a/n: If you think I should add more to the trigger tag warnings, please let me know! You can even send an anonymous ask to my Tumblr if you do not want to leave a public comment! I will never take offense to adding triggers or helping anyone feel more comfortable reading my stories! If you'd like a soundtrack while reading, I also made a Spotify Playlist.
THEODORE NOTT
AND HIS DARKEST TIMELINE
It's rumored the night Theodore Nott the Second was born, there had been a lightning storm. No rain, but just bitter wind, lightning cracked through the sky, and thunder so loud it cracked windows in the nearby town.
Theodore Nott the First was excited about the storm. He was sure it was a prophecy for the future, that his son would be a powerful, dark wizard that destroyed governments and upheld pureblood standards of class and tradition. He thought his son would be a gift to The Dark Lord, the answer to what was missing in their final attempts to win the war.
He had not expected a soft pale baby, chestnut hair, and big ears. One that smiled and cooed. One that barely even cried and giggled when tickled under his chin. Probably the only redeeming factor of the child was that he was exceptionally long and the Healers proclaimed he would be tall one day.
Tall, but weak, his father decided when his namesake was only two days old and thus started to treat him as such. There was no hope for this child.
By the time Theodore the Second, commonly called Theo by then, could sit up on his own, he had a mop of dark hair that even still was not thick enough to hide his ears. He was spitting image of his father at that age. Besides the ears. Theodore Senior refused to acknowledge such poor genetics would ever come from his side of the family and his wife too beautiful for anyone to imagine they came from her.
Theo was advanced for his age, but quiet. He sat and watched. He waited until no one was watching to sit, stand or speak. His father feared it meant he was stupid or, worse, a squib. When the Malfoy boy, even younger than Theo, started to walk before him, his father threw a priceless vase at the wall and declared himself sick for naming something so useless after himself.
Theodore Senior demanded a second heir. When one didn't come quick enough, he started to demand his wife take the necessary fertility potions. They didn't sit well with her, made her so sick she could barely keep food down, but he didn't care. Her health was not important. He wanted that heir. Needed it. He became obsessed with the idea and started to hypothesize maybe Theo was not his son at all, maybe he was a trick- those ears had to have come from somewhere. It had been an arranged marriage and not a love match afterall.
Then, the Dark Lord fell.
Everything in Theodore Senior's world turned to dust. The Manor was ransacked by Ministry Officials threatening Azkaban at any hint of Dark Magic. The only thing he had left was the potential of an heir to save his wreck of a family. Theo's mother became sicker from the additional potions and spells forced upon her body and would stay in bed all day. Theo would spend his days in bed with her, reading from his favorite books and finding comfort in her fingers through his dark hair.
Theo was five when he found his mother on the bathroom floor, her body weak and spent from vomiting up her breakfast. His father had gone to work and left her on the cold marble, throwing her potions on the floor. There was an order for the potions, directions for when and how much, but this morning she took them all, one after another, every last drop. She desperately needed to become pregnant, but she desperately wanted it to end.
"Theo, baby, come sit with me," she whispered from her place on the floor. The young child padded over to her and sat on the cold marble. He brought a book to read to her, too young to grasp what was happening. She was shaking and sweating. When she started vomiting blood onto the floor, he knew something was wrong, but she gripped his hand harshly when he tried to go fetch an elf.
"You can call an elf once I'm asleep," she negotiated with him. It seemed like a reasonable compromise to a five year old. He nodded and lay down next to her, letting her hug him to her clammy body. She smelled like the metallic taste of blood mixed with his father's expensive cologne lingered in the bathroom. He was always nearby even when he wasn't. With a shaking hand, Theo reached up and smoothed her hair while she hummed him a lullaby.
They had the same color hair and as Theo tucked it behind her ear, he found they had the same large ears. She always wore her hair down, framing her face, and now he understood why. She had to hide her imperfections. He would have to do the same to survive in this house.
After a few minutes, her humming softened and then stopped. She gave Theo one last smile and then she was gone. Hot tears ran down his eyes and he bit his lip so hard it bled to keep the sobs from taking over him. Nott men do not cry, his father had told him so many times.
Theo didn't call for an elf until his tears stopped late in the afternoon.
Theo didn't truly remember much else of his childhood besides deciding to grow his hair long to hide his ears. He had spent the five years before Hogwarts attending tutoring sessions alongside Draco Malfoy. Narcissa had presented Theo with the refuge of the Malfoy Manor. Though it was not much better or warmer than his own, it allowed him to escape his angered and, now usually, drunken father for a few hours of peace and safety each day. He would arrive in the morning at the Malfoy Manor with a black eye or cut lip, she would heal his wounds and hug him tight. She even let him cry on her shoulder when she knew no tears were allowed.
The boys were at such a young age, they weren't even sure they liked each other. Theo was quiet and hid in books while Draco was loud and always asking to go fly. It wasn't until one morning when he arrived earlier than usual that he found Draco in the kitchen with a black eye and tears matching his own. Neither had to explain where the injury came from. Instead they ate fluffy pancakes with blueberries until Narcissa came into the kitchen to heal them both and offer them a hug together, one boy in each arm.
"Remember you have each other," she murmured into their contrasting hair and pressed a kiss to each of their foreheads. "If you look out for each other, you'll always be safe."
The summer before their first year at Hogwarts, the boys were required to attend a Summer Gala. Draco and Theo had spent two weeks learning charms to impress their fathers. Neither man even looked in their son's direction and left to find the other fathers to discuss grown up things.
"Fuck 'em," a dark skinned boy said from behind them. That was the first time they met Blaise Zabini and, honestly, those two words summed up his entire personality perfectly. Blaise was the rebel they needed. The protector too. The boy that could not give one fuck about what anyone thought of him and yet he would die to make sure his friends were safe.
Blaise had his own convictions and thought men, even the Death Eater sort, were weak. Maybe it came from his mother going through husbands like tissues. Maybe it was because no one could find those husband's bodies once she was through. Blaise said he knew exactly where the men were. Theo had no reason to think he was lying.
It was also at the Summer Gala Theo first encountered the last and final piece of whatever his life had been missing; the prospect of love. Even at eleven, Theo thought Pansy Parkinson was the most stunning girl he ever met in his life. Her hair was the darkness of night between the hours of two and four. That time of night when the black above you sucked your soul into the sky and tried to devour your conscience whole. When it was a graveyard of stars and wishes that would never be granted.
"Care to dance?" she asked, turning to Theo, completely ignoring Draco. Theo's eyes grew in shock. Never had he been chosen over Draco.
