* RATTLED BONES .

pippa: [drunk, crying] you don't even know one thing! i didn't even say one thing! and she asks me the whole thing, and i didn't even do it once!

theo: [drunk] i'm, like, an elephant. okay? if i walk into a room, it's like 'okay, he's in there.'

vesta: [drunk, feeling aggressive] i'm gonna tell you, that... that bitch over there. [points to a woman, who looks uncomfortable] i'm gonna tell... i don't mean to brag.

cyrus: [drunk] baba-booey. [chuckles]

dani: [drunk] turn this music down... [sings gibberish]

santos: [drunk, utters angry spanish gibberish]

rahim: [drunk, laughs then coughs before taking another drink]

theodore and diomedes.

where – outside the finnigan-thomas residence. who – @theoddores​

He’s not doing this for Theodore, in all truth. For his parents, perhaps, as he does feel an inkling of loyalty towards them –– as a customer, mostly, but still. He looks at the boy – not a man, not by far – for a moment as they stand on the curb, clad in dark robes, faces hidden by masks. “You do the honours,” he says, nodding his head towards the house. This is a test, that is all. Diomedes has no big motivation to be here besides seeing how far Theo is willing to go to proof his loyalty, though he supposes that setting the Finnigan-Thomas home ablaze is a nice bonus.

He inclines his head back to Theodore, grabs his own wand. “Perhaps stay away from using Fiendfyre, though, unless you know how to handle it. A simple fire spell ought to do the trick.” It’s such a simple task, so little he’s asking of him, truly, and he watches the folds in Theo’s face carefully to see if he’ll reveal anything. Hesitation. Cruelty. Something. “Come on, Theodore. It’s not that bad. Things can be repaired, replaced –– but they ought to be warned, don’t you think?”

It wasn’t often that Theodore Burke was brought along on missions. Mostly delegated to aiding his father in the business side of the Death Eaters, exploring all the seedy connections the Burkes had built up over generations, Theo was mostly seen in action in big things. Diagon Alley. And it had been a shit-show from start to end, so he was shocked when he was informed that he’d be going with Diomedes, of all people - not a young Death Eater like him, delegated to the simple tasks. Theodore Burke was a child - there in replacement of his parents when they couldn’t be present, always next to them, Merrick Burke nudging him to speak. For the first time he felt like he was being treated just like any other Death Eater. Get your shit, we’re comitting war crimes, let’s go. Had he finally done it? Theodore listened in silence, eyes stuck on the house, hand in wand beneath his robe so the shaking could not be seen. What had changed? Were they done with his lack of use? Perhaps they were finally seeing if there was anything that young Burke could contribute to the cause. Perhaps it was just his paranoia kicking in. Perhaps they suspected something. 

“Yeah, I’m no good with that.” A lie. He’d learned quickly to hide from most members of the group his knowledge in curses and such, not reflected in his infamous laughable Hogwarts results and certainly not shown within the narrative of empty-headed Burke. He’d rather keep it that way, despite the personal insult. “Certainly.” When had Dio become so comfortable with it all? Had he ever had a time when he wasn’t? Theo opened his mouth to ask but decided to keep it in instead - no more looking up to the masked man. Even if it was in search of something to quiet his morals and his shaky hand. “Is it empty?” What a silly question. He bit his lip in regret. “Can’t get a warning if you’re a crisp, I mean.” 

“ mhm. yup. listen man, you should just be thankful you’re pretty. pretty people can do whatever they want.”  his tone is light, soft bursts of laughter slipping out after every few words. archie can’t remember the last time he was this happy, if he’s ever felt this warm. perfume fills his nose, it’s different to the one archie got used to in hogwarts, but it’s unmistakably theodore: light and sweet and comforting. reality was never archie’s forte, so when warm fingers wrap around his thumb, his foggy mind settles into a time where theo was his, albeit undefined. it makes his longing easier, pretending it’s not there because there’s no longer any space between the pair. despite his irrational brain thinking this is normal, butterflies fill his stomach, his lungs, his throat. theo has always elicited excitement in one form or another, archie can’t imagine that changing. “ i promise.”  slightly slurred but said with conviction, archie didn’t have to give the idea any thought. an eternity with theodore burke isn’t a reality he deserves, but he’ll cling to the idea as long as he can. “ you can’t get rid of me this time.”  a light laugh accompanies the comment, maybe to mask the sadness that comes with thinking about time spent apart. “ i promise you. i will only leave if you tell me to.”  they’re so close that archie feels theo’s breath tickle his face and archie finds himself desperately wanting to break through the last barrier that sits between them, instead archie wraps both arms around theo’s shoulders ( he thinks it’s funny how they’re the perfect height ), keeping him close, their cheeks pressed together. “ do you believe me?”  he whispers, breath warm against theo’s ear.

