To Love a Gryffindor 2

To Love A Gryffindor 2: To Know Her Is To Know Her

Three years post Part 1

The old tavern was slowly filling up with the evening crowd. It was a homely place, known only to the locals. It had dark hardwood floors and walls. It showed its age but it was the charm of the place and many people came weekend, after weekend to meet their friends for a dinner or drink there.

One man in particular had been coming for the last five days straight. He came in about noon and would buy a meal and a drink. The drink would last him till six, when the evening crowd would flow into the place. Then he would order drinks more often until he was no longer able to think straight.

His best friend and his girlfriend sat at a table a couple feet away. It was far enough away not to been seen by the man, but still close enough for them to see him. They also came every night, worried for their friend. He was like family to them and seeing him so sad and self-destructive made them worry. This was not his typical behavior. He was usually a very happy person, bringing out the best in everyone.

The girl got up from her table and walked over to the bar to order some drinks. She turned around after telling the bar tenders the order and looked over her friend. His usual well-kempt appearance was gone. It was obvious he had not shaved in a while and his black hair was not as nice as he normally kept it. His blue-green eyes were lifeless and dull and he looked like he had not been home in days. It was time, she finally decided. Canceling her order, she looked back over to her boyfriend. He nodded and joined her at the man's table.

They both picked him off the chair and dragged him out of the tavern into an alleyway. The blond man walked back into the place and paid for the drinks while the redhead held up the unresponsive friend. When her boyfriend returned they both took a side of the friend and touched a small object the girl had taken out of her purse.

Suddenly they were inside the kitchen of their home and the said friend vomited on her floor; her nice and only just redone floor. Picking up the passed out man, she shared an aspirated look with her boyfriend. Good thing she loved his best friend.

Blaise Zabini awoke the next morning with a hangover. It was not surprising even to him. He did realize what he had had been doing for the last five days, despite drinking himself into passing out every night. The room in which he was lying was too bright, even with his eyes closed. However he was willing to risk opening them to see what the heavy object on his chest was.

Opening his eyes a bit, and trying to avoid light at all possible, he looked to see the hazel-brown eyes of his goddaughter staring back at him. The little girl smiled at him.

"You threw up last night." Blaise had not forgotten and wished he could. Ginny was going to kill him for that. It was her fault though; she should have remembered that alcohol does not do well with Portkeys. Hermione did it enough times to remember that. Blaise grimaced as that thought went though his head. He did not want to think of Hermione Granger now.

"Thank you, Blair, for reminding me." He smiled at the little girl, although it was not a real smile. He did not feel like smiling even without the hangover. However, the little girl did not need to know that. She was just as perceptive as her father and if he didn't smile she would have questions.

Lots of questions.

"Ah, you're awake. Blair honey, get off of your uncle." Blaise turned to the door to see Blair's future stepmother walk in the door with a tray. On the tray contained a breakfast of pancakes and toast, orange juice, coffee and a vial of something he knew was anti-hangover potion. There is one thing to say about Ginevra Weasley...she knew how to take care of people.

She handed him the vial first and then proceeded to place the tray on the nightstand beside the bed. Blaise had been put in the guestroom near the main rooms of the family, he could tell simply from the silver and green theme in the room. Ginny had a gift for interior and exterior design. She had taken the house and divided it, giving certain sections different colors. Narcissia and Sirius lived in the guesthouse on the other side of the rather large garden and even they had her designs.

Ginny led the hyper seven-year-old out of the room while her boyfriend walked in. Draco was silent for a while before speaking to his best friend.

"Feeling better?"

"The hangover's gone, if that's what you mean. Everything else no."

"Blaise, drinking yourself to death is not going to change anything." Blaise scoffed.

"Yes it would. I wouldn't have to go to work next week and see her come in glowing from a week long honeymoon, knowing full well that she will never look at me the way I wish she would."

"There are more reasons to stay here."

"Name one. I have a hardly paying job, not that I really need it since my father left a fortune when he committed suicide all because the Dark Lord was killed. The girl I am in love with just got married, my mother is insane, and no one really trusts me due to the simple fact I come from a long line of Pureblood bigots."

"I need you here anyway to be my best man." Blaise's eyebrow rose.

"So you finally stopped hesitating and asked Red to marry you?" Draco nodded.

