Title: Away From It All
Author: SilverShiver
Disclaimer: I don't own it. J.K. Rowling does. That's about it.
Away From It All (2/3)
Blaise entered his flat and looked around in confusion. There were two suitcases and a box by the door. He kneeled down by the parcel and opened up the flaps revealing an assortment of Ginny's books and knick-knacks that had been removed from their room. He heard a 'thump' from the bedroom and slowly rose to his knees. What was she up to now?
"Ginny?" he called down the small hallway. He heard her gasp and he hurried to the door. "What are you doing?" he asked when he saw her rushing to put her clothes into one of the suitcases.
"What does it look like?" she asked irritably without looking at him. Blaise went to her side and put his hand onto her arm.
"Ginny, calm down," he said softly. She stopped packing but took her arm away.
"I'm calm, Blaise." She raised her eyes to his. "Why are you home so early?" she asked quietly.
He shook his head. "I wanted to surprise you, but you beat me to it," he joked dryly. She scoffed and shook her head. She went back to packing her things. Blaise watched her for a moment before saying anything.
"What's gotten into you?" he asked suddenly. "We were fine last night! Why are you leaving all of a sudden?"
Ginny ignored him as she continued to move back and forth across the room, transferring her things into the suitcase.
"Ginny! Answer me!" he demanded.
She shook her head. "Blaise, you can't give me what I need," she said softly. On the verge of tears she tried to shut her overfilled suitcase. She put all her weight on it and tried to snap the locks closed but to no avail.
"What do you need?" he asked. "What can I give you to make you stay?"
She sat on her suitcase and tried to shut it again. "Nothing Blaise. You can't give me anything."
"What does that mean?" He raised his hands in exasperation as she gave more attention to the suitcase than to him. "I'm trying, love. I'm trying to help us, but I can't do anything without you."
She resigned from her struggle with the suitcase and lowered herself against the edge of the bed, crying freely. "Blaise, just go," she pleaded. "I can't do this with you here…"
Blaise was becoming angry with her for acting so foolish. They had been together for five years—ever since he had cornered her in his seventh year. They had been living together since she had graduated. She had even moved out of her family's home to be with him. Everything was going perfectly and now she was throwing it all to the wind? With no reason?
Blaise cleared his head and kneeled down by her side. "Ginny," he begged. "I don't know what I did wrong. Tell me, I'll fix it."
Ginny's sobs subsided after a moment and finally she looked him in the eyes. "You didn't do anything," she confessed. He cocked his head in confusion and she stood up to work on her suitcase. After taking out a few things she was able to shut it with a click. The noise brought Blaise back from his daze and he stood up to face her.
"What?" he asked. "Why are you leaving if I didn't do anything?"
Ginny pulled her suitcase from the bed and carried it past Blaise into the living room where the other two were. She grabbed her coat and after carefully shrinking all of her packages, she placed them into her pocket. Blaise followed her out of the room and was glaring at her.
"If I didn't do anything," he repeated irately, "then why are you leaving?" She ignored him again and he tried to change his approach. "Fine," he acquiesced. "Where are you going? At least tell me that!"
"Hermione said I could stay with her for a while. She talked it over with Harry and they agreed I could use the spare bedroom. I'll be there if you need me," she declared without looking at him. "But unless it's an emergency," she lifted her head and looked at him, "please don't try to reach me," she finished with a shake of her head.
Blaise felt his eyes filling with tears at her departure. "Ginny…" he sighed. "Why?"
"You can't give me what I need now, Blaise."
"What do you need?"
"It doesn't matter anymore."
"Ginny!" Blaise cried. "Please. Tell me before you go," he asked her softly.
She put her hand onto the door and twisted the handle. "I need to be loved Blaise," she whispered quietly, without turning to face him.
Blaise stepped back in disbelief. He laughed shortly and smiled at her. "I can do that, Ginny," he promised. "I've been doing it for a while now. I love you."
"You don't, Blaise." She let go of the door handle and faced him.
"Yes, I do."
"No. You don't," she said forcefully.
