A/N
This chapter took me SO long. I realized when I went to write this that I got a little carried away with my writing, and I was a good 8 chapters behind were I'd intended to be by now so forgive the time jump (I promise I didn't rob you guys of anything too exciting). Anyways that's all, there's some pretty significant foreshadowing in this chapter but I'm not telling where, we'll just have to see if anyone can guess.
Enjoy!
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The rest of the first term passed relatively uneventfully for the two of them in the Head's dorm aside from the days surrounding the Halloween dance, which gave Draco a constant headache. The less savoury two thirds of the Golden Trio made a reappearance on the 31st, Nott pranced about with an unsettling number of hickeys on his neck like a badge of honour, Zabini was constantly ducking away mid-conversations to who-knows-where and with who-knows-who, the younger Greengrass refused to quit following him like a lovesick puppy, and the older Greengrass would not stop whinging to anyone with ears how she was certain Parkinson was shagging someone in secret.
Hermione seemed to be equally annoyed with her own friend group according to the long-winded rant he'd endured the day after Halloween; her frustration surrounding mostly Ron's overprotective attitude on her living arrangements, his disappearances throughout their visit without explanation, the Weaslette's refusal to confide in her who she's shagging, and Loony Lovegood's spouting of alarming nonsense-not-nonsense.
Nonetheless, the rest of their time at Hogwarts before winter break quite uneventful. Draco found the domestication of his and Hermione's situation both unnerving and comforting. They would eat breakfast in the dorms every morning, brave the population of Hogwarts with their occlumency walls fortified, and drink away their post-war traumas in the evening while Granger let her walls down to prevent another mind-magic induced mental breakdown.
He was dreading returning home to the Manor for Christmas break the day tomorrow. He'd received numerous owls from both of his parents in the past weeks, all spouting various degrees of familial expectations and blood purist rot, especially from his father.
Draco let these thoughts roll over each other in his head as he watched his trunk magically pack itself. His Christmas present to Granger was sitting on his desk, the lavender wrapping paper with its Gryffindor gold bow stood out stark against the deep greens and blacks of his room. He could vaguely feel his anxiety over if she'd like the gift bubbling in the back of his head, but it was buried deep behind his occlumency walls and felt like little more than an annoying tickle.
"Draco" Granger's voice interrupted his train of thought as it carried into his room from the kitchen. "Coffee's ready." It'd been her turn to make breakfast for them this morning. They'd really dove head-first into the domestication of it all, taking turns changing trash cans and everything. She'd even yelled at him for leaving his socks on the floor the other day, absurd.
--
"Be right there Honey!" Draco called back into the kitchen, his voice cracking with barely restrained humor. Hermione felt her expression twist into a scowl, and she contemplated the pros and cons of hexing his coffee in retribution. Deciding against it, and to get her revenge another day, she placed it on the counter next to their breakfast spread and dusted some coffee grounds off the shirt she'd swiped from Draco's floor and her back from the entrance to fix her tea.
She heard footsteps padding up behind her and the dull clicking of Draco's coffee mug being picked up.
"I thought we agreed that 'Honey' was on the list of names we were avoiding, I told you I think its platitudinous and hollow."
"Well princess," came the unexpected voice of Theodore Nott from behind her, causing her to spin so quickly she nearly spilled her freshly made tea. "I don't recall agreeing to any such deal, nor do I know what 'platitudinous' means if we're being honest."
"What the actual fuckTheo! You scared the life out of me!" She exclaimed, holding her hand over her frantically beating heart. He raised an eyebrow at her disbelievingly.
"Well you're the loudest dead person I've ever met -aside from Moaning Myrtle-, I think I may have gone deaf from your shrieking." Draco chose that moment to come padding into the room, barefoot and still attempting to smooth down his bedhead.
"Too bad you couldn't have gone mute too Nott." He quipped dryly, snatching his cup of coffee out of his friend's hands. "What're you doing here?" Hermione noted that he didn't seem to be panicking over Theo's presence in their -obviously intimate- morning routine, nor was he going out of his way to appear as though they weren't intimately acquainted in some way.
"Do I need a reason to come visit you love birds?" The brunette asked in response, fluttering his eyelashes as though to emphasise his innocence. Hermione snorted indelicately at the image before her; Draco standing, one hand grasping his coffee and the other pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation as Theo idly drummed his fingers on the countertop and smiled broadly at the scowling blonde.
Throughout their interaction, Hermione had poured and fixed a cup of coffee for Theo, and now circled around the island to lean against it while she handed it over to the brunette Slytherin.
In the same moment, all three of them simultaneously realized that Hermione was sporting only Draco's long sleeve, her knickers and a pair of fuzzy socks. Draco's eyes widened in shock, Theo's grin grew exponentially till she would only describe it as 'shit-eating', and Hermione let out a mortified squeak before darting back around the island. Hastily, she summoned a pair of pajama pants from her room and pulled them on as quickly as she could manage without falling on her face.
By the time she was fully clothed, both Slytherins seemed to have composed themselves; Theo's expression had settled into a victorious smirk and Draco was glaring heatedly at the side of Theo's head.
"Draco Malfoy you filthy fucking liar!" Theo exclaimed, his voice dripping with sarcasm and faux offence. "I knew, knewthat 'Mione walked around in her knickers and you were all 'I'd rather dance with dementors than find out'!" He turned his attention to her as he continued speaking "I'll be honest though, I 100% had my money on white cotton, didn't peg you as a black lace kind of girl."
