Chapter Text
The Death Eaters had finally tracked down Harry Potter. The Chosen One had been very good about changing his location and it had been hard to find him. But he had stopped running, settling in one spot long enough for them to have solid coordinates, and Theo had a sinking suspicion as to why that was.
Theo volunteered to go with the group that would retrieve Potter for the Dark Lord and they all apparated to the secluded forest. As soon as they felt the edge of the wards, they began tearing through them.
Please be there, please be safe and untouched . Theo chanted in his head.
The wards fell to reveal a campsite. Potter stood centre, ready to face them and began firing off a string of expelliarmuses at the Death Eaters that charged at him. Theo sidestepped the battle, ignoring Potter and heading straight for the little tent he hoped she was in. There were more wards to get inside the tent, but none of the impenetrable ones created by an alpha during a rut, proof that she was in there and all alone.
Obliterating through the remaining protective charms, he entered the tent, immediately smelling her even with his Death Eater mask on.
Omega.
Only it was more than the sweet unclaimed scent he had been searching for. It was heavier, needier, awakening a primal urge in his inner-alpha.
She was in a corner of the magical tent, whimpering behind some curtains that feebly attempted to contain her scent. Theo took off his mask and rushed over, pulling the curtains apart. There she was: Hermione Granger.
And she was in heat.
Her golden skin was flushed and gleamed with sweat. She wore nothing but a thin camisole and tiny Muggle shorts, soaked from her sweat and slick and irritating her already sensitive skin. She cried and writhed in her cot, desperate for relief from the burning heat in her lower belly.
The omega pheromones tugged at the alpha inside Theo, calling him to take her, fill her belly, and he growled possessively.
Hermione turned her head at the noise and looked at Theo with hazy eyes. She was too far gone to recognize him for who he was, the wizard who could keep up with her brilliant mind and had become her secret confidant, she only knew him now as what he was.
“Alpha,” she wept and began feebly getting up, stretching her arms out him. Theo was at her side in an instant.
“Shh, I’m here now. I’m going to take you away from here, somewhere where I can take care of you, okay?” Theo began wrapping her up in a blanket dampened in sweat, resisting the urge to tear off his robes and take her right there on the pathetic cot in the middle of the forest.
He scooped up the witch, grabbed her wand and left the tent to apparate them away. No one was around to see Theo emerge from the tent with the squirming bundle in his arms. It seemed Potter was giving the other Death Eaters a run for their galleons and he could hear them all shouting deeper into the forest. There was no sign of Weasley either. No matter, Theo had accomplished his real mission.
Malfoy Manor might be the Dark Lord’s base, but Narcissa still had a say over who she let enter her home, in contrast to Nott Manor which was always crawling with Death Eaters and snatchers, making it relatively safer to take Hermione there. So Theo apparated to his room in Malfoy Manor, several doors down from Draco’s suite. He set the omega down on his bed and cast every ward he could think of at his door.
Content that Hermione would be safe, Theo turned his attention back to her, she had unravelled herself from the old blanket and was crawling on his bed, rearranging the silky sheets and plush pillows to make a nest for them. She was so good, already making herself at home. Months of searching and he finally had her safe in his bed where she belonged.
Theo swiftly removed his robes as he approached the bed, the alpha in him desperate to take care of the omega who needed him. Climbing onto the bed, he guided her to lie down, ripping off the offending garments that clung to her skin, she sighed in some relief and he marvelled at the naked omega beneath him. He cupped her face and ran his hands down her neck, her breasts, stomach, thighs. She was so responsive to the touches he laid on her sensitive skin and arched her body into his hands, inviting him to lay claim to what he had been left wanting more of.
Up until the last time they had seen each other, Theo had always kept his hands to himself. Hermione thought it was his noble upbringing, always maintaining a respectful distance even when they hovered over the same book during their study sessions. Pureblood manners were just a guise, she didn’t know about his father, his role in the first war, the brutal hand he raised Theo with.
If they seemed like anything other than the top students doing their homework together and it got back to his father then it would have led to danger for the both of them. Even studying with Hermione was a risk, but Theo couldn’t stay away from her. She was warm and kind and everything he ever craved. He would happily let her ramble about whatever was on her brilliant mind and time cruelly sped up during the hours she had carved out just for him.
Then the world kept getting more complicated. Voldemort was resurrected and was set on finishing what he started. Theo had overheard Potter and Weasley throw a bitch fit at her after they had spotted her studying with him after that Quibbler article was released. Hermione presented as an omega, though that was mainly a problem for Theo especially after he had presented as an alpha and the slightest whiff of her sweet scent would send him reeling and he had to constantly fight the urge to scent mark her.
