My timeline is off. The Katie Bell/necklace incident happened after the Slug Club dinner. I'll be looking at a Half Blood Prince timeline from now on to keep it as accurate as possible.
Someone told me they were bored with Daphne and wanted more Dramionaise, so I hope you're satisfied. If not, oh well.
Disclaimer: I Own Nothing.
"Weasley here will be our third. If you've never seen it done before, I'm sure Granger here can talk you through it. It wouldn't surprise me to know that she knows how it's done…"
Hermione blinked, eyebrows raising slightly in shock.
"What is she on about, Hermione?"
Hermione and Daphne locked eyes, brown and blue connecting and holding.
"It seems that Greengrass and I are going to make an Unbreakable Vow."
"Where's Harry?"
Ron shrugged as Hermione sat down beside him at the table, noticing the absence of a certain raven-haired boy.
"He's off somewhere…again," Ron grumbled.
Hermione frowned.
"He knows we have practice later too," Ron huffed.
"I'm sure he'll show up," Hermione reassured, despite the fact that she herself doubted that.
"Sure, sure. Where did you and Ginny run off to last night? I wanted to ask you for help about this whole duel business Snape has us doing, but I couldn't find either one of you…"
...
"No! Absolutely not," Ginny snapped.
"It's not your decision, Weasley," Daphne coolly said.
"Hermione, if you break the vow, you die," Ginny said, trying to get this through her head.
"I know that, okay? This…this is the only way, though. Besides, if she breaks it, then she dies too, and she knows that," Hermione said, eyes cutting to Greengrass.
Ginny huffed, clearly not happy about this in the slightest, but opting to remain silent, knowing that this was not her choice.
"Well, Granger?"
Hermione swallowed, forcing a deep breath before stepping forward, holding out her arm without hesitation.
...
"We were in the library. I was helping Gin with some revision. I can help you out tomorrow night, though. How does that sound?"
Ron sighed.
"I swear, between you and Harry, pretty soon, I won't be able to keep track of either one of you," he grumbled.
Hermione was just on her way outside to meet with Malfoy when said Slytherin approached her, in quite the rush.
"We'll have to reschedule, Granger. Something's come up," he said, just barely passing by her.
It took Hermione a second for her brain to catch up.
"Hang on. Wait…," she called, slightly following behind him.
"We'll practice tomorrow," he said, exasperated.
"I've already promised someone else my time, Malfoy. This is part of our grade. Snape will be able to tell if we haven't practiced," she snapped.
She didn't care what personal matter he had to attend to, she wasn't going to sacrifice her marks for his personal life.
"Do you honestly believe he would even be able to tell if we didn't practice as much as everyone else?"
She paused, noting that he had a point. However, that point was beside the point.
"That's not even the issue here. We're supposed to-."
She halted her steps as he suddenly stopped and turned around to face her, nose a hair's width away from her own.
"You've already done a number of things you aren't supposed to, Hermione…," he said, voice dropping.
Hermione's heart fluttered as he raked his eyes over her smaller frame.
"What's one more?"
Hermione said nothing, words caught in her throat as he turned around and sauntered off.
"What about you, Ms. Granger? What exactly does your family do…in the Muggle world," Slughorn curiously asked, seemingly fascinated by said world.
Hermione paused in her movements, caught off guard as she hesitantly looked up. She could feel eyes on her, one pair standing out more so than the rest, and she swallowed. Their eyes locked for half a second, and she quickly looked away.
"My parents are dentists…," she said, a hint of uneasiness in her voice as she noticed the looks of confusion.
"Dentists? What does a dentist do?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Harry looking around, daring anyone to say anything negative, his eyes resting on Blaise the most. Blaise, however, was currently gazing at her, a small smirk on his lips, and tilted his head in the barest of nods. Hermione ignored this, yet could not quell the reassurance and confidence that had begun to spread.
"They tend to people's teeth," she continued, a bit louder.
Slughorn leaned forward, arms resting on the table as his interest grew.
"Fascinating! And…is that considered a dangerous profession?"
"No…"
She paused, the awkward silence getting to her.
"Although…," she chuckled "…one boy, Robbie Fenwick, did bite my father once. He needed ten stitches."
There was a slight chuckle across from her, and Hermione glanced up to catch Blaise lifting the spoon to his grinning lips. She looked down, an involuntary smile of her own tugging at her lips. That's right… She had never told him that…
Just then, the door came creeping open, drawing all of their attention away from Hermione.
"Ah, Ms. Weasley! Come in, come in," Slughorn ushered.
Hermione tried to catch Ginny's eye, but the redhead wouldn't dare look her way, and for good reason.
Hermione sharply inhaled.
"Look at her eyes…"
She leaned in towards Harry.
"They've been fighting again…her and Dean," she quietly continued.
Ginny walked towards her chair, clearing her throat.
"Sorry, I'm not usually late," she softly said.
The sentence was barely out of her mouth when Harry stood, the perfect gentleman, catching Hermione by surprise. She looked up at him, eyebrows furrowed in confusion at his behavior.
She didn't hear what Slughorn said, too focused on Harry as he sat down. He fidgeted, eyeing her.
"What?"
Hermione smiled with a shrug.
"Nothing," she lied, glancing at him every so often.
She did her best to hide her grin, looking up, and unfortunately, catching McLaggen's eye. His gaze never wavered at having been caught staring, instead, he brought his fingers up to his mouth, sucking on them in what she suspected was supposed to be an inviting manner.
Hermione grimaced, looking away and locking onto Blaise's form who was currently staring at McLaggen like he could kill him. She shook her head, determined to simply ignore him. She wasn't his anymore… What right did he have?
