AN - life is throwing me some curve balls so updates may be a bit more sporadic in the coming month or so.
Beta thanks to Maloreiy and DelicateScholar.
Theodore Nott leaned against the wall just outside Harry Potter's office, scanning the Auror department. Though he maintained an air of boredom, his sharp gaze registered everything.
He recognised some of the older Aurors as the ones who had arrested his father. His upper lip curled, but then relaxed. He knew his father deserved the sentence he had received, but that didn't mean he had to like the people who had taken him away.
Some of the younger Aurors were people he vaguely remembered from Hogwarts, though he couldn't think of any names. No Slytherins of course.
A few threw him curious looks, but nobody came over to ask why he was there.
The one person he had hoped to meet wasn't expected back for a few hours. Annoying, but not that much of a loss.
He was busy trying to think of an excuse to go through one of the empty desks when a rough voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Can I help you?"
Theo gracefully detached himself from the wall and turned.
"Auror Weasley," he said, with a polite nod. "I'm waiting for Head Auror Potter."
Weasley nodded, his eyes flicking over Theo's exquisitely cut robes, gleaming dragon hide boots, and polite but reserved smile. A hint of frustration glinted in his eyes, as if he recognised Theo but couldn't quite place him. "Maybe I can help? The Head Auror is in a meeting with the Minister and won't be back for a while."
"Ah," Theo said, then paused. "I wanted to talk to him about the Malfoy case. I read some disturbing information in the Prophet and I want to know what is true and what is not. Draco is a friend of mine."
Weasley's eyes narrowed. "Nott," he said, finally. "I thought I recognised you."
"Took you long enough. Then again, you are at an unfair disadvantage. We can't all have such a… distinguishing family trait." Theo glanced at Weasley's bright red hair.
Weasley turned an interesting shade of puce that clashed with said trait, but he didn't go off like Theo expected. Instead, he took a deep breath and said, "I know about that case. Let's sit down and I'll see if I can answer some of your questions."
Weasley began toward the far end of the corridor where, as Theo knew all too well, the interrogation rooms were hidden.
Instead of following, Theo sat down at the nearest empty desk. "Well," he said, in such a perfect imitation of Malfoy's drawl it surprised even himself, "explain then, Auror Weasley, why my friend is being persecuted by the press?"
Weasley stopped, annoyed, but pulled a chair from another desk and sat down as well. He waved his wand and muttered a Muffliato before answering. "I suppose this means you haven't seen him lately?" he asked, nonchalantly.
Theo nearly smiled, but decided to play along. "He dropped by a few days ago, but I haven't been able to reach him since I read that strange article in the Prophet accusing him of the most ridiculous things. I came here to find out what was true and what was not." He buffed his nails on his robes, then inspected them with idle interest. "I hope you don't actually believe any of that nonsense," he added.
Weasley didn't give anything away. How unexpected. "He didn't mention anything about leaving then? When was this again?" He, too, had mastered the innocent look.
Theo waved his hand. "About a week or so ago," he said vaguely, "and he was his usual annoying self. Gloating over some financial deal he'd managed to pull and complaining about his mother's incessant attempts to marry him off to some nice and proper girl."
Weasley did smile at that remark. "His mother doesn't seem too worried about his disappearance."
"Disappearance? He's only been gone a few days. He probably got lucky at some bar and hasn't found his way back home yet. Isn't it a little… dramatic to talk about a disappearance?" Theodore raised his eyebrows.
Weasley merely shrugged. "He's nowhere to be found and we do want to ask him some questions. I'd have thought Malfoy would be here as soon as the Prophet published, demanding retribution. But he seems to have left his home and nobody has seen him recently."
Theo nodded. "I see." He tapped his fingers on the desk in an arrhythmic sequence.
"Was there anything else?" Weasley asked, as if he hadn't been trying to wheedle information as well.
Theo shook his head but made no move to get up. "I may wait here a little longer for Potter to come back. I hope your colleague won't mind my sitting down? There doesn't seem to be another chair available." He sent Weasley a toothy smile, and the man sighed.
"Fine, it's your time to waste." He stood up. "And yes, you can sit there. Smith isn't likely to come back any time soon."
Theodore smiled to himself as Weasley disappeared into the corridor.
The other Aurors in the open office were busily scribbling reports and responding to Floo calls. Nobody paid attention to him.
Theodore looked around cautiously, then cast a wandless Disillusionment Charm and carefully began to rifle through the papers on Smith's desk.
Hermione smiled as she sat down across from Susan Bones. "How's the old curmudgeon treating you today?" she asked cheerfully.
