Inglorious Bastards [Theodore Nott]

Chapter Seventy-One

Carina was avoiding Roman, and it has caught the attention of not only their friends but also the whole school. It was odd not to find the school's mischief-makers not making any mischief – pranking, brewing, and dueling – but it was odder to find them separate and sitting far from each other for more than forty-eight hours. Harry and the others have tried to ask the two what it was they were fighting about, but neither of them would say – Carina would just change the subject while Roman would just say "It's just something." – Theodore too noticed the distance with the two, he wanted to ask them about it but after overhearing their responses whenever their Gryffindor friends would ask, he simply stayed quiet and observed.

"I don't understand why they're both so stubborn," Harry said as he watched Carina and Roman continue to ignore each other while in class. It was Charms, and usually, they would be snickering and plotting their next prank. "The last time they had a row was in second year."

"Yeah, funny how that turned out," Ron said, as he remembered what he and McGonagall stumbled upon when they were in second year. "McGonagall left them for two minutes and they were already at each other's throats – trying to kill each other with their bare hands – let's see how they handle their fight this time."

Harry couldn't imagine Carina and Roman having a fistfight now. Roman had a much larger built and towering over Carina, he was sure that Carina could outsmart Roman in a fight by casting a spell, but knowing the girl, he knew she had too much pride to use magic in a fistfight and would attack head-on.

"Do you have any idea what it is they're fighting about?" Harry asked.

"Haven't the slightest."

"Well, maybe it's because it's none of your damn business," Carina spoke. Harry and Ron turned to her, blushing red as they have been caught talking about her. "Yeah, I have ears, and they work fine. And don't you two have more important matters to do than talk about me and Roman? Like performing the Aguamenti Charm?"

After that incident, Carina avoided Harry and Ron and was seen with Theodore for most of the day, which actually worried Harry since he was still convinced about his Malfoy-being-a-Death-Eater theory, and though he did not see Theodore Nott enter Borgin and Burks with Malfoy, he has been seeing him with Malfoy in more instances than he could count. The following day though, Carina stopped avoiding them and even joined them at the Great Hall for breakfast – which was a relief to the three Gryffindors. At that time, Harry told them about a spell he read in the Prince's book and accidentally casting it on Ron. It made Ron suspended in the air by his ankles – as if it were caught by a snare and had him dangling upside-down.

"Let me guess, it's the Prince that taught you that," Carina said.

"Yeah," Harry said.

"It's Levicorpus," Carina guessed.

"How'd you know?"

"But whatever it is, I think the Prince is dodgy," Hermione said.

"Dodgy? Hermione, it was just a wee bit of fun," Ron tried to defend the Prince.

"Dangling by your ankles? Who do you know has used that spell before – to dangle Muggles with their ankles –"

"Our Dads," Harry and Carina said, too quickly.

Seeing that Harry and Carina were defensive with the idea of their fathers using the spell, Hermione flustered, "It's nothing like that! It's just irresponsible to start performing spells when you don't know what they're for! And stop talking about 'the Price' as if it's his title, I bet it's just a stupid nickname! And it doesn't seem to be a nice person to me."

"I don't see where you get that from," Harry bellowed, heatedly. "If he'd been a budding Death Eater, he wouldn't be boasting about being "half-blood" would he?"