Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns everything that you recognise!

Story title borrowed from the band, 'Royal Blood'.

Theo halted in surprise when he saw that the staircase behind the tapestry was not as empty as he'd expected it to be. The other figure looked just as startled to suddenly be exposed to the bright light of the corridor and she quickly wiped at her eyes, head bowed. However, her movements were not quick enough to hide her puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks.

Theo felt his posture instantly become rigid at the sign of her distress; it wasn't a noble or chivalrous instinct, more an unfamiliarity with the situation. Having next to no experience of witnessing tears, and even less of dealing with females of any sort – except one, but she was different – he was extremely uncomfortable and had no idea how to react. That wasn't entirely true, he knew how he should react to her, in particular, but he couldn't find it in himself to sneer. She seemed to be anticipating such an action from him, though, for she had tensed her shoulders as she peeked up at him under her wet eyelashes. He'd expected her to make a hasty exit just to get away from his anticipated insults but she seemed reluctant to step into the corridor and he could only assume that she was unwilling to let any of the other students see how upset she currently was. Theo imagined he would feel the same way, but he could never remember having cried before so he couldn't be sure.

She shuffled to one side, showing him enough room to pass her on the staircase without having to touch her and it was such a submissive, uncharacteristic move for her to make that he actually felt himself become irritated, even as a voice that sounded suspiciously like his father crowed in his ear that the mudblood finally seemed to understand her place in the world. Theo pushed the heartless voice aside, internally retaliating with his own scathing voice that those views had certainly done his father no good, imprisoned as he was in Azkaban, partly thanks to the classmate standing before him. His thoughts on his father's actions were still a mess of conflicting emotions even though six months had passed that night in the Ministry.

Pushing his unresolved issues with his father aside, as ever, Theo returned to the current source of his irritation: the girl standing before him displaying unusual meekness but, mostly, the oaf that had triggered this response in her.

Theo glanced over his shoulder and was satisfied when he saw that it was unlikely that anyone else would be using this shortcut in the next few seconds and, therefore, they wouldn't overhear what he was about to say to Hermione Granger, mudblood, Gryffindor Princess and (much to Theo's annoyance) brightest student in their year.

"The best way to get revenge on Weasley is to make him jealous," he told her shortly, looking her dead in the eye before finally starting to ascend the staircase as though he had said nothing at all. He could feel Granger's wide eyes following his journey, an air of faint disbelief emanating from her, and the top step was nearly in sight when she called out to him.

"How did you know?"

He strongly considered ignoring her; he believed he would have had she asked anything else, but it wouldn't do for her to be making assumptions about him should he stay silent. Theo turned and looked down at her, a light frown twisting his lips. "Believe it or not, I don't make it a habit of keeping tabs on your relationship status, Granger; I would honestly much prefer to be completely ignorant, but my best friend happens to be the biggest gossip in Slytherin when it comes to affairs of the heart. She takes interest in all rumours, regardless of house affiliation, and repeats everything that she hears to me even though I have asked her not to on many occasions and she knows I have absolutely no interest in hearing it."

This was evidently not the explanation that she had been expecting for she blinked at him a couple of times, her forehead creased in confusion. "Your best friend?" she questioned.

"Daphne Greengrass," he supplied. Her surprise was more evident this time but he ignored her gawking. "Even if I hadn't unintentionally internalised her gossiping, it still wouldn't have been exactly difficult to figure out the cause of your tears – Weasley's not exactly being discrete, is he?" he pointed out, unable to keep a distasteful look off of his face at the mental recollection of Weasley and Brown trying to eat each other's face.

Pain flashed across her face and Theo's irritation momentarily resurfaced. She might be a mudblood but no one, not even the most ardent pureblood supremacists in his house, could argue that she wasn't magically gifted. So, to see such a talented witch reduced to a tearful shell of herself over a pathetic excuse for a wizard like Ron Weasley made Theo disproportionately annoyed, but he was beginning to regret having ever spoken at all. This was easily the longest exchange they'd ever had and he yearned to get out of this damned staircase and away from Granger's mooning expression over that incompetent prat. "Slytherins know all about getting revenge, Granger. I imagine you'll be attending Slughorn's party tonight so just take the date that'll annoy Weasley the most and enjoy the Weasel's suffering."

He turned abruptly and took the last remaining steps that would see him finally emerge onto the third floor corridor before she could form a response. The fake wall slid back into place with a satisfying click and Theo walked away, confident that the bizarre encounter had been similarly closed.

He could not have ever predicted how wholly wrong he was.

A/N Eek! So apparently I no longer have self-control when it comes to starting new fics...

Let me know what you think so far! Interested in reading more?