(a/n:) I had NO intention of updating twice today, but my schedule allowed for some more editing so here we are! This chapter is dedicated to the sweet tenderheartinablender who's reviews make me giggle and smile like an idiot. Don't lose your mind my darling, there's more angst to come, but I promise I won't keep them apart forever. I'm so, so glad that you like my story, and am so grateful for your support. Reviews like yours help motivate me to crank out the next chapter! Happy reading! Xo
Disclaimer: Not mine, sadly.
"I dunno mate, I haven't seen her like this since he left. She hasn't spoken a single word to me since she apparated in this afternoon. She ran straight to our bedroom and hasn't been out since. It's been almost six hours." Harry Potter sat quietly in his study with his head stuck in an emerald flame as he waited for the Floo Call delay to get all of what he'd said to Brazil, and more importantly, to Ron. Harry had known about Hermione's appointment with Nott earlier that morning, and had expected a visit at some point from his best friend. He'd expected a spitting mad and irrational Hermione Granger ready to hex Theo back to second year, and was therefore unprepared when an inconsolable one appeared in his kitchen with a surge of magic so strong that his pots and pans rattled. He had to remember to talk to her about mood stabilizers. Maybe he could get Draco to do it…
"Bloody hell, Harry." Ron said as he ran a hand over his features. "She didn't speak for almost two weeks when that happened. Or eat! I'm coming home."
Harry just shook his head at his friend. "You know that if you come home, she'll hex you for making an 'unnecessary fuss over absolutely nothing substantial.' " he said the last part in his best Hermione impression. He needed to keep his own concern for Hermione out of his voice so that Ron wouldn't uproot his life to save her from herself. She'd go to him when she was ready. She always did.
Having the desired effect, Harry's statement made Ron chuckle. "Well, when you talk to her, tell her if she needs to get away, I've a couple days off coming up, and South America is beautiful this time of year." With a nod in farewell, Harry ended the Floo Call. Deciding on a cup of tea, he stood and headed into the kitchen.
Digging through the pantry for the box that Draco kept their tea in, Harry pondered what his life would be like if Theo and Hermione had never gotten together. He'd never have gotten together with Draco, that's for sure. Theo and Hermione had paved the way for breaking expectations and unconventional relationships, and he was glad for it. On a larger scale though, Harry wasn't sure if the war would have been won in favor of the Light had it not been for the two of them. They made a fierce team with intelligence unmatched, and worked very well together when they weren't screaming the house down at one another. Harry snorted at the memory of Theo and Hermione's first meeting after the "official" start to the war.
Harry led a very tired, hungry, and all around worse for wear Theodore Nott and Draco Malfoy through a plain muggle neighborhood.
"Are you sure about this Potter? I mean, not one of them has any reason to NOT hex us into oblivion. Merlin, especially Granger."
Harry rolled his eyes. While he'd known about Draco's involvement as a spy for the Light since the beginning of 6th year, he was completely surprised when an entire battalion of Slytherins followed suit. The duo being on the side of the Light certainly didn't mean that he had to like the wankers.
"Nott, for the hundredth time, they all know of your loyalty and have agreed to let you come to headquarters. Even Hermione. You wouldn't be here if she hadn't."
Upon reaching their destination, Harry muttered a spell under his breath to lower the wards, and the trio walked up the front drive of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. Before Harry could even properly grasp the handle, the door was flung open by the source of Theo's (and if Harry was honest with himself, his own) anxiety, a one Hermione Granger who looked ready to kill.
Huffing, Hermione marched right up to Harry and slapped him soundly across his face. He felt, more than saw, the sparks erupt from her fingertips as she made contact with his cheek. "That," she enunciated each word with it's own punctuation mark, "Harry James Potter, is for keeping this secret from me for almost two bloody years! Do you know how much research I did on that fucking cabinet?" She flushed when she heard Draco chuckle, and one look at Harry's sheepish grin and she knew she couldn't stay angry with him for long. "And you two!" she exclaimed, gesturing to the former Slytherins, "You look absolutely famished. In you go, and right to the kitchen with you. Molly's made a stew."
Laughing quietly at her ceaseless bossiness, Harry held the door open for Draco and Theo as Hermione spun on her heel and went back upstairs to her tactical meeting with Lupin and Ron.
"I suppose I did deserve some of that." Harry mused as he shut the door behind Draco.
With a deep breath, Draco awkwardly patted Harry on the arm, laughing and lightly touching his cheek where a hand print welt was already beginning to appear. "If that's the worse you ever do to her, you'll be alright Potter." he said, walking away and leaving an utterly bemused Boy-Who-Lived behind him.
The sound of the tea kettle whistling roused Harry from his memory and he looked up to see his best friend leaning on the doorframe, watching him, outfitted quite snugly in one of his old Quidditch jerseys.
