"The story so far:
In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

― Douglas Adams

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We arrive at the Zabinis' house, and I realize just how late we were.

Everyone was already here.

Greta and Gideon were laughing with Myrtle, Claude and Chris.

Abby and Pan were arguing per usual with Avery, surprisingly, holding Abby's hand. My grin grows larger at seeing their interlocked hands.

I even saw Mulciber, Rosier, Lestrange and Nott scattered around, talking to the rest of our friends.

Mulciber and Rosier were chatting up with Avery, and Mulciber couldn't keep his eyes off of a raging Pan. The sight makes my heart warm slightly. Nott and Lestrange were in a corner brooding like some male lead vampires in a teen fiction novel.

They looked creepy as hell.

"Did you know they were going to be here?" I whisper at Tom, who shrugs, their presence not affecting him in any way.

Of course, he knew. Stupid Riddle not telling me anything.

"VAL!!!" That's all I hear before Myrtle is freaking tackling me to the floor. The air is knocked out of my lungs.

"Myrtle." I wheeze, through my laughter. "Nice to see you too." I giggle.

"Myrtle. The poor girl can't breathe." Pan grins, racing over to haul me to my feet. She gives me a look at seeing me arrive with Tom.

"Later." I mouth to her.

"Mmhmm. You better." She sasses, but still greets me with a hug. I point at Avery and Abby.

"I knew IT!" I laugh, watching as they grin, coming over to say hi to Tom and me as well. Soon everyone was greeting us.

Tom was stiff as a rock, and I notice him staying by my side the whole time. It confused me a bit.

"You okay?" I whisper at him as we start to haul our suitcases inside.

He stares at me for a second before nodding.

"Tom." I give him a look. "I know when something is up with you. Don't lie to me." I say as we tug our bags inside.

Aberforth had left the second he'd seen Myrtle running toward me like I was the Simba to her Mufasa. "Love you both! Have FUN!" He'd said quickly before apparating out of there real fast.

Smooth Aberforth. Real smooth.

"Nothing is wrong, Dumbledore. Relax. I'm fine."

"You know you can trust me, right?" I ask him suddenly, and he stops, before looking at me and nodding slowly, gazing into my eyes searching.

"Yeah." He replies. "Yeah. I know."

I smile softly and nod. "Good."

"Well. Well. Well. What do we have here? The infamous Tom Riddle and Valentine Dumbledore. Claudy has told me so much about you two." Waiola grins, walking towards us.

"Mum. Come on." Claude groans, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "She's one of my best friends. Don't embarrass me." He hisses the last part. I laugh, ruffling the redhead's hair.

"Too late, Claudy!" I tease, making him groan.

"MUM!" He whines.

"At least she didn't call you Claudine." Chris snickers and I burst out laughing.

"Nooooo?" I ask my friend.

The blonde reaches over to give me a hug. "It's the funniest thing ever, Val. Sabra even calls him Munchkins." Even Tom found that amusing, as his lips twitched slightly.

"I'm loving this trip already," I admit, making Waiola grin at me.

"Come on. I'll take you to your rooms. Boys and girls are separated. Claude, show them please munchkin." Waiola teases her son.

Claude rolls his eyes good naturally and waves us over. He grabs my suitcase from me and almost collapses under its weight. "By God, Val? What the hell do you have in here?" He demands.

"That thing almost killed her too." Tom quips, acting petty. I scowl at him before turning to Claude.

"I was too lazy to pack all my stuff into two suitcases."

"So, you stuffed everything into one?"

"Basically." I shrug.

"And um.... how did the suitcase almost kill you again?" Mulciber suddenly asks, smirking. He leaned on the railings leading upstairs.

"She was shoved on the stairs, and the suitcase tripped her," Tom replies, dryly.

"Typical Valentine." Pan snorts, walking past.

"Hey!! Try carrying that thing!! It's freaking HEAVY!" I whine, following Claude up the stairs. I helped him carry my luggage up the stairs. Everyone followed us up the stairs, wanting to hear about our summers. Specifically why we'd arrived together and why Tom wasn't stuck in the orphanage.

"Dumbledore adopted me out of there." Tom sighs, admitting it finally.

Silence.

Everyone was staring from me to Tom, jaws on the floor.

