Spirit of Lightning [Theo]

[mathilde manon poole]

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July 2029

Tilly couldn’t even swim. She had been suspicious about being invited to a ‘party’ at the Vector family home. Not that she didn’t trust the triplets at all, but that she was more concerned about the stories she had heard about their mother. That, and it wasn’t like she fit in with the crowd that typically did these sorts of things during breaks. She was muggleborn. Convincing her parents didn’t take much effort. She hadn’t, they didn’t know. Work sort of made that easy, and being home alone meant she could easily sneak out and be gone all day without them knowing where she’d been. They wouldn’t have cared anyways. Being left to her own devices was a frequent occurrence during her school breaks and always had been that way.

”How much longer you think?” Tilly nudged Theo in the side, who she had thought was asleep up until a moment ago. They were currently on the Knight Bus on the way to the Vector mansion, having met Theo up at the closest station between them. The speed in which the purple bus zoomed around was nauseating. From her understanding, as this was her first time on it, pick-up and drop-off could be wherever the rider desired. Since neither of them were old enough to have an apparition license yet and flying in the middle of the day wasn’t possible, the bus was all they had. Supposedly at night, the bus transformed into a sleeper bus somehow, though she wasn’t quite sure how that worked.

Right now, it was normal seats, and aside from a passenger sitting near the front, it was just the two of them squeezed into a row. Tilly had the window but was regretting that decision now. Looking outside gave her the spins as people and cars were mere blurs of color that they sped by. ”I don’t think I can take much more of this. It feels like I’m freefalling from my broom.” The absolute weightlessness that the Knight Bus seemed to provide was not comforting. Now she knew why passengers typically slept on it. ”Switch with me,” Tilly said as she moved to climb over Theo and force him to take her seat instead.

Theodore Marcus Flint ● 370

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Theodore Marcus Flint]

a fine young galahad.

TILLY LIVED AN ENTIRELY MYSTERIOUS LIFE outside of Hogwarts, as far as Theo knew. He hadn't seen a muggle home, nor did he expect to any time soon. Rather, when word of the Vector summer bash reached his ears via owl-post some weeks prior, he'd texted Tilly about it almost immediately. They had arranged to turn up together, seeing as she wouldn't have a handy-dandy Floo connection to slip on through. Theo had met her at the train station that morning, dragging her to the Knight Bus for a rather rudimentary travel day to Lowick in Northumberland. It was all a bit of fun, far as he was concerned.

"Hm?" Theo was jerked from his dozing by an elbow in his side, cheek plastered to backrest of his seat. "Oh, I don't know." He shrugged lazily, yawning into Tilly's shoulder and slumping his head against her like a great big cat. "The Knight Bus just... goes." He sighed happily, quite unaware of how jarring it might be for someone who wasn't used to the unique wizarding travel. It was a bit strange, Theo supposed.

Sitting up to get a better look at Tilly when she was a bit too quiet for his liking. She jerked in agitation, and Theo reared back for a good look at her, but she was already moving. "You get- nng- used to it." Her knees knocked into his chest and crotch and he folded in two before he was forced to shuffle into her vacant seat to make room for her. He held the front of his jeans for a good moment as the ache ebbed off and he could see again. "You're awful antsy today." He croaked, squinting at her with fresh eyes. Just then, the bus screeched to a halt and threw them both into the seats lined in front of them. Theo took the hit with ease, perking up as the hanging bobble head declared, "Vector Estate, Lowick!" Like a circus ringmaster.

Theo leapt over the empty seats in front of them, stopping to grab his backpack and Tilly's from the overhead compartment. "Move it, or lose it, Poole!" Theo declared, grabbing Tilly's hand and dragging her hurriedly toward the front of the bus. The voodoo head bobbed from its woven string and Theo stopped to give it a salute before he yanked them both off the bus and onto a packed dirt, back country road.

The sky a searing, cloudless blue, with fields of green and gold stretching as far as the eye could see. It was a beautiful day for a party. Theo didn't let go of Tilly's hand, turning left and right as he gathered his bearings with his free hand perched across his forehead to block out the force of the sun above. He was bowed at the spine, both bags hanging from either shoulder as he scanned the horizon before following a winding path toward a copse of tall privacy trees that just about blocked out the Vector Estate in the far distance.

"The bus doesn't go right to the gates." Theo informed Tilly with a conspiratorial dip of his chin. "Rumour is the place is cursed," He winked through a fringe of curly brown hair before turning back and leading them along the packed dirt pathway toward the ominous wrought iron gates that wavered slightly in the heat. The presence of anti-muggle charms, and defence spells creating a sort of haze that was almost visible to the naked eye. 

