"Theo, please stop fidgeting"
"Sorry but this class is so boring, plus I know that you'll let me see your notes on the lecture when I ask you" he whispered "speaking of which, what are you doing later? I wanna get some pizza after class."
Hermione shifted in her seat trying very hard to ignore Theo's tapping foot and poor attempt of whispering. Theo huffed and poked her side. "Please for the love of everything that is sacred, stop and just pay attention."
He turned in his seat to look back at the clock on the wall in the lecture hall and sighed, "Hmm at least there's only 15 minutes left Herms." She rolled her eyes at the nickname he gave her after a drunken stupor that they had last year and claimed, standing on the kitchen table using the empty wine bottle as a microphone, 'Hermione, that name is too long. Too many syllables. I'm going to call you Hermie, wait no, that sounds like I'm trying to call you a hermit crab. Although you do like to burrow under all the blankets, I'll call you Herms. Yes! That's it. Herms.' He sat there clicking the muggle pen that Hermione let him borrow every class because he un-surprisingly forgot his own or somehow lost it in the messy backpack he carried. Hermione could have sworn there was some sort of undetectable extension charm on his backpack; not that she would ever confront him about it, since she cast one on her purple beaded bag she carried everywhere.
After failing to replace her parents' memories, Hermione found solace in traveling through the muggle world and bumped into the quiet Slytherin, Theodore Nott, backpacking somewhere in the middle of Canada. He apologized for his wrongdoings and his father's actions against muggle-borns and after a few shared meals and outings, Hermione realized he was not all that quiet but rather rambunctious. He told her about the harsh punishments his father made him endure thought his years in Hogwarts after befriending a Hufflepuff half-blood, partnering up with a muggle-born Ravenclaw in herbology his 3rd year, and his refusal to accept a betrothal to Tracy Davis. At the time he claimed he was just not interested in her but Hermione later discovered he was not interested in the female body as he so much claimed to be after walking in on Theo heavily making out with another boy from their advanced magical creatures biology class in the University library.
Two years after traveling together, the two became inseparable and decided to apply to The Wizarding and Magical Arts University of San Francisco in California. The University sat on what was known to be Angel Island and was only visible to a witch or wizards' eye. The University was nothing like Hogwarts. It was all light and glass. The large glass windows allowed as much sunlight in as possible and allowed for 360-degree views of the bay. Much to their surprise, Theodore and Hermione found the place inviting and refreshing after attending the gothic quarters of Hogwarts. They both decided on San Francisco because of its distance from wizarding Britain and since both had grown annoyed by the attention their names received, good and bad, California seemed the best place to start over. They both could use the sunshine.
Theo was an intern for the San Francisco branch of the Magical Congress of the United States, also known as MACUSA, and worked on the protection of endangered magical creatures whilst studying to receive his Mastery in Magical Creatures Veterinary. Hermione thought that if Theo was not pressured to become a Slytherin by his father, he would have been a Hufflepuff and would have loved to help Hagrid with feeding the Magical Creatures on the Hogwarts grounds.
Hermione was studying to gain a double Mastery in International Wizarding Relations and Wizarding History. Unlike Theo, Hermione found history extremely invigorating while Theo called it "a waste of time, it's in the past now, let's live in the present Hermione". Although Theo had a point, Hermione neglected to give him that satisfaction of being right, his ego could only get so big. On days that Hermione was not in class, she worked in a muggle tea shop that also doubled as a wizarding Apothecary. The owners of the shop were a lovely middle-aged couple by the names of Elosie and Celeste Moreno-Hayes. The two witches attended Ilvermorny in Massachusetts, and shortly after graduation, the two moved to San Francisco where they attended university and started their lives.
A familiar weight slowly settled on Hermione's shoulder. That broke her concentration on the lecture and she turned to see a sleepy Theo using her shoulder as a pillow. She couldn't blame him for falling asleep; In his defense, the professor had the voice that could drone out an entire airport. It was a miracle Hermione was still awake. As the professor closed the lecture and assigned the readings for the next class, Hermione nudged Theo awake.
