"I don't particularly have a strong will to pursue a romantic relationship anymore," Theo said, and Harry wanted to know more.

Everything Harry's therapy partner told him made him even more curious about knowing everything about him.

Theo, on the other hand, finally felt heard by someone. He wasn't used to people listening to him and valuing his opinions. He blamed himself and his father for it since, from an early age, he understood that his father was self-centred and only talked about himself, so he grew to be an observer rather than a talker. And whenever he spoke, it was usually about nonsense and purely sarcastic. Which he enjoyed most of the time, but it felt good to occasionally talk about more serious matters.

His mother, on the other hand, was rarely at the Nott estate and was always gone traveling. Theo grew accustomed to his parents not being there for him and had to mature quickly to be comfortable enjoying his solitude.

The one person he truly felt close to was Draco. He was always there for him and tried his best to listen to him even when he was going through a lot being a servant to that egotistical maniac.

But his therapy partner was different; he would listen and react.

Draco would only listen, which he was grateful for, but sometimes he needed more, and his therapy partner filled that void for him.

Theo wanted to know who his partner was, but he was also scared that he would fuck up their friendship somehow.

Were they even friends to begin with?

Acquaintances?

He didn't know what to call it.

"Why so?" asked Harry, intrigued.

"Well," he said, sighing, "It's just not fun anymore. Talking stage after talking stage. From being each other's everything to being strangers again within the same day. I'm sick of getting attached to a person to the point where I never want to be parted from them to avoid each other's eyes every time we're in close proximity."

Harry wasn't expecting that honest and vulnerable answer from him, "That- that's. Wow. I've never really felt that way," Harry paused and took a good moment to think why.

He was only ever interested in two women in his life. Cho Chang, with whom he had a short fling in fourth year, and Ginny, with whom he got into a relationship shortly after the war.

The war.

From eleven years old, he was consumed by facing fame, hate, and dark wizards, "I think it's simply because I never really had the time or opportunity to experience such things," he answered wholeheartedly, "I've always had other priorities that barely gave me time for myself and forming my own identity."

The realization had hit Harry hard. He never really thought of what he had missed during those seven years of his life consumed by Voldemort. He always looked at the future, not the present or the past.

"Oh, so you were just a try-hard in being top of your class? Granger is this you I'm speaking to?" Harry couldn't help but let out a laugh. Only his therapy partner could turn around sensitive topics like that, which he grew accustomed to in the four sessions they've had with each other already.

"No, rest assured I'm definitely not Granger," it felt weird to call his childhood best friend by her last name, "and no, I wouldn't really call myself a try hard. I've never had a particular interest in academics."

"Oh, so you're a half-asser," Theo remarked, and it was a pretty strange way to put it, but it did correspond to how he approached his academics. He wasn't as bad as Ron and didn't beg Hermione to help him daily, but was more of a last-minute work and cramming all the exam information the night before type of student.

"I suppose you could call it that. What about you? Are you a half-asser?" Harry retorted, amused by the conversation.

Without hesitation, Theo answered, "Oh, you bet I am," Harry's smile broke into a small laugh.

…

Draco was trying to head to his next class, head down, in the middle of a chaos of students roaming around the hallways.

"YOU TORTURED MY LITTLE SISTER! YOU SADISTIC PRAT!" a sixth-year student shouted out of nowhere and lunged forward towards Draco.

Sadistic. He was many things, but sadistic was a reach, even for him.

He quickly reached into his robes pocket, pulling out his wand, a reflex he had procured during the war at any given sudden movement in his near surroundings. He aimed his wand to petrify the attacker but instantly put it back down and decided not to.

He needed to uphold his reputation to the ministry, and he knew very well that any harm done from his hands, even if he didn't start the conflict, would send him to Azkaban instantly, which was arguably fair, considering all the things he had done.

The attacker could only get one hit to his ribs when the headmistress intervened with a spell that sent the sixth year flying back.

