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Chapter 6
"Holy shit, Blaise!" Hermione stood aghast staring at the beauty before her. "I don't even know what to say!"
"Beautiful" Though he could have easily been talking about the brook he was staring intently at Hermione's face.
Hermione took a couple steps forward and began wandering around the brook. The watered sparkled as magic obviously flowed through the water. It was a crystal clear blue green that ran deep into the ground. The bank was layered with fresh green moss and a couple well placed rocks just big enough to sit on. All around them were weeping willow trees. Also on the bank were Lilies, daisies and an assortment of multi colored lupines. Everything had a wondrous sparkle and even though the trees blocked out the sun everything was lit up by an eerie light.
"If I ever had a 'happy place' in my head THIS would be it!" Hermione was smiling and now, running around the place. "I can't even comprehend this place. It's amazing."
"I used to come here when I was a kid, I was convinced that fairies lived here and that if I just waited patiently they would come and take me away to their magical land, or something as ridiculous." He laughed a little to himself.
"I used to think like that also. Only I was in a 10-square foot back yard, that was surrounded by a rotting fence and was filled with bugs and the beer cans the neighbors used to throw into our back yard. All I have to say is, you lucky bastard!" Hermione laughed allowed.
"You can come here whenever you want to, it's a great place to pretend everything is different than it really is." Blaise began smiling at nothing.
"Well, it's lovely and I'm sure I'll be coming back here a couple more times this summer, but I'm sure Draco's done, we'd better get back.
"Yeah you're right." They both headed back to the manor together; thinking about the brook and each other.
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"Hey guys, how was the walk?" Draco said as his two friends walked into the large living room area.
"It was wonderful! You so did not do the brook justice! That place truly is magical." Hermione said enthusiastically slumping down besides Draco on a large comfy couch.
"Yeah yeah, beauty this, sparkling that, I know it's a special place but to me I won't be caught worshipping it.-"
Emma came into the room, effectively cutting off Draco with her presence. "All right you three it's late and you've had a long day traveling here and what not so off to bed,"
"Aww come on! There's no way you're sending us to bed at 9 o'clock, on the holidays no less!"
"Just for tonight guys then you can stay up as long as you want."
"You're ridiculous mom."
"Sure I am honey, now go to bed,"
Hermione and Draco laughed at Blaise as they made their way up to bed.
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"GET UP GUYS, BREAKFAST AND THEN FLYING!" Blaise bellowed as he ran past Draco's and Hermione's rooms.
Various angry incoherent sounds were heard from both their rooms in response to Blaise's morning declaration.
By the time Draco and Hermione had managed to get showered and dresses and drag themselves downstairs, Blaise had already eaten his breakfast and was waiting impatiently for the other two to finish.
"Come on guys, hurry hurry hurry! I'm so psyched to get started today!" Blaise wailed like a little child.
"Don't rush me while I eat Blaise or I'll knock you off your broom when we get up there." Draco's voice sounded dangerous and Blaise quickly quieted down.
"Yeah, just so you know I won't be flying. At all." Hermione said as she shoveled more eggs into her mouth.
"There's no way you're getting out of it 'Mione, flying is an essential part of a summer at the Zabini's."
Hermione didn't say anything more but didn't protest either.
Later they all made they're way to the Quidditch pitch each carrying one of the Zabini firebolts. Hermione also brought her backpack with her which contained a couple books. Which she insisted on bringing in case she got tired of flying.
"Guys, I'm just going to sit this one out. I'm ahh, not feeling very well." Hremione said with a shaky voice, in a way it sounded like she was lying but also like she really was about to b sick. Draco walked up to her,
"What's wrong Mione?" Draco was concerned.
"I don't know, something."
"Well alright then, you can go back up to the manor or sit here, whatever you'd like.
"Thanks Draco."
Blaise gave her a wary look, hoping she was alright.
"I'll just stay right here and watch I guess, maybe I'll read a little."
The two boys took off and Hermione withdrew a novel from her back pack. Every once in a while she would look up and watch the two boys zoom this way and that throwing a quaffle to each other.
The two boys in the air slowed and started talking far into the air.
