Adrian wasn't a good date, but at least Hermione got wine! Blaise is a good friend, but Hermione will follow his pact? Or someone else will come her way and make her realise something? Maybe this chapter has some of these answers… Keep reading to discover!
Hermione had never missed a day of work, but she felt like she deserved a day off. She sent her boss a message saying she wasn't coming to work today, and she decided to throw a pity party for herself. Hermione still had the bottle she had brought, and neither she nor Blaise had drunk it the night before, some ice cream in her fridge, and she knew the Chinese restaurant near her flat would be open for delivery at lunch.
"Ten dates, and not one of them left a good impression," Hermione mused as she poured wine into a glass. "And I ended up setting my dates up with other people."
It was at this point that Hermione began to reappraise her actions to see whether she should have changed something, or if she should have chosen someone else to go on a date with. Her mind began to wander back to the kiss she and Theo had shared.
"It was probably just a fluke and won't happen again," she muttered, drinking half of her glass. "He probably kissed you because he felt sorry for you, not because he is interested in you."
Hermione kept talking to herself, trying to figure out why Theo had kissed her. Almost sure that he had only kissed her out of pity, she thought she was ready to get over what had happened when her phone rang.
"I'm clearly having a me day! Don't people know how to respect that anymore?" she murmured, searching for her phone on the couch.
When Hermione finally found her phone, she almost wished she hadn't looked for it in the first place. The caller ID showed that it was Theo calling, and Hermione wasn't ready to take the call just yet.
"Why can't you just be normal and give me a little space? Why must you be so utterly perfect?" Hermione asked her phone as if it would answer her. "Why am I talking to my phone instead of answering it?"
While trying not to hyperventilate, Hermione grabbed her phone just as Theo ended the call. Cursing herself for being too late, Hermione threw herself on her couch before her phone started ringing again. She shot up straight and picked it up right away.
"Hello?" Hermione was trembling, unsure of what Theo wanted or if she should have answered. "Theo?"
"Hey, Hermione... I hope I am not interrupting your work."
"You're not interrupting anything!" she said in a high-pitched voice and grimaced. "I'm actually at home. I took the day off."
"Is something wrong?" Theo's concern in his voice made Hermione smile. "Do you need anything?"
"Nothing is wrong; I just needed a day to myself." The real reason why she took a day off wasn't that she was working too hard, but Theo didn't need to know everything.
"Oh, I didn't wanna interrupt your time off, so I'm going to hang up and let you get back to what you were doing," Theo began to say, but Hermione was not ready to hang up just yet. She had plucked up her courage to answer the phone, after all.
"No need to hang up!" Hermione almost screamed, and Theo laughed. "Sorry, I mean... No need to hang up the phone. I'm not doing anything."
"Only if you're sure," Theo teased Hermione, and she thought she would faint right there and then. "Are you okay with me calling you? I hope I'm not overstepping."
Hermione smiled and almost turned into a pile of goo, although she tried to hide that fact from Theo.
"Theo, it's fine. We're friends, aren't we?" Hermione asked, blushing at what she had said. "What was the matter?"
"We haven't talked in a while, and I guess I missed you..." Theo trailed off, and Hermione smiled at how cute he was. "I missed our talks and Charlotte certainly missed you too."
"Charlotte was missing me, huh?" Hermione teased Theo, and when he spluttered and tried to say something, she went on. "How do you know Char missed me?"
"She called me and said that she was missing her friend Mione and was wondering if there was anything wrong since you don't want to spend more time with her." Theo was using emotional blackmail on her, but Hermione couldn't even be mad at him for it. "And then, with the snow falling today, she felt torn between being happy and sad."
"Wait, is it snowing?" Hermione bolted from her couch and flung open her curtains. "It's snowing? It's snowing! Look at how white everything is!"
Hermione had always loved the snow; seeing everything covered in snow, it looked like something straight out of a fairytale. She felt like she was the only person in the world.
Despite no one being able to see her, Hermione blushed in response to Theo's laughter. "It's cute to see you so excited about the snow."
"Thank you, Theo," Hermione replied softly, picturing him smiling at her.
