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WAR HEROINE SPOTTED WITH MINISTRY OFFICIAL - LOOKING TO MOVE UP THE POLITICAL LADDER?
It was two months before he saw her again. Two months of awkward dates that Pansy tried to set him up on. Two months of wondering if he should write her. Two months of trying his best to forget.
And then all of a sudden, one Friday night, there was a knock on his front door.
Marcus wasn’t home that night, for once he’d actually gone to the boyfriend’s house instead keeping them all awake there. Theo wasn’t entirely sure who it could be outside but he pulled the door open anyways.
Hermione Granger was standing on his front step, in a thick hooded jumper and baggy grey joggers – far too warm for a rather balmy June evening. Her hair was in a messy bun on the top of her head, coils springing free in all directions. There were still tear stains streaked down her cheeks and she hiccupped softly as Theo looked her over.
“Hermione?” He asked, more shocked than anything that after two months with no contact she would show up on his front step, shaking with tears and nearly sagging where she stood.
“I’m sorry,” she sniffled, lifting a hand up to scrub at her cheeks with the heel of her palm. “I… I didn’t know where else to go. I’m probably imposing, I can…”
Theo shook his head and reached out, tugging her into the flat. “Come in, please.” He urged, and shut the door behind her. It took him a minute but finally he got her seated on the couch, holding a cup of tea, with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. “Okay,” he said, sitting down on the couch next to her. “Tell me what happened?”
Hermione hiccupped again and took a drink of tea, sighing softly and finally leaning back against the couch. She shook her head softly but finally took a breath so she could speak. “You didn’t see The Prophet this morning?”
Once again, Theo shook his head. “No. It’s all rubbish.” He mumbled, and Hermione managed a tiny smile.
“Right. Well. Skeeter published a story today with a… rather disgusting picture. C-” she hiccupped again. “Cormac MacLaggan caught me outside of the Leaky the other day. He… He pulled me into an alley way and I couldn’t grab my wand out fast enough and he,” Hermione finally shook her head and burst into tears. Theo frowned at the situation and leaned over, wrapping his arms around her and letting her cry it out against his shoulder.
“Did he hurt you?”
Hermione shook her head against his body. “He just… touched my breast, and… And then I decked him and he stepped back and I disapparated.”
Theo let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Okay,” he whispered, relief flooding his system. “Okay, good. What else happened?” There was no way a single picture could leave her in tears like this, even despite the horrible situation around it. Theo might not have seen her much recently, but he knew that Hermione wasn’t usually this affected.
It took her a minute to continue, but finally – after a bit more tea and a few more deep breaths – she did. “Cormac is saying that… that we were together. That he has photos of me he’s going to release.” Theo frowned at this but before he could press on Hermione finished her sentence. “Naked photos.”
“Oh shit.” Theo breathed, and Hermione nodded.
“Which he doesn’t! I was never with him, I went on a date with him once in school but, it was just horrid, Theo. I would never let him take… take pictures like that. He’s lying but… The Prophet doesn’t care because it sells papers.”
She was crying again and Theo tightened his arms around her a little, deciding it wasn’t worth it to fight the instinct to want to protect her. No one would know anyways. “I’m so sorry, Hermione. What did… what did your friends have to say about it?”
Hermione scoffed at this and finally sat up and away from him, and he was instantly aware of how cool it was without her body up against hers. “Harry’s out of the country right now. Ron…” she sighed and shook her head. “He got mad at me, said that… that I should just ignore The Prophet because it doesn’t matter. I know that but it just… it’s just too much. I work so, so hard. I’m doing good work, Theo. Work that could change people’s lives. I already helped save their lives once. And… and what do I get? A nosy reporter who wants to write about how all I do is seduce men to get ahead? Who has a running hit list of the number of men I’ve been with? And on top of all of that-” Hermione paused, closed her eyes, and pushed forward. “I haven’t slept with anyone in more than three months. And the only person that I’ve… wanted to sleep with…”
Her voice trailed off then and Theo frowned, leaning forward, holding his breath.
