Written for the shipping week at Caesar's Palace. Prompt: Pets
Susan/Theo
Rain.
Susan Bones hated rain.
It was lovely to listen to while sitting next to a warm fire, covered in a fluffy blanket while reading a novel, oh yes. It was nice to hold her hand out the castle window and feel the rain fall onto her hand, oh yes.
To be stuck hurrying from Hagrid's hut towards the castle in pouring rain with only a weak schoolbag to cover her head, oh no.
These particular moments are when Susan hated rain.
She tripped and cursed under her breath. Some words escaped her mouth that her mother would definitely not approve of and she hurried up the last few steps.
Susan was freezing and she wanted nothing more than to curl up in front of the nice warm fireplace with maybe a novel an-
She tugged at the door.
It was locked.
The actual bloody door was locked.
It was a magical castle in the middle of bloody Scotland with literally no living person anywhere and they were locking the blo - Susan rested her head against the wood. She couldn't go on.
The sound of someone heavily breathing behind her made her yelp in surprise and she threw her bag in the face of her potential attacker.
Susan blinked at the crouched figure on the ground, "Theo?"
"Geez, Susan.," His dark eyes flashed up at her from where he had crouched to avoid her swing, "What was that for?"
Susan stared dumbly, "Ah... I thought you were going to attack me or something."
He uncurled himself from the ground and rose up, revealing to Susan what exactly he had been protecting. She gaped, "Is that ?"
A wet, droopy and utterly miserable looking Mrs. Norris bared her teeth at Susan half-heartily before curling deeper in Theo's arms. Susan felt a rush of irrational jealous towards the cat before scolding herself. Pathetic. Getting jealous over a little pet cat.
Theo was softly petting the cat in his arms, "Filch was going mad in the dungeons looking for her and I offered to check the grounds."
"You are petting Mrs. Norris." Susan stared in surprise, "You aren't dead yet. Amazing."
He rolled his eyes, "She loves me, apparently. No idea why, probably because I'm not an obnoxious rule breaking Gryffindor." Theo glanced at her, "You want to hold her?"
Susan shook her head, "I don't do... pets." She wrinkled her nose. Bad experiences with dogs, cats... birds... raccoons... and that fish that one time... No, she was bad with pets. "They don't get along with me."
Theo hummed in reply, Mrs. Norris was climbing up his wet shoulder and nuzzled his neck wih a soft purr. He laughed softly Susan almost thought it was cute until Ms. Norris turned to give her the most smug look a cat ever could.
Susan gritted her teeth. That cat...
"Why are we standing outside?" Theo raised an eyebrow at her and she floundered for a reply. "The door is locked."
"Did you knock?"
She hadn't thought about that. "Um, no."
"Hmm." Theo walked closer towards her, "It's almost like you aren't eagered to go back inside."
What? She was tired, dripping wet from the rain, and that stupid cat was making her jealous which was the most stupid thing ever. Susan didn't say anything like that though, she settled for an intelligent 'huh' because those dark eyes were very distracting.
Theo leaned forward and placed his forehead against hers and their lips were so very, very, very close together that Susan almost forgot to breath. "Aren't you afraid that some dirty Slytherin might attack a sweet little Hufflepuff in this rain?"
Yes, she really had forgotten how to breath.
That was quickly rectified by Mrs. Norris swiping her tail smartly across her face, giving her a mouthful of fur.
"Mrs. Norris!"
Susan coughed and wiped her mouth and gave the cat a dirty look. Theo was staring at her with a carefully blank look, but she wasn't done with the cat. They were stuck in a glaring contest. The only thing that made it worse is that the cat was sitting primly in Theo's arms and she wasn't.
"Oh my!" Professor Sprout had opened the locked castle doors. "You two must be freezing! Come in, come in!" She ushered them in and Susan followed Theo in the warm castle reluctantly.
The moment was broken.
Dogs. Fish. Raccoons. Frogs. Rain.
Cats.
Susan scowled.
She hated pets.
Espcially that one curled up in Theodore Nott's arms.
