Title: Those Who Danced
Author: AudioAesthetic
Summary: "Would you say we're friends?" They'd been dancing around it for years. Theodore didn't want to say yes, but he didn't want to say no more.
Rating: T
Author's Note: This is because this pairing makes me happy, and I haven't written anything in ages. Hope you like it!
"Those who danced were always thought insane by those who could not hear the music." - John Milton, Paradise Lost
First Year
"My father works with your father," he said by way of introduction that first day of Charms class.
"Oh," said Susan, because she didn't really know what to say when a Slytherin actually talked to you like he wasn't the epitome of all evil.
"I'm Theodore."
"Susan."
"I know."
Even though Theodore highly disapproved of anyone allowing themselves to be sorted into Hufflepuff, and Susan thought he scowled too much, at least they knew they could sit beside each other and be civil throughout the class.
"We're not friends," they told their housemates - Susan because she didn't want Hannah to worry, and Theodore because it was true. The only saw each other during Charms, because that was the way it was supposed to be.
They both liked doing things the way they were supposed to be done.
Second Year
"You're good at Transfigurations."
Susan found she still wasn't used to the abrupt way Theodore informed her of random, obscure bits of her own life. That was oddly comforting, to both of them - they weren't supposed to be used to each other.
"Yes," she said, "aren't you?"
"No." His scowl deepened. "You could help me."
Slytherins didn't ask for help, but if Theodore didn't get over his mental block about Transfigurations, he was going to fail. Slytherins didn't ask for help, but most of all they didn't fail.
They met in the library every Tuesday, until Justin was attacked. Theodore waited, but Susan didn't come. He thought that Hufflepuffs were meant to be faithful, but then, Slytherins were meant to be attempting to kill all Halfbloods. He understood, though he didn't want to.
When it was all over, Susan apologized bashfully.
"It's okay," Theodore assured her, even though it wasn't. But they weren't friends, and she didn't owe him anything.
Third Year
"He was a wonderful teacher," Susan defended, "even if he was a werewolf."
"Mixed Bloods like that are dangerous."
"He never hurt any of us." Mixed Bloods? Susan thought. Or Halfbloods, like me?
Theodore just shrugged and bent over the snuffbox he was turning into a mouse, scowling. "Think what you want," he said, as though he really didn't want to push it. Susan felt something that might have maybe been affection for him. He may have been a Slytherin, and therefore inherently a prejudiced bigot, but at least he didn't expect her to find it rational.
"Here, let me help you with that." She leaned over the table. "If you think of it like this, it's easier..."
Theodore almost smiled.
Fourth Year
"I'm sorry."
Theodore was surprised to find he really was genuinely sorry. He had thought Cedric was an okay chap. Just okay, not spectacularly amazing, and he would have preferred if Jeremiah Baddock had been the Champion, but Cedric was definitely okay. Okay people shouldn't be killed that way.
"Don't say sorry to me, I didn't even really know him." Susan didn't know that her hair was a mess and her tie wasn't straight and she looked as though she'd been up the whole night crying. Theodore didn't tell her.
"Still," he said instead, and allowed her to read over her last Astronomy assignment of the year in silence.
"Do you..." she started suddenly. He leaned back to listen. "Do you think what Harry's been saying... do you think it's... it's true?"
Theodore honestly didn't have any idea. Draco Malfoy said not to believe a word of it, but as a general rule, Theodore took whatever Draco said and did the opposite.
"I think it's time to be prepared for anything," he said, diplomatically.
Susan could only nod thoughtfully.
Fifth Year
"You should come," was all Susan said about it. She didn't tell him that his words ran through her head every night before she fell asleep. It's time to be prepared for anything. She wished he'd take his own advice, and wondered why she cared so much.
He sighed. "I'll think about it," was all he said.
She knew he'd heard about their narrow escape from Umbridge when it happened, but they didn't talk about it. It was safer that way. Until one day, he asked her, "So what did Potter teach you?"
