"Tomcat I've decided on our first course of action." Apollymi announced as she strode firmly into the room, pulling the boy from his reading. "And it's gonna start with you."

He blinked and raised a brow.

"Tomcat?" Was his scathingly dry reply and she felt her amusement flare.

"What? You don't like it?"

"Not particularly." He muttered and she hummed.

"Well too bad since it's here to stay." Apollymi shrugged before snagging the boy in by the collar. "Now as I was saying its gonna start with you and ballet."

"Ballet?"

"Yes, we're taking it."

Tom looked so put upon that it brought a smile to her face and she released her hold on his clothing.

"Why is it always we?"

"Because we're a package deal Thomas."

"Don't call me Thomas."

"Okay Tomcat."

"Don't call me-"

"So!" Apollymi clapped cheerily. "The ballet, you wanna do it right?"

Tom hummed, eyes contemplative and he shut his book.

"The matrons say that's a girl's class." He told her in a careful tone and Apollymi smiled.

It may not have been nice but it was amused.

"Thomas, Tom, Tommy." She purred. "The world's fragile masculinity and sexism isn't gonna stop us anytime soon."

And at that, said boy rolled his eyes.

"I already know that but it's like you said, traditionally it's still considered deviant when boys dance." He pointed out. "So how are we going to convince them?"

And at that Apollymi grinned.

"Why is it always we?" She teased and Tom clicked his tongue.

"We're a package deal." He mocked back and she laughed.

"Well played." She nodded and Tom preened. "And to answer your question, its that."

He paused.

His eyes narrowed.

"We're a package deal." He announced dourly and she nodded. "And what's worse is that I can't even say it's a lie."

Apollymi winked.

"So here's what I'm thinking," She started. "I'll play the little kid too scared to be without her bestest friend and you'll bravely volunteer to come along and boom! You're in the class!"

He stared.

"Sadly that makes sense and may actually work." He sighed. "But how will this help us take out Cecilia?"

"Ah yes, Miss. klu klux klan." She hummed with an eye roll. "its to show her she has no power and its also to help with our overall grace, posture, and flexibility - we're street rats so we're gonna need to take high class till we are."

"This will help us blend in." Tom smiled and it wasn't really a nice smile but it was enthused - after all, she had told him her mother came from wizarding high society and what that entailed. Hell, she even told him about the three things her mother harped on the most and that was Grindelwald, Dumbledore, and Hogwarts to which Tom gave a disgusted face because according to him, those name? Atrocious.

"Naturally." She nodded with sly eyes. "And more on that, we're gonna have to start saving up cash."

Tom's brow arched up in a question.

"We're orphans going into fantasy high society." She told him. "And more importantly we're going to a private magical school. Now I knew how private schools worked for orphans when I went and they almost always had a fund for them but you always got second hand shit."

Like you had in canon. Went unspoken and unrecognized by anyone but her.

"Now if we save up there's a chance mundane currency will be worth more there." She explained. "But even if it doesn't inflate we can still convert and have a personal money stash on hand and do you wanna know why that's good?"

She leaned forward and flicked a single finger at their frayed clothes and smirked.

"Because with that extra cash we can get our second hand clothes fixed right up. Good as new and no one would have to know we're charity cases."

His head tilted.

"Why don't we just fix it with magic?" He asked and she shrugged.

"Because magic can be undone." She said simply. "And we're not tailers, if real alterations need to be made like the lengthening of pants or shirts, we can't do that."

He was silent for a moment.

"Do you really think wizards have their own currency?" He asked her dubiously and she nodded firmly.

"I remember my second mom talking about it." And she did. "Galleons, knuts, sickles. Don't know their worth though!"

Apollymi paused and let her eyes flicker over to Tom and she took a second to mull over her next words before she decided to take a chance.

Maybe this way she could stop his parents from becoming emotional triggers if the secret was exposed early on.

"And speaking of my second mom there has be a way to search parentage in the wizarding world because duh wizards? - So what did you wanna do about that?"

A pause and black met gray.

"Nothing." He told her face smooth but there was a wrinkle between his brows and she reached out and smoothed it away with a rub of her index finger.

It was more difficult to do than expected.

"We can figure it out later." She allowed, feeling soft because pushing people was what she enjoyed doing. "But we will talk about this when we talk about Billy."

And at the boy's name he tensed momentarily before relaxing so quickly, Apollymi though she imagined it.

"Fine." He told her, lips pressed tight together and she snorted.

"Passive aggressive bullshit doesn't work on me Tomcat," She drawled as she poked his ticklish side and was rewarded with a Yelp and a jump. "We will talk about it no matter what."

And this time Tom pouted.

"Fine." He huffed and she ruffled his dark hair.

"You good to go into the next topic?" She asked and he nodded.

"Good." She smiled. "Because we need to access our magical abilities - you first."

And at this, Tom perked up and she motioned for him to get on with it.

"I can make anything I want happen if I think hard enough about it." He announced proudly. "I can tell if people are lying, I can control them, and I can speak to snakes."

He leaned back and smirked at her and Apollymi smiled ruefully.

"Anything huh?" She murmured as she casted a glance towards the mirror where her hair slowly started to darken to black.

"Well it looks like you have me beat. I can only morph." She told him on a sigh and after a moment Tom's smug expression fell away before he shot her an incredulous look.

"Only recently have I been able to access anything not innate." She said conversationally. "I think it's because my magical core or whatever wasn't mature enough for me to draw energy from and Tom, quite frankly, the fact that you could do all of this so early on is either amazing terrifying or terrifying amazing."

But when her words were met with silence the young witch glanced over, saw his shaken expression and huffed out an amused breath.

Poor boy probably just had worldview shaken - after all in his mind, wasn't she supposed to be his equal in all things?

Slowly she gave a smirk and shoved at his shoulder.

Yelping, Tom shot her a grumbly look and she grinned.

"And it's also annoying. So don't think you'll be able to stay in the lead for long Tomcat." She threatened, storm cloud eyes teasing and warm. But most importantly - competitive. "Now that I've got all my magic, your ass is grass and I'm gonna mow it."

And for a second, just a second Tom looked so relieved it hurt before his body fit back into its lines and he rolled his eyes.

Vigorously.

"I'll believe it when I see it plebeian." He sniffed and she mocked him silently.

"Yeah, yeah, just don't be surprised when I mollywop you with a fist full of magic."

"What on god's green earth is a mollywop?"

"Keep testing me and you'll find out mudboy."

Okay that mudboy thing is a reference to a fav series of mine with an elf named Holly and a boy genius most Fowle. (I really wanna do an SI-OC for that fandom but idk lmao).

Here's the new update and they're gonna do ballet! More reasons for it will come later but it is for exercise because I think all wizards who duel in motion should know like parkour or some shit (its my headcanon that lord Voldemort makes his death eaters learn how to frickin move).

They have a plan but where do you think Apollymi is going with it?

Please review to tell me what you think and thank you for reading.

Also! I may have asked this recently but do you guys like Apollymi as a character and why? And is Tom in character enough (taking into consideration the changes made to his canon childhood of course)?