Cards on the table, Theo knows that he's on incredibly borrowed time dodging the Ministry. Lucius isn't wrong that it's only a matter of time before Theo crosses someone else who realizes that he doesn't belong here and that he's not following the right rules and when they do...perhaps he'd make it out of that meeting still a free man if he's quick enough, if he's clever enough. Perhaps he'd scrape through the one after that as well, because surely one would come, just lucky enough to land the right spell first before disappearing into the shadows once more.

Perhaps he'd be lucky for a while but it would run out eventually, too exhausted from running to keep his guard up as high as he needs to, spread too thin to fight the way he'd need to. It's not a pleasant picture and certainly not one that Theo is eager to see come to light.

But there's no way to stop the idea of being tracked by an administration he can't trust from making his skin crawl. Even if he chooses to believe that Lucius is telling the truth about it being as seemingly benign as a curfew check something inside him still wants to recoil from the very thought.

But, annoyingly, Lucius does make some fair points.

"You'll have to forgive me if I don't trust that the trace will always been so innocent." He's already had too much time on his hands to consider all the ways it could go disastrously wrong for anyone tagged with it. "I've worked inside the Ministry too long already to take much of what they say at face value regardless of who sits in the Minister's chair."

It's foolish to be so stubborn, he knows. It's foolish to let himself be so cautious that he backs himself into a corner he didn't need to be in. He's already there, he thinks, his back inching up against a wall and his hand likely to be forced on what path to take if he takes too much longer to decide what he needs to do. He needs time, to regroup, to think. "But I can take it under consideration."