A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I know that so many of you have been asking for some Theo POV, so I hope that you will enjoy this chapter. So, because of the holidays, the next update will not be until December 28, so I can enjoy the holidays. Then, the next will be on January 3rd. After the new year, we will resume our regular update schedule :) 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 eighteen and be on the lookout for chapter nineteen next week!
Theo should have known that it would be a losing battle to keep Hermione away from him once he revealed the truth of her status as his mate. She was so frustratingly Gryffindor, sometimes, determined to ignore his suggestion to keep some space between them. He was only doing it because he cared so much for her, like a cloying, aching sweetness that never left him. He would be devastated if she got hurt because of him.
Worse, he knew that he would be absolutely crushed if someday she decided that she didn't want to be with him any longer. It was something he wasn't sure if he'd be able to survive, living life normally after he knew what it was like to be with Hermione.
He knew that she wasn't being so stubborn because she was trying to hurt him or herself. He knew that she was just honestly being a good friend, trying to show him how much she genuinely cared for him. It was a bit of a foreign concept, to have someone treat him like Hermione did. Of course, he had other friends, but she was so earnest and genuine, seeing him for him and not just as a sum of stereotypes.
After she'd snuck into his room on the Seventh Floor during January's full moon, he'd made a promise to her that he wouldn't hide away from her if she never snuck back in before a transformation. He hadn't been lying to her when he'd told her that he could barely control himself around her normally, but that close to moonrise, he was barely able to keep the wolf at bay - a wolf who was quite insistent on claiming his mate, not bothered that Theo wanted to give her time to understand what kind of commitment that would be.
She'd agreed to the trade, but was still forced to spend the night with him a second time. They spent the lead up kissing furiously, with Hermione on his lap, grinding against him. Theo hadn't been able to keep his hands to himself, slipping up under her jumper and bra to cup her breasts. It hadn't been enough - Salazar, not nearly enough - but he'd contented himself with it anyway.
Once he'd transformed, he had settled into the bed with her, lulled asleep by the feeling of her fingers running through his fur.
They continued to meet in the library at their usual time. They no longer had the Arithmancy project to use as an excuse, but if anyone noticed they didn't say anything about it. Even Draco, who had been aware of Theo's growing interest in Hermione, had become too wrapped up in his own project that he hadn't realized anything was amiss between his friend and the Gryffindor.
The first time that they met after that fateful full moon, Hermione had shown up flushed and smirking. "Apparently my roommates noticed that I didn't come back to the dorm on Friday," she said, perhaps remembering their secret tryst. "They were threatening to tell Harry and Ron, but apparently Lavender is too concerned about Ron and my relationship to do anything."
The thought of Weasley and Hermione together in a romantic sense was enough to get Theo's hackles up. If that ginger weasel ever even tried to touch Hermione in a way that wasn't purely platonic, Theo knew he wouldn't be able to hold back from hurting him. "You don't...wish that there was something more between you and Weasley do you?" he asked, gritting his teeth to get the words out. It would absolutely pulverize his heart if she did, but he would let her go if it meant she would be happy.
Instead, Hermione was giving him a shy smile, peeking up at him from beneath sooty lashes. "I already told you before, I don't fancy Ron," she whispered before reaching across the table to grab his hand. Her fingers ghosted along the inside of his wrist, sending a shiver up his spine. "I fancy someone else."
It wasn't as if she had come out directly and said that she fancied him, but Theo knew that it was the truth all the same. Internally, he could feel his wolf purring in delight, his heart soaring to know that his mate wanted him as much as he wanted her. Honestly, even if Hermione hadn't played her hand by sneaking into his room at the full moon, he wasn't sure he'd be able to avoid her now that he'd kissed her. The pull was too strong.
Reaching into her bag, Hermione pulled out a bar of Honeyduke's chocolate and slid it across the table to him. "Here," she said with a sweet smile on her face, before she pulled out a few more books. "Although you are looking much better today."
"Everything that I've read has said it will get easier the more transformations I go through," he said, scratching at the back of his neck and taking a bite out of the bar, enjoying the taste thoroughly. "Is this another of Lupin's suggestions?" he asked, realizing that she'd brought him chocolate after every full moon.
Hermione nodded, pushing her hair behind her ear. "Yes, he's got quite a sweet tooth in general," she revealed. It was odd for her to know so much about a former Professor, and even odder to know that they had remained friends. But, it did explain why she was so understanding about his condition. "But he told me that chocolate does help with a lot of the symptoms. Bet Madame Pomfrey never gives you chocolate."
Theo couldn't hide a smile at that. "No, she is always trying to give me the foulest tasting concoctions," he said, wondering why no one had ever tried to make potions taste better than they did.
