Trials Of Love!

Title: Trials of Love ( 7 / ?)
Author: granger2malfoy
Pairing: D/Hr, B/G
Rating: Teen, unless so marked
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from HP verse.
Genres: Drama, Romance
A/N: Not HBP compliant, also meaning fannonBlaise. This is sequel to The Given Choices. Thanks to my beta, wafball.


*~*~*~*~ Chapter Seven – Duty and Discovery ~*~*~*~~*


A week later as Hermione and Draco had been thinking on how to tell Ginny and Blaise the secret about their pregnancy, the next Friday went on without anything important happening but all Draco could think about was how much he wanted to be with Hermione again that night. Seeing her in his classes and passing in the hallways and just acting as friends turned out to be so hard for the blond Slytherin. Yet that night as Hermione did her rounds with a fifth year Prefect, Draco and Blaise sat in his common room starting on their homework to have as much as their weekend free to spend it with their girls.


Just as he finished his third foot of parchment for his Charms essay, his Mark began to burn and let out a sudden groan as he clutched his left forearm. His best friend quickly threw down his quill as he got up and went into Draco’s bedroom and came back with his cloak, mask, and gloves. Wordlessly, Draco put on the items as the throbbing became less as intense and began to instruct Blaise. “Now, go into mine and Hermione’s secret room and wait for her. She should be there in about fifteen minutes. Assure her I will be alright but not sure on when I am going to be back.”


“I will. Take care, my friend,” the dark haired wizard used his wand to place all their homework onto the desk in the corner as Draco stepped into the large fireplace and disappeared to Snape’s quarters with a blast of bright green flames.


Blaise locked the Head Boy’s common room door and stepped back to the fireplace as he nervously ran his hand through his curly locks. With a heavy sigh, his hand reached up into the painting to grab the specialized powder and moved his body into the fireplace as he wordlessly dropped the magic dust to the grate. The quiet Slytherin walked into the deserted room and the first thing he noticed was the huge bed against the back wall but still mostly in the middle of room. Not much furniture was scattered along the room, which drew his attention solely on the bed. Briefly he registered that Draco and Hermione spent nights there and … and…


He shook those thoughts out of his mind as quickly changed topic within his mind. By the large fireplace sat a small round table with an unnamed book on it and a vase of white roses next to the tomb. At the other corner, an elegant vanity sat with a bench alongside it with a full-length mirror hung between the two. The only other piece of furniture sat on the opposite side of the fire. A burgundy chaise with a black throw with the Malfoy crest embroidered in the middle.


As Blaise leaned over to run his fingers along the soft expensive fabric, the fire came alive with gold flames and Hermione stepped into the room in a beautiful navy nightgown. The silk fabric showed every curve as it revealed more than a hint of cleavage and the slit on her right side reached her hip where a gold rose was sewn into the material. There he stood slightly bent over as Hermione appeared surprised to see him and then chuckled at his frozen state. She stepped up to him as she covered her chest with her bared arms and asked, “Why are you here, Blaise?”


At first he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I mean. I. You’re beautiful. Even though, I've always known that. I mean. Bloody hell, I sound like a first-year Hufflepuff."


“You came here to tell me I am beautiful?” She smiled as she pulled a throw around her bare shoulders and sat on the edge of the chaise. Then the corners of her mouth lowered as she asked another question, “Where is Draco?"


“Yes, right.” Then he remembered why he came to the room as he shoved his hands safely into his pockets and thought of how to tell her. Blaise quickly concluded the truth was the best way and just to get it said, so they could deal with it. "He was summoned just a few minutes ago and he told me to tell you that he has no idea what time he will come back but that he will be fine."


“What?” her knees gave out as she slipped off the chaise onto the floor and Blaise quickly knelt down to wrap his arms around her.


Hermione started to cry and he tried to calm her by rocking her in his strong arms. Her friend repeated over and over again, “Shh. It will be okay. Snape is with him. Nothing will happen. I am here with you. Everything will be okay.”


A few minutes passed as her tears started slow to a stop and then Blaise continue to hold her close on the floor in front of the chaise, yet no longer rocking her. He rested his head on her shoulder before he let out a resigned sigh. “I should go.”


“No,” she pleaded and doesn't notice as the quilt slipped down from her shoulders. The warm glow from the fire made it appear as if she was the glowing object in the room. “Please don't leave. Not yet. Please, Blaise, I need you. Stay with me?”


Thoughts about just sending Ginny to stay with her or sending her back to Gryffindor Tower to her friends raced through his mind. Yet in his heart, he knew he wanted, nay needed, to be the one with her to help her. The handsome young man tucked a stray hair behind her ear as he whispered, “How I am supposed to say ‘no’ when asked so ... nicely? Would you like me to read to you?”


