◤ ❝The beginning of the end is upon us.❞ ― Theodore Nott◢
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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: SISYPHUS
April 17, 1997
"You're a idiot."
Andromeda's lip twitched, the beginning of a smirk curling on her mouth as she watched Blaise make a fool of himself from across the table in Potions. Theodore was staring too, unimpressed, with the beginning of an eye roll threatening to appear. The potion in front of him was oozing black liquid when it was supposed to be a glistening, foamy pearl shade similar to the one in front of Andromeda. Blaise, however, had been so caught up in the love letter that his girlfriend had snuck into his bag that he spilled the entire contents of spider legs into his cauldron―thus ensuing the mess of goo that was slowly burning the sides of the cauldron.
"Not everyone can be Granger's freaky brain twin, wise arse," Blaise hissed from across the table, scowling at Mia for her comment. "Your bloody mind is a weapon of mass destruction in itself."
"She'll only take that as a compliment," said Draco bluntly, scowling when the black goo made its way over to his belongings and he quickly swept them up off the counter. Across from him, Mia smirk gleamed brighter as she made eye contact with Blaise. Draco continued, "Zabini, I swear to fucking Salazar, if any of your shite gets on me―"
"Oh, give him a rest," Mia jeered, leaning forward on her elbows with a smirk when Blaise glared at her. "He's in loooooove."
Blaise's eyebrows pinched and he glared at her. "Fancy talking about love then, do you, Mia―"
"Oh, bloody hell," Theo muttered under his breath, his fingers going to the bridge of his nose to pinch it in frustration.
"How are you and Vaisey doing as of late?"
There was a brief pause in the air at Blaise's question, unknowing of the humorous joke he'd just made in front of them. Mia remained unphased, her grin never slipping as she looked at Blaise. Theo let out a rumbled cough from the center of his chest to hide his snicker, and―best of all―Draco flickered his attention away from his things to put his undivided attention on the girl in front of him. His hands clasped in front of him, features raised high in pointed curiosity.
"Yes, Romy," Draco egged on, leaning forward on his desk with a growing smirk as he met eyes with Mia. "Entertain us with your love affair with a certain Slytherin, please."
She hummed at him, her eyes staying on his. "Care for all of the intimate details to suffice your immaculate love life?"
"Immaculate?" he asked, seemingly amused. "I certainly wouldn't use that word. Perhaps something a little less chaste."
"Nonexistent?" Theo offered with an eye roll.
Draco shot him a sneer from across the table. "No need to talk about yourself in such a way."
"Now, now, men," Blaise scolded, raising his arms in a feigned attempt to get them to play nice. "We all know Nott has a bright future with his han―"
"Ew, Zabini!"
Mia wretched, cringing at the joke that made Draco snigger and Theo flush a bright red. Blaise only shrugged innocently, returning back to stirring his pile of shite potion like he'd just created the concoction to cure dragon pox. Unbeknownst to him, Slughorn was going around the room and upon arrival at their table, his disbelief had how horribly Blaise had messed up was evident. The pair of them joked around for a few more minutes as they gathered their things up for the day, Theo and Mia messing around with one another by purposely pulling the others' belongings out again.
Theo scowled at her once more after everything was finally collected, the rest of the class already having exited the room besides their table. She grinned, but her eyes fell off of Theo and onto Slughorn at the center of the room. All class, he'd seemed distracted. His attention was not focused as it usually was, and rather than teaching a lesson today, they were reading more from the book without any proper instruction. Mia wasn't stupid. She noticed his different mood the moment she walked into class the first day after he'd returned from break, but now, he seemed even more distracted.
A hand went to lay on her arm, and she glanced over to see that Draco was watching her with furrowed brows. She pursed her lips and turned to Slughorn, then flickered her eyes to Draco again. The silent conversation between them was short, but it said all that it needed to. Neither of them truly needed words to understand the other anymore―they were just an addition to their communication with each other.
He nodded, his eyes following Slughorn once before before he pulled Mia's bag off her shoulder to carry it. Then, he released her shoulder and brushed past her with only a faint tempt at pushing his chest against her back. She rolled her eyes at him, but didn't pay any more attention to his display. Theo had seen the whole interaction, but before he could ask any questions, Draco was nudging him forward with a not-so-gentle elbow to the arm.
That left Mia alone in the classroom with Slughorn. Her exterior molded into the perfect, little student she always was for him, a layer of concern washing over her face so that she was believable. Walking to his worktable, she waited until he glanced up from collecting the day's ingredients to notice her. He jumped slightly when he saw her standing there.
