too much on the mind

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Astoria was caught between laughing, sobbing, or ripping her hair out in frustration. It was almost midnight and she’d been doing her homework since seven at night. While her brain was telling her that it needed a break, that it literally couldn’t handle any more information on charms and wouldn’t process it, her determination kept pushing at her and refusing to let her drop it and sit back to do something else and relax. The fireplace was blazing with parchment she’d crumpled up over the hours and the students who sat with her doing their own homework had eventually finished and gone to their beds. Astoria would have liked to do the same, to possibly drift off and get a good night’s rest and fall asleep dreaming about her first kiss a few days before, but when did she ever get a full night’s rest? The common room normally relaxed her especially at night, with the cool colors resulting from the windows that looked out into the depths of the lake. Sometimes she liked to just sit and watch the various creatures swim by and sometimes the giant squid would make an appearance to remind everyone he was still there. She missed the homework assignments she was given as a first year. Those had been relatively easy, but maybe that was because Théo had been there to help her and he explained things in a way that helped her understand. She sighed and forced herself back to her book to copy out the sentence she was using as a source and put her quill to parchment. She still had two assignments after this so she needed to get cracking if she wanted six hours of sleep. She tried to focus only on the assignment at hand, writing about the various problems faced when the leviosa charm was being perfected. She was expected to research the different motions that were tried and the different words and why the final version was what they decided was the best. Really, it would have been something fascinating to her if it wasn’t so deadly hard to find the information. If only she had a time turner, she could get all the sleep she needed while getting her homework done, taking as much time as she needed to in order to get her assignments done. Maybe she could spend a lot of her time with Théo as well. While she was thinking about him, her quill blotted the parchment and the ink leaked through a sentence and the parchment underneath. Even though she knew she could fix it with a simple spell, it was the last straw. She had been doing nothing but homework for the last four hours and it was absolutely too much. She pushed the parchment away from her and put her head in her hands.

THEO | 476 | her head's gonna implode

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Once again Théodore had found himself in the dungeons. He had very little patience for the men and women he was sharing quarters with these days, but perhaps that was just the building stress and anticipation of the coming full moon that could end very, very badly for the students of Hogwarts. There were very few students that Théo actually cared about, but his siblings were directly in the line of fire, and he wanted to be sure that they were kept safe. He had thought briefly about the room of requirement and thought that it might be very useful in case of lycanthropes, and had quickly catalogued it as a contingency plan in the event that he could not get Ségolène, Aimee, and Remi out of the school prior to the planned attack. Though he knew he was not supposed to be there, Théo had ducked down to the entrance of the Slytherin Commons, speaking in a steady voice the password that his younger sister had given him. The door opened and allowed him entry, and he had no sooner ducked into the underwater room than he noticed Astoria, alone with her face buried in her hands and a piece of half-empty parchment stretched out ahead of her. Her quill lay on the paper, dripping deep black into down onto it, effectively staining the sheet. Théodore, without saying a word, withdrew his wand and waved it, setting the quill to the side and clearing the paper of any stray marks. Striding further into the room, Théo leaned over the arm of the couch, palms pressed down against the dark leather. “Homework trouble, Ms. Greengrass?” He crooned, voice dragging over the vowels in a slow, mocking display of how Severus so often spoke. His lips curled up at the corners as he watched her, desperate to see how she would react to his late-night appearance in her common room, a place he naturally had no right being now that he had long since graduated. Théodore vaulted over the side of the couch, landing on the cushions. His grin only beamed as the leather creaked beneath him, the warmth of the fire immediately hit him in his new position, soothing the ache the sudden coldness of the dungeons had brought onto his bones. He settled comfortably and slung an arm around her shoulders, giving her another of his trademark squeezes, just as he had done a few days prior. “You’ve gotta relax, Astoria. You’ll never get anything done if you’re always stressing over it.” He pressed a kiss to the side of her head before leaning forward and swiping the parchment into his grip, reading over what she’d written already. It was all quite logical, and seemed to cover whatever it was she was trying to write about well enough. Something about the leviosa charm, he managed to understand. “Now.” The word was succinct, a sentence all its own. “Tell me, how can I be of assistance?”

astoria | 496 | poor bb. Theo’s here t help.

