Duplicitous | T.N.

XLV • My father

"Ahh, but Aurora." Her name was Rory. She hated the name Aurora, but no rage came to her as the name slid from his lips like honey. "What could possibly entice you enough to come here? Early." If the way he said her name didn't agitate her, the words his hoarse and smooth voice announced certainly did... and so did his face. Irrelevant but yeah, she hated that too.

"None of your bloody business." She fired the same words he had spat the last time she attempted to speak to him like a normal human being. After the day he complemented the etymology of her name she tried to speak to him again, her attempts grew feeble and soon nonexistent at his random coldness.

His lips pursed, as he maintained a grin. He couldn't fight of the smile, he looked down at his feet in an attempt to hide his smile. Leaning back off the desk he looked up at her, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. "I deserved that."

"You deserve more than that, you entitled prick." She mumbled again, brushing last him with little to no care. His smile remained even as she was out of his line of sight, he turned his head left to get another look at her.

Leaving the box of treats on her professors desk, she returned to her own seat, disappointed how it remained two seats ahead of his. He had the perfect view of the back of her head. She didn't like it. She was thankful that Theodore didn't mention the lollies she left by the teachers things.

The silence grew annoying, she figured snapping at him would be the way to go. "You're downright awful, you know?"

He smiled a charming grin. "Oh I'm aware."

"You can be so mean." Her voice wavered in the slightest, she thought they were friends. "For no reason too." She wanted to hit him were it hurts, to fire her words like bullets, to tear through his flesh and mark his wounded soul, but she didn't, they both knew he didn't deserve it.

He didn't matter enough to even hold a grudge against. His chest squirmed at the realisation, she didn't care. Swallowing his discontent he sat back down in his chair.

He didn't know if Aurora knew but it had been exactly one month and four days of distance between them. He had counted. It was of course his fault for their indifference, but he counted none the less. She had festered his mind, plagues his thoughts, and effected his behaviour. He used to loath her, despise her, he would never quite understand how such rage shifted into a soft fondness.

He did not often smile at the thought of someone.

The bodies of more students began to fill out the room and the space between them. He still had eyes on the back of her head. His guilt urged him to burn holes into the back of her head, he'd hope she'd feel them and turn around, and maybe then he'd offer her a smile. It was the best he could do.

However, no matter how long he gazed at her profile, she refused to turn around, refused to look at him. He preferred when she hated him, at least then she acknowledged him, but now, to her, he was a nobody.

"Oohh." Then there was the torturous giggle again. Professor Umbridge strode across the classroom her hands interlocked behind her back and her head held high in unearned confidence. "Treats." She smiled before plopping a single lolly into her mouth.

"Please continue yesterdays work." Throughout the lesson the professor chewed on the single treat in her mouth. Theodore kept his eyes on the teacher, he knew those treats were from Aurora and he couldn't wait to see their result.

As her mouth munched, her face began to pale, a splash of green, of which originated as a pimple spread across her cheek, over her nose and across her forehead. Students throughout the room spoke quietly amongst themselves, pointing at the colour of which decorated her face.