Still, their connection never faltered, despite all the reasons they shouldn’t be anywhere near each other, their attachment grew stronger. In quiet corners of the library only they knew about, they shared their ambitions, hopes and fears. They brought down their facades, no longer the most brilliant witch of their age or the quiet Slytherin or Potter’s best friend or the Death Eater’s son. They were just Hermione and Theo.
He knew it was all over when Dumbledore died. It was only a matter of time before Voldemort had full control over Wizarding UK. While the other students were packing to go home, Theo had slipped away from the Slytherin dorms and was pacing the library stacks, hoping, praying that she would appear to him before war completely ripped them away from each other.
Just when he thought she didn’t have the same wish as him, there she was.
“Theo,” a flicker of happiness brightened her face upon seeing him in their safe haven before grief and worry overtook it again and she was running towards him.
He caught her, wrapping his arms around her while she clung to his neck. His heart pounded in his chest as he held her body close to his, always kept a part and now pressed against his, shuddering in the fear of the unknown awaiting them once they left the castle. This close to her, he could deeply inhale her sweet scent, always detectable to him despite the suppressants she took and the blockers she adhered to her glands to hide her status as an omega.
“Promise me you’ll stay safe,” Hermione choked out, pulling back a little to look at him.
“I’ll be fine. You’re the one in danger, you should leave, take your parents and get out of the country,” Theo told her.
“I can’t, Harry needs me,” she said, Theo bit back a displeased growl at the mention of the wizard.
“To hell with Potter, if he had any sense he would run too,” Theo sounded like Draco then, the blonde Slytherin had only expressed those wishes a thousand times too many.
“You don’t understand, there’s something we have to do, it’s the only way to stop You-Know-Who.”
“What are you talking about? What do you have to do?”
“I- I can’t say, I already said too much.”
“Whatever it is, forget about it, let Potter fight his own battles. Now promise me that you’ll stay safe.”
She didn’t immediately respond and he could see the conflict in her eyes.
“Hermione, promise me.”
“I promise I’ll do my best.”
“Hermione- ” Theo began protesting, already contemplating stealing the witch and taking her far away before she could do something reckless, war be damned. But before he could utter another word, she had crashed her lips against his.
She filled his every sense. All he could see, hear, taste, smell and feel was her.
Omega .
Theo devoured her lips, drinking her in. Fuck she tasted so good, he needed more, how sweet would her neck taste? Her cunt?
It was over before he knew it, she ripped herself away from his arms.
“I love you,” she confessed tearily and darted away. Theo ran after her, shouting her name, but she was soon lost among the throng of students leaving the castle.
Theo knew how infuriating the witch could be, but confessing her heart belonged to him before she went on the run with Potter as a prosecuted muggleborn and unclaimed omega took the fucking cake. Never mind Weasley who had presented as an alpha and would assuredly join whatever mission she had mentioned. He always hated the thought of the boarish redhead being near her, it always baffled him that she would continue being his friend when he treated her like shite. If the Weasel so much as touched her when she admitted she was Theo’s, he would rip his throat out. Same went for Potter if he presented as an alpha once he turned of age.
If Theo seemed like an attentive Death Eater willing to do whatever to climb the ranks, it was because he had an ulterior motive. He would frequently come home from Hogwarts, which had gone to hell as Snape let the Carrows do as they saw fit to the students, and sat at meetings. He paid close attention to any news on Potter’s whereabouts, offered to investigate or follow-up on leads, researched tracking magic, anything to find Hermione again.
And now because of her heat, he had found her. The Gryffindors were no longer able to move around while she was in the state she was in now, needy, crying, her brilliant mind useless in battle, only thinking about how much she needed to be filled.
“Alpha, please alpha, I need you,” she begged underneath Theo as he ran his hands greedily over her body, much too thin from being on the run. It angered him, those idiots she was with couldn’t bother to feed her, so useless they couldn’t provide a basic need for her. He remembered the little tent he had found her in, cramped compared to the room they were in now, the springy cot too small for her to make a proper nest, the old blankets rough and unworthy to touch her skin.
He felt himself slipping into a rut, the alpha inside him taking over, his cock painfully hard, needing to take care of her. He would fulfil her every need. She’ll never know pain, hunger or discomfort as his omega.
