Hermione POV

The screams of those around me were lost to the pounding in my ears. My heart was beating wildly, echoing in my brain to the point where it ached. Nothing around me was important. All the months of distraction and silence broke when I saw him and now he was the only thing I saw and eventually the only thing I heard. Him, clutching his stomach as he writhed on the floor of the great hall. Him, screaming in agony. Him, repeating two words I never expected to hear fall from his lips- I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…Those words fell on deaf ears. I finally felt something other than sadness. It was sweeter than anger. Vindication.

It took three bodies to take me to the ground and break my concentration on the spell. I felt the impact of each one, but my eyes never lost sight of him until my head smacked on the tile floor. It was a fresh ache, something new to focus on. My vision swam as fresh blood ran over my face. It slid across my skin and over my lips. It tasted like victory.

"Terrible idea, I said. Terrible idea to bring them all here together," Madam Pomfrey's grumbling voice was the first to break through. She was dressing my head wound. My head hurt and my wand hand ached with tendrils of dark magic. My wand hand that felt suddenly empty.

"W-, wand." One word, I fought for it and it came to me in my need. Not as easily as the other word, the one that had tasted like vengeance.

"I have it, Miss Granger. I will be holding onto it for the time being," Prof- Headmistress McGonagall spoke. I caught her looking at me as I opened my eyes, though there were two of her. The two of her turned to look at the two Madam Pomfreys. "No need for 'I told you so's', Poppy. You can berate me later for my poor choices. It was a last minute decision. What was I to do, deny him entry? They were children in a war, Poppy. Children who as adults now deserve a second chance."

All at once the two Headmistresses became one and the words she spoke made perfect sense. She had known he would be at Hogwarts, she had allowed me to come back knowing that I would see him. She didn't know of course that the events at his manor were front and center to the start of my insanity. No one knew that. Everyone thought it was the bodies, the battle, the loss of…everyone that drove me to my silence. Still, she knew he would be here and she had thought it was a good idea? Why would she think that was a good idea?

I fought to sit up, finding it impossible. My arms were strapped to the infirmary bed and I felt a new wave of anger. Who the fuck did McGonagall think she was strapping me to the bed like a fucking psychopath? Was he strapped down too? If anyone deserved it, it was him. Not me. I was a hero, I was the golden girl…only I wasn't. I had spoken an unforgivable and I had meant it. I had meant that word all the way to my bones and the magic it had unleashed when I spoke it had made my body break out in a flood of warmth that had washed away all the cold of my loneliness. I was still feeling the heat of my anger and I liked it. Anger was so much better than the sadness I had felt for months.

"Is he okay?" McGonagall asked a new face.

I recognized him from our years together at Hogwarts, how could I not? The man standing there had never left his side even after Crab and Goyle found themselves other things to entertain their feeble minds. The two of them were smart and cunning during their years in these halls and apparently outside of them when they became death eaters. But this man was different, he was a death eater that had somehow escaped the mark. Theodore Nott had been the star of more than one Gryffindors' wet dreams. Padma had talked about him incessantly to the point that I couldn't stand to be within five feet of her the entirety of 6th year. He was even more beautiful to look at now that he had filled out. I hated myself for that thought and I hated him for making me think it.

"He's fine and he doesn't want to press charges, He said he'll deny everything if they call the Aurors. He does want to speak to you though, Headmistress."

McGonagall walked off just as Madame Pomfrey secured the last of the bandage. She followed her behind the privacy screen and Theo slid my legs to the side so he could sit on my cot. It's not like I could stop him. I tried to glare enough to make him nervous, but he seemed relaxed. Too relaxed for someone that spent all his time with death eaters. Maybe that had been his secret to avoiding the mark. Maybe Voldemort never questioned the loyalty due to his cool resolve.

"That was bloody brilliant, you know? I see why they say your the brightest witch of our age." I hated the fact that the compliment made my insides feel all tingly and warm. It shouldn't. "You should have been a Slytherin."

I gave an undignified snort at that. Me, a Slytherin- a filthy mudblood. Salazar would have risen from his fucking grave and shot a killing curse at me before I could have lifted my first feather. My eyes traveled to my forearm involuntarily, to the word that was carved into my skin. Theo's gaze followed and then our eyes connected again. Why did they have to be pretty? Such pretty, ice blue eyes on a strikingly handsome face that was devoid of anger. I had nearly killed his partner in crime, his best friend at Hogwarts, and he seemed to give zero fucks about it.

"I stand by what I said," he stated. "Blood purity or not, you are a Slytherin if ever there was one. All of us snakes have scars."

My fingers ached to claw out those pretty eyes. My words came to me, trembling on my lips.

"F-fu-," I stuttered and he waited, patient with an air of careless energy. It almost seemed like he couldn't give two shites if I ever finished what I was saying and the thought made me giddy with the desire to finish them, to throw them in his face. "Fuck…you."

He grinned at me, a wicked smirk that spoke volumes. It was a smile that screamed satisfaction. Why was he so damn pleased with himself?

"I think I need to get in line for that," he said, reaching out to wrap his hand around my thigh. My heart stuttered at the feel of his fingers. They were warm through the thin blanket. I must still be low on blood. Head injuries bleed a lot, don't they? How much blood had I lost to be imagining him sliding that hand higher up? "I don't mind seconds."

His words confused me and made something deep inside of me clench. It was the smile, the innuendo, the raw sex that rolled off him. No one had ever met my fury with such cool lust. He stood up and left. I breathed a sigh of relief, but I thought about that hand on my thigh as I fell asleep. That hand and the desperate words that Malfoy had repeated in the great hall followed me into my dreams. They were good dreams, the best I'd had in a long time.