Story: Act number 2715
Author: LadyLissaLight
Summary: Kingsley Shacklebolt is cornered in his office by three overbearing wizards. When they emerge, a change takes hold of the wizarding world – Act 2715. What is this act and why does it have Hermione spending so much time with Blaise Zabini? DMxHG!
Blaise Zabini woke to the smell of frying bacon. He rolled over and groaned, checking his watch. It was only 7.30 so the person downstairs couldn't be Hermione, not with what she'd drank last night.
Blaise yawned and got out of bed, deciding it was time he talked to Draco about this situation. Without getting dressed or changed, Blaise made his way down to the tiny kitchen.
Draco stood there in a baggy t-shirt and boxer shorts, frying bacon. "Dude, what's with the cooking?" Blaise asked by way of greeting.
Draco looked up, shrugging. "Mother and I took some cooking classes since our house elves were dismissed, plus the fact that you don't have any here."
Blaise took a seat at the counter. "I see." He pondered how start the next topic. "So, Granger's gotten pretty hot, hey?"
Draco snorted. "I was waiting for this. No, her presence does not make me happy but yes, I will put up with it. Is that what you wanted?"
Blaise scowled. "No. I want to know how you are."
Draco looked up, grey eyes narrowing. "I'm fine." He said shortly.
"Really? Because last time you weren't." Blaise pushed.
"Last time I was." Draco ground out, glaring at the bacon." "I just needed space. And now I'm back in your annoying shithole, I doubt I'm going to get it. Plus the whole place smells like girl." He grunted.
"I think it's nice." Blaise grinned. "Besides, as if you mind, you always had that little -"
"Shut up!" Draco snapped, ducking his head and now glaring at the counter. "That was like, first year."
"And second year… all the way up to fifth year, if I remember." Blaise said slyly.
"It was nothing." His friend scowled darkly. "How did you even know about that?"
"Anyone with an ounce of observation would have noticed. Which is probably why Pansy is still in the dark." At this, both men chuckled. "But seriously. Didn't you ever hear of 'boys pick on girls they like'?"
"No." Draco said shortly, flipping the bacon onto a plate and putting some more in the pan.
Blaise gave a dramatic sigh. "Fine, if you don't want to talk about it…"
"I saw her last night." Draco volunteered in a surly voice.
"Ooh you did?"
"Yep."
"Tell!"
"Nothing happened. We had a minor argument; she waltzed off to get drunk. I was there meeting Astoria, so…"
"Ah, how is the lovely Astoria?" Blaise asked.
"Apparently she's 'well'. That girl is always 'well'." Draco replied.
Blaise rolled his eyes. "Too right she is. That girl would kill her own mother if society dictated it."
Draco nodded. "The only good thing about marrying her is I don't get subjected to this marriage law shit."
"Act 2715," Blaise corrected, grinning. "I wasn't happy about it either. But I think I got pretty lucky."
"How's that? She's irritating and prissy."
"She's also a good friend. I can think of a lot of people I'd be worse off wit. Hermione and I never fought or anything remember?"
The blonde nodded. "Well, good luck to you I suppose."
"Sure you're not a tad jealous?" Blaise winked.
Draco gave him such a glare that Blaise pretended to cower. "Okay okay!"
After a long pause, Draco said suddenly "I didn't know she had nightmares about…"
"Me either." Blaise said quietly. "It's worrying."
"I get them too." Draco muttered in a barely audible tone. "But how can I live here if…."
"I talked to her about it. She said she'd be fine."
"Well I'll be out of here soon enough, when Astoria and I get married in a few months."
"Oh yeah, when is that?" Blaise joked.
"September." Draco rolled his eyes. "That's when my parents were married and she wants our marriage to 'be as strong and everlasting as theirs'" he mocked.
"Ew." Blaise muttered.
"I know." Draco shook his head and they both laughed.
XXXXXX
"YOU WHAT?" Harry and Ginny exclaimed in unison.
"I know, I know! It's awful!" she buried her face in her hands.