"Theo, wake up." she flicked the back of his head.
"Hmmph, not now. I'm sleeping."
"Class is over, lets go get pizza."
With the mention of pizza, Theo jumped out of his seat rubbing the side of his face that laid on her shoulder and quickly stuffed his blank notebook and sweatshirt into his backpack while Hermione copied the class assignment onto her planner.
He scoffed and nudged her, "Come on, hurry up. I'm starving."
She rolled her eyes. After traveling with Theo for two years and sharing an apartment with him, she quickly learned that all men seemed to hold food as their priority in life, right after sex, obviously. Packing her things as quickly as possible, she snatched the pen she let Theo borrow that day and patted his shoulder affectionately.
"Lead the way, my lord"
With a terrible attempt at an aristocratic bow, Theo held his arm out for her to take "As you wish, M'Lady." He paused. "Say, Hermione can I ask you a question?"
"That depends. Is this going to be one of your weird sex questions or your weird philosophical ones?" she answered. After taking a Philosophy class with Theo two semesters ago, Hermione was often bombarded by meta personal questions that often revolved around sex or philosophy. Theo's excuse was usually along the lines of 'we are all sexual beings, it is normal so why is it weird if I ask you if you have ever had a nipple orgasm, Hermione?' Somehow most of his philosophical questions ended up being a sexual question themselves. She guessed his uber sexual freedom was a direct result of the lack of self-sexual discovery during his youth under the watchful eye of his pureblood bigoted father.
"It's one about, well erm–" he nervously said rubbing his cheek, still indented with the pattern of Hermione's jumper. "Hmm well I suppose it's a hypothetical question, more so"
"Spit it out, Theodore," she uttered.
He dramatically gasped and feigned hurt clutching to his heart, "How dare you? You know I always swallow." he finished with a wink.
Typical Theo.
"You're disgusting." she retorted with a stifled giggle and fake nod of disapproval.
"The word you are looking for is actually, delightful"
"No, I'm pretty sure I meant disgusting" she loosened her grip on his arm and looked at him from the corner of her eye. You never get flustered over hypothetical questions, what's wrong?"
He scratched his forehead and slowed his pace. "Well, I got an owl the other day, and I, erm–"
Hermione stopped in the hallway and pulled him to a bench next to a faulty drinking fountain and beckoned him to sit down next to her. After the war, Theo left everyone he knew behind in Britain, and with his father in Azkaban, he found no reason to go back. He promised himself that he would never step foot back in Britain unless it was absolutely necessary. And since they moved to San Francisco and collected a group of friends, they decided it would be a good idea to adopt muggle means of communication like cellphones, in which Theo seemed to thoroughly enjoy using emoticons to summarize his day to Hemione via text. He had not disclosed his address to anyone aside from their current friends and the SF MACUSA department he interned for. Hermione sensed that this owl was the thing that was keeping him from focusing all day.
"When did you get this owl?" she asked.
"Three days ago." He looked down at his hands now settled on his lap and touched the signet ring he still wore with his thumb. "The Ministry sent it, they found me through MACUSA records." He scratched the back of his head as Hermione rubbed his back comfortingly. Similar to Harry and her sibling relationship, Theo and Hermione had built a little family together with their friends they'd made but most importantly, each other. She could sense Theo's apprehension on the topic of his father and by default, Britain. "My father, he is dying."
Hermione tried to not react but it was too late. Theo noticed the slight flinch and guilt and sadness fill her eyes before she beckoned him to continue.
"Hemione, I'm sorry. I didn–"
"Theo, it's okay. I promise. I'm okay. This is about you, not me." Hermione had tried for months to retrieve her parent's memories but after several failed attempts she ultimately gave up. 5 months after giving up, she checked up on her parents and found out that her father had passed away from cancer. Hermione cried on Theo's lap all through the night the day she found out wallowing, 'I should have been there, it's my fault, I could have helped them. I should have been there with my dad. And my mom.