"Theodore Nott if you reference my knickers one more time I will owl Harry and tell him you won't stop ogling my arse." Hermione threatened, gesturing at him with her spoon. Draco shot him a victorious smirk, which she caught in her peripheral vision and turned to level her glare on the blonde Slytherin. "And you! 'Dance with a dementor'? Really? You didn't seem too repulsed by my knickers last night when you-"
She was physically cut off by Draco's hand stifling her words, the rest coming out in unintelligibly. Feeling childish, and grumpy about the dementors comment, Hermione opened her mouth behind his palm and licked it. He immediately recoiled in horror, wiping his damp palm on his shirt to clean it.
"In my defense!" He cut in before she could resume her berating. "This conversation was way before, you know" he gestured between the two of them "andI'm almost certain the dementors bit was in reference to shagging him" he pointed accusingly at the brunette Slytherin who was looking awfully pleased with himself while he drank his coffee.
"That makes more sense" Theo chimed in "your arse did look quite delicious in those knickers." It was Hermione's turn to pinch the bridge of her nose exasperatedly.
"I suppose I should've clarified and that's my fault because I should know better by now with you, Theodore if you continue to talk about my knickers OR my arse or any other part of me in a lecherous way, I will owl Harry and concoct an abundance of terrible lies so he never wants to shag you again." Theo scoffed haughtily.
"Please, obviously I do all the shagging in our trysts."
"You can say the word relationship you know; it won't bite you" Hermione advised at the same time Draco piped up confusedly.
"Wait, you're shagging Potter?"
"Draco darling, please do keep up, He's been shagging Harry since the Hufflepuff-Slytherin Game back in October.
"I am not scared of the work 'relationship' thank you very much, it just doesn't apply to our situation." Theo defended, ignoring Draco's confusion entirely.
"Oh, so you two aren't exclusively sleeping with each other? Have you not expressed romantic feelings for one another? Do you not exchange letters? Did you not meet up at Hogsmeade to spend time alone just the two of you?"
Theo opened and closed his mouth a few times, his eyes narrowing as he searched for a response. Eventually he gave up, slouching into his seat defeatedly and staring into his half-full mug of coffee.
"I'm sorry!" Draco interrupted the brief silence, not sounding sorry at all. "Can we just circle on back to this whole Nott is shagging Potter thing, and has been for months, and I didn't know!"
"No, and only because you never out and admitted to me that 'Mione here is your girlfriend even though you knew that I knew and asked you repeatedly." Theo responded petulantly, sniffing haughtily in a manner that would've made Pansy Parkinson proud.
"I-" Draco started, looking completely lost for words and very much like this revelation had pulled the rug out from underneath him. "I did not see that one coming." He managed finally.
Hermione just laughed alongside Theo, summoning the muffins and croissants she'd made earlier for the three of them to pick at while they finished their drinks. There were no classes today, and the only thing on the agenda for most of the 7thand 8thyears was to hand in their mixed-class projects to Professor Slughorn.
--
"I should read over the essay one more time before we hand it in" Granger protested, reaching futilely for the essay he was holding out of her reach as they walked through the castle. Nott had left their dorms some time ago to meet up with Susan Bones so they could hand in their own project.
"Granger you have literally read the essay twelve times between last night and this morning, and before you say I'm exaggerating I actually counted. You are not reading it again, it's perfect we're going to get an outstanding on it so just focus on walking before you fall down the staircases and die." She backed off trying to twist around him to snatch the parchment from his hands and instead began absently scratching at her arm where Draco knew her 'Mudblood' scar sat.
"At least let me check the potion colour, it's supposed to be purple and it looked more periwinkle earlier."
"No, the potion is fine. Plus, we're here." It was almost entertaining, the way she smoothed the anxious panic out of her features and collected herself before she entered the classroom. With a steadying breath, the two of them walked through the threshold.
Professor Slughorn and Professor Babbling were both sitting behind his desk. A large pile of completed projects already sitting in front of them.
"Ah Miss Granger, Mister Malfoy!" Slughorn greeted them cheerfully, while Babbling settled on a warm smile. "Come in, come in. Now please set down your assignment and if you would, give us a little summary of your cursed object." They'd already agreed to let Granger present their curse, simply because Draco knew she'd drop dead of an aneurism if he did it and forgot anything. Hermione cleared her throat and began talking in what he'd dubbed her 'teacher voice'.
"Our object was a branding iron forged with a curse. The curse altered the metal so that when it came in contact with blood -from the branding process- it would link the branded to a specific magical signature for tracking purposes mostly. These were common in sex trafficking rings and the counter-curse was necessary to un-link the branded individuals from their controllers because death or typical magical removal only managed to unlock the curse, often trapping the controllers' magic or a piece of their magic inside the victim's magical core. Cursed brands can be identified by the wound, as they won't properly heal, take on a unique reddish-purple hue, and can be painful for years after receiving it, even if the controller dies."
"Ah yes, nasty things, just terrible. A very tricky curse but I have full faith in my two best students!"
"Thank you, professor," the two chimed simultaneously before exchanging goodbyes with both teachers and escaping the potions lab.
Discussion!
Question: Do you guys have a favourite character at all? I probably shouldn't because they're mine and like children you're not supposed to admit to having favourites but I do (its Theo).