Aconite - Dramione/Blinny

Ch. 4

Ginny had decided to take Hermione out to lunch the next day for a little girls' time, which Hermione was very happy about after the disastrous attempt at lunch the day before with Ron. They walked arm-in-arm down the sidewalk, laughing together.

"You should've seen George's face!" Ginny said between laughs. "He was not expecting it to blow up in his face during the demonstration, but he took it in stride and was able to quickly recover from it!"

Hermione shook her head, trying to imagine the sight. "Oh, that sounds hilarious! I'm just happy George is releasing products again."

"I know," Ginny nodded. "He's been working on these for the past year. It was good to see him distracted but you could tell something was off. I wanted to be there to help but Angelina says he's doing a lot better now."

"That's good," Hermione said quietly.

They both fell into silence as they continued walking aimlessly down the sidewalk, both of them looking off in different directions. Hermione then felt Ginny freeze suddenly next to her, and she looked over to see Ginny staring ahead of them, wide-eyed.

"Gin? What's up?" Hermione asked, looking forward as well to see what she was looking at.

"We need to go somewhere else," Ginny said quickly, taking a few steps back. "Like, now."

Hermione gave her a confused look and then looked ahead again to try and see what Ginny was so unnerved by. "I don't understand."

And then she saw the last person she wanted to see at that moment walking towards them with someone that she recognized but couldn't quite figure out.

Ginny immediately turned away and started walking in the opposite direction, constantly looking to see if she could cross the street. Hermione caught up to her and asked, "Ginny, what's going on?"

"I don't want him to see-"

"Well, if it isn't little Red!"

Ginny groaned and stopped in her tracks, looking up at the sky. Hermione looked over her shoulder to see that both Draco and the new wizard had stopped a few feet away, and they were both smirking.

"Hello, Zabini," Ginny muttered before turning around and casting a glance up at him.

She wasn't surprised that he was still just as handsome as ever. He was wearing a well-fitted three-piece suit that was in a dark charcoal color, whereas Draco's was all black again. Blaise's face hadn't changed a bit in the five years since they had last seen each other, and Ginny tried to ignore the rush of butterflies that suddenly filled her stomach.

"Granger," Draco greeted curtly with a nod. "How is the decision making process going?"

Ginny gave her a curious look and Hermione scowled at him as she answered, "Would be a lot faster if you weren't sending owls every few hours checking on it."

He smirked again. "I told you I wanted to be involved."

"Well, if you two don't mind," Ginny interrupted, avoiding Blaise's eyes. "Hermione and I were headed off to lunch. If you'll just excuse us..."

She started to turn around when Blaise said, "What a coincidence; we were on our way to lunch as well!"

"I'll alert the Prophet," Ginny said sarcastically.

Blaise clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth a few times, shaking his head. "Goodness, you'd think we were never friends with that attitude."

Hermione gave Ginny a surprised look and Blaise smirked at this, while Ginny avoided looking at both of them. Before either of the girls could say anything, Blaise straightened up and said, "How about I treat you two to lunch? Catch up and all that. And I'm not taking no for an answer."