A/N: Thank you all so much for your response on last chapter! 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 fifteen and be on the lookout for chapter sixteen soon!
A sharp wrap on the window startled Hermione out of what had been a very pleasant dream. Bleary and confused, she scrambled to sit up from her spot, wrapped up in Theo's arms. She blinked the sleep from her eyes and realized that they must have fallen asleep in the back of the car after snogging for what felt like hours.
The knock came for a second time.
Hermione gasped, seeing a police officer standing outside of the car, peering into the window. She reached over Theo and rolled down the window. "Good morning, Officer," she said, sheepishly.
"What are you doing here?" the older man demanded.
"Nothing," Theo chimed in once he was awake, glaring at the officer. Clearly, he was much more distrustful, having only had unpleasant interactions with him, she was sure.
But Hermione also knew that antagonizing the police officer was not a great way to get out of trouble. "Apologies, officer," Hermione said, putting a serene and reassuring smile on her face to try and smooth things over. "We were driving late last night and got drowsy. I suggested we take a quick nap so that we didn't fall asleep behind the wheel. I suppose it ended up being much longer than a quick nap, though," she added sheepishly.
Underneath the blanket that she shared with Theo, she tried to make sure that their partially full bottle of rum was kept out of sight, knowing that that evidence would not make their story any more believable.
The police officer gave her a hard look over, considering her story. "Is that so?" he asked, skeptical. After a brief second, he waved them on. "Get a move on then. You aren't welcome to linger any longer."
"Of course," Hermione agreed, before reaching over Theo a second time to roll the window back up, eager to end the interaction with the unknown man as quickly as possible. Once he returned to his cruiser, Hermione let out a sigh of relief. "That was a close one."
Theo scoffed. "It's not like we were doing anything wrong," he argued. "But I suppose I was lucky to have you argue our way out of this. I'm sure I would have ended up with a ticket."
Hermione was feeling a little bit grateful for the rude wakeup call, if only because it gave them something else to focus on rather than the night that they had before, steaming up the windows of Theo's car. God, she almost couldn't believe the way that she'd behaved, pressing up against him like she'd done, commanding him to kiss her.
See if Parkinson could call her a prude now.
But, once they were returned to their spots in the front seat, Hermione found that the discussion quickly became strained, mostly down to her own anxieties of what Theo must think of her now. And even worse, she couldn't believe that she'd actually stayed out all night long.
She pressed her hands to her face to hide her quickly pinking cheeks. "Oh my god, I can't believe that I actually didn't go home last night," she said with a grimace. "My parents are going to be so upset. They'll never let me leave the house again."
"I somehow doubt that," Theo countered, amused at her fears. "I'm sure they will be annoyed, but I think that they knew I was with you. They know that I wouldn't let anything happen to you."
Hermione nibbled away at her lower lip, unconvinced. "I don't know," she said. "They seem to be taking this whole parenting thing a bit more seriously now. At least it isn't Sirius — he really would have gone berserk, even though I just learned he ran away from home when he was a teenager too."
"Well, there is no sense in worrying about it now," he told her. "You can't go back in time and change it. All you can do is accept the consequences."
Even though she didn't want to agree, she supposed that was pretty sage advice from her friend. There was no point in worrying about it now. She wondered when Theo had gotten so good at clearing out all the doubts that were swirling in her mind and helped her focus on what was actually at hand.
When they were almost halfway back to the city, Theo could no longer ignore the growling noise her stomach was making. "That's it — we are stopping for breakfast," he said with an amused grin. "If we are an hour later, I doubt that's going to be much worse."
She wanted to argue with him, but eventually she nodded in agreement, partly because she was hoping to avoid a confrontation with her parents for as long as possible, and partly because candy simply wasn't a real dinner. She was starving.
He eventually pulled the car into the parking lot of a little greasy spoon and led her inside. Hermione tried not to feel self-conscious in her rumpled day-old clothing, but quickly found that it wasn't not her attire that their waitress was focused on. No, that would be the bruise still gracing her cheek.
After ordering a massive scramble, Hermione stared at Theo across the booth. "How bad is it today?" she asked, bringing her fingers to her face. It still smarted, but not as bad as the day before. "Is it worse?"
Theo shook his head. "Definitely not worse, but...it is obvious that you were in a fight," he said, before reaching over the table to gently grasp her jaw again, tilting her head to one side. His eyes softened the longer he considered her. "It's already showing signs of healing. It'll be gone when you head back to school on Monday."
She was glad to hear that. She didn't want to imagine all the stares that she would get with a gigantic bruise. "Thank god," she said with a sigh. "I don't know what I'm going to do today and tomorrow without school to go to. I'll have to ask Scabior if I can come into the shop early. Might as well make some extra money if I can't go."
