Out of Time

Chapter 9

"So, Theo, huh?" Terry says after an extended silence that begins to turn awkward. "Is that... official?"

Awkward or not, Hermione would rather this not be the topic he chooses. But she supposes the whole thing is new enough to justify asking about, and she sighs. "Yes, I think it is."

"Well, if you don't know, it might not be," he teases lightly. The tips of his ears show through his shaggy hair and look a little pink. Hermione is beginning to dread where this is going.

"I would like it to be," she replies in a firm voice. The least she can do is try and head this off at the pass.

The corridors really are empty. They've only passed one other person, heading the other way. Hermione starts to feel a little uncomfortable and shoves it down. She's known Terry for six years.

Her attempt at stopping this line of conversation fails miserably.

"If you decide otherwise, I'd like the chance to take you out sometime," he coughs out. He rubs his hand through his brown hair as they walk, making it stand on end. It doesn't do his pink ears any favours by exposing them.

Time to be more direct. She did it with Seamus; she can do it here, too. Hermione takes a deep breath. "Terry, I'm really flattered. But I do fancy Theo, and -"

"Why, though?" he bursts out. Suddenly affronted, he stops walking. The slight flush to his skin takes on a different hue. "He's a Slytherin. His dad's a Death Eater and you know their ideology."

"Theo isn't like that."

Terry begins to get riled. His dark eyes flash something dangerous and he points his index finger at her chest. "He and his lot bullied you for years. So just because he - he says something nice for a change, you go dropping your knickers for him, and -"

"Excuse me?!" Forget the Grey Lady. Hermione goes to turn back and he grabs her arm.

She stares back and forth between Terry's hand and his face until he releases her. He looks away first, humiliated and red.

"I'm sorry." Terry balls his hand into a tight fist and drops it to his side. "I'm sorry. Come on, I know where she usually stays. I'll just - introduce you and leave you to it, shall I?"

"I would appreciate that," Hermione says in a frosty voice.

He leads her down another dark, empty hallway and his resolve breaks. "You know, you could have the Pureblood vault without the blood supremacy. Not all of us are like that."

She's too stunned at the first sentence to interrupt before he's done. Her jaw is on the floor. "What did you say to me?"

He grows defensive. "I said, I could give you the name to belong, and the wealth without all the 'Mudblood' bullshit you've heard from them."

The fact that Terry still considers this an acceptable angle to pursue has her paralysed with verbal indecision. She wants to shout fourteen different things in his face at once, and the requirement to choose one over the rest has her stumped.

She kicks him in the shin instead, inordinately pleased that the shoes she's wearing are a pair of Draco's favourites, nice and pointy. "Arsehole!"

He recovers quicker than she did, yanking her arm and pinning her to the wall. It happens so fast, Hermione hardly has time to realise the change. His fingers are pinching into her skin hard enough to feel the prick of his nails. The stone is rough and cold at her back.

"Stop fighting it," he hisses in her face, squeezing tighter. Her breath escapes her in a wheeze. "If you'll go with them, you should go with me. You should consider yourself lucky that I still want you after who you've been with. So stop being a bitch, Hermione."