Voices Silently Sing

The next morning found Tom, Draco, and Godric standing outside the Longbottoms' boarding house, wearing less foreign clothes. Mokona was tucked safely inside the right breast pocket of Tom's black button-down shirt.

Mokona and Draco had told Tom of another feather earlier that morning, so they'd all agreed to spend the day looking for it.

"All of you be safe out there," said Alice. Frank pressed a small coin-purse into Tom's hands. "Buy yourselves some lunch with this, and have fun."

"Oi! Why're you givin' it to the kid?" "He looks the most trustworthy." "Grr..."

Before Godric could throttle Frank, Draco slapped the back of his head-leaing a good-sized bump- and he and Tom dragged him off as they waved farewell.

＊＊＊＊＊

"So, where do we look first?" Draco was the one to pose the question.

Mokona perked up from its place inside Tom's pocket.

"Mokona knows!" It pointed towards the area they'd landed in the day previous. "Mokona sensed a feather over there, so that's where we should look first!"

"Well, aren't you clever?" Draco remarked with a small smirk.

Tom stared ahead, towards where Mokona was pointing, and frowned.

"Mokona- you said before that you could sense the feathers, right?"

Mokona nodded, "that's right! Boy, you sure have a good memory, Tom!"

"If you can sense them, then...do you sense any feathers in that direction?"

The winged creature frowned, one of its long ears half-bent and the other cocked slightly. "No...Not really. Mokona can sense something, but it's not one of Harry's feathers..." it said finally, apologetically.

"Then why don't we look in a different direction?" Draco suggested. With a nod, Tom began walking towards a main street. Draco quickly followed after him, and for a minute, so did Godric. At least, until he caught something else out the corner of his eye.

Blonde curls, blue eyes, and a slightly plump but very feminine figure.

Helga! Maybe now I can get her to lift this damn curse off me!

He started running towards her.

Draco noticed and began running to stop him. "Hey! Hold it, stupid lion! Don't just go chasing random girls like that!"

With a reluctant sigh, Tom followed. It'd be very inefficient if he was forced to scour this entire world alone, after all.

＊＊＊＊＊

Godric came to a halt in the middle of a large and bustling train station. Quickly, he looked around for Helga. Where did she go?

"Dammit!" He punched a marble pillar, creating a relatively shallow crater in it. Passersby gave him funny looks and not-so-discretely gave him a wide berth. Not like he cared what they thought of him.

The sound of heeled shoes against marble caught his attention, and he looked up just a bit more to see Peter Pettigrew and a couple of his cronies.

"Well well well...look what we have here boys! Heheh- looks like little gingersnap's gotten himself lost!"

He didn't like this guy at all, if not for the crappy nickname then for the feelings in his gut.

"Hey...I got an idea! You, gingie! You seem pretty strong! How's about you join us? An' we can take this whole entire town by storm!"

"Mm how 'bout no?"

Peter called out a giant rat patronus, crackling with electricity. Godric wasn't intimidated though.

Or, he wasn't until he reached for his sword and grasped a handful of air.

"Are you sure you don't wanna come with us?" Peter asked mockingly, "My special patronus can convince you..."

The rat leaped towards Godric, and the redhead just barely managed to avoid being electrocuted.

Damn it! There's nothing I can do against 'im! If I use my fists, he'll just fry mej but I don't have my sword on me! Grrr...

The rat tried again to get at him, and just barely missed.

Fuck...guess I gotta run!

He took off running, nimbly weaving in and out of the pedestrian traffic as Pettigrew's rat chased him.

But he didn't know the area very well, and so it didn't take long for the rat to have him cornered. Godric watched in anticipation as the patronus stalked towards him, taking its time as if it knew he didn't have anywhere to go.

Shit! This is-

A spark of gold caught his attention. No. Not a spark.

A fucking golden lion...You're kidding me...

The lion hunched down before him, nuzzling his knees with its muzzle as it released a low growl. Even though the thing didn't produce actual words, Godric felt as if he could clearly understand what it wanted.

"So...you wanna help me out, eh?"

Rather than nod, the lion condensed into itself and, in an orb of red light, shifted into a sword.

Without needing to be told twice, Godric grabbed at the handgaurd on the hilt, hardly noting that it suited him perfectly and seemed to thrum throughout his entire being, as if it were a literal extension of himself.

Boldly, one might even say recklessly, Godric lifted the sword above his head and launched himself towards Pettigrew's rat patronus, dodging its paws and effortlessly cleaving it in two. It disappeared in a burst of electricity and smoke, and somewhere Peter Pettigrew fell unconscious.

"Well, wasn't that impressive."

Godric looked over his shoulder to see Tom and Draco lazily sauntering up to him, the former being the one who'd spoken.

"Shut it kid. Those idiots only came after me cause they wanted to get to you."

Tom hummed, as if Godric had just said it was raining.

"Oh. Well then, if that's all it is, are you ready to rejoin us? The quicker we find the feather, the quicker we can leave."

The redheaded man sighed, exasperated.

"Fiine."

OooOooOooOooO

That night, after Draco had gone to sleep, Godric had tucked himself into a corner while Tom was a short distance away, beside Harry.

"Hey, kid."

The dark-haired youth looked up, startled from his thoughts, "Yes?"

"...go to sleep."

Tom hummed, but leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep regardless of his own inhibitions about sleeping in front of strangers.

It had been a long and certainly unfruitful day.