Paper Trails

19th February 2001

 Theo was not worried. Not about Potter at least.

What did it matter that he had disappeared shortly after his conversation with Granger. What was it to him that Potter had not been seen by anyone in the ministry for the last two days. The story had broken in the Prophet that morning, officially Potter was ill, but gossip had spread of a belated valentines elopement and rumours were abound.

Theo glanced at the clock, it was nearly half nine, he doubted Potter would show today either. Hah, if he was lucky Potter had lost his job, then Theo would no longer have to deal with the cauldron fire that was Potter's life.

The office door swung open and Potter slouched in, glowing slightly with the thick glamour that clung to his skin. He stumbled straight to his desk, collapsing on the chair and grabbing some papers from his overflowing in-tray without so much as a glance in Theo's direction.

So it was back to the silent treatment. Theo thought bitterly. Not that he cared, Potter was entitled to act however he chose. Grabbing the scroll on Germanic love potions he had just received from a contact in Belarus, Theo strode into the stacks unwilling to spend another moment in Potter's presence. The section on love potions was expanding nicely, and he could do his work just as well sat in amongst the books as he could at his desk.

He wasn't hiding to stop the temptation of asking what Potter hid under today's glamours. He wasn't thinking of giving Potter the new jar of bruise paste that he brought in yesterday. He slumped into the temporary desk he had set up in section seven, a quick accio summoned his notes from the last few weeks.

The translated notes from the parseltongue book had proven to be by far the most interesting text on the effects of love potions on children. It was frustrating as none of the other sources even came close to matching the amount of information in that one source alone. That damn text from Germany couldn't get here fast enough.

He wanted to ask Potter to translate the second volume he mentioned. But Potter was cagey about his abilities on good days, and with the way he acted this morning, Theo was sure he would not get another conversation with the bloke for a while.

No matter, he had enough to be getting on with for the moment. It would take him several weeks to fully translate the scrolls. The German on the scrolls seemed to be quite an obscure dialect, of which Theo wasn't familiar. Fortunately they didn't seem to be cursed so at least he could just get on with it. He didn't fancy another trip to St. Mungo's just because some parchment decided that it didn't want to be read. Daphne still hadn't stopped teasing him for forgetting the basic revealing spells the last time he had turned up in her ward with extra fingernails growing out of his face.