"Took him long enough. I have been waiting for him to ask me for about a year now." Ginny walked over to her fiancée and kissed him on the check. "And I have another reason why having an alcohol driven end won't do. You are scheduled to be the godfather of my child so I need you around for at least another year."

"Are you implying that said godchild will arrive in a year, or that sometime during the year you'll get pregnant?"

"Oh, it's due in May." Draco nearly choked on the coffee he was drinking.

"Serves you right for stealing my Java juice Malfoy." It was a well known fact that since Hermione had brought coffee to work with her one day, Blaise and Draco had become addicted to the hot drink, Blaise especially. "That's only five months away, Gin. I take it from Drake's great impression of a fish, he was not informed before this moment." Ginny smiled.

"Nope." She took Draco's hand and began to lead the still disbelieving former-slytherin out of the room. "You better get ready, we are having company over tonight."

After a shower and finishing Ginny's nutritious breakfast, he looked a lot better. He went downstairs and walked into the living room to find Blair on the floor playing with her dolls along with her friend Marcy. Ginny and Katie Bell sat talking on the couch. Katie smiled sadly at him, in a way knowing what he felt like. He felt slightly guilty now for his over-the-top dramatics. After all, at least he still could talk with Hermione but Katie most likely would never see the man she was in love with ever again.

He smiled down at the girls and started to play with his honorary nieces while their mothers talked. He felt sorry for both of them. Blair had lost her mother at the age of one and luckily had been able to gain another in the form of Ginny Wesley, soon to be Malfoy. Marcy on the other hand had never seen her father. She looked just like his cousin. Blaise knew he would have loved his daughter if he were around. No one knew what happened to him, most thought him dead. However, Katie still had the belief that he was alive somewhere, along with her friend Oliver Wood who had also gone missing almost eight years ago.

When Harry and Nicole arrived, the group merged into the living room. Harry and Nicole were adamantly discussing various names for the baby that was due in the upcoming months. Ginny was already labeled as godmother, paying her back for helping them with the wedding three years ago.

Hermione stood before the oak doors of the mansion of her friend, not sure if she wanted to go in. Ron had told her she had to come, after all Ginny had an important announcement to make. But the thought that he was there was terrifying. According to Ginny, he didn't know that her wedding had been changed quite a bit. For one she was no longer the bride.

Ron had arrived ten minutes ago; she had watched him go in with his new wife Sapphire. What an odd couple they made. But then, she shouldn't talk. She was in love with Blaise Zabini, a man who worked as her partner in Research and Development for new Spells and Potions. He was especially good with Potions. That was what first got her attention.

They had been in Advanced Potions together and were partnered up. He could memorize the ingredients of a potion easily and take notes later, although Hermione had to add in the details. During that time was the very brief period she liked to call "The Snape Era". She had a crush on her professor and ever since her fourth year she had liked people who were exceptionally good at potions. And Blaise Zabini was a potion master after Severus Snape's own heart. Hermione wondered if it ran in families, considering Severus was his godfather and Draco Malfoy and Marcus Flint were his cousins and all three were very good at potions. Maybe it was just a Slytherin thing.

She gathered up her courage, but it failed her. She couldn't face him yet. She turned and walked though the rain towards her car, going faster as time went by. She had almost reached it when she heard her name being called.

Turning she could see Blaise running towards her. His hair, already drenched from the heavy rain, fell across his face. He walked up to her and kissed her, making her dizzy like always.

"Goodbye." Hermione watched stunned as he walked back though the people at the doorway. She started to walk after him, following him up to Malfoy's less modern floors near the top. Blaise walked into one that had various windows and stopped at the end. Hermione watched him silently, observing him. He didn't have the well cared for appearance today. He was dressed in an all black outfit that was Draco's and his hair was hanging in face, curling back towards his ears. But his eyes are what caught her attention. They were a strange color of blue at the moment, a color reminding Hermione of a very hot flame. She almost smiled at the thought that he had been named for this eye color.

He turned away from her and leaned his head up against the window. "What do you want Hermione." Hermione was again surprised. Blaise had not referred to her as Hermione since over a decade ago when they were fifth years at Hogwarts. He always called her 'Mione or Hermes.

"I want to know why you said goodbye."

"I am leaving."

"Why?" Blaise laughed a cruel heartless laugh, one she was not accustomed to have heard from him.

"As if you don't very well know. I broke the rules."

"I don't understand."

"I feel in love with you when you are the marked property of Ron Weasley, who won in the end. So please leave me alone, Mrs. Weasley. I really do not want to get into this."