"You-You did what?" Abby demands, brows furrowed. Everyone looked at me, and I shrug.

"I made Polyjuice potion, disguised myself as Aberforth and adopted him out of there." I summarize it finally.

"Wait. So you're related???!" Avery points between us. Tom scoffs as a response.

"She wishes."

I glare at him. "No. We aren't. The papers were fraudulent. We aren't related." Not to mention that I wasn't actually a real Dumbledore.

"You live together," Pan concludes, raising a brow. She wasn't asking a question. She was stating a fact.

"Yep."

Silence again.

"That was really nice of you, Dumbledore." Rosier finally admits. He looks at Tom and then at me again. "I know how much Tom hated it there." He says quietly.

"Anyone would hate it in an orphanage," Greta demands in outrage.

"Greta. He wasn't being mean." Myrtle whispers to her. "I know Val hated it when she was there too."

"Probably why she was the only one to think to help." Nott grits out, grey eyes cold.

"Are we done discussing this trivial matter. I'd like to unpack now." Tom scowls, sneering. "If you aren't finished. Feel free to chatter about it like the old gossips you are." Tom leaves entering his room that he was sharing with Lestrange, Nott and Chris.

"Well, on that note." I force a smile and point to the room I was sharing with Greta and Abby. I enter the room and see the empty bed in the far corner that was appointed to me.

I push my suitcase there and fall onto my bed, exhausted.

Before I could fall asleep, however, Abby's screech has me shooting upwards in shock. "Valentine, you little weasel!" She screams, jumping on my bed. "Why didn't you mention anything in your letters!!! And you guys are so nonchalant about it too!!! Like 'Oh, just the most handsome guy in our school is currently living with me, Oh how ordinary!!" She scowls, mimicking my voice overdramatically.

"I don't sound like that." I give her a deadpanned look.

"WHO CARES!" She scowls.

"Yeah, Val. What happened to write to me over the summer. Tell me everything!" Myrtle grumbles, flopping on my bed, as the rest of the girls entered the room.

"It's not exactly something I could say via owl!" I defend myself. "What would I have written!? Oh, by the way, P.P.P.S Tom Riddle is living with me now!?"

"YES! Something! ANYTHING!!!" Abby scowls at me.

"Yeah, Val, Come on! We were bombarded!" Pan whines, making me smile at them.

The boys must've realized that they weren't gonna get any information out of Tom, so they were now entering our room, trying to get something out of me.

"GUYS!!" I burst out laughing. "I'm not going to say anything that we haven't already told you! We live together now. End of story. Capiche."

They groan in unison.

"Come on, Val!!!" Avery demands, and I raise a brow at them all.

"No. Nothing interesting is going on. Relax. Anything interesting has been shared." I roll my eyes and open my suitcase on my bed. "Now out. Everyone. I want to change out of my jeans. I have no problem stripping down now, but unless you want to be hexed in the worst ways possible... I suggest leaving." I grin lopsidedly.

I've never seen people leave so fast.

Greta and Abby are the last ones left. They sit on their respective beds, giving me unimpressed looks.

I raise a brow at them, stripping off my jeans and switching into some sweats.

"Well. Say it. Spit it out, girls." I grin at them.

"Are you two dating?" Greta demands.

I choke on air.

"What?!! Wait WHAT!" I demand eyes furrowed. "No. No. Are you crazy? We can't stand the sight of one another." I scoff, changing into a hoodie that I rolled up the sleeves on.

"That's not what we saw," Abby mutters, and I groan.

"What about you, Abs? I didn't hear shite about you and Avery dating. Don't be a hypocrite." I snap, getting annoyed.

"That's different!" She glares at me, making me scoff.

"Oh yeah? I can clearly see that!" I slam my clothes in the suitcase, putting on my slippers aggressively.

"Val! Val!! We're sorry! Don't get mad!" Greta begs, a panicked look in her eyes.

I strut outside and open the door to see everyone against the door, listening in.

"Seriously?" I demand. Tom steps out from his room also, taking one look at the angry look on my face and the audience I had, only to scoff.

"Don't you all have better things to do than gossip like hillbillies." He sneers and sidles to my side. He grabs my elbow and pulls me behind him downstairs.

Sabra appears in our line of sight at the bottom of the stairs. She grins when she sees us. "Tom! Valentine!" She greets. "Welcome!"

