Theory

Chapter Three - Revelations and Rumours

He had almost lost her her wand. Everything went so quickly the night McGonagall had caught them out on the pitch in their battle-worn state. Talitha hadn't had the time to think. She hadn't had the time to explain. She hadn't even had the time to be properly angry, no time to yell, nothing. The yelling did Professor McGonagall. Well, she hadn't exactly yelled at them, but...

The next day, however, Harry had simply supposed that everything had changed. He had greeted and treated Theo like a newly won friend. Like a friend. And he didn't seem to notice the numbly dark note that traced the way in which Theo treated him back. Or if he had noticed, he had thought nothing of it.

And how could he have known where this darkness came from anyway? Even Talitha hadn't had the time to think about it yet.

'He had almost lost me my wand...' Talitha lay awake, trying to figure out what she felt, how she should behave. She couldn't deny, not even to herself, that her dislike for the boy had ebbed away after their night on the pitch, nor could she help the anger welling up, however, at the fearful thought of her wand almost having been lost.

But did she even have a choice now? She had been so curiously numbed by the events of the other night, by her change of heart, by the fury and the relief about her wand, and last but not least by Harry's almost stubbornly friend-like manner, that she had done nothing but be civil to him. She had greeted him, slowed down when he called after Theo in the hallway, she had answered back whenever Harry made conversation, in short she had gone too far to return to her former hostility. Everything had indeed changed, but how she could not say, and she did not like the feeling of somehow not having been a driving force in that change. Somehow she had lost control. Somehow she had been driven.

Harry had curiously trapped her. If she went back to status quo now, she would be openly unreasonable. She would be like one of those girls she despised, one of those girls who seem to excuse constant unreasonable behaviour with a bad case of permanent PMT.

'I guess we're friends now,' she concluded with a disbelieving half-smile.

And still...

The wand incident kept nagging on her mind, tracing the newly won ease like poison.

Suddenly she heard a movement coming from the bed next to hers - Harry's bed. He was awake again. Talitha turned on one side and opened her curtain a gap wide, just watching into the darkness. Then she tried to stay silent. 'Soon...'

Whenever Harry woke up at night, he would either sneak out of bed over to the window or...

"Lumos!"

...or he would wait and listen into the darkness, wait whether the night was quiet and everyone seemed asleep, and then he would light his wand.

But Talitha never heard him turn pages.

***

"So tell me, how do you do it?" Seamus asked Theo one lunch.

"Er?" Talitha hadn't been listening. Harry's chair was empty and she had been wondering...

"How do you do it?" Seamus repeated.

"Do what?" Theo asked back in confusion.

Seamus waved one hand extravagantly across the hall. "Half the girls in school are talking about you."

"Are they?" Theo sounded somewhat anxious.

"Yeah," Dean said. "Come on, you must have noticed."

"Well..." Of course, Talitha had noticed something, but she had been trying to ignore the girlie whispers and giggles. It felt so unbelievably strange and she hated it.

"What... what are they saying?"

Hermione snorted. Suddenly he acted the shy guy! Player!

"They want to go out with you," Ron prompted. "You could practically choose any girl on the market!"

"Ron! They're not fruits you're talking about!" Ron gave his girlfriend an apologetic look, but the grin wouldn't really leave his face.

"Well, some of them certainly look juicy," Seamus joked.

Talitha tried not to blush. She felt rather uncomfortable. Seeking sympathy, she tried to catch another girl's eyes, yet as Hermione turned away from Talitha's helpless look, she was painfully reminded that she was now on the other side in the Never ending War of the Sexes.

"Hey! That one is mine!" Ron said jokingly. He had obviously interpreted the glance-exchange between Theo and Hermione wrongly. His comment, however, only earned him another harsh look from Hermione.

"Sorry," Theo answered subdued.

"Anyway, why don't you just try?" Seamus asked. "Is there no girl you're interested in?"

"Well..." There definitely was none!

"Come on, you've got the choice!" Dean egged on.

"Yeah, and he's talking with experience. Girls go for the artist!"

"They think you're an artist!"

"But I'm not!" Well, unless you counted acting...

"Doesn't matter as long as they think you are," Seamus pointed out matter-of-factly.

"Oh come off it!" Theo said rather gruffly. Talitha slowly got angry. "That is false advertising. They're not stupid. One can't just walk up to a girl and ask her out like that! They do know what they want!"

"Bet you can though!"

"I can't!"

"Prove it," Dean said lightly.

"What?"

