By Reason Of Birth

The Talk
After lunch, Hermione was sitting on one of the benches in the front garden, reading. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and looked up to see what had caught her attention. It was Blaise Zabini, carrying a rucksack. She pulled out her contact card, scribbling the words, "Theo, Blaise is here."
When she put the card back in her pocket, she drew his attention to her, stopping him dead in his tracks as he stared at her. Hermione stood up with her book and walked towards him, smiling. Blaise had never fallen in with Malfoy, and he had never been anything other than nice to her during their scattered run-ins over the years.
She approached him, still standing there, his eyes dazed as he watched her. "Hello, Blaise," she greeted him with a smile.
"H-Hermione? What are you doing here?" he asked, looking around as if searching for some reasonable explanation.
Hermione laughed in response, a tinkling sound that sounded very much like her mother. "Theo hasn't told you?"
"Told me what?" he asked, seemingly recovered from the shock of seeing her, though for one who knew what to look for, there was a slight trepidation in his voice. Hermione had no clue.
"No, I think I'll let him tell you," she teased, starting to walk toward the cottage. He caught up to her within a couple steps. They were almost there when the front door opened and Theo came out. When he saw the duo, he smirked at them.
Theo put his arm over Hermione's shoulders, watching the darkening of his best mate's eyes. When Theo didn't say anything, opting to stand there smirking instead, Blaise did, his voice tight. "Why is Hermione Granger at your house, with your arm around her?"
"She lives here. Mum and Dad thought it best." Hermione could tell that her brother was toying with his friend, but for the life of her, couldn't understand why.
"Why is that?" Blaise demanded, his voice low.
"Blaise, let me introduce you to my sister, Hermione Nott."
"Sister?" This completely threw Blaise for a loop, his eyes flicking between the two.
"Twin sister to be exact," Hermione verified, "but he is half an hour older if you want to get technical." Blaise's eyes lightened considerably, but he was still staring daggers at Theo. Seeing a conversation going on between the two men's eyes, she excused herself. "I'll leave you two alone. I have to go write to Harry anyway; Caoilinn said I could have him over tomorrow."
"Not Weasley?" Theo asked without malice.
"No. She said I could only have one person over and Ron sort of... well, his feelings for me lately have been more than friendly, I suppose you could say. I don't really want to do anything to feed into it, since he's like a brother to me. I'm sure once he and Lavender get back together he'll get over it. At least, I really hope he does," she responded.
"It was nice to meet you, Hermione Nott," Blaise said, his head cocked and a smile on his face as she started to turn toward the house.
"Blaise, it's not as though you've never met me before," she laughed, rolling her eyes as she went into the house and down the stairs to her room.
"She's your sister?!" Blaise questioned as soon as Hermione had disappeared. "How long have you known?" he said darkly at Theo's nod.
"Let's talk about this in my room," Theo answered, dodging the question. Blaise stared at him, his dark eyes penetrating through Theo, who stared right back. Blaise nodded gruffly and the two went down to Theo's room, hearing Hermione singing along with the newest Weird Sisters song in her room.
Blaise threw his rucksack on the floor, leaving it until they were done talking and he could have a chance to bring it up to the guest room he stayed in every year. He then sat on Theo's bed, still glaring at his friend. "How long have you known?" he repeated after Silencing the room.
"Forever." Before Blaise could say or do anything, Theo continued quickly, rambling his words together. "I promise, mate, I would have told you if I could have, but we were all under the magical protection of her adoption contract. The only people who could speak about it were ourselves and the barristers, and only to each other."
Theo then told Blaise the entire story, almost verbatim what had been told to Harry and Ron the previous week. "But you could have told me a week ago. You didn't have to wait until I saw her here," he accused, running his hand though the soft hair that curled down to his ears.
"No, I didn't. But you can't honestly tell me you wouldn't have done the same if the roles were reversed," Theo responded, a wicked grin on his face.
"You're right," Blaise said, smiling. "Just one more thing- why didn't you ever stop me from talking about her?"
"What are you on about? I stopped you all the time."
"When?"
"Every time you started to say anything remotely sexual about her. I can listen to you drone on all day about her or any girl you like. That, though, I didn't want to hear."
"And all this time I just thought you were being a prude," Blaise joked. Theo threw his pillow, and it landed against his friends' head with a loud 'whack.'
"Go put your stuff away and I'll see you in a bit. I have to write an owl."
"Ohhhh, right. The beautiful Lilah Moon I presume?"
"Who else?"
"Have you gotten to see her since school let out?"
"Twice. It would be so much easier if she would just tell her parents about us. Then I could tell my parents and we wouldn't have to sneak around. At least, not to see each other."
"Why is it she doesn't want to tell them again?"
"Neither she nor Savannah are supposed to date anyone until they leave Hogwarts."
"But she just finished seventh year. I don't see a problem."
"I think it's more in admitting that we were dating while she was still at school than anything else."
"Ahhhhh," Blaise commiserated.
"Her plan is to say that we started dating after meeting up at the shop where she has a summer job."
"And since it's only the middle of June, she wants to wait a little longer."
"Exactly."
"Good luck with her dad when she tells them. I hear he makes your dad seem lax in comparison."
"That's what I'm worried about. Still, I think I can finagle seeing her at least once more before she tells her parents. Hopefully, after she tells them about us, we can see each other more often, even if it is supervised." The sneer on his face showed Blaise exactly what he thought of supervised time with his eighteen-year-old girlfriend.
"Can you get Hermione and Savannah to help you out? Her mum would have met Hermione yesterday at tea, and I'm sure her parents wouldn't be upset if their daughters wanted to help Hermione get used to socializing with other purebloods in 'the circle.'" Blaise suggested, referencing the nickname given to the core group of families who attended the Saturday get-togethers.
"You know, Blaise, that's a good idea. So, you go put your things away, I'll write about it to Lilah, and then we can go bug Hermione until she agrees, even though she'll probably say yes right away."
"Will do," Blaise responded, standing up and grabbing his rucksack before leaving the room.


end note: Moon is a canon last name that was sorted into an unknown house with an unknown first name the year Harry and co. started.