He took a few steps closer to her. "Ginny… I do." Then he realized exactly what was going on and he stopped moving. "It's you… You don't love me." Ginny lifted her eyes and widened them in disbelief. "You don't do you? But now you're blaming me…" he said in shock.
"How could you say that?" she screeched. She left the doorstep and advanced to him. She pointed a finger at his chest. "I loved you Blaise Zabini. I loved you from the moment you met me in that alcove again. After you left me alone the first time, I thought you wouldn't want me again. But you met me after I sent you an owl, and you held me and told me I was better than what everyone else thought! And you did it again after that. And again; and when you never stopped— That was when I loved you!"
"Why are you saying loved? Don't you still?" he asked, hoping he had been wrong in his accusations. She backed away from him with tears in her eyes.
"I don't know anything about you anymore," she confided. "I need to think."
"What don't you know about me?" he demanded. "You don't know how much I love you? How much I need you here with me?" He stepped nearer to her and wrapped his arms around her. "Ginny, if you leave me, I won't stop loving you. I'll wait for you to come back to me—even if you never do."
Ginny's chest shook with her silent sobs. Suddenly she lifted her hands to his face and pulled him to her level. She pressed her lips to his in a hectic and confused kiss. She was trying to sort everything out through the fevered caress. He kissed her back and she could tell that he was trying to convince her to stay through it. She wouldn't—she couldn't—she told herself firmly.
Blaise backed her up into the wall as his hands began roaming her body. She moaned softly at his touches but resisted letting him go to far. Suddenly she pulled her lips away and ducked out from his embrace.
"Blaise I can't," she insisted and went to the door.
"You're really leaving?" he asked gently.
She didn't look at him but answered almost inaudibly, "Yes. I am."
"What are you going to do? Where are you going to go?" he asked once more, not meaning where she would stay.
She looked at him over her shoulder and gave him a small smile. A tear slid down her face. "I haven't decided what… and I'm going away. Away from it all." She opened the door and slid out it silently leaving Blaise alone in his apartment.
OoOoOoOoO
"Hermione, I need to talk to her."
Hermione sighed. "Blaise, she's not well. She needs a bit of space."
"But—"
"No, Blaise. I can't let you talk to her right now. She's not in any condition to see to you. Give her some time."
"It's been over four months! Isn't that time enough?" He threw up his hands in frustration. Then, he slowly took a deep breath. "Look, Hermione… I love her. I want her home."
"She can't believe you right now. She's stubborn, Blaise. Just let her have her time," Hermione tried to reason.
Blaise choked back a sob. "I didn't tell her…"
Hermione calmly held one of his hands. "Didn't tell her what? I'll let her know for you."
He looked up and Hermione was shocked to see the tears. She hadn't known Blaise well until Ginny had left him and he had been in contact with either her or her husband every day. Yet she knew him well enough now to know that these tears were a rare occurance.
"I was going to ask her to marry me. That's why I wasn't at work. I came home early to take her out for a nice dinner. I want to spend my life with her, but she doesn't love me, and won't tell me what I can do to change!"
Hermione bit her lip as a tear fell down her own cheek. She stood up with Blaise and led him to the door. "I'll do what I can Blaise. I really will. I'll try and get her to talk to you, to be reasonable."
He nodded silently and exited out the door.
"I'll talk to you tomorrow, all right?" she called after him as he got on his broom and flew off. She sighed and entered the house again.
Her husband was waiting by the stairs for her when he entered. "Are you all right? I can ask him to stop coming by if it's upsetting you," Harry said as Hermione came to him. She buried herself in his arms and sighed.
"I'm so glad that we are happy, Harry. I'm so grateful that we're not going through something like this."
He smiled and kissed her head. "What did he say today?"
Hermione left his embrace and started up the stairs. "I need to talk to her, Harry. It's gone on long enough. She needs to tell him."
Harry nodded. "I know. He needs to know everything. It's his right."
