Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
Challenges listed at the bottom.
Word Count: 1565
Once I Was 11 Years Old
11
It started in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express.
Two boys with nothing but the knowledge that they would be in Slytherin, and a penchant for sweets.
One was nervous, and the other was terrified but covered it better with a lighthearted smile and a joke read from the inside of a packet of Bertie Botts.
Neither of them had any idea what it could turn into.
…
12
"Are you really doing homework?"
Theo frowned. "Yeah?"
"Lame. Come watch Quidditch with me. I'll help you with Potions when the match is over."
"Blaise—"
"Come on, I want to see Potter or Malfoy fall flat on their face. Either way, it'll be funny as hell."
Theo snorted. "Fine. Five galleons on it being Malfoy."
Blaise rolled his eyes. "I really don't understand your rivalry with him."
…
13
"Merry Christmas, Theo!" Blaise shouted, throwing a pillow across the room at his best friend.
Theo let out a grunt when it nailed him in the head, and when he sat up, he glared at Blaise.
"This is the last time I stay at Hogwarts with you at Christmas if that's the way you're going to wake me up!"
…
14
"It's easy. Just pick a girl and ask her."
Theo snorted. "Easy for you to say, half the girls in our year are in love with you already."
Blaise grinned. "I know. But still, you got this."
…
16
"He wants me to take the mark."
"Your father?"
"Who else?"
"What are you going to do?"
Theo looked away. "I don't think I have a choice."
…
17
"Stay here," Blaise murmured, when they looked at the list of students remaining at the castle. "Stay here with me."
"I can't. He… I have to go home. He'll disown me if I don't."
Blaise shook his head. "I'll look after you. I have more inheritance than any ten people could spend, Theo. We'll be fine. Just… don't go home. Don't get the mark."
Theo looked at the quill Blaise was holding out for him and took a deep breath before he accepted it and scrawled his name on the list.
"Thanks."
…
19
"You look like shit," Blaise said, looking up when Theo entered the flat they shared.
"Thanks. I need pizza. Did you get pizza?"
"I got pizza," Blaise said, pointing to the box on the table. "Rough shift?"
"It's chaos," Theo groaned. "I don't know why I thought being a healer was a good idea. It's an absolute shit show."
"Because you're inherently a Hufflepuff and want to save people?"
Theo hit him with a pillow.
…
22
"I can't believe you're moving out," Blaise muttered, lounging on Theo's bed as Theo packed up his wardrobe.
"I'm literally moving down the hall," Theo pointed out. "We'll still be in the same building."
"Yeah, but—"
"Blaise. I can't keep listening to Daphne calling your name in the middle of the night. It's going to give me a complex."
Blaise paused. "Okay, that's fair."
…
25
"I can't believe you're getting married."
"I know. I don't think I'm reliable enough for marriage. It's not like I have the best role model, is it?"
Theo sighed. "You're the most reliable person I know, you twat. You've been by my side for fourteen years."
"Yeah but you're you. Daphne is—"
"Perfect for you."
Blaise smiles. "Yeah, she really is. Oh. You'll be my best man, right?"
"Of course."
…
29
"Blaise, your husband is here!"
Theo rolled his eyes and pressed a kiss to Daphne's cheek. "Is he still sulking?"
"Little bit."
"Wonderful."
"Well, you are planning to leave for six months. You should have known he wasn't going to take it well."
Theo sighed. "Yeah, I know."
…
31
"Are you ever planning to get married?" Blaise asked, handing over a carton of chicken fried rice as he sat down on the sofa.
Theo handed Blaise a set of chopsticks before picking up his own. "I don't know. Maybe?"
"It'd be fun to be a best man," Blaise said, smirking.
"Who said you'd be my best man?"
"Who else are you gonna choose? I'll kill them dead and then you won't have any choice."
"Remind me again how you're a lawyer?"
"Just means I know how to get away with it."
…
33
"Remind me again how I'm supposed to give Harry Potter the shovel talk?" Blaise asked, as the two of them walked towards the Leaky Cauldron.
"You're not," Theo pointed out. "Given that I'm a grown ass man and you're not my father."
"Semantics. You did this on purpose, didn't you? You literally chose the one person in the world that I can't intimidate."
Theo grinned. "You caught me."
…
38
"I knew I'd be your best man."
"Well yeah," Theo agreed, leaning against the bar. "Who else was I going to ask? Besides, you told me you'd kill people. I was just doing my part to save lives."
