laconic • t.nott ✓

24 ➺ accidentally

「 ACCIDENTALLY 」

THEO AVOIDED SEAMUS FOR THE rest of the day. They came across each other in Astronomy class where Seamus kept trying to meet his eyes but Theo pointedly did not look his way. Daphne, despite all her claims that she was still mad at him and would not talk to him anymore, noticed the tension between them and dropped all pretence of anger and demanded to know what had happened.

Theo didn't tell her. He couldn't.

He was embarrassed and angry with himself. He didn't like Seamus that way; it wasn't fair of him to kiss him like that when his thoughts were constantly occupied by Blaise. But, he couldn't help but thinking, Seamus had kissed him back.

Hadn't he?

Theo shook his head to push away the thoughts of Seamus and focused on the ugly plant with bright pink leaves in front of him. Since they were no longer allowed on the grounds, Professor Sprout had to bring the plants into the classroom, and the students were given the responsibility to clean up after class ended. It wouldn't be too hard for Sprout to do it with one wave of her wand, but Theo suspected that she wished to keep her students longer inside the classroom with her. Most of the teachers have been doing that lately. The more time you were under the care of a teacher, the more you were able to free yourself from intrusive thoughts without constantly worrying about the Carrows and who their next victim might be.

Just before the Christmas holiday, Flitwick had "accidentally" toppled the large bookshelf in the classroom two minutes before the end of the class. He had made a show of being angry and asked everyone to put the shelf back in its place without using magic and arrange the books just like they had been before. Though he had called it a punishment, no one thought of it like that.

"Did you guys have a fight?" Daphne urged on stubbornly. Theo snapped out of his thoughts and grabbed the stem of the ugly plant, looking through his book to find out what to feed it with. "I don't know how you got the chance to have a fight when you were bleeding like crazy."

"We didn't fight, Daphne," Theo said stiffly. He determinedly squinted at his book, leaning forward much more than necessary in hopes that Daphne wouldn't see the blush creeping up his cheeks. "Can you pass me the spider eyes?"

She huffed and shoved a bowl of red powder in his hands. "Don't try to distract me. So what happened? Why does he keep trying to talk to you? And why are you avoiding him?"

When Theo could no longer pretend to read his book, he abandoned it and picked up the bowl of powdered spider eyes. Was he supposed to put it directly on the soil? Or should he mix it with water?

"Leave me be, Daphne," he said quietly, deciding to sprinkle all of the red powders onto the soil. There must have been something in his voice because Daphne didn't bother him further. But she did keep a close eye on him.

During the rest of the class, Theo stayed to himself and kept his eyes firmly plastered on the plant before him. Once or twice, he felt Seamus's eyes on him but he didn't falter. Truth be told, he felt messed up. He was no longer talking to his best friend, and Luna was gone. Seamus was starting to become friendly with him and he had just gone and kissed him like an idiot. He was happy to have a friend like Seamus, but he had to go ahead and fuck it up.

Theo huffed in relief when class ended. He made himself busy cleaning the desk in front of him, drifting away from Daphne to avoid further questions. As Professor Sprout stopped her lecture and stood at the front of the classroom watching the students, a soft murmur arose among them, as it always did when the teacher stopped paying attention.

Straining his ears, Theo realised they were talking about the artwork on the walls that Daphne had made on Christmas Day, though of course, they didn't know it was her doing. He smiled slightly, his chest swelling with pride. He wondered if Daphne wished the school knew who was responsible for the words on the walls.