"Oh, Andromeda!" he said, his hand going to his chest. "My, you scared me, my girl. I thought everyone had left already―"
Mia pulled her lips up into a small, fake smile. "I'm sorry, professor. I didn't mean to startle you. I only wanted to make sure that you were all right and to ask how your break went. You seemed upset today in class."
Slughorn's face softened, and he hesitated a moment. "Your heart is too big, Miss Erebus. I appreciate your concern for my well-being, but I assure you I am doing well...my time was spent finding some rare ingredients from collectors around Europe..." he paused, and while his face was still solemn and showed he was clearly not telling her something, he still looked her way. "How was your holiday? I hope your mother is favoring well."
"Actually, sir," she paused, clearing her throat and glancing down at her hands. "With the first anniversary of my father's death coming up soon, the days have been much harder for her...it has become harder on all of us. Every day, the new reports in the Daily Prophet..."
Mia trailed off, fiddling with her fingers. Slughorn's eyes stayed attentive on her. "My apologies, Miss Erebus―my mistake for forgetting―there is much chaos in the world today, but I believe..." he hesitated, warily. "I believe that so long as we remain reminded of why we must fight, we shall never lose."
"Sir, I don't want him to win."
Slughorn and Mia were both convinced by those six words. She must be a wonderful liar.
"He murdered my father," she continued, and Slughorn watched her pitifully as her eyes welled up with tears. Fake. She sniffled, running the sleeve of her robe along her nose. "My family...there is something missing in all of us now, and I can only imagine how all of the other victims of his and his followers crimes must feel..."
"Death is an unforgiving crime, Miss Erebus. I have lost much of my family to death...too many lives are lost as a consequence of war, I'm afraid. The most we can do is find the light in the trying times. You see the good in others, Andromeda, just as your mother does. Your family may never be the same, but remind yourself every day of those you still have, dear..." Slughorn pursed his lips uncomfortably when she sniffled again. "I am so dearly sorry for the pain you are going through, Andromeda."
Andromeda was definitely in pain, but for more reasons than her father's death. She blinked the weight of the wet lashes off her cheeks, and she nodded quietly at Slughorn. "Thank you, professor. I'm sorry for bothering you with my troubles, I know you must be incredibly busy...it's just―well, I feel comfortable talking with you about these things...no one else listens quite as well as you do. No one understands."
Vomit, she thought.
"My door is always open for you, Miss Erebus, if you should ever need to talk about your troubles. The Wizarding World is blessed to have gained such a spirited soul out of you―I can only begin to see the start of the amazing things you will accomplish in this life."
Andromeda thanked Slughorn after that, disgusted with herself. She would do nothing amazing. She would accomplish nothing but pain, as she had already begun with him. The conversation ended there, with Mia containing the sniffles that she'd managed to muster out of her tear ducts. When she walked out of the dungeons, she was unsurprised to see her two trusted confidantes in this life. Likewise, she was also unsurprised to see that Theodore and Draco were bickering once again, Theodore scoffing loudly and crossing his arms over his chest in frustration. When they heard Slughorn's classroom door close shut, and they saw Mia wipe away the remnants of tears off her cheeks, both of them shut up and stood straight.
Theodore met her halfway, his brows furrowed in concern as he glanced past her head to the room before landing on her again. "Is everything all right?"
She didn't say anything, clearing her throat and nodding slightly. She was not in much of a mood to talk about what just happened in there. It had to be done, but she could not ignore the ugly feeling building in her stomach. Theo knew her well enough to not push, and when he saw that her eyes caught on Draco's down the corridor, he frowned to himself.
"I'll leave you to speak with him," Theo muttered.
He pressed a kiss to her forehead before he turned around to walk away. Before he could get too far, Mia grabbed a hold of his arm and squeezed it, a silent thank you in her gesture. Theodore smiled softly her way and nodded once, then disappeared around a corner and up the stairs where he would undoubtedly find Andrew in the Great Hall before lunch. Mia felt her shoulders sink as Theodore walked away, a lump forming in her throat of genuine tears now threatening to expose the fake ones.
Draco slowly made his way in front of her, and when he saw how her lip trembled, he sighed softly. "Let's get out of here, Romy."
She wished she could get out of this ruddy castle.
――――――――――
"You'll need to open it eventually."
Mia stared distantly at the unopened letter in front of her with her name written across it. The letter from Alastiare Erebus haunted her every move at this point, from the moment she woke up to the time she went to bed at night―even in her sleep, she was tormented with nightmares reenacting her father's last moments as she wondered what truly happened. For months, she thought she had gotten past it. She had allowed herself to mourn her father and become her own herself outside of his shadow. The letter changed that.
