A/N: Thank you so much for your feedback from last chapter! It was fun to peel back the curtain on Theo a little bit. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions. Huge thank you to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter!
Please let me know what you thought of chapter eleven and be on the lookout for chapter twelve soon!
With another week under her belt, Hermione felt herself slowly beginning to settle into life with her parents, like ice cream melting into the cracks of the pavement. Nothing was the same and yet everything went on as if it hadn't changed fundamentally.
She also somehow maintained a rocky relationship with Harry and Ron, still joining them at lunchtime, even though she felt herself holding back her thoughts and feelings. She let Ron's off-color remarks about her and her new life roll off of her, even though it hurt to hear how he really felt about her. But, she knew that she had to live with it if holding onto their friendship was still a priority.
It had not come as a surprise for her to realize that they had stopped inviting her for their after school plans, Harry letting at least one movie night slip on accident.
"Sorry, Hermione," he said, looking utterly guilty. "We just figured that you wouldn't like an action movie. You always hated it when we picked them."
A small part of her wondered if that was precisely the reason that they had picked it. Honestly, watching the movie was never the part that she liked most of all — it was spending time with her two friends. It was endless pizza nights at Sirius's house, tucked away in the basement on the old beat down couch. But she hadn't been invited back to Sirius's house since that fateful day in court.
"It's alright, I've got plans anyway," Hermione said, hoping to assuage the guilt — the same way that she always did.
"Probably hanging out with Greengrass again," Ron said with a snort, making no secret how much he detested Hermione's new friend.
She had actually gone on a quick shopping trip with Daphne earlier in the week and she knew that Ron would never let her live it down. It was her first proper shopping spree, never having been given much of an allowance from Sirius for something as trivial as clothes. Not to mention they never would take her to the stores that she wanted to see.
It had been nice to get an honest opinion and to have someone with a little bit of expertise on teenage girl fashion for a change. And the make up! God, Sirius had never let Hermione wear makeup, but her parents didn't have the same reservations for their seventeen-year-old daughter.
It wasn't as if Hermione had completely changed who she was, she just had a little bit of a splurge. She didn't become Pansy overnight, but you wouldn't know that to hear Ron tell it. She just wore a little blush and mascara now.
God, Ron would really flip if he saw the fruit punch colored lipstick Daphne had goaded her into wearing, wouldn't he?
"Actually no," Hermione answered with a sniff. "I've got a job. It's my third shift tonight."
"Ugh, please don't tell me that you are working for your parents?" Harry asked. "Come on, you know what kind of person Riddle is!"
Hermione scoffed. "Of course not! I resent the suggestion that I would do that," she said smartly. "No, I am working at a little stop and shop in my neighborhood. I just wanted to make some more money for University next year."
After her impromptu dinner conversation with Theo the week before, Hermione had realized that Tom Riddle must control a lot of people with the allure of money and she decided that she wasn't going to be one of those people. She knew that she would need money for University, even with potential scholarships and government interventions, because her parents' income on paper was practically zero. She wouldn't rely on them to pay her way. Instead, she set out the following day to get a job.
Her first choice had been to work at the Half Moon, but no amount of argument with Fenrir could get him to budge. He made it abundantly clear that he worked alone and he didn't need a stupid little girl getting in his way. He got on just fine without a waitress and he wouldn't start now.
She had been disappointed, but she was not discouraged. The next place that she went was the stop and shop just up the road, run by an odd man called Scabior. He'd made no secret that he was leering at her when she asked for a job application.
"Beautiful, you don't even need to apply," he'd said with a toothpick in between his teeth, grinning at her. "I'll even let you start right now."
Hermione had not been put off by his borderline inappropriate behavior and had negotiated a fair wage and easy schedule. She would work three days during the school week and once on the weekend. Best of all, Scabior agreed to let her do some studying when there weren't customers in the shop.
She supposed that it wasn't completely truthful to say that her new job had nothing to do with Tom Riddle. In less than a month in the old neighborhood, Hermione could see just how far reaching Riddle's influence was. Everyone had some sort of connection to him and the Half Moon and Scabior's store were no different. Even though neither of the men worked directly for Riddle, they both did pay him for protection (from who Hermione couldn't tell you) and they would both look the other way if Riddle did something in their view.
But she wasn't going to go around admitting that to Harry and Ron who would automatically settle on the worst possible conclusion.
Her explanation seemed to satisfy their curiosity while also absolving them of any guilt that they felt at keeping her out of their plans. They wished her a pleasant Friday evening, though Ron doubted that it could be any fun, considering it involved work.
