Discoveries

Chapter Three: Acting

Anne wasn’t quite sure what had got into Theo on Saturday. The episode with Terry had appeared to send him back into what she thought of as his Slytherin mode. But he occasionally let the mask slip. Like right before they had left the practice room on Sunday. Anne’s hair had fallen out from behind her ear; she’d been pushing it back all day, having lost the clip somewhere between Care of Magical Creatures and Charms last Friday. Theo had reached out and quite carefully tucked the stray strands back before she could. In response to her rather astonished stare, he’d merely informed her that it had been getting annoying, and she should get a clip.

He’d left the room quickly after that, and Anne hadn’t known what to make of it. She knew very well what her friends would say if she brought it up. "Oooh, Anne, he likes you!" That, she doubted. Theo might regard her as an exception to the usual rule about Muggle-borns (they weren’t quite human) but he didn’t look at her that way. Anne had had her fair share of crushes and the like, as well as watching her fellow Hufflepuffs. She was pretty well aware of how teenagers acted when they liked a member of the opposite sex. Theo couldn’t act less like that if he tried. They were friends. And she had no problem with that. Their friendship was complicated enough as it was.

Well, maybe she wouldn’t mind that much. She did remember — with the embarrassment of hindsight — kissing him goodbye on the cheek on the last weekend of term. She remembered that he, against all expectation, had given her a quick peck on the cheek back. She hadn’t minded, exactly. But she valued Theo’s continued company far more than any nebulous feelings that went beyond friendship. So that was where this train of thought ended. Anne did always pride herself on being sensible.

Not that there was much to do but think, in History of Magic. Professor Binns was lecturing in his most dreary tone of voice; Anne was taking notes, but having to force herself to listen. It was only the remembrance that if she didn’t take notes now she’d have nothing to study come end of year that kept her awake and concentrating. It was quite late on Friday afternoon, and the sun was streaming in the windows, lighting up the dust motes like a sprinkling of stars hanging in the air, shining brightly before they winked out of the sunlight into the shadows. Others had given up the battle for consciousness. Anne could see Gabby and Ellie playing noughts and crosses on a scrap of parchment to her right. Michael Evrard of Slytherin was apparently jinxing his classmate’s hair. Anne herself had more than a few treble and alto clefs decorating the borders of her parchment. The clock seemed to have been magically slowed; she kept stealing surreptitious glances at h! er watch to check it was still working. The notes she was taking on the giant wars sounded intriguing enough on paper — she had vague ideas about reading up on the subject — but delivered in Professor Binns’ monotone, it lost all interest.

The bell ringing for the end of the period — and dinner — provoked a semblance of movement among the class. On one hand, none of them could wait to get out; on the other, one and a half hours of immobility had dulled their reflexes somewhat. Most settled for a slow stretching and test to see if limbs were still there before rising and heading out. Anne caught up with the other Hufflepuff girls at the door, having had some problems with the catch on her bag.

"I‘m dropping this as soon as I can," muttered Sarah as they walked towards dinner.

"You say that every year," pointed out Mai with some asperity.

"That’s because it’s been compulsory every year so far," said Ellie sensibly.

"How do you know it isn’t next year?"

"We live in hope," laughed Gabby. "Anne, what’s the matter?"

"Shoelace," replied Anne, who had knelt with a muttered curse to re-tie it. "You guys go on ahead, I’ll catch up in a second."

"Okay." Gabby had to race to catch up with the others, already rounding a bend in the corridor. Anne fumbled with her shoelace for a few more seconds before standing to go and catch up. By the time she got to the end of the corridor, the rotating staircase had shifted; she was going to have to take the longer route to dinner. Giving a small sigh of exasperation, she set off along the other corridor.

This one was not used too often; the pictures were few and far between. Everyone who went to Hogwarts had their own preferred routes and shortcuts. This happened to be one of Anne’s. So she was quite surprised to see Theo emerge at the convergence of two corridors. She hadn’t expected to see anyone. He had the slightly unfocused look on his face of someone who isn’t really concentrating on where he is now because he knows the route he’s taking so well. That was until his eyes lit upon her. She had forced herself to move her gaze away down the corridor; someone could be along at any moment, and she didn’t know him here. She was just walking past him — on the other side of the corridor, naturally — when she felt him grab her arm and pull her quickly sideways across the corridor and into one of the empty classrooms on this level. He was quick to shut the door behind them.