"Prove it," the artist repeated.

An impish smile came across Seamus's face. "Yeah, that's it! We'll point out a few girls - some really hard ones - and you just choose one, walk over and ask her. Bet she'll say yes."

Theo sighed. "If I do, will you leave it then?"

"Promise!"

Just then Neville and Harry came over to the table, as Dean and Seamus began to choose the girls. Ron quickly explained the deal to the other two boys. Harry raised an eyebrow. Hermione had her nose grumpily buried in the Daily Prophet, yet Harry could tell that her darkened expression had nothing to do with the usual rubbish the paper displayed. He sat down next to her and opposite Theo, who sat in front of his plate as if waiting for celestial judgement. Neville joined the "Jury".

Soon Seamus turned to Theo to point out the girls of their choice.

Talitha surveyed them and considered. Dean, Neville and Seamus had selected some from every House and different years. Talitha reckoned that an older girl would be harder to get. For Theo as a Gryffindor the Slytherins should be difficult. And the Ravenclaws, devoted to their studies as they were, weren't an easy lot anyway. Taking all this into account left Talitha two hardest-to-get targets, a Slytherin sixth year and a Ravenclaw seventh year. The Slytherin girl, however, looked a little... lewdy.... Talitha settled for the Ravenclaw.

"Okay then. I'll try her," Theo declared.

"Count on you to go for the hardest."

"You said any!"

"Okay, okay. You'll get her anyway. So, go on."

The girl in question was just about to say goodbye to her friends and leave the Hall. Theo stood up and went after her. Talitha wondered which role she should take on. She decided for the Overconfident Macho ("Girls are only meat!").

OverconfidentMacho!Theo caught up with the girl just behind the door and slapped her on the bum. The girl twirled around, her eyes widened in utter surprise. "Hey there, sweetheart."

"What the...?!"

"I know you're just baffled with your luck, so shush," he put one finger on her lips, "say nothing, hon. Today is your day! You can go out with me! I know it's very sudden." He took his finger away from her mouth and trailed one hand along her cheek. "No need to answer right away. I know you want me, but take your time to think about it." And with one last conspicuous glance away from her eyes downwards, Theo turned away and left for the Great Hall.

Seamus leaned in the door frame.

"Didn't work," Theo said lightly.

"Well, you've been deliberately stupid!" Seamus pointed out, "That wasn't fair!"

"Yeah, and you haven't even waited for an answer," said Dean.

"What answer should that have been? A slap in the face?"

***

"What? He asked her out?"

"Not really?!"

"Yes, he did."

"Lucky girl!"

"And? How did he do it?"

"Well, from what she told me... a little... bolder than I'd have expected."

"I wouldn't care about the 'how', as long as he just asked me." *sigh*

"And? When will they go out?"

"Well..."

***

"So, when shall we go out?"

Talitha looked up in surprise. She had been deeply absorbed in a book about famous plays written by wizards of the Arthurian age, when the sudden question pulled her out of her studies. She looked up to find Theo's Ravenclaw target-girl standing in front of her. Quickly she shut the book and, before the girl could pry upon it, she pushed it under a pile of other books. The last thing Talitha needed right now was for the rumours to get fuelled by anyone seeing Theo reading 'artistic' books of any kind.

"Pardon?" Theo asked in a voice displaying cool charm, quickly slipping back into role.

"I asked, when we shall go out?" the girl repeated. With one skilled hand she pulled out the two pencils, which secured her hair. It came down in a smooth wave of light brown silk.

"Go out?" Theo asked again, his usual coolness barely able to conceal Talitha's surprise.

"Well," she said, taking off her glasses, "I'm willing to forget your afore-shown clumsiness. In a way I was hoping you'd ask me out. Yet next time, try to stick to showing your affection verbally."

"Your wish shall be my order," he answered slightly amused. She smiled back at him. He noted only now how attractive she was. Talitha blinked. For a split second she wondered how Theo got the better of her. But then she noticed what fun she got from this role. Anyway, she couldn't back out now. What did it matter, if she - no, if Theo - went out with her once?

"May I ask for your name?"

"You may," she said, coquettishly taking the seat Theo offered her.

'She is so wonderfully artificial,' Talitha thought, 'If Wilde wasn't dead, he could have written her, as a parody of today's society.'

"So, by what may I call the beauty in front of me?"

"Mary Angela."

"Okay, Mary Angela, let's check when we both got time."

