ivy | theo nott

"I mean, it's bloody typical. As if Trelawney wasn't bad enough, now we're taking lessons from horses?"

"Draco, he's not a horse." Daphne sighed, though even Grace could see the corners of her mouth turning up into a smile.

"Whatever. Just how they think any of us are going to manage a single O on our exams is beyond me. This school should be shut down." Draco grumbled on, picking absentmindedly through his lunch.

"You're going to be fine." Grace mumbled from beside him. "You'll get all your outstandings, blow us all away, top of the class."

"Yeah, Malfoy." Daphne agreed, "And if not, I'll put in a good word for you with my boss. We can be janitors together." She grinned, breaking into laughter with Blaise and Enzo as Draco's familiar scowl overtook his lips.

"When I'm Minister, Greengrass, there won't be a toilet in the country you'll be eligible to clean. I'm black listing you."

"I'm quaking in my boots." She giggled, her eyes flicking up and widening in surprise only a second before Grace noticed Theo's entrance, a small Hufflepuff with dirty blonde hair clutching onto his arm with a grin that practically overtook her entire face.

"Who's that now?" Daphne rolled her eyes. "I swear, he goes through them so fast, what's he going two years younger now?"

"She's not two years..." Draco muttered, not bothering to linger on the pair as they drew closer to the Slytherin table.

"Yeah, but... bloody hell, she looks just like-" Enzo's voice was low, but that didn't stop Blaise from elbowing him roughly in the ribcage before he could finish, everyone's eyes flickering towards Grace before Theo dropped into a seat along the edge of the group, the small girl taking her spot at his side.

No one spoke for a moment, until Theo raised his brows, glancing around at his friends looking thoroughly confused. "What?"

"Nothing." Blaise answered, quickly. "We were just talking about Trelawney."

"Oh," Theo shrugged, as if yesterday's drama was already old news.

Grace had hardly spoken to Theo since he'd left the astronomy tower nearly a week before... In fact, aside from hurried hello's in various classes, she wasn't sure they'd spoken at all. There were no more mysterious saved seats beside him in their lessons, no more warm smiles when she arrived to meals, and, the fact that she'd been trying to ignore all week, the flowers on her nightstand had nearly wilted away.

Grace couldn't help but peek over at the Hufflepuff at Theo's side once more, scanning over her features before pulling her eyes back to her plate, knowing better than to let the girl catch her staring. She wished Blaise had let Enzo finish his sentence, though even now, she told herself there was no way that's what he had been saying. He didn't mean... her.

"Alright, Teddy... I'm going to go find my friends." She spoke, her lips pressing into a tiny pout.

"Alright." He nodded, hardly sparing her a look.

"Will I see you tonight?" She dropped her voice to a whisper, as if the group was not all within 5 inches of one another.

"Yeah. Sure, Maria." He answered, apparently not noticing the grin which lit up her face as she offered him a hug and hurried off down the rows of tables and out of sight in the busy Great Hall.

"Well?" Enzo pried as soon as she was out of earshot.

"Well?" Theo asked, glancing around first to be sure Enzo was even speaking to him.

"Who's she now?" The brunette chuckled, "I swear Nott, where do you even find the time."

"Shut up, Berkshire." Theo grumbled, digging into his lunch before class started.

➺

Theo stretched his arms over his head, turning the page of his book lazily in his lap. He felt like he hadn't done much reading lately outside of schoolwork, but his alternative was to meet up with Maria like he'd promised, and the very thought had his stomach reeling with nausea.

"Come on, up you get, lazy asses." Enzo grinned as he and Draco raced into the common room from their dormitories.

"What for?" Theo grumbled, stretching out farther on his couch and not sparing his housemates a glance.

"Gonna go round up some troublemakers. Take some house points, hand out some detentions... You know, Umbridge needs us." Enzo grinned, teasingly and even Draco rolled his eyes, starting towards the doorway.

"Like rounds." He corrected the brunette.

"I'm not a prefect."

"Then you're just a snitch." Blaise called, stifling a grin as Enzo's jaw dropped.

"Nott?" Draco asked, nodding towards the hallway.

"Nah, you guys go. I only took the damn pin so I could take points from the Gryffindors."

