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"I don't know why you tried so hard." Sneered the girl to Hermione's left. Hermione turned to her, giving her a confused look. Rolling her eyes, the pug faced girl continued. "His mother thinks you look like a desperate whore." Hermione flushed in anger, sure, her dress was a little short and a little fitted, but whose wasn't? It was a New Years Eve party for Merlin's sake. She spared a glance at Pansy's outfit of choice, Hermione was unsure on whether something that short could honestly be classified as a dress.
'Well she's one to talk.' Hermione thought bitterly before continuing her thoughts out loud, "What are you talking about?" Hermione asked rudely. "She told me I looked beautiful."
"That's only because she pities you." Pansy looked smug now as she watched the wheels turning in Hermione's brain.
"Why in the world would she pity me?" Hermione wanted desperately for Pansy to be lying, for her to just be attempting to get a rise out of her. It seemed though, that luck was not on her side tonight.
"Because," Pansy started like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It's obvious that you love her son. That you love him more than he would ever even dream of loving you. It's kind of pathetic really, you've got this notion in your head that he actually feels something for you." Pansy smiled slightly as she saw the tears begin to form in Hermione's eyes.
"He's told me that he loves me, Pansy." Hermione stated quietly, cursing herself when her voice wavered.
"Oh and you think he hasn't said that to every girl he's ever gotten into his bed?" Pansy hissed into Hermione's ear before stalking across the room to mingle. Pansy felt the victory before anything was shown of it and a smile graced her features as she made her way towards her fiance, Draco.
Willing the tears to stay back, Hermione spared a glance at the mother in question, Ms. Zabini. She was surprised to see Ms. Zabini watching her with a cold, unreadable expression on her face. It was so different from the warm smile Hermione usually saw from the older woman. Hermione watched as the woman finally turned from her, and back to her son who was beside her. Watching Blaise talk to his mother caused Hermione's throat to tighten again, indicating that her tears would be back soon. Pansy's words ran through her head once more and Hermione thought of all the girls Blaise had been with, all of the girls that she had forced herself to put out of her mind. She fled from the hall before anyone could notice the tears that had started coursing down her cheeks.
Hermione just ran, eventually finding herself underneath a large oak tree on the edge of the Zabini property. She sank to her knees an leaned towards the tree, not caring if her dress was ruined. Wrapping her arms around herself, Hermione sobbed into the darkness, breaking the silence of the night. After a while she finally calmed her crying and rose from the ground, preparing to apparate home. She could faintly hear the countdown inside and wondered if anyone had noticed her absence. She wondered if Blaise was finding some other bird to kiss since Hermione was MIA. Shaking those thoughts from her head, Hermione disappeared with a quiet pop. Instead of appearing in her own room, Hermione found herself in Blaise's room. She could really hear the party now. The cheers and whistles rose up from the floor below her. Walking over to Blaise's desk, Hermione removed her earrings and the necklace she was wearing. Both had been gifts she received from Blaise at some point or another. Hermione silently promised herself to send back all the gifts he had given her, telling her he loved her every time she opened a new one. Feeling her tears threatening to return, Hermione took a deep breath and conjured a piece of parchment and a quill.
Blaise,
I'm sorry I've been a burden to you and your mother. The truth has been shown to me tonight, and as much as it hurts, I'm glad I know now. I just wanted to say goodbye.
Please forgive me for not doing this in person, I'm afraid my resolve would crumble if I had.
I love you, even if it's unwanted.
~HG
The blood drained from Blaise's face as he read the tear stained note. She couldn't be gone, he thought to himself as he fingered the velvet box in his pocket. The party was still raging downstairs, the guests all waiting for his announcement, his mother waiting for him to bring Hermione downstairs and propose. It had only seemed fitting to Blaise, they had met on New Years Eve, he asked her to be his girlfriend on New Years Eve, and now, two years later, he wanted to ask her to be his wife.
Blaise walked down the stairs in shock, joining the party who fell silent upon his entrance, expecting his pretty girlfriend to be following behind him. When the guests noticed the anguished look on his face whispers flew through the crowd, but only one of the guests caught Blaise's attention. Pansy Parkinson was wrapped around Draco, a smug smile on her face. Blaise stalked towards her, feeling his anger bubbling inside of him.
"What the fuck did you do to her?" Blaise hissed at Pansy, causing her to pale and the guests around her to gasp. Gripping Draco's arm more tightly, Pansy attempted to put on a brave face.
"I just told her what everyone knew was the truth. You would never really love someone like her, and it was pathetic how hard she was trying." Blaise's eyes grew wide, he had known Pansy wasn't a fan of Hermione's, but he never would have thought she would do something like that.
"How dare you." He growled. "You know nothing about me, or her. I love her more than anything. I was going to ask her to marry me." Pansy's face lit up as Blaise said that, confusing him.
"Oh oh oh! So you knocked the stupid mudblood up? I always knew she was a whore." Pansy exclaimed gleefully, drawing looks of disgust from the guests.
"Don't you ever call her that again." Blaise said dangerously, stepping closer to Pansy. "She is more of a witch than you will ever be." Pansy opened her mouth to retort, but Blaise cut her off. "No!" The sharpness of Blaise's voice efficiently silenced Pansy. She had never heard him speak to anyone with such a tone. "Besides, don't you think you're being a bit hypocritical? Despite your attempts to spread vicious rumors about her, Hermione and I have never had sex. We wanted to wait until we were married. It's funny though that you would call her a whore for getting pregnant, when we all know the only reason Draco proposed to you is because he knocked you up. You never would have had a permanent place in his life otherwise." Bursting into tears of embarrassment, Pansy fled from the room. Draco dutifully, but reluctantly, followed his fiance out of the room. Turning to the guests, Blaise spoke a bit louder so the whole room could hear him.
