Author's Note: Hi everyone! This is my first fanfic ever. I absolutely love the Blaise/Hermione pairing and there aren't enough of them out there. Any reviews, favorites, and follows would be much appreciated! Please also note that this story takes place after the final battle at Hogwarts.
Blaise could remember the exact moment he gave up on neutrality.
As the death eaters and dark monsters ravaged through Hogwarts, he caught a glimpse of the Golden Trio narrowly dodge curses as they ran past him. He had been hiding as best he could in the shadows behind a pile of rubble. It was best if he stayed out of the fight.
To his left he saw the Carrows race out of a nearby classroom, hurling curses left and right. Suddenly, Goyle appeared behind him and hauled him up.
"Come on! The rest of Slytherin is leaving," he called, running towards a crowd of green-robed students racing down a hallway. Blaise quickly followed, but as he caught up to Goyle Draco had appeared behind them and pulled them into the Room of Requirement.
"Potter has my wand," Draco explained. "We'll leave once I have it back." Blaise was slightly irked that Draco had once again blindly assumed he would do as he was told. His life was on the line and he could easily die just to retrieve a bloody wand that wasn't even his. Before he could respond, the Golden Trio was suddenly there as well.
After a few harsh words were exchanged, Blaise's eyes widened as he recognized the wand pattern that Goyle was beginning.
"Wait! Don't-" but it was too late. The fiendfyre had already begun tearing the room apart. Quickly, they climbed on top of a pile of furniture. He looked down in horror to see Goyle fall into his own flames. The Golden Trio flew by them on brooms. That's when he made brief eye contact with Granger. He could see a moment of indecision in her eyes, but it passed quickly as she hurled a curse to part the flames in front of her.
Then he heard something he never thought he would. Draco choked back a sob next to him, expecting death as the flames licked the table they were standing on. "Blaise," Draco began. But Blaise didn't want to hear it. Before Draco could continue, he saw the three broomsticks circle back in the distance towards them. They were coming back for them!
They missed them the first time, but they still circled back again. This time, they were flying at them in a line, Potter, then Weasely, then Granger last. Draco jumped onto the back of Potter's broom. Weasley reached his hand out, but Blaise just barely missed it. Granger reached out for him and without hesitation, he took her arm and jumped onto the back of her broom. He wrapped his arms around her small waist and held on for dear life as they dodged the flames and objects falling all around them.
Granger pulled ahead of Potter and Weasley, leading the charge out of the room. Blaise looked behind them to see that the flames had now morphed into the face of Voldemort himself. Just before the flames could reach them, they flew out the door. But due to their speed and the pillars ahead, none of them had time to properly stop, and they all went flying off the brooms. Still holding onto Granger, he turned his body so that he took most of the impact as they collided with the hard and broken floor.
He hissed in pain as the jagged stones cut into his back as they landed rather ungracefully. He barely registered Draco running off in the other direction and briefly wondered if he should follow. Granger pushed herself up and yelled at them to destroy the diadem. The Golden Trio did what they always did best. He watched with awe as Potter sliced through the diadem and was shoved backwards as a large burst of dark energy erupted from it, and Weasely kicked it back into the room. Granger slashed her wand at the doors and they slammed shut just before the fire could get out.
He propped himself up into a sitting position, gritting his teeth as he felt blood running down his back. Potter murmured something the other two that was drowned out by the background noise of the battle and took off running down the hall. Granger paused though and looked back at him.
"Hermione, come on!" He heard Weasley call in the distance. She knelt down beside him and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Thank you," she said. And with that, she took off running after them.
Blaise stood up and cautiously walked toward the courtyard until he heard a familiar voice calling to him.
"Blaise!" A voice called frantically from the hall behind him. He couldn't believe it.
"Mother? What are you doing here!? It's not safe!" He yelled as he ran over to his mother. Her usually neat black hair was now in disarray and parts of her dress were ripped.
"When I heard of the battle I came for you! We must go now." She held her hand out to him for them to apparate. But before he could reach her, a curse exploded between them, forcing them apart.
