Chapter Seventeen

Hermione woke up groggily the next morning and padded to the bathroom. She washed her face and looked at herself in the mirror. Even after a month in the past, she really hadn't changed much - she just had darker eye circles. She brushed her hair quickly, and walked back into her room and changed into the school uniform. She wasn't looking forward to school today because she was afraid that she would see Draco and plus, Ron and Harry were probably not talking to her because of her little outburst last night.

She sighed, and pulled her black school robes on and strode out into the Common room. To her surprise both Ron and Harry were sitting there, looking sober.

"Morning, Hermione." They greeted her.

"Good morning." She replied.

"Look, we're sorry about yesterday. We don't know exactly why you blew up at us, but we hope that we're still friends." Harry said sombrely.

"Oh thank god. Of course we're still friends!" Hermione responded, throwing her arms around both the boys.

"Do you forgive us?" asked Ron.

"Yes. I am so sorry about yesterday. I guess I was just worn out from all that time travel." Hermione said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it. Cmon, lets go. You don't want to miss your first breakfast back do you?" asked Ron.

"Of course not. I've missed having proper English food." Hermione agreed, flashing him a grin.

Then the three of them walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast, laughing and joking the whole way.

Draco's eyes darkened as he saw them enter the Great Hall. He sat brooding at the Slytherin table, which was the furthest away from the Gryffindors. He hadn't really said much to anyone since last night, and the House mostly respected his self-imposed isolation. They understood that he needed time to readjust, but they found it strange that Draco, the Slytherin Prince, didn't want to be the centre of attention anymore.

"Morning Draco." said Blaise, sitting down next to him. Draco smiled tightly in response.

Blaise followed his line of vision and saw that Draco was staring moodily at Granger, Potter and Weasley. He smirked slowly to himself, Draco really hadn't changed. He still seemed to hate the Dream Team as much as he used to. Blaise found it strange that he and Granger were acting as though they hadn't just spent a month together - they still remained as icy and removed from each other as ever.

The two of them sat eating in silence until Draco abruptly stood up and muttered something about forgetting his books in his room. Then he strode briskly out of the Great Hall.

"Fine. Just leave me. I don't mind." Blaise mumbled to himself sarcastically.

What the hell was wrong with Draco? He had been nothing but rude ever since he had come back. He had refused to talk to him last night, and didn't seem to have the inclination of ever talking to him again. Geez, it wasn't as though he had done anything wrong since he had been gone (apart from hanging out with Potter and Weasley…but Draco didn't know that), so why was he so angry at him?

He watched as the Wonder Trio got up to leave for classes, and he quickly shovelled down the last of his breakfast and walked quickly to catch up with them.

"Oh cmon Harry, you don't need to see Padma every moment of the day." Hermione whined.

"Look its not fair to her if we're both sitting in the Great Hall and I don't go and talk to her. She is my girlfriend after all." Harry reasoned.

"Hermione, he's right. It's mean if he ignores her." Ron agreed.

"But we'll be late to class." Hermione tried.

"This will only take a few seconds." Harry promised, slipping away already.

"What! Oh honestly, Harry." Hermione exclaimed.

"Actually, Hermione would you mind if I go and say good morning to my girlfriend?" Ron asked with an apologetic smile.

"Ugh. Go ahead Ron. I'll see you both in Transfiguration." Hermione sighed, watching as both of her best friends left her.

She walked out into the foyer and was about to go up the stairs when she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. For a wild moment she thought that it was Draco, and she whirled around, prepared to face him.

"Look Malfoy, I thought I told you -" she snapped, before realising that it wasn't Draco at all.

"What did you tell Malfoy?" asked Blaise Zabini with a smirk.

"Nothing. What do you want, Blaise?" Hermione asked shortly.

"I was just wondering whether Dumbledore has told you about -"

"I know. You're my tutor right?" Hermione cut him off.

"Yeah. So I think that we should set a time and place. I'll try and make this as painless for you as possible." He smirked again.

