A/N: Here is chapter two of The Union. I do have several chapters written, and will update fairly often until I run out of pre-written chapters. Beyond that, I will do my best to write as quickly as possible. Please let me know what you think!

Theodore Nott was bored. He hadn't wanted to come to Diagon Alley, but some of his friends wanted to come and, deciding that he needed some school supplies, he decided to tag along. He was currently standing outside of Quality Qudditch Supplies, waiting for his friends to finish drooling over the latest Galaxy 5000 broomstick that just came out. It was supposedly the fastest race broom in the world, but he would never find out because he hated flying.

He was watching a little girl skip along ahead of her mother just to get reprimanded. He noticed the girl smiled, then skipped off again just to get too far ahead. He smiled slightly, enjoying his people watching. He had no sooner had that thought when all the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. His eyes were drawn a little bit down the street towards the Leaky Cauldron entrance to the Alley. A beautiful woman in Muggle clothes was just stepping out of the building, looking all around her. She had long, wavy brunette hair, a perfect figure with a good sized bust and bum, as well as being the perfect height, probably coming up to about his neck.

She only took maybe a dozen steps before she stopped in her tracks. Her eyes immediately went straight to Theo and they locked with his. The two stood almost in a trance looking at one another. Somehow, he knew exactly who the woman was, even before she took that first step down Diagon Alley. The woman in question was none other than Hermione Granger, one-third of the golden trio, and the woman of his dreams. Literally. He'd been dreaming of her every night for the past nine months, since his eighteenth birthday.

In all fairness, it's not like he'd never dreamed of her before that, but it had definitely picked up in frequency. He'd talked to her before, never one for house rivalries. Apparently she wasn't either, because she never had any problem sitting next to him in their advanced classes and even partnering up a few times. They had always worked well together, but it hadn't ever consciously crossed his mind until the dreams started. Now, he pretty much thought about her all the time.

A door opening next to him snapped him out of his trance. He looked over to see his two best friends, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, exiting the shop. One of them must have just told a joke, because they were both laughing. It all happened in just a split second, but by the time he looked back up to see where Hermione was, she was nowhere to be seen. His eyes flicked around a few times, but he couldn't find her.

He turned back to his friends and followed them to the robe shop. He needed some new robes. Not that he couldn't wear the same ones from the year before, but his mother felt he deserved them for making head boy. He wished he knew who head girl was, as they would have to share a dorm area. It was going to be a long year if it was someone that he couldn't stand.

—

Hermione stayed inside Flourish and Blotts' for awhile, hoping that Theo wouldn't still be standing out by the Quidditch shop. She needed her books for school anyway, but she had hoped to get those last so she could wander around the book store before having to go home. Oh, well. It took her no time at all to pick out her school books, so she decided to meander through the history books.

It had been awhile since she'd had a book for recreational reading, and while at one time she would have enjoyed spell books, or books on the dark arts, now she just wanted to learn as much about wizarding history as possible. For some reason, that seemed very important.

There was quite a bit that she didn't know about wizarding history and the pure blood traditions, so she would look it up. She was hoping that somewhere along the way, she would find out what all of her dreams about Theodore Nott meant. She hardly even thought about it as she plucked a book off the shelf and added it to her stack. She hadn't recognized the cover so just assumed she hadn't read it. It was from the right section of the store and she didn't feel like looking too closely.

She paid for her books at the front register and shrunk them down to be placed in her bag. She didn't bother to sort them, just made sure they were stacked when she dropped them in there. It was as she was leaving the shop that she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She looked up to see Theodore Nott, Draco Malfoy, and Blaise Zabini headed toward the shop she just came out of. She needed to pass them to get to the other shops she needed to go to, and decided that it wouldn't kill her to walk near them.

Just as she was walking past them, she felt a jolt straight to her core. It made her gasp, causing both pain and pleasure. She didn't realize that she'd stopped walking, but only took a moment to recover and, refusing to look behind her, walked off to her destination: the Apothecary.

—

Theo stopped short when Hermione walked past him and his friends. It was like he was hyper-aware of her presence, feeling it all the way down into his bones. With the hyper-awareness came a jolt of painful pleasure through his body, making him hard instantly. He was frozen in place for a minute before Draco's voice cut through his thoughts.

"You alright there, mate?" His awareness of his surroundings came back all at once. He turned to look for Hermione, but once again, she'd managed to disappear. He turned back to where his friends were standing, to see them looking rather concerned for his sanity.

"Yeah. Let's just go." He led the way into the book store, barely listening to Draco and Blaise as they whispered behind him.

"Was that Granger?" Draco seemed surprised.

"I think it was. When did she get hot?" Blaise was equally as surprised by the now beautiful brunette. Well, Theo had thought she was pretty before, but apparently no one else had noticed her.

"She didn't look like that last year." Draco would know, she'd been tortured in his mansion.

"I wonder if she'd be interested in going out with me." Blaise had a smirk on his face that just didn't sit well with Theo. With a grimace, he turned to look at his best friends.

"Leave her alone, guys. If she wanted to talk to any of us, she would have stopped just now." Theo looked them both in the eye so that they knew he was serious about them backing off. They both held up their hands in surrender, acknowledging that they knew what he was getting at. The three of them dropped the conversation and went about getting the rest of their school supplies.

A/N: Please review. I appreciate each and every one of them, and it gives me a reason to continue writing.