A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews (again)! Y'all are amazing.


"Okay, let me think." Hermione paused pondering the questions that were rolling through her head. "What's your favorite childhood memory?"

Blaise responded first saying "Mother teaching me how to cook. I was five or so and she invited me into the kitchen with her I sat and watched her create beautiful dishes. I couldn't wait to start cooking with her. She told me that when I was eight I could start helping and on my eighth birthday she let me help her make my cake. She always used to say that cooking was a practical life skill and that more men should learn how to cook because there is nothing more attractive than a man who knows his way around a kitchen."

"She did a good job teaching you." Hermione said with a smile. "Malfoy? What about you? What's your favorite childhood memory?"

"Mother would read me bedtime stories and she would sneak Muggle books into the Manor to read to me. She would make different voices for the characters and her eyes would glow with life. I loved going to bed at night because I knew that story time was near. The Giving Tree was my favorite." Draco said with a smile as he remembered his fondest childhood memories.

"What about you, Hermione?" Blaise asked with curiosity written all over his face.

"There was a really big snowstorm one day. Big enough to warrant school being cancelled. My mum and dad took the day off work and we spent the day making snowmen and having snowball fights until it got to cold and we had to go inside. Mum made us hot chocolate and we sat by the fire to warm up again. It was great." Hermione said smiling broadly.

"I've never made a snowman or had a snowball fight." Draco said quietly.

"Really?" Hermione asked incredulously. "Never?"

"No, Father wouldn't allow it. He said it was too juvenile and Mother thought that I would get sick if I went out in the cold."

"You never did it when you got here?" Hermione asked gently.

"No, by the time I got here I thought it was juvenile." Draco said giving her a sad smile.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Blaise said "Okay, next question! Why do the two of you keep on calling each other by surname?"

"That's not fair! You can't answer that." Draco said quickly.

"True, but I can explain why I decided to ask Hermione to call me by my first name. Which is just as good really."

"Fine," Draco said pouting. "I don't call Granger by her first name because I don't think she very well wants me to. And she doesn't call me by my first name which indicates that she's not comfortable with that yet."

"I was taking my cues from you." Hermione said defensively. ""If you were to call me Hermione I would call you Draco."

"Really?" Draco asked in surprise.

"Yeah, why not?" Hermione said quietly unable to look him in the eye.

"Okay, Hermione." Draco said smiling as her name rolled off his lounge.

"Draco." Hermione said looking up at him. "I kind of like your name, Draco. It rolls off the lounge well."

"I was just thinking the same of yours, Hermione." Draco said smiling at her. "It really is a beautiful name."

"Thanks." Hermione said grinning at him. "I hated it as a kid but it's grown on me."

"So, Blaise, why did you ask Hermione to call you by first name?"

"It was just better that way. I figured that it was easier to gain your trust if we were open with each other and using surnames always seemed a little…impersonal to me."

"I guess that makes sense. If you call someone by their last name it's easier to keep them at a distance." Hermione said thoughtfully. "Okay, Draco, you're turn. Ask us anything."

"If you would travel anywhere in the world where would you go and why?" Draco asked after a few minutes of thinking.

"Italy." Blaise said quickly. "I'm of Italian decent and I speak Italian but I've never been."

"Doesn't your family own an estate in Italy?" Draco asked.

"Yeah but I've never been there. Mother always said she would take me but never did." Blaise said with a far off look in his eye. "What about you, Hermione?"

"I've never been out of the country so I would be fine going anywhere. Italy would be lovely. They have good food and we would have a translator and an estate to stay at." Hermione said glancing at Blaise. "Yep, Italy. Italy would be the place I would go."

"I would go to Italy as well, then. If only because that's where you both want to go."

"That's not really answering the question then, is it? You would only go because of us?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione, there's something that you need to understand about Draco, he'll go anywhere if we wanted to go there. Hell, he would probably go to the North Pole if we wanted to go. What makes us happy makes him happy. He's cute that way." Blaise said rolling his eyes as Draco nodded his head.

"Well, Hermione, I guess it's your turn now." Draco said with a light blush across his cheeks.

They sat in silence until Hermione thought of her question. "What's your biggest worry about wearing the rings?"

"I'm worried about the sharing power part of it. I mean it's good and it can be so useful but I'm worried that something bad will happen because of it." Blaise said quickly.

"I'm not worried about that part." Draco said with a shrug. "I'm more worried about how intimate they are. Both of you can feel my feelings and my pain; that's not something that I'm used to."

"You're worried about feelings?" Hermione asked surprised by his response.

"Yep, it's just so personal. I'm not good at dealing with my own emotions much less yours and Blaise's and I'm really bad at expressing my feelings so having the two of you just feel them is just too personal. What about you, Hermione? What are you worried about?"

"I'm worried about the fact that I don't know everything about the rings. I don't know the little things that the rings can do yet and that's intimidating. I don't like not knowing." Hermione said softly.

"You'll learn all the little things that come with wearing the rings. The longer you where them the easier it will be to feel what we feel and to draw on our power if needed. All those perks we talked about before are only going to become more apparent as time goes on." Draco said.

"It's my turn to ask, right?" When Draco nodded Blaise asked "What's your biggest fear?"

"Failure. That's what the boggart turned into third year, McGonagall telling me that I'd failed everything. I think that it's a different type of failure now though not the fear of failing out of school." Hermione said.

