Just Pretend

The chapter was beta-ed by my great beta Molls. Thank you so much!

They arrived at Blaise's manor. "Wow! It is so big!" Hermione said amazed. Jennifer stayed silent as she walked next to Hermione. They had come a few days earlier than the party. Blaise came down the stairs and into the foyer.

"Hey! You're alive!" Blaise said as he and Draco shared a manly hug. Hermione looked puzzled. What did he mean Draco was alive? Of course he was alive!

Blaise looked over at the ladies. Bloody hell! The girl next to Hermione was beautiful. She was a little bit taller then Hermione. She had a niiice figure. Her hair was long and straight. Blaise's hand itched to touch it. Her skin was a bit pale, but that was ok. She was beautiful. She was his!

"Blaise, you stare any harder, you'll hurt your eyes." Draco whispered to his best friend. Draco cleared his throat before saying, "Blaise, this is Jennifer Allens, Hermione's cousin. Jennifer, this is Blaise Zabini."

As Draco introduced them, Blaise walked up to Jennifer and took her hands in his and then kissed both her cheeks. "It is a pleasure to meet you." Hermione and Draco watched wide eyed. She was going to kill Blaise! He just signed his own death wish.
Jennifer snatched her hand out of his grasp and glared at him.

"You will do well to remember that if you touch me again you'll regret it." Blaise was taken back. Did he upset her? How? Did he have bad breath?

Before awkward silence could set in, a house elf popped in the room. "Master Blaise, would you like me to show them to their rooms?"

Blaise only nodded dumbly. Draco interrupted the moment by instructing the house elf, "Hey, Spitt, Hermione is staying with me so don't give me the room I usually get ok?"

Before the little house elf could utter a response, Jennifer countered, "Hermione is staying with me. You are going to get the room you usually do." Draco just nodded dumbly.

As Spitt took the girls up the grand stairs, Draco looked over at Blaise. "I thought she was going to kill you!" He said, as he patted Blaise on the back.

"What did I do wrong? Does my breath smell?" Blaise asked, as he opened his mouth to breathe on Draco.

"I don't know. But close your mouth before you attract a stickyfly." Draco said, as he could see Blaise's perfect teeth. Blaise shut his mouth. Draco knew that Blaise hated sticklyflies. They were horrible little fuckers. They had the sticky stuff all over their body. It was like super glue. Thank Merlin that he had a spell to ward them off around the property. Blaise got the point that he should just should his mouth.

"Does she have a boyfriend? Is that why she got mad?" Blaise asked.

"No, she has a fiance." Draco said teasingly.

"What?! Draco, please tell me that you are lying. I will fight him for her and I'll --"

Draco interrupted his ranting. "I was just joking--she is single. I don't know who would want to date her anyway. Did you not see the look she gave you?"

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"I think Blaise likes you." Hermione said putting her clothes away after she and Jennifer argued with Spitt about letting them put their own clothes away.

"So?"

"What do you mean so? Isn't it sweet? Almost as sweet as when the kids attacked 'Santa'." Hermione giggled, thinking how the kids took Draco down.

Spitt popped back into the room. "Ms. Zabini would like to see you ladies." Spitt eyed how they were putting their clothes away. He wanted to do it. They were doing it all wrong.

He led them to where Ms. Zabini was and they saw that the guys were there, too. "Please, girls, have a seat." Ms. Zabini asked. Hermione and Jennifer ended up having to sit across from each other at the round table.

Jennifer managed to put up a nice front for Ms. Zabini. She laughed and giggled when she wanted to gag and throw up. After all, Ms. Zabini was nice enough to let her stay. So she wasn't going to be mean to her.

"You are so beautiful, my dear," Ms. Zabini complimented. "Don't you agree, Blaise?"

Jennifer blushed from having all the attetion on her. "Thank you, Ms. Zabini." Hermione smirked.

"Yes, Mother. I agree with you. She is very beautiful." Blaise wasn't even looking at his mother as he said this.

"Blaise and Draco dear, I think you should show the girls the rest of the property on your brooms," Ms. Zabini suggested. "I won't take no for a answer," she insisted.

