laconic • t.nott ✓

13 ➺ fabulous cloaks

「 FABULOUS CLOAKS 」

THE DAY BEFORE SLUGHORN'S CHRISTMAS party, Theo found himself unusually jittery. Unluckily for him, it was the weekend, thus making him unable to avoid Blaise, although he was himself unsure of why he was so keen on avoiding him.

Lunch was particularly strange. He silently ate his food while Blaise talked, which was bizarre in itself, but to add to that, Corben joined them halfway through and began to ask about the Slug Club. He felt unusually warm as the words "Theo's going with me," came out of Blaise's mouth and wanted nothing better than to simply run away from there. He swallowed his food with immense haste, knocking over his goblet of pumpkin juice twice, and accidentally smacking the second year boy beside him with his elbow. When the rest of the crowd was just halfway through their lunch, Theo finished his and leapt to his feet, gave a halfhearted excuse that he had left his book in the library, and sprinted out of the Great Hall.

He slowed down when the chatter of the students finally died down. Heaving heavy breaths owing to his lack of exercise, he leaned against the wall and tried to calm his heart. A sound of disapproval reached his ears from the left.

"You aren't supposed to run in the corridors," a thick-accented voice reproached so close to him that he hurt his neck as he whipped his head around. The voice came from the painting beside him. A large balding man with a big round belly and very fake moustache shook his head at him in disappointment. "Really, what did your teachers teach you? Children of today have no respect for authority. Back in my day, we would get caned for -"

Theo turned on his heels and stalked away. He was in no mood to hear about child abuse.

He found himself a small balcony and settled down. Blaise would be looking for him, he knew, but he needed some time for himself.

Why am I avoiding Blaise? he thought to himself. Then looking around to make sure he was alone, he spoke the question, albeit softly. "Why am I avoiding Blaise?"

The name sounded strange in his voice. It seemed like his mouth shied at the last moment and curled up at his name. He had never felt this way before. Which was strange, because he had acknowledged his feelings toward Blaise quite a long time ago. In fact, now that he thought about it, this has started after he had confessed to Daphne.

Perhaps saying it out loud, to a living, breathing person, has made his emotions real to him, at least more real than it had been before. Maybe, when no one knew about it, he could ignore his feelings and pretend that they didn't exist. But now Daphne knew. And he could no longer pretend.

He didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.

"Oh, hey Theo!"

He whipped around, hurting his neck once again. Messaging it with his hand, he smiled. "Hi, Luna. How are you?"

"I'm good," she said and walked over to him, the same dreamy look in her eyes. She didn't have the butterbeer cork necklace around her throat but the pair of radish earrings hung from her ears. She had let her hair free, which fell lazily over her shoulders. She stopped and scrutinised him. "I see you have forgotten to wear warm clothes again. I should have brought that shawl with me."

Theo laughed in embarrassment. "It's not that cold, Luna. And anyway, I didn't forget when the storm was blazing through the grounds and the dementors were feasting on our fears."

She came over and stood beside him. "They didn't feast on our fears," she said seriously. "Dementors suck happiness and can suck out your soul if they can get close enough. If they feasted on our fears we would have warts going out of our ears." She looked at him with concern in her pale silver eyes. "I know. Daddy told me."