They headed directly to the first floor, to the Passage of the Fouls where there was a useful niche behind a tapestry of Herpo Hexing the Symposium. Hermione healed Theo's nose as he mended his robes.
"I didn't want to do it!" Idra protested when they turned to speak with her. Her eyes swam with tears as she choked out the words. "Gupta is a Prefect. She said I had to!"
"Do what, exactly?" Theo asked coldly. If people thought their audience was unreceptive they tended to provide more information to win them over. Or clam up, but the little witch was too agitated to still her tongue.
"Lure you in so they could catch you." The Ravenclaw shook as she confessed, willing to face their wrath rather than run away. "That Gryffindor Potter was so angry. He was shouting at Gupta and the two older boys. His parents had sent him an owl about something and he blamed you."
"Sirius." Hermione sighed. She handed Idra a handkerchief. "Were they all irate?"
"No, well, not really. Gupta was cross because everyone was yelling. The rat-faced boy wanted to hex me but Gupta drew her wand on him and said I was a First Year who didn't know better." Idra pursed her mouth at that, mopping her face. "The older boys said if they brought you and Regulus Black to the Headmaster, he would have to punish you for what you did to Sirius."
"We didn't do anything to Sirius Black." Theo could empathise now with Rosier's reluctance to commit altruism. Slytherins were so often punished for it. Nothing had changed.
"Potter said his parents said Sirius said you were there when he was hurt." Idra relayed then shrugged. There had been a lot of shouting and she'd hidden behind Gupta. "Regulus Black was in the Slytherin dungeons and they couldn't get him but you were always in the Library so they thought they could just wait. That you'd sit with me."
"Idra, you did nothing wrong." Hermione consoled when she saw the girl's lip tremble. "Some situations you cannot escape. You endure, marshal your strengths and wait for an opportunity." She crouched so she could look directly at the Ravenclaw without a power imbalance. "We're not mad at you. We are worried you'll be blamed for being our friend."
"I couldn't do anything." Idra said in bitter frustration. "I had to sit there and wait and wait and I wanted to warn you but I couldn't."
"Remember that feeling and study." Theo advised. A dedication to her own education would keep her out of trouble and help her not to notice how lonely she was. It had worked for him. "You'll be able to do more when you know more."
"I will." She nodded, wearily relieved they weren't going to hex her for betraying them. "Do you have to leave?"
"Oh yes." Hermione winced mentally at the all-in duel that had been building in the Library. A lot of Slytherins had seen Theo's bloodied face and were keen for reciprocity. Mulciber would egg things on rather than defuse them and if James was looking to settle accounts for Sirius, anyone in green would be fair game.
"Go to your Head of House and tell him we were furious with you, that we demanded to know what you'd told them but we were in a hurry to Apparate so we didn't hang about to curse you." Theo instructed. "And don't look Dumbledore in the eye. He's a Legilimens."
Idra nodded and scurried off. The Varinens were not in a hurry to Apparate though they did want to leave quickly. They went to the classroom with the Vanishing Cabinet and made their exit from Hogwarts.
Borgin and Burkes was closed and unlike last time, firmly locked. It took them several minutes to dispel the security charms and curses before they could leave then several more to cast them all again so hopefully no one would notice their transit.
They Apparated to a lane near King's Cross station. It was unlikely anyone would be at the Varinens' house but leaving the country without checking seemed daft. Hermione and Theo eschewed invisibility spells for simpler disguises as the streets were still crowded and people noticed odd gaps in the traffic flow even if they weren't consciously aware of the cause.
"Who broke your nose?" Hermione asked as they waited for the traffic lights to change.
"A Gryffindor Seventh Year. Sandy hair, quite beefy." Theo rubbed his face. The other young man, he'd concede the Lion the honour of not being a boy any more, had jumped him and got him on the floor before he'd had time to react. No spells hitting his Shield meant no advanced warning of the attack.
"Someone tried to grab me too. I think they've had some Auror training. Or had some tips, possibly. Most wizards don't go in for hand-to-hand combat." They hurried across the street when the light went green. Hermione admired the historic buildings gilded by the streetlights. Her pace slowed to an amble as the adrenalin of the afternoon ebbed.
"I turned into a fox and bit him." He said, quite smug about his transformation. "It was very satisfying."
"He's lucky you're not rabid. Do you know how many bacteria are in a human mouth?" Hermione did as her parents were dentists.
"Fox." Theo smiled, matching her stride. He held her hand and they strolled, shedding some of their tension into the crisp night air. Hermione sighed.
"I am being serious so please forgive the stupid question." She began in hopes of venting some of the minor worries bouncing around her head to make room for the big ones she couldn't shift. "Do you like me, Ophelia or Nemesia more?"
"That's difficult." He gave the query some thought. "I don't know Nemesia. Truthfully, I don't want to know her. I've met her parents." Theo didn't grimace. He schooled his expression automatically at the mere mention of Madam Lestrange. "Ophelia is my sister, which is awkward as I would quite like to court you. Have a chaperone in your own head is uncomfortable."
