Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, it is the property of the brilliant J.K Rowling. This story is the product of her marvellous characters and world and my imagination.

Title: Secrets

Author: Keira-House M.D.

Pairing: Hermione/Blaise

Summary: Gryffindors weren't supposed to be sneaky and have secrets - that was a Slytherin prerogative. But who ever said Hermione was an average Gryffindor.

Enjoy the story, constructive criticism is most welcome, I always like to know how to improve my fics.

Secrets

Hermione's first secret: she often despairs at the terribly Gryffindor traits such as rashness which tend to lead Harry, Ron and (unfortunately) her into danger and threat of injury or death. Sometimes she just wishes she had been placed in Ravenclaw - even less often she thinks that maybe Slytherin wouldn't have been too bad either.

"Why are you looking over to the Slytherin table Mione," asked Ron in between shovelling mouthfuls of dinner into his mouth.

"I was just thinking about how annoying Malfoy has been recently, especially since I've had to start working with him as Head Girl because he somehow got appointed Head Boy. I swear he's the first person I know who has managed to use the word mudblood about ten times in just one sentence."

That set both Harry and Ron off of course and they were soon engaged in making up the worst insults they could think of for Malfoy, while Hermione glanced once more at the Slytherin table before turning back to her breakfast, relieved that Harry and Ron's suspicion had been averted.

Despite what she had told her best friends, it had not been Malfoy she had been thinking about, but another Slytherin entirely. She wasn't about to tell them that though, they may hate Malfoy more than any Slytherin, despite the temporary improvement in his personality after his father had been sent to prison for his part in the Department of Mysteries fiasco where Sirius had almost fallen into the veil, but they weren't fond of any Slytherins and she didn't want them angry with her.

How was a Gryffindor, especially the best muggleborns friend of Harry Potter, supposed to tell her friends that she had fallen totally and irrevocably in love with an enigmatic and mysterious Slytherin by the name of Blaise Zabini.

It had been about a year and a half since the Department of Mysteries, and the trio was now in the first term of their seventh year. Malfoy had gone back to his usual self as soon as his father had escaped Azkaban and Voldemort was still loose in the wizarding world, though he appeared to have been driven underground by the efforts of the Order.

Hogwarts had remained open, despite the fact that Voldemort's death eaters had almost succeeded in killing Dumbledore. Their headmaster had been severely weakened by the Hocrux hunt at the end of their sixth year and it was only some pretty quick wandwork on his part, and Harry's calls for help, which had saved the old wizard. Thanks to a strict regime of potions from Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall managing to berate him into rest, Dumbledore had made an almost complete recovery, though his blackened hand would never return to its original state.

Hermione had been appointed Head Girl at the start of their seventh year, something which had surprised no one, though that didn't stop the Slytherins constantly complaining about it. Personally, Hermione thought they didn't have much reason to complain, since they'd got Draco as Head Boy.

She couldn't really argue and appeal about Draco's status as Headboy, something Ron, Harry and some of the other Gryffindors did at least once a week without fail, because it had been having to share a room with Draco that had brought her closer to Blaise.

Blaise was Draco's best friend, and though most of the female attention settled on the former, Blaise certainly had his own set of charms. He was tall, not quite as tall as Draco, but his six foot three frame towered over her petite form and his bright green eyes were striking against his chocolate skin and silky black hair.

Hermione had, as she'd grown older and prettier, had her fair share of admirers, from Krum in her fourth year, Dean in her fifth and a brief, and very ill-advised dalliance with one Cormac McLaggen in her sixth year (which had ended when she kicked him in his 'private area' after he tried to go further than she wanted to.

Blaise had been different though, the other boys had been fleeting fancies and, she would freely admit to herself, it was mostly the fact that they actually showed interest in her that made them attractive to her. Hermione, with her wild head of chocolate curls, frightening intelligence and a beauty that was only noticed once you'd looked a few times, didn't have too many boys chasing after her and so it had been a total surprise when Blaise had shown some interest in her.

Hermione's second secret: she was completely and irrevocably falling for Blaise Zabini.

It had been a rather stressful day, only three days into term and already Malfoy was annoying the hell out of her. She knew Dumbledore had appointed him as Head Boy because he wanted to promote unity at a time when it was sorely needed, and she also knew that despite his personality Malfoy Junior was not nearly as dangerous as his father, other death eaters or Voldemort. That didn't stop him being a total ass though.

She really didn't know any other witch or wizard who found could find so many ways to slip the word Mudblood into a conversation, even the other Slytherins weren't so bad. It wasn't insulting, or not that insulting at least, for Malfoy at least had the sense not to mean such disgraceful words in such a tense climate, but it was just annoying and aggravating.

