Little Adrian arrived on the 12th of November at 16.09 CET after giving his mother contractions for just about 75 hours. Evil little bugger. If you follow the link in my profile that says "homepage" you'll arrive at my LiveJournal where there's plenty more on the subject of the Kupo if you're curious. On the 16th I even posted some pics that I will lock to friends only in a few days because, well, I look something like a crack whore after that whole ordeal and I generally just don't like leaving personal pictures up unchecked. Feel free to look for now, though.

Anyway, here's the next installment, finally. ;)


As Hermione was battling herself on how to react to the thought that Theo had actually gotten her a present, he was watching her with a slight frown. "Hey, don't worry," he finally said. "We'll just forget about it. I didn't mean to upset you. It's just a thing; things are nothing to be upset about." He tugged a little more on her hands, drawing her close.

Stop being nice to me, damn it! She tried to get a hold of herself. "I'm not upset," she mumbled against his chest as his arms came around her.

"You're a terrible liar, love."

"This is unfair," she murmured. "Can't you just be one way and stop confusing me?"

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be!" She punched his chest. "I'm sorry. You're probably already getting sick of me."

"What?" He drew back, his frown deepening. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on," she said. "I don't owl when we're apart, I blame you for not giving me enough attention when I'm even worse, and I didn't… get you anything."

He looked at her for a long moment. "You have many more demands on your time than I do. You don't have to worry about me. I won't ask for more than you can give. And I certainly don't need any material things… Just you."

Damn him! She looked away as he softly brushed a lock of her hair away from her face.

"Is that why you don't want my gift? Because you don't have one for me?"

She shrugged, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"In that case, don't worry. I just wanted to give you something. To remember me by, if you will."

"Why would I need something to remember you by?" she asked, frowning, momentarily distracted from her distress.

He smiled a little vaguely. "When I'm not around," he said.

She took the time to look at him. Really look at him. He looked a bit tired around the eyes and he seemed a little sad. Well, their conversation had been rather serious, she supposed. But he was holding something back. He seemed strained. "What aren't you saying?" she asked.

"I want us to be together," he quietly said. "I really do. But I'm not always sure that you… I just want to give you something. No ulterior motives. And if you don't like it, you don't have to keep it."

She drew even further back and crossed her arms. "You don't think I want us to be together?"

His gaze wavered, the first sign of insecurity Hermione could remember ever seeing from him. "Of course, but… You never know. Things change. One can't always predict the future."

There was more he wasn't saying, but she sensed that he wasn't going to open up on this particular subject. It seemed like he didn't trust her to stay with him. "I said I was going to try and do better," she murmured, studying her own arm as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"It's not that," he quietly said. "Can we just drop this? It may be nothing and if it is then arguing about it won't change anything anyway. I'd rather just enjoy what we have."

What could one answer to that? 'No, let's fight'? Hermione sighed. She supposed she would have to prove him wrong. "Ok."

"Good." He gave her a small smile. "Want my gift now?"

She slowly nodded and he reached into a pocket and retrieved a small box for her. Feeling a little bit awkward under his scrutiny, she opened it to find a chain with a silver pendant of a snake twisting around a rose, looking as if it might crush it. She raised an eyebrow. "Trying to tell me something?"

He actually laughed softly at that. "I just saw it and thought you might like it. Although, I would like to point out that appearances can be deceiving. The rose has some very dangerously-looking thorns." He briefly reached out and touched the pendant, causing the snake to come alive and glide into a different position around the deceptively fragile flower.

Hermione tried touching it as well, causing absolutely nothing to happen.

"Yeah, sorry," he muttered. "I'm afraid I didn't manage to find a way to make it work for you." When she looked at him questioningly, he explained, "It was made to react or, well, not react to your blood. It's not that I mean anything by it, but they were all like that…"

"Strange shop," Hermione murmured.

"Yeah, um, no." Were his cheeks actually turning pink? "It was among my mother's belongings." When she stared at him, he just shrugged and added, "She owned a lot of jewelry, magical and otherwise. I don't think it has any real value. I just thought you might like it."

Hermione looked at the pendant again. She did like it. A lot. It had a sort of dangerous beauty. And it had belonged to Theo's mother. It was the first time he'd even mentioned the witch to Hermione and even though he tried to downplay the value of the pendant and material things in general, she got a strong feeling that it meant something to him.

And he wanted her to have it.

It was a little scary. Like a promise she wasn't sure she could keep. She frowned and touched the cool metal again, wondering if Theo's doubts were contagious or if she had her own.


