If Cash’s first admission had knocked him off-kilter, Theo almost felt steadier as he listened to him now. Maybe because he was aware of wanting to treat this with the gravity it deserved.
He didn’t know exactly where this was going, but it all seemed to fit – Eli Swan might be the context he had been missing. Because there had always been certain untranslatable things about Cash and his past. Theo remembered the Cassius Lestrange of school, who hadn’t stood out as any different from the other purebloods of his ilk (even if he had been affable enough, and had played quidditch). And then there was the Cash he knew – the Cash he loved – who was, in spite of his melancholy and in spite of his hurting, affectionate and open-minded and somehow nothing like his family. But Theo had never managed to reconcile the change exactly, to work out how it had happened.
His shoulder softened against Cash’s sigh, although his mouth was dry. Cash had loved him. Of course he had. “You lost him,” Theo managed, casting him a sorry look. “And then... nothing was the same.”
He didn’t know exactly where this was going, but it all seemed to fit – Eli Swan might be the context he had been missing. Because there had always been certain untranslatable things about Cash and his past. Theo remembered the Cassius Lestrange of school, who hadn’t stood out as any different from the other purebloods of his ilk (even if he had been affable enough, and had played quidditch). And then there was the Cash he knew – the Cash he loved – who was, in spite of his melancholy and in spite of his hurting, affectionate and open-minded and somehow nothing like his family. But Theo had never managed to reconcile the change exactly, to work out how it had happened.
His shoulder softened against Cash’s sigh, although his mouth was dry. Cash had loved him. Of course he had. “You lost him,” Theo managed, casting him a sorry look. “And then... nothing was the same.”
