Author's Note: Just like the last chapter, the parts concerning Amelia/Theato were role-played out by Sheri and I, doing our characters, and Theato's POV section for Charms was written by hope you enjoy~
Chapter 4 – Amelia Malfoy/Theato Riddle
As soon as we exit the Great Hall I start hyperventilating. Caleb looks over at me with alarm. "Amelia? Are you okay?"
I shake my head and he looks around. Seeming to make up his mind he pulls me outside and starts heading for the greenhouses.
Merlin. That was terrifying. Especially because it was Theato. When Joss first noticed something change when I got nervous and asked me about it, I hadn't been this terrified. Maybe it was the way she asked it. She was so intense. And now I have to sit through an entire class with her.
I only hope she doesn't bring the subject up again. Especially around my friends.
"Amelia! What's wrong?"
I look up to see Professor Longbottom hurrying towards us, his robes covered in soil already. He reaches us and helps Caleb lower me to the ground. He pushes my knees up to my chest and my head between them. "Take deep breaths. Think of Quidditch. Just calm yourself down. That's it. Caleb, what happened?"
"I don't know. Theato just asked her if she has any secrets and she turned really pale and couldn't speak. Then she started hyperventilating, so I brought her to you."
The professor looks at me, understanding. I told him about my ability sometime during fourth year, when I was just tired of hiding and needed someone to confide in. He… he accepted me.
"I'm fine now. Thank you both." I give them each a small smile before standing. I walk over to the long table in the center of Greenhouse 3. There is nothing on the tables so I have to assume we are just going to be lectured about N.E.W.T's today. I drop on the bench and start searching through my bag for a quill and parchment.
"You're not really going to take notes, are you?" Caleb asks, straddling the bench next to me.
"Of course I am. I actually want to know what's going to be on it, so I don't study things that are useless. You could probably do with some notes too. Didn't you just barely get five O.W.L's?"
Grinning at a glaring Caleb, I look at my watch. Five more minutes until class actually starts. I distinctly remember Caleb saying we were going to be late.
I look towards the door as Malcolm and Theato walk in. She apparently had just insulted Malcolm again, for he was glaring at her and shaking his head. She laughs and spots me. She grins that psychotic grin of hers before moving to sit across the table from me.
Throwing her bag on the table she says, "Amelia Malfoy."
I ignore her as Professor Longbottom calls for silence.
"Okay everyone, this is your first day of your last year at Hogwarts. So of course, I'm going to start you off by lecturing you for the duration of this class. Mainly because Headmistress Mcgonagall may walk in at any moment. Feel free to zone out, but I beg of you, do not fall asleep."
I sigh. I know I said I was going to take notes, and I really should, but I'm already zoning out. Herbology has never been my favorite subject. Now, Defense Against The Dark arts is a class I can get into. Which just so happens to be my second block.
Smiling slightly, I glance across the table. Theato is looking at me curiously, and I return her stare.
She smirks and leans her elbows on the table. Determined not to be the one to look away first, I sit up straight and set down my quill. Malcolm has started to take notice, looking between Theato and I. Her smirk gets wider, before she finally shakes her head and looks down. She grabs her quill and starts writing quickly. Finishing, she looks up and slips the parchment across the table to me.
Curious, I stare at her for a second more before turning my attention to the note.
'Why won't you tell me, Amelia Malfoy? I know you are hiding something.'
I look at her sharply, and she shrugs, gesturing for me to write back. I roll my eyes and pick up my quill.
'I have no idea what you're talking about, Theato.'
I slide the note over to her and she looks at me, disbelief evident on her face. She scribbles and passes it back.
'You and I both know that that is not true.'
I shake my head and crumple the parchment in my fist. I will not tell her. I cannot. She is sure to tell the whole school, and I can't let that happen. Or she'll call me a freak, like Mom did…
"Miss Malfoy."
I look up. Professor Longbottom and everyone who isn't currently dead to the world is staring at me.
"Yes, Professor?"
"I would like to speak with you for a moment, outside."
Caleb looks up from his doodles as I stand up. 'What does he want in the middle of class?' He mouths. Shrugging, I follow Professor Longbottom out of the greenhouse.