Without family in Australia, Jean Granger, now Monica Wilkins, started going to grief support groups which helped her accumulate a steady group of friends. Hermione later found out Monica and the group of friends she made had helped her start a small business called 'Crookshanks' Socks' that sold homemade knitted sweaters, scarfs, beanies and more. Aside from the California sun, Hermione still bought the knitted goods regularly. It made her feel closer to her mom.
Theo's hum of hesitation brought her back to the situation at hand. "Theo, it's okay. You know. To not want..him to die."
"It's not that, I just feel bad. For not being there for him. Even if he doesn't approve of me." He turned to look at her with glassy eyes. "He hurt me. And I don't wanna see him." He rubbed the signet ring again and looked up to the ceiling holding his tears back. Hermione continued to run circles between his shoulder blades "But I don't want him to die thinking I hate him. I don't want him to die alone. I only hate what he did to me."
"And that's okay." She reassured him.
He turned to look at her with eyes full of sadness and remorse. "Herms, do you think I should go see him" he paused "to see him off, I mean?"
No, don't go. Fuck your dad, he hurt you. She wanted to say, but she knew it wasn't her place to say that to him. This was his own battle. "I think you should really think about it and do what you feel is right." She opted to say. "I'll support whatever you choose to do."
In all honesty, he wasn't sure what to do. He had not returned in so long that he wasn't even sure he would have anywhere to stay. He was not fond of the Nott manor and was not going to risk returning and getting the media up in his business. He'd had enough of the rumors attached to his name before the war and wasn't keen on sparking anymore.
Hermione stood up and held out her hand and interrupted his thoughts. "Come on, I'm getting hungry and I was promised pizza." He looked up with a sad smile and took her hand to stand up. "I say, we go eat some pizza, order some beer and we forget about it for tonight and you can mull it over tomorrow."
"Fine but you're paying." He said as he tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and walked out the glass hallway. That sad smile disappearing and turning into a smile akin to playfulness.
"Theo, you're the one who invited m–"
Theo with a scoff, "please, I just said let's go get pizza, I didn't say I was paying. Plus aren't you part of that 'independent woman' thing you're always talking about–"
"It's called feminism, but that–"
"Right, that. I hope you know I'm a proud ally–"
"And they say chivalry is dead." She said with a roll of her eyes and a punch to his arm.
"Ow woman! Let's not forget who's in peril. I'd ask you to treat me a little kinder. If you're even capable of that." He nudged her back.
She patted his arm mockingly, "Fine I'll pay for you, but that's just because you didn't eat my hummus this week."
"I knew you loved me." He countered by nudging the side of her head with his set of fluffy curls atop his head. A cat-like behavior that he had adopted after playing with her cat, Crookshanks before she left him in Australia to care for her mother.
"Hardly." She huffed. But she did love him, like family. Like another brother aside from Harry. "Oh! Before I forget, Harry's coming next week. He has some conference he needs to attend in Berkeley and I told him he can stay with us."
Harry had opted out of traveling the world with Hermione. She understood his reasons for wanting to be alone, although she didn't think it was the best idea for him to go off alone after almost dying trying to kill a dark wizard. But, she found comfort in knowing Harry had finally decided on a career he seemed to take seriously and actually enjoy himself in. After doing his own 'soul-searching', he too left Britain and moved to New York and attended NYU to study Children's Education. Hermione figured his love of teaching had been brought to his attention when he became the pseudo-professor for their defense against the dark arts class during their 5th year. Harry had opted to stay in the muggle world as much as possible due to the attention his name brought in the wizarding world, but he still kept in contact with his wizarding friends, and of course st, Quidditch.
