It started when he was fifteen. One minute girls were just girls and the next they were girls. Suddenly Theo noticed them everywhere, with their skin and their hair and their eyes and their lips and their bodies surrounding him every day. They didn't seem to know they were girls and that they flustered him to silence just by being there, they just went about their business in Hogwarts as they always had. But it was too late, he had noticed them.
In typical Theo fashion, he decided to remove himself from the picture slightly and observe. What was it about girls that was just so fascinating to him now?
At breakfast, he watched those girls that he interacted with on a daily basis. He knew them better, so perhaps it would be easier to pin down.
The girl sitting across from him was Tracey Davis, a half-blood with dirty blonde hair and thin lips. Tracey was serious and sort of boring and liked to twirl her hair around her finger when she was thinking. Currently she was chewing on the end of her hair. Theo wrinkled his nose and turned away from her.
Next to Tracey were Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy. Pansy giggled in a rather shrill tone that made him shrink back in slight disgust. He didn't know how Draco could put up with the way she draped herself all over him. Theo saw the gleam in his eyes as the blond looked down at Pansy with an indulgent smile. So he knew as well. He could see them.
On his side of the table was Daphne Greengrass. She was often called the prettiest girl in their year. Theo had never cared for her. She was petty and materialistic and while she was cunning, Daphne deliberately dumbed herself down when she talked to people, something that Theo found unsavoury. Why would anyone want to pretend to be stupid?
So, the girls of his direct acquaintance were not very helpful. Sure, they were girls, but they weren't anything special. He didn't particularly fancy any of them. He would have to conduct further research.
His first class of the day was Potions with the Gryffindors. They were the enemy, but this was just research. It was harmless, really. Having convinced himself, Theo took a seat towards the back of the classroom and watched everyone trickle in.
Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were the first two to arrive. They sat at the front of the classroom, where they smiled and giggled together. Brown's curly blonde hair looked soft and trailed down her back in a rather fascinating way. He watched it swing slightly as she leaned towards Patil and whispered something in her ear. Her lips were covered in some sort of shiny lipstick that made them look full and inviting. Theo licked his lips.
Patil looked down as Brown whispered to her, and her long dark eyelashes fluttered against her creamy chocolate cheeks. Idly, Theo wondered what they would feel like against his skin.
Both girls shot him a coy look, having noticed his eyes on them as soon as they had sat down.
Embarrassed, he looked away.
At the door there was a bit of a commotion. A loud, sneering voice told him that Draco was involved, most likely insulting one of the Golden Trio. Theo sighed. When would he learn not to rock the boat? Drawing attention to himself in such a way would not win him any favours further down the track. He had no concept of the long term future, only the here and now. It was a very Gryffindor-ish attribute.
The fight was broken up, as always by Snape, with a quick reduction of Gryffindor points. The professor herded them all inside, and Draco slid in beside Theo with a smirk. Theo ignored him.
Potter and Weasley sat a few rows in front of them, next to Longbottom. They fell immediately into a whispered conference. Granger sat behind them, in between her friends and the two Slytherins. She didn't seem to notice them at all, already intently studying the instructions that had appeared on the blackboard.
Snape began his usual lecture on the properties of the potion they would be attempting and pointing out all the ways it could go horribly wrong. Theo didn't listen. Draco was brilliant and potions, and only ever let him prepare ingredients anyway. As it was one of the few things his friend was actually good at, Theo allowed it.
He snapped back to attention as Granger began to bounce up and down in her seat, her hand in the air. There was a look of determination on her face, as if she thought that perhaps this time, Professor Snape would finally let her answer the question. He did not, and the brunette slumped in her seat as Draco drawled out the correct answer.
Slytherin was awarded points, and Snape continued talking. Once again, Granger listened intently, constantly making notes on the parchment in front of her. Shifting to one side, Theo peered at her writing, making out a few sentences here and there.
