A/N: Written in response to Jenna McCoy's Lyric Challenge 2. The song, of which I had to use at least two lines of lyrics, is This is How a Heart Breaks by Rob Thomas. My pairing was Blaise/Hermione.

"Hey, it's hard on me, too, 'Mione."

"Well it doesn't bloody well seem like it!"

She was leaving me. Dumbledore was dead, and she and her idiot friends were off to complete some insane and dangerous mission that she could tell me nothing about. Emotions weren't really my forte, but how could she not see that it was killing me?

I lightly grasped her by her shoulders and pulled her in for a searing kiss. "I love you. I'll miss you. But I'm not going to hold you back. Whatever you're doing, it's important, right?"

She nodded sadly. "More important than I could ever explain…"

"Then you have to do it. You and Weasley and Potter, well, from what I hear, you three are our only hope against Voldemort." I pressed my lips against her forehead. "So you go. You do your thing. And then you bloody well come back to me, got it?" I didn't even bother to try to keep the sincerity from my voice. Letting her go… it made a mess out of me.And this was it, the train would pull into the station any minute now, and we might never see each other again. Tears were spilling down her cheeks now, reaffirming the thought so rampant in my mind.

I took her hands gently in one of mine and reached into my pocket. This is it now… I thought nervously, pulling out a simple but elegant diamond ring. Her tears ceased instantly and she stared at me in bewilderment.

"Blaise, are you-" she blinked furiously. "You're not-?"

"Proposing?" I asked with a light laugh. "No, love, I'm not." Before the questions filtered past her shock, I decided to steel myself and continue. "But, I do love you, 'Mione. And I want to be with you, for always… So, wear this for me? Promise to be mine when this is all over? Promise to come back to me?"

With each second in which she looked at me almost blankly, my anxiety grew, until finally she shoved my shoulder and laughed exasperatedly. "Like I need a stupid ring to remind me that I belong with you! You are so-"

"Charming? Suave? Debonaire? Amazing?" I supplied with a smirk, my worry now erased.

She narrowed her eyes playfully. "Stupid."

"Maybe," I grinned, kissing her softly. "But you'll wear it anyway?"

Her eyes glittered a little, like she might start crying again, and she shook a little, extending her hand to me.

The train stopped as I slid the ring onto her finger and she was suddenly in my arms – whether of my device or of hers – and I held her as tightly and as gently as I could.

Our goodbye lasted an eternity, and somehow also was the most fleeting moment I'd ever experienced. I watched her run over to her parents, carefully masking her sadness and her worry, protecting them as always – protecting them as I wished I could do for her. And then she was gone, and I was standing, stricken, before the motionless train. I couldn't help but think that, like an angry dream, I was stranded – as immobile as the Hogwarts Express – just waiting for some near-impossible future when she would come back to me.