"And Zabini didn't tell you? That filthy liar, tricking you into it." Harry spat angrily.
Ginny was silent for a moment. "Maybe Blaise didn't know?"
"He did. I suppose I'm not too angry with him. Draco IS his best friend and partially owns the house…"
"Yeah, but you two could've moved somewhere else!" Harry objected.
Ginny nodded. "Has he said anything to you yet?"
"Other than to get out of "his" room and telling me that the leaky cauldron isn't the library, no." Hermione replied, after thinking about it. "But it's only been a day."
"The leaky cauldron…" Ginny started.
"…isn't a library?" Harry ended, confused frowns on both their faces. "Maybe Malfoy's gone round the twist?"
"Oh!" Hermione laughed. "No, I was at the leaky cauldron the other night and ran into him. Apparently I'm not nearly cool enough to go out."
"I wonder who he's matched to!" Ginny said suddenly.
Hermione, who hadn't even thought about it, raised her eyebrows. "I've no idea. He was with a blonde the other night… But I can't imagine him getting close to a muggleborn."
"He's engaged already." Harry cut in. "That's why he isn't matched."
"And how do you know that Harry?" Grinned Ginny. "Been reading my mums witch weekly have you?"
Harry blushed slightly. "No. I heard someone in my department talking about it."
Ginny gave him a doubtful look, before turning back to Hermione. "Well at least he'll be out of yours soon enough, when he gets married."
"Yeah, but until then…" the three of them sighed.
XXXXXX
Draco Malfoy stared lazily into the fireplace, idly watching the dancing flames. He closed his eyes, tilting his head back slightly, and basked in its warmth.
It felt good to have a day like today, where he wasn't at work or with his mother. Where he could relax. Draco never relaxed much anymore, he had done so too much when he was younger and was now paying for it.
Unfortunately, disturbing Draco's peace and quietude, the flames turned green and a spinning body appeared. He curved his face into an irritated sneer as he recognized the person coming to a halt.
When they fell out of the fireplace in an uncouth manner, getting soot all over Blaise's Chinese rug, he fought the urge to step on them.
Instead he said loudly, "Weasel. Mind telling me what you're doing in my house?"
Ron Weasley, for that's who it was, leapt to his feet groggily at the sound of the voice. "Malfoy! What are you doing here! I thought you ran away to France."
Draco's eyes narrowed. "As you were too thick skulled to hear what I said before, this is my house."
"No it isn't!" Weasley said angrily, flaring immediately. Draco repressed a grin. This was going to be too much fun.
"Why yes… it is. Did you mistake it for your house Weasley? I don't see how, this place doesn't have dirt floors…"
Weasley reddened and withdrew his wand. "If you say one more word about -"
"Uh uh uh." Draco shook his head, pulling his own wand from its pocket, his movements lazy. "Don't you know how rude it is to threaten someone in their own home?"
"I don't believe you!" He roared. "Now tell me what you've done with Hermione or I'll curse you!"
"You, curse me?" Draco sniffed. "I'd be more worried for the vase over there. Its fifteenth century French made. Not that you would care Weasley, it's too above your tastes."
"I said tell me where Hermione is!"
"I have no idea as to the whereabouts of your long molared friend." Draco smirked. "Maybe she's retreated to the 'burrow'. Isn't that where animals like beavers and weasels live?"
"I'm going to kill you!" Ron Weasley launched himself at Draco.
Flicking his wand, Draco performed a silent petrificus totalus on the redhead, before standing up. "I warned you, Weasel." He said pleasantly.
Leaving him lying there, he went upstairs to find Granger, expecting to find her in the sitting room with a book.
And there she was, yet if he examined her closely, he could see she wasn't nearly the same Granger he'd taunted a few years ago.
For starters she was much thinner. He knew this was probably a result of 'being on the run' and getting cursed by his aunt. Her hair was just as tangled as ever, but she'd cut it shorter now, so it just touched her shoulders.