The attacker's mouth opened, shocked, "Violence towards other students is not tolerated in Hogwarts. I understand that some of you might have unsettled feelings after the war, but this does not excuse hurting your comrades. From now on, anyone who attempts to harm another student will be expelled from Hogwarts. Mr Evans, come with me. Everyone go back to class," the old witch said, pursing her lips and walked away.

Hermione was watching the scene from the sidelines and was baffled at how calm and collected Malfoy was standing. The Malfoy she grew to know all these years would have instantly cursed his attacker.

Had he changed?

Or was it a paid publicity stunt to help restore his family name?

It would exactly be something she'd expect him to do. But, on the other hand, she couldn't dismiss the fact of how real the pain in the attacker's voice felt. That couldn't possibly be fake. He said it in such a way that gave her goosebumps.

She didn't know what to believe.

Malfoy, trying to keep his cool, ran a hand through his hair and ignored the eyes of dozens of students staring at him and walked to class.

Before coming to Hogwarts, he had expected these types of incidents to happen; he was frankly quite shocked that it didn't happen sooner. Of course, there were already daily stares and death threats, but no one had committed anything physical towards him until now; that's why he was caught slightly off guard. But, from now on, he was going to be more attentive.

…

Hermione could not seem to get that visual off her head. Even if it was a publicity stunt or not, she could see a hint of fear in his eyes, and it frustrated her why she even cared in the first place. It was Malfoy, for god's sake.

She didn't care. Did she?

Hermione screamed in her pillow out of frustration. Ginny, who had just got out of the shower, acted as if she had seen nothing. It was usual for Hermione to have her mini temper tantrums, but still, she wanted to know if it was anything more serious, "Let me guess, you said 'Hi' six times this time, but they still didn't answer?" she assumed, straightening her tangled hair.

"What?" Hermione echoed, confused.

"You were screaming into your pillow," she pointed out, "Or is it a new daily activity you picked up?" Ginny asked, making a face.

Hermione, who was back in her senses, answered, "Oh, this. Yeah. It might be, to be honest. But, to answer your question, I actually did talk to them, but-"

"Oh really? That's great! What did you talk about?" Ginny cut her off excited to know about the details.

"Yeah, don't get your hopes up. It's not that great," Hermione repositioned herself so that she was lying on her stomach and pressed her chin on the palms of her hands, "It was complete bullshit. I don't know anything about them, except that they're infuriating and annoying."

"Oh. Yeah, that's. That is not very pleasant, I guess, but you never know. After all, hatred can be nature's most sadistic form of foreplay," she remarked, looking at her smugly.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Ginny," she paused, "No," another pause, "If what I talk about with them can even remotely be considered as foreplay, I'd rather listen to Neville get aroused talking about his plants," Hermione just realized what came out of her mouth.

"Ew," Ginny cringed, and Hermione found her reaction appropriate. She would've had the same reaction.

Even imagining that felt wrong to her. Anyways.

"Yeah, ew. Let's forget I said that. Now, you get what I mean, though, right? Plus, I don't even know if it's a he, she or they," she pointed out. She had actually never thought about it. It really could be any of those options.

"What does it matter? You're clearly aroused, Hermi," Ginny loved pushing her. It was fun to watch her facial expressions grow visibly frustrated. It was evil of her. But everyone had a little evil in them, didn't they?

"Ginny, for the love of god, stop calling me Hermi!" she exclaimed, rising to her feet to go wash her hands. Even if her hands weren't dirty, she still washed them at least twenty times a day. She liked the feeling of clean hands, "And no, I'm not aroused by them, and plus, you know that I'm straight."

"But in the fourth year-" Hermione cut her off because she knew exactly what Ginny would resurface, "Yeah, I know Ginny. I thought I was bi for half the year because I was a little too obsessed with one of the Beauxbatons girls, but as I said, after I kissed her, I realized that I didn't really feel anything, and it was just a sort of crush. Actually, crush isn't the right word for it," she corrected herself, "An admiration maybe?" Hermione didn't know what it exactly was.

"You never know," Ginny shrugged, "Have it your way then, but we'll see in time what happens, and I look forward to the day I will say 'I told you so'," Ginny put her wand on her nightstand and laid in her bed with her perfectly straight hair.