Susan looked up from the menu and sighed deeply. "One day I will throw all his nonsense at his head," she muttered. "And I won't hesitate to use a Permanent Sticking Charm."
Hermione let out a laugh. "That bad?"
"He's making me write out the entire Goblin Statute, which is three sixty-feet rolls of parchment. By hand!" She flexed her fingers and couldn't suppress a wince.
"Good thing I dragged you out of there for a spot of lunch, then."
"I suppose." Susan's eyes skirted around the little cafe where they had met before. She shifted on her chair and toyed with a fork.
"Are you looking for someone?"
Susan sat up stiffly. "No, of course not," she said, just a tad too brightly. "It's just us today, isn't it?"
Hermione nodded and pretended to concentrate on her menu, but surreptitiously glanced at Susan now and again.
She seemed to relax, however, once their orders were taken and the drinks and salads arrived.
"Have you been following the latest scandal in the Prophet?" Hermione asked with studied nonchalance.
Susan seemed to perk up at that remark. "You mean the Malfoy business? Gosh, that really is quite the scandal, isn't it? Who would have thought Draco Malfoy to be involved in that sort of thing? I mean, I know he was a Death Eater but I saw him after the Battle of Hogwarts and," she hesitated, "to be honest, Hermione, he looked as relieved as any of us that You-Know-Who was finally gone."
Hermione bent closer to Susan. "I've heard," she said in a conspiratorial tone, "that they suspect he's involved in Zach Smith's disappearance."
Susan paled. "R—really? How… extraordinary," she stammered, hand trembling as she took a bite of salad.
Hermione pretended not to notice and nodded excitedly. "Oh yes. Can you imagine?" She sat back again and laughed. "To think you told me only last week Smith was so obsessed with Malfoy. Now it looks like Malfoy did away with him. Or maybe they've both gone off to live on some tropical island together." She smiled brightly, catching the look of misery that crossed Susan's face before she attempted to smile back.
"Although, what Malfoy would do at a tropical island, I don't know," she went on. "With that pale skin of his, he'd burn to a crisp in no time."
Susan did finally force a laugh.
"It is strange, though, both of them missing," Hermione said, purposefully looking away. "When was it again you said you'd last seen him?"
"Malfoy? Not since his trial, I don't think."
"No, I meant Smith. You were friends, weren't you? You did say you'd seen him some time ago."
"Oh. Right. I think it was the weekend the Cannons lost against Puddlemere. We listened to the match on the wireless together."
Hermione stiffened. "Isn't that the exact weekend he disappeared?"
Susan began to cough violently, covering her mouth with a hand. She suppressed it quickly, and gave a shaky laugh. "Oh, no, I remember now. That wasn't Zach. It was Justin I saw that weekend. I must have mixed up the dates. I'm not really sure when he came by." She took a drink, but sloshed some on her robes. Her hand was trembling again.
Susan pushed her chair back abruptly and stood up.
"I'm sorry, Hermione, I'm not feeling very well. I need to go now. I'll see you some other time, sorry again"
Before Hermione could even say goodbye, Susan all but flung a few Galleons on the table and rushed out.
"Interesting," Hermione muttered to herself.
Hermione walked briskly along Charing Cross Road, passing Foyles bookstore. She hesitated, briefly tempted to go in and browse. However, her lunch with Susan had left her unsettled, she needed to clear her head. Fresh air always helped.
She turned into one of the side streets and continued along the bustling streets of Soho, turning over Susan's strange behaviour in her mind.
Susan had lied to her, that much Hermione was certain of, and had seen him the weekend he had disappeared. The question was, what else could Susan be hiding?
She couldn't wait to tell Theo what she'd discovered.
A sound from a dark alley caught her attention, and she stopped to listen.
Scratching and pained mewls, distinctively feline.
She looked around, but nobody else seemed to notice.
Hermione hesitated only briefly before stepping into the alley. "Kitty kitty, where are you? Come on, let me see you. I can help you, you know."
She walked further into the alley, but didn't see anything.
Then, on instinct, she crouched down seconds before a bright red curse shot over her head. She rolled toward the wall and stayed low, wand at the ready.
The alley remained seemingly empty..
A shimmer caught her eye and she fired a Stunner that way. The spell ricocheted and she had to dodge a bright purple curse aimed at her chest. It sliced into her left arm, stinking of burnt flesh and fabric.
She tried to Disapparate but she bounced back with such force her knees almost buckled beneath her.
"So," she muttered, "you think a Disapparition Shield can stop me, do you?" She fired a couple of curses in rapid succession, smiling with vicious satisfaction at the sound of bones breaking.
