"Really, Nott? The Astronomy Tower?"
Theodore Nott didn't look away from the night sky as the sound of the door shutting reached his ears. The glow of the moon and the stars provided just enough light to see. He could just barely make out the cobblestone courtyard of Hogwarts from his position on the windowsill, and if he leaned ever so slightly, he was sure that he could see the very top of the spire.
Would someone die if pushed from such a height?
He discarded the thought after a moment's consideration. Death by defenestration sounded interesting, but the people who Theodore wanted dead were not easily at hand, or likely to die by a long fall through the wind and a sudden stop amidst the cobblestones. So, with that line of thought shelved for another time, he turned his attention back towards Apollo's favorite.
"I thought it appropriate, Greengrass." Theodore leaned against the grey stones of the windowsill. It was wide enough that he wouldn't accidentally plummet to his death. Precarious enough to the outside viewer to invoke a sense of unease.
Just like what flashed across Daphne Greengrass' face for a moment.
Then that cold mask of indifference returned to her features. A visage that betrayed nothing but the beautiful shape of her face. The slope of her nose. The roundness of her blue eyes. The pink suppleness of her lips. The featherlight quality of those golden tresses which brushed her shoulders. A curvaceous figure that would have drawn even the lovely Aphrodite's envy.
Dare he say a modern-day Adonia?
"As clandestine rendezvous go, this is hardly subtle, nor a particularly assessable location." Greengrass remarked as she stepped lightly around the tower. The massive brass telescope that Professor Sinistra cared for like her own child stood like an indominable pillar in the middle of the tower. She ran a hand along the railing. "You do realize the Common Room is on the opposite end of Hogwarts from the Astronomy Tower?"
"Put out from all that climbing, are we?" Theodore smirked when Greengrass stiffened slightly. A tensing of her shoulders. Informative.
"You said we needed to talk, urgently. Even called in the favor to make this meeting happen. Why?" Her attempt to regain control of the conversation amused him. Hell would freeze over before a conversation passed between two Slytherins that didn't involve any power games. A tiring struggle which he normally didn't care for, but with the war on the horizon, his options were limited.
It meant lowering himself to Malfoy's level.
"He's marked."
Theodore watched Greengrass' face as he spoke. Ah, there it is, another crack in the Ice Queen's high walls. Those round blue eyes widened, manicured eyebrows rose, and the hand idly tapping along the railing stilled. There was no need to ask just who it was that was marked. They all knew who it was. No need to ask if his statement was a lie. They all knew it wasn't one.
The fool had been all but strutting around the Common Room as if the Battle at the Ministry hadn't happened.
I will not follow the footsteps of my father. Theodore thought once again. The empty hall of the family manor had never rung so loud than that summer. I will not submit myself to a man who would brand me like a slave.
"So, he's marked. What of it?" Greengrass said, a bite to her words, cutting. He only smirked at her. "Do you expect me to go running off to Dumbledore? Wait, no, that's not it. You're jealous."
"Hardly." Theodore snapped while sliding off the windowsill. The constellations in the night sky winked behind his back as he summoned the robes he had discarded. "Malfoy is a spoiled little brat and for all I care he can keep the Dark Lord's attention. Better on him than on the rest of us."
"But we are all in the service of the Dark Lord." Greengrass sounded of false innocence. Gullibility. As if she actually believed that horseshit being spread around the Common Room. "You are your father's son after all, Theodore."
"Just like you are your father's daughter." He countered. Closing the distance between them, he accentuated the height difference between them, much to Greengrass' displeasure. "Tell me, Daphne, are you truly as blind as the rest of them?"
"Are you?"
"I'm not the idiot with the mark on his forearm." Theodore said and grabbed at Greengrass' arm, ignoring the way she yelped, and simply shoved the fabric up. Her left forearm was devoid of all markings. "And neither, it seems, are you."
"Let go of me!" She hissed at him as she yanked her arm free from his grasp. There was no point in resisting, he had no reason to, so he didn't. His mind flittered to thoughts of Apollo, of his ultimate failure, even as the wand in her free hand was pointed at him. But I am no Apollo. "I should curse you for that!"
