All characters belong to JK Rowling

Chapter 11 –Nowhere Man

Theodore Nott hated secrets unless they were his own. If they were his secrets than he held them as a necessary evil – unavoidable. However, he absolutely, positively hated that other people had secrets in which he wasn't aware. It meant that he couldn't have any level of control over them. It meant that he couldn't predict what the other person would do. It meant that he couldn't predict what HE would do. It meant that he didn't know everything and he hated not knowing everything!

Even more than he hating secrets, he hated lies. Again, unless they were his lies. Although if he were truthful, (and how bloody truthful could a liar be?) Theo was a terrible liar, which might account for his hatred of falsehoods. He hated deceit of all kind. He grew up in a household where lying and secrets were part of the norm, and he hated it as much then as he did now.

He should change his edict to a simpler statement - He hated liars. That covered people who kept secrets and the lies that came out of their mouths as a product of keeping their secrets.

Lies and secrets made Theo Nott feel out of control. Some people could spout off a falsehood with infinite ease, like Malfoy. To Draco Malfoy, telling a lie was as easy as breathing…it came second nature to the man. Adrian Pucey 'kept things' like secrets, from people for their own good. He would tell a person only as much as the person absolutely had to know. Marcus Flint never really told lies, or kept out and out secrets. Instead, he told outlandish stories and tales. He embellished everything from how much money he had to how long his cock was. To him he wasn't lying as much as he was 'stretching' the truth. Then there was Blaise. Theo knew that Blaise kept perhaps more secret than the rest of them, but he kept secrets to protect himself FROM others, so really, was that a bad thing?

Unlike his Slytherin friends, Theo Nott was NOT a good liar. He stammered when he lied, shifted his weight from side to side, tended to shift his gaze up and down. He also couldn't keep a secret that didn't involve himself worth a damn. If the secret was about someone else, he was like a sieve – he just couldn't hold the information inside - it would always trickle out one way or another. Nevertheless, if the secret were about him it would remain locked inside forever.

The reason he was an abysmal liar, and the reason he hated when others held secrets inside, were that secrets and lies had once almost cost him his very life, and had in fact, cost him the life of someone he held very dear. Each of his friends knew different things about his past, and since they were all such accomplished liars and could keep such good secrets, none of them knew the entire sordid story. And he liked it that way.

He needed to have a modicum of control over his life and his surroundings or he would explode! For some reason, ever since Miss Granger had come to live above his townhouse a week ago, he had felt that control slipping away. He didn't like that. Not at all.

Especially as he had a suspicion that she was keeping secrets from him, and more to the point, she might even be lying to them all. If he found out she was doing either, he wasn't quite sure what he would do.

But he would do something.

He marched up to Hermione's flat after her late afternoon argument with Adrian, knocked on the door, and was shocked to find that it was slightly ajar. Probably so her cat could come in and out by itself. He stuck his head inside, her 'dying heart' poem clutched firmly in his grasp, and he called out, "Miss Granger?"

Suddenly, the little kitten pounced over to him, sideways, and then stood before him and hissed.

Theo hissed right back at the thing. Opening the door, he stepped inside, nudged the kitten away from the door with his foot, and walked deeper into the flat. Figuring he was already uninvited, he might as well explore.

He called her name once more, though he lacked the conviction to say it very loud. "Granger?" Leaving off the 'Miss' this time, he waited for an answer that never came. Walking straight toward the bedroom, he pushed open that door with the palm of his hand and then stopped.

She was laying on the bed, on her side, her back toward the door. That wasn't the worst of it. She was crying. Gentle tears. Not sobs. Not wails. Nothing loud or obnoxious. If he still had the capacity to care, such a sight might have broken his heart.

Curled up on her side, hugging a pillow to her chest, rocking back and forth, the tears she was crying were no ordinary tears. Even Theo knew that. They weren't tears of a woman who was merely unhappy because she had a spat with her former boss, and current wanker, Adrian Pucey. These tears seemed desperate, desolate, and full of despair.

And he was a witness to them. He didn't want to witness them. This was one secret of hers that he wished he wasn't privy to. He began to move back and forth, shifting his weight uncomfortably from his left foot to his right, (just as he did when he lied!) and a floorboard underneath his foot creaked. He froze in abject horror. Gads! He didn't want her to know he was a witness to this!

She said, "I thought you left."

'Obviously not,' he thought, although he wondered how quickly he could Disapparate away.

He didn't know what else to do. He didn't know what to say, when she said, "Are you happy now? You made me cry. That's what you wanted, wasn't it?"

He frowned. Hell no, he didn't want her to cry! He hated crying females almost as much as he hated other people's secrets and lies! How had HE made her cry?

With her back still to him, and with him still standing next to the bed, (but wishing he were outside the door) she continued, "My happy façade has faded. I'm crying because you were right. I'm afraid. There. I said it. I admitted it. I'm scared. I feel all alone and I'm scared and I don't know what to do."

