House: Horned Serpent

Class: Charms

Task 5 - Fidelius Charm: Write about hiding from someone/something.

Prompts: [Location] Room of Requirement (main), [Character] Theodore Nott, [Character] Luna Lovegood

WC: 1267

TW: implied child abuse/violence

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Theo curled his hands into fists, the jagged edges of his nails biting into his palm for a moment as he rounded the corner, putting another corridor's worth of distance between himself and the echoing noises of the party. His breath came short and ragged, eyes searching the featureless walls out of habit rather than expecting to see anything helpful, the walls littered with tapestries — goblin-made given the amount of wizards and witches doing ridiculous things on them — rather any doors for him to hide behind.

Or rather, there shouldn't have been any doors.

Theo came to a sudden stop, the sheer wrongness of seeing a door where there shouldn't be one taking a moment to resonate in his mind. He stared at the door — small and unassuming, almost the same grey as the stones surrounding it. It looked like a place to hide.

Still he paused, almost swaying as he considered it, the steady mix of fear and adrenaline making his head spin. Theo should know better than to trust randomly appearing doors. He had heard, as all Wizarding children had, of the friend of a cousin of an aunt who had walked through a new door and had never been seen again.

Footsteps echoed behind him, and cold fear twisted Theo's stomach violently. He pulled open the door — swinging silently on its hinges — and slipped inside.

It closed soundlessly behind him, and almost seemed to shift beneath his palms as he pressed his ear to the cold wood, trying to hear his pursuer in the corridor beyond. The footsteps — distinct in their slow, measured click of the heel, and even without that, Theo had spent far too many nights lying curled up beneath his blankets to forget the sound — slowly made their way down the corridor.

Theo's heart seemed to have wedged itself into his throat, mouth run dry as he listened and waited. They drew closer, almost leisurely, because where was he going to go? The corridor branched into two dead ends with nowhere to hide, except this one door.

"You won't be found in here."

It was only a lifetime of needing sharp reflexes that allowed Theo to bite on his thumb, rather than let the yelp escape at the gentle voice behind him. Iron covered his tongue, a dull ache radiating up his elbow as he unclenched his jaw, wincing.

"Luna, isn't it?"

The young woman regarded him solemnly, her already large eyes enhanced by the oversized glasses balanced on her nose — they almost seemed to have wings protruding from them, pale lilac and flapping gently as she blinked — before nodding.

"It is, but you already knew that. Thank you for checking."

Theo blinked at her, all of the words — careful phrases, learnt to not cause offense, to let him stay unnoticed in the arena that was Pureblood politics — seeming to slip out of his head.

"You're welcome?" he answered, blushing at the questioning upturn in his voice.

"I might have wanted a change, you see." Luna smiled at him, as if they were both in on a secret. "So many people don't even consider checking, but you did."

Theo nodded, feeling adrift in a conversation he had never expected to hold.

"What did you mean by 'You won't be found in here'?"

The footsteps outside had continued down the corridor, still sedately in their surety, and Theo winced, a motion that had nothing to do with the sluggishly oozing teeth marks around his knuckle.

"Well…" Luna tipped her head back to consider a particular spot on the ceiling. Theo briefly followed her gaze before furretively glancing around the rest of the room.

It seemed almost cozy despite the secretiveness of the door. A heavy cauldron, blackened with age, sat in one corner, the flames beneath it glowing a gentle blue. The walls opposite were lined with heavy bookcases, shelvers almost groaning beneath their contents, although the vast majority seemed handwritten — pages poking out as if they'd been tucked in when the writer ran out of space, and some straining at their bindings, tied shut with frayed ribbon.

"The castle likes you," Luna said, and Theo's gaze snapped back to her, heat rising in his pale cheeks.

"It does?"

"She does," Luna confirmed with a nod. "That's why she showed you where this room is."

"And what is this room?"

Theo froze. The footsteps were coming back, harder and louder than before, reverberating like a wardrum in his chest. He couldn't help it — childhood fears rising their ugly heads once again, and he knew there would be no stopping them this time — and he dropped to his knees, hands pressed to his ears. He could still hear the noise, the sound of footsteps like a knife in his exposed back.

It could have been months before Luna next spoke, her voice gentle and melodic. "You will be okay."

"Kind of you to think so," Theo managed to get out behind gritted teeth, head aching from the pressure of his palms. A dull ache reverberated from his knees, promising to transform into a mottled hue of purple and black the next day.

"I know so." Luna fiddled with her necklace, the tip of her tongue caught between her teeth as she worked out one knot, only to tie it back in again a few inches further up.

Theo forced himself to breathe out slowly, heart ceasing it's relentless hammering against his ribcage, stomach twisting as the panic made way for nausea. "This room, what is it?"

"It goes by many names. I like 'The Come-and-Go Room', but I know Harry calls it 'The Room of Requirement'. It was badly damaged in the battle, but it's fixed itself very well."

The mere mention of the battle froze the blood in Theo's veins, and he carefully peered at Luna beneath lowered lashes. Neutrality had been a careful tightrope to walk, helping where he could and always watching over his shoulder for the axe to drop on his head, but he had walked it. His father praised him for his actions now, even as he had berated Theo for his outward 'lack or respect' then. He was a freed man because of what Theo had done, and that made him sick.

"I made it look like my mother's workshop. It becomes what you need, and I miss her today." Luna's voice was bright, but Theo knew, in the same way she knew the same of him, that she had seen her mother die. "She was a great inventor."

"My mother was a painter."

Luna tilted her head to one side, and then the other as she considered this. "I think you take after her alot. Your notes had pretty pictures in the margins."

Theo flushed, but nodded his thanks at her.

"You can stay here as long as you like. The party tired me out too, so I will stay as well, okay?"

It was a fragile excuse, but it was one Theo was glad to take rather than delve into his thorny family dynamic.

There was a sofa along a wall that hadn't been there before, and, as Luna moved away, back to the cauldron as she hummed quietly beneath her breath, Theo stumbled over to it. The fabric was worn and soft, dipping in all the right places as he lay down — beneath his hip and along his shoulder. He closed his eyes, Luna's gentle humming lulling him towards sleep as the room filled with the scent of lilacs.