"I didn't know you'd be here," he says, his eyes flitting across her face and down her person but then he's turning away from her to face the front again and Hermione frowns at him. At his tone, because there is something amiss, something she is missing altogether and -
"I wouldn't have come if I'd know you were going to be here." He continues and she flinches. Her head jerks back without any conscious thought as though he has slapped her. She thinks it might have hurt less if he had.
She looks away from him, blinking rapidly to prevent tears from ruining her makeup as she turns to the front and clenches her jaw. "I'm sorry," she grits out. "I didn't realise my presence offended you so much."
She presses her hand against her sternum and takes a deep breath because it hurts - it hurts so fucking much and this right here is why she left Britain in the first place. Because this pain is too much to bear. This rejection is - it is not fair. Not fair that it is only her that must feel like this.
"What?" He asks startled and she can see - from the corner of her eye - that he has turned to look at her but she will not give him the satisfaction of looking him in the eye. She has already thought of every single reason and excuse about why he does not want her. She is not so much of a masochist as to endure him telling her himself.
But he does not get a chance to speak again, not to her, because the band has started to play and she can see that Narcissa is ushering the final few guests into their seats and -
"Theo!" She says, snatching a hold of Draco's best man as he walks past her. He looks down at the hand she has wrapped around his wrist, his face twisted in a sneer until he sees her face and then, then he does something that surprises Hermione. And if it surprises her she can only imagine how Tom must be feeling because his eyes flit from her face to Tom's and back to hers and his face changes. There's a smirk tugging at his lips and then he's settling into the seat beside her, one arm wrapping around her shoulders in the process and sliding his fingers through hers until they're linked.
She cannot stop looking at their hands because what the actual fuck and - she doesn't even get the chance to jerk her hand from his grip before he is pressing his lips against the shell of her ear and breathing the words, "just go with it," against them and suddenly every hair on her body is standing to attention and goosebumps are erupting along her skin and Hermione Granger realises in the moment that she looks up at Theodore Nott and he grins at her and squeezes her hand that he is an Alpha too, not hers no but someone who could look after her if she chose to let him - like she was considering only twenty minutes ago anyway.
She nods minutely, leans into his embrace and looks back at her Alpha. "Theo, Tom. Tom, Theo."
"Nott."
"Riddle."
This is something else she is missing, there is something connecting these two men she is sandwiched between but then everyone is standing and Draco is looking between her and Theo, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion as to why he is with her and not him but then the music is playing and Astoria is moving up the aisle and-
"Are you having a good time?" Harry asks and Hermione shrugs and smirks as she watches Genevieve Greengrass drag her new son in law around the dance floor as though he were a ragdoll. Harry hasn't noticed and Hermione can't wait for his wedding to Daphne so that she can watch the Greengrass Matriarch do the same thing to him.
"I'm fine." She mumbles into her quickly depleting glass of champagne, shooting him a small smile - that quickly turns into a grin - when both Greengrass sisters (though technically Astoria is a Malfoy now) appear beside them.
"Congratulations," She grins at Astoria, taking the younger girls hand in hers and beaming at her. "You look beautiful. I'm so happy for you."
Astoria smiles back and suddenly launches herself forward, wrapping her arms around Hermione neck, who looks at Daphne from the corner of her eye. But her friend is just laughing and tugging Harry away and -
"Astoria," she nudges gently, glancing around her quickly before she pulls the young bride aside. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"You're crying," Hermione replies, crossing her arms and lifting an eyebrow at her.
Astoria, huffs, a shaky little laugh that immediately sets Hermione's worries to rest. "I'm just so happy that you're here for Draco."
"Of course I'm here for him. It's his wedding day -"
"And that you're not angry with m-"
"Astoria," she laughs, "Why would I be angry with you?"
She blinks up at her. "Well weren't you-"
"No. No. No."
"But-"
"Did we have some sort of relationship? Yes. Was it anything more than one friend helping out another? No." She drains the remainder of her drink and sets the glass down on the window ledge behind her. "Draco is a very good friend Astoria. And I was, and still am incredibly happy for the pair of you."
"Thank you," Astoria murmurs but Hermione is already walking away.
"Don't worry about it," she says, turning her head to look back at the bride over her shoulder and walking straight into another guest. "Oh God I'm so sor-"
"Not to worry Granger," Theo smirks down at her, taking her hand in his and effortlessly pulling her into a waltz around the dancefloor. There are more than a dozen other couples surrounding them as he weaves them across the dancefloor and no one is paying any attention to them.
Probably why he lets the palm of his hand rest at the top of her bum.
Probably why she leans into his body and lets him.
That and the champagne of course.
Nothing to do with how she can see Riddle, from the corner of her eye, moving about the dance floor with some red headed chit on his arm even as he glares at her.
"Are you having a good time?" Theo asks, mumbling against the shell of her ear as he dips his head down. She looks up at him. He is very tall. And handsome. With dark hair and green eyes and -
She is struck with two realisations in quick succession.
One. He looks like Tom.
Two. Although they are both tall, dark, handsome, he is not her mate . Not her Alpha.
She hums and wraps her arms around his neck, stepping into him so that there is barely a few millimetres between them. She can feel her nipples pressing insistently against the thin satin of her dress. She wonders if Theo can feel them pressing into his chest?
"Better now I suppose," she smirks up at him. "You?"
"It's fine I suppose," he replies narrowing her eyes at her as she scrapes her fingernails along the small patch of skin at the back of his neck. Granger!" He growls, warns and she looks up at him from beneath her lashes knowing that she looks coquettish and innocent but that the way she is tugging her bottom lip between her teeth is anything but.
"Yes?" She simpers up at him, tugging the hair at the nape of his neck between her fingers.
"Stop that."
"What?" She asks as she presses herself completely into him and his breath hitches and if he couldn't feel her nipples pressing into him before he can now and -
"You're playing with fire sweetheart. I will burn you." He grumbles, moving both his hands to her hips, pressing his prominent erection against her stomach and nudging his nose along the column of her throat grazing her scent glands in the process and she shivers beneath him and suddenly it doesn't matter that this is Draco's wedding and that this is Draco's best friend and that he is not her alpha because he is hard and heavy against her and she is oh so ready for him - she can feel the copious amount of slick between her thighs - to take her upstairs and show her a good time.
She deserves a good time.
"Prove it then" she smirks up at him and he blinks down at her, obviously shocked by how serious she is but she is already slipping her hand into his and tugging him across the dancefloor and up the stairs towards the room Narcissa escorted her to earlier on in the day as hers never giving him a chance to change his mind.
To leave her high and well, not dry but, unsatisfied.
She steps into the room and stands at the foot of her bed - the bed she sleeps in every time she stays here but as never had anyone else in - and stares at him.
He is staring just as hard at her.
"You're sure?" He manages to rasp out. "You're not just in heat and need someone to take care of you?"
"I can take care of myself during my heat thank you very much," she huffs, rolling her eyes and slipping the straps of her rose gold dress off of her shoulders and stepping out of it as the fabric pools around her feet and leaves her in nothing but the high heeled stilettos she forced herself into earlier that day and the tiny scrap of nude lace between her legs. She thumbs her nipples and groans at her own touch as her eyes flutter shut. She cannot wait to feel his skin against hers and her eyes snap open when she feels his hand stroke the curve of her breast.
"Oh sweetheart," he mumbles as his eyes drift over her near naked body. "You are in so much trouble."
A/N: I'm glad I have plans for Theo else I might be tempted to let Hermione fall in love with him and forget all about Tom. You can harass me over on tumblr for spoilers etc if you want