"Library after dinner?" Hermione suggested.

"Ok. I'll meet you there. We'll start with Transfiguration." Blaise said, and then he was gone.

Hermione watched him go, her heart rate increasing as she realised just how much he looked like Xavier. No, she told herself, calm down you idiot, he's not Xavier. Blaise seemed quite harmless, even if he was a Slytherin, he was much more civil to her than Draco had been before and well, Harry and Ron seemed to like him enough.

She was still thinking about this as she made her way to the Transfiguration classroom, so she didn't notice Draco's eyes watching her from the staircase above.

The day passed in a blur for Hermione, and she thankfully didn't have any classes with the Slytherins. She didn't know how would she be able to act around Draco for a whole lesson…it was still so strange between them.

She walked briskly to the library and waited outside for Blaise after dinner. The minutes dragged past, and still he didn't show up. Where was he? She sighed, and then got out the Transfiguration book and sat down in the corridor, reading the textbook.

Another half hour passed before a shadow appeared above her, and she looked up to find Blaise staring at her with a stony expression on his face.

"Sorry Granger." he muttered.

"Um, don't worry about it. Why are you so late?" she asked quietly.

"I just am." he snapped at her, reminding her so forcefully of Xavier.

Hermione backed away a little, until her back rested on the cold wall behind. She tried not to look him in the eye - he was breathing heavily and seemed very angry.

"Oh no, don't tell me you're refusing to look at me too." He spat furiously.

"What? No, I'm not -"

"Oh yeah? What's wrong with you both? You go back into the past and you come back and treat me like some sort of monster." Blaise snarled irately.

"What? Is this about Draco?" Hermione asked quietly.

"It bloody well is! He's been acting like a jackass ever since he's gotten back. What the hell happened to you two in the past? Does he have brain damage or something? He's not Draco anymore. What did you do with him, Granger!" Blaise burst out, gripping Hermione's shoulders tightly and shaking her.

"Stop it Blaise!" Hermione shrieked.

"Tell me. What the hell did you do to him?" he hissed.

"Let go of me!" she screamed, trying to push him away.

"Tell me Granger!" he yelled back at her.

"If I tell you, will you let go of me?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Yes." Blaise replied.

"Ok it's a bit of a long story…" Hermione started off uncertainly.

"Just tell me." he said.

"When we went back in time, Draco had a brother. His name was Xavier and he looked a lot like you." Hermione explained.

"And? So what if he looked like me?" Blaise pressed.

"Well he kind of did some…bad things to me." Hermione finished quietly.

"Oh. Is that it? I'm sorry to hear that." Blaise relaxed, and let go of her. Hermione stood uncertainly, trying to distance herself from him.

"Sorry, Granger. I didn't mean to get angry at you like that…its just that this whole thing with Draco is really pissing me off. He refuses to speak to me. Why is he taking it so seriously? I'm not this Xavier guy, and its not like he ever did anything horrible to him in particular right?" Blaise reasoned.

"Right." Hermione agreed with a small smile.

"So he has no reason to be acting like this." Blaise said, half to himself.

"Yeah…are you alright Blaise?" Hermione asked quietly.

"No, not really." He admitted.

"Do you want to go inside and sit down?" she asked him.

"I don't think it's a good idea to go to the library now, Madam Pince would kill us for coming in so late." He replied. Then he looked around and decided to just sit down where he was.

"Lets just sit here for now." He said.

"Sure." Hermione replied, sitting down next to him, her textbook abandoned.

"Can you tell me honestly whether anything happened between you and Draco? Because if something didn't happen between you two, I don't know how else to explain why he's acting so strange." Blaise said softly, a complete contrast to what he was like before.

"Nothing happened…" Hermione said, very unconvincingly.

"Granger. Don't worry, I'm a Slytherin and I can keep a secret." He reassured her. She smiled, but didn't say anything.

