AN:Hello! Theodore Nott is probably on of my favorite behind the scene characters. I have millions of little stories for him stored on my computer and I decided to actually finish this one off and publish it! Happy reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

XOXOXO

Butterflies

There once was a time in Theodore Nott's life where he took everything literal; most would not be surprised because the boy constantly had a serious look on his face. Even if his personality was far from serious, rather it was more reserved. His father and mother had trained him since he was able to speak to watch his tongue. To be a proper gentleman and up hold the Nott pureblood line of successful, if at times devious, witch and wizards.

Around his classmates he would only speak to others if it was necessary or if they went out of their way to have a word with him. Around his fellow Slytherins he was more laid back and even at times the clown of the group.

So it was understandable if at the young age of seven a certain black haired wild-child, Astoria Greengrass mentioned that when she was older she would marry someone that gave her butterflies in her stomach, Theo would think that she would literally have little bugs growing in her stomach and they would painfully emerge when she found someone she loved.

At first the thought fascinated him, and then of course like any small child he was terrified. What would happen if he never found this person? Would the bugs begin to eat him from the inside out? What if he married the wrong person? It wasn't uncommon for purebloods to arrange marriages between their children at birth to make sure their bloodlines would continue and run pure. Was there a time limit to their hatching?

After a few days of mulling over the idea that the bugs could be tearing up his insides as he ate his morning porridge he went to the only person who was smart enough to know about the tiny monsters, and wouldn't take the mickey out of him for asking about it.

The Malfoy Manor was kept clean and well-groomed around these times, not a flower out-of-place and the peacocks were kept in the backyard where they wouldn't cause any damage to the visitors. Theo and his mother, Anastasia Nott, walked through the front gate and Theo looked up excitedly as Narcissa Malfoy and her only child, Draco Malfoy walked up to greet them.

The mothers greeted each other warmly and began to chat about all the boring things, in Theo's opinion, that mothers usually talked about. He and Draco quickly slipped away into the garden where they could be free from their mothers' watchful eyes.

"So mate, what do you want to do today? My father took my toy broom away because I tried to jump off the third floor with it," Draco said with a smirk. He kicked at a stone and passed it to Theo, "But of course I can get one of the house-elves to help me get it out of his study if you really want to play with it."

Theo shook his head and kicked the stone back to the blonde boy. He wasn't sure how to bring up the topic. What if he was wrong? What if the other boy didn't know about the winged demons? What if talking about the butterflies would just make them grow faster? Maybe he should have talked to his father about it first. That way he wouldn't seem like he didn't know as much as Draco did. Draco may be one of his best mates but that doesn't mean there wasn't any kind of friendly rivalry between them. The blonde boy was always quick to show off, whether if it was his new toy or his newly learned swear word that made his mother turn a funny purple color.

"Hey! Earth to Theo!" Draco called waving his hand in the other boys face impatiently. Theo looked up at the boy and gave him a funny smile.

"Sorry, Astoria came over the other day and she told me the weirdest thing-," Theo began, only to be interrupted by Draco who snorted loudly. "Anything Astoria says is weird. She once told me that she was going to become Minister of Magic and make her birthday a holiday and then-"

Theo rolled his eyes and cut the other boy off, "No, no this is serious, Draco! She told me about the butterflies!"

"Butterflies?"

"Yeah!" Theodore said somewhat excitedly, "They are little bugs that grow in your stomach until you fall in love and then they become butterflies," Theo dropped his voice to a whisper and Draco leaned forward eager to hear the rest of the story, "and if you don't fall in love in time they eat your insides until you are nothing left!"

"Are you sure?" Draco asked his voice full of doubt.

"It has to be!" Theo said nodding his head seriously. "What do we do Draco?" He asked taking the blonde boys shoulders. "I don't want these things inside of me!"

Draco gave him a thoughtful look and took a step back from the boy. "Well we can't take them out, that might hurt us." He paced back and forth and then suddenly his face brightened. "I've got it! There has to be a main leader that gives all the other ones orders! If we can find and destroy the leader than the other ones should die off!"

Theo jumped up and down excitedly, "Brilliant!" His face dropped suddenly, "But there have to be a billion, gazillion people in the world, where are we going to find the leader?"

Draco looked unfazed, "Well it probably wouldn't be inside anyone because it would need to watch everyone to see when they fell in love, and it would be around a whole bunch of other butterflies so it would be protected!"

"I don't know any place like that." Theo said a bit down-hearted. He was upset that Draco seemed to know exactly what to do, where he hadn't been able to do anything but think about the scary day when the little flutters would make themselves known.

"I do!" Draco said grabbing the dark-haired boy by the arm and pulling him behind him. Theo struggled to keep up as the blonde boy lead him through the house to the main pallor where their mothers seem to be in a deep conversation about something or other.

"Mum! Mum!" Draco cried jumping up on the loveseat where Narcissa sat, "Can I show Theodore the garden you just put in?"

Narcissa looked down at her son curiously, "Why in Merlin's name would you want to go there? You didn't seem the least bit concerned with it when I was trying to show you it."

"Well, that's because I wanted to wait until my best mate Theodore came over so we could see it together," Draco lied smoothly putting on his best innocent smile.

Narcissa waved her hand, not the least bit fooled, "Whatever you wish just be careful around the flowers. No rough housing." She said sternly. "If one of my saffron petals is damaged you won't be leaving your bedroom for a month and that is a promise."

"Yes ma'am." Draco and Theo chimed in unison enthusiastically, neither really listening to the older woman, but too focused on the task of finding the butterfly and ending their troubles.

