Abandoned
Three hours had passed since Theodore and I last spoke to each other, the sound of pages turning and books being thrown away filled the unnerving silence between us. Personally, I didn't mind, I always considered the stillness of any sound comforting. Theodore was not aware about personal space when it came to emotions and secrets, it showed over and over again whenever he would ask anything about my father. Only to be met with a hush descending over my tightly shut mouth, lips forming a thin, straight line. This was the toughest detention I have ever gone through all these years. The presentable books were only but a few, dusty and shabby of condition. This was pointless. No way anyone would even consider touching any of these books, their presentation was ugly and unmistakably grotty – despite having intriguing themes as their subject of matter – let alone read them. The sheer chilly floor was by now engraved in my bottom, having gotten used to it by now, thanking Merlin there was no dust over the stony tiles. Which was weird; all the bookshelves, randomly spawned objects and glassy vials were stained with thick layers of dust. Everything except the floor was dirty and powdery looking, no rugs in sight to defend our bottoms over the floor, unfortunately.
"Look," Theodore spoke up abruptly, his hands carrying a thick, crimson book with pages overflowing it, as if ready to explode. My brow raised curiously, eyes squinting into slits as I observed the heavy book Theodore held firmly in his fingers. It looked suspicious; the chunkiness of the hand binding looking of it, the yellow, olden pages that were crawling their way out of every edge and corner. Theodore stood up with a swift kick of his legs and a grunt, handing the book to me.
"Look what the first page inside writes." He requested with an amusement swimming in his lighthearted tone, the tome finally reaching my hold. I looked up at Theodore wondering if he was bluffing and was just slacking off by now. What could be more important than making some progress on cleaning these ancient books? Nonetheless, I obliged, turning the hard-cover of the crimson volume with a lazy move of my index finger. Then, with knitted eyebrows, confusion penetrated my burnt-out brain into small fragments.
"Love is but an illusion, yet ours shines brighter than any star."
"Yeah."
"What even is this? A romantic diary?"
"Most likely."
I met Theodore's casual figure lazily leaning back against the thick walls of coldness, a glimpse of his crooked, significant smirk slowly making its way to cover his lips into a curve. His arms folding over his chest loosely, his ankles mimicking the movement and crossing over the other. My eyes snapped wide, sending my eyebrows up to my lined forehead in surprise at the revelation, though it only seemed normal by now, given the confessing phrase of the first page. Like a promise for what's to come. My interest piqued to a new high at the thought of an old, romantic diary being withheld in our crafty hands. In the hands of two Slytherins, even worse. Shivers of anticipation rushed up and down my spine, the hairs of my body standing. I readjusted my pose over the floor, biting my bottom lip excitedly with one finger still pointing to the handwritten quote over the yellowish paper, reading it again and again in the back of my head. Theodore's height towered over my sitting form, his baby blue eyes big and curious, his one foot tapping over the floor to contain his enthusiasm for our peculiar find.
"Come on, turn the page!" Theodore whined, his mouth forming into a scowl of complain, filled with eagerness to stick his nose in these pages. Of course, I, too, shared the mutual excitement, Merlin only knew what we would discover. I raised my index finger over the paper, heart pounding rapidly against my chest with nervousness. I lowered my finger at the rusty corner of the next page, attempting to turn the page.
"What the..." I muttered under my breath, my excitement gone, brows frowning and eyes back into thin slits.
"What are you doing? Why are you not turning the page?" Theodore asked with a raised voice armored with annoyance, kneeling before me to meet my height, his knees bent and his hands relaxed over them. He tilted his head to the side, his tongue darting over his teeth, excitement having been turned into sheer annoyance. I tried. Again, and again and again. Trying to turn the next page, but seemingly unable to. The papers were stuck together, and not be the passage of time. This was different than any other book we had come across with. This one had magic involved, there was a charm that had made this diary impotent to open to anyone apart from the owner. Or anyone who knew how to break the spell, at least.
"I... I can't. I'm trying but it seems... charmingly locked."
"Who would even go through the trouble to keep this diary so... secure?"
"Someone who doesn't want nosy students up their love life, probably."
