Dinner went by quietly, as quiet as Ginny and Zabini's flirting would allow. Narcissa's eyes observed everyone as they interacted, and her attention often fell to her son. Hermione had the impression she wanted to say something. It was Malfoy though, who cleared his throat after a rare moment of quiet eating.
"Zabini, Ginny, I have more of the potion that I will leave with Goose to administer." he said smoothly. Hermione watched as he leaned back into his chair, relaxed but poised. She wondered why they would need to take more potions and was about to ask, but Ginny beat her to it.
"Wait." She said, her eyebrows creased a little in confusion. "Why would we need more of the potion? What potion?"
"I wasn't the one to give it to you, so I didn't get to explain. What I made would ease your symptoms, but it is by no means a cure. You will be sick for at least three days, for up to a week." Malfoy explained. He reached for a glass of wine and his eyes flickered to Hermione's before returning to Zabini and Ginny.
"A week?" Ginny asked. Her ears turned pink as she looked at Zabini. "I should go home, I can't inconvenience you for a week."
"Are you kidding?" Zabini said with a toothy smile. "We're in this together, Gin."
"Blaise is right, you've both contracted the virus, while Granger and I have both taken the same potion as you both, we won't contract it, but because you already have it, it doesn't work the same. So, to avoid me having to make seven times the potion for your entire family, Ginny, it's best you stay here and quarantine with Blaise until you're better." Malfoy explained.
Hermione felt a cold sensation creeping in her stomach. A week with Zabini, alone. Harry might lose Ginny forever. Ginny's eyes met Hermione's, her eyebrows wagged.
"What do you say, Granger?" she asked.
"What do you mean, what do I say?" Hermione asked her. Her mind was still racing with the thought of Harry losing Ginny.
"Do you think you can stay with me?" Ginny asked. Hermione felt her eyes focus as she heard the question and the room snapped back to clarity. She was at dinner, in the Vie, with Blaise Zabini, Malfoy and Narcissa Black. She needed to pay attention and not come across as uninterested or worse, unintelligent.
"I don't think I shou-" Hermione started.
"Come on, Hermione." Zabini said sweetly. "Keep us entertained as we suffer."
"But you have-" Hermione looked to Malfoy who was watching her carefully. "Friends, here. You don't need me."
"On the contrary," Zabini said. "My friend needs help loosening up around company." Zabini winked at Malfoy who rolled his eyes very slightly in exasperation.
"I'm not staying in his suite, Granger." Malfoy said, "So if that were the only deterrent, then consider it unimportant."
"Oh." Hermione thought. And her mind sped up as she grasped at Harry and Ginny's relationship embers and thought maybe staying would actually be beneficial. She can keep her eyes on Ginny, keep Ginny honest, and protect her best friend from any unseen factors.
Prepare him for his broken heart.
"She'll stay." Ginny said confidently.
"Wait. Where are the rooms?" Hermione asked. "I can't find my way around in here beside the main hall by the foyer, with the bar."
"Ah, the confuddlement charms that they altered. It forces a person to explore, and by way, makes them stay here longer. Also they charmed a lot of things throughout the space to make you comfortable and sometimes it makes them money because the guests like it enough to extend their stay." Zabini explained. "It's very-"
'Clever, yes." Hermione said as she mulled over all the effects she had catalogued while being here. "I suspected there were a bunch of spells, but it's all so minute, almost undetectable."
"You'd do well to stay here," Ginny teased. "The lack of magic has made you more susceptible than I thought."
"Well, haven't you been feeling their effects?" Hermione asked.
"Only a little, but I know when it's happening and it really doesn't feel like much of anything." Ginny said.
"It wouldn't affect you at all, you're around magic all the time, in your house with all your brothers and mother and magical pots and pans." Hermione laughed. "Speaking of family, if I'm staying, I should pop home, tell my parents and get some clothes."
"Don't worry about clothes," Zabini said. "And there's a muggle bar across the street, they have a telephone you can use, give your parents a ring." Zabini held his fingers up like a telephone to his ear and mouth and gave it a shake.
"I'm not going to wear any dresses like that." Hermione said, gesturing to Ginny who stuck out her tongue. Zabini also knew what a telephone was; all the little things she never knew about him made him unbelievably the furthest thing from a Slytherin than she thought.
A chair scraped across the floorboards and Hermione looked around. Malfoy and Narcissa were getting to their feet.
"I believe, dears, we can continue this conversation in the drawing room?" Narcissa said kindly. And for a moment, Hermione realised she was sitting in a rich dining hall, in her comfy cotton clothes, teasing Ginny in front of people who were certainly used to more decorum.
"I'm sorry!" Hermione said impulsively.
"Whatever for?" Narcissa said. "Come now, let's let our stomachs settle their dinners in the comfort of elsewhere."
Hermione, Ginny, and Blaise walked out behind Malfoy and Narcissa, Ginny pinched at Hermione's sides and then linked her elbow into hers as they walked their way back through the corridor and to the bar, then into the drawing room.
Hermione walked to one of the bookshelves that lined the walls and Ginny left her to join Zabini at the pool table. Narcissa perched herself in a squishy looking armchair and for a blink of an eye, Hermione saw her posture soften as she relaxed and then she inhaled and her poise was back in place.