"I hate deceiving everyone, because I've never lied to anyone a day in my life. This secret is hanging over my head like an anvil, ready to smash me to smithereens any moment, and I feel so utterly helpless to continue as I am, but I know I can't tell the other Vipers the truth because they wouldn't want to carry on and continue to help me. You forced me to admit that you were right and I was wrong, now what are you going to do about it, Adrian?"

Adrian?

She thought he was Adrian! What in the world was she blubbering about? Why was she sad? Why did she feel alone and scared? What secrets was she keeping from the rest of them, what was going on here, and why would Adrian want her to feel this way?

He approached the bed, sat down upon it, and placed his hand on her arm with every intention of telling her that he wasn't Adrian. He was going to say… "It's Theo, Granger. I don't know what sort of secrets you're keeping with Pucey, or what sort of lies you've been telling the rest of us, but don't cry." It sounded lame in his head, but he didn't even get a chance to give it a whirl when she reached up her hand, grasped his and said, "Please, don't say anything. Don't tell me how stupid I've been. Don't give me a lecture. Just be a good friend and stay with me a while."

Laying on her right side, she twined the fingers of her right hand with his left as they sat on her left arm, then covered her face with her left hand and continued to weep, still thinking all along that he was Adrian. When her sobs began to cease, and her breathing became heavier, he thought she might be sleeping. He realized he still had her poem in his other hand, so he leaned forward as far as he could and placed it under a copy of a Muggle book that rested on the bedside table nearest to him.

The book was called, 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

He released her hand gently; giving her arm a gentle caress and placing her hand down carefully on the mattress by her body. Then he picked up the book. He'd never heard of it before, so he opened it, curious creature that he was. Glancing back toward her once, he thumbed through the pages of the book, only then realizing that there was a piece of parchment folded up and stored in its pages.

Theo unfolded the parchment, and was shocked to see that the piece of parchment contained the last missing four items of her to do list! He knew that there had to be a number 17 through 20, because Hermione Granger was smart and she wouldn't have numbered her list as "Twenty things Hermione Granger wants to do before she turns twenty-seven" if there wasn't originally twenty things on her list!

He started to read the list, but was interrupted when the little kitten took that moment to jump up on the bed, surprising him. Theo jumped, the kitten bounced away, and Hermione sat upright, also surprised.

Theo stood quickly, placed the parchment back in the book and threw it toward the table, but it landed on the floor, so in his haste he nudged it hurriedly under the bed with his foot.

"What are you doing in my bedroom?" she asked, also standing up quickly, a bit disoriented, reaching out and almost stumbling.

Theo ran around to her side of the bed in a flash, reached out for her and grabbed her hand to keep her from falling over. "Your, ah, your door, ah, it was open, and, um, I just came in to check to make sure you were alright." She blinked at him. He added, "After your disagreement with Adrian and all."

She almost looked as if she didn't believe him. It was no wonder. He was stumbling over his words, and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Damn, he was a terrible liar.

"Did Adrian just leave?" she asked, rubbing her eyes. She looked at the clock on her bedside table.

"When? What? You mean, just now?" Theo asked. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. "I didn't see him just leave." Fuck. "Maybe. He might have. I don't know. Was he here?"

"Yes, I believe he was here, but then I must have fallen asleep. I wasn't asleep for very long," she reasoned. She looked at their joined hands. "You still have my hand."

"I know." And he did know. And he felt like a complete idiot. But he also rather liked holding her hand. It was a small hand. It fit his rather nicely. It was warm and he was cold. He was in a quandary. Should he drop her hand or keep it in his hold?

They stood there like the pair of dolts that they were, holding hands, when Marcus Flint came bounding into the bedroom. "Hey, children, what are doing holding hands?" He threw himself across her bed, propping his head up on his elbow. "I might get the wrong impression and think that you like each other."

Theo dropped her hand like a hot potato.

Hermione scrambled away across the room. "What are you doing here, and how did you get in?"

"Your door wasn't locked. It was merely pushed closed, but not tight," Marcus explained.

Hermione sighed, looked from one Viper to the next and said, "Adrian must have left it open when he left. Or, no, I left it open when I came in, for Bob to enter, because he was still out in the garden, so maybe when Adrian left he kept it the same."

"Bob?" Marcus sat up on the bed, and gave her a smile. "Who's Bob? Are you cheating on us with a bloke named Bob?"

"Bob's my kitten." She sat down on the other side of the rumpled bed. Theo remained at the end, feeling uneasy.

"Who names a cat Bob?" Marcus laughed.

"For the record, I named him Dante, and I believe Pucey named him Zeus," Theo expounded, finally loosening up and sitting on the end of the bed.

"ZEUS?" Hermione and Marcus exclaimed loudly and in unison. Then they laughed together.

