There were a few things Theodore Nott liked in life.
Looking at his mother's photo was one and another was visiting her grave (which was so very, very quiet) and letting the breeze scatter the petals of the flowers he brought her and pretending that the way the wind would whisper in his ear and float against his cheek was the will of his mother.
When he looked at his mother's face in the photographs, he would sometimes have a mirror next to him as he tried to distinguish which of her features he shared; did his eyes gleam like hers, did he smile and laugh like she did? However, usually he stared back at colourless, cold eyes which were his own, and saw his father; mirrors were frequently smashed at the Nott resident. Sometimes, he did see himself in her, but only in the pictures in which she was alone and not smiling.
He liked reading. He liked to delve himself deep within a book, letting his life melt away and emerging in a new world. Reading was the closest he could get to dreaming with out being asleep. Dreams he both liked and disliked. He liked the freedom and the deepness of dreams, how everything had meaning and could be intensely analysed later. Nevertheless, he disliked the chaos within a dream as the chaos made it out of control and made him feel powerless. Theodore rarely felt that way and when he did, he didn't like it.
At school, he liked lessons where he could sit and think, where the atmosphere was calm, where it was quiet. It was lessons which had most to do with knowledge, with books and research which he enjoyed the most, like Arithmancy or Ancient Runes. If Potions hadn't been the battlefield of the fierce, troublesome feud between the Slytherins and the Gryffindors, then Theodore would have undoubtedly enjoyed that too, enjoyed staring at the bubbling liquid in his cauldron change colour as he stirred it slowly and having that satisfied feeling of knowing how much power it contained. He would have probably respected Snape too, if the greasy teacher didn't annoyingly feed the fuel of complete and utter immaturity the Slytherins acted towards the Lion House and if Snape himself kept his outright ridiculous grudge against Harry Potter where it belonged. Out of Theodore's lesson.
It was contained magic, Theodore liked, controllable magic, magic he knew exactly how much power it had. This was why he didn't like Transfiguration or Defence, they were too loud, too blunt, too 'in your face'. And the people in it were goddamn irritating.
When lessons ended and the library and the common room were too crowded (and sometimes, just when he felt like it) Theodore would wander around the edge of the Forbidden Forest, occasionally taking a stroll inside. The trees calmed him, the way the sunlight (when there was any) trickled past through the leaves, creating a green haze under the branches, soothed his soul. The many different sounds and smells a forest makes made him feel at ease, something he rarely felt indoors. Theodore spent a lot of his time in the company of the forest creatures, both magical and non, that he had become familiar with them, almost friendly, even with the centaurs (who refused to believe he was a full-blooded human, for their sake or his?). He liked spending time with the Thestrals the best, stroking their bat-like wings and watching their black reptilian scales gleam like tar. He found their company pleasant, which was more that could be said for human beings.
Theodore found human beings irritating, in fact he found most things irritating but humans especially pissed him off. The way thy talked and shout and overreact and betray and create problems and just act STUPID. God, they irritated him to no end.
His father irritated him the most. A small quiet man, a serious face, a low graveling voice preaching on and on about things Theodore didn't give two shits about. Stuff about duty, loyalties to his family, to 'The Cause.' It makes Theodore almost smile when he remembers the time when he snidely remarked to his father that he didn't know his family included the Dark Lord. Yes, it almost makes him smile, even though he got a stinging slap and disappointed eyes for it.
His father irritated him for many reasons, more than he could count. It was because he went around being a dogsbody for a set of idiots and their even more idiotic manic leader, giving himself the name, the label they handed out because he was too weak to make one for himself. Because of the almost sheer devoted blindness in which his father followed the values he was taught by his parents and the constant belief in his rightness that made the Slytherin core of Theodore writhe in disgust. It was the way he had that face on all the time, the face of the world weary widower, the drained father, with all the superficial experiences, which were supposed to end up as wisdom, etched on to his face. As if he was in the right behind the Dark Lord, the epitome of all that he believes, and that Theodore was in the wrong as the estranged son, as the traitor, the black sheep, who would have made his mother cry if she was still here.
Which. He. Would. NOT. HAVE!
More importantly, it was the fact that Avery Nott had not once visited his wife's grave since the funeral more than 15 years ago and something, just something, which Theodore felt within his father that just irritated him. Luckily he never had to see his father more than a week each year.
The same could be said to his school, whom almost all irritated him as much. To the train and the crowds and to that stupid trolley woman in the train, to the teachers and the students; they all were irritating to a greater or lesser degree. Dumbledore, with that all knowing twinkle and that all knowing voice and his general all knowingness oozing out of those outrageously coloured robes, not only irritated Theodore but bothered his eyes as well. Hagrid with his oafish voice, Flitwick for his never ending squeaky highness, McGonagall for her too tight bun and her righteousness and so on. Teachers always tended to irritate him, but never as much as the students.
Students were noisy. Students were immature. Students blocked the corridors and were too self absorbed and overreacts at the slightest thing.
