Chapter Fourteen
Ginny stared at Blaise in horror, and shoved him away. ''What the hell are you on about?''
''What?'' Blaise looked at her in shock, disbelief written plainly across his features.
''You loathsome toad! You actually think that I'm going to betray one of my best friends?'' Ginny shoved Blaise again. ''I haven't got a word foul enough for you!''
Blaise gestured at the window in bewilderment. ''But she lied to you! Get your own back!''
''That's hardly going to solve anything, is it? Of course I knew she was lying to me, you didn't have to show me that! And of course I'm hurt, but if she's lying to me, she'll be doing it for a good reason! And I am not going to turn my back on her by teaming up with a duplicitous prick like you!'' Ginny's hazel eyes were narrowed and her hair seemed to be crackling with fury. ''How dare you even think that I would do that? And to say 'you can help me', as though you're conferring an honour on me!'' Ginny turned around and stormed away, her bag bouncing angrily off her hip. The last words she heard from the library were ''Fine, I'll do it without you!''
Blaise grimaced in frustration. It would have been much easier to do it with the blood traitor, now that everyone he knew thought that he was insane. Sleeping with Bulstrode certainly hadn't helped…he shuddered as he thought of waking up with her smiling soppily at him. He had absolutely no doubt that Draco was behind that, and obviously Hermione was in on it.
But what to do for revenge? It wouldn't be enough to just expose them. True, they might be alienated slightly, but if Ginny would stick up for Hermione, then others would. And Draco was far too popular – he would always have supporters. Blaise stared unseeingly out at the sodden grounds. What could he possibly do?
Split them up? That could work. Leave them both heartbroken and alone. But how would he get close enough to do that? Neither of them would ever trust him again.
Tell Draco's father? But what could he do? He was a Deatheater…Blaise's eyes widened as an idea occurred to him. Tell a Deatheater, maybe get the Dark Lord involved, both Hermione and Draco dead. Blaise shook his head as if to dismiss the idea. Murder was a step too far. But then he remembered the lessons that he had learnt at his mother's knee – 'nothing was too low to be solved with murder'. Utter humiliation at the hands of the Dark Lord, and then death.
Blaise smiled. That could work. But it would be fair to alert Draco of his intentions. He would give him one chance to break up with the Mudblood. If he didn't, the Dark Lord would hear of it. Hell, Blaise gave a smirk worthy of Draco, even if he did break up with her, the Dark Lord would still hear about it.
He slid off the table he had been sitting on, and stalked out of the library, making his way back to the Slytherin Common Room to iron out the final creases in his plan. He stopped dead in his tracks. Not the Common Room, that was accessible to all. He would have to go to his dormitory if he wanted to avoid Millicent.
Hermione and Draco apparated just outside of the castle boundaries, and stood staring at each other in the rain.
''That was so lovely. Thank you.'' Hermione smiled at him, and tiptoed up to kiss him.
''You are entirely welcome, but we need to get inside.'' Draco returned her kiss quickly and hustled her in through the gates, silently hoping that they weren't setting off any alarms. They set off across the grounds, the rain hitting them hard, Hermione's curls slicking back into long streams, and Draco's hair losing its soft fall.
They were near the lake when Hermione turned round so suddenly that Draco bumped into her. ''Hey, what are you doing?'' He began, but stopped as he realised how close Hermione was to him.
''Hey you.'' She whispered breathily, barely audible over the pouring rain. Draco ran his fingers along the sides of her face, slipping them under the wet silk of her hair.
''Hey.'' Looking at her, eyes sparkling in the dim light, a smile plain on her lips, he could barely speak for how beautiful she was. Unable to express his thoughts in a way that wouldn't seem unbelievably trite, he settled for burying his lips in hers, holding her close to him so that she couldn't disappear like the dream he was sure that she was.
Hermione felt the rain pouring down the back of her dress, felt how cold she was getting and forget everything as she felt Draco's warmth against her. The wind rattling around them meant nothing, the storm that seemed to be getting stronger was immaterial, all that mattered was Draco, kissing her harder and harder, not letting her go. She clung to him as though he were her only lifeguard, never wanting to let him go. Suddenly, she felt him pushing her back into the grass. She let him do it, but as soon as he was on top of her, she pushed him over and straddled him, laughing down at him.
''Hermione, are you fighting me for control?'' He looked up at her, mocking her.
''Don't give me that kind of sass when I'm the one on top of you!'' Hermione clapped her hands on his shoulders and pushed back firmly as he attempted to rise. Kissing him as hard as she could, she murmured in his ear, ''If you think I'm lying on the wet grass, you are seriously mistaken.''
''At this point I hardly think it matters. We're both absolutely soaked, if you think about it, I would be keeping you dry. So if you just let me get up…'' Draco trailed off as he noticed that the skirt of Hermione's previously knee length dress had become rucked up to her upper thigh. ''Or I can stay here, whichever suits you.''
Hermione laughed and pushed him back to the grass, feasting on him. He was like the most satisfying meal that she had ever had, but one that never filled her up entirely. She smiled as she arched against him, quite sure that she would never be full enough. Draco watched the beatific smile on her lips and stroked his fingers against her smooth wet skin, cradling her small wet body to him. ''Come on, we're going to get drowned if we stay out here much longer.''
Slipping her dress over her head, buttoning his shirt up haphazardly, they wandered back up to their rooms, linked along the way, with no fear that they would be seen by anyone.
After what was a much longer journey than usual (mainly due to the fact that they couldn't go five paces without one of them pushing the other against a wall), they finally staggered into their common room. Hermione raised her face to Draco's and let him kiss her.
''I've had such a lovely evening.''
''Me too.'' Draco kissed his thumb and pressed it to the corner of her mouth. ''We'll have to do that much more often.''
''Which part?'' Hermione laughed, slipping her arms around his waist. Just as she was about to kiss him again, a small voice came from the chair in front of the smouldering fire.
''Hermione?''
Hermione let go of Draco and reached for her wand, her heart pumping at a million miles a minute, but quickly recognised Ginny. Relief was quickly replaced with horror.
''Ginny, this…this…''
''Hermione, don't be so stupid, of course I knew something was up. Sure, it would have been nice if you could have taken the moment to talk to me about it.'' Ginny breathed in deeply. ''But you have bigger problems than me. I think you need to worry about Zabini.''
AN: Well my lovely readers, wasn't that a lovely, quick update? Hopefully that reassured all the reviewers who wrote to me telling me that I couldn't trash Ginny. If you wanted me to trash Ginny, sorry, but you can't please everyone lol. Plus I would have felt bad! So anyway, stats (just because I love doing them!). Right, we have:
-13980 hits
-166 reviews
-88 story alerts
-44 favourite stories
How cool is that? Thanks so much guys, I'm really flattered! And my lovely reviewers are: Emerald27, Hanna28, Iluv2dance, Wings of a Rebel, Breezie, Fnicks-Gurlz, Xblackdragonx, The Accountant's Daughter, Cali'sOwnCaliGrown, ILOVERWHPDM, Crystal Slara and Amester. So go on guys, get yourself a mention in the next chapter, and a response from me, simply by telling me what you thought of this chapter! Kisses etc, Petitesorciere xxx