Chapter Fourteen: Exposed

"Dear, could you pass the paper to me?"

"Of course." She handed the paper to her husband and returned to the stove where she was whipping up a breakfast fit for a king. Her husband began to peruse the newspaper but he wasn't very far when he let out a very quiet gasp. Even the homely kitchen and the delectable smell of fresh eggs and bacon were not enough to distract the man from the front page article of the paper. His brow furrowed with his increasing concern.

"Honey, did you see this?"

"What, dear?"

"This article, here, in the paper," he said, accentuating each word by stabbing at the paper with his finger.

She walked around the table to his side and looked at the photograph and headline which, alone, took up nearly half of the page.

Her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets at what she saw. "This can't be," she muttered to herself, "We would have known already."

They both stared at the moving photograph, inklings of betrayal in both of their hearts.

"Should we tell the children," she asked, worried.

He sighed, "They would have told us if they knew." He looked at the headline and sighed once more, "But they'll be angry if they find out." He picked up the paper and threw it into the flaming fireplace watching it burn, the only place his children wouldn't find it.

* * *

July had passed so fast that August had already begun along with more wedding chaos than ever before, and Hermione was caught in the middle of it all. Carmina had asked Hermione to be her Maid of Honor and Blaise would be the Best Man. It would be a fairly small wedding, held in the Granger-Zabini backyard. Nevertheless, there was still just as much planning to do. They needed to order a cake, find a dress and tux, pick decorations and theme colors, send out the invitations, clean the house, and find time to squeeze in showers and parties. Then, there was Hermione's birthday.

The entire Granger-Zabini family sat exhausted on the sitting room couches. They had spent the day tidying up the house and playing dress-up all over muggle London in search of wedding garments. And if that wasn't enough, they were all ravenous but too tired to move. Of course, they were already settled into comfortable positions when the doorbell rang.

No one moved.

It rang again.

"Blaise, dear, would you mind getting the doorbell for our visitor."

"But Mum--," he whined.

The doorbell rang again. This time the guest pressed the snake doorbell repeatedly causing first note of the melody to ring over and over again.

"Blaise, our visitor is getting impatient," Carmina said.

"Be a good sport for your mother," Hermione's father said, his eyes closed as if he were sleeping.

Hermione snickered.

With a dissatisfied grunt, Blaise rolled himself of the couch mumbling something about laziness.

"Thank you, dear," Carmina called after him.

As soon as the lock turned, a very crazed looking Draco Malfoy burst into the foyer of the house, accidentally knocking Blaise back with sheer force but Draco didn't notice.

Hermione stood surprised, "Malfoy!"

"Good Heavens, Draco! What happened," Carmina asked, concerned.

Draco walked straight to Hermione. "Have you seen the paper this morning," he asked angrily as he shook his fist at her. In his hand, he held a crumpled Daily Prophet.

"No, why," Hermione asked, unsure of the source of his anger,

"Bloody Rita Skeeter," Draco hissed through his teeth.

"Draco—," Blaise started at the same time Hermione said, "What are you talking ab—"

But they were both cut short by emerald flames that erupted from the fireplace. Everyone shielded their eyes from the light and a figure stepped out of the fireplace.

No one noticed the awed stare of the one muggle in the room.

"Hermione," the figure roared. Hermione froze. She knew that voice anywhere.

She called out confused, "Ron?"

The fireplace spat emerald green again and two more people walked out of the flames. "Ron," they shouted.

Hermione recognized the two others as well, "Ginny? Harry?"

Ron stomped over to Hermione, his ears and face a terrifying shade of scarlet and today's Daily Prophet in his hand, "What the bloody hell is this!?" He opened the paper and pushed in her face.

The picture above showed Hermione and Draco outside Fortescue's as they flung ice cream at each other laughing. Below the picture was a caption including the date of the picture and across the middle of the page were bold words that screamed for attention:

A LION IN THE SNAKE PIT

the lives and love of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy

as told by: Rita Skeeter

"He spoke of the Devil and she came," Hermione whispered disbelievingly.

"What hell is going on," Ron said. "My parents weren't even going to tell us about this bloody article. Percy mailed us the paper with a three-foot letter telling us we shouldn't see you anymore."

"Ron it's Rita Skeeter. It's not true," she told him, looking him dead in the eye and crumpling the paper. "Malfoy and I are not together."

Blaise, who still had not seen the paper, was suddenly furious to find out what was going on.

"But she can't fabricate the evidence," he said, furiously pointing to the picture. Photographed Hermione and Draco watched the ensuing argument between spoonfuls of ice cream.

