Detention
Chapter 10
The buzz of Halloween was forming around the school when the day finally arrived, all students excited for the extravagant feast to be served on the night of the thirty first, though Estella was excited for a reason other than that, detention would be over soon. In the few days from her talk with McGonagall with Theo to Halloween, she had officially gotten detention for hurting another pureblood.
McGonagall had caught her in the act, the boy was shouting slurs at a group of first year girls harmlessly talking about their favourite film, and when the boy heard them talking about something unfamiliar to him, he screamed, "don't talk about your mudblood act's here, you filthy little dirty bloods - if you wanna talk about muggle shit, get out of Hogwarts!"
It was at that moment that Estella stepped in, pushing the boy away from the three girls who were evidently terrified, soon getting comforted by Theo who had crouched down, sending them comforting smiles and reassuring them that he was a muggleborn too, and that his very good friend was going to sort the boy out for being so mean.
Estella had noticed that Theo was particularly good at comforting the muggleborn's that fell victim to the twisted words the pureblood's sent their way, she couldn't deny that seeing the soft features of his face, paired with an unusual kind smile that was very different from the usual smirk was a nice change, it made her heart swell.
But in that moment, she wasn't thinking about him as much as usual, in fact, she was thinking about the pureblood she had against the wall, her strength coming to her in her fit of rage, "like usual," she growled, but before she even told him how she was going to deal with him, she swiftly brought her knee up between her legs.
"I'll just be a second," Theo spoke quickly to the three girls, rushing over to Estella when he saw that McGonagall had witnessed it.
"Miss Pettigrew!" McGonagall shook her head, "has my talk with you not stuck in your head?!"
"Yes, but-"
"No but's, Estella," McGonagall tutted, sending her a disappointing stare whilst Estella's shoulder's slumped, "detention."
"Wha - Professor!" Estella exclaimed, running a frustrated hand through her hair, "that's so unfair, he deserved it!"
"I told you I would have no choice if you inflicted violence upon another student," McGonagall shook her head, "Madam Pomfrey isn't happy with the number of students having to go to her with broken noses."
"I didn't hit anyone's nose this time!" Estella grumbled, sharing an annoyed look with an angry Theo who knew she didn't deserve detention in the slightest, "if I'm getting detention for doing the right thing, he should get expelled!"
"Maybe so, Estella," McGonagall sighed, "but that decision is for Professor Dumbledore to make."
"Bu-"
"I expect you to be in my class tomorrow, Estella," she shook her head, seeing the girl's eyes widen even more.
"Tomorrow, but, Professor that's Halloween!" she screeched, her hands curled into fist. The boy she hurt was still groaning on the ground, there was no need to send him to the hospital wing, as he would be find in a few moments, so Professor McGonagall simply turned to walk away.
Theo felt terrible, especially since Estella's anger was triggered by her friendship with him, he felt somewhat annoyed that she had to go through detention alone, and whilst he knew that if his mother found out that he got another detention, she would go crazy, he wasn't thinking straight.
He just didn't want Estella to endure it alone, she didn't deserve that.
"Oi, Professor," Theo called, ignoring Estella's protests and watching McGonagall turn around. They had created quite a crowd, most of which supported Estella's decision to hurt the boy whilst some purebloods shook their head in disgust that she was going against their pureblood beliefs when only a select few of idiotic pureblood families thought their ideals.
"Mr Daws-"
She cut herself off when she watched Theo grab the groaning boy's hair, Estella had never seen him so angry before but as he looked into the eyes of the boy who had spoken the slur to innocent first years, eleven-year olds that didn't deserve that hatred, that didn't deserve to be victim of something so hateful, it was as though something had struck inside him.
His eyes had darkened, though it was impossible, his glare narrowed even more, the muscles in his arms tensed as he pulled the boy up by the hairs on his head whilst both Estella and Professor McGonagall watched in a slight shock.
Professor McGonagall knew that Estella was the one between the two to hurt the purebloods, Theo just watched without stopping her, knowing himself that stopping Estella would be a terrible thing to do, especially when she was so angry.
"Mr Dawson!" Professor McGonagall seemed to snap from her trance as he watched the boy cringe in pain from his head, but it was too late.
When Theo had released the boy's hair, he punched him right in the jaw so hard that his knuckles began to bleed and Estella could've sworn that she heard something crack in the boy's face. McGonagall stopped in her tracks when she finally realised why he did it, seeing Estella move quickly to take his hand, seeing the blood along his knuckles, she was quietly cursing him for hurting himself.
McGonagall had never seen two people so willing to care for each other, no matter the consequences. So with a heavy sigh and a shake of her head, McGonagall, after a few minutes of dead silence in the crowd that had formed, spoke, "I suppose I'll be seeing you too, Mr Dawson. My classroom. Tomorrow."
"See you then, Professor," Theo nodded, seeing the disappointment in her features, he could also see the pride.
For the two students sticking up for what they believed in.
