Chapter 34

Valentine's Day in Hogsmeade 1996

Hermione would have preferred hiding with the boys somewhere in the castle today for Valentine's, but it was too conspicuous a holiday for all three of them to be invisible. It would definitely attract attention from the rest of the student body and, while no one else had figured them out yet, it wouldn't do to leave such obvious breadcrumbs for others to follow.

So instead of cuddling up somewhere warm and cosy in the castle, Hermione was trudging down to Hogsmeade. Harry had left earlier with Ron as his moral support for Harry's date with Cho Chang. Hermione could not imagine something more likely to end in disaster. Luna had told Hermione that Cho still cried about Cedric nearly nightly, but Harry wasn't really thinking about where poor Cho was emotionally.

Boys, Hermione huffed internally in annoyance.

Hermione didn't mind walking alone, there were plenty of other students on the path; at least this way, she was able to be alone with her thoughts. Thoughts that were mostly centred around grey and sapphire eyes and late night promises and the distant buzz of their bond that grew stronger the closer that she got to the village.

"Herminny!" A familiar voice yelled to her. Hermione paused, turning in surprise to see Viktor Krum leaning against the signpost as she came into the village.

"Viktor!" Hermione felt her face stretch in a grin and she ran forward to hug him; although he stiffened slightly, she refused to be deterred.

"Herminny, are your srodni dushi going to try to murder me again for that hug?" Viktor raised an eyebrow.

Hermione looked around to make sure that they weren't going to be overheard, "I shouldn't think so. Things are very…settled between us at the moment, although it's still a secret so..." She mimed locking her lips and tossing away the key.

"Da, of course, Herminny. I know. I know." He looked around and Hermione saw that Neville was lingering in front of one of the shops, attempting to surreptitiously look at Viktor. Not entirely unexpected though, Krum was also getting looks from a few other people in the street, including Pansy Parkinson. The Slytherin girl's face was a mask of jealousy. Hermione rolled her eyes, but was aware that her time chatting with Viktor was probably limited.

"What are you doing here, Viktor, on Valentine's Day of all days? Isn't there some pretty Bulgarian Quidditch groupie you could be wining and dining?"

"Groupies are fine enough for regular days, but I have some special someones to see today," Viktor smiled, a blush actually dusting his cheeks to Hermione's surprise.

"Someones?" Hermione asked, wondering if it was an error from Viktor translating his thoughts to English from Bulgarian.

"Da." Viktor's eyes light up as he notices Neville pretending to look at a notebook across the street. Hermione can't help the small giggle that escapes from her.

That's certainly an unexpected pairing.

"Well I'll leave you to it," Hermione patted Viktor's arm, refraining from hugging him a second time. "I expect a letter soon." Viktor readily agreed and Hermione walked down the street, raising an eyebrow at Neville as she passed. Her fellow Gryffindor turned a shade of red approximating a tomato.

Hermione ignored the hateful look that Pansy was sending her way.

Hermione tucked away the reminder to talk to Draco and Theo about her. She knew the girl had fancied Draco last year. But she'd backed off, Theo had said. Theo had also mentioned that his father had reached out to Pansy's father about a marriage contract, one for his father to marry the Slytherin girl. Knowing what she did of Theo's father's character, Hermione couldn't help but feel pity for the Slytherin girl.

A bell rang as Hermione pushed open the door to Honeydukes, taking a deep inhale of the scent of magical sweets. It was unlike anything in the world. People raised in the Wizarding World just didn't properly appreciate things.

Grabbing a basket, she tossed in a few packs of sugar quills and heard her two favourite voices.

"I swear to you that it doesn't matter the origin of the chocolate," Theo was saying, his voice pitched intentionally loudly so she could find them in the crowded shop.

"You are simply incorrect. Le chocolat français est le meilleur. Je m'en fiche." Draco speaking French never failed to make Hermione blush, even though she was pretty sure he'd just been talking about French sweets.

"Ridicule." Theo scoffed.

Bloody Theo and his speaking eight languages, if it was still only eight. She wasn't certain. He'd said something about starting to learn Norwegian as a gateway to learning Old Norse more successfully. Theo wanted to learn more magically useful languages. Hermione always enjoyed it when Theo showed how immensely intelligent he was. She hid the secret smile that thinking about the intellect of Theodore Nott always gave her.