Theo, of course, had claimed to have no opinion of Harry after he'd stayed with them for a few days a little over a year ago. He claimed he hadn't changed much and was still boring, and after Harry had left, Theo confided in Hermione telling her, 'you know, if he got rid of those ugly glasses and grew his hair out, he'd be hot' and swore her to secrecy.
"Yeah, that's okay. As long as he got rid of the glasses then I'm okay with sleeping under the same roof as him," he responded.
"You know, I think he told me he got contacts now," she tested the small hunch she had on the position of Theo's attraction to Harry.
He perked up a little before using his Slytherin skills to school his reaction. "Your point?" he retorted, a little too harshly, a side effect of his Slytherin upbringing.
Hermione giggled and pulled her phone out of her back pocket as they made their way down the main staircase of the University. "No point. Just stating something harry mentioned to me a few months ago," she paused.
"Months!? And you didn't–" he admonished.
She rolled her eyes and walked out the main glass doors out to the University grounds. "Should I tell Benji and Aya to meet us there?"
"Hermione Jean Granger don't you dare change the subject. Why didn't you think to mention that the Harry Potter had ditched the glasses? Do you know what this means?"
"I'm sorry I didn't get to forward you the newsletter he sends me every month alerting me of his bowel movements and wardrobe changes," she said sarcastically while putting her phone on her ear to talk "Hi Benji".
"Do you think you could get me on that mailing list?" he asked her–albeit a little too seriously for Hermione's liking–and trailed behind her to the school's apparating section. Since the school was on an island, they had to apparate to and from the grounds or take the muggle ferry on the other side of the island but the pair had almost always apparated too and from mostly due to Theo's persistence of not wanting to walk across the Island to hop on a ferry and get seasick.
She raised her brow at him and continued to talk on the phone. "I haven't started that report yet, did you want to come over and work on it tomorrow?" a pause letting Benji respond, "Yeah he can come over too."
Theo, on the other hand, was busy trailing behind Hermione and was quickly drafting ways to somehow convince Harry to add him to this mysterious newsletter mailing list that may or may have not existed.
"Tell him to bring some of those cookies he brought over last time. Oh yeah, did you want to meet us at Golden Boy in a bit? Theo and I just got out of class and I Camila is working tonight," a pause "cool, we will see you in a bit. Bye." she hung up the phone and turned to Theo, who was behind her looking deep in thought. "Come on, please don't tell me that you really think that newsletter is real."
"Real or not, it is a great marketing technique," he shrugged.
She took his hand and shook her head at him with a giggle as they both walked up to the small apparition platform and disappeared with a pop.
Later that evening, the pair made their way towards their favorite pizza pub, Golden Boy in north beach. One of the reasons the pair decided on living in San Francisco was the accessibility and integration of the muggle and wizarding world. All wizards here lived within the lives of muggles and embraced their technology and traditions. Most of the time, the magical folk here just seemed like muggles with a wand that was occasionally put to use. It was a pleasant change from wizarding and muggle Britain.
Because of this interweaving of both worlds, most wizarding establishments were inside muggle ones and only wizards could see the magical signs outside shops alerting them of their magical presence.
Theo and Hermione walked into the pub and took a seat on the booths near the back while the woman behind the bar waved at them. Camila Hernandez was Hermione's first friend and Theo's first mortal enemy, at least that's what he had called her after she refused to serve him anymore beer at the pub during one of his drunken stupors. She too was a witch and also attended university and was studying History of magic and magical creatures, both being a topic of interest to Hermione and Theo. Camila had grown up in the rural parts of Mexico and had been homeschooled until her muggle parents had finally agreed to let her attend Colegio Nochebuena del Arte Mágico in Yucatan, Mexico. After taking a gap year between her primary magical education, she moved to San Francisco where she continued her studies and ultimately befriended Hermione and reluctantly, Theo.
