Chapter 12
She made up the spare room for him, lingering by the door to apologise again for her words in the copse. He laughed and told her she apologised too much, holding a hand up as she tried to apologise for apologising.
He stepped forward and for once she didn't cower away. "Goodnight, Hermione."
She nodded, looked at him once more and then stepped out of the door and into the corridor. "Goodnight."
That night, when she woke screaming, he lay awake in his bed, not knowing if she'd want him to go to her or to pretend he didn't hear. He stood, walking into the hallway and sat on the floor outside her door, resting his head back against the wall.
He didn't want to scare her even more, so he sat and listened to her cry. Eventually, he felt tears roll down his own face, mingling with her sobs and forcing him to relive the shame of his past again.
He wasn't lying when he'd said to Hermione that she just hadn't seen his scars yet. He might not look as broken, but they all were - sometimes his guilt was almost too much to bear. He sobbed into the early hours of the morning, finally falling asleep against the cold stone wall.
He woke as the birds rose. Their chirping whipping him swiftly from the claws of his own nightmare. At some point, Hermione had stopped crying, but she had never appeared from her room. He didn't know if he'd done the right thing or not, but neither of them mentioned it as they saw each other over the steam of the kettle later that morning.
He winced, his back sore from his restless night, and she had bruises under her eyes. "How was the bed?"
"Good," he replied, not mentioning his night in the corridor, and offering her a smile she wasn't quite ready to return. "Are you sure-"
She cut him off, "Yes." She said, walking over to the sink and tipping out her barely drunk tea. "I'm going to be late for the bookshop, I'll see you later."
"Have a nice day, Hermione." She left, the door closing behind her. It suddenly felt like one step forward, nineteen steps backwards. He sighed, berating himself. What was he doing? He was hurting both of them. He needed to just suck it up and talk to Harry, have Potter pull him off the case and back to London... but, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't want her that far away where, if something were to happen, he would be powerless to help. "You're an idiot." He sighed to himself, pressing his thumb and forefinger against his eyes and blocking out the world.
There was a knock on the back door and he sidled over, wondering who it could be. "Nott." For fuck sake, just what he needed.
"What do you want?" The baby Auror Potter had assigned to replace him stood on the doorstep, his navy turtleneck pulled up to ward off the chill.
"Me?" Arnold... Harold... Whatever the fuck his name was, Theo couldn't remember, barked out an incredulous laugh, pushing past him into Hermione's kitchen. Theo bristled, the invasion of this unknown man into Hermione's space getting to him. "What the fuck are you doing? Have you lost your mind? Sleeping with the person you've been assigned to protect is the number one no-no as an Auror!"
Theo scoffed, anger flashing in his eyes. "I have not slept with her," he growled out through gritted teeth, "She invited me to stay and I thought it would be easier to watch her from here."
"All I can hear is, "I'm a self-righteous, arrogant prick who thinks that because my daddy had a lot of money I can get away with anythi-"" Theo cut him off, slamming him bodily into one of Hermione's white kitchen cabinets. The Auror wheezed, winded, as he tried to force Theo off, but it was a lost battle that left him clawing at Theo's thick wrists.
"You should remember that I have lived through more than you can even imagine," he started to retort, but Theo cut him off, slamming him back again, "I have nothing in my life to lose, so angering me would be unwise."
"You're a fuck up. Look at you. Letting a fucking Death Eater watch over Hermione Granger... what a fucking mistake." He wheezed out.
Theo snarled, growling. For the first time in years, Theo felt a slight remnant of his former self creeping up his spine, "Do you think you are the first arsehole who has ever looked down on me?" Theo could see the man's skin turning pink under the force of his fingers, he loosened his grip ever so slightly, "Your's is the opinion of a scared child, who didn't live through the fighting. You will never know what it was like, which is why your opinion means nothing to me." He hissed against the man's ear. Pushing him back once more, he released him and stepped away. "Get the fuck out of my sight. I answer to Potter, not to you." The Auror rubbed his neck where Theo's fingers had dug in painfully. He sputtered and then backed out through the door with a narrowed eyed glare at the former Slytherin.
The door slammed and Theo sighed, rubbing a tired hand over his face. Suddenly, the silver whisps of a patronus shimmered into view - the stupid Stag form instantly recognisable. Potter's voice rang out in the room, echoing the sentiments of the Auror who had just been in Hermione's kitchen. Theo stormed outside, past the wards he'd placed on Hermione's home and whirled, apparating on the spot and flying into Potter's office.
