Just Pretend

This chapter was beta-ed by my great beta Molls. Thanks you so much!

Jennifer woke up bleary-eyed and disoriented in her bed. When did she leave the party? Bloody hell. She had a huge hangover. Something warm was in bed with her. As she rolled over to investigate, she fought the urge to scream. Blaise!

Memories started to come back to her in pieces.
Why was he half-naked?Where the hell was his shirt? Puke. She had puked. She was wearing it. Oh god.

Blaise sensed she was awake and reached an arm around Jennifer and spooned her. "Good morning, cara. How do you feel?"

Jennifer shot away from Blaise so fast that she fell over the bed.

"Jennifer!" Blaise asked alarmed.

"Blaise, I'm sorry but you have to forget last night. You have to forget everything. I'm not doing this. I can't do this," Jennifer said as she got up off the floor.

Blaise got off the bed. "No. I'm not forgetting anything. I want this and I know you want this, too. I'm not letting you push me away. Love isn't all to blame for what happened to your mom. Your father has a huge part in that. Your father hurt your mum." Blaise wasn't going to lose her.

"I don't want to be hurt, Blaise! I don't want to beg Hermione to kill me because I was hurt. If you would do what my father did, I would hate you. Blaise, I don't want to hate you, I can't take that chance!" Jennifer yelled. Hermione was the closest thing she had to a sister.

"I'm not your father. I'm Blaise Zabini, a person who wants to have a chance with you. A person who wants to show you that you can have the love you want. I want to be there for you. I want to wake up next to you. I want to hold you and whisper loving things in your ear. I want to protect you. Dammit! I want to love you!" Blaise yelled. "I know I haven't known you long but I never felt this way before. I never wanted a girl like I want you. I think about you all the time. I want you so much. We can take it as slowly as you want. I'll ask your mum for permission. I'll even ask Merlin for permission! Please, Jennifer, let me love you." Blaise saw that Jennifer was slowing moving towards where he was on the bed, an unreadable expression on her face.

'Great, you pissed her off,' he berated himself internally. 'You lost what little chance you had with her. Now she's going to come over and beat the shit out of you. Then she --'

Jennifer suddenly leaned down and kissed Blaise. It was a soft, simple, innocent kiss. As she climbed on the bed, never pulling her face away from his, she wrapped herself around his waist. Blaise couldn't believe this was happening. She was so perfect. She smelled so wonderful, felt so amazing in his arms.

Blaise was contemplating pulling her back under the covers to cuddle and sleep the day away with her. Just then Spitt popped in.

"I'm sorry, master. Things are not good downstairs. Me think you should go now." Then he popped out.
With his vague warning hanging over them, Jennifer and Blaise reluctantly began the trek downstairs in the same clothes they had fallen asleep in.

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When they got downstairs, they found Draco sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall, his elbows resting on his knees, his hands covering his face. Blaise told Jennifer to stay a few feet back.

Blaise walked closer until he was just a few steps from him. "Draco. What happened?" He asked softly.

Draco shot up off the ground. "Blaise! I will kill the bastard that did this to her. I will fucking kill him. He struck her in the face. I found her in the woods, not too far from your house. All she had on was her bra. Blaise, that sodding bastard hurt her. He hurt her." Draco had tears in his eyes but refused to let them fall.

"No!" Jennifer screamed. She let herself fall to her knees, not caring that she was barely covered in Blaise's shirt. "Is she dead? Will she live?" Jennifer asked panicked.

Draco looked at her behind Blaise. In the back of his mind, it registered that she was in Blaise's shirt. "I don't know. They won't let me in, and she was passed out when I brought her here." Draco explained irritably.

Blaise went to comfort Jennifer. Draco listened as Blaise whispered stupid comforting things to her. It was obvious they had gotten closer. She was in his shirt. Great, he gets to shag her and Draco ruins it for his friend.

"Draco? How did you know where to find her?" Blaise asked.

Draco looked sheepish. "I enchanted the bracelet I gave her to let me know where she is at all times." He pulled something out of the pocket of his dress robes that he still had on from the night before.
It was a silver snowflake. "I say her name and it pulls me to wherever she is. I just forgot to tell her that," Draco explained.

"That is a great idea." Blaise said thoughtfully. "You probably saved her life with it." Then he looked at Jennifer contemplatively.

"Don't even think about it," Jennifer warned.

"Blaise, if she doesn't live. I...I don't know what I will do," Draco said, his voice wavering. The three of them just sat there on the floor, not moving and hardly talking.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a healer came out. "Only one of you may go in to see her but she is still asleep. She will likely wake up any minute." Draco went in and shut the door, the Healer waiting outside to give him some private time with Hermione.

