laconic • t.nott ✓

16 ➺ legacy of dumbledore's army

「 LEGACY OF DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY 」

THE VACATION WASN'T AS BAD as Theo had feared it would be. Daphne played a role of course, but for the most part, the Carrows left them alone. The castle was almost emptied out and on the second day of the holidays, Theo was pleased to find that he could walk around without any interruption. He did come across a few fourth and fifth year Ravenclaws while on his way to the Astronomy Tower, and the large rectangular tables in the Great Hall have been replaced by a single round table with about a dozen chairs around it.

Theo had decided to spend the vacation catching up on his schoolwork. It felt strangely insignificant, like the NEWTs that every sensible seventh year feared weren't really that much of a big deal. Maybe it was a big deal to others - those who cared about their future and had goals and dreams. Theo wasn't like that; he hadn't been raised that way. He would inherit enough gold from his father to last him a century; there was absolutely no need for him to get a job. "Your only goal should be to continue the family line," he remembered his father telling him countless times.

And now he had confessed his feelings toward Blaise to two people, he thought miserably. He would never stop being a disappointment to his father.

After lunch, he had gone straight to the common room and pulled out his Muggle Studies book. They were instructed by Alecto Carrow to write a foot-long essay about why it was justified to kill muggles and Theo had been putting it off for as long as possible. But he was slowly nearing the deadline and he was sure Alecto wouldn't be satisfied with making him just write lines if he failed to turn it in.

He tried to read the book but gave up after a while. The Carrows' curriculum didn't follow the book at all, making it utterly useless. He squinted at the same paragraph for half an hour and would have kept squinting at it had Daphne not arrived and snatched it from him.

"What are you doing - ugh Muggle Studies. I wish I could shove this book into Alecto's face."

Theo grinned at her, moving aside to let her sit. She flopped down next to him and sent him a suspicious look. "What's so funny?" she demanded.

He shook his head quickly. "Nothing. It's just that it's endearing when you go all threatening and bloodthirsty."

"I would hardly call that bloodthirst," she muttered but looked pleased with herself. "Why are you trying to do this stupid homework anyway? Let's go outside. It would be foolish not to take advantage of the empty castle."

Theo agreed with her so he got up. "Fine. Where do you want to go?"

Daphne's eyes rode up the stairs that led to the boys' dorms. "I am very tempted to spill some soup on Malfoy's bed." She looked at Theo and blushed. "Just a thought."

"That's enough, woman. You need air. Come on."

It felt good to leave the dreariness of the dungeons, Theo noted absently to himself as the two climbed up the stairs. The staircases moved and shifted but they hardly bothered to keep track of their destination. Their goal right now was to walk and make sure the castle didn't choke them to their deaths.

Theo wasn't paying attention to where they were going, but when Daphne grabbed his arm and led him through a hallway to the left, he cleared his mind to look around. "Where are we?" he asked, unable to recognise his surroundings.

"Ravenclaw Tower."

"Are we even allowed in here?"

Daphne shot him a pointed look. "We aren't allowed inside their common room, dunghead. We are just going to look out of the tower."