"I beg your pardon?" Blaise's voice was dangerously quiet.
"Look, I understand how odd this might sound to you, bu.." Hermione started to rationalize with him.
"Odd? Odd? Understatement of the decade! This is absolutely mental!" Blaise hissed at her, "you want people to think that I had a squib!"
"Children don't show signs of magical abilities until they're at least seven" Hermione informed, "that means we have so much time to figure out how to deal with that...I mean..the options are endless...laws could change, people could change, you might even be living somewhere else where nobody knows you by that time. Draco told me Death Eaters get sent away all the time, so you never really know!" She went on vehemently, "you might even have other children within those years, so one squib among wizards won't really take that much of a toll on your family name".
Blaise narrowed her eyes on her intently as if she had grown a second head.
"Can you hear yourself? You're talking utter nonsense! You just planned my own life for me, moved me to another country..gave me more kids when I was barely ready for one, and a squib!" He cried, "what ever gave you the impression that I was willing to do all that?" he demanded.
"I assumed we both shared the goal of not having Ginny killed" Hermione retorted accusatively.
"By cocking my life up! No, these are not the lengths I planned on going to to help Ginny." Blaise insisted. "I'm not doing this." He asserted.
Hermione desperately looked back at Draco who was silently studying the situation.
"Blaise, let's not make rash decisions, alright?' Draco's words were spoken slowly after a long pause as if he was tiptoeing around them.
"You're unbelievable!" Blaise scoffed, "you're so desperate to meet her approval that you're actually taking her side on the bullocks she just said!" He accused.
Draco had to fight back the urge to punch Blaise right then and there, especially after seeing the confused look Hermione was giving him.
"There are no sides to be taken here, Blaise. All I'm saying is you don't need to be an unconditionally insufferable idiot about it. Just give yourself time to run the thought around your head and see what your other options are, alright?" Draco argued.
Blaise just shook his head in exasperation and huffed.
"We have to leave now. I'll see you tomorrow at the castle." Draco informed as he walked towards the door, followed by Hermione.
"Do you think he'll agree?" Hermione asked Draco as they climbed the stairs to their rooms.
Draco saw how she looked at him hopefully and wanted to assure her, but he knew that was far fetched.
"Honestly, I think that if you want to help her, you should think of other options. Blaise would never go that far for anyone" he admitted, cursing himself when he saw the disappointment that took over Hermione's face before she mumbled a barely audible goodnight and closed the door.
"Where's Theo?" Draco asked as he scanned the office, throwing himself lazily at the sofa.
"He was sent to Armenia this morning, along with Rowle and Lawson." Blaise informed nonchalantly, not lifting his eyes off the book in front of him.
"What are all those books for?" Draco inquired, eying the pile of books that almost hid Blaise's face.
Blaise finally raised his head up to look at Draco, "I'm looking for something, and actually now that you're here you can help. Do you know of any spell or charm that transforms objects into..people?" Blaise inquired hesitantly.
Draco took a moment to understand what his friend's question meant, "is this related to Ginevra Weasley?" He asked.
"Yes," Blaise seemed like he was going to stop there, then he sighed and his shoulders fell down, "I've been thinking about this all night, the only fixed thing in all possible scenarios is that we'll need a baby. So I was thinking that instead of using a real baby like Granger so brightly suggested," he paused to scowl at Draco, "we can use a fake one, that way we can easily get rid of it later."
"Your..plan..makes Hermione's plan sound like the wisest, brightest, most elaborate plan there is!" Draco scoffed, "I've never heard in my entire life about any form of magic that created human beings out of objects. You can transfigure an already existing human being, but that's as far as it gets. If there's something as such, then it has to be a very dangerous form of dark magic that's not commonly known." Draco tried to rationalize with Blaise.
"It doesn't matter if it's dark, I'm just thinking that if we can transfigure humans into animals and objects then there must be a way to go the other way" Blaise stubbornly insisted.
"You need to get your priorities straight," Draco advised. "Just last night you were strongly against going out of your way to help her, and now you're talking about creating life as if it's an extension charm. No, Blaise, you need to make up your mind about this first before going further into any plans."
"I'm not sure about that yet. It's not easy, alright?" Blaise argued defensively, "if..we strip the whole situation down to its core, disregarding everything, we can say that the only fact I know is, I don't want Ginny to die" he admitted.
