Unspoken // Theseus Scamander

Chapter Twenty-Four - Captured

Word Count: 2,419 words. 

Warnings: None. 

Theseus could distinctly remember the day that he first realised his feelings for Natalia Clayton. Before he even knew her name, the older Scamander knew that she was special. He hated that word, but could think of nothing else to describe the first moment he had watched her in the rafters of Hogwarts.

It was at the beginning of her Third Year. Until that point, Theseus had not noticed Natalia. He was often surrounded by his loud friends, and found himself wandering away little. When his Fifth Year came around, he began to dislike those that he surrounded himself with, hating how they belittled those they believed lesser than them. He went in search of solitude.

Theseus had quickly noticed the Third Year, a dozen books in a pile beside her. She sat in an alcove in the Astronomy Tower rafters, unaware of anything around her. She did not see him, nor did she fear being found.

Theseus remembered thinking that she looked confused, a small crinkle between her brows as she read the words on the page. He wanted to know what it was that vexed her, and why he wanted to know so badly.

The Hufflepuff approached her hiding placed five times before he worked up the courage to introduce himself and once he heard her speak, he knew that she was worth the effort.

In truth, Theseus Scamander had cared for her from the moment they met, from the moment he first saw her, but he had no idea why. That lack of knowing forced its way inside of him until it became his constant fear.

He had completely fallen for her by the time he did his NEWT's and she had done her OWL's. Despite the distraction that was Leta Lestrange, perhaps the most beautiful girl in the school, nothing could compare to the feeling that he had when she hugged him that day, nor the shudders that ran through him while he looked at Abe's note over her shoulder.

He loved her that night at his home; when she told him about her family, when she fit so perfectly into his. Theseus had found her outside, watching the Hippogriff's as they huddled together. The young man had never been so terrified for someone to meet his parents and Newt, he had not even been as scared when they met Leta the next year.

As she had leaned into his side, watching the moon rise higher into the sky, Theseus had looked at her with utter fear. Never had anyone affected him like she had. Never had he known that there was nothing he wouldn't do for someone.

Natalia Clayton was everything he wanted and everything he hated to want. From the moment he first saw her, he knew that she deserved the world, that she deserved a man who was fearless, a man who did not still shudder when he cast a harmful spell. Natalia needed a man who did not question his feelings, who did not fear her love. She had never truly needed him, but he had always needed her.

"Theseus," her voice pulled him from what thoughts he had conjured.

In the graveyard above the catacombs, Natalia had placed a hand on his arm, smiling slightly to gain his attention. He shivered at her touch, something which she never seemed to notice and he stood in awe underneath her gaze. 

"I'm sorry about Leta," she muttered.

He scoffed, turning to quickly scan the area. Leta Lestrange had not joined them. "I am the one who has been lying to her. She should have your apologies."

"And she has received them," Nat countered. "Merlin knows, I was in the wrong."

Theseus' attention fixed on her worried expression. "None of it is your fault. I am the instigator. I couldn't admit to myself that I wanted what I couldn't have, and I dragged another into that denial for a decade."