"Or you can continue staring at in hopes it bursts into flames like you do everything else."
Andromeda turned to give Draco a sneer at his second comment, which only made him raise his eyebrows without care. They were back in the Room of Requirements, surprise surprise, after their classes for the day. Astronomy would be starting soon, but they had another hour before they were due up at the Tower for observations. For the rest of the day after her small chat with Slughorn, she'd been in an awful mood. Most everyone noticed it, Andrew and Theo sharing looks, but no one spoke anything of it for the rest of the day.
Well, that was until Draco got Mia alone. "I'll only continue to stare at the side of your face until you finally explain to me why you came out crying today. It's not a bothersome view to look at forever."
"They weren't real tears," she insisted, throwing her father's letter back on the rug in front of her. Then, she shot him a sharp look. "And stop attempting to flirt just to get your way."
"Too late for that, Romy," he hummed, his grey eyes catching hers. When not even the smallest blush appeared on her face, he knew something was wrong. That made him frown. He pushed himself up, moving so that he was seated facing her. "Mia, what happened?"
"Nothing. It went just as I wanted it to. Slughorn has been acting different, and I figured I would see if he would reveal why. He didn't, which means that his precious Potter must have asked about the Horcruxes already. He believes that I am upset about the anniversary of my father's death and hate the Dark Lord with every fiber of my 'spirited soul'."
Draco heard the bitterness in her voice at the end. "Spirited soul?"
"Hm," she muttered, focusing her attention on her hands. She rubbed the scar on her palm. "Slughorn mentioned that he believed I was destined for greatness―I'm meant to accomplish great things in this life, you know."
"Mia, look at me."
Stubbornly, she didn't, and continued to dig her nail in her scar further. It could've bled and she wouldn't have noticed. Draco was used to those kinds of antics from her by now. One hand went to pull hers away from each other, and the other moved to grab her chin to focus her eyes on him. She didn't even bother fighting it anymore, frowning at him when she caught the concern in his eyes.
Mia watched the emotion move in waves in his irises, a turmoil of grey that she'd grown so comfortable with over the last few months. Then, she looked down, and she felt that familiar flutter in her heart replace all of the pain for just a split second. Whatever it was, she thanked it. Draco must have seen the look in her eyes because, before either of them could say another word, he was closing the space between them and pressing his lips to hers.
She learned quickly that the coldness of Draco never reached his lips. Similar to what she knew was in his heart, they remained constantly warm. His hands had learned different ways to explore the parts of her body he couldn't before―he knew the softness of her cheeks already, he knew the roughness of the scar on her hand, just like he knew the darkness which hid on her arm. Draco knew as much as he possibly could about her without ever having to touch, but now that he could―well, neither one of them were entirely sure if they would ever be able to stop.
His fingers stayed gripping her chin, holding her in place where she was so that she could not pull away from him. Not like she would, instead letting her hands rest on the nape of his neck where she could muss up the pristine, white hair of his that she hated so much. Mia expected it to be weird, now that they had kissed, but it wasn't. If anything, it only added to the respect and understanding they had for one another. It made them closer than partners now. They were something bigger than that.
He nipped at her bottom lip, smirking when pushed away from him to give him a sharp look. That gave her the opportunity to look at his eyes now, hooded with a new emotion and clouded from their kiss. He let go off her chin and flickered his attention to every small speckle of detail on her face, and something heavy grew inside of Mia's heart as she watched him.
"What are you thinking?" she asked softly, pursing her lips as she glanced between his eyes to every other feature of his face.
One brow raised curiously and he smirked. "Says the Legilimens."
"Funny, coming from the Occlumens."
"I've never hid my thoughts from you, Andromeda," he said, honestly, and she felt another prickle in her heart when she saw how serious he was. He shrugged and moved back slightly, going to hold onto her scarred hand again to rub against the thin line. "Even before they become my thoughts, you usually know them first."
She looked at him attentively, a twinkle in her eyes. "Yes, well, you are quite predictable."
"Hardly," he scoffed, rolling his eyes at her in protest. "You are the predictable one."
"Oh?" she asked, challenging him with a growing smirk. "You predicted that I would fall right into your arms all along then, yeah?"
"Along with being unpredictable, I am also irresistible."
"Not entirely true. I'd say I resisted for quite a while. I felt sorry for you, really."
