Secret Admirer

Part II

xXx

Someone was crying.

A young woman from the sounds of it.

Theodore Nott was on his way back to the Slytherin Common room after a few hours studying in the library, when the sound grabbed his attention. He diverted his path through the cold stone corridors, stopping outside an unused room hidden in a corner of the catacombs.

The old wooden door was cracked open and Theo peaked in, picking out a bundled up shape on the floor in the dark. He debated turning around, leaving them alone to deal with their issues on their own, but there was a nagging voice in the back of his mind that told him he should go in there.

"Hermione?" Theo questioned as the door swung open and the light from the hallway hit her form, curled up on the dusty floor. She looked up sharply, before looking away, rubbing the tears from her eyes and cheeks.

Theo clenched a fist at his side, resisting the urge to go to her, to pull her into his arms and never let her go. It still concerned him that she had this much power over him, affecting him whenever she was around, invading his thoughts when she wasn't.

Hermione had been a surprise from the beginning. It started with Draco on the train. It was only 1992, only twelve years since the end of the war, since the monster was defeated by Dumbledore, so despite many pureblood families making reparations and turning their ideologies around, there were still those who looked down on them. He couldn't blame them really, but at the same time it highly counterproductive. They wanted peace and yet they still shunned those who were trying to change, to be better. Theo could admit it hurt a bit. He was only a newborn when the war ended, his mother dying in childbirth and his father sentenced to life in Azkaban. He was raised by his godparents, the Malfoys, the most influential pureblood family that made the biggest strides to change. And yet, he was still treated by some as if he were just like his father.

Hermione had been warned about them. The children of Death Eaters. She didn't seem to care. It started with Draco on the train. She had come into their compartment looking for Neville's toad and they ended up in conversation about various books both magical and muggle. She'd recommended a few that had become some of Draco's favorites over the years. When Neville had come looking for her to tell her he'd found his toad he'd looked a bit pale when he realized who she was talking to, but Hermione ignored it, pulled him into the compartment and introduced him. He 'd relaxed when he realized they were all sincere and thanks to Hermione that was one more non-slytherin who wouldn't be afraid of them (and honestly, of everyone who had a right to hate them it was Neville).

Once classes had started, Theo regularly found Hermione in the library, studying endlessly. He couldn't understand why she was so obsessive about her school work, until he realized that to some extent she had most likely always been that way and that fact hadn't won her any points with her schoolmates, up to and including Ron Weasley, who'd called her a nightmare where she could hear him on Halloween their first year. Of course, she hadn't stayed mad for long. That night, somehow, a troll had gotten into the dungeon and made it up into the school proper. Hermione had missed the announcement when they evacuated everyone back to the dorms and thanks to Harry Potter's quick thinking they remembered to go after her. No one really knew what happened for sure in that bathroom, but the next day Harry, Ron and Hermione were suddenly hanging out together and had been inseparable since.

"Hello Theo." she replied, sniffing. Her voice was still strained, fighting off the urge to start crying again.

Theo took a step inside. "Are you alright?" he asked.

She sniffed again. "Yes, I'm alright."

Theo stood in the doorway for a moment. On the one hand she may not want to talk about this, which would explain why she had come all the way down here. On the the other hand, she clearly wasn't okay.

Theo sighed, closing the door behind him and making his way over to her. He slid down the wall, sitting beside her, much to her obvious surprise.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "You'll get all dirty. The floor is filthy."

"Oh, but it's okay for you to sit in the dirt?" he asked. She didn't reply. He was fairly certain she was blushing, but it was significantly darker in the room with the door closed. With that thought he pulled out his wand and struck a lumos. "So," he began. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing really to talk about." she replied. Theo gave her a pointed look when she finally looked up at him again. She stared back, almost challenging him to let it go. It wasn't going to happen. She sighed. "It's stupid really."

"So it's about Weasley then."

"Why do you assume that?" she asked.

Why did he assume that? Maybe because every time she had been upset in the last five years, it had almost always been something that Ron had said to her. A backhanded comment about her swottiness, an insensitive comment about her looks or a topic she was passionate about. There really wasn't any evidence, in his opinion, to suggest that Ron wasn't always responsible for her bad moods, whether she was sad or mad or frustrated, he always seemed to get a rise out of her. Draco had a theory that he knew exactly what he was doing but then again, that may be giving him a bit too much credit.

"Because you said it was stupid. He seems to be the only one who can hurt you this much."

Hermione looked up at him, her expresion unreadable for the first time in all the years he'd known her. "That's...really pathetic isn't it?" a few tears slipped down her cheeks and Theo resisted the urge to reach over and wipe them away. "I just, I guess on some level I don't have any right to be upset, but, of all the girls he could be with it just had to be Lavender Brown." she sneered the girls name. Theo couldn't really blame her, he'd heard and seen enough about Hermione and Lavender's interactions to know anyone who called themself her best friend would steer clear of the girl. Then again, Theo had never been convinced that Ron was really her friend. At least, he'd never known a friend to treat someone as badly as Ron tended to treat Hermione. And of course Hermione took it, because at some point she seemed to realize that she had feelings for him, she'd confided as much to him the year before. "I guess I was just hoping this would be the year he would notice me." she confessed sadly.

"Can I be honest with you, Hermione?" he asked.

"When are you ever not?" she replied. He gave her a little smile in reply.

"I don't think Ron will ever be mature enough for you, Hermione." he explained carefully. "You're both so different and I know they say opposites attract, but even those opposites still have some things in common."

Hermione seemed to deflate, leaning her head back against the wall. "Maybe you're right. I mean, it's probably not very healthy to have a crush on someone who always finds a way to make you angry."

"Agreed."

"I just, I don't know, I guess I pictured a little more of the future than I probably should have. Musings of a naive teenager."

Theo didn't answer right away, looking for the right words. "The course of true love never did run smooth." he finally replied.

Hermione looked up at him the first hint of happiness he'd seen that evening, sparkling in her eyes.

"A Midsummer's Night's Dream? That's my favorite Shakespeare play."

"Is it? I would have thought it would have been A Winter's Tale."

Hermione laughed. "I can see why you would think that."

Theo smiled.

"Ugh, this floor is filthy." she muttered after the laughter died down.

Theo chuckled. "You know I've heard that somewhere before." Theo stood, then turned and offered her a hand up, pulling her to her feet. He watched as she dusted off the seat of her pants.

"Thank you, Theo. Your a good friend." she told him. She looked up, wondering why she hadn't noticed how tall he was before, or handsome for that matter.

"I'm glad I could help. Do you want me to walk you back to Gryffindor Tower?"

"No, that's alright. I think I'm just going to go down to the library until I have to do my rounds. I don't really feel like being up there with everyone celebrating."

Theo smiled softly at her. "I can understand that. I'm always up for time in the library if you want some company."

Hermione smiled back. "I'd like that."