Theodore was one of the last of the audience to arrive, the lights dimming and coming back up one last time to signal that the audience needed to take their seats just before the performance was slated to begin. He quickly found his seat on the front row next to Tracey, nodding to her and Draco. He ignored the rather pointed look he got from Tracey - thankfully the lights dimmed and plunged the room into complete darkness, aside from the lights on the stage, just then.
The anxiety Theodore felt increased with each performance that evening. He'd been late because he'd been debating with himself all day on if it was a good idea for him to go or not. After the week he'd had, he wasn't sure if he could handle seeing Daphne dance. Still, he'd told her he would be there and that would be beyond wrong to skip the performance.
Finally, it was Daphne's turn. He'd been fairly still throughout the whole thing, but when the piano started up, playing a very familiar tune, Theodore sat completely still. In fact, he'd forgotten to breathe for the first minute of the performance and quietly sucked in a breath once he'd realized this.
This was his mother's favorite song.
All the emotions he was feeling seemed to form a rather hard lump in his throat. Daphne danced beautifully, as he'd suspected, throwing herself into the song. He couldn't begin to imagine how hard it'd been for her to find out that was the song she'd been given. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Tracey trying to wipe tears out of the corners of her eyes without being seen. His own eyes were watering, but he finally managed to swallow the lump in his throat and kept the tears at bay.
As soon as the performance was over, Theodore stood up with the rest of the crowd and applauded Daphne, then took off down one of the aisles, unable to stick around for the finale when all the students came out to take a final bow. He found the first empty room in the building and sat there quietly in the dark, trying to regain his composure.
He knew that Daphne would more than likely be wondering where he was or if he'd even been there. Finally, he wiped his face on the sleeve of his jacket and headed back out of the room in the direction of the after party.
He spotted Daphne speaking with Tracey, though Tracey had spotted him at the exact same moment and quickly found an excuse to make herself scarce. Theodore took a deep breath, then closed the distance between himself and Daphne. He tapped her on the shoulder and cleared his throat. "H-hi," he said, as she turned to face him. "You were lovely."