Theo is waiting for her, leaning against her front door when she returns from seeing her parents a week later.
He shuffles nervously, a bouquet of flowers hanging from one hand, a bottle of what looks to be expensive whiskey hanging in the other, and smiles weakly at her before clearing his throat.
"Hi."
Hermione feels tears pool in her eyes as she walks towards him, digging about in her bag for her keys. "You're an idiot," she murmurs, opening the door and holding it for him. When he's stepped past her, she kicks her shoes off and hangs up her coat. Theo is standing awkwardly in the doorway of her living room and she shoves him into the room and snags his gifts as she stalks past him into the kitchen and retrieves two glasses. "How do you even know where I live?" She asks reentering the room.
"Draco told me."
She nods and pours them both two fingers each before tipping her glass to his and draining the amber liquid. "You should have told me."
Theo lifts an eyebrow at her and she rolls her eyes. "Not the same. Riddle is not your best friend."
"No. He's not." He sighs and drinks his own whiskey. "I'm sorry."
"I forgive you."
"Just like that?"
"Theo," she sighs, turning on the couch to look at him. "We had sex together. It wasn't just you nor was it just me," she waves a finger between them. "We were two consenting adults who had a very good time together."
"But we won't be continuing those good times?"
Hermione snorts and nods. "Exactly."
Theo dances his fingers up her bare calf and goosebumps erupt on her skin at his touch. "Are you sure?"
"Theo," she meets his eye and tucks her legs beneath her. "You're my best friends mate."
He crosses his arms over his chest and huffs. "I don't even know him."
"Did you even give him a chance?"
He explodes in fury, jumping up from her couch and begins to pace in front of her, his arms gesticulating wildly. "Of course I didn't. He just swooped in from nowhere and took Daphne."
She rolls her eyes at him. "Took Daphne? She's not a possession."
"She was mine!" He snarls, glaring at her. Hermione swallows and looks away. She refills her glass and takes a long draught of it. She feels rather than sees Theo kneel in front of her. He gently prys the glass from her hand and presses a kiss to her knuckles. "Sorry."
She shakes her head. "It's ok. I - I understand." She looks up and meets his eye, threading her hand through his hair. "She's lucky." At Theo's confused look she goes on. "That you love her so much."
"And now we come to the crux of the problem," he murmurs, shuffling onto the sofa beside her. "You're wrong by the way. He does feel that way about you."
She bursts into laughter, vehemently shaking her head. "You're the second person to tell me that in the past week."
He groans and falls onto the sofa beside her. "Let me guess. Potter."
Hermione hums. "Wouldn't tell me anything else though," she pauses and refills both their glasses. She hasn't had anything to eat all day and can already feel the alcohol working on her. "Arsehole."
"I'll drink to that," Theo scowls but Hermione can see the corner of his mouth twitching.
They drink in silence for a little while, the only sounds echoing through Hermione's flat are coming from the London traffic outside and her cat yeowling from, presumably, her bedroom. "What are we going to do?" She murmurs eventually, peering up at him.
They'd shifted on the couch until Hermione was lying between his legs, her head resting against his abdomen as he plaited tiny strands of her hair together. Hermione couldn't help but marvel at the close friendship they'd seemed to scrape together based purely on attraction and apparently, confusion over their soulmates.
"We're going to have to speak to them."
"I don't-" she shifts onto her knees and meets Theo's eye as she grips the tails of his shirt. "Theo. I can't. Even if what you and Harry say is true and he does have some sort of feelings for me. He rejected me. For so long. I can't just-"
"A mistake."
She shakes her head but doesn't protest further. She knows the truth. She'd prove it to them all soon enough. "Daphne misses you." She says instead, trying to distract him. He snorts derisively and she smacks her palm to his chest. "Do you know how rare two mates is? It's like a nought point nought nought three percent chance. You're so lucky and you're wasting your chance to be beyond happy because what? You're not gay?"
He stops playing with her hair and blinks down at her. "Who told you that?"
Her eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Why else wouldn't you want to be with Harry?"
"I already told you. He's an arsehole."
Hermione stares blankly at him before she clambers up and off of him. She chucks the fleece blanket that lives in the ottoman in the corner of the room at him. "You're ridiculous. Go to sleep. We'll meet them for brunch in the morning. You'll be organising your bonding ceremony by the afternoon."
Theo laughs and shakes his head but he shuffles further down her couch and tosses the blanket over him.
"What about Riddle?"
She sighs and turns on her heel to look back at him. "He made me wait two years. He can wait a few more days."
He didn't have to wait a few days because when she and Theo entered the cafe she'd text harry and Daphne to meet them at, he was sitting there, a mug of black tea going tepid before him. Theo's expression drops to a scowl and Hermione stops in her tracks.
Theo asks her question for her as he drops into the seat beside his omega and scoffs, "what's he doing here?" He turns to Daphne and grins sheepishly at her. "Hello love."
Hermiones heart pangs in her chest and she chances a glance in Toms direction to find him staring right at her.
"Hermione?"
She shakes her head at Harry and hitches her bag on her shoulder. "I'm not doing this here," she says.
To Tom.
"My flats around the corner." She blinks and nods.
Her flat is around the corner too and she wonders whether it is providence or simply a coincidence that they apparently live so close to one another. He stands from the table and without saying goodbye to her friends, guides her, his hand pressed gently on the small of her back, out of the cafe and down the street in the opposite direction from whence she'd come with Theo.
They walk in silence and part of Hermione wonders whether it is a good idea to go anywhere with him before she realises that at least this way, she can leave if she wants to.
The way her palms are sweating though, tell her she'll be in no rush and when they finally make it to his flat, Tom steps aside so she can enter first and then leans against the door as he watches her shuffle nervously in front of him.
"I suppose I should apologise."
"What for?" She asks tersely, not meeting his eye.
"Hermione."
"For not acknowledging me when we first met? For choosing Harry over me? For attempting to coerce me into spending my heat with you?"
"I'm-"
"Sorry. Yes," she interrupts, glaring at him. "I know. Everyone is sorry. Poor little Hermione. Poor little omega. Loved by all except the one that matters."
"You're not being fair."
"Fair," she snorts, meeting his eyes. "Right?" She straightens her shoulders and forces herself to stand her ground. "What do you want with me?"
"I want to explain." She lifts an eyebrow.
"Is that it?"
He scowls at her and Hermione watches as he clenches, then unclenches his fists as he steps towards her.
"Fine. You want to know what I want?" He growls. Hermione swallows and jerks her head. She resists wiping her sweaty palms over her jumper as he stalks towards her.
"I want to shove you up against that wall. I want to tug those jeans down and remove your underwear with my teeth. I want to make you come on my tongue, on my fingers, on my cock," he leers, "until the only memory you have is of me." She takes a step back, her bag tumbling from her shoulder as her arms go slack. "I want to lick every inch of your skin clean of every other Alpha you've ever fucked until you can't tell where your scent ends and mines begins."
"Tom-"
"I want to make you beg for my knot. I want to give it to you."
"Alpha."
"Exactly-" he growls pressing his hands to the wall beside her head. Caging her between it and him. "Me. I'm your alpha. Me."
Hermione blinks up at him and shakes herself before promptly bursting into tears.