Blood began to soak through her sleeve as she stood still, listening keenly. A scuff from behind had her dodging another curse, successfully that time, wand pointed where it came from. Again there was nobody in sight.
Her hesitance cost her. Curses flew from two directions, forcing her to throw up a protection shield.
She huddled against the wall and aimed a Healing spell at her arm, but her hand shook and concentration shattered as spells battered against her shield, stronger and more frequent than before.
How far did their Disapparition Shield stretch? Surely not beyond the alley, or they wouldn't have had to lure her in. Or perhaps they'd thrown it up after she entered.
She cursed her weakness for felines.
Steeling herself, she disintegrated the shield and conjured a thick fog throughout the alley. That should distract her attackers. She began to move, quietly, carefully, along the wall towards the main street she had so foolishly abandoned.
She continued, one step at a time, her footsteps and breathing muffled by spells, heart thudding in her chest, so loudly and fiercely, she feared it would betray her. Her footsteps slowed at the harsh breathing ahead of her, blocking her escape.
His muffled curses made her smirk. Vanishing the fog made it stick to the caster, until they were covered in a grey cotton-candy fluff that took ages to melt. Thank the sneaky minds at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes for that.
Hermione sent a well-aimed Stunner in his direction and continued, until the fog was gone and she could feel the sun on her face.
Hermione ran, randomly ducking down one street and out others, heedless of oncoming traffic much to the frustration of cyclists, cars and buses alike. She ran until she reached the first quiet street and turned on her heel, Disapparating to a safe place.
She fell to her knees onto plush carpet in Theo Nott's sitting room and a squeaky voice said, "Miss Hermione? You being hurt? Miss?"
Unable to catch her breath, she couldn't say anything to the little house-elf who began to tend to her arm, Scourgifying the blood from her clothes and cleaning the wound.
Adrenaline had kept the pain at bay, but Fliss' ministrations reminded her just how close she had come to dying just now.
"Theodore," she gasped.
"Master Theodore being in the library, Miss," Fliss said promptly.
Hermione pushed herself up, despite the house-elf's protests, and stumbled towards the library.
The thought that she had nearly died pushed her forward, one painful step after another, until she reached the library doors. She threw them open and walked in, concentrating hard not to stumble again.
Theodore sat at his desk, his head leaning on one hand and a quill poised in the other.
He looked up at the sudden intrusion, the frown on his face melting into delight at seeing her, then concern.
Hermione stared at him as if she had never seen him before.
She stood rooted to the spot, struck by one thought only.
I could have died. I could have died and I'd never have told him that I…
Cutting that thought short, she reached out towards him and he came to her, grasping her hands tightly and repeating the same words over and over again.
"What happened? Talk to me, Hermione, please."
But she couldn't form any words. She could only stare, stare at his beautiful blue eyes, dark as sapphires, his aquiline nose, and high cheekbones. At his dark hair that curled, just a little, at the ends.
She saw the desperate concern in his eyes and felt thrilled in ways that, she told herself, she shouldn't.
"Attacked… London… escaped…" she breathed.
Theodore dropped her hands and cupped her face. "Breathe slowly," he instructed, his firm voice an anchor she clung to.
She tried, but the leftover adrenaline raced through her veins. So she told herself. Her knees felt weak and the thought of I could have died, I could have died kept racing through her head.
"Hermione, please, try to calm down." Theodore seemed agitated, running his hands from her cheeks to neck, neck to cheeks, and down again.
Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck, dragged his head down and pressed her lips against his in a desperate attempt to finally silence all the noise in her brain.
He stiffened in her arms and tried to move away, but she wouldn't let him. It took one, two, three heartbeats before he responded, just as eager, just as desperate.
Tongues met in a frantic battle that left her breathless and aching for more. She began to pepper his face and neck with kisses, her hands wandering from his shoulders to the fastenings of his robes.
He didn't stop her.
"Hermione, we shouldn't… Don't…" he murmured, breathing ragged.
She rolled her hips against his, grasping at the fabric of his robes until her palms ached.
"Don't say no," she said, between kisses, "not now. Please. I need you so much." She pushed the robes off his shoulders and began to unbutton his trousers, her fingers brushing his cock through the fabric.
"Hermione…" Her name fell off his lips in a moan of pure desire.
"Please," she whispered in his ear, tongue darting out to trace the shell of his ear.
He shuddered as she nipped at his earlobe, and when her hand closed around his aching cock, stroking, teasing, seducing, she knew he was hers.