"What do you want to talk to me about, Professor?" I ask, extremely curious. I don't think he has ever done this before.
"Is Miss Riddle giving you a hard time, Amelia?" He asks, concerned.
"What? Theato? No. I mean, she can be a little intense and very forward about... Well, everything. But she is kind enough." I wonder why he is asking.
"I just thought... the look on your face when she passed you that note. I was just concerned, that's all. She can't be all that different from her mother. Hang around Bellatrix long enough and you either hate her or you become like her. And she doesn't look like she hates her."
I look at my professor, confused. "Do you not like her?"
"No."
I scoff. "How can you not like her already? You've never even had a conversation with her. You have no idea what she's like."
"She looks exactly like Bellatrix." He says, turning to look me in the eyes. His are full of hatred and pain, things I have never seen before in my professor.
"Just because she looks like her, doesn't mean she is her. I remember Joss told me that people always expected his father to be great, to do something great like Harry Potter. To be Harry Potter. Sometimes, people even called him Harry. They were projecting the legend on to the closest thing they had that even vaguely resembled it. You're projecting what you expect Theato to be, exactly like Bellatrix, without even giving her the chance to prove that she's not."
His expression didn't change. "Amelia, you don't know what she did."
"She didn't do anything! Bellatrix did. Theato is not her mother, Professor, no matter how much you think she is!" I am almost shouting by the end of my sentence. I turn on my heel and walk back into the greenhouse.
Caleb, Theato, and Malcolm all look up when I sit back down.
"What did he want?" Caleb whispers, Malcolm and Theato leaning in to hear.
I look at the three of them, three different generations of Slytherins, yet all strikingly similar.
"Curiosity killed the cat, you know." I whisper back.
Caleb gasped mockingly. "Joss will be absolutely furious when his cat dies. Scatter has the most curiosity of any animal I've ever met."
I smile at him. "You obviously haven't met yourself."
"How am I supposed to meet myself? How is that possible?"
"Well I'm sure if Malcolm tried hard enough he could." I say, looking towards said person. "Not that you should. That could be very bad actually. You could-" Caleb clapped his hand over my mouth. I look at him, indignant. Peeling his hand off of my mouth I say, "Excuse you. I was talking, and when was the last time you washed your hands?"
"Amelia, my friend. No one wants to hear you ramble on about things like that for hours. We are not Joss, content to just listen to you talk for the rest of our lives. And I believe it was this morning." Caleb grins.
I am about to retort when Professor Longbottom dismisses the class and everyone leaps up to hurry to their next class.
I stuff my things unceremoniously into my bag and sling it over my shoulder. "Bye, Caleb." I say before pushing my way to the door and sprinting back up to the castle.
Rushing through the corridors and up staircases and through hidden passages, I manage to be the first one in my Defense class, even though I was probably the farthest from it.
I drop my things on a desk in the front and skip to the professor, who was currently dictating with his wand on the chalkboard.
"Good morning, Professor." I say, trying not to giggle.
He sighs, and lowers his wand. "Amelia Malfoy. How in the world could I have guess you would be here first?" He says, turning to face me. His light brown hair tousled atop his head.
"Well, it is as big a mystery to you as it is to I."
His face splitting into a smile, Teddy Lupin reached out and pulled me into a hug.
"It's good to see you, Amelia."
"You too, even though you are getting kind of old. Your beautiful brown hair will soon be freaked with grey."
Shaking his head, smiling, he pushes me back by the shoulders.
"Go sit down, Miss Malfoy."
Grinning, I turn and see Gryffindors and Ravenclaws flooding through the door. I slide into my seat just as someone else slides into the one next to it.
"Joss!" I say, smiling.
"Amelia!" He says, mocking my tone. He grins and knocks our knees together. I slide my foot over and step on his. He glares at me and scoots his chair closer to mine. Catching my foot with his, he holds it hostage between his.
"Rude." I whisper to him, but don't even try to extract my foot from his. I bump his shoulder with mine and he retaliates by almost knocking me from my chair.
He would have succeeded, had he not been holding my foot.
As I right myself a small paper airplane lands on our desk with our names written on the outside. We look at each other, and then each start to unfold it.