Granger had always been called a bookworm, and Theo did often see her in the library surrounded by books as she researched one thing or the other, but it had never quite struck him before, not like this. They were studying possible antidotes for a particularly virulent poison from a rare species of snake, and Granger was making endless notes about region, colouring, species, useful ingredients and history to do with the snake in question. How did she know all those things?
Once Snape had finished talking, and moved to unlock the storeroom, Theo watched as Potter handed a note back to Granger. She held it close to her chest, opening it and reading it with a small frown.
Theo sat up a little straighter, fidgeting in his seat. Thankfully, Draco didn't notice, having left the table to go and fetch the necessary ingredients.
Careful not to be noticed, he peered over her shoulder.
Nagini?
How bizarre. Granger looked up at Potter, meeting his gaze calmly. She nodded, seeming to agree with him. Was Nagini the species of snake they were studying? Theo had never heard of it before, and it didn't sound like the name of a person.
Granger's partner arrived back with the ingredients at the same time as Draco, so Theo alternated between preparing ingredients to Draco's exact instructions with watching Granger bent over her cauldron.
He examined her as he had the others. Everyone had known after fourth year that Granger could be attractive when she wanted to be. Theo had watched her dancing with Krum at the Yule Ball, though still he had not really been noticing her. She had a certain grace to her demeanour that made her interesting to look at.
Her hair had often been described as bushy by Draco, but Theo thought that the tight, riotous curls looked soft and shiny. There were streaks of a kind of honey blonde through it that made it shine in the light of the various fires that burned in the Potions classroom. He wanted to reach forward and bury his hands in it, luxuriating in the feel of all that glossy hair.
Like Patil, Granger also had very long eyelashes that framed deep brown eyes. Her lips were not as full as Brown's, but they looked enticing none the less. He noticed that she bit her lip when she was concentrating, and he was fascinated by the way her lower lip flushed with blood as she nibbled at it.
The last of the ingredients had now been dealt with, leaving Theo to his own devices for the rest of the lesson. He used it wisely to watch Granger complete her potion.
She checked her notes constantly, sometimes scribbling down something else that occurred to her. Every now and again she tested the potion with her wand to see if it was developing how she wanted it to, and seemed to be satisfied.
This was an experimental potion, a taste of what was to come after OWLS in the Potions course, and Granger seemed to be revelling in the challenge. Some, such as Longbottom, were not faring so well, but most others in the classroom seemed to be creating non-flammable potions that could at least be tested and graded by Professor Snape.
Theo glanced into Draco's cauldron. It was a sort of sickly yellow and was thick with a pearlescent shine to it. It looked just as toxic as the venom they had been supplied with.
'What do you think?' Theo asked his friend, waving his wand between the venom and the cauldron. Draco had already run his own diagnostics.
'It would slow the venom down, I think, enough to give you some time, but in the end it would fail,' Draco scowled.
Theo checked the results for himself and agreed.
Subtly, he ran the same test on Granger's potion, which also seemed to be finished.
Her potion was a bright orange, not dissimilar to the famous Weasley hair, and also held a pearlescent sheen, though it seemed thinner than theirs. The spell showed that with a little tweaking, the potion would most probably stop the venom in its tracks and destroy it.
Her potion was all but perfect.
All of the blood in Theo's body rushed to his groin, and he gripped the table in front of him as his penis grew hard and erect. He bit back the groan that wanted to spill forth.
Was it possible to be seduced by someone's brain? To be turned on by their intellect? If so, he was so fucking hot for Granger that it ached.
None of the other girls he had observed had created such a reaction in him. They were interesting to look at, sure, but he hadn't wanted to bend them over their cauldrons and grind into them until they screamed his name.
He took a deep, shaky breath as Granger bottled her potion and labelled it. She then wrote down the ingredients and method she had used to complete the potion, to be handed up as well. His eyes drank her in as she bent over the parchment, filling it with her ideas and brilliance that Snape would pretend to be sceptical of though he would probably be impressed.
Fuck, she was so hot.
And he was so very, very screwed.