AUTHOR'S NOTE: SQUEEE! Oh, I can't help it, I just love this story. Beware, though. This chapter tends to cross over o the cheesy side. It's all Draco's fault really. But enough of that. I just wanted to warn you to have a pillow to cuddle (or scream into) and a wastebin and refreshing glass of water. And barf bag. And Cheese-Its. I like Cheese-Its. They remind me of this chapter. Crunchy. ? I don't know. I just love this story. Plese ejoy. This is sort of the last chapter, I hope you've ejoyed the ride and I hope it wasn't TOO bumpy.

DISCLAIMER: Not mine if it belongs to J. K. Rowling

Mistaken Liaisons

Chapter Fourteen: Secrets Revealed

or

Crashing the Wedding

or

What's Cheese Got to Do With It?

The entire collected congregation let out a series of gasps and murmurs that drowned out the roar in Blaise's head as he nearly keeled over right there and kicked the bucket. He leapt to his feet, searching for the woman who the voice belonged to.

The minute he caught sight of that awkward red hair sticking out at all angles and tangled beyond hell, he knew he had been about to make the biggest mistake of his life. Married or not, there was no on for him in the world but Ginny Weasley.

The shock of having the wedding crashed by a crazed-looking young woman in the groom's nightclothes sent a few of the more elderly viewers into a fainting frenzy. The rest of the assembled just stared in shock as Ginny walked wearily the rest of the way to the aisle. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Nott decided that this was an interference with the wedding and that as the best man, it was his duty to get rid of it.

Blaise hadn't even seen the man go for his wand; he was too caught up in staring at Ginny who, despite her bedraggled appearance in his knickers, looked more painfully beautiful than Pansy in all her carefully made-up bridal splendour. He was surprised to hear Pansy calmly address Nott.

"No, let her speak." She said, her voice only tinged with regret of what she knew to be a game played and lost. Ginny eyed Pansy warily before coming to a stop before them, successfully tripping over her bare feet. Her eyes were locked on Blaise and he was surprised to see something vaguely familiar and both frightening and welcome in her avid gaze.

"I'm sorry…" she said nervously, her eyes glazed, before snapping out of it and tearing her eyes from Blaise's to face the wedding-goers momentarily. "Everyone…everyone, I'm terribly sorry for breaking into things, but I'm afraid I have to speak my peace." She turned back and her eyes immediately locked with Blaise's again. "After that, if you want, you can go back to your wedding and I'll leave you and go drink myself to death on champagne at the reception. If you want me out of your life, I will go, but I have to say something first."

Blaise's eyes were scared and wide all at the same time, watching Ginny from a few feet higher as she remained on ground level below the altar, staring up at him with the same confused and yet sure gaze.

She opened her mouth and closed it just as quickly. Taking a deep breath, she sighed, extending her arms to either side of her in a helpless gesture, her palms up, letting them fall weakly at her sides. "I love you, Blaise. I know you hate me right now and I know that even before you hated me, you cared for me only as a best friend, but I can't help it. I love you. I don't know for how long. Maybe from the beginning. Maybe just for the past six minutes. I honestly don't know. But I'm an idiot for taking so long to figure it out either way. I don't know if you ever felt anything for me, or if I've gone and ruined your wedding for no good reason. If I have, I'm sorry…to you too, Pansy...nice dress, by the way…but I had to know…I just couldn't let you slip away without knowing just how big of a twit I am. And that's actually rather considerable. I don't want to let you go, Blaise. Something happened that never should have and I was given the biggest chance of any life time and I didn't take advantage of that. I fell in love with the best roommate I ever had, despite the fact that he really does snore horribly. Sometimes I want to kill you for the things you do…but when it's you, it doesn't matter. Anyone else would bugger the hell out of me. Not you. With you, it doesn't matter it you steal my shampoo or go through my drawings or flush the loo when I'm in the shower because it's you. And by the way, I've nearly killed Fred and George for messing with my paints once, and Ron sported donkey ears for a week because he turned the water on while I was in the shower and I hate it whenever anything like that happens. But they don't apply to you, for some god-forsaken reason I don't understand. I don't care. Because no matter what you do, I can't help but love you, you sot. Yes, yes, I should have known and I know this is the worst possible time to tell you, but there it is; I'm in love with you, Blaise Zabini. Forever." With a deep exhale, she took a weak step back, her head spinning and her heart racing as she waited for Blaise's response. If he kicked her out and married Pansy, Ginny knew that would be the end of her and she hoped Parkinson had booked good champagne.

