Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 18

"Blaise," Hermione gasped, her face steadily growing paler as she took in his angry countenance. "Blaise, please."

She stared up at him, her brown eyes wide and fearful. Her heart was beating to a tenfold, and each breath she took came out in a ragged gasp. She had never seen the black wizard so angry before.

"How long?" he growled, as he continued to lean over the pregnant witch with his hands clenched. "How long have you been up to all of this?" He gestured wildly to the book in his hand before throwing it across the room in a fit of madness.

It hit the wall and fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Hermione filnched.

"Answer me!"

"For the last four months," Hermione replied, pushing her fear aside and sending Zabini a look of defiance. She was beginning to feel her Gryffindor courage boil through, fuelled on by her deepening anger at the apoplectic man before her. "We used to plan missions, Zabini; I knew your style. Surely you must have realised it would only have been a matter of time before I –"

"Before you what?" Blaise snarled, spitting in her face. "Realised that our marriage wasn't all it appeared to be? It still took you a long time though, mind you. And here I thought you were the brightest witch of our age." He let out a hollow, unfeeling laugh. "You know, you really need to give me some credit though, Hermione; the plan was pretty genius, if I do say so myself."

"To begin with: Yes," Hermione replied, watching the Slytherin closely. "It is clear that you planned it all meticulously, and considering my emotional state at the start of it all, you had me fooled into thinking that I was going to be married to you forever." Here she pulled a face. "But in all seriousness, Zabini – a Muggle wedding? Surely you realised that as soon as I found out about your so-called-genius-plan, I would be filing for divorce and taking you to court so that you could pay for your crime?"

"I was hoping –" Blaise began, but Hermione cut him off.

"You were hoping?" she cried, an incredulous look upon her face. "Hoping for what? That I wouldn't find out? Or perhaps –" Here Blaise's nostrils thinned into slits "– you were hoping that by the time I did find out about it all, I would have fallen in love with you again, and so I would be quite happy to remain your wife?" She looked at him, her face now twisting into one of disgust. "That's just sick, Blaise."

There was no rebuff, no act of violence. Instead, the two just sat there heaving in anger, Hermione still seated on the chair. Outside, an owl hooted and its shadow glided across the study's wall as it flew past the window and into the night.

Her anger suddenly dissipating, Hermione looked up at the man before her with sad, pitying eyes.

"Why couldn't you have just let me go?"

"Because I love you." Blaise's response was automatic, unfeeling and cold. "And because, deep down, I know that you still love me. We're meant to be together, Hermione."

Hermione shook her head. "No, we're not."

She couldn't understand how he had become so deluded – how he had become so obsessed. He had been the one to play away from home, as it were; he had been the one who had made it perfectly clear that she hadn't been good enough for him. She was the one who was supposed to have been hurt by what he and Parkinson had done – it shouldn't have been the other way round.

"If you hadn't slept with Pansy then perhaps we would have been together, yes," she said, watching the agitated man stalk round the room like a caged animal. "But you did, though – and that changed everything. If you had ever loved me, Blaise, then you would have let me go."

Zabini let out a cry of raw, unrelenting anger and for a second Hermione thought that he was going to hit her. However, just as his hand came level with his face, Blaise jerked away from her, and instead brought his fist down up the desk.

Trying not to flinch or grow more agitated than she already was, Hermione knew that the only way to keep her and the baby safe was to keep Blaise talking.

"When – when did you start forming this idea of yours then? What triggered it?"

At first she thought that her captor wasn't going to answer her. She watched him as he grew stiff, panting heavily as if trying to control his temper. His shoulders shaking, Hermione watched as Blaise let out a deep hiss and turned to face her again.

"It was about two years ago, shortly after I heard about you and Malfoy."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted you back. I hated the thought of you and Malfoy together; it was all wrong. That was not Fate's design."

Hermione frowned at Blaise's words but didn't push for his meaning. She had always known that he had a fascination with Divination, much to her chagrin, and had always relied on them more than it was deemed healthy.

