A noisy sipping from the armchair, and Blaise smiled at her over his glass once her attention returned to him.

"Granger, pull up a chair. Let's catch up." He crossed one leg over the other, and his eyes sparkled.

She gaped at him, blinking quickly before closing down her features and centering her mind.

"I've just come to... to clear the air. About… something." She glanced to Draco quickly, seeing him sitting up in bed as much as he could, leaning slightly to his right. "And—and I have… so… Enjoy your visit," she said, nodding to Zabini. She hurried to the door, pulling it open, and in a moment of sheer impulse, tossed back over her shoulder, "Happy birthday, Draco," before sliding through and shutting the door behind her.

Her fingers shook.

She'd called him Draco.

She'd wished him a happy birthday.

Which implied that she knew his birthday.

Hermione groaned, running her fingers through her hair and tugging at the roots as she stomped back to her own room.

~*~

She was still blushing when she got out of the shower an hour later, having allowed her mind to concoct all the different ways Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy might have reacted to her flustered intrusion and intimate birthday sentiments.

Sighing, she placed her embarrassment onto a shelf in her mind, putting it away for now. She slipped on her bathrobe and tossed her wet hair up in a knot, exiting to her bedroom.

Blaise Zabini sat in her armchair, flipping through one of her books, sipping on her afternoon tea. He smiled at her from across the room, eyes slipping down to her bare legs before returning to her face.

"The water temperature is decadent, isn't it?"

Hermione pulled tightly at her bathrobe, feeling her heart pound in her fingertips. She knew little of Zabini at school, only that he had been an absolute cad from fifth year onwards. She hadn't seen him at the Battle of Hogwarts — something that neither earned nor lost him points in her book.

"How did you get in here?" Her voice was stronger than she felt.

He waved his hand. "Yes, it was quite difficult to find, actually. Notice-Me-Nots and the like." He crossed his legs and smirked. "But I knew it would be close."

"No. How did you get in?" she demanded. "There are supposed to be… Blood Boundaries, or…" She didn't know. She just knew that Draco changed the spells after Bellatrix.

"Ah, yes," he said, placing his teacup — her teacup, really — on the side table. "That did take a few tries. I had to convince the room that I wasn't here to cause harm to the occupant."

Her relief sharpened into irritation when his eyes dripped down to her legs again. "If you keep looking at me like that, hopefully the room will see fit to eject you. Violently."

His eyes sparkled. "Oh, no, no. My thoughts are of nothing but mutual pleasure, Granger. Rest assured."