Hermione lay in her bed, the game of truth or dare had long since ended. It had lasted hours, during which they had all drunk a fair amount of firewhisky, so after promising that they would do it agin the following Saturday, only with more people, they had all headed to bed without having any dinner.
Hermione couldn't stop thinking about one dare in particular. The dare that had required her to make out with Blaise Zabini for five whole minutes. Quite frankly, she had enjoyed it, and would kiss him agin given the opportunity. However, she couldn't forget what he had said to her just after they had pulled apart, "Don't think this means anything," For some reason, this hurt Hermione, she didn't know why, but it did. It hurt her so bloody much. But she wasn't attracted to him. Or was she.
She fell into a fitful sleep, tossing and turning, making such a mess of her blankets that it would take forever to sort them in the morning. She dreamt that she was back in the game, everyone was there, but instead of Zabini pulling away, he had continued to kiss her, and then he asked her on a date. But then it all went bad, dream-Hermione said yes, and then Zabini had turned to his friends and laughed loudly, before saying he was just kidding.
She woke up with a start, sitting up in bed, breathing heavily. She racked her brains, trying to remember what she had been dreaming about. But it was gone, it was somewhere in the back of her mind, in a place that no-one would ever look.
Her head was throbbing, she didn't drink that often, and she always had a killer hangover the next morning. She put her hands over her eyes, trying to block out the sunlight that felt like it was trying to split her head open. She made her way blindly over to the curtains and tugged them closed. She tentatively opened her eyes, and thankfully the darkness gave her some relief. She staggered back over to her bed and laid down.
"Dobby?" She called weakly.
There was a load bang that echoed in Hermione's head for several minutes.
"Yes Miss," Dobby asked, peering up at Hermione with his big eyes.
"Oh, I didn't think you would come."
"Dobby will always answer to Miss." He smiled toothily.
"Could you please get me something for a headache?" Hermione asked.
Dobby smiled knowingly, "Of course Miss, Dobby will be right back."
Several minutes later Dobby reappeared with a potion in his hand, he handed it to Hermione, who read the label.
Anti-Hangover Cure, it read, A potion to cure even the wildest of nights!
Hermione drank the potion in one gulp, grimacing at the taste. Instantly feeling better, Hermione stood up and thanked Dobby.
"Of course, Miss," He said, before disappearing with a crack.
Hermione dressed quickly and reopened her curtain, she headed out of her room, she went downstairs to find Zabini standing by the window, trying to shoo something away.
"Go away," He said, "She's not her!"
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked, approaching him.
"Oh Granger, thank fucking god! This owl has a letter for you, and it's been pecking at the window for hours.
Hermione looks past him a saw a familiar snowy owl perched on the window frame.
"Hedwig," She called, a smile on her face, the large bird flew over and softly landed on her arm. Hedwig stuck her leg out and Hermione untied the letter attached. She then reached down onto the kitchen bench and picked up a piece of toast that was sitting there, she fed it too the bird, who took of and flew back to the owlery.
"Do you mind?" Zabini said, gesturing to the plate where the toast had been.
"Was that yours?" She asked.
"Of course it was you idiot!? Zabini looked outraged.
"Sorry," Hermione muttered halfheartedly, before diving into her letter which she assumed was from her parents.
Dear Hermione,
It's so lovely to hear from you, I wish you had stayed at home all summer, but we all understand that you wanted to spend some time with your friends. And we are all so proud of you for being chosen for Head Girl, even little Gracie, even though she might be a little young to understand, she's happy anyway, when we told her, she smiled for the first time! I took a picture and will attach it to this letter. She's growing so much, and I wish you could be here to enjoy it, but next year you will be home, and a fully qualified witch! Speaking of witches, Arlia fell over yesterday, and got a graze on her knee. I went to fetch the first aid box, but by the time I got back the graze was completely healed! Do you think this could be a sign of magic? Anyway please write again soon, and send some pictures, you know how your siblings love to see them. Also I enclosed a copy of the family pictures we had taken during the summer, I thought you might like one.
With love from Mum, Dad and everyone else.
"Oh my god!" Hermione exclaimed loudly.
"What is it Granger?" Zabini asked, looking slightly alarmed.
"My sister has shown a sign of magic!" She smiled, happy to share the news with someone, even if said person despised her.
"I didn't know you had any siblings." Zabini stated.
"Yeah, I'm one of five."
"Five!" Zabini yelled.
"Yes five!" Hermione answered.
"Well how old are they?" He asked.
Hermione was confused, Zabini had never taken any interest in her personal life before, but sh obliged and began to list her sibling.
"The oldest is my brother, Archie, he's nineteen, and then there's me, I'm seventeen, obviously, and then there's Arlia, she's nine. My parents thought they were done after her, but seven years later came Bella, she's two now, and then during the summer, our family was blessed with little Gracie, she's only three weeks old." Hermione took a breath.
"Wow," Zabini said, looking awed. "Do you have any pictures?"
"Sure" Hermione said, handing him the family picture her mother had just sent her.
It was a lovely picture, in Hermione's opinion, Hermione had convinced her parents to get a wizard photographer, so the picture move. On the left of the frame was a raven-haired young man, with a cheeky-looking, blond toddler in his arms. On his back was a girl who looked much like Hermione had when she had first started Hogwarts, she had frizzy brown hair, and overly large teeth. Next to this trio was Hermione, she had her hair smoothed down, and was wearing a pretty pink dress. She was holding a very small baby, a newborn Gracie, the baby had blond hair like the toddler, but apart from that, the picture showed little details about it. They were all laughing, and the looked like a perfect family. In some ways, they were, but of course they still fought a lot, but they always had each others backs.
Hermione looked over at Zabini, he was smiling at the picture.
"Where does the blond hair come from," He asked, pointing to the youngest two Grangers.
"Our grandmother," Hermione told him, "We were all born with it, but over time our hair has gotten darker," She explained.
"Oh,"
Do you have any siblings?" Hermione asked.
"Just a three year old brother,"
"Do you have a picture of him?"
Zabini nodded, and then retrieved a picture from his pocket, which he passed to Hermione. Zabini was standing in the middle of the picture, holding a small child. The child looked much like Zabini, he had dark hair, and olive skin. It was a moving picture as well, but in contrast to Hermione's picture, both children had stony faces.
"What a cutie!" Hermione cooed.
"I am, aren't I?" Zabini teased.
"I meant your brother!" Hermione playfully slapped him on the arm. Zabini tensed at the contact, "What's his name?" Hermione asked, trying to break the ice.
"Avram." Blaise replied, gazing fondly at the boy, "He's the best thing in my life, the thing that keeps me going,"
Hermione nodded, "I know how you feel. During the war, when things were really tough, I thought about my siblings, they were like beams of sunlight in my darkest hours," Hermione had never voiced this before, but it felt like she was getting something huge off her chest.
Zabini sighed, "The war changed us all, didn't it?"
"It sure did," Hermione said.
AN: Hope you like this chapter. I know in reality neither Hermione nor Blaise have any siblings, but I've always wanted Hermione to have this big happy family, and I thought the idea of Blaise being a protective big brother was a cute idea. Please tell me what you think of their family's by reviewing. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time.