Oh, the loneliеst girl in town was bought for plenty a price
Well, they dress her up in golden crowns, his smile hides a lie
She smiles back, but it's a fact that her fear will eat her alive
Well, she got the life that she wanted, but now all she does is cry
January
Hermione feels something peculiar in Lavender and Parvati's glances as she makes her way to her bed. This is a normal occurrence, them halting whatever conversation they are having when she enters their shared dorm. But this is different. Normally, they would only stop for a moment or two, greet her casually and turn back to whatever it was they were talking about. Most of the time, Lavender judges her. Today, however, she looks like she has something to say, but can't quite manage the words. And Parvati, well her expression shows more concern than anything else.
It's unsettling.
And so, Hermione chooses to humour them, "Are you two alright?" Not really paying attention as she struggles to pull her trunk out from under the bed.
"Well, uh…" Parvati starts before turning to Lavender, silently pleading for assistance with wide eyes.
Lavender huffs, like she had just drawn the short straw, "Granger, are you aware that you didn't come back to the tower last night?"
"I…" Sweet Merlin. Hermione had completely forgotten about that. She and Theo didn't intend for their experiment to take as long as it did, and they definitely hadn't planned for it to go so wrong— so very, very wrong. Amongst all the excitement, she had completely forgotten what day it was—not to mention the time.
"We thought maybe you had just forgotten the time, but it's practically noon," Parvati reasons, her dark brows knitting together, "And you weren't at breakfast. We asked Harry, Ron… even Looney, but no one knew where you were."
"We thought something might have happened, we were about to go to Mcgonagall."
Hermione's touched and oddly grateful for their concern. They have never cared so much before, at least not that she was aware of. "Well, thank you for your concern. I'm touched, really. But, as you can see, I'm fine. No need to go to Mcgonagall." She continues to rummage around in her things before finally finding the wooden box she has stashed away.
"You know if something is wrong, you can tell us," Parvati offers.
"What's that?" Lavender turns her head towards the box in Hermione's hands.
Hermione quickly tucks it into her book bag, at least - she tries to. But Lavender being her usual nosey self, snatches it from her before she has the chance.
"That's none of your," Hermione starts as Lavender opens the wooden lid, "business."
Parvati comes around and takes one of the glass vials out of the box, examining it under the light, "What is this?"
Lavender eyes it carefully, "looks to me like Dittany."
Curse her and her potions abilities. Hermione bites her lip, not understanding why she felt the need to hide it. It's not like it was her contraceptive potion - she kept that separately.
"Why would you need this?" Lavender continues to rummage through the rest of the box and picks out another vile, analysing it with intrigue, "This one's a calming potion."
"Has something happened?" Parvati presses.
"No," Hermione answers simply, plucking the potions from their grasps and placing them back into their wooden box, snapping it shut. "Now, if you two don't mind, I have someplace I need to be."
Neither girl looks convinced, but they let her go without another word. Honestly, if she hadn't been so scatterbrained this past month, she would have taken the box to the Room of Requirement a lot sooner and avoided this whole ordeal.
"Curious," she hears Parvati mumble just before she shuts the door with a click. She knows that it wouldn't be the last of that particular conversation.
"Oi! Hermione!"
She almost makes it out of the tower completely unnoticed. Ron, however, is far more perceptive than usual today. She reluctantly turns on her heel, "Yes, Ronald?"
"I missed you this morning," He walks up to her with an almost blank roll of parchment, "Wondering if you would be willing to help me with my potions essay?"
"The one that's due tomorrow?" The annoyance in her voice seems to carry. Even Seamus, who's sitting on the other side of the room, cringes.
Ron looks down and shuffles his feet, acting like a puppy who's been kicked. "Well, I did start it—"
"And I'm not always going to be around to assist you. I don't have time right now. Actually, I probably won't be around for the rest of the day. Ask your girlfriend for help. If you haven't noticed, she's rather adequate in the subject." She doesn't mean for it to come out as harsh as it did. But, she is exhausted and really not in the mood to be dealing with him or anyone, for that matter.
"If you could just look over—"
"Ron. I'm really sorry, but I really do need to go."
He reaches for her shoulder but misses. She's already turned and walked out the portrait hole.
