**Disclaimer:** Yeah, none of this is mine. Still playing in JKR's sandbox.

**Beta:** Help! Someone tell *fluffpanda* I'm posting unsupervised! Oh, phew, she's back. Thank Merlin!

A/N: This is an outtake. It is not part of the Quidditch Fanfiction Competition.

Chapter 2 (Outtake): Horrible Table Manners

Hermione yawned into the back of her hand as she waited in the corner booth of the pizza place. It was a small family-owned place just out of the way of the busy crowds of London, and very few people who weren't locals knew the place existed. Those that did know, however, tended to make regular pilgrimages to the place due to the spectacular pizzas. It was a Muggle establishment, so when the common joke that the place had "absolutely magical" pizza spread to her ears, Hermione had to stifle a giggle or three at the thought of it. There was nothing magical about the pizza other than its fabulous taste, but Hermione had surreptitiously waved her wand over one of the pizzas to make sure. She tried to dismiss it as curiosity rather than decades of paranoia, but she doubted anyone she knew would have believed that.

The cheerful older lady came to her table with a few menus, made sure the drink glasses were filled, and left her a huge basket of freshly baked bread that set her mouth watering like a dog to Pavlov's bell. Darting her eyes from side to side to see if anyone was looking, she snatched a roll from on top and tore into it, dipping the carbohydrate ambrosia into the herb-soaked olive oil with grand enthusiasm. Her eyes rolled halfway back into her head as the bliss travelled from her taste buds to her brain in rapid firing sequence. Fabulous.

"Couldn't wait for us, Granger?" Draco's drawl oozed over her.

Hermione swallowed the bread she was chewing on in haste. "Shut it, Malfoy," she snapped. "You were late."

Draco's smile was sickly sweet as he pulled Theodore Nott by the ear. "Oi, fishbrains. Stop staring at the girl behind the counter."

"I think I know her," Theodore said with a little amazement, scooting into the booth next to Hermione.

Draco took the other side, shaking his head at Theo as he grabbed for the heavy menu for the customary glance over that never actually did anything. They ordered the same thing every time. He watched as Theo kept staring towards the counter and the young woman who was chatting it up with a patron. The girl did look familiar. Curious.

The older woman returned back to the table. "Hello," she said warmly. "Are you ready to order, lads?"

"The usual, I think," Draco said with a tilt of his head, his pony-tail swishing in just the right way that never failed to make women of any age practically fall over him. Ever since Draco had let his hair grow long, he had kept it tamed into a ponytail in public. It helped when they were on duty as Curse-Breakers. Getting your long hair stuck in a trap was all kinds of embarrassing. He had started wearing his ponytail long when his father had cut his hair in a token severance from his past. Draco, however, had done the opposite and grew his out.

"Sausage, pepperoni, and kitchen sink sans anchovies?" the lady chuckled.

"Yes, and I'm starving," Theo moaned, tapping his stomach with a hollow sound.

"I told you to eat breakfast this morning," Hermione huffed, shaking her head at him. "Could we get a pitcher of fizzy?"

"Sure, love," the woman said with a smile. "Would you be wanting extra-large tonight to fill the hollow leg?"

Hermione shook her head. "Might as well. He skipped breakfast." Hermione shot Theo a glare.

Theo looked at her innocently, ruffling his hair with his hand.

"You two get the artifact to Gringott's without incident?" Hermione asked after the kindly lady left.

"Mostly," Draco said with a sniff. "We got it to the vaults okay, but some new guy just went to pick it up and place it in the vault. He'll probably be at St. Mungo's for a while until his hair grows back."

Hermione closed her eyes, counting to ten in Portuguese. "I see."

Theo rubbed her shoulder with his hand. "Now, Hermione, you know we can't help that our job ends the moment they sign for the item. We did our part."

"That's the third idiot they've hired that didn't know any better than to touch a cursed object with their bare hands. Who does that?" Hermione moaned.

"Imbeciles," Draco said, imitating his godfather almost perfectly.

Hermione and Theo laughed together.

