Wishful thinking had it been if Theodore was able to get his head straight at a time like this. Just three days until Doomspell was to finally be underway and Theodore was feeling internal pressure like never before. He wanted to blame it on spending a little too much time with Hermione at any chance that he could get, but who was there to blame but himself? Many times did he find himself not trying to think of a plan to get through the first trial, pushing it to the side until somebody had to remind him. At least Hermione, Harry and Ron (or to be accurate, Hermione mostly) did enough to convince Theodore that improvisation was not the answer, despite it being one of the many things that Theodore excelled at. Even finding the last three people to fit his required group of seven was proving to be difficult — but that was when the improvising came in, or hopefully would for Theodore's sake.

Theodore was doing well to keep his doubts hidden from everyone as he steered through the crowded corridors during a lesson changeover; he was only just being trailed by Hermione behind him, both on their way to another "riveting" lesson in Ancient Runes. He often had to stop to wait for her to catch up, sometimes stifling a laugh as Hermione's overstuffed bag was relentlessly shoved left and right dragging her with it — she didn't take that too well, prompting Theodore to instead offer his help to carry it.

"I'm fine, thank you very much," she huffed, rearranging her robes to align properly on her shoulders, "It's clearing up anyway. You know, I wouldn't laugh if I saw you being hassled in the corridors — I would've gotten everyone out the way and pulled you out."

Theodore, unable to get rid of his smile, reached out to fix her upturned collar as he said, "Coming from you, that sounds like it wouldn't really end well for everyone else, but that's nice I guess."

"You're making me sound as if I was some sort of madwoman."

"No, but you do seem a little bit scary."

"Oh really?" Hermione replied with a slight smug look, lightly digging her shoulder into his arm. "Doesn't stop you from continuing all your antics," she continued as Theodore remarked, "You call it antics, I call it me dealing with problems."

An eye roll from Hermione followed by another small bout of laughter from Theodore unknowingly attracted the attention of some people walking alongside them or casually standing around, obviously not bothered being late to their lesson. Theodore might've caught a few 'aww's' here and there but he didn't feel at all embarrassed — to be exact, the awkwardness was starting to rise inside and he could feel it but the thinning out of people the further they went to their lesson made it easier for him to stomach.

The two continued to make their way up to the sixth floor, moving with more space around them as the number of students began to dwindle — and just outside the classroom could they see their classmates beginning to enter.

"Hermione, relax, we're not even late at —" Theodore's words were cut promptly when he felt a shove come from behind him, heaving himself on an unsuspecting Hermione. Before he could bring out the first curse words that came to his mind, a series of pitiful apologies was heard as Theodore turned around to see Gioveri, as always, looking out of place.

"Oh hello, Gioveri! It's alright, we're —" Hermione greeted cheerfully; however she was unable to finish her sentence as Gioveri said nothing with his head down, brushing past them both and into the classroom. Perplexed, all that she could manage was, "Well… I guess he's not really a talker, is he?"

Theodore was unfazed by Gioveri's behaviour as he whispered when they entered as the last ones, "Seems like he likes talking to me. Maybe it's because he could've gotten picked instead. Remember when that flame was on him for a good while?"

"You're implying that he's jealous?"

"I'm implying that he probably could be useful for helping me with this Trial," said Theodore quietly as he bent down to retrieve his books and parchment sheets. He eyed the back of Gioveri who was seated at the front, watching him timidly bring up his hand to ask a question. It was hard to imagine that somebody who could barely make out a sentence without a stutter could have been competing in what was seemingly a 'death competition'.

Theodore had spent the beginning of the lesson 'assessing' Gioveri while neglecting his own work, earning a few snappy fingers in the face from Hermione. Taking in everything that he had seen so far and have known as well, Theodore made the assumption that Gioveri was, at least, very intelligent as well despite the way he carried himself. A potential candidate for competing in Doomspell as well as being the grandchild of Ollivander, Gioveri's knowledge behind his meek appearance could prove to be a valuable asset to Theodore — or maybe not, who knew?

"Do you think I should add him to the group?" asked Theodore in a whisper. Hermione brought her nose away from her parchment and made eyes that indicated towards Gioveri to which she responded, "Even if he could've been picked, you don't know him that well. He's not exactly…" Her nose scrunched as she tried to find the appropriate word. "Daring…?"

