A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Huge thanks to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter! You can find me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-two and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-three soon!


If Hermione squinted a little bit, it almost felt like things were back to normal at Hogwarts. Well, not entirely normal. Her roommates had certainly picked up on the fact that there was something different going on between her and Rabastan, but luckily they didn't pry too much. They certainly asked some prodding questions and made teasing comments about how soon it would be before her and the younger Lestrange brother would just come out and admit that they wanted to snog each other.

Hermione always blushed brightly and told them she certainly didn't want to snog him. The traitorous thought had crossed her mind once or twice (or a couple of hundred times), but she didn't see the point in jumping into a romance that could potentially end poorly with someone she'd be tied to for the rest of her life. It was better to focus on building up their foundation of friendship, which would allow them the means to establish a relationship in which they could coexist happily for decades to come.

As far as she could tell, none of the Slytherin boys were any the wiser to the change, save Regulus. They didn't have anything to say to her about Rabastan, though she did find herself now watching how he interacted with the others in their group more. There was no doubt that he was closest with Regulus out of the group of seventh years, but he also seemed close to Ansel. Their discussions seemed to be primarily focused on Quidditch, though there were times when Ansel was clearly teasing Rabastan, giving him sly looks and making Rabastan go a bit red.

Regulus, for his part, seemed relieved that Rabastan and Hermione were talking once again. Hermione was sure that he was just glad that he hadn't completely doomed her thus far. Her brother had also assumed the role of an unofficial mediator to a lot of their early talks, joining them in the library and smoothing things over when the conversation grew a little too stilted, something that hadn't been needed before that summer. Before they had been betrothed to one another.

They usually met to work on Charms in the library. Regulus didn't have any career ambitions outside of joining the Wizengamot, but he was still a Black and was taking an ambitious five NEWTs, though he'd whittled it down to his best subjects: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic. He probably needed the most help in Charms, but that didn't mean that he was a slouch in the subject, either.

Rabastan was good at Charms, too, though nowhere near as good as he was at Arithmancy. Of the three of them, Hermione was probably the best, but that didn't mean she wouldn't take all the help that she could get. Rabastan had a certain level of creativity and she thought that he might be decent at spell creation if he put his mind to it.

As it was, he liked to reach over to her notes and write helpful hints in the margins for how certain spells might be combined to work better together. It was common enough that when Hermione reached into her bag to grab a new quill she was not surprised that when she righted herself she found a new note in his familiar scrawl. However, Hermione felt her heart stutter when she realized that it was not his typical academic observation, but rather one about her appearance.

Your hair looks v. nice today. New ribbon?

Unbidden, her hand came up to toy with the long length of the black velvet ribbon that Walburga and Orion had sent for her birthday, along with all sorts of other treats, chocolates, soaps and a slim volume about Italian blood curses. Her eyes darted to his face and she saw him looking at her, his eyes softening when they met hers, his smart mouth fighting a smile.

A throat cleared and Hermione looked across the table at her brother, who was staring at her and Rabastan with what she couldn't be sure was hope or revulsion. "What?" she asked, blinking owlishly at him.

Regulus scoffed. "Nothing," he responded. "Just glad to see the two of you... getting along so well again."

Oh yes, Hermione thought to herself. Regulus had absolutely convinced himself that they were besotted with one another. Only, more and more Hermione was becoming acutely aware of the heat of Rabastan's body, from where he was sitting near her, not quite touching but almost.

"Imagining seeing us across the table for breakfast at Yule?" Rabastan asked, teasing because he knew he could get away with it. Because he knew that Regulus was the source of all of this.

"As if Mother and Father would consent to having you stay overnight at Grimmauld Place," Regulus countered, leaning back in his chair.

"You're right," Rabastan said with a smirk. "Hermione will be with me at home and we will have to Floo over for the mid-day meal instead, if we are invited to spend the holiday with your family."

She wasn't sure why, exactly, but her cheeks went hot at that. How could they talk so casually about them being a married couple and all that went along with it?

Regulus looked away first, his cheeks just as pink as her own in the end. So, maybe he wasn't as thrilled as he pretended that they were getting on so well. Served him right, Hermione thought, and she leaned a little bit closer to Rabastan, though not enough to give them any ideas.

"Alright, well, I actually have somewhere else that I need to be, if you don't mind," Regulus said, gathering his things up and putting them into his bag. It wasn't an admission of defeat, but Hermione thought Rabastan had won this round of... whatever this was.

"Regulus, you only just sat down!" Hermione said, wondering where he was heading off to. Was it just a lie to get out of an uncomfortable situation or did he actually have something to do? It seemed that she wasn't going to find out, because he was waving her off.

"You stay. I am sure you and Rabastan will have a very productive study session," he said, throwing his bag over his shoulder. "I'll see you in the Common Room later this evening."

And then Hermione was acutely aware that she was alone with Rabastan. Again. It seemed to be happening more and more and more frequently. "Do you know what's going on with him?" Hermione asked, wondering if his roommate might have some idea. "I had thought that maybe it was a witch or —"

Rabastan gave her a coy look. "You mean you don't know?" he asked. "Regulus does have a witch, but she is in Gryffindor. But, he is rather convinced that the relationship is doomed to failure, so he likes to pretend that it doesn't exist."