***

Some days later Harry and Theo went out onto the Quidditch pitch at dusk to serve their detention. Their wands had been sacked for tonight and McGonagall had performed the Lumos spell for them and equipped them with one pair of scissors each.

Theo dreaded the hard work the next few hours would bring. Talitha, however, was anxious about something else. This was pure opportunity. She wanted to find out more about Harry, and spending detention together like that, hard monotonous work, which practically demanded for conversation was perfect. Nevertheless, the whole thing was a double-egged sword, if she wasn't careful. Harry had already managed once to get the better of her and twist things. He certainly was capable of making her let slip her guard....

Theo sighed, as his view trailed over the pitch. "This is huge!"

"Yeah, well." Harry shrugged.

"This doesn't really seem to bother you."

"I'm used to some pretty hard garden work," Harry said simply, "Let's get started."

They knelt down and began to cut the grass. "Garden work... Back home for the Muggles you live with?"

"I usually don't call it home, but yes."

"You know, there's loads of stuff about you in books and the occasional newspaper, but they never really mention where or how you grew up."

"Mmm hmmm."

Not wanting to press the theme any further right then, Talitha stopped trying to make conversation and the two boys worked in silence for some time, curiosity still nagging at her.

Nevertheless, the dull work was strangely absorbing in an exhausting way. Theo began to sweat. He glanced over at Harry, who cut the grass without complaining. He had his sleeves rolled up despite the chilly autumn's air. As Harry caught Theo's glance, he smiled quickly and went on with his work.

They made it through McGonagall's first check after about two and a half hours. As soon as the professor was gone, however, Theo collapsed onto the grass.

"Let's take a break. I'm dead beat," he said.

"But we've only got about four feet more to go."

"The better. She'll only check on us again in about two hours. That makes one and a half hours stargazing."

"Stargazing?" Reluctantly Harry came over to lie down next to Theo, who looked up at the star-sewn sky.

"Yeah, stargazing. Or whatever you want to do to relax for a moment." Harry shivered. Theo glanced over at him and saw the gooseflesh on his naked arms. He tugged at the other boy's sleeves. "Pull them down, will you," he said, then, "It's a pity. The Lumos is dulling the stars. One can't see them properly. And we can't switch it off."

Harry gazed up into the sky, trying to make out some of the zodiacs he had been learning about. Silence ensued. After a while, Harry heard Theo breathing slowly and steadily. Was the boy asleep?

"You know," Talitha's heart skipped a beat, as Harry's voice broke the silence, "I'm quite glad that there's nothing about the Dursleys in any of those books. The Dursleys are the family I grew up with - my aunt, uncle and cousin that is. It would be quite... disillusionating. Living with the Dursleys has the uncomfortable side effect of keeping you down to earth. Very close down." He paused. Talitha kept her eyes closed. "With Sirius I could have rode a Hippogriff high up in the sky...."

'Sirius?' Slowly Talitha turned to the side to have a good look at the boy next to her. She saw Harry twitch slightly the moment she laid eyes upon him. But she wasn't going to let him off the hook now. It seemed he had been wanting to tell this to somebody - even if he preferred this someone to be asleep. "Who is Sirius?" she asked calmly.

"Sirius was my legal guardian. He was my father's best friend and their best man. It was him I should have been living with after my parents died."

"And... why didn't you live with him?"

"We're talking about Sirius Black," Harry said simply.

That struck! For a moment Talitha was stunned. Harry longed to live with a convicted murderer rather than with his Muggle relatives. Either those Dursleys were the most gruesome lot imaginable or...

Her mind raced. "So... was he innocent?" Talitha asked, incredibility tracing her voice.

"Yes, he was."

The words hung in the air, like a whiff of perfume. That kind of beautifully light sweet perfume that makes your heart ache with nostalgia and a longing for the long lost. Harry lay on the pitch, convincing himself that this moment wasn't real. If it wasn't real, he could do whatever he wanted. Say whatever he wished. Let go of whatever burdened him. The only thing that made a moment real was the here and now... and the memory.

But memories could be altered.

"I miss him so much," Harry whispered.

Theo was taken aback by the sudden emotion in the other boy's voice. He turned his face away from him and allowed his eyes to linger on the dulled stars again instead. He placed one hand on Harry's shoulder.

"You know, if it hadn't been for me, he would still be alive. Twice I made the wrong choice, with the first sentencing him to a life on the run and with the second... sentencing him to death."

Yes, memories could be altered...

"But Harry, do you think he blames you for any of those choices? Could you have chosen wiser without the knowledge you possess now?"

