Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the characters. They belong to the wonderful mind of J.K. Rowling.
August/September/October 1995
Theodore Nott
The house had not been the same to him for nearly a decade. It was merely a building that he slept in when he was not at school. It was not home. His father was the least loving type of person in the world, not that Theodore ever desired affection. However, there were moments when he felt excruciatingly lonely, and this was one of them. There was no particular reason for it, most of the time it happened without a cause. When most people became lonely they sought the comfort of another human being. For Theodore, he found companionship in his father's library. The old bugger never read the books. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands, all of them with layers of dust. Some were as old as Hogwarts, and others were younger than Theodore. All of them remained untouched since the day they were placed on the shelves.
The library was a large room, enough to fit a football stadium (perhaps not that large, but he enjoyed imagining it; in reality it was the size of the old church down the road). Although if Theodore ever mentioned the word "football" his father's friends would blame him for having Muggle relations, whereas he only knew the word from the books; he would never speak of the word in fear for his life but more so for the library filled with secrets, stories, and adventures. He did not understand why people sought adventure when the thrill was surely just as exciting in a novel. He read about Muggle peasants, Muggle wars that affected the Wizarding World, Wizarding Wars, Goblin Relations, and dragons. He always found the history books the most exciting, although there was one in particular that struck him as note-worthy: "The Elimination of Dirty Blood and Muggles: When Purebloods Unite".
The beginning of the book blabbered on about concepts he had heard of his whole life, how Muggleborns stole their powers and how they were breeding with Muggles and other Muggleborns and in some cases even Purebloods, therefore dirtying the blood and making the pureblood families far scarcer. However, the book talked of genocide of sorts, riding of all the Muggleborns, blood traitors, and eventually Muggles. When Theodore first read the pages he had been terrified and shelved the book for a year. It did not cross his mind until the chaos at the World Cup that the book might have been serious, that there were some mad devotees to this cause, that someone out there was crazy enough to try and eliminate not just a race, but humanity as a whole! And it was not until after the death of the Hufflepuff at the end of the Triwizard Tournament, when Theodore realized what Death Eaters really were. What sickened him even more was the sudden realization that his father was one of them. He always knew that his father was a Death Eater; however he thought it was just some sort of radical political cause. He never imagined his father would commit serious misdemeanors such as torture and murder.
Theodore found a secluded corner at the far end of the library and picked up the dreadful book, starting on "Chapter 5: The Possibility of a Revolution and How to Counterattack it". He was avidly curious about this topic; it seemed highly likely that soon, within the next year perhaps, that there would be a strike from one of the sides. He was not scared of an attack or a fight; in fact he was intrigued and somewhat excited about it. The thought of chaos was appealing to him, although the acts of genocide were extremely revolting. He learned, through the history books kept in the library, that genocide was not uncommon within the Muggle world, the largest one ever was just fifty years ago, when his father was in his twenties. England was affected by the war taking place at that time, and the Nott family suffered some pain and lost a large portion of their land and wealth. Surely the Wizarding World considered what happened then and learned from it like the rest of the world? Theodore was a Nott after all, so of course he had some aversion towards Muggles and Muggleborns, but he was also human, and a logic one at that. Something a lot of wizards lacked, especially his father. What the Death Eaters were rallying up for would eliminate the race of human kind inevitably. There were not very many Purebloods left, and surely, there was not enough to populate the Earth. Diseases would spread like wildfire and nothing, not even magic would be able to stop it. It was just about the more irrational idea ever conceived and it sickened him that his father believed it.