Happy New Year!
New chapter up.
JK Rowling owns HP names and other awesome stuff.
March 31, 2006.
It had been two weeks since Hermione Granger had kicked Draco Malfoy out of her house and one week and five days since she had started to 'see' his Pure Blood brother-to-be.
After demanding Malfoy remove himself from her property at once, Hermione had never expected Blaise Zabini to turn up on her doorstep the following morning. She had been wary of his presence at first, but after listening to him rant and rave about the 'fucking idiot' that Malfoy was, she accepted that Zabini was not about to beg her to take the Blonde Git back in.
Zabini had asked her to lunch for the following day and she had graciously accepted. During the time that Malfoy had been with her, she had begun to warm up to the Italian and had looked forward to the times they spent together. He was witty and smart, and appreciated her need for quiet nights where she would just sit down, read and not talk to him.
During that lunch, Zabini had confessed to her that he hoped that the problems with Draco would not affect their friendship. Hermione had assured him that she enjoyed his friendship regardless of who he associated himself with. Much to her amusement, Zabini had smirked at her and slyly replied that he hoped to associate with her more often, to which Hermione brazenly responded with a 'I certainly hope so Mister Zabini'.
From that day on, Hermione had seen the Italian almost every day in some capacity. To her amazement, Hermione found that she was eager to finish work on the days that they had plans, and often looked forward to the days in which they did not have plans as Zabini had surprised her on more than one occasion.
Never did either of them bring up the topic of Draco Malfoy. Hermione knew they could not keep dancing around the elephant in the room, but she truly did not want to know what Malfoy was doing with himself. While he was in her care the first time at St Mungo's, he had fully eradicated the drug from his system. During his stay at her house, he had been so close to getting clean before she had demanded his exit. She did not want to hear Zabini confirm that all her hard work had gone down the drain so she kept shifting the conversations between them along to avoid the one she did not want to have.
As it was, on day thirteen of seeing each other, Zabini received an owl that demanded his urgent attention. The two had been enjoying a relaxing afternoon after a day of shopping in Diagonal Alley when a large owl had swooped through Zabini's window. Hermione had felt Blaise tense next to her before jumping off the couch and rushing to untie the letter from the owl. Hermione had watched his face turn into a scowl and heard him mutter 'Stupid Git' before he slammed the note down and looked at her.
"I'm sorry to have to cut this short Granger, but Draco's gone and cocked up again. I'm going to head to the Manor; his mother says that he won't answer her calls. Make of that what you want."
Hermione let out an audible sigh and shook her head. She was right; Malfoy was back to his old habits. And getting worse by the day judging by Zabini's response.
She gave him a small smile as she stood up from the couch. "I understand Zabini. You tried to help him, but I think that the best thing to do is to inform Narcissa. She will be a force to be reckoned with if she knew how bad his addiction is."
Zabini nodded solemnly. "It's been on my mind a fair bit to tell her actually. He's killing himself, and I don't want that to happen to my family. Because Draco is family Granger."
The look of hopelessness on Zabini's face made Hermione's heart flutter. He looked so vulnerable and unsure about what he needed to do, that Hermione couldn't help but go over to him and initiate the first physical contact between them. Standing in front of him, she cupped his cheek in her left hand and looked him in the eyes. "No one can say you did not do your best Blaise. If Malfoy is so intent on his own destruction then you know what you need to do next. Have faith in yourself alright? If Malfoy ends up hating you for it, then tough."
Zabini looked back at her and smiled a smile that made Hermione look away in embarrassment. She could only now work out how intimate their positioning was, so she lowered her hand back to her side.
To her surprise though, Zabini caught her hand and grasped it within his own. "Thank you Hermione. I know I gave you a big burden by asking you to help with Draco, but I really do appreciate it." As he spoke, his eyes darted down to her lips and Hermione stared back at him with a bewildered expression.
He wasn't going to kiss her was he?
