*A/N* this note is going to seem strange but it's relevant to the story. So please make sure you read the whole thing so you understand what is going on later.
If you have played Old Maid, then you will understand the basic rules of Scabby Queen. However, there is a dark twist to this game. Once the game is over and one unlucky person is left with the queen. Now the loser must and accept their punishment - to be struck on the knuckles with the deck of cards into the skin cuts open and the knuckles bleed. Thus the game is infamously named "Scabby Queen"
Hermione absentmindedly stirred creamer into her coffee as she chewed on the inside of her cheek. It had been seven days since Theodore Nott had taken up residency in her flat. She just knew that her neighbor, Mrs. Detweiler was probably developing and ulcer over her two new illegitimate roommates. She heard a door upstairs close and checked the clock on the wall. 7:00am sharp. Draco sauntered into the kitchen and poured himself a hot mug of coffee.
"Morning." Hermione said nonchalantly.
Draco nodded curtly and took a sip of his coffee. This is how the mornings had been for the last week. Draco, who was clearly struggling with sharing a room with his old housemate, had taking to sulking around the flat instead of in the privacy of his bedroom. Theo, however, was astonishingly chipper. Moments later he bounded into the kitchen, having somehow already showered and thrown on one of Draco's sweaters. One look at Draco told Hermione that the blond Slytherin was growing exponentially more annoyed with his new roommate.
"Morning all!" Theo said. He sniffed the air and made a sound of approval. "Are you baking?" He asked Hermione. She gave him a small smile and nodded. Draco merely rolled his eyes.
"Blueberry muffins." She said, tapping the side of her mug rhythmically.
"Ah-mazing." Theo said, drawing out the word. Hermione giggled. She quite liked having Theo around. He was like a sunny day compared to Draco's usual doom and gloom.
"Lav up yet?" He asked. Hermione shook her head.
"No, and I suggest you stop calling her that. She'll rip your head off." Hermione said.
The dark haired Slytherin laughed. "I'd like to see her try. She's feisty but I'm bigger. Besides, wouldn't a bit of silver ward her off?" Draco snorted into his coffee, Hermione clenched her jaw and gave Theo an enraged look.
"Fuck you, Nott." Came angry voice from the hallway. Lavender stormed into the kitchen, still in a t-shirt and pajama shorts, her hair pulled back into a messy braid.
"Relax, Brown, the full moons not 'till next week." Sneered Draco, rolling his eyes. Lavender spun around to face him, pulling her wand out of her pocket.
"Alright, enough. I said enough, Lavender!" Yelled Hermione, moving to block the two as sparks flew out of the end of Lavender's wand.
"Draco-" She said authoritatively, facing him. "Stop goading her." Draco smirked but didn't say anything.
"And I need to talk to you." She said, turning to Lavender. The other girl nodded curtly and turned on her heel. Hermione followed her up the stairs into her bedroom. She cast a silencing spell around the room before speaking.
"I owe you an apology-" she started to say
"You're damn right you do!" Yelled Lavender, red in the face. "How could you tell them that I'm a-" She choked on the last word.
Hermione felt tears sting behind her eyes. She and Lavender had been forced to be roommates by the Order. Housing was limited because the older Order members were supporting the others who couldn't work because of their blood status. It had been awkward living with Lavender at first. Somehow they had never quite managed to overcome their feud from sixth year. The two had eventually made amends and moved past it. Lavender had tried to hide what she was, but it hadn't taken Hermione long to figure it out when she disappeared during the full moon three months in a row.
"Lav, you don't need to be ashamed-"
"The hell I don't, Hermione!" Said Lavender. Fat, angry tears rolled down her cheeks. "You don't know what it's like. Sure, the Wolfsbane potion helps, but I still… I'm still a monster." She said shakily.
