A/N: Thank you all so much for your response to last chapter. I'm glad that you've been able to see the change in Hermione over the course of this story. 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 and just giving me so much support!
Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-four and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-five soon!
Hermione did not think that she had ever been so relieved as she was the moment she saw Theo walking out from the restricted area of the police station. He looked calm and unbothered, with his quiffed hair just slightly messier than usual. He threw on his leather jacket before looking up to see just who it was that had sprung him out.
The surprise on his face was clear when his blue eyes settled on the form of his savior.
She couldn't help but smirk at him, enjoying the fact that he hadn't been expecting her. But then her face fell when she saw the discoloration at the bottom of his jaw. Hermione stomped over to him, gently cradling his face.
"We are going to file a complaint against him as soon as we get out of here," she insisted, furious at the fact that Sirius actually hit Theo hard enough to have left a bruise. She didn't even care if the receptionist heard her and scurried back to tell Sirius about her threat.
After this discovery, Hermione's primary concern became about getting Theo out of there and back home. Tucking her arm around his waist, she gently guided him outside of the police station. To her disappointment, it looked like Rabastan had not stuck around, which meant walking back to the neighborhood. It wasn't a terrible walk, but she didn't relish it either. She said as much to Theo, but he was quick to brush off her worries.
"S'alright," he told her, sounding weary. "The cold will help me clear my head."
She nodded and slipped her hand into his. They still had so much to talk about between the two of them, but at the moment, she wanted nothing more than to be close to him. Hopefully he didn't mind the needy way that she was clinging to him.
"Why did you come? How did you get him to let me go?" he asked after they put a few blocks between them and the police station.
Hermione nibbled at her lower lip, before deciding to tell him the truth. "I came to alibi you, Theo," she said, her voice soft and gentle, wondering what he would think of her lie. "So if Sirius stops to ask you again we spent the whole night in my room, fucking."
Her pink cheeks belied the confidence with which she said it.
Theo was surprised, too, his eyebrows shooting up. "Sounds more enjoyable than what I actually did," he said with a smirk, unable to hide the appealing way that sounded.
Hermione rounded on him then, her mind swirling in eight hundred directions. It was wrong for her to lie to the police, but she knew that she would feel especially upset if he actually had more to do with the robbery than she'd initially thought.
Grabbing him by the arm, she pulled him down a little alley where they wouldn't be overheard or bothered. "Theo, please tell me you didn't actually participate," she begged. "Because if you did…"
Because if he'd done, she didn't think that she could be with him.
"I didn't actually participate," he said, stony faced and unreadable. He wasn't giving her more than she asked for, infuriating her.
"Please don't just tell me what I want to hear," Hermione added, her stomach twisting in knots while she waited for him to confirm or deny.
Theo ran his long fingers through his hair, leaning back against the brick wall of the building behind him. "I'm telling the truth, Hermione," he said, bravely meeting her eyes and showing no guile.
Hermione felt her whole body relax at that. She leaned forward into him until her head was resting against his chest. "Oh thank fuck," she said, realizing that her legs felt like jelly. But then, what had he been up to that had kept him out all night? She looked up at him, suspicious. "What did you do then? Last night?"
His cheeks went pink. "Lads' night with Marcus and Ades and Blaise and Draco," he revealed. "Spent most of the night getting drunk and having advice heaped on me to help smooth things over with you and then—" He cut himself off before saying too much. "Well, maybe it's better if I show you."
"Show me what?" she badgered, eager as a child after a promised sweetie.
"Not here — later," he promised, giving her hand a quick squeeze.
Hermione groaned. Later seemed like an eternity.
Theo's hand wound into her hair until she'd tilted her face up to meet his, just the way that he wanted her to. Dipping his head to meet her, he pulled her into a passionate kiss, one that was overflowing with all the love he had for her building up while they hadn't been talking. It was easy for Hermione to lean into him, moan into his mouth and fist her hands in his soft t-shirt.
But she also knew that there was too much unspoken between the two of them to just sweep it under the rug. Pulling back, she bit her lip seeing the disappointment clear on her face.
"I want to be with you, Theo," she told him, sweetly, hoping that he would hear her out.
"But?" he asked, looking like a sad little boy who was being passed over again.
"But, I don't know if I can be with you, depending on how deep you get in with Tom," Hermione said, her eyes dropping to the ground, not wanting to see if he was going to pick Tom Riddle over her, just like her parents had done all those years ago. "I just mean...delivering messages and observing movements is one thing, but...if you are going to start participating in larger crimes, I just don't know if I can do it."
Theo was quiet and still. So quiet and still that she braved a quick look at his face. This was it. He was going to tell her that Riddle was too lucrative.
