Draco's side of the bed was empty when Clementine woke the following morning. She felt her heart sink as she clutched at the cold sheets. She couldn't deny the feeling of disappointment growing in her chest, as much as she wanted to pretend that it wasn't there.
Climbing out of bed, Clementine walked around her room looking for any trace that he had been there recently. It looked as if he hadn't been there at all. Gone without leaving a trace was Draco's style.
A sharp knock on the door after she finished getting dressed made Clementine jump. She smiled, opening the door expecting to see a blond staring back at her. Her smile faltered when she saw the brunet there instead.
"Oh. Hi." Clementine stepped backwards with her hand still on the door creating space between them. Her arm acted as a barrier that Theo could not cross. "What are you doing here?"
"Were you expecting someone else?" Theo asked. His curls fell across his forehead as he tilted his head to stare down at the girl, watching her curiously.
"This early in the morning? Definitely not." Clementine's insides twisted, knowing that she was lying to him.
She had promised herself from the beginning to be very open with both him and Draco about her intentions, and she kept breaking that promise at every opportunity. She dropped her arm and stood a bit more welcoming of his presence.
"McGonagall asked me to fetch you for a staff meeting." Theo stepped inside, noticing the opportunity. He looked around her living space before turning back to her. "Said it's important."
"That witch and her staff meetings will be the end of me." Clementine rolled her eyes and leaned on the doorframe. "What is it this time?"
"It sounded serious." Theo's brow furrowed as he recalled his conversation with the headmistress. "Something to do with Hooch."
"She's not missing, is she?" Clementine's eyes snapped to attention. "That's the last thing we need right now."
"I don't think so. It happened this morning before quidditch practice." Theo shook his head. "I don't have any details, so we should get going."
The two walked quietly down the corridor. Clementine's mind wandered to the night before. So much had happened and she still didn't have time to process it all. She wondered where Neville and Pansy were— she still had so many questions.
"Did you have fun last night?" Theo asked, breaking the silence. Clementine's stomach lurched— she would have rather walked in excruciating silence than to talk about last night at all. Especially with Theo of all people.
"What?" She blinked and looked back at him. Her heart raced as she tried to think of anything else to say. Would Theo rather know about her night with Draco, or how she got involved with disposing of a dead body? Vampire or not, it wasn't a story worth sharing.
"Did you have fun last night?" Theo repeated his words with direct intent as he eyed her suspiciously. Clementine could tell in his eyes that as curious as he was he still didn't know anything. "Blaise left the ball early, and you disappeared shortly after."
"If only you paid that close attention to your own date." Clementine snorted in disbelief. "Maybe Susan would have had a better time."
"Susan had a great time, actually." Theo scoffed at the insinuation. "But really, where did you run off?"
"I was... busy... chaperoning." Clementine chose her words carefully. "You know, it's sort of the entire reason we were there, remember?"
"Pansy and Neville don't need any chaperoning." Theo raised a brow. "That sounds like an excuse to me. You know as well as I do that they're not having an affair. Pansy isn't even interested in men, and Neville has only ever had eyes for Luna."
"An excuse? That's what you think?" Clementine scoffed. "If you only knew what—"
Her words were drowned out by the sound of professors and staff members all clamoring over one another. They had reached the meeting and it was absolute pandemonium. The only people who looked calm and collected were Neville and Luna who were talking amongst themselves along the back wall.
"What's going on?" Clementine walked through the crowd towards the couple. Theo fell back and began speaking to a few other witches on the administrative staff. The room had yet to calm down around them as everyone began spouting off their own theories and speculations as to what had happened.
"A bludger was cursed, and it knocked Madam Hooch off her broom early this morning when she was getting ready for training. She's on leave for the remainder of the term, per her own request." He explained.
"Is she going to be alright?" Clementine looked at him with concern. She was doubtful this was an accident. Nothing was a coincidence these days.