Draco narrowed his eyes at her, and just when she thought that he was going to bicker back with a usual snide comment like they always did, he surprised her by grabbing her chin again and laying a quick snog to her mouth. She barely had the chance to blink when he pulled away, a smug grin rising on his swollen lips when he saw the blush rising to her cheeks. He missed it before. Seeing it meant that the events from earlier were being washed away from her mind, and that was all he could hope for.
"Quite a while was long enough, Romy."
――――――――――
Since returning back from Easter break, Mia had been avoiding her dormmates as much as humanly possible. Well, she'd certainly been doing that long before with Parkinson and Bulstrode, but now she had to alienate herself from Daphne now. Given that where Daphne was, Tracey did not linger far behind, that made seeing her difficult as well.
Perhaps it was unreasonable for her to be avoiding them―well, Daphne. Since Theo came out to her, Mia was in an odd situation where she felt pity for Daphne but on the other side of things, she worried if she spent too much time with the girl, Daphne might start asking questions Mia wasn't comfortable answering about her cousin. That was not her place, and as far as she knew, Theo and Daphne had been avoiding each other even more vehemently than Mia was.
But they slept in the same place, so sometimes that could be difficult. Mia stood dead in her tracks on her way to her bed when she noticed that she was not alone in their dorm. Daphne was sitting on the chest at the end of her bed frame, fiddling uncomfortably with her hands. When she heard the door creak open, her head shot up and Mia saw the pitiful expression dawning her face. For a moment, she contemplated turning around and pretending she never saw it.
"Um," Mia started, uncomfortably, blinking at Daphne. "Are you all right?"
Daphne's eyes welled up with tears at the question. Right, Mia thought, bad question to start with when someone was upset. With the others off doing Merlin knows what on the Friday afternoon, she had little more to do besides glare at the Vanishing Cabinet with fiery rage. Right now, she'd rather deal with a crying Daphne. She'd really hit a low point.
"I'm so sorry, Mia," were the first words to tumble off Daphne's lips, and the blonde girl was standing up and fumbling around awkwardly in front of her. "I've been acting horribly to you and―and...Theodore―I've been the worst friend ever and my actions were so irrational, Mia. I just felt so...so upset and...dumb―"
Mia paused, clearing her throat uncomfortably. "Daphne. Maybe you should be having this conversation with Theodore."
"Oh, no," she gaped at Mia, horrified. "I can't even look him in the eyes."
"Theo isn't upset with you, Daphne. He's upset for hurting you."
"He...what?"
"There are very few people in Theodore's life that he cares about, and even fewer who know about his relationship with Andrew. I don't believe that is a secret he is quite ready to tell the entire Wizarding World right now, but...he told you because he cares about you―he had no intention of hurting you. He would never do that...but pretending to love you in a way he never fully could would've hurt both of you much more. You should speak with him, Daphne. He misses you."
Daphne's blue eyes bored into hers for a few moments, still watering up with tears as she sniffled uncomfortably with every passing second. Then, she let out one last choked sob and moved forward, wrapping her arms around Andromeda. In response, Mia tried her best not to flinch and tense up immediately, her hands falling awkwardly at her sides as Daphne crushed her to death. The discomfort didn't last long, thankfully, because she pulled away and wiped her tears, a fierce determination now set in her eyes.
"All right. I'm going to go talk to him right now."
Andromeda would've told her that Theodore might need a bit of a heads up before approaching that conversation with her, but Daphne had already set off in the direction of the door with a pep in her step. Mia paused, watching her leave without shutting the door behind her, and pursed her lips. Theodore would be fine. He'd come to her if he needed anything.
――――――――――
Not ten minutes after Mia laid down on her bed did the door open to their dorm, and she sighed, covering her face with her pillow in hopes that it was only one of the girls needing to pick up a scarf or a book. Then, to her surprise, the footsteps got closer and closer to the edge of her bed until a weight fell down next to her. She would have flinched at the sudden impact due to her blindness had she not immediately recognized the presence of the person next to her.
"Running away from problems is my personality trait. Go get your own."
There was a huff next to her, and Mia felt the person throw their hands up over their head. She flung the pillow off her eyes and turned her head, giving her cousin a side eye that he barely acknowledged before frowning. He'd thrown his arm over his face to cover his eyes like she had, no doubt to contain the growing migraine they were both feeling.
"Shut up," he huffed out, groaning at her response.
Mia moved her head back to look up at the ceiling, pursing her lips. "I'm assuming you saw her and ran in the other direction?"
"Figured she wouldn't find me in here."
"She sleeps here, you idiot."
