Ch73. Back form the family lunch

After Tom had showcased his magic, the rest of the family lunch went alright.

The only other notable exception was when Arthur asked Natasha about her occupation and magic, only for her to tell him with a sweet innocent smile that she was Tom's personal freeloader and she was not very good at this hocus-pocus thingy.

That practically shut up any further debate for a few minutes as everyone felt too awkward to let out even a single word.

Even Tom felt a bit embarrassed at her blatant declaration but he was also amused at how shameless she could get. Though he had to admit, she got out of the questioning without revealing anything about herself and without making it seem as if she was trying to keep secrets.

As expected of his ex-spy girl.

After lunch, Tom and Natasha excused themselves and went back to their tent while Hermione stayed back, intending to spend some time with Harry.

That was fine by them. The girl should spend some time with her friends. But Tom had had enough of mindless conversation about amazingly interesting muggle contraptions Arthur tried to engage him with and the same could be said about Natasha as Molly tried to start a debate about housewife duties with the poor ex-assassin.

Both were out of their depth and felt very awkward because... for Tom, these interesting muggle contraptions were just everyday things and Arthur was making a bigger idiot out of himself the more he talked.

And despite her ability to do many, many things, Natasha was definitely not housewife material. Matching the enthusiasm of Molly when she talked about household chores was impossible for her.

"That was an... interesting experience." Natasha wryly said as she sat on their bed, inwardly thanking Tom for deciding to leave early and not spend an afternoon at the Weasleys.

"It was horribly grating on my nerves." Tom deadpanned, calling it as he saw it without trying to be polite about it.

"I tried to be polite, duh." Natasha deadpanned back.

They stared at each other with deadpan looks and in silence for a moment... before they both erupted into mirthful laughter and Tom came closer to Natasha, embracing her and causing them to fall onto the bed.

"That Ronald kid was quite rude to you, though." Natasha tried to start a conversation after a while of silent but refreshing cuddling.

"I don't like him." Tom hummed, his hands lazily roaming Natasha's back.

"I noticed." Natasha spoke back, "Still, you were too lenient with him. You should have reprimanded him for behaving like a prick."

The only reason why Natasha didn't tell Ronald off was that Tom wanted her to be passive during their lunch with the Weasleys and blend into the background. In her opinion, it was overly cautious but she understood the necessity for it.

"I am trying to ignore it." Tom sighed, smiling at Natasha when she tried to cheer him up with a kiss on the cheek, "He is just a kid, but I don't think I could start liking him. At least Hermione's other friend looks to be alright if a tad bit too quiet."

Tom really tried to squash his prejudice about Ron and he was ashamed to say he failed. Maybe if Ron wasn't so rude Tom could force his opinion of him to be more neutral but as it was now, he really thought negatively of the youngest Weasley boy.

Unfortunately, long-time and deep-seated prejudices were not something one could throw away at a moment's notice.

"The Potter guy. Funny. I haven't seen any dragon mount nor any harem of half-naked fairies around him." Natasha snorted, referring to a more... adult-inclined wizarding literature about the fabled Boy-Who-Lived.

Because yes, those were a thing too.

"We are so showing him these books eventually." Tom chuckled, his light brown eyes having a devious glint in them.

"From what we saw of him, that will emotionally kill him and drive him to have a heart attack." Natasha amusedly replied.

The Potter boy did not give her an impression of confidence. It was a bit disappointing if she was honest. After reading all these Boy-Who-Lived crap kiddy stories, she expected some six feet tall teenager who looked more like a mountain of muscles. Not a twelve-year-old-looking fifteen-year-old shy boy who tried to hide in his own shadow.

"It will be a good prank." Tom smiled. He had bought an entire collection of adult Boy-Who-Lived literature only to one day show it off to Harry and have him sign it.

Tom could never force himself to read some cringe wizarding smut with a child as the protagonist but just imagining what kind of expression will Harry Potter make when signing those books... oh, it will be glorious!

Natasha chuckled. She could imagine what Tom intended to do to the poor boy and she could only pray it wouldn't cause him lasting mental scars.

Well, despite everything Tom had said about letting Hermione make her own choices, Natasha knew that Tom had his own way of evaluating those she intended to hang around with. And even though Tom wouldn't admit it, she knew Tom could not hold himself back from interfering if only slightly.

"Speaking of pranks, how did you know how the twins will try to prank you?" Natasha led the topic away from the wizarding smut to something she was curious about.

She saw that Tom had completely countered fourteen pranks in total, every single one of them unique in its own way. His counters were so efficient that nobody throughout the lunch even realized that a prank had just failed.

The utterly bewildered expressions of the twins were amusing. Up until the point they turned into worshipful. Then it was just weird.

Nevertheless, Natasha really wondered how Tom could do that. She knew that he could not possibly counter all of these pranks with just his mana control because some of them were of more physical variety with an actual physical effect, rather than a magical one.

Tom perked up at the question and pulled away from the embrace, much to Natasha's whiny protests as he sat up and tapped the bed next to him.

Under Natasha's questioning look that was quickly turning into a blank one, a... rat suddenly climbed onto the bed from underneath it and came to the spot Tom had tapped, sitting down.

"Natalia, meet Sir Rataface Mudfullius Expendablius the fifty-sixth of his name, one of my special rat-like golems." Tom proudly exclaimed and as if to prove his words, the rat suddenly lost its coloration, turning all brown to showcase it was really just a magical construct of hardened mud.

Natasha blankly blinked, her mind trying to accept what Tom had just told her. Eventually, she closed her eyes and exasperatedly laughed, "You are spying on them." She said in complete disbelief.

All this effort to counter two teenage pranksters. Natasha really found that amusing.

Tom just grinned as he saw the realization in her eyes, "Not everything needs a magical solution, my dear. Sometimes, coming back to the basics is best."

"Duly noted." Natasha rolled her eyes, but her lips were firmly set in an amused smile no matter how much she tried to shift her expression into a stern one, "I hope there will be no... Rataface in the bathroom when I am showering."

She really tried to sound strict but the laughter in her tone was kinda ruining it for her.

"You wound me." Tom feigned being hurt by her remark and put his hand on his heart, "As if I needed a golem to spy on you in the shower when I can always just join you and have the first-class seats to ogle you." He smirked at her.

Natasha huffed and took a hold of Tom's arm, pulling him back into a lying position next to her before she climbed on top of him, pressing her body into him as she smirked back at him and sensually spoke, "Exactly. Why would you just look when you can also touch, no?"

She claimed his lips...