Dinner that evening was awkward; we sat in silence trying to ignore the haughty glances my mother was shooting at us, trying to forget the damage she had already caused. She had been here for about two hours and already she was ruining everything, tomorrow was Hermione's birthday and I had a really romantic day planned, but it was unlikely to be as nice as I had hoped with my mother there. I scowled at my plate as I cut through the meat viciously, too late I realised my mistake and my mother's cold, harsh voice broke the silence. "Blaise! What happened to your manners? I we were at home you would not be allowed dinner for that, clearly you have been associating with filth for too long, you are becoming nothing better than them despite your impeccable blood." Hermione bristled visibly but I calmed the moment with a muttered apology, I didn't speak any louder because my voice was trembling with anger.

I breathed in deeply and carried on eating, pretending that my mother wasn't looking daggers at Hermione. I ate hurriedly, all I wanted was to get away from the table and run through my plans for tomorrow, I wanted everything to be perfect despite the presence of my mother. I complemented Hermione's cooking as I was accustomed to do, wincing at the look on her face as my mother uttered the snort of derision and said in a stage whisper to herself "Wouldn't touch it with a broomstick, I will get Thing to make me something that isn't poisoned by mudbloods." Hermione acted like she hadn't heard properly and merely asked in a casual voice "Who or what is thing?" I groaned as I realised I had forgotten about the house elf, I knew my mother wasn't going to say anything so I quietly said "Thing is my mother's house elf." I dragged my eyes away from the worn floorboards and looked into Hermione's, they were angry but her face and voice were calm. She was trying so hard to put up with her just for me, "While she is in my house Thing as you call her will have decent living conditions and a proper name."

"Of course she will love, don't worry I'll see to it that she has everything she needs to make her comfortable." With that I quickly left the room in search of a blanket and cushion to give to Thing, she could choose where to sleep herself.

Exhausted by the long week of work and the arrival of my mother, I went upstairs and checked through all my arrangements for the next day before collapsing onto the tiny bed that was now mine and Hermione's. I lay in the dark for a while, struggling to cope with the memories my mothers reappearance had brought to the surface. Hermione came in and found me as rigid as a board with my hands balled into fists, I was clenching them so tight my nails were digging into my skin and my knuckles we were white. She climbed into the narrow bed beside me and I relaxed enough to pull her towards me and hold her to my chest. I buried my face and nose into her hair, breathing in her scent, this combined with the warmth finally served to calm me down. Soon she was asleep with her head on my chest I lay flat on my back while she slept peacefully, her deep hypnotic breathing was the only sound in the room. Butterflies began to form as I thought of what the next day would bring, she meant so much to me and all I wanted was to make her happy. A sliver of moonlight illuminated her face as she slept, and before I closed my eyes and let myself succumb to the fatigue that was now pulling at my eyelids I whispered to her.

"Thank you, for everything you have done and everything you will do, you have been my all for so long and pulled me through when my life wasn't worth living. I know she hurts you yet you still put up with my mother for me. Thank you, I love you so much." With that I slipped into unconsciousness full of nervous apprehension for the day ahead.

I was woken up early by Blaise wishing me a happy birthday and giving me a long good morning kiss, I grinned as a tray floated along beside him, laden with breakfast for the both of us. He wriggled in beside me and the single candle on a small cake flickered into light, I laughed he told me to make a wish. After I blew out the candle we cut the small cake in half and had our traditional birthday breakfast, it wasn't healthy but it was delicious. A soon as we had finished Blaise sent the tray back downstairs with a flick of his wand, he turned to me with a playfully grin on his face "Well then up you get, we've got a busy day ahead, off you go and get ready." Intrigued I asked "Where are we going?"

"That is for me to know and you to find out, now hop to it!"

I scrambled out of bed and was ready within half an hour; I found Blaise downstairs explaining to his mother that we were going out for the day and that we would not be back until late in the evening, she could explore by herself. We left the house and burst out laughing at the memory of the indignant expression on her face I turned to look at him again and said "You have to tell me where we're going now or we'll never get there."

"The Leaky Cauldron is all you need to know, trust me it wont reveal anything"

We arrived and to my surprise instead of going into Diagon Alley we left the pub and went into the heart of muggle London. I was incredibly curious by now but took his hand and trusted him to lead me, we walked for fifteen minutes before I finally realised where he was taking me, The British Library. It was a huge building with a collection of 25 million books and 150 million items in total; I had always wanted to go. Jokingly Blaise said "Well this is one library you will never read the whole of."

We went in while I was still looking around me with awe, he took my hand and lead me straight to the manuscripts room. I gasped as I saw a huge room full of original copies of books by hundreds of authors, many of them were the handwritten drafts that had been sent to the publishers. I walked past all the glass shelves with excitement, not wanting to miss a single thing; I was overawed by the collection. There were books by William Blake, Leonardo Da Vinci, Lewis Carroll and even something that had been handwritten by Shakespeare himself. They had manuscripts of music written by Beethoven and Mozart, all by their own hand, I could not believe I was amongst the works of so many. Finally Blaise took my by the hand and led me to a case where there was Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Persuasion by Jane Austen, poetry by John Milton and best of all Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. The small book was open to reveal a page covered in a neat, elegant script, there were very few corrections.

Finally I was ready to leave and once again Blaise took me by the hand, we had a picnic lunch in St James's park and spent the afternoon on a boat journey along the river. We went out to eat at a posh restaurant; Blaise had decided to spend the whole day doing muggle things. We walked out into the dark street and Blaise took me to stand under the light of a street lamp, he pulled something out of his pocket and showed it to me. It was a copy of Jane Eyre open onto the page where Mr Rochester proposed, I had just reached the lines "My bride is here," he said, again drawing me to him, "because my equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me?" When I felt a tug the book glowed blue, the book was a portkey that had taken us to our special place on top of the hill. The moon shone brightly and bathed the moors on a silver light, it was a cloudless night and hundreds of stars where accentuated against the perfect black of the sky. Slowly Blaise lowered himself on one knee and said "You are my equal and my likeness, I can't imagine my life without you. Hermione, will you marry me?"

A/N: Hey apologising as usual, today it's for the quality of Blaise's half of the chapter, it was a real struggle to write because I the main event happens in Hermione's and his is just the build up. It's why it has taken me two weeks to update, but I have a plan for the next two chapters so they shouldn't be so much of a problem, just bear with me.