𝑨𝒎𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒕 - ʜᴊᴘ x ᴏᴄ [𝐌𝐀𝐉𝐎𝐑 𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆&𝐑𝐄𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆]

𝟑𝟏

   ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ ꜰᴜɴ

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

During the summer before their second year at Hogwarts, Cassie Black found herself staying at Malfoy Manor, an invitation she had accepted more out of convenience than excitement. It was better than enduring the suffocating presence of her grandparents all summer, and besides, there was always something happening at the manor—whether it was Draco boasting about Hogwarts, Pansy gossiping about their classmates, or Blaise making sarcastic remarks about them all.

At first, Cassie stuck close to Draco and the others, joining in on discussions about Quidditch and upcoming school competitions. But after a while, the endless chatter became tiresome, and she started slipping away to explore the manor's vast grounds. That was when she noticed Theo Nott.

Unlike the rest of them, Theo didn't go out of his way to make his presence known. He wasn't loud or overly opinionated. He simply existed on the edges of their group, content to sit back and observe. Cassie was friends with him the previous year but at the Malfoy Manor, she kept running into him—usually alone, always with a book in hand.

One afternoon, she spotted him sitting beneath a large oak tree in the gardens, completely absorbed in whatever he was reading. With nothing better to do, she strolled over and flopped down onto the grass beside him.

"You always this boring?" she asked, resting her chin in her palm.

Theo didn't even look up. "You always this disruptive?"

Cassie grinned. "Always."

And just like that, something shifted.

She started seeking him out more often, slipping away from the others to find him reading in the gardens or tucked away in the manor's grand library. He never told her to leave, which she took as permission to stay. Sometimes, she entertained herself by climbing trees while he read below, occasionally throwing leaves onto his pages just to be a nuisance. Other times, she sat beside him, pretending to care about whatever book he was engrossed in.

"You do realize books aren't just decorative objects, right?" Theo remarked one day when he caught her flipping absentmindedly through a thick volume.

Cassie scoffed. "Yeah, they make excellent doorstops."

Theo rolled his eyes, but there was the smallest hint of amusement in them.

"I thought you read books."

"I do, sometimes. Only to please my grandfather though. It shuts him up for a while." She said sighing.

Their friendship wasn't built on deep conversations or grand gestures. It was in the quiet moments—the way he tolerated her interruptions, the way she filled the silence he never seemed to mind. When it rained, they stayed in the library, Cassie sprawled across the couch while Theo read. When the others played wizarding chess in the drawing room, she'd challenge Theo to a match, even though she was terrible at it.

"You're hopeless," he muttered after easily beating her for the fourth time in a row.

Cassie leaned back in her chair, smirking. "Maybe. But at least I'm entertaining."

Theo huffed a laugh, shaking his head.

By the end of the summer, they had fallen into an easy rhythm. She was loud where he was quiet, restless where he was still. And yet, somehow, it worked.