"They actually offered me a huge cut of the haul if I took part in the robbery," Theo revealed. "Double what I did make. But, I turned them down."
Hermione's heart began to hammer against her ribcage, wondering what he was going to say next. "That must have been hard to turn down," she said.
"Not really," he countered. "Because...there is this girl in my life who has recently reminded me that I used to have dreams and ambitions. That I was going to make more of myself than what my father was. That there is more to life than the neighborhood."
"I want that for you, too, Theo," she said, feeling uncertain of herself.
"So you aren't going to ask me to stop working with Riddle, are you?" he asked, his blue eyes reading every microexpression in her face, trying to gauge her true desires.
Hermione turned away and scoffed at the suggestion. "How can I ask you to do that when I still haven't turned down his offer myself? And, when I know that I wouldn't do the same for my parents?" she said, feeling like such a hypocrite. "No, I know that Riddle can get to basically anyone that he wants to. And I won't make you put yourself in danger just because I don't agree with him."
Theo stepped closer to her once again, pulling her back against his chest. "I've spoken with my father and with Riddle," he told her, a bit breathless. "He's willing to help me get a degree of my own in a chosen field, so long as it benefits him, of course."
"Of course," Hermione said, feeling like she might float away if Theo hadn't been holding her. Oh, this was more than a little bit wonderful. Never in a million years did she think that a similar opportunity might be possible for her boyfriend.
"I was thinking about studying finance or business," Theo said off hand. "Apparently Tom is making so much money now that he wants to take some of his business legit. He thinks it's time that his reach went a bit further than just our area."
"Smart," Hermione agreed, admiring his ability to think long term. It would be hard to explain where Tom had made quite so much money and by having a legitimate business to point to would only help to shake off some of the questions about where he'd gotten it. Not all of them, but some.
"So, that wouldn't be a dealbreaker for you?" he asked, tentative and unsure.
Hermione gave him a huge smile, spinning around in his arms. "Not a deal breaker," she said. "How could it be when I'd be his solicitor?"
"You're going to agree to his terms?" Theo asked, truly surprised that she was actually going to do it.
Hermione supposed she couldn't be too shocked based on the visceral reaction she'd had to it before. Theo must have thought she was crazy to throw away such an opportunity. "With a few terms of my own," she answered, her mind made up. "I've got to show him I've got the skills to negotiate."
"I'm sure that will amuse him," Theo said with a smirk. "You'll help me revise for exams? I'm not a complete dolt, but I do have a few years of schooling to catch up on."
She laughed, pressing up on her tiptoes to first kiss his nose and then his lips, lingering at the feel of them fitting together. "I'll study with you anytime, any place," she agreed. "But I think that this calls for a bit of celebration. I think there's a candy shop around the corner. Care for some pick and mix?"
He agreed and together they walked hand in hand to the little shop to get some penny candy. Hermione was happy to fill up her bag with a variety of candy, but mostly just the sour liquorice straws that she hadn't had since she was small. Theo was more particular, curating a chocolate mix that would not disappoint him.
After they paid, they walked home together, hand in hand. Hermione happily bit off the bits of the candy straw while they chatted away, knowing that her tongue was being transformed to a bright pink from the sour sugar and the red candy. It felt good to talk to Theo again, after so many days of him ignoring her — or giving her space as he put it.
Rabastan, who was sitting on the steps, was surprised to see them come around the corner. "Hermione? You could have called! I would have come back to get you," he admonished her.
"What was I going to do? Ask the receptionist for a phone call after I chewed out Sirius?" she asked with a laugh, thinking that she would not have been permitted such a courtesy.
"I guess I didn't think that far ahead," her uncle admitted. "But I didn't know you'd take care of things so quickly. I figured that Theo would be in until Monday."
Hermione wasn't sure if she should be disappointed that Rabastan had doubted her skill. He'd come to her specifically because he thought that she was the only one able to help at that moment. But, maybe he hadn't really thought that she would be able to help — she was nothing more than a long shot. "Well, you did send in a master negotiator," she said with a shrug of her shoulders, not caring that it wasn't in the least bit modest. "And I guess maybe Sirius just still had a lot of faith in me to always tell the truth."
Rabastan laughed, giving her an affectionate squeeze on the shoulder. "Well, I better go call off the cavalry. I doubt Slughorn will be pleased to be pulled from his holiday," he said.
But Hermione told him not to bother. "Someone needs to file a complaint against Sirius," she said, still unhappy with the way Theo had been treated. "Theo is a minor and Sirius did rough him up a little bit. We can't let this slide."