"Theo, what the -"

"I needed to have a word to you before tomorrow. Oh — I didn’t hurt you?" Anne was rubbing her arm. He could have just asked.

"No, it’s okay." It didn’t really hurt. No point making a fuss.

"Oh, good."

She stood there a moment, looking up at him. The sun was pouring into the windows of this room too, lighting up dust-cloth covered furniture and an empty fireplace. It hit Theo’s dark hair at just the right angle to give him a halo she knew he didn’t deserve.

"What is it, then?" she asked.

He looked pensive for a minute. "Do you remember what happened last year, with Potter and his group? How they got caught for something by Umbridge, and everyone thought it was some sought of Defence club?"

"Ye-es," she said slowly. "What about it?"

"It was a Defence club. He’s starting it again this year."

"I’m sorry, but how does this affect us?"

Theo locked eyes with her, his gaze dark and intense with emotions she found hard to disentangle — fear, determination, worry. "I asked him if I could join. He wasn’t too keen on having a Slytherin, but he said yes, eventually. He said you could come, too."

"You did what?" Anne’s jaw dropped. "I thought — you’re just going to go and let a whole lot of people you don’t even know realise that you - don’t agree with your family? That you’re friends with me? I thought you didn’t want anyone to know!"

"If I could make it that way, I would," he admitted with a sigh. "But there’s a war on, Anne. I have to choose sides. If I don’t, then the choice is going to be made for me, and it won’t be what I want."

"You think your family will make you become a Death Eater," she said quietly. "I see. But why now? Why this? And why ask if I could come?"

She got a bit of a shock when Theo took her gently by the upper arms.

"No reason why now, exactly. But I’ll have to make the choice sometimes. This, because it’s the only way I can think of to — sign up to not be a Death Eater without letting everyone know. These people have to be good at keeping secrets. I think if I ask, then no one will say I come. You can go; no one will question that. You have to."

"I have to? But why-"

"Think, little Hufflepuff. You’re Muggle-born. You have to be able to defend yourself. I don’t want to open the Daily Prophet next holidays and see you’re the latest casualty. You have to stay alive. You’re going to come and learn, you’ve got to!"

His voice hadn’t risen all that much — a necessity of secrecy — but he was leaning slightly towards her. Anne felt her pulse starting to race slightly, for no apparent reason. Maybe it was the look in his eyes.

"I’ll come, I’ll come, OK? When is it?" He had a point, she knew. She could use the extra practise. But the intensity was making her nervous.

"Tonight, at seven. Meet me at the top of the seventh-floor staircase, all right? Can you make some sort of excuse-"

"I can do that easily enough. Can you?"

"I’ll be studying in the library." He shrugged as if to say that would be accepted without comment.

"OK then." Anne felt that this marked the end of the conversation; Theo’s lack of movement — more specifically letting her go — seemed to say otherwise.

"Right." His breathing was slightly uneven. So was her own. Anne decided that one of them had to show some sense. Right now. She coughed politely.

"I’d better be getting to dinner then. My friends were waiting for me to catch up."

"Yes, you’d better." Theo finally let her go. "I’ll see you tonight."

***

Theo arrived at the seventh floor just a few seconds short of seven o’clock. There had been a sticky patch when Malfoy had nearly decided to accompany him to the library, but that had been seen through when Montague had reminded Malfoy, sharply, that they had a Quidditch practice that evening. Theo had offered silent thanksgivings to whoever had organised that and set off for the unknown.

Anne was waiting for him at the top of the stairs, a small figure with her arms folded protectively around her. Her hair, now shoulder-length, had been pulled back in a ponytail. It made her look younger, more vulnerable. Theo felt a renewed surge of decisiveness. She needed to be here, and if he had to as well, then so be it.

"Hi," Anne said, coming forward into the full light of the corridor. "Are you ready?" Her voice was shy. Theo realised that this was the first time she had started a conversation with him in public, if a deserted corridor counted as that.

