He felt the worn pavement crunching under his feet as he ran. He had been spotted again. Covered in the blood of some poor fool who had picked a fight. He ran then, pushing through the crowds, ignoring the protests of those he had knocked over. He just needed to get away from damned town. When half the town thought he was better off dead, he would have a hell of time explaining the blood splatters on his robes away.
Cursing, he ran towards the apparition point, the alley was clear, there was just one person ahead. He could just run past them and be out of here, back at the manor. He heard a shout. Quickly he looked back to see where it was coming, someone was yelling at the edge of the gathering. Was it at him or not? He couldn't be sure, he pumped his legs faster to be safe, moving to the left to avoid the person ahead as he tried to hear what the person was yelling.
Would they really chase him to the apparition point? Had he underestimated the wizarding worlds ability to hate? His lungs burned as he ran, his peripheral told him the person. The girl. Was out of the way, he stayed left and looked back again at the clearing. He was close.
He felt the collision and grunted. Reaching his hands out to try and catch the girl he had knocked over. He sat on his hands and knees panting, he was sure he had hurt her. She had sat breathing heavily for a moment and he was hesitant to ask anything, this would be it. She would turn, see who he was and how he currently looked. Running and blood stained and report him and he would be done, all of the success he had found in the last year was quickly vanishing before him. She rose to her knees and he froze.
This was it, his final moments free.
She lowered her hood and the long curls he had once been familiar with tumbled down her back as she ran her hands through them. He felt his heart stop in his chest and had to stop himself from letting out an oath. She winced looking at her palms and he stared at her frame. His mind had to be playing tricks on him. She took in a deep breath and he watched as the streetlamp lit the side of her face. No, this couldn't be. There was no way he had caught up to her that quickly.
He held his breath as she turned her head and opened her eyes. He looked into the familiar golden eyes that had haunted him, the memories of her threatened to pull towards the surface as they sat and stared at each other. "It's you." He said staring at her as her face paled at last. The color had slowly left her checks, her eyes lost some of the light that he had seen for just a beat. He counted his breaths as he waited for her to make a move, to break the silence that sat between them like a lead weight. Her eyes broke the contact first and sweep over his robes.
"You're covered in blood." She whispered after a moment.
"its not mine." He said to quickly. She leaned away from him and he stumbled on his words trying to explain, nothing was coming out right. She turned away and he reached for her, he didn't have time to react as her palm made contact with the side of his face. She quickly rose and ran from the spot that they were sitting, he felt the warmth on his skin, the stinging sensation that was left behind as he sat in the puddle and watched as she ran away.
He sat on the stones and rested his head in his hands. He caught his breath as the stinging began to fade, he ran his hands down and sat with them crossed over his legs. He watched the crowd cheer again and the man yell at the small boy who was escaping the edge, not directed at him at all. He laughed slightly at himself and shook his head before resting it on the bricks behind him. He waited until the rain began again and the streets cleared out before rising and walking to the apparition point. He shed his coat as his feet hit the marble floor of the manor and let the wet clothes pile up as he removed them on his way up the stairs. He walked to the hot shower and let the water pour over him, he watched as the crimson stains that had been flaking on his hands run into the drain below.
She felt the lukewarm water hit her back; it would turn cold at any moment, but she didn't care. She had thought that if she stood under the boiling water for long enough it would warm the numbness that had come to her hands. Instead it had left her skin red and a thickness in the room that she could feel tickling at her. She breathed in the last of the warm air as she looked at her fingers, even though she had scrubbed them raw, she still thought she could see small dots of blood that had come from his skin. It wasn't his, she could hear him say. She balled her fist up and rubbed her hands together applying more soap to the already clean skin. After all these years away from him, all these years hating herself for that year. She let the cold water now run over her and stood staring into the white pattern of the tile that lined her bath.
She hated him, hated her, she hated the both of them. All that she had let slide had come swarming back to her. Memories of Katie, and how her hands still had a tremor to them from the curse. Ronald, whom she hadn't been able to fully look in the eye. The war… she shook her head and breathed in more of the steam. She tried to will away the lingering smell of apples and ink that she had once dreamed about, it had taken one look at him and she had felt her heart flutter in her chest, had felt a warmth that she had not felt in a long time. All it took was to look at him and all of the butterflies in her stomach had come back.