"I swear they do it on purpose," Theo said, munching on a piece of bread dipped in oil. "The goblins enjoy watching the people that don't know any better suffer because they are too stupid or too proud to ask. Not that you've ever had that problem with not asking, Hermione."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Theo. I didn't need training to tell me when something was cursed. You don't just go groping a random object when you don't know where it's been."

Both wizards stared at her when she said groping as though it were a trigger world.

Hermione slumped her shoulders. "Honestly, are the two of you twelve?"

Theo and Draco nodded emphatically, taking their time to eat their bread.

The three of them had become regulars in the Muggle establishment. The family knew them from how often they came, and they ordered the same thing every time: pitcher after pitcher of fizzy drinks and the kitchen sink pizza sans the anchovies. Even though the three were aquatic Animagi thanks to saving a small child from drowning in an undertow a few years back, they preferred their fish fresh from the ocean and not on their pizza. To be fair, they had tried it once just to say they had, but while they didn't gag, they most definitely did not feel inclined to order it again.

They dressed in what Draco called the "lazy casual" which was what they often used when trying to blend in on assignment. It could easily pass as either Wizarding wear or Muggle at a glance, being somewhere in between practical and bland enough that no one took great notice. They had learned early on that most of the sites they explored for their job were old, dusty, and neglected places, so comfort was key. Fashion was hardly a concern when crawling around in dark and cramped places that usually ended up resembling a tomb. The bright side of their lack of fashion was that they could come to places such as the pizza place after work and not have to change clothes. Theo and Draco were going through a Muggle jeans phase, trying out different cuts and looks to find "the one" they preferred. There were times that certain cuts caught Hermione's eye and made the breath hitch in her throat, but she adamantly refused to admit or tell them about it. She had the sneaking suspicion, however, that the Curse-breaker duo knew full well what their jeans aesthetic was doing to her, and that is why they kept wearing them. Evil wizards.

The pizza came after they had managed to polish off three baskets of bread between them. Theo dove into the pizza like a starving predator during the dry season. Draco and Hermione stared at him in between their bites of pizza.

"Merlin, Theo," Draco said. "Do you have to be a bloody barracuda at the dinner table too?"

"What?" Theo said, his mouth half full.

"Attractive," Hermione scoffed, taking a drink. "Your manners tank when you're starving, Theo."

Theo gave her a gallant shrug, devouring his pizza with flourish. "Says the otter and the sea snake," he chuckled. "I've seen you and sea urchins, Hermione, and you with fish, Draco."

Draco tapped the table. Somehow all of the pizza had disappeared in a matter of minutes, and Draco and Hermione looked at Theo as though he were the root of the matter. Theo normally had fastidious manners at the dinner table, but he lost control when he put himself into starvation mode. Hermione and Draco had learned to tolerate it as one of his "minor flaws." "I'm not the one doing their best Weasel impression," he said with a grunt.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," Hermione muttered, her eyes on the door.

Draco and Theo snapped their head to look towards the door and saw the distinctive red hair of one Ronald Weasley as he wandered into the pizza place. "What are the chances," Draco groaned. "How does he even know of this place?"

"That's where I've seen her face before," Theo said, hiding his eyes with his hand and drink. "The girl… she was with the Weasel at Gringott's. They were together opening a joint account at the Muggle branch in London."

"What!" Draco and Hermione together.

"As serious as a heart attack, just… oh Merlin, don't look," Theo groaned.

Draco and Hermione simultaneously looked over, turned slightly green, and turned their heads back to the remaining pizza.

"I could have gone my entire life without seeing that," Draco said.

"Plan S?" Theo said casually.

Draco and Hermione nodded.

"Right then," Theo said, scratching his head. "Good thing I wore a trench coat."

-o-o-o-o-

Ronald Weasley's eyes widened as Theodore Nott walked up to the cash register and paid for his food.

"Hello, Weasel," he droned. "I'd recommend the kitchen sink pizza. It's to die for."

"N… Nott?" Ron blurted, his hand moved off of the woman's hand he was holding like it had suddenly implicated him in a crime.

