For the past few days, Hermione had been on edge. She kept replaying her meeting with Theo over and over in her head. She might have learned that Malfoy had been cursed (which wasn't more than what she had already guessed herself), but to learn that it was Theo's father who was behind it—that completely threw her off guard.
When she inquired about any details, she found that Theo was very skillful at deflecting the questions. He told her that it didn't matter, and really, if they wanted to reverse the effects, they would need to find the origin of the curse, then the counter-curse to it, and everything else was insignificant. When she tried to reason that with such limited knowledge, she couldn't narrow down the research to any specifics, and reading about every single dark curse in existence would be hopeless, he responded with a humorless smile and insisted that this was precisely what they needed to do.
So all Hermione had to rely on was the knowledge that it was a curse. Well—some really, really dark one, given who Theo's father was.
Night after night, she immersed herself in the pages of countless books that mentioned anything about curses, even if it meant sifting through ones that had just paragraphs dedicated to the vague descriptions of the workings and mechanics of curses, with no other specific content throughout. The darker books, the ones she swept from the Restriction Section, made her stomach turn at their contents, but she had no luck finding anything even remotely similar to the problem she was dealing with.
She felt exhausted, irritated, but most of all, she was worried. People had been getting more aggressive, and everyday brought a new altercation. Oddly, she didn't feel any impulses towards violence, apparently evading the curse's effects, though, she had no idea how.
Needing a respite from having been stuck in her room most days and wanting to spend more time with Ginny (who luckily had spent only a couple of days in the Infirmary, same as Zabini and Malfoy) and the rest of her friends, in hopes to distract them from the kaleidoscope of their emotions bubbling under their skins, they took a trip around the castle, away from the chaos running amok within Hogwarts' grounds. Everyone seemed relaxed and cheerful when they were chatting about their plans for the future, complaining about the overload of schoolwork and cracking jokes. They settled down into a small clearing on the outskirts, laid down on the grass and enjoyed the clear skies under a cool breeze, unbothered by the cold air.
In the comforting silence, Hermione pulled out a heavy book from her bag, its cover charmed to appear as an innocent textbook for Herbology. The contents were far darker than what they had ever been taught in their curriculum. Delving into the Dark Arts topics with descriptive accounts on different types of tortures, blood magicks, poisonous potions and various curses wasn't what she wished to do in her free time.
After spending some time with her head in the book, she began to hear frantic whispers and feel glaring eyes on her. As she looked up, three of the girls sat closely together, staring at her with maliciousness, while Neville and Luna glanced confusedly between each other.
When Ginny caught her eye, she leaned closer towards Padma and words like "always needs to be the best", "it's pathetic, really", "why is she even here?", "maybe we should burn all her books", were spoken loud and clear, intended for Hermione to hear them.
At first, she was too stunned to say anything, but then a blind anger flickered inside of her and the curse could be damned.
"Why are you saying that?" she demanded, balling her hands in fists.
A flash of surprise danced over their faces before it transformed into snide expressions.
"Oh?" Padma said mockingly. "Do you want to hear constant praise on how amazing and precious your are, war heroine?"
"Well, dead people don't need it, do they?" Parvati supplied.
"Isn't it ironic?" Ginny said in an ice cold voice. "She's the one put on the pedestal, when my brother died to protect her kind."
Hermione's eyes grew wide in horror. Her friend's words cut right through her. Tears threatened to spill, and she ran. She ran until she could no longer breathe and her cheeks were streaked with wetness that wouldn't stop coming. Having learned nothing substantial about the curse, she had no idea if what her friend was saying had any meaning to her. Hermione desperately needed to start making progress.
She wanted to scream. She wanted the weight that was crushing her lungs to lift and let her breathe. She felt lost and lonely and sad. She longed for a world where she didn't have the word mudblood etched into her skin and blood status was a mythical construct.
She wandered aimlessly with no sense of her surroundings until a voice laced with incredulity said her name.
"Granger?"
She saw Pansy Parkinson with her arms crossed over her chest and two brows raised at Hermione's presence. "What are you doing here? We don't have Potions today," she eyed her suspiciously. "In fact, we don't have any classes today."
Confused with Parkinson's appearance, she glanced around herself and realized her feet had taken her to the dungeons.
