Theodore Nott inherits his father's estate in full, and he thanks the universe for small mercies.

Theodore Nott Sr. was killed during the Battle of Hogwarts. Theodore buries the man who was everything he never wanted to be next to the woman they both loved. He then returns to his childhood home, his empty mansion, and sits.

Theodore did not want to be a Death Eater. He took after his mother, not his father. He was no killer. He could never think of a reason why he needed to kill others to show them that he was better. It had always seemed counter-intuitive to him.

That's why he never helped capture anyone during that last, dark year at Hogwarts. That's why he was always ill when it came time to torture those prisoners (children). Alecto Carrow was under the impression that tall, dark Theodore Nott had a weak constitution. He had endured ridicule, but no malice. His conscience was clear.

He did not stay for the final battle. He left, along with most of his house. He went to a bar in London and waited. A part of him felt guilty. His father most likely expected him to join the fight. But Theodore had seen things that he could not un-see, and he felt no loyalty to his father's master.

After the war, he acquires a job at the Daily Prophet. People leave him alone, and he suspects that his actions (or lack there-of) during that last, nightmarish year, have served him well. People believe that he acted nobly, to some extent, and they treat him better then they treat any of his fellows.

It is seven years before he decides to take a wife. The mansion is lonely, and the Nott name must continue after all. Pansy Parkinson throws herself at him. Draco Malfoy had recently married, and he suspects that that event has something to do with Pansy's sudden eagerness. It is no matter. The marriage is mutually advantageous for both of them. She can secure herself to wealth and a good pureblood name, he no longer has to sit in silence.

They pass the years together, Theodore and Pansy. Pansy is most unbearable, but her presence is preferable to her absence. She distracts him from the memories that roam the halls of his childhood home with her petty vanities. He knows of her affairs, but he lets her be. She seems content enough.

It is not until she gives him his children that he feels anything. Annabella comes first, then Theodore, then Ester. Each child brightens the darkness of the mansion with their own brand of light. Theodore may feel nothing for the woman by his side, his parents may be dead and his friends gone, but his children settle him. Again there is light.