"Well, no need to wait for that day because it'll never happen," Hermione assured her, and Ginny only smirked at her and picked up one of her books. Hermione squinted her eyes to read the title, Quidditch: A milestone . Why did she even bother to read the title in the first place? It's as if Ginny would read any other topic than quidditch.

…

No one made an effort to try to meet up this week for the group project. Hermione had only asked Angelina, and she had said that she would come, but the time on her watch said otherwise.

Hermione was seated at their usual spot they met up at, and Angelina was already twenty minutes late. She took that as a sign that she would be working solo today, but it wasn't that bad after all. Throughout the years, she had come to the conclusion that she worked better alone anyways, quicker even.

She took Wolfsbane: Magical Process, Transmutation of Substances and Alchemical Bindings from her book bag and continued highlighting the essential passages.

"Your hiding spots are very predictable, Granger," noted Nott as he took a seat beside her. She loathed being interrupted when she was focused on reading something, but she didn't make a big deal out of it, "I wasn't hiding," she retorted, "And trust me, If I even put the slightest effort into hiding, I can assure you wouldn't be able to find me in centuries."

A smirk formed on his lips, "Cocky Granger. It's like I find out a new version of you every day," he acknowledged, "Truly fascinating."

She rolled her eyes at him. It was becoming a habit, but it didn't help when most things he said were eye roll worthy.

"On a serious note, though-"

"You? Being serious? Impossible," she cut him off with a grin.

"Believe it or not, Granger, I can be serious," he paused for a brief moment as if he didn't believe himself either, " sometimes," he added matter of factly, tilting his head.

"Why does that seem like complete misinformation?" she asked suspiciously, placing the highlighter she still had in her hand on the table. She grew up highlighting her notes with her marker before coming to Hogwarts, and doing it with an incantation didn't feel satisfying enough, so she kept using the latter.

For the first time noticing the highlighted page, Nott inquired with furrowed brows, "What is this weird tool? And why are there neon lines on the words?"

"It's a highlighter," she felt like she was a muggle elementary teacher, teaching students basic words, "It's used to overlay transparent fluorescent color on text that is important," she explained whilst demonstrating by highlighting a word on the page she had open.

"Muggles," he said as if he were implying something, and Hermione ignored it.

"No, but for real, on a serious note, though, I'll count to fifty, and you hide, "He placed his palms to cover his eyes, "One. Two-"

"I'm not going to play hide and seek with you, Nott," she assured him.

He ignored her with his hands still covering his eyes, "Three. Four-"

"Stop it. I'm here to work, and you're making too much noise. Mme Pince-"

Unbothered by her statement, he continued counting lazily, "Five. Six. Seven-"

"Ugh. You're such an arse. Okay, fine-"

"Eight. Nine-"

"Would you wait for a second?" She interrupted him, frustrated, and he stopped counting, removing his hands from his face, "I want to amend the rules a bit because I don't want to remain in hiding for the rest of my life," he rolled his eyes at her, "It'll only be on the library grounds, and if you don't find me in two hours, you have to finish the Potions project by yourself before the deadline and promise me that we're never playing this game again. Understood?"

Hermione regretted what she was getting into, but she was already too far down the rabbit's hole to go back and wasting two hours of her life playing hide and seek with Nott wouldn't be so bad, would it?

"Crystal," he affirmed, "But, If I do find you in two hours' time, then you'll have to do the project with Malfoy only , and we're going to play hide and seek at least three more times before Christmas break."

"One more time," she bargained.

"Two," Nott retorted.

"One," Hermione crossed her arms and looked away until he accepted.

After ten seconds of staring at her unmoving stance, he finally agreed, "Fine. One," they shook hands.

Hermione sighed, "Malfoy, really? Ugh!" she wanted to scream at herself out of frustration for accepting to play such a game in the first place. But if she hadn't adjusted the rules, then he wouldn't have either, so she's got only herself to blame on this one.

