Outcasts | 5 Slytherins 1 Hermione

XI

"What's that?" A deep voice asked, walking up behind her. She didn't need to look up to know it was Theo.

Hermione stared down stoically at the small black book in front of her. She had been sitting in a secluded corner of the library, just looking at it, thinking.

Something about it felt... off.

"Riddle gave it to me."

Theo looked at her with a raised brow, then at the book. "You know, you're not fooling anyone by still calling him 'Riddle.' We all see the way you look at him." He stood next to her, hands in his pockets, she caught his usual comforting scent but pushed every distracting thought away that came with it.

Hermione wasn't ready to face whatever conversation he wanted to have with her, especially about Riddle.

"Where do you think he got it? It's not a family text, is it?" she asked curiously, her eyes still fixed on the book.

"You could open it and find out," He suggested.

Hermione snorted. "But you've seen it before, right?" She finally looked up at him. When their eyes met, a shiver shook down her spine.

"We've all read it."

Hermione hummed. Blaise had mentioned how Riddle had helped them heal; she wondered if that meant he taught them all Occlumency. She wasn't sure if you could equate the skill to healing, but she could see how it might be useful.

"I can feel the magic in it," she stated.

Theo pulled out a chair and joined her at the table. Hermione could feel his body heat as he sat next to her. "It's just a few charms to ensure that if it got lost, it would return to him. He probably charmed it so that you are the only one who could open it beside him... he's protective of his possessions."

Hermione couldn't help but wonder if there was a double meaning in what he was saying. "So it's important to him... and he lent it to me?"

She looked up at Theo to catch him shaking his head slowly, a ghost of a smile on his face. "Yes, it is indeed important to him, and he did in fact lend it to you..." he said, his eyebrows raised with amusement as if he was waiting for her to catch on to the obvious.

She pondered what this truly meant to Riddle. Why did he care about her emotional well-being? She also wondered when her emotions had shifted so drastically. It was only a few weeks ago that she hadn't cried since the end of the war, and now it seemed she couldn't stop. Ever since the five of them entered her life, it was as if some part of her that she had closed off was slowly rising to the surface, turning her life into an emotional rollercoaster.

She missed being numb.

She missed being angry.

Hermione shook off the knot in her throat. She glanced at Theo, who seemed to be waiting earnestly for her to open the cover as if it were a grand decision that would signify her surrender. As if she hadn't already made that decision on their first night together.

She looked back down at the book. It was a small black leather book, a bit bigger than her hand. At first glance, you might think it was a journal, but apparently, it held the secret to controlling her mind.

"Why can't one of you just teach me? What's with the dramatics of this mysterious book?"

"Is Hermione Granger really refusing to study a book, just because its origin is a mystery?" he teased.

"Not refusing, I just have a funny feeling I can't describe."

Theo hummed in thought. He looked at her through his lashes. "I think there's a small part of you that wants to be defiant, especially to Mattheo. I think it turns you on to rile him up, even with something as small as reading a book he gave you."