She pulled out a slim book which she had just received via owl post the day prior. Theo was nearly unable to keep his eyes off of Hermione during meal times, hating the distance that separated them. She was determined to learn as much as she could about werewolves and their mates as she could get her hands on. He was embarrassed to learn just how explicit some of the accounts were. He did not need a book to tell him what he wanted to do with Hermione - his body seemed to know just with instinct what to do.
He watched helplessly as she nibbled on her lower lip while she read through the book. Salazar, he wished that he could suck that plump lip between his own, using his tongue to sooth the hurt she was inflicting on it.
Hermione cleared her throat, pulling Theo from his reverie. He flushed, realizing that he must have been staring at her. "Theo?" she questioned. "How did...how did you know that it was me? That I was your mate?"
Rubbing the back of his neck, he wasn't entirely sure how to put it into words. "It's hard to describe accurately. I didn't know that it was you until we were paired together in Arithmancy. That first day, you sat next to me, and I was just completely...overwhelmed by you," he said, his eyes slipping closed as he remembered. "You scent was like the greatest thing I'd ever smelled - like bergamot...fresh roses and amber, clean and delicate, soft, feminine..." Theo trailed off.
His eyes snapped open when he realized just how carried away he'd gotten. He could feel his cheeks going red from his blush that he couldn't hide. Merlin, he just felt so strongly for her that it was easy to get lost in the feeling. He just hoped that he wouldn't scare her off with his intensity.
"I thought that you...that you were repulsed by me that first day," she said back. "That you might not like working with a muggleborn."
Theo was shocked to hear that his mate could ever think that he didn't want to be with her. "On the contrary, I feared that if I made eye contact with you, I'd spill everything to you, right there, in front of the whole class," he responded. Lifting his hand, he cupped her check, enjoying the way that she nuzzled into his hand. His breath caught in his throat. "Or worse, put you on your back right then and there and kiss you."
He wanted to groan when he saw the way that Hermione's pupils dilated at his words. There was no denying the physical chemistry between them, but he was unused to sharing such normally private thoughts with anyone, let alone with the object of his desires. The thought that she might share those feelings put a strain on his tenuous self control.
"That might have been a little shocking," she teased eventually. "I probably would not have taken it very well." Hermione bit her lower lip, considering her next words carefully. "So you didn't even know you liked me until that moment?" she asked.
Theo felt his cheeks turn pink once again, and he wondered if there would ever be a time that he didn't blush around Hermione. "No," he answered, deciding that honesty would only help him here. "I knew that I liked you before, I just didn't know about the...mate aspect of it until that day in Arithmancy."
Hermione looked oddly pleased with herself in that moment, but he supposed he could understand where she would be coming from. There was something decidedly unsexy about falling madly in lust with someone in an instant, as though it were manufactured by magic, rather than something real. At least now she knew there had been something bubbling up - a crush he would have been unlikely to ever act on - before he'd been made into a werewolf.
"Do...do Malfoy and Zabini know about me?" she asked cautiously. Theo wasn't sure if it was his response she was concerned about or his potential reaction to it. "About your mate I mean? I feel like...I caught Malfoy starting at me the other day."
"I haven't told them about it, if that's what you mean," he said scratching at the scar that now marred his jaw. "But, Draco is smart. I don't think it would take long for him to figure things out. And, he certainly knows there is something between you and I. He's noticed how...eager I was to always meet you in the library...far too eager for it to be just a school project," Theo revealed, guiltily. Part of him wished he hadn't been quite so transparent in front of Draco, but then again, he was his oldest friend...he doubted he'd be able to keep much from the blond.
Hermione did look worried at hearing that. "Do you think he'd ever...try to use it against you? Use it against me?" she asked, as delicately as possible. "I mean, I am not naive...I know what kind of person Lucius Malfoy is. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine Draco as the same."
Silence passed between the two of them. They had only ever skirted around this issue, despite both of them wanting to talk it through. It was no secret that his own father was a death eater, but he'd never come out straight and denounced them either. Theo knew that there was no possible way that he could stay on their side, not when they had given him to Fenrir Greyback to do with as they pleased. Further, now that his mate was Hermione Granger, he knew that he would be helpless to pick any other side. He wouldn't fight for Dumbledore or Harry Potter. He was on Hermione's side and her side alone.
But that did put a significant wedge between himself and his friends. It was a matter of fact that he wasn't quite willing to deal with yet.
Looking down at Hermione with a what he hoped was a reassuring look, Theo tried to calm her fears. "You just leave Draco to me, okay?" he begged. "He's my friend and I know he wouldn't do anything to hurt me."
Theo just hoped that he and Draco were in agreement over what that was.