Theo nodded, taking her hand and guiding her to the dance floor where they joined the waltz. Even with the lessons Narcissa put him through, Theo was no good at dancing, especially with such a gorgeous girl in his arms. Theo had felt like the luckiest boy in the world until he noticed her eyes not on him, but watching Draco from across the room. Ah, so he was chosen to make Draco jealous, to show him she had other options, that he had to work for her love.
His best friend crossed the dance floor, walked right up to the petite goddess, and offered his hand to dance. Now she accepted, of course, who would ever reject Draco Malfoy, heir of the most powerful and richest house in all the pureblood wizarding world. It wasn't love at first sight; it was a contest of power. It was the magnitude of generations before pushing them to be Pureblood Royalty.
Theo felt like he was dying with every look the two exchanged.
On the train to Hogwarts, Draco made it clear that Pansy was his by holding her hand as they found a compartment on the train. Theo spent the entire train ride looking out the window until she left to go look at her friend Millie's new kitten. He waited until the door was tightly closed until he spoke up.
"So is she your girlfriend now?" Theo asked.
Draco shrugged. "Guess so. Until someone else comes along I suppose. Her nose is a little funny, don't you think?"
He didn't see the hurt and rage in Theo's eyes as he broke into a package of Chocolate Frogs. Theo went back to looking out the window for the rest of the trip and took a boat with Millie and Blaise to the castle instead.
Unlike all his other classmates, Theo wished for Ravenclaw when the hat was placed on his head. He didn't want Slytherin. He didn't want to make his father proud. He wanted to escape this world so much, like his mother had, and a raven sorting could be that first step. But the hat didn't see it like that. No, he was too filled with darkness for a place that bright. He belonged in the dungeons, not in the high towers in the sky near the sun.
Theo spent the first three years of his time at Hogwarts mostly to himself. He attempted to stay friends with Draco, but as more and more Slytherins gathered around the blonde to become followers, Theo shrunk deeper and deeper into the shadows. He couldn't help rolling his eyes at their phony platitudes. Heir of Slytherin murdering Mudbloods? Theo had seen too many of Draco's tears due to violence to ever believe Draco could be plotting the murder of his classmates at the age of twelve.
The Hippogriff "attack" was another example of Draco's following. Theo was present for the Hippogriff attack; he'd seen Draco taunt and provoke the animal like he was told not to. The cuts were deep, surely, but nothing that Madam Pomfrey couldn't fix in ten minutes. There had barely even been a scar, but Draco milked that attack for every bit of sympathy and following he could get. It irked Theo to no end that no one else agreed that Draco provoked the animal and needed to shut up.
"Will you stop doting on him? He's fine ," Theo snapped at Pansy and Daphne one afternoon as they discussed if they should bring Draco sweets rather loudly in the library. It was the library, where Theo came to avoid this melodrama.
"And you're just jealous because no one would care if you were attacked," Pansy snapped back at him harshly. Even Daphne seemed to think it was a little too much. Theo didn't react though; he agreed with Pansy.
The only one to ever agree with Theo about the stupidity of his classmates was Blaise. He'd find Theo in the library and take a seat next to him before getting to homework. They didn't talk much, but that was Blaise for you. They joined the Quidditch team together as Chasers. Theo's long torso and even longer arms made him able to throw the Quaffle halfway across the pitch even at thirteen. Even though everyone celebrated Draco as Seeker, it was Blaise and Theo who usually scored all the other necessary points.
Being so quiet and tucked away did have its benefits. He saw things people did not want to be seen and heard things people thought no one could hear. Most notably, he figured out Hermione Granger was using a Time Turner to get to all her classes. Honestly, it wasn't hard. She was taking every class and she never missed a class, it was obvious some sort of magic was at play. It only took three nights searching the library to figure out what. How no one else noticed was beyond him. Especially her friends. Fucking idiots really.
Theo did not really care that Hermione Granger had a Time Turner. Mudblood or not, she was still the smartest witch in their year, maybe the whole damn school, so if anyone had the right to use it, she probably did. But it was the theory of Time Magic and time travel that took hold of Theo and did not let go. Her Time Turner was limited to only a few hours for classes. But what if there was a Time Turner that could travel further. What if it could take you back years at a time. What if it could bring him back to save his mother's life?
Call it an obsession, but while everyone else was busy watching the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Theo was in the library reading any book on Time Magic he could get his hands on. He had discovered there were multiple ways to consider time travel, but there were two that seemed the most possible.
The first theory consisted of sameness and was based on the concept of fate. It said that no matter what one did, the result would always be the same. That if you went back in time to stop his mother from dying, she would still die. Maybe not in the bathroom. Maybe not by her own hand. But she would die. The path to fate might be changed, but the fate would always stay the same. The big unknown was what the concrete fate was. Was the concrete fate that his mother would still one day die? Or was it fate that he would lose a parent? Maybe his father would be the one dead instead. One could only hope.
The second theory was the chaos of choice creating alternate timelines. It hypothesized that for every single choice a human made, a different outcome was possible. Even something as small as having a second cup of orange juice at breakfast could cause you to be late to class to make you lose points from Slytherin to cause the house to lose the cup and then make your whole entire house hate you. If you hadn't had an extra cup of juice, you would have never been late, never lost points, never lost the cup, and never wanted to throw yourself off the Astronomy Tower. Granted Theo already wanted to throw himself off the Astronomy Tower, but the theory still stood. He could save his mother's life and everything as he knew it would be different. He didn't mind that idea too much either.
The only event of the Tri-Wizard tournament Theo attended was the Yule Ball. He had not wanted to go, but Blaise was taking Daphne Greengrass and convinced him he should ask someone as well. Theo asked Millie as a friend. Everyone gave her trouble for not being the petite sort like Pansy or the Greengrass sisters, but she was still beautiful. In fact, her height was a plus for Theo, who'd grown taller than the rest of his year and even some of the older boys and still seemed to be growing. Theo liked it especially when she blushed and her long lashes swept the tops of her cheeks and she had a laugh that could make you fall in love if you took a second to listen. He didn't love her, but he did think she would be a good dance partner and a fun companion at the Ball.
But at the ball, he made the mistake of excusing himself from Millie for a moment.
"Care to dance?" he asked pansy, holding out a hand like she had once done back when they were eleven.
For a moment, Pansy considered the hand. She didn't look around to see if Draco was nearby or to get his permission as pureblood women were taught to do. Instead, her eyes traced the lines of Theo's hands as if she could see something he couldn't. She was calculating something, weighing pros and cons, fighting between her duties and her desires.
When she took Theo's hand, electricity sparked between their fingers.
Theo did not know why she had said yes or what she was thinking, but if it were to make Draco jealous, Theo didn't mind. He had something to prove. With Pansy in his arms, he held her close to his body and used the gentle force needed to lead their bodies in the steps of the music. He had started to grow into his long limbs and wide feet. Even his ears did not look big with his hair pinned back for the formal evening. Most of the girls in his year called him handsome and swooned behind his back; he had no idea. He had also been practicing his dancing for the past five years, knowing he never again wanted to be an embarrassment on the dance floor.
