human again / hp.

Chapter 56

The corridors of Hogwarts felt almost alive in their stillness, the flickering torchlight casting restless shadows along the stone walls. The air was thick with an unspoken tension, as though the castle itself was holding its breath. My steps echoed faintly as I wandered, my robes drawn tightly around me to ward off the chill that had settled into my bones. Outside, the wind howled lashing against the ancient walls, but even that sound felt muted within the castle's labyrinthine halls.

I wasn't sure why I had chosen to roam instead of heading straight to Gryffindor Tower. Maybe it was the oppressive air outside, the feeling of suffocation from everything weighing on me: Buckbeak's fate, my fight with Draco, the constant struggle of reconciling who I was with who my family wanted me to be. Or maybe it was just the need to escape, even for a little while. My thoughts had become too loud to bear.

Turning a corner near the Transfiguration classroom, I collided with something—or someone.

"Oh!" I gasped, stumbling back.

"Careful," a familiar voice said, sharp but not unkind. I looked up to find Theodore Nott standing there, his pale features half-hidden in the wavering light. His dark hair was tousled, and his robes hung slightly askew, as if he'd thrown them on in haste.

"Theo?" I blinked, surprised. "What are you doing here? It's nearly curfew."

He tilted his head, studying me with an unreadable expression. "I could ask you the same thing."

"I'm on my way back to the common room," I said quickly, crossing my arms. "What's your excuse?"

He leaned casually against the wall, his posture deceptively relaxed. "Couldn't sleep," he replied. His tone was light, but his eyes—always so observant—held a flicker of something deeper. "Thought I'd take a walk."

"Couldn't sleep," I echoed skeptically. "And you just happened to be wandering this way?"

His lips curved into a faint smirk. "Believe what you want. I'm not the one wandering around looking like I've just seen a dementor."

The remark struck closer to home than I cared to admit. "I'm fine," I said quickly, though the waver in my voice betrayed me.

Theo's smirk softened into something closer to a smile, and he tilted his head slightly, his gaze thoughtful. "You always were a terrible liar, Celeste."

His words stirred an unexpected pang of familiarity. It had been years since anyone had spoken to me like that, as if they really knew me. For a moment, the weight of Hogwarts—the tension of being a Malfoy torn between two worlds—lifted, and I saw Theo not as the sharp-witted Slytherin before me, but as the boy I had once spent childhood afternoons with.

"How long has it been?" I asked before I could stop myself, my voice quieter now. "Since we... really talked, I mean."

Theo blinked, surprised, before his expression softened. "Too long," he admitted, his tone losing some of its usual guardedness. "I think the last time was... the Rosier gala? Or maybe that awful summer picnic your parents organized?"

I smiled despite myself. "The one where you fell into the fountain?"

He rolled his eyes, though his lips twitched with amusement. "That fountain was practically a death trap. And, if I recall, you laughed so hard you spilled pumpkin juice all over your dress."

"It was funny," I countered, though my cheeks flushed at the memory. "You were soaked from head to toe, and you still tried to act like it was no big deal."

"I was being dignified," he said with mock indignation. "You wouldn't understand."

I shook my head, my smile widening. "You weren't being dignified. You were sulking."