DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Sorry.
A/N AT END.
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Chapter Thirteen – Belonging Together
Blaise was walking down the hall when he bumped into Alexis who was leaving her room. She laughed at him, and grabbed his arm to steady him.
"Always the clumsy one weren't you?" she grinned and he swatted her arm with a laugh.
"I'll have you know, I'm terribly sophisticated and graceful and I don't fall down" Alexis laughed heartily at the look on his face.
"Oh, that was an attempt at sarcasm." She said cheekily, and with that Blaise grabbed her and started tickling her. Alexis squealed, squirming, and trying desperately to get away from Blaise. She finally broke free and bolted down the hall, Blaise hot on her heals. Eventually he caught up with her, but tripped and fell to the ground. She stopped, looked down at him, and cracked up. Holding on to a wall for support. Big mistake. Blaise reached out a hand, grabbed Alexis' ankle and pulled her to the ground too.
After to laughter subsided, Alexis looked up at Blaise, the two of them sitting on the floor. "You've just been with Hermione haven't you?" she asked with a soft smile. Blaise looked slightly startled.
"How did you know?" Alexis smirked at this question.
"She makes you so happy Blaise. I can see it in your eyes. I've known you all my life and ive never known anyone to make you as happy as she does. Which brings me to the question, of why the hell are you still with Sasha?"
Blaise's warm smile slid off his face, to be replaced with a sad expression.
"It's so complicated Lexi. I have to do it. It's not for me. Its all for Bree and Hermione." Alexis obviously didn't understand, but she didn't push it. Blaise told you when he thought you were ready to know. But when he mentioned Bree's name, Alexis remembered something else.
"So had Bree told you yet? About her 'good news'?" Asked Alexis, rolling her eyes. Blaise's forehead creased and he shook his head. Alexis didn't look all that surprised. She knew that it wasn't really good news at all. In fact, she was willing to bet that Bree would have killed to keep her little secret quiet. Not likely.
"She's engaged. To Draco. Looks like he finally got what he's wanted for so many years" She looked kind of revolted as she said this. Alexis had expected Blaise to be surprised, perhaps a little angry. She did not however, expect to see the white hot rage in his eyes as he jumped up off the floor, and raced off down the hallways, leaving Alexis sitting by herself, in complete confusion.
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Blaise threw open Bree's door so forcefully that it bounced back off the wall, and would have hit Blaise had he not already been at Bree's bedside, where she had been reading before the interruption.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked forcefully.
"Well hello to you too" she said with a smirk. "Answer the question Bree" his voice very serious. Bree knew he was upset, she could always tell when his voice went low that there was something very wrong.
"Blaise what are you talking about? Why didn't I tell you what?" Blaise was pacing now, but she grabbed his arm as he walked past and pulled him down into the chair beside her bed. "Didn't tell you what Blaise?"
Blaise sighed and dropped his head into his head "About Draco. That's why you ran away isn't it? You're engaged. What did he say to you?" He fixed her with a hard glare and realized that she had never meant for his to find out.
"How do you-?"
"Alexis told me minutes ago" he said cutting in." What did he say to you?" Bree knew what he was asking, but how could he know that Draco was blackmailing her? She did answer him, instead choosing to stare at the open book in her lap, but he reached out and grabbed her hand. She looked up at him with glassy eyes.
"Bree, tell me" Blaise said, slightly more forcefully that he needed too. Bree hesitated a moment longer.
"He told me that Sasha would tear up the marriage contract with you, so that you and Hermione could be together. I did it for you Blaise" she wailed, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. He rubbed her back soothingly before gently pushing her back on the bed.
"You should have said no Bree." He said softly. He was no longer frantic or anxious. Perhaps because he had subconsciously known what had happened.
"But I want you and Hermione to be together. You two are meant to be together." Blaise sighed. He supposed perhaps it was time to tell Bree, considering that it was no longer a secret really.
"I proposed to Sasha Bree, because Draco told me the same thing. That he would tear up your marriage contract. But he also threatened Hermione's life. He told me that if I married Sasha, he would keep Hermione's secret safe. That he wouldn't owl his father and tell him where we all were. I had no choice."
Bree looked startled at this for several moments, before flying into a rage. She ranted and raved for a full 20mins before Blaise had enough sense to stop her.
"Bree, we can't let Draco or Sasha know anything is up. There is more at stake here than our happiness. Hermione's life, and potentially our whole families life is at stake. This must be kept between ourselves until we hear word from the order."
Bree nodded reluctantly, and Blaise couldn't suppress a grin. He knew how desperately Bree wanted to find Draco and drown him, but it wasn't possible just yet. He was a little shocked actually. He had known Draco as long as he'd known Alexis, and while he'd never really liked Draco all that much, he had never considered him capable of blackmail. He pondered this thought for a while longer, before getting up and telling Bree that he would send a house elf up with some lunch for her, noticing that she hadn't eaten yet. And with that he left the room, and made for the kitchen. He needed coffee.
