turns out, cassia's boyfriend suddenly becoming the wizarding world's MVP was no longer her biggest concern. when your family has danced with the darkness, sore feet is not the only consequence.
greengrass.
book 2 (half-blood prince - deathly hallow...
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For Theodore Nott, home had always been a person, not a place.
His mother. His best friends, their families. While he knew their home could never be his own, their company felt like it. A comfort he was never able to find in the supposed place that was his home, the Nott Manor. Passed on from generations to generations of Nott's, a building as firm in architecture and grandiose as it is in its pureblooded values. It was remarkable for all the reasons Theo couldn't find a home in it. All the riches and banqueting rooms and obedient house elves in the world, and the only time he could ever feel at home was when his mother was right there. When he in his youth, could lay with his head on his mother's lap as she would read to him till his gentle snores were heard. Yet so long as Theo's upbringing was forced-on by his father, the Nott Manor could never be a home to him.
So this experience was new.
For the first time in his life, Theo had been welcomed into a home by his family. A home. This wasn't just the Donahue family house. What made it their home was the board game night they would have every weekend, because Aunt Keira and Uncle Xavier missed their children too much when they were at school. How Keira would take over on the pancakes when Xavier messed up more than just the first one, how young twins Savannah and Sebastian would huddle under the covers gossiping about the cheek of some of the kids in their primary school.
(Muggle primary schools being something they no longer need to deal with, now moving to Hogwarts.)
And they extended their home to Theo.
Keira has learnt of Theo's love for books, they regularly check out the Muggle library close-by. She has learnt he is most talkative when there is a book character he particularly dislikes, so regularly asks him if he has read anything good. Or bad. Xavier reserved two hours on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, taking just Theo down to the local tennis court. Daresay, Theo has gained a nice bit of skill with the sport with the consistent sessions. Alongside a nice bit of muscle, which Sterling once caught him flexing in the mirror. The Hufflepuff has not let go of that fact since, and Theo shields his embarrassment by challenging his cousin to a tennis match.
(Which Sterling still hasn't accepted. The latest running joke between Theo and Wayne Hopkins.)
He was subject to chores by his aunt and uncle, which were tedious for a boy that was hard to a house elf picking up every crumb of his, but Theo didn't mind. He liked when Sebastian asked him to feed him Quaffle's for Chaser practice in their garden, and he liked when Savannah asked him what pencil she should colour her drawing with. Pencils looked a lot more convenient to use than parchment and ink.
