Spending a good week at Blaise's was the best decision she made thus far and not rent a room at the leaky cauldron, or else she would've been caught with the Ollivander incident. Reading the daily prophet and the depressing news of tower bridge destroyed, and Ollivander's abduction, she wanted to know what else has been going on. Yet questions were still unanswered as Blaise was never really home anymore, nor has she seen Theo or Draco and she expected them to floo as soon as Blaise breaks the news. And yet so far the only one who ever did stop by was Tori who fussed over her whenever Blaise leaves.
Realising all this, sitting on one of the expensive couches as she waited for Blaise to get back, she would usually be asleep by this time but she really needed answers. The prophet's news weren't enough, she was avoiding the biased news on the Malfoys and other pureblood families. She wouldn't believe them until it came from the people themselves and so here she was waiting. Curled up in a large blanket on a couch facing the expensive looking fireplace that doubled as a floo network, hoping to see Blaise with Theo.
' Are they alright?' She asks herself. She was selfish for not telling them where she went, she felt horrible for leaving them up in the air to assume whatever it was she was up to. She could've just owled them, wand messaged them, anything and yet she didn't.
"What are you doing up?" A voice spoke causing Finley to look up, coming in face to face with Blaise who looked concerned. "Are you alright?" He asked her as he approached her, eyes filled with worry.
"I was just—" the floo bursted into flames once again, both turning towards the fireplace and emerged Theo who looked different. He was taller than Finley last saw him, thinner, paler, his eyes slightly dark as his cheeks were hollow. As if some of his life was sucked out. "Theo?" She called out, hoping that it was really him and not someone who looked like him.
"Hi Finney winney," he smiled causing Finley to run into his arms, it was scary to know that his temperature might as well be as cold as her. She embraced him tightly as she hasn't seen him in so long, she didn't think of the consequence of leaving for so long, thinking that she caused all this. "It's good to see you."
"Are you okay?" Theo asked frowning in worry, "What happened? Where have you been?"
"I'm okay," she tells him, cupping her dear friend's hollow and cold cheeks, rubbing them in hopes to warm them up. "I should be asking you how you are."
"With the whole wizarding world in the midst of war, I'm doing better than most days," he tells her, hugging her once again as if it was the last thing he could do.
With them reuniting, it was a mini celebration between the trio, with Blaise grabbing a well aged rum from the cellar. They bonded as if the world wasn't in peril, joking and reminiscing old times, unknown to Finley that the boys were filtering most of the current event. Finley wasn't dumb to not know the filtering words, she detected them by just how tensed Theo was when he was the one who was more laid back between all three of them. She could tell that something happened, something bad.
"Have you heard anything from Draco?" Finley asked them after taking the last swing of rum, her advantage of never getting drunk. But didn't mean her friends weren't dumb for getting drunk either, their alcohol tolerance building came in handy with these types of interrogations. "And I want the full truth," she tells them, causing them to tense up knowing that they were caught.
"If we tell you, you'll be in even more danger," Theo tells her truthfully as Blaise nudges Theo whilst glaring daggers at him. It was bad enough that Finley was here in Blaise's home, a death eater could come in and find her anytime if not for Blaise's constant meddling.
"I can handle myself," she tells them, not liking how they had been treating her as if she was a fragile doll. "If it's about Vold—"
"Don't say his name," Theo snaps, clasping his hand on Finley's mouth, startling her as her eyes widened. "They jinxed his name, if you say it he'll find you," he warns her eyes filled with fear.
"Then tell me, what's happened while I was gone," she frowns, taking note of the jinx and the fear that Theo and Blaise had in their eyes when she almost mentioned his name. Though she didn't feel ready to find out the truth, she needed to know how bad the war was going so far. "The whole truth."
"We can't," Theo tells her, "if we do then everyone else will be in danger," he tells her. Grabbing hold of Finley's hand that were still cold, he firmly squeezes it. "But if you look in my head, maybe you'll find the answers."