"No, he doesn't blame me. He never did. And for the choices... I don't know. I really don't know. But knowing that, whatever choice I made was the wrong one... hurts."

"It could have ended this way, no matter what choices you made. You'll never know. And if he doesn't blame you, why do you?"

Harry blinked. The question had triggered something inside of him. Suddenly he became almost painfully aware of the cold ground underneath him, as if he'd just fallen onto it. He stood up, shaking off Theo's hand in the process. The boy looked up at him in surprise.

"Let's finish this so we can get our wands back and go to bed."

***

Harry closed the door of McGonagall's office behind him. Theo pocketed his wand. He stretched.

"Tomorrow every single muscle in my body is going to be sore."

"And maybe you won't even remember why," Harry murmured. He was toying with his wand between his fingers.

Theo turned around, but kept on walking backwards. "Pardon?"

"I said mine too," Harry lied. Theo shrugged and turned away again.

"Still, detention could have been a lot worse," he said.

Harry stopped. It was now or never. "Theo?"

"Yes?" The boy stopped and turned around. For a moment the only sound in the otherwise empty hallway was the sound of the sizzling candles floating next to the walls, as Harry took Theo in with a blankly considering look. "Harry, what is it?"

Eventually Harry raised his wand. "I'm sorry."

Theo looked wonderingly at the wand in Harry's hand, only gradually grasping the threat the other boy's gesture revealed. "Harry, what..."

Slowly Harry took aim. "What I told you tonight... I shouldn't have, I -"

"Experliamus!" Harry hadn't even noticed Theo sneaking his hand into his pocket, until the moment, when his wand was flying away from him and into Theo's outstretched hand. His face had darkened considerably. "Oh no, Harry. You're not going to take that away from me!" And there it was again, that almost intimidating, passionate fury in his eyes, Harry had seen the day they fought on the pitch. "What were you playing at anyway?" he went on, said fury mirrored plainly in his voice. "First you tell me about your life, your thoughts, giving me the feeling that, for some reason, you actually trust me, making me feel like I could maybe even trust you in return, and than you sneak up behind my back and practically want to stab me!"

Harry found himself taken aback - taken aback more by the boy's words than by his sudden fury, or the fact that Theo held not only his own wand at the ready, but Harry's also. "I said I was sorry," Harry defended himself half-heartedly. His mind, however, wasn't truly on the words he spoke. A strange and numb fascination had taken control over him, as he watched Theo standing in the dimly lit hallway, the lights of the candles flickering across his face. He tried to read in those eyes, as Theo's words raced through Harry's head.

"Why then would you do something you're already sorry for in advance? Truly being sorry would mean that you'd regret it later. Why do something you're sure to regret?"

"Sometimes it's necessary."

"But this isn't necessary! Don't you see?" For a split second, Harry saw disappointment flicker through the fury, clouding Theo's eyes, as the other boy, roughly threw his wand back at him. "You aren't really sorry, Harry. Or you don't know the meaning of the word," he said, his voice now more bitter and cynical than angry. "Here, do it then! But afterwards never open up to me again, okay?" He smiled bitterly. "Well, I hope you can respect that. I won't be able to remember anyway," he said as an afterthought.

Harry silently held his wand. Well, he would respect the other boy's wish. He raised his wand. He held it. And... lowered it again. Having faced this boy with his strange passion, he felt by comparison somehow blank on the inside.

Slowly he walked up to him and shouldered his way past him, making his way back to Gryffindor Tower.

***

"So, will you be meeting that Ravenclaw girl tomorrow?" Ron asked over the top of a cup of tea. Harry looked up from the chessboard, as Theo stopped at their common room table.

"I think so," he said offhandedly, "By the way, have you got any idea what I should wear?"

Ron gave him a strange sort of look, which told Talitha that this definitely had been an out-of-character question. Theo, however, kept cool on the surface.

"No," Ron answered, "But what's there to think about?"

"Jeans, shirt, and jumper," said Harry, who had apparently turned his attention back to the game. He ordered a pawn two squares forward, taking one of Ron's bishops. "Maybe that saffron coloured one."

"Thanks," Theo said warmly, watching the chess figures. He and Harry had both silently agreed not to mention the night of their detention. The situation had been awkward though, but Talitha tried to get over her first disappointment and anger. In the end he hadn't Memory charmed her after all.

"Yes, thanks. Thanks for opening up your defence," Ron said. "It was pretty tough this time. Knight to B4. Check."

