Out of Time

Chapter 12

Draco does not show up for their first lesson - Defence Against the Dark Arts - and Hermione's privately relieved. Today is a practical lesson, something else she's grateful for. Theo pairs with her again and after a befuddled inspection around the room, Blaise moves to pair with Pansy in Draco's stead without drawing further attention.

Theo follows Hermione as she deliberately stalks over to the far corner for privacy, and starts to ask where Draco is. The words die on his lips at her furious expression.

"Er, what's... happened, Hermione?"

"I stumbled across a certain mark," she hisses, eyes flashing.

"You -" Theo blanches pale and starts again, disbelieving. "You didn't know. We thought you knew. We thought you must have, by now."

"Right, no one would expect me to be so stupid as to be in the dark about it. Of course not. Hermione Granger must know. You didn't think it was weird that I didn't seem to care about it? It didn't seem out of character for me?"

"Shit." Theo rubs his face with his hand. "Shit. Where is he?"

"I don't know."

"...Did you end it?" He looks genuinely scared to ask, cringing a bit with the question.

"Not in so many words. I told him I wanted to talk to you."

Theo looks, if possible, more uncomfortable. He rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet as if there are needles poking him. "How... did he take that?"

"He permitted it," Hermione mocks, the truth behind the words irksome. "So obviously you all know. And it doesn't bother you? I know now how much you hate your father, but is any part of that his ideology? What do you all really think about me, Theo?"

Theo is as serious as the grave, his dark brown eyes cavernous beneath his curly hair. He taps his wand against the palm of his hand without noticing the rhythm. "Can I trust you, Hermione?"

She starts to speak and he holds up a hand to forestall her. "Don't answer quickly. I'm going to explain some things now, about Draco's situation, but I need your word that you won't go shrieking to Dumbledore. The more you keep things to yourself, the more I can tell you. So it won't be all at once. It's an exchange of trust."

Shocked into silence, Hermione can only bob her head. She sees Snape watching them from the far wall, still as a statue, and she raises her wand to mimic spellcasting. "Yes. Alright."

Blaise and Pansy keep shooting them concerned glances, too, and even Harry thinks her relocation to the corner is odd. She holds her shoulders back and lifts her chin, trying to remember why she's here.

"He didn't want that mark. I'm sure he told you - or tried to tell you." Theo's face scrunches as if avoiding imagining the row. "His dad's incarcerated, which is complicating things enough, but it happened over a mission that he failed. Publicly. He failed his... objective, and revealed that secret objective to the whole world, all in one go."

Hermione thinks back to the prophecy and everything about it. Truthfully, she hadn't really considered the larger implications from the Death Eater regime's view of the catastrophe.

"He," Theo puts special emphasis on the word, "was incensed. Marking Draco was a punishment to the whole family."

"So he didn't want it. You're saying he argued against it? Fought it? Did anything at all?"

Theo stares at her like she's daft and her hackles go up. "What would you suggest, Hermione? No one argues. If a few rounds of crucio didn't convince him, they'd have done it to his mother in front of him until he agreed. So to answer one of your questions, we all hate that he has it. There's pressure on him that none of us have."