𝐌𝐘 𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐘𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐓.
theodore nott—mentioned a few times canonically in the harry potter books as a friend of draco malfoy, popularly known at hogwarts simply as “nott.”
full name: theodore nott.
hogwarts house: slytherin.
origin: born in rome, raised in england. he speaks english fluently, but considers italian his first language.
mother: phoena nott, formerly phoena vitale. ravenclaw. raised in rome, phoena carried her origins with her wherever her feet touched. she married christian nott, a close friend of lucius malfoy, and conceived theodore in sicily.
⤷ status: deceased; killed by an unforgivable curse cast by her husband.
father: christian nott, or nott sr. slytherin. raised in london, he is a major businessman in the wizarding world and a blood supremacist. a close friend of the malfoy family—just as his father had been—and a loyal follower and helper of lord voldemort. he is part of the sacred 28 and the head of one of the most powerful families in the wizarding world.
⤷ status: alive.
• no siblings; theodore is an only child. phoena faced difficulties becoming pregnant and almost died during theodore’s birth. from the day she heard her son’s tiny cry, she decided she would not risk another child, fearing it might take her away from the little bundle of light she had given her life for. christian, on the other hand, also had no interest in having another kid, since his heir’s heart was already beating healthily and the risk of a girl being born was far too great for his liking. thus, theodore was the couple’s first and last child.
• other relatives: he has an aunt, phoena’s sister, and a paternal grandmother, but he has no contact with either of them. in the case of his aunt, distance kept them apart; in the case of his grandmother, the old woman gave him chills. he had other distant relatives, but lost all rare contact with them after his mother passed.
— 𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄
— theodore’s hair is a light shade of brown that fall in soft, restless waves. his build is lean, though there is a reticent strength beneath it. theo's eyes are striking above all else: predominantly grey, an inheritance from his father, yet scattered with small flecks of the exact sky-blue that once belonged to phoena. their shape tilts slightly upward at the corners, giving them a naturally sharp look, though they are half-lidded, heavy with the air of someone perpetually sleep-deprived; some describe them as hunter eyes. dark circles rest beneath them, evidence of too many thoughtful & sleepless nights, though they only deepen the charm he carries.
— his facial features are sharp and defined, with an aristocratic nose and a cutting jawline, the architecture of a face that mirrors his christian’s almost perfectly, only softened by youth. there is a mole on his left cheek, just beside his eye, identical to the one his mother had at the corner of her mouth. unfortunately for him, but fortunately for everyone around him who could not possibly deny his beauty, theodore was the spitting image of his father. the same nose, the same eyes, the same keen jawline, the same strands of hair, as if someone had simply pressed the elder nott’s features into a younger mold.
— nott stands at around six feet and one inch tall (1.85m); his body is slender, making him an easy target for bullying in kindergarten. as the springs passed, quidditch practices and quiet hours spent training gave him muscles in the right places, shaping him into a lithe and undeniably strong figure. his legs are well-toned—theodore is not the type to skip leg day —and his arms are perfectly defined. a faint six-pack lies across his abdomen, though unlike mattheo, he rarely makes a spectacle of it. his skin is stubbornly pale and he rarely tans, even after long summers spent beneath the italian sun. theodore is a creature of the night and not particularly fond of sunny days, holding a steady preference for rainy, cloudy, or foggy weather. once, a girl remarked that he and draco looked like two corpses because of how pale they were; theodore had only allowed the faintest lift at the corner of his mouth in response.
— 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐒 (tw: drugs, grief, daddy issues.)
friendships.
