Thank you to my reviewers: xXMizz Alec VolturiXx, krankykittie, viola1701e, FreyaWrackspurt, Sophiecambellbower, mega700201, kingphobes, Astra Across the Stars, Royan Granger-Nott, Aetzfeder, and Ingaomars!

September 21st, 1996

Hermione collapsed forward, Theo's sudden departure catching her off balance as she tumbled onto the grass. Heaving and breathing hard, she scrambled up, staring with horror at the house before her.

What if Theo died? What if he made a mistake and he went down with his father in that house? Playing with fire was no joke, nothing he should be taking so lightly or foolishly! What if he never came out and Hermione was left alone here, in the past, in that big house all by herself?

It hadn't been very long, but yes, she'd begun to depend on Theo. As her partner, as her other half, as someone she needed at this time. Hermione admitted to needing people very infrequently, and to realize how much she needed Theo on the cusp of his possible death was perplexing as much as it was frustrating.

She could feel her heart pounding wildly, and like each second he was gone, it was as though it beat louder and harder until all Hermine could hear was the sound of her blood through her eardrums.

Or what if he was captured by whoever Voldemort had sent just as he was coming out? What if they should have been faster? What if he was caught and tortured? What if this whole plan would be killed before it even truly began?

Oh, they were woefully unprepared to come here today! They should have planned more, should have been both completely on board and well-versed in these actions, down to the minutes of all of it!

And how dare he? How dare he sprout off all that about how he had Hermione, whereas his younger self had no one, and then leave her on his back lawn while he raced toward certain death? It was practically Gryffindor-like, and as fearful as she was, Hermione was also angry with him!

A cloud of smoke burned up from the center of the house.

Hermione felt her breath stop.

"Theo!" She exhaled out. She hoped she could tell if he died through their bond, but she was so concerned that she couldn't think of reaching out for that.

Okay, the fire was set. Theo should be arriving back here any moment now, shouldn't he?

So where the hell was he?

The house roared. Hermione's blood went cold. Theo had set of Fiendfyre.

Hermione couldn't even count the seconds in which he did not appear. Every moment he did not come back out was like one long lifetime, pulled out in front of her, and cut harshly with scissors just before the happy ending.

What was she going to do if he died? She wasn't sure she could take this job alone.

She knew she'd have to. She knew what she would have to do and it almost seemed cruel.

Hermione started to imagine a version of this timeline where Theo, her Theo- even as just a twin flame (for, she wasn't sure if this was love, not yet still), never returned. A future where she went back to Castle Drake and lay in their bed all alone and soldiered on. Where she had to navigate the darkness and the awful things she might have to do to win without Theo to guide her to... temper her. A future that was just as lonely as the one before.

It was a sullen existence.

Then, from out of the back door, Theo appeared.

He was coughing and sooty, his whole face covered in black ash. When he sucked in air, it sounded funny, his lungs not quite exhaling as it should be. Hermione ran across the grass to him, collapsing into his robes and letting out a small sob.

"You stupid, stupid boy!" She cried into his neck, "I thought you were dead! How dare you!" She asked, pulling back and slapping him.

"I probably deserved that, even if I am injured," Theo gave a rough, smoky laugh, touching the place where she'd hit him, "I had to make sure the body was...consumed. Took more finagling than I thought."

Theo gave a deep, harsh cough and Hermione patted his back, rubbing it. Theo looked upwards, to the burning manor he'd once called home, a finality and calmness on his face.

"Let's go home. Twitzel?" He asked, "I asked her to make sure that no one got through, but we'll go now. They've no doubt set up anti-apparition wards, but Twitzel will pull us through 'em."

"Master is injured!" Twitzel cried, "Master needs attending to!"

"I'm fine. We need to get out of here. Hermione, grab the bag. Twitzel, take us both back home."

"Does she know?" Hermione asked, squinting at the house-elf, "Where that is? If so, how?" After Theo gave her a wry grin, she groaned, "If you just say 'magic', I swear to Merlin-,"

She didn't have time to get her threat in. One moment they were standing in the raining embers of Nott Manor, the next they were outside the gates of Castle Drake.

"Oh! What a most beautiful house, Master Theo! How splendid." Twitzel said, staring up at the arches and the stonework.

"Don't you feel bad about burning down your childhood and ancestral house?" Hermione asked, helping Theo limp back into the kitchen. Twitzel went to work immediately to make them dinner. Hermione was glad she didn't have to worry about that.

"Not much." Theo shrugged, "My younger self will be called and I can let them in through the barrier, whoever was dispatched. No doubt wizards as esteemed as them- Lucius is probably among them- can douse the fire. But if I know myself, and I do…" Theo got a rag from the sink, running it under the water to dab at his face, "I might just let the damn place burn. When we were raided, I didn't mourn losing the house, I mourned losing the items inside of it. Which we retrieved. So." He said with a shrug that seemed a bit nonchalant.

"Right, the items," Hermione said. Although she was clutching the bag so hard her fingers had begun to go numb, she had almost forgotten their existence.

