laconic • t.nott ✓

40 ➺ the kiss chronicles

「 THE KISS CHRONICLES 」

IT WAS ANOTHER ONE OF those stressful days when the Carrows were at the peak of their temper and took it out on everyone else in the castle.

After Neville Longbottom, more and more students have started to disappear, and not only from Gryffindor. Not surprisingly, this has driven both the Carrows up the wall. They recruited more Slytherins into the Inquisitorial Squad and started pulling them out of classes every day to make them search for one student or another. Some of the students returned, some didn't. The ones who did return after allegedly vanishing into thin air stressed that they were in a class with Slughorn or McGonagall and did Alecto search properly?

Alecto Carrow - seemingly more obsessed with this matter than her twin - attempted to torture information out of those students about the others who had disappeared, especially Neville. But they refused to admit that they knew anything about their whereabouts and instead questioned the Carrows why they weren't keeping a good lookout. One timid second year Hufflepuff, when questioned, even went as far as to ask who Neville Longbottom was and whether or not Alecto Carrow was having a delusion. He would have got a good beating up if the others around them hadn't overheard and insisted that really, there was no student named Neville Longbottom - there never has been.

Theo luckily always managed to get out of Inquisitorial Squad duty. The Carrows didn't care enough to remember him but he suspected that it had something to do with how both of them strangely feared Blaise. He was going to have to ask him if he had threatened them or not but right now, Blaise was busy looking for one Ravenclaw girl who had allegedly painted on the walls the following words:

After being dead for over 250 years, it's good to be finally remembered.

Yours,
Neville Longbottom

in sparkling blue ink.

Theo kicked a loose stone on the floor as he made his way to the Slytherin common room on his own. As soon as dinner was over, Blaise was dragged away by the Carrows and Theo was left on his own. He started to list the things he needed to do - he still had a few essays to complete. Lately, he found his attention dwindling when he tried to study, especially when he was with Blaise. Undeniably, this was a complicated situation, considering the fact that they were always together.

When he was about to enter the dungeons, Seamus ran up to him, smiling. Theo stopped and greeted him with a smile when he caught up. "Hey. What's up?"

Seamus took some time to answer as he was busy catching his breath. "Nothing. I saw you and wanted to say hi."

Theo stepped toward the edge of the dungeon entrance to keep from blocking the way for others. "So all of these people who keep vanishing - they are all still inside the castle, aren't they?"

Seamus smirked. "Maybe."

"Are you going to vanish too?"

The smile slipped from his face as he looked down, scuffing his feet on the paved stone. "I've thought about it," said Seamus. "But I'm basically the only one who knows how to work with potions. They need me."

"Well, I'll miss you if you do vanish."

Seamus gave a sudden laugh, surprise evident on his face. As if suddenly remembering something, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled paper bag. "I actually wanted to give you this." He pushed the bag into Theo's hands. Theo peeked inside the bag - there were two scones. A smile instantly formed on his face at the sight of the warm food.

"Thanks," he said. "I suppose there's no point in asking where you got them?"

Seamus dropped a wink. "That's right. I'll see you tomorrow, Theo." And just as fast as he had arrived, he left.