Sour Grapes

Chapter 33 - Fear and Firewhisky

A/N: Been finding it tougher to write two chapters a week lately, so I may just be posting Tuesdays from now on. I'm in London this week (!) and have lots of time for inspired writing :) so we'll see! Perhaps I can finish a bunch and have them queued for posting, but otherwise I'll need to go down to once a week because the story is just needing to come out of me much slower now that we're in the third act...

Thank you for all of your wonderful comments, I can't wait to hear them on this one!

As always, come find me on tumblr: liliansilverstuff and check out my fanfic youtube channel which is linked on my tumblr page!

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Hermione

"Draco, are you here? I need to speak with you!"

Hermione heard the words before she could comprehend the meaning. She opened her eyes, feeling an acute dehydration headache from a mixture of champagne and tears. Her overall body sensation, however, was that of contentment, which was why the hurried voice from the other room seemed so out of place. She hadn't felt startled by it in the least, just confused.

"Draco?" the voice called again, and she knew that she recognized it, but her brain was not functioning well enough to pair it with a face or name.

Beside her, Draco began to stir. They were tangled up together in his sheets, and she remembered now that they'd fallen asleep wrapped in each other's arms on the floor, and had later moved up to the bed in a sluggish haze.

Her companion came to, seeming to take in his surroundings and reach some of the same happy conclusions she had been allowing to dance through her own mind. The night had been... incredible. Her heart swelled as she watched him, sure that he was taking stock of the events of the evening too.

"You had better be bloody decent, mate, I'm coming in!"

They turned to face one another, wide eyed.

"Blaise," they said in panicked unison, as the door to the bedroom was wrenched open and they pulled up the bed sheets to cover themselves fully.

"Well good morning to the happy couple, I trust you slept well?"

"Blaise what the fuck?!" Draco shouted.

Blaise folded his arms, smiling ear to ear. Hermione tugged the sheets more tightly around herself. Evidently, she'd slipped out of the button down at some point, and so was completely nude under the covers.

"Oh right... no "thanks for impersonating me Blaise, cheers for putting yourself through all of that for our benefit, Blaise." Just shouting?!"

"Get. Out. Now."

Blaise pursed his lips and unfolded his arms, backing up slowly. "Don't be long, yeah? I've already been waiting all night."

With that, he turned and strode out of the room, snapping the door shut behind him.

Draco rose from the bed with a huff and began getting dressed. Hermione eyed him warily, wondering what this could all be about. Perhaps something had gone wrong with the polyjuice?

She made to get out of bed just as he looked over at her.

"Uh... Hermione, I need to speak with Blaise alone, but I'm not quite ready for you to leave yet, so would you mind..."

"Staying in here?" he asked, eyebrows raised, "I - er... yes alright." Truthfully, her heart had sunk like that of a child being told to go to bed when the party was still going. She wanted to know what had happened, but didn't want to be too much of a pain. Blaise and Draco were both clearly agitated, and she had no idea what had gone into the planning of the previous evening.