Regency in Diagon Alley [Theodore Nott | Harry Potter AU]

Chapter Twelve

It would have been easy to use the floo than walk across London when heading to Grimmauld Place, but Cedric preferred the latter. If he didn't take his time to walk, he would not have found those flowers he always bought for Carina, and he was always lucky to find flower shops selling hyacinths. Her favorite. There were times when he would pass by a Muggle pastry shop and purchase some cakes, so she could try something different. He could only imagine how it would feel like eating the same thing over and over in one's lifetime. With Snuffles around, he started getting some treats for the dog as well.

His acts of purchasing gifts and leaving the Ministry early has caught the attention of his co-workers and started teasing him about it. Well, at first, they thought he just found a random witch in the department and started courting her, but then Rita Skeeeter's scandal column was published and everyone found out about his courting on the Marchioness of Grimmauld Place. A one-way ticket to misery, was what his co-workers said. One of his friends, Quinn, tried to talk him out of it by saying, "Marrying into nobility is one thing, but marrying into the Black family is another. You are better off marrying someone like Amelia Bones than aiming high for Carina Black. Trust me, you will be sucked into a life of boredom and restrictions."

He did not trust his words for two things: Quinn was neither married nor has he been married to anyone in nobility. Quinn was just like him and everyone else in the Ministry who don their government's provided uniform and worked for money.

Though he did not trust Quinn's unsolicited advice, he has also considered the problems that he would face when he started courting Carina, and he has voiced those problems to his brother – whenever Morgan decided to visit him in their parents' home. All eyes would be on him, Morgan told him. Especially when he was courting Carina Black. Most likely, bloodthirsty mamas and bachelorette witches would do anything to put them in a scandal so Carina Black would be off the market. Luckily, nothing like that has happened, if he does not consider Theodore Nott's actions that have made the three of them the 'love-triangle' in Skeeter's scandal column.

Morgan has told him of Theodore Nott and Carina's relationship. In fact, everyone knew of their closeness. He has witnessed it himself when they were in Hogwarts but for a time he only thought that it was because they were all confined in a castle and a friendship brewed between the two. Merlin, all of them expected that once they leave the castle, Carina Black and Theodore Nott would rarely speak to each other, boy were they wrong. From her first debut, Theodore Nott has been a lingering presence, always at the Marchioness' side along with their friend, Roman Alston.

Roman does not pose as a threat, Morgan made it clear for him. Cedric had no idea where his brother got the idea or how he knew it, but simply took the words to give him some sort of relief.

But Theodore. The Duke. He was a threat. Not in a kind that would harm Carina, rather, the wizard was an obstacle in his courting, and it did not help when Carina seems to be more attached with the duke even when she has shown interest in him.

And it did not help that Cedric finds out that she has, once again, shared more than one dance with the noble wizard during the Malfoy Ball. A ball inviting only a selected few of the ton. A ball he was not invited to. To make things worse, the moment he came to the Ministry, many of his co-workers already read the column by Skeeter and were whispering while he walked past them. Pitying him.

He did not like being pitied.

He was a patient man who did not believe in rumors, but even he had his limits.

Having enough of the whispering and gossiping Aurors that glanced at his way whenever he passed, Cedric snatched the copy Quinn was reading to read what Skeeter has written of his... he was not sure what to call Carina. Intended? No, they were not married. Well, the woman he was courting.