When all your hope has left you, know you're not alone -- Summer 2017

I chuckled sadly.  "Keep me from killing my own mother," I said to him.  "But that would defeat the purpose... I do love her and want her alive -- even if she's acting completely dense about teh whole thing."

I nodded, trying to understand everything.  "Alright... well, what if you just stayed here for a few nights?  Until you're done being pissed?" I suggested.  I did nto want him to go back tot hat house being this angry.  His father would just feed off of it and make it worse.

I was not entirely sure if I was okay with running away from the problem, but I could nto be in the same house as Riddle.  I sighed.  "Yeah, maybe," I said to Ryan.  "That might be a good idea, RJ... better than going back there to deal with Mum and him right now."

I smiled at my best mate.  "You know you're always welcome at this household... not matter what," I assured him.  It was the least I could do to try to help calm him down and keep him from that situation.

I was very grateful.  "Thank you," I said to RJ.  "I really mean it.  You have no idea how grateful I am that I can stay here.  Your dad won't care?" I had to double check.  It had been a rough year for the Blacks and I did not want to intrude.

I laughed and shook my head.  "Nah, he won't say anything against what we want right now," I said.  I felt bad for using everything as an excuse to allow Tommy for staying, but Tommy really needed help.  Besides, Dad always liked my best mate when he came for visits over the summer holiday before.

I laughed slgihtly and had to agree; Mr. Dean did want to keep the kids happy right now.  "Yeah... but still.  I dont' want to intrude or anything..." I trailed off, not entirely sure if I would be or not.  It might be a good thing for me to be around for Ryan, anyways.

I shook my head.  "Dad will be fine with it," I assured Tommy easily.  "Let's go in and ask him ourselves...?" I knew that Dad was home... at least I was pretty sure he was.  I hoped that he was not out and about with our professor.

I looked at Ryan and smiled, rather relieved.  "Okay, yeah," I said, knowing that Mr. Dean always liked me.  I just was not sure if he would like me enough after everything that happened with Mrs. Addie recently that it would be okay with me staying.

I led the way inside and found Dad reading over the Prophet.  "Hey, dad," I said to him, wondering if I should interrupt his reading.  Sometimes he did not mind, other times it seemed like that was the only way he escaped what was in his mind... that or a certain somebody I did not like to speak about.  "we've got a question for you."

I could see that Mr. Dean thought we were going to ask about some prank or something because he had a smirk on his face when he looked up at us.  I bit my lip and waited for him to at least acknowledge his son before I would even say a word or not.

The way the two of them were looking at me worried me slightly.  "Okay," I said slowly, looking between the two boys.  I could read Tommy's expression and could tell that he was extremely worried.  "What's going on, boys?"

I took a deep breath and opened up to talk to Mr. Dean.  "Well, you see, my mum's got a lot of stuff going on and this new guy she's with is a cunt, so it's been difficult at home," I said to him quickly, trying to get it all out before he jumped to what we wanted and said no to us.

I looked at Dad.  "So he can stay here for a bit, right?  Or however long... I don't want him to go back there if he doesn't have to, Dad," I explained more.