Davina | hp. ✓

53 | The New Order of the Phoenix

THERE WAS ONCE a time when Theodore Nott didn't know Davina Malfoy. He seldom thought about those first ten years of his life because he always felt as though his life truly started when he met her -- the spunky girl with a colorful vocabulary, mischievous smirk, and eyes that could light up a room and drown it in darkness with a single look. He didn't like who he was before he met her: a forlorn, gloomy young boy with an abusive father and dead mother. Davina liked him, though. She clung onto his dark humor, acid tongue, and cunning qualities upon their first meeting, and through the years she showed him how to love all parts of himself -- and when he could not love himself, to at least forgive his younger self for the things he could not help.

When his mom told him stories about how he would one day find his true love, she seemed to imply that the girl of his dreams would be light and flowery and pure of heart. He realized now, after much thought, that his mother spoke that way because she didn't know what true love was. She was never in love with his father -- the only true love she had known in her life was the love of her son. She didn't know that he would grow up to be a damaged young man who fell in love with a much more damaged, fierce young woman. Her heart was pure, her soul marked by misdeeds, and she was deeply flawed -- and he loved her for all of it. She never flinched away from his darkness, bad days, or his rarely spoken-of past. She accepted all of it without a single hesitation or question.

Theo knew that while it was in her nature, much of it had to do with the the course her life took from a young age. He knew that the psychiatric ward at St. Mungo's was a corrupt horror show, he knew what she had put herself through there, but she rarely ever alluded to the way she was treated there. Now, he knew why she was the way she was when she left that place. He knew why her skin was as pale as moonlight or her eyes were swimming with masked horrors. Now, he knew why she ever inflicted those scars on herself.

The hostile stares and spewed curses thrown Draco and Theo's way as they were discreetly brought into the building by Harry, Neville, Gideon, and the Tonkses barely fazed them. Draco kept his gaze steely and stared straight ahead of him, not giving anyone the satisfaction of seeing him waver. Theo, on the other hand, balled his fists in the pockets of his hoodie as they walked between the ranks of their friends.

They stopped at the end of a long hallway and in front of an open door where many important Order members were convened. The hostile, unfriendly stares of the people facing their direction was not exactly reassuring, considering they were the same group who were going to interrogate them before deciding whether or not to allow them to defect to the Order. Neville and Tonks stepped inside, making a beeline around the long conference table for the interim Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Andromeda and Gideon followed behind them.

Harry lingered outside with Draco and Theo, shifting uncomfortably on his feet. "I'm going to take a walk around. Don't spew any slurs or get into any fights, yeah?"

Theo forced a comical smile. "We'll try."

Draco could see that his heart wasn't exactly in it.

Andromeda emerged from the room a few moments later, her lips pursed and eyes steely like Draco's. "They're going to take a little while longer to discuss the meeting."

Draco raised an eyebrow, momentarily locking gazes with Kingsley, "Longer? You mean they've been in there discussing our interrogation already?"

"They're not exactly keen on the whole idea...But you have many advocates. The Weasleys, Harry, Neville, the Peverells... to name a few. It'll all work out the way that it's meant to. I have faith in them, and in you."

"No need to get all sappy now, 'Dromeda." Draco muttered.

A wry smile tugged at her lips. Her gaze flickered to Theo, who was leaning up against the wall and staring down the hallway, his mind wandering somewhere else. She put a hand on his arm, "Do you want to see it?"

Theo's thoughts snapped back into his mind like a rubber band and he looked up at her. He nodded once.