"Theo—" Blaise hissed, pulling away Theo's hand from Finley sensing the anger from Blaise that almost made Finley flinch. "Are you out of your fucking rocker?"
"They're memories—"
"What makes you think that it's safe for her to see them?"
"It's no problem—"
"If You know who got into your head once, what makes you think he can't do it again?" Blaise snapped, it was the answer that Finley needed. Heart heavy, defeated she was she hated how she couldn't prevent her best friend's fate in the war. "So you joined him," Finley bitterly says as she looked down on her hands.
"We didn't have a choice," Theo tells her, lifting up his sleeves to show the mark as it all felt too real for Finley. Theo didn't suit the mark, she expected him to be the type to tattoo a dumb latin swear word and have any gullible dumbass to read it wherever he went. But the Theo who was showing the mark he had on his arm was not the Theo she grew up with and loved like a real brother. "Neither did he."
Draco. He didn't have a choice, she knew that he didn't have a choice in this the moment his father was sent to Azkaban.
"What has Harry said about this?" She asked them, hoping her brother was aware of what her house was going through, the look on their faces tensed once more. "We can't risk you know who knowing where he was hiding," Blaise explained, hiding Theo's mark. "It's like what we said, he can get in our heads as often as he wanted, we can't risk it."
"Then I should go," she tells them, "I'll tell Harry what's going on, I'll conjure a plan to get you all out of this—"
"Then what will happen to our families?" Blaise mentions causing Finley to pause. "My mum may be a powerful witch, but Italy is not immune to the dark lord's clutches," he explained.
"I sent my mum to America to be with her sisters, and as far as I know they worship the dark lord as much over there than they do here," Theo explained, it wasn't just the dark lord coming after them, he going after those who oppose him. Forcing his army to side with him due to their weakness, the Dark Lord has successfully tied the snakes to a pole.
She wished she could do something, anything, but unfortunately her hands were tied with something she was tasked to do for the order. She wants to tell them, but after what they revealed she no longer could without being compromised, it was like she was in the middle of a trap that if she chose either side, the other would perish.
'So this is what they meant,' she thought in her head, holding onto the bottle of rum tightly. As much as she didn't want to choose, this was a clear indication that he needed to.
'Which side are should I take?' She thought to herself.
"You don't have to choose Finley," Theo tells her, placing both hands on her shoulders, "We'll protect you and your stupid brother," he tells her as a small reassuring smile crept onto his lips.
'But who will protect you?' She thought to herself. These weren't the same care free boys she grew up with, they all changed the moment the pink sick toad had tortured them into submission. She regretted that moment, she should've been with them, she should've protected them.
"I'll get more rum,"Blaise excused himself, walking out the room, both Theo and Finley following the handsome boy's exiting figure from the living room to the hall leaving both Theo and Finley alone. And yet the moment Finley looked back at Theo, he was still staring at the empty door way that Blaise walked out of.
"He's devastated Finley," Theo starts, catching Finley's attention. "He might not show it, but he didn't want this to happen," he sadly says as he turned back to her showing her his glassy eyes with unshed tears. "No one wanted this, and yet here we are."
"If there's anything I could do Theo, please tell me," she tell her best friend as she cupped his face caressing his cold cheeks. "I want to help you, all of you."
"But you can't."
"I can—"
"You. Can't. Finley," Theo snapped as he jerked away from Finley into a ragged sigh. "Everything that's happening right now? It's just the beginning, we need to pick a side—"
"Even when that side isn't right?" She frowns.
"I want to keep my family safe," he tells her. "That includes you," he tells her softly. "I don't want to see my best friend laying dead again."
"And you won't," she tells him, biting her inner lip knowing that she was promising herself and not just him. "We'll get through it."
"Hopefully we do," Theo tells her as he looks back at the door way where Blaise emerges once more holding three bottles of a familiar golden mixture.
"Look what I've found," he grinned, handing Finley one bottle, the sweet taste of Pixie Brew filled her taste buds. "The memories," Finley grinned having the three of the reminisce the simpler times.