Collide

And when I feel like there is no one that will ever know me
There you are to show me
'Cause when I look to the sky something tells me you're here with me
And you make everything alright
--Train

Blaise walked around the woods in a daze. The Malfoy estate was crawling with Aurors and Ministry officials. They were rounding up the remaining Death Eaters and examining what was left of Voldemort. He didn't know where Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Millicent had gotten to; at this point, he didn't care.

Hermione Granger, the woman he loved, was dead. Granted, they hadn't found her body. But the translation had made it clear that one of them wouldn't survive. Blaise had seen Harry and Ron with his own eyes. That meant that Hermione had to be dead. It was only a matter of time before they recovered her remains.

Through the lingering smoke, he spotted someone walking toward him, someone with curly brown hair. He blinked rapidly to clear his vision. He or she ('it's her,' a tiny voice yelled in the back of his mind) was still approaching him. As soon as he or she raised his or her hand to wave, Blaise knew.

Crazy grin spreading across his face, he tore off toward her. As soon as he reached her, he scooped her into his arms, both of them tumbling toward the ground.

"You're alive," he said between desperate, hungry kisses. "You're alive."

"Yes," she said, matching him kiss for kiss.

"I thought you were..." He shook his head of that unpleasant thought. He kissed her deeply. When they separated, she was shocked to hear him say, "Marry me."

"Pardon?"

"Marry me," he exclaimed excitedly.

"You're mad. We're only seventeen. We're not done with school," she protested.

Blaise laughed. "Not now. But promise me that someday...in the future...you'll marry me and spend the rest of your life...with me."

Hermione grinned at him. "I promise."

"Really?"

"Really!"

He shouted and rolled her onto her back. Covering her body with his, he kissed her again. As they were lying on the cold ground, kissing, they froze at the sound of a keening wail.

"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"

She pushed Blaise off of her and sat up. "That was Harry."

"But Harry's all right..." His sentence trailed off as he leapt to his feet. "Millie." He grabbed Hermione's hand and, tugging her to her feet, they broke into a run. They broke into a clearing about 100 yards from where they'd defeated Voldemort. Harry was kneeling in the clearing, rocking the body of Millicent Bulstrode.

***********************************

Blaise and Theodore were in the Seventh Year Slytherin Girls' Dormitory. Millicent's parents were arriving in a few hours and the two boys were sorting through her things.

"Do you think they'll want her notes?" Theodore asked.

Blaise shrugged. He knew that if it had been Hermione who died, he'd want everything. "Put it in the box. They may want it someday."

As Theodore hefted the pile of parchment, a carefully folded sheet slid out. Blaise bent and picked it up. Opening it, he scanned the first few lines. "Theo, I need to go," he said quickly as he headed for the door.

"But we're not done," Theodore objected.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Blaise called over his shoulder as he ran down the stairs and all the way to Hermione's room.

"Chocolate Frogs," he gasped. The door swung open and he found Ron, Harry, and Ginny sitting in Hermione's common room just as he expected. "We were going through Millie's things. And we found something you should have," he said, handing the parchment to Harry.

Harry listlessly took it. Recognizing Millicent's handwriting, his eyes widened. "This is for me?" he asked. Blaise nodded. Without another word, Harry left the Heads' common room.

"What was it?" Hermione asked gently.

"Something Millie wrote to Harry," he answered, sitting beside her on the couch.

"And you just let him leave with it? We need to go after him," Hermione said.

Before Blaise could open his mouth, Ron answered. "Leave him be, Hermione. He needs some time to himself."

*************************************

Sitting at the very top of the Ravenclaw stands, Harry turned the parchment over and over in his hands. He stared at the pitch, gathering the courage to read Millicent's note. Instead of reading it, he closed his eyes, picturing the last time they were up here. Millicent had thought that he was going to break up with her, he remembered. And he'd kissed her to convince her otherwise.

He felt the tears leaking out from behind his closed eyelids and rubbed his eyes roughly behind his glasses. This had been their spot when they wanted to be alone. Sitting together in the Gryffindor or Slytherin stands would have been too awkward, but here in the Ravenclaw stands, they'd just been Harry and Millie.

Sighing, he opened his eyes and unfolded the letter. There, in Millicent's spindly scrawl, was the following:

Harry,

I've just returned from the Ravenclaw stands and am cursing myself for thinking that you were going to break up with me. It's just that I've been hurt too many times before. I know that I shouldn't have thought that about you as you've treated me with nothing but kindness and respect. However, it's hard to shake the past.

If you had broken up with me, it would have hurt far more than other boy has ever hurt me. I suppose it's because I feel more strongly about you than I've ever felt about anyone before. In fact, although it's only been a month since you officially asked me to be your girlfriend, I suppose I'm beginning to fall for you.

There, I've written it. However, you won't be getting this letter anytime soon. I fear I'm not brave enough to tell you how I feel. I think that you will have to make the first move regarding emotional declarations. The hat put me in Slytherin, and not Gryffindor, for a reason.

Maybe someday I will give you this note so you will know exactly when I realized how much I care for you. Then again, maybe not.

All my love,

Millie

Harry stared at the letter for a long moment. Folding it carefully, he tucked it into his shirt pocket. He was crying openly now, cradling his head in his hands. "Oh, Millie, I suppose I was falling for you, too," he wailed.

At that moment, the sky opened up and Harry's tears mingled with the rain pouring down.

********************************

Two weeks had passed and Blaise still hadn't cried. Every time Hermione tried to broach the subject of Millicent, he changed the subject or claimed he needed to be elsewhere. She was concerned for him; it wasn't good for him to keep all those emotions bottled up.

