Teammates

By then, it was the winter of our first year. It snowed, and then the snow melted, and then it snowed again, and the snow melted. I loved it. I loved breaking free from the Slytherin Common Room at night to run around through the powder, loved catching it on my tongue, loved falling back into piles of it, loved staring alone at the sky from there, loved slowly pretending I was melting. There's something different about the air, about the sky, about the night when there's snow on the ground.

And when I was alone, I could think about you and not feel guilty.

I wasn't sure exactly how I felt, anyway. I was eleven, for God's sake. Sitting there in the snow, though, my mind would wander and I'd think about your smile. It was strange to me, but in the snow, it was normal. Life was a game, an exciting one, and you and I were teammates, laughing and fighting others. We always won in the snow.

We still hadn't had our first conversation.

Sunrise

I woke up every morning with light streaming into the dorm but the sun didn't seem to rise until I saw you at breakfast. You, eating pancakes. You, talking to Dean Thomas. You, laughing to something Lavender Brown said. And one day that winter as I watched you butter your toast, I realized that if you looked over here, all you'd see would be the ghost of me. Me, failing to make good conversation. Me, with a pale, sunken features. Me, a disgusting Slytherin.

So that day, I stood up near the end of the meal and threw myself away. I walked across the glistening tile of the Great Hall towards you at the Gryffindor table. I don't know whether or not you remember this. I hope you don't.

You looked up at me, I remember. All of your friends stared at me with disgust, but you were different. The sun hit your face and my heart stopped. I opened my mouth to say something, but no such luck. I walked away and blushed as your friends laughed, but you just watched me go, wondering.

Smell

That morning was Double Potions. I enjoyed Potions quite a lot, but I was more nervous than ever, with both the Gryffindors and the Slytherins giving me strange looks. Shock hit me, though, when you came and sat down next to me. You didn't look at me or give any signs of recognition, but you sat there. I didn't feel connected to my body.

We received our assignments and I began working more diligently than ever, as if the perfect potion would earn your friendship. However, I cut my finger chopping some root, and I've never been good with blood. I began gasping for air and that's when you noticed. You approached and took my hand in yours, examining the cut. I looked down at the potion and realized that I'd forgotten to stir. Brown fumes began to rise, and though you began to cough at them, I thought that the smell was delicious. I smiled and you gave me a quizzical look. I heard you call Professor Snape before I collapsed, my head falling straight into my boiling cauldron.

Shapes

I woke up near twilight and the familiar background of the Hospital Wing met my blurry eyes. My face felt like it was burning and I reached up to feel strangely shaped bumps all over my cheeks, my nose, my forehead. I groaned and hoped this wouldn't have any lasting effects. "And to think I used to like Potions," I muttered to myself.

"Well I don't know why you liked it in the first place," your teasing voice sang. I gasped, realizing that you were there next to me, looking at the strange, deformed shapes on my skin. I wasn't quite sure how to respond. Luckily, you did it for me.

"I'm Seamus," you said out of politeness, though I already knew your name. You put out your hand and I took it, hoping the bumps weren't contagious.

"I'm Theodore," I said quietly.

"Theodore?? That's silly. I'm gonna call you Theo. Is that alright?"

I smiled, calmed by your friendliness. "That's fine."

Star

Now when I saw you while making hourly rounds, you gave a smile or a wave, which I returned shyly. Draco harassed me about it for awhile, but he got over it. He gets over everything with some time.

There was, though, the house barrier. No matter how kind you were or no matter how much I wanted to be close to you, I was still a Slytherin and you were still a Gryffindor. It's absurd to look back and think about how we were so separated by the will of a faded hat. I often saw your Gryffindor friends looking at me with disgust whenever you looked at me with kindness, as if I were worse than Draco, as if my wanting to be friends were as bad as his wanting to be enemies. Just being acquaintances then broke boundaries.

You weren't just a star in the night sky anymore, twinkling beautifully out of reach. Now your light was closer, warmer.