Disclaimer: I am just a mere visitor in the sublime world constructed by the brilliant mind that is J.K Rowling. Anything that rings a bell is hers.

Chapter 59

Theo's POV

I watched unnoticed as usual as person after person left the hospital wing, Kitten really did know how to attract a crowd, didn't she? I stepped back, the guy with dark hair almost like Kitten's except for its slight streaks of auburn, bustled past me almost knocking me over. His blue eyes were identical to that of the headmaster's except for the fury that burned in them…I never saw Dumbledore glower at anyone like that before…so this was Linus Thornton.

"Sorry." The other guy apologised, his hair was a shade darker than Linus Thornton's but the real difference lay in his eyes. Even with its hazel shade it conveyed the same fury that his brother's did yet he was controlled enough to apologize for his brother's mistake.

"Think nothing of it." He was almost down the corridor by the time I responded, he turned around, stared at me for a moment in confusion. Well this was strange, I never thought he would remember me but I could tell he was beating his brain to a pulp trying to place my face.

"Christmas Ball, last year. He called the blonde kid for Ky."

"Ahhh…" Lenzo Thornton nodded in recognition at his brother's words. That was quite a feat, even in the mood he was in Linus Thornton paid attention to detail that could very well rival my own, "Did she ever learn your name?"

I smirked on the outside but furrowed my brows inwardly, "Nope." I wasn't lying, Kitten never called me by my proper name, enjoying her little nickname much more. He nodded and followed his brother, leaving me alone in the corridor with my thoughts.

It would seem the roles reversed when the older brother was stressed. Judging by the way they handled things with Draco last year, I would think that the hot-headed one was Lenzo. Linus was all rationale…I guess it made sense for Lenzo to become the logic minded one of the two when times got tough, if they both went around knocking into random people…I do see where Kitten get's her bite from.

I side stepped again, "You'd think this corridor was two feet wide the way you lot manoeuvre about it."

Potter turned around, his eyes a glare of green, "Fuck off Nott."

I chuckled silently has the black haired boy walked away, there was something extremely funny about Potter swearing, like a pup trying to bite. My silent laughter stopped at the soft footsteps, I turned around…and for once there was nothing.

For one unprecedented moment my mind was blank…I watched the liquid slide down her soft cheek and my eyebrows furrowed,

"Kitten is angry at you?"

I could tell that Kitten was alright, if she had been grievously hurt Snape would not have looked so calm when he left the wing earlier. I was with Daphne earlier in the year, when she told him about the incident at the quidditch match and no matter how hard the man tried, his face couldn't remain expressionless as his eyes burned with the need to throttle Pucey. The man had iron restraint, I couldn't even stop myself from punching Crabbe when he flung that curse at Granger at that infamous match and she's practically nobody to me.

Kitten's brothers were angry but not matching anger. One was angrier than the other. If she had been hurt the younger one wouldn't have joked with me let alone apologised. This means that the older one had to do something that would cause all that anger…he was the older one…the one who called the shots. Judging from the way those blonde twins were arguing as they walked past moments ago, something happened in that wing that caused many different opinions. Linus had chosen the option that made Kitten angry at him.

But Potter pissed her off as well, he had all the intention of staying there considering he didn't leave with the first lot of people but Kitten had a different idea which explained the pup trying to bite routine. But Granger…Kitten never fights with Granger.

"How do you even know she's angry?"

I smirked but it was hard to hold on my face, the liquid pooled at the tip of her chin and I had this strange urge to catch it in my palm.

"Nott?"

I looked away from the tear and at her large cocoa eyes, rewinding her words in my head to remember the question, the tears still distracting me, "Self defensive anger. Her brothers and Potter. They were portraying defensive anger. If she was hurt it would have been offensive, raging, want to chop of heads, vengeance kind of stuff. Defensive anger is the yin to the offensive angers yang and who knows how to yang better than our Kitten. Handkerchief?"

She wiped her face with her hands completely missing the drop at the tip of her chin, her eyes defensive, "It's fine-"

"I insist." I held the handkerchief out for her and she looked at me and then down at the plain white handkerchief as if it was showing her the finger, "Its snot free, I promise."

She tentatively took it, carefully ensuring our fingers do not touch and mopped her face slowly. The red tinge that presented itself because of her tears was not receding, if anything her cheeks were flushed darker.

"Will you stop that?"

"What?" I was truly unsure what she meant; I was doing nothing at all.

"Staring!" She snapped out the word and I raised my eyebrows, I was always staring. That's what I do. Nobody ever asked me to stop it before because nobody ever noticed. "And as you can tell Ky is in no mood for flowers, actually she's never-"

"In the mood for flowers. Here."I held the orchid out to her and she looked down at it as if it was mooning her. "It's not poisonous, I promise."

"You know what, give it to Ky. She may not like it but at least it serves its intended purpose."

"Its intended purpose is for you. Or are red orchids not your favourite flower?" I looked down at the single flower in confusion, where did I go wrong?

