Chapter 4: Surprises
"Hermione, are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm just fine professor McGonagall, why do you ask?"
"I think you know why I ask. You have a right to be happy, and to continue to do so, you need to go to him and catch up."
"You will be excused from any professorial and head-of-Gryffindor-house duties tonight." The headmistress interrupted before Hermione could ask.
"Thank you so much professor." Getting up, she tossed her napkin on her hardly touched plate and rushed out the doors, and rushed to the Hospital wing.
"Ginny! Is it almost dinner? I'm starving!" came an irritated voice from behind a curtain that was welcoming to Hermione as she came through the doors, trying to catch her breath from running the entire way from the Great Hall.
"So dramatic you are, yes Blaise, dinner is ready! But you have to remember that you aren't the only patient in this ward." She replied irritably, expression softening when she was Hermione standing nearby, arms crossed with a large, Slytherin-worthy, smirk on her face.
"Is it alright if I take his food tray to him, Gin?" Hermione whispered, coming closer to the visibly disgruntled nurse.
"Be my guest," she replied, "he's been a pest since you left."
This caused Hermione to silently chuckle. Shaking her head, "that's Blaise" she said in a whisper to Ginny, a smile and a nod coming from the busy witch.
Hermione picked up Blaise's tray from the cart and carefully carried it to his bed.
"It's about time… I thought…"
"You thought you were going to starve?" Hermione finished in his shocked silence at seeing her instead of Ginny.
Turning slightly red, he replied with a yes and started eating while Hermione sat on the edge and watched his feverous eating.
"I've only been gone for a half an hour and you've already re-made a nuisance of yourself." Hermione commented light heartedly as he began on his second bread roll. Blaise risked choking by laughing and nodding his head in agreement.
"Well, you are going to meet someone who will give you a run for your money, dear."
Swallowing the bite of chicken that was currently in his mouth, he looked up with a quizzical look on his face.
"A Weasley?"
"Not quite. The sooner you finish, the sooner you'll find out. Just don't choke yourself!" she added quickly as he suddenly started bolting down his food like a five year old who was promised a trip to play at the park, if he finished all of his vegetables.
A bit of indigestion and an ok from the relieved nurse later, Hermione and Blaise were down in Hogsmede, preparing to apparate to London from their house.
"Why are we going to London?"
"Because," she paused, trying to pick the right words for what she wanted to say next.
"Because…?"
"Mum and Dad have been worried sick about you and I know they would want to see their only son-in-law alive after three years." She replied, gathering a coat and a scarf for both of them, it being a chilly spring evening.
"Oh, ok. That sounds good to me." He said, smiling as he wrapped his favorite coat and scarf around his body for the first time in three years.
A fraction of a second later, they were at the road in front of her parent's little house in Bath. Walking up the cobblestone path, they were met at the door by her mother rushing out to Blaise and giving him a huge, motherly, hug and a peck on the cheek. Then another bear hug by her father, a conversation breaking between the two men almost immediately. This was good, considering Hermione needed to speak with her mother privately.
"Where is she mum?" She whispered, watching the two men move into the house.
"In your old room, she's been there for three hours. I was about to wake her when Ginny called saying he was back and you were on your way from your house." She whispered back.
"Thanks mum. I'll go and get her. Could you go and wait in the living room with Dad and Blaise?" Hermione requested.
"Alright everyone, how about we all go to the living room to talk while I get us some coffee." Her mom said once they were in the house. "Hermione? Could you get a china set from your room for me?" She added, a nod coming from her daughter.
As her parents immersed Blaise into conversation, Hermione slipped upstairs to her old room to find her two-year-old daughter, Jessica, asleep, peacefully sucking one of her thumbs and a lock of her hair in the other.
"Jessie? Jessie, honey, wake up," she coerced while gently rubbing her daughters back.
She stirred a bit before turning to Hermione and sitting up, rubbing the sleep from her startling indigo eyes. Chuckling at her daughter's dishevelment, Hermione helped wipe some excess drool and curly brownish black hair from her slightly tanned complexion.
"Hi mommy!" The little girl said brightly for just waking up.
"Hi sweetheart. I have a question for you. Do you think you could answer it for me?"
Jessica giggled, "You siwwy mommy. I twy to foe you."
"Alright," she chuckled. "Do you remember that picture of your daddy I showed to you last weekend?" Jessica nodded. "Well, I have a surprise for you. But I need you to be calm, ok? Can you promise that you won't be too crazy?"
"I pwomise I wiwo behave mommy." She said, bouncing up and down on the bed, causing Hermione to laugh.
"Alright, firecracker, I'll hold you to your word."
Grinning, the toddler stood up on the bed, short little arms outstretched, asking for Hermione to pick her up, which she did before heading downstairs.
Down in the living room, Hermione's parents had started a conversation about dental equipment that Blaise seemed fairly interested in. At the bottom of the stairs, she put Jessica down on the ground to walk with her hand in hand.
"Blaise," she interrupted, noticing that she'd interrupted an "intense" conversation about drills, "there's someone I would like you to meet."
Walking around the couch, followed by three sets of eyes, Hermione went to the other side of the coffee table in front of the three people. On the other side, she knelt down next to Jessica, "Blaise, this is Jessica. Jessica," she said, facing her daughter, "this is your daddy."
Turning wide-eyed, the tot started shaking with excitement, breaking away from her mother and running around the table towards Blaise, shouting "DADDY!"
"Daddy?" he asked, directed towards Hermione, as he picked Jessica up from her launching herself at him.
"Yes, Blaise, you became a daddy about nine months after you disappeared." She said, rubbing her right arm with her left hand, looking at him uncertainly. "I found out the night you were captured."
Blaise looked from Hermione to his daughter, completely lost for words, only to have Jessica break the silence.
"You my daddy, daddy. My name is Jessica Sopia Zabinini. I just turned this many." She said, holding two small fingers up for him to see.
Tears began welling in his eyes as he hugged his daughter tight for the first time, a smile on his face. "It's nice to meet you Jessica Sophia Zabini."
Later that night, as they set Jessica down for bed after she'd fallen asleep in Blaise's arms on the couch, he asked Hermione as they watched Jessica sleep, "Why didn't you tell me when I woke up that I had a baby girl?"
"Because," she started, "you just got home, needed your rest and I wanted her to be a surprise."
The grandfather clock on the wall chimed nine o'clock, which caused both of them to jump.
"Well," Hermione said after composing herself after the shock, "I think it's time we turn in also, don't you?"
"Yeah." He answered. Before they left Jessica's room, heading to the spare, Blaise said, "Hermione?"
"Yes?" she replied, turning around to find Blaise looking back at Jessica sleeping on her bed.
"I'm glad you didn't tell me about Jessica when I woke up."
"Why is that?"
"Because I feel like it makes me appreciate her that much more." He replied as he faced her, seeing tears in her eyes, which surprised him. "Hermione, why are you crying?!"
"Because I'm so glad you're back!" she said as he moved to embrace her. "I missed you so much."
"Shh, it's ok Hermione," he reassured her as he stroked her head while she sobbed into his shoulder, "I'm not going anywhere anymore"
The End
A/N: I would greatly appreciate it if you review and let me know what you think )