You Only Live Once

CHAPTER 24

The stone corridors of Hogwarts felt unusually quiet for a Tuesday evening. Mira and Theo walked side by side, their shoulders occasionally brushing. Usually, they would be ducking behind tapestries or checking the Marauder's Map to avoid the inevitable lecture from James or a disappointed look from Lily. But tonight, with only two weeks left in the term, the urgency to hide had evaporated. Everyone already whispered about them. The secret was out, even if the label wasn't.

Mira, however, wasn't thinking about the whispers. Her mind was stuck on the morning's confrontation. Alecto Carrow had cornered her near the Great Hall, eyes wild and voice shrill, demanding to know why Mira was "stealing" Theo. It had been a bizarre, one-sided screaming match that Mira didn't know how to finish. When Amycus had finally dragged his sister away, the look he gave Mira wasn't much better—it was cold, calculating, and full of a strange sort of malice.

"Is that all you have to say?" Mira bellowed now, her voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling.

Theo had just suggested, with a maddeningly calm shrug, that Alecto was simply jealous. He looked at her with an amused glint in his eyes that only made her more frustrated.

"Look, Mira. I wouldn't be mad if I were you" Theo said, stopping in his tracks. "Alecto has fancied every last one of us at some point. The girl is desperate. She thinks she has a claim on people just because our fathers sit at the same meetings."

Mira didn't respond. She stared at a portrait of a sleeping knight, her jaw set tight. She felt like a puzzle piece that didn't fit anywhere—not with her  Gryffindor friends, and certainly not with the darker crowd in her own house.

Theo sighed, a soft sound that broke the tension. He stepped directly into her path, forcing her to stop. When she tried to look at the floor, he reached out, tilting her head up with a single finger under her chin. His touch was warm, a sharp contrast to the cold draft of the hallway.

"Does it bother you, darling?" he asked softly.

"What?" Mira whispered, her breath hitching.

"That we're not... together. Officially."

The word Yes throbbed in her throat. She wanted to scream it. She wanted to tell him that she hated the ambiguity, hated the way she had to pretend she didn't care when other girls looked at him. But she thought of her situation, she thought of the war brewing outside the castle walls, and she thought of the dark rumors surrounding Theo's family.

"We... can't. I can't" she said, pulling her face away from his hand. She looked toward the shadows of the next corridor, desperate to hide the longing in her eyes.

"I wouldn't mind it" Theo said, his voice dropping an octave. He stepped closer, closing the gap between them. "I mean, it would be nice to be officially... yours. I don't like the way some assholes are looking at you lately. Like they think you're available."

Mira felt a tiny spark of heat in her chest. She looked back at him, a small, teasing smirk finally breaking through her gloom. "Who's the jealous one now?"

"Can you blame me?"

The honesty in his voice caught her off guard. Usually, Theo hid behind sarcasm or a mask of pure Slytherin indifference. To hear him admit it so plainly made her heart race. Since words felt too heavy and complicated, she did the only thing that made sense. She reached up, grabbed the front of his robes, and kissed him.

Theo didn't hesitate. He pulled her flush against him, his hands finding her waist. In the quiet corners of the school, Mira could pretend. She could pretend that the Dark Mark wasn't etched into the skin of the boy. She could pretend that her last name she was given didn't put a target on her back. For a few seconds, it was just the two of them.