It had been on that infamous first journey to Hogwarts when they were but eleven years old when Hermione Granger and Theodore Nott first met.

She had walked into his carriage on the train, the only occupied one as it were since they were both so early, her due to excitement, that much was obvious. Him, well, he never exactly said. It's not like he wasn't excited that is, this was the first time he was going off to Hogwarts; something he had looked forward to for years, his excitement just didn't match hers. Though to be fair probably nobody's did.

"Umm this carriage is taken." He had managed to stammer out. It was clear even then he was a shy and nervous boy, pretty much the total opposite of the girl standing in front of him.

"This is a big carriage and I only see you in here. Besides, there's nobody else here yet." She replied as if that wasn't his exact point.

Theo had tried to dissuade the small girl with fuzzy brown curls and buck teeth as much as he could but there was no stopping her. She was about as determined as they come. After they both dressed in their school robes, still painfully early, still the only other two people on the train - or the platform for that matter since neither of their parents had stuck around once their children retreated inside - Hermione had noticed a book Theo must have been reading before she came into the carriage and upon seeing the title 'Hogwarts. A History' she burst into a long list of facts about the castle, her favourite paragraphs and pieces of history of what she deemed the 'most exciting place in the world'. Theo didn't disagree and shy as he was he felt comfortable enough with this strange girl to talk and so the pair of them sat together discussing what they thought and hoped the coming year would include long after the train left the station.

They both briefly left the carriage at some point, returning to spend the last couple of hours of their journey eating their way through sugar quills and chocolate frogs before they finally arrived at the castle.

They had been about to climb aboard the boats that would get them across the river when Theo realised he didn't even know this girls name. He had assumed that she was pureblood due to her knowledge of their world, knowledge that surpassed even his own and he was practically a prince to the rest of the wizarding world. He figured she was the daughter of some blood traitor family, sure he would have known her otherwise.

Holding his hand out as one would expect of a son of his birth right he offered her his hand and helped her into the boat, settling her down safely before he asked her name.

"You know, I feel like I should at least know the name of the first friend I have at Hogwarts." He said as he took the seat next to her letting a couple of other first years fill up the two remaining spaces.

"Oh! I didn't even realise. Hermione, I'm Hermione Granger." She beamed at him stretching her hand out for him to shake.

Of course though, being the son of the esteemed Rowley Nott, Theo knew better than to shake a lady's hand, even if that lady was only eleven years old. He took her hand gently in between the two of his and brought it to his mouth where he placed the gentlest of kisses against her fingers as she blushed fiercely. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Granger."

"Hermione, please. And of course it is a pleasure to meet you too Theodore Nott." She replied whilst he still had hold of her hand. It somehow felt safe there and she had no intention of removing it.

"You know who I am?" He asked her, eyebrow raised.

"Your name was in your book. I can read you know." She joked.

"Of course. Silly me. I didn't realise I should be guarding my possessions before we even got to the castle. It's a good job we won't be sharing a dormitory, I'm not sure I could handle my books' privacy being invaded as such." He replied with a smirk as she blushed a deeper shade of red. "If I'm to call you Hermione, you must call me Theo of course." He replied as he dropped their hands to the bench in between where they sat, still holding on to her fingers with one of his own hands.

"Theo." she repeated with a smile.

They had spent the next hour talking nervously about what would happen that evening, he had told her he thought she would make a perfect Ravenclaw, she had agreed and thought he would too. That only earned her a sombre expression.

They carried on holding hands until her name had been called out and the sorting hat was placed on her head, he noted she was almost a hatstall but the second the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR" he knew it was over. He was headed for Slytherin he was sure of it, there had never been a Nott who wasn't in Slytherin and Slytherin's and Gryffindor's didn't mix. Not in a friendly manner at least. And so it was a dejected Theo Nott who stood up a couple of sortings later and was, predictably, sorted into Slytherin where he spent the evening mulling over the loss of his first friend in Hogwarts. Probably his first real friend in well, ever, if he was to be honest. He had barely known her and yet missed her terribly. He especially missed how safe he felt when he held her hand.

It had been a few weeks later when word got out that the bushy haired, buck toothed little Gryffindor who had no friends and was top of every class was in fact a muggle born witch. No, a mudblood as Theo's father would have him think. It had been a shock to almost everyone and Theo was definitely among his classmates who were wide eyed at the revelation. She had just seemed to know so much they all assumed she came from a respected background. Or, at the very least, was a half blood.

Theo, of course, had been raised by a man who despised muggle's and any and all things to do with them. Muggle born's; mudblood's, were second in that list only to muggle's themselves. Rowley Nott had not been shy in teaching his son his own beliefs and so, at the end of a belt, and eventually, a wand, Nott Snr taught his son everything he could about muggle borns.

