Ameortentia - Collection of One-shots

Traitor (Theodore Nott and Hermione Granger)(Part 2)

Theodore: 

When I imagined being reunited with her, it wasn't anywhere near as horrifying as it actually happened. I never imagined her and her friends being captured and brought to Malfoy Manor... I never imagined Draco to be forced to identify them... I never imagined I'd have to hear her screams as she was tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange... and I certainly never imagined I'd be where I am now; Laying in a bed, in the spare bedroom, in one of the Weasley siblings homes. Hermione curled tightly into my side, sleeping soundly thanks to some potions Fleur Weasley had been quick to administer upon our unplanned arrival. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley occupy the chairs across the room, both of them shooting daggers at me with their eyes... They act as if I didn't just sign my death warrant.  Saying no to Bellatrix was one thing... but helping Harry Potter and his friends escape? I've just started a bloody movement against Voldemort from inside his own ranks. I never asked to be a death eater, I was forced to join because of who my father was... and even then I was never truly loyal. My heart was always with her. 

"Wanna explain what happened back there, Nott?" Potter finally breaks the silence, apparently he's realized I can't tell them anything if they don't talk to me. "Does it matter? I saved all of you by doing what I did... Does why I did it matter?" My voice comes out hoarse, it's clear I've not spoken in a long time. After she went on the run, I took a vow of silence; My voice hasn't been heard by anyone, properly, in almost a year. "I think it does, considering she's refused to let you go... even before the sleeping potions. You two shared one dance, and I think a snog, back in fourth year. That doesn't explain why she's holding onto you like the world might end if she doesn't."  I suck in a deep breath and try to think of the best way to tell Potter and Weasley that it was so much more than a dance and a snog. Hermione Granger has been my first everything, and I hers. She was my first crush, my first snog, my first love... and a few other firsts I shouldn't be thinking about right now. Telling them that, Isn't the best idea. 

I open my mouth to speak, having come up with some lame excuse, but, close my lips just as fast as they'd opened when I feel her begin to squirm against my side. Nightmare, she's having a nightmare. Ignoring the protests of Wonder Boy and the Weasel, I begin to run my fingers through her hair and sing her a soft lullaby my mother sang to me as a child. Potter and Weasley are looking at me like I've gone bonkers as I sing to Hermione in Italian, their eyes growing significantly wider when she lets out a contented sigh and snuggles closer to me. "Nott?" Potter asks again, with a sigh I finally reason with myself to answer him. "Love makes you do stupid things, Potter. Things that can get you, and the person you love, killed or hurt. Today, love made me a traitor. If I'm seen by one of them, I'm dead. I told, bloody, Bellatrix Lestrange no when she asked me to crucio Hermione, and for that she carved that bloody slur into her arm." He's looking at me in confusion right about the time Dean Thomas comes rushing into the room, panic in his eyes.

"Theo, Fleur just told me, Is she alright?" Dean asks me, not casting a glance in Potter or Weasleys direction. "She'll be alright, I don't know if I will though... I can still hear her screams." I answer honestly, pulling her closer to me as I talk. Not at all missing the fact that Weasley looked ready to burst with anger. "How can you love her?! You don't even know her!" He finally exclaims, his arms making quite the show. "Her full name's Hermione Jean Granger, her birthday is the nineteenth of September, 1979, her patronus is an otter, she obliviated her parents in an effort to keep them safe from this war, her favorite color is violet, her greatest fear is failure, and lastly, Weasley, the place she took you to after you fled the Ministry... I bet I know where it was." I raise my eyebrow, daring him to challenge my knowledge of her. "Oh, Yeah? Where's that?" He asks smugly. "The Forest of Dean, the place she and her parents used to go camping. I would know, I've gone with them on more than one occasion since she and I started dating in fourth year." I snarl.

Neither Potter or Weasley are given a chance to respond before Hermione slowly sits up, rubbing her eyes, wincing in pain when she sits her arm down. She takes a look around the room and I suck in a sharp breath, waiting on her to notice me. It doesn't take long at all before she realizes she's laying next to someone and turns to look at me. "Theo..." She breathes out when her eyes meet mine. Oh, Merlin, I've missed her eyes. She doesn't cast Potter and Weasley a second glance as she tosses herself at me, wrapping her arms tightly around my body and hugging me like it's the last time she'll ever get to do it. She suddenly pulls back and slaps me, "You absolute idiot. You told me you'd play it safe after you took the mark... Said you'd follow Malfoy and not make waves, you said you wouldn't do anything to get yourself killed." She's nearly crying now, I understand that what I did was dangerous, but, I couldn't stand by and watch them do that to her. Draco's mother had to body bind me while they carved that word into Hermione... If I had had any say, Bellatrix would have caught that chandelier with her teeth. 

"I have played it safe love, I've done damn near everything I've been told to do. I've only ever refused to blow up the Weasley Brothers joke shop. I've not been made to murder anyone, and everyone thought I was a weak link; They were right. My weakness was that the moment you turned up, I'd have to do everything in my power to save you. I took a bloody vow of silence, Hermione. I've not spoken since the last time I saw you, It's been seen as a weakness... Dean Thomas and I have been communicating in sign language for weeks. Even if you'd not turned up, I was going to get him and Lovegood the hell out of that house I-," She cuts off my rambling and connects her lips to mine, snogging me for the first time in over a year. I've only just began to apply presser when one of the three other boys in the room with us clears his throat, clearly not happy with the turn of events. Suddenly her eyes widen, shes remembered the manor. Shit, this wont be good for them.

Sitting straight up, she sends Potter and Weasley a glare. "You two... You jumped away from me when the chandelier fell. Had Theo not grabbed a hold of me, I'd be dead." She's nearly crying at this point, her eyes darting down to where the bandages on her arm are. She knows even I couldn't stop Bellatrix from that, I'd have been dead and so would she. As if she already knows what I'm thinking, she turns back to me and answers my unasked question. "I'm still fighting. I don't care what happens to me, I survived Bellatrix Lestrange, so, I think I can survive a little more war." I groan and flop back down onto the bed, hiding my face behind my hands, this witch is bound to give me a heart attack before I even see a battle field. "I'm going with you." I finally decide, she's out of her mind if she thinks I'll let her go alone. She starts to argue, but stops when Potter starts talking. "That's an brilliant idea, Nott! We need that dark mark of yours any way." "Why's that, Potter?" I ask with unease, not liking where this was going. 

"We're going to steal something from Gringotts." 

(Anyone Up For A Part Three?)