The Long Lost Zabini

Chapter 4

The next morning, Hermione was still asleep when Ginny met Blaise and Draco downstairs for breakfast.

"Ginny...." Blaise started. "Last night, after you and Hermione went upstairs, we kind of followed you. And we heard everything you two said. So, what exactly happened in her last relationship?"

"Ron."

"Ron? But he's one of the golden trio," he said mockingly. "What could he have done that was so bad?"

"It's kind of a long story. First: you remember how they went on that horcrux hunt right?" When they nodded, she continued, "Harry, Hermione, and my brother all took turns wearing Salazar Slytherin's locket because they didn't know how to destroy it. For some reason, the darkness affected Ron a lot worse than Harry and Hermione. Like, up to the point where he literally abandoned them because he was so upset about not having good food or something. They thought he would go back to normal once it was destroyed, but it's like that piece Voldemort's soul is still haunting Ron somehow, even though he's obviously dead and the locket was destroyed."

She was about to keep going, but Blaise interrupted, "what does this have to do with Hermione's last relationship?"

"I'm getting there. You had to know that backstory to understand what I'm about to tell you." She took a breath, as if steeling herself. "He got Hermione pregnant." Blaise's eyes went wide and his hands balled into fists, and even Draco stopped what he was doing in the kitchen to look at her in shock. "She never wanted to have sex in the first place, but he insisted, saying they'd been together for so long and they were the only virgins their age. It's all utter bull," she added, "because they weren't even really together until the actual War, and Ron was most certainly not a virgin after their sixth year when he was shagging Lavender Brown.

"Anyway. When they learned that she was pregnant, Hermione was outraged. We all know how she wants to live her life and get a job and be successful before settling down to create a family. She was absolutely miserable after learning of the pregnancy, but she didn't want an abortion either. Everyone was so mad at him for Hermione's anguish and being irresponsible enough for it to have happened in the first place that it became unbearable for him to live with us any longer. He went to live with Percy. He was so depressed that he actually got fired from the junior Auror team because he'd been putting himself and other junior Aurors, including Harry, in danger.

"One day, he came home to apologize to Hermione, so he sat down with her and they had a private dinner so he could formally apologize. But because he's such an idiot, he gave her firewhiskey, thinking it was juice. The alcohol caused her to have a miscarriage. She says she's ok with it because she never wanted a child in the first place, but I really think it was traumatic for her. Bottom line is, Hermione has been through a lot. And if she seems overly emotional, that's why."

Blaise's face was pale. Seeing this, Ginny quickly added "I know she doesn't want you to know, so don't mention it to her. At all."

"But she's my twin sister!"

"And that's exactly why I am telling you to drop it."

Just then, Hermione walked up behind them. "Drop what, exactly, brother dear?" Her eyes narrowed.

"Oh, nothing. Blaise was just going off on Ginny because last night she said something about sexual tension between you and I. As if," Draco scoffed.

"Wait, you heard what we said last night?" Hermione asked, backing a step.

"No. Ginny came downstairs today and told us," he lied smoothly.

Hermione seemed relieved. "Oh, okay." She then called Polley and asked if breakfast was ready. Polley nodded and when they walked to the dining table to eat, a breakfast worthy of Hogwarts was laid out for them.

Afterwards, they decided to go down to the Quidditch pitch. Hermione first protested, saying how she wasn't good at playing Quidditch or even flying, and that it wasn't possible to play with only two people on each team. However, Ginny took it upon herself to teach her how to play Quidditch well, and they solved the problem of numbers by getting their house elves to play. The twins had five house elves, by the names of Dipley, Larpy, Vistra, Denya, and Polley. Malfoy had six house elves – Trixie, Loopy, Sirez, Linus, Plumo, and Skosti. The Zabini house elves played with Ginny and Hermione, and the Malfoy elves played with Blaise and Draco, with the exception of Trixie, who was referee. It turned out that the house elves were really good at Quidditch, and the boys won by ten points, even though Vistra had been the one to catch the snitch. By the time they ended the game, it was already quite late in the afternoon. They had completely skipped lunch.

Hermione made them all snacks so they would still be hungry for dinner in one hour. They filled the time by reading. Then they had dinner and went to sit on the couch the way they had the night before. "So, because we are all bored, I decided to introduce you to a form of entertainment that is used by muggles. It's basically like when you go to the theatre to see a play or performance, except this is all recorded and can be viewed at any time. They're called movies and tv shows. The machine you use to view them on is called a television, or tv for short." She waved her wand and a 100-inch HD TV appeared in front of them, along with a remote.

"Ginny already knows what this is because Mr. Weasley bought one for the Burrow."

Hermione turned the tv on and went to Netflix. With a wave of her wand, she enchanted the program so they could watch for free. She turned on 'The Kissing Booth'.

After a while, they all settled down into the couch and became completely engrossed in the movie. So much that neither of them noticed Hermione falling asleep on Draco's shoulder. Ginny saw and smirked knowingly.

When the movie was finally over, Ginny turned off the tv. Blaise and Ginny went upstairs to sleep. Draco followed them a little slower because he was carrying Hermione bridal-style. He set her on her bed gently. He set her down but her hand didn't let go of his arm. She was still sleeping. She subconsciously mumbled "stay." Draco smiled softly, momentarily forgetting that she was the Hermione Granger he'd hated the past seven years of his life, and sighed. He climbed into bed beside her and wrapped his arms around her. They fell asleep together in her bed.

In the morning, Blaise and Ginny discovered Hermione and Draco sleeping together. Blaise was already fuming, and he was about to go and wake them up when Ginny stopped him. "This is the first time I've seen her sleep this peacefully. She always has nightmares, either about the war or her parents or whatever. Let her sleep."