— his inner circle is composed of blaise zabini, mattheo riddle, draco malfoy, and lorenzo berkshire.
blaise zabini: theodore’s earliest friendship belonged to blaise, before they ever stepped feet in hogwarts. ariadne zabini, blaise's mother, often stayed at nott manor, as mrs. zabini was phoena’s closest friend. the two women spent endless afternoons together, wandering to hogsmeade, sharing endless cups of tea, and even joined a book club side by side; this naturally resulted in a strong bond between the boys. theo and blaise grew up in the comfortable chaos of childhood companionship: shared toys (that would always end up scattered across the marble floors—poor house elves, who always had to clean up their mess), watched horror movies they definitely shouldn’t have been watching—sometimes films that were far from appropriate for their age, more than aware of the trouble that would wait for them in case ariadne or phoena barged in; took turns sleeping over at each other’s houses, and orchestrated countless childish pranks that left their mothers utterly exasperated, in the brink of despair.
even though time reshaped the dynamic of their friendships and theo is now closer to mattheo and blaise gravitated towards draco and lorenzo, the bond between them remains incredibly strong—they still share secrets and vulnerabilities, still find interest in the same things, and occasionally theodore can be found at ariadne’s manor, updating her on the events of his life while she listens with the same fondness she once reserved for the small boy who ran laughing through her halls.
mattheo riddle: theodore met mattheo on their first day at hogwarts, and whatever invisible thread connects kindred spirits seemed to tighten instantly between them. being the son of the man his father idolized, mattheo could have drawn theodore in for that reason alone—but that could not be more far from the reason why he did. instead, theo saw a boy who carried wounds that mirrored his own, someone who had learned, just as he had, to wear a mask before the world could notice the cracks beneath it. they were drawn toward each other the way moths are drawn to flame, and from that moment forward, they became inseparable.
they tried marijuana together for the first time. attended to their first party together. stumbled through their first drunken nights side by side. shared girls together… the list of their experiences was endless. it was often said, half in jest, that they were partners in crime: where there was fire—mattheo—there was smoke—theodore. yet, beneath the recklessness lived something far deeper. mattheo came from an extremely difficult family, and the emptiness inside him often threatened to swallow him whole—until theodore pulled him back to reality, to the solid ground. the same was true for theo; when the claws of grief tore too deeply, mattheo arrived with cotton and bandages. the two were brothers, elysian mates, and no amount of sorrow, hatred, or divine force could ever loosen the bond that tied them together. both were only teenagers, yet when they stood side by side, it felt as though they were bound by blood.
draco malfoy & lorenzo berkshire: theodore loved them, but merlin help him, they could be insufferable. draco and lorenzo were the most similar within the group, both prone to throwing fits when things didn’t go as planned, both extremely materialistic and emotionally irresponsible. theodore and draco grew up together thanks to the strong bond between christian and lucius, but truthfully, they were never as close as theo and blaise; honestly, theodore had this silent demur towards malfoy because, in his mind, becoming close to him would also make him close to becoming like the man he despised, who shared an older malfoy as a friend. they were good friends, but simply didn't have much in common.
don’t get me wrong—lorenzo was an incredibly entertaining company, and draco could give surprisingly good advice when he wanted to. it was simply that their strong and distinct personalities occasionally clashed in a too small of a space. that didn’t mean theodore wouldn’t step in front of a wand to save them, and vice versa. it was just that, like in any group of friends, some bonds run deeper than others.
family.
christian nott: nott sr.’s relationship with his son is the most troubled, fractured bond you will ever encounter. christian was raised under the harsh and conservative authority of a man who believed cruelty was discipline and tenderness a flaw, and that philosophy shaped the way he approached fatherhood. his own father had always been rude and severe, insisting that men must never cry, that weakness must be burned away and that survival belonged only to the hard. theodore hated the way his father treated both him and phoena, and it was this hatred that pushed the boy closer to his mother, clinging to the warmth she offered as though his life depended on it. the older theodore harbors a pure, genuine hatred for his father; disgust would be the mildest, gentlest word for it. after all, it had been christian’s wand that took the most precious person in theodore’s life. a cruel cruciatus, cast under the grotesque justification of strengthening his son, of ensuring he would not grow into a weak man. theo would forever remember the disturbing image of his mother collapsed upon the persian carpet in one of the grand rooms of the nott manor. now older, now painfully aware of the world’s cruelties, he understands what he hadn’t fully grasped as a child: his father was rotten to the core.
