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"What's this?" Hermione asks, blinking in confusion at the box of her favourite sweets in Theo's hands.
Theo places the box in front of her before settling into his usual spot at the Gryffindor table. Hermione's housemates have now made a conscious effort to leave room for him, considering he had no qualms in squeezing his way in to sit beside her. It's as if he didn't have his own assigned table.
"I thought you could read."
"You're a twat."
"And here I was, doing something nice for you." Theo sighs. Always the flair for the dramatics. "It's Valentine's Day."
Hermione eyes him suspiciously before finally accepting the sweets and his reasoning. For as long as she's known him (and she's known him long enough that she couldn't even remember not knowing him), the two of them had never exchanged anything on Valentine's Day.
"Right, well, thanks." She says, offering him a a nudge of her shoulder. His cheeks were pink. "I suppose I could share since I didn't get you anything."
Theo looks at Hermione expectantly before he gives her a slow nod. His facial expression is unreadable, but something flashes in his eyes that she couldn't quite decipher. "How generous."
"I got you this."
Hermione looks up from her parchment, settling her quill down carefully to not spill ink. The library was nearly empty at this hour, and Madam Pince was an hour and half away from kindly asking her to leave.
"Another present?"
"Are you complaining that I'm spoiling you?"
"I don't reckon a fresh box of the cheapest quills warrants you tossing the word spoiling around."
"It's not my fault these happen to be your favourite to write with."
"Hmm, touché." Hermione sounds, accepting the pack of quills. "Will that be all?"
Theo blinks, eyes darting between his gift and Hermione. He opens his mouth, closes it, and opens it again. Nothing comes out.
She shakes her head and begins to pack her things away. She bites back a smile as Theo, ever the conversationalist, is clearly at a loss for words. "Come on, Nott. Walk me back to my common room."
"It seems like Nott's got a thing for you." Ginny points out as soon as Theo leaves Hermione in the Great Hall with another present. This time, it was a locket charmed to hold as many tiny pictures as she liked. Being quite the sentimental person, this gift was thoughtful and just proved to her that Theo knew Hermione quite well—not that it needed to be proven.
"I know." She says, touching the locket he had secured around her neck. There was only one photo in it currently. It was a picture of her and Theo, laughing as she attempted to swipe frosting across his nose.
"And you like him."
Hermione nods and smiles lightly. "I do."
"But he doesn't know."
She shakes her head. After Theo secured the locket around her neck, she had questioned what the occasion was and Theo shrugged, claiming he was just messing around with a spell. He couldn't hold her gaze and his tells when lying were practically screaming in her face. Theo excused himself quickly when she gave him a very friendly side-hug in thanks, teasingly claiming just how good of a friend he was.
"I refuse to tell him until he can be a big boy and use his words."
"Are you going to Hogsmeade this weekend?" Theo asks, cutting through the welcomed silence as the two of them sat near the Black Lake.
"Mhm," Hermione sounds noncommittally. "As I do every time we're permitted to go."
"Right," Theo nods. He's fiddling with a loose string on the blanket the two of them are sitting on. "Wanna go with me?"
Her brows lift slightly, her eyes flickering to his. "Don't I always?"
"I mean, yes."
"Okay," Hermione says slowly. She pauses long enough for him to interject. When he doesn't, she sighs and shakes her head. "So I'll meet you at our usual meeting spot."
"Okay."
"I can pay for myself, Theo."
Theo shakes his head, making quite a scene of pulling out a few sickles and galleons (the price of two butterbeers and a slice of apple pie did not warrant the number of galleons he placed onto the counter).
"I'm well aware." Theo says, waving off her attempt in tossing in the amount for her share. "But I'm paying for it."
"Then the next one's on me."
"That's not how this works."
"This?"
"Yes."
"What's 'this' then?"
Theo's jaw clenches and he exhales a breath. "You know what this is."
Hermione did.
After he met her in front of the Gryffindor common room instead of the usual meeting spot, purchased a book she was eyeing at Tomes and Scrolls, opened all the doors for her, and pulled out her chair at the Three Broomsticks (and then sat beside her rather than in front of her), Hermione had a strong inkling of what this day was. But Theo never explicitly asked or said anything that would allude to being interested romantically, and so Hermione continued the charade. She played dumb—oblivious.
Hermione's brows furrow and she blinks in convincing bewilderment. "Do I?"
Theo releases a small groan, hands covering his eyes in defeat. "Gods, you're impossible."
"I'm confused."
"I like you!" Theo blurts, bringing his hands down so he can meet her gaze. His eyes burn with frustration and longing. His cheeks are red and he's bouncing his left leg as if he'd just heard he needed to face three boggarts at once. "I've been trying to tell you this whole time. The sweets, the quills, the necklace, the book. I even took you out on this bloody date. How do you not know already?"
It took everything in her power not to crack as he finally voiced his feelings. As she watches him take bated breaths, she can't help but erupt into a fit of laughter.
"Merlin," Hermione giggles, wiping the tears from the corner of her eye. "It took you long enough, you bloody goof."
Theo flushes and she can't tell if he's red because he's embarrassed and confused or if it's because he's seconds away from breathing himself into hyperventilation. She doesn't let him get to that point (being the gracious and not at all cruel person that she was), as she grabs Theo by his collar and pulls him in for a kiss.
Theo tastes of butterscotch and syrup and his lips are soft and hesitant until they're not. He comes to, his hand moving to cup her jaw as he kisses her back.
She pulls away from him, beaming at his shell-shocked and pleased expression. "I've known. I just wanted to hear you say it."