Both Blaise and Draco summoned their brooms. Jennifer was trying to find a nice way to tell her there was no bloody fucking way she was going to get on the broom with him. Hermione was enoying watching her cousin, knowing it was eating her on the inside.

"Umm, don't you think it is a bit cold?" Jennifer asked. Just as the words left her mouth, Spitt popped into the room with thick coats, gloves and scarves. Jennifer was running out of excuses.

"I...I'm scared of flying!" Jennifer said quickly.

"Oh dear, you don't have to be. Blaise will take great care of you. He won't let anything happen to you. I promise you won't fall." Ms. Zabini reassured her before sipping her tea.

Once they were standing outside away from Ms. Zabini, Jennifer glared at Blaise. "I'm not getting on that thing with you," she said crossing her arms.

"C'mon Jennifer it will be fun! Don't you want to see it from the sky?" Hermione asked.

Hermione was already on the broom with Draco, She had leaned in closely and snuggled against him. Then Jennifer saw Ms.Zabini watching in the window. Blaise was waiting for her to take his hand and get on the broom.

"You're going to have to hold on to me if you don't want to fall, Jennifer," Blaise said as he lifted the broom a little off the ground to show her what he meant. She let out a small cry and wound her arms tightly around Blaise.

He went higher in the air. Hermione and Draco were a little ways ahead of them. "Jennifer, could you lighten your grip just a bit--I sort of kind of need to breathe," Blaise asked, gasping.

"No! If I fall you're coming with me!" Even as she said the words, she did lighten her grip up a little. She buried her face into the side of his neck so she didn't have to see how high they were.

After a bit of silence, Blaise whispered, "Look."

"No!...I'm scared." Jennifer said into his neck.

"Look, or I am letting us fall," Blaise threatened.

"What?! You wouldn't dare---You better not!" Jennifer screamed against his neck.

"I just want you to open your eyes for me." Blaise said softly. Slowly Jennifer opened her eyes. She gasped. It was like being in a snow globe--it was beautiful! It was white everywhere. Suddnely they broke through the clouds and she had a birdseye view of the grounds below them.

The property was huge and there were some parts she still couldn't see. "It is even more beautiful in the summer time," Blaise told her softly. Jennifer bet it was. The flowers would be in bloom and the grass would be green.

She bet the lake over to their left would be nice as the sun set over it. She could see the big water foutains that were now frozen. "Of course, none of this is as beautiful as you."

"You shouldn't say that." Jennifer said quietly. Before she could protest any further, Hermione screamed. Blaise and Jennifer looked over at the couple.

Draco kept letting go of the broom and scaring Hermione by pretending they would fall. Hermione screamed again. Then she started to yell death threats at Draco.

"You better not even try it," Jennifer threatened.

Blaise laughed. "I promise I won't, just hold on tightly. I'm going to land," he told her before he started their descent. Draco followed after.

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Hermione and Jennifer got back to their room. They were still laughing at how Hermione decked Draco a good one with a snowball.

They were undressing out of their thick winter wear when Spitt arrived with beautiful roses. Around the roses was a simple dark green and silver ribbon.

"These are for Miss Allens." Jennifer stared at them for a full two minutes before taking them from Spitt. She muttered a thank you before Spitt popped back out of the room.

Hermione came out of her closet. "They are beautiful, Jennifer!" Hermone said excitiedly. Jennifer laid them down on her bed and went back into her own closet.



Hermione went over to the bed and picked up the card that Jennifer didn't even bother to read and read it out aloud. "'I'm sorry these aren't as beautiful as you but I thought you would like them.' Awww..that is so sweet, Jennifer! Where are you going to put them?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not putting them anywhere," Jennifer answered from the closet.

"Then what are you going to do with them?" Hermione asked, still examining the flowers.

"I'm going to burn them," Jennifer said once she came out of her closet.

"What!?" Hermione yelled. "Jennifer you can't do that! Just because of what happened with ---" Jennifer cut her off.

"I don't want to hear it, Hermione. All guys are assholes, complete assholes and I don't want anything to do with any of them. Not even Blaise. If you hadn't begged me to come here, I certainly wouldn't have."

Hermione didn't argue with her any more about the flowers. Would she really go to the extreme of burning them? Hermione's heart ached a little bit for Blaise--but for Jennifer, too.