phoena nott: the ultimate mama’s boy. theodore idolized his mother in life, and now idolizes her spirit in death. she is, always was, and always will be everything to him. theodore will never forget the many afternoons spent learning italian with her—her patient voice, tinged with a gentle accent, teaching him everything from numbers and colors then later entire phrases and curious neologisms that made him laugh. the memory of her introducing him to the kitchen—now one of theo’s favorite hobbies—still accompanies him before he falls asleep. he recalls how she would guide his small hands through recipes and flavors that would one day become one of his greatest comforts. merlin, how he missed her. when phoena passed away, it was as if a piece of him died with her. depression consumed the eight-year-old boy, swallowed by a grief too large for a child to carry. years have passed since that moment. the wound has never fully closed. the only solace theodore allows himself is the hope that somewhere, she is still watching over him.
because he had borne witness to the terrible and cruel passing of his mother, theodore discovered at the age of fourteen that he possessed the rare ability to see thestrals, after wandering into the forbidden forest in the late hours. he would always remember the shock that washed him when the gaunt, phantasmagoric creature emerged before his eyes, its skeletal frame and dark, leathery wings unlike anything he had ever seen, though he quickly recalled hagrid’s lesson about such beings. and still, a foolish, almost soft thought lingered in the back of his mind: had his mother sent it to him as a silent way of saying hello from the other side?
— 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 (tw: grief, mention of age gap, mommy & daddy issues, alcohol, drugs, anger issues, depression, mentions of self-harm and suicidal thoughts.)
✴︎ theodore has a more closed-off and inward-turned nature, preferring his own solitude to the presence of others. having lost his mother far too early and been left in the care of a father who was, at best, abhorrent, theodore learned to appreciate his own company, perhaps sooner than any child should. after all, blaise was not always there to keep him company, nor was ariadne to bake the most delicious english biscuits he had ever tasted.
he possesses an introspective and introverted personality, and even though his treacherous mind often harms him, crowding his thoughts with self-destructive whispers, theodore still prefers that to spending long hours socializing. it is almost as if he has found a strange sort of comfort within his own melancholy, and whenever he spends too long in someone’s presence, he can feel his social battery draining away like water from a cracked vessel; even mattheo—his best friend and one of the few people theodore genuinely enjoys having around—is enough to make him feel the need to disappear and hide for two entire days afterward, as though he must recover from the mere act of existing beside another person.
that does not mean theodore lives removed from the world, however. he does socialize. he attends the clandestine parties his classmates organize in the common rooms, goes out for late nights in hogsmeade with his infamous circle, or simply keeps them company during the long nights hogwarts provides. the truth is that he had to learn to loosen the chains of his own mind that pushed him toward isolation, because he was mature enough to understand that, whether he wanted to or not, a man could not live forever as a lone wolf.
✴︎ to most people, theodore may appear cold, and his sharp tongue and quick, calculating mind do little to contradict the impression. everyone sees him as the most lethal edge between the boys—the one who can and will dismantle you with cruel words rather than clenched fists, as mattheo tends to do. they're not entirely wrong. theodore learned early that one must know how to defend oneself. still, he is not particularly fond of physical fights, though he would never hesitate to fight if someone he loved required defending. he simply prefers the sentences as his weapons—something prepared, precise, and merciless for anyone who dares push his patience, a virtue theodore is far from mastering.
even so, behind closed doors, it is a mistake to think theodore nott is an iceberg. he can be very warm with those who deserve his warmth. he thinks too much and is not nearly as nonchalant as he seems. the blunt truth is that theodore uses coldness, rudeness, and discourtesy as armor, because in theo's eyes, no one is truly pure. everyone wants something; everyone carries ulterior motives. perhaps he is not entirely wrong in thinking so. the nott family is—and always has been—influential, and he has grown accustomed to the presence of sycophants of every sort whom he has never acknowledged. the safest thing to do is to shield himself and keep any potential threat away from his already fragile feelings.