“i do have pretty privilege and i regret nothing.” it was the biggest contradiction possible to be around archie. an oxymoron of both lightness and heaviness, never as easy to breathe before, yet erratic lungs. theo’s head shook in agreement so quickly that it hurt his neck, loud breaths cutting through every word out of archie’s mouth. why wouldn’t his eyes focus just enough to see that face, that conviction! what a perfectly perfect and perfectly terrible time to pick for words that were gaining dust for years. i will only leave if you tell me to. the movement was unexpected ( as in, theodore expected something else ) but he was still quite content with the way archie had wrapped himself on him and how clearly he could hear him right next to his ear - after all, his heartbeat might not have permitted it otherwise. “of course. and i won’t tell you to leave.” the slurred words came with a vague leaning that went beyond the slow reach for each other that they’d been playing with all night, but rather an actual moment of weakness as he held onto archie. a tower keeping him up when he could barely walk or talk. that came with a soft laugh as his hands clasped onto archie’s back. “i know you promised but -” the laughter broke his slow speech again, “i don’t want to go home and sleep and say good night and all that. because i don’t know when i’ll see you again. d’you know what i mean? something here,” his wobbly hand moved to poke at archie’s stomach, “is like - you say goodbye and then he’s going to be gone for a year. or you wake up. or - you just… i’ve missed you, archie. so how do i just go home and just… there’s so little time, arch. “

Theo: wtf loool

BOLD ALL THE THINGS THAT APPLY TO YOUR MUSE ( HARRY POTTER EDITION. )

My muse…

“well, i love them. we’ve always had a very good relationship, it just always worked. we’d do loads of things together, and mum would drag me to quidditch matches, dad would just always know the best middle-of-nowhere spots to take me to. takes smoking breaks with me outside while mum yells that we’re wrecking our lungs. i still like sharing a blanket with my mum while we sit on the couch listening to the radio, she still likes touching my hair or hugging me out of nowhere.” his smile disappears. “but they try to act like nothing’s changed. and they care, god, do they care. and i don’t know how to tell them that their caring is not enough right now. or that it’s damaging, or bordering on surveillance right now. or that i SEE how they’ve changed, how they don’t look at me the same way. how i come with the asterisk of ‘problems to get fixed’. how they knew what it was like to be seventeen and dragged into a war, and did it anyway. sometimes i’m very afraid that all that love is not unconditional.”

no matter how honest he’s forced to be, there’s not much change in his answer. “i can’t tell. i’m a fucking coward, i know that, so would i have the guts to do anything? but what happened to him was so... impossible. maybe i’d finally find a bloody spine and do something - warn him, warn aurors, warn lily. or i’d freeze and be pathetically useless. which makes me just as much a murderer as whoever planned it out. regardless, i’m one of them, right? so it’s on me too.”

“all the time. every time i think of her there’s this just cutting guilt. i know i fucked up. a lot, all the time, but especially then. she didn’t do much better, i think, but i can put this mostly on me. maybe us and my life in general would be very different if i’d told her everything... the movement, the pull for it... if i hadn’t just slipped away bit by bit. it didn’t feel like she was holding on that tightly either but i guess at some point you have to give up on someone who isn’t holding either. we were friends, i loved her, and now she’s out there probably hoping for the day she can throw me in azkaban, right? how the fuck can i not regret that? not regret all these unsaids and all the explanations she deserved and that i never gave? how?”

