After the Willow Tree | Theo Nott

CHAPTER THREE

(the sleeping beauty)

"Well, if it isn't Pansy Parkinson," Theodore Nott, fellow Slytherin and the biggest target for Pansy's attitude, announced as he stepped into the Greengrass' dining room with his usual lazy smile.

Pansy set down the fork she'd been using to eat her pasta and lifted her eyebrows at the home's newest visitor. "Well, if it isn't sleeping beauty."

He flashed her his usual boyish grin and took a sip of her tea, just as playfully as he normally would, but there was something odd about him today, startlingly so.

Today, his fluffy brown hair looked extra disheveled, and dark circles had formed under his eyes, ones that hadn't been there the last time Pansy saw him. His eyes still had that tired glint about them, and his smug little smile hinted at something far more mischievous drifting through his mind than otherwise displayed, but there was a tension in it now.

"Is something wrong?"

He shrugged and continued to smile, but it looked increasingly forced. "No, why would it be?"

When he reached for her tea again, Pansy slapped his hands away and glared at him icily.

"You know better than to steal my tea," she said. "Go make your own."

Theo made no movements towards the kitchen, despite being well aware that the Greengrass family always kept the kettle full of boiling water for tea, no matter the time of day. Pansy narrowed her eyes at him. Something was strange—Theo was not one to avoid tea or food, of which there was also plenty in the kitchen.

"Are you—?"

"Let's go for a walk," Theo interrupted. As he said this, his stare locked in on the kitchen door, from which joyous clatter was now flowing into the room. It sounded like Astoria had just returned from a sleepover with some friends from Hogwarts, and she and Daphne were giggling about something that happened.

Theo stood up in that slow way of his that Pansy loved to pick on. He was slow, lazy, and aloof in almost everything he did, but Pansy sensed there was something more calculated about him underneath the surface. Otherwise, he wouldn't have landed himself in Slytherin house. Her thinking was that if she pressed hard enough on the little things, he might reveal more to her about who he was underneath his nonchalant facade.

Was it so wrong that Pansy hoped to be there for the moment when Theodore finally snapped and let all of him show?

However, something about the stiffness in his gaze today made all her usual jokes die in her throat before she could ever make them.

Bringing her cup of tea with her, Pansy followed along behind Theo, mentally kicking herself for how easily she bent to his every wish and command.

As they reached the front door, Pansy paused to shove her feet into her boots. She balanced awkwardly on her first leg but nearly toppled over immediately. Theo's hand shot out instinctively when he saw her stumble, and his fingers splayed out over her side to steady her with a firm hold on her waist.

Once they both managed to still her careening body, Pansy became increasingly aware of his hand on her body, a small smile curling up her lip in response. She made sure to duck her face away from him as she finished putting on her shoes. She knew if he noticed her grin, he would immediately pull away, and that was something Pansy didn't want. (Even if she would never admit it.)