Their breakfasts appeared not much longer and Theo was happy to tuck into his hashbrowns, before looking up at her hopefully. "Or you could spend time with me?" He suggested. "I don't have anything better to do."
Hermione bit her lower lip, unsure of what to say. "I'm sure you have plenty you'd rather do than hang out with me. I'm…I'm not like Daphne or Pansy. I'm really quite boring."
"You know I don't think that. If I wanted to hang out with them, I would," Theo assured her, his eyes drinking in her every micro-expression. "I want to spend time with you."
"I don't know if that's the best idea…" Hermione said, trailing off. She was feeling completely topsy-turvy when it came to Theo. She found herself being rather pulled in by him — always there with a sympathetic ear and one of those crooked grins that made her heart skip a beat. Not to mention that he was far more attractive than he had any right to be. Now that she knew how he felt under her fingers, she was going to be even more haunted by him.
She was in danger of falling hard for Theo Nott if she wasn't careful.
The only problem was that she was sure she would end up hurt if she let herself get caught in the undertow. She was a new fancy for Theo, but she was sure that he would end up bored with her over time. She wasn't amused with the same things that he was, and even if she didn't want to admit it, maybe she was too sweet for him.
"Just when I thought I was getting somewhere with you," Theo said, shaking his head back and forth. He pressed his hand back through his brown hair, before letting his shoulders drop. "Why isn't it a good idea?" He pressed her.
"Because…because I know that you aren't interested in me. Not really," she answered, feeling herself wavering already.
"Oh yeah? And how do you know that?" He asked, not hiding how skeptical he was. "Because I thought I was making it clear that I am interested in you."
Hermione looked him over for a minute, his dark blue eyes locked on hers. "Remember the day that I was taken away from my parents?" She asked, cautiously. "I had locked myself in your attic?"
He narrowed his eyes, trying to pull the memory from his mind. "I could never forget that day. One day you were there and then — gone, without a goodbye," he said, wistfully.
"I was so mad at you because….our mums made a joke that we might end up married one day," she said, her tongue darting out to wet her lower lip. "You made it very clear what you thought about that. That you would never be married to me. I can still remember how disgusted you seemed."
Theo looked at her with a blank face for a second, before bursting out in laughter. "You cannot hold that against me!" He insisted. "God, Hermione, I was barely even six years old. I didn't want to marry any girl, not when they had cooties."
"But I wasn't just any girl," she said, her cheeks going pink. "I was your best friend. I thought that we'd be together forever, so marriage didn't seem that bad. When we played knights and princesses and you rescued me, I always imagined our happily ever after together."
He tried to stop from laughing again. "I'm sorry, Hermione, but you have to give me another chance," he begged, unwilling to let his six year old self be the downfall of what could be a great relationship. He reached across the table and grabbed her hand. "You have to realize that it was marriage I reacted to — never you."
"That's not how it seemed," Hermione said, even though the memory was hazy in her mind. She wasn't entirely sure what the truth was.
"Well, I apologize on behalf of younger me," he said with a hopeful look. "I hope that I can convince you to look past it."
She nibbled at her lower lip thinking it over, before deciding that she still didn't quite understand it. "I just don't understand what you'd want to do with me anyway," she said with a frown. "I'm still a boring old prude."
"I've got it on good authority that you are anything but a prude after last night," he teased her, his eyes dropping to her lips. "I don't think I'm likely to forget you kissing me like that ever."
Hermione pressed her hands over her face, feeling embarrassed at how casually he talked about it. She had never done something like that before — practically ordering him to kiss her. "Don't," she begged, still unsure and doubting herself.
"I normally wouldn't do this, but since I am positive that you aren't just fishing for compliments…" he trailed off, pulling her hands away from her hot cheeks. "I like you a lot, Hermione. And it's not just that I find you bloody hot, which I think I've made plenty clear. You're so smart and driven and passionate. You are a lot, even if you try to pretend like nothing ever bothers you. You've been the first person to actually remind me that there is something else beyond just our neighborhood."
She forced herself to look at him and was surprised that he was being so honest with her. To hear that he thought she was attractive — really, not just trying to flirt with her out of boredom — had her heart skipping a beat. And to hear him list all the things about her that he liked was enough to have her wanting to give him a shot.
"I like you, too," she answered, shyly. "I'm not good at this…but kissing you last night wasn't just because you were the only one nearby. I really wanted to kiss you properly."
"Good," he said with a smirk. "Then there is absolutely no reason why we can't do it again and again and again."
