ivy | theo nott

"I'll meet you there. Forgot my transfiguration book." Grace grumbled, pushing the seven flights of steps from her mind as she glanced at her watch. She would make it in time. Even if she didn't, she was sure she could handle McGonagall's glare if she was a few minutes late.

Leah and Terry's footsteps faded into the distance as Grace finally reached the third story, looking up through the winding staircases above her as she hurried up the next set of steps. She adjusted the bag over her shoulder, thinking about where her book could be that she had missed it that morning before turning the next corner, two hands surrounding her before she could stumble backwards.

"Shit..." She glanced behind her, stepping away from the edge of the stairs before meeting the hazel eyes before her. "Theo..."

"Careful, Gracie." He smirked, finally dropping his hands from her arms, though he didn't step back from her.

"You're the one walking on the wrong side of the..." She trailed off, realizing what floor they were on. "What are you doing up here, Nott?"

His lips pulled into a deeper smile, though he didn't seem to want to try to hide it from her.

"Theodore, I swear to Merlin, how many times am I going to have to tell you-"

"Did you throw my flowers away, bellissima?"

"Your..." She stopped, her mind returning to Draco vanishing the daffodils a few days before. "No, I didn't throw them away."

"Oh, no?" He raised his eyebrows, irritation rising in Grace's chest as his gaze drifted over her lazily.

"No, I didn't. Draco found them." She waited, watching his face closely, though if that revelation had surprised him, he didn't show it. She waited a few more seconds, silence enveloping the vacant hallway around them before continuing. "You need to stop, Theo. With the flowers. I've asked you nearly a dozen times now-"

"Why? Draco getting pissed?" A small smile was growing again, Theo's eyes darkening in the dim hallway.

"He's not... pissed..." Grace stuttered, "But, you can't... You need to stop-"

"Does he bring you flowers?" Theo cut her off.

Her heart sank, though she forced her gaze back to his, a frown tugging at the corners of her lips. "Of course he doesn't."

"Exactly."

"It's too much, Theo. It's gone on long enough, I'm asking you nicely-"

"I'm not stopping. You deserve them, and if he won't give them to you, then I will."

Grace huffed out a sigh, letting her gaze fall to the ground between them, blinking away the warmth of tears now flooding her eyes.

Theo ducked his head, slightly, watching one glittering tear trail down her cheek as she ran her fingers over her forehead in frustration.

"Gracie..." He spoke, his voice nearly fading away in the silent corridor. She didn't look up and he pushed himself off the wall, closing the distance between them and reaching for her arm, pulling her hands from her face. "You know he doesn't love you."

"He doesn't have to, Theo!" She finally looked to him, tears staining her face, though her eyes were glowing with anger. "It's not his fault, none of this was his choice!"

"But you do." He said, rubbing small circles over the soft material of her sweater, unwilling to let go of her arms, to let her move away from him. "Love him."

She didn't speak, letting her eyes fall to where his fingers stilled against her sleeves as he waited for her answer.

"Grace-"

"That's not his fault either." She finally spoke, her voice low. "If I did... love..." She shook her head, wrapping her arms over her chest. "It's not his fault."

Theo nodded, watching in silence and wishing his chest didn't hurt so badly at the sight of the drying tears painting her face.

"I've gotta get my book..." She murmured, remembering why she was up here in the first place. "Going to be late now for sure-" She stopped as Theo dropped his bag from his shoulder, pulling the slightly worn textbook and holding it out for her.

"Not that I'm admitting to any crimes... but I might have seen it up there." He gave half a shrug as she took the book from him and scoffed out a laugh.

"I just don't know what I'm going to do with you, Nott." She shook her head as they started back down the steps side by side.

"You're all talk." He said, a small smile returning to his face now that he had earned himself a laugh. "You could try a bit harder if you actually wanted to keep me out of your dorm. There are better locking charms you could try-"

"Maybe I just know you'd get through them." She looked to him as they reached the second floor once again and hurried towards McGonagall's room, Theo pulling the heavy door open just in time, though McGonagall still shot them both a warning glance.

The room was nearly full now, Terry and Leah glancing back as Theo and Grace slid into the two remaining spots near the back beside the Slytherin.

