A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! Fair warning, this chapter gets a little smutty at the end. When I was rereading it, I was like...whoa, when did this get out of control, haha! I am sure you won't mind too much, but if you want, you can skip over the end. 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 twenty-eight and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-nine soon!
The days dragged on and on with seemingly no end in sight. It was abundantly clear to everyone that they had no idea what they were doing, or even what they were looking for, even if no one wanted to say it aloud. Instead, they contented themselves with wandering from place to place, setting up camp when they got tired enough, and then keeping watch over the night for snatchers.
Tensions had been bubbling up between the four teenagers, made all the worse by the horcrux that they took turns wearing. It always made Hermione's skin crawl to have it draped around her neck, whispering terrible, horrible things into her ears, looking for any cracks in her mind that it could exploit. Theo was the least affected by it, something that only made Harry and Ron more suspicious of the young werewolf.
"It's probably because werewolves are already dark creatures," Hermione tried to explain in a hushed whisper one day. "The dark magic won't affect him as much. I really don't see how it's a problem. It would be good to have one of us keep a cool head."
"Or maybe it's because he's so accustomed to dark magic," Ron sneered at her instead, enjoying the way that his words made her squirm. He always seemed to turn especially vicious when he wore Slytherin's locket. "Face it, Hermione, your boyfriend is a dark wizard, and he probably loves having a little bit of You-Know-Who around his neck every day."
Hermione forced herself to bite her tongue, knowing that Ron wouldn't be so rude if it wasn't for the locket in the first place, but he wasn't doing much to make spending time with him very enjoyable. He made so secret how annoyed he was with Theo and Hermione's relationship, but Hermione could understand that it would be hard to see everyday. She couldn't pretend like it wasn't massively comforting to be able to snuggle into a little bed with Theo's warm, protective arms around her at night. He was only made further surly by his frustration due to the lingering pain in his arm from where he'd been splinched. Hermione had done her best to patch him up, but ideally he would have gone to a Healer to repair the damage, so she didn't doubt that it was causing him discomfort.
Instead of talking about his feelings with any of his friends, though, Ron chose to retreat into his own little bubble, clinging to a wizarding radio, listening for any news of what was going on in the world. It never provided the comfort he was looking for, instead serving only as a morbid soundtrack of witches and wizards who had been found dead or remained missing.
On a bitterly cold night, Ron remained on watch outside of the tent, staring into the bleak night air, while Harry, Hermione and Theo sat at the small table inside huddled around a jar with a bluebell flame providing light to look over some books. They were discussing possible hiding places for other horcruxes as well as potential artifacts that Voldemort would have used to put his soul into.
"Can there be...living horcruxes?" Theo asked, cautiously, his eyes remaining firmly on the table in front of him.
"I'm...I'm not sure, but I wouldn't put it past him to try," Hermione said, eyebrows drawn together while she was thinking it over. "He obviously doesn't care about other people unless they are useful to him. Why? Did you have...a thought?"
Theo rubbed his hand across the back of his neck. "He has this giant snake, and...I don't know, there is something...off about it," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Follows him around everywhere and he babies it. It's disturbing."
"Nagini," Harry said, eyes wide in surprise.
Before Harry could explain how he knew about Voldemort's little pet snake, they were distracted by the crackle of the airwaves as Ron tried to tune in to the station. Theo couldn't stop the growl from bubbling up in his chest, the constant static doing a number on his sensitive ears. "I wish he would stop listening to that bloody thing all day long," he said, his voice barely more than a rumble in his chest.
It was enough for Harry to hear, though, and he gave a little murmur of agreement.
The next thing that they knew, Ron was shoving the flap of the tent open. The redhead's face was contorted in fury. "Yeah, well I wish I didn't have to listen to you shag the girl I fancy every day, but here we are," he snarled, looking between the three of them. "Oh, did you guys forget about me? Too busy in here plotting about how the Weasley is just holding you back?"
"Ron, what are you talking about?" Hermione asked, wondering where this outburst was coming from. "We aren't plotting against you. The locket has made you paranoid."
"Oh, don't even pretend like you aren't!" he shouted, pulling at the chain of the ancient locket, freeing it from his neck and throwing it down onto the ground in front of him. "Listen, I know that you lot have nothing to lose, but I do! I can't help but listen - I still have a family that cares about me, unlike you three - and I am desperate for any news about them, so yeah, I fucking listen to the radio. At least I am able to do something. You brought us out here without a plan!"
"Excuse me?" Harry barked out in anger. "We don't have families so we can't understand what it's like? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, even from you. And we aren't plotting against you."
"I'm not dumb, Harry, and I know that you and Hermione have been so keen to replace me with his fucking Slytherin with his bloody beard!" Ron shouted, pointing aggressively at Theo. "Well, I will just make it easier for all of you. I'm leaving!" The rash young man turned on his heel, exiting the tent, only to have Hermione and Harry running after him.