"For a man who defeated the darkest wizard of our time, that's an awfully conflicted look you've got there, Potter." Hermione sniffed, pushing off of the frame to snuggle into her best friend's open embrace. "How was your day?"
"How was your day, she says, like she isn't crying in my kitchen wearing my clothes," Harry chuckled. Placing his chin on the top of her head he said, "Are you ready to talk?
"No," she said honestly. "He called me his wife." At his wince, she continued. "I suppose he can't be entirely blamed for that, though. I may have shown up there wearing the dress."
"Which dress? Now is not the time for you to be a vague girl on me 'Mione - "
"The dress we got married in, Harry. I showed up to his office in my wedding dress." she said very quickly, muffled by his jumper.
"You didn't." Harry stared at Hermione, wide eyed. Moving her away from his chest, clutching her shoulders, "You haven't touched that thing in years, what is wrong with you?!"
"I did. Apparently, that's what set him off. What do you mean what's wrong with me Harry Potter this is not a situation I ever thought I'd find myself in!" she squawked, slapping at him
"Alright, alright, 'Mione I said alright would you stop that!" batting at her hands, he handed her a mug of tea and pushed her toward the breakfast nook. "I guess if Draco left me after six months with no explanation I'd make him remember every time I saw him too."
"That's the problem though, isn't it," she swallowed a mouthful of tea, "the remembering. Though I'd pay like, a thousand galleons to see Draco's face if you showed up to his office in my blue dress." She smirked, and he laughed outright. Thank Merlin for Harry Potter. "How's Ron, Harry?"
Harry thought about denying his Floo Call to his other best friend, but he knew that Hermione knew him well enough to know that that was the first thing he'd done when she'd shown up in a crisis. "He wants you to go to Brazil. Says he has a long weekend."
Hermione hummed as she contemplated the offer. She knew she couldn't go back to work thanks to Theo and she would love to spend some one on one time with Ron. She had decided after she had cried all of her tears out directly onto Draco's pillow, Slytherin solidarity, that it was truly time to move on with her life, and to step outside the box of safety that dating men like Anthony Goldstein provided her; they can't hurt you if you expect it from them. Pansy had long ago suggested asking Ron to see if they could try again a few years earlier than planned, just to see how things panned out and if they could be happy together. She knew she wasn't ready for any kind of serious romance, and Ron was not ever someone with whom she could be casually dating, but it'd be good to get away all in the same.
"Maybe I'll do that." Hermione mused, more to herself than to Harry. "Pansy thinks that I should try to shag him, thoughts?" she laughed openly as Harry's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish in shock, pointing his finger at her as he stepped into his study to Floo Ron with an update he said simply, "Please, Hermione, gods, GODS no." Hearing her responding cackle from the kitchen warmed him to his bones. It was so good to hear Hermione laughing. There was a time when a run in with Nott would have left her catatonic for days, and now she seemed to be recovering rather quickly. Harry tossed a handful of Floo power into the fireplace and called Kingsley in order to have a rush portkey made for Hermione's trip. Sometimes, it still paid to be the Chosen One.
As the papers settled around Theo's office, he shot a horrified look at his best friend of 23 years. Draco, in response gave Theo a look of chagrined pity. Without a word, Draco rose from his seat and went out to tell the office receptionist to cancel all of Theo's appointments for the rest of the day and to take a paid afternoon off for herself as well, for Dr. Nott had just been informed of a personal emergency.
At the click of the office door, Theo leapt into action, and with a roar of frustration, flipped his desk and all its contents and went to work at flinging files around the room. Halfway through his temper tantrum, Draco came back into the office and calmly sat back in his seat until Theo was finished. He knew that the outburst was completely juvenile, but it was the only way that Theo knew how to deal with his feelings regarding Hermione, something Draco could painfully relate to. She had been a thorn in his side long before he had considered her a friend.
Theo slumped to the ground as his files and paperwork fluttered to the floor around him and sighed dejectedly. "Mate…bloody hell, what did I just do?"
"You remembered that you still love her." Draco's voice was so low that it was almost a whisper. He'd always suspected that Theo still harbored feelings for the witch, but had never voiced his opinions. For all of the drama that went along with their pairing, Theo seemed content being married to Daphne and Draco thought that if nothing else, his friend should have a little peace in his life after their tumultuous childhood.
Theo looked at his friend with red-rimmed eyes and nodded. Standing and brushing himself off, he said, quite simply "I've got to find her."
"Harry, for the love of all that is - I was JOKING about shagging Ron, would you please calm down?!" Hermione sat cross legged on Harry's sofa, openly laughing at her best friend.
