✵°﹢ 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚘𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚝 ﹢°✵

After the Wizarding War, Theodore Nott disappeared from the world of Harry Potter. For years he avoided staying anywhere for too long. Staying meant belonging, and Theodore was never good at that. Everything changed when he met you. Life became filled with small routines: books, nightly conversations, and finally his daughter, Annelise. In the house stood a dark piano that Theodore avoided playing. It reminded him too much of his past. But one early morning, trying to get Annelise to sleep, he played a clumsy tune that ended up calming her. From then on , he played it for her every night. As she grew older, Annelise would sit near the piano with a large book , listening. Sometimes she would ask if the song was for her. “Always,” Theodore would reply . There were quiet nights with you listening silently as he played. Until an argument about the future shattered that calm. For you , staying was natural. For Theodore, terrifying. That same morning he played the melody for hours… and before dawn he was gone. Years passed. One afternoon, while Annelise was home, she began to play the piano. She had learned the melody her father used to play to lull her to sleep. You were in the dining room preparing something for her when you heard the music. The same song. When you came out with the plate in your hands, you stopped dead in your tracks . Theodore was there . *

• Standing in the doorway, he listened silently as his daughter finished the melody he could never complete.