Summary: It's 8 o'clock on September 1st, 2010. Tetty Nott has 3 hours left to convince her father to take her to King's Cross. Theodore Nott has 3 hours to make his daughter see reason.

Characters: Theodore Nott, Tetty Nott (OC)

Word Count: 691

AN: I'm finally back! Life has been so crazy for me.

I've never written for Theo before, but he's always interested me. I'm disregarding Cursed Child as Canon, btw. Tetty's name comes from the final reigning member of the Tudor family, Queen Elizabeth I, of which the name Theodore also derives from. I discovered that Tetty can be a nickname for Elizabeth and I wanted to stick with the letter 'T', so voila. (Also I just realized that Tetty is literally 1 month older than me according to this fic)

I'm putting this in the same universe as my Deaf!Scorpius AU, but it doesn't impact the story at all unless you squint super duper hard and close both eyes.

Prompt

[HSW&W - History of Magic] Write for one of the following firsts: First day of school (Muggle or Magical - perhaps even a wizard attending a Muggle University)

[Extra Prompt] (Plot point) Fierce opposition from a person/group of people

The sound of a slammed door reverberated off the sloping ceiling of the hall, causing Theo to run a hand through his hair. He would have to remember to ask Mippy to check for loose tiles that may have managed to finally break free from the roof. At the moment though, his focus remained on the door of which had been previously opened. Repositioning his glasses that had slipped down his nose during the brisk walk over from the kitchen, Theo brought a fist to the door. Perhaps Mippy should search outside now?

"Tetty, open this door!" As expected, there was no response from the other side.

"You are behaving like a three-year-old!" Again, silence followed.

"Do not make me pull out my wand!" This elicited a reaction. A pounding of footsteps followed by a none-too-gentle doorknob jimmying produced the head of a young girl, whose washed-out features greatly resembled the adult in front of her.

The right corner of her lip curled up and her eyes scrunched toward her father. "Will you be using a spell you learned at Hogwarts?" she spat, shutting the door once the words were spoken.

Theo sighed and sank to the floor, pressing his back against the shut door. "Tetty," all traces of frustration toward his daughter had left him, leaving only anger toward himself, his father, and society. He had never imagined he would be in this type of situation. The decision to not ever have children was made during his sixth year of school, when Theo realised how deeply involved with Voldemort his father truly was. His family legacy ended the moment Nott Sr. made the decision to align himself with that monster. A world where Voldemort reigned was not a healthy environment for a child— Longbottom and Potter were proof enough of that— and even at sixteen Theo had known that a world where the Light won would be no friend to any generation of Notts. Yet, when a memory in the clothes of a young, American witch from only a month following the Final Battle appeared outside the gates of Nott Manor nine months later (Only to disappear shortly thereafter), Theo was thrust into the world of parenting. He loved Tetty with all his heart, but the world she was born into simply did not love her back.

"I want you to be able to go to Hogwarts. I really do, Luv," How could he make her understand? How does one go about telling a child that everyone hates them simply for being born? Hell, Malfoy'd already had the talk with his kid and the imp wasn't even five yet.

Theo supposed he'd really cocked everything up by keeping Tetty so sheltered. Moving to an isolated cottage in the hilly countryside of Berkshire probably hadn't helped matters.

"Then why can't I?" Tetty's voice cracked toward the end. Theo felt something inside him do the same.

Standing up, Theo tried the knob and found it unlocked. He entered his daughter's bedroom to find her splayed across the covers of her bed, face down. He took a seat on the left side and ran his fingers through her loose, honey coloured hair. Tetty so rarely wore it down, preferring to keep her hair held back in some complicated braid Mippy had taught her a few years previous. The young girl had been so excited this morning, fussing over whether or not bows would make an acceptable impression on the other students.

"There are certain... things that you don't understand," Theo inwardly scowled. He was not cut out for parenting. He struggled to find the correct words, unsure how to continue. "It would be best if you let me home-school you."

Tetty sniffed and pushed herself up onto her elbows. She looked at her dad with large eyes. "But Dad, I really am ready for school. I love seeing you everyday, but I get lonely with only you and Mippy about. I want to meet other children and make friends like in my stories."

"I know," He pulled her close to his side and was quiet for a long while. "Maybe...maybe next year."

AN: Ahh! That did not turn out how I originally intended. In my original outline I had Tetty end up winning the fight and being put into Hufflepuff, but I must say that I actually prefer how this turned out instead. It's such a difficult decision on Theo's end. Tetty is probably one of the first children born to a Death Eater family to reach schooling age, so he doesn't even have anyone else he can really confide in.

Also I don't image Theo ever joining the Death Eaters, but his father played a pretty prominent role and he was for sure friendly with many kids who did become Death Eaters, so he can't really escape the label.

Random side note: I did so much research on Tudor style architecture because that's one of my favourite styles and I thought it would fit the naming scheme if they lived in a cottage designed based off of traditional Tudor houses, but in the end my research was very pointless because I barely talked about the house construction

Hope everyone had nice holidays! (Mine were pretty good, but my mom made us ration the latkes cus she didn't make enough and that was kind of a buzzkill)