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How could he fall asleep on this thing? The jerking, accordion-like nature of the bus had made it impossible for her to do so. Every time she even tried to close her eyes, it was instant spinning and nausea. And since the same thing happened whenever she looked out the window as well, she had spent the entirety of the trip staring a hole into the back of the headrest in front of her. None of it made sense, because she enjoyed high-speed dives on her broom and twists and turns that would make most people feel like their innards were going to be expelled through their mouth. Tilly knew that the real reason was because she was in total control of her broom and every action she made with it. The Knight Bus was out of her control, and her body apparently did not like that at all.

Theo’s nonchalant attitude towards the bus’s comings and goings didn’t ease her at all, and it wasn’t until she’d started to move by him that he began to take her seriously. Tilly wasn’t exactly gentle about it either. She could have waited for him to flatten himself against his seat or let him get out into the aisle so they could switch. Instead, she had opted to literally climb on him, hands firmly on the back of his seat as she ‘stepped’ over. There were definitely moments where her knees hit things they probably shouldn’t have, but it was his fault for not moving out of her way faster.

”You like my legs that much?” she asked as she planted herself in his grossly warm seat, noticing that he was holding onto his crotch after moving into her old spot. Tilly was about to tease how she wasn’t comfortable showing skin around him now, but she was interrupted by her face making out with the back of the seat in front of her. The bus had come to a sudden, and complete, stop. The shout from the shrunken head at the front called out their destination, and Theo was up and over the seats in front of them before she could even register what had just happened. Stupid magic buses.

Theo grabbed both of their bags, then her hand, and dragged her off the bus with a speed that she didn’t know was possible for him. Her legs didn’t even have the time to try and be wobbly on her, and she fell into step with Theo as they started up a pathway that was insanely prim and proper looking. She knew the Vectors had money, but this was kind of ridiculous. Who knew that Pureblood families had this much money?

The heat was certainly an animal on its own, and the wave of sauna like air on her as they got closer and closer to the estate was starting to get uncomfortable. Eventually, they ended up at a gate that looked like it would give the front entrance to Hogwarts a run for its money. She lifted their interlocked hands up to wipe at a bead of sweat that had started to roll down her temple. ”Cursed with having too much money?” she asked. What did people even do with this much? And wasn’t Theo part of that same crowd, technically? ”So, you’ve got one of these sitting around too, right?”

Theodore Marcus Flint ● 561

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Theodore Marcus Flint]

a fine young galahad.

THE WIDE, WINDING PATHWAY UP TO THE GATES of the Vector estate was a familiar trek for Theo. He pulled Tilly alongside him, blowing a fringe of curly dark hair off his damp forehead as the heat. Turning his head to squint down at Tilly, who looked terribly unimpressed by the whole ordeal. "New money," Theo snorted, but the joke probably wouldn't register much with Tilly. "It's more of a manor, than an estate." Theo shrugged, thinking their acreage was probably a bit smaller, but the land more ancient by any stretch of the imagination. Plus, he didn't really care for his family home.

At the gate, Theo stopped and dropped their bags to the ground, turning up his sleeve so that he could reach up and slam the large wrought iron knocker on the front of the gate. A foxes head, with a brushed bronze nose where the metal had been worn. Theo pinched the nose and lifted it gingerly before letting it go. It clanged back into place and the metal shook and shivered as the fox head came to life and snapped its jaws at Theo menacingly. He snickered as he flinched, turning his head to quirk his brows at Tilly. "Doesn't like me very much." He revealed, watching the black metal beads for eyes blink and glow before the wards shivered and the gates opened, almost reluctantly.

"Have yous brought a muggle on Vector property?!" A tinny, low screeching voice sounded from behind the gates. As they opened, it revealed a very small, very shrewd looking house elf, with great big feet and crooked ears. She was, quite astoundingly, wearing a crisp white pillow case like a toga. And Theo rolled his eyes heavenward, as he often did at the sight of Midge, the Vector's deranged house elf.

"Don't mind her," Theo said, stooping to grab their bags and hook his arm through Tilly's. "She's a right nutjob." Midge's feet flapped as she stomped toward them, sniffing around their ankles like a terrible guard dog as Theo pulled Tilly up the driveway. Midge hovered until she was assured Tilly wasn't a muggle, before snapping out herself 10 feet ahead onto the houses porch, where she waited with crossed arms and a tapping foot. Theo pulled them up the steps and had barely shaken the sun off his back before Midge was back, snapping her fingers and taking both of their shoes along with her. "No outside shoes inside!" She squawked, and Theo made as if to lunge forward and stamp on one of her great big feet. 

