"Hey, you okay?" Teddy's voice broke her out of her daze. How long was she standing there with her mouth agape at a smiling Cho Chang and a scowling Viktor?
"I'm fine, I just - hadn't looked at the news today." Hermione said. She tore her eyes from Viktor's face and smiled at Teddy.
"Ah, he was your boyfriend right?" Teddy said with a glance at the photo as the photographer's flash brightened it for a second. Hermione nodded. Everyone knew, Rita Skeeter couldn't write enough of them for the Triwizard Tournament. "Seems like everyone is getting wrapped up in making a match, following orders and such."
"You don't approve?" Hermione asked. She was happy to move away from the paper and talk about anything but Viktor and the squirming inside her that longed to be touched again, then knowing it wouldn't be him. That was final.
Teddy clicked his tongue and walked with her to some tall windows that streamed light and illuminated swirling sprinkles of dust in the air. They sat.
"I don't know. Seems like everyone is rushing huh? What's those marriages going to look like down the road? No one will be happy, I reckon." Teddy said.
"And you want to be happy?" Hermione asked, half teasing, because it's an absurd question. Who doesn't want to be happy? Teddy laughed.
"I'd like to get to know my future partner before I marry them, thank you very much." Teddy said with a too smoothe grin that heated Hermione's cheeks.
"Listen, I have to go. Since I know there is a ball happening, I need materials for a dress. Since I'm here, it will save me a trip back." Hermione said after they had a pause and their eyes lingered too long. She wasn't interested. Nope, not interested. This is just a rebound feeling to fill the pain that Viktor so freshly inflicted on her. Teddy's face fell a fraction.
"Do you want some company?" he asked.
"To shop for ribbons and frills?" Hermione said. She laughed. "I don't mind, but I'm afraid you might."
"Worth it, if only to keep a good conversation going." Teddy said. "Plus, you haven't told me what this library needs yet, since you're literally the only person I know that has spent their life in it."
They rose from the bench and the warmth of the sunlight and Hermione smiled up at him as they walked to the front of the expansive library. Hermione hesitated for a moment. She had to get Ginny. And Ginny would be with Blaise and Malfoy, and Teddy hated Malfoy.
Teddy looked at her quizzically, because she had stopped abruptly outside the library.
"Sorry, I'm not usually this absentminded." Hermione said when she had found a course of action and snapped back to the present. She dug into her purse and found a ballpoint pen she had bewitched. She had a lot of free time, a lot of books, and already had experience with the Protean charm.
One of her best pieces of work, if she was being honest. But only worked if they were near enough to each other, and Diagon Alley was small enough. She pressed the point to her palm, feeling warmth at the contact like the feel of the muscle balm that muggles used for sport. Ink rolled onto her palm and she wrote ' At Ribbons, Threads, and Co. with Theodore Nott, don't bring third wheel. '
"Making a list of things you need to buy?" Teddy asked.
"No, sorry, just letting Gin know where to find me!" Hermione said. Teddy's eyes widened.
"What do you mean? Like a message without an owl?" Teddy asked. "Like the muggles have the telephones you can send words with?"
Hermione laughed. "Yes, a little. But seeing as that's electronic, I needed to find a way to find Ginny in a crowd, since we often hang out together but with different kinds of people. So when she went off, I knew she was safe as long as we were in a certain area. It doesn't work outside of a couple square kilometers though."
Teddy let out a low whistle. "I heard rumours about your Protean Charm from Dra- from the Slytherins, but this is insane. Does it apply the same principle?"
Hermione knew he was about to say Draco , so easy to say when you used to be friends.
"It's kind of like a Protean charm. So our palms are charmed as the paper, kind of. The ink in the pen is separately charmed, once they come together, it's like a carbon copy being made. It's easy to do on parchment, and businesses use it to make carbon copies in the Wizarding world, but it was difficult on skin, and I have no idea when it would wear off."
Hermione blushed. She had rattled that off without taking much of a breath and Teddy was standing there looking more and more surprised as his eyebrows retreated up his forehead.
"Blimey, remind me never to mess with you. You sound like a spy." Teddy said. Hermione laughed.
"It's not that complicated really! Not when you learn the basics." Hermione said. They resumed their walk, Ribbons, Threads and Co. was all the way down Diagon Alley, away from the bank and hustle and bustle of the higher part of the alley. Hermione felt her palm heat pleasantly and read Ginny's response.
;)
Ugh, Hermione did not like Teddy. She will not.
Ginny did bounce in half an hour later, her cheeks absolutely pink and her eyes ablaze like she had just won a Quidditch match. She always looked brave, Hermione thought, and ready for battle. The battle today? Finding ribbons.
"Decided to make a new dress for this ball?" Ginny asked. Before Hermione could answer, she said, "I'd buy you one if I could, I'm sorry."
Hermione swatted the sentence away.