"Fine, help her escape then. That's definitely the easiest way out. There are tons of plausible scenarios we can make up as to why she managed to escape without you catching her. You'll probably be punished for that, but what's the worst that could happen? You're a pureblood, and on the top ranks of Death Eaters, the worst he could do is send you away on a long mission or punish you for a while, anything further than that would be frowned upon; you're a Zabini." Draco reasoned.
"That's an..option" Blaise conceded reluctantly.
"It's not just an option" Draco pushed further, "actually given what you just said, it's a perfect option for you. The only thing you care about is her being alive, you can guarantee that by helping her escape, after that she's on her own. Then you go your separate ways and you can go back to your old life. You sure whined enough about that before," he smirked.
"I'll think about it" Blaise huffed impatiently.
"Last night you weren't so keen on the idea of thinking" Draco twisted his mouth sardonically.
"Oh sod off!" Blaise snapped.
"I was leaving anyway, I have an inspection to do at the Whittles' house." Draco bit as he got off and headed to the door.
"Draco" Blaise called after him, "when you're back home, take a look at your father's library and see if you find any books about what we just talked about."
Draco rolled his eyes mumbling a "fine" before closing the door behind him.
By the time he went back home it was already dark. He headed directly to the library and wasn't surprised to see Hermione there.
"Have you talked to Blaise today?" Hermione instantly prompted as he sat down next to her.
"My day was great actually, thank you for asking" Draco smiled at her in amusement, "and yes, I did talk to him. He has some absurd thought about creating a fake baby, transfiguring an object into a baby, so he can easily get rid of it later." He explained
"That sounds like Pinocchio," Hermione laughed.
"What's that?" Draco frowned.
"Oh, it's a muggle story about a man who makes a boy out of wood and then a fairy brings it to life" Hermione explained.
"There's no way a fairy can do that! They don't have that kind of mag.." Draco started to argue
"I know that, but muggles' version of fairies is different from what we know. It's just a bedtime story for kids" Hermione interrupted him
Draco shook his head in confusion.
"He wants me to search my library for books about any similar cases to what he wants to do" he remembered.
"I'll search for it" Hermione offered excitedly.
"I never knew you and Ginevra Weasley were that close; you seem so adamant on helping her" Draco remarked.
"We don't have to be best friends for me to not want her to die." Hermione rolled her eyes at him, "plus..Ginny is probably the only person from my past that I'm comfortable to be around now, even if we weren't best friends before, she's the closest thing I have to a friend now. I miss having that," she admitted in a more serious tone.
I can be your friend, Draco thought. "I see," he said.
Hermione went back to her books and Draco sat there watching her for a while. After a long moment of silence, Draco moved closer, alerting Hermione who dropped the newspaper she was holding. He curved his hand over her belly.
"How are you feeling today?" He checked.
"It would definitely be better if I don't spend the first half of my day feeling nauseous, but I'm alright." Hermione assured.
"And then you spend the other half trying to fall asleep and failing miserably" Draco commented.
"How do you know that?" Hermione frowned at him.
"You're barely subtle, Hermione. I'm a light sleeper and our rooms aren't far away from each other. I can hear you moving all night long, in and out of your room. I honestly have no idea if you do manage to sleep at all." Draco explained.
"I haven't had any form of sleeping pattern for the past few years. It's hard for me to sleep properly" she admitted.
"Does this have to do with the nightmares?" He inquired.
"Don't tell me, you witnessed one of those too?" Hermione bent her head down and sighed in frustration when Draco nodded at her.
Draco closed the small space that separated them, he held her face by the chin and tilted it up.
"Look, the past years weren't a picnic for any of us, and for you specifically. It's normal to have nightmares, it's normal to not be able to sleep properly. I personally only managed to get past my own nightmares less than a year ago" he admitted. "I can help you with that," he offered.
Hermione studied his face for a while before speaking, "And what do you suggest?" She asked in a barely audible voice.
"Well, first of all, cold beds are really bad for nightmares. You need company." he started listing as his thumb brushed her lips.
"Company as in..a teddy bear..or a..cotton Hippogriff?" Hermione feigned indifference, her husky voice giving her away.
"I was thinking of a more..exciting type of company." Draco smiled playfully.
"I find Hippogriffs very exciting" she barely managed to get the words out, transfixed by the gleam in Draco's gaze and hyper aware of his hand tightening over the small of her back.
"I beg to differ" he smirked as he bent his head down, nuzzling her neck. Hermione could feel his warm lips against her neck and any arguments she had already prepared vanished into thin air.