He also couldn't help noticing her legs were no longer awkwardly lanky, but smooth and long, and her chest… at that, he stopped himself short. So what if he'd had a small crush on her. That was YEARS ago, and it had meant nothing. So now was definitely not the time to ogle her.
He averted his eyes and coughed loudly. She looked up instantly, her eyes narrowing when she saw it was him.
"Yes?"
"Your friend Weasley is downstairs." He told her, surprised to say the least when she stiffened slightly, and a frown crossed her face. "He is also petrified."
"What!" she stood up, frown vanishing, and glared at him. "What did you do?"
"He attacked me." Draco drawled. "I was defending myself."
"You had no right to do that! How dare you taunt one of my guests and then cast a spell on him!" she snapped, her eyes bright with indignant anger.
"He started it." Draco sneered. "Why would I want to waste my time on such filth and low worth as Weasley...?"
"Shut up." She said, her voice dangerously low. "Shut up. Don't you say one thing about him. He is worth a million of you!"
"Oh yeah." Draco said maliciously, smirking. "I remember now, you two were shagging. How did that feel, getting broken up by the law?" He sniggered. "It was probably a good thing, after all. He'd had Brown in his bed, he would he want you after that?"
She looked as if he'd slapped her. "How dare you -" She began.
"I dare because I live here, I own this house and I will do whatever I like. Besides, it's true." He hissed.
"You're just jealous because Ron and I had a real relationship when all you have is an arranged marriage!" she snapped back.
He was taken slightly aback. He hadn't known she knew about that. "How did you know about that?" He asked, smirking. "Been reading up on me have you?"
"No!" She blushed. "Why would I do that?" She crushed her arms to her chest, glaring at him.
"Why wouldn't you? I am, after all, superior to you in every way."
"I was waiting for this!" She said furiously. "Just waiting for you to bring up my blood so you could shove it in my face. Did you learn nothing from the war?"
He hadn't meant her blood at all, actually. In fact, he hadn't even realised what he was saying. It wasn't as if he meant any of it anyway, he just liked getting a rise out of Granger. But he couldn't very well say that, could he?"
"You'd think after you watched your aunt torture me, after you'd seen my blood everywhere, you'd realise it's just the same as yours." She said quietly, stepping towards him. "It's exactly the same, yet you refuse to see it. I thought you'd changed for the better, Malfoy. You proved me wrong I guess." She shrugged, turning away from him and walking down the stairs to Weasley.
Draco just stood there, feeling his heart sink into his stomach.
What had he done now?
XXXXXX
"Ron!" Hermione said, crouching down over him and undoing the spell immediately.
He sat up, face red with anger. "I'm going to kill that prick!" He shouted.
"Calm down." Hermione said. "Now, what are you doing here?"
"Oh!" Ron quickly stood up. "I came to say I'm sorry. But also that I love you and I want to be with you." He mumbled. "Let's not go along with this stupid law. Let's run away somewhere until it gets taken down."
"What?" she gasped, shocked.
"Or we could just see each other behind the scenes?" he suggested. "Like when Zabini and Estella aren't around." He put his hands on her hips, drawing her forward.
"- Did you sleep with Lavender?" she blurted suddenly, unable to stop herself.
Ron's eyes widened. "What?"
"Did you sleep with Lavender Brown?" she demanded.
"I – No." Ron said guilty, looking down.
"I don't believe you." She said flatly "Get out."
"What!" he cried, ears red.
"I said get out. I'm not your whore Ronald; I am not going to sneak around with you behind Blaise's back. And I'm also going to tell Estella that you just propositioned me."
A very ugly look crossed Ron's face. "What? Shacking up with Malfoy and Zabini makes you too good for me?" His blue eyes glared at her. "I guess you're their whore then."
He turned around and stepped into the fireplace, shouting Estella's address.
And that was the moment Hermione realised she no longer loved Ron.
A/N – Not a very happy chappy - obviously. It gets better, but there won't be any Dramione for a while yet, and we are still very much in the early stages of this story, so there isn't very much plot yet I'm afraid. If it gets TOO boring, let me know and I'll try and step it up a notch.
Lissa
