A/N:

Inspired by Bound Faery's "The Summer After"

I ready only the first chapter, and my mind went a buzzing! Please enjoy this piece, and please go look up Bound Faery's fic! I can't wait to see what happens next.

Summary: When Theo overheads talks of a marriage law being implemented, he seeks out the only person that could save him from it.

Words: 2507

Prompts:

Ministry of Magic Discord Group: Easter Egg Hunt

Polka Dot- (Setting) The Burrow

(Character) Theo Nott

(Trope) fake relationship

"Only For You"

Theo squinted in the midafternoon sun as he hesitated at the wardline of the Burrow. He had been waiting here for five minutes already, doubting the plan he had agonized over for hours last night.

"Surely I have enough time to just go back home and rethink everything?" he said aloud, running a hand through his already messy hair, his appearance showing how frazzled he was.

"Rethink what?" came a voice from above, and Theo flinched back, his gaze rising to find the Weaselette–Ginny Weasley, he had to remind himself to not use Draco's nicknames for the family–hovering on a broom above him. Harry Potter sat on his Firebolt next to her, and Theo had to swallow thickly, his nerves getting the best of him again. But with what loomed on the horizon, Theo had to swallow his pride–and his sense of self-preservation–and just get it over with.

"I need to speak to Hermione Granger," he stated plainly, straightening to face them with false confidence.

"I don't think so," Potter bit out instinctively, but Weasley talked over him.

"What about?"

This was it. This was going to make or break him. If he couldn't get past her first set of protectors, there was no way his plan was going to work.

"The Ministry is trying to push through a marriage law–" he started, but Potter interrupted him.

"Oh, and you want the Golden Girl to fight it off for you? I thought that's what you lived for: getting arranged marriages to further the pureblood agenda?"

"They're pairing purebloods with muggleborns, and they've rigged it for you all!" he suddenly blurted out. Potter and Weasley stilled on the brooms above them.

"What?"

"I went for a meeting in the office of the Wizengamot member who's proposing the law. He had an emergency he suddenly had to deal with, but all of his notes were there, and he claims the matches will be random besides pairing up purebloods with half-bloods and Muggleborns, but he already has a list of examples made up with their potential matches. Granger was one of them. They've paired her up with men four times her age, and I cannot, in good conscience, let her get blindsided," Theo explained.

"And what do you think she'll do, run?" Potter asked, scoffing. Thankfully, they lowered their brooms so Theo didn't have to crank his neck to keep them in sight.

"No, she can't. Once the matches go live, they're locking down the country to get the marriages out of the way. The only thing that could save her is a pre-existing relationship," Theo added.

"Great, you've given your message. Now you can leave," Potter suddenly said.

"Harry!" Weasley admonished.

"No, I know what he's doing. He's given himself an attractive alternative to getting paired. He saves himself, he gets in the good graces of war heroes, and his past disappears," Potter explained. He glared at Theo, who had the good sense to look resigned. To Potter's visible surprise, however, Theo rolled up his sleeve to reveal an unblemished inner forearm.

"He never marked me," he commented quietly.

"Hermione could always marry Ron," Weasley added.

"Could they make it convincing? Their last breakup made the newspapers," Theo pointed out. Potter and Weasley both grimaced at his words.

"And you think you can make it convincing?" Weasley asked.

"I can try."

Weasley and Potter stared at each other for a moment, as if holding a whole conversation nonverbally before the two looked at him as one.

Creepy, he thought.

"Alright, we'll let you in," Weasley then stated. Potter held out his hand, and Theo looked at it in confusion.

"What?" Theo asked.

"We have to lift you up over the wards to the Burrow. If you haven't been keyed into wards, they would have warned you at the fifty meter mark and stunned you at the twenty meter mark when you didn't get the hint," Weasley said almost gleefully.

"Even without the Dark Mark?" Theo asked carefully.

"Even without the Dark Mark."

With an aggravated sigh, Theo accepted Potter's offered hand and let himself be hauled up onto Potter's broom.

"Now, off to the maiden in the tower," Weasley said cheerfully.

"Maiden in a tower?" Theo asked incredulously. He understood her comment a moment later when they flew up high and went over a ridge to find a precariously stacked house towering in the distance.

"Apparently Weasleys expand upward and not outward as they grow," Potter joked.

"That explains everyone's height," Theo murmured, eliciting a laugh from the female Weasley.