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She was just thinking about turning in the damn essay as it was and tossing the rest of her books into the fire so she could sleep as long as she wanted to. Then again, that would also mean failing and letting down her parents, especially her father, was something she tried never to do. Failure, she had decided long ago, was not something that should exist in her vocabulary. She was thoroughly distracted from her plans of destruction when someone mosied their way into the common room. Well, a very specific someone who shouldn’t have been there but looked quite at home amongst the surroundings. Whenever she saw him, he was always well-dressed and she loved it. Astoria found it incredibly sexy when a man knew how to dress and took care of his appearance, not to mention she could appreciate brand names and the feel of expensive material on her skin. He always smelled nice, too. She was fairly certain he wore cologne, but he didn’t use so much of it that it was overpowering when he walked into a room or when he moved closer to her. In fact, it was the perfect amount and catching the scent of it immediately made her remember when he had kissed her on the stairs and she found herself flushing at the memory. “I should have known you’d figure out how to get in here,” she grinned, sitting up straighter on the couch. “I’m assuming your sister gave you the password, since I didn’t.” She wondered if Snape knew and hoped he didn’t. She hated it when they changed the passwords because it just gave her something else she had to memorize when she still had the bloody old one pinned in her mind. She turned and wrapped her arms around him, exceptionally pleased to see him and to have some company. Her brain hurt a little less when she focused on something as pleasant as him. Now that he was there, she found herself wanting to do her homework even less and contemplated telling him that. She had been working on it nonstop through the night and maybe she deserved to give herself a little bit of a breather. She didn’t know how long he was planning on staying anyway and she hadn’t seen him in a few days so suffice to say her focus was more on him than on her grades. Not that she would admit that, of course. Not willingly at least. “Maybe you’re right,” she sighed and slumped back into the leather couch. “Maybe I should break for a bit if I ever want to get this done. I’ll be no good for classes tomorrow if I break my brain on this tonight, anyway.” Astoria turned a small smile up at him. “For now, maybe you could help me take a break?”

THEO | 477 | her head's gonna implode

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Théodore grinned down at Astoria as she settled against him, arms tangling loosely around him as he laid her paper back down to rest. He laughed softly, nodding along. “Yes, yes. I’m a little rule breaker, I know. But I couldn’t resist popping in to see if I could spot you.” He traced her jaw gently with his index finger, eyes falling to her lips as they seemed wont to do so very often now. He spoke to her, voice soft and steady as he continued to smile. “Besides,” He shrugged, “The Slytherin common room is practically my home, there was nowhere else in the castle I feel as comfortable.” He was pleased to see that she was so willing to give up her school work for just a while, as he had always found that sometimes it helped to walk away from that which frustrated or plagued you, if possible. A break could do her good; it would give her mind time to refresh itself and to focus on something else. He went back to brushing her cheek gently with his knuckle, focused once more on her face and the delicate features that made it so lovely to look at. While his primary purpose here was clear, he certainly hadn’t picked a bad target if he was going to be spending so much time with her. And truthfully, he didn’t even mind the time he’d have to put in. He hadn’t been lying when he had said that Astoria was interesting enough to talk to. “I think that’s quite a good idea, actually.” He responded to her request, grin broadening and stretching his lips. He leaned in, close enough the he could very nearly feel her lips against his own but not allowing himself that simple pleasure quite yet. “How do you think I should do that?” The finger that had been petting her cheek gently had now become entranced with circling a lock of her dark hair around the digit, curling it, letting it fall, and then repeating as gently as he possibly could. Théo was sure that he could hear her heart hammering beneath her breast, and the heat from her flushed face was very nearly radiating with enough intensity to burn his skin. It was cute, how flustered she seemed to get when he could come calling, and he could tell that this was one particular habit he would never tire of. His currently unoccupied hand had moved to slip up against the smooth skin of her thigh, slowly inching upward bit by bit until it came to rest at a relatively tame location halfway up her leg. His fingers pressed lightly against the skin of her inner thigh, his lips quirking up as a short, breathy chuckle passed his lips. He afforded Astoria no time to answer and closed the gap between them, his lips pressing to hers with more ferocity than they had the last time. The fingers that had been previously occupied with her hair moved to wrap around the back of her neck, keeping her lips tight against his own as he kissed her, pulling back only when he had run out of breath. He pulled back just enough to look her directly in the eyes, his own gaze steady as he checked to make sure all this was okay with her. It was, he assumed, what she had meant, but he thought it would be better to affirm such a thing before diving in for anything else.