✴︎ he does not live to impress anyone, but he does pursue excellence. since childhood, nothing less was ever accepted by his father, and that expectation carved itself deeply into theo’s bones. as a result, he has become fiercely competitive. in quidditch? exceptional—he has already received invitations from leagues all over the world, though he has no interest in pursuing a professional career. in school, he and draco are hermione granger’s greatest academic irritation, a persistent thorn on her side. though theodore privately despises the pettiness of such rivalries, he secretly finds himself competing with draco when it comes to intellect. he does not raise his hand in class—he simply states the correct answer aloud, constantly being reprimanded by professors for his lack of manners in speaking without permission. he does not care. he simply does it.
not for draco, not for hermione, not for the professors, and certainly not for the girls who seem eager to devour him whenever he displays his intelligence. he does it for himself, to silently (and stubbornly) prove to his father that he is not the foolish boy he once believed him to be, even if christian nott is now thousands of miles away. he does it for his mother, hoping she might be watching from above, seeing that she did not give birth to a dense kid.
curiously, he secretly admires stricter professors. professors who inspire dread in most students earn his respect instead. severus snape and minerva mcgonagall are his clear favorites, and he detests hearing his classmates complain about them. he understands them—teaching people he considers stupid would be stressful and exhausting for any human being. quietly, he gives himself a small, invisible pat on the back whenever mcgonagall says “very well observed, mr. nott,” or when snape simply nods at him in the corridors, a gesture the old man grants almost no one. both of them, knowing theodore’s father and the circumstances of his mother’s tragedy, feel a certain measure of compassion (in minerva’s case) and sympathy (in snape’s) for the italian boy.
✴︎ he has no interest in blood purity, finding it meaningless. in fact, he despises that prejudice so intensely that he has argued more than once with supremacists from his own house. to him, what defines a wizard’s strength is nothing more than their skill with a wand. his father despises this belief and fears, silently and bitterly, that the nott legacy will not be properly upheld by a son so indifferent to bloodlines. to theo, everyone bleeds red at the end of the day—and that is all that matters.
✴︎ he is shy and quiet, and he does not trust easily. but when he does find someone he considers worthy of his carefully chosen words—and eventually his trust—you can be certain you have gained a loyal ally for life. he is fiercely loyal to those who win him over, but do not be mistaken: once theodore’s trust is broken, it cannot be repaired. the worst side of theodore nott emerges then. cruel remarks flung carelessly across classrooms, rumors whispered with calculated malice... these are not beneath him. even while trying to remain cold, he is still like a pressure cooker ready to explode; if ruining your reputation brings him even a fragment of peace of mind, even a hint of that sweet revenge he wishes he could direct toward his father, he will not hesitate to reduce you to little less than dirt beneath his polished shoes.
✴︎ theo is brutally honest. he is not the kind of person who walks around spilling his opinions everywhere, but the moment someone asks for it, they should not expect words coated in honey. actually, honeyed words are not part of his vocabulary at all. if anything, his honesty borders on cruelty. small lies—“that haircut suits you,” or “that tie looks nice”—are things he despises. no. something closer to “it looks like you styled your hair with pigeon droppings instead of gel” or “that tie looks like it was vomited up by a bloody unicorn” would be more like him. but again, he only says such things when asked.
✴︎ despite his constant efforts to suppress the uglier parts of himself, there are days when the battle feels unwinnable. on such days, theodore lashes out without meaning to, delivering cruel remarks before realizing the damage they cause—whether because the knives of grief cut deeper on that particular day, because he received a call from his father, or simply cause he woke up in a foul mood. crying, however, is something he has forbidden himself entirely. his father had mocked him for it too many times when he was younger calling him “little girl,” “sissy,” and “weakling”, whenever he scraped his knee or was caught crying quietly because he missed his mommy. this detail is deeply damaging, because theodore bottles up his emotions until he explodes, injuring everyone unfortunate enough to stand nearby.