"You two were there together," he shouted, "The day of Harry's bloody birthday, too! You spent the day with these Death Eaters instead of your own friend on his birthday!"

She flinched and her eyes watered. "I'm sorry, Ron. I had a fight with my mum that day and I needed to go somewhere."

"Then why didn't you tell us," he said, "instead of them. We've known you longer; we could have taken you somewhere; we've been better friends than they are!"

"Mate, leave us out of this," Harry said calmly from beside the fireplace.

Ron turned on him, "What? Are you siding with her now!?"

"Ron, calm down," Ginny pleaded, "Calm down so you can think rationally and—"

"I BLOODY AM RATIONAL!" His face seemed to impossibly redden even more as he shouted at his sister.

Hermione started, "Ron, I know I haven't explained to you what's going on but--"

"Spit it out," he shouted impatiently as he turned back to her.

Draco stepped between the two so he was toe-to-toe with Ron and spoke in a dangerous tone. "She's trying. If you're such a better friend than we are, why do you treat her like this?"

"You don't know her! Get the hell away from her," Ron roared before punching Malfoy across the face.

"Malfoy," Hermione shouted. Draco stumbled from the blow and grasped his cheek.

Blaise stepped forward and punched Ron's jaw. "That was for my best friend."

He punched Ron in the gut. "And that was for my sister."

Harry's eyes widened at the noted relationship and he glanced at Ginny's unsurprised face.

"Blaise," Carmina shouted, appalled at his behavior.

"Stupefy!" Draco had pulled out his wand and directed the spell at Ron who was now stunned.

The room stilled and everything was suddenly silent. Harry stepped forward with a sigh to Hermione. Draco and Blaise tensed.

"Hermione, I don't know what's really going on or why you're here. But I don't understand why you didn't trust us enough to tell us anything, anything at all." He didn't sound angry at all, but he sounded disappointed, which was far worse. He sighed and picked up Ron from underneath the arms and dragged him to the fireplace taking floo power from the pot and leaving.

Hermione turned to Ginny waiting for words of disappointment even though Ginny had already known. Instead, Ginny stepped forward arms outstretched.

"I'm sorry," Ginny said giving her friend a hug. "I'm going to make sure Ron's alright, but I'll be back later, okay?"

Hermione nodded and her friend disappeared into the flames. She sighed and turned around to come face-to-face with her father.

He was still staring at the spot where Ginny had left from. "How did they do that?"

He looked at the forgotten wand in Draco's hand. "How did you do that?"

Carmina opened and closed her mouth at a loss for words. "I wanted to tell you sooner, but I was scared that you would reject me for it, that you would leave," she whispered.

He looked at her incredulously, "What are you?"

She looked at him sadly. "I'm a witch. Blaise and Draco are wizards."

It was her father's turn to be at a loss. He looked at his daughter, "Hermione, did you know about this?"

She looked at her feet, "I'm a witch too, dad."

If he hadn't been surprised before, he was certainly caught off-guard now. "You? My daughter, a witch?"

"You would have found out within three years if you hadn't left."

Her father looked around the room from his daughter and his nervous fiancée to his stepson-to-be and his friend. He shook his head slowly staring at the sudden strangers around him, "I have to think about this." He walked to the closet and grabbed a light sweater before going to the door.

"Wait," Hermione called, "what is there to think about?"

"Everything," he replied before stepping out into the August air.

After he left, Carmina slumped on the sofa behind her looking catatonic and a silent tear rolled down her face. Blaise was beside her in two long strides and sat, holding the hand of his distressed mother. Hermione watched with a hollow heart and left wading slowly through denial to her upstairs room.

Draco walked into her room later only to find her sitting on the edge of her bed silently staring out of her window into the starless sky. He sat on the bed next to her but she didn't look at him. He reached for her hand and held it for only a moment before she turned and sobbed into his shoulder.

She cried, knowing that only a few days ago, she thought the world couldn't have been better.

* * *

Nearly two hours later, Blaise opened the door to his sister's room and was surprised to find her asleep in the arms of Draco Malfoy. He leaned against the doorframe and smiled a bittersweet smile.

A girl came next to him and leaned on the other. "They might not be together yet, but I think it's going to happen soon, don't you," asked Ginny Weasley smiling.

He looked down at her. "I think," he said slowly, "that they would like that very much."

She beamed as they both turned to fondly watch the sleeping pair.

A/N;; Woah. Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you? I apologize that it has taken me nearly a year to come up with one chapter. I had a epiphany a week ago and my writer's block was over. I'll try to update more this summer.

And once again, the plot diagrams have vanished with the sudden turn of events I didn't even expect.

Review and check out my profile page for the offical banner (I fixed the links, promise.)