"Say the subject of the book out loud, and they will find themselves." Malfoy's voice said from behind her. Hermione almost jumped but she was becoming accustomed to his manner of being.
"Malfoy." She greeted him.
"Granger." Malfoy said. They stood in silence for a couple seconds, Hermione read the spine of one book five times over before Malfoy shifted. He said "Potions, flu."
Three heavy tomes lifted themselves from a shelf on the opposite side of the room and hovered.
"I thought you'd like to read up on the potion I have been procuring for our friends." Malfoy said carefully. "So that you know you weren't poisoned, and your precious Weasley is safe."
Hermione looked over her shoulder at him, and she had to shift slightly to see him better.
"That's very kind, but unnecessary." Hermione said. "I'm not in the mood for academic reading this afternoon."
"What a shock." Malfoy said, the corner of his mouth tugging into a shadow of a smile. A loud crack of pool balls made her jump and look around. Malfoy took two quick steps back and promptly then retreated to his mother's side.
"Granger!" Ginny said. Hermione turned to look at her, the thought of books fluttering around in her mind like birds that were a little too far out of reach. Ginny looked strange, standing in a champagne silk dress, a pool stick in one hand and her other hand resting elegantly on the table.
"Gin." Hermione said when Ginny didn't continue.
"What did you say your parents were again? Dentists right? Like they own their own business?" Ginny asked.
"Yes. They do. Why-?" Hermione asked, looking from Ginny to Zabini.
"They seem like accomplished people." Zabini said. Hermione looked at him and smiled. "To survive all of this and not have any of our luck with inheritances to keep them afloat."
"You say that about everyone these days, Blaise." Malfoy said with a smile at his friend. He was standing and observing a painting on a wall of a squirrelly old man who was eyeing him back with reproach.
"Well, if anyone's accomplished, it's those who could own and run a business. " Narcissa said with a smile at her son. "Especially through this disaster after the war."
"Indeed, muggles are a resilient lot." Draco said. His eyes flickered to Hermione before meeting his mother's.
"Do all muggles strive to own businesses as your parents do, Hermione?" Zabini asked. Hermione smiled and shook her head.
"Not really, it's much like wizarding jobs. We finish school or go into more school to specialize in something. Some people want to own their own thing, most people just work to make money. It's pretty underwhelming unless you're the rare person who finds complete fulfilment in what they do." Hermione said.
"What a rainy outlook on muggle life, Granger." Malfoy said with that shadow of a smile of his.
"It's exhausting to think about. I don't think there's enough time in the day for a person to work for enough money to survive and find time for the things that bring them joy. Happiness is a great goal though. But we don't all have the luxury of happiness and financial security right now." Hermione explained.
"We don't all have that luxury either." Malfoy quipped. Hermione realised his own family was left broken by the war, and her own was intact. She made no gesture toward realising her wrong though, because she believed Lucius Malfoy deserved some punishment, any punishment, for the role he played in the war and his cowardice.
"Well then, there's a fault in the Malfoy perfection after all." Hermione teased. Malfoy's grey eyes looked at her and she met him with some defiance. He wasn't used to being teased and she had no idea why she was doing it.
"If I have any fault, it's that once someone has wronged me, my family, or my friends, I find it hard to forgive them. Once you've lost my good opinion of you, it's gone forever." Malfoy said, his eyes steady on hers, unblinking.
Hermione knew that meant he hated having to be around her. They had been enemies since Hermione had been Harry's best friend. He was unforgiving, by his own admittance, and she wasn't interested in being in his good graces either. They would have to tough it out.
"I can't tease you about that." Hermione said, straightening her face to a serious stare. "Shame, we're due for a laugh, I think we've gotten quite grave in our conversation."
"Now, now, children." Zabini teased. Hermione shot him a sharp look for being addressed as a child and Zabini held his hands up in defense.
"You're right, Blaise. They're really entertaining, though." Ginny said. If Hermione could silencio her, she would. Zabini looked at Hermione apologetically and then looked at Ginny. He had conveniently seemed to remember something.
"Ginny, we've got a letter." Zabini said. "Before lunch was served. Your parents wanted to come visit you here."
Ginny groaned. "I wrote to tell them I was fine, I'm sorry. I hope you said no."
"I thought it was a fantastic idea. Plus they should get some enjoyment from my grand spending while I'm spending." Zabini said. He rocked back against the pool table, relaxed and posed like lazy royalty. Hermione had to bite back a giggle.
"So, you said yes? To be clear." Ginny asked.
"Yes, they'll be here for some socialising tomorrow." Zabini said.
"Oh God, Hermione. Save me, please." Ginny said to Hermione. Then she turned to Zabini with her eyebrows pinched together and her mouth set in a hard line. "You'd need all of us to fend them off you." Ginny shot a look at Hermione that would have made her shrivel in fear if they weren't friends. "You have no idea what you got yourself into, Blaise."
Zabini lit up at the sound of his name, it was like he hadn't heard a word of her warning. Malfoy looked uneasy. Hermione didn't blame him, a whole room full of Weasleys and a Malfoy didn't sound like a good idea. They never ended well.