Chapter Eight - I lost a friend
Blaise wandered out of the hospital wing late one night in late May. The castle was empty and so silent that the faintest whisper would resound like a shout throughout the halls bouncing gleefully off the stone walls. He had been kept away from school for almost two months after his bout with Ron. As it turn out Ron had caused more than a few flesh wounds, Blaise had suffered a rather serious head injury that temporarily affected his short-term memory. A week after the fight he had been transferred to St. Mungo's where he was treated with more intensity. His recovery time was relatively slow compared to those who usually underwent such a procedure. Blaise was thankful that Madame Pomfrey had signed him out of the hospital wing so he could sleep in his own bed. How he long for the familiar smell of his dormitory escaping the disinfectant and painful white walls of the infirmary.
As he walked through the pleasant night air a slight limp in his step he smiled at the thought of returning to school missing going to his classes, seeing people he knew. It was rather sad the thought that he had no visitors whilst he was ill, even his female admirers hadn't made and effort. He had received only a handful of get well cards. One from the Weasley's apologizing profusely for Ron's actions, one from Draco who wished he could take time off and see him and another from an unknown onlooker with very elegant handwriting. But he didn't mind the time alone allowed him to collect his thoughts, catch up on some NEWTs reading.
There was one person he had missed whilst confined to the hospital ward, one of the only people he seemed to remember. Hermione. Memories of her from the few weeks before the accident had been the only ones he had kept. Secretly he wanted to help her see seemed so depressed and isolated; she had no one to call her person. He wanted her to open up to him tell him what was wrong, talk about Harry get the horrible weight that weighed her beautiful head down off onto him. Blaise wanted to know her, carry her through the rough sea and come out alive and well on the other side. He didn't know her very well but there was something about her that made his whole world shift, when he was around her all those nights on patrol, time seemed to stop and there was no one but them. Yet he would never be the first one to admit it.
As he stuffed his scarred hands in the pockets of his tight black jeans looking only momentarily down at his black Converse shoes he did not notice the slight figure dart out of a hidden passageway behind the statue of the one eyed witch. Comically running headlong into the girl Blaise tripped and fell backwards-loosing balance on his crook leg. Pushing the long brown hair out of his eyes Blaise saw opposite him also on the ground was a very confused Hermione Granger muttering something to herself. He grinned seeing her, taking in her appearance for a moment. Her hair was long and stringy, a curtain across her beautiful brown eyes. She looked frail cloaked in all black clothing that hung from her shoulders and made her look even smaller. Despite her pallid complexion and dark circles under her eyes Blaise found there was something so majestic and so beautiful about her appearance.
Finally she looked up to she what she had run into and saw Blaise leaning back on the ground opposite her smiling handsomely. She sighed thanking Christ it wasn't a teacher; then took a double take and noticed it was Blaise. Without thinking she threw her arms around his neck shocking him but he laughed never the less.
"You're back!" she slurred happily hearing news of his condition and secretly worrying immensely. He smiled into her shoulder and patted her affectionately on the back.
"Yeah I am, glad to be too, I hate hospitals," he said laughing heartily as they broke the embrace yet stayed on the ground facing each other.
"We were all so, so worried about you!" Hermione said giggling stupidly. Blaise raised one eyebrow, but had already smelt it on her.
"Miss Granger, have you been drinking – on a school night?" Blaise asked rather seriously. Hermione gave him a very grumpy look and clumsily pushed herself up from the floor into a shaky standing position.
"What's it to you, uh, chump," she said then bent down again to pick up her bag but Blaise got there first. He couldn't help but take a peak; coin bag, lipstick, cigarettes and anti-depressants. He sighed loudly and even a drunk Hermione noticed.
"I was put on them about two weeks ago, teachers thought I needed help said I was falling behind, not myself. Its at bull shit if you ask me," she said snatching the bag off Blaise reaching in an lighting up a cigarette. Uneasily getting up off the floor Blaise stood in front of her with a worried look on his face.
"What happened to you Hermione, you were never like this," Blaise said softly. Hermione laughed hollowly.
"How would you know? You don't know anything about me," she said stumbling past him sucking on the cigarette all the while. Blaise quickly followed her and grabbed her arm softly. She turned around sharply throwing him off tossing her bag to the ground and cried out loudly. Blaise looked around hoping to all hell that no one heard her.
"Calm down Hermione you don't want to wake the whole castle up," he said quickly. She just spun around on the spot and looked at him her eyes filling up with tears. Blaise looked at her and wanted to reach out and hold her in solace yet restrained himself.
"You know it is exactly five months since Harry died," she choked a large lump in her throat not permitting her to swallow. "In two weeks he should be doing NEWTs with us and in, in less than a month he should be a father," she stuttered tears staining her face. Blaise was shocked and bit his lip seeing the girl's body shake. "Ginny's having a baby, a baby Blaise without a father! What kind of person would do that?" she said softly giving in and sinking to her knees.
"Hermione you can't do this to yourself," he said empathetically kneeling besides her bringing her into his arms. She sobbed hopelessly on his shoulder.
"Why not? I lost a friend,"
A/N:
Yeah it is short sorry I kept going but thought it would work better in another chapter so that one is coming up with this one. Review la la la
