I've broken my own rule already, 3 in one week! But I am just too excited about this story haha! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, I'm glad you are enjoying it so far, hopefully you continue to like it as we progress! I've written up to chapter 7 already so have made a good start - i should probably warn you now that this is going to be a slow burn - bare with me!

I hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend! Have a good one! :D


Chapter 3

With Theodore Nott came the rain. It had been raining, heavily, since Tuesday. Thick, fat droplets falling from the sky, soaking her through on her short walk from the cottage to the bookshop.

As she stepped through the door, closing and locking it behind her, she shook out her raincoat and propped it on the waiting hook. Mercifully, Saturday rolled around without another sighting of the Slytherin, and Hermione found herself relaxing ever so slightly.

Flicking the lights on, she walked deeper into the cavernous bookshop. There was nothing that made her happier than sitting behind the counter, reading the newest hardback to hit the shelf, with a mug of coffee in hand. Hermione sighed, she didn't want this to dissapear and Theo threatened that.

As the days past, with no sight of anyone else from the Wizarding World, she started to trust Theo's word that he was here solely for business with the Hotel. There were still niggling doubts but no one had come charging in to confront her, so she would take that as a positive sign. The till buzzed to life and Hermione flicked the sign swinging in the criss-cross paned window to 'open'. Today felt like it could be a good day at the end of a tough week.


Turns out, she had not been right about that. "Thank you, have a nice day." Hermione handed the paper bag holding two best selling novellas to the curley haired woman sporting thick, black rimmed glasses that stood behind the counter. She'd enjoyed helping the woman choose her two newest books. They were gifts for her daughter, around Hermione's age, whose birthday was fast approaching. The door bell chimed as she left.

He must have caught the door from her, as she didn't hear the new patron approach until she felt their stare ricotche up her spine, and a voice call out, "Hi."

She jumped, turning quickly, a hand flying to her heart, the other to the holster at her waist incase she needed her wand - not that it had done much good so far, she grimaced to herself. "Theo, what the hell?"

"I said hello!" He was wearing a black suit over a crisp white shirt, his tie Slytherin green. He looked like he could have fallen straight out of an alumni handbook, if Hogwart's had had one. "Don't be so jumpy, Granger."

"I'd be able to relax more if you stopped popping up everywhere." She grumbled, folding the rumpled notes the customer had handed her into the till. She shut it with a snap, pulling her hair into a ponytail using a band on her wrist, and turned away from him.

Though it was raining outside, the humid temperature and heat from the surprise of his presence was getting to her. She could feel a slick sheen of sweat creeping up her neck. "I bought you this." He handed her a takeaway coffee cup, "I know you don't mind being lonely, but I wouldn't mind a chat and hoped you'd indulge me."

Hermione took a tentative step forwards, reaching out a hand, like a baby deer caught in headlights, "What coffee is it?"

"Cappuccino." She conceded with a shrug, admitting to herself that he had a decent taste in coffee, at least. Theo took that as an excuse to come in, sit down and be welcome, taking off his suit jacket and throwing it over a plump armchair she'd placed against one of the nearby bookshelves. He didn't sit in it though, instead, he leant over the desk, hands clasped around his own coffee.

Hermione backed away, entirely uncomfortable with the ease in which Theo relaxed into her presence. They were not friends, and she was certainly not excited that he was treating her as such.

She took a sip of coffee, the hot liquid burning her mouth, not knowing what to say. Theo did not have that problem. "What are you doing tomorrow night, Ganger?"

Nothing, as always. "I don't know yet."

Theo laughed, reading between the lines, "Well, I'm having dinner with some of the board members of the hotel, would you indulge me by being my date." He had not lied to her yesterday, he was considering buying the Hotel. He had considered buying a lot of hotels over the last fifteen months. Had he bought any... nope, but that didn't matter, it was an easy cover for why he was loitering around one.

She choked on her coffee, gasping, and having to down another chug to clear her throat as she did. Shaking her head, she busied herself straightening pens, "I highly doubt that would be appropriate... considering our past."

"Who's to know? No one knows us here," He brandished his arms at the empty bookshop. "And I don't have time to sweet talk someone into going on a date with me, especially not when I already know the most beautiful woman in town."

She rolled her eyes and laughed darkly, he certainly was persistent. "Theo, I..."

But he was already walking out of the bookshop, coffee cup in hand, "I'll see you at seven tomorrow, Granger, at the Hotel." He didn't give her a chance to answer.

Why did he keep doing that?! She screamed to herself, snapping her hand against the surface of the desk in annoyance.


Hermione sighed. How was it possible that she'd had more social invitations in one week than in the last year. Theodore Nott was really becoming a thorn in her side. Since he'd appeared in town, she'd started feeling the flashbacks crawling up on her.

It had taken everything she'd had to stamp them down and ween herself off of dreamless sleep potion, but the cracks were already starting to appear. The night after they'd eaten dinner at the restaurant, she'd woken up shivering, covered in sweat, and had promptly thrown up into the bin.

