The Brightest Black - A Dramione Fanfic

Not a Nott

TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of abuse, physical, verbal, and emotional. Nothing worse than what was seen in Chapter 1 in terms of detail.

The entire world ground to a halt as Theo stared down the hallway. For an instant he was five years old again.

His father stood over his sobbing mother, two wands in his hand and rage contorting his face. Theo sat on his bed, the storybook his mother had been reading lying open on the bed. The little baby dragons flitting around the page, heedless of the strife going on around them.

"I warned you." His father reached down and grabbed his mother by her hair, yanking her up. She sobbed even louder and clung to his hand, trying to take some of the weight off her scalp. "The boy is a NOTT!!! Nott's DO NOT read storybooks! MY SON WILL NOT BE A PANSY!"

"I'm sorry!" Mother sobbed. "It-it-"

"Shut it!" His father gave her a hard shake and then threw her across the room, she slammed into the wall and crumpled to the ground in sudden silence.

"MOTHER!"

Theo sprang out of bed and attempted to reach her, but was stopped by a hard grip on the back of his pyjamas.

"I don't think so, boy. You and I, we're going to have a little talk." He yanked Theo up even as he leaned down a bit, so that their faces were level. Cold fury burned in his father's eyes, making Theo quake with fear. "And if you don't do what I say your mother will pay for it. Understand?"

Theo gulped and looked over at his mother, tears making his vision blurry.

He found himself nodding in agreement. Gaining a small, frigid smile from his father.

"Good. Now go to sleep. Tomorrow we'll start your real education. You're a Nott and it's time you learned to be one." He tossed Theo back onto the bed and waited until he had clambered under the covers before calling out, "Mitsy!"

"Yes, master?" The little house elf said as she appeared.

"Tend to your mistress. If she is beyond your capabilities notify me." With that he spun and stalked out of the room, his robes fluttering behind him, haunting Theo's nightmares for years to come.

Theo knew the man that sired him was good on his word. If he went with him then Blaise would be safe. But if he didn't....

His hands clenched into fists and tears pricked his eyes. Theo had behaved perfectly after that incident with the storybook. He'd done and said everything his father expected of him, all in fear for his mother. But even good behavior couldn't save her from Dragon Pox. After that, he'd behaved more out of habit. Three years was enough time to form habits, another three years had only cemented those habits. It had taken the return on the Dark Lord, his relationships with Blaise and Tracey, and five years to get over his fear of breaking those habits.

Could he do it? Could he go back to that? Go back to being the perfect Nott?

His real hand tightened on his wand as he shifted his left arm, feeling the weight of the silver hand where there had once been flesh and blood.

No.

Promises or not, he couldn't go back to being a Nott.

Not now, not ever.

"Well, boy?" The man who sired him asked, raising his wand and aiming it at Blaise.

"If you kill him, you'll never get your heir back," Theo said in a voice that was colder than he had ever used before.