✴︎ when it comes to his lust life, theo prefers discretion; it exists in the shadows. he does not parade around with random girls the way mattheo does, nor does he have someone new under his wing every weekend like blaise. that does not mean he has few casual encounters—quite the opposite. at many of the parties he attends, he ends up spending the night with someone different. for him, intimacy is a fleeting, physical escape from his problems. yet the next day he treats those encounters casually, usually leaving once the other person falls asleep—and if someone asks him to stay, he will likely say something sharp while getting dressed before slipping out of the room. he gives pleasure and receives it, but to him, that is all it is. pleasure is exchanged. the thought of a relationship—especially with just anyone—makes him recoil.
however, there is a pattern he would never openly acknowledge. theo secretly has a preference for flings with older women. on more than one occasion he has even been involved with teachers who were far too intrigued by those icy blue eyes of his. the reason for this inclination is painfully obvious, though he would never admit it aloud: the maternal presence stolen from him far too soon. he enjoys their experience, but deep down he imagines someone his own age—or perhaps a little younger—when it comes to something lasting. someone who could grow alongside him, someone he could protect without feeling immature. the older ones are merely for fleeting amusement.
✴︎ he is deeply rational and never gives himself the luxury of false hopes. theo knows his strengths and weaknesses intimately, and he knows precisely how to conceal or reveal them. this makes him a good adviser if you want words that actually lead somewhere—but a terrible one if you are looking for validation. on the other hand, he is an excellent listener, and if you simply need to vent, he will be there as a shoulder to lean on. theodore listens better than most.
✴︎ melancholy sits at the center of him like an old companion. his temperament leans naturally toward sadness, sharpened by anger and a grief that time has never managed to dull. that explains much of how he behaves. one of the ways he has found to control some of his demons is by becoming, essentially, a walking chimney. oh, how disappointed his mother would be to see her son impressing girls by blowing smoke into different shapes.
his favorites are ordinary cigarettes—muggle, wizarding, alien, whatever—but he also has a certain fondness for marijuana. he likes how it calms him, how it takes him to a softer place where a supremacist father does not exist, where his mother is there telling him everything will be alright, where he is truly loved by someone without needing to hide his many faces. theo has tried other drugs before, like cocaine, but decided it did not suit him—besides, he fears becoming addicted beyond repair. so he sticks to cigarettes and weed, and that is enough to keep the thoughts of hurting himself or stopping his own heartbeat at bay. mattheo was the one who introduced him to the habit, but with the chaos in his mind, it reached a point where the roles were reversed and nott was the one supplying the cigarettes to riddle instead.
he also likes to drink—firewhisky, especially—but he does not enjoy how alcohol turns people into strangers. it is destructive, but damn, the feeling of his lungs burning is strangely satisfying: a pain he can feel physically rather than mentally. as if he were finally fighting something tangible.
✴︎ beneath all of this lies the part of himself theodore considers the most private: his depression. jn his mind, it is not something he has but something he is. trauma, self-destruction, melancholy... they feel inseparable from his identity. theodore has tried numerous psychologists and psychiatrists throughout his life, but nothing ever seemed to reach him. when christian gifted him with the “wise” words that real men do not reveal their deepest vulnerabilities to an untrustworthy professional—and that until he became a real man he would never succeed in life—theodore combined convenience with resentment and never returned to another therapist again.
as mentioned, he is quiet and closed-off, and he hated how therapists seemed determined to rummage through his insides until they found some tidy explanation for the way he was. one thing they always said was that theodore was not like this, that he was merely feeling this way, and theodore could not disagree more. that corrosive feeling was all he had ever known. being as rational as he was, he would never dare to hope for a version of himself without that cursed illness. for him, it was fine. he had found comfort in melancholy, comfort in the thought of throwing himself from the astronomy tower. and even on good days, when the sun did not seem quite so unbearably bright, theo would never allow himself to believe there was another fate waiting for him besides the one religions describe as the vilest of sins.
