He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at that comment, as offhand as it had come. Wouldn’t have any of her own children? Theo hadn’t exactly had many conversations with women about motherhood (– who would have guessed? –) but it had always seemed so ingrained as the expected route, even for the girls who graduated Hogwarts and set out into work instead. Occasionally they had the career and the family, but hardly ever just the first. So that was... unusual, to say the least. But then Gemma Simpson was an unusual girl.

He’d never really thought about it, himself, but – maybe he wouldn’t, either? He’d have to get married first, and Theo wasn’t sure he would make it there. It wasn’t like – wouldn’t be like Cash, forced into an unhappy arrangement for appearance’s sake. But maybe one day he’d be so lonely he wanted it. He wasn’t sure.

He took a long draught of his hot chocolate to drown the thought, but everything else she said seemed to strike him anew. (Did his father ever get the itch to come home? – did he miss his family? – was this independence, living in his absent father’s shoes? – how much longer could he do it for?)

Belatedly, Theo realised he had set down his drink and still been resolutely quiet for a while. “Sometimes I wish I could leave, too,” he admitted, a little rueful, circling an old glass-stain on the table with his fingers.

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