After the Willow Tree | Theo Nott

CHAPTER NINE

(the thunderstorm)

While the three laid down to sleep later that night, with their hearts full of moments with friends and McGonagall's words, and their stomachs even fuller from all of the delicious foods spread out for them at dinner, they listened to the rumbling of an incoming thunderstorm.

Just as Lorelei predicted, in her bed underneath the window, she could listen to the rain beating against the glass much clearer than Pansy or Daphne could. She had settled into bed earlier with a copy of Pride and Prejudice while she smiled, listening to the rain, and she soon enough fell asleep with the book propped open on her chest.

After Daphne put a bookmark in Lorelei's book and set it aside for her, she too crawled into bed and fell asleep quickly.

Soon, it was only Pansy still awake, listening to the sound of the heavy rain ringing off the glass window, but the fact that they were in a new dorm this year, in a part of the castle that hadn't seen as much bloodshed, made Pansy feel safer to drift off to sleep herself.

So, for the first time in many nights, Pansy easily fell asleep, swaddled up in her covers.

However, unlike how Pansy woke up in the midst of her own nightmare a few weeks ago, this time, she woke up in the midst of someone else's.

The raw scream tearing out of Lorelei's throat jolted Pansy and Daphne awake. Chills broke out over Pansy's arm as she reached wildly for her wand to cast the lumos spell over the room.

"No!" Lorelei wailed, writhing on her bed. "Please. Dad, don't go! Dumbledore, do something!"

Just then, a voice yelled, "Alohomora!" The lock on their door clicked as Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott burst into the room, both donning messy bedheads and bleary, panicked eyes.

Standing in the open doorway of their own dorm room were an alarmed Neville Longbottom and Dean Thomas, each holding their wands in hand as they too blinked awake. It was clear neither of them knew what to do—was this a security threat? Was Lorelei in danger? Were they all right to just go back to bed?

Meanwhile, Draco stormed Lorelei's bed, swept her up into his arms, and held her against his chest. The second his palm touched her cheek, Lorelei jerked out of her nightmare, staring up at Draco with wide, terrified eyes.

"You're safe now," he said, gently rubbing his thumb over her cheek. "It's okay."

Theo blew out a long breath and turned his face away from them. Even though Pansy couldn't see his expressions now, she could tell by the breaths heaving through his chest that he was struggling to settle down.

From the way her fingers shook, Pansy knew she was in the same spot.

Theo's hand ghosted over her shoulder, and Pansy flinched slightly, if only because she hadn't been looking at him. He was peering down at her now, a silent question in the lift of his eyebrows, and Pansy didn't know how to answer.

"Nox," she whispered, letting the light from her wand cut out.

If she couldn't read the expressions in Theo's face, at least now he couldn't read the ones in hers either.

"Are you okay, Lorelei?" Daphne hesitantly asked. While Pansy was slowly lying back down, Daphne was still upright, her tired frame lit only by the moonlight spilling in through the windows.

"I'm so sorry," Lorelei replied. Her voice trembled, just like Pansy's body.

Theo's hand ghosted under Pansy's chin as he lifted her covers back up her body, and Pansy stilled at the brief contact. Why was he so worried about helping her go back to sleep when Lorelei was the one who had been screaming bloody murder a moment ago?

She meant to ask him, but she wasn't sure how to, given the circumstances. But before she could find a way to ask, Theo's footsteps padded towards the door and faded as he went back to his own room.

Even after Draco and Lorelei peacefully went back to sleep in her bed, Pansy lay awake the rest of the night, thinking about the screams and the gentle way Theo had touched her. 

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