"Hold up..."
Hermione dramatically slammed her hand down onto the table before grinning up at Blaise, who tried to stifle a laugh. She tried not to laugh as well, instead letting out a snort before asking, "In first year...you had a crush on Madam Hooch?!"
"If you tell Ginny, I swear to Merlin..." Blaise threatened, pulling one finger off the nearly-empty glass he was holding to point at her.
She let out another loud laugh and leaned back in the chair, holding her head. "Oh, this is just fantastic!"
The two of them fell into a fit of drunken giggles and Hermione waved him off, holding her stomach as she took deep breaths. "Okay, okay...your turn to ask me a question!"
Blaise pulled a contemplative face, tapping his chin with his finger as he looked up at the ceiling. Then he snickered and pointed another finger at her. "Did you ever do anything bad at Hogwarts?"
"Bad as in...?" She gave him a confused look before it hit her. "Merlin, no!"
She scowled at him while he continued to snicker, but her scowl soon morphed into a few giggles. "The worst I've done was..."
Trailing off, she looked down at the table before shaking her head. "I snogged Viktor a few times."
"Viktor..." Blaise rolled the name around his tongue a few times as he tried to place a face to the name. Then his eyes went wide and he leaned forward in disbelief. "Viktor Krum?!"
She grinned at this and giggled loudly. "Merlin, he was bad at it."
Blaise's jaw dropped. "You seriously snogged Viktor Krum?!"
"Only once or twice," She said sheepishly. "It was mainly just to get a rise out of Ron."
"Look at you being all naughty," He grinned. "Now, I do have a question..."
"You already got your question, it's my turn!" She exclaimed.
"No, no; this doesn't count as one of my questions, more of a curiosity sort of thing," He explained before shifting in his seat. "That year, the Prophet came out that you and Potter were a thing?"
She rolled her eyes. "Merlin, no. That bloody reporter decided that she wanted to take every chance she could to come up with false stories just so people would buy more copies of the paper. And because it was the Tri-Wizard Tournament, she focused a lot on Harry since he was the youngest."
"Can't imagine that went over well at all," Blaise muttered.
"Not really..." She shifted slightly before looking down at the table sadly. "Ron's mother believed all of the writing though, and absolutely hated me that year. It wasn't until Harry had said something to her that she snapped out of it, but I don't think she ever really stopped judging me for all of that nonsense."
"And yet you still married into that family?" He asked.
Hermione shrugged and swirled around the remaining wine in her glass. "I didn't really have many choices otherwise. No one really wanted the smart girl."
Blaise took a small sip of his wine as he watched her quietly. Then he tilted his head and asked, "Out of curiosity, why did you cut your hair?"
She smiled and laughed slightly, shaking her head as she looked away. "It was kind of a rash decision I made right after discovering Ron's affair. He always said he preferred me with long hair; I'd been debating whether or not to cut it for years since it's just so unmanageable half the time."
"So...it was kind of a rebellious thing?" After she nodded, Blaise chuckled. "Well, I know Draco happens to like it."
"He made that pretty clear when he saw it for the first time," Hermione laughed.
Blaise laughed as well before casting a glance at the door behind her. His expression changed to a more serious one as he asked, "How do you think he's doing?"
She looked back at the door as well and was still for a moment, listening closely. A sudden roar made the both of them jump and she turned back to face Blaise with wide eyes. "Well, at least we know he's still inside."
"What time is it, do you think?"
She grinned then and looked down at her watch. "I don't have to think about that. It's currently just after three."
"Merlin, I didn't even realize that much time had passed," He said in shock.
"Time flies when you're having fun," Hermione laughed. "Thanks again for keeping me company."
"No problem at all!" He smiled at her. "It's been rather nice getting to know you, I have to say."
"The feeling is mutual," She said, returning his smile. "I suspect this would have happened eventually considering you're dating my best friend."
Blaise chuckled and ran a hand over his hair. "If I had known you were this nice in school, I would've made more of an effort to talk to you."
She snorted at this. "Everyone was different in school. From my understanding, you were more of a pureblood elitist back then."
"Admittedly, yes," He said sadly. "That was mostly my mother's fault. After I got to know Ginny more, my feelings on the matter changed drastically."
Another roar from below caught their attention and Hermione sighed, looking back at the door. "I hope he's alright..."
"Do you think he's using the toys at all for a distraction?" Blaise asked.
