told me that my friends are in danger -
which I knew — and made vague and upsetting statements about people dying. You don?t like me, you don ?t like Harry, you?re a Slytherin through and through and I can?t imagine they?d be happy with you if they knew you were here. So why risk it for my benefit?'
'You won?t tell them.' Blaises tone was confident. Hermione wondered what on earth she was finding in those photographs to rivet her attention: they were mostly photographs of the Weasleys, some of Harry and herself, some of Ginnys schoolfriends at Beauxbatons. 'You?re a Gryffindor just as much as I?m a Slytherin. You wouldn?t turn me in like that. Even though you hate me, too.'
'I don?t hate you, Blaise.' Hermione felt very tired. 'I just don?t have one good reason to trust you.'
'Yes, you do,' Blaise said. 'Draco.'
'Draco? What about him?'
'Think about him getting hurt. Think about it — '
'I have been. All the time.' The words were out of Hermiones mouth before she could hold them back; she regretted them instantly. Blaise would put the worst possible spin on it and mock her and throw her words back in her face and -
'So have I,' Blaise said.
Hermione raised her chin. 'Draco said you hated him now.'
''I should hate him.' Blaise shrugged. 'I should hate him, and I sort of hate him, but I?ve known him since we were children and I can?t just… I mean, I know hes impossible. Hes…arrogant, and…'
'And self-centered,' Hermione said.
'Oooh, yes,' Blaise agreed enthusiastically. 'And pigheaded, and he can be so mean. He never listens, and…'
'And he always think he's right.'
'Especially when he isn't. And he smirks.'
'Oh, I know. And he's vain.'
'He takes hours getting dressed.'
'He's obsessed with his hair.'
'He's terribly selfish in bed as well.'
'Gah!' Hermione nearly fell out of the armchair. 'I did NOT need to know that.'
Blaise chuckled. 'I was joking.'
'Ah yes,' said Hermione sourly. 'That rich Slytherin humour we're all so fond of.'
Blaise smiled in a placating manner. 'He is obsessed with his hair, though.
Oh, he think he's so pretty. It would be less annoying if he wasn't, of course.'
'I know,' Hermione said. 'He's all those things — and selfish — and he can be cruel — and if you aren?t someone he loves you might as well not exist at all,' she added softly.
Blaise, for a moment, sounded bitter. 'How would you know? He loves you.'
'I?m sure he…'
'Loves me too?' Blaise scoffed. 'No. He was just using me. To draw attention away from the people he really does care about. I know that because…because he told me, when he came and asked me to pose as his girlfriend in the first place.'
'To pose as his girlfriend?'
'I suppose he was always honest,' Blaise said. 'He told me that he wanted me to be his girlfriend, that he wouldn?t tell me why, that it had to do with people he wanted to protect, and that it might be dangerous, and did I understand that.'
'And did you,' Hermione asked, 'understand that?'
'A little. Maybe. He offered me money…' Blaise took in Hermiones horrified stare, and her lips twisted. 'I know what you?re thinking. That I sold myself for pocket change to buy dresses with. I didn?t. My father…he lost all our money. Invested it badly, gambled it away on bad firecrab futures, I don?t really know. You don?t know what its like, though. My parents, they don?t know how to live without money. They?ve always had it. They couldn?t adjust. It was horrible. Then Draco came. He knew, of course. Everyone in my parents? little circle knew. My mother and Narcissa were best friends once. He came and he offered me enough money…he has so much, he would hardly even notice what he gave us, he said…and I just had to be his girlfriend. Just for a year.'
Hermione was speechless. She had no idea what to think. She wasn?t sure who she was more disgusted with: Blaise, for accepting such an offer, or Draco, for offering in the first place. Of course, neither of them would probably ever even understand what was so horribly wrong with this arrangement. However much Draco had changed, he would never be anything but a Slytherin at heart.
Blaise continued to speak, as if she had quite forgotten that Hermione was there. 'He did what he said he would. He gave us money, and he opened accounts for me in Hogsmeade so that I could buy whatever I wanted -
dresses, shoes. And I suppose I pretended that we really were dating. All the girls in my House always loved him, a little… and it was pleasant, being envied. And I thought maybe he did care for me, and he?d constructed this elaborate ruse so he could have me — he could have had me anyway, but I never told him that. Then, after a while, I began to see it wasn?t me he was in love with…' Her voice flattened. 'I suppose you know the rest.'
'I don?t know what to say,' Hermione replied honestly. 'Or to think. I won?t say it doesn?t sound like something Draco would do. It does.' If he thought he was protecting one of us…yes, he?d do something like that.
'He can be really…sort of singleminded, I guess, would be the nice way to say it.'
'You don?t have to bother looking for nice ways to say it.' Blaise shrugged lightly. 'I know what he is.'
'Why me?' Hermione asked. 'Why come to me with this?'
'Because you love him more than you don?t like me,' Blaise said evenly.
'I see the way you are together — your little group, and him. Hes never said anything to me, but I always noticed.'
'If you noticed,' Hermione said, 'then you love him as well.'
'A little, maybe.' Blaises face had shut like a fan; her eyes were remote.
'Maybe we all do, to some degree or other. Hes always been able to make people love him when he tried or needed to. In his life, I think theres only ever been one person who didn?t love him enough.'
And Hermione felt a strange little shock inside her — she understood what Blaise meant, and above that, she agreed with her. In that moment, she made the unconscious decision to trust the Slytherin girl. The words tumbled out of her unanticipated:
'All right then,' she said. 'All right. I believe you.'
Blaise exhaled a breath of relief. 'Good.' Then she did something peculiar: she raised her hands, and unpinned the glittering barrettes that held her hair back. It swung forward in a heavy tumble of dark red-gold, the color of dragon scales. She looked at the barrettes in her hand for a moment -
there were three of them, a matched set of slender green wands. She held them out to Hermione, who stared. 'Give these to Draco when you see him,' she instructed.
Hermione balked. 'No offense, but I doubt they?d suit him.'
'He doesn?t have to wear them in his hair,' Blaise said, as if this were obvious. 'He can pin them on his cloak, or turn them into buttons. I don?t care. I just want him to wear them.'
And I want him to dress up in tight trousers and a football jersey that says SCORING OPPORTUNITY across the front in big red letters, but we don?t always get what we want, do we? Hermione nearly replied, but stopped herself. If there was one thing she had noticed about Blaise, it was that she had remarkably little sense of humor. That alone would have prevented Draco from ever having any real feelings for her, Hermione thought with some satisfaction — then squashed the thought and the satisfaction as well.
'All right,' she said, with great misgiving, taking the barrettes from Blaise.
'I?ll give them to him — but its up to him if he wants to wear them.'
'I wish I had more, but these are all I?ve got. They?re not easy to come by, you know…Pansy told me she