"How bad can it be?" he asked rhetorically, and a smile flickered on her lips.

"You’re right. We can only draw attention by showing up at the same time and humiliate ourselves publicly by being bad at the spells. How bad can it possibly get?"

That was almost enough to make Theo turn and flee, but he knew she was joking. Partly. He resisted the urge to take her hand as they walked towards the tapestry. Potter was waiting outside a bare stretch of stone wall. His face tightened almost reflexively as Theo and Anne approached, but all he did was nod curtly.

"Nott. You made it."

Theo just nodded. Sarcasm was not going to help anyone.

"You must be Anne Fairleigh," Potter continued, eyeing her appraisingly. Theo suddenly realised exactly why Ron Weasley glowered at any male who talked to Hermione Granger for more than three seconds. It wasn’t logic, it was a reflex, and reflexes wanted to take Anne’s hand. Or put his arm around her shoulders. Or something.

Anne, fortunately, hadn’t noticed. All she said was "Yes, that’s right."

"Er - okay," Potter began, "you need to walk past this spot-" he tapped the wall "and concentrate really hard on finding the place where the DA meet. Three times. Then you can go in. We’ll be starting in a tick, there are just a few people who haven’t shown up yet."

Theo looked down at Anne, who looked up at him at the same time. She gave a minute shrug. Feeling a bit stupid, he began the pacing.

On the third time round there was, out of nowhere, a plain wooden door set in the wall. With a final glance at Potter — whose suspicion had not faded much — Theo reached for the door handle. Anne was right behind him.

They entered a large room, larger than Theo had expected. One wall was lined with bookshelves, and tables at the far end displayed objects Theo recognised as Dark detectors. The floor was lined with large cushions.

Scattered around the room were clumps of people, all clearly relaxed and happy to see each other again. Theo recognised the entire Gryffindor component of his year, most of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team, Cho Chang, and several others. No Slytherins, of course, but — wait. There in a corner, grey eyes daring anyone to approach her, was Estella Haywood. Haywood, halfblood, Slytherin, Draco Malfoy’s cousin, until now one of the most uptight and acid-tongued followers Malfoy had. But Malfoy had never acknowledged that she followed his lead; no, not a halfblood. Theo had always wondered why she’d bothered. His credentials had been good enough that he hadn't had to follow Malfoy in everything, but he'd never been able to go far against him, either. Estella Haywood could have cut her own course. Theo had envied the younger girl that luxury, and wondered why she’d never used it. It seemed now that she had. Her eyes darted ! over to land on him and Anne. She stared for a moment — as many others in the room were doing, apart from Potter and his friends, who favoured him with only brief glances. They'd known, of course. Ron Weasley's was more of a glare. Haywood gave him the tiniest of nods, and he returned it. You stuck with your House, if you could. Speaking of that, some of the Hufflepuffs were descending on Anne.

"Anne Fairleigh! You didn’t say you were coming!" That was Susan Bones. "How did you find out about this?"

"A friend of mine did," Anne replied from behind Theo. He realised he was standing with his arms folded in a distinctly defensive posture, and tried to relax.

"Really? Who -" Ernie Macmillan’s voice cut off abruptly, and Theo guessed he’d made the connection. He turned to face the Hufflepuffs. Anne wore an expression of outward serenity, and inward (to Theo) determination mixed with sheer panic.

"Good evening, Macmillan," he said pleasantly. He was glad to get that much out.

"Surprised you’d show your face here, Slytherin," Hannah Abbott shot back. She was Muggle-born, he knew.

"So am I." Theo couldn’t help a wry twitch of his mouth, and an answering one from Anne showed she’d caught it.

"What’s a Death Eater’s son like you doing near anyone decent, anyway?" Theo stiffened. He knew Zachariah Smith was an arrogant jerk to rival Malfoy. He knew the Hufflepuff took delight in baiting anyone he could. He was not going to provoke an argument. He couldn’t just walk away, not now, not here.

"If you’re here because you think blood doesn’t count, then how can you say that?" Anne was never a loud person, Theo knew, but she was as close as she ever got to outright aggression.