Her long black hair tied up in a pony-tail, swayed behind her short figure as she made her way with two pints of beer, one in each hand. "Theodore" she greeted him with a sharp raised brow,"Are you going to behave?" Next to them, Hermione stifled a laugh with her hand, remembering the last time drunken Theo had been under the wrath of the five foot, two inch witch, Camila. Theo may be well over six feet tall, but Camila dominated him in power over a room.
Theo sighed with a roll of his eyes before looking into Camila's eye and slightly flinching,"Yes, I promise I'll behave."
Camila set the beer down a little too hard on the table in front of Theo, causing it to slosh over and lose some of its contents. She ignored him and turned to set Hermione's beer down in front of her with such delicacy that Theo wasn't aware she even possessed. "I don't know how you can stand this child." she told Hermione.
Theo scoffed and nursed his beer close to his lips, "I am not a child, I'm 23 years old." he sipped his beer, leaving a thin layer of foam on his lips, "Need I remind you that I am 4 months older than you?"
Camila rolled her eyes,"You have a little something–" motioning her hand to her top lip,"right on your lip" she laughed and turned to Hermione while Theo quickly wiped his top lip with the sleeve of his sweater. "You want the usual?"
Hermione Nodded and beckoned her head towards Theo, "My child will also like the usual," Theo grumbled taking another sip of his beer. And before Hermione could inform Camila on the pending arrival of their friends, two heads popped into the pub shouting over the crowd.
"Cammie! Two beers and four slices of cheese! Add it to my tab." shouted Benji.
"Benji, stop it, you know they don't have tabs here," Aya smacked her brother's arm.
Benjiro and Aya Kojima were twins who had moved to San Francisco shortly after graduating from the witchcraft and wizarding arts school of Mahoutokoro in Japan. Although their parents were wizards born and raised in Japan, the twins were born in the United States but moved back to Japan after their 10th birthday. Benjiro, often went by Benji, studied Dragonology, all while Aya studied Alchemy. Despite being younger than anyone in their friend group, the pair held the position of 'voice(s) of reason' for most situations. Benji was mostly aloof to all emotional situations and often talked in riddles and Aya was in tune with every emotion in the room.
"Hi Hermione," Aya said, proceeding to kiss Hermione's cheek and moving her body over the bar and kiss Camila's cheek.
Camila pulled away from her affectionate friend holding her hands up in defense, "Nope, I'm on the clock Aya," before retreating back to get everyone's pizza.
Aya pulled back and frowned but a smile pulled at her lips when she saw Theo clutching onto his beer a little too closely to his chest with a distant look on his face. "Teddy," she said before hugging his torso and kissing his cheek. Her hug and her nickname for him pulled him out of his thoughts. "What's wrong? Did Cammie not let you get another beer?"
Hermione could tell that Theo had been thinking about the letter that he had told her about earlier today and was wondering if he was planning on going back to see his father. Hermione really hoped he didn't want to go back. It wasn't that she was against him seeing his father but it was about the promise they made to each other back when they both concluded that they would have to rely on each other to be their own little family. Theo had told her that he had no intention to continuing the pureblood bigoted customs that his father had drilled into his head as a child, and that included living in the Nott Manor. The day Theo confessed to Hermione about the crucio his own father cast upon him after finding a love letter he wrote to a Ravenclaw boy, She promised him that he would never have to go back there ever again, but if he had to, she would go with him and hold his hand the entire time. Her not wanting him to go was purely out of selfish reasons because she, herself was not ready to return to Britain. And if she was being honest with herself, which was almost never except on nights consisting of wine, weed and mac and cheese, she didn't think she would ever be ready to return to Britain.
Theo returned to the pub away from his uncertain fog of thoughts, "Hey Aya," he said, returning the hug and peck to the cheek. "I'm okay. Just thinking about that evaluation in my magical creatures physiology class I have this Friday."
A lie Hermione thought.
Benji clapped his lanky arm across Theo, "Well if it makes you feel any better, I failed that evaluation the first two times."
