Ron didn't come by her office at the end of the day to go home together like they normally did. Hermione didn't mind though, since she was still unhappy with him about his attitude earlier, and she was content walking to the fireplaces by herself.
She wasn't excited though about the conversation they would be having that night. She knew Ron was going to probably blow up about her having to work with Draco. He would just have to deal with it though; Draco was her client, and they wouldn't even need to interact for that long.
Hermione was in the middle of her mug of tea when Ron stomped out of the fireplace about an hour and a half after she had gotten home. He was clearly still in a sour mood as he walked past her into the kitchen, not saying a word. She shook her head and returned to her book, waiting for him to come back out. It was usually best not to talk to him when he was angry, and she always waited for him to start the conversation.
He came back out moments later and looked down at her. "Hermione, I really don't want you working with him."
"Well I'm sorry, Ron, but I'm going to have to," She said. "It's my job."
"No, it's your job to work with werewolves."
"People, Ron," She corrected exasperatedly.
"Whatever." He waved her off and sat down on the opposite couch, running a hand through his hair. "Look, it just makes me uncomfortable. I mean, it's Malfoy."
"Yes, but his employee is a client of mine who doesn't want to reveal their identity to protect them and their family," She lied. "I have to work with him, I don't know what you want me to do."
Ron took a deep breath and sighed it out. "Is there a way you can stop him from going into your office?"
"I can try but that seems a bit ridiculous," She said, narrowing her eyes. "It's been five years, Ron; why are you acting like this? He's been nothing but professional."
"Because I still don't trust him and I never will trust him," Ron said angrily. "He's one of them, a Death Eater. He may not actively be one but he hasn't given me a single reason to trust him."
"Ron, he's helping fund my decision by paying the wizard who owns the wolfsbane garden we will be using," Hermione explained. "He's really helping me with this."
Ron's eyebrows went up in surprise for a moment but then he shook his head. "I still don't trust him, Hermione."
"Well regardless of that fact, I still have to work with him," Hermione said in a frustrated tone. "I'm not doing this to spite you; I'm doing this because his employee needs my help, as do all of the other people afflicted with lycanthropy."
"I understand that, but I don't want something to happen to you," Ron said.
"He hasn't given any indication that he wants to do anything to me," She said. "He's an annoying prat still but that is the extent of it. And after the potion has been brewed and distributed to his employee, I will not need to interact with him anymore except maybe twice a month to make sure the employee has taken the potions before the full moon and then to make sure they're alright after the full moon."
Ron's mouth formed a thin line as he sat silently, looking down at their floor. After a few moments he finally nodded. "Alright. And you're not interacting with him outside of work?"
"Of course not," She said quickly. "It's Malfoy, I have no interest in spending any sort of time with him."
He nodded again and let out a sigh. "I just don't want anything happening to you."
She laughed at that. "Ron, it's me. Do you really think he could beat me in any sort of duel?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right." He gave her a small grin and stood up to give her a kiss. "I'm sorry, 'Mione."
She smiled at him and shook her head. "Just have a little more trust in me, please."
He gave her another kiss. "I will, I promise. What are we doing for dinner?"
Friday practices were always Ginny's favorite, because they usually took it easy and had fun with it those days. That day, they happened to get off earlier than usual, and Ginny decided to stay behind to shower. She wasn't quite ready to go back to Grimmauld Place yet, so she tried to delay as much as she could.
After walking out of the locker room and toweling her hair dry, she decided that she could go eat before returning home and she'd still make it back before Harry got off work.
"Hey."
She froze and her eyes widened before she whirled around to see Blaise standing behind her, smiling. "What are you doing here?"
He shrugged. "I was in the area for business and wanted to see if you were ready for a makeup lunch."
"A makeup lunch?" She asked, confused.
"Yeah, remember you walked out on our last lunch a few days ago?" He said with a small smile.
She gaped at him. He simply smiled and then nodded his head off to the side. "Come on; we have a bit to catch up on."
He waited for a few moments and she finally took a few tentative steps towards him, he simply smiled and reached for her hand, apparating the two of them into the lobby of a nearby café that she frequented for breakfast before practices.
Feeling his hand in hers again caused her stomach to explode with butterflies, and they didn't go away when he let go. She followed behind him quietly as they went to a small table in the corner and sat down, a mixture of nervousness and excitement swirling in her stomach now.
"Do your practices normally end that early?" He asked then, breaking the silence.
She laughed slightly. "No, just the Friday ones; Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays are our heavier practice days so Wednesdays and Fridays we try to take it light. Were you watching my practice?"
He grinned when she raised an eyebrow asking that last question. "I may have popped in for a bit. I'm surprised the stadium was open."
"Gwenog isn't particularly happy about it but we can't really control it," Ginny shrugged. "She just puts a lot of protection spells over the actual field so no one messes with us."
"That's a good idea," Blaise nodded.
They didn't say anything for a few moments, but the silence was comfortable. Ginny never had an uncomfortable silence with Blaise, which she liked. But in this case, there was stuff eating at the back of her mind and she didn't want to just sit in silence.
"I'm sure you didn't want to just talk quidditch with me though," She said then, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms across her chest.
He smiled then. "You always do get right to the point."
She shrugged. "No reason to put it off."
"Why are you so standoffish now?" He asked, looking her up and down.
"I don't know, maybe because the first time I ever hear anything back from you was when my engagement was announced?" She fired back angrily.
His brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about? I never heard from you!"
"You never got my note?" She asked then, her anger fizzling off slightly. "I sent you one right after the battle letting you know..."
"I never got anything from you," He said quietly. "I was worried that the worst had happened."
Blaise then sighed and looked away, running a hand over his short hair. "I didn't know what to do, honestly. My mother kept us in Italy for a year after she made me leave Hogwarts, and by that point I had no idea where you were or what you were doing. And when we finally did come back, we didn't move back into our manor."
"That would explain why you didn't get my note," She said quietly. "I had sent it there because that was the only place I knew to reach you."
He smiled sadly. "She had sold it to another family while we were in Italy."
Ginny returned his sad smile and laughed slightly through her nose, shaking her head and looking away. "I thought you wanted nothing to do with me at that point."
"I wanted nothing more than to find you," He said. "But when we got back to London, I saw the announcement in the paper that you were drafted onto the Harpies, and I saw him standing behind you."
His expression hardened slightly then. "I realized you had gotten back with him, and I figured at that point that you had made your choice."
"I only got back together with him because I thought it would make you come back," She said. "It was stupid, but I had to admit that not hearing back from you made me go a little crazy. I thought that you had moved on."
"I thought you had too," He sighed. "That's why I didn't say anything else. I pretty much dove into my work, became a hermit. It wasn't good, but it got my mind off you. And then I saw your engagement announcement one day."
She didn't say anything, watching him as he in turn watched her. He frowned for a moment before continuing. "I decided that it was time to reach out, to just say hi and see how you were doing, and I never heard back from you."
"I didn't know what to say," She said quietly. "I must've read that short note a thousand times. But I was somewhat resentful because you waited until then to reach out to me. The first time I heard from you in three years, and it was because I had gotten engaged. And all you said was that you hoped I was doing well and that you'd still be cheering for the best chaser on the Harpies."
The corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile at that. "There was so much more that I wanted to write, but I didn't think it was appropriate, considering your newfound relationship status."
She snorted. "I can understand that, but it was almost like the final nail in the coffin, pretty much."
"I understand."
They watched each other again silently, ignoring everyone else that was around them. That's something that Ginny loved about this café; everyone minded their own business, and it was just loud enough that no one could hear the conversation at the table next to them.
"So...you moved on," Ginny said slowly.
He shrugged. "Depends on what you call 'moving on'."
"Are you seeing anyone?" She asked.
"Mother keeps trying to set me up with women, but none of them are my type," He said.
Ginny raised an eyebrow at him. "You've been single this entire time?"
"Would you have wanted me to find someone?" He asked then, tilting his head slightly.
She didn't answer immediately, chewing on the inside of her cheek before saying, "It doesn't matter what I would've wanted, does it?"
"Of course it matters."
"Okay, but we can't go back and change everything," She said.
"No, but why can't we start now?"
She stared at him, gaping slightly. "What...what do you mean?"
"Did you think all I wanted was to come here and talk about why we never heard anything from each other for five years?" He asked quietly with a small smile on his face.
"Blaise..."
"Ginny, I still love you."
She could feel the tears of happiness start to well up in her eyes as she smiled widely, but then her smile faltered. "I still love you too, but..."
"But you're still married," He finished with a sigh. "I know...I mean, if you're happy with him-"
"I'm not."
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You're not?"
She shook her head slowly. "I've never been happy with him. Not as happy as I was with you."
He smiled then. "Well, that's definitely good news for me. So, now what?"
Ginny opened and closed her mouth, unsure of what to say. He waited patiently for a minute or two and then asked, "Do you want to be with me?"
"Of course I do!" She exclaimed before looking around and quieting her voice. "It's just...I don't know how long it's going to be. I mean, I'm going to have to divorce Harry and this is going to blindside him."
"Are you worried about how he's going to react?" Blaise asked.
"Not really, I just don't like hurting people," She said. "But I want this, I want you."
He smiled. "I want you too. I've waited this long, I can wait a little more."
"I don't want to wait, though," She said quietly. "I thought I would never see you again, let alone be with you."
"I know, but I don't want you to make any rash decisions or make a mistake that could hurt you," He said. "We don't need to rush this, I'm not going anywhere."
She nodded after a few moments and smiled. "Good, because I'm not letting you leave again."
He laughed. "I had a feeling. I shouldn't have left the first time. I should've stayed and fought with you."
"I wish you had," She said. "It nearly gutted me watching you walk out of that door because I didn't know whether or not I was going to survive. I almost followed you out."
"Part of me wanted to drag you out with me," He said with a smile.
"You wouldn't have had to drag me out," She laughed. "I wanted to go with you, but I couldn't abandon my family."
"I know," He said quietly.
They simply smiled again, unable to take their eyes off each other. Ginny finally felt whole again, a feeling she had been longing for since he left her in the Room of Requirement, and she didn't want the moment to end.
After a little while, she nudged his leg with her foot and raised an eyebrow. "I believe you owe me one celebratory party for making it onto the Harpies."
He grinned. "Yes, I believe I do. Why don't we hold it after you're officially mine?"
Her smile widened. "I like the sound of that."
A/N: Of course there was going to be Blinny in this story! I wasn't about to leave out my second favorite couple haha I plan on having the Blinny relationship be a bit more of a whirlwind than Dramione's, which is going to be another slow burn. Hope you all enjoy!! <3