"Court me?" Hermione repeated the words to hear them in her own voice to check if they still sounded antiquated. They did.
"Pure-bloods don't date. I don't know what you expect. Do Muggles just drift about having lunch with people until they fall over someone they want to marry?" Theo didn't mention the presumed rampant debauchery. There were a great many Muggles. Billions, if he recalled Hermione's own words correctly.
"Pretty much." Her experience dating consisted of doing things alone with Ron as opposed to with Ron and Harry. The activities weren't all that different except for the snogging. "Movies, museums, picnics and so forth. Less scripted than your rarefied social events."
"Would you like to see if we suit?" He asked, carefully neutral and despising himself for his lack of composure. He wasn't going to beg. Some grovelling perhaps for past slights.
"I would." Hermione paused, looking away to check street names and find some tact. "I enjoy your company. I worry though that when we get back to when we should be, our friendship will drift away. We need each other now. That breeds dependency."
"We might not be able to return. Or if we do, we will be out of step with everyone else." Would there be two of them? Temporal doppelgangers who had lived different lives? Despite making it immeasurably difficult to return, Theo could understand the Ministry restricting the study of time magic. Simply keeping everything straight in his head was arduous.
"I'd like some more answers before I give up on my future with Ron. If I have one." Nothing had been settled. "I don't know if I want to be married to an Auror. I've done more than my fair share of waiting for bad news. Ron followed Harry because that's what he does. I'm not sure if he'll stick it out."
"I think I'd like to be a Healer, or at least train as one." Theo considered the hypothetical prospect of gainful employment. The Nott fortune wasn't what it had been before the war but he didn't have to work. "I'm still irritated that I couldn't sustain the vulnera sanentur. I've never had such trouble with a spell before."
"Snape invented it so it's possible it's very tailored to the caster." Hermione mused. "I've used it myself and it's fiddly. You really do have to sing it."
"I have been told I have a singing voice like a toad in a bucket." He smirked. Pucey could sing beautifully. Even Flint could carry a tune though his bass was so deep he sounded like he was chanting in a dwarven delve.
"I'll win no prizes at an eisteddfod. My parents made me try all the Arts. I gave it a go. My piano teacher actually asked me to leave." She smirked at that, obscurely pleased that she had proven diligent practice was not all that was required to learn how to play well. Eight year old Hermione had not liked Mrs Nielson at all.
Varinen House was dark and ostensibly deserted. Theo tried the wards then shook his head as they pushed back at him. A few spells confirmed what he suspected. No one was home.
"Inconvenient." He put his wand away. It seemed they would be going to Finland the long way.
"I think we should avoid magical London. We've got a bit of a head start but not much. Assuming anyone is looking for us." Hermione weighed their options. They had no proof they were being hunted but if Orion and Walburga had questioned Kreacher then it wouldn't take Bellatrix long to learn of her as-yet-unborn daughter's existence.
"I'm prepared to be quite paranoid if it means evading Tom." Theo asserted, turning away from the townhouse to head back to the Muggle Underground.
"There are a lot of vacant buildings occupied by the homeless during this era. We could share a squat and blend in with the counter-culture." Her parents had been too staid to be hippies though some of their university friends had dabbled in the scene. "Bloomsbury Square is about two miles that way." Hermione waved an arm vaguely south-east. "It might be fun."
"I thought you had Muggle money." He was absolutely, fundamentally not going to sit in any position with dispossessed Muggles. Not even for the sake of not hurting Hermione's feelings. Theo recognised however that saying so outright would not go over well.
"Not from this year." Ignoring any temporal hiccup caused by trying to use money that wouldn't be printed for twenty years, the notes would certainly look counterfeit. "The paper notes wear out so new ones are constantly being printed, with small changes in art and security measures to keep people from forging them."
"Not a bad system, I suppose." If the Muggles could maintain the cycle of renewal then their currency would be relatively sound. The goblins had a better system. Each coin had the serial number of the smith who cast it, to ensure the integrity of manufacture. There was little point tracking the date the coin was struck as the charms put upon wizarding coinage protected against tarnishing. There were coins in circulation from the thirteenth century, though the older the Galleon the more likely it was to be in a pure-blood family's vault.
"So we Apparate or pitch a tent in Regent's Park." Hermione made the effort to sound enthusiastic but it was getting late and chilly and that reminded her how much she hated camping.
"How far east or north-east can you reliably Apparate?" Theo reviewed a mental map of his travels. "I could take us to Trier. I went there last summer to see the Porta Nigra. Marvellous preservation of the genius loci."
"For furthest east, I've been to Bulgaria. I visited Viktor there for three weeks so I could Apparate to his family's home in Plovdiv but I don't have the range to get us there in one go." If they wanted to get to Finland, going via the Balkans was hardly direct. "I could get us to the National Art Gallery in Berlin but I think it would be in East Berlin now."
"And that is a problem why?" He had been diligently plodding through the Muggle Studies texts and had learned enough to start noticing the lacunae without Hermione pointing them out. The books went into detail about the collapse of the Empires then glossed over current events as though Muggles had simply gone back to living in huts. Professor Egg had done an estimable job to bridge the gaps but Theo simply didn't understand why the gallery's location would be an issue.