"Better than Bob," Theo mumbled.

Marcus looked at the little kitten as it played in the corner of Hermione's room, pulling on a thread that dangled from the hem of her favourite brown jumper that was thrown across a chair. "I think his named should be Marcus."

"Oh for cripes sakes," Theo huffed. "At least the rest of us gave him names that reflected great human beings, or characters from history."

Hermione began, "There's Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor, 161 to 180 AD, who ruled, oddly enough, with Lucius Verus from 161 until Verus' death in 169. He was considered the last of the five good emperors, and is also…" and she got no further because Marcus leaned over from his place on the bed and put his hand over her mouth and began to laugh.

"Granger, Granger, Granger," he said with a smile. "You truly are an original aren't you? A walking, talking, dictionary, you are." He looked at Theo, who was also smiling for a change.

Theo interjected, "I really believe Marcus was naming your cat after another great Marcus."

Grabbing Marcus' wrist and lowering his hand, she asked, "Oh, who?"

"Himself," Theo answered.

She stood from the bed, shook her head and said, "Anyway, why are you here? Adrian said you were standing me up until Saturday night."

"Things change, sunshine. We're back on schedule. Go get beautiful and we'll be on our way. Dinner, dancing, and drinking. Lots of drinking. Enough to get you totally pissed beyond a care in the world."

"Well, alright then," she answered with a small smile. "Just let me get ready. I think I need something to cheer me up, to take away all my cares."

"A night on the town with me should do it," Marcus boasted, standing as well.

"I meant checking off a task from my list. That should make me happy," she clarified, heading for her closet and shutting herself inside.

Once the men were alone in the bedroom, Marcus said in hushed tones to Theo, "What are you doing here?"

"She dropped a poem she wrote out in the back garden and I was returning it to her." There. Theo could tell the truth.

"A poem?" Marcus looked as if he didn't believe him.

"Yes, a poem. You do know what a poem is, don't you?" Theo spat.

"Yes, you wanker, I know what a poem is," Marcus hissed in return. "But you're lying about something…wait a bloody minute, you deceitful sod. You didn't get a poem from your back garden. You haven't been in your back garden since…"

"Just shut up!" Theo interrupted. "And I was too in the back garden. It holds no sway over me one way or another. It's just a plot of ground. I can walk in it if I want."

Marcus glared at him as if he didn't believe him. "Show me this poem that you supposedly retrieved from your back garden."

"It's right there on her nightstand, under that book," Theo pointed, walking around the bed, to come closer to the other man. Marcus turned around to look. "Wait, I mean, the book fell to the floor, but the poem's still there."

Theo had almost forgotten about the book. It was perfect that Marcus was taking her out tonight. Now he could 'pop' back up in to her flat after she left and he could read the rest of her list, and perhaps he could nose around and find out why she was so sad as well.

Marcus picked up the poem and began to read it and Theo looked down to the floor for the book. Spying it half under the bed, with the folded piece of parchment sticking out, he scooted it under the bed a bit more, to conceal it from Marcus' view. Just then, the door to the walk-in closet opened.

Both men turned, Marcus place the poem behind his back, and they stared with awe and wonder at the woman before them. In only a matter of minutes, she had dressed and changed her makeup and hair. She had transformed herself in to an even more beautiful woman, if that was possible.

"Will I do?" she asked nervously, without coy, not seeking compliments, with all seriousness.

Theo frowned at her insecurity. What an asinine question.

Marcus smiled at her timidity. It was so unlike the brave little Gryffindor who he had come to cherish in such a short time. Marcus held out his arm and said, "You'll do for now. Let's go."

She placed her hand on his arm and they started out of the bedroom, toward the main room of her apartment, with Theo right behind. Hermione turned to Theo as they entered the main room and she said, "I hope you don't mind, but I set up new wards today. They only admit me. That's why I had the door cracked open earlier, because I thought Adrian might come in to apologize, although he never really did apologize when he was here. He never said a word. Anyway, I know you have the place well protected, and it's not like I really have anything of value here, but still, it's a matter of privacy. You understand, right?"

Marcus smiled over her head when he saw the strange look on Theo's face. He suspected that Theo was intended to snoop as soon as they left. Perhaps the little Gryffindor suspected it as well, hence her announcement.

In any case, Theo gave off a haughty stare, shrugged and said, "Whatever. It's your flat. You may protect it however, you deem fit. I have no thought on the subject."

Then he turned sharply and walked out the door, only to Disapparate away once he was outside the threshold.

Marcus looked down at Hermione. "You would only change the wards if you were hiding something, little Gryffindor, some sort of secret." Then he asked, "Did you really change the wards so he couldn't enter?"

"Marcus," she said with a smile, "Do I look like someone who would have secrets or who would lie? Now, let's go get pissed out of our minds!"

*Last chapter probably before vacation! Thanks!