Aya curled her arm around Theo's waist, and sneered at her twin, "That's not helping Benji." turning to grab Theo's beer out of his hands and taking a sip, "You'll be okay on the evaluation. You're practically the best in the class, after Cammie of course. But I can tell that's not what is bothering you." She looked down at the glass of beer with an uneasy glance and returned it to the table. Theo, everso the avid cuddler, let his head rest on top of Aya's head and curled his free arm around Aya's shoulder. Theo and Aya had never shown any romantic interest in each other, given both opposed the opposite sex in sexual and romantic conquests, Hermione and Camila were convinced that they were quite possibly, platonic soulmates.
Aya had reminded Theo and Hermione very much of Luna. The two seemed to carry the same wistful demeanor and optimistic point of view of life. Unlike Luna, Aya was tall and was even taller when all she wore were platform shoes. She also sported straight, sleek hair that ended right below her clavicle. Her hair was a deep purple today, an eggplant color. Most of the time she would have black or purple hair but she had found a way to magically change the color of her hair depending on her outfit.
Benji was just as tall as Theo and usually wore beanies and baseball caps to tame his messy black mop of hair he had. Hermione thought it reminded her a little bit like Harry during his time at Hogwarts.
I miss Harry, she thought to herself as Camila came back with a tray of pizza for the group.
"Thanks, Cammie," Aya said wistfully while pushing the meat lover's slices towards Theo and Benji.
"Sure, I have my break now so I'm just gonna eat with you all now, but no hugs" directing the latter point to Aya. Theo laughed quietly while stuffing his mouth with a slice. "What are you laughing at, mole face?" she turned to Theo.
Theo's cheeks tinged pink, "I don't have that many moles, Cam. I just have four."
From Aya: "Stop being mean to Teddy."
From Camila, with a scoff: "I'm just being honest Aya, plus his face is annoying me."
Theo: "Hey, I happen to like my face. It's a man-magnet"
Camila, with a sneer: "Oh please, the only thing that face is attracting is flies."
Benji, cutting in with a mouth full of pizza: "That'd imply he would be rotting thus attracting flies and creating maggots and he's obviously not dead Cammie" a pause as he chewed through the crust, "yet, anyways."
Camila with a Cheshire cat grin: "Of course Benji, not yet. This is why you're my favorite one."
From Aya and Hermione in unison: "What? I thought I was your favorite?"
From Theo with wide eyes and a slightly paler face: "Wait, what do you mean 'not yet'?
Camila to Aya and Hermione: "What? My favorites change each week. Two weeks ago Hermione was my favorite. She proofread my essay and the week after, Aya was my favorite because she kept her mouth shut during the movie we saw."
Aya, remembering the movie they watched with a faint smile: "Oh yeah, it was a good movie. I was meaning to ask you what you thought–"
Camila putting her hand up to stop Aya: "Please, don't start or else you won't be in the running to be my favorite next week."
Aya disappointed she wasn't going to discuss the major plotlines of the movie they watched: "Right then. Well, I like your shirt today Cammie."
Camila to Aya: " Save it Aya, flattery is for the weak and it's not going to get you anywhere."
Theo, taking the last sip of his beer: "Well we all know I'll never be Camila's favorite."
Camila with a genuine smile: "Never say never, my dear Theodore. You never know, The rest of the group could die from some unforeseen disease and you'd be the only one available to nurse me back to health."
Theo, grumbling tucking back into his food: "Fine, yeah whatever Cam."
Hermione and Theo both knew to never take Camila seriously when she was around them and not in a classroom or professional setting. Camila and Theo were at the top of their classes surrounding Magical Creatures so it was only imperative that the two start some kind of friendly competitive dominance between them. Camila knew Theo had thick enough skin to take her jabs, after all, he was a Slytherin. But this time around, Hermione wasn't sure Theo was ignoring Camila's jabs like he usually did.
