(a/n): Hi lovelies! Thank you all so much for reading/reviewing/favoriting/following this story! I appreciate you all so much, I can't even begin to tell you. This is the last pre-written chapter of CFCM, which means that I have to write more in order to post more...yikes. Luckily, I didn't have a pre-set updating schedule, so it shouldn't be too different from what you guys already deal with with me LOL. I'm anticipating 2-3 more chapters, no more than 15 for sure. PLEASE let me know what you think, I think you'll like what this chapter has to offer! Cheers, and a very happy holidays to you all if I don't post again before the end of the year! Xx
The ceremony went off without a hitch. Ginny was the quintessential beautiful bride, and Blaise had tears in his eyes as he said "I do." The couple was radiating happiness as their best friends stood on either side of the altar, but were unable to take their eyes off of one another, both of them lost in memories.
At the reception, both Theo and Hermione drank their fill of champagne and firewhiskey, but were still the dutiful best man and maid of honor, keeping prying relatives away from the newlyweds and drunken shenanigans to a minimum, something that proved difficult when a well-imbibed Draco Malfoy-Potter felt that the lighting in the reception was better than that at his own and told anyone who would listen, loudly, that the bride's dress made her look like she was "in the family way."
Hermione sat at the head table, amber eyes drifting over the room at her assembled friends and extended family. As she glanced back to her own place, a fresh flute of champagne was placed in front of her and her ex-husband flopped into the seat next to her. It had always been his tell when he'd had too much to drink, he lost almost all of the pureblood grace in his movements and acted like an actual young man - rough and gangly.
"Brought this for you." He ground out as he perched in his chair. "Looked like you could use it. Salazar knows I do."
Having drank more than she was used to, but not so much that she felt out of control she smiled softly and accepted the drink. "It's all a little surreal." waving a hand around the room. "Makes me remember." She didn't know what made her say it, but he would swear later that it had nothing to do with the drink.
"Mmm." He nodded and took a deep pull of his drink. "Ours was better. Our...everything was better."
Silently, she nodded. Tears sprang to her eyes and she knew immediately that she had wronged this man, no matter that he had wronged her as well. Her heart ached for him in a way she hadn't felt in many years and she had no idea how to proceed. "Maybe it could be again." Her eyes were hopeful as they tried to meet his.
In a flash he had her upper arm in a vice like hold and his voice was fierce. "I can be civil with you Granger, and play nicey nice as our friends put us in unbearably awkward situations, but don't you dare tempt me with words you don't mean." Realizing himself, he loosened his grip and sighed, smoothing his hand over her shoulder, "I don't know that I could take it."
Neither knew who leaned for the other first, but before Hermione could take a breath his lips were on hers and she was sighing his name. She realized now that he tasted like the memory of home long after you've left it. Gathering all of her Gryffindor courage, lips still sealed together, she apparated them out of the reception venue and straight to her cottage as she knew Luna was staying at Ron's for the evening.
Legs slamming to the ground, the two seemed to have been hit with a sobering spell for the ages. Staring at Theo, it was all Hermione could do not to cry. "Hermione..." he began carefully.
"Theo I was wrong."
"You were...what?"
"Wrong. I shouldn't have...Merlin I was just so angry...I shouldn't have ever let you let me go."
"Wha...huh?" He stared at her through wide eyes. This couldn't possibly be happening. He'd thought the best that could come from this would be a goodbye shag but now...could she really want to?
"I'm still glad that we got divorced." She began "It needed to happen, that chapter is over and I needed the closure so badly. But now, gods Theo, now I just need you."
Throwing all thought to the repercussions to the wind, Theo grabbed her around her middle and slammed his mouth down on hers as he carried her into her bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him.
Her hands shook as she divested him of his jacket, his lips on her neck and his hands…everywhere. Hermione had no idea what she wanted out of this moment but all she knew was that she needed…more. More of him, more of this feeling, more of everything and nothing at the same time. It had never been like this, frenzied, or maybe it had and she had let time fog her memories of him and…this.