— 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐒
✴︎ he is an avid reader, and one of the items that never fails to be in his bag (besides cigarettes, chewing gum, and his perfume) is whatever volume he happens to be reading at the moment. it is a habit his mother placed gently into his hands when he was young, one he has never once considered abandoning. he holds a particular fondness for italian literature and uses it as a way of keeping his first language alive in his memory.
✴︎ he is an enthusiastic admirer of muggle video games, especially the violent ones. he spends hours in the dormitory with mattheo playing until his hands ache from gripping the controller too tightly, cursing whenever he loses and laughing whenever mattheo dies.
✴︎ theo is not the greatest fan of parties, though he attends them nonetheless. he prefers spending time alone in his own company, silence swallowing the blaring music that makes his ears ring unpleasantly. more often than not, he goes only for the sake of his friends.
✴︎ theodore loves cooking. in the kitchen, there is little he cannot accomplish, and if he lacks the knowledge, he simply learns. armed with his mother’s recipe book, theodore is unstoppable. sweets and savory dishes alike would always be at your disposal whenever even the slightest craving appeared. he delights particularly in sharing the depth and beauty of italian cuisine, from generous plates of pasta to carefully layered lasagnas, from warm cakes to delicate pastries, there is nothing theodore cannot make. still, it is a private hobby—one fewer than five people know about. honestly, theodore does not wish to open that part of his life to anyone who does not truly intend to be part of it.
✴︎ although he excels in transfiguration and is skilled in turning objects into others, as well as quite talented in charms, theo’s favorite subject is astronomy. beneath the night sky and among constellations, he feels closer to his mother. he reads book after book about astronomy, fighting back the irritating tears whenever he comes across the same stories phoena once told him, though in less whimsical ways and certainly not in the soft manner meant for a seven-year-old child.
✴︎ his wardrobe reflects the quiet precision with which he moves through the world. turtlenecks and long-sleeved shirts, tailored trousers and worn jeans, hoodies for quieter moments, and flannel pajama pants he favors with particular affection. he loves flannel. he gravitates towards cool tones, and most of his clothing falls within shades of black, gray, navy blue, and shades of green (mint, forest, emerald, and teal green mostly). his shoes are usually elegant sneakers or expensive loafers. theodore adores wool and the winter, and he hates the summer and the mosquitoes that bite his arms and legs. he rarely wears shorts—he considers them dreadful—but he does like compression shirts. and absolutely, without question, he is a great enthusiast of scarves, long blazers that reach down his tall legs, and well-worn leather jackets. on his fingers you will find only silver rings—never gold.
✴︎ music occupies a vast and tender space in his life. classical music, rock, bossa nova, folk... his taste wanders freely across genres. although he enjoys instruments, he values their compositions more. the delicate interplay of words fascinates theodore, and he even keeps an ultra-secret notebook where he writes his own compositions and lines that have struck something deep within him. he learned to play the piano with his mom and knows how to play a bit of guitar and acoustic guitar as well, though no one knows about the latter two. it is something he keeps strictly to himself.
some of his favorite muggle songs:
wicked games — chris isaak
i still haven't found what i'm looking for — u2
yeah right — joji
why'd you only call me when you're high — arctic monkeys
not you too — drake, chris brown
softcore & daddy issues — the neighborhood
wash — bon iver
mystery of love, fourth of july & futile devices — sufjan stevens
november rain — guns n' roses
the night we met — lord huron
like him — tyler, the creator
— 𝐈𝐍 𝐀 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐘𝐎𝐔 (tw: addiction, brief nsfw.)