Over the next few days, Hermione's life settled into the usual comfortable and uneventful routine. The only thing slightly off was that it seemed that Draco was very deliberately avoiding both her and Theo whenever he could. This was made somewhat difficult by the fact that the meeting Theo had had with Dumbledore had been about an increase in their responsibilities. The teaching staff didn't really have time to do their share of rounds anymore and unless they wanted to call in outside help, everyone would have to take on more shifts. This meant that she had been unable to avoid scheduling Draco with herself and Theo a few times for the next month in order to make everything fit.

Yet, within two days he'd managed to trade off those rounds. Two of them for rounds with Tara Stanwood, the annoyingly talkative Hufflepuff that he couldn't stand to even be near, let alone be alone with for hours.

If that didn't speak volumes, she didn't know what did. But it was ridiculous. There was no reason why he should keep avoiding them now that everything had been resolved. It had been resolved, hadn't it? He hadn't as much as looked at Hermione since she'd been back and he seemed to be paying quite a bit of attention to his new girlfriend. Maybe he was just feeling awkward about what had happened?

But she still wasn't sure why he'd given her the bracelet and ring. She needed to ask him about that if she managed to catch him at some point. She wanted to know why it was so important to him to prove himself to her. A part of her told her to leave well enough alone but… she couldn't. Something was off and it made her restless to not know what.

The coming Tuesday she was walking with Theo after class and they rounded a corner just to see a sight that made her mouth drop open. Think of the devil.

The bane of her existence and the Greengrass girl were kissing in the middle of the hall. Quite heatedly, too. Well, that was one way to keep warm in the middle of January, she supposed.

She had once heard that Draco wasn't very keen on public displays of affection, but he seemed to have forgotten that completely by now. She scowled. It was disgusting, really. Certain displays should be kept in private.

She glanced at Theo just to find him watching her with that inscrutable expression of his.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied, clearly lying. Ok, maybe not so clearly, since he was the consummate liar, but she knew he was lying just the same.

"It's just nauseating," she said, feeling the need to explain. He hadn't mentioned those doubts of his again, but she wanted to make it clear that they were unfounded. "I mean, I know that we've done the same, but then I didn't have to look at it."

He sighed and disentangled his hand from hers, looking away. "Then go break them up. I have work to do." Without even glancing at her again, he walked off.

It was frustrating how he chose to misinterpret everything. How could she possibly deal with someone who'd already made up his mind?

She scowled one last time at the couple and then decided to also walk off. After all, if she were to break up every couple snogging in the halls, she wouldn't be doing anything else.


Draco gently pushed the strange girl away. "A little warning next time would be good," he said, still trying to catch his breath. He liked kissing as much as the next bloke, but being jumped in the hallways by his pretend-girlfriend at odd times left him a little disoriented. She claimed it helped their relationship look more real, though, and he supposed it was true since so far nobody had questioned them.

"No time for that," Astoria said with a mischievous grin.

"Right," he mumbled, trying to figure out if that shimmery stuff she had on had rubbed off on him or not. The last thing he needed was to be walking around with pink, shimmering lips. It just wasn't the kind of image he wanted to create for himself.

"You're not curious as to why?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'm always curious, but you don't usually have a reason."

"Granger," she said, carefully watching him for a reaction.

His head jerked up. "What?"

"I saw Granger and Nott approaching and figured I'd give them a show."

Heart racing, Draco twisted to look down the corridor. Nothing.

"Oh, she's gone," Astoria informed him rather redundantly. "They didn't stay long to watch. Although Nott left first. I don't know if that matters."

Did it matter? No, of course it didn't. Obviously there had been no reaction. She just believed the same as everyone else, which was pretty much the point. He just wished… What? That he'd realized she'd been there so he could watch her not caring? He sighed. It was a little bit easier when he didn't see her, but unfortunately he couldn't help but look for her everywhere. He was just happy that she had no occasion to seek him out so he wouldn't actually have to pretend to her face.

Astoria put her arms around his waist. "I'm sorry. The least she could have done was break us apart. I did my best to break regulation, after all."

Draco smiled a bit weakly. He liked Astoria well enough and he wished that he could just get past this so he could perhaps appreciate someone like her a little more. "I've caught her snogging Theo before, that's probably why. She doesn't want to seem like she has double-standards."

Astoria shook her head, a frown pulling at her lips. "I don't like that she makes you so sad," she muttered. "Why doesn't she want to kiss you? You're really rather good at it. Someone like her should just be happy that you'd even want to."