"Hey, Sabra." I smile at her, and she claps her hands in glee.

"Now that all of us are here, how about we start practice right now. We have the borders ready!! No ministry officials will show up unannounced." She shouts upstairs so everyone can hear.

"But mom! Everyone just got here!" Claude demands.

"You've had two months to rest you lazy bums. OUTSIDE NOW!" She screams. I think everyone blanched at that.

In only a couple minutes, everyone had raced outside, and we were all waiting for Sabra, who comes outside a second later.

Their garden was huge. It was more of a park, actually. They even had their own private hill. It was massive.

"Four laps around. Let's go." Sabra claps her hands, making all of us gape at her. "What? You thought being a badass Auror just entailed knowing enough spells and potions." She scoffs at us. "Spells are useless if you're a fat arse and are too lazy to dodge spells shot at you." She snaps. "NOW, RUN!" She orders at us. "All around." She gives us an evil smile.

"Oh my god. This is going to be torture." I grumble.

"What? Can't keep up, Dumple?" Tom smirks and begins to sprint.

"ACTUALLY-" I scream at him, dashing to catch up with him. "I can," I demand, sprinting alongside him, as I transfigured my slippers into running shoes discreetly.

At seeing us begin to run, everyone does the same.

Nott and Pan catch up to us in seconds. We start to run faster, making it a competition. Chris begins to sprint more quickly, moving ahead of us.

Tom speeds up, and I curse at their long legs.

My chest was heaving by one lap, but I was a stubborn mule when I wanted to be.

Soon Mulciber and Claude catch up to us too. Pan was first, easily outrunning everyone with her long legs. Her blonde hair willowed behind her.

Waving my hand over my own hair, my own hair long and heavy, becomes a bun at the top of my head. Without the extra weight of my hair being a tangled mess, I sprint faster, getting neck in neck with Pan.

She smirks at me, making me grin. We run faster and faster and soon, lap two was over.

"I CAN'T BREATHE!!!" I hear Abby wailing.

I could relate on a spiritual level.

Gideon soon catches up to us, and it's Pan, Gideon and myself fighting for the first place.

Tom suddenly outruns us all.

He was in first place.

I was internally cursing everyone and everything. My legs were on fire. I slow down for a bit, catching my breath before the fourth lap.

We'd made it a race.

The third lap was over.

I speed up.

Oxygen wasn't making it to my brain, and I couldn't breathe properly, but I raced in front of Claude. I passed Chris and then Pan and Gideon. Tom was next.

"LENY RUN!"

The burst of adrenaline in my body enables me to get neck in neck with Tom. He glances at me through his peripheral vision.

My face probably looked on fire. I was heaving, probably hyperventilating.

"LENY RUN!!!" Raine's scream pieces in my mind, pushing back tears unconsciously, and I run quicker, passing Tom slowly but surely.

A tree explodes as I pass it.

I stumble back, staring at the tree that thumps to the floor with a loud bang.

I stare at the tree in silent astonishment. Damn, I had to get a hold of my emotions. Everyone comes to a stop, heaving and panting, staring at the tree in silent shock.

"THAT WASN'T ME!!" I shout. "The tree died on its OWN!"

"SURE, it did." Abby wheezes.

"Are we continuing the race?" Claude gestures to the remaining distance we had to run.

"I kind of can't... I kind... of.....can't....can't BREATHE!" Greta cries, waving her hand in front of her like a fan.

Rosier points to the blonde beside him, wrapping an arm around her in agreement. He used her a stand for his shaky legs to lean on. "I agree!" He gasps for breath.

Myrtle pushes him off Greta, with a roll of her eyes. "You're going....going to suffocate her." She chuckles, trying to breathe as well.

"Well? Are we going to move, or just stare at this tree, like idiots?" Mulciber snaps at us, shaking us back into action.

We lightly sprint back to where Sabra was looking at us unimpressed.

"Twenty minutes?" She scoffs. "Pathetic." She scowls at us. " By the end of the month, you need to do ten of those in less than that time." She raises an eyebrow at us. "We'll add one lap every day until we get to ten, then we'll work on speed."

She points to the spot in front of us. "Line up. Now."

"Awww shite's about to get real," Claude mutters, staring at his mum knowingly.

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."

― Helen Keller