Hermione looked at her helplessly. At some point in the year after the Battle At Hogwarts, Fenrir Greyback had tracked Lavender down to "finish the job." She had gotten away, but not without being infected. She had dealt with it on her own the first year, hiking out to secluded places in the mountains to transform. She hadn't been rooming with Hermione back then. When Hermione figured out that her roommate was a werewolf, she had gone straight to McGonagall. Lavender had been furious, but when McGonagall told her that Luna knew how to brew the Wolfsbane potion, she had softened toward Hermione. That didn't mean Lavender didn't abhor herself because of what she was.
"You're not a monster! And I didn't have a choice but to tell Draco! Luna mentioned the potion right in front of him! You know he would have found out for himself, and it's better that he didn't walk in on you wolfing out!" Said Hermione desperately. Though, she did wish Draco would drop the werewolf jokes. They were rather tasteless.
Lavender clenched her jaw.
"I'm not going to tell you that you are right, because frankly, I'm mad at you and I don't want to give you the satisfaction." She said stiffly before sharply turning her back to Hermione.
"I'll just… er… leave you then." Hermione said awkwardly. She left the room, closing the door behind her.
Back in the kitchen, Hermione noticed that a fresh pan of blueberry muffins perched on the counter. Draco was nowhere to be seen. Hermione assumed he was upstairs in his bedroom, buried in one of the "filthy muggle books" she had gotten him. Theo was hand washing dishes and whistling to himself cheerfully.
"Did you take the muffins out of the oven?" She asked.
Theo turned to her and nodded, not breaking his whistle. Hermione recognized the tune as A Cauldron full of Hot, Strong Love.
She smiled. Theo really was a joy to have around.
"Thank you, Theo." She said warmly.
"No problem, 'Mione." He replied.
Hermione froze and stared at him. He turned back towards her with raised eyebrows.
"I- are we not at that stage in our friendship yet?" He asked nervously.
Hermione giggled. "No Theo, it's fine. Just caught my off guard. Erm, I'm going to start some laundry, would you mind bringing me your clothes?"
Theo nodded eagerly and dried his hands on a hand towel before bounding up the staircase. Hermione stared after him, her brown furrowed. The only two Death Eaters she had interacted with extensively had been Draco and Snape. Both of which were almost constantly brooding. It was hard to imagine anyone as cheerful as Theo, especially a Death Eater.
"Brown upstairs pouting?" Asked a drawling voice behind her. Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to face Draco.
"No, Draco, she isn't. She's trying to avoid you and your tasteless jokes." She snapped.
Draco chuckled. "Maybe she should grow thicker skin-"
"Oh? Is that so? You spend most of your time pouting around the house like some child." She shot at him. Draco scowled, further proving her point.
"I am not a child-"
"Then stop acting like one!" She yelled, throwing her hands up.
Draco snorted. "Fuck you, Granger." He said before storming up the staircase.
"Nice comeback!" She yelled after him. "And gather your dirty laundry for the wash!"
She heard his bedroom door slam and sighed before heading up the staircase to gather her own laundry. She huffed angrily. Playing peacemaker was not what she had signed up for, and Draco could at least try to be civil towards Lavender. Hermione didn't mind Draco's attitude towards herself, but Lavender had been through enough. She sighed. At least Theo wasn't like Draco. She wasn't sure she could handle two moody death eaters in her home.
Nearly four hours later rain pounded the windows as Hermione folded the now clean laundry. Theo entered the living room and sat next to her on the sofa.
"Want some help with this?" He asked, motioning to the large pile of unfolded laundry. Hermione smiled warmly at him and nodded.
There were a few moments of silence as the two folded together.
"What's this music?" Theo asked.
"Frank Sinatra." Hermione replied. Theo nodded, thoughtful for a moment.
"It's nice. Is he a muggle?"
"He was." Hermione said. "He's dead now."
Theo opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again.
"Muggles-" he began carefully after a few moments. "They're not the brainless imbeciles we're told they are, are they?"
Hermione smile. "No, Theo, they're not. They can be quite smart, actually."
