mind over matter - theodore nott

37. catching on

CATCHING ON

Florence and Blaise had just got out of transfiguration, and to both there surprise, Theo had been there that day. But he left the classroom before either got to greet him with a 'hello'. Sure, Theo's behaviour was strange, it wasn't the usual Theo, but Florence knew there was something more to it than just skipping classes, so she tried to let it slide.

"You always seem to have those marks on your neck now, don't ya, Flo?" Blaise smiled as they turned the corner. "They're from falling over, right?"

Florence sighed before laughing at the boys comments. Blaise always found a way of cheering someone up, especially when it came to Florence. He was just such a bright character, even at the darkest of times, he was still Blaise.

"Yes, Blaise. You know, I am very clumsy, as you can see," Florence joked, looking up at the much taller boy who walked beside her with a smile plastered onto his face.

"Well, yeah," Blaise agreed as he worded his next sentence, "I mean, you fell for Theo, you fell on his bed, you fell on his lips, hell- You probably even fell on his di-" He was cut off by Florence giving him a friendly whack on his arm, shocked at his words.

"Blaise!" She exclaimed, a grin growing across her face as she joined in conversation with the boy.

"Sorry," He practically shouted, trying to hold in his laugh, "But it's true."

Florence gave him a threatening look to say 'you're really gonna go there again?'. Blaise held his hands up in surrender, chuckling at their interaction, proud of what he had said, of course.

Blaise always seemed to come up with the most ridiculous things in a conversation, that was probably why Florence liked hanging out with him so much. He was just such a chaotic and funny character with so much to say and he was by far the most funny person Florence had ever met, despite Lee Jordan and the Weasley twins. She always found Lee Jordan's quidditch commentary hilarious, even though it was mostly flirting with the twins or bashing the team playing against gryffindor. She used to speak to Lee Jordan quite a bit in her first few years at hogwarts, they were still friends in her fifth year but after that, she hadn't seen him since, given that her fifth year was his seventh year so also his last. Blaise reminded her of Lee, they both made the most out-of-pocket comments and were still the most hilarious people she'd ever known.

It had been six days since Florence's birthday, six days of being seventeen. That meant it had been five days since the day after, that was the last time Florence had spoken to Theo, for whatever reason that had led up to that.

They held the occasional eye contact across the room, but nothing more, nothing less. Florence was slowly beginning to think that Theo didn't like her anymore, even when that was totally not the case, it actually defeated the point.

As Florence and Blaise walked through the corridors, more and more students flooded out of their classrooms, heading to their next.

All of a sudden, two third year hufflepuffs rushed past the two sixth year slytherins, sending a gush of wind their way when they passed, heading towards the library, strange. Florence and Blaise both raised an eyebrow as a few more students, a group of fourth year girls, also rushed past them. They were all heading in the same direction.

Just when Blaise and Florence were going to see what was going on, Nigel Wolpert, a third year gryffindor, rushed past, excited yet looking scared, running in the same direction as the others who had passed were heading, towards the library. "Hey, Nigel," Blaise shouted, gaining his attention as his head shot round and Blaise and Florence sped up to him. "What's going on? What's all this fuss about?" Blaise asked, confused as he looked down at the much shorter boy in front of them.