"After this class, I'll know him like the back of my hand," Theodore remarked before looking over at Hermione's work. He squinted before pointing at a certain section, asking if that was the correct translation. Hermione checked it over and over again before pulling out her glowing eraser to clear it away.

As she dipped her quill to correct her mistake, she then asked, "What about the sixth person, or the seventh? Time is running out, and you don't want to regret your choices. If I were you, I'd pick Elvira."

"Of course, I already picked her," Theodore lied as mentally slapped himself for missing her. He couldn't believe that this could have been done so much sooner. "I was also thinking about bringing Neville in as well —"

Hermione's blank face was all that it took for him to stop. "It was a joke, ok? A joke? Those things that you can find funny? Oh come off it, Neville's not even the worst option out there — I can think of loads. He stood up to us in first year before you cursed him. Didn't he hit the floor hard?"

"Alright, alright!" Hermione hissed before clamping her mouth with her mouth. A few heads turned towards her but the teacher continued without any suspicion of the two — she elbowed Theodore harshly in the rib as the lesson continued to drag on.

'I think Gioveri would be a great fit. Smart, an Ollivander — plus, I'll be doing him a favour. The guy needs some people to talk to. He'd do with some friends, or at least people to talk to.'

The lesson was starting to close in to its end as Theodore's area of the desk was quite clear from the minimal work that he could muster, even to his standards. Lucky for him was his half-empty sheets went unchecked when the class was dismissed — teachers were suddenly quite hard on him since he had been chosen for Doomspell. Guess it was to stop him from slacking off.

"Hermione, could you do me a favour?" asked Theodore as he stuffed the last of his things into his bag. "When you go up to the common room, ask Elvira if she wants to join as well."

Hermione heaved her bag on her back as she replied, confused, "You're not coming up now? How come?"

"Need to ask Gioveri to join as well — I was being serious, you know. My intuition is practically begging me to choose him."

"Your intuition couldn't tell you this two weeks ago?" Before Theodore could counter Hermione's remark when they both left the classroom, she continued, "You should get going if you want to catch him. He left pretty quickly as well."

"Shit, really?! Oh, ok! I'll, um — I'll see you later; don't forget about —!"

"About Elvira, I know," said Hermione as she squeezed his hand before letting go. Theodore said a quick goodbye and left through the crowded corridors to search for Gioveri, who must have been very limber to escape through such a mass of people. Being shoved to the side by ogre-looking seventh-years or being head-butted in the chest by tiny first-years as well sure didn't help. Theodore could only catch glimpses of Ravenclaws all heading to a certain direction … if he could only just make out…

"Ah, there you are!" Theodore sighed with a breath of success as he latched his hand onto Gioveri's shoulder — safe to say that the response of sheer terror wasn't exactly the reaction that he was expecting. "Ok, relax! I'm not going to set your hair on fire or anything, I just wanted to talk."

"Oh… s-sorry, I get startled very… easily..." Gioveri was barely able to make that out as he clutched at his tie to rearrange what was already quite tight around his neck. "Um, what did you want to talk about?"

Theodore indicated an area that was away from the streams of people moving up the stairs and through the hallways to lose any following ears. He wouldn't put it past anyone to leak anything he had in secret to Rita Skeeter or anybody who was too nosey.

"Alright, I don't think anybody's going to disturb us. Hey, I said I wasn't going to hurt you."

Gioveri squirmed with his eyes darting away from Theodore as he mumbled, "I knew that…"

"Anyway… what I wanted to talk to you about was Doomspell." Gioveri quickly gave a glance of curiosity as he asked what about it. Theodore proceeded to explain his (self-inflicted) predicament and how he'd would be the perfect fit, rambling to Gioveri who was fixated and silent. "So? What do you think, eh? Perfect, isn't it — you can save the praises later, it's fine."

"Umm…"

'Oh, here we go,' thought Theodore, looking down at Gioveri's face of uncertainty.

"I barely put my hand up in class; I hate going up in front of lots of people like anywhere, so… I don't think this is for me. Sorry."

"Wait, wait!" Theodore blocked him off as Gioveri began to make his way from the conversation, and he continued, "Come on, what's the worse that could happen? It's a team performance — whatever you do, we'll all take it anyway! I'm not asking you to do it alone or whatever."