Nott placed his hands back on his eyes and resumed counting, "Ten. Eleven-"

"You can at least have the decency to start from the beginning," she remarked.

"Fine, have it your way then. Again . One. Two.."

Hermione immediately got up and cast a charm on her feet to silence her footsteps, so people at the library wouldn't get disturbed and that Nott couldn't make out the direction she was headed.

Merlin, this was so stupid, but she realized she had never played hide and seek in the castle before. She only played it at most five times in kindergarten. She cursed at herself for showing her group her library hiding spot. She could've easily hidden there, and there was no chance he would be able to find her. She knew it was a stupid idea, even back then.

"Hermione," someone called her from behind. Shit, she muttered to herself and turned around to see Luna.

"Not now, Luna. Also, if someone asks if you saw me or not, please say no. Okay?" she quickly started running in the opposite direction before the blonde witch could even respond to her.

The library was possibly one of the worst places to play hide and seek. Everything was out in the open, and there wasn't really a corner she could hide in.

She could cast a disillusionment charm, but she didn't think that Nott would be stupid enough not to cast a Revelio. Or she could cast a Reducio and hide between one of the books. Although they never specified if magic was allowed or not, that wasn't her problem, was it?

She decided that shrinking herself was the safest option. She probably had around ten seconds left to find a hiding spot if her calculations were right. She quickly ran to the bookshelf on the opposite side of her and muffled,"Reducio."

Although human shrinking was dangerous since the effects it could have were unpredictable, she had done it enough times to know how to perform the counter-charm correctly.

Everything around her was huge, and it felt bizarre to be this close to the ground. She quickly ran to the bookshelf on her right, tried to climb on top of a straight-facing book, and sat on it.

This game wasn't the greatest for her anxiety. She could feel her heart pounding extremely fast. She did some breathing exercises to calm down and regulate her breathing patterns.

Not even two minutes after calming down, someone started walking around the aisle, and the echoes of the person's footsteps resulted in her heart racing again. They left after wandering around for a bit, and she could relax again.

Another set of footsteps approached her aisle; they had perfectly polished black shoes. She couldn't see who it was since the shelf on top of her blocked her vision. She watched him as his long pale fingers delicately traced the outline of the books, almost scared to touch them.

His feet were in front of her, and he bent down to trace his fingers on the row of books she was located at. She quickly lay down and hid at the edge of the book to hide her minuscule figure. She could feel the book she was lying down on being moved and dragged upward.

Really? She thought to herself.

There were over a million books here, and the one she was inhibiting for two hours was picked up?

Before she could even see who picked the book up, he turned the book sideways, and she gripped the hem of the book, holding on tightly. She could literally die If she fell from this height.

In case she got out of this situation alive, she made a mental note for Ginny to slap her for being a complete idiot.

The book swayed left to right, and Hermione started becoming dizzy. She hoped the owner would sit at a desk nearby and wouldn't bring the book back to their dormitory. She for sure couldn't hold on for that long, and the dormitories being past the quidditch pitch did not help her case whatsoever.

He walked passed four aisles, then abruptly stopped, "Theo, why are you wandering around like a dog who lost its prey," Hermione's face turned white. She knew that voice. She knew it too well even.

Fucking Malfoy.

Great

Great Hermione.

Really. Good Job.

Nott stopped in his tracks, "Oh, nothing much. Just playing a little game of hide and seek with Granger," he replied, looking around, hoping to spot her.

There was a pause, "What?" Blinked Malfoy, dumbfounded.

Hermione was fretting her teeth from embarrassment.

"I'm playing hide and seek-"

"I heard it the first time," he cut him off, "but why Granger?" He asked.

Hermione furrowed her brows; why not?

He shrugged, "She begged me to play with her," Hermione's cheeks flushed red from anger, "I didn't beg him!" She screeched, but they didn't hear her. She would've slapped him if she could right now.

Malfoy raised a brow, "I heavily doubt that," he opposed, and Hermione couldn't believe her ears. He, for once, had said something logical, "Besides, aren't you two a little too old to be playing hide and seek?"