Theo coughed awkwardly before continuing to speak. "Charlotte convinced me to go build snowmen with her, and I thought about asking you to come. Unless you have other plans, and I realize I'm digging myself into a hole, aren't I?"
When Theo rambled like this, Hermione couldn't help but find him adorable.
"I would love to build snowmen with you and Char, Theo," Hermione said, smiling and feeling better than when she had woken up that morning. "I'll meet you at the ice rink?"
"Are you coming then? Great! I'll meet you there in half an hour?" Theo's voice was filled with excitement, and Hermione's smile grew wider. "Thank you, Hermione. Looking forward to seeing you."
Hermione said, "See you soon, Theo," before hanging up. She tried not to freak out at the thought of seeing Theo after they had kissed. "Put your big girl pants on, Granger. It's time to face the music."
While Hermione ran to her room, she tried not to overthink what she would wear or what to say; she would just enjoy the snow day and be happy regardless of what would happen.
"Mione! You're here!" The sound of Charlotte's voice filled Hermione with joy, and she couldn't help but smile. "I missed you so much!"
Hermione felt her heart break a bit over what Charlotte had said; it wasn't her intention to make Charlotte feel sad just because Hermione was a mess who was crushing on Theo.
"I missed you too, Char," Hermione said, hugging the little girl. "I'm sorry we haven't seen each other earlier, but I just had some things to resolve."
"It's fine. Theo said the same thing." Charlotte smiled, and Hermione couldn't help but reciprocate it. "Do you want to build a snowman?"
Hermione laughed. "It doesn't have to be a snowman." She winked, and Charlotte grinned.
"Can we make an Olaf-shaped snowman? Can we, Theo?" Charlotte asked, looking behind her at Theo, who was watching them with a small smile on his face.
Hermione bit her lip as a blush appeared on her face. After the kiss they had shared, she was not ready to face a full-blown 'Theodore Nott smile', but she decided she was done being a coward and needed to face him. She would not back down now.
"As long as we don't destroy this one before finishing, okay?" Theo said softly, and Hermione smiled. "Hey, Hermione, how're you doing?"
"Hello, Theo," Hermione managed to say, before closing her eyes, mortified. "Ready to start building some snowmen."
Theo laughed. "That's the spirit. Let's see if we can make a few Olafs along the way."
"I will make the best Olaf of all time!" Charlotte exclaimed, and Hermione laughed at the little girl's excitement.
"Let's do this!" Hermione grabbed Charlotte's hand and walked towards the mountain of snow.
Hermione and the Notts began to gather snow for their snowmen. It made Hermione's heart melt every time Theo helped Charlotte or smiled over his shoulder at her; she was glad they had moved on from the awkwardness the kiss had caused.
"Can you help me, Theo? It's too heavy," Charlotte said, and Hermione laughed as she saw the girl struggling. "I wanna build a big Olaf!"
"I don't know if we'll be able to build a big Olaf, but a medium Olaf should be doable." Theo laughed, making Charlotte pout. "Don't make that face, Char. You'll like it when we finish."
"Fine," she huffed before sprinting to Hermione's side. "How is your Olaf, Mione?"
"I think he's doing pretty well. What do you think?" Hermione asked, placing the head she had built from the snow on top of the body. "It looks like Olaf, doesn't it?"
"Maybe," Charlotte said, tilting her head to one side and squinting. "If you squeeze your eyes like this."
"Oh, you little Grinch!" Hermione laughed, grabbing Charlotte and tickling her, making her squeal. "My Olaf looks good."
"He's awful!" Charlotte giggled and Hermione continued tickling her. "Theo, help me!"
"It's good to see you guys having fun while I'm busy with all the heavy work." Theo squinted his eyes, approaching them. "Hermione, what were you building?"
"Hey! That's not fair!" Hermione cried and let Charlotte go. "I see what's happening; you two Notts are turning against me! It's time for retaliation."
Hermione knelt and grabbed some snow before making a ball and throwing it at Theo. "If you two are going to insult my Olaf, you two need to make sure that you can hold your own against my snowballs."