"Off with you then." Narcissa said with a fond smile. "Don't get yourselves too dirty before dinner."

Draco gave Theo a hidden wicked smile and he then proceeded to drag Theo out of the pallor room and out into the garden once more. Draco led him through to the back yard where a huge maze stretched out as far as his little eyes could see.

They had explored the maze ever since they could toddle, getting lost countless times and having to call out to their parents to get free. They would spend hours playing Auror, or Magical Creature catcher, or just seeing if they could find one another. In the maze various greenhouses would pop up for Narcissa's exquisite and vast flower collection. Exploring them wasn't something Theo really liked to do, the flowers made his eyes watery and some of them were rather rude; tripping him when he wasn't looking or spraying him with their thick yellow pollen. He made sure to make his opinion known about the treacherous glass houses. So as Draco and Theo found their way to one of the smaller greenhouses the black-haired boy couldn't help but let out a groan.

"It's fine Theo, don't be a baby," Draco said rolling his eyes, "There are just some dumb muggle flowers in there."

Theodore glared at the blonde haired boy, like most children his age he hated being called a baby, not to mention that he was older than Draco my a month and half.

"Then why are we even going in there if there are just some flowers?" Theo asked crossing his arms.

"You will see." Draco said pulling open the door and slipping inside. Not bothering to wait and see if Theo would follow him. He knew the other boy couldn't resist the temptation of finding out what Draco had in store and what the greenhouse had to do with their 'fluttery' problem. Sure enough Theo let out another groan and followed the boy inside.

Theo pulled the door shut behind him and looked around at his surroundings. There were flowers everywhere but not the usual kind that Mrs. Malfoy usually picked out, there were bright and very girly in Theo's opinion. He looked around for Draco and spotted him near the other side of the greenhouse, he was pulling open another door and Theo ran to catch up with him.

"Draco where are we going?" Theo asked starting to get impatient. It was nearing dinner time and he was hoping they would spend as little time in the greenhouse as possible.

The other boy didn't answer, just disappeared once more behind the door. Theo grumbled and slipped inside the door as it was beginning to shut. His new surrounding took him by surprised and he tried to feel for the door handle to return to the colorful room behind him.

Draco turned to the cowering boy and smirked, "Come on Theo it will be fine. They can't hurt us."

Theo looked up at the flapping monstrosities above him and tried to stay clear of the ones that were landing on the flowers around them. Draco ignored the boy and began to set to work examining the butterflies around them closely as though he was looking for a weakness.

"Which one do you suppose is the leader?" Theo asked moving away from the comfort of the door and bending down to look at a gold and brown butterfly that had landed on a flower beside him.

Draco shrugged and gestured to the ceiling above him that was filled with millions of the flying insects, "It has to be one of them. I mean where would be a better place to hide then in Malfoy Manor Maze."

Theo had to agree counting all the times he got lost in the maze, "How are we going to destroy it once we find it?"

Draco looked around for a type of weapon and wasn't surprised to not find one. His mother was careful to hide her gardening tools away from him. Suddenly a wicked idea accrued to him, "Theo I've got it!" He whispered excitedly as though the flapping things around him were listening to his plan. "There is one big rule that my mother told me to follow when she first made this place; never leave the main door open."

Theo tilted his head not see how this would help with their problem, "Wouldn't that make it worse? They would be free to spread more of their little larva!"

Draco shook his head his face lit up with an evil smile, "No. I asked my mum why it was such a big deal and she told me it was because some of the things," He waved his hand towards the ceiling, "Were rare and the birds outside would eat them up in a second."

"Draco that is perfect!" Theo cried his grin matching Draco's. The black-haired boy suddenly looked troubled, "But wouldn't your mum be awfully mad?"

"That doesn't matter!" Draco said impatiently, "She probably wants them to infect other children and force them to get married and all that other icky stuff. We have to put a stop to this!"

Theo had to agree, it did seem like something a mum would want. His mother was always talking about keeping the line going and having more children. He shivered thinking about all the other children that would be forced to live with the monsters inside of them.

"Fine," Theo said with a determined look, "Let's get rid of these beasts once and for all."

"I knew I could count on you mate," Draco said patting him on the back none too gently. "You go to the other door and on my count we will open them both at the same time. Surprise the little buggers."

Theo nodded obediently and hurried out of the room of doom. Once he was at his position he called out for Draco to start counting. He heard the boy start to count and readied himself to open the door.

"Open it!" Draco called out swinging his own door open. Theo obeyed and swung his door open wide, bracing himself for the onslaught of wings. After a few seconds he opened his eyes and was mesmerized by the colors flying by him. Various shades of gold's, purple's, blue's and green's past by and he was lost in a sea of color.

He was jerked out of his thoughts by a high pitched screech.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy!"

He heard the blonde boy whimper as he recognized his mother's angry tone and the fact that it was relatively close. They were barely able to shut the door when Draco's red faced mother came around the hedge with her wand gripped tightly in her hand.

Hours later the boys were sitting on the sofa in the pallor with their heads downcast. They had told their story about Theo hearing about the butterflies from Astoria and how they thought releasing them would help release them from the terrible death of being eaten alive. Theodore's mother had let a loud laugh, a sound not commonly heard by Theo, and instead of reprimanding the boys she had told them that it was utter bullocks.

Narcissa merely looked thoughtful and gave Anastasia a meaningful look. She took a deep breath and tried to keep the laughter out of her voice as she examined the boys.

"You have nothing to worry about. There are no butterflies in your stomach; it was only a figure of speech." Narcissa began. "When you are old enough we will tell you of something more terrifying."

Draco looked up half-hopeful, "What's that mother?"

"The birds and the bees."