astoria | 586 | unf

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“You are absolutely too gorgeous for me,” Astoria told him, tracing his jawline with her fingertips. She had been serious when she told him the other day that she wouldn’t let him distract her from doing her homework, but it seemed she couldn’t keep her word in that regard and hoped he didn’t mind that she was utterly silly for the amount of attention she wanted to give him. That attention, of course, was much too inappropriate for the common room because it involved things such as kissing him and.. and other things that made her blush just to think about naming them in her thoughts, things like touching him and kissing his skin and... She made herself stop before she turned into a Gryffindor from how massively she was burning up. She leaned into his touch and closed her eyes for a moment, allowing herself to be a silly fifteen-year-old girl who had a very major crush that seemed to be reciprocated. She could revel in this for a bit, couldn’t she? Being smiled at and touched by a very attractive male who seemed to like it very much when she smiled back at him. Even if he didn’t, she hoped he would let her keep pretending for a little while longer. The poor girl nearly forgot to breathe when Théo leaned in and she could practically taste him against her lips. She felt exceedingly needy and yet somehow mature at the same time. Needy because she wanted him to kiss her so badly it was a challenge to keep herself from wrapping herself up in him and reaching out and holding him as tightly as possible. The feeling of maturity came from the fact that she didn’t really have to ask him to kiss her, he’d just done it like he wanted her too and it sent a thrill to her that someone as wonderful as Théodore, who was an adult and had a very good job, could possibly want her. Her reply changed to a gasp when his lips met hers and she couldn’t help the temptation to reach out and pull him closer, her hand curled at the nape of his neck and she rested her other hand on his back. This time she was careful not to grip his shirt; she’d seen the wrinkle left the last time she had and didn’t want a repeat. Although if he kept kissing her like that... When he pulled away, Astoria found herself leaning up to kiss him again, tentative at first because she wasn’t sure she was doing it right and she didn’t want him to laugh at her or pull away and leave. Though there seemed to be a bit of instinct involved in kissing, not to mention with Théo’s help she was able to figure it out fairly quickly.

THEO | 474 | *swoons*

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Astoria’s reaction was exactly what Théodore had hoped it would be. She dove in with as much enthusiasm as he had the first time, and immediately he closed his eyes and relaxed into it. Her lips were soft and tasted fruity, perhaps from a lip balm. Whatever the case he found himself easing into it. Her hands gripped him tightly and afforded him the assurance that she wasn’t going to be pulling back any time soon, so he allowed his hands to wander a bit. The one that had cupped her head previously now danced down her back, lingering in the dips he found and moving to count each rib through the fabric of her shirt. He smiled against her lips as her skin shivered beneath his touch. The near frantic kisses weren’t enough, though, so Théodore took it upon himself to trace out her lips with his tongue, dragging it slowly across the plush of her bottom lip and pressing just enough to let her know exactly what he wanted. Kissing was instinctual, he knew, and she would ease into it – besides that, he had plenty of time to help her perfect it. Her lips parted, perhaps due to his efforts or maybe just to take a shuddering breath, but Théo delved inside, his tongue massaging hers with a practiced ease. He pulled back a bit, only long enough to catch a breath before he was pressing back in, tongue resuming that which it had so pleasantly taken up only moments before. His hands continued to roam, careful not to stray into any zones that could spark enough interest in him or raise red flags for her. As his palms ventured lower down her back, his fingers bypassed her behind entirely and moved to grasp her by her thighs, pulling her very gently into his lap in one fluid, effortless motion without so much as breaking or slowing down the kiss. She settled in his lap and it felt as natural as it possibly could, like she was a fixture meant to be there. Granted, he felt much the same about any girl that landed in his lap at any given time, so it wasn’t quite saying much. Théodore was, at times like these, of the belief that he was Merlin’s gift to women. Or men, dependent upon whom he was with. No one had ever quite told him differently, so he had no reason to believe otherwise. His fingers moved back to dance across her back, dragging upwards and bringing the shirt up with him – just an inch or so, hardly enough to be cause for alarm or further privacy. How many times had he been in the common room late at night in a position so similar to this? He had long since lost count. One hand remained firmly on the small of her back as the other wound upwards, resting gently against her cheek. Finally Théodore pulled back, chest heaving and utterly breathless. He grinned. “You’re not so bad yourself, Ms. Greengrass.” He replied breathily to her earlier remark, leaning in once more for another, short and truncated kiss. “Not so bad at all.”