Anne's standing up for me to her Housemates? That's…decent of her. Very decent.

"She’s got a point, you know," said Susan Bones thoughtfully. "Although, Nott, you will have to tell us how you know one of our House at all." Her tone was edged with steel. Protective of their own, Hufflepuffs were.

"Because neither of us looked where we were going," Theo responded promptly. It was true, after all. He got puzzled frowns from the Hufflepuffs, but a half-smile from Anne.

"We ran into each other by accident, that’s all," she added lightly.

"And you didn’t send the — Muggle-born packing?" Finch-Fletchley asked coolly. Another Muggle-born, another one with more reason than most to be antagonistic.

"I decided to ask about life on the other side of the fence."

"Other side of the fence? Most Slytherins won’t admit it’s the same country, let alone the same street," snorted Bones.

"Here, now, it looks like the meeting’s starting," Macmillan said pompously. "Come on, everyone."

Theo exchanged glances with Anne, but they followed the other students to the cushions. It was only natural to sit down next to each other. More odd, though, was Macmillan’s comment to Theo as he sat beside him.

"Glad to have you on board. We need more of your people to come to their senses."

Theo didn’t reply, save for a nod to acknowledge he’d heard it. The wording was…thoughtless, but he could see the sentiment. Potter was standing in front of them, now, and Theo turned his attention to him. Time to see if the Boy Who Lived was all he was cracked up to be.

***

Anne found Theo already there when she arrived at the practice room that Saturday. She had had a particularly difficult time shaking off Gabby and Ellie, who had been in the middle of a frantic writing session for the Defence essay due on Monday ("Combat after being disarmed") and had seconded Anne to help them. Mai had been feeling snappish and Sarah had been doing something Prefect-related, or they wouldn’t have asked her. As it was she had pleaded a need to get out for some air. She always did feel a little guilty about lying to her friends, but then they wouldn’t take it the right way if she did tell them where she really was. Besides, she told the truth most of the time. Just not all of it.

Theo was in one of his strange moods. He gave her a grim smile when she entered, and suggested they start playing without even the usual modicum of conversation. Anne wondered if he was having second thoughts about Dumbledore’s Army.

"Is something wrong?" she inquired as casually as possible, in the course of setting up a music stand.

"Something makes you think that?" he replied enigmatically, shuffling music and not bothering to look at her. "I have no idea what you’re talking about."

"No, you wouldn’t, would you," she muttered, half to herself. It was clear there’d be no getting anything out of him today.

"Is something wrong with you?" He turned his head to give her a sharp look. "You seem a bit unsettled.

"You’re being…unsettling," she tossed back. She was rewarded with a very small frown and a shrug.

"Not deliberately. Shall we start, then?"

Anne lifted her flute to her mouth with an almost unconscious shake of her head. Just when she thought she had Theo sorted…but then, at least she knew him well enough to know that these sort of moods would happen, and pass.

Contrary to her previous entrance, her younger sister slipped in with barely a squeak of the door. It was quiet enough that neither Anne nor Theo noticed her until they reached a particularly difficult bit in their current piece. Anne broke off with a frustrated hiss.

"Hold up, Theo, I’m going to have to take that bit again. D’you mind?"

"No problem. Which bar?"

"Um…if we could go from twenty-seven, that’s the bar with my upbeat…"

"Twenty-seven, that’s fine. You can count in."

"Right. One — Terry, I didn’t notice you!" Her sister was just shutting the door behind her. "You were quiet."

"I didn’t want to stop you in the middle of the piece. It sounded really nice." Terry hitched herself up onto the table nearest the door — the one, Anne noted, that she herself usually sat on. "Don’t mind me. I just want to listen for a little bit."

"As long as you remain quiet." Theo had turned to give Terry what Anne presumed was a hard stare. She could only see the back of his head, and Terry’s slight but noticeable return glare. There was going to be no love lost between them, she thought with an inward sigh. And she’d hoped they could at least tolerate each other.

"I’m not six or something," Terry said with a toss of her head. "Just because I’m a first-year."

"Well, you Gryffindors never seem to know when to keep your mouths shut."

