End of Sallow

You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece

He hated this.

Hated how the first place to feel like home to him was now being sullied by Podex. Hated how Podex had created a spell to turn the portraits into regular muggle pictures, holding them in place, without them being able to see or comprehend anything around them. And Theo didn't even want to know what Podex had done to the elves and ghosts that were supposed to be around the castle.

Even Peeves was impossible to find, and Theo had tried.

Alec looked just as livid as Theo felt about the whole situation.

"He fuckin' did somethin' to Margret," Alec growled after returning from searching the Gryffindor common room. Theo swallowed back his anger. It wouldn't do him any good here.

They'd all been up and down every damn floor in the castle, all over the grounds, in ever dorm room, every classroom, they'd even gotten into the headmasters office, but there was no repository. Podex's gadgets weren't going off and there were no little shimmering specks of magic to lead Theo anywhere. Which wasn't a surprise, considering there never had been in the past six and a half years he'd been coming to the school.

He hated that Podex was at the school but as long as he was wasting his time, Theo was at an impasse on what to do about it. No one was getting hurt. And whenever Theo had a moment to himself, he'd find his way up to the room of requirement.

He was happy that the room didn't show that damn mirror again, and only brought him back to Charlie's living space.

Perhaps, because it was what he needed. To be surrounded in goodness. Not exactly pureness, but good. Comforting.

Despite the fact the room was not purple and did not have any unicorns in it.

But, he wasn't in that room nearly as long as he'd like, and was more often than not roaming the school with Alec, looking for something that didn't exist within its walls.

"This is fuckin' pointless," Alec sighed, and Theo opened his mouth to agree, but Grace had spotted them from around the corner.

He closed his mouth and turned to walk in the opposite direction that he and Alec had just been walking. Alec, who had seen this multiple times since arriving and assumed his normalcy of blocking Grace's way of following him as Theo slipped through corridors and passageways.

Something that Theo had discovered was secret areas that would bring him to rooms that looked like he had to solve puzzles to get to the other side. On the other side, there appeared to be chests that were already opened, so Theo didn't bother. Just hid in those passages for a while until he felt he was safe, which is what he did now.

Sat and waited and daydreamed.

Charlie had told him to come back tonight, which worked for him considering he had time to heal from Podex's punishment of getting Charlie out of there.

Evidently, he had had a plan for Charlie to take a vow and in doing that, it would have stopped Sebastian from doing anything too forward. But knowing Sebastian, he probably would have tried to create a new spell and tested it on Podex's men until he knew it was safe enough for Charlie.

Regardless, Podex's plan was foiled, and Theo had undergone another imperio. Due to his not being utterly exhausted, Theo had broken out of it within a day, which had in turn, left him more exhausted than ever. Theo had been avoiding Podex ever since.

Meeting Charlie, she would have Malfoy with her and Malfoy would go through his memories. He hoped this wouldn't kill him, but Charlie had faith, and so he'd borrow some of hers for now.