When he looked down to see Pansy's reaction, she was not looking at him with shock, but a deep throbbing revelation that struck Theo down in his heart. She was looking at him like he hung the stars in her graveyard of wishes. Her fingers gripped him to keep herself upright as the room turned silent and it was just them dancing alone on the rings of the planets. There was no air to breathe in space, only a daring gasp of perfection falling into place like the burst of a sun being born. A golden thread moved around them, wrapping tighter and tighter.
"No, it– it can't be," he heard Pansy cry, every syllable shaking with fear. He knew this fear too, but he welcomed it. He had felt ever since their first dance and he wanted nothing more than to lean down and seal everything between them in the heavens.
"It's not supposed to be you," she cried. "It's supposed to be Draco."
With some sort of warrior strength, Pansy ripped the night from his stars. She pulled away, stumbling on her heels and dress, gasping for breath. The entire Great Hall crashed back into reality, shaking Theo's very core as he tried to make sense of the unexplainable.
"It has to be Draco. You don't understand," she cried harder and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, smearing black make up across her cheek like a warrior about to do battle.
But Theo wouldn't battle her. He could barely breathe. It felt as if he had been stabbed. It felt worse than any damage his father had ever caused his body and yet there was no physical wound.
Pansy ran and he didn't chase her. He left through the other doors to the outside courtyard and stumbled to the courtyard alcove he always hid in. He could feel himself bleeding out and yet there was no red sticky substance on the ground. Was this what his mother felt in her last moments? It felt like he was dying, like everything he had to live for was ripped away.
He stayed there all night in the freezing cold, but he didn't pass away.
He didn't even catch a cold.
That summer, he scoured his family library for all and any books having to deal with Time Magic. He lied to his father, said he was interested in Dark Magic, and was given access to all the information he desired. He asked the elves for all the dark books the Ministry never found. He took notes upon notes about Time, History, and Memory Magic. He found more than he ever dreamed because this magic was not only ancient, it was what most considered dark. How could changing the past, changing what everyone knew and loved and cherished, be anything but dark? What if it finally made everything light?
By the time school started, Theo was neck deep in Time Magic theory and practiced charms and potions that could help him figure out which was the correct theory. Then again, if either brought his mother back, why did it matter what happened to everyone else. Honestly, fuck the Death Eaters and fuck whatever Potter was trying to do and fuck Pansy and fuck Draco and just fuck the entire world. Theo wanted to exist in peace without anyone bothering him.
But Diggory was dead and The Dark Lord had risen. In Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid had introduced Thestrals. Theo had seen the death horses ever since his first days at Hogwarts, but seeing them up close and personal sent a chill through him. The combination of Draco's expensive cologne and the bloody metallic cow carcass the Thestral feasted on brought him back to the bathroom floor and his mother's sleepy smile. It took everything in his power not to throw up right there in class. When Umbridge arrived, he slipped out of class without anyone noticing.
After class, Blaise had found him curled in a ball on the floor in an alcove in the courtyard. Theo was doing his very best to hold back the tears he had always been forbidden to spill. Blaise didn't comment at all, just sat down next to him and let Theo rest his head on his shoulder. A few tears slipped down, but Blaise didn't say a word. He didn't have to.
Near the end of the school year, Professor Snape woke Theo and some of the other students up in the early morning and gathered them all in the common room together. The sun was not yet bright enough to come in through the lake and the room was still cold from the morning frost. Draco sat next to him with sleepy eyes and an annoyed pout.
Snape explained with every ounce of humanity he had, which was not much, that their fathers had been taken into custody and awaiting trial for crimes against the Ministry and being found marked as Death Eaters. Both their fathers would be in Azkaban for the foreseeable and possibly indefinite future. While Draco seemed lost, Theo was unmoved.
"Good," Theo stated and returned back to bed without needing to hear anything further.
Theo spent his summer in the Nott Manor alone with his books. Using ancient literature of the past, he started building his own Time Turner. He tested mercury and every type of sand he could find. He used spells from books so old he had to translate them from ancient runes first. When he tried it for the first time, he was able to go back five minutes in time. It was not enough, but it was a start.
Narcissa insisted Theo have company. She'd send Draco with a box of cakes and his broom, thinking they would fly around and be good little boys. She didn't realize they'd grab bottles of wine and whiskey to go along with the cakes and usually get plastered drunk by noon. Some days Blaise would join them, bringing cigarettes and spliffs. Some days they would go to Pansy's since her mother would not let her be alone with three sixteen year old boys. They'd go out into the backyard and drink and smoke in the shade of the trees, hidden from the Manor.
When Draco and Pansy would sneak away to her room, Theo would get so drunk he'd fertilize the rose garden with his vomit. After the third time, Blaise figured it out.
"How bad?" Blaise asked, passing Theo a newly rolled spliff.
"It's not just a crush," Theo said, inhaling the smoke deep into his lungs to make it burn away the feeling of the golden thread that desperately wanted to connect.
Blaise nodded. He understood. "Does he know?"
"No," Theo said, his voice cracking. Blaise's protective eyes glanced back up at the Manor and pursed his lips.
Theo's Sixth Year started out with a good laugh. He, Draco, and Blaise had all gotten into NEWT Level Potions together, which was to be expected. It was quite hilarious when on their very first day Granger described the scent of her Amortentia potion. Draco thought Theo had been sniggering at his quip about Granger being Muggle-born and not that he was so oblivious to being the lover described. Blaise shared a look with Theo that clearly said dumbass.
Theo smelled the sweetness of sugar quills right out of their packaging mixed with the harshness of nail varnish. Almost like an aftertaste, he caught the third scent: the delicate perfume of her namesake when you walked through her mother's gardens at dusk. Theo was quite glad Pansy was not in the class and lied through his teeth when Draco asked what he smelled.
Things had been going along rather blandly for Theo. He was not asked to join the Slug Club with Blaise, but he was ultimately thankful. Blaise came back from the dinners and parties annoyed at all the antics and stupid stunts the other students pulled to try to get attention.
Luckily he did have Quidditch to look forward to. Theo had gotten even taller, now inches over Draco and Blaise, and his ability to throw the Quaffle could not be matched in distance. Things were fairly normal for once until one day he found Draco in his alcove.
"What are you doing in my alcove, Draco?" Theo grumbled; he was not in the mood to deal with whatever bullshit that always followed his fellow Slytherin around. But then he noticed his boyhood friend had quiet tears running down his pale cheeks and Theo felt like a real dick.
