Nott Your Boyfriend | A Slytherin/Hufflepuff Romance

Chapter 32: Everything You Require

Susan Bones stared at the last words of the letter in her hand. I will always love you, even from afar.

She didn't really know what to do with this letter. It brought a whole range of emotions to the surface. She felt relieved that Theodore hadn't cheated on her. Unless he was lying in this letter of course, but she didn't think he was. An affair with Daphne Greengrass had never really made sense in her head. It was too out of character for Theodore.

She also felt guilty. There had been more than enough signs that Theodore didn't want to have sex, but just like him she had tried to explain it away.  She probably had been too pushy and she regretted that now. If only ..., she started thinking. But wishing you had done things differently never took you anywhere. She knew why she had acted the way she had. She let her own insecurities get the upper hand. And like Theodore said in his letter, they didn't talk about the subject. At least not enough.

She also felt a small spark of anger. Because the decision of whether Theodore was good enough for her or not was being made for her. Didn't she get to have a say in who made her happy?

An then there was the confusion. Some things in Theodore's letter seemed contradictory to her. Did he mean he only wanted to be friends? But he talked like he was in love with her.

There was only one way to go about this. Susan opened her drawer and grabbed her parchment, ink bottle and feather. She moved over to the tiny wooden desk that she shared with Hannah in their small room and she started writing.

This time they would talk about what they were truly thinking and feeling. It didn't matter where this would lead to. If they got to be friends in the end, that would be fine. If they would start dating again, that would also be fine. Susan knew which outcome she would prefer, but she wouldn't push for it. She would ask questions and she would listen. Her stomach made an exciting flip at the prospect of talking to Theo again.

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Theodore Nott came back from his late night activities in the restricted section of the library for the fourth night in a row. He quickly entered the Slytherin common room and shot a glance behind him to make sure no one had seen him.

This time he had almost been caught by Filch. Mrs. Norris had spotted him sitting on the floor between two of the shelves and had meowed to alert her owner. Theodore had cast a Silencing Charm on the devious cat and had made his way out of the library, feeling incredibly lucky that the charm had worked. It wasn't peanuts to cast it on a cat and things could have gone terribly wrong.

When he entered the common room he saw that he wasn't the only one who was up in the middle of the night. Draco's platinum blond hair stuck out from behind a pillow on one of the couches.

"Can't sleep, Nott?" the boy spoke.

Theodore didn't reply, but he did walk over to Draco and sat down on the other couch.

"Me neither," Draco said as though they were having a conversation. "There was a letter for you not long after you left our dorm." Draco handed him a white envelope.

When Theodore took the letter he saw that the seal was broken. "You read my letter?" he asked Draco aghast.

"Sorry, I was expecting a reply and thought it was mine. I only realised that your name was on it when I had already broken the seal. I swear I didn't read any of it."

Theodore noticed that Draco was tapping his foot nervously. Then he looked back at the envelope and his heart skipped a beat when he realised it was a letter from Susan. He would recognize the way her t's swirled across the page anywhere. He hadn't actually expected her to reply to his letter and now he was probably as nervous as Draco. His hands were already sweating as he slid the paper out of the envelope.