She suspected all this talk about death and dying had brought him back to the conversation he had with her earlier that day, changed the subject to something as neutral as possible.
"So um–" taking a bite of her pizza and quickly scanning her head to find a topic to discuss," what's everyone's plan for this weekend?" Hermione swallowed the bite of pizza, hoping that was enough distraction.
Benji looked up and narrowed his eyes at Hermione but a wave of understanding washed across his face after shifting his eyes to Theo, who was currently picking the sausage off his pizza–which he only did when something was bothering him.
Clearing his throat, Benji spoke, "I'm working on my research project and then thinking of going to the bookstore on Saturday. Anyone wanna come along?"
Camila pushed off the bar and wiped her hands on her jeans, "Ugh, you're positively boring. I rather be a slave to capitalism than continue this conversation." Turning to pick a sausage off Theo's plate and popping it in her mouth, Camila turned towards the group. "Let me know if you need anything else, I'm going back to work."
"Bye, don't work too hard. Remember, you're not getting paid enough," Aya said cheerfully.
Hermione turned to Benji with a smile, "What time on Saturday? I have a shift that day."
"Around mid-afternoon," he replied, finishing off his pizza.
"Theo and I will come with you," Hermione said, nudging Theo distracting him from the lone sausage pieces on his plate, "right Theo?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah sure. I've been meaning to go." He replied, looking up from his plate.
Hermione watched him and deliberated if staying was a good idea for her friend or if they should just go home and sleep. She went with the latter.
Pushing off her stool, Hermione feigned a yawn. "I think I'm going to call it a night. Theo, you wanna stay or?"
Without hesitation, Theo hopped out of his seat and left a twenty dollar bill in his absence. "Yeah, I just remembered I have homework to work on. Bye everyone," he said in a rush taking Hermione's arm and tugging her out of the pub.
"By–" she didn't even finish saying when she felt Theo yanking her out. "Theo wait up, what's wrong?"
They stopped outside next to an alley. He let her arm go and turned to look at her, his eyes full of guilt and helplessness.
"Let's go get drunk." he blurted.
"Is this about the hypothetical question you wanted to ask me about?" she asked.
"No, wait. Yes, maybe."
"Theo wha–" she blinked.
"No. Fuck it. Let's get high instead. You have weed right?"
"Yes, but wait Theo–"
"I knew you still had some–"
"Theo slow down and take a–"
"No, no, no, let's get crossed and order a shit ton of Indian food. And we will watch Spirited Away"
At the mention of being crossed, eating Indian food, and watching what Theo claimed to be 'the best animated comedy-based horror fever dream' movie, Hermione was taken back to the night after she found out her father passed away. She cried herself out the night before, but she panicked the next day so much she almost succumbed to the trenches of her guilt.
'Crossed and Indian food, and Spirited Away. That will be our code for when we just can't talk about it because we don't know how to talk about it but we need each other to be our anchor. That will be our code and we will only use it for emergencies. And we won't push each other for answers. Promise?" He rasped out while he held her close on the bathroom floor. Where he'd found her after coming home, curled up on the rug clutching her toothbrush to her chest. A reminder of her Dentist parents.
She nodded and kept clutching to him.
Since that night, Hermione had only used that code on the anniversary of her father's death; but Theo, very much so the Slytherin he was, had never used the sacred code, well until now.
"Okay yeah, of course. We can get crossed and order food," she held his hands, rubbing her thumbs across his knuckle and she could have sworn she imagined it but noticed him flinch as her thumb brushed past his signet ring. "Come on, we have some Indian food to order and a Tequila bottle with our names on it" she pulled him deeper into the alley they'd stop in front of.
"Don't forget the weed." He tiredly said, trailing behind her as she focused on apparating them into their apartment.