She responded of course, she was a Gryffindor after all and many reported hearing arguments coming from the Head quarters with words like 'mudblood', 'ferret' and 'imbecile' being regularly used. It didn't matter how much Dumbledore pushed them to get along, or how much McGonagall or Snape reluctantly pointed out that they should be more polite, the two just couldn't get along.

Blaise seemed to find the arguments she and Draco had rather amusing, something his best friend wasn't particularly pleased about. Harry and Ron didn't come by the Head Common Room that much - they didn't want to run into Malfoy or any Slytherins - but Draco had Blaise over often. She did wonder why he never invited the other Slytherins, but soon realised that Blaise was really his one true friend. She thought it must be rather lonely to be a Slytherin, Crabbe and Goyle were muscle, not friends, Pansy was a simpering doll trying to climb the social ladder and the rest of them were just looking for the power Draco offered. Blaise had what he wanted and he wasn't using Draco, he just wanted to be his friend.

Hermione's questions about his friendship with Draco were what started her first conversation with him. They'd been left alone as Draco ran off to shower after Quidditch practice - "I can't be arsed to get rid of you Granger, so just try not to bore poor Blaise while he waits."

She'd blushed of course, because she'd already realised how attractive she found Malfoy's best friend and she doesn't like being made a fool of in front of anyone, especially not someone she fancies. Thankfully he hadn't noticed and she'd somehow found the courage to voice the question that had been bothering her.

"Why are you friends with Malfoy?"

It had been blurted out rather quickly and Blaise had raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly, but the answer he gave her had been perfectly serious and had helped her understand the friendship a lot better.

"Draco can be a bastard a lot of the time," he told her frankly, "but he is also a loyal friend, when one has managed to earn his loyalty that is. For so long he thought the world of his father, followed him in everything, including the persecution of muggleborns and blood traitors" - she noticed the way he didn't say Mudbloods - "but now his father is on the run, a criminal, and things have collapsed. I'm his friend because he doesn't have to be fake with me, the others are after his influence but I don't want it, nor do I want his money (I have enough of my own), I'm his friend because I want to be."

Blaise had looked at her wryly then, "I know he annoys you, Merlin knows I'd be pissed if he acted like he does with you around me, but he's not so bad really. To be honest he's a lost boy who's whole world and beliefs came crashing down on him and now he's trying to find a place in the world without doing something stupid and ending up arrested or dead."

The way Blaise had explained it had made her feel almost sorry for Malfoy, something Harry and Ron would surely have had an aneurism about. Blaise grinned, probably at the fact that the scowl on her face showed her annoyance at not being able to hate Malfoy anymore - not that she'd ever really hated him.

She so wanted to talk more with Blaise, he was engaging, amusing and he seemed to have the ability to see past façades and too the person underneath. However, just as she was about to open her mouth and speak, Draco came down the stairs from his room, drawling on about some hot Slytherin girl. He gave her a glare, one that blatantly showed his wish for her to be gone, and she rolled her eyes, getting up from her seat to go to her own room. Draco didn't spare her a goodbye glance, but as she looked back at Blaise he gave her a wink and she found herself falling even more for him.

She hadn't seen Blaise again properly for another week or two, though he made sure to either smile or wink at her every time they saw each other in passing - without Draco, Harry, Ron or anyone else noticing of course. The next time she spoke to him was one day when she was rather bored - Harry, Ron and Ginny had gone out to practice Quidditch, Neville was in Charms making up the work he'd missed on a sick day and Luna was chasing Snorlacks or Nargles or some other strange creature.

Normally she wouldn't have minded, enjoying the peace and quiet to do her work, but she'd finished every scrap of work, had checked it five times over and now had nothing much to do. She would have gone to the library, but Madame Pince was enjoying an incredibly rare day off and her book sanctuary wouldn't be open until the late afternoon.

Hermione had been rather confused when Blaise turned up at the door to the Head Common Room with a Charms book tucked under his arm and a smile on his face. She was even more confused when she realised he was there for her.

Hermione's third secret: she didn't actually spend all her time working, despite the assumptions. If she'd actually had anything interesting to do (and that didn't include Quidditch or sneaking into the kitchens) then she would have abandoned her school work for an afternoon, perhaps even a whole day.

"Draco isn't here you know, he's got a detention with Professor McGonagall for messing around in Transfiguration and she'll keep him there for at least another hour."

"It's not him I came to see Hermione."

