Well, here we go :)
Things had settled into a tidbit of normal over the next few days as Theodore and Harry hung out like they normally did and that weekend found the Slytherins of his year enjoying a Hogsmeade visit without any of the other Houses. Oh, they all knew the other Houses were fuming over this, thinking that Snape had probably lied to Dumbledore, who was growing senile in his old age. They had heard the whispers throughout the week about how Dumbledore believed the Slytherins had done some sort of heroic deed defending the Chosen One and had no idea this Golden Boy had cursed Katie Bell all the way to St. Mungo's, but the Slytherins didn't care. While their own House was a bit bummed they weren't ALL going to Hogsmeade, they were glad to see some sweet justice against the other Houses. Those who had attacked Harry were all spending their weekend in the Great Hall writing Harry apology letters, which made Harry quite happy as he knew apologizing to him, no matter how fake, would be torture, especially to the Gryffindors and most especially to Ronald.
Theodore and Harry found themselves in Honeyduke's like last time, only there was just them and an old couple. Somehow, they managed to find themselves right where they were the time before when Harry had seen the bandage. His eyes flicked down to Theodore's wrist as these thoughts flooded his mind.
"Nothing." Theo held up his arm to show Harry. "Told you it was a mistake. Won't be doing it again."
"You better not." Harry sighed and glanced out the window to see Draco, who looked like he would really rather be anywhere else, walking with Pansy.
"Want to check out the Shrieking Shack?"
"Sure." Harry shrugged and they left the store to head off towards the Shrieking Shack.
They weren't even in sight of it when Theodore stopped Harry.
"You said you wanted to run more this year." Theo gave Harry a wry smile. "Perfect weather, don't you think? Not too windy."
Harry grinned back. "All right."
In no time at all he was swooping around through the air as below him a small water deer bounded through heaps of snow and weaved between trees. Harry hadn't felt this liberated in a long time. The castle, with all his waiting schoolwork and lessons with Snape and Dumbledore and the Quidditch Pitch, seemed miles away and all that surrounded him was crisp air that felt like fire with each breath. He dove down through the sky, zipped past Theodore's ear, and dodged trees as he came across them.
Then he saw the dark creature bounding his direction and he shot skyward in an attempt to avoid it. The thestral gave a bellow of annoyance at missing its prey and Harry, having narrowly escaped landed not far away and returned to his normal self. There was a long moment where the thestral stared at him and then, as if comprehending what it'd seen, gave a nod of its head to him and turned to walk away.
Breathing out heavily, Harry walked until he found Theodore still high-stepping over waves of snow. Harry stopped to grin at him.
"You know, it fits your personality just great, but size...not at all."
Theodore just walked past Harry and started to go down a small hill when the snow gave way and slid him all the way down into the cold water of a small stream. He seemed extremely ruffled after that, not wanting to return to his human form as his clothes would be wet, so he instead found himself curled up in Harry's arms as they made their way back to Hogsmeade, Harry laughing the entire time.
As he set Theodore down in the warmth of the Three Broomsticks, the deer raised his head, ears twitching, and touched his nose to Harry's. It was a moment that seemed to last hours as they stared at each other, Harry in shock and the water deer in wide bright-eyed cuteness, and then Theodore turned his head once more, gave his body a little shake and bounded over to skid to a stop in front of the fire. Here, he curled up and remained there while witches and wizards gave him double-takes for the rest of the hour. Harry ordered two warm butterbeers and took a seat at a table near to him and contemplated what had just happened.
He understood exactly what it meant. While an Animagus, a person's thoughts became simplified, more animal-like, and, therefore, actions became all the more true. Deer were solitairy animals and normally flighty, but they were also loving and affectionate to their own kind. If Theodore was showing Harry affection of any kind while in his Animagus form, this meant only one thing...
Theodore morphed back into human form and took a seat across from Harry, grabbing at the waiting butterbeer, but Harry pulled it back and away from him.
"Hey..." Theo gave Harry a quick glare. "Give it to me."
"Kiss me." Harry ordered.
"No."
"You did when we got in here."
"That wasn't..." Theo's face began to redden and he cussed profusely under his breath. "Don't know what that was. Wasn't a kiss though."
"Kiss me."
"Will you give me my drink and never ask me to again?" Theodore asked, his eyes growing malignant.
"Not the second half of that." Harry muttered.
"Is this how you want our first kiss to be?" Theodore questioned now. "Over a butterbeer and a threat?"
"N-no..." Harry mumbled, feeling suddenly sheepish.
"Than give me my butterbeer and stop asking."
Resigning, Harry passed over the butterbeer and didn't bring the topic up again.
The day before their first match (Slytherin versus Gryffindor) they had the worst luck. Blaise, was hit in the head with a Bludger and Malfoy reported sick. They had no choice but to play Tracey and Pansy in their stead, neither of whom had much training and the latter of whom wasn't any good. No one else, however, was willing to play as no one else wanted to be the reason why they lost. It didn't seem to matter: Ronald was playing up to his greatest standard and Ginny was one mean Chaser, bashing against Tracey and Pansy and Rachel as if she was playing bumper cars with them. Dean and Seamus, also Chasers, weren't any nicer and within minutes of the game starting Tracey had a black eye and Pansy was having a hard time keeping hold of her broom while holding her injured arm up to her side. Rachel was the only Chaser who didn't seem down for the count. After doing such damage to the Slytherin Chasers, the Gryffindor Team decided it was time to take out the Keeper and McLaggen hit a bludger that knocked Urquhart off his broom and out of the rest of the game. Without a Keeper and with two of the chasers in dire states, the Slytherins had no chance of stopping the Gryffindors from scoring over and over again. Goyle and Harper, beaters, were doing their best to get revenge, but after Goyle threw his bat at Jimmy Peakes, he was tossed out of the game leaving the Slytherins one short of a full team. Harry's only plus was that the Gryffindor Seeker, Demelza Robins, was lousy and he managed to catch the Snitch before her just as Gryffindor scored enough points to still win the game.