"Your loss!" Draco shrugged, leading Lorenzo out into the hallway, the door sliding shut and plunging Theo and Blaise back into comfortable silence, the flickering of the fire before them a constant lull in the background.

"You've been quiet." Blaise spoke, suddenly, drawing Theo's attention from his chapter.

"What am I usually?" He asked, lazily, though he set his book lower in his lap to meet his friend's eye.

"Yeah, I suppose." Blaise shrugged, the two falling back into silence for only a moment. "You're alright, though?"

"Why wouldn't I be alright?" Theo asked, irritation prickling his tone.

"Nott." Blaise replied, a knowing look pasted over his usually blank features.

"Zabini?" Theo echoed, turning his attention back to the words on his page.

"If you don't want to talk about her, you can tell me to fuck off... I just want to make sure you're alright."

"Who?" Theo forced a scowl to his face as he looked back to his friend on the opposite couch.

"Grace."

"What's wrong with Grace?" He asked, his eyes flickering over the lines of his book though he was paying them no attention.

"Well, nothing, I suppose. Except that she's engaged to your best mate."

"What's that got to do with me?" Theo asked, his voice sounding sour, even to his own ears.

"Well, nothing," Blaise muttered, "Until you started scouring the halls for her lookalike to bring to lunch."

Theo's eyes snapped up from his book now, a winning smirk sliding over Blaise's lips at the reaction.

"Maria?" He scoffed, "She doesn't look anything like-"

Blaise barked out a laugh, cutting off the end of Theo's sentence before he could even figure out where it had been headed. "Mate, if you're claiming it was an accident, I think you're just proving my point."

"What point is that, Zabini? Spit it out."

"I think you love her." Blaise said, as if it was the most casual conversation he'd ever had. As if they were merely talking about the weather forecast for the rest of the week.

"Do you?" Theo drawled, though his heart was pounding uncomfortably against his ribcage.

"Matter of fact... I know you do." Blaise's nose scrunched as he spoke, as if he were a cat, toying with a mouse, instead of uttering the words Theodore had kept locked in his mind for... Merlin knows how long.

Theo's scowl deepened, and he pressed his lips into a thin line, shutting the book in his lap and dropping it to the coffee table between them.

"If I did l-" His voice caught in his throat, Blaise's eyebrows rising, "Have feelings... It wouldn't matter. If that someone were to be engaged to someone else."

"Your best mate." Blaise reminded, and Theo could practically feel the blood heating through his veins.

"Then it really wouldn't matter."

"Malfoy doesn't know."

"I can assure you," Theo rose from his spot on the couch, the muscles in his lower back aching from the hours of non-use. "There's nothing to know. And if there was, she'd have no interest. Grace is perfectly content with her happily ever after as the future Mrs. Malfoy."

"That's not how it seems-"

"She told me." Theo shrugged, grabbing his book and sliding it under one arm.

"You've told her then? How you feel?" Blaise looked up, bemused.

"Zabini, honestly. You're delusional. There's nothing to be told." He bit back, starting up to their shared dorm without another word.

➺

Grace curled deeper into the couch in the dim light of the Slytherin common room, flipping the page in her book and pretending not to mind the blistering chill seeping through her. It wasn't as if Ravenclaw tower was much warmer, though her mind did slink back occasionally to the library. It might be emptying out by now, though she knew there was no way she'd be heading back to her tower any time soon. Not until her housemates would have all retired to their dorms, and she could slip past everyone and their glares and hissing whispers.

The school had woken up yesterday morning to the news: banners plastered in everyone's common rooms and along the corridor outside the Great Hall. The newest decree, signed by the minister himself, declaring Umbridge to have replaced Dumbledore as Headmaster, and Grace personally felt as though the glares and snide comments she'd been receiving since the Quibbler article had multiplied overnight.

"Hey," Draco's voice carried through the room at last as he scanned over the empty couches around the blonde sat before him. "What are you doing down here?"

She looked up, stifling the smile that had pulled to her lips at his voice and lowered the book to her lap.

"Oh... I just... Ravenclaw tower's not feeling very homey lately."

