[HP] Dearest Enemy

Alfart had a big opinion on Tom's decision to adopt Nagini, but everyone knew that no matter how serious Alfart's opinion was, in the end he had to act according to Tom's wishes.

Alfred's compromise and Nagini's unexpected cooperation put Tom in a slightly better mood, but when he started walking to Alex's office on the fourth floor, the good mood disappeared immediately.Fortunately, there were not many people wandering in the corridor at this time, so no one saw the cold anger visible to the naked eye in the expressionless Slytherin prefect's eyes.

Alex and Harry are completely different, the former likes to be the center of attention, while the latter likes to keep a certain level of low profile.Take the door of the office as an example. After Harry accepted the position of professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, he did not make any modifications to the black walnut door that Professor Mellors liked quite a lot. He just added another door lock inside. .Alex, on the other hand, replaced the office door with a new one, and painted the Palampion family crest on it: a unicorn surrounded by roses.Tom didn't know that Harry had once pointed out to Alex that he had come to Hogwarts just to be lazy because of the door, because of the fact that the head of the family had too much to do.

"Password?" The white unicorn looked at the handsome black-haired boy with sapphire eyes.

"Hippogriff," said Tom flatly.He had written to Alex on Sunday morning to confirm the time of confinement and the password, and at the same time read in what could be called a man's domineering handwriting that he was gloating at himself.

"Correct." The unicorn replied routinely, and opened the door with a click.

Tom went in and closed the door.Alex's office is surprisingly tidy, and the whole room is full of his personal style: portraits and tapestries hanging on the wall, Gryffindor curtains, odds and ends on the small table by the window Small trinkets, a row of photo frames on the mantelpiece, a wine cabinet that could almost be called luxurious, bookshelves filled with all kinds of travel souvenirs and books, and coffee tables and armchairs scattered in the corner of the room... and the room The master of the house was resting a pair of long legs on his desk, scratching his chin with an eagle-feathered quill, frowning as he looked at a piece of parchment that was a foot long in the other hand.

"Good evening, Professor Palampion." Tom greeted Alex lightly.If it were any other professor, Tom would bow slightly to show respect.

"Yeah." Alex nodded, indicating that he knew, without looking at Tom, he pointed to the small table next to the desk, "There are all homework for the third graders, you change them over."

Change homework?Tom raised an eyebrow.He took the Protection of Magical Creatures class because he didn't like number divination, but that didn't mean he was so interested in this class that he could correct the homework of the third grade students: "This is the content of my confinement tonight?"

"If you want, we can have something to drink." The man with McGinn complexion raised his head and glanced at the gloomy young man, "I have mead from Palampion's collection here, you should be happy to taste it taste."

Tom withdrew his raised eyebrows, and put a faint smile on his lips: "Thank you, Professor Palampion. But my professor shouldn't encourage his students to drink while in confinement."

"Relax, dear Tom." The man's smile made Tom feel awkward. "You can call me Alex here. It's just the two of us now, and you are a prefect, even if you have a drink while chatting Alcohol doesn't count against school rules, does it?"

"I take issue with that." Tom walked over to the little table and sat down. "You know, the prefects always have all sorts of things to attend to, and I'm afraid I won't be able to have a drink with you after service tonight. .I suggest that you invite Professor Slughorn, who has a great deal of research on fine wine."

"Really? That's a pity." Alex sighed exaggeratedly, "Since you are in a hurry, you might as well start your service labor sooner."

"Yes, Professor." Tom replied softly, pulled the top sheet of the stack of parchments, then picked up the eagle quill pen on the table, dipped it into the ink bottle, and began to see that the writing was ugly student work.Alex watched the black-haired boy leisurely circle the dots on the parchment, smiled slightly, and turned his attention back to the homework in his hand.

An hour later, Tom put down the quill and tightened the lid of the ink bottle, stood up from his seat, and put a stack of corrected homework on Alex's desk: "Professor?"

Alex grabbed the top one and scanned it briefly, raised his eyebrows and whistled: "Hey, Tom, are you really just a fifth grader?"

"As you can see." Tom said coldly, suppressing the twitching of the corners of his mouth.

"Harry is really smart." Alex shook his head, "It saves him a lot of time by asking you to correct his homework!"

"So can I go?" Tom interrupted Alex's admiration, he didn't want to stay in this place for another minute.

"Slip away from me in such a hurry?" Alex narrowed his eyes slightly, put down his homework and walked to the wine cabinet, and took out a dusty wine bottle from it, "This bottle of wine has been stored in the cellar for 20 years. It's been a year, you must try it."

"Please allow me to decline." Tom glanced at the wine bottle in the man's hand, and retreated towards the door, "Sorry, dear professor, I think I will have time to have a drink with you in the future."

