Written for the Fanfiction School of Imagination and Creativity Competition Science Assessment 2 (pairing - Theodore Nott and Molly Weasley II)
Theodore Nott swept into the Great Hall, ignoring all the looks given to him by the students and staff as he made his way to the head table. He stopped in front of the headmistress.
"Can I help you, sir," the headmistress, Professor Alkany, said, looking slightly worried.
Nott pushed back the hood of his black cloak revealing brown hair now streaked with grey and piercing brown eyes. "My son," he whispered threateningly. "I want to see my son."
"Perhaps if you could give me your name I could locate him for you," Alkany replied.
"Theodore Nott," he scowled.
"Oh yes, your son did get in a rather nasty fight with another student today. However, I can assure you that he is being taken care of."
"I do not care whether he is being taken care of or not," Nott said slowly. "I wish to see him."
"Very well, I will have Professor Longbottom show you to the infirmary as soon as dinner is over, which should be soon."
Nott looked down the table until his eyes landed on Longbottom who nodded to him. He looked slightly familiar but all that came to mind at the name was a clumsy Gryffindor boy who always managed to mess up in potions class. Nott couldn't believe that he had become a teacher.
As Alkany had said the Great Hall began to clear and after a few minutes all but a few students were gone. Longbottom stood up and walked around the table to him. "If you'll come with me," he said.
Nott followed behind him down the corridor to the Hospital Wing. Longbottom stepped inside and spoke to the witch tending the to the patients. "Mr. Nott's father is here to see him."
The witch looked up. "Right over there," she pointed to a bed.
Nott strode over to the bed and pulled the curtains around it before looking down at his son. The boy had his eyes shut and appeared to be sleeping. Nott cast a spell so they wouldn't be overheard before shouting, "Andrew Jason Nott!"
His sons eyes sprang open. "Father," Andrew said shrinking back into his pillow.
"What happened?" Nott snarled while surveying his son's broken arm, cut up face, and bleeding lip. A bruise surrounding his right eye was covered in some kind of paste. Nott could tell that healing spells had just been administered to the cuts as they were beginning to fade, the broken arm, however, appeared to have been untouched.
"I-" Andrew began, but his father wasn't ready for an answer yet.
"Do you know who you are? You are my son, Andrew Nott, a Slytherin. And as my son you have a reputation to uphold. You have to be able to stand up for yourself, because if you can't stand up for yourself people will stand up for you, and once you get people standing up for you, you start to rely on them. Reliance will only lead to trouble. You can't have that happening."
"I did stand up for myself. I mean, I fought back like you taught me, and she looks just as bad, if not worse."
"She?" Nott stared at his son. "You mean to say a girl did this to you?"
"Not just any girl, Molly Weasley."
"Weasley," Nott said thoughtfully. "I never liked that family."
"I don't either," Andrew admitted, relaxing a bit.
"I suppose not. Now where is this girl?"
"Bed next to mine."
Nott pushed past the curtain surrounding his son's bed and into the one next to it. The girl lying in the bed had a half healed scratch down the side of her face. Her nose appeared to have been broken and their was a lump on her forehead.
"So you're Andrew's father," the girl drawled.
"And you're Molly Weasley," Nott replied.
"The girl who beat up your son."
"It looks like he got you back," Nott said with raised eyebrows.
Molly snorted, "Only a bit."
"Only a bit?" Nott smirked.
"Yes," was all Molly said.
"I have to admit, I am impressed. My son has been learning to fight since he was very young. It is a very valuable skill to have, I think, no reliance on your wand. But you have not had any prior training, I presume, and yet you managed to land my son a bed in the infirmary."
Molly laughed. "He did fight well, but I have had a fair bit of practice. With as many cousins as I have a fight is not hard to come by, even before we had wands."
Nott nodded in understanding. "It was still very nice work. With a bit of training you could be a wonderful fighter."
Molly's lip twitched. "Oh my father would never let me learn to fight that way. In his opinion fighting with magic is more than enough. How would I ever convince him to find someone to train me?"
"I could," Nott lowered his voice. "In secret of course."
Molly looked thoughtful. "Well why would you so that? What could possibly be in it for you?"
Nott chucked. "I knew many Weasley's during my time at Hogwarts and none of them were anything like you."
"Good," Molly said. "I try to be nothing like them. Mostly my father, Percy. Did you know him?"
"I do know who Percy Weasley is. He was head boy and he works for the ministry
Molly nodded stiffly.
"I never liked him much," Nott didn't know much about Percy Weasley but said what he thought Molly would like to hear.
"He is very strict. He never lets me do anything I want so I have to do it when he's not watching."
"Yes, I suppose you would." Nott paused. "Does that mean you have accepted my offer?"
"That depends, you never answered my question. What's in it for you?"
