A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! I know you guys are eager for a little more Rodolphus in your life, so I am hoping that this will fulfill your need, and we get introduced to a new (?) face! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter sixteen and be on the lookout for chapter seventeen soon!
April 1968
By the time that April had come, Rodolphus seemed to have realized how imminent his NEWTs were. Despite knowing that he was headed for an indolent sort of lifestyle, resting on the tremendous amount of wealth that his family had, he knew that it would still be useful to walk away with something to show for his seven years of schooling.
Having known Hermione for several months now, he'd quickly cottoned on to her love of the library and all things relating to knowledge, even if she was far more relaxed in this time than she had been in the nineties. She wondered if Rodolphus would have ever tolerated the Hermione Granger that she had been had he met her then, or if he would have only found her to be an annoying swot, like so many of her classmates.
He did not have any shame in admitting to his supposed girlfriend that he needed help studying, finding himself falling behind in his school work when he also needed to be doing additional NEWTs recitation and Merlin forbid that he take a step back with his Quidditch practices! Hermione actually did not begrudge him the few hours a week out of his schedule to go flying around on a broom, knowing that it was something that he genuinely loved. Or at least she wouldn't if that meant she could get a few hours of concentrated study out of him when they did find time to meet.
This meant that much of their time together was relegated into the dusty tomb that was the Hogwarts library, especially once the weather started to get nicer. Hermione would have loved a jaunt around the grounds together, or perhaps a lazy Saturday secluded under one of the large trees overlooking the Black Lake, but she had convinced herself that Rodolphus doing well was worth so much more than an afternoon of relaxation. After all - who knew how he had done on his NEWTs last time around? Maybe a failure at his NEWTs had caused some kind of tension between him and his father that made him more susceptible to Voldemort the first time around.
Perhaps that was little more than wishful thinking, but Hermione wasn't going to give up on it. She wanted to help him reach his relatively modest goal of achieving five NEWTs. He was going for a rather standard set: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Herbology and Magical History.
Hermione was impressed with the breadth and depth of his knowledge of Magical History. He consistently breezed through the facts and figures of multiple points in history. "Don't you ever think about doing something more with history?" she asked him. "You seem to enjoy it so much."
He shrugged his broad shoulders. "I don't know that I enjoy it. It was a big focus of my tutor growing up," he explained. "But it's not Quidditch."
Hermione snorted at him. "You don't have to pretend not to like school with me. I'm not going to think you are a square if you like History," she countered, knowing that it certainly didn't fit with his sporty persona. She could only imagine what Pucey would think if he saw the excited gleam in Rodolphus's blue eyes when he was discussing the Goblin and Warlock treaty of 1392. "Besides, I know that you enjoy it. The way that you talk about it is not rote memorization from a tutor."
"There are parts of Magical History that I find fascinating," he admitted with a grimace on his face. "It's just that Binns makes it so unbearably boring, I don't want people to think that I enjoy the class."
"That's fair," Hermione agreed, finding that Binns' teaching style had not changed in the intervening decades. He was as dry as ever. "But, after school, you could do whatever you wanted. Maybe write a book and try to make it more interesting for everyone. All history doesn't have to be the same facts repeated over and over again. And you seem to have a grasp of the causes behind all of the big events, too. How everything pieces together."
The tiniest hint of pink flourished on Rodolphus's cheeks, clearly unused to being complimented on his academic abilities. "Yeah, maybe. I haven't really given much thought to what happens after Hogwarts. I've still got to get through the NEWTs first," he said, signalling that he wasn't ready to keep talking about it.
Hermione didn't push the matter, knowing that he didn't really have to worry about securing a job after school. "Well, let's get back to it then," she smiled brightly, reshuffling the flash cards that she'd made for him. "What would be the best base for a blood poison?" she asked, staring at the answer at the back of the card.
"Hmm," he said, rubbing at his chin. "The blood of the poisoned?" he said cautiously.
She smirked. "I will give you that one, but you should sound more confident. You knew the answer."
Rodolphus did not take her chiding sitting down. Instead, he pressed his hands to the gentle curve of her waist, pulling her towards him until their bodies were pressed together tightly. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, peppering kisses up the length of her jaw until he captured her lips in a needy kiss.
Laughing, she pulled back for a moment. "We should be studying, not kissing," she scolded.
"I'm sick of studying," he whinged. "And you have no idea how distracting your lips are. They are practically begging to be kissed for the rest of the afternoon. Haven't I studied enough?"
"It's the biggest exam of your life, Rodolphus," she cautioned, even though his description of events sounded better than she could imagine. An hour sat next to him without being able to reach out and touch him was far too long for her to handle.