"They're not."Well that's not right. I was almost positive that red orchids were her favourite flower. When we had to turn silk into flowers in the beginning of the year in transfiguration, the five times she successfully transformed the silk into a red orchid.

For the second time today my thoughts ran blank. I looked up at her, face red and little tinkles of laughter flying out her pink lips,

"What?"

She wiped a tear out of her eye…why was she crying again? "It's just your face."

"That's kind of rude-"

She bristled back, wide eyed, "No, no I mean your expression. You look very confused."

"I am and I don't like it. Red orchids are your favourite flower."

Her smile widened, "That sounds awfully a lot like a statement. In that case, fifty percent Mr Nott."

"You like red but not orchids?"

"No. I like orchids but not red ones."

"Then how come you kept turning the silk into red orchids."

"Well the silk was red wasn't it?"

"Why did you choose the red silk, if it's not your favourite colour?"

She laughed, "I didn't choose the red silk. All us Gryffindor's received red silk."

I closed my eyes and shook my head, how could I not see that. I opened my eyes, "It's blue. Your pencil case is blue. That's your favourite colour."

"Wrong again, my pencil case is blue because my book covers are blue and my book covers are blue because my bag is blue and my bag is blue because that's the only colour it came in."

Well that made sense, her need to coordinate was a given.

"You could just ask you know?"

"Ask what?"

"Ask what my favourite colour is."

I don't ask questions. It was unnecessary when all the answers are right in front of you. Yet here I was, about to ask her a question for the second time today,

"What's your favourite colour?"

She opened her mouth and then closed it. I couldn't help noticing how her upper lip pouted out at the action, she then ran her lower lip to the side, catching it by the corner with her teeth. It suddenly got very hot,

"Thank you for helping me earlier on."

What? Not only did she not answer my question but she also made a bizarre statement. Oh, she's talking about me telling her where the Rheines lived.

"Did they make it there in time?"

She stopped biting her lip and looked at me shocked. I guess she thinks I didn't know that Emerson Yardley was threatening the life of his wife and child considering she had just asked for the address of Liam's mum and ran off without an explanation earlier on. It wasn't necessary though, I was the one that told Draco the best way to help Liam is to give him the money. Draco thought the man was bluffing when he sent that letter to the kid, thinking if Liam just said he couldn't get the money he'd back off. Draco's problem is that he placed too much importance on past precedence. He remembered his dad speaking about what a wimp Yardley was in school but what he forgets is that the man was in Azkhaban for the last ten years. Prison changed people and obviously Yardley wasn't immune to its effect. The fact that Hermione had asked for the address meant something went very wrong with the drop off that made Dumbledore's people get involved. There's only one thing that could go wrong when someone is holding hostages,

"Was it his mother or sister?" She looked up, her eyes sad.

"Mother."

I sighed. The kid must be a mess, I hope they at least left his little sister with him. I never met Azelia Rheines, the family not even running in the same circle as my own, but from the way the boy reacted when he got the letter made me think she was not your typical Slytherin mum. All us Snakes love our mothers', no arguments there…we just didn't like them. Liam liked his mother. Granger looked on the verge of tears,

"You're close to your mother."

People are selfish creatures. Anything, no matter how minuscule that happens in this world, we always relate it to ourselves. Crying when you hear bad news about someone else is just projecting how you yourself would feel if it would have happened to you,

"I don't see why that is either here nor there. I just think it's horrible what that man did and he deserved what he got."

So Yardley was dead. Granger was glowering at me, did I say something? Or maybe it's something I wasn't saying; I think she thinks I don't feel bad for Liam. I had the sudden urge to make my face look sad and then pushed it away quickly, when did it matter what emotion I presented to the world.

"How long would it take Kitten's leg to heal?" I unlike Potter knew she was just stunned when I saw her, I also noticed the bloody mess that was her leg, as well as bruises all down her arms and one on her face but Madam Pomfrey fixed those faster than a sneeze. Her face descended further into sadness if that's even possible. Crap…I completely forgot that they were now fighting, I knew better than to ask why but I should have remembered not to ask at all.

"It'll be fine in a day or two."

"Whatever she said, she doesn't mean it. She's always saying things she doesn't mean and hitting people when that was never her intention, she could never stay angry at you."

"Well that's two things you were horribly wrong with today." She sighed, and took the flower from my hand, I think she was so distracted by her thoughts she forgot to push it away as I held it out to her.

She walked down the corridor,

"Granger?"

She turned, one dark eyebrow raised over her watery brown eyes, "What Nott?"

"Aren't you going to tell me?"

She sighed and I smiled as she rolled her big eyes at me, "Thanks for the flower and a happy Valentine's Day to you too Nott."

I frowned, "I meant what's your favourite colour?"

I heard her tinkling laugh as she continued down the corridor, my smile widened…remembering the smile that I managed to evoke on her face earlier, despite her sadness…a very happy Valentine's Day indeed.

A/N: So what do you guys think of Hermione and Theo?

Please review, your thoughts are invaluable to me.

Kalina