Who Will You Run To
AN: Thank you so much for the reviews and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update. I apologise if this chapter is a bit slow, or just crappy in general but I needed to set the story up. Hopefully the next chapters will be better.
Chapter 1
Theodore was cold, he screwed his eyes tighter shut and attempted to burry himself deeper into his covers. It took him a few minutes in fact to realise that he wasn't in his bed at all; that he was lying on a cold damp floor with his coat wrapped awkwardly himself. He opened his eyes to find himself locked in a pitch black cell and previous events suddenly rushed back to him.
With a groan partially down to the uncomfortable position he had been in and partially down to fear he moved up into a sitting position and wrapped his arms around himself shivering and scared.
He didn't know how long he sat there in the same position in the pitch blackness, trying to work out why he had been arrested, what that poster had been about and envisioning horrid images of his own demise, but after what felt like hours a door opened across the room and two men whose faces couldn't be seen opened up his cell and roughly pulled Theodore to his feet. One of them bound his hands too tightly with a whispered spell and they dragged him away, he let out a small whimper of pain at the feeling of their fingers digging into his forearms in a way that would surely leave bruises.
The men tugged him up a set of stairs and into a brightly lit room; he squinted at the harsh change in lighting. The room contained simply a small table and three chairs, two on one side of the table that were already occupied by a man with red hair and a woman with long brown hair – the woman that arrested him - and one on the opposite side that he was roughly thrown into.
Theodore immediately recognised the two, "Weasley," his voice sounded harsh to his own ears, "Granger."
Weasley gave him a glare, and Theodore was hard pressed not to flinch at the look of pure loathing.
Granger started talking then, in an annoyingly calm manner, "Theodore Knott. As I am sure you are aware there have been a string of ministry related murders against muggle born workers. Last Thursday on the fifteenth of February at ten forty-five at night a man witnessed the murder of his colleague Mr. Kevin Dewey and when asked if he could identify the murderer he gave your name."
"It wasn't me!" Theodore was quick in his defense, terrified of what may happen to him if they decided that he had done it, "I didn't even know that anyone had been killed."
"Liar," Ron hissed, "And I suppose that the fact that your dad is the leader of the DER's means absolutely nothing either."
"My Father?" Theodore was totally shocked, he could feel tears begin to form in his eyes, "But my father's dead."
"Don't play dumb!" Ron demanded, slamming his fist against the table.
Theo actually did flinch that time, "I'm not! I swear it," he was getting desperate now, "I honestly thought my father had been killed in Azkaban, I have no idea what the DER's are and I promise you I've never murdered anyone. In fact, today was the first time I've set foot in Wizarding London in over ten years."
This stopped Ron in his tracks, "Ten years?"
"Yes, I ran away in the summer between fifth and sixth year because I didn't want to serve The Dark Lord."
"That certainly aligns with the time he was found to be missing," Hermione spoke slowly, trying to think things through, "and up until last Thursday he hadn't been seen at all. Presumed dead in fact."
Ron still wasn't entirely sure, "Well I guess there's only one way we'll know for definite." And he produced a small vial of clear liquid from his pocket.
------
The Questioning under Veritaserum took another hour or so. Both Ron and Hermione were extremely thorough in covering all angles and making it impossible for Theodore to withhold even the slightest bit of information.
However whenever it came to where Theo have been for the past ten years, where he had lived, what had he been doing and who he was with, he made sure (with great difficulty) he stayed absolutely silent. He knew that this wasn't going to help his defense but as all of the other answers he gave proved without a doubt that he had nothing to do with any murder the two had to agree that he was completely innocent.
However Ron was still loathe to let him go.
"Who is to say that he won't go running straight back to his father now that he knows that he's alive? I still don't trust him; we don't know where he lives or anything. I say we keep him locked up just in case."
"Ronald! You know we can't do that. He hasn't done anything to be locked up for."
"But who's to say he won't when he gets the chance." Ron was silent for a minute, "Unless…" a smile was making its way across Ron's face.
"Unless what?" Hermione didn't like the look on Ron's face. Theo just sat there silently, pretty sure that the two had forgotten that he was still there.
"Unless we use him."
"Use him?"
"Yeah," Ron was getting exited now, "Think about it 'mione. The DER's are the biggest threat to muggles and muggleborns since Voldemort himself. But at least with him we knew what we were up against. We don't know who the rest of the DER's are, what their plan is, how they're infiltrating the ministry or anything. But here we have the son of their leader, we could place a tracking spell on him, somehow get him taken by the DER's and hey-presto, we have ourselves a spy!"
"Ron there are so many things wrong with that idea, I don't even know where to start."
"Well maybe it needs some fine tuning but you can't say it's not a good plan."
"We can't just force someone to do something like that Ronald!"
"I would do it." The two turned to Theodore in shock, he repeated the sentence again in a stronger voice this time, "I would do it. Honestly, I want to do it."
"How do we know we can trust you?"
"He's still under Veritaserum Hermione. And we can find a way of keeping an eye on him. He can stay in your spare room! Oh I'm sooo getting promoted for this. In fact I'm gonna go tell Mr. Wood right now."
And that's how Theodore Nott found himself at his house packing up his stuff in order to become a spy for the aurors, in order to finally get his life as a wizard back. He went to his bed side table, pulled out a long thin box and opened it to reveal his old wand. The wood felt unfamiliar against his fingers and he worried that he may have forgotten how to use it but after managing to levitate all of the objects in his bedroom he put his wand away, closed the holdal he had packed and went downstairs into his kitchen, grabbing a pad of paper and a pen from by the phone as he went and writing a quick note.
Guys
You were right when you said I've been a grumpy git recently, but I honestly have a good reason. I've got so much going on in my head at the moment and I know you'll be mad at me for not telling you so I'll apologise now. I've decided to bugger off for a bit, get away from the routine, I'm not taking my phone so don't try to contact me, I promise I will be back and I'm sorry if your mad at me but I will explain everything when I come back.
Look after yourselves and stay out of my bedroom (that includes Daniel)
Theo xx
He left the note on the kitchen counter grabbed his car keys and made his way to the address that was written on a sheet of paper in his pocket. The address of the apartment which Hermione Granger shared with Harry Potter. The apartment he would be living in for the foreseeable future.
TBC
Coming up – Who are the people who are living with Theodore? And is it possible that what's happening in the Wizarding world is having an effect on the Muggle one?
Reviews are love.