“you know, this is actually hilarious.” his laughter is more acidic than genuine. “i used to joke about this a lot - i used to say we weren’t all that different, him and i. that my grandpa outranked him in the shop so how significant could he really have been? that he had the shitty closing shifts sometimes too, or got asked to work extra hours when loads of new things came in, or had to dust the whole shop in empty times. i had to do that. it made me feel quite big, or him quite small. but that was then and now that would be blasphemic or whatever it’s called. i don’t think i like the joke anymore.”

there was something so bittersweet and addictive about theodore talbot burke. in the way his laugh makes it so easy for archie to forget the negatives, in the way it’s so damn easy to get lost in the slightest touch, the shortest of glances. in the way his heart has ached for theodore talbot burke for the last seven years. even during the years where their contact fizzled out, theo was dangled just out of reach, never forgotten, but unobtainable. but now, theo is practically in his arms and all archie can smell is the floral tones of theo’s perfume. “ well, we’re alive. we’ve got all our limbs. i’d count that as a stroke of genius on my part.”  their voices carry a little too much, but archie’s blood is saturated with god knows what substances and therefore doesn’t give a single thought to theo’s neighbours. he should have known that all the talk of the past throughout the night would bring up comments like this, one’s that make it a touch harder to breathe. memories flash before his eyes like they were yesterday, drugs and alcohol twisting the past with the present to create the ideal reality. one where archie can stand so close that the fabrics on their bodies brush against each other, where archie can be so close to theo that his face is no longer in focus ( or maybe that’s the booze ), one where theo almost holding his hand is the norm. acutely aware of the boy in front of him, archie doesn’t miss the tension growing in his features. it’s familiar to archie. an intoxicated mind with no boundaries tell’s archie’s free hand to find theo’s cheek, a soft touch accompanied by a softer smile, then his fingers dip up into theo’s hair. archie hasn’t touched him like this since fifth year, yet it feels so natural. it always had. ( will it ever stop feeling like this? ) “ absolutely no sense, darlin’.”  soft laughter bursts from archie’s lips and somehow the distance between them shrinks further. “ but i’m here now. we’re here. that’s what matters. ain’t it?”  

“on your part? are you implying i can’t be genius-like too?” laughter came easy near archie. so did words. so did thinking - it was as if most of the sharp edges in his mind were covered by the fairfax boy until they softened. theo observed him after his comments, the beyond scattered view he had turning absurdly narrow, his pupils focusing only on bits of the other. he looked at his lips, how they seemed to have trembled with a sharp inhale that didn’t leave quick enough. he looked at his brown eyes, that seem to be focused on the very details of him as well. he looked at his hand, moving up and up in what almost seemed slow motion like. and then he couldn’t look at anything else in quite as much detail, far too focused on the warm sensation on his face. how could archie do it so normally? how could he not be searching for air like theo? “none, uh?” sense was something they’d both left behind at the ministry. theodore’s face had moved to press even closer with that hand, and a sigh that sounded closer to a cry came out involuntarily as the hand moved up and away from his skin. “let’s make a promise then.” theodore’s fingertips now held onto archie’s thumb. it was a slow but inevitable descent. “we don’t leave again. i don’t leave you behind. you don’t leave me behind. even if we hate each other or whatever, we are always here.” promises were something eternal, which was far too much to demand as someone who, by that point, could no longer remember how they’d gone from the ministry to upper flagley. “because i liked then. and i like this very now. the in-between wasn’t as kind. so can you PROMISE?” his eyes were pleading with him and his breathing was still subtly erratic - a nagging thought of how neither could promise that broke his heart just a little in the wait for an answer. 

“he was... just... GOOD. mr. potter didn’t shun me when he knew who my family was, and was still kind when he knew that things were... changing. and he wanted to help. it was like somehow he always knew. he could look at me for a few seconds and tell my intentions or my fuckups or - he just cared. and i saw him and lily, they just were right - they both made sense as individuals when you saw them together. and he was hilarious and knew so much interesting stuff and... didn’t deserve this.” every sound out of his mouth dripped treason. “battle is battle. but that...”