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The cold weather frightened Hope as she pulled her coat closer to her body and rubbed her hands together to generate some heat. She didn't even had a clue about how chilly it was outside hogwarts and when she thought about it, it made her shudder. She roamed around the castle for a while, trying to get hold onto Leo who had been missing since morning.
She glanced through the window while climbing up the stairs of the astronomy tower and spotted the students getting their permission forms checked by filch. Her eyes fell on the certain blonde slytherin who had made an assertion of knowing her secret.
Hope hurried downstairs and made a run towards the main door, got her permission slip checked and ran to catch the carriage.
"Hey, Hope." Theodore waved at her after noticing her desperately running towards him to catch the last carriage.
"Theo." She came to a halt, trying to catch up her breathing, having her hand pressed on her heart. "
You okay?" Theodore raised his eyebrows, smiling slightly at her tinted pink cheeks due to the cold.
"Yes. I overslept." Hope lied when she was cut off in between.
"Excuse me lovebirds but we need to leave."
Hope turned her head towards the source of the voice, feeling slightly embarrassed after getting called as lovebirds but it turned into irritation when she met the stormy, blue eyes. Leo Malfoy was sat on the carriage with a copy of daily prophet in his hand.
Without another word, Theodore climbed on the carriage and helped Hope up as well who couldn't stop smiling. She sat besides theodore and passed him a small smile when their arms brushed slightly.
Feeling someone's gaze upon herself, Hope looked up to find leo staring at her in surprise. He lowered his eyes on being caught and stole a glance at her again to find her eyes still on him.
"It's so cold. I hate it." Theodore muttered with a slight anger in his voice, breaking Leo and Hope from staring at each other.
"You should have stayed back theo." Leo chuckled, trying to lighten up the atmosphere as the tension between him and hope was just blossoming like flowers in spring.
"And get bored to death, no thank you." Theodore raised his hands up in surrender with a small smile resting on his lips.
When the carriage came to a stop, the trio jumped off and brought their jackets closer to themselves.
"I'm gonna freeze to death." Theodore groaned, stuffing his gloved hands in the pockets of his trousers earning an acknowledgement nod from Hope.
"Let's have a butterbeer." Leo suggested, glancing at theodore who was just behind him.
"That'd be great." Theodore agreed and turned his head towards Hope to ask if she would like to come along.
"Oh yes please." Hope said and the three of them made their way towards the three broomsticks.
As soon as the three of them stepped inside, the warm surrounding made them sigh in relief. "Three butterbeers please." Leo ordered and followed Theodore and Hope to a table at the very back as most of the ones in front were already occupied.
Hope and Leo sat on either sides of theodore who took out his coat and hung it on his chair before taking a deep breath.
"Holy shit." He breathed out, startling both Hope and Leo who looked at him with questioning glances.
"Is that Pansy?" Theodore gasped pointing to his right where on the corner most table were sat Pansy and the girl Liza.
"Indeed." Hope nodded,"She told us about this girl liza."
"Is this girl liza a pureblood?" Theodore questioned which made Hope feel a bit mad at him.
"Why does it matter?" Leo spoke up,"Theodore Nott didn't care about blood status as long as I knew."
"I don't okay." Theodore sounded slightly irritated,"I'm just worried for Pansy knowing how her family is."
"She's worried as well." Hope admitted, no longer mad at theodore,"I hope she doesn't gets her heart broken at the end. She deserves all the happiness."
"Here are your butterbeers." A waiter interrupted their conversion, kept the three glasses on the table and left. Theodore was the first one to reach for his glass and before Hope and Leo could bring their respective glasses to their mouth, he had already chugged the whole glass down.
"Woah, slow down there." Leo chuckled lightly earning an embarrassed smile from theodore.
"I'm going for another round." Theodore said after a while and got up on his feet. "I want one too." Leo said, followed by Hope who asked for one more.
The trio didn't stop at two glasses of butterbeer ─ they played a challenge to have six glasses of butterbeer which theodore won as hope and leo gave up at their fifths. "I can't move." Theodore groaned, placing his hand on his stomach which felt heavy to him.
"I need to use the bathroom." Leo said real quick and ran towards the washroom, followed by theodore and Hope.
After using the washroom and feeling much lighter, Hope stepped out in the inn and looked for theodore and leo who were already sat at the table while waiting for her.
"Let's go?" Hope giggled like a kid, unaware of the toll the butterbeer was having on her sobriety.
The boys nodded, paid for their drinks and followed hope outside which they dreaded as soon as the cold air slapped them across their faces. Having ran around like a flock of butterflies, the three of them finally settled down on the snow in front of the shrieking shack which was surrounded by thorny wires.
Theodore leaned against a tree while Hope and Leo sat a little far away from him, their legs close to their chest while staring into nothingness. Leo picked up a lump of snow and before Hope could figure out what he was doing, he had already made a big ball of snow.
"What are you doing?" Hope questioned.
"What does it seem like?" Leo smiled widely,"I'm making a snowman!"
Hope chuckled lightly before offering,"Do you need any help?"
"What are you two doing?" Theodore cackled, pulling out a cigarette from his pocket,"Are you like three year olds?"
"Oh shut up." Leo rolled his eyes and watched as Hope got on her feet and walked towards theodore.
She sat down next to him and motioned leo to join them. Theodore passed the cigarette to Hope who took a drag and held it out for Leo to take, sitting next to her. Leo grabbed the cigarette and stared at it for a few moments.
There was a light, lipstick stain on the mouth of the cigarette which left leo wondering how it would feel to kiss her lips. His heart knew it was impossible to get the taste of her lips so he pushed the thought away and took a drag.
He turned his head towards Hope who had her head tucked against the tree while her eyes stared at the sky above.
