Knowing Too Much

Chapter One:

"Tom?" Alia Frost whispered. The whisper echoed off the stone walls of the common room around her. Alia shivered, and stepped onto the green carpeting and off the stairs. "Tom?"

A boy of sixteen appeared - seemingly out of nowhere - and Alia took a step forward. "Are you okay?"

"Sure I am, Ali, why wouldn't I be?" Tom asked, smiling at his girlfriend.

"I got a bad feeling today, Tom... I was worried about you... I don't know why... It's these attacks, I guess..." Alia smiled weakly, and hooked a lock of dark hair behind her ear.

"You worry too much, Ali." Tom said, putting an arm around her, and leading her toward a couch in the corner of the deserted common room.

Alia shrugged. "Do you think they'll ever catch the person responsible for this? The attacks, I mean,"

"I don't know, Ali. I don't know. I wrote to Dippet today - asking if I could stay here for the summer. I'm not going back to that orphanage, Ali. I'm not. I can't."

"Tom, there's nothing wrong with those muggles. Remember - I live there too." Alia said seriously.

"How can you say that? How? You see how they treat us, just because we're different. Just because they're scared. That's why they treat us worse than the rest, Alia, because they're scare of us." Alia bit her lip. Tom never called her 'Alia' unless he was dead serious about something. It was always 'Ali'.

"Tom, we're different. And face it - it's human nature - when someone different comes along, people either laugh at them or are scared of them. Would you rather be laughed at?"

"I'd rather my mother was alive," Tom replied fiercely.

"Me too... you have no idea how many times I've woken up screaming her name..." Alia shuddered and blinked back tears.

"At least you got to know your mother," Tom said, more gently than Alia would've expected from him at that moment.

"It's worse, Tom. It's worse, because I know what I'm missing..." Alia replied, and her voice was shaking, tears choking her voice.

"You know what they say, Ali; it's better to have loved and lost-"

"Than never to have loved at all," Alia finished for him. "I know. You've told me a million times, Tom. I know, but it's hard to believe when you haven't seen both sides."

They fell silent for a moment, just sitting there. Alia leaned her head against Tom's shoulder, and wished she knew what was bothering him. He hadn't been acting like himself lately.

In face, this was the first real conversation they'd had in weeks. Something about that scared her.

As they sat there, Tom was absentmindedly playing with a few strands of her long hair. Alia pulled back suddenly, and Tom looked startled. "What? What's wrong?"

Alia swallowed hard. "Tom," she began slowly. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Tom studied her face for a moment. "Should there be?" he asked finally.

"I just get the feeling you're hiding something from me. If there is, Tom, please, tell me... I hate being left out like this,"

"Ali, you're not being left out of anything, believe me,"

Alia didn't seem to quite believe him. Her dark gray eyes locked on his and he spoke again. "Really, Ali." Alia nodded, but didn't say anything. She forced a weak smile. Tom leaned forward and gave her a kiss. "Really,"

"I believe you," Alia replied, returning his kiss, then getting to her feet.

"You better get some sleep, Lord Voldemort," she grinned at the use of the name Tom had given himself that only his closest friends knew of. "We've got that Hogsmeade visit for Halloween tomorrow, and I'm not letting you spend the whole day sleeping. "

"Really? Because I sort of was planning to-" A glare from Alia stopped him. "Just kidding, just kidding. See you tomorrow morning. 'Night, Ali,"

"That's better. 'Night, Tom," Alia replied with a smile, and a second later Tom heard a dormitory door open and close. And he knew that he didn't want to have to hurt her.

***

The next morning, Halloween, dawned cold and gray, with just a hint of rain in the air. Alia woke, brushed her hair and dressed, before heading down to breakfast, meeting Tom halfway down the stairs.

"'Morning," she greeted him.

"'Morning. Sleep well?"

"Yes, yourself?"

"Fine,"

"Care to escort me to breakfast?" Alia asked playfully.