Her thoughts were halted the moment his head dipped lower and his breath mingled with hers. "I'm going to kiss you now Granger," he whispered before he placed his lips on top of hers.
Hermione had kissed men before obviously. She had dated Ron for a while but that was as far as her kissing experience had gone. She had very rarely kissed the men she had 'dated' since then and so when Blaise Zabini's lips came into contact with hers, the first thoughts in Hermione's mind centered around remembering how to move her lips properly.
It turned out that Zabini was quite the expert in kissing, so the woman just followed his lead. It was a short kiss- nothing too passionate- but it left her with the desire to kiss him again.
Remembering the situation and Zabini's unknown reasons for kissing her, she quickly squashed those pesky little desires and took a step back away from the body of the Italian. Zabini was watching her with a guarded expression waiting for her response. Or maybe he was waiting for her to raise her arm and slap him.
Hermione wasn't sure what she wanted to do, so she said the only thing she could think of, "Oh."
Real eloquent Granger, she chastised herself.
Zabini on the other hand let out a laugh that made Hermione look up at him and narrow her eyes. He was laughing at her. Why was he laughing at her? As any girl would do, Hermione immediately thought he was laughing at her kissing ability.
Now she was ready to slap him.
"'Oh'? Is that the best you can come up with?"
Hermione stared at Zabini as a slight blush crawled up her cheeks. In a haughty tone deceiving of her current emotional turmoil, Hermione responded with, "Well sorry if I wasn't exactly expecting it."
"HA! I did warn you, and you had plenty of time to pull away even before I kissed you." As he spoke, Zabini noticed the scowl that was beginning to distort her features. Hastily raising his hands in a peace gesture, Zabini tacked on, "But now is not the time to discuss this kiss. I have to go to Draco." With those as his departing words, Zabini winked at Hermione and spun on the spot to disapparate out of her lounge room.
Hermione was left staring at the empty spot with her mouth open. Shaking her head to bring herself back to the present, Hermione ran a fingertip over her bottom lip and said aloud to herself, "Well, that was... Just... Far out!"
She had never expected Zabini to cross the lines from friendship to kissing partners in such a short space of time, but really she should have expected it earlier. Zabini had given her plenty of chances to see his interest in her, but she had always pushed them to the back of her mind, thinking that he was spending time with her as a way to thank her for Malfoy.
Some sort of misplaced guilt or something maybe?
Now that the boundary between friends and 'maybe something more' had been crossed in such a blatant way, Hermione knew that she would be pondering over every one of Zabini's actions towards her over the past few weeks, analyzing every encounter.
Groaning and pressing her fingertips into her closed eyes, Hermione slumped back into the couch. So much for a quiet afternoon off.
2 April 2006
Two days later
"Draco! Draco open this blasted door now, before I-" there was a pause as the person on the other side of the locked door stopped yelling and Draco could hear whispered words being exchanged before the yelling started again. "Just get out here now before I blast this door down!"
From his spot on his expansive bed, Draco scoffed and rolled his eyes. He knew Blaise and his mother were out there, plotting to get him out. He had been locked in his bedroom for the past five days after his mother had become unbearable.
After escaping from Mudblood Granger's clutches, Draco had immediately gone out to find Goyle. It hadn't taken long before Draco had a nice little parcel of Dust in his hands. He had disapparated from Knockturn Alley into his bedroom at the Manor- Blaise would not suspect that he would return to his ancestral home- and had immediately crushed up a tiny tablet of Dust in his bathroom. After so long without the drug, Draco's system had been unprepared for it, and so the time for it to hit him had been quicker than he was used to. He had been halfway across his bedroom before his head had gone light and he had felt like he was floating. Unable to hold himself up anymore, Draco had sunk to the floor and lain spread eagled on the carpet as he stared up in wonder at the intricate artwork on his roof. He must have fallen asleep at some stage because he had been shaken awake by his mother concerned about why he was on the floor.