Finally, she opened her eyes, looked up at him, and placed a hand on his cheek. “Is you.”
Theo swallowed hard and before he could stop himself, remind himself that she was in a vulnerable position and this was absolutely not the time, he leaned forward and captured her lips with his own. Hermione reacted instantly, her own hand snaking around the back of his neck to keep him close, her lips warm and responsive against his own. Theo plucked the tea from her fingers and set it on the coffee table and then shifted them so her body was flat on the couch and he was on top of her.
At some point, the door opened and Theo did his best to ignore the sounds of Marcus-and-beaux as they crashed through the house. Too much to ask, he supposed, for them to give him this one night in peace.
“Hey Theo, did you- oh shit!” Marcus had clearly noticed him.
“What? What oh shit?”
“He’s got a girl!”
“Quick, Marc, don’t want to interrupt, be safe kids!” Called a voice with a vaguely Scottish accent, and then there was laughter, and a door slamming, and silence.
Theo pulled back and winced down at her. “Sorry, my…”
“I don’t care. Maybe… maybe we should move to your room?” Hermione’s voice was tentative but clear and there was a fire in her eyes that set Theo’s skin ablaze.
“Yes. Yes, definitely.”
Theo awoke the next morning with sore muscles and a feeling of deep contentment settled into his bones. As he pulled himself out of dreamland, he registered a head resting on his chest, curled hair ticking against his skin, and thin legs tangled up with his own.
“Morning, sleepy.” He whispered, and Hermione shifted slightly against him and then turned her head around so she could look up at him.
Her face heated but she grinned as well. “Hello.”
“Did you sleep alright?”
Hermione nodded and sighed in contentment. “Yes. This was… brilliant. Exactly what I needed. I needed to just get away from it all, you know? Remember that I’m more than just a person whose private life has been sold to the public. More than a Ministry employee on a mission.”
“You’re much more than either of those things.” Theo mumbled, and leaned forward to press a kiss to her forehead. He was starting to register that she was more than just those things, but she was also more than him. It was easy enough, the night before, for him to put it all out of his mind. All the thoughts of bad idea and you’re going to hurt her and you were basically on the wrong side had seemed to dissipate when she looked up and him and told him that she wanted .
Now, in the clear morning light, he was remembering them all. Remembering Pansy patting his arm consolingly and saying that his parents never would have approved. Remembering Draco rolling his eyes and pointing out that he would never be good enough for her, not really. Even Greg had nodded sagely and gestured at his arm; despite his clear skin, Theo knew the point he was making.
Hermione stood though, slowly, and stretched, and Theo couldn’t help but let his eyes trail down the expanse of dark skin from her shoulder to her hip. He licked his lips and remembered the way she had tasted, the way she had felt against him, and then forced himself out of bed as well.
“Breakfast, perhaps?” Hermione suggested, snagging one of his shirts from the back of a chair and pulling it over her head. She had pulled her underwear on too and was tying her hair back into a thick plait, and Theo thought briefly that he’d much rather just pull her back into bed and have her instead.
Hermione headed out to the kitchen and Theo tugged on a loose pair of joggers and then followed her out.
There was a knock on the door and Hermione looked up at him curiously. Theo shrugged and headed forward and Hermione stepped after him, still in the kitchen and yet clearly visible from the small front hall.
When Theo pulled the door open, he was blinded by the flash of a bulb and then someone was pushing the wood out of his hands. “Mr. Nott! Mr. Nott!” Theo gasped and stumbled back and the bulb flashed again and someone shouted “there’s Granger!” and then quickly, before he had the chance to react, Hermione slashed her hand through the air and the door swung shut with a bang.
“What the bloody hell was that?!” Hermione shouted, as Theo turned, still blinking the light out of his eyes, impressed with the way she’d shut the door both wandlessly and nonverbally.
