As a child, Theodore Nott would make the rounds around his family estate with house elves for hours. He had become a man since then, and now spent most of his leisure time engaged in what he deemed more "productive" pursuits. He didn't want to seem like Malfoy, who couldn't go out without being subjected to wary glances and hushed whispers, and therefore spent most of his time skulking in Malfoy Manor with only his wife and parents for company. Not that Nott particularly craved company, though. He was for the most part alone and anonymous, and that was how he liked it.

Midnight. The black sky was dark and smooth. Nott smiled. Wasn't it fitting night would be his favorite time, when his last name was derived from the Norse personification of night?

He walked through a rose garden and touched his hands to the cool water of a marble fountain, and felt the icy water trickle through his fingers.

- Where's father?

- I've told you he's busy. That's what he's been yesterday and the day before, and tomorrow too, so don't ask me again.

- Mommy, please don't be mad…

Before she had died, Nott had played in the gardens with his mother almost every day. But now all he could remember was a tall, blonde woman with icy blue eyes. The Rosiers all looked like that; Nott himself had taken after his father. His father had deep black eyes, and when he was pensive, it seemed as if you were looking into an abyss.

But the past wasn't something Nott was much concerned with. When his Death Eater father was taken to Azkaban, despite the coldness with which they had treated each other, he still felt some connection to him. He wanted to say things he couldn't put into words. But seven years later, he had lost all sense of the connection. "Father" and "mother" were merely abstract ideas to him.

Since then, he had done well for himself. After obtaining 2 O's and 2 E's on his N.E.W.T.'s and travelling around the wizarding world, he had decided to get a job in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries – not because he needed the money, since the family coffers were still full despite of everything, but because he needed something with which to occupy himself for 9 hours every day. Ironically, the fact that he was a Slytherin, and more importantly, a Nott, actually helped him a little in getting a job, as much as he wished he could deny that. The man who hired him had been a pureblood Slytherin, and the name Nott still meant something to him. Nott had been an Unspeakable studying time in the Time Room. It was a solitary, peaceful job.

Until she arrived.

None other than Hermione Granger herself, with the same bushy ginger hair and self-important manner he remembered of her in their school days. He smirked. Not that they'd had much interaction with each other, of course. He was a pureblood Slytherin from one of the oldest, noblest wizarding families, the likes of which included only the Blacks, Lestranges, Rosiers and Malfoys. She was a hot-tempered mud… no, muggle-born who was an archetypal Gryffindor. And now they would have to work together.

Why her of all people? He had actually started to enjoy his job a little. Though he wasn't quite as well-known as Malfoy, he did know that people whispered behind his back, gossiping about the things they'd heard his father do in Azkaban. He didn't care much, but neither did he need a daily reminder of why everyday.

And why did she have to be so damn opinionated all the time?

Nott felt one of rare good moods go. His face clouded over and he started walking up the gravel path back inside Nott Manor.