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Tilly found herself incapable of comprehending exactly how much money was necessary for a place like this. She had always considered herself relatively lucky with both parents being medical professionals in some capacity, and there had never been a want for anything in her life. They even backed her weird interests despite not fully understanding them, like the pet rats and Quidditch. But this level of money? This was different, and she could tell just from the path that led up to the gate. That alone had to have cost more than her parents’ house.

Curiously, Theo seemed to think this was bigger than the Flint mansion, which she didn’t really think she’d get an answer for. Somehow, mansions and estates were different. To her, they were both overly gaudy and a way to frivolously spend money in stupid ways. No one actually needed a home this large or property extending as far as the eye could see. That was pointless and a waste of space.

Caught up in her thoughts, Tilly barely saw the interaction Theo had with the knocker at the gate, only seeing the snap of its metal jaws as he pulled away from it. ”Most things won’t if you try to put your fingers in their mouth,” she said as she got unnecessarily close to his ear and clacked her teeth into it. Tilly nearly jumped as a voice came from the other side of the gate. There hadn’t been anyone there a moment ago! Her eyes drifted down to a house elf. Like most house elves, it looked like a sentient, wrinkled testicle. She could already tell it wasn’t friendly like the others she had encountered at Hogwarts.

Irked by the house elf’s comment on her blood status, Tilly surprisingly ignored the mean little creature. She could come up with a multitude of nasty words to fire back, but that would just prove its point. She chewed on the inside of her cheek as Theo grabbed their bags again and led them up towards the house. Again, calling it that seemed ridiculous because it was so much bigger than that.

”Why not?” Tilly asked through gritted teeth as she tried to fight to keep her shoes with her. It was futile. ”I should have brought Squeaks with me and set him free in their house,” she grumbled to Theo. That would be too dangerous though. She didn’t want to spend her summer having to get yet another rat.

Theodore Marcus Flint ● 413

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Theodore Marcus Flint]

a fine young galahad.

SHAKING OUT HIS HAND AND INSPECTING THE tips for injury, Theo frowned in quiet offence as Tilly scolded him like a misbehaving first year and snapped her teeth very close to his ear. It might have been kind of hot if he didn't feel so chastised. He let his hand drop loosely and narrowed his eyes as he pouted down at her very close face. "I didn't put my fingers in its mouth, I grabbed the end of his rotten little metal nose." He defended himself without much success at all as the gate was wrenched open and they were admitted with fanfare.

Snorting at the threat, Theo pulled Tilly closer and kissed the air with his teeth. "Midge'd probably eat 'em." He warned her, casting a derisive eye at the rotten house-elf and turned up his nose. "And they've given them rights now." He drawled with a haughty little tut. Theo had been raised in a family where house-elves were seen and very much not heard. Midge was not of that sort, she was a New Money addition. She had a voice now, and boy did she use it.

Theo stomped the ground and lunged forward and Midge leapt back on oversized feet and her ears flattened against her head. There was a moment of silence where Theo honestly thought the creature would retaliate and hit him. Her large, watery eyes narrowed meanly and he thought her saw her long, crooked fingers twitch. And then, quick as a flash, she turned and spit on the ground at Tilly's feet. A wet, foamy thing that sizzled as it splatted on the polished floor. The next moment, she clicked her fingers and as she disappeared with a pop, both his own trainers and Tilly's shoes vanished from their feet.

Theo stood in shock for a beat, arm still hooked around Tilly, and his chin dropping to inspect his socked feet on the ground. And then, his eyes shifted to try and find that glob of spit she'd had the gall to throw at them. It was gone, the floor was spotless. "Well," Theo drew in a breath and let it out in a breathless laugh of shock. "Couldn't say she no good at her job, right?" He snorted at the ridiculousness of it all and pulled on Tilly's shoulder as he led them through the gaping entryway, heading for the back of the house. 

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Had it not been for the rude interruption by Midge the house elf, Tilly would have continued with her tirade of crooning into Theo’s ear. About how she could ‘kiss his boo-boos’ to make them better, and the sort. Watching him shudder, in what she assumed was pure, adolescent excitement, always did it for her. There was no one else like him that would let her get away with everything that she did, as well as join in on the fun. Having at least one person that understood her, to a degree, made school a little easier too.

Theo’s comments on the house elf were relatively boorish, in her opinion. House elves were sentient creatures and deserved as much freedom as the next one. Comments like the one he made occasionally popped up, reminding her that he was technically from a different world than she. Even if he was saying it to get under Midge’s ball sack-like skin, it was beyond rude to say such a thing to her. Unless Tilly was completely missing something here, and her companion and the house elf had more history than she was aware of. It certainly seemed that way in how they interacted.