Hermione started throwing snowballs at them while Theo and Charlotte returned the favour. Having forgotten about the snowmen, the trio engaged in a snowball fight, and Hermione realised she had never had so much fun as that.
Hermione had teamed up with Charlotte to take Theo down, and started to throw snowballs towards him until one very well aimed snowball Hermione threw hit in the face. Theo made a good show of falling and pretending to die, and Hermione had to stifle a laugh.
When Charlotte and she got over him, Theo jumped and grabbed them both, before flinging them into the snow. Charlotte managed to escape, squealing all the way, but Hermione fell on the snow and Theo fell on top of her.
"Are you all right?" Theo asked in a rough whisper, and Hermione felt chills on her arms, and it wasn't because of the snow. "I hope that I'm not crushing you."
"No, everything is fine." Hermione didn't know how she was able to reply, but she saw the little smile that appeared on Theo's face after what she said.
When Hermione looked at Theo's eyes, she could see that they were darker and his Adam's apple was bobbing fast and she got lost on his irises, biting her lip thinking about how she wanted to kiss him again.
Theo seemed to be thinking the same as her, but before they could do something, Charlotte threw a snowball to them and some of the snow dribbled on Hermione's collar, making her squirm and squeal, dropping Theo on the snow, laughing at her.
"Thanks a lot, Theodore, get ready for my revenge!" Hermione yelled, before grabbing some snow on her hand and throwing at Theo, recommencing their snowball fight; Charlotte's giggles being their background sound.
Charlotte soon complained about the cold, and Theo felt that she should go home since they were all tired. Both adults walked Charlotte home before Theo decided to walk Hermione to her car.
"Thank you for the day. I had a great time," Hermione said as they walked to her car. "It's been a while since I built a snowman."
"But it's not been too long since your last snowball war, has it?" Theo asked, and Hermione laughed at his expression.
"Nope." Hermione smiled softly. "I had one with my friends last week. It's one of our traditions."
Theo said, "That sounds really nice," and they continued walking silently. Before Hermione could get into her car, Theo stopped her. "I know that you disappeared due to what happened at the cinema, but please, don't do that anymore. I apologize if I pushed your boundaries; I never meant to make you uncomfortable."
A smile spread across Hermione's face as she squeezed Theo's hand. "Don't apologize, Theo. I think I wasn't expecting it, that's why I ran."
"I'll try not to make you uncomfortable in the future." Theo smiled at her and Hermione swooned. "Drive safely, Hermione. See you around?"
Hermione smiled and dropped Theo's hand before getting into her car. There was something she needed to do.
Hermione took a deep breath before walking into the coffee shop. She didn't know if what she was doing was the right thing, but she had to try.
"Hello, what can I do for you?" Lavender, the barista Hermione had met weeks ago, was at the counter. "Hey, I remember you!"
"Hello, Lavender," Hermione said, biting her lip. "Can I speak with you for a moment?"
"Just choose a table and I'll be with you shortly." Hermione nodded and walked to the first table she saw. Lavender followed after a minute and asked, "What can I do for you today? Is it about the dates?"
"Yes, in a way it's about the dates," Hermione said, unsure of what to say. "See, I met this person, but he's not one of the twelve dates. And because I've already been on ten dates, I wanted to know if I could end it at this point."
Lavender frowned. "Why do you want to end it? You only have two more dates, and maybe you'll find your right match on one of them."
Hermione nodded. "That's what I'm trying to say. I've already met someone I think is perfect for me, but he isn't one of my dates. I don't want to go on the dates anymore."
"You signed up for twelve dates, so you need to commit to all twelve," Lavender said, refusing to accept no for an answer. "Hopefully, you'll find your match after these dates, but you can't leave until you've been to all of them."
As Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose, Lavender walked back to the counter to greet the new customers.
"So much for getting out of this," Hermione murmured to herself, getting up and leaving the coffee shop. "It's time to put on your big girl pants again and face the music."
She hoped she wouldn't regret it in the end. There were still two dates to go, so hopefully, it would all turn out fine.