Autumn 1991

Theodore Nott

Theo wore a wide grin as he pushed open the heavy door to the potions lab. In the early dimness of the morning, when most of the candles weren't yet lit, he delighted in the dark shadows that ran along the centre of the room. He felt chills run up and down his arms, as subtle excitement and anticipation bubbled inside him.

He could hear Tracey breathing beside him, heavy and rhythmically. She was clearly nervous, but not in the way he was. She was a half-blood, he had to continually remind himself, so her stakes were greater. If they were caught, or if something went wrong, Theo would have insulation from any of the fallout. Despite what Greengrass had said to him, he knew that he was in no real danger of expulsion or serious punishment. His name was good, his blood ancient, old, and powerful. Tracey was a half-blood, and while Theo hadn't looked into her ancestry, he doubted she would come away from any punishment unscathed. Perhaps, if he spoke carefully, he might save her. But of course, he didn't plan for either of them to get in any trouble, and if they did, well, he would only put himself in front of the blade if she seemed worthy enough to be saved.

All Half-Bloods weren't useless, Theo knew. They were certainly more welcome than any muggle-borns. Tracey did well as his potion's partner and while he wished Weasley hadn't forsaken him for Greengrass' sake he imagined that Tracey was far better than Bulstrode. The thought nearly made him shiver. He imagined Bulstrode would eat half of their ingredients before a potion could even be made.

"What are you waiting for?" Tracey whispered beside him.

Theo scanned the room carefully, and took a few steps forward. "Ghosts," he said in response. The lie was natural, wrapped in a silken tone.

They made their way through the lab and to the storage room, another windowless door. Theo took a look over his shoulder, ensuring that nobody had followed them, before he whispered the spell lightly.

The lock on the storage room door clicked over causing Tracey to give him a wide eyed expression. He smiled at her, happy with the praise she was unknowingly giving can't do that, can he?

The room was lined with rows of carefully set shelves. The left had almost any ingredient a potion might need, or at least, Theo thought, any potion which Snape might let them brew. He knew that the professor was well regarded as a potion master, it was the reason his father had sent him to Hogwarts and not Durmstrang, or so he liked to claim. There was probably another storage closet somewhere, perhaps one with more than one lock, where he might have found something truly interesting.

The other shelf was filled with small vials of potion, brilliant colours from all ends of the spectrum. Theo's eyes were drawn to a vial that seemed to mimic the glow of the moon, he read the label carefully and then set it back in place. As much as he might have taken enjoyment from watching Draco turn blue from a lack of air, he was smart enough to avoid torturing him too harshly given what Lucius might have to say about that. Instead, he ran his eyes over all of the labels until he found something that would work as needed. He slipped a permanent hair dye potion into his robe pocket.

"Is that the right one?" Tracey asked.

He laughed at her. "Unless you want me to kill him."

"That would be evil," she said with a nod. "I don't think I'm ready for that yet."

"But there will be a time?" He raised an eyebrow at her. He found it hard to justify why Tracey was such good friends with Greengrass. She was rather pleasant to be around and Greengrass entirely wasn't.

"Maybe," she replied coolly. "I'd need to learn more spells, I'm waiting for Weasley to start his club."

"I could teach you," he said half-jokingly. He might have liked to pretend he was the best in their year, but he doubted it. He knew some spells, but nothing really beyond their level.

Tracey snorted. "Teach me how to unlock doors?"

"Alohomora," he repeated softly. "It's useful."

"Useful if you're up to no good," she corrected.

"And you aren't?"

Tracey shrugged and turned and left the room.

Theo took one last look over the potions before a thought sprung into his mind. He felt at once like a genius, the kind of person who was bound to receive an order of merlin. Revenge was sweet, a pleasure to be stolen, but there were other achievements to be had. Especially when he was playing a game,the game,so much better than everyone can chuckled to himself lightly as he grabbed a deep blue elixir and slipped it into his other pocket so it wouldn't clink against the hair dye 's see who's the better partner.

Theo found Tracey waiting for him at the exit and she gave him a subtle nod as he approached. They left the potions lab behind them and closed the door just as they had found it.

Tracey let out a heavy breath and Theo had to stop himself from bursting into a fit of laughter.

"We aren't done yet," he reminded her. "We still have to send the bombs."

"Professor Snape doesn't teach in the owlery," she reminded him in turn. "He's the scariest thing in this school."

Theo didn't comment. Tracey was far closer to the truth then she might imagine. Theo knew there was another reason his father trusted Snape, and it had nothing to do with his potions ability. Honestly, it made Theo question Dumbledore's sanity. The old senile wizard had opposed the Dark Lord, and yet he allowed his followers to thrive right under his own nose. Even if the Dark Lord did not have such a distaste for Half-Bloods as his reputation warranted, Theo still found it odd that Dumbledore would let Snape teach as many as he did. That was without even considering the number of muggle-borns who must have withered in his classes.

The pair made their way up the main stairs, it was still too early for any other students to be out. Even the prefects usually didn't patrol in the small limbo between true darkness and the end of curfew. It left them alone, their steps echoing off the stone as portraits snored around them.

"This would make a good set," Tracey said. "For a horror movie."

Theo frowned at her. "A muggle thing?" He guessed correctly.

She nodded and he instantly glanced away. Sometimes, he thought, Tracey seemed so perfectly normal. And then other times, he felt his mouth water in a sickly way, she had to ruin it by talking about muggles.

"You don't like them," she said with a teasing tone. "Is Theodore scared of muggles?"

