CHAPTER 10: BLAISE ZABINI'S THEORY ABOUT HIS BEST FRIEND'S GIRLFRIEND

When Hermione woke up to find herself snuggled around Draco Malfoy, she'd panicked and as quietly as she could, ran all the way to her room to compose herself.

She could recall, very faintly, the fact that she and he'd been talking into the early hours of the day, and that the fact that he'd been willing to listen at all, made her face flush. When was the last time she'd had a decent conversation with someone?

When had Malfoy become so good at listening? What was it about him that made her feel safe, even now, though she wasn't near him? Her stomach felt like there was a hoard of zoo animals stomping around in there and her heart was being stung a hundred times by bees and wasps and butterflies.

Could butterflies even sting?

Was she sick?

Groaning at the audacity of the situation, she focused her mind on doing something productive. That stupid party was tonight, and she didn't have time to waste on feelings she didn't understand.

Not that she had feelings in the first place, that would be ridiculous.

Draco on the other hand woke up to find Hermione missing, alongside the smell of oranges and cinnamon that he'd begun to associate with her. The blanket was gone too, so she'd probably woken up and gone to refresh herself, he told himself as he stood up and stretched.

But maybe he should go and check up on her anyway, just to make sure nothing had happened?

He began to head for the stairs before hesitating. What was he doing? Hermione Granger was a grown woman, she could take care of herself, and besides, why was he so worried about her?

He ignored the thoughts of this morning that began to rush into his head, not wanting to believe that he was feeling anything akin to a fondness for the witch.

Draco Malfoy...feeling something for someone other than himself? Ludicrous!

He was about to head into the kitchen when something smashed in the West Wing, followed by lots of cursing and swearing and a few death threats being screamed back and forth between definitely more than one person.

Then, something exploded and Draco let out a sigh, realising what was happening as he ran to the West wing of his Manor.

What was with things being broken and smashed in his house? He paused outside the entrance to the hallway that lead into the West Wing, it was open, clearly indicated that the brown haired woman he was harbouring in his house had decided to go exploring.

He headed inside, making a beeline for the drawing room of the West Wing, opening the door to find what he expected.

Hermione was standing in the middle of the huge room, her wand in her hand, the sleeves of her jumper pushed up to her elbows and as she raised her wand above her heard to cast another spell, Draco caught sight of the word scarred on her left arm.

The word 'MUDBLOOD' seared into her flesh; it was faded, but against the pale skin of her arm, it stood out like black ink on white parchment. Her hair was wet and hung down her back, indicating she'd had a shower. She turned around suddenly upon hearing the door open and froze when she spotted him, watching her with an expression she couldn't decipher.

Her breathing was heavy like she'd been running a marathon and Draco noticed that her eyes were red like she'd been crying and her wand dropped out of her hand when he raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.

She pulled down the sleeves of her jumper and wrapped her arms around herself self-consciously.

Draco looked around the room and found all the paintings that he'd put up here, away from the public, had been destroyed. Smashed to pieces. All the portraits of his ancestors, uncles and aunts and others who were part of his family once, all the paintings were destroyed.

She bit at her bottom lip nervously, twiddling her thumbs and looking at the floor in apology. "Sorry," she paused to look at him swiftly before looking away again, "I didn't mean to, but they started yelling at me and I was only looking for a dress for that stupid party and I got lost and then they started calling me names and I...Sorry."

"Granger!" Hermione looked up, surprised by the venom in his voice and the anger in his eyes. He was furious and Hermione felt her heart clench at the idea that he was angry with her.

What had she done? He'd allowed her to stay in his home and given her food and shelter and even listened to her sob story and she'd repaid him by basically killing his family tree!

"Draco! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, honest, I just-"

He held up a hand to stop her and sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Granger, if you're going to destroy the paintings of my family, at least clean up after yourself, I don't have any house elves at my disposal and quite frankly I don't like cleaning up after myself, and I have to clean up after you? No way! Next time, why don't you just set them on fire or something? I'd rather not be woken up the sounds of things exploding in my house! If this happens again, I'll have to make an official complaint to the Ministry or something. I mean what will my neighbours-"

She didn't let him finish.

Hermione found her body moving before she even understood what was happening.

One second she was looking at him, quite taken aback by his words, her eyes tearing up slightly at what he'd just said, the next second, she was running across the room to throw her arms around his neck and pulling his towards her- hugging him tightly.