She smiled back at him and then continued up the stairs. When she got to the guest bedroom, she knocked softly. Receiving no answer, she slowly opened the door to look in on its occupant. "Ginny? Love, I need to talk to you." She walked in and closed the door behind her. She saw Ginny sitting in the bay window. Her legs were curled up against her chest, her arms wrapped around them. She had her head leaning against the corner window.
"He was here."
Hermione nodded. "Yes he was."
Ginny continued to look out the window at the expansive lawn where she no doubt had seen Blaise leave. "What did he want?"
"Perhaps you should ask him."
Ginny turned her head sharply at her friend. "Hermione, don't."
"It's been almost five months, Ginny. It's time you at least told him." Ginny blinked and looked away. "You don't have to go back if you don't want to. I can't make you do that."
Ginny looked her way again, "Then you can't make me tell him!"
"You have until the end of the week, Ginny. Then you're out of my house. You can't keep this from him. He has to know." Hermione was about to turn out of the room when Ginny moved from her post. Hermione saw the slight curve under her robes as she approached.
"Hermione…" she pleaded.
Hermione closed her eyes and left Ginny alone to consider her choices.
OoOoOoOoO
"Harry, please… Let me see her!"
"Blaise, this is getting old."
"Getting old? Should I give up? Is that what you're saying? Harry, if Hermione just up and left today, wouldn't you follow her? Wouldn't you do everything you could to get her back?"
"Hermione didn't leave me though."
Blaise fought back the urge to fight him. "I can't stop. Not until I see her one more time. I need to talk to her. I have so much that I want to say."
Harry shook his head.
"Blaise," a small voice choked back a sob at the sight of him.
Harry turned and saw Ginny standing by the stairs, a hand by her neck, holding her necklace nervously. He quietly left the two alone.
Ginny and Blaise stood across the hall from each other for a while. Then Blaise took a few steps in her direction until he was next to her. He put his hands on either side of her face and pulled her up into a kiss. "I missed you," he murmured.
She smiled at him. "I know. I—I need to talk to you."
He shook his head. "No, I need to talk to you. I love you Ginny. Maybe I didn't tell you soon enough, but I do. I'll never stop. It's been three months without you, and I never want to have to go through that again. I want you with me. I want you to marry me."
Ginny stared at him speechless. She shook her head. "You don't want to marry me, Blaise," she said as she turned away from him. "You don't. I've been horrible, Blaise. I've been a monster… you don't want me in your life."
"Monster, or not, I do want you. That's why I've been here every day waiting for a chance to talk to you."
"Every day?"
"Didn't they tell you?"
"I stopped asking. I didn't want to know."
"Oh."
Ginny turned back to him. "Blaise, I left because I thought you didn't love me. And I hated myself for giving five years to someone who would never love me in return. Five years, Blaise. I waited five years for you to ask me that question, and you never did. So I left."
"But Ginny, I was—"
"Let me finish, Blaise," she said, holding up a hand to silence him. "I left you and came here. Then, about two weeks later I realized something." She paused for a second.
"What did you realize?"
"I discovered that I wasn't the only one who left you."
"What?"
"I'm pregnant, Blaise. When I left, I took your child with me."
There was a moment of silence before Blaise responded. "Ginny, that's wonderful."
She locked eyes with him. Her blue ones, shocked; his brown ones, excited.
"What?" she let out with her breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding.
"We can have a family. If you come home with me, we can start over. You, me, and the baby; it'll work."
She tried to smile. "How do you know?"
"Because I love you. Ginny, the night you left, I was home early so that I could take you out to dinner. I was going to propose that night." He watched as her eyes widened. "You see? I've loved you all along."
"You really have?" she asked, unable to believe that she'd given up the best thing she'd ever had.
"Yes. Please come back to me. I need you."
Ginny smiled softly and went into his arms. "I'll come back."
They held each other for a few moments and then Ginny pulled away. "Leaving you didn't give me what I wanted, Blaise."
"It didn't?"
"No. Not only was I not loved, but I didn't have the one thing that only you can do to me."
"What's that?" he asked with a small smile.
"The thing that brought me to you five years ago." She went to him and kissed him. "Blaise, you're the only one who can take me away from it all."