"I'm sorry for ruining the evening, but if you'll excuse me. I've got someone I need to find." Pausing only to speak briefly with his mother, Blaise disappeared from the room, reappearing in the middle of Hermione's flat.
"Mya!" He called, walking through the rooms of her flat, Blaise noticed she wasn't there. In her bedroom her dress was thrown messily on the bed with her shoes beside it, showing she had been there earlier. There was only one place she would go after a night like tonight, so Blaise apparated to the small house owned by Harry and Ginny. Walking up to the front door, Blaise began pounding on the door and hollering for Potter to open up.
"What do you want?" Harry spat as he tore the door open. He was surprised to see Blaise standing there, according to Hermione he wasn't even going to notice she was missing and probably wouldn't show up until sometime the next day.
"I know she's here Potter. Let me talk to her." Blaise was trying to peer into the dark house, looking for Hermione. Harry stepped closer to Blaise and closed the door behind him, put yet another barrier between the couple.
"You are the last person she wants to talk to Blaise. She knows you don't actually love her." Harry said, narrowing his eyes. Blaise whipped the box out of his pocket.
"I don't love her?" Blaise cried. "Then why was I going to ask her to marry me, Potter? Huh? Can you answer that for me? Why was I going to ask her, in front of all the most power and most important witches and wizards, to spend the rest of her life with me?" Blaise ripped open the ring box, shoving it towards Harry. Blaise laughed bitterly as tears began forming in his eyes. "I love her more than life itself Potter. Please let me see her." Harry felt his resolve crumbling as he watched the desperate wizard in front of him.
"Then why does she think you've been lying to her Blaise? Why does she think she's just another one of your play things." After listening to Hermione cry tonight and talking with her, Harry had learned that while Hermione hadn't yet slept with Blaise, they had fooled around a bit. Something tonight had led Hermione to believe that as soon as Blaise got her into his bed he would toss her to the side.
"You want to know why she thinks that?" Blaise spat, his anger returning. "She had a nice conversation with Pansy tonight. While I don't know exactly what was said, I know that what ever it was made Hermione doubt our relationship." Sighing, Harry handed Blaise back his ring and stepped to the side. Allowing Blaise to rush inside in search of Hermione.
"Mya!" Blaise called as he rushed up the stairs, knowing he would find Hermione in the guest room. Barging in the room, he found Hermione sitting on the bed, facing the door. It broke Blaise's heart to see her red, puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks. Walking slowly into the room, Blaise sat besides Hermione on the bed, his heart breaking a little more when she flinched away from his touch.
"What did she say to you Mya?" Blaise whispered gently, not wanting to upset her anymore.
Hermione took a deep shuddering breath, knowing Blaise did deserve at least a small explanation.
"The truth." Hermione murmured back, her voice laced with pain. Blaise just shook his head and pulled Hermione to him, ignore her halfhearted attempts to pull away.
"And what exactly was this truth?" He asked against her hair, keeping her flush against his chest. For the next few minutes, Blaise sat listening to Hermione recap her earlier conversation. Once she was finished Blaise pulled away and knelt on the floor in front of her.
"Mya," he said taking her hands in his, "I love you more than anything. My mother loves you too. Don't let Parkinson try to convince you otherwise. I should have talked to you about my past relationships but now, the only thing you need to know is that besides my mother, you are the only girl I've told I loved them. This is exactly how I had planned on doing this, but," Blaise paused for a moment and pulled the ring box out of his pocket once more. "Hermione Granger, we've been together for two years now, and I can't imagine ever being with anyone else. I can't even imagine being without you. I want to wake up to you every morning. I want to see you all round and glowing with my babies. I want to see you by my side at every ministry event I'm forced to attend, at every family dinner my mother insists on having, and by my side every day for the rest of my life. So will you do the honor of becoming my wife?" Blaise felt his hands sweating as he waited for Hermione to answer. He didn't have long to wait though before Hermione broke into a huge grin and threw her arms around Blaise neck. Peppering his face with kisses, Hermione started crying again.
"Happy tears I would hope love?" Blaise asked, teasingly. Nodding Hermione giggled a little before sobering up.
"I'm sorry I believed her Blaise. I never should have done that, I overreacted." Blaise just shook his head.
"Don't apologize love. I'm not upset with you. I'm ecstatic right now actually, we're going to be married!" Laughing again, Blaise picked Hermione up and spun her around.
"We'll I'm glad you two figured things out." Came a voice from the doorway. "Congratulations you two." Hermione and Blaise smiled at Harry before turning back to each other.
"Ready to go home Mya? My mother is probably waiting very impatiently for us to return." Smiling again, Hermione nodded and allowed Blaise to lead her from the house, thanking Harry on their way out. Hermione threaded her fingers through Blaise's and prepared herself for the guest and the very anxious future mother-in-law that were awaiting their return. As they appeared on the manor's front lawn, Hermione paused before they entered the house.
"What is it Mya?" Blaise asked, worried that entering a house full of guests after a night like tonight would be too much for her.
"Well, I never got my New Year's kiss." Hermione pouted. Laughing, Blaise bent down giving Hermione a short but passionate kiss signaling their new year together.