I do not own any of the Harry Potter stories or their contents (All rights to JK), by my OC's and the story is mine.

Chapter 1

Love Abridged

She entered the room, careful to close the door behind her. He made no sound as he stepped up to her, quickly taking her mouth in his. He relished the taste of her, the feeling of her soft lips sent warmth through him. He didn't want to let her go, but she was starting to push at his shoulders, and he respected her wishes.

"Theo," she sounded breathless, her lips slightly swollen, "What is it? What's wrong?" Her worrying eyes looked up at him.

In that moment, he didn't know what to say. His words left him. Theo ran his hand through his hair, scratching roughly at his scalp. She urged his hand away, but it acted on its own accord. He felt so small, so inferior. He barely heard her talking over his own thoughts.

"Theo, talk to me. Don't shut yourself away." She was pulling at his arm now, her nails digging in to try and break him from his trance.

They were in a classroom in the old wing, the area that never held classes anymore. He sat on an old desk, kept together with some magic but old nonetheless. His hand finally retracted from his head, which now stung from the skin being ripped away. She held his hand in hers and stood in front of him.

"Take a deep breath." She breathed with him. "Now, start from the beginning."

He looked in her brown eyes. He saw no judgement, no malice, just worry. He hated to see her worried; hated that she was fretting herself over him. He wanted to wave it off, say it was just an episode and that nothing was wrong, but he knew he'd be lying.

"My father..." he started, but the words began to leave him again. She held his hand in place, and took the other one too, just in case.

"Keep going." Her grip was struggling.

He gasped at the words, his eyes looking somewhere in the corner of the room, but he seemed miles away. "My father," He struggled to say, "he wants me to take the mark." He became almost quiet at his last words like it was a taboo or something. He wasn't entirely sure that it wasn't.

"I thought you had to be out of school to be enlisted." He could hear the fear in her voice. His heart hurt to hear it.

"He wants people inside the school."

She closed her eyes for a heartbeat, taking in the new information. He knew it was hard for her to know these things. She couldn't do anything about it, then the Death Eaters would know that someone was leaking information, and he'd be found out. He hated to tell her these secrets, things she should never have to burden herself with, but she insisted that he share his burden with her and that he wasn't allowed to go through it alone.

He loved her for it. She was so strong, stronger than he was, but he knew that she was scared, and the weight of his words was starting to break her.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Her eyes darted back up to his, and although it pained him to, he looked in them.

He felt like the world had rested itself on his shoulders. How was he supposed to consciously take the mark when he knew that the person he'd be fighting against was her? They never said it, but they knew. Audrey was loyal to Dumbledore, she was even a part of his fan club or whatever that was called. She knew that if he took the mark he'd be fighting against what she stood for, but she couldn't force him to join them if his loyalties lay elsewhere. But she knew she couldn't do the same for him, either.

The silence stretched too thin, the unspoken words dancing around their eyes. The day had finally come, the one they'd been dreading. The day he had to choose.

She tried to make it easier, "Do you want to join?" She wasn't sad, or angry, she just seemed curious. Part of him wanted to smile at that, how she could contain her judgement and fear of the subject and make him feel like he could answer either way and she'd understand.

But the other part of him did feel ashamed because he had spent years of his life up to this moment asking himself the same thing. It should have been easy, really. He had grown up to admire the values that the Dark Lord had praised, and scorn those which he detested. Before he came to Hogwarts, and a few years during, he had felt that way. What changed him?

She did. When Theo met Audrey, it was like a new world opened to him, the world all to himself, one without fear or hatred. Her eyes were warm and inviting and her smile made the sun shine brighter, at least to him. He could talk to her, confide in her his deepest fears and secrets, and she could do the same. But she was muggle-born, and he was supposed to hate her.

For a while, he did. He looked at her with contempt when they passed in the hallway and never said a word to her. But then he talked to her, a small conversation mostly about homework, and he couldn't stop the butterflies that filled his stomach at her words.

It took him a year to admit what he had been feeling, and by then they had started to grow closer. They didn't speak much in front of others like she knew he'd be judged, but they had a few study sessions in secret. She helped him by saying it was only because he was one of the smartest students. He kissed her in one of those sessions, and she was noticeably shocked, but she wasn't disgusted, so it was a win for him.

They grew closer after that, though to everyone else it looked like that felt nothing but idle contempt towards each other. They should never have been together in the first place, he told himself years ago, that he should never feel this way with a muggle-born, but his heart was stronger than his brain, and he couldn't stop himself.

But being with her meant that he couldn't wholly support the man he was raised to serve. How could he reason that? Does he still uphold the notion that magic should only be for purebloods and that Muggle-borns are scum and criminals for stealing magic when he is in love with one? That made no sense. What made more sense was that he was raised with ideas and that she made him change his mind, which was mainly true, but he couldn't say that he had completely renounced the ideas he had been brought up with.

He was split in two, and he didn't know which side to pick.

He stood there for so long she repeated the question, in case he hadn't heard it, "Do you want to join them?" The second time she said it he could hear a catch in her throat, and that knocked him out of his trance.

He couldn't bear look in her eyes, even though he knew she would never judge him. "I don't know."

