THEO POV

The Nott home was nothing glorious but it surely wasn't anything to be ashamed of either. Luckily for Theo his father was one of the Aurors, a job made for villainous men. Aurors worked as the Capitol's military and law enforcement. Their stations ranged from foot-soliders to hovercraft pilots to even guarding Azkaban alongside the Dementors. Essentially, they kept peace and shut down rebellion to ensure Panem could thrive, keeping the oppression alive and the Ministry protected. The punishments Aurors unleashed were cruel and violent, nothing short of pure horror.

But it provided a living space others didn't have.

It didn't provide heat though.

Theo sat on the chilly wooden floors as he stared into the burning embers of the fireplace. His hands shook from the cold and he could only pull up the hood of his black sweatshirt, heavy blue eyes rolling when a handsome brunette owl perched on the mantle and dropped a letter down.

"Already, Merlin?" He asks the owl and picks up the parchment. The cursive inside is short, words sounding as if they came from a Capitol official. Which they did, in a way.

Theodore,

Running late.
Make dinner.

Signed, Your Father.

Theo scoffs as he tosses the letter into the fireplace. He wouldn't do anything his father said. In fact, he would always do the complete opposite. Merlin, the owl, hoots in protest.

"I'm not cooking him dinner." Theo shouts and Merlin fly's to the other side of the room, nestling onto the edge of the worn out couch. His head shakes remorsefully. Usually he would never be so cold and crude but the Reaping tomorrow brought on an awful sense of dread-horrible memories too.

The front door opens an hour later. Theodore Nott Sr. waltzes into the home in a spell proof uniform, covered in shiny white pallets. The face shielding helmet is discarded though, resting in his left hand, showing off his thick sandy mustache and beard.

"No dinner?" The father huffs, tossing his helmet onto the kitchen counter and flicking on the ceiling lights that hurt Theo's eyes. "Suspected"

"Got too cold to move" Theo mutters as he drags himself up onto two feet. "Can barely handle the winter chill"

"Just be glad your not in District Twelve, it's burning up there."

There's no response from Theo and it angers his father.

"I'm talking to you!"

"What do you want me to say?" Theo asks with a shrug, stepping away as his father attempts to grab him. His head shakes in warning, "I'm going to see mum"

"Not so fast." Theodore Nott Sr. spits and Theo reluctantly takes a seat by the rickety kitchen table, "Do you want soup?"

"I don't care....how was work?"

The father blows out a long breath, pulling his wand from the uniform leg holister, igniting the gas-powered stove top. "We had Walburga Black training us today"

Another chill blows in and Theo tucks his hands into the hoodie sleeves, "Can't imagine that was fun"

"She's one crazy bitch." Nott Sr. grumbles, rummaging through the cabinets for some cans. "How was your training with the neighbors?"

"I'm not training with those cunts. Should've seen what they did to a young girl down at the shops yesterday. She had to be barely fourteen."

His father stills and slowly faces him, "Excuse me? You lied?" He rushes forward to the table, hands slamming down. "I told you to go!"

Theo directs his gaze onto the snow covered trees outside the window, unfazed by the anger. "I don't like them dad. They're disrespectful and I don't need stupid training."

"You're a man! Stop being so soft-hearted!" He snarls, "You could be picked tomorrow!"

"I think you've trained me well enough." Theo bites back and rises up. He moves across the creaky wood floor, opening the back door but halts as his father speaks again.

"You'll sit down this instant!"

Theo whips around angrily, "I'm going to see mum or have you forgotten what today was?! You were supposed to visit with me!"

The words silences his father instantly and sends the man recoiling back into the counter.

Theo on the other hand smiles sarcastically before yanking open the door.

He adjusts the hood over his head as even more icy air smacks his cheeks and his leather boots crunch the snow. Their backyard was vast, up on a large hill that dropped off in a cliff-like way, providing a view of the train tracks between woodland trees below.

There's only one place snow doesn't touch. His mother's grave. Magically spelled to always be a rectangle of pure green grass, the headstone covered in white tulips growing as vine would.

At nine years old Theo lost his mother. Her name had been pulled for the Hunger Games. His father tried to work around it but there was nothing anyone could do. She lasted up until the top ten before some meat-head from District Eleven murdered her with an axe. He watched it happen on the broadcast.

His fingers shake from the snowy weather as he grazed the writing that reads Eleanor Nott. He hated the Capitol and always would. How unjust is it that people from the ages of thirteen to thirty compete for pure entertainment? The leaders proclaimed the games were justice for the Rebellion. Theo knew that statement was bullshit. Everyone in the Capitol sat high and mighty in their luxurious lifestyles while famine and despair wrecked havoc on the world.

"I'm sorry mum." He whispers to the headstone looking back at him as a solemn reminder.

Because of the chill he stuffs his hands into the front pocket of the hoodie, tan skin tinting pink. He has to pull his eyes away, focus on something else, anything else.

Theo walks to the edge of the cliff and person catches his attention. A young girl, appearing the size of star from how far away she is, runs down the center of the train tracks with a flashlight. He doesn't need to see her face to know who it is. Rosalie Black. District Two stopped having school a long time ago, now children were taught in their homes. The training facilities for young adults didn't exist anymore either, a punishment from the Capitol after a few people burned down a building fifteen years ago. So, Theo never got to see her in school or training but he did always catch glimpses of the young Black running down the tracks at dawn and midnight.

He didn't know anything about her except she was a Victor daughter-Orion Black's daughter to be exact.

But since he was fourteen he had seen Rosalie in the morning running to help the stranglers with so many bags of, what he assumed is food, on her arms. Then run back. And when the clock strikes midnight he could always expect to see her barreling back down with more food.

He wasn't sure how she never got caught because if she did, daughter of a Victor or not, she'd be accused of treason. The track people were considered outcasts and rebels for their refusal to work in the District, it would be quite a scandal to know someone like her had been providing help to the lot for years.

Theo never told on her and never planned to. His house was the only view of the tracks she used, therefore no one had to know but him.

His brows furrow as she halts and sticks her flashlight up in the sky, starting to spin in a circle. Minutes pass before people start scrambling out of the tree line and Theo sees at least ten bodies begin to circle her. His breath catches at the thought they might attack until she starts to sit and the others follow. He realizes she's just casually eating with them.

Odd girl.

Now his brain treks back to the first time he saw her up close. Theo had went to meet his father in one of the older pubs and when he walked inside there she was. Her brother, Sirius Black, had been passed out on the bar. Apparently someone slipped him too much alcohol, Theo learned this after the fact. He came just in time to watch Rose lurch over the bar and throw a glass at the bartender's head before getting dragged out by Aurors.

She didn't walk on the tracks for two weeks after that. Theo always wondered what happened.

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A/N: omg! so it begins! these two chapters were just introductory to the characters lives and the next chap is the reaping!'

woohooo

-I know your probs confused what the minstry is since Panem is Panem but that will be revealed soon<3

xx bri