Servitium| Theodore Nott

Chapter Thirty-Five

"Ivory?" Ivory pulled her eyes away from the wall she was staring at, and looked at the hand on her shoulder. Fabiola's face was full of nothing but pure concern. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Ivory replied dismissing Fabiola, the two hadn't talked much in the past week or so. Ivory had been swamped in work, Occlumency lessons and her mission, that she hadn't made much progress on. It was taking its toll on her magically, focusing on that sphere of energy, learning and understanding it. Trying to manipulate something that wasn't meant to be manipulated, wasn't something she was sure she could do, and she went down into the Repository everyday after hours, just to make some progress, it seemed she was moving backward instead of forward.

The past days sort of moulded into one another, however Wednesday night had brought Alchemy with Slughorn. Who wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as he was during Potions. In fact it was almost like he feared Ivory, and perhaps he was right to, with that symbol of destruction on her left forearm. "Will you be going Hogsmeade in a couple of weeks?"

"Hello Ivory, I'm worried about you. Stop shutting me out. And no I'm not going, didn't you hear about Hannah Abbott? Susan wants to hold a little vigil in the kitchens on that Saturday."

"For Hannah's mother that she didn't even know?" Ivory almost laughed and Fabiola huffed.

"What's gotten into you? Yeah she might have not known them, but it's a nice thing to do for your friend." Fabiola raised a questioning eyebrow looking Ivory up and down as if she would find what was wrong.

"Okay, okay, sorry," Ivory muttered boring her eyes into the fireplace. At one point Fabiola was her sunshine, always the light in her world, she was refreshing, she was different, Fabiola's friendship was a light to Ivory, growing inside her soul, shining through her eyes, Fabiola was her best friend, she loved Fabiola and Fabiola loved her. Fabiola was stability in her crumbling world. "Fabiola?" Ivory called.

"Yes?" The girl sat down beside her giving Ivory her full attention.

"Can you make me a promise?" Ivory asked and when Fabiola remained silent she decided to continue. "Promise me that you'll always be my friend, promise me that you'll trust me even when I distance myself from you, hardly speak to you, keep secrets from you. I'm trying to keep you safe, always trust me please."

Fabiola looked at her tears brimming in her eyes, the common room was quiet, everybody was in the Great Hall for breakfast and then Quidditch try-outs.  Ivory feared Fabiola's response, everything was at stake now, her family, her friends.

"Ivory what's wrong?" Fabiola sniffled. "Please speak to me, maybe I can help."

"No, just promise," Ivory refused with a firm shake of the head.

Fabiola sighed deeply. "Just...just don't do anything stupid be careful. I love you Ivory. I don't know what happened to you over the summer, or what situation you find yourself in but I meant what I said in that letter, I'm not here to judge you or tell you what to do."

"Of course I will," Ivory offered her reassurance as Fabiola rapidly blinked back her tears.

"Also, I know we joked about you and Malfoy and it's not true or whatever because you're Nott's beau, but you need to be careful with them Ivory. They don't understand how to be good people, they don't care. They may have come from similar backgrounds like you, but they're not like you. They are only there for themselves. As soon as the going gets tough they might leave you behind just to save themselves."

Ivory bit her lip burying the need to defend Draco and Theodore against Fabiola. Fabiola didn't have a clue, she didn't know about the month of mental strife, or torture that the three of them had gone through. She didn't know how Theodore held her when she found it difficult to sleep, she didn't know how Theodore hadn't left her side when Anastasia passed. Ivory was blessed to be in Gryffindor she was given that little freedom to be her own person rather than a reflection of her parents. Theodore and Draco didn't have that luxury, being sorted into Slytherin meant that people were looking at them, automatically expecting them to be their parents.