"I've always hoped this day would come."
"My name is Valeriana Zabini." The woman took a shuddering breath.
"Your mother."
*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*
A secret kept from her all her life. A secret with the power to alter her life entire...
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☆.｡.:* Leaving .｡.:*☆
"What do you suppose happens now?" Hermione questioned. After all that, what did they want her to do?
Blaise, for the first time since everything had unfolded, spoke up. "What do you want to happen?" He questioned, his face impartial.
"What was your goal in coming here?" Hermione asked back.
"We- had hoped that you would be willing to..." Hermione's brows shot up when realizing what they were insinuating.
"No!" Hermione exclaimed, shooting to her feet. "No, there's no way I'm going with you." Valeriana was now also standing, her eyes on Hermione's parents. "Hermione, I'm sorry. You have to." Her mother stated, tears slipping down her cheeks.
"No, I don't." Hermione snapped.
"You have to darling, we can't afford to have you here anymore. We'll always love you. But you deserve to know about your family." Her father said sternly, gripping her arms softly.
"No, I don't want to." Hermione's father instantly wrapped his arms around her, Hermione couldn't help the tears that slipped from her eyes. "Please, they can't make me."
"Hermione, you have to do this. If you don't go...we both know that this will forever haunt you." Her father murmured into her hair. "You have to do this, for us. For yourself."
She didn't want to. Hermione didn't want to leave with these strangers they called her family. She'd much rather stay with her parents, the same ones who'd raised her. Hermione's mind raged with different thoughts. How could they allow this? But it was at this moment, Hermione realized what they were saying.
She wasn't their responsibility anymore.
Her birth mother had found her, had wanted to see her, and take her with them. Hermione thought about what this meant for her. Answers. She would go. Go and live with them, at least until she can figure things out on her own. She would go, to try and learn about what will happen now. Taking a shaky breath, Hermione pulled away from her father's arms. Then turned to face Valeriana and Blaise Zabini. She didn't know what she was to Blaise, nor would she worry about it at this time.
"Alright, I'll go."
They had given her ample time to pack her belongings, she didn't know where to begin. Staring at the infinite bookshelves in her room, she sighed. The room she'd spent so much of her life in. She heard the footsteps coming from behind her, halting at the frame of the door.
"I insisted on helping you pack." Blaise's voice was short of that domineering tone he always had at Hogwarts. Those times, she'd never paid him much attention. Those days felt so out of reach as if it was a lifetime ago. Hermione sighed in response, staring out of her large window. Gazing at the empty horizon. She heard him shift and slowly walk towards her bookshelves.
"You really do love to read." He whispered rather too softly, the first Hermione had ever heard him use that tone. She turned to face him examining her rows of books. She smiled only slightly, she'd admired her bookcase as a teen. No one else had ever been up in her room, apart from her parents. Hermione never bothered to invite Ron or Harry. She never really understood why. She had a feeling it was due to her selfishly wanting to keep her magic and muggle life separate. To her, this home had been her safe haven, not wanting to disturb it with magic.
"Did you know?" Hermione asked him, stalking to stand beside him, staring at her own bookshelf. "No. I only found out a couple of days ago." He replied, "Though I always felt something, drawing me towards you. I never understood it. It wasn't any sort of attraction, it was more like a connection."
Hermione felt rather guilty, she had to admit, she'd never felt anything towards Blaise. She simply was too preoccupied with everything that had happened over the years. She barely even knew the man who now stood beside her.
"What do you think- about everything?" She asked him, while she began removing some of the books from the shelves, only choosing her most beloved novels. "In all honesty. The same as you." He stated as he began to take one of the books she gathered, placing them in a magical suitcase.
Blaise had never really wronged her. He was one of the few in Slytherin who never bothered her. He'd always been reserved, a well-respected student at their school. Many found him to be one of the few 'favorable' Slytherins, though he still showed some Slytherin arrogance and vanity, he never truly acted on his thoughts. He was in cohorts with Malfoy's gang, yet whenever they came to disturb her or her group, Blaise was always nowhere to be seen. One of the only instances she'd interacted with him was through Slughorns club, even then he wasn't talkative.
"What does this mean for us?" She asked him. Moving to pack some of her clothes, which there were so very few of that would suit her figure now. "I don't know." He admitted, then gave her a sheepish attempt of a smile, "I would very much like to get to know you, seeing as..." He stopped to look at her, his eyes burning through her. "I would, much like that as well." Hermione returned. She didn't know what compelled her to say those words, she didn't understand her sudden need to be pleasant.
"Who is Valeriana to you?" Hermione asked she supposed she needed to, Blaise and her looked nothing alike, they shared some common features, like to curves of their lips and the shape of their eyes, though there were very visible differences. "My mother." He stated. Hermione wasn't at all shocked at that. She, however, needed the confirmation. "And your father?" "Unaccounted for." "Do we, have the same father?" Blaise huffed out a laugh, "No, I was born before you were. Though what I'm still astonished by, is how we manage to end up in the same year."
Hermione and Blaise continued packing in silence, with occasional murmurs of 'thanks'. As they began to carry the luggage with them, Hermione stuffed her wand inside her brown boots as she began to buckle them.
"Where exactly, are we going?" The question had completely slipped her mind up until this point. "The manor." "The Zabini manor?" "I suppose you could call it that."
