GLORY // book one

- PART 13 -

(IMPORTANT A/N AT THE END!)

THEO

~

"PLEASE, OF COURSE I'M allowed inside!" His voice boomed through the tent.

I sat in silence, staring at the famous man making his way inside. James Potter stood in the Medical Tent of the Triwizard Tournament, wearing a look of something I couldn't place. I bit the inside of my cheek, blinking in confusion. His son had yet to compete, so I assumed he was simply in the wrong tent.

But, his eyes locked with mine and suddenly he was next to me, grimacing down at the sight of my nearly-bandaged legs. I swallowed, at a loss for words, and utterly confused.

"What are you doing?" I questioned, my voice more shaky than I wanted it to be.

The man who fathered an annoyance offered an awkward smile. "Sirius thought I should come and check on you, make sure you're—"

"He's here?"

The breath left me as James nodded. "We saw the nasty scrapes you got, and then heard some shouting—"

"These idiots were overreacting," I growled, gesturing to the group of Healers now outside the suddenly barren tent. "It's just a couple of cuts—"

"Doesn't look like it." A new voice echoed throughout the make-shift room.

I nearly ran from the tent as he walked towards me. But, my body seemed to have shut down on me and I was stuck in place. Staring with uncontrollably wide-eyes, I looked at the older brother of the bane of my exsistance.

"Hey, Doe," Charlie Weasley greeted with a grin. "Nice job out there."

I realized that Cedric had fallen silent next to me, and assumed he was asleep. Meaning, I was alone with my father's best friend and a Weasley. Totally not awkward and weird.

"Thank Ryne Sandberg," I replied hesitantly, finally finding my voice again. "Probably the greatest second baseman of all time, who plays for the best team in existence— the Cubs."

__

"Please, of course I'm allowed inside!" His voice boomed through the tent.

I sat in silence, staring at the famous man making his way inside. Sirius Black stood in the Medical Tent of the Triwizard Tournament, wearing a look of something I couldn't place and didn't care too. All that mattered right now was my lack of free movement and the fact that the man I hated most in the world was now grinning at me.

"Great job out there, Theodosia." He laughed, standing in front of me. "You really gave that dragon a run for it's money."

The Healers had suddenly all disappeared and Cedric was silent on the other side of the partition. I stared at my father for a second too long, seeing once more how similar we looked.

The same raven hair, sharp features, grey eyes. He was more tan than me, and less . . . unhappy. Clearly.

Choking on my breath, I pushed myself off the bed and onto my feet. I shrugged on my jacket, that someone brought only a few minutes ago, and stared up at him.

"Fuck you, Sirius." I near-whispered, pulling back on my gym shoes, hair flying in my face.

"Theo, I just— I just wanted to explain why I left you with your aunt—"

"Did you really forget even that? My aunt died before I was born." I snorted, standing up. "I live with mom. Or did you forget her too?"

Before he could reply, I stormed from the tent, ignoring the shouts ordering me this way or that. At that moment, I didn't care. And I really wanted to punch something.

__

"Please, of course I'm allowed inside!" His voice boomed, George Weasley barreling through the Healers who soon made themselves scarce.

The tall redhead rushed towards me, hands cupping my face before I could stop him. "What are you doing, Weasley?"

"Trying not to kidnap you for the rest of the school term." He responded without missing a beat, looking over my body for injuries. "Merlin, Doe, I think I had a heart attack."

"Well, you do have the smell of an old man—"

"I'm serious, you idiot." He grumbled, refusing to release my face even as I pinched him. "You're too reckless—"

I snorted, rolling my eyes. "Look who's talking, Mister-Let's-Swim-With-The-Giant-Squid."

Dropping to his knees without any care for the dirt, George looked with intensity at my bandaged leg, as though he could see through the cotton. I rolled my eyes, flopping backwards onto the cot. If he wanted to be a weirdo, I wasn't going to waste my energy.

__

It terrified me.

The thought of the next task. I had just faced a literal dragon for Merlin's sake! And though I was mostly unscathed, the idea of facing something like that again made me want to take up George on his offer to kidnap me.

Still, I did my best not to let it show, instead getting out of the grounds as soon as I could. Surprisingly, George had yet to leave my spot, even as his brother and Lee Jordan ran by laughing. He just smiled and continued rambling about something or other. Any other day, I would've kicked him by now, but I needed a distraction.

Winter break was coming up, and I was not looking forward to going home. The thought had been at the back of my mind since the meeting with Dumbledore. It wasn't until the end of George's latest story about some dumb thing his little brother did that I realized something crucially forgotten by both myself and Dumbledore.

"The Yule Ball is Christmas Day," I said, interrupting George. The boy raised an eyebrow, looking down at me.

"You asking me out—"

"Shut up," I scoffed, smacking his chest. "That means none of the older years can go home for break, right?"

"Well, yeah, that's kinda how it works, love."

A part of me soared, thinking of getting to miss returning to America. But another bit of me crumbled, remembering Cedric's face when he thought we couldn't go home. Things were so much easier when I didn't have any friends.

__

(A/N: Kinda short, around 1050 words. This is the end of Act I, but Act II starts soon. I just have an adjusted cast list- which may or may not include certain adults.

About the stuff at the beginning, I basically wrote three scenarios of could've happened. The last one, as you may have guessed, was the real one. Idk, meeting everyone just felt kinda anti-climactic at this point. But, it will happen this next Act. So . . . get ready.)