He found his arms circling her waist and hugging her back. "Oh gods, Draco, I don't even know how to respond to that! How are you so..." She hid her face in the crook of his neck, her fingers intertwined around him.

"Handsome? Great? Amazing? I know I am, what's that got to do with anything?" he muttered, trying to ignore the heavy beating of his heart.

She began laughing at his words and after a moment of consideration, he couldn't help but join in.

Hermione stepped away when he started laughing, a breath away from his face, watching in awe as his face lit up. "Oh my..." she whispered.

Draco stopped laughing and realization dawned on him. That blasted thing he'd been trying to hide from everyone for all of these years, and she'd been here all of two days and already found out?

Damnit.

Hermione's eyes narrowed in mischief and she smirked. "Draco! You have a dimple!" she cried.

He scowled at her, though noticing that her arms were still wrapped around his neck, his arms were around her waist, and tried to pretend that the closeness between them wasn't affecting him at all.

What the hell was wrong with his heart? Why was it beating so hard? Was he dying?

"What the hell woman? I do not have bloody dimple, and besides I was having a very serious talking to you about rules in the household. No more exploding things, if you must destroy family portraits, please use fire. And besides, we hadn't reached a conclusion to the conversation when you decided to attack me!"

He got the satisfaction of seeing her blush for a second, her eyes widening at his accusations and letting go of him to step back, her eyes wondering along the floor in embarrassment.

"You do too have a dimple, you just want to admit that the bad boy of Hogwarts has a soft side!" she smiled again, and then added as a latter thought, "and I wasn't attacking you, you dimwit, I was giving you a hug." She smiled again, pushing a few strands of her hair behind her ears.

Draco gritted his teeth and resisted the temptation to pull her back close to him again. The warmth of holding her close, he was already missing it.

"No, I'm pretty sure you attacked me, I should report you for attacking an unarmed wizard in his own home." He answered.

She raised her eyebrows and gave a pointed look towards the wand that was still in his left hand; he dropped it and raised an eyebrow back at her in challenge.

"Stop trying to change the subject, Draco. You do too have a dimple. Right there." She leaned forwards and traced the right side of his mouth, her fingers brushing his lips slightly before she caught herself and pulled away.

She stepped away again and glanced around the room, at the paintings in particular, her fingers curling into fists. "Sorry about the portraits, they started yelling stupid things at me when I came in, and I reacted without thinking about it." She held out her hand and he watched as the wand she'd dropped, flew into her hand. With a flick of her wand, she fixed the portraits and returned the room to normal.

"You little vixen! How dare you enter the sacred house of Malfoy and gallivant about as you please? Draco, what is she doing here? She's a friend of the Potter boy, isn't she? Get rid of her immediately." His grandfather shouted, waving his fists in the air in anger.

Various voices of other family members joined in, agreeing with the first, calling her names that made the blood in Draco's veins boil in anger.

Before he could react, shut them up permanently, Hermione scowled flicked her wand. The portraits immediately stopped emitting sounds, muted, and found themselves covered by pitch black cloth that allowed no light in.

"Right then, I was looking for a dress to wear, we have a party to attend tonight, don't we?" she asked, tucking her wand away and walking out of the room.

Draco paused for a moment and tightened the belt of his robe before shrugging to himself and leaving. Granger was so amusing.

.*.

"Granger! What the hell is taking so long? Just put on that stupid dress and let's get going! We're already late!"

"Malfoy! Do you have any idea how hard it is to wear a dress? Especially one that has a corset? There are ruffles and sparkles and straps I don't understand, give me a minute for Merlin's sake!"

"You said that an hour ago! Stop trying to look pretty and get out here now. I don't care what you look like and no one there is going to care either! You're going as some stupid American girl."

Muttering to herself in frustration, Hermione yanked open the door of her bedroom and glared at the man standing opposite her. She hadn't had the chance to change her appearance since he kept shouting at her and making her lose her concentration and tight bodice of her dress made it hard to breathe.

"Draco Malfoy, shut up. I'm not trying to look pretty, but it takes time to put on a charm that casts illusion over me for long periods of time, especially if you keep yelling at me!" she cried out, hands on her hips.

Draco looked up to tell her off, but the words died in his mouth.

The green dress that he'd given to her from his mother's personal wardrobe hadn't been the prettiest or the most awe inspiring of clothing. He'd been too tired to put any thought into it, so he'd grabbed the first thing he'd seen and shoved it in her face.