"Communists. Remember the chapters on the Muggles aping Grindelwald's war?" She paused to renew the Muffliato with a flick of her wand. "Well, they stayed in power in eastern Europe and Russia until the Nineties. Berlin right now is divided in half. Most of the museums and galleries I visited would be in the unfriendly part."
"Trier, then. There's a large magical community there." Theo advocated. He didn't have to persuade very hard. Staying in Britain was not enticing with Death Eaters around every corner. They ducked into an alley and Theo Apparated them to the old Roman city on the Moselle.
They arrived on the eastern bank of the river within sight of the ancient gates. It was noticeably colder, about ten degrees Celsius, Hermione guessed. She cast Warming Charms on them both as Theo got his balance back.
"You look fine." He complained. She hadn't even gone pale. Theo felt like his liver had rearranged itself.
"Spent a year jumping all over Britain. Side-Along doesn't bother me any more." The witch shrugged. The wizard straightened with an aggrieved look.
They headed south towards the newly reopened cathedral. Trier was still dingy in places with walls pockmarked by shrapnel though this was offset by new apartment buildings in cream brick and brightly coloured signage everywhere. The old city was doing well for itself.
The magical part of Trier had been there since the settlement was Augusta Treverorum, and the residents were quietly pleased to mention it. The witch who walked under the warded arch with them casually let them know Trier had been founded before Merlin. The wizard who gave them directions to the inn and the wizard at the Hexennest both informed the tourists of the provenance of their city.
The innkeeper also eyed their robes. Hermione was getting a little irritated by that. She and Theo had Transfigured their uniforms into less distinctive clothes and had removed all Hogwarts insignias. Why everyone was looking at them, she didn't know.
"Will you and your..." The portly wizard paused, waiting for clarification or perhaps a lie from the young couple. Not so young he would have to report them but barely of age and alone together suggested they were doing something they ought not.
"Sister." Theo inserted the word firmly. "Orpheus Varinen." He introduced himself with a small bow. "My twin, Ophelia Varinen." While he did not want to announce to the world where they were, neither did he wish to be fodder for gossip. "We would like two rooms and an owl capable of making the journey to Finland to inform our father where we are."
The innkeeper was not acquainted with the Varinen family but he knew the tone. Hermione was surprised at how pleasant he became after Theo's show of snoot. Wizarding etiquette was still a puzzle to her. No one seemed to treat customer service well and name-dropping was a chronic affliction.
Unfortunately however, the innkeeper could not Gemino the one room he had left. The Hexennest was nearly booked out for Samhain as there were several strongly consecrated sites near the city that were favoured by traditionalists. While celebrating the harvest festival wasn't as popular as Walpurgisnacht on the Continent, the wizarding vintners in the Moselle valley would not shirk any offering to the spirits.
Theo and Hermione didn't complain. The room was large, clean and comfortable. Neither of them were going to object to a soft bed albeit one shared. Hermione washed and changed in the bathroom then swapped with Theo, who had spent the time warding the room. She was asleep before he joined her and he wasn't awake long either.
Morning happened around eleven o'clock when someone knocked on their door. It took her a moment to recall where she was and find her wand and robe but Hermione answered the door before the knock turned from inquiring to demanding.
A matronly witch with ornately braided hair and an apron starched so white it sparkled stood foursquare to the threshold. A covered tray floated behind her. In precise English, Hermione was informed she and her brother had missed breakfast and the kitchen of the Hexennest did not provide luncheon to the guests. However as they were new, their ignorance could be forgiven. The tray drifted into the room, settling on the round table by the window.
"Thank you." Hermione said to the witch's back as she trotted briskly away. Shutting the door so as not to give offence as she cast every poison detection charm she knew on the food, Hermione found nothing untoward.
Maybe the witch was a genuinely kind person who hadn't wanted two late arrivals to go hungry. Or maybe she had wanted to sticky-beak into their room to check they weren't up to anything. Hermione drank a glass of pumpkin juice and woke Theo.
"When we're both awake, we need to discuss what Kreacher told me." She sat at the breakfast table to brunch. "I didn't ask him any questions. I really wasn't at my best that day." Hermione castigated herself as her 'brother' padded over. "He said elf magic had brought us from there to here."
"That phrase specifically? Elf magic?" Theo rubbed his face. He had slept heavily and his wits seemed to be still half dozing. Buttering a roll, he stared at the jam, marmalade, honey and cheese curd in little jars. Opting for honey as the least challenging, Theo chewed meditatively.
"Specifically." Hermione confirmed, diving into the strawberry jam. "Not house elf magic or elven magic, though the latter distinction may be a product of the dialect of the domestic fey." Theo muttered something into his bread roll. "What?"
"The Horned God is an elf, technically. Of the Aes Sidhe." He bit vengefully into his breakfast, chewed, swallowed then threatened. "If he was the one who brought us here, that bastard is venison."