Sometimes

"I really should kill you right now, you know." Blaise didn't have to move his arm off his eyes to know who was speaking. It was Ron Weasley, on whose couch Blaise was currently lying as he attempted to recover from the slight headache that had come to him earlier in the morning. Despite promising his wife that he would be nice, Ron sat in the chair opposite Blaise and glared at the man who was his best friend's boyfriend. Apparently Kelly had more sympathy for the man than Ron did. At the moment, Ron had none.

The man had hurt his Hermione and lived to tell about it, which was just not right, in his mind. Zabini should be bleeding heavily for his crimes against her, but Kelly had made him promise there would be no bloodshed. What he wouldn't do for his wife.

"Ron, if you're going to kill me, then do it please. I don't like the pre-death-by-redhead talk." Ron looked annoyed. Why was it that everyone thought his temper was a direct correlation with his hair color? After all Ginny was...Ron stopped that trained of thought before he started to tear up again and that would really mess with his Lets-Kill-'Mione's-Boyfriend plan.

"Why did you do it? What happened to 'Ron, I want to marry 'Mione'?" About a month ago, Blaise had come up to Ron and Harry to ask them if he could marry Hermione. It was tradition to ask the father of the bride for her hand, but that was next to impossible so Blaise had opted for the closest thing to family, Ron and Harry.

That was how they had found out about Hermione even dating the Slytherin. Ron was seriously thinking he had made the wrong choice when he had chosen to trust Zabini.

"It's Hermione. She hates that nickname."

"Answer my question."

"Do you want to know the truth?"

"That would be nice."

"Voldemort has managed to get inside my head. I left because his recent 'gifts' have been centering on Hermione. I think he is planning on using me to hurt her so she can't help Harry. With her as the brain of the group, that would be an easy way to cripple him. I didn't want to be used as a tool to get to Hermione, so I left and came here. I figure if I am going to go insane and kill someone, better it be you."

"Why thank you, Zabini. Didn't know you cared so much," Ron drawled sarcastically.

"But then again, I do like Kelly..."

"Touch my wife and I won't be the one worrying about death." Blaise actually laughed at that one. It wasn't a completely heartfelt laugh but it was one none-the-less. "What makes you think the dreams mean he is going to use you to hurt her? Perhaps it is Montague or Warrington."

"They are too busy doing other missions and spying for us to be near Hermione. I am the closest to her, besides you and Harry. In the dreams she blames me for putting Draco and Ginny in their death-like coma. Then she starts to bleed and slowly burn away, blaming me for hurting her and our child."

"You two don't have kids yet. Obviously Voldemort doesn't do his homework."

"That's just it, Weasley," Blaise stated as he removed his arm from his eyes and looked at his fellow commander. "Hermione's pregnant."

"And she didn't tell me!"

"She hasn't told anyone, not even me, yet

"Then how do you know?" Blaise gave him a look.

"I've been living with her for three years, almost four now. I think I would notice some physical changes. She must be at least five months along. The only reason most people don't know is because she is using a glamour charm." He decided not to share the fact that he wished she trusted him enough to tell him. It had hurt him that she hadn't said anything yet, but he ignored that feeling as best he could.

"Are you sure he is planning on using you and not just trying to drive you and Hermione apart?"

*

Hermione smiled sadly down at the red-haired woman in the hospital bed. Ginny's skin was pale against the brilliant burgundy of her hair, and her brown eyes were closed in a deathlike appearance. She had been placed under one of the newest curses brought on by the cruelties of the war. The Sleeping Death put one in a coma so close to death that it was often confused for it. There were only two other cases of the curse being used since its creation by Lucius Malfoy three years ago. Dean Thomas and Justin Flinch-Fletchly had also been placed under the curse, only to die eventually. If it hadn't been for Blaise, the two who lay in the comfortable room would have been given up for dead as well.

However, she had come to visit Ginevra Malfoy and her husband and not to think about her boyfriend (or whatever they were, or used to be). Malfoy lay motionless in an identical bed, his hair longer than usual, but well taken care of. His skin was microscopically darker than his wife's complexion, but he still had the pallor of death. He looked quite solemn. Once again, Hermione had to remind herself that he was still alive. There was one thing to be said about Malfoy. Even when near death, he was graceful and almost haughty about it. And to think it was his own father who had invented the curse that now condemned Draco Malfoy to death.