"Look Granger, what's said here tonight, stays here. I wont ever repeat anything that you say to anyone…its just that I need to know why he's acting like this. He's my best friend, and I don't want to lose him." Blaise cajoled.

Hermione looked into his clear blue eyes and saw his earnestness and she relented.

"Ok. Something did happen, but I'm not sure whether he meant it or not." Hermione said slowly.

"Did he kiss you?" Blaise asked.

"Yes. But I think he was drunk…" Hermione admitted.

"Oh. Why?"

"Because he didn't have any memory of it, and because he went and made out with another girl the day after." Hermione still felt betrayed even remembering the whole incident with Priscilla.

"Wow. That's harsh, even for Draco." Blaise remarked lightly, giving her a sympathetic smile.

"Did you have feelings for him?" he asked quietly.

"I- I don't know. I thought I did…but I'm not so sure anymore. Its just that I spent a whole month with him, and he was so different to what he was like to me at Hogwarts…I thought that he had changed or something. But…" She trailed off.

"Don't worry about him. Trust me, he has changed, but I'm not sure whether its for better or for worse." Blaise sighed.

"Maybe you should try to talk to him." Hermione suggested.

"I've already tried. He doesn't want to talk to me. Maybe you should talk to him." Blaise shot back.

Hermione squirmed uncomfortably at the thought of confronting Draco about Blaise.

"Do you want me to?" she asked gingerly.

"Yes. I think that it would help." Blaise answered.

"I'll, you know, think about it." Hermione said diplomatically.

"Ok. Thanks in advance then." Blaise said, flashing her a grin.

Hermione found herself feeling bad for ever thinking that Blaise was like Xavier. He was totally different, he was down-to-earth, easy to talk to and not too arrogant when he wasn't with Draco. Hermione had never known much about him - he seemed to fade into the background when he was with Draco because all attentions would be on the blond boy rather than his raven-haired best friend.

He was really quite good-looking, not in Draco's silvery sharp kind of way, but a more conventional way - straight nose, nice features, beautiful clear blue eyes and that inky black hair that was like Harry's only better cut and better managed. His frame was tall and lithe, the body of a Quidditch player.

"Sorry again, Granger. This wasn't much of a Transfiguration lesson was it?" Blaise commented with a sardonic smile.

"No, but it was good to finally talk about what happened with Draco to someone. I couldn't tell Ron and Harry because, you know, they would kill me." Hermione confessed.

"Its strange, but I think that it was good that you two left, because it allowed you two to get to know each other, and it meant that I got to know Harry and Ron too. We all used to be enemies, but now…I'm not sure anymore. Well I'm guessing Draco still hates Harry's guts but that cant be helped." Blaise remarked.

"Nothing like a bit of inter-House unity." Hermione joked.

"Yeah. So Granger, I think I should make it up to you for making you waste your time here tonight. Are you free on Saturday morning?" Blaise asked.

"Yes I am, but isn't that the day of your Quidditch match against Ravenclaw?" Hermione responded.

"Yeah, but we don't do much before the match anyway. It'll only take an hour or so." Blaise answered.

"Alright then, if you're sure. So I'll meet you at the library after breakfast on Saturday?" Hermione suggested.

"Sure. See you there then. Good night." He replied, and he got up, offering her a hand to help her up. He gave her one last smile and then strode off in the direction of the Slytherin dungeons.

A/N: Wow guys! 180 reviews! i'm soooo happy! Thanks sooo much to everyone who reviewed - its very very appreciated by the author. Ok special thanks to my 180th reviewer Beautiful Synthetic!

And here's to all my other lovely reviewers: BlueSword16, vote-larry4prez, DemonSorceress, Chalindra, TheConductorsLEASTfavorite, The Lady of the 4leafed Clover, Brittnee, curlyqntx, raisa, Kace08, HgBookworm, Gone-Goonie, ShimmeringEvil, Lady-Delphinea, kKrEiLsLtYa.

Sorry if I scared you by making you think that I was ending the story!