Theo couldn't believe his luck. He slid the zipper on the back of her dress down and as it pooled at her feet his mind went blank. She was perfect…she was still perfect. Dropping a quick kiss to her lips he pressed his forehead to hers and said "This is probably going to be quick, love."
Quirking her lips she smiled triumphantly as she popped the clasp on his dress slacks and primly said "Quick never meant bad, Theodore."
At her teasing tone and the way that his name tumbled off of her tongue he was utterly finished. Teasingly biting the juncture of her neck and shoulder, he growled as he picked her up and slammed her against her bedroom wall, thrusting his fingers into her hair and sliding into her welcoming heat with one deep thrust.
At that moment, the same thought flitted through both minds, perhaps for the first time in almost seven years.
I'm home.
The next morning, Theo awoke fully rested for the first time in what felt like his entire life. The sun streaming through the window had been what had woken him, and when he reached for his bedfellow, the other side of the mattress was cool to his touch. Smirking, he recalled another morning where he was left sated and reaching for his bookish ex-wife.
"Knock knock Sleeping Beauty, you'd better be decent." Ron Weasley poked his head into the room that Theo and Blaise shared at Grimmauld Place with just enough time to hear Theo shout.
"Oi! Weasley get your ginger arse out of here!" Theo, barely awake, scrambled to cover the naked and sleeping brunette next to him.
"Not sure who you're frantically trying to cover up there mate, but she was in your dream, there's nobody there." Ron said, laughing.
"Not there, what - " Theo patted his mattress and flopped onto his back with a huff. "Trust me Weasley, she wasn't a dream."
Inspecting his fingernails, Ron scoffed and said "Whatever you say, Nott. C'mon though, something's got 'Mione in a tizzy and she's made about eighteen different kinds of breakfast - a casualty of spending so much time with mum, I reckon. She's made enough to feed an army. Guess she is, when you think about it - "
Theo smirked, not listening as Weasley trailed off onto his tangent about armies of breakfast foods. Knowing that he had riled the bookworm warmed him through his bones. They'd finally come together last night after almost a year of verbal sparring their way around one another. Last night, she'd slammed a map of Goyle Manor down in front of him and given him the verbal lashing of the century for failing to account for the anti-Muggleborn wards at the property lines that had resulted in Justin Finch-Fletchly nearly losing his arm. While he knew that he'd royally fucked his mission, he couldn't take his eyes off of her lips, and moved closer to her with every word she screamed at him. When she'd paused to take a breath before further berating his "stupid, spoiled, pure rotten blood" he'd slammed his mouth down on hers and hadn't taken it off until well into the night when she fell asleep on his chest, snugly wrapped in his embrace.
"- I am worried about 'Mione though, the last time she cooked like this Malfoy went missing -"
"Nothing's missing, except for that beloved stick up her arse." Theo said, smirking at Weasley
"How would YOU know? It's not like you know her better than I do Nott, what do you mean stick up her ars - OI! YOU SHAGGED MIONE! HARRY - IT'S FINALLY HAPPENED MATE, YOU OWE ME TEN GALLEONS!" Ron bellowed into the corridor, the response to which was a distinctly feminine squawk from Hermione in the kitchen and a barking laugh from Theo's bedroom.
Unsurprisingly, Theo found Hermione in the kitchen. Chuckling, he made his way fully into the kitchen, mentally capturing the image of her in her short navy bathrobe with an apron over it, hair a riotous mess with flour on her face. She was adorable, and everything he needed in his life.
"Oh! Ah, good morning!" She said, just too cheerfully as she pulled a ridiculously large baking dish from the oven. "Hungry?"
Dropping a kiss to the side of her head he simply nodded and reached for the coffee mugs on the counter, knowing that it would be better to let her sort out her thoughts before trying to articulate any of his.
Flushing at his kiss, Hermione moved the French toast dish to her dining room table which was already laden with three kinds of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, fruit, and something that looked like it used to be eggs benedict.
Tucking in, he watched her, and waited.
"We need to talk." She finally stammered out around a mouthful of scrambled eggs.