"But I don't want to do it," replied Gioveri, now sounding shaky to the voice by how forceful Theodore was acting. Not wanting to scare him away, Theodore stood back and relaxed himself. Guess not everyone could be persuaded under pressure. Maybe he had to tone it down a little.

"Look," Theodore started in a calmer voice, "I've been thinking about it for a while, and I can see that you're one of the missing pieces. Sure, I did say I was on a tight schedule on picking teammates but I've been watching you closely now!"

Gioveri's eyes suddenly twinkled a little as he responded slightly breathy, "You have?" before Theodore said, "Well, like to see if you'd fit in and stuff. I'm hardly going to get a troll-brained sixth-year who can barely tell the time."

A silence which lasted longer than Theodore could stand fell between them as Gioveri looked to be pondering what decision he wanted to make. Growing impatient, Theodore was tapping his thigh quickly, wanting to force the answer from him himself — he hated that the others were right in getting at him for not picking anybody earlier.

"I'll… I'll think about it." Think about it? Theodore was about to be at the mercy of a death tournament and yet he was held up by someone who couldn't just say yes or no. Sighing, Theodore then mumbled, "You're not just saying this to get away and avoid me the entire time, are you?"

"O-of course not! I promise, I'll think about it — really, I will!"

Softly rolling his eyes then giving a lazy pat on Gioveri's shoulder, "Fine, I guess. Just don't come up to me on the day and say you made up your mind, otherwise —"

"Actually, I'll do it!" Gioveri could barely even let that one out as he looked out of breath, red in the face. Oh well, something must have worked here, even if Theodore couldn't tell what it exactly was. Not wanting to waste his time standing around with Gioveri, who Theodore clearly just couldn't tell what was up with him, Theodore informed him to stay alert for any meetings that he might make for his near completed, warning him that he couldn't go back on his word.

The sound of Gioveri saying goodbye went to unheard ears as Theodore scurried through the crowded hallways to the common room. For as highly as he thought about himself, whatever he did to convince Gioveri was completely lost on Theodore. He couldn't dwell on this for too long as he needed one more person, but it was still rather confusing for him. Maybe he still wasn't used to Gioveri's mannerisms or how nervous he got whenever Theodore looked at him.

He left that all behind when he reached the Fat Lady and climbed through as one of the stragglers who were the last Gryffindors to return. Hermione and Ron were seated near the fireplace with Elvira, all lounging across the couch while Harry was in the opposite corner of the common room with the Quidditch team seemingly discussing their next game.

"Look alive, look alive," announced Theodore, passing by the three on the couch with a hand waving in front of their faces. "Alright, good news: I've got Gioveri from Ravenclaw to join us. A bit odd and shy but I reckon he'd fit in quite well. What about you, Elvira? Fancy a little bit of danger?"

Elvira lazily opened one eye and mumbled, "I'll join but don't you think choosing older students would be a better idea?"

"I can't have anyone older talking down on me. It's not good for team morale."

"You're the youngest one here, you maniac," jested Ron.

"I'm going to ignore that for the sake of team morale," Theodore responded as he sat next to Hermione and said, a little quieter, to her, "You got any idea about who I can bring in? I was thinking about Fred or George but…"

"So much for not wanting people to talk down on you."

"Yeah but it's Fred and George," Theodore continued as Hermione threw her head back on the couch, catching Theodore's nose with her hair in the process. "I don't think they'd take the piss… that much. I mean, we could get seriously hurt, you know."

"Then you have to pick wisely," Hermione said slowly — for some reason, almost everyone looked knackered; even Theodore himself felt a little drained. Theodore then felt a weight on his shoulder and the tickle in his ear as Hermione balanced her head there. "You see me, I would've done this months ago — getting all that hassle out of the way."

Theodore's heart began to race a little as he gave a slight glance to Ron who was closest: he definitely noticed but had seemed to remain silent. While Ron had been the more prominent of the two to tease him or Hermione, Theodore had admittedly grown more resilient to them, or at least, he didn't care as much.

"… but then again, I guess that's why I wasn't chosen," Hermione seemingly carried on without Theodore noticing. "You'll be okay, though. I'm sure whoever you pick will be good enough. You do know who you're going to pick, right?"