"I– I fucked up, Theo. I fucked up so bloody bad. I wish Potter had killed me," Draco said with a voice so timorous and honest it scared Theo. Draco had a bright white scar across his face, shiny and new from whatever spell Potter threw at him in the girl's bathroom.
He sat down next to Draco, as Blaise had once sat down for him, and let his friend lean his head against his shoulder and cry. He was not as good as Blaise at staying silent.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Theo offered, remembering Narcissa's words.
This was the longest conversation he had had with Draco in six years while on school grounds and yet he knew he'd do anything to help whatever fear was breaking him. He knew wanting to die. He felt it every day. If he couldn't save himself, maybe he could save his friend.
Draco took a deep breath and looked up at Theo through wet, tear-stained eyelashes. "What do you know about Vanishing Cabinets?"
Luckily for Draco, Theo knew quite a lot.
The Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Lost Things was an abysmal mess. Draco might have been a top student in Charms and Potions, but he still lacked the knowledge of Dark Magic to make the damn thing work. As he explained every spell he tried and how he went over the cabinet piece by piece in hopes to fix it, Theo became acutely aware that despite all the gossip and prophetic rumors of Draco becoming The Dark Lord's second in command– the boy truly knew nothing about Dark Magic.
"Is this why you quit Quidditch?" Theo asked. When the former Seeker quit for no reason other than stating he was 'too good for it,' it had pissed Theo off to no end. All Draco ever talked about from age five to eleven was how much he wanted to be on the Slytherin Team and then he threw it away? Theo had thought maybe if Draco escaped the war unscathed, he could even play Quidditch professionally. Maybe if Theo wasn't so annoyed by Draco dismissing their friendship, he would have realized something was wrong.
"Among other reasons," Draco hedged, looking ashamed. It didn't take a genius to guess what he was going on about.
"Was that your first time using the Imperius curse?" Theo asked curiously. Draco was taken aback for a moment, about to deny he was behind Madam Rosemerta and Katie Bell's attacks, but a long look from Theo made him know it would be useless.
"I tried it on some spiders," Draco shrugged.
"But not a human?" Theo confirmed.
"Have you tried it on a human?" Draco snapped back in defense of his poor skills.
"No. But that's not the sort of Dark Magic that interests me," Theo explained simply.
He tested the door of the cabinet, opening and closing it, using the slightest touches to feel the magic inside of it. He closed his eyes and tried to let the magic seep into him; he let the cabinet show him what it had been used for in the past. The History seeped into Theo's soul and he could hear the screams of ghosts.
He opened his hazel eyes and gave Draco a somber smile. "I can fix it."
This was how Draco, Blaise, and Theo ended up inside the Room of Requirement at night with Crabbe and Goyle stationed outside as guards. It hadn't taken much effort to convince Blaise to come along. He had been in the Common Room when they were leaving the second night, studying quietly.
When he asked what they where they were going, Theo responded, "to fuck with some Dark Magic."
Draco added on, "wanna come?"
Blaise shrugged like he didn't have anything better to do. "Sure. Someone has to make sure you morons don't die."
Draco and Blaise mostly watched as Theo worked. Blaise smoked his cigarettes and Draco paced as he explained how he got himself in this fucked up situation. No wonder the dick got so weird and quiet at the end of summer. Though completely wrecked with fear, this Draco reminded him of his friend much more than the shitty bully he pretended to be for people. When he showed them his Dark Mark, Blaise groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. He really had his work cut out for himself keeping them alive.
Theo consulted the notes in his journal constantly, wishing he had access to his family library instead. He had been able to find some books in the Restricted Section, but all were vague about what would be needed to make the Cabinet work. Yet, even without access to his library and books of Dark Magic, what took Draco months, only took Theo weeks.
When they successfully vanished a live bird to and from the other Cabinet, no one was exactly thrilled about it.
"And now we kill Dumbledore," Draco murmured unenthusiastically.
Some time later, when Theo was good and sure the Cabinet worked for humans, Draco came back with more orders; he would let the other Death Eaters know when Dumbledore left the castle and they would sneak in through the Cabinet to accompany Draco in a surprise attack upon the Headmaster's return. Or kill Draco if he failed, which would be most likely the end result. Theo thought it was a piss poor idea and didn't understand why they couldn't be the ones to support Draco in his mission then escape through the cabinet with no one the wiser, but who was he to question The Dark Lord.
Blaise also agreed the idea was reckless and would ultimately result in Draco's death, something Draco was not thrilled to hear. So the three of them devised a plan for when the night came to make sure Draco did not end up on the wrong side of an Avada Kedavra curse.
Finally, one night, all hell broke loose. There was fighting in the halls, screaming and fire. As planned, Theo and Blaise followed Draco's entire route, always ten steps behind. They kept to the shadows using Disillusionment Charms, hiding from the Gryffindors trying to be heroes. The plan was to not fight unless necessary. They were not there as backup, but as an escape plan for Draco if things went awry as Draco was still sixteen and had been a little too preoccupied to take apparating lessons.
The two boys waited at the bottom of the Astronomy Tower stairs, casually smoking cigarettes as if their Headmaster wasn't about to be murdered. They watched as Snape, Draco, and the other Death Eaters ran by, not even noticing the smoking boys. Blaise snuffed out his cigarette. "About bloody time."
Potter was running around like a bloody idiot and Draco was being dragged across the grounds by Snape. Theo knew the plan, but when he saw her against the wall, some asshole Gryffindor with a wand to her neck, Theo couldn't help himself. He shot a stunner spell at the Gryffindor and grabbed Pansy's hand, yanking her to run with them. She shouted loudly at them, asking where they were going and what was going on, but the boys didn't answer. They had to move fast to keep up with Draco and make sure he made it out safe.
"Pansy, you need to go back to the Common Room right now," Theo demanded of her, but she was stubborn as always.
"I'm not leaving you," she cried in panic. Theo froze in his tracks and Pansy smacked right into his chest. She wrapped her arms around him tight and pressed her face into his chest. Their bond shot through him and danced around at the connection.
"It's not safe–" he tried. She moved her hands up to his face, gripping it hard, and pulled him down to look at her.
"Theodore Nott, I am not leaving you," she repeated, having to lean back to look up at him properly. He grinned like an idiot. Maybe they were saving Draco tonight, but the way she held him felt as if it was his soul finally being saved. She raised on her toes and Theo had to bend his head to allow her to press a soft barely there kiss to his lips. The bond was yelling at him fuck everything else and take her away to seal it that very moment.
"Honestly, this has to happen right now?" Blaise interrupted them, twirling his wand impatiently. They really did make it hard to keep them alive sometimes. Pansy blushed and released her hold, but Theo still held tight to her hand.
