Chapter Ten: Hogsmeade

"What the hell?"

Hermione looked up from her position on the couch with her brother. Harry and Ron had obviously just finished dinner. Draco was attempting to once again become a part of the wall.

"Hermione, why is he in here?"

Ginny answered for her. "Relax Harry, he's her brother. Maybe they were just talking."

"Don't be stupid Ginny," Ron began. "If Hermione wants to talk to Zabini then fine, but why is he in here?" He pointed to Draco, who was now flattened against the wall in an attempt to go unnoticed. Everyone turned to look at him, he smirked.

Hermione seemed to regain her composure at this point. Thanking God that no one had drawn wands yet, she stood up and smoothed her robes. "Harry, Ron, Blaise is allowed in here if I say he is allowed in here. We were simply talking," she shot Blaise a look. "Malfoy- er Draco... he was just around at the moment. He's just been standing here."

"Hermione, it's fine... I think we'll go now," Blaise said. He motioned to Draco to follow. Draco looked relieved. Ron had moved closer to him with his hand in his robe pocket, clearly fingering his wand, with a threatening look in his eye. Draco, in no mood to be ambushed by Gryffindors by starting a duel on their turf, quickly followed Blaise out of the portrait hole.

For a few seconds Hermione stood and watched the portrait close. Then she sprang into action and hurried after Blaise in Draco's wake.

"Blaise!... Blaise, stop walking! Blaise!"

He stopped walking. Draco did not forsee this, he smacked into him and fell to the floor. Scowling at his friend, he stood up and turned to look at Hermione too.

"What Hermione?"

"Well I just wanted to...uh..." She looked at Draco. "Could we have a moment, please?" Draco looked over at Blaise who sighed but nodded. He walked down the hall, turned a corner, and disappeared.

"Blaise, I just wanted to say... thanks. For you know, defending me, and...listening."

Blaise looked at her for a minute. "Your welcome." Then, unexpectedly, "I didn't think it would be so hard to have a sister."

Hermione wasn't expecting this. She didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry... I guess I have been so worried about my own problems that I didn't understand it might be uncomfortable for you too."

"Well... I'll see you around then?"

"Yeah... see you." Hermione stared at Blaise's retreating figure before turning at walking back to Gryffindor Tower. She arrived to find a few more people back from dinner, and Harry, Ron, and Ginny sitting near the fire. She walked over to join them.

"Wanna tell us what that was all about Hermione?" She sighed.

"Nothing really... I just got into some trouble with a few Slytherins. Blaise helped me out."

"What! Who was it? Give me their names!"

"Ron, sit down. It's not a big deal. I just got a little upset, and Blaise helped me back to the common room. But I'm okay now, I promise. I just kept what happened over the summer bottled up for too long, that's all."

Ginny looked at her sympathetically.

Harry responded, "You know we're always here to talk. Whenever."

"I know, but I'll be fine, honest." She gave them a reassuring smile.

Hermione now knew that she could not keep these feelings bottled up inside of her. She should have talked to her friends as soon as she saw them. From now on, she vowed to be more open with them. She also hoped that this incident would help break the ice between her and Blaise. She wanted to have a real brother, and she hoped that being in rival houses would not prevent that.

The next few weeks passed without major incident. Quickly adapting to her new classes, Hermione was becoming her old, bookworm self. Her grades were, as usual, at the top of the class. Her teachers had stopped asking her weird questions after the first week, and she now had reduced herself to just about as many stares from her peers as Harry had. This was still a lot, but she considered it an improvement.

The Slytherins had not bothered Hermione again. In fact, they were treating her better than ever, that is, they were completely ignoring her. Although, she was sure she saw Blaise give her a few smiles whenever she saw him in the corridor. As soon as she did a double-take, however, the smile had vanished, and Hermione would watch him disappear with Malfoy.

Her spirits did not sway over the beginning weeks of school though. Her life was back to almost normal.

One difference being her owl post. With her other parents being Muggles, she rarely received mail besides the Daily Prophet. Now though, she seemed to receive letters and packages nearly every day. Hermione tried not to be as conceited as she knew Malfoy could be when receiving sweets and presents from home, but sometimes she could not suppress a squeal of joy. Her mother would send her all sorts of new reading material, and her father would send her snacks almost every day. With her muggle parents being dentists, she rarely ate candy, but she figured now was as good a time as ever to make up for it. It seemed this was a regular occurrence with the Zabinis however, because Hermione noticed that Blaise did not seem nearly as excited about his morning owl post.

One such morning in late October, Hermione found herself squealing with joy over a new book her mother had just sent her. One she had been wanting for years, but was a limited edition and was therefore very expensive.

Ron and Harry rolled their eyes when they saw it was merely a book that she was excited about.

"Wow, Hermione," Ginny said, looking over in response to Hermione's outburst. "That's a really rare book. I don't normally read too much, but I know enough to know that it's a very hard book to find."

"Yeah, I mean, I can't say I'm not excited over a gift like this, but it's not even my birthday or anything. And I've tried telling my mom that she doesn't have to buy me so much stuff, but she won't hear about it."

While Hermione was still rapidly flicking the pages of her new book, she failed to notice the Great Hall go silent very quickly. Looking around, she noticed almost everyone was staring at someone who was walking across the room. Standing up off the bench a little, she noticed it was Blaise. She looked towards Ginny with a questioning look, but she just shrugged.