Theo shook his head, lifting his hands up in a mock gesture of surrender. “I don’t… I’m not-”
“I trusted you!” Hermione yelled, tears welling up in her eyes and face flushing dark with anger, hands curling into fists. “I trusted you, I trusted that it was safe here. That they… that she…” Hermione was nearly incoherent in her frustration and she was shaking her head, wrapping her arms around her body. “How could you?”
“What? You think I called Skeeter?” Theo retorted, anger suddenly starting to bubble up in his own chest. “Why the fuck would I do something like that?”
Hermione scoffed, derisive and mean. “Let’s see. So that you could show the world that you got to… to bed me too? So you could brag to your little friends about how far the Gryffindor golden girl has fallen?”
“I don’t give a shit about any of that.” Theo said, crossing his arms across his chest.
“I never should have… I should have known. Sleep with a snake and you’re sure to get bitten.”
Theo nearly snapped at this, stepping closer to her. “This is all because I’m a Slytherin? You don’t trust me because… because a fucking hat decided I was more ambitious than reckless? Do you know how fucked up that is?”
Hermione was shaking her head, stuffing her feet into her shoes despite the fact that she was only wearing a button up shirt and a small pair of underwear. “I don’t know what your motivations were. Maybe I’m good for business. Maybe I’m good for your reputation.”
Theo was about to protest again when Hermione lifted her hand and nearly shouted accio and her wand flew through the air from the bedroom. Despite the anger that he felt, a small piece of him wanted to marvel at the strength of her wandless magic. Before he could say anything else she had sniffed and turned on her heel and then she was gone.
It didn’t take Theo long to figure out what had happened. When she left he had dropped down onto the sofa, head in his hands, trying to work out what had gone wrong. She had just assumed it was him, figured he would betray her like that because of what? Because of a stupid system of sorting that set them on different life paths forever? Because she never truly trusted him to begin with?
Eventually, Marcus emerged from his room.
“Where’d the girl go?” He asked, as he made his way down the stairs towards the kitchen.
Theo narrowed his eyes. “Was it you?” He asked, turning on his roommate. “Because nobody else knew she was here, Marcus, and from what it looked like the whole staff of The Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly were standing outside this morning when we got up.”
“What?” Marcus asked, finally turning to face Theo and blink down at him on the couch. “Why would The Prophet give a shit about who you’re shagging?”
It took a minute for these words to sink in and Theo turned around so he could look at Marcus as well. “Wait, what?”
And then, a small voice from the bottom of the stairs alerted both of their attention to the man standing at the bottom of them, wringing his hands together. Theo hadn’t spent a lot of time around Oliver Wood, but from what he had done, he had never seen the man look so distraught before.
“It was me.”
“What the fuck?” Theo snapped, turning around now. Marcus crossed the living room in a few short strides to place his hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder.
“Ollie, what did you do?”
Oliver sighed and lifted a hand to rub at his face. “I… I didn’t mean to. I just couldn’t believe that it was Hermione Granger on our couch. With you-”
“Hermione Granger?!” Marcus jumped in, and Oliver shot a look at him in near exasperation.
“Obviously.” Theo managed to sigh, before turning back to Oliver and waiting for the rest of the response.
“Right, sorry. Anyways… Theo when you were in the bathroom I floo’d George just to see if he’d heard anything about it. And he was shocked and said he’d ask Ron. And, well, you know the Weasley’s, he was probably just blathering on about it in public…”
“Fuck!” Theo nearly shouted, standing up from the couch before realizing there was really nothing he could do and dropping back down onto it, dropping his head into his hands. “Fuck. She hates me now. She was… it was… It was perfect , having her here. And I know I’m not good enough for her. I know that shit. But she thinks it was some Slytherin plot to, I don’t know, make my store more popular? Gryffindors and Slytherins just aren’t meant to…” before he could finish, the two men had dropped onto the couch beside him and were pulling at his arms, pushing him until he was sitting up.
