Nobody Knows My Heart Like You

Chapter 3

The weekend had passed by quite quickly for Jace and his friends from Ilvermorny. They had been given one of the small classrooms in the dungeon for their private use along with the rest of the Chaotic Covenant Task Force in order to store all of their intelligence. So far they had already gotten a name for the first officer in the Chaotic Covenant: Atria Thorne, the lowest ranking officer of the seven in the Chaotic Covenant primarily responsible for No-Maj (or muggle, as they were called in the UK) assassinations. He had also spent a fair amount of time with his new friend, Hermione Granger. Even though she was not technically a formal member of the CCTF, she was still welcomed in the meetings as an honorary member of their group and was essentially an equal. And of course, after Jace's daily meeting was over, Hermione would show him the castle grounds or Jace would take her to get lunch.

They had grown incredibly close, he realized one day as he was going to meet her for breakfast the day before he was to be sorted. The meeting that day had been fairly simple, discussing different strategies to use to get to Atria. Jace was convinced that what had to be done was to infiltrate the ranks of info-diggers under his command and work his way around them, but Axel was adamant that they should storm the operations base that had recently been located in the mountains near Hogsmeade. Finally, it was decided that they would all write down a stratagem to give to the senior members of the CCTF. From there, a strategy would be devised and they would flesh out their plan until it was foolproof.

Jace scrawled down his plan, tossed his quill on the table and then walked out of the room, tired of discussion. When he opened the door and saw Hermione's smiling face waiting for him, he felt his heart warm a little. She could always make him smile, now that the two were close friends. "Hey, Hermione," he said with a smile, giving her a warm hug. "How are ya, nerd?"

It had been nearly a week since Hermione and Jace had met. They bonded fairly quickly after the day's events, and she was allowed into the Covenant as a special guest. She spent most afternoons with the boy, going to meals together and showing him around the castle. During the morning Hermione had been choosing between the covenant meetings, and study time in the library before breakfast, and that morning she had chosen the library for the sake of her grades. Not that she was doing any less than top of her classes, but it never hurt to throw in extra study time. She had finished about ten minutes ago and was waiting patiently outside the doors where the morning meeting was being held.

"You're late," she scolded as he stepped out, only smiling as his frown turned into a grin. His smile never failed to stir something inside of her, despite her desperate attempts to deny these feelings. The embrace was quick, just a simple greeting as it were, and yet she still found great comfort in that moment of physical touch each time they arrived to the same spot. She had been on edge since the end of the war. Her nights were filled with nightmares and her days were littered with flashbacks and moments of panic. She dealt with those moments well and kept her friends from knowing. Hermione was not weak, and she did not want to give anyone the impression that she was. But in those brief seconds where Jace would wrap his arms around her she felt completely safe. There were obvious feelings for this boy, but she had only known him a week. Perhaps it was just because they had stood in a near death situation together on the first introduction. Or perhaps not. They'd know soon enough.

As the girl gave him a hug, he rested his cheek against her head. "And you avoided the question," he whispered in her ear with a smile, pulling back a bit, but not completely taking his arms away from the girl. He leaned back a bit and looked in her eyes as he continued. "I asked how my favourite nerd was. You are my favorite nerd. How are you?"

The way that the boy was holding her was definitely not identical to any way that he'd hugged her before. As a matter of fact, this wasn't a hug. This was something very different. Part of Jace realized that, of course. Even though he was absolutely clueless of Hermione's feelings towards him, they were indeed mutual. Where Hermione felt safe in his arms, he felt needed. He was willing to fight anyone to protect her, whether that be a random thug from the street, Atria, or even the leader of the Chaotic Covenant themselves. And if he had to take on the whole world to keep her safe, then so fucking be it. It didn't matter one single bit to him.