A/N: Yeah, so Chapter Two is up! YAY! bout time, eh? Well anyway, Thank to all my lovely reviewers. Esp to Twitchy The Squirrel, who corrected me on the spelling of Blaise's last name. Anywho, without furter ado, heres Chapter Two - Question/Answer Session. lol
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Hermione shut off her alarm clock. She rolled over in bed and stared at the ceiling. "Who was that boy yesterday? Why didn't I recognize him? And what was he doing in the park. Does he know its a Muggle park? What on earth possessed him to fall asleep on a Muggle park bench?" All these thoughts filled her head as she laid there. She didn't feel like looking out of her window today. She was still tired from staying up late. She usually went to bed around 9:00 or 9:30, well, unless she had been assigned an essay or two. Then she would stay up as late as she needed too. She finally decided to go take a shower and start her routine from there.
When she was done showering, Hermione dressed in an identical outfit as yesterday, and put her hair up. When she went downstairs to have a piece of toast and a glass of orange juice. She noticed another note from her parents and some more money. She rolled her eyes. "Honestly! They don't need to leave me a note anymore. I know that they will get home late, and go straight to bed." After eating her breakfast, the young witch started down the street again.
As she was jogging down the street towards the park. She noticed that she was actually hoping the boy would still be there. She was also hoping that she could talk to him before he went, wherever he was going to go. When she came up to the park she saw him. He was still fast asleep on the bench, in the same position he was in yesterday. 'This just gets weirder by the minute.' thought Hermione.
This time, she did not pass him by, instead, she went up to him. He was deathly pale and had bruises and cuts all over him. Most of them had blood and pus oozing out of them, most likely from no attendance to the wounds. She guessed that he had passed out due to lack of blood. But she tried to wake him up none-the-less. First, she tried talking to him, to get him to wake up. When that didn't work, she shook him lightly. Even that didnt work. She even tried splashing water on his face. She was left with only one option. She had to use magic to get the poor boy awake. (A/N: I know in the Wizarding World you cant do magic until your 18 or graduate or something like that. But this is fanfiction rite? lol) She looked around. There was a little girl on the swings, a boy and his little brother in the sandbox, and a group of 5 kids were on the playground. 'Good.' she observed. 'No ones close enough to see me do magic. It will hopefully go unnoticed.'
"Ennervate" she muttered as she subtly held her wand over the pale, but good looking young wizard's chest. His eyes immediately shot open. He tried to sit up, but due to the lack of blood, he could hardly move. So he resulted in just looking around. That's when his gaze fell upon the beautiful girl on his right side.
"Hello." she said simply.
"Hey." he responded.
"You've been here for at least 24 hours. Maybe more. But your lucky I found you before anyone could try and question why you were wearing robes." She said.
'Well, at least shes a witch.' the Italian boy thought.
"You seemed to have lost a lot of blood. I will take you to my house to help you get back on your feet." she stated, this was not negotiable.
Blaise just nodded and drifted back into unconsciousness. His last thoughts though were, 'There is something familiar about her. Just cant quiet place it.'
As the boy passed out again, Hermione went to shrink his trunk then stuck in her pocket. She then put a charm on the boy to make him a little lighter, because she knew she would not be able to support his weight. As she slung one arm over her shoulder, she held him up by his waist and proceeded back to her house.
Once she got there, she laid him out on the guest bed, unshrunk his trunk, and began attending to his wounds. It didnt take long, seeing as a simple spell would do the trick. As she was cleaning his wounds, she noticed a scar on the side of his left arm, close to his shoulder. She looked closer at it. It was a snake. 'He must be in Slytherin.' she thought. 'Typical Slytherin.' She made a mental note to find out which house he was in, if indeed he did go to Hogwarts.
As Hermione finished cleansing his last wound, she took the chance to take a closer look at the boy laid out before her. He had olive colored skin which was perfectly tanned. His hair was a deep black color, though it held a hint of blue. And it was short, about the length of Harry's. At the moment it was very messy, but she assumed that it normally held a rather neat complexion. He had a muscular build, but he was not overly muscular. Over all, this boy was HOT! 'No, Hermione, you don't even know this boy. He could be a Death Eater for all you know, you shouldn't be having feelings for him. Why did you even bring him into your house?' She questioned herself. She simply shrugged the thoughts out of her head and went downstairs to watch some television.