"Good luck, Harry," Theo said and walked away, a smile on Talitha's face.

***

"She said he was a really passionate kisser!"

"Really?"

"Well, what did you expect?!"

"I thought he was more the shy guy...."

"Mary Angela said, he started very gently, but then he grew more and more passionate."

"Oh, that sounds so sweet! I wish he would kiss me!"

"But do you think he loves her?"

"I hope not!"

"Well, but wouldn't kissing without love be just very... unromantic?"

"Oh come on! Don't be so last century!"

***

"How was it?" Ron asked the moment Talitha entered the room.

Talitha needed some time to react to his question. She felt worn out. On some days, being Theo all the time could be quite exhausting. Today she had had the strange feeling that everybody was whispering behind her back. She even could have sworn that some didn't even bother to whisper and used her name - Theo's name - quite openly while talking about him. It had been strenuous to suppress this well known discomfort the entire time, acting as if she hadn't noticed. Theo was cool and confident. He wouldn't worry about whispers behind his back. But for Talitha this day had been a walk through hell and quite a hard role to play.

"How was what?" she asked eventually, flopping down onto her bed.

"The kiss!" Seamus said, "And by the way, shame on you for not telling us right away!"

"Kiss?" Talitha's mind was racing in slow motion, as if you tried to speed up an old broom too quickly. What the hell were they going on about?!

"Kissing Mary Angela," Harry said helpfully, barely glimpsing up from his book, "Everybody's talking about it."

"I didn't kiss her!" she said, rounding on Harry. He put his book aside. Again it took Talitha quite a while to notice that... everyone was looking at her in a funny way. No! They were looking at Theo in a funny way. It was only then that she realised that she had been very out of character. No boy would deny in such a harsh manner that he had been kissing a fairly pretty girl. Quickly she slipped back into role, Theo shrugging the silence off in a laid back manner.

"Well, I wouldn't call it a real kiss anyway. It was more like a peck on the lips," he said in a laidback manner, adding, "She isn't really my type you know. It only started because of that silly scene in the Great Hall anyway."

"A peck on the lips," Neville repeated. "Well, I have a feeling that her account of the kiss is rather different. She said that you were really passionate."

"How would you know?" Theo asked slightly harsher than intended. Talitha was actually starting to get really annoyed. Harry kept hiding his nose behind his book in that irritatingly fake-uninterested manner, but she had noted that he occasionally darted his eyes over at Theo in what seemed an almost disapproving fashion. As if it was any of his business anyway!

"I get on rather well with some of the Ravenclaw girls and Mary Angela's friend told me about it."

"Believe me, it was no more than a peck," Theo said. Then he got up from the bed, grabbed his stuff and went into the bathroom, almost slamming the door behind him.

Talitha stood in front of the mirror looking at that tomboyish girl staring back at her. She felt angry. She turned up the cold water and splashed some of it into her face. She didn't know why this had actually annoyed her so much. It was time that she reminded herself that she was leaving at Christmas anyway. Let them talk!

'Harry...'

For a split moment she found herself wondering what Harry must have thought about her... him! Argh!

'But...'

She tried to banish her train of thoughts by splashing some more water into her face. Then she took her wand and barred the door, before taking off her shirt and starting to unwind the bandages.

***

"They're doing what?"

"They're meeting in the less used hallways between classes."

"She says he just can't wait."

"That's so romantic, isn't it?"

"But what are they doing there?"

"Don't be so thick. Snogging, of course!"

"They snog in the hallways between classes?!"

"Yeah, that's what everybody is saying."

***

Harry was in a rather curious mood these days. He himself couldn't really place it, but somehow his mood was always as cloudy and dull as the tempest-troubled autumn sky outside. He saw that there were always some blue specks in the sky, but somehow he just couldn't make out those blue specks inside of him. He knew they were there though....

It had taken him several days of having to listen to the growing rumours before he slowly figured out that Theo's relationship to this Ravenclaw girl bothered him in a way. And Harry scolded himself for that. It was absolutely none of his business whether Theo had a girlfriend or not. Nevertheless, he concluded that he probably only envied the boy.

Harry sat on the windowsill in their dormitory, which was deserted in the late afternoon, as Theo entered the dorm, closed the door behind him and slumped against it.

"Scheiße..." He slid down the door and sat on the floor. He buried his face in his hands and just stayed like that for several minutes. Harry didn't think he had noticed him being in the room at all. When Theo looked up again, he looked extremely tired and... eventually noticed Harry.