"Twenty-seven!" interrupted Anne quickly. "I’ll just count in half a bar, OK?"

Theo turned back to the piano with an arrogant dignity that belied Terry’s narrowed eyes.

"Certainly."

Thankfully for Anne’s peace of mind, Terry kept her promise, and even managed to keep her mouth shut during the several halts, half-arguments, and repeats that marked the rest of the minuet. Anne concentrated only on the music and playing it; Theo seemed to reciprocate. He was definitely ignoring Terry. He almost managed to shed the enigmatic mood that had marked the first few minutes of the practise.

"I really think you need to play this a little more quietly. The crescendo doesn’t make sense otherwise," Anne argued, pointing to a bar near the end of the piece.

"It’s mezzo-forte, it needs to be loud," Theo riposted. "The end is double forte, it needs to be really loud there."

"But if you want a dynamic contrast you need to be quieter here. Just because you can play it at that volume doesn’t mean you should." Anne could allow herself to get worked up over this. It was safe.

"I like playing it at that volume." Anne could sense a weakening, and zeroed in for the kill.

"But we’re trying to make it sound the best it can, so you don’t need to. Can we at least try it a little quieter? Please?"

Theo sighed with a touch of theatricality. "If we must. It isn’t as if there’ll be anyone to appreciate it."

"That isn’t the point with music, and you know it." Anne couldn’t help laughter tingeing her voice.

"I know." Theo shot her a quick smile.

"I’m listening to it," Terry pointed out from her corner. "It sounds good. You guys must have been practising it a lot."

Theo’s head jerked around. He’d clearly managed to put her out of his mind.

"Then what do you think about the dynamic?" Anne recognised the Slytherin ability to jump on the nearest opportunity. "Louder or softer?"

Terry looked more than a little taken aback at this questioning of her opinion, but replied all the same.

"Well…uh…it sounded fine just then -" Anne could nearly feel Theo’s satisfaction "-but Anne kind of had a point, it can’t hurt to try it again."

Anne smirked at this display of sisterly loyalty. Theo’s face was disgruntled when he turned back to his music. "Fine then. I’ll count in. Three, four -"

He was so quick to start Anne nearly missed her entrance and flubbed a couple of notes as a result. But she still thought it did sound better with the altered dynamic.

"Well?" she asked Theo. "I thought that was better."

He looked oddly torn. "I…suppose so…"

Anne did her best not to look at Terry’s unrepentant grin behind his back. She could be nicer.

Theo seemed aware of it anyway. He was oddly focused on Anne. "We should probably stop now, I need to get some homework done."

Anne wrinkled her nose. "Me too. Defence essay."

"At least we’re learning something this year. Anything’s better than Umbridge."

"Tell me about it."

"I’ll just be going then, shall I?" said Terry pointedly.

"You know where the door is," Theo answered almost without malice. Terry restrained herself to an ostentatious roll of her eyes and a quick farewell to Anne. Theo she said nothing to.

"She certainly specialises in exits, your sister," Theo commented.

"That’s Terry. She hates to be left out of things." Anne shrugged. It was very typical Terry behaviour.

"It’s her way of saying that she reckons we were ignoring her."

"It’s our practice. She didn’t have to be here."

"If you really didn’t want her to listen, you just had to say something-"

"It wasn’t important enough." Theo brushed the topic off. "I had other things to think about."

"Like the meeting last night." Anne pulled the top third of her flute off with a deft twist. "It was interesting, I thought."

"It was." Theo gathered his music for a few seconds, then said, "I never knew Potter was that good."

"He’s alive. He had to be." Anne felt anyone who had got into as much strife as Harry Potter was brilliant at Defence by default.

"Yes, but…" Theo frowned at the piano. "I thought he was arrogant," he said finally. "He always seems to think the rules don’t apply to him. He mouths off to teachers. But he really is that good. He had people producing corporeal Patronuses, for Merlin’s sake. He taught them that. He had everyone getting some mist, at least, by the end. There are grown wizards who can't do that spell."

"So he’s not what you expected." Anne caught on to the reason for his mood. Reflection. "He seemed an OK sort of guy. He can help."