“I know, I’m going to take care of you now, my omega. I’m going to give you what you need,” he rumbled as he spread her legs, opening her core up to him. He dipped into her slick folds and ran his fingers over her swollen bud. She moaned deeply as he worked the bundle of nerves, writhing and spreading her legs even more.
“Need more, alpha,” she whimpered, bucking her hips.
“I know, omega. You’ll be good and take it, right? Everything I have to give you? My cock? My pups?” He needed to fill her up in every way. He needed to give her a baby, he needed to see her full and rounded with his pup and pamper her like she deserved. She couldn’t leave him if she was pregnant. She would have to stay right here where he could keep her safe in this gods forsaken war.
“Yes alpha, I want all of that. Please alpha, I’ll be good.”
Theo vanished his last bits of clothes and lined himself up to her slick core. Sinking into her, he fell deeper into his rut. Her cunt was just so hot and wet and she took him so well. She was so good, so perfect. She was always so good, too good for anyone. That he was her alpha was a dream. He would take good care of her. He would keep her safe. Fuck her. Fill her.
Omega. Omega. Omega.
His cock swelled to knot her, locking them together, and his thrusting became more frantic, her cries a little more desperate as she got closer to the release she needed. He came inside her with a loud groan, emptying himself inside her as she came with a cry, tears cascading down her face from such a blissful relief to her heat.
He rumbled reassuring words of how good and perfect she was in between kisses and licks to the glands of her neck until she passed out, able to rest now that the pain in her lower belly had ceased with his seed filling her cunt. While she slept, he held her tightly, as if she would escape from his arms and run off from him again. He inhaled her scent, sweet, hers, unclaimed. It would change when she was bitten and he wanted to savour it while he still could.
Pressed up so close to him, Theo could feel her body temperature rise again until Hermione was squirming in his arms, whimpering for him again and the cycle repeated. They were so deep into their headspaces that they barely registered the banging noises at his door.
“Alpha,” Hermione’s voice trembled in fear and she clung to him when she noticed the sounds of someone, or someones, he wasn’t paying that much attention, trying to break-in the room.
“You’re safe, omega, no one is coming in here,” Theo snapped his hips harder to draw her attention back to him, “No one is going to take you away. You’re staying right here where I can take care of you.”
Whoever was at the door must have figured out what was going on because they stopped. The wards alphas casted intuitively while in a rut were unique and impenetrable. His omega was safe.
How much time had passed, Theo did not know, but his head became clearer and he was able to register the predicament he currently found himself in. He had Hermione Granger, widely known as “Potter’s mudblood,” a term Theo loathed, in his bed at Malfoy Manor where Lord fucking Voldemort himself wandered the halls. When Hermione woke up, she would realise as much and probably freak out, he also had no idea how she would react to him seeing her through her heat. And what if he had gotten her pregnant?
Whatsmore, considering the lack of celebratory fireworks, there was a good chance that Potter had evaded capture. Which meant the mission was a failure and Theo would be punished for it.
Hermione began coming to, her heat not over yet but sated enough for a moment of lucidity. Theo left their nest and donned a dressing robe to give her a sense of space when she woke up, their situation was very delicate and he didn’t want her to immediately panic, he had to ease her into this.
Her soft brown eyes opened and focused on his form sitting at the edge of the bed.
“Theo?” She asked groggily.
“Yes love, it’s me. How are you feeling?” He slowly reached to brush her curls.
She groaned in response as she took stock of her body, realising with a start that she was naked underneath the silky sheets, sticky and sore in-between her legs. Then she noticed his state of half-dress.
“Did we…?” Hermione couldn’t finish the question.
“Yes, we did,” Theo confirmed.
“Oh gods, oh gods,” she began hyperventilating, clutching the sheets to her, trying to remember what they had done while she was in her headspace.
“Hermione, calm down, please. We had to, that’s what I’m here for. You were burning up and in pain by the time I found you, suppressants wouldn’t have done anything,” he explained to her. She looked at him and then around the room they were in, eyes fully alert.
“Where are we? Where’s Harry?” She asked. Theo refrained from grimacing when she mentioned Potter.
“We’re in Malfoy Manor.”
“What!?” She jolted upright, pulling the sheets tighter to her.
“And I don’t know where Potter is,” he continued, “I can only assume he was able to escape when we found the camp.”
“We?” Her brows furrowed in confusion.
Theo steeled himself and began rolling up the sleeve of his robe, revealing the Dark Mark he bore. Hermione gasped sharply upon seeing it, tears welling in her eyes for him.
“Oh Theo…” She tentatively reached out to touch the skin around the awful mark.