"She'll be fine after some intensive care with Pomfrey." Luna explained. "I think the incident shook her up more than anything. They already have a replacement lined up and everything. It's surprising how quick it fell together."
"Who is the replacement going to be? Do you know?" Clementine furrowed her brow wondering who would possibly be daft enough to take a position at the school after the past few months events. Word had to be getting out to the general public by this point. Some parents had already expressed interest in having their students taken out of school after Opal went missing.
"Ginny Weasley." A small smirk formed on Neville's lips. "She's taking time off from the Harpies for this. Can you believe it?"
"I certainly can." Clementine muttered, partially amused at the idea of her pregnant friend coaching quidditch. "Typical Gryffindor, charging into a situation unafraid of the consequences."
Her eyes drifted around the room back to Theo who was standing nearby talking to McGonagall. He instantly met her gaze before focusing his blue hues back on the Headmistress. She watched as his brow furrowed and his frown deepened while she spoke to him intently.
Clementine took the room in chaos as an opportunity to slip out unnoticed, down the quiet corridor towards the tower she knew a particular ghost liked to frequently haunt.
"Hello?" Clementine called out into the empty stairwell. She knew this was where the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw spent most of her time. "Grey Lady?"
"You know that's not the proper way to address her, Clementine." Luna's lofty voice surprised the witch. "It's impolite."
"Do you talk to her often?" Clementine asked turning to face the blonde. "The grey— Helena, I mean."
"Not so much these days. I'm not feeling very lost." Luna smiled softly. Her eyes looked straight through Clementine like she was reading her soul. "However, I do think she would be more inclined to talk to you."
"What makes you say that?" Clementine scrunched up her nose in confusion at the girl. Luna always knew more than she let on and it drove her crazy.
"Intuition, mostly. But that's not why I'm here." Luna reached into her bag and began digging through its contents. "I followed you out of the staff meeting because I've been meaning to give you something— here."
Luna handed Clementine a leather bound book with silver inlaid carvings on the cover. It felt warm to the touch, almost as if it were alive.
"What is this?" Clementine looked back at Luna skeptically. The metallic cover sparkled in her grasp as the light hit it just right.
"It's a book I recently discovered— it seemed lost for a long time." Luna's light eyes sparkled. "It's a diary."
"Helena's diary?" Clementine asked as she flipped over the book in her hands. She could feel the warm magic coursing through the binding every time she moved her fingertips.
Luna nodded in confirmation, "Theodore told me how interested you've been in finding any information you can about Ravenclaw's history. I hope this will be insightful."
"Thanks?" Clementine looked up from the book and saw that Luna had already disappeared from the hallway. She always had a habit of doing that, and Clementine wondered if she had her own network of secret passageways that not even the marauders map could detect.
Sliding down the wall, Clementine sat down on the floor in the quiet corridor and flipped open to the first page. It was practically illegible with ink running through the pages. It looked like it had been submerged in water at some point and all of the words were lost. Why would Luna think this was helpful?
Clementine continued to thumb through the pages, disappointed and confused at the gift that Luna had given her. Her fingers stopped, opening up the book to a page that had not been tampered with. It had two words on the page: Providentia Illustratio.
"Providentia Illustratio." Clementine recited the incantation out loud. The words felt foreign on her tongue, yet the phrase felt familiar like she had somehow known it all along.
Clementine let out a groan as her head began to sear in pain. She dropped the book next to her, hearing it thud against the marble floor. Her eyes squeezed shut as flashes of images too fast to see raced through her brain. She could see places in the castle she had never been before, and people moving so fast that it was all a blur.
It was painful to watch, and almost too much for her to handle as words and phrases began to enter her thoughts. Whispers were so loud that it felt like someone was screaming.
Clementine could hear some words filter through all of the noise.
Heir. Prophesied. Murder. Deatheater.
She screamed as a pain burst through her entire body, making her go limp.
Clementine's eyes shot open and she saw a familiar glowing figure peering down at her. She wanted to reach out, say something— anything— to get Helena to speak with her, but the Grey Lady disappeared just as Clementine passed out on the floor.