"Perhaps I can proposed a suitable compromise," he suggested, raising one of his eyebrows suggestively. "For every question that I get right, I get one kiss. It's positive reinforcement - I dare say it will help with my retention more than any amount of cramming ever could."
Hermione giggled at the suggestion, thinking that it did combine two things that she liked doing. It was a good way to kill two birds with one stone, but she almost couldn't believe the witch she was becoming in this time. What would Harry and Ron think if they knew she was trading snogs for right answers in the library? It was such a normal teenage girl thing to do, she was almost a little bit happy that she'd been able to experience these sorts of things, even though she was so drastically out of place. "Deal. But don't get used to it, Lestrange," she cautioned, knowing that they weren't likely to get much done this way.
She quickly settled in for the questions, rewarding him with kisses that grew progressively more passionate as they went on. Before she knew it, she was pulled into his lap, nestled against his broad chest, his fingers tangled in her hair, holding her just how he wanted her. It felt wonderful to be so wrapped up completely in him, she could almost forget who she was for a moment and just feel.
The buzz of Rodolphus's wand against the table broke them out of their tangle. Rodolphus groaned, pressing his head against her shoulder. "Fuck Quidditch practice," he whispered for her, before helping her off of his lap, before smirking at her. "Never thought I'd say those words."
Hermione fully agreed with his assessment and found herself wishing that he wouldn't have to go off for practice, even if it was probably for the best. When she and Rodolphus came together, they got on a bit too well, their passions encouraging the others, until she rather felt like her body was consumed by a full inferno.
Shuffling her flashcards together, she handed them over to the older Slytherin, hoping that he would actually go through them a bit more before bed that night. Pressing one last kiss to his lips, she wished him a good night and watched him walk away with longing in her eyes.
Once he was gone, she was free to pull out her own work for the evening, hoping to revise her Charms essay that was due at the end of the week. Reading over the words she'd already written, she found one area that could do with one additional source. Knowing exactly which book to use, she went off to search the stacks for the author's work.
It took a little bit longer for Hermione to find it than she wanted, having realized that the Hogwarts Library had ungone several reorganizations over the decades. When she returned to her desk, she was dismayed to find someone sitting in her seat. Initially, she thought that it was Bellatrix come to darken her evening once again, but a second glance revealed that this witch had light brown hair rather than the midnight black Bellatrix possessed.
"Black," Hermione said tersely as she slid into her open seat, coming face to face with Andy Black. Said to be Sirius's favorite cousin, Hermione had not seen much of the younger girl's personality to make her stand out as special. Of course, Hermione knew that she would eventually marry Ted Tonks and have Nymphadora for a daughter, whilst in Hogwarts she was still just a Slytherin with an air of superiority that everyone in the Black family seemed to share.
"So you're Hermione Granger," Andromeda answered, cocking her head to one side, making no secret that she examining Hermione. "I don't know what you've done to deserve it, but Bella rather thinks that you're her savior."
Frowning, Hermione shook her head emphatically. "I highly doubt that. I don't know what your sister wants with me, let alone why she continues to talk to me."
"Isn't it obvious?" Andromeda asked with a smirk. "She wants you to date her fiance, Rodolphus. And from what I've seen tonight, it seems that you are well up for the task."
Hermione blushed furiously, wondering just how much Andromeda had seen of her and Rodolphus together. Still, it didn't really help explain what Bellatrix was up to. "I don't see why Bellatrix would want that, though," she insisted, wishing that the middle Black sister would give her more information.
Andromeda's face hardened. "Whatever the reason is, I just feel like it's my duty to warn you that my sister is up to something. She might seem as sweet as honey right now, but as soon as you cross her - as soon as you cease to be useful to her, she will cut you deeper than the sharpest knife."
The Gryffindor rolled her eyes, thinking that the whole lot of the Black family had such a flair for the dramatic, to the point that it was nearly excessive. "Of course I've realized your sister isn't really my friend. I'm not stupid."
"Then prove it," Andromeda said, standing from the table and smoothing her skirt. "And don't say that I didn't warn you." She turned to walk away, but stopped when she got only one step away. She turned back to look at Hermione one last time. "Oh, and Granger," she added. "I care about my little sister Narcissa more than anyone. If she were to end up not getting exactly what she wanted, I would have a problem with that."
Reeling from the two warnings that Andy Black gave her, Hermione silently fumed at her table for a while. Just who did she think she was, trying to tell Hermione what to think. And the warning about Narcissa, honestly! Surely Andromeda knew that this whole situation with Rodolphus and Bellatrix started because she was in love with a muggleborn, didn't she? Hermione hardly felt like she could be blamed for something that really was out of her control. She wasn't wholly responsible for the happiness of the Black family.