"Later," he promised her and the three of them took off running towards the front gates of Hogwarts.
They made it through the gates just in time to hear Snape shout, " Run Draco!"
Mere moments later their blonde best friend was sprinting towards them and smashing his body into Theo's. Theo gripped his friend tight, hugging him like the mornings they both showed up in the Malfoy kitchen with black eyes and bloody lips. Without a second thought, Theo apparated both of them to the Malfoy Manor. Blaise appeared with Pansy not a second later.
"What was all that!" Pansy shrieked. Narcissa ran into the room, gathering them all up, asking question after question, checking after all of their limbs and for any blood. If he had to have a mother figure, Theo was glad it was her.
Soon the Drawing Room was filled with the cracks of Death Eaters apparating in, yelling and fighting about what had happened and who was responsible. No one was clear if the mission was a success. Dumbledore was dead but Potter was still at Hogwarts. Bella was yelling at Draco for not being brave enough to do the deed himself. Narcissa was yelling at her about leaving Draco alone. No one really cared what they had to say so eventually, the four teens slipped out of the room to go wait in Draco's room while everything was settled.
"You're a DEATH EATER?" Pansy yelled at Draco as soon as the door closed.
They all looked at her with 'duh' written on their faces.
"And you killed Dumbledore." She said it more as a statement as the truth sunk in. Her face was a mess from tears ruining her makeup; Theo felt a bit bad this was how she was finding out her boyfriend had been planning a murder right under her nose. At least it wasn't her murder.
The bond tingled in his fingers; if they sealed it, she wouldn't be Draco's girlfriend anymore. There were more than enough rooms in this Manor to sneak away. Theo fought the urge and ignored it; he couldn't do that right now. He had to put Draco first.
"Technically Snape did," Draco retorted. Theo's eyebrows furrowed as this new piece of information changed almost everything. No wonder Draco was still panicking. Blaise didn't seem to think it mattered much and kept his attention on Pansy.
"How'd you shag him all year and not notice the mark?" Blaise asked, raising an eyebrow at her, like sex was more important than the Dark Lord about to collect them as servants to a cause they all really didn't give a fuck about. Then again, they were only seventeen.
"We didn't– We haven't," she stuttered, looking to Draco for help. But the blonde was pacing, ignoring the conversation about his sex life like they were talking about the weather. Theo's eyes grew. They weren't having sex? The entire year? He could have- He could have at least not ignored her. He could have maybe. SOMETHING. No wonder her resolve to not be connected had weakened. He could have sealed the bond ages ago.
He was going to throttle Draco when this was over. Well, if they were still alive when this was all over.
"He's going to know you helped me," Draco said suddenly, turning to Blaise and Theo.
Blaise took out a cigarette and snapped his fingers to light it. "So what?"
"So what? So that means he's either going to make you join or kill you or make me kill you! He's not going to let you live with everything you know," Draco said, running his hands through his hair, pacing across his room.
Blaise shrugged. "Then we join."
"You CANNOT join," Pansy gasped. Again, they ignored her.
"You'd join?" Draco froze.
"For you, yeah, we'd join for you," Theo nodded.
They spent hours locked away in Draco's room smoking and sitting in silence. Blaise and Theo took turns smoking while Pansy sat in the corner, arms crossed, refusing to speak to any of them unless it was to call them idiots. Even when she caught Theo staring at her from behind his hair, she announced with a finger pointed in his direction, "No, I'm too upset with you right now."
Draco raised an eyebrow asking what that was about, but Blaise shook his head in warning.
Eventually, all four of them were called to the drawing room again where The Dark Lord was now waiting for them. Theo felt like he was going to be sick, but he held it together. He stood frozen to the spot, keeping eye contact with the ground and never looking up at those red cold eyes. Draco told the story once again from the start, from back in the alcove, when Theo offered his services with helping with the Vanishing Cabinet all the way to meeting him at the gates of Hogwarts.
"So you like Dark Magic, boy?" The Dark Lord addressed Theo.
"I like Time," Theo replied simply.
"You'll make an excellent Death Eater; your father will be proud," he congratulated Theo. The other Death Eaters in the room all murmured in agreement.
Theo did not roll his eyes in front of The Dark Lord, but he really, really wanted to.
"Me too," Blaise spoke up. "I want to serve you, my Lord."
"Me as well," Pansy said, stepping forward. Theo's head turned so fast his neck almost snapped.
"No! You cannot!" "Parkinson, don't be stupid." "Pansy, please, you don't have to–" all three of the boys talked all over each other. No one knew who said what, but a panic ricocheted through all of them. She was a victim. She was a mistake. Pansy joining was not part of the plan.
But it was too late. The Dark Lord held up a hand and they were silenced without consent.
"Ladies first," he smirked evilly. But instead of his wand, he reached out and ran a sharp nail down Pansy's skin. It sliced deep to the bone and she gasped in the pain as her blood started to spill into the carpet. Tears leaked from her eyes and it took everything in Theo not to wrap his arms around her and save her from the pain. His heart felt like it was being dragged from his soul, breaking and angry at him for letting her be in so much pain. The golden thread unraveled and reached out to hers, reaching, reaching, if he could only take her hand and seal the bond to save her from the hurt.
Theo knew if he moved and stopped it, he'd be dead, but he didn't care. He lunged for her, but felt large hands of Greyback wrap around his arms, pulling him away and locking him in place. He struggled hard, but he couldn't break the hold. He started shouting, he couldn't help it. Her bond was screaming at him, telling him to stop the Dark Magic from killing it.
The Dark Lord took out his wand and shoved it deep into the wound while casting " Morsmordre Corobice ."
Pansy screamed bloody murder. She looked to Theo, her tear stained eyes screaming his name, not Draco's, for help. None of the boys could do anything for that's all they were, boys being manipulated and threatened by men. No wonder Blaise always said men were weak.
"A new incantation, my Lord?" Snape questioned with a raised eyebrow. Theo didn't know what he meant.
"For a new version of the Mark," he sneered. "A barrier to keep my followers loyal. So we don't have any more mishaps from bond magic."
No one in the room could hide their horror. "That's possible?" someone whispered, infuriating The Dark Lord.
"Possible? I used it first on the Malfoy boy; it worked wonders, don't you think?," he hissed out in anger at being questioned. "Didn't care one bit what happened to his friends until his promise to me was complete."
Out of the corner of his eye, Theo watched Draco's face fall. A gruesome realization crossed his pale sickly features as his silver eyes calculated all his past actions. Draco covered his mouth with his hand to keep himself from sobbing or vomiting, Theo was not sure which but both seemed acceptable at this moment. Theo didn't need a verbal confirmation to know every word to be true.
"Now Nott, please step forward," The Dark Lord demanded.
