Chapter 15 - Regrets
The next morning, Tom woke up, face down on the floor of his bedroom. Feeling stiff, he managed to get to his feet, only to realise that it wasn’t his bedroom. Judging by the person in the bed, it was Cho’s bedroom. Panic and confusion started to set in. Luckily she was still asleep so Tom crept over to the door and went out into the common room.
It looked like he’d entered a bomb site. Nothing was in its correct place. Broken glass lay all over the place, there were stains on the floors and walls and there were a few bodies dotted around the place. He glanced at mirror on the floor and saw his reflection. To his surprise, he was naked. Hoping no one had seen him, he hurried back to his own room. Once there, he had a shower and got dressed. He then went back to the common room to try and sort out the mess. Unfortunately, whilst he was excellent at fixing things, he’d never got the hang of cleaning and tidying spells hence he was only able to do half the work. The job took slightly longer than expected because there were people in the way who were still asleep.
Just as he finished repairing the final mirror, Natalie appeared by his side. “Morning,” she said with a grin.
“What time is it?” he asked.
“It’s 6 o’clock,” she replied, still grinning.
Tom was surprised to hear it was so early. He asked, “Why are you up at 6?”
“I always get up early on a Sunday. I like to go to the top of the tower and watch the sunrise whilst meditating. It helps me to relax and find inner peace.”
Completely taken aback by her answer, Tom said, “I never knew. That’s deep.”
Natalie smiled at Tom’s reaction. “Do you want to come with me?” she asked brightly.
“Sure, I’ll give it a go, just as long as you tell me what happened last night.”
She smiled even wider. “I was wondering when you were going to ask me that. Come on.”
They made their way up to the top of the tower and walked across the balcony to the railing, to observe the grounds. The coldness of the fresh morning air didn’t seem to affect either of them as they were mesmerised by the sun rise. For a time they said nothing, just watched.
Then Tom turned to Natalie and asked, “So what happened?”
“What do you remember?”
He thought back. “I remember Mark attempting to sing ‘stairway to heaven’ and failing horrendously. I also remember Boris doing that keg stand but apart from that, nothing.”
“Wow! You must have been really smashed. You don’t remember anything else?” she said in disbelief.
“No. Why? What did I do?” he asked, nervously.
“Well, after Boris did his keg stand, you…”
Tom interrupted, “Hang on. How did I even get drunk? Where did the alcohol come from?”
“Mark and Ryan acquired it. They made sure the younger kids never had any but they kept slipping you some whenever you weren’t looking.”
“Bastards!” Natalie recoiled at Tom’s curse. “Oh, sorry Natalie.”
“That’s alright. I’d be pretty mad if they did it to me... Anyway, Boris did the keg stand and then you were telling everyone how you could easily beat it. In fairness, you did beat it. You managed 51 seconds which is a new house record, but then you collapsed into that vase by the radio and some glass pierced your chest. Ryan pulled it out and I sealed your wound but after that, we tried to get you to go to bed but you wouldn’t listen. No one could talk any sense into you.”
Tom pulled off his shirt to inspect his wound. Sure enough, there was a diagonal gash across his right pec where the glass must have pierced him. “Oh dam, that’s quite bad,” he said in reaction. He examined his wound properly, then said, “So that’s it, is it?”
Natalie looked confused. “Is that not enough?”
“It doesn’t explain how I woke up in Cho’s room, and naked on top of that!”
Natalie actually took a step back. “What!? Were you in her bed?” she exclaimed.
“Thankfully, no. I was lying on the floor.”
“I don’t know anything about that, you’ll have to ask her.”
“Fair enough. Hey, Natalie, thanks for patching me up and I’m sorry for anything and everything I put you through last night.”
“You were an idiot but I forgive you. But I’d be more worried about what happened between you and Cho if I were you.”