Hermione stood silent for a second. She had no idea how she was going to tell him that while she had entered that building to marry Ron, it wasn't her that came out as Mrs. Weasley.

"What rules?" Blaise looked at her in aspiration.

"For two years, Hermione, I have been nothing but your lover, maybe a friend. Nothing more. I was always the other man. It was hell knowing that to everyone else the women I loved was with Ron Weasley. I wanted to see you love me when it was apparent that you loved him. The one thing a person should never do is fall for another guy's girl and that's exactly what I did. The problem is that to know you is to love you. No one can help it." Tired of talking he apprated back to his own flat in London.

Hermione's relationship with Blaise had started off slow. She had met him in third year in Arithmancy class after dropping Divination. They had become friends in fifth year after Draco and Harry had become relatives. It wasn't till Harry and Nicole's wedding three years ago that things changed for them.

Hermione had been a bridesmaid in the wedding along with Ginny and Sapphire Fatal, a friend of Nicole's from America. The groomsmen had been Ron, Draco, and Blaise. They had been tricked like everyone else that it was Ginny that was getting married to Harry that day. Till this day she still felt sorry for Draco for having to go though that. Of course, Ginny and Draco were together now, so she didn't feel too sorry.

Blaise had been paired up with her at the reception to allow Ginny and Draco to be together. Ron and Sapphire were already a pair as the Maid of Honor and Best Man. It was ironic that this was how life panned out for them. Sapph and Ron together and loving it with her and Blaise together. Of course, Blaise was currently not seeing them as being "together". At the reception they had both drank a new mix that Professor Snape had made for Narcissa for the occasion and had proceeded to get very drunk. They had ended up going home together.

They hadn't slept together that night, but it had awakened a sleeping monster for them. They both had to realize that they were attracted to each other. Things had been awkward at work, each trying to avoid the other one because of the new found feeling. Eventually they had just given up and Blaise had taken her out to dinner one night two years before. After that she practically lived with him. However, she never broke off the official relationship with Ron Weasley. She had never realized that Blaise felt insecure about her feelings towards him because of that, but she could see how he could.

Ron and Hermione's relationship was practically nothing. They went out because everyone thought they should, in fact they felt they should. Tere was nothing in the relationship. Ron had fallen in love with Sapphire and she with Blaise. When they had decided to get married it was something they thought of while playing chess. There was no emotion in it.

They had announced it the next day. Sapphire had nearly hit Ron but instead ran off to be with Nicole that day while Blaise had just watched her in silent hurt and fury that she knew was there, but ignored. It was even worse when she had handed him an invitation. She began to notice him pulling away and it had hurt her.

She didn't realize she could be so stupid as not to realize that her whole relationship with Ron was hurting the man she loved. She never thought that Blaise would not be there, but he deserved better then to be her lover while she stayed married contently to Ron. Sapphire had been right when she had yelled at Ron for doing that to her. Blaise's words swarmed in her head, the whole bit about just being her toy to play with when she tired of her husband and their children.

She sighed and turned over in her bed to face the window. She would have to tell him the truth in the morning. The truth that Ron was happily married to Sapphire right now and on his way to Hawaii. She would also have to tell him the truth about her feelings. But the one thing she was scared to tell him was the most important. The morning of her "wedding" to Ron she had found out she was pregnant and there was no possible way it could be anyone's child but Blaise's.

He was going to hate her.

When Blaise came into work the next morning he looked much more like his normal self than he had at Draco's party. He was wearing his own clothes and today it was a dress shirt and pants. It was the usual attire for the Office of Wizard-Muggle Joint Research into Chemical and Potion Related Substances in the Ministry. They need to dress like Muggles in case they needed to go into Muggle London. He nodded a hello to Constance, Arthur Weasley's secretary and proceeded into his own office. He closed the door and stared at the occupant.

"Hello Blaise." There was silence for a while before anything was said. Blaise took some time in accessing the situation.

"What are you doing at work? Didn't the plane leave for Hawaii last night?"

"Yes, and Ron and his wife are very happy to leave." Blaise looked at her surprisingly.

"So why aren't you there."

"Because I'm not Ron Weasley's wife." Blaise began to say something but she backed him into his chair and sat on his lap putting her finger to his mouth.