Draco came from behind her and she was glad as she nearly collapsed into his arms, black spots dotting her vision as she felt sick. Perhaps month-old pancakes weren't edible after all.

Blaise's eyes latched onto the arm supporting Ginny.

"Even if all that were true, Ginny…you're married and no matter how much I want to murder Draco and sweep you off you feet, I can't, any more than I can change the fact that you're married. Even if I were to tell you that I want to kick myself into a coma because I realized I'm just as much in love with you as you are with me…even if I wanted to tell you that I've been awake at night for days trying to smother myself for not realizing the obvious sooner…nothing can happen. You're married. And it's about time I was." He said sadly, beginning to wonder just where Pansy was keeping the champagne and why it was so well-hidden. Weddings were depressing.

Ginny turned, a confused face meeting a similarly puzzled one of her almost-but-thank-all-the-cheese-in-Britain-not-quite-husband.

"Um, Blaise? I think you're a wee bit confused." She said slowly. Blaise stared at her, beginning to adopt the same look of confusion she was. "About what? You're married. End of story. Bring on the champ-er…vows. I do solemnly swear…not to get piss-arsed drunk at my wedding…hmm…well, you're married, anyway…" He trailed of, muttering as the assembled guests looked at him in horror and some began trying to contact St.Mungo's.

"Er…not exactly." Ginny said, eyebrows furrowed. "Did you actually read those letters or just ignore the fact that yes, I do in fact, exist?" she asked, only a bit spitefully, for which she mentally shook hands with herself and congratulatingly slapped her mental self on her mental self's mental 'bad-arse' arse; which then nearly knocked her unconscious as it was quite a difficultly mind-twisting thought that her brain wasn't quite ready for yet as it was still calculating how many champagnes it would take to make Nott look like Blaise.

"What letters?" Blaise asked, bringing Ginny back to reality. Now just about everyone was confused. Ginny's mouth set in a frown. "The well over a dozen bloody letters I sent you after you took off without a proper good-bye for over two weeks, during which you tried to erase me from existence and keep the fact that you were getting married secret from me! And I don't take too well to being nearly erased out of existence, thank you!" Ginny said heatedly as Draco restrained her from doing any damage to Blaise's dress robes.

If Draco knew him as he thought he did, they were probably rentals. Upon further speculation, he realized they were indeed, not rentals, but Draco's. The ones he'd thought Pansy had stolen. Upon further thought, he decided she probably had.

Blaise shook his head slowly, panic setting in, along with age-old denial as his brain screamed rapid instructions at him in hopes he would get so confused that he'd just lie down and die and not make it deal with this whole ordeal. "What letters? There were no letters; I know because I checked every bloody day, hoping you'd care enough to write to me at least. If you don't believe me, ask-" He cut off mid-sentence, turning slowly on a pivot to his blushing bride-to-be, red with humiliation.

"-Pansy." He finished and every guest present heard the soft sledgehammer click as everything fell into place for the three people at the front of the procession. Pansy sighed, tossing aside her bouquet and pulling her veil from the top of her head, toying with it anxiously.

"There were some letters, Blaise." She admitted, though she knew by now that he had figured everything out. "I just didn't want to lose you either." She said softly and Blaise would have sworn he had seen tears in her eyes as she tossed her veil at Ginny's feet in a symbol of defeat.

"You win, Weasley." She said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "He's in love with you. I've known longer than he has. For three bloody years he's been in love with you and he never knew it." She shook her head almost sadly as she walked down the aisle, ruined. She stopped next to a flabbergasted Ginny, giving her a watery, wry smile.

"You're a lucky girl. You had the courage to tell him something I never had the chance to. He's yours." She turned as if to go, but paused. She closed her eyes, as if it were paining her to say it, but she did so anyway. "Just, don't let him go off and do something stupid…you know how he's prone to be. You have him. Don't ever let him go."