"Hnn," Theo said, staring down at Ron with a slight tilt to his head and just the right amount of flick to his hair to cause the woman who had only moments before been looking adoringly at Ron to turn her google eyes to Theo. "I have not met your charming lady, Miss?"

"Bianchi," the young woman gushed. "Sabrina. My, uh, name is Sabrina."

Theo arched a brow. "A pleasure," Theo purred. He took her hand in his and brought it to up to his and kissed the air above her knuckles before releasing it with a flourish. "I am Theodore," he said with a controlled smile. "Theodore Nott."

Ron nudged Sabrina who was still frozen in place, staring into Theo's face as though he was the most interesting person in the world.

Theo smiled at Ron as though he were intensely intriguing. "I'll be sure to tell Hermione that I saw you, Ronald," he chattered easily. "She's been wondering why she hasn't seen you at Sunday dinner at the Burrow for weeks now. She was worried you went and got yourself into a tangle with…Dark individuals."

Theo's tight lipped smile grew as he watched Sabrina whisper to Ron not quite quietly enough to not be heard.

"Where is this burrow, Ron? Is it a restaurant? Who is this Hermione? Dark individuals? Are you a police officer?"

Theo straightened and turned on his heels, stopping by the table to leave money for the tip. He inclined his head to the older woman at the counter, smiling with his full charm. He swept the restaurant, his trench coat fluttering behind him.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Theo twitched as he hurried to the nearby alley. "Ack, bloody hell, you two, give me a moment to get somewhere out of the way." Theo dove into the shelter of the dark alley and opened his trench coat.

Hermione wriggled out from under the pocket under his arm as Draco slithered out from his inner coat pocket. Hermione's whiskers twitched and she bounced back and forth from her front legs and back, doing a small imitation of a ferret's "war dance". Draco slithered up next to her and they tussled together, mock fighting. She bared her teeth and snapped at him as Draco made to strike her with his fangs, but neither followed through. They danced together like a cobra and mongoose for a few minutes before finally settling. They both shifted back into their human forms with laughter on their lips.

"Oh, I'm going to be telling this story for years," Draco snickered. "Blaise is going take it and run with it at the Aurors' Office. He might even plaster it all over the Atrium in little posters that say 'We want your help to catch Dark individuals'!"

Hermione wore an otterish grin on her face, reflecting her Animagus' form in an unnerving resemblance. "Theo, what am I going to do with you?" she chuckled.

Theo gave a gallant shrug. "You have the power to keep him a nervous wreck thinking you are going to go march right to Molly and have Sunday tea saying 'Oh, Molly, you'll never guess who I saw at the pizza parlour in London this last week'."

Hermione chuckled. "It would be so worth it to do just that."

"Still haven't forgiven him for his brazen mouth?" Draco asked with a yawn.

"I haven't forgiven him for calling me a 'Slytherin hussie' in front of the entire Aurors' office, no," Hermione snorted.

"I heard Potter punched him in the face for that," Draco said with a grin. "What I wouldn't have given to see that."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"The least you could do is let us see it in the pensieve," Theo said with an eyebrow wiggle.

"Absolutely not!" Hermione huffed.

"Spoil sport," the two Slytherin chimed together.

"Yes!" exclaimed the frazzled witch.

Theo tapped his fingers to his chin. "Ronald Weasley dating a Muggle, not just a Muggle-born witch, but an actual Muggle. The story behind it just begs to be dug up."

"Pft," Hermione answered, nudging him. "Now you sound like Skeeter."

Draco and Theo exchanged glances, evil grins spreading across their faces.

"Oh, no!" Hermione said, her eyes widening. "Don't—"

The crack of the dual Apparates hung in the air, and Hermione Granger closed her eyes with a resigned sigh. She smacked her palm into her forehead and let her fingers trail down her face. The next day's Daily Prophet was going to be an epic scandal, and she was going to need a serious amount of sleep and an equal amount of tea in the morning to handle it.

Stepping back into the shadows of the alley, she let the image of her home balcony fill her mind.

Crack.

She was gone.