"Certainly, Dear Lady," Tom replied with a grin, offering Alia his arm. She laughed, and took it.

They were young, they were in love, and the attacks didn't seem to be worrying either of them too much the way they were worrying the rest of the school.

The teenage couple made their way down toward breakfast, talking, teasing, and laughing. They turned a corner on their way out of the dungeons, and nearly knocked into the transfiguration teacher, Professor Dumbledore.

"Good morning, Sir," said Tom politely, and Alia smiled sweetly.

"Ah, Good Morning, Tom, Alia," the professor replied. "Going to breakfast, I suppose?"

"Yes, Sir," Tom replied.

"Yes, of course," replied Dumbledore smiling pleasantly at them. "Well, get yourselves to breakfast and be careful... with all these attacks lately..." the professor shook his head sadly. "Good day to you youngsters," he said finally, and nodded at them as they hurried past.

"Youngsters?" Tom scoffed once they were out of earshot. "He's getting a little tight at his old age,"

"There's nothing wrong with old age, Tom. As long as you get there," Alia replied quietly.

Tom gave her a curious look.

***

"Nice day out," Alia commented as the two walked down the cobblestone streets of Hogsmeade village.

Tom nodded, but then his expression darkened. "Damn," he hissed, a glare freezing into place in his eyes. Alia looked ahead, and scowled.

"Why do Gryffindors always have to turn up just when we're starting to have a good time?" she asked Tom, who was already fingering his wand inside his robes. He shrugged, and tightened the grip of the arm he had around Alia's waist in a protective manner that the girl found comforting. Tom had always found himself being protective of Alia - ever since the day many years ago when he found her on the streets, starving and ill, and brought her to the very orphanage that he was escaping from, risking his freedom for her.

By this time, the trio of Gryffindors that Tom had pointed out to Alia were already on their way towards the couple.

"What do you want?" Alia spat angrily, gray eyes flashing.

"Touchy, touchy," Eva O' Mally, Alia's archrival said calmly.

"We're not looking for any trouble," Phillip Conners spoke up. Phil was always something of a peacemaker, but that didn't mean that Alia or Tom had to put up with him.

Tom opened his mouth to speak, but knowing that nothing good was come out of it judging by the fierce expression on his face, Alia nudged him in the ribs to shut him up.

"Have to keep him quiet, Alia? How sweet, she's taking care of him!" Eva spoke to Phil and her twin sister Rhiannon.

Tom glared arrows at her and said some things that would've made even kindly Professor Dumbledore give him detention for several months.

The three Gryffindors gaped at him.

Alia tossed in her two Knuts in the form of a sadistic smile, before she and Tom headed in the opposite direction.

The two barely managed to contain their laughter until they were out of earshot of their enemies.

"Did you see their faces?" Alia giggled. "They're probably still standing their gaping like idiots!"

Tom grinned sheepishly and laughed. "I lost my temper," he admitted.

"Yeah, and that only happens how often when you're facing Gryffindors?" Alia challenged with a taunting smile.

"And have you got a problem with that?" Tom asked her innocently.

"And what if I did?" Alia teased.

Tom grinned in response, then, without warning, grabbed his wand.

"Oh, damnit!" Alia cursed, and took off running and laughing, Tom right behind her.

The two collapsed of sheer exhaustion on a grassy slope, past the rocky cliffs, on the opposite side of Dervish and Bangs, and well out of Hogsmeade.

Alia rolled over, and glanced skyward, towards the dark gray clouds that matched her eyes that were dancing across the sky.

"Looks like there's a storm coming," she said.

"Yeah. Maybe we should head back," he said, looking slightly worried.

"What, is Lord Voldemort scared of a bit of rain?" Alia asked, all innocence.

"No," Tom said defensively, trying not to smile. Alia always seemed to make him want to laugh.

They lay on the ground in silence for a while, until something hit Alia square on the nose.

A raindrop.