Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or its characters. Those rights are reserved to those such as J.K. Rowling. I also do not own the music I mention below the author's note, I merely own the rights to listen to it on my iPod.

A/N: So I don't want to get everyone's hopes up after about a 3-4 year hiatus, but I am writing this on a whim to see if I can muster up the inspiration for this story. I have to admit that before when I was writing this, I was currently going through some things similar to Hermione's issues in my story (aside from the magical parts obviously) and after I got better I had lost all the energy for this. But, here goes nothing, let me know if you like, don't like, or whatever your opinions may be! ENJOY.

***Some song recommendations for this chapter: Ali in the Jungle by The Hours, Shake It Out by Florence + The Machine, Iron by Woodkid. I listened to these and gathered some inspiration plus they are some really awesome songs so check them out!

Cold – Chapter 4

Everybody gets knocked down – How quick are you gonna get up?

by: A Nonny Mouse23

Hermione had envisioned many scenerios that would likely play out. Blaise would storm off after throwing out some insults and giving her a nasty glare. Or maybe he would suddenly start beating on her like her "father" always had reminding her with every punch just why she was worthless. Therefore, Hermione was so shocked by Blaise's actual reaction that she didn't even register his soft glance down at her and the hug that followed.

She startled into awareness with someone holding her tightly whispering words she couldn't understand into her hair. Somehow Hermione managed to pull the needed information from her brain to stop the full-on panic attack she was about to have. This is Blaise. He is my brother. He is not going to hurt me. When this information was extracted she managed to send the proper response to her arms and returned the hug Blaise was still giving her. It only took the one first tear to escape before she was sobbing into his shirt about how sorry she was over and over.

After a few minutes, Blaise pulled her back so that he could look into her eyes as he said, "You have nothing to be sorry for and these," he gestured to her arms, "are not your fault. But me and Draco are here for you now, and you need to realize that you don't need this anymore. You don't need to hurt yourself. We will be here for you whenever you need anything, I don't care if it is to kill a spider or to talk about feelings or how your day went. We are here for you."

She couldn't help but let out a few more sniffles. That had probably been one of the sweetest, most amazing speeches anyone had ever made to her. She was touched by how deep his connection to her was already after only a day and a half of knowing her. And as if he had known her their entire lives, he instantly knew when to change the subject and lighten things up. "So what do you want for dinner? I'm starved!" He grinned and patted his stomach for emphasis. "Typical boy, always food on the brain," she rolled her eyes playfully and laughed a real laugh. She had a fleeting thought about how rare a real laugh had been in her life before, and then she shoved Blaise and yelled, "Race ya!" While he was recovering from the shock, she got her head start back to the house.

All those morning jogs paid off as Hermione reached the door a full two minutes before Blaise. She proceeded to taunt him about his lazy mornings and how out of shape he was before heading inside. Blaise was in the middle of "cooking hamburgers" aka setting burgers on fire and charring them beyond being remotely edible when Hermione realized Draco had not come back yet. Not that she was too upset really because she was rather anxious about seeing him so soon after his blowup earlier. She imagined his reaction may possibly be one of the scenarios she had thought of about Blaise earlier. She shivered, but something told her that no, if he were going to be that way to her he would have been here by now. It had been quite a while, certainly long enough to give Blaise and Hermione their space and time or whatever. So in true Hermione fashion, she began to worry.

Thirty minutes later, there were about five edible burgers, and a starving Blaise, but no Draco. Hermione had just decided to go out looking for him, but when she stepped out the door turning back to yell to Blaise where she was going, she bumped into something hard. It turned out to be the very muscular chest of the exact person she had been worrying over for the past hour. As he steadied her, they made eye contact and all of the curses and lectures about worrying them to death died in Hermione's throat. His gaze held nothing but true remorse and he took advantage of her uncharacteristic silence to speak.

"Listen Hermione, I am not very good at these things, but here goes: I am so sorry for my reaction earlier. It was way out of line for me to be so upset and to go as far as yell at you is despicable. I had only just apologized for my past transgressions and here I am ruining things once again with my misplaced temper. I would never be angry at you, I just saw the scars and thought of that monster and saw red. You did not deserve that treatment and I am truly sorry. Will you ever forgive me?" he ended, slightly out of breath and with a hopeful look in his eyes.

His face became grave; however, as it took Hermione a minute to catch up to what he was saying. He was sure she was thinking of very colorful ways to tell him to "bugger off" and never speak to her again. Meanwhile, she seemed to be having a lot of these moments today. Moments where people were surprising her and not reacting or saying things remotely close to what she imagined them saying. Finally when her mouth caught up to her brain she replied, "Of course I'll forgive you for that, but so help me if you EVER stay out so late without so much as a "hey guys I'm just chilling I'm perfectly fine and not being killed by angry death eaters" I will personally come kill you myself," she ended in a huff. Wide eyed, all Draco could do was stare at her intensity, half scared for his life and half attracted to her beyond belief.

He managed a muttered "sorry" before she turned and he followed her into the house. Their arrival was met by guffaws from Blaise, "She sure told you, mate." From the dining room they heard a loud, "That goes for you too!" and a huff. Draco chortled and lightly punched him on the arm, "Let's eat man, I'm starving."

After dinner, they were relaxing in the living room when Hermione suddenly had an idea. "Draco, how do you actually become an animagus?" "Oh, it's relatively easy. Well, if you aren't eight years old and not even supposed to be doing magic that is," he replied. Hesitantly, as if afraid of being told no, she asked, "Would you teach me?"

Blaise piped up, "Of course we'll teach you, 'Mione. It'll be a blast!" "You're an animagus too? What form do you take?" she asked curiously. Hermione watched as her brother turned into a large lion. At first she was awed, and then came the amusement. Between bouts of laughter and tears she managed to catch him change from a disgruntled looking lion to an even more disgruntled human. "What's so funny?" he said in mock outrage. "You…you're…" she had to take a few breaths and stifle her laughter. "You're a lion, but you were in Slytherin!" and she busted out laughing again. This time Draco joined in with her laughter and when they finally managed to quiet down, Blaise was already justifying himself, "Well the lion is a very regal creature, king of the jungle, brave and majestic and just plain awesome!" He huffed in mock annoyance before they all broke out in uncontained laughter again.

Thirty minutes later found them all clutching their abdomen and Hermione's mind refocusing. "So you guys will seriously teach me? How do we start?"