"Well, well. What do we have here?" A high pitched voice sing-songed. Bellatrix Lestrange stalked towards them with an animalistic gleam in her eye.
His mother stepped in front of him, wand at her side but gripped tightly. "Please, we're neutral. We're Slytherin. Let us leave," she said to the woman. Blaise drew his wand, eyeing the crazy death eater before them.
"Expelliaramus!" Bellatrix threw the curse and his mother's wand flew out of her hand and landed several feet behind them, then threw a body binding curse at Blaise before he could move. "If you're not with the Dark Lord, you're against him!" She hissed and pointed her wand at his mother.
"No!" he yelled, but it was too late. His mother screamed in agony as she was put under the cruciatus curse. "Please, stop!" he begged, but Bellatrix wasn't listening. Instead, she cackled with sick joy as the woman writhed underneath her.
Blaise looked on helplessly, struggling against the body bind. Suddenly, Bellatrix winced in pain and studied her forearm for a minute. He could make out the dark mark moving on its own accord. Flashing him a twisted smile, she cackled once more before uttering the fateful words.
"Avada Kedavra!" She shouted with glee.
"NO!" Blaise screamed as the green curse hit his mother and she lay still.
"Let this be a lesson that blood traitors are not tolerated," the death eater hissed at him, releasing him from the binds before hitting him with a powerful cutting hex and apparating.
Blaise felt the curse slice across his chest, blood soaking the front of his shirt. But that didn't matter.
He knelt down beside his mother, and for the first time in many years, he cried. Pulling her into his arms he sobbed into her hair, willing her to come back to life. He didn't know how long he sat like that in the dark corridor as the fight raged on in the courtyard. He was only vaguely aware of when the school nurse, Poppy, found him, still holding his mother. The fighting had come to a standstill as the death eaters had retreated for the time being. Poppy gently pulled him away from his mother, his own blood covering her body since he had been holding her against his bleeding chest. She helped him to the great hall where the other survivors had gathered and quickly began bandaging his cut.
"This is going to leave a scar, but the bleeding has stopped. I'm sorry, but I don't have any pain potions and I must tend to the other students," she said, wiping her hands on her blood-stained apron. In his numb state of shock, Blaise wondered if that was all his blood, or the blood of the other students.
When he did not respond, Poppy took his hand in hers and looked him in the eyes. "I'm sorry, Mr. Zabini. I didn't know your mother, but I'm sure she was a wonderful woman."
After she left, the pain started to kick in. He lay back in his cot on the floor, relishing the moment of peace until he felt his own hot tears trickle down his face.
An hour later, all hell had broken loose. Blaise watched from inside the great hall, clutching his freshly bandaged chest as Potter and Voldemort began their final duel. Although he was slightly delirious from the pain in his chest, he hobbled over to the stairs where he saw Granger and Weasely running from the giant snake that Voldemort usually kept close. Before it could get to them, Neville Longbottom sliced its head off with the sword of Gryffindor, and from the corner of his eye he saw Bellatrix enter the great hall. And in that moment, he decided that he would no longer stand by and be neutral.
A powerful surge of anger rushed through him as he drew his wand and charged towards her from behind. "Reducto!" He yelled. Bellatrix whipped around and summoned a shield to block his curse, but part of the curse clipped the pillar near her and blasted her a few feet away where she landed on her back.
He wasted no time firing all the spells he knew at the evil woman in front of him. To his dismay, she successfully blocked all of them while getting up.
"Careful, dearie," she sneered at him. "Wouldn't want to end up like mommie now would you?" She fired an unfamiliar orange curse at him and he barely raised a shield in time. The curse slammed into his shield, breaking part of it. Before he could react, she sent another curse at him. "Although, a blood traitor has no place in this world anyway!" The curse threw him backwards into the wall, aggravating his already injured back and reopening the gash on his chest as he fell to the floor. He felt fresh blood running down his face from the back of his head and felt dizzy.
All the fight left him as he finally saw the dreaded green curse shoot out of her wand in his direction. As if bored by him already, she turned away before checking to see if it hit him and ran into the great hall, firing curses. He would later find out that she was killed by Molly Weasley.