“I had to, it was the only way I could make sure no one else got to you, to keep you safe.”
“You took it for me?” She swallowed guiltily.
“It would have been inevitable, my father would have forced me to get it regardless. It was either runaway or join and fight for you from the inside.”
A few tears escaped her eyes and he reached to cup her face.
“Hey, look at me. Do you still love me?”
“I do,” she said without hesitation.
“And I love you too,” he finally admitted to her, he hadn’t had a chance to tell her until now. Overcome by emotion, she crawled towards him and he pulled her to him, settling her on his lap and enveloping her in his embrace. They stayed like that for a moment, a witch and wizard on opposite sides of the war connected by their hearts.
“Theo, what’s going to happen?” She broke the silence, wondering how they were going to navigate the complicated tangle they found themselves in. Theo held her tighter, knowing she wasn’t going to like the only option they had.
“I’m going to bite you,” he told her.
“What?” She nervously shifted in his hold.
“I need to bite you, Hermione,” Theo repeated and her efforts to escape from his arms became more frantic when he didn’t let her go.
“No, Theo no don’t do this, please,” she said, trying to push against his chest and he caught her wrist, rubbing his thumb at the gland there.
“I have to, it’s the only way to keep you safe, by bonding you to me as my mate.”
“No, no no Theo please, not like this, I’m not ready for this. There has to be another way,” she implored, thrashing against him now to escape from the fate he decided for her.
“There isn’t. You have to trust me, everything is going to be okay. I’m going to take care of you, I promise,” Theo began dropping his voice to a low rumble.
“Theo don’t do this to me, please!” She cried helplessly, trying to fight the effects of his voice and his hold on her wrist glands but to no avail. He kept repeating his reassurances, nuzzling her tear-streaked cheek, his voice low, forcing her into her omega headspace.
Hermione’s crying turned into needy whimpers and her body temperature rose again as her heat returned for the final hours of its cycle.
“Do you want me to bite you, omega? Be my mate? Make you mine?” Theo asked, his voice still low.
“Yes, yes alpha. Bite me. Make me yours,” she begged, clawing at his chest. He laid her back down in the middle of their nest, removing his robe and the sheet she had covered herself with.
Theo licked at the glands at her neck, tongue searching for that sweet spot he could sink his teeth into. His canines grew, ready to mark her as his and he bit down, blood filling his mouth and dribbling down her neck. Hermione yelped and instinctively bit down on Theo’s neck to mark him too.
The bond was instant, it was like she was inside of him and Theo felt her every need. She needed him now as her body temperature continued to rise, she needed him to quell her heat.
Knotting her as her mate was surreal. He was desperate to make the pain go away and when she came it was an explosion inside of him too.
The final hours of her heat passed in that manner. Everything was heightened, his alpha more attentive to the omega. The desperation to make the pain go away replaced by the desperation to feed their bond as mates.
It was the only way . Theo kept repeating to himself as he held his sleeping omega, his mate. They couldn’t run away, Theo had already sensed that the manor’s wards had been altered during his rut and he knew he wouldn’t be able to apparate them out of the room the same way they had arrived. They were trapped and he realised now that it had been foolish to bring them here in the first place, but they didn’t have anywhere else to go. There hadn’t been time to search for a safe place to take her, especially when he had found her while she was in heat.
The only thing he could now was protect Hermione and the possible baby she could be carrying. Without a doubt they would kill her if she wasn’t bonded to him. If an unclaimed omega was coveted, a bonded omega was respected. Even Voldemort wasn’t known to harm omegas or threaten to do so as a punishment to alphas who had displeased him. Perhaps it was because the Dark Lord was a beta and didn’t understand the bond between mates, the lengths an alpha would go to to protect their omegas. Bonding Hermione to him was the only way to keep her safe.
Hermione’s heat cycle had ended and she woke up, soft brown eyes landing on the bite mark she had given him and she brought a hand up to her neck, wincing at the still tender flesh where his teeth had sunk in. She started crying and Theo pulled her close, once again repeating his promises that everything was going to be okay and that he was going to take care of her. He could feel her conflict, wanting the comfort from her alpha but upset that the wizard she trusted had bonded her to him against her wishes.
She kept crying as he carried her to the ensuite, setting her down under the shower and washing her body clean of all the sweat, slick and cum on her skin. By the time he had dressed her in an old cashmere jumper of his, she had exhausted herself back to sleep and he tucked her into their nest.
Theo settled himself behind her, her back flush to his front, his arms caging her to him. The bond was already making him more protective.