Nott made a face, "What's that supposed to mean? No one is too old for hide and seek," he retorted.

"Sure," Malfoy couldn't be bothered to argue with him. He had more important matters at hand.

"Okay then," Nott said to terminate this conversation, "Chess, you're room at ten tonight?" He proposed, and Malfoy nodded. They both walked in opposite directions.

Thankfully Malfoy went with scenario one and sat at a nearby table. Which was the place he had shown the group last week, at the Dragon section. He took a seat, and while placing the book on the table, and Hermione's figure was close to the wooden surface, she jumped, taking a run in hopes that he wouldn't notice her. After all, she was nearly one centimeter tall, so the chances were low, but not zero.

There was a candle on the table, and the light collided with Hermione's tiny figure, which created a shadow of her silhouette. This caught Draco's eye. He thought it was a fly and waved his hand to slap it.

Hermione felt like she was hit by titanium. She went flying across the table and was about to fall but managed to grip the edge of the table last second.

That's it! She was done! She wasn't going to risk her life for some dumb kids' game.

She reached for her wand in her pockets, "Granger?" she saw his hand come underneath her tiny feet. She didn't let go, knowing that he would probably drop her to the ground.

"It's okay. I won't drop you," he persisted, but she didn't believe him.

It was Malfoy, after all; of course, he would drop her. This was probably super amusing for him, and she hated it.

She took her wand, "Engorgio-" before she could cast the counter-spell, she was lifted upwards by her sweater and placed on top of the book.

"What the actual fuck Granger?" it wasn't a question, "Was this really the best you could think of?" That wasn't a question either. It seemed more like a disappointment.

"I didn't have another choice," she said, sighing.

"I don't hear you," he said and bent his head downward so that she could speak directly into his ear, "I said that I didn't have anot-"

"For fuck's sake!" Theo exclaimed, nearing Draco from behind. He quickly hid her inside his shirt's pocket, "Where is this girl? I've literally looked everywhere," he sounded defeated.

"Well, I guess you haven't looked everywhere yet," Draco retorted, opening up his pocket so she could breathe.

Theo left without another word. Draco pulled her back out when his frame was out of sight, placed her on top of the book, and bent down to hear her.

"Why are you helping me?" she asked, confused. She was ready for him to rat her out, but what he didn't know was also for his benefit. If Theo didn't find her in the next hour, then she wouldn't have tobe stuck alone with Malfoy for half the semester. Likewise, he wouldn't have to be stuck with her.

"It's not for you. It's rather for purely selfish reasons," he admitted, "I find it amusing," she could see a hint of a smirk form on his lips. Realizing this, his smirk vanished.

She rolled her eyes. She knew that he would find it amusing—another reason for her to transfigure herself back to her usual height.

"Can you bring me back to my initial hiding spot," she asked him. She hated that she had to ask him for a favor.

"What are you going to give me in return?" he inquired, crossing his arms.

Of course. Malfoys never did anything without wanting something back. Kindness was probably foreign to them, "Nothing," she retorted.

He pursed his lips, "Then no favor," he shrugged.

"Fine," she said, crossing her arms and marching to the other end of the table. She sat facing the window and watched the outsides of Hogwarts grounds.

They both remained in silence until the two-hour mark was up. She never turned once to look at him, but by the window's reflection, she could see him glance at her from time to time. Or maybe she was being delusional, and he was simply looking out the window. Theo passed by their table on several occasions but never noticed her.

When the time was up, she transfigured herself back to her original height and went back to get her stuff. Theo was already sitting there, somewhat annoyed.

She took out all her notes from her bag and slid them across the table towards him, "You're going to need this to finish the project on your own," she said with a smug face.

"Will you check the work before I hand it out to Slughorn?" he asked her. She, of course, was going to. She also knows that in not even a week's time, she's going to break off the deal because she doesn't trust his assignment capabilities. But what good would it do if he knew that? "Maybe," she spun on her heel and walked away.

Malfoy was still seated at his table; she ignored his gaze as she walked past him.