One of her favorite shows was on. Unsolved Mysteries. It was about mysteries that have not yet been solved, hence the name. It could be quite interesting, because in some of the cases, magic was clearly evident, yet the Muggles had no clue. It was a bit ironic, actually. But sometimes, the stories could be just plain weird.
After the show was off, she decided to do a bit of 'light' reading. She picked out Lord of The Rings Trilogy and the Hobbit. She finished the books within the next 4 hours. Hermione had just finished The Return of The King, when she heard a sound of movement from upstairs. She went in the guest bedroom to find the boy wide awake and sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Good Afternoon." she said, clearly unnoticed.
"Oh! Pomeriggio buono." He said. But when he saw the look on her face he translated. "Good Afternoon."
"How are you feeling?"
"A bit weak. But its nothing I cant handle. Thank you for taking care of me."
"Not a problem at all. I don't mean to bombard you with questions as soon as you wake up, but...um... I have a few, if you dont mind."
"Niente affatto. Andare avanti. Not at all. Go ahead." He said, letting his birth language show through.
"OK..um... Who are you? Do you go to Hogwarts? What House are you in? What about year? Why don't I recognize you? Why were you all beaten up? Who did this to you? Why were you in a Muggle Park? How did you get there?" Hermione asked so quickly, the boy could barely keep up. Seeing him staring at her, made her blush in embarrassment. 'When he said go ahead, I bet you he didn't mean for you to ask him all those questions that fast.' she mentally scolded herself. There was silence in the room for a little bit, causing Hermione to only get redder.
"My name is Blaise Zabini. Yes, I do go to Hogwarts. I am going to be a Seventh Year Slytherin. You probably don't recognize me because I prefer to be in the shadows most of the time. Although we have been in the same classes for the past 3 years now. I got into a fight with my father and we dueled. I was in a Muggle Park, because it looked comfortable, and it was the only place around that I could go to. And I flew there on my broom. There, I believe that answers all of your questions." He said closing with a smile on his face.
Hermione was taken aback by his honesty. She hadn't really expected him to answer all of her questions. One more question was on the tip of her tongue. Dare she ask the most important question yet? 'What if he is? Then what?' She asked herself. 'Then before he can hex you, you hex him into oblivion. Your not called the smartest witch of your year for nothing, you know. Besides, all of the Death Eaters know who you are, so he would have killed you by now.' With that thought she was brought back to reality. To see the boy staring at her.
"Are you OK?" He asked with a worried expression on his face. Not the kind of expression a Death Eater would wear.
"Um... yea, I'm fine."
"You are not always this inarticulate, Granger." He pointed out.
"Well, Zabini, I have one more question for you."
"Andare avanti, me chiede niente. Non ho niente per nascondere." He almost whispered as blue eyes met brown.
"I take that as its OK to ask you?"
"Yes. It means. Go ahead, ask me anything. I have nothing to hide."
"OK...well... um... Are you a Death Eater."
Blaise's eyes grew dark and distant. He was silent for a moment. As if contemplating weather or not to answer the question. Finally he answered.
"No, I am not a Death Eater, nor do I wish to ever to be one."
"Good enough for me. But that is what you and your father fought about isn't it?" She asked.
"Yes. I told him exactly what I told you, that I didn't want to become a Death Eater, and then he disowned me and threw me out of the house. Only after we dueled, in which he cheated, and then hit me with a couple Crucios." He said, summarizing the nights events that he had just recovered from. "Now its my turn to ask you a question, Granger."
"OK. Shoot."
"Why?"
"Why, what?"
"Why did you help me? Why bother? For all you knew, I could have been a Death Eater. And yet you willingly brought me into your house and dressed my wounds."
Hermione took a while to think this over. She herself didn't exactly know the answer to this question.
"Well, I guess I didn't sense that you were going to be a threat to me. I didn't know you weren't a Death Eater, but I figured that a Death Eater wouldn't sleep in a Muggle Park."
"That seems logical." He laughed. She smiled, 'Man, his laugh is even sexy.'
"Well, you should get some rest. I'll be down stairs." She said, as she headed toward the door. "Oh and another thing." called over her shoulder, stopping at the door, "Call me Hermione." And with that, she shut the door.
A/N: Please tell me what you thought. I love to hear any comments or anything I could improve on, or any suggestions for story lines or anything! I should have Chapter Three up soon, as Band Camp is over. But school starts in 6 days, so that may delay it, as I wont have time to write during the first few days. But I'll try to get it up before then. Thanks again to all my reviewers!