"How long have you already been here?" he asked, sounding slightly anxious for a moment.

"Well..."

"Okay. Sorry. Stupid question."

Harry slid down the windowsill and crossed the room. "What's the matter with you?"

"The rumours."

"What rumours?"

Theo gave Harry a deadly glare. Then he sighed. "Nobody believes me. I just don't get it!"

"I don't think that -"

"Come on, Harry, stop pretending. You don't believe me either when I say that I didn't have anything more with that girl than that fucking peck the other day."

Slowly some clouds drifted aside and allowed the autumn sun to sweep through the window.

"You mean you really didn't kiss her and all that stuff."

"No, for heaven's sake! How often do I have to repeat that?!" He paused and looked up directly at Harry. "Do you know what some are saying by now?" Harry shook his head, though he had a vague idea. "They say that I've already laid her. Laid her! What an expression even!"

Harry didn't know what to say. He had had to deal with rumours about him fairly often, but he had always had Ron and Hermione, who believed him.

"I believe you," he said finally.

"Thanks," Theo said dully. Then he looked up at Harry again and gave him a smile - it looked somewhat laborious, but honest, nonetheless. "No, really, thank you." Suddenly he stood up from the floor and put his hand on the door knob.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to look for Mary Angela," he said determinedly. "Would you accompany me?"

"Yep." Harry stood up and took his jumper.

They left for the library first. Harry didn't really have any idea why Theo had wanted his company. There was nothing really he could do.

They were lucky. Like most Ravenclaw final-years, Mary Angela spent her afternoons in the library. But unlike most, she wasn't studying, when the two boys arrived. She was surrounded by some other girls talking animatedly in more or less hushed voices.

Harry leaned against one of the shelves in good view of the table, as Theo walked over. He waited for a moment - waited until Mary Angela noticed him.

"Oh, hi," she said, looking up at him. The other girls became silent at once.

"What? No 'love', 'honeypuh', or 'darling'?" Theo asked sarcastically.

"I don't know what you mean," said Mary Angela her eyes turning innocently round.

"Well, one would expect that, after all we've done, I would at least deserve some gentle pet-name." By now most students around them were watching. Theo's voice, though not very loud, bore such a bitter, cutting cynicism that it had easily caught everybody's attention and Talitha knew very well how to make her voice carry without rising it.

"What are you talking about?" Mary Angela asked, now sounding slightly irritated. She felt visibly uncomfortable with all the sudden unwanted interest in her persona and whereas Talitha's acting skills flourished with the scene, hers seemed to abandon her under pressure.

Theo whirled a chair around and sat down, his arms casually resting on the back of it, as he leaned over and closer to Mary Angela and the greedy audience of gossiping girls surrounding her.

"I'm talking about how pathetic you are," he said calmly and cutting. "You keep on telling those lies about all the stuff we are supposed to have done, you keep on spreading those rumours about us having kissed and snogged and God knows what. The truth just wasn't good enough for you, was it?"

Mary Angela looked pale. Her friends surrounding her looked at her with mingled expressions. Her glasses had slipped down somewhat. She blinked and, taking them off, she tried to regain both, her confidence and her voice.

"Well, actually... the only thing pathetic was that little peck you gave me. I thought I'd embellish the tale somewhat. You would have done it anyway, wouldn't you? You boys always elaborate your love life, boasting around with things that didn't truly happen. I only helped to speed things up for you." All the time listening to her, Theo shook his head slightly. This girl just couldn't be serious, could she?

"You are pitiable, you know? You really are. I don't need rumours to boost up neither my ego, nor my reputation." He stood up and put the chair neatly back to his place, creating a silent pause, then he said, as if only just developing the thought, "You know, I guess those lies were simply the closest you ever got to any kind of sexual interactions, weren't they? Anyway, they will be the closest you'll ever get to any kind of interaction with me!" Here he gave her one of his most intriguing smiles. "It's because of girls such as yourself that some boys treat girls badly. They act this way because they fear of coming across someone like you. So they hurt in order not to be vulnerable themselves. I wish no girl to come across any boy that someone like you has already spoilt. Though you, Mary Angela, probably deserve exactly that." The silence in the room was almost tangible, as Theo's last words were spoken. And it was him to break the silence he had produced. After he had waited for a moment for Mary Angela to reply, he went over to Harry.

"Come, Harry." The two boys left the library, gradually heading back for Gryffindor Tower with a fairly satisfied smile on Theo's face.

And an odd feeling in Harry's stomach.

fin