Theo's presence brought clawing memories of Death Eaters, earth shattering fear, months of running and surviving on nothing, the feel of hands clawing at her skin and soul. Belatrix Lestrange's hideous, hateful eyes, the yellowing teeth, the feel of cursed metal against her skin, the gutral scream that had ripped through her.

In the dreams, she often watched from the sidelines. Seeing herself prone on the ground, Bellatrix hovering over her, the Malfoys standing watching - Lucius face twisting into a cross between a smirk and grimace. A new face swam into them, Theo's own, popping up in the dark. Watching, waiting, chasing, torturing her. Sometimes she couldn't separate fiction from reality, they all felt so real.

Hermione had known of Theodore Nott since she was eleven. Of course, she'd bared the brunt of his jokes - not as bad as Malfoy, but a close second along with the rest of his Slytherin classmates - and had known full well when he'd become a Death Eater. He'd been another Malfoy, not so subtly shouting about how valuable he was, how highly looked upon. She'd never seen his face in a fight, but she had no doubt he'd been under one of the many masks; watching her even then. She'd been at his father trial. One of the last before she'd ran. Theo had been, very noticeably, absent. She didn't know what had happened to him, whether he was awaiting his own trial or not.

However, she had bared witness to the fact that the Ministry was going lightly on juvenile Death Eaters; Draco Malfoy had only received a year of house arrest for crying out loud. A year of house arrest, in a Palace-sized mansion in exchange for years of torture, cruelty, hatred and bigotry. What punishment was that? What closure was that for the people he'd hurt?

Hermione had sat at the back of the courtroom, hands clasped with Luna Lovegood, as they watched Draco Malfoy tip his head back, unkempt blond hair dusting his shoulders; he'd had the gall to breath a relieved sigh. Luna had cried. Hermione had locked eyes once with Malfoy, turned, and left. That weekend, Hermione had ran. She couldn't imagine facing Malfoy again, facing any of them. Now here she was, coming face to face with her worst nightmare come to life.

Forcing herself back to the present, she touched a hand under her eyes as she looked at herself in the mirror; a few more nights of nightmares and she'd look and feel a wreck, she was barely keeping it together as is.

"Fuck Theo." She hissed to herself, pulling on a pair of tracksuit bottoms and crawling onto the sofa. She watched the clock tick closer and closer to seven. She'd decided that she was certainly not going to dinner with him. Why on earth should she indulge him? He had done nothing to deserve her attention - aside from threatening her into a dinner after stealing her wand, he held absolutely no sway over her. She didn't owe him anything.

Seven o'clock struck. Five past. Ten past. Knock, knock, knock. "You have got to be fucking kidding me." She pushed Crookshanks off her lap, half a mind to ignore the door and march straight past it.

If that was Theodore Bloody Nott, she'd... "Granger, I don't get stood up."

Rolling her eyes, she tried to shut the door, but he stuck his foot out, blocking it in its path, "Because you bully, buy or bribe your dates?" She retorted.

Theo leaned against her doorway on his left forearm, towering over her and crowding into her space. She stepped back, and he nudged the door open, "I asked nicely."

"Take the hint then... and how did you even find me?" Her voice had risen in pitch until it sounded almost like a shriek.

"Margaret." He laughed, she was sure it was meant to be charming but it didn't hit her right, "She's very chatty when you buy her a coffee." Her limited social circle just lost another member.

"This is stalking." She told him, running a hand through her hair and crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I've told you, I don't want to be your friend."

"Hermione, I know I've hurt you. I know you don't trust me, believe me when I say I get it. I just wanted to show you that I'm not all bad."

"Why do you care so much? Go back to living your fancy life and forget about me." She said, turning and walking back to her living room. He took that as an invitation to come in, kicking the door shut behind himself.

He stopped in the doorway again, looking around. It was cosy and light, exactly what he thought it would look like.

A plump blue armchair sat next to a fireplace that was roaring, a TV with a sofa opposite and hundreds of books lining the walls. It was tidy, meticulously so, even the throw she'd discarded to open the door was folded neatly over the back of the sofa. "I can't forget about you." He didn't tell her the real reason, but gave half his truth instead, "I can't turn back the clock and change what I did to you, to the others. I've made amends where I can, paid my dues in ways that will never make up for my actions but, seeing you here, like this, I can't just leave you. I can't turn away knowing that you have had to give up your birth right, your place in the magical world, because of people like me."

"I'm happy, Theo." She spat, anger flooding her. It was one thing for him to have power over her subconscious, her nightmares, it was another for that power to be voiced allowed. Embarrassment. That's what she felt coursing through her veins. Embarrassed anger. "I left because I chose to."

Theo shook his head, ready to give her a character assessment she didn't want, "You ran because you're scared."

"If you are quite done shitting on me for one night-"

"We're all broken, Granger. We all want to run from our demons. Don't you want to be able to be in a world you love, with the people you love again? Share those memories, build roots, have a family, stop running."

Hermione ignored him, "I want you to leave." She really didn't want to cry in front of him. She never had and she never would. So she turned her back to him staring into the flames and hugging her hands around herself. She held herself together, barely, gripping the cracking peices as they were about to shatter.

"Okay." He held up his hands, "Have a nice night, Granger." She didn't watch him go.