After school, Hermione briefly returned home, if only to switch into one of her new jumpers — cozy, white and soft as snow. She pretended that she only wanted to wear it because it got cold in the shop with the door constantly swinging open, but she knew that part of it was because she liked the way she looked in it. It fit her body well, clinging to the dips and curves of her body. She also took the time to touch up her makeup and put on the pink lipstick.
She stared at herself in the mirror, wondering if it was too much or if it made her look ridiculous, but decided to be bold and keep it.
Her parents had guests in the kitchen when she came back down the stairs — Auggie and Rabastan and a younger man called Thorfinn of all things. They were all drinking, but still took notice of her reappearance.
Her father called her in before she could escape out the front door. He looked at her with wide eyes, taking in her appearance. "Where are you going?" He questioned, softly.
"Why do you care all of a sudden?" She demanded right back. "It's not like you and Mum know where I am most days of the week."
"Don't be difficult, Hermione," he said tersely.
Hermione had to bite her lower lip to stop from snapping at him, knowing that it wouldn't do any good. "I'm just going to meet some friends," she lied, her eyes dropping to the floor so he wouldn't notice. She wasn't sure why she didn't want them to know about her job…maybe it was the worry that they would try to swoop in and tell her to quit.
"Oh leave her alone," her mum shouted from the table. "You look very beautiful, Hermione."
"Yeah, she does," Thorfinn agreed dumbly, only to get a smack to the back of his head from her mum.
"Don't talk that way about my daughter!" she shrieked, annoyed.
Hermione knew that it was a good opportunity for her to leave, while her parents were distracted. She slipped out the front door and into the chilly night, before making the short walk over to the stop and shop, her book bag slung over one arm.
"Hey Scabior," she greeted her boss, joining him behind the counter and pulling out a history book. That was the subject she thought she needed to study most of all — there were so many people to remember.
He returned her greeting with a put upon leer. "Are you always going to be reading that shite?" he asked, before preparing to retreat into the back to handle inventory, as he had taken to doing when she was in the shop.
"You promised that I could work on homework. It was part of our terms," Hermione reminded him, pleased with what she had been able to negotiate for herself. She didn't think that Fenrir would have been half as accommodating as Scabior had been, but then again, he hadn't let her get the upper hand.
Scabior made a noise of agreement before walking away, leaving her to her own devices. It was pretty quiet for a Friday night, she thought, but also supposed that most people would be out at a pub or a club and had little need to stop into an off license in this part of town. Still, she had a slow trickle of customers through the night. One man left her with his change, so Hermione bought one of those cherry suckers with the gum in the middle for twenty five pence, but she spent most of the night studying.
It was a little bit after nine o'clock when the door finally opened again and in waltzed a rowdy group of boys that Hermione immediately identified as Theo, Marcus and Adrian.
"Hey boys," she said, pulling the sucker out of her mouth.
Adrian immediately threw his hands up in the air. "Oh, now I see why we had to come here," he said, completely exasperated.
Theo waved the older boy off. "Just go get some cans, okay?"
Marcus stood rooted to the spot where he stood when she first greeted them, his eyes a bit wide and glued to her form. Hermione blushed and remembered Daphne's assertion that he might be interested in her, before pushing it from her mind. There was no way.
Adrian seemed to notice, too. "Marcus, are you coming?" he asked. "Let's leave Theo to his— to Hermione."
That got his legs moving and he followed his friend to the back of the store where the coolers were. Theo walked up to the counter, putting his hands down to lean forward on it. "What time do you get off tonight?" He asked.
"Not for another hour," Hermione explained. "When we close. What are you guys up to?"
"We just got back from watching a football match," he told her with a smirk, almost as if he was daring her to say something about what he'd previously revealed. "Marcus loves football and when he heard I was going, they decided to tag along."
"And now you're headed home?" She asked, returning her sucker to her mouth, twisting it off to one side.
"Maybe, not entirely sure yet. Daphne wants to go out. She says that she's sick of drinking in a basement," he explained. "She wants Adrian to take her dancing."
"He should do that then," Hermione suggested, wondering what exactly he was trying to get at. "You all should go. I don't think there are many clubs around here, though."
He gave her a lopsided grin. "I'd go, but I wouldn't have anyone to dance with," he said, his blue eyes drinking her in.
"Oh, I'm sure you'd find all sorts of girls willing to dance with you, Theo," she countered, rolling her eyes at him. Was he just goading her into complimenting him? She supposed he was always pretty free with compliments for her. "Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? You've got that whole devil-may-care thing going on that some girls are wild about."
"Some girls?" he asked, hopefully.