They left Twiztel in the kitchen and dumped out the contents in the still nearly-empty living room, beginning to sort.

As they did so, Hermione could see Theo start to deteriorate. It was like being there, he'd been able to keep what he was doing and his sanity separate. It was part of a job. Now that he was home, with Hermione, in a place he was used to being more open, it seemed like it was becoming harder and harder for him to focus. Hermione could see him getting roped into the day.

She wondered when it would hit. As much as he wanted to claim that killing his father was nothing short of necessary, and even enjoyment, he'd just committed patricide. That wasn't a casual thing. If one didn't feel something about it, it would place them among the likes of Voldemort, which was a terrifying idea.

"You know," Theo finally said, his voice small and childlike, "In the entire war, I never had to use the killing curse. People died indirectly because of me, but never...I didn't…" Theo stared right ahead, but he seemed to be focusing on something very far away, "He was my first one."

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked, "It's okay to be upset."

"I'm not!" Theo snarled, uncharismatically angry with a sudden burst.

"Hey! It's fine, you don't have to be upset or fine. You can be neither," She said. At least, right now he could be. Shoving emotions onto someone was no better than never feeling them at all.

Theo didn't answer. He pulled a newspaper toward him. The Daily Prophet. It was one of the things he'd swiped from his desktop in a fit of half-panic at the end. He probably hadn't intended to grab it. He was about to throw it behind them in their trash pile until he paused. His face went white.

"Theo?"

"You know what?" Theo said harshly, standing abruptly, "I just need some time to myself. I don't need a nagging wife around me, bothering me with these 'emotions' and all," He said. Hermione squinted.

"What the hell, Nott?" She demanded, following him all the way to his study.

"Salazar, you just stick your nose in everything. Can't you see I want to be alone? You're smart, define 'Alone' for me. Spell it too!" He said, slamming his door in his face. Hermione heard the click of the lock, and then a spell going up.

She stood, fuming outside of his door.

He'd just locked her out! And blew up on her for no good reason! She took back any worries she had about him dying, he wasn't worth it!

She stalked back to the living room and snatched up the Prophet, sitting on the edge of the couch in the corner, intent to see what set him off.

There it was, in the bottom corner in loopy, ostentatious writing:

Malfoy Scion to Marry Miss Davis.

Hermione blinked at the announcement, confused and uncomprehending. Draco was betrothed to Tracy Davis? In what world?

Apparently, this one.

She frowned. In their timeline, she was sure Draco had been promised to the younger Greengrass, though nothing had ever come of it. Certainly not a betrothal at the age of sixteen, that seemed...extreme. Even if they were, she would have been less surprised than Tracey. She'd forgotten about the existence of the girl up until, well, now. In her time, had her family ever aligned with Voldemort? Hermione honestly couldn't recall.

She checked the date. It was decided a day after they fell into this time, ran in the Prophet the next morning.

Had their being there for less than twenty-four hours, even if they felt like they hadn't done anything drastic, already altered the time-line enough for this to happen?

Either way, Hermione realized why Theo was upset. Just as she was bewildered and trying to struggle through this change, it must be worse for him.

A part of her told herself that Theo's tantrum wasn't her problem. If he wanted to hole himself up in there all day, fine. Let him. She had better things to do! Just because they were married by law didn't mean they were married by feeling. They were, more accurately, a pair of roommates...that just so happened to be married. Married friends-with-benefits. Married business partners. All of those were all sorts of oxymorons, but it was also the truth. She had no obligation to sit there like a pretty little housewife and coddle him while he licked his wounds.

So Hermione very decisively focused on other things.

She was still more mad at him than she was grateful he was alive. The number of things he'd done wrong today were almost too many to list, but she'd go crazy if she didn't list them. She should be the one yelling at him, not the other way around.

She went to the greenhouse and started preparing the soil. She cast the enchantments to climatize small portions of the area for plants that needed specific conditions to grow (the snowy tundras of the Arctic, for example) and started to plant the few they had acquired expertly.

It would have been a lot easier to ignore Theo if he wasn't, in the back of her mind, present. Literally.

Through their marriage bond, which she was informed by the burning of her ring finger, she could feel his emotions. The sharp, static bursts of anger, of hurt, of agony. It burned like a candle. Sometimes, it was like a person had thrown kerosene onto it and the emotions exploded out, sometimes so startling and real that Hermione felt herself clutching her chest.

Well, she sure as hell hoped it worked both ways! If she had to sit here through Theo's feelings, she would be damned if he couldn't feel how frustrated and irritated she was with him!

Soon, though, the emotions ebbed down to just a dull, unfixable and all-consuming aching emptiness. Coldness, like a dementor's kiss. The absence of.

She may still think he was akin to a spoiled toddler stomping around and making a fuss, so she didn't excuse his actions, but she understood. In one whole day, he's practically lost everything all over again. He was giving it all up for this cause, for the hope they'd make a different ending to the story, one where they won. And, even after they did, the life he'd been part of before would be all but vanished in the hands of time and change. Nothing would be like it was before, for better or worse.