She stood there, mouth open slightly, unable to speak for a number of reasons; Blaise was being polite, he had called her by her first name and he wasn't there to speak to Draco - and the only other person staying there was her.

"Close your mouth Hermione, you'll catch flies."

She shook herself out of her shock and closed her mouth quickly, pink staining her cheeks and a scowl on her face, "why are you here then, if not to speak to Mal- Draco. After all the only other person here is me and I can't fathom why you'd choose to speak to a muggleborn voluntarily."

He grinned at her, "who says I'm not here to speak to you, I see nothing wrong in wanting to have a conversation with someone who doesn't think about political advantages, familial connections and money every second of the day. You are a rather refreshing breath of air after all the conniving Slytherins I see day after day."

"I'm afraid you've confused me a little Zabini, aren't I one of those filthy mudbloods who ruin Hogwarts and disgrace the name of wizardry."

"My name is Blaise, you can use it, and anyway I'm not a stupid pureblood supremacist, you're the cleverest in our year which just goes to show that blood really doesn't matter."

Hermione smiled slightly, Blaise was obviously different to the likes of Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, less prejudiced and more polite. It became more and more apparent as they talked. It had been only polite for Hermione to invite him in, though she got the feeling that he would have entered the Common Room anyway, even if she had refused him.

The hour Blaise had stayed had been one of the best she'd had in a while; he'd brought his Charms work, having trouble with one of the more difficult concepts and hoping she could help. It hadn't taken long, he was intelligent and quickly grasped things as she explained them. The conversation soon turned to other things - hobbies, likes, dislikes, the sort of thing friends chatted about.

She liked the sound of that - friends - and she now knew plenty about him, how he only played Quidditch for Slytherin because Draco had asked him to (he would rather just do it for fun), that he hated Butterbeer with a passion, but adored Honeydukes chocolate. It was amazing how much could be discovered about a person in such a short amount of time.

Hermione's fourth secret: she still didn't like Quidditch all that much, she doubted she ever would. However, it seemed that when Blaise explained it she took a whole lot more in and actually started to understand why people could like it so much. Whenever Harry and Ron spoke about it they just seemed to spew team names, statistics and moves with complex names. She'd never tell her two best friends that a Slytherin inspired more interest in the game than they had.

Hermione soon found out she and Blaise had a lot in common, both intelligent, hardworking students, though Blaise laughingly pointed out that he did take breaks and have fun occasionally. It was teasing, but it was light-hearted and she found she much preferred it to the slightly mean, occasionally harsh comments that came from Harry and Ron - they never had really understood her thirst for learning.

Blaise's leaving came much too soon for Hermione, to whom school work and extra-curricular projects now looked dull in comparison to conversation with her new friend. However, she found herself confused, but pleased, when he leant over and kissed her quickly on the cheek before giving her his customary wink and walking out of the room.

There hadn't been a verbal promise to return, nor a defining of their relationship, but somehow she knew that he would be back and that she had found someone very special.

Hermione's fifth secret: she always scoffed at the girls who gushed about how you could tell if a boy was right for you from his kiss - she was much more logical than that. But secretly, she craved any kiss from Blaise and she had the strangest feeling that she knew he was right for her just from a kiss on the cheek. Merlin she was turning into a sappy girl.

Hermione had been right and Blaise had visited more and more frequently as the weeks went by, always when Draco was away somewhere else and when there was little chance of Harry, Ron, Ginny or any of Hermione's other friends coming over. There were close calls and despite the fact that to begin with all the pair was doing was talking, Hermione shuddered to think about how Malfoy, the Slytherins or any of her friends would react.

They never even verbally acknowledged it when their relationship slipped from friendship to romance; Blaise just kissed her one day and that was that. It was one of the things she loved about being with him, she didn't have to say anything but he still tended to understand.

There were many a rendezvous all over the castle when Draco was in the Head Rooms, and the pair sometimes escaped to the Room of Requirement if it had become difficult to avoid Harry and Ron. Hermione had been worried about the problems the Marauder's Map might cause but she borrowed it for a night from Harry and charmed it so that three days later she disappeared off the map. Harry and Ron had come to her, curious about why her dot was no longer visible, but she had talked vaguely about experimenting with a spell to mask her magical core that was probably the cause and they had bought her explanation easily.

It was so easy really, to fool her very best friends, and she was sad about that, for it shouldn't be that way. She loved Harry and Ron to bits, but they could be some of the most oblivious boys. Ginny was a little more difficult, but she could be diverted with Harry, while all you had to do with Luna was start discussing one of her mythical creatures (though Hermione had a sinking feeling that Luna knew exactly what her relationship with Blaise was like, the ethereal witch just knew things like that).