An hour and a half after changing into their pajamas, taking turns nursing the bottle of tequila and passing two poorly rolled joints–courtesy of Theo–between them, the pair were now waiting for their food delivery, watching the movie on the couch, Theo's head on her lap as she scratched his head.
"I don't understand how this movie makes me feel both homesick and repulsed. Like a weird nostalgia that I have never felt before," she said, too high, too drunk, therefore completely incoherent to make any sense.
"You know," Theo started with a slight garble to his words, "I think this movie is about capitalism."
"Technically, everything is about capitalism. If you look close enough" with a matter of factly tone.
"I guess." he responded, turning his head to look up at her from her lap, "Herms, when's the food getting here? I'm hungry." He patted his belly and pouted.
She patted his forehead, a little too rough for him, although he couldn't blame her, their inhibitions were covered in layers of alcohol and a thick cloud of smoke. "In a bit, they said at 10:30, it's 10:26 right now"
"Okay good, I'm starving watching them eat" He pointed at the television screen playing the movie. "Especially the giant demon baby."
They both tilted their head at the sound of the baby screaming.
Hermione shivered," I think" a pause used to sort her thoughts out, "I think this movie is actually about child prostitution Theo."
Before he could respond, there was a knock on the door and Hermione unceremoniously pushed Theo's head of brown curls off her lap and peeled herself off the couch. She jumped to grab her wallet off the table and headed to the door."I'll get it."
Dumbstruck and still trying to piece Hermione's absurd theory of the movie, Theo repositioned himself on his side across the couch.
Meanwhile, Hermione sifted through her wallet to scrape up enough change for a tip. She pushed her curls out of her face and pulled them into a bun atop her head using a scrunchie on her wrist. She pulled the door open after the second set of knocks, still looking down at her wallet frowning when she only had one single dollar bill and a handful of coins. Turning, without looking up, she turned back to the direction where Theo was, she yelled, "Theo! Do you have any dollar bills? I only have a bunch of coins."
"Yeah my wallets on the table!" he yelled back and she walked past the table, grabbing the wallet while sifting through it, still hadn't turned to look at the tall blonde on the other side of the door with a furrowed brow and lips pulled tight.
Finally grabbing 4 loose dollars, from his wallet in front of the door, Hermione looked up and failed to completely register his face, partly because of her blurred version "Funny, you look like–" she looked down at his hands, half expecting him to be carrying a paper bag full of chicken biryani, for Theo, gobi matar for her and samosas to share, "Where's my food? You don't have my fo–" recognition hit and panic rose to her chest that numbed her brain even more than the previous drinks and drug usage had numbed. She felt almost as if she was floating, powering off the momentum her stomach had created when it fell to the pits of hell.
Her eyes almost burst out of her brain.
That smug, aristocratic, spoiled, ferret face boy was standing in front of her. No more than 6 feet away from her. For the first time in years. Why was he here? Why didn't he look angry? Why was he wearing jeans? Wait, he's dressed like a muggle?
But before either of them could say anything, she had slammed the door in his face and ran into her room to burrow under the blankets and wake up from this bad dream.
A/N: Hello everyone! This is my first ever fic that I have had the guts to (finally) publish! Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts for me to read! I have most of the story written down but would love to hear what you all think about it and if you had any requests for certain scenes to include in the story. I am currently working on a chapter by chapter mood board on Pinterest and will let you know when that's ready. In the meantime, I have added a chapter banner on my Ao3 account (under the same name) so if you wanted to get a little taste of what I imagine some of the characters to look like and the ~vibes~ I imagined, feel free to check it out.
I don't have an upload schedule just yet, it shall be determined on the response I get for the first few chapters but I'm aiming to update once a week to two weeks. Also, my DM's are open to anyone who would like to reach out to me to ask questions or just to say hi. I promise in the future that I won't have author notes this long but I hope you can let it slide for my first one.
with much love and kindness,
JohnMulaneysCousin
for legal purposes: I don't own the Harry Potter universe.