✴︎ to love theodore would never begin with love. i believe the two of you would first have to become close friends, and only after time had softened the distance between you could something deeper begin to take shape. as mentioned before, theodore is not someone who opens easily. his guarded nature ensures that only a rare few ever glimpse what lies beneath the surface. his complex personality tends to drive the unprepared away, and before diving headfirst into the vast and uncertain ocean that you are, theodore needs to feel safe. his trust is like a building made of stacking blocks: you place them carefully, one atop the other, and if they fall, you return to the very beginning. once theodore’s trust is broken, all that remains is the hollow shell he shows to the world. but if you manage to stack every block with enough patience for the tower to reach its highest point, you are rewarded with a view of the entire city—because when theodore’s trust is truly earned, you hold the world in your hands.
✴︎ theo would do absolutely anything for you, and i mean anything. that devotion would reveal itself in small moments as much as in grand ones: from arriving late because he walked you across the castle to your classroom on the other side, ignoring his own schedule simply to make sure you arrived safely, to stepping in front of you if a curse were ever aimed at your chest. in his mind, there would be nothing he would not sacrifice for you.
✴︎ he is extremely possessive and protective of you, almost instinctively so. losing his mother so early exposed a darker side of theodore, and the fear of losing you would haunt him every single day when he opened his eyes in the morning. one could easily imagine theodore placing a tracker on your wand—not to monitor your every step, but to make sure he would know exactly where to run if something ever went wrong. if danger ever found you, he would want to reach you first. he would become your own personal guardian angel, always there to pull you out of trouble, only to give you a lecture that seemed to stretch endlessly afterwards. beneath those sharp words, however, would hide the trembling truth of how frightened he had been. he would pull you tightly against his chest, long fingers heavy with silver rings threading through your hair while the other hand steadied your back, murmuring things like “you scared the hell out of me” or “never do that again” once you were safe in his arms—the safest place you could possibly be.
✴︎ following that same line, theo would also be very jealous—but not in the sense of forbidding you from wearing certain clothes or speaking to certain people. he is jealous, not controlling. theodore is confident enough to know that, if necessary, he is more than capable of disfiguring the face of the fucker who dared try something with what is his. he would certainly make his displeasure known if he saw you talking to another boy, raising one of his thick eyebrows and curling his hands into fists, remarking with a calm, yet edged with something sharper voice that he did not like that guy. but you would only truly understand how angry he was once night fell, when the tension between you turned into something far more intense.
✴︎ sex with him would feel like the most intense kind of journey, something consuming. he enjoys the raw physicality of closeness and the trust that comes with it, sometimes pushing the boundaries of control and surrender if you trusted him enough. theo can shift between rough intensity and deep attentiveness, savoring both the moments where he can hold you tightly and the ones where he watches your expressions change under his touch. he enjoys positions that let him hold you by the hair or see your face clearly, and he takes his time building the tension between you before finally closing the distance. he loves speaking during those moments too—often letting italian words slip from his lips when emotion overtakes him, something he eventually realizes affects you more than he expected. when the haze of pleasure fades, theo becomes impossibly gentle, he would take care of you in the way many girls imagine perfect care to be: guiding you into a warm bath, washing your hair, kissing the warmth of your skin slowly, always asking if you are alright, if he hurt you, if you need anything. care, for him, is not an afterthought.
is this a safe space to say that theo would be really into spitting in your mouth? for some reason that act made him feel an extra intense level of closeness, and truthfully, it got him insanely turned on. just a random little thought.
theodore enjoys certain gestures of intimacy that make the moment feel even more private and deeply shared—small acts that, to him, symbolize a level of trust and closeness that exists only between the two of you.
✴︎ his love language is primarily acts of service. cooking for you would be one of his quiet joys, bringing his mother’s old recipe book to life again. with him, you could travel across italy without ever leaving hogwarts—through plates of pasta, rich sauces, warm bread, and desserts prepared with quiet devotion. when you were exhausted, sick, or on your period, he would do your homework for you. he would plan thoughtful, almost impossibly romantic dates: picnics in rome reached through complex apparition spells, quiet trips to hogsmeade for butterbeer, or afternoons spent in bookshops where he would sit with you on his lap, your back pressed against his chest while he held the book for the both of you—always waiting patiently for you to finish each page before turning it. the list of different encounters would never truly end.
