mess it up! // theo nott

iv. bad, bad news

Daphne and Harry stumble to the supply closet where she's hidden her fire whiskey stash. Ever since she first tried it with Harry, she became obsessed with the taste, the burning sensation in her throat, the smell of it. She knows of course, that she shouldn't be doing this, that it's 12.30 in the afternoon and class would start soon. But she and Harry need the distraction right now.

They mutter a few spells, and rummage through the boxes. Daphne finds them, and drinks straight from the bottle. She just needed one chug to get her mind off Theo for the day. Once she got hers, Harry snatches the bottle away from her hand and takes a sip. Her throat is hot, her head is dizzy, but at least it blurs out the image of Theo's face. His hair. His hands. The rings on his fingers.

"My dads have been harassing me about the breakup," she mumbles in between gulps after Harry passes the bottle back. Daphne has been ignoring her parents like a disease. All they do is ramble about Theo, and she isn't quite sure she's ready for that.

"You should reply to those letters, Daphne, God, you have no respect for your elders," Harry replies, rolling his eyes. She knows he's joking, but he does actually mean it. And Daphne understands she should.

"Shut up," she elbows his chest. "It's your fault they even know." Harry tells her dads everything, it's annoying how close they are.

Daphne steps out of the door. She always closes her eyes whenever she does, like she's always afraid someone would be waiting to bust them on the other side. Usually, there's no one, and she's just paranoid.

But today, she sees Pansy Parkinson.

"Oh, you have to be fucking kidding me," Harry curses, banging his fist on the wooden door when he lays his eyes on her. Pansy was always a bitch, but she became worse when she finally got the one thing she wanted from Daphne. Theodore Nott.

Now that she's got him in his grasps, she feels superior. Like she has the upper hand on Daphne. She looks at her now in the most condescending way, her eyes are evil and her bob is tidy and Daphne hates it. The way Pansy looks at Daphne, like she's a mess, she hates that it's probably true.

"Well, well, well," she smirks, as she pulls out her phone and snaps a picture. "What do we have here?"

"Delete that," Daphne sternly demands. She knows what Pansy's capable of, what she would do, what measures she would take to ruin her life.

"But you look so good here, Daph!" She giggles, showing them the picture. Daphne and Harry side by side, him holding a bottle of fire whiskey in his hand.

"It was just one sip, Parkinson, don't be a bitch and act like you have never drank in your sorry life," Harry scowls. Daphne wishes he would shut up. She knows this game, and she knows how to win it. Talking that way to Pansy would just send them over the ledge.

"That's not the way to talk to the person who has damaging info on you, Potter," she sneers. Then her eyes land on Daphne again. "Don't you agree?"

"I know you're taunting me," Daphne sighs, "But you are going to delete that, Pansy."

"You have to do me a favour," she says. And Daphne immediately knows what it is.

"No, she doesn't have to. This is bullshit, this—" Harry protests.

"No, no, Harry." She shrugs, "Shoot. As long as that picture doesn't get to the faculty and our parents."

Daphne's dads can be extreme sometimes. She'd rather be on the safe side.

"I didn't like the way you and Theo cozied up together in DADA. So what I want you to do is simple, really. Just stay away from my boyfriend, and we're good," Pansy smiles, as if it wasn't what Daphne was trying to do all week. Of course, it's hard hearing Pansy refer to Theo as hers, but it's also what's for the best. Daphne not being anywhere near Theo.