Taking advantage of what her half-conscious mind decided it was time for her to do, she asked. "Is Theo here?"
Pansy's expression shifted into a surprise. "Theo, huh?" she said. "What's up with that?"
Hermione tried to keep her growing frustration at bay. She needed to confront Theo and this time, she wouldn't be placated with his vague and nonsensical answers. She wasn't in the mood for idle conversations.
"Nothing," she addressed the girl in front of her. "And really, it's none of your business anyway. So if you have nothing substantial to say, stop wasting my time."
Pansy whisteled. "The Golden Girl does have some bite," she said half mockingly, half impressed. "And Theo's my friend, so that makes it my business. I don't know what's your angle here, but I have my eyes on you."
"I thought you only had your eyes on Malfoy?" Hermione retorted just as another surprised "Granger?" echoed through the corridor.
Theo stood at a distance with a puzzled look on his face. She breathed a sigh of relief, catching a soft mutter of "bitch" as she walked past Parkinson.
She didn't bother with any pleasantries when she reached the confused Slytherin.
"I need you to tell me, right now, everything you know," she hissed at him in a hushed voice.
"Calm down," he hissed back, then drew back at the sight of her wet cheeks and softened his tone. "Have you been crying?"
She ignored the question. "Have you even thought what's going to happen when Christmas comes around and everyone goes home? How are you going to fix that?" she asked, feeling utterly defeated. "You need to tell me everything—"
"I can't," he interjected.
"Then I don't know what else to do, Theo," she slumped against the wall. "We need to tell the Headmistress what's happening. I think it's needed to notify the Ministry."
She saw him go rigid at the idea. "No," he said firmly. "We can't."
Before she could ask why, he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her along with him until they made it to an empty classroom. She briefly thought that his palms were warm and soft and fit nicely in her smaller ones.
"We can't," he repeated and cast a Silencing charm to make sure no one could hear them.
"Why not?"
Theo looked worriedly at the door. "I don't think it's smart to talk here. Let's meet in the abandoned part of the castle."
"No," she told him defiantly. "I'm not leaving until you tell me everything you know."
She could see the anger and frustrations in his eyes, but she wasn't going to budge. Not this time.
"Then I can leave," he challenged.
"Then I'll go straight to the Ministry."
They engaged in a fierce battle of intense stares. His blue eyes simmered with anger, their once vibrant hue turned into a color of stormy sky and Hermione was finding it increasingly difficult to resist being captivated by their dark allure. Neither one of them wanted to yield, but if Theo wanted to keep it under wraps so desperately, he would have to. Hermione was surely not backing down.
"Fine," he gritted. "We can't involve the Ministry. If they find out that Draco is bearing such curse and the identity of the person who cast it… I fear what they might do to put an end to it."
Her eyes widened at the implication. "Surely, you don't think—"
"Yes, I do," he said coldly. "Don't think for a second that they would care about the life of one ex Death Eater when the stakes are so high. We don't even know the extent of what this curse can do."
"There are highly skilled wizards," she argued. "I'm sure they would be able to find the counter-curse. They have better chances than us."
"I have a library brimming with ancient tomes spanning centuries, each one filled with the secrets of the darkest of magics. I've gone through dozens and I found absolutely nothing."
Hermione frowned at that. "How many volumes are left to go through?"
"Hundreds," he said bitterly.
"Hundreds?" she repeated, brushing an estranged curl away from her face that she found extremely annoying right now. "Don't tell me you're going through them alone."
Theo sighed heavily, leaning against a desk, saying nothing. Hermione decided that at the end of the day, she would find an empty bathroom, put a Silencing Charm on it and scream her lungs out.
Feeling the energy leave her, she propped herself up on the desk Theo was leaning against and looked up at him with tired eyes. "What exactly is the plan here, Theo?"
He held her gaze. "I have some books with me," he said, deflecting. "You can help me go through them. Though, I'm warning you, they're far darker than what you would find in the ones from the Restricted Section. I wanted to give them to you last time we spoke, but you ended up being more difficult than I had accounted for."
She scoffed at that, swatting him on the chest. She had been reasonable. His lip slightly quirked at her offended expression.
Silence encompassed them. Hermione took it as an opportunity for a reflection, because she had this inexplicable feelings that she was missing something with how willing Theo was to involve her in this, even if he still had his reservations.