"He might be," She said, turning back to look at him. "All joking aside, those were a really good idea."
He shrugged. "I thought so. I mainly started doing it as a joke but when I came over one day and saw they were actually used, I decided to keep doing it. Just in case, you know?"
She nodded. "A lot of my other clients use them as well."
"So..." Blaise started hesitantly. "...What do werewolves look like in their changed forms?"
"They looked very similar to regular wolves," Hermione explained. "There's slight differences though: werewolves usually have more human-like eyes and a shorter snout. Their paws retain more of a human shape too, almost like hands with elongated and sharpened fingernails. They're also not as fluffy; their fur is more like hair, and not as dense as a regular wolf's."
"Really? They sound very similar to wolves." He blinked. "I don't think I'd be able to tell them apart."
"Oh you would," She said with a slight smile. "Werewolves will attack humans instantly. Wolves tend to be a little more shy about it."
Blaise took another sip of his wine before setting the glass down on the table and tilting his head slightly. "That's really interesting."
"That's partly why I enjoy my job so much," She nodded. "They really are fascinating to learn about, and between all of my clients, there's something new to learn about every day."
"How can you be sure that they are all telling the truth though about taking their potions?" He asked curiously. "They could easily lie to you about it."
"Most of my clients have families that they want to keep out of danger," She said. "I do worry sometimes about it, but at the same time there hasn't been mention of any attacks in a long time."
The two of them fell silent for a few minutes after that, until Blaise nodded towards her with a grin and refilled their wine glasses. "We got a little off-track there; I believe it's your turn for a question!"
She laughed at that and thought for a few moments. "Alright: what is the most embarrassing thing you've done?"
"Oh Merlin..." He put a hand over his mouth as he looked up at the ceiling, grinning to himself. "Probably it would've had to have been in fifth year. Draco walked in on me giving a pep talk to myself in the morning before an exam."
Hermione giggled at this and then raised an eyebrow at him. "Come on, that's not that embarrassing."
He smirked at her then and leaned forward. "Fine. You want embarrassing?"
She grinned and set her glass down, folding her hands in front of her before resting her chin on top of them. "That was my question, Zabini."
He chuckled at this and took another sip of his wine before taking a deep breath.
"There were a few girls about a year younger than us in our house that absolutely loved me: Victoria, Pandora, and...ah, Delia," He started slowly. "This was back in fifth year, by the way, towards the end of it after the Weasley twins opened up their joke shop. Well, the girls were unhappy after I turned down their advances. So as a little present to me, they decided to slip me a love potion."
Her eyes went wide as she stared at him. "Oh no..."
"Just wait," He laughed, holding up a hand before continuing. "So they decided to gift a bottle of firewhiskey that was laced with the potion to me, however there was no note of who it was from. I have no idea how they got the firewhiskey, by the way, so don't ask. I found the firewhiskey and assumed nothing was wrong with it; everyone in that dorm had a habit of drinking each other's whiskey and then buying them a bottle to make up for it, so I just assumed it was that."
He took a deep breath, laughing to himself for a moment. "I told Draco to pour some out for the both of us, and I happened to take a drink first."
Hermione had her hands over her mouth to try and stifle her laughter. "Oh noooo!"
Blaise grinned. "Because Draco was technically the one to give me the potion..."
She burst out laughing at this, saying between breaths, "You totally fell for Draco!"
"Much to the chagrin of the girls," He laughed. "No one wanted to help us out because they thought it was too funny. I apparently kept trying to cuddle up next to Draco the entire night."
Hermione wiped away a few tears and tried to calm herself down with some deep breaths. "How did Draco react?"
"I'm pretty sure he put me in a full-body bind after I tried to get into bed with him," Blaise said with a laugh. "The potion didn't wear off until the next day, either. So I was annoying Draco for all of the morning classes too."
"Okay yeah, that's pretty embarrassing," She said with a grin. "How did you two deal with that?"
"Everyone knew I was slipped a love potion," He shrugged. "No one tried to hide it or anything. Draco was completely mortified, though."
"I'm not surprised," She said.
"Don't go telling him I told you," Blaise warned playfully. "As funny as it would be for him to find out that you know, I still want to use it as leverage for when he decides to be stubborn."
Hermione grinned and nodded. "I won't tell him."
"Now," He laughed before taking another drink. "My turn for a question!"
Draco woke up on the cold stone floor, feeling worse than he had in a long time. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought he had drank his entire collection of whiskey.
