Enter for the International Wizarding School Competition
School: Beauxbatons - Year 3
Writing School: Write a ficlet with great pacing and some sentence fragments.
Optional prompt: [Word] Mirror
Word count: 642
Warnings: Canon Divergence
Like it's a mirror
Theo couldn't stand to look at his reflection in the mirror. He didn't recognise the person staring back at him, and the realisation made his heart clench. Theo wasn't a bad person. At least, he didn't think he was.
You could never conceal anything from a mirror, not when it revealed everything you wanted to hide deep down. Everyone assumed they knew Theodore Nott, but the truth was, no one knew who he was. No one. Sometimes, Theo couldn't understand himself either; it was on those days that the soul-crushing existential crisis hit harder than usual.
"You're pathetic," Theo spat at his reflection. It sneered back at him, his blue eyes red-rimmed and narrowed to a pinprick. "You can't even stand up to your own father. He was right when he said you're a waste of space."
A memory of Granger's cheerful smile fading, her chocolate-brown eyes brimming with tears, and her voice cracking came to the front of his mind, and Theo shook his head, hoping the images would stop haunting him.
"How could I have done that to you?" Theo's hands clenched around the washbasin, knuckles white, and he screwed his eyes shut. "I only wanted to make you smile. I never wanted to see you cry. Never because of me."
Theo had always had a soft spot for Hermione Granger. Ever since their first year, the muggleborn witch had caught his attention. Maybe it was the way her hair resembled a living, breathing creature, or the way her hand was always up in the air. Theo didn't know what was so attractive about her, but he was always thinking about the girl. More than was healthy.
"You're a disgrace," he muttered to his reflection. His mirror image sneered, mocking him. "If you weren't such a coward, you wouldn't let your father dictate the way you live your life, Theodore. Why did you have to go and fall for her?"
He sounded like his father just then. He could have fallen for any other pureblood girl in his year—Daphne Greengrass was nice enough, Pansy Parkinson wasn't really his type, but Hermione Granger was so out of his league that it wasn't even funny. Theo had spent the past three years gazing at the muggleborn witch from a distance, desperately wishing that one day he could go up and talk to her, maybe tell her how he felt, but there was no way she would ever forgive him now.
The moment his father had found out (from unnamed sources) that Theo had feelings for a Muggleborn witch—and not the negative kind his father preferred—Theo had been tortured to within an inch of his life. And then, the order had come. Call her a Mudblood, or else...
He shouldn't have obeyed his father, but the slur had slipped past his lips before he could stop himself, and the moment he had broken Hermione's heart was now permanently engraved in his memory.
The boy in the mirror looked back at him, like he knew what was going through Theo's head. It was waiting for Theo to break, to use the sharp edges of his image to crush Theo's spirit.
"Why are you looking at me like that? It's almost the same look she gave me," Theo whispered to his reflection. He was obviously losing his mind, talking to a mirror, but he refused to let himself think about his impending insanity. "I just want to disappear."
Glancing at his reflection one last time, the muscles at the back of his neck tightened; he pulled his arm back and let it fly. The mirror shattered, but the broken shards didn't fall. They left behind a cobweb of cracks in the middle of the glass.
Curling his upper lip, Theo turned his back on the distorted image, refusing to look at his reflection any longer.
Sentences for judging:
1 point for including at least 2 sentence fragments.
Everyone assumed they knew Theodore Nott well, but the truth was, no one knew who he was. No one.
I never wanted to see you cry. Never because of me.
1 point for using a sentence fragment badly.
…he was always thinking about the girl. More than was healthy.