"Umm…" Theodore did a quick scan of the room with nobody catching his eye except one. And this one was, well… "I've got somebody in mind but they're not exactly ideal," he said with a hint of sheepishness.

Lifting her head slightly so that she could look at him in the face, Hermione asked him why but was cut off as Theodore quickly said, "Ehh, questions for later — don't want to reveal it now, you know? Suspense and all that—"

"Is it Ginny?"

"Of course not!" A silence fell among them all before Theodore sprung from his seat, careful to avoid uppercutting Hermione with his shoulder. "Anyway, that conversation led to nowhere so I'm going to go feed Viripin now."

Hermione shot a rather unpleasant glare as Theodore briskly made away towards the boys' staircase and turned to Ron saying, "You heard how quickly he denied that — why didn't you say something, he's clearly going to ask Ginny!"

"I— h-he's not going to bring Ginny in, Hermione," he said with a nervous chuckle, looking unusually stiff for a moment. "Listen, I know that guy, alright? He's not mad enough to bring my little sister into a death tournament. He was just… weighing his options and said no to himself, that's all."

"Hmm… he looked pretty nervous to me…" Elvira chimed in.

"Trust me, there's no way that Ginny is coming. Otherwise my mum would put me ten feet under, just because six isn't enough." The common room began to liven up as dinner time came upon them, causing the usual rush to the Grand Hall. "He's probably gonna ask Katie or some other older person, watch," Ron insisted, although even he didn't look too sure himself.

Theodore was skipping down the steps, his face now normal. He made his way ahead of the others after briefly acknowledging them (as if nothing happened) with the others soon making suit. The three (now the four as Harry joined them soon after) trailed behind the mass crowd of Gryffindors before they meshed together with the other houses upon reaching the Grand Hall.

'Theo, you idiot! Making it obvious that you actually thought about bringing Ginny into the team! I'm sure it wasn't that blatant… oh, who're you kidding? A stupid idea in itself anyway…'

Sitting down without paying any attention where until it was too late, Theodore sighed when he realised he was deep along the Gryffindor table, barely able to even see his friends among the shaken first-years nearby him. He honestly needed to know why people could not at least try to act normal when he was around—

He was suddenly barged on his right as somebody attempted to force themselves next to him. Theodore, ready to get onto the stranger held onto his breath as Ginny fixed her hair that was flailing all over her face, sporting a grin that was too sly for Theodore's liking.

"I see that you want to appeal to the younger audience. Sorry about that by the way," she said with little care in her tone. Dinner appeared right in front of them, as always, with everyone digging in, as always. All except Ginny, whose smile made Theodore finally ask what she was so happy about. "Oh stop it, I know that you know."

…

"I heard that you were recruiting for Doomspell?" Her smile grew wider and she batted her eyes for extra effect. It flashed across his brain but he remembered about what he just thought earlier.

"So?" he replied nonchalantly, swinging the gravy boat across his filled plate. "If you think that I'm going to let you in of all people then fat chance, Ginny."

"Of all people?!" Ginny mouthed with offence. "What's that supposed to— okay, I'm not going to get mad because that's not I came here to do," she murmured almost to herself. She brought about her smile again and told Theodore to listen as she began her persuasion, "Theodore, Theodore, Theodore. I think that you're missing out on what could potentially be your secret weapon, your… hidden knife thing with all the different bits in it."

Theodore didn't respond, prompting to Ginny to continue, "I don't mean to sound cocky or anything, but I'm pretty sure I'm one of the best in my year."

"That does sound cocky."

"Well… confidence breeds success, no? Oh come on, you're going to tell me that's not something you would say as well?"

"Look, Ginny," Theodore stated firmly, "Maybe I did think that you could've been in the team, but then I thought, huh, I wonder what the consequences of me letting that happen would be. If you get hurt then I'm pretty sure your mum would hate me forever so…"

"Urgh, I'm tired of hearing about what my mum would think or what Bill, Percy or anybody in my family," Ginny ranted, taking a drumstick to her mouth before throwing it back down onto the plate. "Theo, this is my chance to show to them that they shouldn't treat like somebody who's easy to break, that I'm grown up."