Draco walked over to Hermione. She looked pale, a sickly pale. There were bruises on her cheeks. Her lip was cut and swollen. There were some bruises on her wrist where he must have pinned her.
The bastard could have just bound her with magic but he wanted to show her that he was stronger. Anger coursed through Draco's body like blood in his veins.

This was all his fault. He didn't protect her. If he would have watched her more closely and done a better job at being her boyfriend then none of this would have happened.

Draco felt helpless that he couldn't undo what this monster had done to her. All he could do now was kill the ass-munch that did this. He looked over at Hermione and saw that she was watching him.
Just to see her awake and looking at him made him better.

"Hello, love." Draco said softly. Hermione said nothing. She wasn't even looking at him now. What the hell was he supposed to say? "I was so worried about you. I didn't think you would wake."
Draco reach out to grab her hand to hold it. Hermione flinched at his touch. She was looking at him as if he were going to stab her. This only pissed off Draco more. He didn't like her looking at him with fear. He hated that she flinched at his touch.
He couldn't sit in here with her like that. She feared him. He stood up and she watched him wide eyed as though he was going to hurt her next, as if he was going to strike her in some way to punish her for flinching.

He walked over to the door. He was going to come back when she was asleep. It pained him to see the fear in her eyes when he was in the room.

Just before he walked out, Hermione whispered, "Draco?" Draco whipped his head around. Did he just imagine that? "Please don't leave me. Don't leave me alone. I'm so scared." Hermione begged.

"Baby, I won't leave. I just didn't want to frighten you more." He walked over to her and sat on the edge of the bed. "I know it's you, Draco, not him, but I can't help it. I'm sorry."

"No, no, baby. Don't apologize. You have nothing to be sorry for. This is all my fault not yours." Draco covered his face again, not wanting Hermione to see him cry.

"I'll be right back, love. Going to speak with the Healer." Then Draco left the room.

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As Draco walked out, he saw that Blaise was holding Jennifer lovingly and protectively. It pissed him off that he couldn't hold Hermione like that without her fearing that he might do something to her.

"All you guys can do is snog while Hermione is hurting. She was raped!" Draco yelled.

Blaise turned to Jennifer. "Why don't you go see how she is doing?" Blaise suggested. When he saw that Jennifer was going to protest, he urged her to go on and assured her that everything was going to be fine. He turned her towards the door and gave her a firm smack on the ass.
The look on his face told her there was no arguing on this. They would talk later. She sighed, and without hesistation walked into Hermione's room.

Blaise turned to his friend. "Draco, you need to calm down. I wasn't snogging her. I was comforting her. She is worried about Hermione," he explained.

"Don't tell me what I need to do, Blaise. I'm not the one shagging Hermione's cousin!" Draco yelled. Now the boys were chest to chest, in each other's faces.

"I'm not shagging her. You need to back yourself up before I do it for you," Blaise warned.

"Yeah, you're not shagging her but she is in your shirt. Was it your name she was screaming?"

Okay, now Draco was hitting the wrong buttons. He wanted to hit that button, fine! Let's hit some buttons.

"Yeah, you're right. She was screaming my name--but at least I don't need a bracelet to tell me where my woman is. I don't count on the bracelet to do my job."

Blaise ducked as Draco threw a punch at his face. Blaise tackled Draco to the floor. Blaise was on top of Draco. "You arrogant ass. I didn't fuck her."

Draco rolled them over. He punched Blaise in the face. Blaise knew what this was about. Draco needed to take his anger out on someone. He needed emotional release. He picked Blaise knowing that even after this fight, everything would be okay between them. He purposely started this fight.
They both had each other in a postion where the other couldn't move unless one gave in and let go.

"This isn't about me, Draco," Blaise said through gritted teeth.

"Shut up!" Draco yelled.

"I'm not the one that hurt Hermione," Blaise continued.

"Shut your fucking mouth!" Draco yelled louder.

"Do you really want to fight me? It is me you want to kill? Am I the one you want to hurt?" Blaise asked.

The only answer Blaise got was Draco letting him out from under him. Once Blaise had moved positions, Draco took off. Blaise understood that he wanted time to cool down, think, and clear his head. He new Draco had just needed someone to take it out on.

If it had happened to Jennifer, Blaise probably would be a crazed murderer on the hunt to find the person who hurt Jennifer.

Jennifer. What would he do when she went back home? Was this the beginning of a relationship or was it just a fling?

She wasn't gone yet but he hurt as if she were.