The loogie that splattered on the floor in front of her made Tilly curl her lip in disgust. Before she could say anything though, there was a snap from Midge, and she felt her feet drop to the marble floor. ”That bitch stole my shoes!” she said aghast, amazed that she managed to stay standing after having a few inches of rubber sole abruptly removed from underneath her. Theo seemed to take it in stride and started to lead her further into the house, but she was still confused on how the house elf had managed to pilfer her trainers so effectively. ”It’s not like we’ll need them once we’re at the pool, but still,” she kept going, her tone incredulous over it all. ”You look like a shriveled scrotum Midge!” Tilly screamed, her voice echoing down the corridor in front of them.

Theodore Marcus Flint ● 343

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Theodore Marcus Flint]

a fine young galahad.

TILLY'S EXCLAMATION MADE THEO BARK WITH laughter as he wiggled his toes on the marble-tiled floor. "She didn't steal them," He reassured her, shaking his head as she looked affronted by the entire exchange. Theo wasn't particularly effected, he was quite used to Midge's opinion of him. Low, confrontational, and pretty aggressive from times gone by. A direct translation, and probable order from her bitch of a Mistress. Ms. Vector, as cold as she was hot, was the captain of the I Hate Theo Flint club. Frankly, it just made her hotter in Theo's humble opinion. "They'll be in the coat closet."

Pulling her further into the house, Theo pressed his face into the top of her head as she turned her face and screamed insults at the top of her lungs. Midge was not in sight, but she most certainly heard and Theo stopped himself from collapsing in mindless giggles by pressing his nose into Tilly's hair and pulling her close into his side. "Don't anger it," He teased her, lifting his head and watching the chandelier above them squeak dangerously, he was still grinning though, imagining the old bat's ancient ire.

Theo knew the Vector mansion well, though Ms. Vector would hate to know it. He found the parlour at the back of the home decked in style, every surface covered in drink platters and little hors d'oeuvres that no teenager would truly appreciate. The Vector's knew how to through a New Money Party. 

Theo crowed with delight, letting go of Tilly to grab two lemonades with little pink umbrellas floating on the top. "Madam," He joked, offering her the crystal cocktail glass and taking a slurp from his own, barely missing his eye with the umbrellas point.

"Fuck, that's refreshing," He hissed, hating how good it was as he knew it would've been a Midge Special. She was nothing if not professional, when she wasn't spitting on the ground her guests walked on. The smell of chlorinated water and laughing voices could be heard from the large patio doors that stood open along the back wall, a slight glimpse of pool water reflecting the bright overhead sun visible through the fluttering gauzy curtains. It was like summering in Italy. "Pool?" Theo asked, grabbing a puffed creation from a platter and stuffing it into his mouth. 

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NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

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Weren't house elves supposed to be respectable and kind? Where on earth had the Vectors found this hideous little cretin? Because it was the complete antithesis to every house elf Tilly had ever met. And she'd been welcomed by a large portion of them down in the school kitchens. They liked her because she would eat, and eat, and eat until she couldn't eat anymore. Which typically took a while. The worst part about all of this was having the shoes magically yanked off of her feet. Had Midge asked for them, even in a rude manner, Tilly would have sort of been fine with that. But no, the wretch had to quite literally rip them off from underneath her.

Theo understood the Vector household better than she did, and tried to corral her from going any further with her expletives. Being wrangled only made her feel like he was saying to give up, which she absolutely did not want to do now that she had a new mortal enemy. The thought that Midge could also snuff them out of existence if they pissed her off too much didn't even cross her mind until Theo dragged her deeper into the cold corridors of the Vector mansion, leaving behind a swaying chandelier that was directly above where they had been standing. Surely the house elf wouldn't have done that, right?

Eventually, sunlight penetrated a room they entered and it was obvious to her that they had walked clear across the entire mansion to the back patio area. Trays of food and drink were spread out, and her innate hunger to devour tickled at her lizard brain until Theo forced a drink into her hands. Swirling the umbrella in it with her middle finger, she took a sip as well. "You don't suppose Midge poisoned these before we got here, do you?" Tilly asked before taking another swig of it. Theo was right, it was refreshing.

Outside, their other classmates that had already arrived screamed and splashed, clearly unaware that terror had arrived. For once, they were lucky she didn't have her rat with her. Squeaks would have loved to spend the afternoon nibbling on the spread Midge had prepared. "Woah!" Tilly said in fake surprise as Theo recommended going to the pool. "Thought you just liked saying my name all the time." She gave him a jab in the side with her elbow before finding a plate that was entirely too small for the amount of finger food she was about to pile onto it. Plucking enough off of the table to make a half-giant power lifter blush, she motioned with her eyes to go outside. She wasn't ready to get in the pool yet, and unsure if she even would.

Theodore Marcus Flint ● 461

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0