Work Text:
The library had been chilly tonight. She typically avoided late night homework sessions, but it couldn’t be helped that she had forgotten to finish up her essay. She had left one more foot of parchment the day the project had been assigned, to add more of her thoughts on experimental siphon magic on dark artifacts. And it was due next week! The Ravenclaw in her had had a critical meltdown. Back in the library, her relief palpable upon completing the essay, she had passed a familiar stack of bookshelves. A memory from a couple of months ago had hit her:
Red pupils flashed in grey green eyes, all trace of humour from the moment before gone. Terror slithered down her spine, her skin itching with the tell-tale sign of curse magic in the air…
Reese shook herself from the memory, goosebumps prickling up her extremities. Thin wisps of cloud with stars punctuating through caught her attention, her gaze swiveling up to admire the night sky, calming her racing pulse. The stress from midterms and the memory of the cursed boy were making her crazy. She was horribly homesick. Were her parents just waking up back home to the sight of a pink tinged sunrise? Or was the kettle already whistling on the –
“Oh shit, are you alright?”
Pens and books were strewn everywhere, papers floating down and sticking to the damp stairs, her book bag up ended on the steps just below. She clutched her elbow as she looked up at the person who had run into her and... froze.
“Yes, yes, I'm fine, no worries,” she managed to bite out as she flicked her wand and wordlessly conjured everything back into her bag.
He held out his hand. Reese stared at it a moment, before grabbing it tentatively, his warm grip engulfing her chilled hand. He hauled her up with seemingly no effort, but the sensation of his hand in her own and the dull throb at her elbow faded once she realized just how close he stood.
Everything faded away; the chill of the night, the warm lights of the university building, until his face filled her vision. The olive tone of his skin, the small teasing lift at one corner of his mouth.
Red, red eyes.
But his irises were that beautiful grey green now and danced with amusement as she struggled to find something to say.
“Thank you,” she managed to squeak out. Reese felt her heart pound like it was trying to escape the confines of her chest, and she was horrified to feel her hand grow clammy in his grip. Didn't he realize his fingers were still wrapped around her sweaty hand? A heated blush made its way up her cheeks. The amusement slowly faded from his features as his eyes roamed her face.
“Do I know you?” He finally let go, and she shook her hand out subtly by her side as though his grip had burned her skin.
“I think we've seen each other in the halls, and I’m Annie’s partner in an Alchemy project this semester…” She winced as she realized how creepy she sounded, name dropping his friends. Walk away, take another step... Her feet didn't listen, rooted to the spot as if she had been bound in place by a solid sticking charm.
“Oh, right, you’re the transfer student from…” he trailed off at her expression, stuffing his hands back into the pockets of his… green onesie? Reese stared incredulously at his outfit and a shocked laugh shot out before she could stuff it back into her mouth.
“I’m sorry, what are you wearing?” She laughed through her fingers as she tried to muffle her cackle.
He looked down at the fuzzy green costume in surprise and then cast a smirk her way which was… something. Her stomach lurched with butterflies as his eyebrow rose.
“What, you don't like frogs?”
“You look ridiculous," she said before she could stop herself, then added quickly, “ridiculously cute.”
“I thought Canadians were supposed to be nice,” he said. He pouted, but his eyes danced with amusement.
“We can be, but we can also be brutally honest about how adorable and practical a frog onesie is on a cold night,” Reese said, fighting a grin.
She internally shook herself. Why was she saying these things? Was she flirting? She was supposed to stay away from him! The courtyard echoed with the sound of his rich laugh. He leaned in, his lips parting to say something and she couldn't help it; she leaned in too. He was like a big, beautiful planet and his friends milled around him like they were captured in his swirling orbit. Whenever she had watched his little galaxy from afar, milling around in the hallways and library, she had felt a yearning… Why couldn't she reach out and be a part of that?
She had nearly done it once when she spotted them in the library. She had seen her Alchemy project partner Annie giggling at something a long-haired blonde boy had said, and that had bolstered her resolve to ask if she could join them at their table. Before she could step out from behind the stacks, she had seen him.
The expression on his face was like a man starved. His eyes were pinned to a girl with a bow secured in her smooth dark locks who faced away from Reese. She had never seen that look on his face before, his features always lit up as if from the inside whenever he was chatting animatedly with his friends in the hallway. But this look... Was one of hunger, cruelty, and malice wrapped up in one red flash of his green eyes.
No one else had noticed, the pretty girl with the bow in her hair chatting away with a handsome dark-haired boy – he was in Ravenclaw too. Kai? By the time she had recollected his name, Reese had already stepped backwards into the shadow of the stacks, until adrenaline flooded her system and she sprinted out of the library.
As suits of armor and other students blurred in her periphery, those flashing crimson eyes burned into her retinas. They conjured up images of specific pages in a book on curses she had read while visiting her mom's family in the Philippines ten years ago. That book was what had inspired her to become a Cursebreaker and she had never thought that she would be the one to see it in real life...
Images of those eyes came to her now as she stared into Theo's. Red eyes, evil eyes, yet how could those eyes also belong to such a charming young man? She felt nearly numb standing on the university steps, as that same dread that had creeped through her system and doused her in icy pinpricks that trickled down her spine in the library affected her again now.