It was strange enough seeing Hermione Granger in his house colours, the dress being green and all her jewellery and such being silver, but he'd never imagined that she would look so good in them. She adjusted the skirt and draped the shawl across her arms before looking at him, her warm brown eyes irritated. "I just remembered why I hate dresses so much now." She muttered to herself.

She closed the door behind her and got her wand from the small purse in her hand. Clearing her mind, she taped herself gently on the forehead and Draco watched as her appearance changed from head to toe. Her brown hair turned curly black, and her chocolate eyes turned bright blue.

Draco found himself slightly saddened by the fact that she had to attend a social event in disguise. Stupid Potter, Weasely and Longbottom.

And the stupid society of idiots who thought she was a murderer.

"Well, how do I look? Am I acceptable?" she asked, smoothing out her dress and flicking her hair behind her to look at him, waiting for a response. Draco shrugged, "you look fine. It suited you better before though, come on, let's go!"

He ignored the surprised look on her face and grabbed her by her arm, leading her to the front door. "What do you mean by that?"

"Never mind that. What's the story, then? How did we meet?" He paused to smirk at her, his eyebrows raised, "how long have you been in undeniable but passionate love with me?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, lifting the helm of the dress as they both started down the stairs. "Don't be ridiculous, if anything, you were the one who fell in love with me first! We met at a coffee shop when you were out buying something you usually buy, hair gel or something, and we've been together for a while now. Don't give a precise time because that leads to more questions."

She motioned for him to wait and headed off to the kitchen, returning shortly with a covered platter from which the sweet smell of chocolate and mint diffused. "We can't forget the cake! It took me forever to make it." She muttered.

"Whatever Granger, as if I would fall in love with you first!" Draco stated, opening the door. He watched as she smiled and shook her head, her hair swaying in the breeze. "We can side-apparate to Blaise's house, and we'll only stay for a bit so don't worry about anything."

Hermione glanced at him as they made their way outside the gates of the Manor, side by side. He was wearing a simple grey suit, muggle style, that had obviously been made tailored for him. Even the bold green tie that matched her dress, made him look...she shook out of the train of thought, her face flushing and she sped up, trying to avoid looking at him.

This was not the time to get side tracked by stupid thoughts about the attractiveness of Draco Malfoy.

...Not that she thought he was attractive.

.*.

Blaise Zabini opened the door to his manor, the first thing he did was grasp his best mate by the collar and pulled him close to stare him in the eyes. "How the hell does twenty thousand end up not being twenty thousand?"

Draco rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly, "ah, I had my cousin come over and she talked to Vaunt about the company and got him to buy it for more...um...surprise?" he muttered.

Blaise pushed him inside and grabbed a hold of Hermione's hand, "oh Daniella, you are even more beautiful than the stars in the heavens, why are you with a sour git like Draco?"

Hermione internally scowled at his flirting but Daniella, but the woman she was pretending to be, smiled brightly, flushing at the compliment. "Oh, you are so kind, thank you! I brought a cake for the party, I hope Draco and I weren't too late? He took forever to do his hair." She stuck out her tongue at the raised eyebrow the blond man sent her way.

Blaise ushered her in and closed the door behind them, watching keenly the way Draco grabbed her hand and held it tightly away from his own. Draco had never been comfortable with public displays of affection either, he'd almost cut Pansy's arm off once for trying to hold his hand, so why was he so protective over this new girl?

Blaise narrowed his eyes. What was so different about this one?

"Oh, that's nothing new! You should have seen him at school. He would always be late to class because he was busy doing himself up before class." He said, watching Draco's face form into an irritated scowl.

Hermione resisted the urge to nod and agree with that statement, all too aware of his crazy morning habits from their last year. "So, where is everyone?"

"In the ballroom, I've silenced the rest of the house so that the noise isn't too loud, follow me and we can introduce you to all of Draco's friends from school, and we can give you your masks too." Blaise took lead, motioning to them to follow him to the ballroom located on the second floor of his manor, his eyes wondering over to check how long Draco was planning on holding her hand and how long she as going to let him.

"So, Daniella? What sort of work do you do?" he asked conversationally, finding it interesting when he saw his best friend tense unintentionally at the question. What was going on?

Hermione internally sighed and tightened her grip on Draco's hand, telling him to stop making it obvious that something wasn't right. The last thing she needed was her cover to be blown so early on already. "Oh, I'm a freelance journalist, I was initially interested in working for Rita Skeeter, but Draco told me she's a bit of a hag, so I'm just lazing around right now. What about you, what exactly do you do?"