"What type of failure is it then? What are you afraid of failing at?" Draco asked.

"I think that I'm afraid of failing at life. Not getting into a career that I love. Not being around people that I love and who love me. Just failing everything." Hermione said feeling very venerable.

"I'm afraid of turning into my father." Draco said quietly.

Blaise and Hermione waited for him to elaborate but when he made it clear that he wasn't going to say anymore on the subject Blaise said "My greatest fear is letting the two of you down."

"What?" Hermione asked flabbergasted.

"Think about it. You and Draco fought in the war, you stood up for what you believe in, and you're bloody war heroes. I didn't participate in the war. I didn't stand up for what I believe in. How could I possibly compare?"

"I don't want you to compare." Hermione said before Draco could talk. "I want you to be you. You wouldn't fight in the war and I like that about you. I like the fact that you didn't want to use violence to get what you wanted to stand up for what you believe."

"You did fight." Draco said after Hermione had stopped talking. "You fought for me. Without you I doubt that I would have made it through the war, Blaise. You saved me."

"Don't ever think that you'll let us down." Hermione said reaching across the small table to caress his cheek. "You won't let us down."

"Hermione's right, there's no way you'll let us down." Draco said reaching for Blaise's hand and grasping it lightly.

Blaise looked up with tears in his eyes. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely positive." Hermione said rubbing her thumb across his cheekbone.

"Okay, this has been too emotional for one night. Let's clean up from dinner and go to bed?" Draco suggested feeling emotionally exhausted as he released Blaise's hand and stood up.

"Wait!" Hermione exclaimed her hand dropping from Blaise's face. "I have one more question."

"Okay, ask away." Draco said sitting back down.

"The two of you know about Ron, don't you?" Hermione asked unable to look at them.

"Yes," Blaise sighed "we know. We knew when it happened."

"Why didn't you say anything? Or do anything? You could have punished me, right?"

"We could have." Draco said gently. "We didn't want to."

"I am so sorry." Hermione said her voice breaking with emotion as tears started to run down her face. "I don't even know why I did it. I-"Hermione broke down into uncontrollable sobs.

"Hermione," Draco said pulling her into his arms "it's okay. It happened and it's done and it's not going to happen again, right?"

"No" Hermione squeaked out. "It wasn't even good."

Blaise laughed as he pulled his chair around to sit next to Hermione and started to rub her back. He waited for her to calm down before saying "It's okay, Hermione."

"No, it's not." Hermione said raising her head from Draco's chest which was soaked with her tears. "I betrayed both of you and then I couldn't even tell you about it. I am so sorry."

"It's fine, Hermione. So, how bad was it?" Draco asked.

Hermione laughed and said "Really bad. He only took care of himself."

"That wasn't very considerate of him." Blaise said with a laugh. "Do you feel better now that you've gotten that off your chest?"

"Yeah," Hermione said sniffling and rubbing her eyes. "Why didn't you do anything? I did some research, these rings can do some damage to adulterers."

"Hermione, we don't want any harm to come to you. Ever. Now, if you were to say give us your approval to kick Ron Wesley's arse we wouldn't be opposed." Draco said.

"Why wouldn't you just kick his arse anyways?" Hermione asked.

"Well, he's your friend. And if we hurt him then we hurt you at the same time. Friends don't like to see friends get hurt." Blaise explained.

"I don't think that we're going to be friends much longer." Hermione said softly, a few tears falling from her eyes.

"Really?" Draco asked as he reached out to wipe the tears from her face. "Why not?"

"It's been strange since it happened. I can't even look at him especially because he knows that I'm married."

"How does he know?" Blaise asked still rubbing her back.

"Harry told me that Ron saw the rings and because he's Pureblood there's no way he didn't know exactly what they represent…then again so do I." Hermione said her breath hitching.

"It's over and it's done and now we can kick his arse without risking hurting you." Draco said calmly. "But right now, it's late and I'm tired. I think that we should do the dishes and then go to bed. If you're still upset about this tomorrow we can talk more about it then."

"Okay," Hermione said nodding her head. "I know a spell to clean the dishes for us so that way you don't have to."

"Why do you assume that I would be doing the dishes?" Draco asked indignantly.

"Draco isn't a fan of household chores." Blaise filled Hermione in quickly.

"I like some chores, just not dishes." Draco said in a huff. "How do you know a spell to clean the dishes?"

"It's amazing what you can learn while living with Molly Wesley." Hermione as she drew her wand and said a quick spell that sent all the dishes to the sink and started cleaning. "And now Draco doesn't have to do them." She said smiling.

Draco chuckled and bid them goodnight before going upstairs.

"He doesn't like to be emotional around people does he?" Hermione asked Blaise when Draco had gone upstairs.

"No, he hates it actually. But he is right tonight has been exhausting and I'm tired too. Do you want to join us?" Blaise asked.

"Not tonight but I'm getting there." Hermione said.

"Okay, good night, Hermione." Blaise said kissing her on the cheek before standing up and going upstairs.

Hermione sighed and hung her head unwilling to move. Draco and Blaise didn't hate her and they were actually really good people who cared about her, Ginny was right. She smiled thinking about how good it would be to have more nights like this one before she slowly stood to make her way upstairs to bed.


A/N: remember to review!