Theo was shoved forward. He stumbled right into The Dark Lord's hand and felt his arm be split open before he could register the cold fingers on his skin. His wand was shoved deep into the wound and the spell cast before Theo could even struggle. His blood was on fire, the spell burning through every vein.
When the magic hit his heart, he felt an explosion of blackness lock around him. He could feel the golden string inside of him begin to struggle, but the spell wrapped it up and knotted it. It became locked away and suddenly all the heartbreak he ever felt from anyone was… gone. He looked from his skin to Pansy, still nursing her arm, but he felt… nothing. The wound on his arm stitched back together in the shape of the skull with the snake, a deeper black than ink could ever provide.
A barrier of Dark Magic he couldn't see moved over his skin. It locked his body in ice. Keeping something in or keeping something out, he wasn't sure. The only thing he could feel was a black thread reaching out and bonding him to The Dark Lord. Draco reached out and hauled Theo back to his feet. His own Dark Magic reached out to Theo's and another black thread jolted between their Marks, making their knees buckle and lungs gasp. A new bond; the only bond: The Dark Mark's bond.
"Zabini? Your turn." It was the only time Theo had ever seen fear on Blaise's face, but he stepped forward and held out his arm, determination in his eyes.
The summer of 1997 brought back the return of Theodore Nott Senior to Theo's dismay. After breaking out of Azkaban, one would think the first place for the Ministry to look would be one's home, but no one ever came knocking at the Nott Manor. Theo wished they had, at least so his father would leave. Azkaban had left the already violent man unstable. He fluctuated back and forth between being brilliantly proud of his Death Eater son and disgusted by anything Theo did. Luckily for Theo, he felt no emotional pain from the lack of love. Not anymore, thanks to the Mark. He locked himself in his room to save himself from being punished for existing.
Every now and then Theo was asked to come to the Malfoy Manor, now The Dark Lord's headquarters, to fix cursed objects or offer advice on a weapon in the making. Draco grew better and better at the Unforgivables; he became an expert at torture. Blaise never said what The Dark Lord asked him to do, but Theo had a feeling there were more bodies now hidden with those of his stepfathers.
When Theo showed up on the train, Pansy gave him a tight hug. But it wasn't the connection and desire he once felt for her. No, he was just glad they were heading back to school. He was rather shocked the four of them weren't expelled. Not that Pansy had a reason to be, she had been dragged along at the end. She didn't even know. He had ruined her life because of the fucking golden string. A string that didn't even matter anymore.
Though the Ministry questioned why they ran from the castle, they all lied through their teeth about being afraid since their father's were in Azkaban and they were pureblood children. It was obvious the Ministry didn't really want real answers. They didn't even use Veritaserum or ask any of them, even Draco whom Potter could not stop shutting up about, to pull up their sleeves.
Hogwarts was different now. Everyone hated it. But because of their new Marks, it was easier for the four. They kept to themselves, hiding at their table in the library. When one was missing, they always knew to look in the alcove first. Draco and Pansy were no longer an item, but they also weren't not an item. All the years comforting and being in each other's orbits seemed to repeat as routine more than romance. Theo didn't mind. The Mark wouldn't let him.
Millie told them about Pansy having nightmares, crying and screaming in her sleep. She started sleeping with Draco in his bed. Just sleeping, nothing more. The one night, when Draco was out, she asked Theo to lay with her. When Draco returned, he didn't kick Theo out, but only got into bed with them. On the third night, Blaise joined. They wrapped themselves up together, tangling up limbs and fitting their bodies onto a bed only meant to fit one. A dark string snaked around them, connecting Mark to Mark, tying them up in a perfect package.
When one of the boys was missing from classes after being called by The Dark Lord, Pansy would come up with lies to feed the Professors. Or the Professors who weren't also Death Eaters, at least. She turned into their angel and mended wounds from their assignments if they prevailed or their punishments if they failed. When the Dark Lord heard about her tender touch, she was put in charge of the younger students, teaching them how to one day be the perfect followers.
They all said they would stop responding to his calls, but whenever the Mark burned, they'd leave right away and do as the Mark told. Theo didn't cry anymore; there was nothing left inside of him to break.
Draco didn't return from Easter break, but he wrote them about Granger on the floor of the Drawing Room. He told them how he didn't want to give her or Potter away, but he still did because of the Mark. How it was like The Dark Lord was using his powers of being a Legilimens without even being in the room. He felt responsible for her torture. He wanted to die. Potter had stolen his wand; he was borrowing his mothers, but he threw himself into studying wandless magic the very next day. Theo recommended some books.
The Battle of Hogwarts came quicker than Theo thought it would. He wasn't prepared; no one was. Everything was dark and horrible and the only solace in his life were nights with his friends. Theo wasn't a duelist, not like Draco and Blaise. When the fighting started, he stayed with Pansy to help the other Slytherins.
Everyone thought she was a coward when she stood up and shouted about turning Potter in; only Theo saw it as her way to help the children escape without harm. They were still young, stupid, could slip up and say something to cause a fight or make them look like the villain. But if Pansy said it, if she looked the villain and was treated as such, they'd know to keep their mouths shut as they made it to safety. She was a hero even if she'd be remembered in history as a snake.
They evacuated to his Manor; Pansy was too scared to return to her own. Theo went to shower and when he came back, he found her sitting on his bed, in only one of his vests, arms wrapped around her knees, shaking uncontrollably.
"Pansy, Pans, it's okay. I'm here," Theo said, crawling onto the bed, wrapping his arms around her tight. He found her holding a letter tightly in her hand.
"But you're not. You're not here, Theo," she cried, pointing to her heart. "I was so close to having you and I was so stupid. I thought– I thought if I ignored it and listened to my mother– If I pushed you away."
She was a sobbing wreck, but he understood then. He knew how pureblood mothers could be with their daughters. If marriages were not arranged, they were forced. What pureblood mother would ever tell their daughter it was acceptable to choose him over Draco Malfoy. He understood better than anyone what happened when you did not live up to your pureblood parents' expectations.
"You've always had me, Pans, ever since we were eleven. Maybe even before," he said, trying to calm her, pushing her hair from tears. "We still have each other; we're still bonded somehow." It wasn't a great consolation prize, but at least the black chord was something keeping her to him.
"But that's just it! I can still feel the Dark Magic in my blood and–" she was hiccupping now through her tears. She handed over the letter in her hand. "And it's over, the war is over. He's gone. He's dead."
Theo opened the folded parchment; all it said in Blaise's handwriting was Potter finally won.
Voldemort was gone. He was dead. They were no longer his servants. Theo's chest exploded, the hope of what they could be now. But as he looked back to Pansy, he understood her tears and his hope crashed like a priceless vase against the wall.
