Detentions

In Which Blaise Leaves Hermione Utterly Confused

The following day two students, their Houses strategically placed furthest from each other, received identical letters from school owls. As one, the troublesome students silently read the notice and grins spread across their faces, albeit one more of a smirk.

Their gazes locked from across the hall. The grin, belonging to Hermione, faltered slightly as a blush rose up her cheeks when Blaise's grin turned seductive. Hermione shivered at the thought of what would, hopefully, happen at their detention later that night.

"Wos 'at?" Ron said suspiciously. Hermione fumbled with the notice. She was becoming too obvious about Blaise if Ron could catch something while half asleep and busy stuffing food in his mouth.

"Oh, another detention, that's all." Hermione busied herself with spreading jam on her toast, trying to hide her smile.

"You sure have been getting a lot lately..." Harry noted, his eyebrows knotted in confusion. "And since when is another detention not a big deal?" Hermione swallowed, dabbed daintily at her lips with a napkin, and carefully repositioned her knife. But buying time just made Harry and Ron more suspicious and left her with no good excuse. Ron and Harry had put down their breakfasts, never a good sign, and Ginny was turned the other way in an effort to stifle the sudden bout of giggles she developed.

"Well, er," Hermione mumbled. What was she supposed to say? She couldn't just blurt out that she was secretly snogging Blaise Zabini and loving it, could she?

"Granger." Oh thank Merlin! Saved by the mysterious voice owned by..uh-oh...

"B--Zabini," Hermione tried to say with a hint of annoyance, but her stumble didn't quite achieve the desired effect. Blaise smirked, although it turned out to be a bad attempt at making a grin seem Slytherinesque. His gaze swept over the group, noting with distaste that Ron had jam on his chin.

"Due to the mud incident last night, my robes are absolutely filthy. You will, of course, have no objection when I tell you that you will be cleaning them?" he commanded superiorly. Hermione gaped like a goldfish; just what was he playing at? Her friends cried out about the unfairness of it.

"Come," Blaise said, grabbing her hand and pulling her along.

"Sodding git," Ron growled as the Slytherin pulled along his best friend. Ginny, once again, had to duck her head to hide her giggles.

She'd seen Blaise's conspiratorial wink.

Hermione slipped into Charms just as class started, vainly trying to smooth down her hair and straighten her robes. Her grin wasn't preventable though. Who knew a quick snog in the broom closest was such fun?

"I hope you gave that git a good curse or two," Ron mumbled. Hermione froze for a moment, startled out of her reminiscing of just how his hands caressed her face.

"Uh, of course, Ron."

"Hermione, what's that on your neck?" Harry asked curiously. Hermione's hand flew to the spot that had been caressed only moments ago by Blaise's lips.

"Nothing! Just..nothing," she finished lamely. "Now hush, class is starting." Harry narrowed his eyes at her. But since Flitwick was currently trying to control another student's nose swelling; class was nowhere near being started. There was something odd going on, and Harry was determined to find out what it was

Coming into the castle absolutely covered in dripping mud can get you in a lot of trouble, Hermione reflected. And scraping pounds of Drooble's gum off the undersides of desks and dusting 3-inch thick layers of dust off the bookshelves was really no fun at all.

But with Blaise, it was oh so enjoyable.

"You know, leaving us alone in the most secluded corner of the library is just begging for me to ravish you thoroughly," Blaise whispered into her ear before resuming his task of thoroughly exploring her neck with his mouth. Hermione smiled and melted against the wall, feeling very good pinned so close to his body.

"We really...should...get back to...oh wow..." Hermione's feeble protest was cut off by Blaise's kisses. It was quite difficult to think of something as trivial as cleaning desks when Blaise was making her feel oh so wonderful.

"And you were saying?" Blaise asked, looking quite satisfied at Hermione's speechlessness.

"Uh..work! Yes, we've got to work."

Blaise gave a sigh not unlike that of a five year old told to clean his room.

"Fine," he said begrudgingly. Hermione smiled at his pout and give him a peck on the lips. He eagerly tried to lean in for more, but Hermione raised a reproaching eyebrow and went back to gum scraping. They worked in silence until Hermione felt the silence had grown too oppressive.

Finally she blurted out, "Harry and Ron are beginning to suspect something." She put down her supplies and slowly turned to face Blaise when he didn't answer. He wore a look like she had just proposed killing his cat. Why on earth did she just blurt that out?

"And?"

"I'm just saying that perhaps we should be more careful," Hermione said. She felt guilty that she was hiding such a thing from her best friends, but honestly, it was much better than having them find out she was snogging a Slytherin. The look didn't change, and that worried her.

"So that they won't find out about us," Blaise said evenly. Hermione nodded. "I see. And why would that be such a bad thing?"

"Oh come on, Blaise. Do you honestly think what is between us is serious enough to risk ruining my friendship with them?" Hermione cried out. He was being absurd. "You're a Slytherin. And while I realize that you're not an awful jerk since you can civilly consort with a Muggleborn like me, but Ron and Harry have a pretty concrete mindset about Slytherins."

"You really think you're just a quick snog in the broom closet when I can get one a lot easier from one of the Slytherin whores?" Blaise said softly, taking a step back and crossing his arms. "I'm sorry that you see it this way. Apparently, I thought this was something a bit more than what it was. Trust me, this will be our last detention." With one last look of something Hermione couldn't recognize on his face, he left, leaving Hermione utterly confused.

Back in the Gryffindor Common Room, Ron and Harry were engaged in a ruthless battle of chess. Ron, of course, smashed Harry's pieces mercilessly while Ginny tried her hardest to give Harry tips while composing an essay.

After Ron pronounced checkmate in a rather bored tone, Harry asked, "Do you suppose there's something going on with Hermione?" Ron paused from putting back his chessmen.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, she's had a lot of detentions lately."

"Yeah, and with that Zabini bloke too."

Ginny wasn't quite quick enough to hide the alarmed look that flitted across her face.

"Gin? D'you know something?" Harry pressed.

"I might," Ginny said carefully. "But if something is going on, it is not my place to tell you. And don't you even think about spying on Hermione!" she warned, glaring at their conspiratorial glances. "You know how ticked she can get. Now, good night." With a last warning glare, she gathered her things and disappeared up the staircase.

"D'you reckon?" Ron questioned.

"I'll grab the cloak."

The two boys snuck off to the library, invisible underneath the invisibility cloak. Whatever they were expecting, it was not what they saw.

Hermione was alone, morosely dusting the same shelf over and over again. Her eyes were glazed over, brow furrowed, and she appeared deep in thought. Though what she was contemplating, the boys had no idea.

What puzzled them most, however, was the strange lack of Zabini, since they were positive that they had been assigned detention together as usual. Harry and Ron threw each other confused looks under the cloak before looking back at Hermione. Ron gave a shrug and seem satisfied that nothing was peculiar. But Harry's sixth sense was blaring loudly; there was something going on, he was sure of it.