"Oh My Gods!"

Ginny's squeal of delight reached her ears over the orderless noise of celebration around them. The Gryffindor Team had won the Cup! An accomplishment that everyone had doubted when Harry was side-lined by his "blunder". Yet, the team had railed and annihilated the Ravenclaws. Over three hundred and ten points had separated the teams by the time the snitch was caught. Dour over having to miss the match, Harry had entered the common room expecting outcries of heartache and ended up kissing the redhead in his jubilation at the unanticipated news.

Hermione laughed at the wide-eyed expression of shock on the witch's face. "Better than you were anticipating?"

"Is this real? You should pinch me to make sure…" Ginny said earnestly, offering an arm that was still covered by the long sleeve of her maroon and gold Quidditch uniform.

She looked at the wizard who was standing near the portrait hole. A soft smile on his lips as he waited patiently for her friend to return. "I would but he is watching."

"Let me borrow your coat! He wants to go for a walk!" The girl was giddy with excitement.

"In the time you took to talk to me, you could have gone and gotten your own." Hermione teased, crossing her arms around her middle to indicate she had no intention of taking it off.

The other witch glanced over her shoulder to make sure Harry was still waiting, "Look, I am sorry I've been such a bitch lately… I thought…"

"You thought what, Gin?" Her interest suddenly peaked at the answer to one of the questions that had nagged at her for too many days.

"I thought he was your Mystery Guy…"

"My…" The words didn't make sense in that order and it took her a second to figure out what Ginny had said. "...Ew."

"I know… Well, I don't know about the 'ew' part, but when he kissed me…" Her friend started to get a dazed far-off look to her before a particularly loud whoop came from the group of Fourth Years next to them. "Can I have your coat now that I apologized?"

"Yeah, yeah." Hermione shrugged out of the garment and handed it over. A smirk crossed her lips as she repeated the warning given to her months ago. "Don't do anything I would."

"Oh puh-lease!" The girl scoffed, before giving a quick hug of thanks and rushing over to an awed Harry. He looked down at her like she was a madonna reincarnate. Some priceless treasure that he'd found long ago and was finally able to show off to the world. With a near-identical look on her own face, Ginny followed him out into the night that awaited them.

Another loud shriek of laughter from the group of juveniles had her scanning the crowd for someone else to converse with. The scarce groupings of acquaintances that she would be welcomed to join were all deep in their various festivities. Joking or commemorating about the game with their actual friends. She, instantaneously, felt out of place in a room where she had spent most of her free time over the last six years.

Until she zeroed in on Ron. He sat in a random chair, staring at the door his best friend and sister had just passed through. His face blank as he clutched the silver chalice of victory to his chest.

She made her way through the crowd, sat down on the arm of his chair, and offered up a smile, "How goes it?"

Startled by her appearance, he jumped and clenched the keepsake tighter, "I… They left… Without even sayin' anything to me."

"You gave them your blessing." She reminded, as gently as she could with the pandemonium around them.

"I know, I just thought he would say something to me, you know?" Ron said, his eyebrows furrowed as he continued to stare at the, apparently offensive, piece of wood.

Her tolerance for his selfishness was always paper-thin and tonight was no exception. She managed to try to placate him instead of being nasty. "He will talk to you in the morning. Let him gain a little… perspective."

"Perspective? What perspective is he supposed to get with her tongue down his throat?" He rolled his eyes as he missed her subtle innuendo.

Hermione reached back and swatted him alongside the head. "Do not talk about your sister like that…"

"What?! It's true and you can't deny it!" He tugged on one of her curls in retaliation.

"Even if it was… You should not speak about your own family that way." She lectured, glaring down at him out of the corner of her eye. "Besides, Harry will be more clear-headed once he is finally able to act on his impulses."

"Finally?"

"Oh come on, Ronald! Please, tell me you are not that obtuse?" She shook her head in disbelief at the wizard's obliviousness.

"I mean… Ginny's been crushin' forever but…" Ron trailed off as he attempted to analyze her logic and spot the clues he must have missed on Harry's end.

"But Harry only figured out his feelings after seeing her with Dean this year." She prodded.

"Merlin's saggy ballsack… I really am blind, huh?" He said, rolling his eyes at himself.

"I think you can be forgiven, you were distracted by your own rudimentary instincts," Hermione smirked down at him and internally hoped she hadn't wandered too close to the unspoken boundary of his past relationship.

"Hey! That wasn't very nice." He accused, tugging hard on another curl. Instead of letting go, he started to twirl the piece of hair between his fingers.

For a moment she was transported to a different night with a different set of fingers that belonged to a different wizard. She blinked hard against the memory and jerked away from the touch. To cover up the unintended, but authentic, rejection she stood up quickly, "When will you learn? I am mean… And tired."

"Fine, leave me alone to sulk." Ron sighed heavily, glaring at the door again.

"Be good and let them have their night." She chided before patting him on the shoulder. "You can be the protective older brother tomorrow morning at breakfast, I promise."