Wondering what he was doing as he was now walking towards her, Hermione glanced at Draco, who seemed annoyed by his friend's actions, and was rolling his eyes and sighing. Apparently, Slytherins, especially Blaise, did not normally visit the Gryffindor table during breakfast. Unless of course, you were Malfoy, who had decided to come and taunt Harry or some other unsuspecting person.

When Blaise reached Hermione, the deathly hush was still present in the Hall. Ron seemed to think this was ridiculous because he stood up and yelled loudly, "Oi! Can't a brother and sister talk at breakfast! Mind your own damn business!"

Hermione blushed and was in the process of reprimanding Ron when Blaise spoke.

"Good morning." He smiled, showing his pearly white teeth. Ginny seemed to have begun choking next to her. "Did you know that tomorrow is a Hogsmeade trip?"

"I did."

"Well, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to join me tomorrow, so we could, uh, get to know one another a little better?" Hermione had to admit that she admired his poise in this situation. Had she gone over to the Slytherin table, she probably would have run away by now, scared by all the deadly glares. Blaise, seemed unaffected however, except for the obvious awkwardness in talking to his sister whom he had barely just met.

"I would love to." Hermione smiled too, and Blaise walked back to his table. She could see Malfoy begin rapidly questioning him, but she couldn't help but grin.

Saturday donned bright and cool, a perfect day for walking through the village. Hermione dressed quickly, having had a more sound sleep than usual, and hurried down to the common room to meet the boys for breakfast.

Ron looked glum as usual, but Harry seemed to be in almost as good a mood at Hermione.

"What's up Harry?" she asked.

Before he could answer, Ron interrupted, "He's going to Hogsmeade with Ginny."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "What's wrong with that?"

"Well, it's Harry and my sister. And now I have to go alone!"

"I'm sure you can find somebody to hang out with. And we'll see you later anyway," she said matter-of-factly. Then she turned to Harry. "It's about time you know." The she grinned and hurried over to the table.

After breakfast, the Great Hall started to empty as the older students made their way to the village, or the younger students headed grumpily to their common rooms. Hermione said goodbye to Harry, Ron, and Ginny, and walked into the entrance hall to search for Blaise.

"Hey," someone said behind her.

"Oh! Hello, I was looking for you."

"I know, we can leave in a minute, hang on." Hermione now noticed that Draco was sulking in the corner. Blaise went over to him and whispered a quick word to him before turning to her. He smiled, but she couldn't miss the look of exasperation he gave his friend. "Okay, let's go."

As they headed out towards Hogsmeade, they received many stares. Finally, Blaise broke the silence. "I guess they're all looking at you. I've been receiving more stares than usual, but it's not like this."

"Yeah, I have kind of gotten used to it," Hermione said, finding it easier than she expected to talk to her brother.

"So this must be what it's like to be Potter, huh?" Blaise smiled at her, and Hermione found herself smiling back.

"Yeah, I suppose," she laughed.

"How are your friends taking it?" He asked. She didn't have to ask what he meant.

"Pretty good, considering everything. I mean, I can't expect it to be exactly the same, but they're great friends, they really are. Even Ron is taking it okay, I haven't seen the true Weasley temper yet, at least." Hermione smiled fondly.

Blaise raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you and Ron...?"

She looked quizzically at him, but then blushed as she realized what he was asking. "Oh, no! We're just friends."

"I see." They continued walking, they were almost inside the village now, and they fell into another silence. Hermione supposed it was hard to find something to talk about with someone who you didn't know anything about, and you had just started talking to them.

"How are your friends taking everything?" She asked as they stepped into Hogsmeade.

"No one has really said anything, especially after I told them not to... The only person who I really care what they think is Draco. He could be taking it better. He doesn't say anything about you, he doesn't have much ammo anymore... But, I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm going to turn into a goody-goody lately."

Hermione laughed. "Well that's kind of ridiculous, isn't it? A Slytherin goody-goody? I think that's an oxymoron."

Blaise laughed too, and as they walked through the shops, Hermione found she had more in common with Blaise than she good have previously imagined. He loved reading, and he had actually read Hogwarts, A History. He held good grades in class, above that of Harry and Ron at least. He also loved Christmas, pumpkin pie, and sugar quills, some of her favorite things.

They also talked about their friends and family. Blaise told her about his friendship with Draco, and how even though he was a complete git, Blaise had known him since he was a little kid, and he was the best friend he'd ever had. Hermione talked about Harry and Ron and Ginny, and how great of friends they were, even if they hadn't started out on the right foot. They shared funny stories and laughed, and Hermione was surprised at how easily she found it was to confide in her brother.

After spending a majority of the day shopping around, they got a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, and headed back up to the castle.

"I had a really great day, you know," she said as they reached the front doors. "I hope we can do it again sometime."

"Yeah, it was pretty fun. I'll see you later?"

"Sure, bye."

"Bye."

As Hermione headed back to Gryffindor Tower, she decided that this wouldn't be such a bad year after all. She hoped that she could become closer with Blaise and hopefully get to know him better. She also was hoping things would work out with him and Draco. She still didn't particularly like him, but if it would make Blaise happy for them to get along, she was going to do the best she could.