"But you won't." He smirked at her again, even as the tip of her wand got ever closer to his neck. She looked furious. "Not when I have something to offer."
"You think I want anything from you?" Greengrass dug her wand's tip into the flesh of his neck. Those blue eyes were filled with fire even in the shadow he casted over her. Theodore found it rather… enticing. "There is nothi-"
"A life debt." He smirked at the way she stilled, the rest of her words caught in her throat, wand halted in its efforts to carve a hole into his neck. "For one simple request, easily accomplished, and I shall owe you a life debt for it in return."
It was a risk he was playing at. To have a wand pointed at him with harmful intent, to provoke someone like Daphne Greengrass about matters in such a volatile political atmosphere, to offer himself up for whatever she saw fit to repay said debt. Madness, some might have said, but Theodore deigned to call it pragmatism.
I will not submit myself to a man who would brand me like a slave.
"What are you playing at, Nott?" Greengrass demanded, seeming to have recovered from the shock of his statement, while not immediately taking it. Pity. "Your life isn't at risk."
"I don't know if you've noticed, or read the Daily Prophet, or actually spoken to anyone else in the Common Room, but this country is on the fast track to war." He held up a solitary finger and slowly pushed the wand away from his neck. She didn't fight him on it. "The Dark Lord's raid on the Ministry failed. A mission that among other people, my own father was a part of, and they were defeated by a handful of our own classmates."
"Why not just run to Dumbledore? I'm sure he can protect you."
"Please, protect me? In exchange for what, to fight on his side, with Potter and those idiots? No. I plan to get a way out, an international portkey more specifically, and that's where you come in." Theodore watched as the final vestiges of indignation marched a slow retreat from Greengrass' mind. He was no Legilimens, but those blue eyes searched his face in a specific manner, and he knew that she was considering his offer. "Your father works at the Ministry. He avoided suspicious during the aftermath of the Dark Lord's supposed death. Which means he has access to things no one else in our social circle would. Like portkeys."
"Why."
"Why?" He looked at her incredulously. My father rots in Azkaban because he has sworn himself to a madman. My mother has been dead so long I cannot remember the sound of her voice. My dormmates are too blind, devoted, or cowed to see the truth. My bank account has barely anyth- "I thought I made it quite clear why. Must I spell it out for you letter by letter like a firstie, Greengrass?"
She paused at that, and Theodore's insides roiled at the look on her face, like she was actually considering it. He clenched his dominant hand into a fist, then unclenched it, only to repeat the motion. Oh, how he hated this, all the little games of power. No wonder most people in Slytherin turned out to be murderous dark magic users. It was the only way to vent the rage of having to deal with all of this horseshit.
"I can't make any promises." Greengrass finally said. She looked all too satisfied with herself for Theodore's liking. Pink lips upturned at the corners. "But for a life debt from Theodore Nott of all people? Well, that is certainly an offer I can't refuse."
"So, we have a deal?" He hated that he sounded desperate, even if only minutely. "You get me that international portkey, to… Canada, and I have a life debt to repay you."
"For anything I want?"
"That's how life debts work, Greengrass. Be it pulling down the heavens or murdering someone, if you ask for it, I'll be bound to give it."
"Just making sure, Nott." Greengrass offered him a smile, more a smirk really, and held out a delicate hand. Willowy fingers fluttered at him as she turned her hand. A moment's hesitation struck him then, doubt reining him back, but his path had been set the moment he had called in the favor.
Hadn't it?
He looked at those blue eyes one more time, and though he could not decipher the depths of them, he knew his fate was all but written in the stars.
I will not submit myself to a man who would brand me like a slave.
"Portkey in exchange for a life debt." Theodore said and took her hand in his. It was soft, uncalloused, and cool to the touch. Hallmarks of a pureblood witch.
"I make no promises, but yes, an international portkey in exchange for a life debt."
They shook on it, and while Greengrass smirked, Theodore could only hope that he had made the right choice.