Diem Mortis | Dramione

Six.

On the way back to Gryffindor tower, Hermione thought she had almost met her untimely death about three times. She had been walking so fast in an attempt to try and rid her mind of any thoughts surrounding Draco and his access to the restricted section that she missed multiple steps.

It was on her third fall that she smashed her knee against the stone and split the skin. With one hand wrapped tightly around the bannister of the stairway, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her mind was quick in swapping thoughts of Draco to Tonks, who had died on this very stairway, running down to find her husband during the battle.

Hermione swayed on the spot, eyes filling with hundreds of tiny red dots.

Students were passing her on the stairs. She could hear the clinking of their heels and laughter coming from their mouths. Hermione could roughly hear them talking about the bonfire. But she couldn't see them, it was the haunted look of Tonk's dead body in her eyes, pressing against her like a ton of weight.

She swore she could hear Teddy's crying echoing throughout her mind before someone spoke and silenced it like they had flipped off a radio.

"Hermione?" It felt as if she had been slapped in the face, bringing her back to reality. "Are you alright?"

Theo was standing at the top of the stairs, peering down at her with a sceptical expression on his face. He must have been waiting for her by the portrait, she was now ten minutes late.

She suddenly felt very embarrassed to have been seen in that state.

"I'm –" Fine? Of course she wasn't fine. "Sorry I'm late, Theo."

As Hermione continued upwards, desperate to not fall again, she noticed the awkward stance in his posture and the way he was rolling back on the heels of his feet.

"Are you sure you don't want to go to the bonfire?" He raised a brow and Hermione felt a prickle of panic dance across her chest. Fire. "I mean, I don't particularly want to go, but do you?"

"I would rather jump off Gryffindor tower than go to that forsaken bonfire." Hermione huffed. She walked towards the portrait, feeling Theo following closely behind.

Truthfully, there were hundreds of other ways Hermione wanted to be spending her Friday evening. Curled up in her bed reading a book or camping out in the nook to try and find any more information on the red swell above her head. Spending a night with Theo Nott under any circumstances would have never been on her repertoire, but if meant he wasn't about to fall into the burning flames of the bonfire to his death, then she could endure it.

"Great." He said as she whispered the password and climbed through, ignoring the glare coming her way from the eyes in the painting. She had never brought someone from a different house into the common room before. "At least we're on the same page."

Theo followed her, mumbling something about minding their own business as the portrait shut behind him. Hermione watched the warmth of the room fill his face, the fireplace littering his skin like he was made of gold and the chandelier above his head beating down on him.

"Wow" Theo glanced around, eyes blown open. "So, this is the famous Gryffindor common room?"

"You like it better than sitting beneath the black lake in the dark all the time?" Hermione cocked an eyebrow and slumped into the chair by the fire. She felt mentally and physically burnt out and standing on her feet for even a second longer seemed like torture. "Do you prefer red and gold to that ghastly green?"

"And how do you know what our common room looks like?" He sank into the chair opposite her curled his feet beneath himself like a cat. "Hermione Granger breaking rules to sneak into the Slytherin common room? No. Never."