Marcus glared down at him intently and waited for Theo to let out a sigh of acquiescence before speaking. “Listen to yourself, mate. You slept with her once. This isn’t some big fucking romance. You got laid and now she’s gone and you’re just going to have to man up and get on with it.”
Oliver shot him a look. “Not helping,” he hissed, before turning back to Theo. “Look. Don’t go spouting some bullshit about Gryffindors and Slytherins not being compatible. Look at Marcus and I? Or Pansy-”
“How do you know about that?” Theo mumbled, and Marcus laughed.
“Mate, do you even ever read her letters?”
Theo sighed and shook his head no.
“Right. Okay. So here’s what we’re going to do...”
The month wore on in a series of rainy days and sleepless nights. Despite Marcus and Oliver’s attempts to cheer him up (as well as Draco and Blaise’s, which were even less useful) nothing really seemed to help. Just like Hermione had said, there were pictures across the front of every major Wizarding newspaper and magazine the next day of a shocked looking shirtless Theo and a terrified looking pants-less Hermione.
WAR HEROINE HALF NAKED WITH DEATH EATER’S SON – WHAT COULD SHE HAVE TO GAIN?
The headlines didn’t stop and it took nearly two weeks for the media buzz to die down. Theo had to stun a reporter before they stopped coming to his shop and he had taken to floo -ing up to his apartment so he didn’t have to go outside to get to the steps.
It was exhausting, and he was finally starting to realize exactly what Hermione went through every day. She managed to stay out of the news for nearly an entire month and Theo did his best, with the help of Draco’s good firewhiskey and Marcus’s insistence on going flying over the sea every day, to try and forget the way her skin felt against his own, the way she had tasted, the way she had moved under him.
It only kind of worked.
And then, one day, when he was finally starting to think that he could probably live without her, that he didn’t want to deal with someone who had that circus following after them, that he could never really be with someone who resorted to insulting his house the first chance they got, the bell over the shop door chimed.
Theo sighed and set aside the papers he had been working on, trying to balance the books for that month. He headed into the front of the shop and even before he turned the corner he could see a cloud of dark curly hair peeking out around a bookshelf and his heart caught in his chest and he glanced down at the traitorous thing before he steeled himself and stepped into the open area.
“Granger.” He greeted, carefully, and Hermione turned towards him and winced softly.
“Theo.” She said, looking down at a book in her hands. “I, um, brought you this.” It was clearly an old book, and Theo turned it over in his hands as she passed it to him. Slowly he cracked the cover open and swallowed hard as he read over the title.
“Hermione,” he said this time, voice almost choked. “This is a… this is the Second Folio… this is… this is from 1632, the second ever copy of Shakepeare’s completed works, this…” he was so speechless Hermione couldn’t help but grin a little.
“It’s not in perfect condition, of course. Though it is quite good. I recently ran into a rather large sum of money from work and I managed to find a copy of the First Folio on auction so I-”
Theo choked again. “Do you know how much this is worth?!”
Hermione grinned up at him. “Nearly half a million pounds, I’m sure.” She said, with a small nod. “Though the First was much more, of course. But either way, I noticed you didn’t have a copy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and it’s one of my favourites, and it’s in there. And you’re an antique bookstore, so I figured-”
Theo was shaking his head, holding the book out towards her. “Hermione,” he said, finally. “This is too much. I can’t accept this.”
Hermione nearly rolled her eyes at him. “I’m giving it to you, Theo. Independent of… anything else I have to say today. I no longer have use for it and even apart from this week, I’m nearly swimming in galleons as it is – as soon as you mention to the ministry that you gave up your childhood and nearly died for them, suddenly the money appears.” She sounded bitter and Theo frowned, then set the book down very very carefully on the table beside him.
“Was there… something else?” He asked, finally, deciding it wasn’t worth the argument. She could be nothing if not stubborn.