"Well, you're always welcome here." He shrugged, pausing beside her armchair. "I didn't know you were down here... I wouldn't have left you alone... We've been... Blaise and I..." He trailed off and Grace craned her neck to look up to him again. "Daphne's rather insistent that Montague is missing."

"Missing?" Grace felt her eyebrows arch upwards as Draco shrugged. "In Hogwarts?"

"Supposedly."

"Bit of a big school? How long's he been gone for?"

"She said he wasn't at dinner, and that he didn't show for their study date, so naturally he must have been murdered."

"Well, at this school..." Grace let her head fall to one side and he nodded.

"Exactly. I was just going to check his dorm again, then meet them back upstairs, but I can stay if you-"

"No, don't." She shook her head, waving him off easily. "I'm not facing Daphne's wrath if I steal half of her search party."

He chuckled, though nodded slightly before starting towards the stairs to the boys dormitories. It was only a few minutes before he was jogging back down to her once again, looking slightly puzzled.

"Not there?" She asked.

"Honestly, I might be starting to believe her. Or he's really good at hiding." Draco shrugged. "If he comes through here, will you tell him she's looking for him?"

"Course." Grace nodded, dropping her eyes back to the book as the wall slid aside to let Draco pass through.

Though she had no desire to return to her tower, and had now been assigned watch duty over her friend's boyfriend, the chill from the underground common room was beginning to feel as though it had settled into her bones. She glanced around, hoping to spot an abandoned blanket or even a couch cushion she could hide beneath, though of course, the Slytherin common room was as meticulous as always.

Her eyes darted towards the entrance once more as the stone walls slid apart, truly expecting to see Graham, or Daphne, or anyone besides the one Slytherin who seemed to have been avoiding her all week. Theo stalled in his tracks, his eyes meeting Grace's for only a second, scanning over her body burrowed into the arm chair.

"What are you doing down here?" He asked, his voice low, though Grace felt as though she could have made out his words even if he'd whispered them.

"Just... didn't really feel like being upstairs..." She muttered, "Then Draco came and said they've been looking for Montague all evening and asked if I'd watch for him, so..." She trailed off, hoping that would pique his interest.

Theo hardly nodded, starting past the couches and up the staircase to his dorm before Grace had even blinked.

"Th-" She trailed off, watching him disappear around the corner without a second glance and letting herself sink back to her spot with a sigh.

He hated her. It was just like so many months before when the roles had been reversed. When he had pissed her off and spent the following weeks breaking into her common room, hoping to catch her eye in classes, or at lunches... sneaking into her dorm...

She glanced back to the staircase, but shook her head, deciding against it. If he didn't want to speak to her, that was fine. She wouldn't resort to his tactics, breaking into a shared dormitory, nonetheless. And there was no need to encourage the floral deliveries that she had spent so many weeks now trying to get him to stop. Wasn't this what she had wanted?

Before she could even try to convince herself any further, the footsteps had returned to the stairwell behind her, and a thick, fluffy blanket settled over her on the oversized chair. She glanced up, though Theo had already dropped into place on the couch opposite her, a bookmark sticking out from near the back of the book in his hand.

"Thanks..." She muttered, softly, her heart racing as he met her eyes at last and shrugged. "What are you reading?" She asked, anxious to keep up the first conversation they'd had in days.

"Why aren't you reading in your own common room?" Theo asked, knowingly.

Grace sighed, running her words over in her mind before answering. "It's hard to explain." Or rather, she hadn't come up with a polite way to explain it to the Slytherin. "Just doesn't feel like I'm very welcome up there these days."

"You mean since the Quibbler article came out." He replied, and she scanned over his face for any signs of anger. He was finally speaking to her again, and she wouldn't risk saying anything else that would force them back into silence.

"Maybe... I don't know." She shook her head, setting her thumb in the crease of her book to shut it partially in her lap. "No, not even... Terry's been avoiding me for weeks now."

"Really?" Theo looked surprised now, his eyebrows furrowing in thought. "You never told me that."

"Well I didn't actually think he was avoiding me at first. It could have been a coincidence. But, I saw him, a bunch of Ravenclaws, actually, after breakfast the other day. They were all in a big group and whispering and Terry hardly spared me a second glance before - what? What is it?"