"But why a Muggle ceremony? Why not something more… permanent?"

Blaise grinned wryly and shook his head. "Do you think I didn't try to find a way to bind us together forever? Why do you think it took me so long to execute this plan?" He jumped up and sat on the desk, kicking his feet to and fro. "You've been reading up on the Marriage Spell, Hermione – it's impregnable, you can't cheat it. Valentina Lovelace made sure of that."

Thank Merlin, Hermione thought.

"How did you get Parkinson, Nott and your mother involved?"

"I told you that ages ago, after we were first married. My mother hates to see me so upset; Pansy and Theo wanted revenge. They also had their other uses…"

"Such as?"

"Theo's a solicitor in both the Wizarding and Muggle world. He helped me with research and advised me on how I should let my plan unfold. He was able to forge all the necessary documents. His hatred for Malfoy was all the persuasion he needed to agree. Pansy was much the same within regards to you. I also knew that she had a cousin who worked in Wizarding Relations – she was more than happy to slip the forged documents into a tray following our special day."

"And what about Umbridge? What did you do to persuade her to side with you?" Hermione watched as Blaise quirked his eyebrow, a grin sliding across his face as if he were impressed by her question. "Pay her off, I suspect. She always was a greedy toad."

"Very good, Hermione, very good indeed," Blaise drawled, his eyes glinting madly in the moonlight. "I was wondering if you would guess correctly. Yes, dear old Dolores quite happily accepted the money I was willing to give her for making sure that I was to be found innocent. She very kindly switched my bottle of Veritarserum for a file phial of water – it is extremely tricky to tell the two apart, after all."

Still trying to remain calm, Hermione listened with rapt attention as Zabini revealed the plan he had so meticulously put together. As each new revelation came, Hermione could see it all falling into place – each detail was intricate and tightly woven, and yet at the same time, could be seen as incredibly obvious and basic. Deep down, a part of Hermione was angry with herself for not realising it before.

"But you've lost," Hermione said, breaking the cold tension that had been freezing up the room. "The truth will out, Zabini. You're going to have to let me go."

She watched as Zabini's face shattered, his calm façade breaking into anger, his features sharp and angular in the harsh light. He bared his teeth, his lips twisting up in a feral grin, and he let out a guttural laugh. The hairs on the back of Hermione's neck prickled up in fear, and she could feel her heart beating heavily in her chest yet again.

"Now Hermione, why would I do that?" He jumped lightly off of the desk. "After all I've done to obtain you, Granger, that is the last thing I'm going to do. As long as your friends don't figure things out – which is highly unlikely, I hasten to add, considering how moronic they are – a simple Memory Charm will surely suffice. What do you say to that, Granger?"

"Blaise, please, no," Hermione stuttered as he drew out his wand, and aimed it directly at her chest. "You don't have to do this."

"But I do, Hermione, I really do."

Eyes wide in horrid fascination, unable to move from pure fear of what was about to occur, Hermione watched as Blaise prepared himself. She clung to her stomach desperately, and silently prayed that something would intervene…

Just as the dark wizard opened his mouth to start speaking the incantation, a massive explosion could be heard as the manor's front door was blasted from its hinge.

Author's Note: *laughs evilly* yeah, i've left this on a cliffhanger guys... and the only way you're gonna find out what happens next is if you don't kill me for it. Please. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that things have been explained to you all now. I've only got like two chapters and an epilogue to write now, and then that's Awfully Wedded done. However, I am planning another Dramione fic, so never fear - haha. It's very different from this one, and I'll probably start uploading that once I've got a good few chapters done.

I've also got a oneshot that I'm in the middle of writing too - another Dramione, of course - so keep an eye out for it. However, I warn you now, it's not for the faint-hearted and will deal with some difficult issues.

As ever, reviews are greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading. Until next time,

VickytoriaGreengrass