"How is your knuckle?" asked Estella as she sat beside Theo in detention. Theo was supposed to be sitting at the other side of the room from her, but that didn't go as planned when McGonagall left them alone for all of two minutes, and when she had finally returned, Theo had switched seats.
He lifted his hand onto the desk, seeing the evident bruising already around his knuckles, Estella couldn't help but frown, reaching for his hand, she casually pressed a kiss to the biggest bruise that had formed, seeing him smirk that soon turned into a smile when she grinned at him.
"You shouldn't have done that," she whispers, moving closer to him whilst keeping hold of his hand, rather upset that he had hurt himself just for her, "I could cope with detention on my own, it was my choice to hurt that boy, and now you're in detention, and you're also hurt, that's not fair, Theo, not in the slightest.
"It was my choice, Estella," Theo was rather thankful that McGonagall had left the room again, thankful that he could be this close to Estella and no one could stop him, because she didn't want to stop him, and she definitely wasn't going to, "I wasn't going to make you endure this alone when you are doing it for muggleborn's, for me, you told me that you started hurting people when I became your friend, and I don't want you to think that that is the only reason you need to hurt people.
Because one of these days someone is going to fight back and I can't think of you getting hurt without going crazy, Estella, if I knew someone hurt you, I'd lose my mind.
I think I'd kill them," he had her face cupped in his hand, her eyes had widened as she stared at him intently, listening to the words he spoke, how serious he looked, she was positive he was inching closer to her.
So close that their lips brushed ever so slightly, and their eyes closed, and, "Miss Pettigrew, Mr Dawson, detention is not the time for public display of affection!"
"Sorry Professor," Estella squeaked, turning her head suddenly towards the desk, her eyes on the piece of parchment in front of her whilst Theo straightened himself out beside her, coughing ever so slightly under his breath.
Estella was trying her best to calm her rapid heartbeat but it was getting harder and harder as she felt Theo's stare on her. He couldn't help himself as he stared at her, her hands tapping rapidly on the desk in front of her, concentrating on the blank piece of parchment in front of her, she was trying her hardest not to stare at him.
It was driving him crazy.
Her cheeks had heated furiously, and he couldn't deny that his had too, his cheeks had tinged pink when McGonagall had caught them, but he just wished that she hadn't, he was so frustrated with the fact that had McGonagall had just been a minute longer then he would have finally felt the lips he'd been longing for, for so long, against his own.
She moved her seat closer to his ever so slightly, though he didn't notice, he had turned to stare at the parchment in front of him instead, trying to get the thought of her out of his head, he was sure it was impossible. He was thinking about her nonstop, but he was really used to it, he thought about her constantly.
Even a few weeks ago on his date with Coraline, when Estella walked into the pub, laughing and holding Sirius' hand, he just longed for it to be his hand that got to hold hers, that it got to be him pulling her closer, seeing that look on her face when they almost kissed, feeling her against him as he kissed her, felling her hands run through his hair, or his arms wrapped around her waist, he wanted it.
He wanted to touch her, innocently, and well - not so - innocently, he wanted to feel her tangled intimately with him, the thought was driving him insane, he was in some sort of trance as he thought about the possibility of having Estella, he just wished, hoped, that their lips brushing that closely was a sign that she wanted him too.
But when she reached over, under the table, brushing her hand with his and soon intertwining their hands, did Theo snap from his trance, turning suddenly to see the look on her face, the look he finally got, the look he wanted, the look that told him that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her, and it was definitely true.
She hadn't truly thought of it, she hadn't realised why she had gotten so hurt, no matter who told her, or who insinuated that they were a couple, she hadn't realised herself that she liked him, truly liked him, more than a crush, more than a simple infatuation, she wanted him, she longed for him, and she didn't care that it had only been two months since they had officially met.
Because they didn't need time to know that they would have so much together.
They had plenty of days, months, years to find out quirks about each other, but they knew so much already, he knew that she got a little bit of every type of candy that Honeydukes offered because she still was looking for her favourite and hadn't yet found it yet.
She knew that his favourite was chocoballs because he loved when he stuffed four in his mouth at the one time and Estella would laugh loudly and call him a chipmunk.
He knew that her favourite colour was yellow because she loved being in Hufflepuff, and she would always love her house.
And she knew that his favourite colour was a dark burgundy, not because he wanted to be a Gryffindor, but because his mother had a dark burgundy dress that she loved with all of her heart and the colour reminded him of his mum.
They knew so much more, how they liked their tea, both of them liked it piled with sugar and had found the habit of saying, "you don't need that much sugar, you're sweet enough," whenever they would sneak into the kitchens to make it, and even though both of them said it to each other, both of them laughing as they done so, they didn't change their sugar addiction.
She knew that Theo preferred Tea over coffee when she had made him a proper cup of tea when she had taken him to the kitchen that first time.
He knew that when she read books, she would start about three more at the same time because she could read so much and not get confused about what book was about what.
They didn't need to know each other for months and months to know that they knew each other already.
But they both knew that what they both wanted was each other.