Chapter Text
Hermione knew that Professor Slughorn must be even more clueless than she had suspected. Despite the current climate (war was brewing, couldn't the potions professor smell it?), he had decided to give them all a lesson in inter-house unity. This brilliant idea found Hermione paired with a Slytherin named Theo Nott for that day's lesson.
She glanced at him nervously as she took the space next to him at a work station. He stared at his textbook, which was open on the table in front of him. His black hair was cut very short on the sides and several inches long on top. The top bit was swooped back, but not in the obnoxious, heavily-gelled way that Malfoy used to wear his hair. No, this look was sexy. She shivered at the thought. Hermione wished Nott's tie was blue and bronze, or even black and yellow. Then she could have flirted and chatted and felt fairly confident that she wouldn't be immediately rebuffed. But that green and silver warned her from even thinking about it.
"I'll fetch the animal ingredients if you'll get the plant bits," he said without looking at her.
Hermione's stomach clenched at the sound of his voice. She'd heard him laugh--a tinny, disingenuous, and mean sound. At least, so it had seemed at the time since he was laughing as Malfoy made fun of her. But that was years ago. And his voice now, well, she'd like to hear him say some things decidedly less mundane than splitting up the ingredients list. She was silent for long enough that he looked up at her with his dark, narrow eyebrows raised in question. His eyes were so blue and clear. Like he'd stolen a piece of the sky so he could see. Hermione felt her cheeks heat and she looked away.
"Sounds good," Hermione managed to say. She glanced at the ingredients list to memorize the required plant bits. Then, she turned on her heel and marched into the supply cupboard.
They worked in silence for the most part. Hermione was pleased to find that Nott was a competent potioneer. Together they managed to create a rather finicky brew that would turn the drinker invisible for a short time. It was a beautiful blue, a few shades darker than Nott's eyes. Hermione couldn't help glancing back at his face to compare the two colors, and she found him staring at her as if he was trying to commit her image to memory. Hermione flushed again under the unexpected scrutiny, but she held her head high and tipped her chin so that she was looking up at him rather than letting him intimidate her.
"Well done, Mr. Nott and Ms. Granger, well done indeed," Professor Slughorn said from the front of their workbench. Hermione and Nott broke off their staring contest to look at the professor. Slughorn grinned at them and offered them two vials.
"Give it a test then. So the others can see what it's supposed to do," Slughorn said.
Hermione took the vial a little more eagerly than she intended as the sudden attention of the whole class made her want to drop through the floor. Nott took his vial without complaint, too. They simultaneously tipped the vials back. It was only a mouthful. It left the taste of mouthwash on her tongue, and it was cool as it slid down her throat. She glanced down and jumped a little when she couldn't see her hands. Slughorn clapped, and the rest of the class joined in.
"Now then, back to work the rest of you, let's see if you can accomplish this, too," Slughorn said.
Once everyone was no longer looking her direction. Hermione relaxed a little. But then, she felt someone grab her waist and haul her towards the nearby supply closet. A protest formed on her lips, but a hand covered her mouth before she could speak. Once inside the supply closet with the door partially closed, the hands released her. She looked around wildly, but she couldn't see anyone. Of course, it must be Nott. Hermione's wand was still on the work station, so all she had to protect her was her bravado.
"What do you think you're doing, Nott?" Hermione hissed.
"Getting a moment alone with you," he replied from somewhere to her left. She reached out a hand blindly and brushed his robes. He must have backed away because when she grabbed again in that direction she found empty air.
"Why?" Hermione asked. She listened carefully for his reply, but he only chuckled softly. Unlike the mocking sound she remembered from third year, this laugh was deep and did strange things to her stomach. She reached towards the sound, but caught only the barest edge of robes with her fingertips.
"The potion won't last much longer," Nott said. He was directly behind her now.
"For all anyone knows, we're putting away potions ingredients we didn't use," Hermione said. He chuckled again, and she felt a hand on either side of her waist just before his breath ghosted over her neck.
"You're so right, Granger," he whispered at the shell of her ear. He must be bending down to be able to do that. He was so tall--taller even than Ron, who had become something like a giant over the summer. His next words and their suggestive tone made her heart beat double-time: "Or they could think we're in here doing something else."
"We aren't doing anything," Hermione said as steadily as she could, which of course meant that she tripped over her words. His hands shifted on her waist, and his robes swirled around his ankles as he moved to stand in front of her. She brought her hands up to his chest to push him away, but he was so firm under his school robes, she just wanted to dig her fingers into his perfect pecs. One of his hands moved from her waist, sliding up her arm to her shoulder, up her neck to rest on her jaw. Then, she felt his face hovering above hers.