She returned to Ginny and sighed. The girl was barely 22 years old, only married for two years. It had been only a few months ago that she had ecstatically announced that she was going to have a baby to a yard full of friends and family. Hermione wished Ginny were awake, as she knew the younger girl would know what one should do when one had a pig-headed Slytherin boyfriend. And perhaps the two would discuss how their two children would grow up together, no doubt be Slytherin like their fathers and worry them half to death. But Ginny was asleep, unable to hear anything Hermione said in her rants or offer advice on how to deal with Blaise. For that matter, no one knew if the baby would survive this curse.

Hermione walked to the window next to Malfoy's bed and looked out over the lake that was in the Malfoy Manor garden. Blaise and made sure that both Draco and Ginny had received the very best care. After all, Blaise and Draco were practically brothers, especially after other Slytherins had rejected them when they had come out and stated their beliefs on the war. That made Ginny family too.

So many had been lost to them in this war against Voldemort in the last five years since they had left Hogwarts. Her parents, Narcissia Malfoy, Adriano and Arienne Zabini, Dean and Justin were just a few of the many victims of the violence. Harry's uncle had been killed and now his Aunt Petunia and Dudley were hiding with Remus Lupin as their protector and only link to the outside world. Sirius Black's girlfriend from before Azkaban, Alana Burkhurst, was a secondary protection for the aunt of the Boy Who Lived. Ron was lucky and hadn't lost any of his family yet, but his wife Kelly had been one of the first people who had seen first hand what Death Eaters could do. She was the only survivor of an attack on her home in London, having only been thirteen at the time and only two years younger than her husband.

She hoped the war would end soon and the endless death would cease. She wanted her life back. She wanted peace for her child and for her friends' families. She wanted everyone to be safe, with no more bloodshed. She wanted Blaise to come home and realize that it was leaving her that hurt her. She wanted Ginny and even Malfoy to have peace.

She just wanted an end.

*

Kelly opened the door later that evening to find Hermione standing there. Surprised, she opened it farther to let her friend in.

"Hermione, what are you doing here? Not that I'm not happy to see you but you don't visit that often."

"I heard Blaise is here. Can I talk to him?"

"Sure, hon," Kelly smiled. "Just let me get Ron out of the living room and you can have it out with Blaise."

Hermione followed Kelly to the living room of the Weasley's home and saw Ron sitting in the chair opposite the couch. Blaise was lying on the couch, with one arm casually flung over his eyes and his body tense. She could tell he was sorting various things though his brain. She smiled weakly. During this war, she was learning how to interrupt those closest to her simply from their body language. Harry and Ron had been with her for over a decade and Blaise for almost six years, but she knew Blaise just as well.

Ron walked out of the room and squeezed Hermione's shoulder as he passed to join his wife in the kitchen. She took a deep breath before taking a few steps forward into the room. At first she just stared at him, feeling oddly more calm having him around. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to help her any.

"I thought you weren't going to leave. You promised you weren't going to leave me." Hermione wanted to slap herself. She was sounding desperate. That was not how she was supposed to sound.

"I promised that I wasn't leaving you out of lack of love for you or because of any other person."

"Then why did you leave? Tell the truth Blaise." He took his hand off his eyes and looked at her. She could tell he was tired of arguing with her, but she was not going to back down.

"I have! I left you to protect you from Voldemort."

"Really? It seems more like you were running to protect yourself from Voldemort. Things don't revolve around you, Blaise. He would have come after me whether you had been there or not. I don't see how you leaving will help me any. Besides, that means you did break your promise."

"He was going to use ME to hurt YOU!" He obviously wasn't going to pay any attention to her calling Voldemort a person.

"Really? Well he has succeeded since you have most definitely hurt me. You hurt me by leaving, by breaking your promise to stay. How could he use you anyway? What makes you think he deems you important enough? Just because you happen to be my lover for three years? I seriously doubt it." Blaise stood up and looked down at her. She didn't back down and stared right back into his molten blue eyes. She applauded herself for not backing down. Blaise could be intimidating even when he wasn't trying to be.

"Do you want to know the real reason? The full version of why I had to leave? He was messing with my head, Granger, messing around and driving me crazy. He was giving me visions of you, of Draco and Ginny, and of our baby girl, all being hurt because of ME. I could see you Hermione; you were bleeding and blaming me for it. I couldn't let him drive me crazy enough to physically hurt you. I love you too bloody much to let that happen." He walked around her and grabbed his coat off the couch. "And Voldemort is not a person, not anymore." He walked out the door and past a confused Kelly Weasley.

Hermione noticed she was crying, although she hadn't meant to. He had known about the baby. Had he left her because she was pregnant? She did not have much time to think about it, however, as a sharp pain went though her midsection, taking all thoughts of Blaise away.