By Reason Of Birth

The Night Sky

The next morning all conversation at the breakfast table stopped when an owl delivered the Prophet. Hermione, Caoilinn and Brisco crowded together over the newspaper as they searched for Rita Skeeter's article. It was on the top right of the third page, the headline proclaiming "From Muggle-born to Pureblood: Hermione Granger Shocks the Wizarding World!"

They skimmed the article, sometimes cringing, sometimes smiling, and sometimes sneering. There were a few references to Harry, though nothing bad was written, and Hermione's direct quote was used exactly as she had said it, surprising Hermione greatly.

Another direct quote was her response to the question about Kingsley. While the part of her knowing him was cut out, Rita had pointed out that anyone with such strong convictions about someone, especially worded the way Hermione's statement had been, must know the person they were talking about.

"How is it that there is barely any scandelous news in this Skeeter article?" Brisco asked, hie eyebrow raised toward his daughter.

"How would I know? I'm not the one who wrote it." she answered back loftily.

"Brisco, you should have seen the woman. I have no idea how or why, but Hermione seems to have her wrapped around her little finger."

Both of her parents looked over to her, and she shrugged her shoulders. "I know something that Rita can't afford to have known. She doesn't write bad things about me or my friends, and I keep it a secret."

"What is it that you know about her?" Brisco asked, intrigued that his Gryffindor daughter was so devious.

"I'm not telling you. Secrets only work when they're kept secret," Hermione laughed.

Later, Hermione waited beside the fireplace for Harry to come through. As soon as he fell through, she had her wand on him, Scourigifying the ash and soot from his robes. She gave him a quick tour of the house, pointing out which rooms were where, but wanted to save the grounds for later.

The last stop on the tour was her rooms, which he found very impressive. At least four of his cupboard under the stairs could fit into just her dressing room.

When she had finished showing him around, they sat on her bed, cross-legged, talking, the door wide open as mandated. "Ron's mad about not being invited, even though I told him you could only have one person over," Harry said. "You know how he is, Hermione, he might not talk to you for a while."

"And if that's the case then it's almost better that I couldn't invite him. If he can't deal with little things like this, then I don't know what to do with him. He really needs to mature a bit."

Harry nodded his understanding, having often felt the same way. "How are you dealing with everything, Hermione? I've been worried about you. It must be a hard change since the Grangers were so wonderful to you. It's really quite the opposite of what happened to me, going from the Dursleys to Sirius."

"The biggest difference in that analogy is that the Notts love me as much as the Grangers do," Hermione responded, feeling bad to make light of his situation with the Dursleys. "But I'm doing well. The adjustment is kind of hard, but I knew it was coming and the Notts are so much better than we would have ever thought," she told him.

"Good. Ron mostly seems to be worried that the rest of your birth family was in Slytherin and he thinks they'll rub off on you." Hermione just rolled her eyes in response. Ron really could be dense sometimes.

"How are things with Sirius?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Brilliant," he replied. "I have never been so happy, and from what I can tell, neither has Sirius. We've started redecorating Grimmauld so its more habitable. The house elf heads have been taken down, and Sirius was finally able to Unstick his mum's portrait."

"I'm so happy for you, Harry. It's about time something goes well for you," she commented.

Harry was stopped from replying back by a knock on the open door, Theo and Blaise were standing in the hall wearing snazzy summer robes. "You two ready to go?" Theo asked.

"Yes, we were just talking," Hermione responded as she and Harry stood up from her bed. Theo looked them over and decided that they looked good in their summer robes, as well. It had taken some persuasion on Hermione's part to get Harry to wear robes rather than Muggle clothes, insisting that since they were going to a Wizarding village they would stick out too much in shorts and a tee shirt like he wanted to wear.

Since moving in with Sirius, Harry's wardrobe had improved immensely. From the moment he arrived, Sirius had burned all of Dudley's hand-me-downs and taken him shopping. Harry had never pegged Sirius as a clotheshorse until that trip, and had had a good laugh about it the entire day. He refused contacts or corrective surgery and spells though, opting for a new pair of glasses that fit his face nicely.

The quartet walked through the house and the grounds to the Apparation point, Harry going side-along with Hermione, who had passed her test on the first try. Harry did not fail to notice the momentary narrowing of Blaise's eyes when Hermione firmly linked their arms and held his hand.

They arrived in front of Madame Puddifoot's a full ten minutes early, only to find Lilah, Savannah, and Daphne all standing against the building, talking. Theo's face lit up as he walked over to his girlfriend, gently kissing her lips.

After a quick introduction, Harry having never actually met Lilah, the group made their way down the street, deciding where to go and what to do. For the most part, they ended up walking around the town, talking and joking around, and making a stop at the ice cream parlour. Harry and Hermione were inwardly surprised at how well they got along with their house rivals, and the others secretly felt the same about them.

A few fun-filled hours later, the seven teens parted ways and went home.

That night after Harry left, Hermione found herself going for a walk in the back gardens, the night air cool and the light from the waning gibbous moon illuminating her path. Finding a nice patch of grass she laid down, staring up at the thousands of stars, a peaceful feeling of contentment washing through her. She loved looking at the stars, and while she and the Grangers hadn't lived in the city, there were still too many lights dimming the view. The last time she had seen so many stars was as a little girl, visiting a planetarium with her adoptive parents.

She had been laying there lost in her thoughts for almost half an hour, when she heard the sound of someone walking towards her on the white gravel path. Without saying a word, Blaise laid on the ground next to her, looking up into the night sky and occasionally stealing a glance in her direction.

"I've never really noticed how beautiful the night sky is," Blaise commented after about five minutes.

Hermione gave him a sideways glance, smiling softly. "I've never seen it as clearly as you can here, there's practically no light pollution." She suddenly gave a shiver, the cool air enveloping her.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, just chilly."

"Come here." he told her. She looked warily at him, as though she would pull away further, and he sighed. "I won't bite, you know." He then slid over so the length of their bodies were touching, his arm under her neck and her head resting on his shoulder, still looking up at the stars.

With the new position, though, her mind was suddenly distracted. The scent of his cologne invaded her senses and she breathed him in. He was so warm, and so soft, yet hard and she could feel his toned muscles through the light fabric of his robes.

"Did you have a good time today?" he asked, still looking upwards, his fingers playing with her hair that was sprawled over his arm and onto the ground.

"Yes. Who knew that hanging out with a bunch of Slytherins could be so fun?" she responded cheekily, looking over at him for a moment.

"Brat," he responded with a smile, poking her in the side and causing her to both squirm and laugh. As she squirmed against him, she felt tingles run up her spine, and she stilled, not exactly sure what the feeling had been. She looked at him, her eyes narrowed as he feigned a look of innocence.

One moment she was mock-glaring at him, and the next, he was leaning closer to her, his eyes searching. She knew that he was going to kiss her and at that moment, there was nothing she wanted more. She tilted her head up to him; his lips were mere millimeters from her own when she closed her eyes.

"Blaise!" came Theo's voice out of the darkness.

"Shit," Blaise murmured, smoothing back Hermione's hair as he detached himself from her and laid her back on the grass, her eyes staring at him as though she were a deer caught in the headlights.

"Over here!" he called out, cursing his best mate to a life taking care of Blast-Ended Screwts in his mind.
Chapter End Notes:
thanks as always go to the betas, sugarquill39 and to lupie, who always makes my good chapters that much better with her advice and suggestions. Also thanks to those who read and those who review.