'You guys should totally just DATE ALREADY. Also, Jackson Wood is kind of gorgeous and sitting next to me. He also apparently saw me write that because he is grinning and attempting to take my parchment. -Casey
You guys should, you are adorable. And it's really obvious you both like each other. Just date. - Jackson Wood.'
I stare at the parchment in disbelief. I glance up at Joss to see him already looking at me. I blush and turn to look behind us.
Casey is grinning at me, her brown hair pulled back in a pony tail. Jackson isn't even paying attention any more, just drawing on a spare piece of parchment.
'You are dead to me.' I mouth at Casey. She grins wider.
'You know you love me.' She mouths back. I roll my eyes.
'Yeah, that's the problem.' I turn away from her laughing face and face the front again. I glance at Joss from the corner of my eye to see him staring intently at his desk. I shake my head, and attempt to pay attention to what Professor Lupin is saying.
All of that goes to hell when Joss grabs my hand.
~Theato's POV~
What a joke. Summoning charms. Professor Flitwick, after all of his long years teaching Charms at Hogwarts, is making seventh year students do summoning charms for warm-up. I learned three summoning charms in my fourth year alone. He should make us practice something from the sixth year curriculum. I wonder how much the Hogwarts curriculum has deteriorated since my time. Defence against the Dark Arts must be terribly boring now.
"Accio Theato's bag" Malcolm calls from across the classroom. The bag, strap slung over my shoulders as I perch on the edge of a desk, drags itself along with my body across the tops of the desks, spilling me off the end of the desk closest to him. Malcolm leans down, catching my arm before I can hit the ground and helping me right myself. "Sorry."
"What was that about?" I snap, snapping his hands away before righting my robes and pulling my skirt back into its rightful position. Annoyance flashes through me as Hufflepuffs across the room giggle at me, and I raise my gaze to glare at them, effectively shutting them up.
Malcolm snickers and picks up a book that fell out of my bag, placing it back in before pulling the cover over and tying it shut. "You looked lost in thought."
Turning my glare on Malcolm, I narrow my eyes. "If you wanted my attention you could have asked instead of dragging me across the classroom."
"I figured you would appreciate the Slytherin approach of it better than a touchy feely Hufflepuff approach" he answers simply, leaning back against the nearest desk and arching an eyebrow, dark eyes glittering with amusement.
I glare at him for another moment before grinning. He definitely caught my attention, and my complete focus by doing that. A very Slytherin thing to do indeed, and very effective. Sometimes I question his Slytherin heritage, especially his attitude towards Wood and Longbottom, and then he does something that only a Slytherin would do. My mother would approve of him as a match for me: caring and Slytherin at the same time. Too bad he's a queer, if his relationship with Wood says anything. "Your assumption was correct." Flitwick sends us a curious look, having heard the commotion made by the giggling Hufflepuffs and having went over to them to investigate. Apparently, judging by the concern in his eyes, he is worried about my almost slamming my head into the floor. None of the professors in my time would have cared. Smiling reassuringly, I flick my wand and silently Accio Caelum Longbottom's quill. "Was there something specific you wanted to talk to me about, or were you just opposed to me thinking?" I ask Malcolm lowly, reaching out and snatching the quill as it sails past me.
"Just wanted to know what has caught your attention so strongly. I heard that Riddle's only pay attention to those who have something they want" Malcolm answers, following my line of sight and whistling softly. "And, despite your fascination with Caelum, I doubt it was him."
The squirrelly girl practicing with Caelum gestures over to me. He follows her motion, catching sight of the yellow quill in my hand. His eyes widen in surprise and he glances down at his empty desk, void of a quill, then back at the quill in my hand. Saying something to the girl, who nods in understanding and scampers off to join another group, Caelum starts over towards us.
"You are right. It wasn't him on my mind" I murmur as an answer, straightening up as Caelum stops in front of me, holding out his hand as if he expects me to hand him his quill. He clearly does not know anything about Slytherins. "Can I help you, Longbottom?"
He starts in surprise, as if he can't believe that I don't know what he wants. Ah, there is the famous Hufflepuff innocence. His confusion is gone, before I can even open my mouth with a snide comment, replaced by annoyance and a mild anger. "Can I have my quill back, Riddle? I thought we were only supposed to be summoning our own things." He answers, narrowing his eyes and dropping his hand.