After what felt like an eternity of lying on the floor, he slowly tested his muscles to make sure they still worked before cautiously getting up. He eyed the nearly empty bottle of firewhiskey that was sitting outside of the cell bars and grimaced; maybe he was slightly hungover as well on top of the rest of the pain he was feeling.
He was thankful that he had the foresight to keep an extra change of clothes in the corner of the basement, and once he was able to take the charms off of the bars he slowly made his way over to them. His muscles were screaming at him to stop moving, but he ignored them and finished pulling on his sweatpants and shirt, grimacing at the new scratches that were on his body.
The door to the basement opened then and he saw the light flooding before it was blocked by two shadows. He heard the footsteps coming down the stairs and then Hermione appeared, followed by Blaise.
"Good morning," She said quietly, trying to stifle a yawn.
He looked her over, noticing that she was just as exhausted as she sounded. "Did you two stay up all night?"
She nodded and Blaise had to stifle a yawn of his own before saying, "It did go by a lot faster than we expected."
Hermione's eyes widened then as she looked at Draco's arms and she stepped towards him, reaching out to take a closer look. "Draco, those look really nasty."
Draco stepped back, pulling his arm out of her reach before he could stop himself. She paused and blinked at him, and he saw the hurt in her eyes even though she didn't show it in her expression. He chastised himself before relaxing and looking down at his arms and saying, "I have stuff for it, don't worry. They just hurt to be touched."
After a few moments she nodded and hid another yawn behind her hand. Draco frowned and nodded towards the stairs before saying, "Come on; you two need to sleep."
"Say no more." Blaise turned around and started walking up the stairs as he announced, "I'll be taking my usual guest room."
Draco shook his head and then looked at Hermione. "I'll take you to one of the other rooms."
"But I can go home..."
She blinked slowly before shaking her head and Draco smiled slightly. "You're obviously too tired to apparate and neither Blaise nor I are in any position to take you home. Don't worry; I'll be going to bed too."
Her head bobbed slightly as she tried to fight off sleep and then she nodded. "Alright. Lead the way."
He smiled again and gestured for her to go first before following her up slowly. She was about halfway up the stairs when she turned around to see him grimacing from the pain of walking.
"Do you need help?" She asked in a worried voice.
"I'll be alright," He said through a groan. "Just extremely sore right now."
She continued to frown, walking somewhat sideways up the rest of the stairs so that she could keep an eye on him. They finally reached the top and Draco squinted at the brightness as his eyes adjusted. "One more flight of stairs..."
"You can just tell me where the room is," She offered, leaning against the wall. "I don't want you to overwork yourself."
"My room's up there too," He said, mustering up a small smile. "It's alright."
He was able to make it up the next set of stairs more easily, though his muscles were still unhappy at the strain. She waited patiently, keeping pace with him and making sure that he was alright the entire way.
"Here, this room should be the best one for you," He said, gesturing towards a door just to the left at the top of the stairs. "I'll be down the hall if you need anything."
"I should be the one offering that," She said quietly before unsuccessfully stifling another yawn. "You've had a worse night than I did."
He chuckled and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "You're a guest in my house as of right now. It's time for me to take care of you."
"Take care of yourself first." She smiled up at him. "I just need sleep; you need to physically recover and heal."
"I'll be alright, don't worry."
She sighed and shook her head slightly. "Stubborn as always."
He grinned at that. "Old habits die hard."
"Go rest!" She laughed, patting his chest lightly. "I guess I'll see you later today?"
"You're in my house so I would say that's a fair guess," He said with a smile.
She returned the smile and then stepped up to give him a kiss, holding it for a few moments before pulling away. "Sleep well!"
"You too, sweetheart."
Her eyes widened slightly and she shifted her weight from embarrassment. The redness creeping into her cheeks made him chuckle again and he gave her another kiss before opening the door to the guest room. "Go on."
She gave him another shy smile before stepping into the room and slowly closing the door behind her, not quite wanting to leave him. He sighed once the door was closed and lingered just outside of it for a few seconds before reluctantly leaving to go to his own room.
He fell onto his bed face-first with a groan and crawled up to his pillow, waving his hand  to shut the door that he forgot about. The exhaustion started to take over, and he fell asleep with a smile on his face knowing that she was only a few rooms away.
A/N: This one was pretty fun to write! Thank you all again for your patience, and I hope you all enjoy! <3