Hermione wanted to comfort him, she came to realize, but she was unsure how. She'd never been great at that. Ginny had always been more able to carefully read emotions and then use the proper gentleness in her voice or say just the right things. Hermione was a little bit too brash, a little too pragmatic to ever master that.

But she wanted to. Not just because they were married and the bond had her feeling these things. Not just because she should. Because she did care for Theo and she knew that as bad as a day she might feel like she'd had, being reminded of her time in the Malfoy Manor and nearly losing Theo, he had it thousand times worse.

Luckily, before she had to go and knock on his door like a meek little mouse, asking if he would please let her in- which, she was sure she was not going to do unless this lasted days- she felt something sizzle away in his emotions. An olive-branch. He was reaching out to her.

Hermione pushed the door open as quietly as she could.

Theo sat in his chair, looking out the window, the rims of his eyes red and he looked mentally exhausted. Even though it was hardly five P.M, it had been a long day for both of them.

"Who knew," Theo began awkwardly, looking up to Hermione with a hint of embarrassment, "That killing your abusive, waste-of-space father would still leave you feeling so…void."

"To take a life is no small thing. I may sound callous, but I'm glad you're upset. It shows you're not like...Him."

Theo gave her a soft smile, "I hadn't thought of it like that." Maybe it was a sigh of relief to him as well that he was not as far gone as maybe he imagined himself to be.

"You hadn't really worked through it. You put it all off before. You killed your father," Hermione said since there was no use pretending like he hadn't or saying it in some sort of useless code, "And you learned that your best mate is engaged today."

Theo bit the inside of his finger, pressed against his mouth, "Yeah," He mumbled faintly, "I did."

Hermione waited.

Theo stood, coming up to her, "I shouldn't have said those things."

"No, you shouldn't have."

"And I got carried away with the cruciatus."

"You sure as hell did."

"And I shouldn't have run back inside like an idiot to set the fire."

"Nope."

"And I put us at risk to see Draco again today."

"Good," Hermione said, squaring her shoulders as she stared up at him, "You realize."

Theo shook his head, "Merlin, woman, you aren't letting me off the hook for anything, are you!" He said, halfway been frustration and amusement.

"No, I'm not," Replied Hermione firmly, "It wouldn't be beneficial for either of us if I did that. You fucked up today, badly, on many accounts." She said, "I'd hope you'd be so honest if I ever put this mission in danger so recklessly."

"You're right, per usual," Theo groaned, "I'm just sorry for all of it. And any errors I missed just now." He added, wincing slightly.

"Well, at least you can do that right." Hermione sighed. Just as Hermione had never learned the fine art of comforting, Ron had never learned how to give an apology worth anything. It was refreshing to see that Theo had the most basic idea of how to do that.

"I thought I had lost you," Hermione said after a beat, "When you didn't come out right away."

"And that was a horrible thought to you?" Theo said, surprise clearly coloring his tone.

"Well, yes, of course," Hermione said, "We're in this together and I've quite...I've come to enjoy your company."

"Well, that's nearly a complaint, golly-gee," Theo said.

"It is one!" Hermione bristled, "If you're not going to accept it, then-,"

"Calm down. I just like seeing you all riled up." Theo walked over to her, very close. Hermione backed up three steps until she hit something hard and unmoving. She was at the edge of Theo's grand black desk, "It turns me on," He said as he nipped her earlobe.

"If that's true," Hermione panted, "Then you'd be hard basically all the time." She was easy to get flustered, which she was well aware of.

Theo smirked, "Who says I'm not?"

He leaned down to kiss her, swallowing her in his emotions. Hermione melted into him, curling her fingers in the nape of his neck, tugging slightly on his hair. Theo picked Hermione up, setting her right on his desk as he maneuvered his legs between her thighs.

"Wait, wait," Hermione said, pulling them apart, "Is this...are you…"

"Words, Hermione," Theo teased, nipping at her neck. Hermione collected herself, which was incredibly hard to do at the moment, what with Theo lavishing her neck and moaning.

"Listen!" She said and Theo did back away, raising an eyebrow at her, "I don't mind having sex with you-,"

"Uhm, great?"

"Can you just shush. For one second? Thank you," Hermione said, pressing down her skirt, "Now, as I was saying, I don't mind having sex with you. No strings attached style, as it is. We can be married and have sex but it doesn't have to be making love. I don't expect any emotions, I'm not like most girls. What I will not accept, however, is to be used as a prostitute. Just a vessel for you to escape into when you're feeling sad. A...a…proxy. If you're having sex with me, I want you to be doing it with me. Does that make any sense?"

"Hermione," Theo tugged on one of her fly-away curls, "I want you. All your firey, annoying, intelligent, sexiness. I'm not sitting here trying to do this so I can imagine you're someone else. A- that would be impossible to do, as you're not quite or malleable and B- I am flirting with you because I want to fuck you. Not just because you're my wife because I was honest before. We only have each other and I'm glad I do have you. I want to show you my appreciation. No ulterior motives. Besides, I've heard that makeup sex is the best kind."

"Oh," Hermione had been almost sure he'd been doing it for other reasons, "Well, in that case, proceed."