"What?" Hermione asked, blinking. She had previously thought that he was dating someone who might be unsuitable, but this was a surprise to hear. "Who is she?"

"I've already said enough," he answered, smirking at her. "I can't give everything away. Besides, I selfishly hoped that he would leave. I have something for you."

"For me?" she asked, feeling rather like a parrot, repeating his words.

"Yes. A present for your birthday," he answered, reaching into his robe pocket to produce a small parcel that was wrapped in plain brown parchment.

"Oh," she answered, taking it from him. "You didn't need to get me anything."

"You are to be my wife," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. "Of course I needed to get you a present. Go on, open it."

Hermione could feel her fingers shaking, even as she untied the twine holding the paper together and unwrapped it, only to find a small velvet box. They hadn't spoken of her wearing a ring — truthfully, she didn't even know if wizards did that — and she had wondered if he was going to try to give her one and if he would want her to wear it. For everyone to know that she was his.

But, to her surprise, it was a beautiful set of earrings inside the jewelry box — delicate, little round flats made of silver, with a decorative 'H' embossed on them. They were understated and charming. She looked up at him, thinking that they were very lovely. "Thank you, Rabastan. They are wonderful," she said, feeling very special to have received such a gift.

"Yes, well, I don't know if you've seen the Lestrange crest —"

"I haven't."

"We've taken the raven as the animal to represent our family, and I suppose it suits because we have always been rather partial to shiny things," he breathed out, watching as her fingers carefully plucked the earrings out of the box so that she could put them on. "And in turn, in giving shiny things as gifts of affection." Boldly, he raised a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear to get a better look at her new earrings. "They suit you."

Hermione was suddenly overwhelmed with his proximity and his kind words and his compliments about her hair and she needed to change subjects immediately. "We haven't spoken much about your family," she said, quickly. "You've reminded me hundreds of times that you are not the heir and yet you seem to know an awful lot about your family."

"Just because I'm not the heir does not mean I'm not steeped in tradition," he answered, with a sigh.

"So, who cares if you aren't the heir, then?" she asked, not sure why he seemed to care about it so much — or seemed to think that she would care about it.

"It's just... Rodolphus is the heir. Certain things are expected of him. He will be responsible for carrying on the family line and he will become Head of House some day. He will eventually take up our family's seat in the Wizengamot and represent us and our house wherever it matters," Rabastan says in a rush. "No one expects much of anything out of me. Just... as long as I don't fuck up completely, they could care less about what I do."

"That sounds lovely," Hermione said, wishing that the Black family was less invested in her future.

He gave her a wry smile. "I suppose, it should be. But I guess... I just feel a little bit left behind," he admitted, in a moment of vulnerability.

Oh, Hermione thought to herself. Rabastan saw the lack of expectations from his family as lack of interest. And, maybe having met his father, he really was uninterested in his own son. She hadn't met his mother yet, but she hoped that she wasn't as cold as Edmund had been thus far. "I'm interested in what you do with yourself, Rab," she said, reaching over and giving him a pat on the knee.

She watched as his Adam's apple bobbed up and down in his neck, as he looked at her, some unknown emotion in his eyes. "I'll shall strive to impress you, then," he said, softly.

"You already are impressive," she answered, her voice barely more than a whisper. "I hope that I don't offend you, but Rodolphus doesn't seem like the fastest broom in the shed, if you catch my drift."

Rabastan laughed at that. "Yes, that's a polite way of saying it. I love him, 'cause he's my brother, but Rodolphus is an absolute moron," he admitted. "And he is actually useless. I don't think that he's attended the Wizengamot once with my father and he fails at the simplest of tasks — like letting Bellatrix slip away, unmarried after over seven years! He shouldn't be the heir. He's not going to make our house better. I think we'll be lucky if he doesn't disgrace us."

Hermione swallowed, thinking about the infamy that the name Lestrange carried in the future and wondered how much of it was Rodolphus's doing. She wondered what Rabastan would think of what they'd done to the Longbottoms and what that meant for their reputation. Would he think it was a disgrace? Or would he think that it was the right course for them? She thought about telling him, but she wasn't ready to tell him that she was from the future. She actually wasn't sure if she'd ever be ready.

She blinked at him, when she thought about the rest of his words. "Why does your father let him be so useless?" she asked, wondering why Edmund didn't do more to make his heir impressive. Was that what marrying Bellatrix supposed to do?

"I don't know. I guess it's just the way that things are done and Father constantly hopes that he will step up, but he's more interested in fighting than learning," Rabastan explained, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't think he'll ever figure it out."

Looking at him, she thought that Rabastan would make a good heir and she told him so. "You should be the heir," she said, confidently. "You seem to care an awful lot about all of this. Your family is lucky to have you."

He gave her a shy smile. "I'm glad you think so," he said. "My father would have to pay attention to me to realize that himself, though."

Hermione bit her lower lip, sad that she had ruined the mood by talking about such tricky subjects with him. "Say, would you like to go back to the Common Room? I don't think we will actually get anything done tonight and I think that the girls promised some nips of brandy."

"On a school night, Miss Black?" he asked, clicking his tongue on the back of his teeth in faux scolding, though his swift grin gave away that he wasn't really disappointed. "I thought that you'd never ask."