_______
"Clementine."
Clementine felt her body being shaken as she stirred awake. Her head was still pounding and her entire body ached. She wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep until she didn't feel anything at all.
"Clementine, you need to wake up. Please."
Her eyes fluttered open and she saw Theo's blue hues staring down at her. The creases in his forehead were full of concern as he scanned her face. His calloused hand cradled her jaw as he forced her to look up at him.
"Theo—" her voice croaked. Her throat felt like it was on fire, still raw from the screaming.
"Are you alright?" He wrapped his arms around her and pulled the witch to her feet. "I heard you screaming, and came as fast as I could."
"My book." Clementine looked around disoriented. The diary had disappeared. "Where's my book? It was right here I swear."
"Clementine what happened?" Theo ignored her rambling and gripped her arms tighter so she would have to look at him. "Tell me what's going on."
"I don't know." Clementine shook her head as the throbbing in her temples continued. "I don't know what happened. I saw— I heard— I don't know."
"I need to get you some help." Theo pulled her down the hall. "Pomfrey is certainly going to be busy today between you and Hooch."
"No, Theo. I'm fine." She protested and planted her feet in place. Theo stopped in his tracks and looked at her warily. He was still worried about her standing on her own in her weakened state, desperate to hold the frail girl who was standing firm.
"You don't have to prove anything to me." Theo assured her, his eyes like two sparkling pools of water. "You don't have to be so strong all the time."
Clementine could feel herself crumbling. His simple were were enough to have her coming undone, just like the world around her. Tears flooded down her face as the dam broke behind her eyes. "I don't know what to do anymore."
Theo closed the space between them again and held her close in his arms. "You don't have to know right now." He whispered into her hair as he kissed the top of her head, "It's okay not to know."
"Will you take me back to my room?" Clementine sniffled and looked back up at him. "Stay with me, please."
She didn't have to ask him twice. Theo wasted no time picking up the woman in his arms and carrying her the rest of the way.
They didn't speak. They didn't have to. Some things went without saying.
In the comfort of her own bed, Clementine let her eyes graze Theo freely. The way he let his hands run through his unruly hair; his unkempt shirt that was almost always unbuttoned revealing the smallest bit of tanned skin on his chest; the way his lips always quirked into a crooked grin.
He sat down on the bed next to her, handing her a cup of tea as he sank into the cushions.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Theo asked again. He had a good reason not to believe her.
"I've been thinking about that night back in sixth year." Clementine sat up and took a sip of her tea grimacing at the obvious taste of sleeping draught. Theo was going to make sure she got rest even if she didn't. "When I came to see you."
"The night you left." Theo shifted and the bed squeaked underneath him. The grim look on his face revealed that he had been dreading this conversation. "I remember it."
"The night you rejected me." Clementine corrected him. The bitterness in her tone was almost tangible. "I really didn't see that coming at all, you know."
"I didn't want to." Theo looked away. Her focused on a bird singing outside the open window. "But I felt like I had no choice."
"Why?" Clementine yawned and finished her tea. She could tell that she would be back to sleep in a moment's notice. "We would have been happy together. No one makes me as happy as you."
"Because I couldn't be your second choice. I knew I was that night. How could we be happy together both knowing that secret?" Theo reached forward to caress her cheek with his hand. He felt warm and inviting, almost like coming home.
Clementine leaned into the gesture and sighed. "I wanted you— want you— just as much. You know that."
"You just have to accept that neither of us will be happy until you've picked one of us for good." Theo kissed her lips as Clementine's eyes fluttered closed. "Get some sleep."
"You'll stay with me?" Clementine asked as she drifted off. She held his hand tightly in her own, squeezing it for reassurance.
"I'll stay." Theo agreed in a whisper. "I promise."
_______
I'm sorry it took so long for me to post another chapter! Life has been incredibly busy the past month. It's not my best, but the plot must move forward. Go easy on me please 💗