"I still– I still can't feel you. I can't feel the gold in my heart. It's all still so dark, so black," she sobbed. He held her close to his chest. He had thought the moment Voldemort died there would be a crack and the gold would unlock. They both did. But it was still black and dark inside of him.
"I'm going to fix it, okay Pansy? I knew I loved you and I'm going to love you again. I'll fix it so you can feel it too, I promise," he whispered in her ear. He didn't know how, but he would do it.
She looked up at him with eyes of revolution. She believed his promise. She wanted his promise. She pressed her lips to his in a moment of hope. He knew he shouldn't have, but he kissed back. The black didn't budge. The gold didn't break through, but he kissed her harder. Maybe they just needed this moment and they could make it shatter, they could force love to win like Potter had time and time again.
Theo kissed her deeper, nipping at her bottom lip, asking permission she already gave. She opened her mouth to him and kissed him deeply, her tongue sliding against his. He could taste the sugar quills he smelled all the way back in Sixth year. That felt so long ago now. She pulled him down onto the bed with her, pressing her body tight against his. Even without love, lust still prevailed and his hands moved over every inch she allowed him to touch.
Her hands pushed away the towel around his waist and his calloused ones found their way up the shirt, bunching it up to reveal her slender naked body. She was more gorgeous than the stars he wanted to hang in her sky. She mewled as he cupped her breast and rolled his nipple between his fingers. His mouth leaning down to devour the skin his fingers touched. She arched her back as he sucked on her nipple, flicking it with his tongue. His fingers traveled down her body, as if they already memorized every bit of her skin. Even with the gold thread still buried, with the bond gone, it was like he knew her from another time.
Maybe in another timeline, they were allowed to fall in love. Maybe in another universe, she asked him to dance because she wanted him and no one else. Maybe in a better timeline, he kissed her at the Yule Ball and they sealed their bond that very night. Maybe in any other life, they didn't get their Dark Marks and were able to love each other how their souls were meant to. Just one life where they could love each other would have been enough.
The fever of lust consumed them. They started to kiss deeper, quicker, all of the skin they could, bodies grinding each other to create heat that could maybe melt the ice etched into their skin. He pressed a finger into her and she groaned and pleaded with him for more. In any other circumstance, he would have been clumsy with inexperience. She would have known his hands and lips were traveling distances and conquering places they had never gone before. But their need to prove to themselves that the cold bitter darkness would not be forever surpassed all awkward limbs and mismatched kisses to the point she begged for more than his touch. She didn't need to be savored, she needed to be connected.
Pressing into her felt like velvet and home. She gasped loudly at his size and clung to him, digging her perfectly manicured nails into the muscles of his back. He groaned her name and she cried out as his body moved against hers in just the right way. Deeper, harder, they both knew they needed it without having to say it. The dark string pulled them closer together, but they both kept hoping for the gold. He could feel it building inside of him. Not only the passion and need for release, but the string begging, pushing, reaching, banging on his chest wanting to come out. It cried out for her again and again. It searched for cracks in the darkness, a small hole for it to slip through so it could finally tie itself to her.
The bond was there. He could feel it building, growing stronger. It was untangling. It was pushing through his veins, slow and forceful like trudging through tar, but it was moving. It was trying. Her moans in his ear coaxed it forward. He thrust deep into her and she pressed her hips down, grinding against him. There was no room to breathe between them. With their eyes locked on the others, all the stars exploded and they danced on planets rings. But everything was still in black. There was no gold, no bond.
When he attempted to move off of her, she refused to let go. "No, not yet, maybe it just needs. Maybe it needs time," she cried. But they both knew that was not it. The Mark was still burned into their skin; it still devoured their veins and kept their blood tainted..
"I always wanted to love you," she said, her voice breaking as a sob took over. Theo pulled her to his chest and ran his fingers through her short hair.
"You have before," he promised her and kissed her forehead. " There is no love that is not an echo."
Pansy didn't leave in the morning like he expected her to. She still had hope. Something inside of her thought maybe if they were close in proximity, the darkness would start to wear thin. Theo knew it wouldn't, but he didn't send her away. Even with their bond destroyed, he still liked her presence, still thought she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen.
Quietly, they waited for the Ministry to arrive to serve arrest warrants. Theo's father had been arrested after the battle. From what the papers had reported, his father refused to run after the death of Voldemort. Instead he got to his knees and waited to be arrested, stating something about not being a coward and hiding his convictions. Lucius Malfoy seemed to go the other route and was now pleading the case that he and his family were victims and should be pardoned. It worked.
Theo found his journal and claimed his father's study to be his own. Pansy would sit in the armchair in the corner, reading or silently watching him. She'd bring him food and nudge him to eat. She brought him an old copy of A History of Magic and other books he never thought could help. Some did, some didn't. She was trying. Sometimes she would sit in his lap as he read. Sometimes they would fuck on the desk. She was trying to love him. She was hoping lust could burn through the tar in their veins.
She smiled one day, sitting on his lap as played with his dark, long locks. Greasy from not showering enough, but she didn't mind.
"I always loved your ears," she confided in a whisper even though no one was in the room.
"They're too big," Theo told her what his father always said, but she shook her head.
"No, that's why I love them," she said, taking his hand and lacing their fingers together. His were stained with ink; he had written LOVE across his knuckles as a reminder of everything the Mark took from him.
They slept together every night, tied together by the black string and sheets wrapped their way around their ankles. He worshiped her and yet nothing cracked the darkness. He devoured every piece of literature on Time, History, and Memory magic over and over. He marked pages. Even ripped some out that were important enough. She talked about his theories with him and offered her thoughts. They were cute, dreamy and unrealistic, but he still enjoyed listening. He let ink stain his fingers. He had to find the solution. He had to save them.
Eventually, Blaise showed up on his doorstep.
"How did you get here?" Theo asked. He had locked the floo; Pansy was scared of her mother dragging her away and, honestly, Theo was afraid if Mrs. Parkinson stole her daughter, he wouldn't let Pansy come back.
"The muggle way. I walked," Blaise smirked. "Put on a suit. It's Snape's memorial today."
"Fuck."
"Tell me about it. Got any whiskey?" Blaise found flasks and filled them as Theo and Pansy got dressed. She wore a dress of his mother's and he could feel her ghost smile. She would have been happy for her son. A love match she never got. How could he fuck up so badly?
They took shots before going to gather Draco. Theo never really cared much for Snape. The man had never reached out to mentor him or help him through the years. At most he rewarded points whenever Theo knew the correct answers in class, but Snape was usually put out that Theo never volunteered the answers and had to be called upon.