"Tell me No, and I'll let you go," Nott murmured. She licked her lips, and he was so close that the tip of her tongue brushed his lip.
"What would I be saying No to?" She asked.
"Say Yes, and you'll find out," he responded. It was maddening. His talking around things, the feel of his hand on her waist and her jaw, the scent of his robes.
"Yes," she barely breathed the word. It was enough. His lips were suddenly on hers. For a moment, she stared into the empty air in front of her, then her eyes closed as she gave herself over to the pressure of his lips against hers. It was blissful. It was everything her clumsy kisses with Krum hadn't been, and there'd been rather a dearth of kissing since then. At first she was shocked into stillness, but the warmth of his lips drew her in, and she was soon giving as good as she was receiving. It was wonderful, right up until she heard a glass break and Professor Slughorn exclaimed: "Mr. Nott! Ms. Granger! Twenty points each from Slytherin and Gryffindor for inappropriate use of the supply closet!"
Hermione broke away from Nott and found that she could see her hands again. This was problematic as her hands were currently clutching fistfuls of Nott's robes while he held her close. His heavily-lidded eyes were wide open, and his pupils were dilated as he looked down at her from only a couple of inches away. His hair had fallen from its swoop to fall over his forehead. Nott recovered his composure first.
"I'm sorry, sir," he said as he removed his hands from Hermione's frame. She released her hold on his robes and twisted her fingers together in front of her. Nott stood tall and still beside her. "I had simply taken the opportunity to tell Ms. Granger of my feelings for her, and in the excitement of learning that she felt the same, I lost my composure. I do apologize."
"As do I, sir," Hermione said quietly. The blood pounded in her ears. The sneaky snake had backed her into a corner! But for what purpose? Suspicion sang through her, and she resolved that she would find answers.
"Yes, well, I understand the power of young love," Slughorn said with a fond laugh. He quickly sobered himself and added, "But the loss of points stands, and I'll thank you to keep your amorous words and actions to places other than my supply closet."
"Of course, sir, won't happen again in the supply closet," Nott said.
Hermione cut a glance up at Nott and found him smiling charmingly. What a strangely specific way of wording that, as if he actually expected that he would get to kiss her again elsewhere. Professor Slughorn seemed to catch that nuance as well because he turned faintly red, though he just chuckled again and gestured them out into the classroom.
The classroom was deadly silent when they walked back out. Harry and Ron were staring at her like she'd grown a second head. Malfoy looked distinctly constipated as he looked at Theo. Other Slytherins were glaring openly, as were a few of the other house members. Everyone was clearly interested in what had just transpired. Hermione wished she could take some more of the invisibility potion and disappear again.
"Alright, alright, everyone settle down," Slughorn told the silent classroom. "Back to work. Erm, those of you who have already finished may have the remainder of the period free once you clean up your work station."
Hermione quickly gathered her things and vanished the detritus of potion-making. Nott did the same, so they were ready to go at the same time. He gave her a shy smile before grabbing her hand and pulling her from the classroom. Just before the door closed behind them, Hermione heard the rumor mill begin to grind its wheels. Once Nott had led her far enough from the potions classroom, she tried to tug her hand away from him.
"What the bloody hell was that, Nott?" Hermione whisper-shouted. She didn't want to draw attention to them from anyone who happened to be about, but she was also very upset.
He kept a grip on her hand and ducked into an empty classroom. He locked and warded the door, and Hermione threw up a silencing charm so she could be as loud as she wanted.
"You're awfully trusting, Granger," Nott said after she cast the silencing spell. "No one to hear you scream if I wanted to harm you."
"But you don't," she said. Then, she suddenly felt unsure and she raised her wand towards him. "Do you?"
He was silent for long time. Finally, he ran a hand through his messed up hair and sighed.
"No, Granger, I don't want to harm you," he said.
"Then what are you doing?" She asked. "And don't give me some nonsense about fancying me for years or some such. You've laughed often enough at your friends' jokes when they've been aimed at me. I know you aren't really interested."
"Laughed, yes, but never made those jokes myself, not even in private," Nott said. Hermione lowered her wand at that. It was true. She remembered her earlier assessment of his former laughter as disingenuous. Hermione frowned.
"Laughed because you found it funny or because you had to?" She asked. Nott gave her a tiny smile.
"Now you're getting it," he said. "As for what I'm doing, well, there is a war coming, you know, and I do not wish to be placed on a side that I did not choose simply because an old hat said I was ambitious and cunning."
"But your father, he's a death eater," Hermione said. She knew this for a fact. Harry had seen him in the cemetery when Voldemort returned. Nott didn't even try to deny it. He just nodded.
"And unlike the Malfoy heir, I don't wish to inherit everything that my father would thrust upon me," he said.