Unfortunately for him, he had promptly thrown up on the thick carpet due to the nausea that he had suffered from the use of the Dust. Like with the first time he had used it, and every other time he went long periods without it, the Dust caused his body to throw up his stomach's contents.
His mother had swooped around him all day checking to make sure he was feeling well and drinking enough tea. Not once did she leave him alone long enough to get another dose of Dust into his system. This went on for ten days before he became so enrged by her constant pestering that he had cast a strong locking spell on his bedroom door and had set up wards that could only be released by him.
Despite this set back, his mother never failed to show up at his door every hour. Why she bothered, Draco didn't know. He refused to answer her calls and so silence greeted his mother's attempts at reaching out to her son. If only Blaise wasn't such a nosey bastard, Draco would have been at his own flat where it was quiet and his Mother didn't call out to him in her annoyingly high pitched 'worry' voice.
He had been surprised when he had heard Blaise talking to his mother through his bedroom door the day before. He had not expected her to reach out to her fiancé's son. Narcissa did not very much like Blaise Zabini as she saw him a threat to her future right to the Zabini fortune. As Draco should have known, nothing was too unexpected for Narcissa Malfoy when it came to her son.
Just look at the time she had lied to Lord Voldemort!
Draco's reasons for staying at the Manor were now void due to Blaise's presence. Rolling himself off his bed, Draco grabbed a small number of possessions before disapparating out of his room. So long as Blaise believed he was still in the Manor, Draco knew he would be left alone.
And that was just what he wanted.
6 April,
4 days later
Hermione and Blaise were walking arm in arm down Diagon Alley heading towards a small cafe to have afternoon tea. Blaise had owled her at work and had requested her presence that afternoon, but Hermione was unsure as to why.
He had barely spoken ten words to her during the walk from her apartment to the cafe, and Hermione was getting antsy. She had tried making small conversation, but for once the Italian did not seem interested in conversing with her. Instead he had his eyes lowered and his mouth set in a grim line and grunted his responses to her.
Hermione was beginning to regret accepting his offer for afternoon tea; she could have been at home catching up on some much needed sleep after an exhausting night shift.
Once they had arrived at the cafe and taken their seats, Blaise finally looked at Hermione. She saw how drawn his skin looked and how bloodshot his eyes were. Her concern for him made itself known as she cried, "Oh Blaise! Are you ok? You look absolutely dreadful!"
Somehow her words managed to lift the corners of his mouth but the sad look in his eyes remained. Sighing, Blaise finally spoke. "I'm sorry. I know we try not to speak about Draco, but it's at its worst point now."
Frowning, Hermione gestured for him to go.
"He's been locked in his bedroom at the Manor for ten days now. When I left you the other day, he had been in there for ten days already. Narcissa owled me because she was beside herself with worry. He's put up strong wards that I can't crack, and we don't even know if he's still alive. Narcissa says that he is, as the Manor would have given some sign that the heir has perished apparently, but he could be unconscious for all we know."
Hermione pursed her lips and looked off in the other direction as she thought about the problem Blaise was experiencing. She did not like Malfoy and did not feel any obligation to help the blonde haired prat, but she liked Blaise and she cared enough about him to know that Malfoy's behavior was taking a toll on the Italian's health.
"Narcissa doesn't know what is wrong with him, and I still haven't told her about the Dust. The poor woman is absolutely frantic with worry."
Watching the man in front of her wring his hands, Hermione leaned forward and placed her own hand over his to calm him. "Has Narcissa tried to break the wards?"
Blaise raised an eyebrow at the simplicity of the question. "I'm pretty sure that she has."
"But you haven't seen her do it?"
Slowly, Blaise shook his head.
With a small smile, Hermione told him exactly what he needed to know about breaking down Malfoy's wards.
Really, for a Witch who had not grown up in the Wizarding World, she knew more about Pureblood magic then they did.