Hermione took a breath and then pulled her shoulders back, looking up into his eyes. “Theo. I wanted to apologize,” she began, and managed a small smile. “For the way I behaved, the other week. I… I spoke to the boys and it turns out it was probably Ron’s fault, that you had nothing to do with it. I was… too quick to judge you, and the way I treated you simply was not appropriate or fair.”
Theo nodded and managed to return her smile. “I shouldn’t have underestimated how difficult it is for you. Reporters followed me around for weeks and it was exhausting, and… and I really am sorry.”
Her small smile turned to a grin as he said this and she stepped closer. “I know I’m not perfect, Theo. I’m… I can be a little reckless sometimes. I don’t always notice when I’m stepping on people. I work far too much and I see no problem with telling people what to do, if they need to be told. I’m… according to the media, I’m a whore, and I’m still a war heroine, the Gryffindor golden girl, but.” She paused, stepped closer again, looking up into his eyes, and Theo’s heart stopped. “But I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him… asking him to love her.”
Theo reacted without meaning to, he stepped backwards and bumped into a chair and he swallowed hard as his heart began to pound. “Hermione,” he said, almost warningly, and she frowned and started to step closer to him again – but he held up his hand to stop her.
“Don’t be an idiot, Granger. I’m no good for you.”
Hermione frowned at this. “What?” She asked, blinking up at him, trying to wrap her mind around what he had just said. Theo was breathing deeply now, clearly trying to figure out what to say to stop this. They had barely spent much time together and he had already been falling in love with her then, and then he spent ages trying to pull himself back out of it. They weren’t right, they wouldn’t work, and he couldn’t help but wish she had come a few weeks earlier when he still might have taken her word and leapt.
“Look. I can’t handle a life in the public eye, not like you do. I moved out of London to… to get away from it all. And you just have to take one look at the newspapers from the past few weeks to know what would happen. I may not… may not have been marked, but my hands aren’t exactly clean either. My father is in Azkaban. I was a Slytherin. You…” he took a breath and forced himself to look at her, to look into her big brown eyes. “You deserve better than the son of a Death Eater.”
She was still frowning, shaking her head as he spoke. “Theo, I don’t care! We can figure it out, the public thing. I… I have a big press conference tomorrow, about the work that I’ve been doing, but then we can disappear and find a way to never be in the papers again. I don’t… I don’t care, isn’t that obvious? I just, the time I spent with you was the happiest I have been in years. You make me feel safe, and like I can handle all of it. You… I don’t know how or why but you mean more to me than anyone has meant in a long time, can’t you see that?”
Theo shook his head now, turning away from her. “Hermione.” He paused, sighed. “Granger. Please just… just go.” He couldn’t turn back to watch as she fell apart, her shoulders dropping and her breath hitching as she swallowed down a sob. He couldn’t watch as she spared him one last glance, and then turned and left the store, as she disapparated away. When he was sure she was gone, he dropped down into the chair at the small table beside him, rested his head on the smooth wooden surface, and cried for the first time in years.
It took him eighteen hours to realize his mistake.
Marcus had come home in the morning and found him on the couch, a very old book lying on his chest, and his eyes rimmed red from lack of sleep and overuse. It only took Marcus ten minutes to figure out what had happened and slap Theo upside the head.
By the time Theo had showered, changed into clean clothes, and stumbled back into the living room, Marcus and Oliver were standing with their arms crossed beside the fireplace.
“Draco is waiting for you in the Manor. He’ll get you into the Ministry to the conference.”
Theo sighed and looked between them again. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Don’t be a fuckin’ idiot!” Oliver snapped, grabbing Theo’s hand and a handful of floo powder at the same time. “Go get your girl.” And with a rough shove and a shouted destination, Theo found himself tripping out of the fireplace in the Malfoy’s large anteroom, face to face with a very irate Draco.
“I would like it clear that I am only doing this because you have been an absolute miserable sod the past three months and I am, quite simply, sick of it.”
