…Sod off you damn Death Eater…
He stood still for a moment, taking a moment to ponder the meaning of that sentence. He then turned around and walked away without a word to the person who had spoken.
Up a flight of stairs, then another one, and yet another one, all the way up to the astronomy tower. He breathed in the clear air and leaned against the railing, looking out over the forbidden forest.
The dark mark painted itself on his inner eye, it looked the way it did when it had been touched, as if it was alive, as if something was crawling under the skin – making it stand out. He looked at his own pale arm, still clean of the mark. The only question was weather it would stay so in the future.
If he looked really closely he could see all the faded scars. Almost shining white against his already pale skin. And he tried to picture the snake twisting itself around his forearm; it wasn't hard to see it. After all, how could it be, he had seen the tattoo so many times on another arm…
He heard footsteps, and he was pretty sure he knew who would soon emerge from the shadows. And just as he assumed, Draco Malfoy walked up to him, stood by the railing beside him and looked out over the grounds.
"You know, they call every slytherin a Death Eater, even if you aren't one…" Draco said.
"That's not really my problem." He answered.
Draco turned around and looked at him.
Theodore Nott looked disappointed. Not like someone had disappointed him, but like he had disappointed himself. He had a worried look in his eyes, and his mouth looked like it would be painful for him to smile.
"Have they set the date yet?" Draco asked him.
He shook his head.
"Are you going to the order?" Draco asked again, he was clearly not going to stop talking about this anytime soon.
"I don't know… I can't see a solution to this no matter what option I choose" He answered.
"There is no solution Theo, join the Death Eaters and you'll most likely be killed by The Order, or join The Order and you'll most likely be killed by the Death Eaters. Not joining any of them isn't even an option. "
Theo thought a second about what Draco had said. It was the only thing he had been thinking about for the past three days. Ever since he got the letter from his father telling him so prepare himself. He would finally do something good in his life. His good grades or ambition didn't matter, only serving the greater good.
The greater good his father always called it, and he always talked about it when he wanted Theo to understand something that Theo apparently didn't grasp. That usually came right before he would start using his wand to really make Theo get this terribly important message.
He stopped his train of thought right there, and once again glanced down on his arm, the scars seemed just a little bit brighter now than they did earlier.
Draco caught him looking at them, but didn't say anything. He had scars just like Theo's all over his body too, and they weren't the only ones with them in their house either.
Perhaps they could just run away. Go to a place far from here, where no one knew them and where they couldn't feel Death breathing down their necks every step of the way. But that of course would be impossible, no one could hide from The Dark Lord, and no one could escape Death, not in the end.
He had a decision to make, but he didn't have to make it just yet. And for that he was grateful. Draco had already taken it, and none of them were sure he had made the right one.
Theodore Nott wasn't a Death Eater, and he didn't want to be one either. But how can anyone help you when you are the son of a Death Eater?