Ginny watched Pansy take a few more steps before Disapparating. She had more respect for the older witch than she had ever had before. She turned as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Draco was staring at her with a small smile of regret on his face. "She's right you know. I made the same mistake and it's the worst thing I ever did. Don't let him go." He said taking out his own wand and preparing to Disapparate. Ginny reached out to touch his arm, her heart going out to him.

He shrugged and smirked. "No. You're right. We don't belong together." He said, smiling sadly at her. "You two do." He said, gesturing to her and Blaise, who had appeared behind her and fixed her with such an intense stare that Ginny forgot Draco was there. He noticed and Disapparated with a small pop, leaving Ginny and Blaise to themselves in the middle of a huge mass of people.

Ginny swallowed, suddenly nervous as she looked down at her feet, only to realize she wasn't wearing any shoes.

"Did you mean it?" she jerked her head up. Blaise was staring down at her and Ginny was trying desperately to edge away quietly now. The whole confrontational aspect hadn't quite come into play in her mental scheme yet. She had imagined only herself flying-tackling Pansy and beating off the priest with her fluffy slippers, which she had unfortunately, left at home. She hadn't thought about what would happen after she stopped the wedding of the year. That presented quite a problem as she opened her mouth and no words came out.

But Blaise was waiting expectantly and almost desperately, so she scraped the first thing off the top of her brain.

"Every word." She said somewhat breathlessly, her eyes never leaving his, and wondering where in the hell all her articulate-ness went. But she wasn't sure if she could pull her gaze away away. His eyes were telling her so much. One of his large, tan hands came up to her cheek, his thumb caressing it and Ginny's eyes slid shut, a soft sound somewhere between a sigh and a gasp escaping her lips as electricity shot through her. Blaise just felt right. She had never felt so moved by such a simple touch.

She felt a tear slip from her eye and before she knew it, his mouth was on her cheek, kissing the tear away in a scenario that was disgustingly similar to one of those romance books Hermione had super-glued to her face whenever she got the chance. "Every word?" he asked, sounding short on breath as he touched his lips gently to her other cheek, which was going a dusky pink. Ginny nodded, her brain saying 'to hell with Hermione', and her eyes still closed as she relished the sensational feel of Blaise like she'd never felt before.

"You loved me from the beginning?" he asked softly, pressing his lips to her left eyelid and she could feel him shaking. She began feeling nervous as the profoundness of it all hit her. "I think so…I just didn't realize…" words failed her as his other hand came up and his thumb brushed the juncture of her jaw and her ear in a tender caress.

"Am I really the best roommate you've ever had?" Blaise breathed softly, unable to speak much louder as he pressed another kiss to her other eyelid reverently, as he'd only dreamed of doing. Ginny was shaking as well and it was almost as if her brain couldn't quite take in the fact that indeed, her best friend was kissing her and indeed, she liked it very, very much, indeed, indeed, indeed. "Yes." She breathed, her arms coming up to wrap around his neck as she pulled him closer insistently, taking the plunge that scared her out of her wits because it firmly crossed the border of lifelong friends and floated dangerously in the shallows of quick-shag. She wanted more.

"And…" he whispered, pressing a kiss to the corner of her lips "…do I really snore?" he asked seriously. Ginny snorted and she knew she wasn't as feminine as she would have liked to have appeared. "Absolutely." She said and pressed her lips to his.

Voldemort and all his little DeathEater cronies could have come up right then and all Avada-ed her arse and she felt she wouldn't have been so much as scraped. Because wrapped up in Blaise's arms, with his mouth on hers and his arms holding her gently as if she was the most precious and fragile thing in the world to him, and yet firmly and almost desperately as if he could never let her go…Ginny had never felt safer in her entire life.

And she promised she would never let Blaise go.

Even if he did steal her shampoo.

That promise would come into question the day Blaise used her soap without asking, but for now Ginny felt as if nothing would come between them.

Until the wedding photographer Apparated with a pop next to them, camera in hand.

"Am I late! Where's the happy bride and groom? Oh, here we are!"

Blaise and Ginny jumped apart as a brilliant flash nearly blinded them.

"CREEVEY!"

………Fin………

………(But Not Really!)...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: wasn't that disgustingly sappy and fluffy? Eeew. But I love it sooooo much. Let me know what you think, or I shan't give you the epilogue I've already written. Yeah, like anyone wants to read more.