's giggle, it was actually fairly realistic... She was a pretty good actor. He saw Alli get a glint in her eye and wondered what she was going to do next, only to wish he hadn't thought of that in the next second after she spoke, he must have gone as red as a tomato by then, and all he could say was. "We are." He said it weakly at that.
"Okay fine, you win." He whispered to her, making sure no one else would hear it.

"I always win," Alli whispered back to Tom.

She addressed the common room once more. "You may all go back to what you were doing. There's nothing to see here."

She got off Tom's lap and went back to her chair. "No point in being embarrassed, Tom. What's done is done," she said, smirking at him. "And don't worry, most of them will forget this by tomorrow and the rest of them wouldn't dare tell a soul."