His brows furrowed. Wisps of his curly chestnut locks fluttered in the wind under the hood of his frog onesie, the whimsical countenance completely at odds with the version of himself that he had clearly secreted away. Hidden beneath the veneer of best friend, brother, and flirt. He opened his mouth and –
“Teddy!”
Theo whipped his gaze over her shoulder and Reese spun around. The girl’s diaphanous lilac coloured gown – was she dressed as a lily? – seemed to float in the chill evening wind as she waved a large bottle of amber liquid in the air. The moonlight lit up the pearls studded throughout her smooth, dark hair. She must be the girl from the library. Reese turned back to see Theo stand straighter, a broad grin painting his face. He shifted his gaze over to Reese, who snapped herself back to reality.
“I’d better go,” she said, “I'm freezing my ass off out here and there's a hot chocolate with my name on it in my dorm room.” She cast a wordless featherlight charm on her bag and an extra warming charm on herself. Why did disappointment stab through her? Theo and this elegant girl were clearly dating, weren’t they? And she really shouldn’t be attracted to a guy who clearly had a secret, cursed side… As she took a few steps towards the entrance hall, Reese mentally rifled through the pages of the rare book of curses… She should ask her aunt if she could owl it to the UK from the Philippines…
Theo called out, “It was nice meeting you, Claireese.”
She stiffened and turned, giving him a bright smile that didn’t feel genuine, before picking her way up the stairs to warmth and salvation. Had she introduced herself? Did he know her name through Annie? That might have been it… Annie must have mentioned Reese to Theo at some point over the last few weeks…
The fear crept back, clawing its way up her throat as she entered the grand hall. It didn't dissipate even as she warded her room, dressed in her pajamas and shuffled over to her desk. Even the steaming mug of hot chocolate didn't heat her chilled palms. She gazed out the window, finally setting aside the penned letter to her aunt, and the stars that usually gave her comfort were hidden behind clouds.
***
Theo
Theo slung his arm around Lilli’s shoulders and she nuzzled herself into his side. His long fingers toyed with the soft material of her shoulder strap, and as they meandered through the university grounds towards the apparition point, he was stuck on a thought.
That girl, Claireese Alanto, had looked so frightened when she first saw him, and he had thought it was because he had accidentally knocked her down the stairs. But then he recognized her as the girl from the library who had sprinted away…
That day, he had caught sight of Lilli absently turning the pearl ring around her finger as she chatted away with Kurokawa, studying abandoned. Usually, he was able to wrangle his thoughts into submission; their forced betrothal, the deep, bone-aching pain Lilli must constantly feel, ridiculous possessiveness and jealousy, his father’s rage and his worries that he would turn out to be the same – Theo would push them down, down, down, and lock them away even if it was temporary. But there in the library, they swirled around in his head, the previous night’s visit to Nott Manor with Draco still fresh in his mind…
The musty smell of mold and dead things perforated his nostrils as they stepped through into the creaking hallways of his former home. Everything was a dead thing in this place – the people in the portraits lined up along the fusty walls, some of his childhood memories (did you even have a childhood if every single little thing was planned out for you?). The voices started as a creeping whisper, simply background noise as he and Draco searched rooms together to find that damn Pensieve. Suddenly they swirled and built into a crackling crescendo… It was like they had power. Power over him and her and their betrothal and he would never, never, never figure out a way to get out, the bloodlust would overcome him and – the voices had come from his own mouth?
Theo had fought an internal war with himself, blinked away the haunting memory of last night. It was then that he had spotted Claireese in the stacks, the fear in her eyes obvious as she turned away to run.
She had clearly remembered that night. He was afraid. She knew something was different about him, and he was scared she would say something – but to who? What if she gossiped about him to a friend and it would get back to Lilli? It hadn’t happened yet, but who was to say it wouldn’t in the future?
He had asked around (very subtly, in an expertly nonchalant kind of way, he thought proudly) about Alanto after the library incident. A few classmates had said she seemed quiet but friendly, maybe she was just a shy Canadian adjusting to living in a new country? But a highlight: amongst rave opinions of how Alanto was at the top of nearly all her classes – even Annie had said she was being edged out of top rank in Alchemy – was that “Reese” was already being touted as a top notch Cursebreaker and a wiz with dark artifacts. Could she possibly help with his and Lilli’s debacle? He didn’t want to get his hopes up; Lilli had already delved into a solution for all aspects of the curse, to discover what external source kept her bound… Was there even a point in trying to find other avenues if fifteen years of research still wasn’t enough?
Theo smiled absent-mindedly at Lilli as she turned her face up to the clear night sky, finished with her excited rant about finally getting to meet the Brightest Witch of Their Age at the party tonight. She looked so content, so happy, as she twirled on the spot, the petals on her dress fanning out delicately.
Theo steeled himself and made a decision.
He loved Lilli this much: to be able to give her a choice instead of being shackled to him for the rest of their lives, duty bound by a curse their families had forced upon them. What if consulting Alanto was the solution? How could he guarantee a moment with her without frightening her out of her wits? She had seemed so cautious earlier, his usual charms slow to thaw her hesitancy. He would need a solid enough reason to spend time with her so that she wouldn’t run away screaming…
As Theo and Lilli grasped hands for side apparition, he appreciated the smallness of her hand in his, the way her nose crinkled as she smiled at him just before they spun together. Lilli squeezed his hand as they made their way up the steps to the massive, overtly ostentatious door that was quintessential Pansy. She raised her hand to push it open…