"Blaise, we need to talk about this. It isn't healthy," she began in the corridor outside the Great Hall before dinner.

Glancing at his watch, he made yet another excuse. "I need to get to the library. There's a book I need for Potions," he said, fleeing again.

Hermione watched him turn the corner. Sighing deeply, she almost bumped into Harry as she entered the Great Hall. "Go after him," Harry urged. "He needs you."

She nodded and took Harry's advice. The library was quite deserted, seeing that it was dinner time. Madame Pince looked up from her reading and pointed to the far corner of the library. Walking through the stacks, she heard the sound of sobbing. As she rounded the last aisle, what she saw broke her heart. Blaise was sitting at a table in the corner, fist jammed into his mouth, rocking back and forth.

"Blaise," she said gently.

He looked up and wiped angrily at his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Let me help you," she said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He roughly shook off her touch. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine. You're sitting in the back of the library, crying your eyes out, completely alone," she said simply, sitting across from him.

"I can handle this by my--"

Hermione shook her head. "No, you can't. And more importantly, I won't allow you." She took a deep breath. "When I agreed to marry you someday, this was part of the deal. That neither of us handles anything by ourselves." She wasn't sure how he would react since neither of them had brought up the subject of Blaise's impromptu proposal in the aftermath of Millicent's death.

"You really want to marry me someday?" he asked, incredulously. He had chalked her response up to the giddiness of not being dead.

She nodded. "I wouldn't have agreed otherwise." Standing, she went around to his side of the table. Carefully, she placed her hands on his shoulders.

"It's not fair," he said, voice cracking. "Millie never did anything to anyone. And she was finally happy. It shouldn't have been her." He turned and wrapped his arms around her waist. Burying his face in her middle, he shook with emotion.

"I know, love. Let it out," she urged, holding him while he cried.

******************************************

Hermione finished her patrols, wanting nothing more than a hot shower and perhaps a cup of cocoa. Uttering her password to the little girl, she was amazed when the door swung open and she found her common room bathed in candlelight. She shut the door with a thud.

"I wasn't expecting you for another..." Blaise glanced at his watch. "Twenty minutes," he finished. "Nobody snogging in the Astronomy Tower tonight?" he asked with a grin.

She shook her head. "What is all this?" she asked, taking in the small table covered with a white tablecloth and a vase with a single red rose.

Blaise pulled out a chair and she sat. "This is about me cooking you the most delicious meal you've ever had," he said softly.

He turned away to open the bottle of wine sitting at her side table and missed Hermione's eyes widen as a grin spread across her face. As he carefully poured the wine, she watched him. He was dressed in black pants and a light blue shirt that accentuated his eyes. His feet were bare and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone, allowing her to glimpse that patch of chest hair. Returning with two glasses, he caught her staring at him.

"See something you like?" he asked cheekily.

"Mmm mmm," she replied, rising out of her chair. "Where's Ernie?"

"Ernie is staying somewhere else tonight," he replied vaguely. "And don't ask me how I managed that. You don't want to know."

She happily agreed before kissing him. Somehow, between kisses, he managed to set the wine glasses done without spilling too much and soon Blaise found himself maneuvered toward the couch. When his calves hit the couch, he sat heavily and Hermione went with him, straddling his lap.

They continued kissing, breaking only to allow him to pull her Hogwarts' jumper over her head. His hands rapidly undid her tie and the buttons on her uniform shirt. Pushing the shirt off her shoulders and down her arms, he threw it carelessly. It landed several feet away from the tie and jumper. For her part, Hermione unbuttoned the rest of his buttons and removed Blaise's shirt.

"If I had known we were going to be doing this, I would've put on something sexier," she panted as he trailed kisses down her throat.

His fingers brushed the cotton of her bra and he groaned. "But this is sexy. It's so practical, so...so you," he replied, groaning again as she licked his ear.

Her hands raked down his chest, stopping at his belt buckle. Slowly, she undid the buckle and unzipped his trousers, hand snaking inside to stroke him through his pants. "Merlin, you're hard," she breathed.

Blaise's hands slid up her thighs. Touching her knickers, he replied, "And you're wet." She moaned softly as he caressed her through the cotton fabric. Tearing his mouth away from her neck, he claimed her mouth once again.

Several minutes later, they were stretched out on the couch together, both naked. He used his hands and mouth to bring her to orgasm, knowing she probably wouldn't have one otherwise. As he settled between her legs, he asked one more time, "Are you sure?"

"Do you love me?" she answered.

"What kind of question is that? You know I do."

She smiled. "Then I'm sure." Reaching down, she grasped him and guided him to her entrance. Slowly, he pushed into her. Hermione gasped and, involuntarily, squeezed her eyes shut. Blaise stopped. The pain subsided somewhat and curiosity got the better of her. Opening her eyes, she found his blue eyes full of concern.

"We don't have to..." he began before she pulled his head down to kiss him.

"Just move slowly," she finally said. He tentatively moved back, stopping again when she winced. "It's all right," she said through gritted teeth. He pressed forward again. By the third stroke, the pain was gone, replaced by a feeling of fullness. By the fifth stroke, Hermione thought she felt a twinge of what could possibly be pleasure. She never got a chance to find out, though, because on the seventh stroke, Blaise had shuddered and moaned her name. Collapsing on top of her, he let his full weight press her down for just a moment before he tried to roll off. "Stay here for a moment," she said, holding onto him.

"I don't want to suffocate you."

She rolled her eyes. "You won't." Enjoying the feeling of closeness, she closed her eyes and relaxed. A minute later, Blaise rolled off of her. Turning, she faced him.

"I love you, Hermione," he said quietly.

"I love you, too," she said.