And later, she was going to kiss him. Her heart sang.

She came around the corner and, with a staged annoyed expression on her face, as Draco was standing directly in front of the cherry sweets that she liked only slightly less than sugar quills.

"Excuse me, Malfoy," she sneered, well aware that some Gryffindor seventh years were behind her and Padma Patil and Susan Bones were in front of her with Parvati.

"You are excused, Granger, but why aren't you chasing after Potter and Weaselbee with their nappies?" Draco drawled, staring at her like she disgusted him. It made Hermione's heart beat fast because it was all pretend. Soon they'd follow her into the street, and she could not wait.

"You are in my way, Malfoy," Hermione hissed, making his surname sound like a curse, "Kindly step away from the shelf."

"My apologies," Draco pushed away from where he was leaning against the stock shelves and rolled his eyes at her before walking off with Theo, who hadn't even acknowledged that she existed, his facial expression a combination of blank, bored, and pretentious. The perfect Pureblood heir. There were certainly other Slytherins in the sweets shop. The amount of information that they all reported to their parents on each other made Hermione's blood run cold. Meeting, like they planned to do right now, was ridiculously risky. They were going to do it anyway, of course.

Hermione took her time choosing a couple small tins of sweets to explain her annoyance with Draco. Once she heard Draco loudly complaining about Hagrid, and the bell to the door sounding, she knew that they had left. She made her way to the cashier and then out onto the street.

In careful unhurried steps, she walked towards the alley behind the shop and disillusioned herself, breathing modulated. She cast a silencio on her feet after she crunched hard into the gravel. When she finally paused behind the rear of the Hog's Head next to some empty casks, she felt arms pull her backward into an embrace. She instinctively fought for a second until Draco's mint scented breath tickled the shell of her ear.

"Sois calme." Hermione melted into Draco's chest, dropping her disillusionment charm so that he could turn her about and kiss her properly, his palms on her cheeks. Hermione tried to keep her eyes open, but it was difficult when it felt like Draco was telling her secrets with his lips.

He finally pulled back, and Hermione saw Theo behind Draco. The brunette's curls were messy and his lips were swollen from kisses. Hermione grinned at the other half of herself and he pulled her into his own arms.

Between kisses, Theo whispered, "I have been working on disillusionment charms." He cast one that didn't obscure them from each other, but a slight shimmering separated the three of them from the rest of the alley. Theo kissed her deeply as Draco muttered a privacy charm. Theo's hands slid down into the back pockets of her denims and he pulled her closer against his body.

Their snogging sessions had gotten significantly more heated lately as they started to push closer and closer to an invisible boundary that all three were very nervous about.

A drunken wizard stumbled down the alley and doesn't appear to notice them at all.

"Well the new disillusionment charms - they seem to be working," Theo noted, his lips just a breath off from hers.

"Not sure someone who smells like he has been dunked in a barrel of firewhiskey is the best test case to determine if your disillusionment charms are working well," Hermione quipped, pulling back and then nipping Theo's earlobe.

Theo made a noncommittal groan at her teeth on his skin.

Draco gave them a few minutes, but she could feel him fiddling with her shoulder bag; it suddenly felt heavier and she looked over her shoulder at him suspiciously.

"Just a few surprises, love," he smiled, "nothing too ostentatious."

Theo spun her so Draco could kiss her again, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

Hermione tried to savour this secret moment to get through the rest of this rotten holiday while others were able to flaunt their relationship in people's faces.

Eventually she pulled back. "I have to go meet Rita Skeeter and Luna. I've helped set it up for Harry to give an interview for the Quibbler." She kissed them both longingly before she went, muttering about that nasty bug of a woman as she went.

...

Draco and Theo followed Hermione at a safe distance as they walked back to the castle. Theo wanted to hold Draco's hand more than anything else. As though he had heard Theo's thoughts, Draco looked at Theo sheepishly through his lashes.

Theo swore that some Valentine's Day in the future he would be able to kiss both of the people that he loved, hold their hands, and no one was going to say a word. Except perhaps for, who is that lucky bloke with a gorgeous girl and that incredibly fit toff?

Yes, that would be perfect.