Hermione had tears in her eyes, knowing that Ron wouldn't be saying those sort of things if he hadn't been wearing the locket all day. "Ron, wait!" she called after him, running so that she could grab his arm, hoping to get him to stay. Just because they weren't destined for romance didn't mean that he wasn't still her friend, someone she cared about.
He roughly pulled his wrist from her grasp, not stopping until he got to the other side of the wards, promptly disaparating.
She turned around to look at Harry and Theo, wishing that they would have done more to stop him. Harry looked guilty and couldn't quite meet her eyes. "He wanted to leave, Hermione. We couldn't have stopped him," he said, with a frown. "I'll take first watch...you two should get some rest."
With tears in her eyes, Hermione knew that having Theo's arms around her would bring a unique sort of comfort, so she let her boyfriend guide her back into the tent, towards the bunk beds. Kneeling down before her, he carefully unlaced her boots, helping her to step out of each shoe. He righted himself to his full height, helping her out of her jacket before repeating the process with himself. Waiting for her to clamber up into the top bunk, he followed her afterwards, pulling her towards him, so she could rest with her cheek against his face.
Hermione could feel a lump in her throat, feeling horrible that Ron had felt so left out, even if he was just imagining slights. "He was still my friend," she explained, awkwardly, wiping away the wetness on her cheeks. "But he's always done this...given up when things got a little too difficult."
"I'm sorry he left," Theo said, kissing the crown of her head. "I'm sorry he hurt you."
She felt so fragile in that moment, but in Theo's arms, she felt like he just might be able to hold her together a while longer. Pushing herself up, she caught his lips in a lingering kiss, wishing she could just stay there forever, until he was pulling back. Hermione stared into his dark blue eyes, seeing unbridled affection and sweetness, before kissing him once more, deepening the kiss.
"Please, Theo," she begged, knowing that her emotions were raw and heightened. "I need to feel close to you right now."
He turned her over, so that his body was spooned around her, and for a minute she felt disappointment flood her body. One of his arms was wound tightly against her belly, pulling her even closer to him, until her arse was nestled back against his hard cock. Gasping, Hermione could feel desire pool in her belly, hopeful that he was going to give her what she wanted.
His other hand came up to cover her mouth. Theo pressed his face into the crook of her neck, his hot breath causing shivers to rack her body. "We'll have to keep you quiet so Harry doesn't overhear," he whispered, mischievously. "Seems we haven't always been as quiet as I'd thought." The hand around her waist worked to unfasten her jeans, pushing and dragging them down over her hips, down to her knees.
Hermione felt delirious when his hand delved inside the front of her knickers, rough fingertips finding the pearl at the top of her sex easily enough, circling it just the way she liked. She could feel herself growing unbearably wet and she wanted nothing more than to feel him, too. Reaching behind herself, she fumbled around with his own pants until she could get them free.
Theo must have taken pity on her, or grown so eager himself, that he temporarily stopped his ministrations, allowing him to shuck his own jeans down, freeing himself. He groaned when he realized that Hermione had taken the opportunity to push down her knickers as well. He ground his erection against the smooth skin of her arse, his fingers finding her folds once again, spreading her wetness everywhere.
He kissed the skin of her neck behind her ear, sucking and scraping his teeth against her, enjoying the way that she rocked against his hand, taking control over her own pleasure while he entered her with his fingers again and again.
She wanted nothing more than him inside of her, but she knew that this was not the way she imagined their first time together. Reaching behind her, she took hold of his cock, only to position it between her legs, so that he was next to her core. Shuddering, she enjoyed the way he felt against her body. Rocking experimentally, she loved the way he felt sliding against her and repeated the action. The head of his cock pressed just right against her clit and she could feel her heart hammer away at how amazing it was to be this close to Theo.
He pushed his hand up underneath her shirt, underneath the fabric of her bra, his thumb pressing against the hard point of her nipple. Suddenly, Hermione was very glad to have his hand muffling her noises, because she was sure Harry would have no doubt what they were up to based on the way he was making her moan.
Theo rocked his hips in time with her, each of them enjoying the friction of their bodies moving against one another. "Oh, Merlin, Hermione," he said her name like a prayer. "You feel amazing. Can't wait to be inside you."
She could feel her core tightening at his promised words and she knew she was close herself. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, but she couldn't stop her movements until finally she found her peak. Moaning into his hand, Hermione let the waves of pleasure crash over her, vaguely registering that Theo was still rocking against her, chasing his own orgasm, hips snapping against her body again and again, until he came.
Hermione could feel herself flush from how much she had enjoyed that, but couldn't find it in herself to regret the moment. Reaching for her wand, she cast a quick cleansing spell. Then, she grabbed Theo's arm, and wrapped it snuggly against her. She wasn't ready to be parted from him just yet, not when he was quickly becoming the only bright spot in her life at the moment. "Thank you," she whispered, pressing a kiss against his forearm, before letting sleep claim her.