"Let me see your arm," Hermione said. Nott frowned, but then his expression cleared to complacency as he realized what she actually wanted to know. He rolled up his left sleeve, revealing unblemished, tan skin. Hermione exhaled, a sound of relief.
"I'm not marked, Granger, and I don't want to be," he said. He stared at her shoulder rather than meeting her eyes. "What I'm doing... I'm choosing a side, publicly. I'll be of age at the end of the school year. I'll remain at school for the holidays. My father won't be able to touch me here. And after," he paused and made eye contact again, "after, I would greatly appreciate your assistance in remaining out of my father's grasp."
"But I don't understand why these theatrics," Hermione said. "You could have just gone to Dumbledore. He would protect you, even without me."
Nott scoffed. "No, Granger, he wouldn't," Nott said. "I approached Professor Snape about it. I know that he's a spy for Dumbledore and the Dark Lord. I had to take a risk that he was more Dumbledore's man than the Dark Lord's. He was the one who advised me that the headmaster would never help a Slytherin son of a death eater. He'd worry it was a trap."
"And, what? If he thinks you're doing it because you're madly in love with me, then it'll be different somehow?" Hermione asked.
"That is essentially the advice I received from my Head of House," Nott said. "Not that he spoke of you specifically. That was my idea. After all, if this is going to work, you are the best chance of it working."
Hermione spluttered for a second as she was unsure if she should be offended or not. She was leaning towards yes because this boy was USING her for his own ends. At the same time, she couldn't fault his logic. Dumbledore could be notoriously biased and distrustful. And if he would accept a death eater's son into the fold for any reason, love would be high on the list. And, after all, if he truly wanted to escape the clutches of Voldemort, Dumbledore was the best option. Hermione's gaze wandered back to Nott as she considered all of this.
"Please, Hermione," he whispered. Her stomach flip-flopped. Her embarrassment at the situation he had put her in paled in comparison to the horrid fate he faced if she refused. She couldn't be the reason an innocent person was forced to join Voldemort.
"Okay," she said. "But I need a written oath."
"I am prepared for that," he said. "May I know the terms first?"
"There are three: You will not knowingly harm a member of the Order of the Phoenix unless you face mortal peril," she said. He nodded acceptance of this, and she said, "You will not lie to me, even if you believe you are protecting me from the truth." Nott nodded again. And she finished with, "You will be a model partner to me for the time that is required to see you safe from he-who-must-not-be-named."
"And from my father," Nott said. "He's at least as dangerous to me as the Dark Lord is."
It was Hermione's turn to nod. She pulled a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill from her school bag. She leaned on a desk as she wrote out the terms and signed her name at the bottom and underlined it. Then, she cast three spells on the parchment in rapid succession.
"If someone sees this," he began to object, but Hermione rolled her eyes.
"The third spell I just cast was for concealment. No one who doesn't already know the contents of this parchment will be able to read it."
"And the other spells?"
"They are my assurance that you won't break the contract. One warns you that you're about to break the oath. The second punishes you if you persist in breaking the oath."
Nott looked like he wanted more information, but then he just nodded and took the quill she offered. He signed his name on the line Hermione had drawn beneath her own name. Hermione rolled up the parchment and tucked it into a pocket in her robes.
"Now, the others will be out of class soon, and we need a plan before that," Hermione said. "Any bright ideas, Nott?"
"We could start by agreeing to call each other by our given names," Nott said. He held out a hand, and said, "I'm Theo. I've watched you for a long time, and I think you're amazing."
"I'm Hermione, and I think you're extremely handsome," Hermione said as she took his hand to shake it. She blushed and tried to pull her hand away again. She hadn't meant to say that. She'd meant to say something flippant about how she'd never noticed him before, but she couldn't lie to him when she looked into those blue eyes. She couldn't... Oh shite. The whole reason she'd signed her name before spelling the document was so that it wouldn't affect her. What had gone wrong?
Theo still held her hand, and with a light tug, he pulled her to him so that her hands were resting on his chest for the second time that day. "I've wanted to kiss you since fourth year, and I wished I could be your friend before that," he said. Even without the assurance of the parchment in her pocket telling her he couldn't lie to her, she would have believed him. He looked down at her with such longing. Like she was water in the desert, or a warm fire in a blizzard. No one had ever looked at her like that before.
"I've always thought you were intelligent. I wished you weren't prejudiced so we could discuss esoteric topics," she said. Her hands crept up his shirt to his collar. His adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed and placed a hand on her waist, as he'd done in the supply closet.
"We can definitely do that," he said. "But right now, please, just let me kiss you again."