Blaise frowned, maybe he was thinking too much into it? Daniella didn't seem phased by the question at all, but the look of relief on Draco's face was a bit off putting. What was he hiding?

"We can talk about what I do later, we're here now, to party and have fun! I do warn you, Daniella, the women at the party are already quite drunk, so if they get a bit intense, just leave. Especially Astoria, she's not good with liquor." Blaise warned. He sped up to pick up the two remaining masks that had been left for Draco and his guest and handed it to the two of them, watching in amusement as they slipped it on.

Opening the door to the ballroom, Hermione felt herself squirm at the judgemental eyes that were drawn to her immediately. She cast a glance around the huge room that was decorated similarly to the Yule ball she'd participated in during fourth year, and almost smiled at the irony of participating in another dance with what Ron would have name the "enemy."

First Viktor and now Malfoy.

Blaise waited for them to walk in and closed the door behind them, telling them to mingle before heading off to drop the cake that she'd brought to the table of food located at the back of the room.

Draco's grip on her hand tightened and Hermione glanced at him in surprise, "don't wonder too far away from me, Granger. The place is full of gossipy women and men who have far too much time and money on their hands, and if they find out, and I'm not close by, things could go wrong."

Even with the black and green lace mask on his face, he looked handsome. There was a brightness around him that was alarmingly lively in such a gloomy atmosphere where it was clear that people gathered for the sake of finding the flaws in others. Hermione tried to digest the butterflies that were now trying to cause her stomach to flutter.

Stomach weren't supposed to flutter, that was biologically wrong.

"Come on, I'm supposed to introduce you to people that you already know and pretend that you've never met them." He muttered, tugging her along with him as they made their way over to the groups of people that were scattered here and there like they were allergic to each other.

Pretending to not know people that she knew quite well was more difficult that Hermione imagined it to be. Even with their masks on, it was obvious who was who and clear too that they didn't like her all that much. Most of them mentioned Pansy's name in her presence to see if she would react, but Draco always came in to save her from hexing those people.

Hermione was also super aware of the fact that Blaise was watching the both of them like hawks monitoring their movements like he was a spy out for their blood and it had begun to really irritate her when Miles Bletchley, a man she could remember faintly from her younger years at Hogwarts asked her for a dance. From what she recalled, he'd been a Keeper on the Slytherin Quidditch when Draco had joined as Seeker.

His mask covered almost all his face, but his alarmingly blue eyes were visible and before she could even decline the offer, he stole her from Draco and they both entered the dance floor, waltzing to the music easily.

"I must say, why is a beautiful woman like you with Malfoy? Haven't you tired of his constant yammering about his wealth yet?" Miles asked, twirling her around. Hermione glanced at Draco who was now sitting on a chair with his arms crossed, looking like he wanted to throw something blunt and heavy at her dance partner.

Daniella however, smiled brightly and inclined her head modestly. "Oh, he's not so bad. He's much nicer that he appears at first." She replied. Miles twirled her again, this time, bringing her uncomfortably close to himself.

"Of course he is. Draco Malfoy, the flawless Slytherin Prince." The bitterness in his voice made the alarm bells ring in her head and she tried to stop dancing, but Miles' hand tightened on her hand and waist. "Now, now, I know I'm not Malfoy, but surely you won't leave a man alone on the dance floor before the dance is over?" he asked, his breath cold against her neck. Hermione clenched her teeth, wanting to punch the man in the face, but not wanting to cause a scene.

"Let's change the subject to something you probably have a great deal of information on. How is Hermione Granger doing?"

Hermione stumbled, but Miles twirled her out, pretending that it was intentional and pulled her back close, his fingers splayed on her back, keeping her from moving back. Hermione bit back her initial shock and took a deep breath. "Hermione Granger? The wanted witch? I wrote a piece about her last year for my journaling piece, but I don't really know much more than what I could find on research material alone." She laughed, "after all, it wasn't like I could ask her for an interview right?"

For a moment, the man looked confused, looking her close to see if she was lying, but a second later, he laughed it off. "Oh, not only are you beautiful, but also you're so talented at lying. What a talented person you are, Daniella! Do you think I'm as stupid as the rest of these fools? You must know something about her or Draco wouldn't still be with you! He doesn't stay with anyone for more than a week at the most, except Pansy and she is just crazy." He muttered. Hermione felt her anger rise, what was wrong with this guy?

