Thestrals. Bloody thestrals. Of all the things that oaf Hagrid might have sprung on them on his first day back! Theo would rather have seen him walk out of the forest with a manticore.
And she’d had to raise her hand. She’d had to reveal to half of her entire year that she could see the wretched things. She’d already had three people ask her whom she’d seen die, and had had to listen to Draco -- Draco, who knew what had happened to Theo’s mother -- mock Harry Potter because he, too, could see them.
She’d had enough for the day, and after lunch she had gone outside, seeking shelter in a quiet stand of trees near the lake shore. She was sitting on the ground, hidden by the underbrush, absently shredding a blade of grass with her fingernails when she heard the sound of approaching footsteps.
As a Slytherin, Theo was expected to hate all Gryffindors on principle. But that was a stupid expectation, and besides, she’d spoken to Harry before. Last year, when Draco had been being such an absolute prat with his POTTER STINKS badges, Theo had waited until she and Harry were alone in the corridor and quietly wished him luck -- more to spite Draco than for any other reason.
But after that, they’d exchanged a few friendly words, though always where no one else could hear, and Theo had found that Harry wasn’t the attention-seeking egotist the Daily Prophet said he was. And maybe he was opposing the Dark Lord, and maybe she never should have started talking to him in the first place, but...well, Theo wasn’t so certain that the Dark Lord had it right, despite what her father had always told her.
“Oh,” she said, looking up at him. “It’s you.”