theodore nott: a lifetime

crvdence:

• by age three, theodore nott mutters out his first word a ‘mum’ that makes his father snarl in anger
  
• by age five, he displays his first manifestation of magic, and it’s the first time theo remembers his father being anything like proud of him
  
• by age seven, he’s in a fancy dinner in the malfoy’s manor and he breaks a mug, while he’s shivering waiting for his father anger, narcissa’s face appears in front of him asking him if he’s hurt and not to worry
  
• by age nine, kneeling next to the lifeless body of his mother, he learns about the gravity of the unforgivable curses
  
• by age eleven he learns that his wand: ten inches, rosewood, unicorn hair core, flexible; it’s perfect for healing magic and spells (and his father finds it useless and unpleasant)
  
• by age twelve, learns that reparo closes the wounds created by a diffindo spell, but that they leave ugly, big scars after it
  
• by age thirteen, he learns to use his first healing spell, a shaky voice whispering ferula, bandages strapping his broken wrist
  
• by age fourteen, he faces his boggart: his father, drunk, angry and aggressive, ready to pounce with his wand pointing him (he has yet to manage a boggart-banishing spell, the panic still bigger than the capacity of making a joke from it)
  
• by age fifteen, he fixes blaise zabini’s crooked fingers after a quidditch match and he starts to fantasize about the halls of st mungo
  
• by age fifteen, he also learns what’s the feeling of butterflies in his stomach after his first kiss
  
• by age sixteen he feels the jolts of a cruciatus curse piercing through all his body, leaving tears running down his cheeks and a laugh in their aftermath
  
• by age seventeen, he can’t produce a coporeal patronus (maybe he doesn’t have enough happy memories to dwell on)
  
• by age seventeen, he learns that his family it’s not the cold body of his father lying on the floor of hogwarts, but pansy’s hand holding his and blaise’s arm around his shoulders
  
• by age eighteen, he knows that running away it’s a coward move, but his only option
  
• by age nineteen, he learns living in muggle london is ten times easier as he has imagined, once you get your way around the tube and learn how to use pounds and pennies instead of galleons and sickles
  
• by age twenty, theo is still hiding in a non-magic world, trying to heal from scars and memories
  
• by age twenty-two, pansy parkinson finds him in the middle of a rainy day, they go out to drink and when the wine is tainting theo’s cheeks, pansy tells him that he keeps asking for him, they both know who they are talking about, but putting a name to things make them real
  
• by age twenty-three, theo apparates in his old manor, empty, grey and cold as he remembers, and he’s greeted by his house elves like time hasn’t passed by
  
• by age twenty-four, he uses the floo to the zabini’s manor, with shaky hands and his heart beating heavily against his chest
  
• by age twenty-four, he feels butterflies in his stomach once again
  
• by age twenty-five theodore nott starts to make it up for the time lost