𝒮𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓂'𝓈 𝒜 𝐵𝓇𝑒𝓌𝒾𝓃'

July 4th, 1994

Clunk

And as she had done every time, she waited... just a moment. Eyes locked onto that second-story window. Iris puffed her cheeks when the moment passed, scuffing her shoe against the grass as she straightened up. Glancing down, she would only find that her collection had all been spent. All of her rocks directly below the window.

It would only take a moment to recollect them, but at the same time... so far, she had attempted at this thirteen times, and well, clearly, it was not working. So Iris sat.

Just sat down and looked up at that second-story window, waiting. Humming a tune to herself... until finally, she got what she had wanted.

"Why are you incapable of giving up?"

Smiling up at the boy in the window, Iris lifted herself up, "Was starting to believe you were really going to ignore me."

The boy rolled his eyes, choosing to move past whatever banter the girl below was seeking from him with that stupid smirk on her face, "What do you want, Iris?"

Side-stepping away, Iris shouted out as she began walking off, "Well, Theo, you and I are going to London. And we need to use your fireplace."

Theodore Nott scoffed as she disappeared around the corner, slamming his window shut as he muttered to himself, "Lunatic."

~~~~~~

Theodore was not really quite sure what he had been expecting when Iris said they would be making a sudden trip to the city. Well... no... many things crossed his mind. Some ideas were legal, he supposes, so he didn't have a complete lack of faith in the girl he had allowed to drag him along. But he had most definitely expected a bit more adventure... adventure that at least brushed against the line of legality. Or just adventure at all.

After all, they were in London on a Sunday evening, still a long way away from school. On their own, no authority to restrict them... a whole city to explore.

And yet Iris decided she would rather spend two hours browsing in dress shops... but Theodore wasn't complaining.

If anything, a few hours of dress shopping was the most pleasant surprise he had ever experienced. It was not even close to making his list of what "we are going to London" meant, and yet it beat everything that came to mind.

And so he enjoyed it all, without any complaints. Well, no, there was one complaint. It happened in the first shop. When following Iris rather aimlessly, a nice older worker pointed him off to a section of chairs just outside the changing rooms, calling it the "Boyfriend Section." And he found himself rather comfortable in a chair... until another one of the "boyfriends" attempted conversation. Theodore ran back to Iris with a sneer on his face within minutes. A string of complaints about how he had to socialize fell out of him.

From there on, Theodore stuck close to Iris, giving a cold look to the dreaded "Boyfriend Section" in every store they visited. And it was his decision to stick close to his friend that allowed him to notice it.

Theodore thought himself observant. With everyone. So being as he spent most of his time of the previous school year with Iris attached to his hip, he thought himself rather observant towards her. Spend enough time with someone, and their habits do tend to stick into your brain. A "normal" is created for them. And any deviation from normal can stick out like a sore thumb.

And as he followed her from shop to shop, rack of gowns to rack of gowns... something was off. She was... well, most worryingly... quiet. But not the quiet of a troubled mind, no, a calm quiet.

It was a side of Iris that he had only seen on a handful of occasions and only ever in small bursts. The first time had been in the common room, the first week back, one quiet night when he sat reading. That small moment of playful quips, smiles, hums... that airy laugh... those few seconds of just existing in the moment.