"Thank you both for joining us." McGonagall announced, "We were just going over next week's project, so I suppose you two will be working together." She launched into the explanation of the lesson as Grace rolled her eyes up to Theo's beside her.

"I swear, you're orchestrating this." She grumbled.

"Orchestrating what?" He chuckled below his breath, flipping lazily through the pages of his book. "It's your fault you were late."

"You were late too."

"Well, I was held up by some pretentious, and might I add, rather ungrateful-" He laughed as she smacked him, morphing his laughter into a cough before McGonagall could put the both of them in detention.

➺

Grace sighed, looking over herself one last time in the mirror before starting towards the common room. She had finally settled on a dark red sweater and a short fitted black skirt over her usual black tights and heeled boots. She had gone back and forth over her outfit practically all morning, eventually deciding on the red top in case they didn't have time for her to change before Daphne's party.

She glanced at her watch as she started down the stairs. Draco had told her he would meet her outside of Ravenclaw tower, but she didn't think it was fair for him to climb all of those stairs just to walk right back down for the Hogsmeade trip. Not to mention the fact that she simply could not sit still any longer waiting for four o'clock to come, the sound of her boots clicking nervously against the wooden floor in the dorm.

"What are you doing?" The familiar voice carried from the bottom of the final staircase where the blonde stood with raised eyebrows, the crowds of students stepping carefully out of his path as Grace hurried down the last few steps.

"It didn't make sense for you to walk all the way up there!" She shrugged, giving herself two short seconds to look over the Slytherin before her. He wore a dark blue sweater with two undone buttons near his neck and Grace was almost positive he would not be changing before Daphne's party.

"You're really making it difficult to seem like a good fiancé, darling." He smirked, Grace forcing out a breathy laugh and following him towards the exit, pulling her dark coat over her arms before they reached the doorway, a gust of frozen wind surging through the entrance hall as they left.

"God, they couldn't have had this bloody holiday in the Spring? Spare us all this weather?" Draco grumbled and Grace shook her head, grinning up to him though he didn't notice.

"How was your morning?" She asked, surprised he was able to hear her with the outrageous force of the wind carrying their words away.

"Fine. How was yours?" He glanced down and Grace nodded in agreement, despite knowing she had woken up far too early to stress over this exact moment. She refused to let any moment today become awkward and planned to fill any silence with some sort of chatter. She knew Draco wasn't taking her out on a Valentines Day date. He was just trying to be nice, to make the most of their shared situation.

"Are you hungry now? We could go to the Three Broomsticks, or... I mean..." He glanced to Madam Puddifoot's with a slight grimace and Grace laughed, pushing him lightly to keep walking towards the familiar pub at the end of the street.

"We're not going to Madam Puddifoot's. I wouldn't subject you to that." She teased, slowing as he reached for the wooden door of the Three Broomsticks, warmth enveloping them at once as they stepped inside.

It was, of course, busier than ever. This was one of the most popular spots for students on any Hogsmeade trip, so it was no surprise it would be overflowing for Valentines Day. Grace scanned around the room quickly, looking away from the few couples crammed cozily into small booths before Draco nudged her towards an empty table by the frosty windows.

She slid into one side, glancing back outside and watching as the students hurried through the freezing wind, a few white flurries beginning to float through the air now.

"Something to drink, you two?" The familiar waitress asked with a thing smile.

"Yeah, I'll have a butterbeer." Draco answered at once, plucking the menu off the table and scanning over the front as the witch looked to Grace.

"Yeah, same. Thank you." She nodded, grabbing for her menu as well as the woman disappeared to grab their drinks. "I haven't eaten here in years." She admitted and Draco nodded.

"Me either. Usually just grab a drink from the bar."

They looked over the menu in silence for a few more moments before their butterbeers appeared and the waitress took their orders, Draco taking a large sip from his drink and looking to Grace.

"Where do you want to go after this?" He asked, eyes flickering to the busy street beside them once again.

"Wherever." She shrugged, "We could go to Honeyduke's if we could cram our way through the door." They both glanced towards the crowd pooling around the entrance to the sweet shop.

"Oh, we'll get in.  Going to need something to cheer me up before this party tonight."

"Does she throw one every year?" Grace asked.