As the sun rose higher into the sky, they started to meditate with Natalie instructing Tom. They said nothing for about 20 minutes whilst they focused with their minds on everything around them. Taking in the world through their senses other than sight. Tom had to admit it felt pretty great. At 7 o’clock, they went down to breakfast, feeling a strong sense of tranquillity. It was the first time Tom had been the first to enter the great hall for anything. During the whole time they were there, only a handful of people came for breakfast. The place felt weird like this.
After breakfast, they went back up to the common room. On the way, they passed a few Ravensnores going down to breakfast, all of whom praised Tom for his actions at last night’s party. Tom didn’t have a clue who any of them were but thanked them nevertheless. The common room was still messy when they arrived but Tom ignored it and went straight to Cho’s room.
He knocked but heard no reply, so slowly opened the door and entered. She woke at the sound of the door closing. Tom walked over to her bed and she looked up at him. “Now you’re in my room. What’s up?” she said sleepily.
“I want to know what happened last night between me and you.”
Cho looked puzzled for a time and then said, “Nothing as far as I know.”
“So why did I wake up in your room?” he left out the naked part.
Cho seemed as surprised as he was. “Did you!? I don’t know why that is. Don’t you remember, I went to bed long before the party was over and you certainly weren’t in my room at the time?”
Tom relaxed and sighed. “I’m relieved. But I wonder what did happen then.”
“Who knows,” she said rhetorically. “Do you want to get breakfast?”
“Already had it.”
“Oh, ok.”
Quickly Tom said, “Can you please not mention this to Amber? I don’t want her to make suspicious or worried when nothing happened.”
Cho thought it through. “I suppose so, but you should really tell her. It’s not good to keep secrets like this.”
Tom started to think about what might happen if he told Amber but Cho interrupted his thoughts, saying awkwardly, “Err, can you leave me please. I need to get dressed.”
“Oh yeah, sorry,” he said and went back to the common room.
He found it to be fully cleaned. Amazed, he went to sit down next to Natalie on one of the sofas. “Do you know who cleaned the place?” he asked.
“That was me. Do you know who repaired all the broken stuff?”
“That was me.” They both laughed.
Tom said, “Looks like we make a great team, the two us. I wouldn’t have been able to clean everything like you have.”
“And I couldn’t have fixed everything like you have.” She paused. “I’m so glad we can do magic. It would have taken ages to clean otherwise.” They laughed again. Natalie then asked, “So what happened between Cho and you?”
“Nothing apparently. She went to bed before I was in her room.”
Natalie looked puzzled. “You must be relieved but, in a way, it’s even weirder now.”
Just then, Mark came out of the bedrooms, spotted Tom and came rushing over. “Mate, you feeling better? You were so out of it last night.”
“No thanks to you. What were you doing, spiking my drinks?” Tom asked heatedly.
Mark looked surprised at Tom’s anger. He said defensively, “It was just a bit of fun. We wouldn’t have put you in any serious danger.”
Tom supposed he was right. He knew that Mark and Ryan always had his back. “Fine, I’ll let you off. But don’t think I won’t try and get you back for this.”
“I’d expect nothing less. How’s Cho by the way? Did she get a bit of a shock?”
“You know what happened?” asked Tom, urgently.
“Oh yeah. Ryan and I were trying to get you to bed but you were stronger than us and insisted on going to Amber. But for some reason, you though Amber’s room was Cho’s. You got one foot in the door and collapsed. You lay motionless, shirtless, face down. We tried to make you come round but it didn’t work. Since you’d been a pain, we thought you deserved some humiliation so we took off the rest of your clothes and left you there. Giving Cho a nice surprise in the morning.”
“You gits!”
Mark grinned and asked eagerly, “How’d she react?”
“Sorry to disappoint but I woke whilst she was still asleep and left.”
“Ah no. We’ll have to think of something better next time.”
“Don’t mention this to Amber. I don’t want her freaking out.”
“Don’t worry man. We got your back.”
They shook on it and Natalie said, “Boys,” in disbelief.
Tom Collivander and the Order of the Thunderbird, A Potter Parody Page 22