astoria | 528 | unf

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Well, Théo had certainly proven to her that kissing was everything people said it was and more. Some of her friends talked about how they didn’t feel anything when they kissed their boyfriend and she wondered if it had to do with chemistry or feelings or general experience. She could also understand exactly why people her age fancied themselves in love after being kissed like this. It wouldn’t be hard to mistake the hormones and other things for it, like her heart rate and how warm she felt, it put the words on the tip of her tongue but she swallowed them to keep them for another time, maybe far in the future if they made it to that. She shivered, finding that she liked how he sounded when he was breathless and husky and she liked how his lips looked after giving her mind blowing kisses. “Mm, are you talking about how I look or how I kiss?” Astoria asked, leaning in to steal another one, leaning forward to put her weight on her knees to have an even better angle. Her homework was long forgotten. In fact, if her attention was brought back to it, she would probably be perfectly fine with writing something along the lines of “with my boyfriend, wanker off sir or miss”. Though that brought her to an interesting point. Kissing didn’t make someone automatically your boyfriend or girlfriend, a mistake that people commonly made after a few snogging sessions to be woefully corrected by their partner when catching them with someone else. She wasn’t sure she would even want to call Théo a boyfriend, it seemed very grade school and didn’t fit him at all. Dating was an inconsequential term as well, as dates could easily be canceled and plans never again made whenever one person or the other decided to just drop the entire thing. The only terms she found she could stand were his and mine though she thought she might be too embarrassed to mention that to him. Instead, she moved closer to him until her nose brushed against his and she smiled. “So, erm. Are we exclusive or open?” She asked shyly, unsure as to whether she should ask him so soon, but she wanted at least some sort of promise that he would come back to her at the end of the day and smile at her like he was now. She hadn’t fallen in love with him as a whole, of course. It was way too soon for her to trust him that much. She had, however, fallen in love with his smile and his laughter.

THEO | 439 | *swoons*

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Astoria’s question was received with a light hearted, quiet laugh and a shake of his head. Instead of answering directly, Théo decided to forego the words and respond with yet another short, almost chaste kiss. His hands occupied themselves as innocently as he could manage against her body, fingertips brushing in short strokes over sun-kissed skin, teasing with feather-light touches as he stole another set of peppered kisses, these trailing over the side of her face. He gave a contented hum against her warm skin as he nipped lightly at the line of her jaw, teeth barely grazing the skin. “Why can’t I mean both, ma cherie?” He continued to pet along her side, happily accepting whatever affection she would give him. When she pulled away to nuzzle at his face, however, Théo was met with a question he hadn’t been expecting, not so soon at least. He didn’t show any sign of surprise, as he was long since used to keeping his head clear and his expressions controlled. One did not become a death eater without considerable ability in this regard, as far as Théo was concerned. In fact, if you asked him, he had the best damn self-control out of any of them, and moreover, was a much better actor. Not many of the others could stomach to be in the presence of mudbloods, and yet he swallowed that prejudice back every day for work. Work that not only furthered him in his dreams, but did well for the Dark Lord as well. Everything he did now was, ultimately, for Lord Voldemort. Bringing his mind back to the question at hand, Théodore turned his head to seal her lips against his own again. He tried to distract her a moment as he thought up a way to answer this without locking himself entirely to her, though he quickly realized that his personal life wouldn’t be affected by whatever pretend relationship she could dream up. Why not let her believe? It was better that way, in the long run. It would get him further and propel him up the ranks in the long run. It was worth it. Another hum rang from his lips as they worked their way along her jawline and kissed a path to her ear, which he pecked just lightly enough to send shivers down her spine. He could feel her arms prickle with goosebumps and he almost grinned. “We can be whatever you want to be, Astoria,” He purred against the lobe of her ear, lips brushing the soft skin. “If you want me, I’m yours. Only yours.” Lying had for so long become his custom that he barely even skipped a beat. It would take a gallon of truth serum to break him, with his steady gaze and his unwavering voice. “For as long as you want me.”