"Then they shouldn't have left it here, no?" Theodore asked in an audacious manner, rolling his eyes back into his head, groaning loudly as a hefty kick send a book against the stony wall out of frustration as if it was but a pebble annoying him. I sighed heavily in defeat, eyes briefly examining the crimson diary in my hands that carried no label of an owner. Filled with countless love letters and heartfelt stories, no doubt. At least in my head that's what it's contained. There were so many pages overflowing through every edge that it was remarkable how perfectly sealed it remained, even after all these years. The diary was probably as old as Snape. Merlin, what if it was as old as Dumbledore? I shuddered at the thought alone. Theodore kept pacing back and forth in front of me, disappointment covering his saddened downturned lips, eyes sulked like a niffler without gold jewelry. Theodore was right. If the owner of this diary didn't want it to be found, why would they leave it here? Or, worst of all, let it go missing for it to end up in the Room of Requirement. Babbling, bumbling band of baboons, the owner, if you ask me.
But before Theodore and I could discuss the matter further, we heard the door of the room enchantingly appear bit by tantalizing bit. Both of us turned to look at each other with wide, alarmed eyes, stopping what we were doing. The diary. The diary was still in my hands. Merlin. There was no way we would let this diary get lost in this room that was ever changing each second ticking by, no chance of us losing it despite not being in the power to make it open. Theodore gestured to me to pass him the diary, his hands trembling in anxiety at the little time we had left before Snape would enter the room. I passed him the book and he passed it back to me again. I stared at him in disbelief, though it seemed like he didn't mean to do it by the shocked look of his face as he kept patting down his clothes. As if finding the right, hidden spot to conceal the diary out of Snape's eyes. I passed him the diary gain, like it was a bag containing drugs that made both of us nervous not to get caught red-handed. He caught the diary before it hit the floor, snatching it and tucking it under his oversized black shirt, pulling his robes to cover the front of his clothes, trying to appear as unbothered and innocent as he could at the moment.
I stood up swiftly by with a kick of my legs, my hands coming down to the floor to push my weight off the ground as quickly as I could. Pretending to tend to some books to appear less guilty myself as Theodore followed me over to a pile of books next to one of the crooked bookshelves. Both of us sending books flying to the pile of the 'poorly conditioned' category and others to the 'great to use' pile. Then, the enchanted door appeared with a flashy toot behind us as our backs were staring at the door. Snape didn't inform us of his arrival, if anything, his pointy shoes chimed soundlessly over the tiled stones like a lion observing it's dinner.
"Knight. Nott. I see you have been... busy, with your punishment." Snape's voice came strongly from right behind our backs, making both Theodore and I gulp as we side eyed each other. Theodore was the first to turn to face Snape before I followed his actions. Casting nervous side glances at Theodore, who was as chill as a popsicle despite the turmoil boiling under the surface, his posture relaxed and broad shoulders sagging loosely.
"Professor. Is it time we go back to our dorms yet?"
"It is already late, Mister Nott, why else would I be here for? Detention tomorrow afternoon, again, obviously." Snape expressed with a robotic pitch, his fingers methodically fiddling with his wand in both hands tediously as his critical gaze drifted between Theodore and I. Next, his orbs lowered to the floor, following the chaotic mess plastered over the dull, grey stones; scattered books with molded binds gaping open, reeking of freckled dosages of dust, yellow pages burnt from the advanced years. Snape looked less than impressed at the distress and disarray on the ground, the tomes circling Theodore and I like a burning ring of fire, about to be sacrificed for the greater good. Snape span around, his robes following his swift movement like a swan's tail twirling amidst the darkness of the room.
"Waiting for an invitation? You are dismissed. To your dorms. Now." He ordered with his repetitive sardonic dryness, making his own way out of the room and expecting us two to follow him back to the Slytherin common room. Theodore looked at me with nearly guilty, tilted eyes, but I didn't understand the reason as he uttered nothing but a wave back at me before following Snape. My brows singed together, one eye twitching in perplexity as I sprinted after Snape and Theodore. Both men in front of me, walking slowly as if to savor the arcane moonlight illustrating amidst the twinkling stars, peeking by each stone pillar we passed by in perfect silence. The owls hooting somewhere above the castle's walls, creating a vexatious ambience as Snape's and Theodore's footsteps echoed loudly with each tap over the stones. The empty corridos bouncing to life with clicking shoes and crackling, dim torches decorated over the wall's centuries now. The fire flickered over Theodore's hollowed cheeks, the mole on his left cheek visible now that I was leisurely sauntering behind Snape and gawping at the former's facial structure. With every step he took his soft, dirty blonde curls would bounce every so little, without much volume due to his deliberated movements and idle strides. My eyes peeked at my completely straight brown hair that dropped around my pale cheeks, caging them, the vibrant color resembling the one of melted milk chocolate. The spell of silence emitting from those two was radiating to me awkwardness. Yes, silence was comforting, but not with Snape present.
