Someone was ranting about Mudbloods and blood traitors in the Slytherin common room, again.
Theodore was not surprised at how quickly the defeated Dark Lord's prejudices rose up among his former followers' offspring. It was the first night back at Hogwarts after the damage of the war had been settled; a year and a half since he'd last been in the castle. Only a handful of other Slytherins in Theodore's year decided to return to Hogwarts for their seventh year. Most students in the common room ignored the rant given by the younger Slytherin. He was a student who, judging by his need for attention, had no individual stake in the war. Theodore noticed Blaise and Pansy staring openly at the stranger. Goyle, even more pathetic without Crabbe by his side, stood at an awkward distance, eyes concentrated on the floor. A few students were quietly nodding in agreement. Theodore leaned against the fireplace, watching the scene with growing interest.
It was Draco who, surprisingly, shut the boy up. Theodore saw the blond out of the corner of his eye walk into the common room. "Oi," he commanded, causing the room to glance in his direction. "What's all this about Voldemort?"
"Just venting, is all."
Draco walked up to the kid and towered over him. "Just venting, ey? Next time you decide to vent about blood and purity and nobility and the like, come knock on a former Death Eater's door. Knock on mine. Or on Nott's," Draco mentioned as he nodded towards Theodore. "Or maybe you could visit Crabbe's tombstone, ask him about his final stand for your Dark Lord." Draco leaned in closer, his eyes narrowed at the scared Slytherin. "When you start to rue the day you met bloody Harry Potter, or when the marks you bare are thanks to the Dark Lord's lunacy, then you've got a right to take a piss on blood traitors and Mudbloods."
The blond pushed past the boy and headed toward his room. Everyone else parted awkwardly, as if they were like cattle unsure of where to wander. Theodore crossed his arms over his chest and remained standing against the fireplace. There was a lot to be done this year; understanding Draco's motivations was only part of his plan.
Blaise and Pansy made their way over to Theodore's area. He greeted them with a nod.
"Bit shifty tonight," Blaise commented quietly. Theodore nodded in agreement.
Pansy combed through her short hair and looked around. "What do you think of Draco's little outburst?"
"Hardly little," Theodore answered.
Blaise smirked. "I got your owl, by the way. Curious to see how the research goes."
Pansy raised an eyebrow. "Research?"
"Just a bit of reading before classes started. I'm planning to hit the library right now, before lights out."
"Running for resident bookworm, are we?" Pansy teased.
"I'd have to go up against Mudblood Granger for that one," Theodore said with an eye-roll.
He said goodnight to the pair and headed out of the common room quietly. Theodore enjoyed being left to his thoughts as his shoes hit the paved pebbles of the Hogwarts corridors. Soon enough, he found himself in front of the library. With a simple alohomora, Theodore unlocked the entrance and made his way towards the restricted section. He pulled out a piece of parchment from his robes, whispered light into his wand, and headed to the Restricted Section.
A cough sounded out behind him. Theodore stopped without turning around. "Excuse me," said the unmistakable voice of the newly appointed Head Girl. "But I believe you need to be in your common room."
He turned around slowly, twirling his wand with his fingers. "Pardon me, Granger," Theodore bit out sarcastically, "but it's not curfew, yet. No harm in roaming the halls."
Granger gave him an incredulous look. "Nice attempt at spinning it, Nott. What you call "roaming the halls," Muggle law claims "breaking and entering.""
He knew she was trying to bait him. Introduce the Muggle world into their conversation and get a rise out of him, an insult.
"The war's over, Granger," Theodore answered, his voice dangerously quiet. "Maybe you should take a lesson from the Headmistress and cast your prejudices aside."
"Bit hypocritical of you," she argued. "I've got ears. I could hear your lot still using "Mudblood" on the train—"
"Your lot?" Theodore echoed, taking a step towards Granger. "And what lot, exactly, is my lot?"
She narrowed her eyes. Without a word, she walked up to him, staring him down. She reached out and grabbed his left hand, pulling the sleeve of his robes up without hesitance. They both looked down at the dull mark along his forearm.
"It's fading," Granger said, bringing her eyes away from his Dark Mark and settling on his face. "But it'll always be there. Can you imagine? Your kids asking about it? Having to constantly cover it up when you walk down the street?"
She paused. Her honesty unnerved him, but he resolved not to fidget in her grasp. There was a small silence settling between them. He took his arm back without malice and covered the Dark Mark with his sleeve. "You're right about one thing," Theodore responded. "It'll always be a reminder. Not a reminder of the choice I, or Draco, or the rest of us former junior Death Eaters had," he said with heavy sarcasm. "No…it'll be a reminder of what choice we didn't have, the philosophies and actions forced on us by parents brainwashed by an egotistic madman."
Theodore wordlessly put his light out. The library went dark. He made his way around the Head Girl. She stiffened and he felt it as he brushed lightly against her shoulder. It was curious, and he wanted to reason she went stiff because she was a Gryffindor and he was a Slytherin, or because she was a prude and he, well, was a boy. He felt it was something else, though he couldn't put his finger on it.
"I saw you," she said suddenly, forcing Theodore to cease walking. "On the battlefield, during the battle over Hogwarts." He turned and faced her in the dark. She walked up to him and even though he couldn't see her, he could tell her eyes were searching for his. "You were healing someone," she continued. "In the corridor by the Room of Requirement."
Theodore sighed. "Yeah. That was Blaise. We were looking for Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Draco. All of us made a pact to make our way to that room so we could take shelter for the rest of the battle."
He heard Granger's robes rustle as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Only Draco and Goyle made it out," she reflected.