Theodore couldn't help but chortle a little bit as he added quietly, "Thirteen years old and you want to be seen as 'grown'. Now that's funny." Ginny's face grew darker with any hint of ease in the atmosphere just ebbing away. Sensing that, Theodore then continued, more serious, "Your mum's not going to like it, simple as. You can do all of this and show her that she doesn't need to baby you, and I get that but—"

"Theo, please. I'm not trying to make you feel guilty or anything but… ever since the Chamber, it's like I'm not allowed to grow, like I should just be watched all the time and I feel like it won't change unless I do something like this. At least consider again," Ginny almost pleaded, just almost. Not exactly in her character, Theodore noted. He could feel that she was genuine with just a glance in her eye, just barely brushing along that feeling.

Theodore bit the inside of his cheek and had to think quickly now. There was barely any time left to convince anybody that he really wanted — and despite what Ginny said, Theodore was feeling a little guilty. Although that feeling was as loose as Ron's mouth after butting heads with Malfoy.

With a sigh so deep that it caught small glances from people around them, Theodore grumbled as the guilt took over (he wouldn't admit this to himself however), "This is going to be horrible. It's going to be so bad that I'll probably never step foot in your house again…"

It was as if Ginny was completely free from any negative sensation that the world had to offer with how bright her face became, squealing before being hushed by Theodore. "Okay, okay, sorry! Oh, Theo, you won't regret this, I promise!"

"That was probably the fastest promise I've ever seen being broken." Theodore sighed again — he really couldn't stop — and leaned backwards to catch a look at the others down the table. Thankfully, none of them took notice that he was talking to Ginny. Although on second thought, they didn't even bother to try and see if he was alone.

Theodore put that out of his mind as he didn't care for it and looked over at Ginny, beaming before she caught a first-year boy drooling at her, forcing him to stuff his face to play it off. Smugness flashed on her face when she realised that Theodore noticed as she remarked, "What can I say except I'm the most charming person around? You ought to keep up."

"You know what, on second thought…"

"Theodore, I was joking!"

A TheoxHermione slice of life piece of a trip to Hogsmeade

"So… you've been here before?"

All that Theodore could do was smile awkwardly as a response to his girlfriend (whenever he thought of Hermione like that, it was only natural for his heart to nearly jump out his chest) sitting right in front of him. The last time he had been at this particular place, it was a lot more lonely and resulted him being swarmed by Dementors. Oh, and he had a not-so pleasant first meeting with his cousin's godfather. Just an eventful day all around.

Theodore and Hermione were sitting on one of the many rickety tables of Hog's Head Inn that was bang in the middle of the room, making them, at least Theodore, feel like they were forcibly being put there to watch. It was either this table or the one that was next to a wizard too inhuman-like to not be related to a troll. Didn't smell too pleasant either.

"Remember when I told you about coming to Hogsmeade at night? Well… here it is!" Hermione glanced around, squirming a little before fixing her stare straight back at Theodore. He knew the troll-wizard was where she was looking just before and had an inkling that they caught each other. "We can go wait outside Three Broomsticks until it's less full — we don't have to stay here."

Before Hermione could even lift herself from her seat, a wave of a hay and dirty fur aroma washed upon them as Aberforth steadily laid two Butterbeers on the table in scratched mugs and a blank expression on his face. Theodore gave him a confusing smile as he stammered a little, "Uh, t-thanks but we didn't even make an order."

"It's on me," Aberforth huffed before spinning back around.

"But I've got money now…"

Aberforth ignored him and disappeared behind the counter, leaving the two bewildered and embarrassed. Theodore was pressing his fingers together underneath the table, silent for a few seconds. "Funny thing is that he probably does like me, even though he doesn't show—"

Theodore was cut off by his own sneeze as the presence of an empty fireplace caught up to him. He wasn't exactly bare but he thought he'd covered up enough. He sneezed again and heard a masked giggle coming from Hermione. An uncharacteristic pout only amused her more as Hermione began to unwind her scarf at the same time saying, "I told you to get your scarf back when you had the chance — look, your nose is red and so are your ears. Here, take it."

"I'm… I'm fine." He sneezed again. The table was short enough that Hermione didn't hesitate to throw the scarf around his neck much to Theodore's false chagrin. "Hermione, I said I was fine."

"Says the person who didn't even take it off," Hermione rebutted. "I didn't even wrap it around your neck."