"Oh I like you! I hope Hermione agrees to your proposal. I wouldn't mind keeping you around for your wit," she stated. As they flew closer, Theo swallowed heavily again, nerves overcoming the false surety he showed earlier.

What if she said no?

All too soon his feet hit the ground right outside the front door, and Potter and Weasley stashed their brooms in the bushes right underneath what looked to be the living room window. The female Weasley burst into the home first, calling out their greetings and warning everyone that the disturbance at the wardline was benign.

Theo wasn't sure whether to be comforted or offended.

What sounded like a herd stomping down the stairs assaulted his ears, and Theo had to brace himself for the suddenly crushing presence of nearly the entire Weasley clan appearing in the sitting room.

The one person he didn't see, however, was the woman he had come here to warn, and possibly proposition.

"Oh, she won't be down here," Potter suddenly stated, noticing Theo looking.

Weasley, the female one–oh Merlin, Theo was going to have to memorize all of their names, wasn't he?–nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, ever since The Breakup," she started, using air quotes while shooting the Weasley from his graduating year–Ron? Theo thought–a glare. Ron had the decency to look sheepish at the reminder of how public and messy he had made their recent breakup. "Hermione holed herself up in the attic with the ghoul. She's having a bit of a crisis right now, so this timing might actually be perfect for her."

"It'll give her a new project to work on, at least," Potter added and the sea of redheads nodded in agreement.

Dear Merlin, all of their names! How many were there?

"Come on, I'll lead you to the attic," the female Weasley stated and headed for the stairs. Theo followed after her, feeling lost and wholly unsure. His insecurities from before came roaring back as he followed her up through the winding staircase that led up through the Burrow. The clamor from the sitting room slowly dissipated, until the only thing Theo could hear was his own labored breathing as they reached the fifth landing.

The female Weasley–Ginny, he reminded himself–wasn't even out of breath.

"Here we are," she commented lightly. Theo eyed her accusingly.

"What–"

"When you live here and have to go up and down these steps more than twice a day, you get used to it," she replied simply, already understanding his unspoken question.

"You guys are monsters. Tall giants with the cardio stamina of gods," he muttered, hands on his knees as he attempted to catch his breath. He had missed the thunderous expression on Ginny's face as he spoke, but it had smoothed out at his ending compliment. Theo straightened, wiping sweat from his brow.

"I guess we are, aren't we?" she replied, a grin in her tone. "Now, here's your Rapunzel!" She threw open the door to the attic, letting Theo see inside.

It was dim, with a small window letting light and air inside. Granger laid on the ground her back to the wall, crumpled parchment scattered around her. Theo stepped inside, and thankfully so did Ginny. Ginny closed the door to the attic, however, the noise rousing Granger from her position.

Her eyes were red and teary as she stared at them.

"You received my letters, then?" Theo started out hesitantly as he looked closer, seeing his own handwriting on many of the parchments.

"Who am I matched with?" Her voice was hoarse, and she sounded stuffed up, as if she had been perpetually crying since the first letter came.

"Ogden, McNair, Selwyn, and Dolohov," he replied palely.

"How?!" Granger howled. "How did they escape justice? And now they're trying to saddle me with one of them? I should just go find my parents, disappear…"

"They'll find you," Theo argued, stepping closer to her crumpled form. "The bill has ways of enacting the law on any British Magical. Their owl will find you."

Granger's eyes were hopeless as she looked at him. She stared for a moment, her gaze intensifying the longer she stared at him. Theo tried not to fidget as she did so.

"You have a plan," she accused him. Theo was vaguely aware of Ginny stifling laughter as she leaned against the wall by the door.

"I do. But you might not like it," he replied.

"You're proposing yourself, aren't you?" Granger asked. His surprise must have shown on his face, because Ginny piped up from behind him.

"War hero or not, she's still the brightest witch of our age," she commented. Granger gave a small snort in amusement.

"It gets me out of an arranged marriage I don't want, you are saved from cantankerous old men, and we get to stick it to the Death Eaters," he explained.

"What if I find someone else to marry me?" she asked.

Theo swallowed thickly before answering. "Unless it's to a Pureblood, the Ministry would annul your marriage."

"They can't do that!" Granger exploded, jumping to her feet.

"They can," Ginny interrupted. The two of them turned to look at her.

"What do you mean?" Granger asked, her tone deadly quiet.