“No,” Blaise started to grab for the book and her eyes got big as she stopped his hand. “I mean no thank you. Sorry, I am not in the mood to study.”


With a slight nod of his head, Blaise got up to his feet as he look around the room to see what they could do that did not involve the largest object in the room - the bed, which was even more tempting with her in silky nightwear. The vase of roses by the window caught his attention and he pulled out his wand from his pocket. The wizard walked over to table as he pulled the perfect roses out of the water to lie down on the flowers on the mantle and used his wand to clean the water as well as change the shape of the vase into a low, rectangle basin. The crystal container was placed on the small nightstand as he moved it in front of Hermione, who sat in front of the chaise, and between the front of the fireplace.


"Hm. Well, I suppose I can think of something to relax you," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a short silver flute. He looked down to it and then to her eyes, as he seemed to be deciding something. He moved his hands to maneuver himself on to the chaise and pulled her up to lie in front of him between his body and the fire a few feet in front of her. "Here, lie down and watch the water as I play."


She pulled the blanket over their legs as she faced away from him and began to worry about Draco again. "No, no thinking. Just relax and watch."


“Watch what?”


“Shh,” he replied as he began to play from his propped up position. The soft music was low and almost instantly seemed to relax her tense body. Then a small ripple of the water caught her attention as a soft light of fire shone through the crystal. The small body of water began to rise up from the basin in time to the music from the wizard behind her. A thin curtain of water rose and ripples moved along the curtain with the enchanting melody.


Hermione leaned up and looked over her shoulder at her friend as he nodded for her to keep watching. She turned her body back as the soft beat of the music began to increase in pace and the water moved in time but her eyes slowly started to get heavy and she found it hard to keep them open. Faster and faster the water danced for its piper making her more and more relaxed. Her body moved even further back against the young man, who played the flute so magically, as sleep began to take over her body. As her eyes remained shut with no sign of opening any time soon, a small figure began to appear in the water and the more it raised up from the basin, the more it showed its figure to be of a female origin.


Blaise continued to play, as his eyes now seemed focused on the woman against him and not the water, as his soul took control over his music and also the water. The water woman danced in tempo with his increasing beat as her hands and feet danced in the curtain of magically raised water for her master. His indigo eyes closed for a moment as the music continued to play and then the figure in the water moved her hands along her liquid body. The young woman against his lap also began to slowly move her body in time with his enchanting melody and then softly whispered, “Oh, Blaise.”


He instantly opened his eyes and saw the muse in his water dance was the same witch asleep against him. His eye then followed down to the sleeping Hermione as her hand cupped her breast and her body stilled against his. Blaise stopped playing and threw down his silver flute as if it had burnt his hands. His eyelids squeezed shut as he tried to calm his harsh breathing from the emotions he let loose as he played with all his heart. But it seemed his heart had taken his music to a place he could not go.


He never meant for that to happen. Of course, he had played many times for his mother and sisters but he’d never had that reaction. Maybe her strong ties to nature’s pure magic were causing her body to react to him. The sounds of her soft, regular breathing reassured him that she was still asleep and would not remember the reaction he brought out of her. Slowly Blaise slowed his breathing to a more relaxed rhythm, like hers. But the fact he was not at all tired caused him to be a little frustrated and he could not move without taking the chance of moving her body. He knew Hermione needed to sleep and keep her mind off of Draco's sudden departure. Draco. Bloody hell. What was he going to do?


Nothing. He was going to do nothing. He loved Ginny. Yes, there were times he found himself flirting with the intelligent witch in his arms over the past year and more so recently. She was beautiful as he had accidentally told her earlier but she was married to his best friend.


It seemed his old crush on the brilliant Gryffindor had come back. Before Draco had mentioned his plan to seek Hermione's heart, he had been trying to get over his long-term crush on the bushy-haired, pretty Know-It-All, who would never fall for a Slytherin. When Draco told him of his wishes to date Hermione Granger, he never thought it possible but decided it was best not to tell his friend that. Yet, during the time Draco was wooing Hermione, Blaise noticed Ginny and fell for her.


Many of the same qualities he found in Hermione, he saw in Ginny but she was also so different to Granger. Both were brave and loyal but Ginny acted more carefree, which excited him and frustrated him at the same time. The redhead’s intelligence did match his or Hermione’s but that was because she didn’t feel the love for knowledge that he did, as well as Hermione. His girlfriend’s love of Quidditch sourly out passed him and he became bored when she began spouting off plays or recent games. Yet her caring nature, free spirit and pretty body always made him smile.