The Gryffindors were the embodiment of overreacting. Theodore, as a Slytherin, loathed Gryffindors on principle. Well, loathed is really too strong a word for Theodore. Gryffindors irritated him. Not only as people (because they were very irritating as people) but for all of what their House stood for. Nobility, bravery, courage. For heroism, that Theodore just could not stand. They were brash, they were stupidly loud and they all acted as if they were dancing on the moral high ground with shining sticks of justice up their arses. And the heroes on this house of heroes were of course the Trio.
Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Theodore didn't hate them or anything and he never had much to do with them. He did find them quite interesting but not interesting enough for a deep analysis. He found that they fell boringly neatly into their stereotypical roles of a trio of heroes. Granger, as the girl, is the most morally aware of the three and as the smart one, she usually makes the plans and gets them out of trouble. Weasley as the stupid laid back one, is the comic relief. Potter, well, Potter is simple, he is the main character, the reluctant hero, the orphan out to avenge his parents. Really, quite boring in Theodore's view, irritatingly boring.
Not as irritating as his own House though, they were sometimes beyond irritating, especially his year mates. It irritated him that they were just like his father in their devoted blindness to their parents, which made up most of their personality, especially Malfoy.
He was the most irritating of the lot, mostly to do with the fact that he was the type of son that Theodore should have become, in his father's eyes. It irritated him that Malfoy had that same constant belief on his own superiority his father has, and the same belief in the values he was taught. It irritated him that Malfoy was a snotty little daddy's boy, rich and spoiled and that he either failed to realise that he was slowly self destructing or he chose to ignore it.
It irritated and strangely amused him that Pansy, stupid as she is, can't grasp that 'no darling he isn't looking at you or listening to you, as he's forever looking at Potter,' means exactly that. Daphne was quite funny sometimes, in an irritatingly girly way. Draco himself doesn't seem to be conscious of how many times his eyes wander to Potter, and that the Boy-Who-Lived's name comes out so many times from his mouth it almost sound like his mantra. Theodore didn't know whether to find this irritating or comical.
Zabini irritated him. The haughty boy's low self-esteem and the failure to comprehend that no one but himself cares if he's a bastard child irritated him. Millicent's copycat habits irritated him, but not as much as her choice in choosing Pansy, of all people, to idolise. It irritated him that not one of the other Slytherin understood how much muggleness was here within them. It irritated him that Crabbe acts stupider than he really is and that Goyle really shouldn't be in Slytherin., no, really shouldn't be a wizard. For crying out loud, he'd probably have a better career choice as a muggle. Daphne irritated him because she was too easy read and Tracey for the exact opposite.
His whole House irritated him.
The sound of student rushing to their lessons, on discovering there were only five minutes to go to get to the other side of the castle, irritated him as he ambled leisurely to the greenhouses for his first lesson on Herbology of the year. Professor Sprout was irritatingly late as usual, making him and the rest of the N.E.W.T s Herbology class wait outside. Theodore glanced lazily at them, noting that the majority were Hufflepuffs and there was only one Slytherin. Himself. He closed his eyes as he leaned against the cold glass of the greenhouses. Hufflepuffs annoyed him but this was better than Muggle Studies, which Tracey mysteriously also chose, at least he was alone here and no-one would dare talk to a Slyther-.
"Um…e-excuse m-me..?"
Theodore languidly opened one eye, irritatingly surprised as a trembling hand tentatively tapped his shoulder. Light brown floppy hair, round brown eyes, quite tall but with guarded hunched shoulders. Seems to have an unfortunate stutter. A red tie. Gryffindor.
"Um...y-you wwouldn't h-happen to be, um, um, T-t-theodore No-,"
"Yes."
"Oh," relief and horror seemed to simultaneously flood into… into who-ever-this-person-was-who-can't-seem-to-come-to-mind's eyes, "W-well, we're p-partners for this y-year…I think…a-according to the register Prof. Sprout gave to me to look after."
"…"
"S-so, I thought I should come and s-say hi or something, seeing as…yeah. Um, by the way, I'm- ."
"-Neville Longbottom. Gryffindor. Member of the DA. Blows up cauldrons among other things. Can see Thestrals."
Neville's round eyes went even rounder, like saucers. Theodore twitched into a strange smirk. He was amusing, this Neville, quite unlike a normal nauseous Gryffindor; his eyes were different. He stuttered in fear but had enough guts to approach him, the Slytherin who should have automatically become the enemy and (if Theodore could remember correctly) the bully. Quite interesting.
"Er…y-yeah…um…how-?"
"- did I know? Guesswork."
"Oh…I see. Well, nice to m-meet you…I think…"
Theodore burst out laughing…well he would have if he wasn't Theodore. Instead, he did his equivalent; letting a long breath out of his nose.
Neville Longbottom may prove to be not as irritating as he thought he might be.
HEY! Sorry this took ages. I'm not dead. Exams, coursework and stuff…yeah. Theodore's story will continue, as his relationship with Neville…just not in the next chap. BTW, all opinions on the characters are ALL Theodore's NOT mine..so don't kill me please… SO R&R please! Thanks, love you all.