She kept his hands in hers, which turned out to be a good thing since he felt the urge to scratch right now. His hands were struggling against her, slightly, but she kept her grip.

"We're gonna figure this out, okay?" She tried to catch his gaze, and he gave up looking away.

He felt his eyes start to sting. He lifted his hand, and she let go, probably sensing that he wasn't going to hurt himself. He cupped her cheek, running the pad of his thumb along the soft skin. She leant into his touch but kept her eyes on him. He felt a tear fall down his cheek, and she raised her hand to wipe it away. He pulled her close, moving his hands around her waist and burying his face in her neck. Her hands flew around his neck, and they stood like that for what felt like hours.

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3 years ago

The bell had already rung and the class had been given the normal 'welcome back' speech Professor Flitwick had always done; which was shorter than last year but still took a good chunk of time; when she entered. She was visibly dishevelled with her hair was still dripping wet. Her breath was heavy like she had just run a mile, and she gave a pointed look at a few of the Hufflepuff girls sitting in the third row.

"Ah, Ms Preston, how nice of you to join us," Professor Flitwick said in his squeaky voice. He stood on a mountain of textbooks so his small frame could be seen by the students.

"I'm sorry, Professor. But for some reason my clock was set back an hour," She looked again at the girls, "and I didn't realise until I was out of the shower."

Flitwick looked at the girls as well, but it didn't seem like he understood her sarcasm. "Oh, well, let's hope it doesn't happen again."

The girls were snickering under their breaths, to the obliviousness of the professor.

"Do not worry, Ms Preston, you did not miss anything important. But seeing as you are the last one to arrive your seat for the year has been picked for you." He gestured to the back of the room, almost directly across from her, and the only empty desk. The catch: the desk was beside Theodore Nott.

Audrey didn't hate Nott, no, she barely knew him. But she did know what he thought of her kind, what all his friends thought. She never paid attention to their snide comments about her blood and her parents because that would just feed into their fun.

She reluctantly sat down at the empty desk and turned her legs to face out, trying to be as far away as she could. She scowled at her friends who were now laughing at her predicament like this had all gone better than they hoped.

They didn't talk at all that day, and Audrey was thankful for that. She left right as the bell rang, hopping out of her chair like it had just caught fire.

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"Your seat for the year has been picked for you."

Great, Theo thought, I thought I might catch a break this year.

Why couldn't he just sit alone in charms, do the work, and then leave without having to listen to the ramblings of that Hufflepuff girl? Of course, she hadn't said a word today, but he had seen her with her friends, rambling on about clothes or whatever girls talked about. He remembered her laugh. God, what an annoying laugh. More like a cackle, he thought. He cringed at the thought of listening to her speak and laugh in class for hours on end.

When the bell rung to signal the end of class, she had not wasted a moment in leaving. He assumed she had already packed all her work and was positioned to evacuate her seat as quickly as she could. When he lifted his head up from his bag, her seat was empty and thrown away from the desk. He pushed it in before he left.

As he walked out of the large doors he felt the pressure of someone's hand on his shoulder. "Tough luck, Nott." The hand had belonged to Draco Malfoy, one of his best 'friends', though he barely considered anyone a friend anymore. "You should try sitting beside someone on the first day, then you wouldn't be put in these situations." He said with a smirk.

"And who would I sit with?" Theo asked him before walking towards the Great Hall for lunch.

Draco jogged up to him, matching his pace. "Well I would offer, but- "

"I'm not trembling at the thought of sitting next to you, Draco, unlike your goonies."

Draco rolled his eyes. "They're not my goonies, they just respect my status as being higher than theirs." He said smugly.

"More like they're too stupid to think for themselves," Theo said under his breath, but loud enough for his friend to hear.

He laughed at that. "They are pretty stupid, aren't they?"

"Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't been held back yet." Theo joined.

The laughter died down. "At least they aren't mudbloods, aye?" Draco jabbed his elbow in Theo's side.

"Don't remind me." His eyes rolled to show his contempt.

They passed through the Great Hall doors and walked towards the Slytherin table. As they passed the other houses, he heard his companion start to grumble beside him. "Honestly, how does the Ministry allow them to be here? They shouldn't even have magic." He hissed.

Theo looked around to see if anyone had heard Draco's words, but they seemed oblivious. "You might want to keep your voice down. You might be able to get away with it in the common room, but not everyone shares the same values."

"Why should I care? I don't care if I hurt their feelings, their mudbloods- "

"Mr Malfoy!" They heard Professor McGonagall's shrill voices rise over the others. "That word is not permitted in this school. Detention, and 20 points from Slytherin."

Theo smirked at him. "That's what I was trying to avoid." He shoved Draco to knock him out of his trance, and as he made to turn to the Slytherin table, he locked eyes with his now Charms partner. He guessed that she had heard Draco, or at least McGonagall's reaction because she was now glaring at them.

He looked longer than he'd like to admit, for she broke the stare and started to talk with her friends again. Theo felt Draco grab his arm so he'd start to walk again, and he begrudgingly complied.

When he sat down amongst his companions, he felt a foreign twist in his stomach.

He remained silent for the rest of the lunch.