astoria | 475 | shiver me timbers

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“Now that’s just selfish,” Astoria teased him and laughed though she wasn’t entirely sure how she managed to save up the air necessary to talk. She felt as though her skin was close to catching on fire and that if he kissed her again he might suspect her of being a phoenix. Each time his lips pressed to her skin and she shivered, she expected flames to arise but each time she stayed intact. She wondered if this was how all kissing felt, thrilling and dangerous like playing a sort of deadly wheel of fortune, spinning it over and over and managing each time to land just an inch away from disaster. That wasn’t a description one read in novels, however. Romance was filled with flowery words and poetry and beautiful kisses that sent the heroine’s heart all a-flutter and usually involved a lot of giggling and flattery. Maybe there was something out there like the authors wrote of in their novels, but Astoria found she preferred this. It felt much more honest, somehow, it felt like something real and there that she could reach out and grasp or push away if she wanted to. She fancied that if she tried to grab a flowery romance like the ones in novels, it would collapse in her hands as though she had closed her hand around a wisp of cloud. She nearly told him yes without thinking when next he spoke because the words, coupled with how he said them and how his lips felt against her skin and she was surprised to find just how sensitive her ears actually were. She couldn’t think with him doing that and so she put a little bit of distance between her and his very tempting mouth, not enough to make him feel insulted or anything like that. “As much as I would love to say that I do want you all to myself, and I do, milis, I don’t think it would be quite fair.” She took a deep breath to force herself through the next bit. Astoria was a pureblood, raised mostly as one, and some of her mother’s teachings and her sister’s attitude had rubbed off on her over the years. She was selfish and a bit spoiled and so it was hard for her to tell someone no when they were waving a green flag in front of her face for something she very desperately wanted. “You’re out and out in the world, you’ve got a great career and you meet new people all the time, and I’m here in school. I’m not going to be selfish and tell you that I’m pinning you down.” There, she got the words out, as hard as they were, and she felt better about herself for saying them.

THEO | 471 | gotta give her some credit

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It was beginning to appear - quite rapidly, at that - that Astoria was even more mature than she appeared at first glance. Théodore was tempted to bite the inside of his cheek, and had he been alone he would have sworn in French, English, and any other language he could come up with, both in amazement and distaste for this quickly unraveling display of personal development on the darling young lady’s part. It was a relief to know that she wasn’t some crazed, overly-involved school girl who would be clinging to him, but Théodore had a plan, damn it; and he insisted upon it working. Noting the way she seemed to get at least mildly distracted as his hands wandered, he allowed them to venture once again, this time to places slightly less safe for work. Of course he managed to keep it slightly respectful, his fingers sliding along the back of her bra, dancing against the edge of the hidden fabric and pressing ever so slightly against the clasps. His actions appeared almost absent-minded, though his head was anything but. Fingers dropped and teased along the edge of Astoria’s waistband now as he took the lobe of her ear gently between his teeth and traced it with his tongue after a small, gentle tug. “So we won’t get to see each other often during the school year,” He insisted, as if she had not blatantly denied him. His voice was as easy as it had been the first time, showing no ounce of his distaste for her refusal. “You trust me don’t you, Astoria?” The question, he figured, would distract her a bit further and back her into a corner she would have to fumble quite a bit to get out of. “Wouldn’t it be nice, to have the right to brag about your ministry official boyfriend?” The words took on a bit of a growl as his lips curled up into a grin. He pulled back enough to look her in the eye, his own blue pair looking shockingly sincere. “It would be an honor, Ms. Greengrass, to be pinned down by someone like you.” The smile that claimed his face then was closed-lipped but genuine enough as he gave a ‘how about it’ waggle of his eyebrows in her direction, palms finally settling on the outermost curve of her hips. His lips said nothing further, though his expression spoke volumes, the most prominent message being ‘how about it’ as he waited for her immanent acceptance of his proposal.