Theo nodded. "Who's the smartest muggle to ever live?" He asked.
Hermione laughed. "I'm not sure of the smartest to ever live, but I can tell you a few that made history." She said.
Theo looked at her eagerly.
"Well, there's Thomas Edison, he invented the lightbulb, and Isaac Newton, he formulated the laws of motion. Albert Einstein discovered the law of the photoelectric effect. And that's only to name a few."
Theo chewed on the inside of his cheek, deep in thought.
There was a flash of lightning outside followed by a booming roll of thunder that made the lights flicker.
"Well, obviously muggle inventions have their flaws." Said Theo, scanning the ceiling.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "No invention is foolproof, Theo. Nature is more powerful than anything muggles or wizards could invent."
After nearly an hour, Theo and Hermione had successfully folded all of the clean laundry. They gathered it up in their arms and took it upstairs. Hermione sat her folded shirts nicely in her drawers before heading back downstairs to start dinner. Halfway down the staircase all the lights in the flat went out. Huffing in frustration, Hermione dug her wand out of her pocket.
"Lumos" she muttered. She made her way into the kitchen and dug out a lighter. She heard a door close upstairs. No doubt Draco would be down any moment that whine at her about the lights going out. She walked around the flat, lighting candles as she went.
"What the fuck, Granger?" Came a sharp voice. Hermione turned to face Draco, not bothering to lower her wand when he squinted at her over the blinding light it illuminated.
"The powers out, Draco. It happens."
Draco huffed. "Well, How long is it supposed to be like this?" He asked, motioning to the darkness around him.
"I don't know. Until it turns back on, I guess." She said with a shrug.
"So we're supposed to just sit around in the dark?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Not if you let me get back to lighting these candles." She snapped. She spun in her heal and went back to lighting candles. "I have some more candles stored upstairs in the hallway closet if you want to help." She said over her shoulder. She turned in surprise when he agreed and made his way up the staircase
"Want a glass of wine?" She called after him.
"Sure!" Came his reply. Hermione furrowed her brow. Draco was surprisingly acting less… petulant.
Nearly fifteen minutes later Hermione, Draco, Theo and even Lavender were seated on the floor around the coffee table playing a game of Scabby Queen, each with a glass of wine in front of them. Theo and Draco both insisted on playing the traditional way.
As the bottle dwindled, the group became rowdier. Theo had taken to calling Lavender "Lav Lav", a name that caused Draco to roar with laughter. The four adults bore bloody knuckles from their rather competitive rounds of Scabby Queen, but the excessive amount of alcohol took care of any aching that might have been present. Hermione had to cast a silencing charm around the flat when Theo and Draco both broke out into the Hogwarts school song.
"'Mione!" Theo yelled. He waved around the now empty wine bottle. "The wine's all gone!"
"We need sustenance!" Cried Draco, throwing his arm around Theo's shoulders.
Both boys cheered and clapped when Hermione returned from the kitchen holding an uncorked bottle of wine triumphantly.
"Thank you, thank you!" She said with a bow.
Two glasses of wine later the four adults had settled tremendously. Lavender and Theo had eaten the entire plate of blueberry muffins Hermione had made that morning while Draco had his first civil conversation with the wild haired Gryffindor.
"It's just, you were always so clever, you know? All the teachers loved you, with the exception of Snape. You took care of yourself, you didn't need your father to pull strings or threaten anyone for you. I hated you for it, but I also admired you." He confessed, tossing back the rest of his wine.
Hermione bit her lip and thought about what he'd said.
"I wish I had something nice to say about you, Draco, but the truth is I really hated you in school."
She finally said. Draco nodded, deep in thought.
"Well, here's to a fresh start, Granger." He said, raising his empty glass. Hermione giggled and clinked hers against it.
"To a fresh start."
Humongous shout out to Bellaruthless and Slytherinxbadxgirl for beta reading this chapter.
Please don't forget to review as I absolutely beam when you do!! Thank you all for reading 3