The House of Emerald Serpents | Theodore Nott

13- Theo's Plan

TW: Brief mentions of abuse 

Otis McCracken knew how smart Theo Nott is. His father was an idiot, at least Otis thought so. He took Theo under his wing while he was teaching him dark magic. Otis had mentioned time turners to Theo one time and that was all Theo needed to come up with his plan.

Theo's favorite person in the entire world was his mother. His mother was older than all of his friend's mothers, so when she fell ill, he knew something was wrong. Theo watched as his mother got sicker and sicker. He was there every step of the way, he was there when his father was busy doing something else. 

Just when his mother was getting better, she passed. Theo knew it wasn't from natural causes and no one would give him a real answer as to what happened. 

On top of that, Theo's father used Theo as a punching bag to get out his frustrations. Theo couldn't fight back when he was younger. He didn't even try until his fifth year when he was playing quidditch and became physically stronger. He and his father would fight whenever they were together. 

His mental strength was still something he was working on up until today, where he is going to let in a new person into his plan. He was weirdly excited about it. 

Elaine had walked into Theo's room having no idea what he was about to tell her. She knew he needed to tell her something, or wanted to anyway. She was happy he was opening up to her.

"Theo," she knocks on his door lightly. 

"Come in," Theo calls back. 

Elaine walks in, closing the door behind her. Theo stands by his desk, gathering all of papers and books. 

"I want to talk about what happened the other day, but I also have something I want to show you."

Theo sits down on the end of his bed. Elaine watches as his leg bounces up and down nervously. She didn't want him to be nervous around her, so she put her hand on his knee gently. 

"Theo, I can go first if you want. You seem a little nervous."

He nods, "I want to make sure you're ok first. Whatever you're comfortable telling me, I want to know."

Elaine and Theo both felt so safe with each other, and they could feel that within the space between them. Elaine immediately explained what her and her mother talked about. Elaine held it together, not crying over it again. Theo could tell she wanted to, so he kept his arm around her waist as she talked. 

"I ran out, I didn't even let her talk. I have to talk to Ralph soon too, I have not seen him yet. I'm scared he won't understand," Elaine almost cried then, clearly getting frustrated. 

Of course, Theo noticed. 

"Hey, it's ok. He loves his sister and he knows how your mom has been. If you need someone there I can go with you when you tell him." 

"Thanks Theo but what happens when he gets too attached to you? What happens after this year when were done with school?"

Theo was mildly offended that Elaine was asking all of these questions. He had assumed that they would remain in contact with each other and be friends because there was no reason not to. 

"I can come visit wherever you guys live, I thought we would still be friends?" Theo was now doubting every interaction he has ever had with Elaine. 

Elaine chuckled at Theo, seeing the panic in his eyes. "No, I mean, yes we will still be friends, I just mean he'll want to see you all the time."

Theo smiled a little when he comes up with a response, "Well then I guess I'll just have to come see you guys all of the time".

Elaine let out a giggle, a sound that made Theo blush. He wanted to make her laugh again, just so he could hear it and see the smile on her face. 

Elaine turned her attention to him, making him nervous again. 

"Are you going to tell me now, whatever it is you want to tell me?"

"Oh yeah, so I mentioned the time turner thing to you?"

Elaine nods and Theo continues, "I am doing it for a reason, a very specific reason."

"You said you wanted to change something, and I have been thinking about it. I don't know if messing with time is a good idea Theo."

Theo rolls his eyes, pulling out a few papers from behind him. 

"I have a plan to make it work, if you read this you'll see that I will go back and change one thing. This one thing will change peoples lives but only for the better."

Elaine looks at him like he's crazy. She wanted to support him but it seemed like an impossible and dangerous task. 

"How do you know that, what if it makes things really bad? How do you know it'll even take you back to where you want to go?"

"Ah, I will be conducting test runs where I don't change a thing and see if it takes me to the right spot in time. I will work out the kinks before I do anything drastic."

Theo was confident in his plan, but he still hadn't told Elaine what exactly it was that he wanted to change. Elaine reads the papers over, Theo watching her intensely. She realizes that he had put a ton of thought into this, he really had all of the bases covered. 

"What are you planning on changing Theo?" 

"My mother died awhile ago, as I'm sure you know."

Elaine immediately grew nervous, "Theo, you can't bring someone back to life that's not-"

"No Elaine I know, I'm going to stop her death. I'm not bringing her back, I can stop it from happening. That's it."

Elaine looked at Theo, really looked at Theo, and saw how hopeful his eyes looked. All he wanted is to have Elaine back him up in his plan. He just wanted her support. 

"Ok," is all she could say. He was giving her puppy eyes, there was no way that she could have crushed his hopes and dreams right then. 

"Ok," Theo says back softly.

Elaine felt like she was looking at a lost kid who had hopeful puppy eyes. Theo smiled lightly at her, pulling her into a hug. 

"Thank you for being so understanding," he mumbles into her hair. 

"Just let me help if I can ok?"

"I want you to come on the test runs with me" Theo proposes. 

Elaine pulls away a little, "You trust me to time travel with you?" 

"I fully trust you Elaine, otherwise I wouldn't have told you any of this."

Elaine could feel how much it meant to him and it honestly made her feel so much closer to him. She wanted to agree to this plan of his. 

"Ok, I'll do this with you, as long as you're safe."

"We will both be safe. I promise I'll make sure you're ok before I even remotely worry about me."

Elaine fought the urge to swoon at him, so instead she pulled him in for another hug.