"I'm surprised you didn't know. Percy was going on about it your Fourth Year," Ginny said. "A pureblood got married to their Muggleborn sweetheart to avoid an arranged marriage, and instead of her parents disowning her like she hoped, the Ministry refused to acknowledge their marriage and forced her to bond with her parent's option. She killed herself three months later."

Granger just stared at Theo, and he shuffled uncomfortably. He almost preferred raging Granger over whatever this passivity seemed to be taking her over at the news. "I suppose you're the lesser of two evils?" she asked.

"We don't even have to marry yet," he pointed out. At Granger's raised eyebrow, he hurriedly continued. "There is a stipulation in the law: pre-existing relationships prior to the announcement are exempt from the law. They didn't even think to put a clause in there to add a deadline for these pre-existing relationships to marry. If we can fabricate our relationship having started weeks, months, if not years ago–"

"Then they can't disprove it outside of Veritaserum," Granger replied, awed at the loophole.

"And I know how to beat the Veritaserum if I need to take it," he replied honestly.

"And all the while, we fight the marriage law once it's announced, because frankly it's barbaric, and then we claim that the strain of everything got to us and we split as soon as the marriage law is defeated," Granger added, perking up. Theo had to contain his blush as he saw life come back into the woman.

"And if we can't fight it, then I propose to you, we have a several year long engagement, and then live out our lives as roommates," Theo added, making sure to cover the worst case scenario.

Granger nodded, grim determination filling her frame. She stuck out her hand and grinned toothily at Theo, who grabbed her hand in confusion. She shook it heartily.

"Hello! I'm Hermione Granger. And you are?" she asked so seriously, and Theo couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Still shaking her hand, he replied exuberantly, so much so it was ridiculous, causing both Hermione and Ginny to laugh. "Hello Hermione! I am Theodore Nott. It's nice to meet you!"

"Great, now that you have that out of the way, Nott, you're staying for dinner!" Ginny exclaimed. Theo faltered, his hand pausing as he stared at the redhead.

"Wait, no, what?"

"You're staying for dinner," Ginny repeated. "If you're meant to be fabricating a backstory of an on-and-off again whirlwind romance, spanning across your time at Hogwarts, during the war, and beyond, you'll need everyone on board. The sooner you start learning, the better."

"With everyone down there?" Theo croaked out, his palms suddenly sweaty.

"Yup! This will be the perfect time to learn everyone's names too," Granger–Hermione, it was Hermione now, if they were going to make this work–added. "And we can start going on dates in both the Muggle and Magical world. Start giving the papers something to talk about so our sudden relationship, no matter how fake it would be, won't be a surprise when the marriage law comes up."

Theo swallowed thickly, nodding his head at her words. It made sense. "I just…I didn't expect everything to move so quickly…"

"Theo, we're Gryffindors. We jump in head first and work out the specifics later," Hermione teased, looping her arm through his to lead him out of the attic. Ginny let out a loud whooping sound before dashing out of the room before them, stomping down the stairs like a herd of elephants.

"Everyone! We're having a house guest for dinner! And Hermione's joining us!" she called out throughout the house from the stairwell. A dull cheer rose up, and Theo's feet dug into the ground.

"I'm reconsidering everything," he suddenly stated. Hermione pulled on his arm, and after a moment he began to walk again, but they went slowly. Pausing on the landing, she turned to him.

"What are you running from?" Hermione asked quietly. Theo turned to look at her, searching her eyes for something even he wasn't sure of.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "I've liked you ever since third year when you gave Draco two black eyes–" Hermione laughed at that memory "–and I wanted to keep you safe. Weasley…Ron, obviously wasn't going to do it and be believable. I just…" He paused for a moment, grateful she was letting him think. "I just don't want to see you in an unhappy marriage. And I also want to avoid Pansy's claws. Once she hears about this law, she's going to want to try the same thing as us." He shuddered dramatically, causing another laugh to spill from Hermione's lips.

"If the marriage law does get overturned, I would be willing to give the relationship a go for real," Hermione stated. Theo stared at her in awe, a large grin appearing on his face.

"I'd like that," he replied softly. They stood for another moment more, before a voice called out to them from down the stairs. Hermione let out another laugh.

"Time to face the music!" she declared, pulling him down the stairs and to his fate. With his own matching grin, he followed her.

"Only for you."