"It's not that I don't want you together, 'Mione! That'd be brilliant! I just don't want to know about it! ANY of it!"
Draco paled as he prepared to open the front door. Hermione was going to get back together with Weasley, Theo might actually lose her this time. Not that she was really his to lose anymore, but he still felt the sting on behalf of his best mate. Telling Theo to stay put, Draco made a show of jingling his keys in the lock and taking down the wards to enter his home.
Feeling the shift in the wards, Harry sobered and looked towards the door, knowing that Draco was stalling - for whatever reason.
"Harry, I cannot deal with it if he's here…." Hermione said, her voice small.
"Up you go then because you are definitely not going to like what's about to walk through that door." What Draco was thinking bringing that toad home, Harry was unsure, but Hermione would not be here to find out. "Don't forget that abomination of a dress, 'Mione." he gestured towards the back of the house, indicating that she should collect her things from his bedroom.
"Oh, well. No worries there," she said sheepishly "my magic sort of...burned it off when I got here." With a small smile towards her best friend, she tossed some Floo powder into the fireplace, laughing softly as she heard him yelling after her "OI! If there's scorch marks on that bedspread Draco will kill me! Hermione Jean!"
Hearing the Floo settle, Draco opened the door and gestured Theo in behind him. "Hi honey, I'm home. Can we keep him?" Draco planted a kiss on the top of Harry's head, silently begging him not to throttle Theo in their sitting room. The carpets were new.
If Harry was surprised to see Theo, his reaction didn't show it. Glancing at the man who had rendered the most important woman in his life nearly catatonic Harry's reaction was to laugh himself absolutely sick. "Nott, you really have gone 'round the bend, haven't you? First you call Hermione your WIFE after what you did to her, and then, THEN you show up HERE AFTER WHAT YOU DID TO HER. You must have a death wish!" Harry stopped laughing at the mention of Hermione's name and had progressed into full on yelling by the time he had finished. He could not fathom why, of all places, Nott had come to his home, friends with Draco or not. Harry and Theo had no love lost between them, and after everything happened with Hermione, Harry had washed his hands of the man completely.
"Draco…" Theo began, looking to his long-time friend for help.
"Absolutely not, mate. You did this yourself."
"Where is she, Potter?" Theo remained calm, knowing that to yell at Harry Potter would only put him on the receiving end of a Sectumsempra and watching that happen once was quite enough, thank you very much.
"Five years you've left her alone no problem. And then you come barging back into her life and then say what you said to her! She was here for HOURS Nott. You know how strongly she reacts to you. You KNOW she still loves you, and what? You just couldn't resist tormenting her?" Draco said, finally in a position to tear into his childhood friend.
"That's not it, Malfoy, you know I…" Theo began again, only to be cut off. Again.
"I sent her on vacation. Maybe somebody else will be the man you never could be and finally make her happy. Not just marry her and then pull the rug out from under her feet for somebody else. And another thing…" Harry continued, barely pausing for breath, and rapidly turning a color only ever seen on Vernon Dursley.
"OI! POTTER! I'M TRYING TO GET MY WIFE BACK NOW WHERE THE HELL DID YOU SEND HER?!" Theo was red-faced and panting after his outburst, and both men stood staring at him, slack-jawed.
"Brazil, to see Ron. What do you mean, get your wife back? You have a wife. Her name is Daphne." Harry said, speaking slowly as to make sure his thoughts on Theo's intelligence were very clear.
"Daphne and I haven't been together for over a year. She's living with her sister in Paris. We were never officially married. Our betrothal contract became void after I was bound to Hermione." Theo explained, running a hand down his face. "When my father died, I was granted the rights that come with being the Nott heir, and was privy to information, more importantly, contracts that I wasn't when he was alive. Apparently, Thoros wanted to ensure that we kept the Greengrass dowry, and went through all the motions to make sure that I followed suit with the help of our trusty solicitor."
"Wait, wasn't my father your solicit-oh." Draco mumbled
"Nott back up, and explain. And for Merlin's sake, let me get some Firewhiskey into my system so I don't kill you." Harry shook his head as Draco sat down with Theo in the sitting room.
"So basically what you're saying is, when Lucius found out about your marriage, he told Thoros, and you by extension that it was invalid because of your binding betrothal contract with Daphne's family?" Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose and Theo nodded.
"And in actuality, your betrothal was voided when you and Hermione bound yourselves to one another, because the magic of the binding ceremony cancelled the magic of the betrothal out?" Another nod.
"And so technically, you and Daphne were never married?" An eye roll, and a nod.
"And that because you left a note for Hermione saying that you were leaving her, but never technically divorced her…" Harry shook his head as Draco finished the statement for both men.
"Harry, what he's saying is that Theo and Hermione are still married."