"Yeah… Night, 'Mione." He said, absorbed and clearly ruffled by the night's events.

"Night, Ron."

Hermione rushed toward the safety of her dorm and the potion that beckoned from the bottom of her trunk.

And to think…

She had done so well following her new rules all freaking day…

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It was dark in the Library. Pince would be coming along any moment to eject any dawdlers from her domain. The long shadows cast from the flickering of the candles that hung from above in tarnished wrought iron chandeliers were ominous enough to raise the little hairs on her arms. Tainting her sanctuary until it no longer resembled the sanctum of edification it was in the daylight… But the fatalistic mutterings of the boy she watched through the stacked books in front of her almost made her abandon her hair-brained and sloppily-made plan.

His despondence at the indefensible display this afternoon at lunch had echoed the screaming inside of her. She'd had no self-control and broke as soon as Malfoy's miraculous recovery and sudden appearance at the Slytherin table was brought to everyone else's attention by Ginny. Granted, at first it had been an instinctual glance of confirmation, habitual in nature. Given no more thought than if someone had asked her to check the weather and she had looked out a window.

Then Hermione took in the provocative way Parkinson had pressed herself against him, leaning in much too close to be proper in public so she could whisper something in his ear. Her eyes fled from the deep spark of jealousy the scene caused in her and landed on the wizard who sat next to the couple. Theodore Nott was hunched over his plate. His hands shook with the effort it took to deliberately keep his eyes focused on the spread of food.

He wasn't any happier about the new development than she was…

Whatever relationship between him and Pansy that was alluded to during her eavesdropping session had ended as recently as three days ago. He stabbed at the pile of peas, filing each prong with tiny green victims of his suppressed anger. She could commiserate with him to a certain degree, but these were his friends. The added dual sting of betrayal and indifference had to make it a harder pill to swallow.

For the rest of the day his face had haunted her until she stumbled across him, hidden away in the dusty unused aisles of books at her table. Considering the time of year, it wasn't unusual to have random encroachments but they never lasted long and the other students never stayed. Yet, there he was, another Slytherin for her odd empathetic conscience to obsess over.

"...shove a cactus up…"

She stepped out from behind the shelf and cleared her throat, cutting off the rest of his empty threat of bodily mutilation. "Hello, Theodore."

"What do you want?" He glared up at her as the quill in his fingers bent from the pressure he exerted on the parchment. A controlled sigh lifted his shoulders as he discarded the utensil into the small pile of remains of its equally useless brethren.

"To talk." Hermione was honest.

"About?"

"Your friends…" As soon as she said the words, she watched as he shut down. The mask fell, a pale imitation of the perfection she was used to. He stayed silent until it became uncomfortable and she had to be the one to speak again. "And how you deserve better…"

"You don't know a thing about my friends." It was a statement of fact for him. There was no reason for him to believe otherwise.

"I know more than you would think." She acknowledged, looking down at the inverted essay he was working on. So many ink splatters littered the page that she wondered how he had any quills left.

"Such as?" He feigned an interest in his ink-blackened fingertips, a cover for the light of curiosity that had cracked through the mask of indifference.

"That the nasty piece of work you wanted to call your girlfriend held out for this exact moment," Hermione said, feeling a tiny bit braver as she stepped up to the table. "That the supposed friend you would be willing to kill for doesn't even care that her social climbing strategies are eating you alive."

Nott's jaw clenched as he battled to blink away the sudden tears that sprung to his hard navy eyes. His voice was husky and low with emotion as he instructed, "Go jump off the Astronomy Tower and save us from all the dramatic bullshit, Granger…"

"I will get right on that." She felt like she might deserve the disdain after being so blunt. "As long as you remember what I said… Milkie or coral, you deserve to be treated better and with more respect than that."

Quietly, he scrutinized her for a long moment before choosing to ignore her presence in favor of organizing the cluttered mess in front of him.

She hitched her bag higher on her shoulder at the dismissal but risked continuing, "Oh! And one more thing, if you decide to do that whole cactus thing on either of them… I would appreciate it if you made sure not to use lubrication. You know, from my soon-to-be occupied grave."

The twitch of a smile at the corner of his lips let her know that she had accomplished what she had set out to do. Appeased that he wouldn't spend the night stewing in the self-loathing she knew too well, she turned and walked away. Looking forward to another night of misery. This time contemplating how she had allowed herself to be hypnotized by the black mamba at the center of the writhing mass so completely that he had overshadowed the rest of the snakes.

Zabini's conjecture of other non-venomous variants amongst them could only be tested if she was willing to get bitten.

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Author's Note:

I'd love to hear what y'all are thinking! Is Hermione going to be able to win over another snake? Or is Theodore ready to accept that muggleborns might not be as horrible as he has been led to believe? Tell me all your thoughts about how we have gotten here, pretty please! All of your comments, kudos, likes, bookmarks and subscriptions are what make me keep coming back- even though life is intent on throwing those diverting curveballs.

Anyways, as always…

Much love,

SyltherclawLuv