A/N: This was written for Hermione's Haven during #HHBingo20 and Draco's Den during the January Roll A Drabble. This story filled square B4 - Fairy Tale. January's theme for Roll A Drabble was Disney songs and my Disney song was Something There from Beauty and the Beast. I took my inspiration from the snowball scene in the Disney movie, which is based on the fairy tale La Belle et la Bete.

Beta work was done by Grammarly and the only thing I own in this little tale is the plot.

Be sure to let me know what you think!

Love always,
~starr

Hermione smiled as she watched Blaise wander through the snow-covered rose garden surrounding the Zabini Estate. It had been a long time since she had him smile quite the way he had been smiling today. Part of her wondered if it had something to do with her showing up.

Everyone had told her that he had become a recluse after his family had been banished to Italy after the Wizarding War. Knowing that she needed to make her own decision about his behavior, Hermione took off after she graduated from Hogwarts to find him. She had always had a sweet spot for the misguided Slytherin, and she wanted to do what she could to help him rather than allowing her friend to continue hiding in the shadows.

"Are you coming?" His voice caught her off guard. She turned towards him and smiled, nodding her head as she hurried her step to catch up with him. Hermione tucked her arm into the elbow that was offered to her and rested her cheek on his arm.

She was happy here, even if many of her friends believed that she was being forced to stay hidden away in Italy. However, that wasn't the case at all. In fact, Blaise had tried to send her away when she first arrived. Hermione was stubborn and refused to leave without some answers, and answers were what she was going to get, even if it took some of her best persuading techniques.

Blaise glanced down at the curly head of hair leaning against his shoulder and smiled. Having Hermione stay with him had been one of the best decisions he was never given a chance to make. She had made that decision for him, and he couldn't tell her no.

After the Wizard War, Blaise and his family had been labeled as outsiders and were forced out of London. None of his friends from his time in Hogwarts seemed to care except for one particularly persistent Gryffindor who never stopped trying to reach out to him after the exile. She wanted to do whatever she could to help him and show society that he wasn't the evil person that the war painted him out to be.

It always made him smile when he noticed a spark of hope in her eyes when they got to talking about anything academic. She had always seen the best in him, and that was something that Blaise would forever be thankful for. He only hoped that one day he'd be able to repay the favor of her kindness.

Hermione noticed Blaise looking down at her out of the corner of his eyes. She smiled as she felt her cheeks flush with color. Why was he looking at her like that? Did she have something in her teeth? Her mind started to run a mile a minute.

Blaise noticed the panic starting to take over Hermione's face. He stopped and placed a gentle hand on her cheek. "Why are you panicking, Hermione?"

"You're looking at me like I've got something in my teeth," Hermione mumbled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she watched her foot kick at the snow on the ground.

"I am not," Blaise chuckled, looping his finger underneath Hermione's chin and tilting her head up to look at him. "I was just noticing something I hadn't noticed before."

"And what would that be?" Hermione asked, raising her brow in curiosity. A faint smile pulled at the corners of her lips as she watched Blaise's eyes trailing all over her, taking in every inch before he spoke.

"I'm not sure yet," Blaise replied, "but I think I'm starting to figure it out."

Hermione chuckled softly and nodded her head slowly. "Okay, then. It's getting cold out."

Blaise looked around and nodded. "Let's get you inside, and all warmed up." He turned on his heel and started walking back towards the castle.

Hermione watched as he started to walk away and glanced down at the snow once more. With a wicked grin growing on her face, she reached down and formed a snowball in her hands. In a matter of moments, the snowball was flying out of her hands and landed directly in the middle of Blaise's back.

He quickly spun around and narrowed his gaze at her. A smirk pulled at the corners of his lips. He slowly leaned down and formed a snowball of his own. "You're asking for war, Granger."

"Bring it on," Hermione cheered with a wink, reaching for another ball of snow before taking off at run through the garden away from him.

For the briefest of moments, they both felt as though they were kids running around the Courtyard at Hogwarts, having a snowball battle when classes were canceled due to the cold. It was nice to relive those memories as the reality of the world around them fading into the distance as they allowed their feelings to come to the surface.

Each of them scared that the other might not feel the same, but there was a hint of something there. It would just take time to figure out precisely what.

And they had all the time in the world.