The funeral itself didn't bother Theo much. He'd seen death, up close and personal. He'd seen it soft and peaceful and he'd seen it bloody and violent. No, what bothered him was the way Draco cried. The way he begged his friends for forgiveness. The way his guilt consumed his every breath and sunk deep into his nerves. What if he never took the mark? What if he never asked Theo for help? What if he hadn't been a coward and killed Dumbledore himself? What if he just let Voldemort kill him? It was another list of 'what if's' for Theo to add to his own.
By the end of the night, Draco was a wreck. Theo gave him his flask, enchanted to hold an entire bottle's worth, and let Draco consume it all. The night ended with the four of them locked in a bathroom of Malfoy Manor, three of them crossfaded and sharing a spliff while coaxing Draco to puke up the poison of liquor. Eventually they offered him the spliff too and he fell asleep with his head in Pansy's lap. She rested her head on Theo's shoulder and kissed his neck softly.
Blaise watched the gentleness of the couple that could not be what fate had blessed them with.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, his own guilt adding to Theo's list.
Pansy and the elves began to worry. They still made Theo food even when he told them not to. He didn't eat it. He was consumed with his work. He barely noticed Pansy in the corner of the room anymore. He pulled at his hair and lost track of the hours until it was dark and she was begging him to come to bed. Which theory was the right one? Which would save his mother? Which would save Pansy? Which would save him?
Was it fate they would all be Marked one day? Or was it fate Dumbledore would die? Or was it fate Voldermort would lose? Which was inevitable and which could be changed? Or was it chaos? If he went back and didn't take Pansy's hand, would she be unmarked? Or would she have been killed in the Battle? If he went back further and never asked Draco if he could help, would he save them both from being marked?
But he couldn't leave his friend like that. Blaise would have still helped. He needed to go back further.
Word came his father was to receive the Dementor's Kiss with an assigned time for Theo to have one last visit with the man. Theo burned the official letter and continued with his work. The man had been dead to him for years; he had nothing to say to him.
"Are you sure that's not the Mark making you not care?" Pansy asked when he told her about it. Theo shrugged. If not giving a fuck about his father's soul was a side effect, then he was thankful for at least one thing the Mark did for him.
Theo started creating a new Time Turner. A powerful one. One that could go back years. Decades. Pansy yelled at him to eat; he was getting too skinny. Blaise and Draco would come by, try to get him to leave the study and go fly. Some days it worked, most days it didn't. Pansy could lure him away with kisses and naked skin, but he always returned after she fell asleep. He needed to focus on his work. If he went back even further, before Draco was marked, could he save them all? Was it possible to go back that far?
He noticed the word written across his knuckles. What was he thinking, he forgot completely about his mother because of the severing of his familial love bond. That was his goal since he was thirteen and first heard about Time Turners. He had to go back all the way to when he was five.
He had to convince his mother to leave his father. It would stop everything. His mother would still be alive. Lucius wouldn't have failed in the Department of Mysteries. Draco would never become a Death Eater.
Theo whispered Dark Magic into mercury. He found he could make time last longer in the ethereal fluid. He wrote Runes of History Magic on the gold edge of the hourglass to stop history from repeating. To keep it from looping. Looping was a third theory of time where all events remained the same regardless of attempts to change them. He could not live through this again. He would not.
But if his father was still alive, he would still torture his mother. So Theo decided with finality he would need to kill his father. It was the answer to every single what if. With his father dead, life would be safe and love would be everywhere.
But how would he kill at five years old? He needed to keep his consciousness but not his body. He infused Memory Magic into the glass. He was combining too much magic into too little space, but there was no other way. It was temperamental, but it would work. It had to.
He locked the doors to his study and refused to let Pansy in. She pleaded with him to sleep through the wood, but it stayed locked. He started to hope she would leave, but she never did.
On a cold, snowy evening, an explosion ripped through the Nott Manor. The shake of the foundation rattled and cracked the windows. It was like a storm with no rain. Pansy awoke with a gasp of pain as her Mark burned with cold fire. When she found Theo's side of the bed cold, she started to panic.
"THEO!" She scrambled for her robe and ran down the stairs at breakneck speed, screaming his name again and again hoping for an answer. She was entering the study when Draco stepped out of the study fireplace and in another second there was a crack of Blaise apparating into the entryway.
"The Mark," Draco said. They felt it too. They felt the dark thread snap. "Where's Theo?"
She didn't know. She thought he would be here but–
Blaise entered the room and his eyes grew with understanding. He was a bringer of Death; he knew what a room felt like when a soul had left it. Before either Pansy or Draco registered what he was doing, he was grabbing her and pulling her to his chest.
"Parkinson, close your eyes. Do not open them until I tell you," he commanded. His dark eyes scoured the room until he found the body and gave a head nod to the direction. Draco's silver eyes followed and he sucked in a breath quick and sharp.
"What- what's wrong–" she struggled, but Blaise wouldn't release her from his hold. It was then Draco noticed the stick of his feet to the carpet. The metallic smell rising from the ground and covering the walls. Red covered all the books on the table that was split in two from the blast. She didn't listen. She opened her eyes. She looked to see what was making her feet wet. She was standing barefoot in the color of devastation.
She screamed, shrill and broken. "No. No. NO! THEO! Tell me he– please, tell me– " Her words broke off into sobs. Blaise dragged her from the room.
"Draco, check to see," Blaise only said out of courtesy of Pansy. They both knew there was too much blood for what she wanted to hear.
Draco found Theo lying on the floor behind the broken table, his bones broken and twisted in ways not even magic could mend. The Dark Magic in his arm had disintegrated the limb entirely. It sealed Draco's suspicion that only death could rid them of the Dark Mark. Half of Theo's face was burned, but his eyes were closed, peaceful and asleep, with tears of blood dripping from them.
Draco had to cover his mouth to keep from gagging. He had tortured men to the very brink of death and yet none looked at destroyed. Draco picked up a piece of parchment near Theo's cracked skull; a list of 'what if's'. It was everything he needed to change to save them. To keep his mother alive, to stop them from being Marked, to make sure they would all feel love, to seal his soulmate bond with Pansy. He was doing it all for them.
Pansy's screams came from the other room; Blaise must have delivered the news. Draco closed the door to the study and found them in the hall. Blaise was doing his best to keep Pansy upright, but she was melting into the floor and punching at his chest. Draco scooped her up in his arms as best as he could, pulling her to his chest.
"No! He promised me!" she sobbed, her voice cracking with every short breath. She couldn't get enough air. "I just wanted to love him. I always wanted to love him."
That's when they realized there was nothing they could do to save themselves.
Voldemort was gone, but his death sentence still remained.
They would have to live without love until there was nothing left.
notes: Comments and critiques always welcomed! Thank you for letting me break your heart a little. Thank you for reading, kudos, comments, and even just a lurker read. You're all appreciated and loved.
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