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Tweak says, "Why don't they stay young?"

Theodore Nott (apparentlynott) wrote in intothefire_rpg,
@ 2011-06-18 18:50:00

Entry tags:

hermione granger, june2002, rating pg, theodore nott

Who: Theo & Hermione
What: Insomniac Theo out on a stumble
When: Friday evening
Rating: PG
Incomplete/Complete Incomplete

Theodore had never slept well; as a child, a teen, a young adult, he'd often woken shuddering and soaked through with fear from nightmares, startling awake at the sound of his own voice babbling, shivered awake freezing from a seat on the floor that he hadn't remembered taking. No, he'd never been a good sleeper but even that broken circus ring of nocturnal activity was preferable to the bout of insomnia he was going through now. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept, the days and nights blurring together into a light-dark grey atmosphere of itchy eyes, weary stumbles and a pounding headache.

If he'd been anyone else he might have blamed it on the way history was repeating itself. Okay, he didn't have his father sending him cursed letters threatening him to fall in line with a cause he didn't believe in but that same air of uncertainty was back, the anticipation of the fall like teetering at the top of a step and the pressure to pick a side back like a familiar friend.

He'd left his bare and melancholy room locked and charmed against would-be thieves and had wandered out of Knockturn into Diagon, meandering with his head down through the shops under the semi-anonymity of a Notice-Me-Not spell and wondering if he was just hallucinating that the last time he'd eaten had been three days ago; insomnia just left him feeling sick and he didn't want to eat, even if his was a frame that sorely needed to.

Even this little bit of excercise was starting to wear him out after days of sleepless nights, and he would later blame this very same thing for the fact that he lost his usual grace only to collide with some poor person as he turned to stumble home; a person who he realised, with a sinking heart and a growing pain in his head, knew him from school.

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hermoniny
2011-06-18 10:04 pm UTC (link)

Hermione couldn't sleep either. Her brain was racing and worrying over everything that had been happening lately. She knew Ron and Harry probably would be thrilled about the fact that she'd taken a late night walk alone, but sometimes you just needed the fresh air to clear and calm your head. She found her way into Diagonal Alley quickly and easily and was pleased to see that the streets were deserted. That's what usually happened this early ithe morning she figured, and she wasn't normally the one to take late night walks, but being alone in her flat was just making her antsy.

As she walked she got lost in her thoughts, wondering if they really were on the brink of another war, and hoping against hope that she'd never have to go through anything like the last one again. She'd lost so many friends, she couldn't do it again. Wouldnt do it again. It was simply out of the question. But her thoughts continued on their dark, worrisome path until she was reciting defensive spells in her head, just to make sure she hadn't forgotten any of them. She hadn't, of course, but that didn't stop her from checking and double checking.

It wasn't until someone actually bumped into her that she snapped back to reality, realizing how vulnerable she had been to attack in her absent minded state, something she would have scolded others for, and she was sure to hear no end of if her boyfriend or best friend found out. She let out a surprised yelp, and was fairly certain that no one had been there a moment earlier, but when she looked up she realized she recognized the person. It took her a moment tom figure out who he was, as she had never spent any time with him in school, but she figured it out fairly quickly.

"Theodore Nott," she said quietly, remembering that he had run with Malfoy's lot back in school. She braced herself for unpleasantness from him, but was honestly unsure of what to expect as she couldn't really remember him ever being mean or rude to her in the past.

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apparentlynott
2011-06-19 10:19 pm UTC (link)

"...Miss Granger." he responded in like after only a few seconds delay during which he tried to corral his scattered insomniac thoughts, drag up the young witch's name from a past filled with school peers he'd barely remembered at the time and relax his hold on the wand that had found it's way to his hand instinctively; even if the collision had been his fault, old habits died hard. Or not at all as the case may be. His hand might have been more relaxed but it was still on his wand, ready with a defensive and offensive spell depending on which suited the situation, but it wasn't personal.

He recalled that this witch had been the one who had hung around with Harry Potter and the rest of the kids who had used to make Draco so incensed. Gryffindor, right. Muggleborn too, if he remembered correctly. That said, he'd just bumped into her in the middle of Diagon, but he was pretty sure that sleep-deprived delusions weren't solid enough to walk into.

However, that still begged the question as to what she was doing there. He blinked sleepily, wary enough that he as ready to move if he needed to defend himself, but not arrogant enough to think he had the right to ask that question.

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hermoniny
2011-06-23 01:46 am UTC (link)

Hermione's hand had also found her own wand in her pocket, and she too held onto it, just in case, but not because she expected him to do something. She'd simply been being careless, and that was unacceptable if things really were getting bad again. At this early hour, it was probably a bad idea to walk around unprepared for a bad moment even if times were perfectly peaceful. It just wasn't smart.

She considered him as the silence streatched, taking in his appearance, and realized that he looked completely run down. Her concern of the situation faded a bit as her concern for someone who looked a bit worse for wear took over. "Are you alright?" she asked. "You look... well you look exhausted to be honest. I hope that's not forward of me or anything." She wanted to suggest he sit down, but she really didn't know him that well at all, and she didn't want to seem over powering or annoying.

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apparentlynott
2011-06-23 08:01 pm UTC (link)

Theo put his hands in his pockets - wand tucked further up his sleeve but accesible in a hamster's heartbeat - and appeared to relax, which was as close as he got to actually relaxing when he was out in public, especially at night. Or in fact, at all.

He hadn't been expecting Hermione to pick up on how he was, nevermind ask him if he was okay; he would have been less surprised (and more prepared) had she pulled her wand on him and hit him with a Crucio. It was most of the resaon for his hesitation before he answered; "Well, you couldn't very well go backwards." he commented lightly.

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hermoniny
2011-06-24 01:46 am UTC (link)

Hermione laughed with a touch of surprise to her voice. She hadn't expected a bit of a joke, and she wasn't sure she'd actually ever heard Theodore say anything before this moment. But she hadn't expected what she was finding, and that meant that she was very pleasantly surprised. She let go of her wand and instead held her hand out to him for an actual introduction.

"I'm not sure we've actually ever met beyond seeing each other in passing at school. I'm Hermione, it's very nice to meet you," she said with another sweet smile. Yes, he had been in Slytherin, yes he had been part of Malfoy's gang, but that didn't necesarily mean that he was like the others from that group. He deserved the benefit of the doubt at least, and she was willing to give that to him and wait to see how he responded before she decided one way or the other on him.

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apparentlynott
2011-06-25 12:14 am UTC (link)

If the concern had startled him the laughter only threw him further off balance and had he not been well-trained in the ways of physical abuse as a child he might have flinched as Hermione held her hand out; as it was, there was the barest flicker of something harried through his expression but it went as soon as it had come.

He hesitantly took her hand and shook it, sure that this was just good manners but unable as always to crush the paranoid part of him that insisted it was some kind of trick. He appeased it with an almost non-verbal charm against harm through the handshake that took two unnoticable seconds to cast before he was smiling politely the way he'd been taught. "Theodore." he said simply, withdrawing his hand to the safety of his pocket. He was secretly surprised at the mention of school - he tried not to think about those days anymore. "I wouldn't have expected to bump into you here." And literally too.

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