The Deal I Made With Theodore Nott - NL x TN

42

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My Nan was going on about a 'Mutual party' when someone I didn't recognize walked through the fireplace.

"Des?" Theo questioned out loud.

"Hello Theo dearie, you look so well." She replied fondly. She stepped aside as if to let someone else by.

Theo ran up passed her the second someone else walked through the fireplace. I almost didn't even see him pop in but now he was pinned to the floor by Theodore.

"I love you Blaise! I love you so much I'm sorry I don't ever tell you!" Theo exclaimed as Blaise attempted to push him off.

"Merlin Theo enough, get off of me you beast." Blaise exclaimed.

Theo lifted himself to stand then pulled Blaise up beside him. They lingered a moment before pulling eachother into a tight hug.
"I love you too." Blaise hummed.

"Uhm okay, as cute as the brotherly love is- what's going on now?" Dove questioned out loud.

She was being nosy. She lives for drama, that's why her, Lavender Brown, and Astoria Greengrass get along so well. Though she would never admit it.

"As I was saying- The ministry needed persuading, but when I saw Zabini's letters to Neville I knew I had just the push they needed." Augusta explained.
She nodded towards the beautifully talk woman that stood beside Blaise. Theo had called her Des.

"I'm Desmunda Zabini, Blaise's mum." She introduced herself shaking my hand and then Dove's.

Beside me Dove was shell shocked. She'd heard of Desmunda Zabini and her many mysteriously dead husbands. She was the woman's biggest fan.

"When Augusta reached Blaise and I in Italy, I didn't hesitate to help. It wasn't only because I had experience in the matter, it's because I care for Theo like a son."

Then Theo was hugging Desmunda, thankfully this time he wasn't pinning the other person onto the floor.

"I'm a pureblood witch and when I grew up I knew wizards like Theodore Sr, I didn't hold the same beliefs as him and so I was ostracized by many of the Slytherins. One year I was approached my a young boy named Regulus Black. He'd been questioning his family values and needed to speak to someone about it. As he confided in me I learned his parents were very abusive. Yet I did nothing, no one did. I wasn't about to let that happen again." She explained. She was emotional about the situation but she spoke clearly and confidently.

"Okay so you persuaded the British ministry to help, but why were you in Italy?" Theo asked.

In all honesty I was so shocked by everything I had completely forgotten Blaise was in Italy all break. Blaise dug in is bag and pulled out a large folder of parchments. He handed the heavy stack to Theo whom looked back at him confused.

"What's this?" Theo questioned with genuine confusion. Blaise smiled proudly back at him.

"It's everything."

"Everything?"

Blaise took the folder and splayed the parchments on the coffee table and motioned for Theo to look at them.
"Everything that belonged to the Nott family belongs to you now. The house, vacation homes, everything in them, and most importantly the vault. So you can afford to go to healers school without him, you can afford to do anything without him." He explained.

"Damn." Dove noted audibly.

"Blaise- I don't know what to say-" Theo started.

"Don't make it weird." Blaise sighed.

"Too late." Theo sobbed as he jumped back into Blaise. He cried saying how much he loved him while suffocating Blaise against the ground.

Then it happened. That invisible clock that hung over my head for so long, it shattered. My time with Theo wasn't running out, it was ours now. Theo was free to be a healer, free to laugh and read comics, he was free enough to love me.

Would he choose me still?

The possibilities were endless for him now, he was Theodore Nott Jr after all. He could have whoever he wanted and whatever he wanted.
Why would he want me?

When everyone started talking and mingling I decided to take the opportunity to slip away to my bedroom.

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I shifted through the obscene amount of photos Theo and I had taken together. It was comforting to know that there was a chance we could be seen together in public the way we were together in this house. My door's lock clicking made me look up in surprise.

Blaise walked through the door, shutting it softly behind him. He carried Theo's bowtruckle over to my bed, letting him jump off his hand and scurry to my lap.

"He likes you, Bowie doesn't like many people. He stays with me during holidays because Theo's dad didn't approve of pets. One time he stayed with Pansy but he's refused to be near her ever since then. Who knows what she did to scare him." Blaise chuckled as he sat beside me.

I smiled down at the little stick like creature, laughing softly at him.
"Bowie is such a lame name." I said with a smile.

"He was going to be called Ziggy but I persuaded Theo against it. It would be rather obvious." Blaise noted.

"Obvious?"

Blaise laughed.
"Ziggy Stardust? Bowie- like David Bowie? The incredibly queer muggle singer." He explained.

Then I remembered how embarrassed Theo was when he told me about Bowie. It made so much more sense now, that and Carmilla. How did I not see the signs? Theo is so astronomically gay it's a miracle he wasn't outed sooner.

"I've never heard of him, you know I'm pureblood too right? I don't get many muggle references." I laughed.

"What are these?" Blaise asked as he reached for some of the photos in my lap. He looked through them, smiling fondly and chuckling at some of the funny ones. Especially the one of Dove crying. As beautiful as she was, she was a very ugly crier.

"You know, Theo always refused to be in photos. Years of summer vacation photos and it's just Pansy, Draco, and I in them. He'd even refused to be in the quidditch team photos every year. He would always say the camera couldn't capture his magnificence but I knew it was deeper than that." Blaise explained.

"In what way?" I wondered out loud, thinking about how Theo got weird about my camera at first. Yet now he was beaming in these Polaroids in my hands.

"He didn't have photos of him and his mum, his father burned everything they had of her, except for their family portrait. He was so different after she died. If you can believe it, he was much louder before, much more unapologetically himself. His father hated it but his mother loved it. She'd take photos of him doing the craziest things and he'd always be smiling ear to ear. I think maybe he thought if he took a picture of the new version of himself, his old version wouldn't exist anymore. Like somehow he wasn't her little Teddy anymore- he was just Theodore Nott Jr, son of Theodore Nott Sr."

I lingered on one photo of Theo and I that Dove took. Me sleeping next to him and him smiling ear to ear beside me. Not a single touch of fear in his eyes, just love and joy.

"He's Teddy again, thank you for that. Thanks for making my best mate so happy." Blaise smiled.

"Thanks for making it possible." I replied.