"I like making my own. Gives me something to do. Did you guys set a date?" Hermione asked, not quite hearing her own question. Ginny didn't answer and Hermione looked up from her ribbons and laces and Ginny wagged her eyebrows and laughed. The question repeated itself in Hermione's own voice inside her head and she groaned.
" Not what I meant. When's the ball? I want to know how much time I've got." Hermione said.
"Two weeks. That's how long it would take to get the RSVPs, Blaise says. He'd have had it sooner, but he's shit at planning this. Thank fuck the Vie has a planner stationed in the ball room for events." Ginny said. She picked absentmindedly at a big green glittering gem with her fingernails and it wobbled and clinked against the countertop.
"Yea, must be nice to have a job." Hermione said following the glinting green with her eyes. Teddy was wandering around, Hermione could feel his eyes following them, observing them. She didn't mind.
"Ha, do you think Neville would ask you?" Ginny teased. Hermione felt the back of her neck heat up. Teddy's careful footsteps stalled.
"His grandmother might force him, but he's so nice. I won't go with him as a date though." Hermione glanced quickly to where she thought Teddy was last and Ginny caught it. She opened her mouth and then bit on her lips to stop her very obvious outburst on what she observed. She cupped her hand around her mouth instead and mouthed, 'You like him!'.
Hermione groaned and walked away to another corner where lacey pieces of ribbon, and something that resembled garters, were strung up along the walls.
"Did you see the front page of the Daily Prophet?" Ginny asked, changing the subject to something Hermione didn't want to talk about.
"Yes," Hermione said. She kept her face away from Ginny and kept her response short. "I'm happy for them."
"Wasn't Harry with Cho? For the Prevalence Ball?" Ginny asked. That's why she's asking, she didn't see you and him that night , Hermione comforted herself.
"I think so, but it was just dancing." Hermione said, swallowing her thoughts of Viktor and ignoring the fact that Teddy could be seeing exactly how uncomfortable she was.
"He'll be okay, do you think?" Ginny asked.
Hermione wasn't sure if she was asking because Ginny was now with Zabini, or Cho was getting married to Viktor. She smiled and hoped it was convincing.
"He's been through worse." she said. And it was true. So had Hermione. So had all of them. Boys, husbands, fucking wizarding money, this was all dumb. Child's play. It shouldn't be in her head this much, controlling her every emotion and mood and making her stand on edge all day.
The sex was good, end of story. Hermione breathed in and turned to Teddy.
"I'd love to dance with you, when I see you at the Vie's Ball." Hermione said. Teddy brightened and flashed her his grin that warmed her cheeks easily with a blush. He was quite handsome.
Ginny winked at Hermione when Hermione finally dared to glance her way.
"You should buy this. I hear it drives the men wild ." Ginny said. She gestured to the garters and a green laced one with black ribbon hung from her hand. Hermione wondered just how many things Zabini liked to see Ginny in, and how many of those things she was going to wear to the ball. Ginny grabbed a white garter and held it out to Hermione, who with a lazy flick of her wand and non verbal magic, returned it to its hanging spot.
"No." Hermione laughed. "Teddy,-" Ginny giggled and pinched at Hermione at how she said his name, Hermione barreled on, "I'm sorry, she's insufferable. I hope you're still having a good time."
"I am! I've learned a great deal about the most gifted witch of our age, and I have to admit, Hermione Granger does live up to it." he said. Hermione swatted Ginny's arms away that had come in for another tickle.
"I don't know how I feel about calling Theo, Teddy." Ginny said, gasping from air from getting breathless while laughing.
"Call me anything, I'm alright with Theo, too." Teddy said. Hermione knew that, but Teddy stuck in her brain and she couldn't unsay it now.
"I just mean, you know, we have a Teddy in our family already. Teddy Lupin." Ginny said. Hermione knew she was avoiding saying who his Godfather is and why Teddy was considered to be in the family, but she watched Ginny navigate it with ease.
"I'm sure there won't be any mixups. He's four years old and I'm nearly five. Big difference." Teddy said. "Obviously."
Ginny sputtered out a laugh and promptly lost her breath again, Hermione couldn't stifle back her own. Once Ginny was laughing, it was hard to stop yourself. It was that contagious.
She was very playful today. She wondered if Zabini and Ginny had snuck in a drink at the Leaky Cauldron. Or snuck in something else.
Hermione groaned, because she felt stupidly horny. All she was thinking about was sex and it wasn't even her having sex with anyone, it was her literally visuallizing everyone. She shook it from her head and tried to focus. Sleeping with Viktor was problematic in more than one way.
"We should get going." Hermione said. She had gathered a yard of extra fabric, some lace for details, and a small book she found at the back of the store about enchantments to make the fabrics do various things. She felt badly about rifling through it and not buying it. She already had memorised the one she wanted, but the clerk at the counter kept tutting.