“Are you sure this is-“”
“I’m not going to talk you into it, Theo, so don’t bother asking. Let’s go, I’ll take you through the staff entrance and we’ll get in much more quickly.”
Theo shut up at this and instead let Draco grab his arm, wincing as they apparated and trying not to stumble when they landed in the staff apparation area at the Ministry.
“Right.” Draco said, dusting his hands together as he let go of Theo. “It’s just right through there, I believe. I have no clue what it’s about because I do not care about the woman or her work, so let’s just hope she sees you and decides not to hex you.” Theo turned to look back at Draco but the man was already walking briskly back to the point and all he managed was a smile at his friend’s back.
When he pulled open the doors to the large room, he was met with a huge crowd of reporters, most of whom he had never seen before. Someone was introducing themselves as being from the Bulgarian Potioneers Quarterly and Theo slipped into the middle of the crowd as he listened.
From what he gathered, Hermione – who was sitting next to her apparent business partner Neville Longbottom – had devised a way to make aconite grow both sustainably and cheaply through the clever use of charms and potions mixed with the plant itself. They had also seemingly struck a deal with the Ministry because of the now significantly lowered cost of manufacturing wolfsbane they would ensure that werewolves across the country would be able to receive the potion for free - and they were already in talks with MACUSA and other Ministries across Europe. Both Neville and Hermione looked significantly pleased with themselves, if a little awkward to be at the centre of so much attention, and Theo felt his heart swell as he watched the two of them.
“Ms. Granger,” someone was asking, holding their wand to their throat for voice projection. “Anna Scott here from Witch Weekly. What are your plans now that you’ve completed this important work?”
Hermione shifted a little and glanced at Neville, then back at the woman. “I’m… not quite sure. I think I might step back a little from work, and go somewhere where I can be out of the media spotlight for a little while.”
“Ms. Granger,” a familiar voice piped up, and Theo frowned as he turned and realized who was speaking. “Rita Skeeter from The Daily Prophet. I was wondering if you had anything to say about the pictures that surfaced a month or so ago, where you were caught half naked with a Death Eater. How is that going for you?”
Theo could see the way Hermione clenched her teeth from where she was sitting. “First of all, he was not a Death Eater. Secondly, I… there’s nothing to say. He was someone who I thought… he’s just someone who I used to know.”
“Ms. Granger,” Theo couldn’t help himself, and he was speaking and stepping forward a little before his brain had fully registered what was happening. “This… individual… would you ever give him another chance?”
Hermione frowned and tried to peer around the crowd and the blinding lights to get a better look at who was speaking. “I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?” She asked, and then paused. “As for the question, well… I’m not entirely sure.”
Theo cleared his throat and stepped forward again.
“Sir, only one question-”
“Please,” Theo muttered to the man directing the entire operation. “I’ll be quick. She wanted to know my name.”
The man sighed, but gestured for Theo to carry on anyways.
“Theo Nott,” he began, finally moving to a place where she could see him. “From, ah… Antique Books…” He paused, and grinned up at her. “What if… what if this man said he was wrong, and that he wished he could go back and… and change everything? What if he reminded you that… that the course of true love never did run smooth, and-” Hermione was grinning back at him now, and Theo stepped forward once again.
“That’s him !” Rita Skeeter gasped, and Theo ignored her completely.
“And that he was rather in love with you, himself?”
Hermione grinned down at him from where she sat, and then she was standing, moving around the table after a nod of go ahead from Neville, who was also smiling as the situation unfolded.
“Ms. Scott?” Hermione called, glancing around for the woman who was watching with rapture on your face. “Would you ask your question again, please?”
The woman cleared her throat and nodded. “Ms. Granger, what are you planning to do now?”
Hermione was standing in front of Theo now, and she slipped a hand down to take one of his in her own, looking into his eyes the whole time. “I’m running away with the man I love.” And then, with a turn of her heel and a loud crack , they were gone.