The young witch along the side of his body, turned to lay more on her side as she sleeping pushed back more against his body. He lightly ran his finger along the curve of her jaw as he thought about how long he had wanted to be in this situation. Hermione Granger lying alone with him. He knew Hermione was beautiful before she walked into the room dressed like a goddess in that nightgown. She always looked beautiful to him. From the days she wore that ragged purple jumper given to her by her grandmother to the way she occasion swept her hair up into a French Twist every once and a while. He smiled as she remember the way she looked as they fought in the snow last winter and then to how the small group of four splayed around the shore of the lake that summer. How she tried to look all modest in her one piece purple swimming suit but it showed off more of her body than he had ever seen, so it could’ve had a big teddy bear on the front and he still would’ve gotten as turned on as he had.


With a heavy sigh and acknowledgement that the line of thinking was not the best of ideas with her lying next to him, Blaise summoned over a book off the small table next to the transfigured water basin. The books originally caught his attention before she arrived because it did not have a title on the top or the side of the book. He magically levitated the book in the air above her head and he used his free right hand to turn the first page.


His indigo eyes got wider as he read the title page of the book, What to Expect When You Are Expecting.


“What?!”, he gasped and look down at the young witch laid against him. His eyes looked down the length of her body as he raised the throw to take a glance at her stomach as she lay on her side. Hermione's hand rested on her stomach as she slept and he could see a little roundness there but nothing to show she was definitely with child.


He went back to the book and began to read as he searched for proof. Maybe they were trying to get pregnant. But as he read the more he saw the signs that would reveal her true condition from the fainting, the increase in hunger or lack of it at times, the slight mood swings, and then the few times he heard her vomiting at the Headquarters during the end of the summer.


Again, he moved the blanket to the side to show her stomach. Blaise's fingers tentatively moved down her forearm to her fingers to her silk-covered stomach. He didn't feel any movement or anything and could tell a little firmness to the rounding belly. But from his reading, he really didn't expect to feel a kick or anything because she didn't seem that far along. 'You are pregnant. I wonder how along you are.'


From the book, he could only guess maybe around three or four months. Of course, he was no expert having been the youngest child of three and never being around any pregnant women before on a regular basis. ‘Why didn't she tell me? Or even Draco? Does he know? Does any one know? Oh, Hermione. I won't tell a soul your secret but I should try to convince you to tell Draco, if he doesn't know. He’s going to be a father. Wow.'


Then his eyes softened as his hand continued to run along her stomach and he thought, ‘You’re going to be a mother. I know you'll be a wonderful mother, Hermione.’


His body froze as she shifted to move back against his body and then her hand reached down to his as it twined her fingers through his in her sleep. 'She must think I am Draco.'


Then her other arm moved and he saw the Dark Mark there. A chill went down his spine, even though he had seen it before on Draco and had seen hers that one time by the lake. It looked so intimidating and to know what that mark meant, even if he knew it wasn’t the same for her. Then he whipped his eyes to their joined fingers over her stomach. ‘Does Voldemort know? Does Dumbledore know? Oh, Hermione. What are you going to do?’


Her hand gently moved their woven fingers along her stomach in such a caring fashion. Tears threatened to fill his eyes as being part of such a tender act and felt different emotions fill him. Happiness to see such an amazing young woman bring a life into the world as well as depression that he had not known. Then anger rippled through him for her having to be a spy in such a time of war. But the anger faded to pity for having to carry such a huge burden. The last emotion scared him the most - devotion. Not just undying devotion to her, but also to the unborn child she carried within her. It may not be his but he cared so much for her. ‘Whatever you choose to do, I will be here for you. Always. However, I can.’


Oh, Merlin, help him. But he loved her, even though it was wrong and he still cared for Ginny. Even though Hermione was married to his best friend, Blaise still loved her. But he never would act upon it. Not for anything. She was happy and now expecting. He would be there and do anything for her but she was never to know of his true feelings. It would be his secret and one he intended to keep for the rest of his days.


Blaise lowered his head to place a chaste kiss to her temple and felt the warm of her stomach fill him with gentle warmth as he felt sleep slowly taking over him. He would do anything to make sure she made it through the war safe as well as the new life inside her. They both would be safe, if it was the last thing he would do. The warmth of the fire, the softness of blanket and the presence of the young woman against his body lulled Blaise into peaceful sleep cuddled together with their hands still intertwined resting on her barely-showing stomach. Sweet, beautiful dreams filled his mind with images of where his soul only wished to go and achieve with the one person he could not have, ever.


~*~*~*~* To Be Continued *~*~*~*~*~~*

A/N2: A cookie for those who can guess where the inspiration for water dance part of this came from.