He taught him to hate them, despise them, spit on them. He taught him they were filthy, magic stealing thieves who wanted to take over their world. He taught him they had no rights to a wand, less so than house elves and goblins even. He taught him to recoil at the mere thought of being in proximity to one. That they were a few cauldrons short of a potions lab, so to speak. That they were dumber than even mountain trolls and as ugly as a three headed dog. That they smelt like hags and didn't know what soap was. But most of all, Rowley Nott, and many other pureblood parents, taught his son that their blood was filthy and he was to never, under any circumstances, ever, to engage in any way with one lest he blacken the family name. It was all in the name of course. Mudblood. Mud. Blood. Dirty blood.

What Theodore Nott's father did forget to do however was think to introduce his son, heir and last scion of his ancient and noble house, to a muggle born. Had his father done that maybe his views would have been different. Had his father brought him to the filthy, stinking, dumb, magic thief he was brought up to believe they were, Theo might have believed it.

Had Hermione Granger, his first friend, sweet, talkative, a thirst for knowledge with wild crazy hair who happened to make him smile and held his hand so easily that first day not been the first muggle born he met, he might have even believed all the bullshit that had been forced upon him. However as it was, when he found out her true blood status he smiled for the first time since he had held her hand in the great hall just before she was to be sorted. He smiled because he knew, just knew that this girl was going to change everything and that no matter what his father said any more, be it at the end of a wand or belt, he could never believe it any more than he believed the Chudley Cannons would win the next cup. To be honest, he doubted he ever truly believed it at all and that Halloween when saw her after fighting a mountain troll (the very thing his father said 'her kind' looked like though he rather thought she was kind of cute) and saw her blood, her red blood, red. The same colour as his own, as his fathers and every other humans blood out there be it witch, wizard, Veela or Salazar, even a werewolf! They all had red blood and for the first time he smiled a true smile and hoped to merlin that he wasn't wrong about this witch. Wasn't wrong she was going to change their world and their views.

He wasn't disappointed.

That train journey to Hogwarts that first year had changed Theodore Nott's life. He suspected it changed the lives of many students but probably none more so than pureblood's and muggle borns' as both were thrust into a world they thought they knew only to find everything had all been a lie. One for the good and one for the bad.

Over the years Theo kept and eye on the girl who had held his hand and snooped through his books so easily that first day and as time went on he stopped seeing her as the cute bushy haired, buck toothed know-it-all eleven year old and watched her slowly develop into a teenager and then into the beautiful woman he knew she would be.

Looking back it was obvious to him that he was always attracted to Hermione in some way, right from that first day when he brought her fingers to his mouth and instead of dropping it gracefully like proprieties would have him do, he kept hold of her because it felt nice. Felt good. When it came to her it always felt good.

Except for when it didn't. When it came to watching her at the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum it started to feel a lot less good. When he saw her ginger friend salivating all over her any chance he could get it became even less good. When he found out she had been attacked, by Death Eaters, his father included, he felt sick but that wasn't even the worst of it. He had told himself over and over again that she was a smart girl, Gryffindor sure, best friend to the most reckless idiots ever, yes. But she was smart and he was counting on that keeping her alive long enough to survive the war.

When his best friend Draco Malfoy turned up at his house one night over the Easter holidays of what was supposed to be their seventh year and proceeded to get drunk on the most expensive Firewhiskey Theo had around before going into awfully vivid details of what had happened not even an hour before in his home it became worse. His home where he had to watch as Hermione Granger, fellow student, Harry Potter's best friend, muggle born, was tortured in front of him, was crucio'd and carved while he could do nothing but watch. He begged Theo to obliviate the memories and missed how his friend, who had somehow luckily managed to escape being marked so far, turned practically translucent at the thought of her going through so much. Missed how Theo's glass shattered in his hand accidentally. Missed how he threw up violently and only managed to settle down enough to grab the bottle and pour a quarter of the burning liquid down his throat before asking "Di..did she…is she…"

"Alive?" Draco finished for him. He didn't wait for Theo to answer before he answered his own question "She was. Barely. When they escaped." He said before pulling another bottle out of the cabinet and, like his friend, forgoing the glass since he had no intention of sharing the amber liquid. It became unbearable. He longed for the days where he could watch her studying in the library with nothing but O.W.L.s ahead of them he longed even for the Yule Ball, to see her happy on the arms of an international Quidditch player. Hell, he would even be happy to see her in the arms of Ronald bloody Weasley if he could take it all away. But he couldn't. He could only hope she was still Gryffindor enough to see this war through. Could only hope that one day when the war was eventually won, the memories would fade enough for the girl who was his first friend, fade to give her the relief he knew she would need. Fade enough so maybe, just maybe, one day she might let him hold her hand again and make her feel safe.