Hermione rose on tiptoes and he met her in the middle. When their lips met this time, Hermione realized that he'd been holding back in the supply closet. He released her hand so he could clutch her to him with both arms, and his lips moved against hers as if he were trying to learn their shape through touch. She gasped as one of his hands trailed slowly up her spine, and he took that opportunity to plunge his tongue into her mouth. Hermione leaned into the kiss, pushing him off balance so that he stumbled back against the wall.
"Get away from her!" a familiar voice yelled.
They were interrupted mid-snog for the second time that day, though this time it was due to Hermione's overprotective friends barging into the room after breaking through Theo's wards. She broke away from Theo and turned so her back was to him. She dropped her wand from the sleeve holster into her hand and held it in front of her, aimed at her best friends. Harry held a blank piece of folded, tattered parchment in one hand, so that explained how they'd found her.
"Excuse me, but we were in the middle of something," Hermione said through gritted teeth. "The wards were up for a reason."
"What did you do to her, Nott?" Ron snarled.
"Theo hasn't done anything but declare his feelings for me," Hermione said. "Feelings, which, as you can see, are very much returned."
"You can't be serious," Harry said. He was almost pleading, though he lowered his wand.
"I am quite serious, Harry," Hermione said. She reached behind her to grab Theo's hand. He took it, but he also wrapped his other arm around her waist. as he came to stand beside her.
"This may be difficult for you to understand," Theo said, "but Hermione is a brilliant, beautiful witch. I know that I'm unbelievably lucky that she feels some attraction to me, too."
Ron and Harry stared at them open-mouthed.
"She's imperiused," Ron muttered. His voice rose as he added, "Or he slipped her a love potion, or, I don't know, something. He's done something!"
"I don't think so, Ron," Harry said. He slowly lowered his wand and then put it in his pocket. He took a couple of tentative steps into the room and extended his hand towards Theo. "I don't think we've properly met. I'm Harry Potter."
"Theo Nott, but please, call me Theo. I rather prefer not to be reminded of my parentage," Theo said as he shook Harry's hand.
"Yeah, I could see that being an issue. I'm not particularly fond of your dad, myself," Harry said. Theo cracked a smile at that, and Hermione started to relax.
"You're all bloody mental," Ron practically growled before he stomped away from the classroom.
"He'll come around," Harry said with a shrug. "Sorry about the abrupt entrance. We shouldn't have interrupted like that, but, well, we're protective of Hermione."
"We're all protective of each other," Hermione corrected him. Harry grinned and nodded.
"True enough. Well, I'll leave you to, whatever," he said, looking a bit green again.
Then Harry was gone, as well, and they were alone once more.
"That went better than I expected," Theo said. He gave Hermione's hand a squeeze and smiled down at her. It was a shy smile.
"Harry can be very understanding when it comes to emotions. It's logic that gets him twisted. He's a very passionate person," Hermione said with a fond smile. Theo moved away from her a bit at that, releasing his hold on her waist and hand.
"You're not, I mean, I'm not interrupting something with this plan, am I?" He asked. Hermione brow dipped, but then rose quite high as she caught his meaning.
"Oh no!" She exclaimed. "No, no, no, there's, there's absolutely nothing between me and Harry, or me and Ron, for that matter. We are all strictly platonic friends.
"Theo looked relieved, though the expression quickly disappeared as his face resumed its usual passivity.
"Come on," Hermione said, taking his hand again and intertwining their fingers. "We need to talk, and I know just the place. Might as well keep up a united front on the way there.
"Theo squeezed her hand. Then he bent down to gently kiss her forehead.
"Thank you," he murmured. Hermione's heart skipped a beat and her breath hitched. She led him out of the classroom, past the whispers through each corridor, up and up through the castles, until they reached the seventh floor corridor. Hermione stopped in front of a blank wall and released Theo's hand. He didn't question as she paced back and forth in front of the wall, though he did jump a bit when a door materialized in the stone wall.
Hermione took his hand again and opened the door. The Room of Requirement had turned into a cozy study with a crackling fire. Above the mantel was a landscape of rolling hills under stormy skies with a white horse in the foreground. In front of the fireplace was a short purple sofa with a matching armchair to each side. The wall behind the sitting area housed built-in bookshelves surrounding an oak desk with a straight-backed chair pushed beneath it. Candles in sconces lit the room along with the fire in the hearth. Hermione led Theo to the sofa and sat down. He looked around warily as he followed suit.
"This room is interesting," he said. "Why was the door hidden? And how did you open it?"
"The room becomes what you need it to be. It's not here otherwise. You have to walk by it several times with a specific intent, and then, poof, the room gives you what you require. We call it the Room of Requirement."
"Wicked," Theo said. "I'd ask that you keep this place a secret," Hermione said as she nibbled her lower lip.
"Of course," he said.
"Good, now then, we have some planning to do," Hermione said. "Let's get started."