"Who wants to go take a little visit to Hermione, I bet we ca scare her something awful if we zoom right by her."
"Blaise, I think you've learned something from me after all these years!"
They both quietly fly down near to were Hermione was wrapped up in her book.
A whispered 'one, two, three' was uttered by the two boys. And then in a flurry of motion then plummeted towards the unsuspecting girl.
"AHHHHHH!" they yelled together as they came closer to her. Hermione looked up, and a look of pure terror dawned on her features. Before they came too close to her they pulled away, laughing and sharing a high five in the air.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU GUYS!" Hermione yelled franticly on the ground. She didn't wait for an answer from their dumb founded faces as she grabbed her back pack and ran down the Zabini grounds.
"Well that certainly didn't go as expected." Blaise said. "Should we go down and check on her?"
"Umm, no you go back to the manor, I think I should talk to her." Draco said looking at the direction that.
"Yeah that sounds okay I guess, I'll meet you back at the manor." Blaise started to fly towards the manor while Draco headed back down to earth to begin his search for Hermione.
Draco came to the forest at the edge of the grounds and figure the most likely place for Hermione to be would be the brook.
As he approached he smelt something really weird that he couldn't quite place and when he went around the corner He saw Hermione holding a little burning stick.
"Umm, Hermione what are you doing."
Hermione let out a small laugh; it was obvious she found nothing remotely funny. "Just killing myself slowly, what does it look like?"
"It looks like you're going to burn your finger if you keep holding onto that little burning stick."
"The little burning stick Draco is called a cigarette, a device used by muggles to either calm them down or whatever, sadly they are addictive." She raises it up to her lips for another drag, and let the smoke out slowly.
"That doesn't look healthy at all; maybe we should put that out." He plucked it from her lips and stubbed it out on the ground.
"Hey, I don't do that shit often but when I get like this I demand slow death!" she said this in cynically.
"Get like what?" Draco was concerned and his concern was reflected heavily in his voice.
"I don't know, I guess to be honest just reliving things I'd rather forget. Just the thought of the stupid brooms coming at me is scary. Ugh." Hermione looked exasperated at Draco. And she pulled at her back pack and pulled out another smoke. "Before you say anything, you have to know that I don't give a fuck about my health right now. I just want to relax."
"Fine, inhale that revolting smoke. But talk, what's the big secret that you don't want to relive."
"Two years ago on the holidays I got into the car with some friends from my muggle town. We were off to a party. The driver was going way too fast and the car flipped on a bad turn. We hit some kind of boulder on the side of the road and flipped down a hill into a pond. They all said we should have died. I can still see the head lights flash across the road as we swerved before we flipped. I just can't stand speeding vehicles; the brooms just freaked me out is all. I'm usually ok with it all being at Hogwarts all year I rarely actually have to come into contact with vehicles, the limos weren't bad cause the driver was going slow, I just hate brooms and cars… They just freak me out." Hermione looked at Draco sadly.
"Shit Hermione I'm sorry, I had no idea that our little joke would you know, give you flashbacks or something!" He drew her into a small hug.
Hermione just leaned against Draco for a couple minutes then when she pulled out she stubbed out the rest of her smoke and got up.
"Don't worry about me, its old news I guess. Just don't come hurtling at me on a broomstick again any time soon." She laughed a little. Draco was happy to see that the smile reached her eyes, just a little bit. He wondered what other secrets his cousin must have.
"Well we better get back before Blaise starts to worry" He started to follow Hermione back up to the manor.
"Draco?"
"Yeah?"
"umm, do you think Emma and Draco would be alright if I asked Harry, Ron and Ginny down for a week or two or something? I'm feeling a little homesick or something similar…"
"If I know Emma she will want them to stay the rest of the summer!" Hermione and Draco talked and laughed easily all the way back to the manor. They each came up with their own versions of the reactions of Harry and Ron when they found out she was 'fraternizing with the enemy'.
AN: Thanks everyone for all your support with this story! the amount of reviews still astounds me! I hope you liked this recent chapter, and I hoipe you'll review it! Reviews make me want to update faster! remember I always love constructive criticism!
Sequoia
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