astoria | 422 | shiver me timbers

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Merlin, he knew how to use his mouth and his hands seemed to whisper a promise to her that left her shivering. It wasn’t fair! She was trying to be mature and act above her age and her wants but he was doing his best to ruin that for her. If he didn’t want the easy out she gave him, then that was his problem and he would have to deal with the consequences if, later on, he changed his mind. “Oh, Merlin, stop, that’s cruel,” she breathed and slid her hand through his hair, gripping the strands just a little as she pushed him forward and back to her lips so she could kiss him thoroughly. She wasn’t brave enough to try anything close to frenching, though she did feel much more confident when it came to kissing. It was easy once you’d done it a few times and when you had a wonderful partner to show you how. “Of course I trust you,” she replied helplessly. “I’m just, you know, trying to be respectful and.. and not selfish and things,” she finished lamely. Words were not really coming to her easily at the moment and she had a fairly good reason as to why that was. She tried to hold out a little long, though his insistence and her inability to find a reasonable reason to tell him, when he disagreed with her, no even so, she threw her hands up in the air. “Oh, fine! Fine, yes, I want you and I’d love to call you mine,” Astoria sulked and blushed. Her attempt to be selfless and mature had been flouted by the subject of her niceties. It seemed unfair, somehow, that he would have preferred this option to the other. Though she had to admit that even if he had told her an open one was what he preferred, she most likely wouldn’t have found any interest in someone her own age around the school. Maybe it was silly but she felt that a Greengrass should only have the best and that settling for someone just to have a person who was close by on a daily basis would be beneath her, and if she didn’t want to wholly be with one person, then what was the point in dating them in the first place? All or nothing. Was that the mature sort of thing, though?

THEO | 407| jfc theo

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Théodore was not ashamed of his inability to hold back his laughter as she drew him in for a fierce kiss and pulled back to babble as if someone had hexed her. Her words were lacking proper structure and it only seemed to suit her even more than the carefully selected ones she had opted for the first go around. She was cute, that much was undeniable, not that he would try. He let one hand tangle in the hair at the base of her skull, supporting her head and cradling her closely. He nuzzled along her cheek once more, teasing the flesh with feather light kisses and gentle brushes. "I think you've made a marvelous decision, Astoria, " He said, voice laced with joyful teasing. "You certainly put up one Hell of a fight." The obliviator shifted beneath Astoria, then, settling more comfortable as he leaned back against the cushions behind him, head tipping back to get a better view of her, eyes half lidded and seeming almost adoring as they gazed up at the heiress. "You're surprisingly mature for you age, you know." He remarked lightly. "Most women twice your age melt with one single touch," He gave a gentle brush of his knuckles across her cheek for emphasis. "Most men as well." At least it could be said that Théodore was far from shy, which truthfully he thought of as more of an asset than the opposite. "And yet there you are, pouting even as you accept my proposal of monogamy. You ought to be a bit proud of yourself." He gave her side a playful squeeze. "I have to say, I think I've won a prize with you, Ms. Greengrass. A very rare, beautiful prize." The wizard drew the beauty down for another long kiss, tugging her to rest against his chest as his arms tangled around her and his eyes drooped almost tiredly. "We can't make a habit of this, you know." He smiled, voice soft. "Me distracting you, you distracting me. We've both got so much to do, and yet here we are all tangled up as if that doesn't even matter. We ought to be ashamed." He brushed some hair from her eyes. "And yet I find that I'm not even in the least bit apologetic for distracting you, and for letting you distract me... just this once."

astoria | 396