They all left Slugorn's dinner party one by one, Harry and Ginny leaving together after Hermione reassured them that she would be fine. Hermione briefly wondered if Ginny would have her fairytale ending, the one she always wanted with Harry. She knew that Ginny loved Dean, but Hermione also knew that their relationship was…rocky.
Maybe Harry will finally stop being the typical oblivious adolescent male, she thought with a chuckle.
"I wasn't surprised to see that you were invited…"
A familiar voice pulled her from her thoughts and pulled the grin from her lips. She pursed her lips, not breaking her stride as she walked down the dimly lit corridor. It was late, and the hall was empty, so it would be quite obvious that she'd heard him and had opted to ignore him. However, at the moment, Hermione didn't care a thing about manners.
"Potter and Weasley seem to be pretty cozy."
Hermione snorted at the change in topic. They both knew that he couldn't give a damn about Harry and Ginny. She turned around, finally facing him.
"What are you doing? I've made it perfectly clear that I don't want anything to do with you or your sidekick. Yet, neither one of you can seem to get the memo," she said.
Blaise walked towards her, and Hermione crossed her arms over her chest, standing her ground.
She swallowed as he approached, her eyes roaming over his shirt, memories plaguing her thoughts.
"I did a terrible thing…I know that, and I'm sorry," he whispered.
"Is this a sincere apology or is it like your last one? You know, half assed?"
Blaise sighed.
"It's real. I…I messed up…"
Hermione didn't respond, she didn't need to because they both knew it was true.
"I didn't come here to sway you or make any grand gestures. I just want to talk," he said, spreading his arms out.
"Funny. Lack of…communication is how we got here," she said with a humorless chuckle.
"I should have talked to you-."
"Would that have been so hard? I mean… We both know that since we got together…in the grand scheme of things, some things just aren't important to me, not like they used to be. I have bigger worries than who knows that I'm sleeping around or whatnot. Why didn't you…?"
Hermione shook her head, angry all over again.
"Why…?"
Hermione could feel her eyes stinging, and she cursed herself for succumbing herself to this again.
"I…"
"I'm not upset that it happened. You know that, right? That that's not the issue here?"
Blaise frowned, eyes widening just a bit. Hermione shook her head again, letting out another laugh.
"I'm a big girl. Okay? I can admit it to myself and I can admit it to you. Despite the fact that Malfoy is an ass, that is not the reason for all of this," she gestured to herself "…it's how you went about it."
Blaise said nothing.
"You betrayed my trust, Blaise. You knew how much I trusted you."
"I know-."
"Clearly you didn't! You obviously didn't know, or care, because you…shattered it," Hermione shakily said.
She blinked and looked down, hair covering her face as her chest heaved. She bit her lip, shoulders trembling as her body was racked with inaudible sobs.
"Hermione," he whispered.
She felt his fingers sliding down her forearms, traveling to intertwine with her own. She shook her head, pushing him away.
"You hurt me. Do you get that? You…really hurt me," she said, looking up.
Blaise looked down, a troubled look on his face.
"You hurt me. You did this. I trusted you…"
"I'm not upset about Malfoy's part in this, because honestly, I would be an idiot to be shocked. I'm upset at your part in this," she tearfully spat.
"Hermione…," he reached out towards her.
"No! I did not spend night after night talking to Malfoy for hours on end. I didn't tell Malfoy all about how difficult it was for me growing up, knowing I was different, only to find out that I'm looked down upon in the Wizarding World too. I didn't tell him about how for a while, I felt that I was accepted nowhere. I didn't tell him about how much I struggled with that…"
"Hermione, please…"
"I didn't spill my guts out about Ron to him. I didn't tell him all about how much Ginny means to me. I didn't kiss Malfoy at the top of the Astronomy Tower and I sure as hell didn't lose my virginity to him."
Blaise clenched his jaw, eyes downcast.
"That was you. That was all you, Blaise. All of that is…stained, ruined, dirty now, and for what? B-because you wanted to make up with your friend and handed me off like a-."
"I wanted all of us to be together!"
Hermione paused, taken off guard by his change in demeanor and by his response. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she gazed at him. Blaise softly scoffed, shaking his head.
"Draco likes you, Hermione," he said with a shrug.
Hermione blinked, unsure of what emotion to settle with as she looked at him. He was joking, he had to be.
"What," she breathed.
He ran a hand down his face, heaving a sigh.
"He likes you. No, he didn't go about handling it in the best way. In fact, I'd say he handled it in the worst way possible, but…he likes you."
Hermione opened her mouth, but said nothing.
"Believe me, we've fought and fought about it. I…care about you so much and he's never been affected like this by a girl before. Neither one of us wanted to be a good friend and just…back off."
Hermione's frown deepened as she listened to this, becoming more and more uneasy by the minute. Blaise shook his head, eyes towards the ceiling.
"I was against it at first, Hermione. I didn't… Draco didn't want me to say anything, not the truth, anyway, and I know how that would look if I didn't. Exactly how it's been looking," he continued.
"I don't believe this," Hermione whispered.
Blaise met her gaze, a frown marring his features.
"If I chose you, I would have lost my best friend. If I chose Draco and his feelings over my own, I would've lost…you. I didn't want to lose either one of you, so, like an idiot, I followed his advice. I took a chance and it did not turn out in my favor."
He took a step towards her.
"No, I didn't think it all the way through. Yes, I went about it in the worst way possible. I just want all of us to be happy, Hermione."
Blaise reached for her, but Hermione backed up.
"Both of you mean the world to me, and I just wanted to keep both of you in my life, in whatever way possible…"
Hermione swallowed, processing all of this as she backed up. She opened her mouth to say something, but simply settled on shaking her head in disbelief. She turned around and walked away, body plagued with confusion, and Blaise did not stop her.
Let me know what you think!