She rattle off a list of all the spells, and he nodded passively until she said something about Patronuses.
"You could teach me."
It took almost to the end of school, but by the last week, Theodore could consistently produce a raven Patronus. Susan clapped and jumped and allowed her own gorilla Patronus to play with the raven. Theodore was much more subdued.
"What does that mean?" he wondered. "That I'm protected by death?"
Susan stopped short, and didn't know what to think. She didn't want to think anything like that about Theodore, but she didn't know why. He was such a fixture, every Tuesday for three years, every Charms class for five, and she didn't want him to think about death.
"Would..." She stopped, but he was watching her expectantly. "Would you say we're friends?"
They'd been dancing around it for years. Theodore didn't want to say yes, but he didn't want to say no more.
"We're more like... partners."
Susan nodded and asked if partners were allowed to write each other over the summer. Theodore promised that he would.
Sixth Year
"We shouldn't meet in the library anymore," Susan had announced that first Tuesday. Theodore knew why. Slytherins and Hufflepuffs weren't supposed to be partners. "But if we meet anywhere else, everyone'll think we're hiding something."
"That's okay," Theodore said, nonchalantly, "my friends already think we're shagging. I'm not sure they'd allow me to be here at all if I weren't getting some."
Susan laughed, which was a testament to her uniqueness, but they still met in the empty classroom now.
"Are you scared, Theodore?"
Of course I'm scared, he thought, we're in a war. "I'm protected by death, remember?" was what he said. "Nothing can hurt me."
Susan laughed and thought that it was a very teenager thing to say. It was nice to think that, even if they were really growing up too fast, they didn't have to act like it all the time.
"What about the rest of us?" she asked. What about me? was what she meant.
Theodore eyed her pensievely, scowling. The scowl was so familiar now that it wasn't even unpleasant. "Death can protect you, too," he announced, and she knew that he was really saying, I'll protect you.
She wasn't sure she liked the thought of having to be protected, but it was nice of him to offer.
Seventh Year
"Theodore!"
Susan ran towards him in the Great Hall as they evacuated. She hadn't been at school all year, and Theodore wanted to ask why she was here now, if she was staying, and when she'd gotten so tall. He hadn't realized he missed her until she was standing in front of him.
"Susan, you have to get out of here," he said calmly as three wide-eyed Slytherin first years under his charge stared up at him in the confusion.
"Theodore, I'm going to fight. We've been training all year in the Room of Requirement and now I'm going to fight. I just wanted to..."
He was thankful that she didn't finish. He didn't want to say good-bye.
"I'll stay too," he said, but Susan shook her head.
"No, go. I don't want anything to..." She didn't finish again. They both knew the stakes. "Besides, you have to watch out for the first years."
Theodore nodded as she smiled at the three children, blind to the snakes on their badges. She had always been blind that way - she hadn't even cared about his Slytherinness when he'd asked for help.
He grabbed her hand on a whim, the first time they'd ever touched. "Come back, okay?" Come back to me.
She nodded and smiled, with tears in her eyes. She flung her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek and he held on and didn't ever want to let go. He wondered when she had become his.
"You were always different," she said when she pulled away and wiped her eyes. Theodore left her crying.
Eighth Year
They were back the next year, to finish their schooling. Susan was back to see Theodore.
The first Charms class, she sat down next to him like they had every year since they were eleven years old, except now, their fathers didn't work together. Now, Theodore's father was in Azkaban and Susan's was still in France, where he and her mother had been hiding.
He looked up at her, and although his scowl was still perpetual, his eyes smiled, and they continued smiling as she bent down and kissed him directly on the mouth, without a word.
The rest of the class was shocked as they filed in, but Susan didn't care, and Theodore never had, because she was perfect and she was his, and always had been, though it took them a while to discover it. He reached up and brushed her hair away.
"Tuesday, then?" he asked, and what he meant was I love you. She grinned, because she knew.
"Yes. Tuesday. Always."