Theo scowled, lifting his arms so she could see the expression. "Really? I never knew."
"Be nicer or I'll tell her where you are," she retorted back, and then she sighed, closing her eyes for a second before turning to meet his eyes for the first time. Dark circles were hiding, which made them look more like siblings than ever before. She frowned. "Speaking with her is the only way the two of you will get past this, Theo. She wants to make things better. I know you do, as well. She's not upset any longer."
"That isn't..." he paused. "I'm not sure how to apologize to her yet."
"Why are you the one apologizing?"
"I led her on, Mia―"
She twisted her face. "But you didn't. She was always the one who tried to advance her feelings into something more. You have nothing to apologize for―"
"I never stopped it. I used her, in my own manipulative way, I suppose," and when she turned to look at him in confusion, he continued in his explanation. "Her affections, for some time, were something I used to convince myself that I should have feelings for a girl. After I while, I used it to ward off any suspicions. She never deserved to be that."
Theo was always the better of the two of them. There was a pause as they sat there in silence, both of the unconsciously fiddling with their pair of rings that Draco had gotten for them. The feeling was a lull now, and she noticed when she took the piece of jewelry off to bathe, she felt more absent without it on than she expected to. The thought triggered Theodore to think about the giver of the gift, and he pursed his lips.
"Do you have anything to tell me?" he asked casually, blinking at the ceiling.
She narrowed her eyes on a certain plank of wood. "Not particularly, no."
"Andromeda."
"Theodore."
He tilted his head and stared hard at the side of her head, boring a hole into her skull with his knowing look. Mia played dumb, pursing her lips up at the ceiling and deciding to grab a hold of her wand haphazardly, muttering a small incantation so that a small, blue spark would appear from it and cast along the ceiling of her bed. A genuine smile spread out on her face when she saw the constellations, her eyes focusing for a moment on the one she was named after before she traveled to the others.
"Do you remember when Aunt Athella always cast this during our nap time?" she asked softly, watching as the constellations twinkled and cast down a glittering shadow on the green curtains covering her bed. "You always fell asleep immediately. I stayed up memorizing all of them down to the smallest detail."
Theo felt the bittersweet tinge in his heart at the remembrance of his mother, and before he could let the feeling wither deep into his chest, Mia moved to lay her head over on his shoulder.
"Everything has changed," he mumbled quietly, swallowing hard. "Our family, this school, the Wizarding World..."
"Us?" she offered.
"Things are going to get worse here soon, aren't they, Mia?"
"Worse than they already are?" she asked, then she paused. "Yes. They will. You won't be involved. I'll make sure of it."
Theodore sighed heavily, closing his eyes and bringing his free hand up to rub at his eyes. "Andromeda, you need to stop doing that."
"Doing what?"
"Protecting me―"
She scoffed. "All right."
"We've been through this before," he started.
"Yes," she agreed, nodding. "And every single time, the only agreement we come to is that it will never happen, Theodore. The moment I stop protecting you from all of this is the moment that something happens to me. Until then―"
His jaw clenched. "Stop acting like something is going to happen to you, Mia―"
"Until then," she repeated, interjecting again after he cut her off. "You are and always will be my number one priority. Nothing has changed. Keeping you safe has always been my most important mission...the rest of them are only the necessary means of doing so―" and before Theodore could say something in rebuttal, she moved to clasp one hand over his mouth to silence him. "I am in no mood to argue with you. Besides, I always win."
He rolled his eyes and pulled her hand away from his mouth. "Perhaps in your mind."
"Of course. My mind is my greatest weapon."
"Oh, surely the beginning of the end is upon us then. Especially if you're out snogging Malfoy―"
Mia leapt forward, gaping at her cousin. "You absolutely arse!"
Before she could land a hit in at the snide comment he'd made, outing the fact that he was plenty aware that she was sneaking around with Draco, Theodore rolled out of the bed with a laugh and lunged out of the way to avoid the pile of clothes she'd cast directly at his head. Just as he managed to get through the door, she sneered over at him.
"I'll tell Daphne where you're hiding, you weasel!"
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Author's Note:
NOT EDITED. Sorry this is getting out so late! I've had a lack of motivation for this story and I'm only just getting back in the swing of things. I apologize if there are a lot of grammatical errors, I couldn't bring myself to go through and edit this at the moment...hopefully I'll do it soon!
With that said, let me know what you thought about this chapter! I appreciate all of your feedback and comments. Hopefully they will motivate me to get off my ass and keep writing until I finish this story.
Thank you for all of your love.