The mortifying ordeal of falling in love with your entire secret study group

7th year: Theo

The war made itself known, again, when a handful of students who had left Hogwarts for winter break didn't return for spring term. After rumours of snatchers and Fenrir Greyback's werewolf pack near Hogsmeade, all visits to the village were cancelled until further notice. To Daphne's immense satisfaction, the students didn't rebel against the new rule.

A ministry official came to visit one day in january, and it was most likely pure luck that he accepted Alecto Carrow's empty eyes as just the way some Death Eaters were. Alecto, outside of her rooms because it was lunch hour, said that she killed her brother, which – actually, wasn't that far-fetched a lie. The ministry official paled and was suddenly very happy to leave. No inquiry came from any Death Eaters or associated Dark Lords to see if it was true.

Theo started to end his Head Boy patrols with a visit to the kitchens just to feel something in his freezing fingertips, because the castle got cold at this time of the year.

Clutching a hot chocolate to his chest, sitting in the kitchens surrounded by quietly chattering House Elves, was how Draco Malfoy found him again.

And he... took a seat in front of him. The Elves, wonderfully vindictive beings that they could be, did not offer him anything to drink.

Theo met Draco's storm grey eyes quietly. Draco had been one of his childhood friends, one of those kids whose parents attended the same parties and so, by virtue of having to share the kid's table, they just had to become friends. Friends, of a sort, because it took a couple years of Hogwarts to truly understand how a friendship worked. Theo read one Muggle psychology book on child development and he suspected their collective Death Eater parents and their idea of alliances was not the best kind of paragon of social interaction.

Draco, Theo thought, could have turned out worse. Theo's eyes fell to the table, where Draco nervously fidgeted with his fingers.

"Since I am alive," Draco started, and stopped. Theo watched Draco dig his nails into the skin of his hands. "You either want something from me, or you're secretly on Potter's side."

Theo nearly choked, but managed to put his mug on the table without getting hot chocolate all over himself and the floor. "Excuse me?"

A black ball of floof jumped on the table between them – elegantly, of course, and with a proudly raised fluffy tail. Theo recognised Blaise's cat Nero, and made a note to apologise to the Elves, because even to his sleep deprived mind, a cat in the kitchen didn't look like something of a regular occurrence. And, he never saw one of the familiars here before.

"How are you?" Theo asked instead of addressing whatever it was Draco wanted to say – because Theo wasn't on 'Potter's side' or whatever but if he was, it's not something anyone should put in words, out loud, and that thing about a crush on Potter had been a fever dream, definitely, he's been spending a lot of time convincing himself of that one.

"I'm... alright?" Draco raised an eyebrow.

Theo blinked. "Hm. Beautiful evening."

"Yes, well... so, which is it?" Draco deadpanned.

"Of what?" Theo snagged Nero away from his mug of hot chocolate. He gently tugged the cat down on his lap, whiskers free of whipped cream, but only barely. Nero meowed pathetically, but Theo knew all about the manipulations of the little bugger and ignored him.

Draco did not. He pushed the mug closer to Theo, directly under Nero's face, and Nero dipped his face into the whipped cream and chocolate. "Are you going to use my feelings for Potter to blackmail me, or are you secretly on his side?"