Re: Theo & Calypso
He nodded his thanks to Calypso's compliment, slightly uncomfortable but handily hiding behind the formal manners and procedures he'd grown up learning. He noticed that she was wearing his gift and he couldn't stifle the little lick of happiness in him that he'd chosen the right present for the girl; it wasn't to make him happy, but he couldn't help himself. He hoped it was a quiet implict sign that she'd accepted his apology too and a little tension in him that he hadn't really noticed melted away.
Theo was usually able to read people pretty well, a combination of being a naturally withdrawn and observant person mixed with a purely self-preservational streak, but he wouldn't have known that Calypso was nervous. He was distracted by her beauty and just being in her company enough that he'd almost forgotten that the Ball was being held in Hogwarts, one of the last places he'd really wanted to attend again. Saying he let her side-along him to their destination was a bit of a stretch, because Calypso would do just as she willed, but he hadn't minded it; he couldn't have said that he wouldn't have risked splinching them if he'd been the one to do it, not with concentrating on their destination.
As it was, seeing the place again even from the outside made his heart drop and a large part of him want to revert to the old days and just shut down. He'd spent so much time here pretending that nothing was happening to him at home, hiding his true feelings on the Purity issue, living behind a facade that still knew more people than the real person behind it did. Not to mention this was the last place he'd confronted his father before the man had been thrown into Azkaban and Theo into the Janus Thickey ward.
He was beginning to wonder if attending had really been such a good idea, but it was Calypso who rescued him yet again. "If we go inside you need wonder no more." he pointed out fondly, ready to escort her in, putting his foot down on his feelings of unease with practise and only feeling exactly the way he had when he'd been attending this place.