"Yeah, well, some blokes go bloody crazy," Theodore muttered.
"Ron decided not to come back because he didn't want to see anyone who fought for the other side," Granger responded. "He lost his brother during the Hogwarts battle, you know."
Theodore pocketed his wand. "I thought I saw the other Weasley at the feast."
She nodded. "Ginny's here. She's a bit more—forgiving," Granger finished lamely.
Another silence surrounded the pair. Before things got too awkward, Theodore promptly turned on his heels and exited the library, not bothering to offer a goodbye.
x.x.x
He didn't like the way Granger started to stare at him when she thought he wasn't looking. It was unnerving, and not in a tingly sort of way. At the end of the first week, Theodore made his way to the Great Hall for a late lunch. As soon as he passed through the two large doors, her eyes found his. He glared. She looked back to her Gryffindor friends and he made his way to the Slytherin table in a foul mood.
Blaise looked up from his meal as Theodore sat down. "Knickers in a bunch again, Nott?"
Pansy smirked. Theodore rolled his eyes and grabbed a piece of bread from Blaise's plate. "Granger keeps staring at me."
Both Pansy and Blaise looked across the Great Hall towards the Head Girl. Granger was looking at Theodore's back.
"Maybe she just wants to sex you up," Pansy offered sarcastically.
Draco interrupted the conversation by plopping down next to Theodore. "Who's sexing who up?"
"Granger wants Nott," Pansy said with a smirk. Draco grinned mischievously and laughed. Theodore took a sip from his drink.
"Out of all the birds at Hogwarts, it's the Mud—" Blaise stopped himself mid-sentence. A brief silence surrounded the group. Draco scowled.
"Oh, come off it," he grumbled. "Why do we have to stop using words that've been in existence for Merlin knows how long?" He stood up on the bench and took a seat on the table. Theodore rubbed his right temple and closed his eyes, awaiting Draco's recklessness. He was just glad there were very little students in the area, and no professors around.
"Oi, Granger!" Draco called out. Theodore looked at Blaise and Pansy, who were both watching Draco with grins on their faces. "Word is you feel like shagging Theo senseless!"
All of the Slytherin table except for Theodore laughed in response. Granger's jaw dropped. Potter stood up in her defense. "Take that back, you git!"
"Why? It's not an insult to Granger," Pansy snickered.
"Yeah, if anything I've just humiliated poor Theo over here," Draco continued. "I mean shagging a Mudblood is one thing, but shagging Granger?"
Theodore turned around in time to catch the riled look on her face. She stood up dramatically and practically marched out of the Great Hall. Weasley, the younger one, followed her best friend out as Potter made his way towards the Slytherin table.
"Why'd you say that to Hermione?" Potter asked Draco rather threateningly. Draco hopped off the table and stood in front of him. "She doesn't even know Nott."
"She thinks she does," Theodore finally spoke. "Just like the rest of you."
Potter blinked. "What do you mean?"
"We're constantly being persecuted for things we had very little control over," Pansy stated.
He looked to Pansy, then Draco. "So nobody's got any sympathy for the Slytherins," Potter mocked. "Boo hoo."
A few other Gryffindors Theodore recognized from the battlefield as well as from various classes made their way over to join Potter. Theodore left the scene before it escalated. He came across Granger and Weasley sitting by a window. The redhead patted her friend's hand. "Harry's probably giving them a piece of his mind," she offered as comfort.
Granger smiled. "Ron would, too, if he were here."
A silence draped upon them and suddenly Theodore was uncomfortable watching. He felt as though he was invading something private, something sacred he had no right to witness. He backed away and headed for the library, anxious for some time to himself.
It was a curious thing, the subtle changes in people after the war. He first noticed it in Draco, during their talk among the Malfoy Manor gardens. Anxious to engage head on with anything and anyone in his way, the blond tried to find any excuse for a fight. Theodore speculated it was because of his first mission; because he proved to be a failure in the Dark Lord's eyes, it seemed as though Draco aimed to prove his worth through aggression.
Along with Draco and Theodore, Blaise, Pansy, and a few other Slytherins were ordered to fight along side grown Death Eaters in the final battle of Hogwarts. Pansy had become shellshocked within the first hour. Luckily Blaise was there to talk her out of it. "It's either us or them, Pans," he kept repeating. Theodore fired spells left and right from within their barricaded classroom. Death Eaters—he didn't count himself as one, even if he bore the Dark Mark—had told them all to aim for the kill. Instead, Theodore fired spells that proved harmful, but not fatal. He had tried to keep him and his friends safe; they needed to reach the Room of Requirement and meet up with Draco and his crew.
"I don't want to be here," Pansy had shrieked suddenly, clawing at Blaise in a fit of hysteria. She started to yell and cry rather loudly. Theodore felt outside of the situation as Blaise tried to comfort her.
"None of us want to be here," Blaise explained, grabbing hold of the girl. "But we have to fight. It's either us or them."
It initially surprised Theodore when the two didn't immediately start dating after the war. Upon closer observation, they had a different kind of bond: a connection between friends, strengthened by the fact they had both been thrown into a war they did not want to fight. Unlike Draco and himself, Blaise and Pansy were entirely unsure of how to act during their one and only battle. They only knew how to depend on each other.
Theodore stepped out of his thoughts as he crossed the threshold of the library. He spotted the familiar faces of a Ravenclaw, two Hufflepuffs, and Madam Pince. The librarian watched him even closer now that the war was over, and her hawk-eyes never left his back as he chose a table to sit at. Taking out a book, some parchment, ink and a quill, Theodore kept his head low and continued his outside research on Salazar Slytherin's secret.