Duplicitous | T.N.

LXVIII • Jam on toast

Tethered carelessly over the door knob of the seventh year, male Slytherin dorm rooms, was a green neck tie. It swung with the draft that lingered through the hallways, yet remained solely unnoticed by the comings and going's of several Slytherin students.

A tradition, it had been, to hitch neck ties and socks to closed doors indicated the room was occupied... such a custom had fallen into trend amongst the peers of Hogwarts with the intention to prevent risk of an awkward encounter, to risk walking in on an indecent encounter between two active teenagers.

Known by all this notion was, in hand, it was simply appropriate to ignore the tie as it hung. However upon the occasion it be your dorm you come across there was nothing much to be done other than to simply make yourself comfortable in the common room until whoever's rendezvous came to a close.

The tie, harmless, often bothered none, that was until you found yourself banished from your own sleeping quarters until late at night.

Blaise Zabini over the years had developed quite a handy and bizarre ability to pile a practically insane amount of books on one arm. Bets before had been made and attempts to sabotage the Wizard as he stacked his pages had been attempted, however, it took a certain amount of disturbance to break his focus and not many had achieved such.

With his books heaped on one arm the boy spoke blissfully upon the latest gossip that Hogwarts had to offer. With Adrien Pucey on his left and Pansy Parkinson by his right the three spoke of mundane rumours, tedious whispers and frivolous tattle, yet despite how unimportant the canard had been, neither remained uninterested.

That however had been the case until the boys reached their dorm room. And suddenly, books fell everywhere. The three stopped, halted, froze and following that moment of hesitation did the trio release a collective groan.

Blaise, with a flair for the dramatics, fell to his knees, collecting his books, murmuring like the insane. "No no no, please this cannot be."

"It is." Adrien sighed, rubbing the newfound ache upon his temple. "Lucian's afraid of women and I just saw Miles in the common room. It's him, he's back at it again, Merlin can only save us now."

The class of 1997 Slytherin had witnessed various phases amongst themselves. Some girls dabbled in multicoloured nail polish whilst one group held weekly exploding snap tournaments, some phases lasted but a month others a year, but the one trend that stuck, was no matter what the phase, once it was gone it didn't come back.
Theodore Nott in correlation had gone through a phase or two himself, and much like any other, they faded, he'd move on, but the boy had broken this custom. 

The class of 1997 Slytherin had witnessed various phases amongst themselves before, yet amongst the group of boys who shared a dorm with Theodore Nott, their by far least favourite phase of his had been the one that resulted with a tie on their door, simultaneously keeping them from their beds.

"He hasn't had casual sex in months." Pansy spoke. "Maybe it's a slip up."

"No Pansy, our guy is a sex addict, that's just it, we're never getting our room back, he's relapsed, he's gone." Blaise gasped, his and thrown theatrically over his forehead. "That's not the Theodore we once knew, but a whore junkie. A whore junkie I say!" Pansy's eyes rolled upon his striking performance.

"Oh, he's no less than a man whore that's clear." She scoffed, arms crossed before her. "But he was totally fine as a prude for months, why the sudden change?"

"I know." Adrien murmured. "It was to make his return all the more painful, to offer us a taste of freedom only to take it all away." He chuckled at his own joke.