hackthis_archive | HP – Blaise/Theodore - Rituals of Slytherin Silence

1. There's a fucking link on MSN entitled What to do if he's cheating on you. DUMP HIS ASS! What kind of bullshit article is that? What's there to discuss? AHHHH!!! *sporks* *takes deep breaths*

2. I don't play videogames really, but this makes me want Halo 2 I whole lot, if only for my latent road rage.

3. Good news in the war against cervical cancer *gacked from

buggery

Harry Potter
Blaise/Theodore

Rituals of Slytherin Silence

They don’t talk about how they ended up this way –- they don’t talk about a lot of things, but every night at seven minutes past the hissing of midnight from the huge Slytherin clock in the common room, Blaise Zabini slips from his bed, and using the simulated moonlight that all the bedrooms in the dungeon are charmed to cast, he counts the eight steps across the room to the bed in the north-eastern corner.

Theodore Nott’s eyes flutter open immediately when Blaise draws back the bedcovers on the right side of the bed –- it has to be on the right side for Blaise not to end up being kicked in the upper thigh, since Draco’s bed is on Theodore’s left, and on occasion, Draco tries to move in on Blaise’s territory.

Theodore is Blaise’s territory –- but they don’t talk about that.

They don’t talk about a lot of things.

*

Theodore never looks as though he’s been sleeping –- he never looks as though he’s been caught off-guard. Sometimes it looks as though he’s just been waiting on Blaise forever. Of course, Theodore’s very good at pretending, and wordlessly he shifts over to give Blaise room in the bed as Blaise drops the pillow he’s brought for his head. They used to share Theodore's pillow, but that was a little too intimate for them and caused all sorts of problems when it came time for Blaise to disentangle himself and go back to his own bed.

The mattress creaks as he slips in besides Theodore, and he holds his breath just for one moment but there’s no hitch in Draco’s wheezing snuffles.

Blaise knows his feet are cold by the way Theodore recoils when their toes touch, and this would all be so much easier if one of them –- if somebody would just cast a Silencio, but then that would require talking and they don’t talk about this at all.

Ever.

*

What Blaise likes most about waking up in bed next to Theodore is the heat. Theodore is always warm –- the curve of his neck, the hollow of his hip, the skin over his collarbone which is always slightly exposed, depending on how his shirt is being pulled. The silk of his pyjamas is soft underneath Blaise’s fingertips, but still retains its bunched up shape when Blaise stops clutching at the material and murmuring in his sleep. Blaise doesn’t scream in his sleep the way Draco does, but sometimes he has unpleasant dreams and this is when he wakes up and finds himself clutching at Theodore’s pyjama top and his head buried in the hollow of Theodore’s throat.

*

Blaise doesn’t remember the first time he woke up at Hogwarts and found himself in bed with Theodore Nott. Actually, that’s a lie, but Blaise has never been one to share himself easily with other people. He’s known Theodore for fifteen years, nine months and eleven days. He’s known Draco one day longer. He would never climb into bed with Draco and expect to be able to sleep.

*

Theodore always goes to bed first, quite possibly because he never really wants to talk to anyone after dinner unless forced. He has a bath at half-nine, slips into his pyjamas and then reads until ten. From his own observations, Blaise knows that Theodore’s reading materials of choice are generally a letter from his sister or an aunt or reading for whatever classes they have the next day.

Blaise generally spends his evenings with Pansy or Draco or someone else considered suitable, and he’s among the last to have his bath after Professor Snape comes around and threatens to hex them all unless they’re quiet and let him sleep. This happens at eleven-oh-three every night, and shortly thereafter the common room empties and everyone goes their respective ways.

*

It’s not easy for two growing boys to share a bed without someone ending up on the floor, or incapacitated, but they’ve learned to make the most of the little space they’ve got. When Theodore sleeps on his side, Blaise curls up behind him and slips his hand between the waist of Theodore’s pyjama bottoms and his hip. He loves the feel of Theodore’s hipbone in the palm of his hand, and even if Theodore’s sleeping on his back, Blaise will curl himself about Theodore in such a way that his fingers can still find that little jut of bone. It’s strangely comforting –- but it’s what Blaise needs.

He doesn’t come to Theodore’s bed at night for sex –- that can happen at any point during the day –- he comes for the times when Theodore will curl up behind him and Blaise will fall asleep with Theodore gently breathing against the back of his neck.

*

Blaise is always in his own bed by six a.m. the next morning. He doesn’t have a watch, and he doesn’t have an alarm, he just knows when it’s time to go.

Sometimes he stays up all night.

*

They don’t talk about what occurs in Theodore’s bed -- or on occasion, in Blaise’s bed -- because talking about it would be admitting that something is happening, and nothing is happening between them. They’re certainly not sharing a bed on a nightly basis. They’re not seeking comfort from the only places they feel secure and comfortable either. They would never do anything so needy. Slytherins aren’t needy –- they don’t require comfort in the emotional sense even though they require the comfort of material things. They are possessive, true, but not about anything very important because that only encourages other people to take it away. So during the day Blaise keeps his distance and Theodore ignores them all, and at night they pretend that nothing is happening between then. There’s no talk of war or Dark Lords or sexuality or anything being wrong in the tiny world they know.

Slytherins don’t talk about their problems because they don’t have any problems -– and since there are no problems then there’s never anything to admit to full-stop.

-end-

Beta by

serialkarma