A Little Time - The Beautiful South
September 1st 1998
No one answered until Ginny conjured up a glass with her wand and held it towards Blaise, not once looking away from the window.
'That's the spirit, Weasley.' Blaise smirked approvingly. He poured Ginny a generous amount before pulling his own glass from thin air and filling it to the top.
Hermione stood firm, watching as Draco used his wand to make two glasses appear on the coffee table, and Blaise filled them both with Firewhiskey. Blaise placed the two bottles on the table and sat on the spare sofa, raising his glass towards the middle of the room and taking a long drink.
Hermione watched as Draco took both of the glasses from the table and turned to look at her, holding out one of the glasses in her direction. She looked from his deep grey eyes to the swirling glass of amber liquid and saw it as it was; a peace offering.
Though she couldn't understand why, Hermione felt her face twitch as if she were about to cry, so she slowly made her way over to Draco's outstretched hand to pluck the glass from between his fingers before he could see the emotion on her face.
She took a long sip from the glass, relishing the burn as the liquid slipped down her throat, before planting herself on the floor in front of the fire and placing her glass on the carpet so that she could slip her outer robes off her shoulders and her feet from her shoes. She hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin on her knees, while she watched the flames.
After a while she could hear Blaise and Draco begin to talk quietly to one another but didn't bother to listen.
The longer she spent directly in front of the fire the warmer she got and, after half an hour, she had also removed her cardigan, her tie, her socks, and had also undone a couple of buttons of her shirt. Her glass of Firewhiskey sat empty by her left hip.
'Refill?' Draco asked from behind her left shoulder, surprising Hermione out of her thoughts.
'Please.' She replied quietly without turning her head away from the flames.
He didn't try and speak to her again as he poured, the splash of liquid hitting the glass the only sound in the otherwise quiet room. A cool breeze tickled the bottom of her spine as he stood up and settled himself back on the sofa.
After another half an hour of silence from Hermione, and another glass of Firewhiskey down, she shuffled back so that she could pull a cushion down to the floor to sit on and rest her back on the sofa.
'Do you want another?' Draco asked as he lifted the bottle of Firewhiskey from the table in front of Hermione.
'No, thank you.' She replied with a shake of her head. She had spent the last hour trying not to let the tears fall down her cheeks and she worried that another glass of Firewhiskey would open the floodgates and ruin all of her hard work.
'Weasley, another?' Blaise called, drawing Hermione's attention to the fact that she hadn't spoken to Ginny all evening. She looked over to see the red head was still sat by the window, her head resting on her knees, with her hair covering half her body but not hiding the slight shake of her shoulders as she cried.
When Ginny didn't reply Hermione stood from the floor and walked over to her best friend.
'Gin.' Hermione whispered. 'Come sit by the fire.'
'Okay.' Ginny nodded as she let Hermione pull her up from the chilly window seat and lead her over to the sofas.
Ginny sat next to Blaise in silence, so that she could take the bottle of Firewhiskey from him and pour herself another glass, while Hermione took her spot back on the floor near Draco.
'So,' Blaise said as he cleared his throat. 'What did you two do to get yourselves in trouble with the Ministry?'
'Blaise.' Draco said through slightly gritted teeth, as though warning his friend against saying something to aggravate the two girls.
'We ran away.' Ginny said as she gulped down half the liquid in her glass.
Hermione watched as both Slytherins raised their eyebrows in surprise. Draco looked down at her with an impressed smirk. She looked away.
'I would have thought you'd seen it in the Prophet.' Hermione stated.
'You must have been old news by the time we were allowed to read the Prophet again.' Blaise replied with a terse laugh.
Hermione looked over at him with furrowed brows. 'What do you mean?'
'We were taken away by Aurors the minute the Battle was over. We were put on trial. We got let go a few days ago.' Blaise explained with an air of nonchalance that put Hermione's teeth on edge.
'And this was your punishment?' Ginny scoffed as she drained her glass.
'McGonagall spoke at both our trials and explained what happened at the Battle.' Draco said, no trace of bitterness in voice, only regret at the necessity of a trial in the first place. He shifted his gaze to Hermione before continuing. 'She gave evidence about me that she must have heard from you.'
'Me?' Hermione asked, moving her body so that she was fully facing him.
'She explained what happened at the Manor. How I didn't identify you and the others.' He answered in an almost whisper.
Hermione didn't miss the way he glanced at her left forearm or the way his jaw clenched when he saw the fading scar out in the open. She lifted her arm away so that he didn't have to look at it anymore.
'I don't remember telling her.' Hermione muttered as she wracked her brain for the specific conversation.
'Anyway,' Blaise said as he pulled the bottle of Firewhiskey away from Ginny. 'McGonagall fought in our corner at the trial and Shacklebolt decided she would get stuck with us. She helped us clear our names of all charges provided we finish our final year here without incident so we can't complain.'
'That was... kind of her.' Hermione offered.
'It was a bloody shock, that's what it was.' Blaise said. Hermione could tell that he was drunk; he was the loudest person in the room.
'Why are you being punished?' Draco asked Hermione, looking down at her as he swirled his drink in his glass.
'We ran away.' Hermione repeated Ginny's statement from earlier.
'I got that much.' Draco said with a smirk.
'I don't really want to talk about it.' Hermione admitted, squeezing her eyes shut as tears threatened to come once more.
'Was it just the two of you...?' Draco asked but trailed off when Hermione's eyes snapped open and shot him a warning glare. He lifted his hands up in surrender and dropped the subject.
'Um... Granger?' Blaise asked, drawing Hermione's glare away from Draco. 'I think Weasley's had too much to drink.'
Hermione saw the slumped form of Ginny, draped across the arm of the sofa, and inwardly sighed. She placed her empty glass on the table and stood up to rouse Ginny from her drunken slumber in an attempt to get her up to bed.
She didn't stir no matter how hard Hermione poked her shoulder.
'Bloody hell, Gin.' Hermione grumbled as she pulled her wand from the waistband of her skirt. She levitated Ginny from the sofa, parting the two Slytherins with a nod, and walked them up the stairs towards their bedrooms.
She found four doors, each inscribed with a name, and opened the furthest door on the right; Ginny's. She levitated her over to the bed and conjured a glass of water to sit on the beside table for when she inevitable woke up with a dry mouth. Before she left she pulled Ginny's shoes off her feet and tucked the covers around her small form and gave her a sad smile.
'Everything will be fine.' Hermione whispered quietly.
Hermione stepped back out of the room and closed the door behind her, surprised to find the two Slytherins stood in the hallway holding the clothes she had discarded earlier by the fire. Her wand was still gripped in her hand and she considered hexing them, perhaps out of instinct, but shoved it back in the waistband of her skirt when she saw how uncomfortable they looked.
'T-thank you.' She stuttered as she took her robe from Blaise, who immediately nodded and entered the furthest bedroom on the left, and turned to Draco to take her shoes, cardigan and tie from his hands.
'Granger,' he said as she reached out to take her things. 'I know this is an uncomfortable situation but I want you and Weasley to know that we aren't going to cause trouble.'
'It's fine, Malfoy.' Hermione said in a tired voice. 'We don't have to be civil, we just have to not kill one another.'
Draco's expression didn't change but Hermione noticed his back straighten at her words.
'Right.' He said as he turned on his heel to enter the second bedroom from the left, leaving Hermione alone in the corridor.
After taking a deep breath she entered the second bedroom from the right and leaned against the back of the door once it was closed. She unceremoniously dumped her clothing on the floor, adding her skirt and shirt to the pile, before crawling into bed and passing out from emotional exhaustion.