AN: I love all your comments! Can't wait for you guys to read this one haha. Team Theo o Team Charlie?

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One.

She needed one thing to go right tonight.

How had things gotten so out of control? The universe was conspiring against her, she was sure. There could be no other possible explanation.

In any case, Theo seemed… troubled. Clearly, the marriage conversation had happened entirely too early. They were barely six months in, for Merlin's sake!

"I see you managed to survive," came a voice from behind her.

She'd squirmed away to the bathroom moments earlier. Mrs. Weasley had started singing Harry's praise for the war effort, stating some Slytherins just needed vanquishing.

"It's not over yet."

"That's true. There's still plenty of time for something to go horribly wrong," he said.

"I fear it already has," she mumbled to herself.

Charlie must have followed her. Purposefully. It was odd, being in his presence after so long. His rugged looks were the same, his eyes still carried that sparkle that often appeared in her dreams. Perhaps she had needed this closure. Maybe after today she wouldn't dream of him again.

"I don't know if I should fight for you," came his sudden declaration.

To say that Hermione was shocked was more than an understatement.

"Charlie…"

"No, look, I thought you left because you didn't want to marry me, alright? I didn't know you didn't want to get married to anyone." At that, Hermione paused.

"Why would you think that?" she asked genuinely astounded.

"You… That night you said something that made me think that… I thought... I thought you'd found the ring. I thought you were trying to break things off because you found the ring and you didn't want to marry me. I thought that's why you'd accepted the job without talking to me first and you were hoping the distance would kill us before I could ask."

Of all the things she expected him to say, that wasn't it.

And just like that, all her thoughts on their break up for the last two years were shattered. All she thought she knew, what she thought had happened, came crashing down in her head because she believed him.

"There was a ring?" was all she managed to croak out.

"There is a ring, yes."

Is.

Her brain was going a thousand miles an hour and she couldn't quite come to terms with how things were unfolding.

"If you wanted to marry me, be bonded to me, why is this the first time we've seen each other since we broke up?" It seemed she still needed some answers. She couldn't help herself. She hoped this was the part of her that couldn't stand not knowing all the answers.

"Why would I fight for someone who I thought didn't want me?" To hear her own words being thrown back at her was more than she could take.

No. This wasn't possible. She hadn't nursed a broken heart for a year and a half because of something as ridiculous as a misunderstanding. It couldn't be.

"No, Charlie, you don't get to do this. You broke up with me. You gave me an ultimatum. You thought that threatening me by holding my happiness for ransom was the way to get me to stay and you thought wrong. You don't get to pin this on me!"

"I thought- "

"I don't care what you thought! I gave you absolutely no reason to doubt me! I was ready to spend the rest of my life with you even if I had no intention to be bonded to you and you felt it appropriate to think in my stead instead of asking me. What the fuck is wrong with you?" He made to interrupt her now, clearly getting upset too.

"No, you know what, I don't care. You made your choices for whatever reasons you thought were valid and now that I'm with someone else you don't get to come along and drop a bomb on my happiness. Again." He stopped trying to interrupt at that, which gave her a chance to take a breath.

She hadn't noticed before, but the silence that followed told her that she had been shouting and that the occupants of the living room had very likely listened to the whole conversation. Great.

"I lov-loved you and we were happy, and the one time I needed you to bet on me, on us, you doubted my love for you when I never, never, gave you a reason to do so. Now you have to live with that."

As Hermione walked away as fast as she could she hoped he hadn't noticed what she had almost said. The tense she had almost used. She would have to revise her own thought on that later.

As she came into view, everyone pretended to be doing something else and feign some conversation or another. The brunette couldn't be bothered to play along. She went to Theo's side and without a glance towards him, she dragged him to face Molly.

"Mrs. Weasley, I thank you for a lovely evening but we really must be going. The food was amazing," she said as calmly as she could.

"Oh, won't you stay for a while longer? Just for tea." For all that she was trying to hide it, Molly was a bundle of nerves and kept looking from behind her to her in rapid succession.

"I need to be up very early tomorrow morning and I'm already dreadfully tired, but we appreciate your warm hospitality," said Theo without missing a beat. "I thank you all for welcoming me into your home."

Molly pursed her lips but said nothing more.

They said a general good-bye and without another glance at Charlie, they left for her flat.

After a few minutes of their arrival, the removing of the coats and the preparation of a kettle of fresh tea, the silence was truly weighing in on her. She knew that Theo was vastly more prepared and used to the tense silence on a regular basis with his peers and family. Hermione, on the other hand, was absurdly uncomfortable. Her skin almost itched from the uneasiness that kept rolling around inside her.

She didn't know if he was being silent because of the fiasco that had been their conversation about marriage or the argument she'd had with Charlie.

"Theo- "

"Should I be worried?" he asked immediately.

Her heart melted and almost burst at the same time.

"No, of course, not." Hermione hoped her eyes were communicating the love that she felt for him. She didn't know why, but still, she couldn't say it. Even now.

"Good."

Suddenly Theo surrounded her and held her tightly, lovingly. She couldn't have been more content after such a strange night.

"But, Hermione…"

Her heart stopped and she was all apprehension and dread.

"If for any reason you find that you no longer feel the same, that you wish to spend your time with someone else… please, tell me." His head was buried in her hair, so she couldn't see his face, but the earnestness in his voice almost broke her heart. "Because, unless you tell me, I won't know when to walk away. It won't be me that'll walk away."

...

AN: Today's Rec is Chemistry & Timing by TheBookBully. This is an amazing story. A Remione, a finished one for a change, but really… you're in for an amazing ride.