"He can." Theo turned to look at her. "I didn’t really think he could teach me all that much, you know. Since he’s in myyear. You, of course, since you’re a year behind-"

"I’m not that incompetent," Anne put in indignantly.

"-but I learnt something, and I didn’t think I would. It was weird." He carried on regardless. "That’s all."

"Is it." Anne clicked the lock on her flute case shut. "I knew you were thinking about something when I came in."

"Maybe not all." Theo gave her a searching look. "Those Hufflepuffs gave us a bit of a grilling."

"Oh, I know." Anne remembered an…embarrassing conversation with Hannah Abbott that morning. "Hannah Abbott told me this morning that she didn’t quite see why I’d want to go out with a Slytherin, but I was to know it was quite all right, really. After all, if you’d come to the DA, you must be better than most of them." She knew she was blushing a little, but she tried to ignore it.

"Did she now." Theo’s voice was startled, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at his face. "She was probably just trying to make you feel better about all the stares. She takes being a Prefect seriously, I think."

"I think so, too." Anne finally looked at him again; it wasn’t all that bad. "Hermione Granger came up to me in the Library just before lunch and said essentially the same thing, too."

Theo essayed a smile. "At least you’ll have plenty of shoulders to cry on if I break your heart."

"I told them thank-you but I wasn’t…we weren’t…you know." Theo was looking uncomfortable, but no more than she was. That relaxed her a bit. "Then they both patted me on the shoulder and said they quite understood." Anne heard the rest of their comments in her mind, saw the knowing smiles, but chose not to speak them.

Well, I understand, but I think he likes you quite a lot.

He’s not half bad for a Slytherin, you know

. Don't let that put you off.

"Granger has room to talk, with her and Weasley dancing around each other like that, " Theo snorted.

"They’ll be grey-haired before they admit to themselves what the whole school knows."

"Yes, well, that’s not news. And it’s different." Anne shrugged. "We’re not dancing around…anything."

She regretted that the moment she’d said it, the moment Theo tilted his head, very slightly, to regard her. The silence was thick with possibilities, thick with…complications.

"No. No, we aren’t, are we?" His words, slow and cautious, broke the spell. "You know, I knew you knew I was thinking about something today. I just didn’t feel like telling you at that point." Theo stood, with his music in one hand, and stretched. "I needed to think about it a little more."

"I can always wait for you to tell me things," Anne said, seizing on the change of subject. "You generally do at some point."

"I talk to you far too much." Theo’s tone was dry. "That’s the problem. We both tell each other too much."

"Why do you say that?" Anne tilted her head in inquiry. This topic had not come up since the first few times she and Theo had really talked. She herself was long past worrying; she trusted Theo, and that was that.

"Is it really a good idea to trust someone too far?" Theo looked down at her pensively. "I trust you, and I’ve ended up talking to Gryffindors and going to secret Defence meetings organised by Harry Potter. You’ve ended up spending time voluntarily with a Slytherin. Not that any of those things are bad, per se, just…odd."

Anne felt a warm glow spreading inside. She was pretty sure Theo did trust her, but it was nice to hear people say things like that.

"I think I need trust someone to talk to, or I’d go mad." She knew she was smiling too much for the topic, but that could hardly be helped. "So it doesn’t matter."

"Probably not." Theo gave her one of his rare grins. "After all, what could possibly happen?" Anne knew it was meant ironically, but she didn’t care.

"Nothing at all. Terry’s even managed to set aside a grudge for a bit, now that’s a miracle."

"She isn’t as bad as I thought. For a Gryffindor."

"Of course she isn’t. I’d better get going. I’ll see you…no, at the next DA meeting. Be safe."

"And you," replied Theo, with a sharp nod. As Anne slipped past him to leave the room — he almost never left before her, Theo, ever the gentleman - her hand brushed his. The thick feeling in the air was back, with a vengeance, and she hurried out into the draughty corridor.

Oh, god. Not dancing around anything. If we danced around it any more we’d be doing the tango.

Hmmm. Tango. Theo. I like that idea.

Anne practically ran for the safety of the common room. Away from any pensive, oddly talkative, oddly companionable, rather attract — impossible Slytherins.