"Theo!" She said, unable to hide her giggle.
"Please just give us a chance, okay?" He asked, needing her to agree. "Let me take you on a proper date, let me walk you home and kiss you goodnight. Let me prove to you how much I want you."
Hermione let out a shaky breath, thinking that all of that sounded more than a little intoxicating. It was easy to agree, even though her mind was already considering all the potential problems that they could have. "Alright, you can take me out," she said, thinking it was a little silly seeing as they'd already been out all night together.
"Perfect," he answered, giving her a winning smile, showing off his white, but slightly crooked teeth. "I'll have to think of something good enough to impress you."
"You don't need to impress me," she said. "We already know each other. I just want to…to have some fun."
He agreed to that and the rest of their breakfast was spent laughing, talking about better times when they had been children. But, before long, they couldn't avoid the inevitable. They had to go home eventually. Even though Hermione's parents weren't typical, they would get worried after a while.
The drive home was quick, spent singing along to the radio. Eventually, they pulled up in front of their respective townhouses. Theo walked her up the steps to hers, reaching out to grab her hand, his fingers caressing the delicate skin of her wrist before entwining with hers.
"Thanks again. That was a lot of fun," Hermione said, leaning back against the door, feeling like such a teenager. "There is no one I would rather do that with."
"Anytime Granger," he said with a wink.
Then he was leaning forward, one hand tangled in her hair. He pulled her towards him, lips slanting against hers in a passionate kiss. Almost immediately, Hermione deepened it, opening her lips and letting her tongue slide against his in a slow dance. She surprised herself by moaning into him, letting everything else but the two of them melt away. He walked her back until she was pressed against the door, eager to continue plundering her mouth.
A part of her wanted to suggest that they just get back into the car and drive away so they could continue this somewhere more comfortable. For someone who had just had reservations about Theo's real feelings, she was certainly letting herself get swept away by him.
But, fate had a way of intervening. The front door was wrenched open, making Hermione stumble. She was glad that Theo was there to catch her. The two teenagers broke apart then, reluctantly. Hermione turned around to look up at her father, guiltily.
"Where the hell have you been?" Her father demanded.
Hermione was reminded of the lingering anger she had for him and his hypocrisy, suddenly interested in her behavior — in being a real parent. "Out," she answered, all surly defiance, with her chin jutted in the air proudly.
"Do you have any idea of how worried we were when you didn't come home?" He asked.
That immediately made Hermione feel horrible. Theo slung his arm over her shoulders, a bit possessive. "Relax, Dolph," he said with an easy grin, though Hermione could feel how tense and nervous he really was. "You knew she was with me and you know that I would take good care of her. You didn't need to worry."
Her father's brown eyes narrowed as he looked between their kiss-bruised lips. "Oh, I'm sure that you took really good care of her," he scoffed, seemingly knowing exactly what was up. "You better get home, too, baby Nott. Alfie was looking for you."
Theo went a bit pale, but he nodded and let Hermione out of his grasp. "I'll call you later," he promised. He looked as if he was going to give her one last kiss, before he thought better of it at the last second. Whatever relationship he had with Rodolphus and Bellatrix as associates didn't extend to his potential as their daughter's boyfriend.
Once he was gone, Hermione stepped inside the house, shutting the door behind her. She wanted to retreat to her bedroom, but her father wasn't having it.
"You shouldn't make us worry like that," he repeated. He had dark circles under his eyes, telling her that he'd probably had a sleepless night.
"I didn't think you would even realize I'd been gone," she said, unwilling to back down. "Figured you'd be too busy."
Her father didn't back down either. "You're grounded," he said, imperiously. "Until you go back to school."
Hermione wanted to argue with that, but she figured that it was a fair enough punishment. God, she couldn't believe they were actually doing it, though. "Whatever," she answered, willing herself not to cry in front of him.
"And, you might want to think about steering clear of Theo," he added, staring at the closed door. "You and him….you are too different from one another. Don't jeopardize your future."
That had Hermione actually mad. "You and Mum were the ones who practically assigned him to be my babysitter! So, you can't possibly be telling me to steer clear of him now," she said, hotly. "And besides, Theo was always my best friend. You never had any problem with him then, so you shouldn't have any problem with him."
"Hermione," her father said her name with a sigh, looking weary. "I am just trying to look out for you."
Even if that was true, it rankled too much knowing what kind of person her father was, what sort of things he got up to. It was just hard to take him seriously.
She didn't deign to respond to him and instead made her way up to the sanctuary of her bedroom and pulled out some books to hopefully study. She ended up having a hard time not letting her mind wander to thoughts of the boy on the other side of her wall.