"It's our fault." He mumbled, rubbing two fingers over his eyes with a deep sigh.

"No, I'm sure-"

"No. It is." He chuckled, darkly. "Have you not heard why Dumbledore had to leave? Why they're searching for him?"

"Have you?" She sat up straight, tugging the blanket further around her shoulders. "Where do you get all this gossip, Nott?"

His lips stilled, pressed into a thin line at the sound of his last name, though he continued. "Umbridge caught a bunch of students, mostly Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, but your friends were there too... Terry and Cho and Padma. They've been having secret meetings for months, practicing defense against the dark arts, so they claim... Umbridge is convinced it was more deadly than that, though I can't really see Potter doing anything of the sort-"

"What do you mean, months?" Grace cut him off, forcing her mind back to Terry around Christmas. Had he not been acting completely normal then?

"They called themselves Dumbledore's Army." Theo scoffed, "They've been meeting in some secret room on the seventh floor. And obviously, they weren't going to let anyone know who might have turned them in to Umbridge..."

"I wouldn't have turned them in..." She muttered, her mind racing. She would have loved to get some extra practice for defense against the dark arts in, especially with OWLs coming up. Terry knew that. How could he not have thought to include her? Purposely kept it from her?

"I know." Theo nodded, "I'm sure... I'm sure they all asked Terry not to mention it to you. Because... you're around all of us so much now."

She was already nodding, her mind flickering through images of Terry, scowling at the Slytherin, her housemates all on edge lately any time they spoke to her, the special pins Umbridge had passed out to the boys a few weeks ago. The Inquisitorial Squad, she had called them.

"I'm sorry, Gracie..." Theo spoke again, though she shook her head before he'd even finished.

"It's not your fault. They're idiots. Terry should have known-"

"Not about that." He interjected, "About... Well, I was a bit MIA this week."

"Oh, you mean how you've been ignoring me?" She teased, her heart stilling before the corners of his lips curved into their familiar smirk.

"Ignoring you." He scoffed.

"It's alright. I'm used to you being moody." She shrugged, enjoying the eye roll it earned her as he shook his head. "I really didn't mean to hurt your feelings though... Last week..."

"You didn't hurt my feelings." He promised, as though that would have been an impossible feat.

"Right. Course not."

"Don't go convincing yourself of that, Gracie."

"Right! Course not!" She grinned, climbing from her spot and enjoying the way his green eyes followed her as she moved.

"Where are you going?" He sat up taller against the couch as she started towards the exit.

"Well, you're here now, so you can watch for Graham, and I'm going to go give Terry a piece of my mind."

"Well, wait a minute, I might like to see that." His smile widened and she laughed as she stepped into the hallway, glancing back to him.

"I'll let you know if I need back up."

"Sorry, I'm under a strict fighting ban."

"Ooh, that's right." She faked a pout as the door slid shut between them, Theo shaking his head to himself and biting back the laughter threatening to burst from his chest.

Grace wasted no time, climbing each new staircase like it was the first of the night. Part of her was aching to spot Terry, though the other half of her was praying to find Leah first, sure her friend would be just as angry in their exclusion from the secret meetings. At last, she reached Ravenclaw tower, racing through the riddle and rushing into the common room. She scanned over the emptying couches, only a few seventh years pouring over parchment littered with notes before groaning under her breath and racing towards her dorm. Surely Leah was up there by now, and they could rant for a bit before Grace had to calm down if she wanted to get any sleep that night.

She twisted the doorknob and pushed into the room, thankful that Padma's bed was, of course, empty, her eyes landing on her friend who was flipping aimlessly through a magazine.

"Thank God, you're here!" She shouted, though her voice trailed off as her eyes caught onto the sight she'd been missing all week. The vase she had left on her desk with it's wilting daffodils had been moved back to her night stand, at least fifteen pure white peonies sitting perfectly in place.

"Well?" Leah spoke, dragging Grace's mind away from the bouquet. "What is it? Don't tell me you've forgotten you've been getting flowers for the last three months."

"No, sorry." Grace shook her head, dropping onto Leah's bed, "You are not going to believe why Terry's been avoiding us."