A/N: Thank you so much for the overwhelmingly positive response! This story has been rattling around in my brain for a while now, but it finally formed bones over the holidays. I'm writing this story as fast as I can, but for now, I hope that you all enjoy this journey with me.
*This chapter was edited on 10/1/23. No major plot changes, just noticed a discrepancy that I had to fix for the later chapters. Love you all!
"If you insist on behaving like a muggle then perhaps you deserve to die like one!" Thoros shouted.
Emily laughed. "You'd kill me in front of Theo? He'd never forgive you!" She shouted back.
Theo wanted to yell to his mummy to look out, but he couldn't speak. After all, his father had silenced him with his wand. But it was already too late. Thoros shoved Emily down the grand staircase, and she went tumbling down. Theo screamed, a burst of accidental magic breaking his father's silencing charm, and raced to his mother down the stairs where she lay staring at the ceiling.
"Mummy! I'm going to fix this!" Theo cried.
Emily turned her head to look at his, tears in her eyes. "You can't darling. I'm going home now. My only sadness is leaving you. But you have to promise me Theo," she gasped in pain, and clenched her eyes shut, inhaling sharply as the life started to leave her.
"Anything mummy, anything."
Emily opened her eyes and focused on Theo sharply. "One, don't turn out like your father, and two, find her."
"Find who mummy?" Theo asked, but it was too late. Emily was already gone.
Theo woke with a start. Despite the cooling charms on the room, Theo was sweating. He took a few deep breaths in to try to calm down, and then despite still sweating, grabbed his dressing gown and put it on. He pushed the door to his room open, and stepped into the hallway. He walked down the hallway past the closed doors holding sleeping people, and made his way to the Slytherin common room.
He stopped when he saw the shock of platinum blonde hair in front of the fireplace. Draco still had his white oxford on, which meant that he hadn't even been to bed yet. Theo stepped into the common room and moved to the couch, sitting down next to his oldest friend.
"Happy birthday." Draco said quietly, taking a sip of firewhiskey from the glass tumbler he was holding, still staring at the fireplace.
Theo snorted. "Right, happy birthday to me, and happy death day to everyone else who ever mattered to me."
Draco turned to look at Theo. "None of it was your fault mate. Neither of them were."
"Right, and yet I'm the one who's left to deal with all the shit." Theo responded bitterly, taking the glass from Draco's hand, and finishing the firewhiskey in one burning gulp.
Draco looked back at the fire. "At least your dad's dead too this year. One good thing to come out of the war."
Theo leaned against the back of the sofa. "At least."
"Did you have the nightmare again?" Draco asked quietly.
Theo took his right hand and pinched his nose, closing his eyes, willing his brain to not show him the image of his dead mother, lying in a pool of her own blood in the foyer. "Yeah."
Draco nodded, but didn't say anything. Even though he'd never understood how Theo could not care about blood purity, of all his friends, Draco was the only one who knew the truth of how Emily had died. Not pushed down the stairs unceremoniously in front of him by his own father, but from some tragic illness as her death was spun to the papers. Her only remaining family hadn't even bothered to show up to the funeral. Instead, it was just a bunch of pureblood bigots that she'd hated her whole life. And Narcissa, who held Theo's hand the whole time while he sobbed as he watched his mother get lowered into the ground.
Narcissa had been her only friend present in the whole affair. While Narcissa had actually loved her husband, she had felt a kinship with Emily in knowing what it felt like to be not the last of her family, and yet be kept so far from the ones she loved. He'd eavesdropped on one of their conversations over tea once as Narcissa spoke about how she'd run into her sister in Diagon Alley, shopping for school supplies for her daughter, Draco's cousin, who was starting Hogwarts that year. Narcissa's voice had broken as she described how her own sister had refused to let the eleven year old girl speak to her, and had pushed her out of the way. Emily had tried to comfort Narcissa, saying she understood, after all, every single one of her letters to her cousin had gone unanswered. Theo had run away before he'd been caught.
"What time is it anyways?" Theo asked, trying to distract himself.
Draco looked at the watch on his right wrist. "5."
Theo looked over at his friend. He could see the dark circles under his eyes. "You need to get a couple of hours mate. We have class in a few hours."
"What's the point?" Draco shrugged. "They all just want to see me fail anyways. At least this way they get what they want, and they can say that it's all my own fucking fault."
Theo looked at the fire. He knew better than to say anything, it would just lead to the same argument they'd been having since Theo had decided to repeat his seventh year, in solidarity with Draco being ordered to go back by the Wizengamot, in lieu of going to Azkaban for a year.
"Well, I'm going to go see if I can get a couple more hours of sleep in." Theo said standing up, and handing the glass back to Draco. "You coming?"
Draco sighed, and then placed the glass on the low table in front of him. "I'll go in a minute."
"Well make sure you do," Theo said. "If you don't, I'll set Mipsy on you."
Draco shuddered. Theo meant it too. And both boys had been on the receiving end of Mipsy's punishments when they broke the rules. Considering that she had belonged to Theo's mother, the elf had never obeyed a single order from Theo's father, or even Theo himself. Which meant that she was a force unto herself.
Later that morning the two boys made their way into the great hall for breakfast. As the pair made their way to the Slytherin table, it was impossible to ignore the loud noise coming from the Gryffindor table. As the duo sat down, Draco asked "What's going on over there?"
Pansy answered without looking up from her copy of Witch Weekly. "Princess Granger's birthday is today. Apparently since she's the only one who came back of the fucking golden trio, all the gryffindorks took it upon themselves to make it absolutely fan-fucking-tastic. It's been way too bloody noisy ever since she came in."
Theo smiled bemusedly at Pansy. "Tell us how you really feel Pans."
Pansy raised her eyes up from her magazine, and flipped Theo the back of her middle and index fingers. "Happy birthday by the way," she said lowering her rude gesture. "Hope you're not offended that we aren't celebrating your birth in a similar fashion."
Theo shook his head, but before he could respond, a swarm of owls came in with the mornings post. Theo started to reach for some pumpkin juice, but was stopped when an owl landed directly in front of him. Draco raised an eyebrow. "Birthday greetings from the dead?"
Theo glared at him as he untied the envelope from the owl's leg. "Yes," he replied sarcastically. "My mother's father and I keep in very close touch, didn't you know?"
"Well, good to know you have someone to talk to." Pansy responded.
Draco spit out the tea he'd been sipping on. He was about to tell Pansy off for her comment, when he noticed Theo's confused expression. "What's going on?"
"It's the betrothal contracts our fathers signed. Apparently its gone active." Theo said in a slow voice.
Draco laughed. "Look mate, I know we're close, but I'm not marrying you. I just don't see you that way."
Theo shook his head. "No, it's not saying that. The contract says that you're supposed to marry my sister."
"But that's impossible, she's dead." Draco pointed out.
"Exactly, so why am I getting this?" Theo asked.
Pansy snatched the contract out of Theo's hands, and started scanning it. "It does say that the contract is null if either party doesn't make it maturity. But then you wouldn't be getting this."
Draco looked at Theo, a thought coming into his head. "How sure are you that-"
"I have been to her grave more times than I can count. She's dead. I know it." Theo said resolutely.
"Apparently not if you received this. My contract to Pucey was returned with a notice saying it was nullified after the war because he died. This is an active contract. And as head of your family, darling Theo, you are the one who is supposed to be doing something about it." Pansy handed the contract back to Theo. "Congratulations, looks like your darling sister is apparently alive somewhere."