"Theo, what the fuck?" Harry stared him down, standing so he stood at eye height with the Theo. "Is Hermione okay?"
Theo looked round, noticing they weren't alone. Wensley and Malfoy stood in opposite corners. They still weren't friends, and often stood as far from each other as possible, but they managed a semblance of amicability. Malfoy had worked alongside them as a curse breaker for several years, finding a passion after being heavily involved in cursebreaking dark artifacts during his house arrest. "Malfoy... Weasely." He nodded to the two other men, before turning to Potter. "Hermione is fine. That fucking baby Auror you have got on my back, however, is a fucking nightmare. I wanted you to hear it from me, instead of him, Granger has suggested I move in with her."
Weasely, who had been watching Theo with a stoney expression, turned an ugly puce shade and started sputtering, hands waving vigorously in front of himself. "What the bloody, flying fuck, Nott?"
"Ron." Harry raised a hand to try and calm his best friend, "How did this happen?"
Theo sunk to perch on the corner of Potter's cluttered, mahogany desk, "She's growing attached to me," he rushed to clarify as Harry and Ron looked set to murder him, "Purley as an acquaintance from her previous life." He went on to explain the events of the previous day, how Hermione had asked him to move in, and how he'd conceded.
Harry sighed, "I'm not happy about this, Nott." He ran a hand over the growing stubble on his chin and shot a warning look at Weasely, who looked set to burst with anger, "But it doesn't seem like there is much we can do. And at least there is someone in the house with her." Weasely tried to argue back but Potter cut in and quickly shot down room for discussion.
When the annoyed arguing subsided, Theo looked around and asked, "Anything yet on Greyback?"
"Nothing. We have everyone searching, checkpoints everywhere around Hermione's town just in case... but so far, nothing." Harry walked behind his desk and slumped tiredly into his desk chair. "We will let you know if anything changes."
Theo nodded and, with that dismissal, he apparated back to Hermione's kitchen. The house was still silently empty. With the other Aurors watching Hermione at work, he decided to take the time to pick up his clothing from the hotel and move a few bits into Hermione's spare room, before sinking down onto his bed and trying to get some much needed shut eye after the events of the night before.
He didn't see hermione until about 11 pm that evening. He bumped into her on the landing as he finally emerged from his nap and she headed to bed.
She screamed, not expecting him to emerge from the closed door in the silent house. Darkness had settled over the corridor and he'd emerged as a silhouette against the moon. "Hermione," he rushed towards the spot where she'd fallen to the floor, the scream dying in her throat, "It's me."
She was shaking, sat on the upper most step clutching the bannister. "Theo?"
"Yes," he crouched down infront of her, pushing her hair out of her face in a strangely intimate gesture, as she blinked up at him. She let him move to sit so his legs were on either side of her and she was wrapped in his embrace. He was keenly aware that she hadn't, for once, pushed him away or shivered from his touch. Selfishly, he didn't want to brake the moment so that he could keep holding her, but he knew that he had to. He brushed a hand over her soft hair, pressing a kiss against her temple as she shivered in his embrace, "I'm so sorry, Hermione. I didn't mean to scare you."
She sniffed, wiping the back of her hand against her eyes and under her nose. He would usually be grossed out by the snot and tears being wiped away but, for her, he didn't mind. Pulling away, she looked at him, "No, it's fine, the house was just so quiet and I thought you might have decided to go back to the hotel."
He wiped his own fingers against her face gently, catching the last fo the tears, "I took a nap, which turned into a much longer sleep than I'd thought. I can go back to the hotel if you'd prefer? Whatever makes you most comfortable." He still had a hand in her hair, his fingers playing with the soft tips. It was more intimate than he'd been with someone in a long time and his heart started pounding in response.
"No," she shook her head, finally realising who she was cosying up to on the steps and pulling away until she was standing. He didn't want to let her go, but he let her slip through his fingers. He stood too, towering over her smaller form. "I meant it when I extended the offer... it will just take a little time to get used to it."
"Okay, but as soon as it gets too much, please just tell me." He said, reaching out once more to push her hair off her shoulder, but she flinched and his hand dropped in the air between them. The moment before had clearly broken.
He stepped back letting her pass as she made her way to her room. Just when he thought she was going to dissappear without a word, she turned back to him, "Goodnight, Theo."
"Goodnight, Granger." With that she disappeared, the door shutting gently behind her.
There was silence in the home until her screams shattered it. He emerged, sitting outside her room, watching over her closed door and crying silently along with her, expressing his remorse and hatred that he caused part of her anguish, for the second night in a row.