She gagged and violently pulled the shower curtain away, grabbing the towel that hung from the rail. All he had to do was open his mouth and ruin that. Not my blood. She shouldn't care, she should have cursed him to oblivion and instead she ran. Just like old times.
The bathroom door opened, and she squealed clutching the towel closer to herself.
"Get out! Its obvious I'm in here." She yelled
"Yes, as you have been for the past hour, get out Granger. We have work to do and I would like to sleep sometime tonight." Blaise glared at her for a moment before turning and leaving. "Also, I would have liked some hot water, some of us live here too." He slammed the door behind him. She leaned over the sink looking into the basin. She slowly counted to ten before drying her hair. Blaise had been the only person she knew she could split the flat with that wouldn't cause problems, he cleaned, kept to his work and didn't ask questions. That last one would have been impossible with anyone else. She sighed and walked back to her room to change before heading back to the living quarters to work.
She hated journalism, hated it more than most things that were left in the world, however living with Blaise she was no longer blindsided by what the media was going to say about her. She was even able to keep her name out of the papers, something she would have killed for after the war first ended. She winced at her own thoughts.
"You went tonight didn't you?" She nodded and he gathered his papers closer, quill moving furiously along. "You're home awfully early. Thought I was going to have to pick you up off the floor again." He eyed her as she sat down and fiddled with the fray on her pants.
"I went. Harry tried to talk again, and I left." She sighed
"You still haven't talked to them?"
"What am I supposed to say Blaise? All sixth year I was hooking up in corners knowing full well that someone was going to die. Oh also the person I was with, yeah he actually started the war." she threw her hands up and laid back on the couch pulling the pillows over her face.
"Yes, actually you are. I would also add that it was his childhood enemy, really bury that knife deep in. However, I think hooking up is putting it a little extreme, it's not like you were shagging in the library. Were you?" She could feel the heat forming in her cheeks and clutched the pillow tighter to her face. Maybe she could just suffocate here, that would be easier no. "Granger stop trying to suffocate and talk to me, I have to tell you something important anyways."
She groaned and rose up looking at Blaise as he sat parchment in hand looking at the words he had written down. "I have nothing for you on the pygmy puffs, the report didn't come to our office and I really didn't have the time or the patience to go and track Yingly down to get it, can we just talk about the magical creatures column tomorrow. Honestly I think I would just like to lay down." She begged him with her eyes, but she could see the line that wasn't usually there forming at the creases. His face turned hard as he thought long and hard about what he wanted to say. "What's wrong." She asked folding her arms across her chest.
"There was a man who said he was attacked in an alley tonight." He lowered his paper and she watched as the words disappeared. Back to the Prophet. "He said some funny things, most think he was drunk, but something stood out and I think its time we talked about it." She waved her hand, urging him to talk.
"He said Draco was the one who attacked him." She could feel the pause in the air as she nodded her head a few times, least she knew whose blood had potentially been on her hands. She felt the silence stretch out and waited for him to fill it. He sat patiently across from her and watched as she processed what he said.
"But you already knew that" Blaise leaned forward and rest his face in his hands sighing. "I'm sitting here prepping to have to sweep you off the damn floor and you already knew what I was going to say. Probably before I even did. I didn't even think you knew he was still alive, much less aware of his movements." Blaise rose throwing his hands in the air as she continued to nod.
"I saw him. Close to the apparition point. I knew he made it through the war, he tried to approach me. I wanted to kill him that day, after all he had done during the war." She balled her fist up as Blaise sighed and nodded his head. "He had blood on him, said it wasn't his."
"Shit. Hermione. I mean come on." Blasie ran his hands through his hair and waited for her to say more, she could see the words in his head forming, he wanted to scream at someone.
"Keep it out of the paper Blaise, as best you can" she let the words out and rose from the chair closing the door and letting the tears fall.