Draco's smile became a little more genuine. Someone like Hermione, indeed. "I'm not sad, but thanks for the compliment."

"Of course you're sad," Astoria quietly said, a sort of pained empathy flashing in her eyes before she could hide it. "It hurts when you can't get the one you want. Even if you can get part of them it hurts, because they'll never truly be yours."

"Tried that, eh?" he asked.

She shrugged and smiled, suddenly bright and cheery again. "Who hasn't?"

He gave that some actual thought in spite of it being a rhetorical question. "I'm fairly sure Theo hasn't," he then replied.

Astoria pursed her lips. "Don't be so sure. You never know and you shouldn't make assumptions."

Draco shrugged. "Even if he did try it, he's got the girl now, hasn't he?"

She just gave an answering shrug and then patted him on the cheek. "I have to go. Stay out of trouble." And then she was gone again.

For a second he just stood there, but then he sighed and trudged down to the dungeons to do his homework.


"Ah, there you are!"

Draco's entire body jerked and he managed to accidentally shove a book to the floor. Cursing under his breath, he checked to see if Madam Pince had noticed and quickly scooped it back up on the table. The library was supposed to be safe on Wednesdays. His entire schedule was planned around being where Hermione and Theo weren't and on Wednesdays they should both be at their office planning or snogging or whatever it was that they did.

"You're a hard one to find," Hermione added.

Well, he tried to be, insofar it was possible. "What do you want?" he asked, staring down into his book.

Uninvited, she sat down across from him. As if she didn't hate him. As if they were friends. As if…

Mentally, he kicked himself and told himself to quit whining and make her go away.

"You never told me why you decided I should have those things."

"Sure I did," he replied, looking up at her. "So you'll get off my back about using them again."

"Ok," she muttered. "You claimed that was why, but that's a really lame reason for giving away a 5,000 galleon set."

"Believe what you want," he said, snapping the book shut and beginning to rise. If she wouldn't go away, he would.

"Ok, then I'll believe that you are truly sorry for your mean pranks and want to make up for them."

She would never know how sorry he was that he'd been so deliberately cruel to her that there was no way he could do any of the things he wanted and have the least hope she'd react favorably. But then again, it wasn't as if he could do them anyway, so it was probably all for the better. "If you say so, Granger," he replied, packing away his books.

"You know what would go a long way in making up for that?" she asked, looking suspiciously innocent.

He was about to be screwed, wasn't he? "What?" he asked, trying to sound bored.

"Make up with Theo."

His hands stilled. He'd been wrong. Screwed didn't even cover what he was. "Sorry, Granger," he almost choked. "Can't do that."

"Why not?" she asked, her gaze probably seeing more than he wanted her to.

Because he has you! "You shouldn't meddle."

"You've both been at this place for the entire holidays and from what I understand you didn't even speak. It's stupid and I know he's not happy about it, so I want it to stop."

He shook his head. If only she knew.

"I'll do your rounds for a month."

He shook his head again.

"Two months."

No.

"I'll tutor you."

Another negative.

"I'll leave you completely alone?"

Oh, now she was grasping. It was tempting, except he didn't really want her to leave him alone. It was just easier when she did.

"Just tell me what you want!" she groaned.

It was tempting. Really tempting. But she was doing this for her boyfriend and anything he could think of didn't exactly promote friendly feelings on that front.

"You can have your jewelry back," she offered. "And all of the above. Well, except I can't both tutor you and leave you entirely alone, of course."

He had no use for the jewelry. He couldn't wear it with another witch. But she could wear it with another wizard… He pictured Theo wearing the ring and momentarily felt such a surge of possessiveness and anger that he could hardly breathe. There was nothing he could do about that, though. He couldn't keep her from wearing the bracelet again without taking it back and he didn't want it back. It was only the wearing of the ring that could only be done with one person…

An idea occurred to him.

It wasn't a very nice idea, by any means. It was underhanded and for all the wrong reasons and Theo would hate him if he found out, but he'd be powerless to do anything about it because it was relatively harmless.

At least in theory.

He smirked. It would be worth it.


I love previews... XD

"Are you planning to stay a bitch for the duration of this?"

Hermione's head snapped up and he could tell he'd annoyed her. It was so easy to do. "That's my prerogative, isn't it?" she fairly growled.

"Sure." He shrugged. "I just want to know so I can be prepared. It's not that time again, is it? Because then I'll reserve the right to wear full body armor."

Her eyes widened. "You are unbelievable!"

Draco grinned. "I know. But usually, when Astoria says it, it sounds a little more flattering."