Delirium

Chapter 9 - Vulnerability

a/n i'm here!!! hi, everyone! 

i hope you all enjoy the chapter as much as i do. it was a rough one to edit, but i'm glad it's finally done and here.

happy reading!

song suggestions: literally any song from my Gryffindor Party playlist. check it out on spotify! link in my bio :)

~*~

In the Great Hall, at dinner, Theo picked apart another bread roll. He had big plans to get utterly sloshed tonight, and he'd need all the food he could to soak it up.

The atmosphere amongst his friends was a bit charged. Whilst Pansy babbled on about all of her and Draco's whereabouts from their date, everyone else sat in stony silence.

Jolie and Madeline, sitting across from one another, were both looking expressly down at their plates of Cornish hen. Daphne sat beside Jolie, glancing awkwardly between the two girls. Draco silently ate his food, ignoring his girlfriend's retellings of the day. Across from Theo, Blaise was lazily picking at his brussels sprouts with his fork.

Theo tried not to glare at him.

At Hogsmeade in the Three Broomsticks, he'd finally gotten Daphne to tell him everything that had happened between her and Blaise.

Theo could only look at him as a cowardly ponce from here on out.

Blaise had gone to Hogsmeade with the other wizards in his year; Vincent Crabbe, Greg Goyle, and Adam Runcorn. The group of boys had come into the pub together, so Theo knew Blaise must have seen him with Daphne. He inwardly hoped Blaise was seething about it—Theo and his ex-girlfriend on a solo date.

Well, not a date. Not really.

Daphne had made that quite clear to him whenever she'd called him her 'bestest friend' in Honeydukes when he'd bought her a sack of saltwater taffies. Whatever that meant.

Theo had actually planned on inviting Daphne to tonight's party himself, but after their distinctly friendly outing today, he trusted Jolie to invite her.

It would be too sticky of a situation, getting involved with Daphne Greengrass, Theo decided. They ran with the same group, knew all the same wizards. Dating, or even having a fling, with friends was not a good idea. Just take Daphne and Blaise, for example.

And Daphne was too kind, too pure, too innocent. If anyone were asked to describe him, Theo would be none of those things.

Something between him and her wouldn't be good.

Besides, he hadn't gotten to smoke with the Weasley twins and their little friend, Lee, in quite some time. He had no problem inviting them instead, knowing they'd be bringing their stash of spliffs and joints along.

With that thought, and checking the massive clock overhead the professors' table, Theo found that the dinner hour was nearly over.

He stood abruptly from his seat, waved a hand at his friends, and headed over to the Gryffindor table.

With dinner at its peak, all the Gryffindors were far too loud and immersed in their own conversations to really notice Theo's arrival. He scootched in between Lee and some other brown-haired boy and sank down onto the bench, Fred and George staring bewilderedly across from him.

As he sat, he'd caught a few other Gryffindors' attention, each of them watching Theo carefully, some of their conversations even stalling. He couldn't blame them. It probably looked a little silly.