Theodore took his drink, wiping the mug with his sleeve, and took a long sip to ignore Hermione's smug, yet quite fetching gaze upon him. As he placed the Butterbeer back on the table, he then lifted the wrapped scarf above his nose, taking in its smell. For a moment he felt weak and light in the head but collected himself when he saw how weird it would've been if she just stared at him inhaling her scarf. Lucky for him, she didn't notice — or at least he hoped she didn't.

Hermione brought her drink to her lips before pulling away and inspecting the mug like Theodore did with squinted eyes. She then brushed some of hair that was sticking out of her squeezed hat behind her ear, somehow, revealing the same earrings that Theodore complimented a while back. Wow… How nobody else could see what he was right now was beyond him.

Wincing a little after taking a sip that was barely noticeable, Hermione took another look around and asked as if she were alone, "I still can't believe that you managed to sneak out of the castle to come here…"

"If I have a hunch, I need to follow it," he shrugged, earning a raised eyebrow. Theodore barely rolled his eyes and tapped at his mug, saying softly, "But… it was sort of dumb looking back now."

"If you didn't do that 'dumb' thing, then Sirius probably wouldn't even be free." She reached her hand and latched two gloved fingers on his own. Even through its thickness, Theodore could almost feel her warm hands touching his own. "Besides, it wasn't dumb that you wanted to go — it was dumb that you did it alone."

"I mean… do you know how hard it is to wake up Harry and Ron now these days? You'd swear that those two aren't even alive if you shake them hard enough. Of course, I could probably conjure a spider or two on Ron but then I could get a punch in the face as well…"

Hermione laughed a little more loudly than before, leaving Theodore with a little grin until they heard a hiss from the table next to them. A rough-skinned woman who was pale, sported cracked claws and who was most likely a decrepit vampire forced the two to lower their heads in sync. "Maybe we've stayed here a bit too long," Hermione whispered across the table, shaken just a little.

Theodore swallowed and replied a little louder, "I'm sure that Abe won't let anything happen to us." He added a smile for reassurance, although Hermione was still wary of the vampire.

"I just want to know how you're okay with being in places… places like this."

"You know… I mean, I live in like one of the only few functioning orphanages in the country. If you're a person like you or me and you've been there for basically all your life then… I don't know, does things, I guess...?"

"Like what?"

"I, uh…" A rush of memories from before Hogwarts, before he knew who he really was flooded his head, keeping him still and silent for a moment.

Hermione blinked and then suddenly realised, "Oh sorry… I didn't mean to…" Hermione apologetically squeezed his hand. "It's just that I sometimes forget about where you live. I know you don't talk about it that much but…"

"How comes you forgot?"

"Hmm? It's because… you look so much happier than when I first met you." Like a spell that couldn't be lifted, Theodore's heart was out of control and so was his smile as he quietly responded with, "Really?"

"Of course! You don't remember the first day we met?" Hermione almost forcibly said while leaning forward. Theodore could easily recall back to when they first met in Madam Malkin's, when she introduced herself out of nowhere with no tact at all.

Nodding his head, "Yeah, I left a good first impression, didn't I?"

"You left— what? You made me cry, you didn't remember that?!" Hermione spluttered incredulously.

"… but I still wanted to be your friend," he muttered before taking a sip. "Plus, it's not like it bothered you — didn't your dad say that you couldn't stop talking about me over the summer?"

"Oh… shut it," Hermione grumbled before taking another sip, now red in the cheeks and nose. What felt like hours wasn't even known to the two as it was like they were stuck in time; the outside didn't exist as it was just the two of them.

The two bickered and laughed like they knew each other for decades, being watched afar from the countertop by Aberforth swishing away at his dirty dishes to clean at themselves. A rare curl of the lip hidden by his scraggly beard came along with the shake of his head as he mumbled to himself, "Those two come in here again, they'd be mistaking this place for Puddifoot's, Merlin's pants…"

Soooooo… I'm back yall. It's been a minute but life has been very very busy so I had to shelf this for a while. Even I had to read where I was at in the story to make this chapter so I hope you lots haven't forgotten too much. I'm thinking of cutting the length of chapters down so I can get more out and it's less stressful that way. Can't believe it's been almost four years since I've started this. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, later.