Hermione's sixth secret: despite the contempt with which she has always spoken about students who get caught in compromising positions in empty classrooms and broom cupboards, she is ashamed to admit to herself that once she and Blaise started (secretly) dating, she had her fair share of trysts in classrooms and broom cupboards.

As winter passes and spring comes the weather warms - as warm as it gets in Scotland - and the evenings and mild enough to allow for strolls outside. Not that Hermione and Blaise do such a thing when anyone could watch, they were trying to keep a secret after all.

She would sneak out of her room every few nights, using a disillusionment charm and going to meet Blaise so they could just wander together in the open air. He taught her all about the stars and constellations, while she made him laugh with her scepticism of Sibyl Trelawney and her amusing impressions of the batty witch.

Those nights, and stolen moments in empty corridors, were really the only time they had together, yet their relationship was stronger than many they saw everyday. Perhaps it was just that they'd found their other half, maybe it was the fact that they didn't spend all their time together as other couples did, so they never had a real chance to see each other's faults.

Hermione didn't think that was true though, despite not talking during their first seven years, they'd had enough classes together to know that she had know-it-all tendencies, he could be sarcastic, she could be bossy and he had a temper.

His temper was a Hogwarts legend, though he'd never unleashed it on her before. She'd heard stories though, of dark eyes and an aura of fire and power. All she knew for sure was that he never ended up in trouble and she had a feeling that anyone who got on the wrong side of his temper was too scared to say anything.

His temper was probably linked to the passion he had; for her, for getting rid of "that bloody git the Dark Lord." He wouldn't say His name, but he certainly had no respect for Voldemort and Hermione admired that - if only Harry, Ron and the Order could see that not all Slytherins were sneaky and out to serve Voldemort. But of course, hell would probably have to freeze over for that to happen, they barely accepted Snape and he had done loads for the light side.

Hermione's seventh secret: she's chastised her friends, not to mention students of all ages from all four houses for disregarding the curfew rules put in place for their safety. It just isn't safe for young students to be wandering around at all hours of the night when any death eater could catch them. Of course, the secret is that she's just as bad as them, sneaking out to take walks with Blaise, but she can't help it - love does funny things to people, even Hermione Granger.

Blaise came to her one night with a serious look on his face that wasn't at all normal, and told her how his housemates had been talking about gaining the dark mark. He wasn't happy, he didn't like the idea of his friends risking their lives for a madman, especially Draco, whose father made sure he had no choice but to be marked.

Blaise wasn't sought after by Voldemort, his family was notorious for remaining neutral in everything. Blaise himself had an opinion - he wished Voldemort to be gone - but he wasn't sure whether or not he would make a true stand on it. Hermione could understand, after all his family had never been on either side of a war and he didn't want to put them in danger, but the selfish part of her wishes he would join the light, go to Dumbledore, so perhaps they could be together a little more openly. She wouldn't impose that on him though, it wasn't fair and he did so much for her already by just being there.

So she and Blaise went through the days with their respective friends, and the nights with each other to lean on. They learnt more about one another, danced in the moonlight (and even the rain sometimes), laughed, talked and tried to forget the war around them. They fell deeper in love and Hermione prayed for the day that her secrets could be revealed.

Hermione's final secret: she feels very bad whenever she does this, but sometimes Hermione thinks about how she would prefer just to run away from wizarding Britain with Blaise. Leave everything; school, her friends and the war, behind and start anew in a beautiful country when they were just two people, not Hermione and Blaise, not a Gryffindor or a Slytherin. She just wants to run to somewhere she can be herself, where she doesn't have to hide her relationship with Blaise. It was selfish, but that's why its one of her secrets.

So she and Blaise will just have to wait … wait for a world more tolerant to a Gryffindor/Slytherin union, a time when every Slytherin wouldn't be under suspicion and when the danger of Voldemort had passed.

It could be months, it could be years, but they will wait it out together until the war is over … or until they are dead in an attempt to end it.

Hopefully they'll get their happily ever after, but with war you can just never be sure - until then, Hermione would keep her secrets.

I've posted this story while I'm working on a number of multi-chapter fics (mostly Harry Potter), though I'm unsure when I'll next start posting one. I really should update 'Rebuilding', but I have no inspiration for that story at the moment.

By the way, if any of you are sad about the ending, in my mind they both make it through the war (along with the rest of the Order) and live happily ever after, though there would be the whole 'you can't date a Slytherin' argument before everyone was happy. However, if you want to imagine some angsty ending where they both die or something then feel free.