"Are you insinuating that my boyfriend has thing for Hermione Granger and is only with me because he thinks I can lead him to her?" she asked, her eyes flashing behind her mask. Miles snorted and was about to reply when they were interrupted suddenly by an arm on hers that stopped them from dancing.

Hermione almost jumped for joy at Blaise who smiled sweetly at Miles and without offering any explanation, pushed him away to take her hand in dance. Miles scowled for a moment before walking out of the ballroom, slamming the huge doors behind him, but no one paid any attention.

"Thank you for that!" she told the man who smirked at her happily, spinning her gently around, closer to where Draco was seated, his arms still crossed in anger. "Oh don't thank me, Draco was about to cut in himself, but I said I'll take care of it, you looked like you were about to punch the guy anyway. Besides, I wanted to have a little chat with you."

"Oh, I wasn't going to hurt him, he was just a bit pry about my personal life is all. What do we need to chat about?" she asked, glancing at Draco from the corner of her eyes. He was watching her and Blaise carefully, like he was making sure that Blaise wasn't going to start flirting heavily again.

"You're in love with him, aren't you?"

Hermione stumbled again and coughed, choking on air whilst Blaise laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. "What are you talking about? I've only been out with the guy for a while now, isn't love a bit too soon to mention?" she asked, trying to cover for the fact that her face was bright red. She thanked the gods for the mask that managed to hide most of the embarrassed redness of her face.

Blaise smiled to himself, confirming what the little voice in his head had been telling him since the evening began, "let's see, you're an intelligent, slightly insecure, talented young woman with the tenacity of a pit bull dog when it comes to matters that make you passionate enough. Am I right?"

"A pit bull? How do you know what that is? That's a muggle breed of dog!" she asked. Blaise glance at Draco and smirked at the anger that was emitting off of his best friend.

How long had Draco been planning to keep this from his? Obviously Draco though he was an idiot, well, he was wrong. He had it all figure out. Play it cool, Blaise told himself as he smiled at the woman in his arms, you don't want to make it obvious and freak the both of them out.

"You're very much like this girl we used to have in our class during school. If it hadn't been for some unseen circumstances, I'm pretty sure Draco would be married to her by now." She raised her eyebrows in surprise at the warmth in his tone and glanced a Draco who was standing up, arms still crossed looking unsure on whether or not to come over and break the two of them up.

"Are you talking about Pansy Parkinson?" she asked cautiously, not really wanting to hear about Draco's previous apparent love at the moment.

Blaise snorted, "Pansy? What on earth? Why would I be talking about her? She wasn't even in love with Draco really, but it was expected of them to get together so she just followed her parent's expectation. She'd been brought up to believe that she and he were going to end up together, so when he broke things off with her, she was mostly in shock. I wonder what she's doing in hell right now."

Hermione bit her lip, trying not to feel guilty for the fact that Pansy was dead. It wasn't like she was the one who killed the girl, but Hermione nevertheless felt uncomfortable with the topic. "Then, who are you talking about?" she asked, defeated.

Blaise smiled brightly, but before he could answer, Draco finally had enough of watching his best friend twirl her around and the eyes watching her greedily and interrupted them, pulling her out of Blaise's arms. "That's enough. We're going home." The blond man muttered before tugging her along, his face marred with a frown. She just nodded and waved goodbye, running to catch up with his long strides.

Blaise watched the two of them walk off with a smile on his face. And that was all he needed. "What are you smirking about?" a voice asked from behind him. Blaise turned around and shrugged at his soon to be ex-wife. "I have a theory." He answered simply.

Astoria rolled her eyes, Blaise always had a theory about something or other. "Does it involve Draco and his new girlfriend?" she asked, sipping a tall glass of Fire-whisky.

"Of course it does. Did you see the jealously just radiating off him? I know their little secret!"

"What secret?" Astoria flicked back her hair and watched the man in front of her light up with excitement. If only he got half as excited about anything in their life.

"He's totally in love! And so is she! Isn't that great? Finally, they're together!" he clapped his hands like a child.

Astoria frowned, "but I thought you said he had a thing for Hermione?" she whispered the name, watching the others who were nearby to make sure they weren't eavesdropping. Hermione Granger wasn't a topic one brought up in a conversation causally anymore.

Blaise smiled and nodded to himself. "Oh, he does." He stated, laughing at the confused expression on her face before skipping off to congratulate himself on a great night.