"Wait a second, Blaise. I have something I need to say. Several things in fact." Hermione took a deep breath trying to sort the thoughts in her head. Blaise stayed silent, looking up at her, his wonderful blue eyes calm this time and his hands slightly resting on her waist so she wouldn't fall off his lap. Hermione took his chin in her hand and turned his head to look directly at hers.

"I love you Blaise Zabini. I know you no doubt don't believe me, but I do. I have for several years to be truthful. I never meant to hurt you with my relationship with Ron and I shouldn't have done what I did. It didn't occur to me that you would get hurt in the process and I am sorry." Blaise raised his hand to wipe the tears that had started to fall out of her eyes. He didn't say a word though. "And while I dated Ron it was simply because everyone, including us, thought it was just written somewhere that we had to date. The same with getting married. There was never anything in our relationship that was beyond platonic. Ron was in love with Sapphire and I was in love with you. We knew about the other going out with other people but didn't care because we didn't really love each other.

"When I got to the wedding and was getting into my gown I realized I couldn't go though with it. I would never be happy with Ron and I am not a woman to cheat on her husband. I couldn't let you go though, because I did love you and that scared me a bit. Ron had also seemed to come to this conclusion because he came to my dressing room door and told me he couldn't go though with marrying me. It would be like marrying Ginny only without the death by Malfoy hands. So we decided to call it off. Sapphire and I switched places and Ron and Sapphire were married. If you had not gone off drinking your beautiful head off you would have known that."

Blaise looked at her silently for a moment.

"You really hurt me, you know." She smiled sadly.

"I know." She leaned down and kissed him softly. His grip on her tightened. It had been months since they had kissed like this, not counting the goodbye kiss he gave her last night. She wasn't going to let him get away, not when she finally figured out what she felt.

Months later, when Hermione was very pregnant, she started to notice Blaise paying less attention to her. All he seemed to do was look at his particular book. She refused to read it because she felt if she did it would be like getting to know a husband's mistress. Katie had told her this was just the hormonal overload making her paranoid and Ginny agreed. However she didn't know how Ginny could argue...She was going though the same thing. The worst part of it was that since it was nearing the end of her pregnancy she had been given (or rather Arthur had told her she was required since this was his honorary grandchild) maternal leave so she had no work to keep her mind off this particular topic.

Not only was he spending time with the book, he was out a lot with Ron, Harry, and Draco. Granted he was always out a lot with Draco but the sudden addition of her best friends was slightly unnerving. What on earth was he doing? Even Ginny didn't spend as much time with her as Blaise did with his friends. She was started to believe what the odd mediwitch had told her about men loosing interest...

Staring at the offending book, she decided she was going to end it once and for all. She picked it up and opened it. She frowned, confused when she found most of the pages completely empty. What on earth was so interesting about a blank book that had him reading every night for the last two weeks? She turned to the page where writing started and began to read.

Dear 'Mione,

Figured that insane curiosity would get to you sometime. I wanted to find someway of doing this in a unique way and this is what I came up with (with some help from Ron and Harry I might as well confess).

Will you marry me?

Hermione began to smile. It was unique and of course she would say yes. But it was sort of funny how short the thing was and yet how touched she was that he had done it that way.

"Hermione, I'm home." Hermione smiled and walked to kitchen were her boyfriend stood, undoing his tie. She walked up to him and kissed him.

"Yes." And she gave him the book and walked away.

Molly Weasley smiled from where she sat in the large garden of the Malfoy home, bouncing her grandchild on her lap. Her daughter was happy. Ginny and Draco were married and instead of a traditional reception, they decided to have a picnic. Molly scanned the crowd finding the many people there. Ron and Sapphire were there, showing off pictures of their latest trip as ambassadors for the ministry. Standing next to Ron and Sapphire were the other newlyweds of the group, Hermione and Blaise Zabini. The two had eloped the month before and Brenton had been born very recently. In fact Molly was surprised to see Hermione there after giving birth only hours before. Too bad Brenton couldn't come and see her godparents get married.

Draco and Ginny stood nearby, holding their baby Jordana. They had been hoping for a boy but oddly enough got a girl, which seemed to go against both their genetic codes. Katie Bell sat in the grass nearby playing with Blair and Marcia and their dolls. Arthur was off to the side, discussing things with Aiden Montague, Angelina Johnson, and Christian and Alicia Warrington.

Molly was very happy with the way things were. Now if only Marcus Flint could be found so poor Katie's heart wouldn't stay broken. Then the world would be perfect.