"Nearly. I think she was sick two years ago, and everyone just let her throw it the weekend after as if that wasn't a completely ludicrous thing to do."

Grace laughed easily, noting the smile pulling at the corners of his mouth as he spoke about his friend.

"You guys are pretty close? You and Daphne?"

Draco shrugged, though Grace already knew the answer. It was obvious, even through their typical banter and insults that all of the boys were quite close with the oldest Greengrass, and after only knowing her for a few short weeks, Grace could see why. Her humor and personality was infectious. She couldn't believe she had never noticed it before.

"We've been friends since we were kids. Same with Theo, and Enzo. I didn't meet Blaise until school started." He took another sip from the half empty bottle in his hand. "Hated him at first, thought he was a rude git because he hardly ever spoke for the first month. If it weren't for Enzo's never ending yammering, we might never have become friends."

"Were you and Enzo close as kids? He's your cousin, isn't he?" She asked, and Draco's lips pulled into a slight grimace.

"Yeah, he is... We've always been close. He didn't used to be so hard to deal with, he used to be normal." He chuckled and Grace shot him a stern glance. "Kidding. He was over all the time. His dad works a lot..."

Grace noted the hesitation in Draco's voice as he spoke about his uncle and resisted asking about Lorenzo's mother, trying to recall if she had ever heard any of them talk about his parents at all. Her eyes flickered towards the street again, the snow falling steadily now as a large group of students huddled together, starting back towards the castle, when her eyes caught a head of dirty blonde hair peeking out from beneath a gold and black knitted hat.

She watched as the Hufflepuff girl laughed easily, her head thrown back as she linked arms with the short Hufflepuff boy at her side.

"Do you ever talk to her?" Draco's voice pulled Grace's attention back to their table, meeting the icy blue eyes. "Your cousin?"

"Hannah?" She asked, as if she had another cousin he could be referring to. As if he hadn't just caught her staring. "No... I'm not sure I've ever..." She thought over the past few years. She had had a few classes with the Hufflepuffs, but Hannah had seemed insistent to not meet Grace's eyes.

"Do you want to? Talk to her?" He pressed, leaning back against the worn booth and scanning over Grace's face.

"I'm not sure. If she doesn't want to talk to me, I wouldn't force it. I've got no hard feelings against her though, I'm sure... she might think I don't want to talk to her. Our parents don't talk anymore." She didn't need to go on, sure that Draco would understand why.

"I just don't get that... why her dad would... I mean, throw everything away."

"Throw everything away?" Grace repeated, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"I mean... lose his whole family. His own brother? For a girl?"

"Well... he was in love." Grace shrugged, leaning against the table, resting her cheek against her fist.

"I'm sure." Draco nodded, a small smile rising to his face.

"What do you mean?" She asked, searching his face, trying to sort out his tone.

"I don't know." He trailed off, "Love... I mean... I just don't see, if it's going to be that hard? How could it be worth losing your family... your friends... years of history down the drain."

Grace paused, thinking over his words, watching as his eyes drifted towards the street again, to the glittering snow piling against the pavement.

"Have you never been in love?" She asked, her voice low, as if anyone would be able to hear her in the bustling pub. Draco's eyes snapped to hers, the pair falling into silence for a few moments before he answered.

"I'm not sure love exists." Grace felt her stomach drop slightly, though she forced the stoic look onto her face as if his words meant nothing to her. "Or, I guess, if it does... Can't be that strong, right?"

"I don't know..." She murmured, shrugging as the waitress approached them, setting their plates down and promising to return with two more drinks.

"Sorry... That's not what you want to hear from your fiancé on Valentines Day, huh?" He teased, kicking her shin lightly beneath the table.

"Oh, please." She rolled her eyes, starting on her food. "Drop it with all the fiancé talk until there's actually a ring on my finger." She joked and his eyes lit up with laughter.

"You're just using me for my money, aren't you?"

"Daddy's money?" She grinned, giggling as his jaw dropped slightly, though his response was cut off as their drinks were dropped off and Grace thanked the server.

"If you're not careful, I'll pick you out a hideous ring." He grumbled under his breath as the waitress left them and Grace nodded, both of them setting back to work on their dinners.