She wasn't taking the bait. What? Did he want her to tell him how much she wanted him, only to have him laugh at her? She couldn't forget the pure humiliation she'd felt when he'd made it very clear that he was disgusted at the thought of being with her all those years ago.
"Yeah, some girls," she repeated, hoping that he didn't hear the way that her breath caught in her throat. She didn't want to say it, but it did really do it for her.
Adrian and Marcus were rejoining them at the counter, their arms full of pints of lager. "Hey, you should come with us," Marcus said, trying to sound casual.
Hermione wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "Thanks for the invite, but I don't have anything to wear to a club. They'd turn me away at the door!" she said with a laugh.
"I'm sure Daph could lend you something if you wanted," Adrian offered.
She shook her head again. "Sorry, no thank you," she repeated. "You'll soon learn, boys — I can't be the life of the party all the time. I have to spend most of my time being a stick in the mud."
Adrian laughed at her quip. "How often does the party animal come out?" he wondered.
"Once a month," Hermione responded with a smirk, before biting her sucker in half to get to the gum center. "Have fun, boys!"
"You owe us a party in a week then, Granger," Adrian said, before taking the lead out the door and taking Marcus with him. Only Theo lingered behind, looking like he wanted to say much more than he had time for.
"Well, if you change your mind in the next hour…" he trailed off, obviously disappointed that he hadn't been able to get her to go with. "You know where to find me."
Hermione nodded. "See you, Theo."
He hadn't even been out of the store for ten seconds when Scabior emerged out of the back room, wearing a smirk, spinning his ubiquitous toothpick between his fingers. "Smart, that," he said, sounding proud of her. "Making him wait like that until he's absolutely panting for you."
She blushed and turned to look at the man. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about," she said. Only, she wasn't trying to be smart with him. She really didn't know what he was getting at.
"As if you don't know," Scabior said with a smirk, his eyes roving over her face to see a hint of guile. When he found nothing, no hint that she was being coy, he looked exasperated. "Really? That boy has never come into this shop so often as when you started working here."
"So?" Hermione asked, jutting her chin in the air. She didn't see what that had to do with anything. "He's been busy lately. Your shop is convenient."
Scabior rolled his eyes at her. "You must be the most obtuse person I've ever met," he said, though it was clear he didn't mean to cause offense. "Your parents really are the Lestranges?"
"Yes, but they didn't raise me," Hermione revealed smartly. It wasn't a secret that she wanted to keep, so she felt no shame in revealing the truth.
"Well, that certainly explains it — your willful naivete."
As if to punctuate his statement, Hermione chose that precise moment to blow a huge bubble with her gum, the pink stickiness deflating slowly, nearly getting stuck to her chin.
When she didn't take the bait, Scabior grew more vexed at the situation. "He's not coming in here to buy alcohol, he's coming in here to see you," he said darkly, with a grin on his face. "To flirt with you."
"Oh, that," Hermione said, feeling her cheeks go hot again. "He's not actually interested in me, Scabior. He's just trying to mess with me. He does it all the time."
Scabior chuckled, running a hand down his face. "What makes you think that?" he pressed, unconvinced by her explanation.
Hermione shrugged her shoulders, unsure. Why was she so sure that Theo was just trying to mess with her by coming on to her constantly? It was just that...she'd never really had a guy like her that way to be so open and honest about what he wanted from her. Theo wasn't afraid to compliment or look at her — completely unlike the shy touches and brief kisses and quiet whispers from Viktor Krum. It felt too much like Theo was trying to talk her into throwing herself at him like some desperate waif and once she did, he would be there to pull the rug out from under him.
"He's my oldest friend," she insisted, crossing her arms over her chest. "I know he doesn't really think of me like that."
He laughed again, biting down on his toothpick once more and shaking his head back and forth. "You are going to kill that boy with longing," he said, pointing one finger in her direction, as though she needed a scolding. When she didn't argue back, he returned to his little back room.
Hermione didn't like the suggestion that she was doing anything to Theo. If anything, he was the one who was making everything confusing with his half smiles that made her belly twist and turn in an excited sort of confusion.
When her shift was finally over at the end of the night, Hermione stood in front of the locked stop and shop, it's fluorescent sign still a neon beacon in the dark, and wondered, briefly, if she should make the quick walk to Adrian and Marcus's to see if she could still join the rowdy group on their outing to the club. Would Theo be excited to see her, she wondered? Would he spend the rest of the night with his arm over her shoulders in a warm embrace, swaying while they danced?
But, those questions were destined to remain unanswered. Her feet instead carried her to the relative safety of her own townhouse and up the stairs to her waiting bed. It was better this way — she wasn't that girl, anyway.