InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "The British are coming!"

Zacharias Smith (puffheir) wrote in wished,
@ 2010-08-22 09:50:00

Entry tags:

!2003: 08, !complete, theodore nott, zacharias smith

Who: Zacharias Smith and Theodore Nott.
When: August 22nd. Afternoon.
Where: St. Mungo's.
What: A visit with an old friend.
Rating: PG for swears?
Status: Complete/Closed.

To see - read - Theodore acting so bizarrely was a bit discomfiting. It was true that Theodore had always been a little bit straight. Just a tiny bit. Quiet and mousy and rather unlike many of their peers. But perhaps that was why Zacharias had always liked his company. He was clever, bookish, things that Zacharias liked.

He hadn't seen Theodore... oh, in such a long time. Zacharias had thrown himself into his Quidditch career after school and had been quite tied up with that ever since. But he had decided he needed to keep up with those people he actually considered friends - because it was only a small collection of people, after all.

St. Mungo's was there Theodore was, he discovered. And so that was where he went. Sunday afternoon. He held a small package, and breezed into the medical center, stepping with confidence up to the receptionist desk. And thus he was directed to where Theodore was being housed.

Reaching the room, he glanced at the number next to the door as the nurse unlocked the door to lert him in. Zacharias gave a brief, polite nod of thanks to her, and then stepped through himself.

"Theodore?" he asked as he entered, his eyes moving around the room until they landed on the slim, slight male.

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booksmart_devil
2010-08-22 07:16 pm UTC (link)

The days passed by for Theo in the Janus Thickey ward uneventfully for the most part, which was the point really; the doctors were trying to give Theo peace and quiet in the hopes that he'd eventually be able to work through some of the things that had landed him there in the first place. It wasn't really working - Theo had developed an unhealthy relationship with the room he spent so much of his time, convinced at times that he was inside his own head and unwilling to leave it for anything at other times. His world was often disrupted by mealtimes as well, with Theo always putting up a fight, and there were days when he didn't particularly like showertime either.

This time he'd bitten an orderly and drawn blood; the orderly in turn, angry and in pain, had automatically backhanded him hard enough to set a bruise in against his cheek, one that no one had bothered to heal in the resulting chaos. Theo was unconcerned about the injury though, seemingly having forgotten that it was even there. He was dressed in something like a long nightshirt, blood from the orderly's hand staining the off-white linen with fat spots of dark red, his far too thin legs sticking out from underneath the shirt where the hem reached to just above his knees. The collar hung off his neck, almost came down over one shoulder but exposing prominent collarbones. He had bruises around his wrists where he'd been restrained and one or two even peeked up over his collar.

He might have been crying at one time as his eyes were red, tear tracks rubbed into redness across his cheek, and he still sniffled from time to time, but he was lost somewhere else for the time being, seemingly calm and drawing into the white of the wall. The lines were black and smudged, the piece of charcoal in his hand making his palms and fingers black, the same dirt smudged against his forehead where he'd pushed his over-long falling hair back out of his face.

The drawing appeared to be nothing, although if the colours were inverted it would show as the dark hands, grabbing fingers that Theo saw in his head a lot of the time. There were snakes in there too, and the tattered batwings of the thestrals.

He didn't look up as Zach came in, but he did start and turn to look over his shoulder as his name was used; there wasn't any recognition in his expression on seeing his old school friend. Greg visited him mostly every day and he still didn't understand who that was most of the time. He sat back from his vandalising the wall, tilting his head a little as he took Zach in with a look that was disturbingly assessing.

He shook his head after a moment, the charcoal falling from his fingers as he put a hand to his face, fingering the bruise and leaving grey little fingerprints where they touched. "No, not the one with big hands, no, no, then, then... then who? Theodore. Who?" he spoke, more muttered and mostly to himself, looking back at the wall and wiping his free hand clean (or an approximation of that anyway) against the surface. "Have you come about the noises behind the door?" he asked eventually, actually addressing Zach this time. "No one will tell you." He put a finger to his mouth in a shushing gesture.

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puffheir
2010-08-22 07:21 pm UTC (link)

Theodore looked rather horrid, Zacharias thought as he silently assessed him. The other had never been overly large - always short, always slender - but now he seemed downright scrawny. All skin and bones. Were they really not feeding him here? Or really just allowing him not to eat? Either way, it was a disgrace.

"No, not Theodore. You're Theodore," he said. "I'm Zacharias." His voice was surprisingly gentle. Not a voice that too many people heard - his Puff Yearmates had heard it on occasion. And now Theodore. But Theodore was a friend, and a friend in a very bad way. Not one he could mock or make fun of. That would be like kicking a puppy, and Zacharias was not that sort of cruel.

"We were in school together. You were in Slytherin, I was in Hufflepuff. Remember?" He was going to guess 'no' on that, but he said it anyway. As he walked further into the room.

Crossing over to Theodore, Zacharias dropped into a crouch so that he was on the same level of him, and tilted his head. Blue eyes slid over the other's face, and he frowned as he saw the bruise that bloomed so dark against his pale skin. Reaching out, he drew gentle fingertips along the dark stain. "What happened?" he asked him as he let his hand drop away.

And then he smiled, a little bit. "I didn't come about any noises. I came to see you."

	booksmart_devil 2010-08-23 11:13 pm UTC (link)
	Theo's cold little fingers barely curled around Zach's until his friend sounded like he was about to leave, at which point Theo's fingers tightened on Zach's and he turned, knees drawn up towards his chest, Zach's hand gripped close to his chest. "No!" he exclaimed, a whimper in his voice. "They come, when he's alone, they come when he's alone!" he said, upset. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)