He glanced back at her, with a dark look. "I'm not afraid of them," he said harshly. "I just don't see why you have to keep talking about them."

She wore a devilish smirk. "That sounds like you're afraid."

"Why would I be? I'm a Pure-Blood. I don't have any reason to be afraid of them. I'm not afraid of centaurs or other lowlifes."

"Lowlifes?" Tracey raised an eyebrow at him. "They're just people."

"People who do horrible things," he countered. "They steal, fight, and I'm sure they'd kill us if we let them."

"But they also make movies, write books, and build buildings," Tracey said back. "They have more technology than wizards do."

"Technology?" Theo laughed. "I'm sure that's good for them, chick. But why would anyone need any of their technology? We have magic, in case you've forgotten."

"You're close-minded," Tracey said.

"Sure," he said. "If I open my mind all my brains might pour out. And then where would I be? I'd just be an incredibly good-looking, rich, and ambitious wizard. Best I keep the cunning."

"You love yourself too much."

"Do I?" He raised an eyebrow at her. Why shouldn't he love himself?

"You do," she nodded. She might have said something else, only they reached the door to the owlery.

The scent of hay and feathers lingered lightly in the air. Theo paused and glanced around the room half-expecting to see some Ravenclaw sitting with a book nestled in their hands. Thankfully, the room was mostly quiet, a thousand round eyes staring at them broken only by the gentle sound of hooting. He took a small breath relishing in the eeriness of the early morning.

Tracey pushed her way past him and moved towards the nearest row of school-owned owls. Theo watched her carefully, somewhat surprised by her eagerness. Of course, he excused, no witch or wizard worth anything should have been scared of owls. In the early morning, at the very top of Hogwarts, they weren't likely to run into anyone and especially not Professor Snape.

Tracey extended her hand to a particularly large tawny owl causing the bird to stir gently and step off its perch and onto her arm. She reached into her robes and handed a small bulging envelope to the owl. It tilted its head at her and although Theo couldn't see her face, he felt her smile from across the room.

"For Lavender Brown," she told the owl.

Theo laughed. "I can see her reaction already."

Tracey gave the owl a brief pat on the head and sent it back to its perch. "Well, we have to send them all over the hall right? To make a good enough distraction?"

"Definitely," Theo agreed. "Make sure to send one to the Ravenclaw keeper. Maybe it will put him off his game tomorrow. He has almost perfect hair, some smoke should mess it up a bit."

"Cheating at quidditch?"

Theo rolled his eyes. "Greengrass has done a number on your sense of right and wrong. It's not cheating, it's creative use of our house cunning to tilt the outcomes. Besides, it's not like I've made a wager. At least, not yet."

"Did you hear about Daphne's wager with Ron?" she asked.

"Blaise told me about it. I don't know why she would throw a game of chess, it makes her seem a bit dull. I mean, chess is a dull game already and then she decides to not even try? Anyway, what I really want to know is how Weasley got a hold of enough knuts to pay for liquorice wands. And also, why didn't he offer me any?"

"Maybe because you keep calling him a blood-traitor?"

Theo laughed. "Well, I don't think that's going to change. Maybe he'll pleasantly surprise me. What about the money, do you think he stole it?"

"I don't know," Tracey shrugged. "I mean, we've all only just met."

"Yeah, but don't you feel like he's hiding something? I know you said it's some sort of muggle thing, but don't you think it's odd that he can't sleep? I mean, he eats enough food for three bear cubs in a robe."

Tracey snorted. "I think Daphne's right, I think he was lying about spending time with his brother. At least, I don't think it's why he was late to dinner. His brother, Percy Weasley, wasn't late."

Theo rubbed his hand through his hair. "He wasn't? Well, that does raise a lot of questions."

"But, I don't think we should press him too hard," Tracey added. "Whatever it is, I don't think he wants anyone to know."

"Well, what about what I want? Why does no one ever ask what Theodore wants? Sure, I'm handsome and suave, but a boy can want for more."

"And you want to know Weasley's secret?"

"I want to know why he's a Slytherin. I'm not so sure that he's cunning enough, given his lying ability, and I'm also not convinced that he's overly ambitious, resourceful, determined, or any other nonsense the hat uses. I think he's got something else going on, unless he's actually a fantastic liar and we're all being led along."

Tracey tied the last smoke bomb to one of the school owls and said some name that Theo hardly registered. "You think you're being led along?"

"No, of course not," he defended. "I'm acting in the best interest of yourself, Greengrass, and Zabini of course. Trying to uncover what makes the blood-traitor tick before it all blows up in your faces."

"How brave," Tracey mocked. "Maybe you should have been the hat stall."

"Please, you would all miss me too much. Imagine your lives without me."

"I wouldn't be a thief,"

Theo smiled at her. "Look at the positive impact I'm having already."

"So what are you going to do? With Weasley?"

Theo pursed his lips. He had considered doing something, following Weasley around all day and hoping to stumble upon whatever it was that he was hiding. And yet, he thought that it sounded painfully boring. If Weasley was going to play games then why would he ruin the fun by cutting ahead to the conclusion? It was a much better sport to try and guess at the secret while watching Weasley squirm beneath his questions.

"I'm going to do… absolutely nothing." He laughed.

Tracey shook her head at him and gave the last owl a quick pat. Once Theo ensured that all of the smoke bombs were spread out far enough, he congratulated Tracey on a prank well played and led her back to the owlery stairs. He couldn't help but feel antsy as he tried to subdue his excitement for the morning to come.