She thought back to her first encounter with Theo and recalled his fierce loyalty towards Malfoy—such devotion was reserved for very close friends. That meant, he must have already been aware of the curse then, because there weren't any blatant signs of it yet. The next time she interacted with him was in Potions' class, right after Professor Slughorn separated her and Ginny. Theo conveniently was ready to partner up with her and then offer his assistance in the extra-credit assignment. As she reflected on the situation, she started to entertain the suspicion that Theo was also the one responsible for her sudden burst into a fit of giggles, and she ventured a guess that he had used Rictusempra, if she were right. Then it all snowballed from there and set in motion their little rendezvous afterwards.
As those revelations flooded her mind, she was struck with how careful and calculated Theo was. All this time, she had thought she was the one looking for help from him, when clearly, it was the other way around. She was writing down stupid notes about strange occurrence she had taken notice of at school and he had known about it all along. He had made her work it all out by herself. She wasn't sure if she was more impressed by his cunning nature or offended by the way he had played her. Granted, it would have been easier if he had simply approached her and asked for help directly, but even she couldn't predict her own reaction if an unfamiliar Slytherin student, with whom she had never spoken, tried to enlist her assistance in reversing a curse that had been cast on Malfoy, of all people.
The puzzles seemed to fit, but she had to ask, "That time in the library, it wasn't a coincidence that I met up with you instead of Hannah?"
Theo gave her a pointed look, as if in dismay that it took her so long to figure it out. "I might have given her a little push, but she wanted no part in dealing with Draco," he admitted.
"You told me that she bailed and you threatened to hex her. Was that a lie?"
"No," he admitted. "She had been putting it off for weeks and I did say I would hex her if she didn't help me fix it. Then she mentioned how the Golden Girl might handle it without a hitch, but she wasn't so forgiving. That's when inspiration struck."
"Great," she said. "And I gave her a hard time because of it."
Theo smiled. "It was for the greater good."
"I don't understand, though. If you knew about the curse, why did you let Malfoy come back to school? And why did you want to keep him here? And why did you act like you had no idea what I was talking about when I told you about my suspicion and Malfoy's involvement in this?"
Theo decided to answer just one of her questions. "I just thought it was better if I could keep an eye on him rather than to leave him to his own devices. I didn't know the curse would have such an effect."
Hermione could feel the weight of his words, the meaning behind them, but she decided not to pry.
"As for the way I went about it—I needed you to figure it out on your own. I always knew you would."
She stared at him, letting his words sink into her. Everything he said to her was like a puzzle she needed to solve. She let those blue eyes and soft smile pull her in, mesmerizing her in ways she couldn't describe. She had never interacted with people like Theo—she had no idea how his mind worked, or what those fleeting emotions that he hid behind a mask of indifference meant, or the way he calculated things to know if he should be bothered with them.
"Did I prove myself then?" she could hear the words leave her mouth before she had the chance to stop herself.
She couldn't bring herself to feel angry. He deceived her, but at the same time, he didn't owe her any explanations. They hadn't been friends and he had no reasons to trust her. There was something in the way he handled himself that made her want to dig past the layers around him and find out what was at the core of Theodore Nott—was it just the cunning, dark nature or was there light at the very deep end?
She heard him laugh in response and chanced a look at him.
"Let me tell you something," he said, leaning over until she could feel his breath on her face. "More than you know," he whispered with a glint of admiration in his eyes, and she could feel the heat radiating off of him.
The air shifted around them and the glint in his eyes gave way to something more darker, his gaze brushing over her parted lips and all she could hear was their heavy breathing and the thumping of her hear. For a brief moment she thought he was going to lean even closer, and for a brief moment she thought she would let him, but then he suddenly pulled away, creating a few steps of distance between them. She watched him in confusion, but he just closed his eyes, breathing in deeply.
"I'll drop off those books as soon as I can," he said, sounding on edge. "You should go now."
She was caught off guard with his sudden change of behavior. It was almost baffling, but then she remembered that he was also under the influence of the curse. He was able to control himself astoundingly well, but she still had so many questions.
"Theo—"
"Go," he repeated, this time more firmly. He was looking at her now and his gaze was gleaming with something vicious. A shiver ran down her spine at the ferocity of it. She jumped down the desk and with the last glance at him, she left him alone.