She does miss them, Ron and Harry. She misses how easy it was, before they started getting boyfriends… girlfriends. Before this shite-show of a storm became concrete. But people grow apart and sometimes there's nothing anyone can do about it.
She luckily doesn't have any more detours, the halls are completely vacant. She lets out a sigh of relief when she finally makes it back behind the secret door. For a moment, she closes her eyes and leans back into the wood, sliding down to rest her aching feet.
This whole day has been a mess. In all honesty, even before today she had been on edge. Ever since Harry came back from the final task with Cedric a year and a half ago, she has been on the edge of disaster. The fear she holds in is too much to bear. It's like she's on the ledge of a precipice, one false move and she will be lost.
Most of the time, she's able to bury herself in her studies, completely numb to anything else except the words on the wilted pages. Except… even that seems pointless now. Her education is a joke. The things they should be taught, nay, need to be taught are purposefully omitted from the curriculum.
She would have been a sitting duck last June if it weren't for Harry teaching her the spells needed to defend herself. Merlin, she was still unprepared for when Dolohov attacked her.
"Hey, love."
Hermione opened her eyes to find Theo kneeling down in front of her. His gaze bore into hers, she's always found their seafoam colour calming.
"Hi," She hums quietly, "How's our… guest?" She glances over his shoulder. Regulus is passed out in a ball on the sofa, arms clutched to his chest and shivering. He's so ridged it's frightening.
"He's been through hell," Theo breathes, helping her to her feet and touching his nose to hers.
"What are we going to do with him?"
"I don't know. He's just been transported here, he has no one. The last of his… well most of his family is gone now."
"Most? I thought Sirius was the last Black?"
"No, there's still Andromeda Tonk, Bellatrix Lestrange… and Narcissa—"
"Malfoy's mum?" She knew that of course, Narcissa was born a Black. But for some reason, she failed to connect those dots until this moment. They were, are, cousins.
"The very same. I would have half a mind to owl her, but—"
"He just defected."
"Yes. At least to him he has. As much as I would like to write to her, tell her, I don't know the current state of The Manor. I have my suspicions, and they aren't good."
Theo has told her about those suspicions, of course. She hopes they aren't true. She hopes that Voldemort hasn't made her classmate's home his. But the more time goes on, the more Malfoy deteriorates. It all fits.
"Do you think we should go to Dumbledore?" She asks, unsure what else they could do.
Theo looks back to Regulus. She knows his mannerisms, his expressions well enough, intimately enough to know that he's feeling the same as she. "No. I think that's the last thing we should do. I don't want him to be used again as a tool like how he uses Potter. He's a person, he doesn't deserve that."
"So we keep him here?"
"Right now I think that may be our only option, love."
Hermione ponders for a moment to think through all of the logistics. He would need food, new clothing—the one's the boy currently has are completely unsalvageable—a bathroom… Luckily the room is smart enough to provide that when needed. Those wounds are another thing.
"Oh!" She exclaims, digging her hand into her bag. "I almost forgot, I grabbed my medical box."
He nods in acknowledgement, "Perfect. Would you mind holding down the fort? I'm famished and I bet the both of you are as well."
"Go ahead, I'll be here when you get back." She balances on her tiptoes to place a soft kiss on his chapped lips. He kisses her back, hands slipping around her hips, pulling her farther into him. She enjoys it, the secure feeling he gives her whenever he does this. A hand trails down to her arse cheek, giving it a playful squeeze.
"Theo!" she yelps, breaking apart from him, lightly smacking his chest. "We do have an audience."
"An audience that's asleep," he chuckles.
She peers at him. She's not annoyed with him, not in the least, but it clearly isn't the time. "You should probably go."
"And I'm going," he takes a few steps towards the door, "see?"
She rolls her eyes at him and proceeds to walk towards the sofa, laying out her potions on the coffee table.
"Oh, and Hermione."
She turns back, ready to shoo him away, "What, Theo."
"Congratulations, " He winks, "It's a boy!" and then he was gone.
"Congratulations indeed," she huffs lightly.
Leave it to Theo to make a joke out of this.
Take what you want, take what you can
Take what you please, don't give a damn
Ask for forgiveness, never permission
Take what you want, take what you can
Take what you please, don't give a damn
It's in the blood and this is tradition
The Tradition - Halsey