Blind
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter in any way, shape, or form…trust me.
Summery:Hermione is now in her sixth year and she and her friends are preparing for the war to come. One night, while brewing a potion, something happens that causes Hermione to begin to lose her sight and find an unlikely friend in the darkness.
Chapter 8
'Tell her,' Blaise thought forcefully willing his mouth to move. 'Tell her now and get it over with. The longer this charade goes on, the harder it'll be on the both of you.' He said nothing. Instead he just stared as she silently moved her fingers across the pages of the book in front of her.
She had, again, transformed the words into Braille and he was yet again amazed by her brilliance. Potter and Weasley had no idea how lucky they were to have her on their side.
"Matthew," Hermione said conversationally. "You're oddly quiet today…is something wrong?" Blaise shook his head and cleared his throat.
"N-no," he stuttered uncharacteristically. "Just a little tired. I've been studying really hard…um, Potions with Snape is no picnic." She laughed lightly and he relaxed a little. This is what he was used to. Bantering with her like they were old friends, not fidgeting nervously wondering if she'd ever talk to him again after she found out the truth.
"Tell me about it," she said turning a page of her book. As she did so, a sharp pain rose from her chest and settled in her head. She jumped and Blaise frowned as he took notice of the pained expression on her face.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Yes," Hermione said slowly. "I just got a bit of a headache. It'll go away in a bit." Blaise nodded.
'I've dated many girls and never had a problem telling any of them what I wanted to say,' he said to himself. 'Why, when it matters most, can I not tell the one girl who matters, the truth? Okay, I can do it…Merlin, I'm getting as bad as Draco.'
"Hermione," he said before clearing his throat. "Hermione, I've got to tell you something." Hermione folded her hands in her lap and turned towards Blaise's voice, giving him her full attention.
"Okay," she responded easily and then she sat there…completely silent, waiting for his big confession.
"Um, I….I…I'm going back home."
Draco huffed angrily as he stalked away from his dormitories. He'd just received a note from Dumbledore by owl. It was the only safe way of communication as it would seem suspicious to his classmates if he suddenly spent more time with Dumbledore than Saint Potter himself.
However, the note wasn't why Draco was angry. No, the reason he was angry lay with the fact that he couldn't find Blaise anywhere to deliver the message Dumbledore had meant for the both of them to read. He wasn't in the boy's dorm, the common room, the Great Hall or any other of his normal spots.
"When I find that little bastard I'm gonna ring his neck," Draco muttered.
'The library,' he thought suddenly. He shrugged. It was worth a shot, he'd tried everywhere else.
"Wh-what?" Hermione stuttered breathlessly. "Why?" Blaise shrugged for a moment, forgetting that the action wouldn't translate.
"I miss home," he told her as earnestly as he could. "I miss my friends. Hogwarts is great, I'm especially glad that I got to meet you." He smiled to himself. That much was true.
"Well," Hermione said a bit resigned. "I'm glad I got to meet you too. You're a great person. You'll keep in touch won't you?" Blaise panicked.
"Of course," he told her hoping that his voice didn't giveaway his thoughts. "I've got to go now. I just wanted to tell you before I left. This is my last night in the castle." Hermione nodded and placed a hand on the table.
"It was great knowing you, Matthew." Blaise gave a small smile before reaching over and placing his hand over hers.
"It was fantastic knowing you, Hermione Granger." He leaned over and placed a kiss on her cheek before standing. "Goodbye."
Blaise made it as far as two shelves away from Hermione before the sight of a shaking, red-faced Draco stopped him in his tracks. His eyes widened a fraction before he rushed past Draco, his only thought to take the fight as far from Hermione's ears as possible.
He had just made it outside of the library before being slammed into the wall in front of him. Draco held his robes from the back and used them to turn him over so that they were facing one another.
"You lying son of a bitch!" he seethed punching Blaise in the gut. "She's blind to you, Draco. She hates you, Draco. You don't have a chance," he mimicked Blaise mercilessly all the while punching him in his face and stomach.
"Draco," Blaise gasped. "Let me explain." Draco stopped hitting Blaise, his anger not spent.
"You lied to me! You were supposed to be my friend and all the while you've been seeing Hermione behind my back! No wonder I didn't have a chance. She's infatuated with you!" He moved to punch Blaise again but the other boy whirled quickly out of the way.
"Draco, wait! Hermione's not infatuated with me! She doesn't even know who I am!" He moved again as Draco's fist moved at his face.
"What are you talking about?" Draco panted stopping his assault although his face was still an angry red.
"Hermione thinks that I'm someone else," Blaise said breathlessly. He raised his hands in a placating manner. "She doesn't even know my real name. She'd never talk to me if she knew who I was."
"How is that possible?" Draco said. "She saw us together. She knows we were friends." Blaise flinched at the past tense used by his housemate.
"Hermione's blind, Draco. For the past few weeks I've been pretending to be someone else so that I could get to know her and find out why you think she's so special." Draco blinked.
"What?" Blaise lowered his hands and sighed.
"What you saw in there was me saying goodbye. I couldn't keep lying to her. She's having a tough time of it. Potter and Weasley don't know either."
"H-how?"
"She said she was mixing a potion and it blew up in her face," Blaise explained.
"But Madame Pomfrey-"
"Can't fix it. She might be blinded for life, Draco. I'm sorry I lied to you. I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have done what I did but…but I'm not sorry."
Hermione frowned as another pain shot through her head. The pain was increasing every few minutes. She'd ignored it as much as she could while speaking to Matthew.
'Matthew,' she thought. 'I'm glad he came here. I don't know what I would have done without him.' Her thoughts were stopped when another wave of pain washed over her.
"I've got to get to the infirmary," she thought. She waved her wand over her books before calling for Madame Pince. The librarian was there instantly and gingerly helped Hermione to her feet and out of the library.
AN: Sorry it's so short. I'm having story flow problems and classes are taking up loads of time. The end is near and I promise to work insanely hard to get the next few chapters out.
