Title: quicksands
Summary: It's hard to know, sometimes, why people really leave. Theo and Daphne are definitely clueless. / for qlfc
Beater One: 4 - (word) obsession, 5 - (dialogue) "If you leave now, you get nothing.", 14 - (quote) 'Money is the root of all money.' — Unknown, set your story in Carkitt Market.
QLFC: Chudley Cannons Beater One. 981 words.
A/N: i am aware 'quicksands' isn't a real word. i like the sound of it, spare me please
It is when Theodore Nott walks out of the Apothecary in Carkitt Market that he sees Daphne Greengrass. He tries to avoid her. He almost does. But he cannot pretend that he does not notice her standing just feet in front of him, especially while her green eyes try to make contact with his own. He relents.
"What do you want, Greengrass?" he mutters, and she smiles her bright smile and puts her warm hand on his shoulder. Her face does not match her voice in that moment.
"The debt you owe my father is just growing larger, Nott. You would be doing yourself a great favor to pay it back now."
"I will do it when I feel like I must —"
"Oh, really? And when will that be? After pushing it down on your posterity, like your father did to you? You know what they say. Like father, like son."
"Don't act as if you know anything, Greengrass —"
"I know a lot of things, Nott. And one of them is that your days of power are done. It would be best to repay your debt now before all hell breaks loose."
"Daphne. The war was hard on all of us —"
"You lost the privilege to call me by that name when we left Hogwarts."
"Oh. So that's what this is about. Your obsession with me."
"I am not obsessed with you, Theodore Nott. I never was."
"Oh. So you were in love with me?"
"No, oh, never mind — just, the money, Nott. Give me a date."
"Stop talking about your vaults, Daphne. I know that's not the real problem here."
She looks like she wants to say something but then closes her mouth. Then she reopens it. He loves that mouth.
"You're being unreasonable, Theo. This is a business meeting. That's it. Got it? Our past means nothing right now."
"For a former Slytherin, you're a bad liar, Daphne."
They stand still for a moment, looking into each other's eyes. Brown meets green and Theo is reminded of how much, once, he had loved this woman. But those days with her were over. The war was over. They, Theo and Daphne, were over.
She shakes his gaze and makes a move to walk away from Carkitt Market, from him. He grabs her arm and twists it so she is in his line of vision once again. She stubbornly keeps staring at his angled cheekbones.
"If you leave now, you get nothing," he whispers, and she meets his eyes once again.
"I might as well. It seems there is nothing to receive in the first place. There never was anything."
He lets go of her hand. She didn't move away. "There could have been. If there hadn't been a war, Voldemort, maybe —"
"Does it need to be in The Daily Prophet for you to understand, Theo? It was doomed. We were inevitably doomed."
"Then why are you here?"
"What?"
"If — if there's no point, if there never was one — why are you here? Why can't you go wait on your darling father and wonderful husband?"
"I don't know. I miss you," she breathes, a sigh intermingled with the words.
"Really?" he laughs. Loudly. "It's much too late for that excuse, Daphne. You married him because money is the root of all money and I have none. You married him because it was your duty and your duty is more important than me. You could have gone with me — Astoria married Draco, you were all set — but you chose him. You chose him because you, you are not a good person, and you think money is more important than love. I hate you, Daphne Zabini."
"You — it's your fault too, you know? You could have talked to him — he's your best mate, for all intents and purposes — but you — you let it happen —"
"I couldn't do anything. You were betrothed to him, and he liked you, and he had the upper hand. He had been neutral, he had money, and I was the Death Eater outcast. You had the power and you did nothing."
They're yelling now, and they're prominent people in society, and people are sending them odd looks but neither cares.
"I'll get the money to you, Daphne. I will. I will if you leave right now. I never want to see you again."
"I don't care about the money."
"Then get out. Why are you still standing there and making a fool of yourself? You're a Greengrass, a Zabini — this conversation will be on the front of The Daily Prophet tomorrow because of you.
"And you?"
"I am a Death Eater, scum, pointless. People will be praising you and pointing fingers at me. Get out before you cause any more damage."
"Theo."
"Leave. Before I do something I regret."
"You're far past that," she mutters, before turning around and leaving the Market. As she walks into an alley and takes out her wand to Apparate, she looks at him one more time.
"I'm sorry," she mouths, before disappearing.
Theo can still smell her perfume in the air. It's the same one from Hogwarts, the one that smells like peonies and freshly cut grass. He hates it. He hates her. Despite that, he stays sniffing the air for a few more minutes before he decides to grab the bag of medical potions he had dropped in his conversation and goes to the same alley she had gone to.
He smells her scent one more time before he tells himself that he's done. He'll transfer the money to her father's accounts later, and then he'll never have to hear the word 'Daphne' again.
He takes out his wand and leaves.
"One doesn't recognize the really important moments in one's life until it's too late." - Agatha Christie