Her uncle smirked at the protective way she was treating Theo. "Suppose that's only fair," he agreed, before patting Theo on the back as well. "And you didn't talk. Good for you, baby Nott. Tom will be very pleased with you."
Theo looked uncomfortable, shifting his weight from one side to the other, before he finally nodded to acknowledge Rabastan's compliment. It was a characteristic that was looked upon highly in the neighborhood, even if Hermione knew that Theo hadn't likely done it out of loyalty to Riddle, but to save himself. Still, he hadn't sold out the boss.
And then Rabastan left them to go take care of whatever job it was that he had going on and they were left blissfully alone. Hermione spun on her heel to face Theo, pulling him into her body by the open sides of his leather jacket. "I've been thinking..." she said, biting her lower lip. "Maybe we need to experience last night's performance for real. It would be a shame if I...I don't know...failed a polygraph test or something."
"Are you inviting me into your room?" Theo asked, amused.
Hermione nodded eagerly. "No one will be back for hours," she whispered, feeling her insides turn into molten lava when she saw the appreciative way that he looked at her.
"If you're sure..." he trailed off, looking her in the eyes so that she couldn't weasel out of honesty. "You certainly don't need to convince me."
Giggling, Hermione pulled him by the hand up the stairs until they finally got to her bedroom. Shutting the door behind her, Hermione pushed him down on her bed, before crawling on top of him with a grin. "You have no idea how tortuous it was to know that you were just on the other side of the wall," she told him, encouraging him to sit up so that she could push his jacket off him.
"Believe me, the feeling was mutual," he revealed to her, sitting up so that he could press his lips to hers in a fierce kiss. He caught her plump lower lip between his teeth, giving her an affectionate nip before soothing the hurt with his tongue.
Her greedy fingers found the edge of his t-shirt, but before she could pull it up, Theo's own hands stopped hers. "Wait," he said, solemnly.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, wanting nothing more than to spend the afternoon in complete oblivion with him.
"Are you really going to take up Tom on his offer?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed.
Hermione wished that she wasn't still talking about Tom Riddle when she was sitting on her boyfriend's lap, feeling just how much he wanted her, but here they were. Sighing, she nodded her head. "Yes, I am," she said, knowing that it was not a decision she'd made lightly.
"Because, I don't want to think that the only reason you are sticking around here is because of me," he said, unwilling to meet her eyes. "I'd never be able to live with myself if I thought..."
She grabbed his chin, making him look at her. "Theo, I'm not just doing this for you," she revealed. "For once, I am choosing what's best for me and not what everyone thinks is best for me. I don't love Riddle's line of business but I'm sure that this is going to be the best opportunity for me too. How could I pass it up?"
"I just meant...I don't want to stay in the neighborhood if you aren't here," he said. "You mean more to me than this place ever has. I love you."
Hermione was thrilled to hear that, truly. But it didn't change her mind. "I love you, too, Theo," she whispered, pressing a sweet kiss to his lips once again. "Now, can I?" she asked, her fingers back on the soft cotton of his shirt.
Theo nodded, his cheeks going pink. He sat up to help her pull the fabric up over his head, revealing his broad chest and trim waist. A familiar flash of green above his heart reminded her of his candy heart. Only now...
Now it was joined by a bit of pink. Blinking, Hermione looked at his tattoo, her fingertips gently tracing the outline of newly tattooed skin. There, nestled against the 'Be Mine' green conversation heart was a similar pink one. Only this one didn't have a traditional phrase in the center. Instead, just one letter stood out in block pink.
H.
Hermione felt her heart stutter skip when she saw it.
Theo seemed even more embarrassed than he had before. "I suppose you had to see it eventually," he said, sheepishly. "But to be fair, Marcus is hard to keep up with when you are drinking and then Adrian can be so persuasive. You don't think it's too weird? I probably should have asked you first."
"I love it," Hermione answered, shutting down his nervous babbling. Yes, he probably should have told her first, but she did love it — know that he had permanently etched his love for her into his skin, right above his heart. Maybe tattoos weren't so terrible after all.
"Good," he answered, obviously relieved. Grabbing her smaller hand in his, he pressed her hand against his warm skin, so that she could feel his heart hammering beneath the surface.
Biting her lower lip, Hermione gave her boyfriend a sly look. "Are you going to let me have my way with you now?" she demanded, bossily.
"You can do whatever you want with me," he said, looking far too pleased with himself. Leaning back against her pillows, Theo looked up at her like he didn't have a care in the world.
Eager as ever, Hermione laughed, pulling her own jumper up over her head, intent on spending the rest of the afternoon naked with him.