Teddy walked with them to the counter and he held her gathered things while she rummaged through her purse. She frowned. Where was her money? It was supposed to be right there to the left if you buried your arm to the armpit into the bag.
Everyone's eyes were watching her in a mixture of alarm, nonchalance, and impressed. She withdrew and said accio Knuts , without her wand. Nothing happened. Hermione's face burned a little and she tried again with her wand. Again, nothing. She tried with Sickles and she found them, so she paid with those.
The bill was 1 Sickle for the ribbons and fabric and 1 Knut for the book. One Knut for the book and the change for one Knut from a Sickle was 28. The clerk looked annoyed as they started to count through the drawer.
"Here, I got it. What is it? One Knut?" Teddy said. He offered the little dull bronze coin by flipping it through his fingers and then flipping it to the counter with his thumb. The clerk didn't seem to cheer up, in fact, she got even more annoyed. Hermione almost opened her mouth to say that it was okay, but she was beginning to feel the glare of the clerk sear through her eyeballs and into her brain.
She turned to Teddy instead. "Thanks." she muttered. "I'll pay you back."
"It's Knutting!" Teddy said with a straight face and a flourish of his hands. Ginny burst out laughing so loud that it was all Hermione could do to gather her bought goods and get out of the store before they were set on fire by the clerk. Hermione's cheeks hurt by the time they were in the open air and Teddy was laughing right along with them.
When Hermione got home, there were two packages for her. One was addressed to her in blocky letters, like a post office scribe wrote it, and the other was from Ginny.
She opened Ginny's and found the lacy garter. Accompanying it were two simple words that made Hermione blush until her cheeks hurt.
For Teddy .
She opened the other, and swore under her breath. A bright green jewel attached to white lace, with a ribbon to be tied at the ends. When did Ginny buy this one? She must have post ordered it. Where did she get the money? Why didn't she hand write a note for this one?
It had an air of old magic around it. Like a family heirloom. There weren't any crests on it, and it resembled the one from the store. The lace that made it the pendant to its necklace was certainly from the store. Maybe Ginny had them imbue some magic on it.
With a tap of her wand, Hermione checked for curses and magic, and when nothing dark came up, she sighed in relief. It was a snake pit now. She didn't know what was poisoned anymore.
A garter and a lace necklace, to be snug on her thigh and around her neck.
She was beginning to feel the shackles of marriage attempting to catch her.
The invitations were delivered later that night, and Hermione pressed the tip of her wand to the parchment to RSVP.
Hermione got to work on her dress.
She laid out an old dress she had worn to the previous year's Prevalence Ball, a tea length, off the shoulder dress and stared at it. It was a light shade of lilac and the details were minimum. It wasn't her best work in design, but it was meticulously done and held up to the year in the cupboard, abandoned.
When she stared too long at the dress and fabrics and it no longer looked like an article of clothing, she opened a spiral bound notebook and scribbled quickly.
'Malfoy was foul to Teddy, how could Zabini be so close to someone so evil?'
She paused. Then she reiterated everything Teddy had told her about Malfoy's slight against his family and how their friendship fell apart. She signed her initials and folded it. She forgot for a second she had no owl.
She returned to her dress and decided finally that the first step was blanching it white. A clean palette. Finally her mind worked and she saw where fabric should be added and how to alter the design. Where she would add the magic and where she wouldn't.
Tapping on her window snapped her attention away and Hermione found an owl at her window. A huge grey owl, with bright yellow eyes and an expensive piece of parchment attached to his leg. Remembering her own letter, she opened the window and spoke softly to the owl who had stuck his leg out to her.
"Can you come in please? I'll give you a treat. I need you to deliver something to the Burrow for me, is that okay?" Hermione said. She fought her internal battle of feeling silly speaking to it, but the owl's intelligent eyes blinked once and he hooted softly before he hopped in and ruffled his feathers on her desk. Hermione sighed in gratitude.
She took the letter from his leg and attached her own. She summoned owl treats and filled the water bowl with water, then left him to eat, the window open for his departure when he was satisfied.
The letter felt expensive as it looked. It was butter smooth and the lettering shone gold and red. It had her address on it and Hermione had only ever seen her name look like that on wedding invitations. Her heart sunk. Was she already receiving an invitation to Viktor Krum's wedding? He still wanted her there after what had happened?
She held her breath and broke the seal.
'Will you please save me the first two dances at the Vie Ball?'
-Neville Longbottom
"Shit." Hermione said. The owl hooted and Hermione gave it a weary smile. His treats were all eaten up and he hopped to the window sill before he took off into the night.
Saving the first two dances was intended for Teddy, but for Neville's sake, for his sanity's sake so that his grandmother would leave him be, she had to help. It was her idea to make it convincing. Abandoning the letter, she returned to her dress.
For someone who wasn't looking for a husband, she sure was surrounded by a lot of suitors. Fake, liars, or neither.