✴︎ theo is not someone who enjoys excessive pda, but he is certainly not the type to treat you differently in public either, never pretending you're anything less than his. he simply prefers subtlety—holding your hand, with your fingers idly spinning the silver rings he wears, draping an arm around your shoulders, or resting a hand on your knee where your uniform skirt leaves it bare. if surrounded by friends while relaxing in the slytherin common room, he might let you sit on his lap or between his legs. you would lean your head against his shoulder while he absentmindedly massages your scalp. occasionally, he would press quiet kisses to your forehead when he thought no one was looking—though that never stopped mattheo from teasing him, claiming theo had gone soft. theodore would only roll his eyes. your relationship would be private, yes, but never secret. those simple, enduring touches were his way of showing affection, and he would trust that you understood. those quiet touches were simply the way he loved you.
✴︎ because he is deeply avoidant, theo sometimes ends up saying hurtful things that push you away, leaving him hating himself even more afterward. he loves you more than he has ever loved breathing, but sometimes, he can be an idiot. during arguments he can be explosive, and once things calm down he nearly has to force himself to ask for your forgiveness. yet when everything settles, pride becomes something he forces himself to swallow. he would swallow glass if it meant making you happy; what were a few sincere apologies if they brought the two of you back to normal?
✴︎ theo hates crying, especially in front of you. he wants to be your anchor. every time tears betray him, tracing hot paths down his narrow cheeks, he feels as though he has failed to be the man you deserve. yet sometimes the weight of the world—and of his own actions—is too much to bear alone. in those moments, he shows vulnerability in the most raw, human way possible, and you always surprise him by not fearing the complicated parts of him. theo would forever be astonished that you choose him every single time, rather than the impulsive and sometimes cruel side that also lives within him.
✴︎ if the two of you were ever to break up, he would avoid you as much as humanly possible, vanishing in thin air. not because he hated you, but because seeing you would hurt too much. he would skip classes you shared, eat far from the great hall—or avoid it entirely—and stay away from the places he knew you liked. to him, you would become something like the plague: impossible to approach without reopening the wound. his vices would worsen considerably. he would drink and smoke as if the world were ending, losing himself in every compulsion he once promised he would control. anything to drown the hollow space you left behind.
✴︎ on the other hand, if you married and built a family together, theodore would abandon every bad habit he had ever carried—even if that meant checking himself into some miserable rehabilitation clinic to do it. he would become the most loving father imaginable, absolutely refusing to resemble the man who had merely donated his sperm to bring him into the world. he would never miss one of his children’s school presentations and would likely cry the day they left for hogwarts. for you, he would strive to be the best husband possible, making sure you never lacked anything. household tasks would be shared. your burdens would become his. above all, theodore would dedicate himself to making you happier with each passing day—as a kind of quiet repayment one he would always believe insufficient for seeing him as something more than his traumas and addictions. together, no obstacle would ever seem impossible to overcome.
footnotes.
i got carried away while describing theodore, and it ended up being too long if you got here, thank you for reading. ♡ also, if you’re new here, this is recommended as a first read before diving into my masterlist—it will help you understand why theo acts the way he does in my other works.
author's note: for this post, i took some inspirations from lo (brandolover21 on tiktok). also, thank you so much, @artytaeh, for letting me use the names phoena, christian & ariadne. <3
supporting works: some posts that can complement what you just read.
— skin: a one shot that'll explain, with more details, how would theodore feel after his breakup with you.
— theo's music taste: more about the songs and artists he would enjoy.
— theodore navigating through reader's pregnancy & theo's first baby fever: both are about theodore as a father/in fatherhood. how he would deal with it, his thoughts, insecurities and more.
— cigarettes out the window: explore his turbulent relationship with cigarettes.
find more here.
© govnder, 2026.
