A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! No Theo interaction in this chapter, but maybe it will give you a bit more to think about. 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 five and be on the lookout for chapter six later this week!
In the blink of an eye, September was nearly over. Hermione's seventeenth birthday had come and gone with little fanfare from her friends. Neither Harry nor Ron had gotten her a present, which was fine. They usually didn't get presents for one another, but seventeen was a big year in the wizarding world. She was now of age, so she thought that maybe they would have gotten her something.
They had realized that they'd completely forgotten about her birthday before the day was over, sneaking out of the common room to get a small cake prepared by the house elves with the help of Dobby. It was nice to sit in front of the dwindling fire by themselves, eating chocolate cake with their fingers because the boys had forgotten forks.
It had been wonderful to spend the night, not worrying about classes, and Harry finally laid off of talking about Malfoy for once. He'd even left his precious potions textbook in his dorm. It was almost like old times.
But, then, her birthday was over, and they got back to reality.
Harry was back to watching Malfoy on the Marauder's Map and Ron was busy talking about Quidditch. Hermione was pleased that he'd made it onto the squad as the Keeper, narrowly winning out over Cormac McLaggen, but his ego had grown substantially after the shock had worn off. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she'd interfered with the tryouts at the very end, and she doubted that she ever would, knowing how hurt she would be.
Hermione had returned to her studies. It was never too early to begin studying for exams, or even NEWTs the following year. After all, her scores would be hugely influential for what jobs she could have after they left Hogwarts. Back in third year, when she'd used the time turner, she'd devised an elaborate system of revising to make sure that she had everything absolutely covered. She hadn't stopped using it, since.
This year, though, the work was quickly piling up, seeing as many of her advanced classes just expected more work out of all of them. Ancient Runes had them translating huge swaths of text nearly every week and they had so much ground to catch up on in Defense Against the Dark Arts.
To her surprise, the one class that she felt she had a firm handle on her project was Arithmancy. The volume of data that she and Nott were working with was vast and overwhelming, but she could admit that he was an extremely efficient and careful student as well. It was totally understandable why Professor Vector wanted them to work on it together because there was no way in hell she would have been able to get through it all in the allotted time on her own.
After they had agreed to work together, Nott hadn't mentioned them splitting up the work another time. They met on Tuesdays and Fridays after their Arithmancy classes for at least an hour after dinner to try and make a dent in the mountain of tasks that had built up.
Hermione was pleasantly surprised at what a good partner Nott was turning out to be, especially after the rocky beginnings their relationship had, and knowing that he didn't want to work with her. He met her in the library everyday without complaint, and had even started staying later than their agreed upon hour to work on some other essays, occasionally.
It was nice, Hermione decided, to have another studious person to keep her company, after being alone for so long.
He wasn't smart with everything he did of course. She'd had a peek at his Charms essay and was horrified with what she'd seen. For someone who could write incredibly technical and concise essays for arithmancy, he seemed incapable of the same with Professor Flitwick's assignments. She wanted so badly to offer to help him, but she hadn't quite worked up the nerve yet.
Nott made her laugh. He could always be counted on for a witty comment or observation, and he did a smashing impression of Professor Slughorn. Without discussing it, they'd begun sitting next to one another in Arithmancy class only, though they rarely talked in front of the rest of their classmates, instead sitting in companionable silence furiously taking notes.
Hermione was hopeful that maybe by the end of the term they might be actual friends, but she wasn't going push her luck. Who knew what would happen as the wall between them was chipped down one study session after the next. Besides, if she and Nott became actually friends, that would mean coming clean to Harry and Ron who remained blissfully ignorant of the budding relationship between her and the handsome Slytherin.
Because of how well they were working together, Hermione had been surprised when he hadn't showed up for their Friday arithmancy class. None of the other Slytherins in the class looked particularly concerned, nor did Professor Vector. She decided to just keep her thoughts to herself and interrogate him later in the evening when she saw him at the library.
But then, he hadn't been at dinner either. Her eyes ran up and down the Slytherin table multiple times, and she hadn't seen one hint of him. And, Hermione would have recognized him immediately. She spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at his particular brown shade of hair, wondering if it was as soft as it looked. He was always running his fingers through it while he read, and it was more than a little distracting.
Still, she had gone to the library, wanting to see if the elusive Theo Nott would at least show up there. In retrospect, it was a little silly of her to be sitting in the library all by herself on a Friday night, while the rest of her friends were laughing and hanging out back in Gryffindor tower, waiting for a Slytherin who she wasn't even sure liked her. Hell, she wasn't even sure if she liked him.
He hadn't shown up, no matter how late she had waited.