"Why are you my best friend, again?"
"Bad compartment choice on the train."
"Ah, that's it."
…
39
"She's stunning," Theo murmured, looking down at the doll-like baby in his arms. "Absolutely stunning."
"I know," Blaise replied, lovestruck eyes on his daughter. "You'll be her godfather, right?"
Theo looked up. "I'd be honoured."
Blaise smiled, and then tilted his head. "You know, we're pretty sure we conceived her on the night of yours and Harry's wedding."
"That was more detail than I ever needed to know."
…
46
They stood, side by side, as the coffin was lowered into the ground. Daphne stood on one side of Blaise, but it wasn't her that gripped his shoulder, grounding him as tears streamed down his face.
"She was a good woman," Theo murmured later, when the last of the mourners left the wake.
Blaise looked at the portrait of his mother on the wall and nodded. "The best."
…
51
"You'll work it out," Blaise murmured. "And if you don't, I'll take him for every penny in the divorce for you."
Theo chuckled and shook his head. "We're not getting divorced. We've just got… differing opinions on being parents."
"Harry doesn't want kids?" Blaise asked, frowning.
Theo just looked at him for a long moment. "I guess I just don't think I'd be the best dad. It's not like I know what one looks like. Problem is that I think we're running out of time to make a decision and… Harry really wants kids."
"Theo… you're an idiot."
…
53
"You'll be his godfather?" Theo asked, looking up at Blaise, who was holding Theo's son in his arms with a smile on his face.
Blaise nodded. "I'd be honoured."
…
59
"Merlin, I'm getting too old for fifteen hour shifts," Theo muttered, rubbing a hand over his face.
"Nott! Can you stay?"
He turned to see a gurney being levitated through the waiting room, a familiar figure prone on top.
Blaise.
"Nott?"
"I'll stay."
…
63
"This was a good idea," Blaise said, leaning back on the beach chair.
Theo spelled the umbrella to adjust above them so it covered them a little better and picked up his drink. "I know. We needed a holiday after the year we've had."
Blaise snorted and then broke out laughing when he saw Harry and James get smashed by a wave.
"Your husband is literally still a child," he commented, shaking his head.
Theo grinned. "I know."
…
70
"It's been too long since we've had a night just for us," Theo said, as the two of them settled down at the restaurant table. "How's the family?"
"Good. I told you Izzy decided to go into law like me, right?"
Theo nodded. "You did."
"So, she's decided against joining my practice, which I understand, but she's joined Draco's. He's literally her uncle, I don't understand the difference."
"She's her mother's daughter," Theo replied, laughing. When Blaise frowned, Theo rolled his eyes. "She's definitely trolling you, dumbass. She'll be joining your practice."
"You think?"
"I'm her godfather. You think I'd let her work for Draco? Please, give me some credit."
"I'll never understand your rivalry."
"Probably for the best."
…
77
"I'm a grandad," Theo murmured, shaking his head. Then he frowned. "Does that make me old?"
"Mate."
"What?"
"We've been old for at least ten years. Another three and we're gonna be ancient."
Theo blinked. "Oh, Merlin, you're right."
"Yeah, I am."
…
86
"I'm glad you've retired," Blaise said. "You should have done it years ago."
Theo snorted. "I'd have been so bored if I'd retired before you and Harry did. At least now, one of you will always be around to entertain me."
"Oh yeah, because that's our goal in life."
"It's been your goal for over seventy years," Theo laughed.
Blaise smiled softly. "Seventy years. Bloody hell."
…
94
Harry pressed a kiss to Daphne's cheek and wrapped his arm over her shoulders. They'd grown close over the years, spare parts to their husbands' bond in a way, and it felt fitting that they were here together now.
"It's what they'd have wanted," Daphne said, placing two roses down, one by each headstone.
Harry smiled, even as tears slipped down his cheeks. "Yeah."
They turned away together and walked out of the graveyard, leaving behind two graves, side by side, together in death like they'd been for almost all of their lives.
Written for:
Bromance to Romance: 7. Best Man at Wedding
Written In The Stars: 4. Reliable
Lizzy's Loft: 3. (plot point) a deep platonic connection (bonus)
Elizabeth's Empire: 17. "I think we're running out of time."
Angel's Archive: 20. Chaos
Forecast: 25. "I need pizza."
Hobby Hole: 19. Friendship
Brand Wars: Spiderman: Lighthearted / Loyal / Friendship
365: 288. Doing Homework