After what felt like an eternity we had arrived at the wall where the Slytherin common room was located behind the rough stone and ceiling. The snake border on the ground below arched up, slithering its body and manifested a doorway. The rock-strewn scales of the snake's silhouette shaped a curve on top, revealing the passage to common room. The three of us halted before the thick, embossed doorway, some beautiful reliefs of basilisks and vipers adorned the portal of the hard wood before our eyes. Theodore's hand reached to the door's handle, twisting it inside his palm.
"Do not be late tomorrow. Goodnight." Snape bid us goodnight as soon as Theodore creaked the door open, twirling around and already making his was, once again, back to his own quarters. Not before casting me a singular, warning glare. Theodore looked down at me, his richly blonde curls nearing the doorway's frame.
"Seems like our night has come to an end, Knight." Theodore spoke up with a neutral pitched tone, his sleepy, hooded ocean blue gaze fixating on the green and brown notes inside my irises. For some reason he was blocking the passage to the common room for me to enter; one hand placed across the other side of the doorframe whilst the other rested, bent, over the other where his head hang loosely on top of it. One eyebrow perked up over my forehead, folding my arms across my chest, still standing outside the common room, whereas Theodore was half in and half out.
"Drop the act, Nott. What are we going to do about the diary?"
"We will find a way to get it to open."
"How can we even do that?"
"You'll have to trust me with this one. I'll find the way." Theodore reassured me with a determined puff of his chest, patting on his abs where the hidden secret was concealed underneath his robes and blouse. He seemed confident in his abilities, presumably magic and cleverness to solve the enigmatic charm that kept us away from burying our noses inside those pages. Theodore turned his figure, his back facing me as he unblocked the door's passage, driving himself deeper into the underground common room. I made my way inside, my eyes drifting past the vacant space filled with a chilly temperature that made the hairs of my body stand up. I was already cold enough due to spending so many hours miserably trying to keep up with the floor of the Room of Requirement, everything around me felt wintry chilly. Theodore's feet landed on the velvety carpet of the dormitory's hallway, leading our way until the male and female dorm's split our ways. To each their own way and back to normality until detention time dawned upon us.
The way to our dorms was quiet, maybe a bit too quiet, on the verge of ghostly, the aura around us shifting further into darkness and barely lit candles that were burning their last breath. The clock back in the common room struck 2 in the morning. The significant sound of its arrows circling around the round circle of Latin numbered time telling ticking, loud enough to be discernible despite the distance of the dorms and the common room. Our feet carried us further and further down the descending dorms where the rest of the students were soundly asleep, the snores coming clearly even if the doors were tightly shut. No sound proofness in this school, everyone knew that. Theodore paused on the stairs that leaded to the male dorms, while on the right were the female ones. He circled back around, staring deeply into my eyes with a mischievous glint in his dilated orbs. A crooked, sinister smirk playing on the corners of his lips, curling them with a discreet glimpse of his top, white teeth. In a flash, he leaned forward, his face hovering above me, his expensive cologne filling my nostrils like a rude punch right on my nose, the scent of cigarettes faint yet noticeable.
"Next time, wear something longer. I can see you trembling from miles away." He whispered with a derided sneering upper lip wrinkling the temple of his nose, up to where his thick eyebrows split. I was taken aback by his close proximity, his hot breath hitting my eyelashes and making them flatter at the intensity of his words. For a moment I was left dumbfounded by the sudden change in his perplexing nature, gulping hard, my throat unexpectedly dry. Was I intimidated? Yes, absolutely. Theodore was not known for using such close vicinity, not even seen with his girlfriend in such narrowed nearness. At least from what students around the school gossiped with. I simply stared at him, surprised, not used to being intimidated by a person who never showed this side to anyone. Especially to someone they barely knew. I took a step away from him, creating some very much needed distance.
"Next time, fully inform your girlfriend of your shenanigans. She seems pretty lost when it comes to you. Nott." I spat with a scowl back at Theodore, my eyes forming into slits as my voice came out more ironic and harsher than I had intended. With a roll of my eyes, I twirled around, stomping my feet over the velvety floor, the sound being sucked into the material as I strolled further and further away from Theodore, who remained typically silent.
"Thorny much, aren't you, Knight?" Theodore whispered as soon as Ophelia was out of sight – and hopefully for him – out of mind, before making his way back to his dorm.