Ron and Harry were waiting for her when she arrived back, narrowly missing curfew, staring at Ginny and Dean. They didn't seem too bothered when she'd told them she just wanted to get an early nights rest.
On Saturday, she let the boys convince her to get out of the castle for a little bit, watching them run Quidditch drills. She was feeling a little bit down at being stood-up by Nott, and she thought that it was a good way to keep her mind off of him for a few hours. It worked, and she was laughing and in bright spirits by the time that they stumbled into the Great Hall for dinner, laughing.
She made it nearly through half of the roasted pork dinner before Harry was bringing her attention to the Slytherin table again. Unbidden, she began searching for Nott.
"I can't believe that Malfoy isn't playing Quidditch this year," Harry said, sounding more than a bit glum.
"Right, mate," Ronald said between bites of carrot and parsnip. "It won't feel right trouncing Slytherin this year if you aren't the one who snatches the snitch right from under his nose."
"No," Harry said before slumping forward so that no one could overhear what it was that they were talking about. "I mean that...well, don't you think it's suspicious? He's wanted to beat me in everything that he's done since we were first years, and suddenly he's just giving up."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Maybe Malfoy isn't quite as obsessed with you as you thought," she argued back, annoyed to be having the same conversation with Harry again. It seemed to be something that he just couldn't let go. "Or maybe he's decided to focus on his studies this year."
"Not bloody likely!" Ron argued back. "I see what you mean, Harry. He probably needed all the time that he could scrape together to work on whatever it is You-Know-Who has gone him working on."
"For the last time, you have to stop throwing around baseless accusations like that," Hermione said, tersely, positive that this was only going to get Harry into trouble, especially once Malfoy caught wind of what Harry was saying about him. "There is nothing suspicious about not playing Quidditch."
"I dunno, just look at him," Ron said, glaring at the blond sitting across the Great Hall from them, his arms crossed. "He just looks like he's plotting something."
Hermione finally did look at Malfoy, but all she could focus on was the boy sitting next to him. She wasn't sure when he'd slipped into the Great Hall, but Nott was now occupying the seat next to Malfoy. She was barely able to contain her gasp of surprise at seeing the condition that he was in.
He looked as awful as he had at the beginning of the school year. He was pale and his face was drawn in pain. He had a fresh set of dark circles under his eyes, and he looked utterly exhausted. For whatever reason, he'd stopped shaving from the last time that she'd seen him and now he wore that scruff around his jaw again, obscuring the scar on his cheek, even though it was fading well as the weeks went on.
Malfoy was talking to him furiously, but Nott was obviously annoyed at whatever it was that was being said. Nott began arguing back, staring his friend down. That was odd, Hermione decided, wondering what it was that the two were disagreeing about so vehemently. She'd quickly learned that Nott and Malfoy were friends - had been since children - based on the off-hand comments Nott would sometimes make in the library, but she also knew that he didn't put up with some of the bullshit that Malfoy did. He was never going to fall in line like Crabbe and Goyle.
Hermione bit her lower lip, wondering if she should bring Harry and Ron's attention to the little argument, but they had moved on from talking about Malfoy. Blushing, she wondered how long she'd been staring at the two Slytherins. No, she would leave her bickering friends to their important discussion on if Puddlemere United or the Chudley Canons would win the League that year. (That was preposterous - even Hermione knew that it would be Puddlemere, and she didn't follow Quidditch).
Instead, she would just worry quietly to herself about why Nott was looking so terrible again, and why he'd missed class and their study session without so much as a note or a nod in her direction.
She wanted to ask Nott where he had been, but she knew that he would say it was none of her business. Well, it was her business, Hermione decided, knowing that he'd left her to do all of their work by herself the night before. So really, she deserved an explanation at least.
"What is wrong with you?" Ron asked, snapping his fingers in front of her face. "You've been staring off into space all evening."
Blushing even harder, Hermione was glad that they hadn't caught where she was looking. "What was that? I was thinking about Arithmancy."
"Of course you were," Ron said, rolling his eyes. He'd always belittled her love of academia, but Hermione pushed down her annoyance, not wanting to get into another fight. Merlin, sometimes she wondered just why she had a crush on him in the first place.
"Erm, Hermione, Ron was just wanting to know if you wanted to go back to the Common Room to play some exploding snap or if you were planning on going to the library," Harry said, knowing he needed to play peacekeeper. "Seamus has some butterbeer."
Knowing that she probably should go to the library, Hermione quickly agreed to go back with them. If she spent the evening at her usual table, she was sure to get nothing done, too focused on wondering just what Theo Nott was getting up to to do any real work at all.