Nott paused. What was in it for him? What had made him give that offer? "You could help Andrew. He's not nearly as good as I would like and maybe someone his own age would help him more than I can."
"Alright," Molly said.
"Good, now the matter of when these lessons should take place. Andrew's are over the holidays, but you need to be caught up. There is a way if course, but is will require some rule breaking."
"Alright," Molly said.
"Meet me in your common room Saturday at 11:45. Make sure you're alone."
"Alright."
"It's settled then." Nott stood and left the room, nodding goodbye to the nurse as he closed the door behind him. His visit to Hogwarts had gone better that he ever could have expected.
Molly stood in an empty common room at a quarter to midnight. The flames of the fire suddenly turned green as a man stepped through into the room.
"Are you ready?" Nott asked. Molly nodded and Nott handed her a pinch of floo powder. "It is too dangerous to try anything while in the school."
"And taking me out of the school isn't dangerous?" Molly asked.
"Less so. But if you do not want to…" Nott trailed off waiting for Molly's reply.
"Oh no, I do," Molly assured him.
"Then let's go."
Molly threw her powder into the fire and stepped in as Nott stated an address and followed after her. She stepped out into a large dinning room and turned to face Nott. "How were you able to floo to a Hogwart's fireplace anyway?"
Nott stared at her for a moment. She never missed a thing. "I work for the ministry. I was able to arrange for that one fireplace to be accessible."
Molly nodded. "So what do we do now?"
"Show me what you did to Andrew," Nott said.
Molly raised her eyebrows. "You're much stronger than I am."
"I know how my son fights. I will hurt you no more than he did."
"I don't want another broken nose," Molly said.
"I won't hurt you, Molly."
Something about the way he said her name made her trust him.
She went for his legs initially. She had found that to be the most effective way to knock someone down.
Nott was faster, though. He grabbed her foot before it could hit him. Unable to regain her balance, Molly fell.
"That hurt," she said rubbing the back of her head.
Nott laughed. "Did it? Maybe you're not as strong as I thought."
"Only a little," Molly answered. "I'm fine."
"That wasn't bad. If you had anticipated my move and altered yours you probably could have gotten me. Always assume that your opponent will know what you're about to do. Why don't you try again?"
Molly nodded and got to her feet. She did the same thing she had before, aiming first for his left legs then switching to his right at the last second. Nott pulled his leg up out of her way and Molly's foot hit nothing but air.
"Good try," Nott said. "Just a little quicker next time.
After several more attempts Molly still hadn't been able to ever actually hit Nott but he declared that it was time for her to get back to school.
Molly agreed, took some Floo powder, and stepped into the fire shouting, "Hogwarts."
In the weeks that followed Molly trained with Nott nearly every Saturday. She got a lot better, he told her.
"You're already better than Andrew and he's been training since he was five," Nott stated one day.
No matter how good he claimed she was she still wasn't as good as him, and that was how good she wanted to be.
It was a Saturday in mid May that something changed.
Their night started out as normal. "You make the first move," Nott said.
She took a quick step towards him and grabbed his wrist. It was large and her hand barely wrapped around it. Her other hand shot up to grab his other wrist as he tried to free his hand. She twisted her leg up to block a blow from his knee and, while the impact stung, she could tell he wasn't trying his hardest.
That knowledge made her try harder, she didn't want him to go easy on her. In fact she wouldn't have minded too much if he fought hard enough to wind up on the floor on top of her.
Molly held back a laugh. When had she decided she wanted that? Still forcing herself not to laugh she suddenly twisted his arms behind his back.
He hasn't been expecting this and the force she had used combined with his lack of protest resulted in them both falling to the floor. She was on the bottom, staring up at him, their faces millimeters apart.
"I think," he whispered, "it defeats the purpose if you fall beneath me."
"Oh no," Molly whispered back, "it serves my purpose very well actually."
"Oh? And what might that purpose be? Not winning, surely."
"No."
"Then what?"
"This." Molly lifted her head and captured his lips with hers.
Nott hesitated for a second. This was wrong. She was young, but she's be seventeen soon. And he wanted this too. He had for awhile, longer than he cared to admit. Yes, she was his sons age, but she didn't care and maybe he didn't either. That was enough to convince him to return her kiss.
Neither of them knew how long they lay there. They eventually fell asleep and when the awoke the sun was up.
"Did you really let me sleep on the floor?" Molly said.
"I would have taken you to bed if I'd been awake. But we have a bigger problem now. You need to get back to school."
"It's Sunday, no one will miss me. Why can't I just stay here with you today?"
Nott opened his mouth. He could get in trouble for this, but he might not. "Alright," he said as he helped her up off the floor. After all some extra practice couldn't hurt anything, especially after where it had gotten him the previous night.