Blaise closed his eyes as the green light sped towards him, but suddenly felt a violent tug yank him out of the way and hurl him towards the steps behind him. The green curse hit the floor harmlessly where he had been laying merely a second before.
Now the pain from all of his wounds combined was too much for him to handle. He felt gentle hands touch the sides of his face and thought of his mother before he passed out.
When he woke up he was laying in a cot again under a blanket. There were fresh bandages on his chest and his back. Someone must have given him a pain relief potion because for the moment he was only mildly sore. As he sat up Poppy came to his side helping him.
"Thank heavens you're alright. Now sit up slowly, you don't want to reopen your wounds again. That's it," she propped him up against a pillow.
"What happened?" He asked.
"You had quite a duel with Bellatrix Lestrange. She almost killed you too. Miss Granger saved you and brought you back here."
"Granger…she saved me?"
"Yes. She was almost too late. Bellatrix threw the killing curse at you." Blaise began recalling the details now.
"My mother…" Poppy lowered her eyes and took his hand.
"They've taken all the bodies to the morgue at the ministry of magic. You'll be contacted soon."
"I see…" It was all too much for him. "And Granger?"
"I believe she's out on the bridge," she said. A loud cry of pain erupted from another student in a cot nearby. "I must go help the others now." She let go of his hand and left. Blaise slowly got to his feet and made his way to the bridge.
He stopped at the entrance to the bridge. He could see the Golden Trio on the other side, their backs to him. Potter chucked a wand over the side and the three stared off into the distance, wrapped up in their own world.
He decided that it wasn't the right time to approach Granger. After all, what would he even say? She probably wouldn't even want anything to do with him given everything that had just happened.
Another time then, he thought to himself, and made his way back to the castle.
Now, sitting on the Hogwarts train heading back to his 8th year, stared out the window lost in his own thoughts. Much had changed since the defeat of Voldemort. All the remaining death eaters had been sent to Azkaban. The Golden Trio had been branded as war heroes. Potter and Weasely had bathed in the limelight for a while, but soon grew tired of it. He didn't know what happened to Granger.
After the battle, he returned to the family manor to take care of himself. The house elves helped take care of his wounds, and for that he was grateful. The ministry summoned him later to go over his mother's will, that she had left everything to him. However, everything included many things. His mother ran several large and famous vineyards both in England and in Italy. Also included were their other estates in Switzerland and Germany. There had been much more paperwork than he had been anticipating. He hired the best lawyers he could to make sure that the ministry didn't swindle him out of anything.
After that, there was nothing but time. Time to prepare the funeral. It was small but elegant. Only a few family friends were there. It rained at the service. It was almost silly at how cliché it was. His mother would have laughed about it.
Blaise fell into a deep depression after everyone left. He'd fallen out of touch with his Slytherin acquaintances and his extended family only really cared about his money. Alone in a large manor, he read to pass the time. Since all of their vineyards already had managers, he saw no reason to step in and take charge. Besides, the managers probably wouldn't think much of an eighteen year old running a family legacy-born company.
A few weeks later he received a letter from Hogwarts inviting him back for an 8th year in place of the poor education his 7th year brought him. Blaise had debated for a week whether or not to go back. He would be outcast because he was a Slytherin, but it would be better than moping around the mansion.
What he hadn't expected was for Headmistress McGonagall to ask him to be head boy.
"Your grades were outstanding your entire time at Hogwarts and you performed dutifully as a prefect," she had told him over the floo.
He had accepted due to the fact that it meant aside from the head girl, he would have his own room and comfortable privacy. Besides, he didn't think he could handle being around many other people at once, nor living with anyone he previously knew. The war had changed him more than he realized, and he needed to figure out who he really was underneath it all.
There was a knock on his train compartment door. "Come in," he called. The door slid open and his eyes widened. Before him stood none other than Hermione Granger.
"Granger," he greeted with a stiff nod.
"Zabini," she replied, eyeing his head boy badge. She pulled hers out of her robes pocket. "I'm the new head girl."
Blaise suddenly felt awkward and sighed. This was going to be an interesting year.