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For the next 6 months very little happened on the Island, apart for the fact that the occupants were going completely stir crazy. No one was really seeing a lot of each other, considering the size of the manor and the island. They ran into one another every now and then, and would decide to spend the day together sitting on the beach, talking and playing. The two youngest kept mostly to themselves, but Blaise could tell they were still around when he'd hear a squeal from the next wing and hysterical laughter, or he'd step on a doll that had 'wanted to have a sleep' at his door. He couldn't even recall seeing Orlando, other than at the scattered family dinners that Madison Zabini would call every month or so, but he and his older brother had never really been the best of friends. His mother was quite content to garden, or read in the drawing room, and every now and then Blaise would go to the kitchen for coffee, to find his mother cooking up a storm.
Bree was now back on her feet, after having rested for a week or so, but Blaise hadn't seen all that much of her now that he thought about it. Apart from the few days they spent together as a group, and the few family dinners they had, he had seen very little of her and she had spent a lot of time locked in her room. But Blaise did not investigate. Bree had been like this all her life. Sometimes she would stay in her room for a week, during holidays when they were all back together in the manor, only to come out with a new spell she had invented, or a new trick she had learnt. Bree liked her alone time, and Blaise let her have it. So he had spent a good part of the last 6 months talking Alexis' ear off, who was so used to it by now that she knew how to process everything he said, and give him the advice he needed.
"Not that you need any advice Blaise. You certainly know how to charm girls, and anyway. I have a very good feeling that Hermione isn't going to reject you any time soon" Alexis had told him one day while they had taken a walk. SO that night Blaise had gone to Hermione and made it official… she had agreed to be his girlfriend. Blaise had been so happy the next few weeks that he hadn't noticed the hushed conversations between Draco and Sasha that had been worrying him for months, and the scared looks she threw at Blaise one day when he had walked into the library, where Draco and she were hidden. Blaise was also too busy to notice the day the two completely disappeared from the island.
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Blaise's attention was almost solely based on Hermione, and he loved it. Loved being able to care about a person, like he did Hermione. Something told him that being with Hermione was just right. And something else was telling him that he wanted to spend every waking moment for the rest of his life with her. Of course, for her the prospect of marriage at 17 was far too young. She had not been brought up in pureblood wizarding society, where 17 was considered prime marriage time. It was very old fashioned, and Blaise frankly wanted nothing to do with continuing tradition. His children, should he have any, would not be submitted to betrothal, as he and his twin had been. No, they would be free to choose happiness over blood line. Infact, if Hermione would take him, then their children would not have the worries of blood lines.
Then another thought struck him, one that was easily pushed to the back of the mind in a place like this. His life would soon be based on how the war raging outside the wards ended. Should Harry and the Order triumph, he would be free to live his life as he saw fit. But should evil win over good, then Blaise would be forced to marry for blood, and not for happiness. This thought made him sick, and he went to find Hermione.
She was where he expected to find her, curled up in the arm chair she had moved near the window, reading by the warm sunlight. He opened and shut the door with complete silence, sneaking up behind the girl absorbed completely in her book, and covered her almond brown eyes with his hands.
"Guess who" he whispered in her ear, and she grinned, pulling his hands down, and tilted her head back to kiss him softly.
"Ahh, 'tis my secret lover" she said with a laugh, jumping up off her chair and flinging her arms around his neck. "Is time already, for more of our quality time together?" she asked with mock curiosity, and Blaise sat down in the recently vacated seat, pulling Hermione into his lap and kissing her deeply. They had been playing this game for months now. Sneaking around, small touches, quick kisses, and then there were the more passionate moments. There was a thrill in not getting caught. Perhaps, had Sasha actually been in love with him and not acting on her brothers or her father's orders, he might have felt bad, but as it was, there were no feelings between the two. The only reason for he and Hermione to hide their love, he supposed, was so that Draco or Sasha would not be suspicious, and continue to believe that the marriage contracts were still intact.
Blaise looked up into the deep brown eyes of the girl on his lap; they were bright with happiness, the happiness of someone who was currently burden less. He loved her more like this, with the weight of Harry Potter's world, lifted off her shoulders. Yes, he had liked her since 6th grade, when he saw her at one of Slughorn's parties, but it wasn't strong feelings. Not like what he was feeling for her now.
He snaked a hand into her hair to pull her down into a deep kiss. It was however, short lived as a scream from downstairs pulled them apart.
"Its over!"
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a/n: Sorry for the cliffy. Hoping you are all enjoying the Hermione/Blaise fluff. I felt it was high time for some! Ahh, to my amazing reviewers:
Morgan Fate: Lol, sorry, no walk ins. Though I doubt Sasha would care. She doesn't love Blaise. She's doing it merely for her own gain.
Gywnn-PotterLol, anything possible when it comes to the Malfoy's, and they will be leaving shortly.
KichouThanks :D Hahaha, yep, Bree is all better now, and going stir crazy, though I never really mentioned that.
Sheena: Im so glad you liked it! Your review made me feel all happy! Its worth writing this fic just for your reviews!
xmisscutiepiexThanks so much :D Hope you liked this Chapter!