Irate, he and the Slytherins spent that night thinking up new hexes to cast at the Gryffindor Team, if only out of spite.
As Christmas drew nearer, Harry began to see less and less of Theodore, who was more than certainly biting off more than he could chew. Several times after class, he was called to his teacher's desks while Harry waited for him at the door, catching tidbits of the conversations.
"...should really consider dropping..."
"...you're handling too much at once..."
"...not in all my years teaching have I ever seen a student..."
"...it is a foolish attempt and you're only going to regret it..."
Theodore didn't heed these warnings and continued to work himself to the bone studying, often spending entire weeks not sleeping in his bed because he'd passed out in the dorm room.
Meanwhile, Harry was getting pressure from Slughorn to attend his Christmas party, which Harry was finding nearly impossible to escape from. Worse, he had to invite someone and, as the one person he wanted to invite didn't seem to want any connection of implied "dating" with Harry, things were getting more stressful.
"You won't go with me?" Harry clarified with Theodore one more time, which would be the sixth time that day.
"No."
They were in the library, whispering and trying to get through some homework.
"Than who am I supposed to go with?"
"Terry Boot not an option anymore?"
Harry pulled a face and rested his forehead on the table. "I can't believe I kissed him..."
"Don't talk about it." Theo growled.
"You brought him up!"
"Anyways," Theo moved on quickly. "Just take Tracey or someone. They'll go and will understand it's just as friends."
"Right..." Harry mumbled.
As they left the library, he was surprised to run into a young blushing Hufflepuff girl who passed him a huge container of chocolates before rushing off. Theodore raised an eyebrow and then advised, "Wouldn't eat those."
"I wasn't planning on it." Harry rolled his eyes and they went on to their Common Room.
The Christmas party was that night and Harry hadn't invited anyone yet. He began to think hurriedly about who he wanted to invite and who would be best to when he ran straight into Luna Lovegood. Something overtook him and he invited her as a friend and he was shocked that she not only said yes, but seemed actually thrilled about going with him.
Back in the Common Room, he told Theodore who he had invited and the taller Slytherin boy dropped his quill in his shock.
"You invited Loony Lovegood?"
"Don't call her that, please." Harry grumbled. "And, yes, I did. She's my friend and she's nice."
"Didn't know you were into Blood Traitors." Theo scoffed, snatching up his quill and beginning to scribble fierociously away on his parchment.
"You know if you're going to complain about who I pick then you should have said yes when I invited you." Harry stood hastily and went upstairs to change. By the time he got back down, Theodore was gone.
The party was as terrible as Harry had expected it to be. He felt like he was playing hot potato, only he was the potato being tossed from one person to the next.
Then Slughorn grabbed hold of the one person Harry hoped would save him.
"Stop skulking and come and join us, Severus." Slughorn seemed to pull Snape out of nowhere and trapped him there with an arm clasped tightly around his shoulders. "I was talking about Harry's exceptional potion-making! Some credit must go to you, of course, you taught him for five years!"
"Yes, Potter has always shown an aptitude in the subject." Snape's features were blank, but his eyes showed Harry his true emotions: he wanted to be anywhere but here right now.
"Well, then it is a natural ability, like I suspected!" Slughorn laughed merrily. "You should have seen what he gave me, first lesson, Draught of Living Death...never had a student produce finer on a first attempt, I don't think even you, Severus..."
The look that had entered Snape's eyes was more than interest: it was suspicion, and the last thing Harry needed was for Snape to figure out was that Harry had been cheating. His emotions drained out of him and his thoughts blanked as he looked directly in Snape's eyes, willing him to see the lies there. Snape either didn't believe the lie or never performed Legilimens as he merely said, "Really?" to Slughorn's compliment of Harry.
The conversation veered off to Harry's desire to become an Auror and Luna told Harry how she believed this was a terrible idea as the Aurors were, according to the Quibbler, trying to overthrow the Ministry with Dark Magic and gum disease. He was thankful for this as no one seemed to know how to respond to what she'd said and merely moved on.
Then Draco Malfoy was dragged in by Filch, apparently trying to crash the party. Slughorn didn't seem the least bit fazed by this and let Draco stay, but Snape had thought otherwise and demanded a word with Draco. Harry sighed, rolled his eyes at this, and tracked down Zabini to chat. It wasn't until Blaise mentioned how it was suspicious of Draco to try to crash the party that Harry realized he should have followed the two out, but it was too late now.
He returned that night to the Common Room to find Theodore asleep in a chair, one arm over his stomach, the other outstretched to the side with a quill dangling from it. Carefully, Harry approached him, removing a blanket from one of the couches and gently draping it over him. His eyes washed over the sleeping Theodore, who didn't seem nearly as suspicious of the world asleep like this. Just as cautiously as before, Harry reached down to pull the quill from Theo's hand and noticed that the other boy wasn't wearing the tight long sleeves he normally did. Heart beginning to race, Harry knelt down and slowly edged the sleeve up the other boy's arm, checking to make sure his friend was holding to his promise. Something odd caught his attention and he edged the sleeve up higher only to let it go instantly and nearly fall down with surprise.
The room was buzzing, but there was nothing there to make that sound. His head was spinning and his heart felt like it had exploded in his chest. He stood and dropped the quill on the table with Theodore's books before bolting upstairs and hiding under his blankets.
He didn't sleep that night as the image burned on the inside of his eyelids.
Theodore had the Dark Mark.
And I'll post more soon :D