"I wasn't aware that there was a rule against summoning something as innocent as a quill across the room, even if it isn't mine." I spin the quill between the tips of my fingers before pressing the feathered end to my lips in thought. Pursing my lips, I look at the Hufflepuff boy in front of me, at the courage and unwavering stand he takes, and the slowly building hatred in his eyes. "I am truly sorry."
"Liar" Malcolm coughs, raising a hand to hide his grin.
Caelum's glare worsens and he takes his quill from my fingers, dropping it into his messenger bag before repositioning it against his back. His eyes flash, and Malcolm places a hand on my arm in warning. "Do you think that it's funny, seeing how far you can push me?"
"Yes. I get off knowing that I ruined your day." The words escape in my famous drawl before I can stop them, the dark flash in Caelum's eyes the only real warning that I pushed the Hufflepuff too far, which is saying something considering I said barely anything. Fear, the first strike I've felt since getting here, slams into my heart.
His hand shoots out, wrapping around my wrist and dragging me forward, giving Professor Flitwick an apologizing look that the professor only nods to and goes back to inspecting some Slytherin's summoning spell.
"A teacher's pet, little Hufflepuff?" I dig, arching an eyebrow and allowing him to drag me through the halls. Well, if this isn't a dose of my daily amusement, I don't know what is. He really makes getting under his skin too easy, and far too amusing, if the grin on my face says anything.
He stops between two, stepping into the darker one, and shoves me against the wall. Caelum towers over me, a head and a half taller, his glare of utter and complete loathing sending ice through my veins, cold and fiery and scorching. "I don't know what you are playing at, and I don't care. Leave me alone."
I arch an eyebrow, letting him press me into the wall, letting him shove his forearm against my throat, letting him trap me against the wall with his arm as the rest of his body stands away from me, trying to get as far away as possible as he also leans in, glaring down into my eyes. I force my fear down, force my mask up, and press myself hard against the cold stones to stop my body from trembling. A good Slytherin will feel fear, will be scared, but will know how to hide it. That's what Tom said. That's what I will do. After all, he's just a Hufflepuff... "Why would I want to leave you alone when you react so wonderfully? Want to take a guess at what the rumors at lunch will be? Are we enemies, having fought before appearing before them? Are we secretly lovers?"
"Stop! Just stop! Bloody hell, don't you understand? I don't want you near me. I don't want anything to do with you! I know what your mother did, I saw it in the pensive, and I can see that same look in your eyes. You are a monster, and I want nothing to do with you!" His yell echoes off the silent walls as he violently jerks away from me, stumbling back until he bumps into the opposing wall. Pain splinches his face, followed by something surprising, but he hides it quickly, quicker than he hides the pain that his own words caused him. As if he had just tore his own heart out and handed it to me on a silver platter.
Anger flares through me, white hot, and I take a step towards him, drawing my wand. It trembles, along with my hand, glowing a soft red at the tip, reflecting the raging storm inside of me. How dare anyone speak of Bellatrix like that! "How dare you say that about my Mother! My Mother did nothing to you! She is a great woman!"
"Your mother tortured my grandparents into insanity! She caused them so much pain that they didn't even remember their own son!" Caelum screams, his hands clenching into fists, shaking as the skin around his knuckles turns white.
"She wasn't always like that, and she certainly never was when I was around! How do you think she got like that, Caelum Longbottom?" The words leave my lips, as cold as ice, cutting as clean as a knife through the both of us, but before he can open his mouth to tell me how little he thinks of me, how much of a monster I am, I walk away. I shove my wand back into my pocket and force myself to walk out of the hall, physically trembling with my contained anger. It is probably true, that my mother hurt others. Because I left. She had to make them feel her pain, understand her anger, lose what she lost, even if they don't remember it. And the only reason I didn't lash out and kill Caelum for calling my mother a monster? Because of that spark of fear in his eyes when I stepped forward. He dragged me out of class, pinned me to the call, and screamed at me, yet he stumbled away and looked at me in fear when I took a single step towards him. He was scared. Of me. I've done nothing. I hurt him.