Tom turned and walked towards the office door, and when he put his hand on the doorknob, the man still holding the wine bottle spoke slowly.

"Today's labor service is my appointment." Alex said leisurely, his tone brisk, "I want Harry to give me a chance to let you serve me. How about a drink together, dear Tom?"

Tom turned his head and stared into those gray eyes for a full minute.What does he mean?So Harry would catch himself on a night tour and put himself in detention because of this man's request?Tom is not afraid of being caught by his godfather during the night tour, and he can earn back the points deducted by Harry within a few lessons. Although confinement does not happen often, it is not uncommon to be punished by Harry.What's more, as a prefect, I went to the Forbidden Forest for a night tour. If I didn't get locked up by Harry, it would be as weird as Dumbledore's announcement that he would never eat sweets again.So what is this confinement all about?

"We can make ourselves more comfortable, Tom." Alex had already pulled the cork, and as he spoke, he poured wine into two crystal glasses, waved one of them to Tom with a wave of his wand, and then held the other. A cup sits in an armchair.Tom hesitated, took the glass of clear liquid, and sat down in the armchair opposite Alex.The man raised his wine glass and whispered his congratulations.

"For Harry."

Tom twitched his eyebrows, glanced at the relaxed man, and repeated in a low voice, "For Harry."

The wine is indeed good wine, and the unique mellow aroma of mead has become more mellow with age.Tom took a sip of the wine and gently swirled the bright liquid in the glass: "I don't know if I have the right to ask why Professor Palanpayne must serve me?"

"I just want to be lazy like Harry." Alex stroked his short hair combed back, showing a lazy smile, "What annoys me the most is grading students' homework. Fortunately, the magic Biological protection is not a compulsory course, otherwise I would really cry."

Tom snorted, he didn't believe Alex's argument.If he was really afraid of revising his homework, why would he rush to Hogwarts to persuade that old guy Rufus to keep the position for him as the heir of Palampion?Besides, homework in Care of Magical Creatures was nothing compared to other subjects, Alex knew that as well as he did.

"Is that all, professor?" Tom smiled sarcastically, "If it's just correcting homework, you don't have to spend so much trouble. I'm happy to serve any professor who needs it. It's the duty of the prefect to assist the professor."

Sly boy!Alex noticed that Tom had left out the word "keep order" on purpose.He didn't know that if he hadn't gone to Harry, Tom would have sent him back with the reason that "the prefect's duty is to assist the professor in maintaining order in the school rather than correcting homework" when he asked for help in correcting homework.But asking this young man who is becoming more and more indifferent to him to help him correct his homework is only one of Alex's goals.

"I want to chat with you." The gray-eyed man said, "Since I came back from Florence, you don't like to talk to me as much as before, and you are even more reticent after you came to Hogwarts. It's unimaginable, dear Tom."

"Oh? Is that so?" Tom put on a surprised expression, "I don't think I've neglected the professor."

"I think I've found the reason for your change of attitude, Tom." Alex leaned back in the armchair in a relaxed posture, "Because of Harry."

Tom was taken aback. He hadn't expected Alex to bring this up with himself.After all, it's one thing to fight in secret, it's another to say it out loud.Fortunately, Tom has learned to deal with all kinds of emergencies calmly, and Alex's words only made him frown slightly.

"I don't understand what you mean," said Tom, staring into the man's steel-gray eyes with pure black eyes.

"You know what I mean, dear Tom." Alex's tone was still brisk. "You just don't understand yourself."

Tom felt that he had been seen through by the man in front of him.Yes, he had doubts about himself, but that was all in the past tense.Harry is the closest person to him, and of course Tom has no reason to let other people be closer to Harry than himself.

"Should I express my gratitude to the professor for your meticulous care?" the black-eyed young man smiled.

"Sigh." Alex stared at the boy for a second, then suddenly rubbed his brows as if surrendering, "It's hard to talk to Slytherin. Tom, you're getting less and less likable now."

"It just doesn't please a Gryffindor." Tom said coldly, draining his glass of mead and standing up, "Thank you for the wine, it's really delicious, but I prefer the taste of wine. If you still want to chat with me, I hope you won't use such silly excuses to drag me into your office again." Tom walked to the office door again, reached for the doorknob, and suddenly seemed to remember something Turning to look at Alex, "By the way, I don't want to say good night to you, but I should wish you good night out of courtesy. So, good night, Professor Palampion."

Alex watched the boy open the door and was about to go out, and said in a low but clear voice: "Do you really know what you think? Do you want to play a fun game with me?"

Tom turned to look at him, his gray eyes full of challenge.

"Of course." The corners of the handsome boy's lips curled into an arc of determination, "I'd be happy to see you lose."