Chapter 6
It was two days until Pansy was to return back to Paris and Blaise was bored. And when Blaise was bored his favorite thing to do was go and bother Hermione for lunch. He flood into the French Ministry and walked down the hall to the far right of the building to the Potions Department. He waved at her receptionist and walked directly into her office. He knew when her lunch time was and knew that the past two weeks Teo had been working through his lunch breaks in order to finish the potion by the time Hermione took her maternity leave.
Hermione sat at her desk waiting for the arrival of Blaise. He didn’t mention he was coming by but she knew that he was lonely without Pansy and he always took her to lunch when she was gone. No more than two minutes after noon she heard a knock on her door and looked up to see Blaise’s smiling face.
“Ready for lunch my favorite pregnant lady?”
“Blaise, I am the only pregnant woman you know.”
“Exactly! Which is why you are my favorite pregnant woman.” She couldn’t help but laugh as he helped her out of her work chair. They walked across the Atrium and decided that the cafeteria food would be good today since Hermione’s back was absolutely killing her. Blaise wasn’t too picky when it came to food and the food at the French Ministry was almost as good as his food at his restaurant. Hermione had settled on a simple spaghetti while Blaise had decided on a sandwich.
“So how’s the nursery coming along? I know when Matteo bought the house for you he did it because the room directly across from the master would be perfect for a nursery. Has he finished yet?”
“I see him in there when I wake up from my afternoon naps on the weekend but he won’t let me see it yet, says it’s a surprise. Though I don’t know how he’s going to decorate it yet since we don’t know what we are having.”
“Probably something neutral. You know, like a zoo theme or possibly quidditch.” That earned a hearty smack on the arm from Hermione and Blaise couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m kidding, he knows how much you dislike quidditch, I’m sure the entire wizarding world knows how much you dislike quidditch Hermione. I wouldn’t worry about it honestly. You know he loves to make you happy.”
Hermione couldn’t help but smile. “I know and I’m sure however he does it, it will look amazing.”
“Of course. Now when do you lovebirds plan on getting married? I knew you talked about March but will that be too close to the baby’s birth date?”
“Well, we actually decided last night to just get a marriage certificate here at the ministry next week since I know Pansy would kill me in my sleep if I did it while she was out of the country. Then have a small intimate ceremony with our closest friends sometime after the baby is born.”
“I am so happy for you Hermione. Also I’m glad you recognize Pansy killing you cause that’s exactly what she would do if she found out she missed it.” The two laughed and talked for another 30 minutes. Hermione was about to get up and head back to her office when she heard a loud explosion that shook the entire ministry. She wasn’t sure where exactly it came from but about two minutes later she saw the aurors run from off the lift straight down the hallway to the potions department and her heart immediately sank. She got up from her chair and ran as fast as she could across the atrium and down the hallway to the lab. She was stopped by the aurors and Blaise had to physically restrain her from slipping her wand out and hexing them. Not even a minute later healers were rushing past them in their white robes down the hallway. It had been about 30 minutes later when the healers and aurors came back, not a single person behind them.
“Where are they!?” Hermione yelled. “Where is everyone from the lab?”
“I’m sorry miss but we are not able to give any news until we’ve spoken to the family.”
“I am family! My fiancé and the father of my unborn child was down there. Please, please tell me what happened.”
The head healer looked at her with sad eyes and asked her to follow him back to the hospital. Hermione had taken this as a good sign, she grabbed on to Blaise’s hand and they flood behind the healer. They followed him down a long hallway, about halfway through Hermione could have sworn the temperature dropped a whole ten degrees and stopped behind the healer as he stood in front of very sterile looking double doors. She placed a hand on her bump protectively and squeezed onto Blaise’s hand to make sure he was still there. She felt him softly squeeze back.
“Now Miss?”
“Granger sir, Hermione Granger. My fiancé is Matteo De Luca. Can I please see him now?”
“Of course Miss Granger. Just know this will be hard to look at, the potion that exploded was a very aggressive potion and he may not look the same.” Hermione could care less about his looks; she just needed him. She didn’t trust her voice so she just nodded. When the healer opened the double doors her heart immediately felt like it exploded. What she wasn’t expecting was for 5 stretchers lined up next to each other, each with a body covered by a body bag. Hermione immediately fell to her knees and began to sob. She couldn’t even understand what the healer was saying as she felt her world come crashing down around her. She felt strong arms wrap around her and pull her into a tight hug. She wasn’t even sure how long she stood there for, crying against Blaise’s chest. She just felt numb, like someone had come and sucked all the joy and happiness from her soul. She knew what the healer needed. He needed Hermione to identify his body. His dead, chard, bloody and blistered body. She knew what that potion would do to someone if it exploded. She told him time and time again and he promised to be careful. Promised if it did explode it would only be small and would smoke beforehand so they could use a spell to contain it. He lied.
She finally had the strength to pull away from Blaise and went down to the first stretcher. Healer Miles lifted up the bag and Hermione immediately shook her head. It went like that two more times before he finally reached the fourth body. He lifted the bag up and she immediately screamed out. There he was. Dead. She could still see the curls that he had let grow out and his strong chiseled jaw. His skin was no longer soft and smooth, it was burned and covered in blisters. She felt sick, she ran to the closest trash can and threw up her entire lunch. She stood there for about 10 minutes before she could move again.
Hermione had never felt so empty. So alone. The love of her life was taken from her by a freak accident and there was nothing she could do to fix it. She wished she could join him in death right then. She knew she had to go on for their child, her unborn baby. But how could she when she knew that they would grow up without the love from their father. From him.
“That’s him, the fourth one.”
The healer nodded his head and made a note on his clipboard. He zipped the bag back up and spelled all five body’s back in the morgue.
“What happens now?” Blaise asked.
“Well now that Miss Granger has identified him and we know exactly what killed him as we’ve already performed a magical autopsy on him. She or his family can make the necessary funeral arrangements and that’s it.”
“He has no family, it’s just me.” Hermione finally spoke up.
“Very well, dear. Take all the time you need and please let me know when arrangements are made.”
Hermione just nodded her head. She needed to get out of here. It felt too cold, too much like death. She felt like the walls were closing in on her and she needed to escape. She rushed past Blaise and ran out the door down the hallway they came down before. She rushed past other healers and before she reached the end of the hallway, someone had run into her side with a stretcher. Hermione felt herself fall to the floor but the world went black after.
Blaise rushed to her side and picked her up yelling at the healer that hit her. Another healer came to see what the commotion was and everyone stopped when they saw the blood coming from Hermione’s pants. The healers lifted Hermione up onto an empty stretcher and took her immediately into surgery, making Blaise sit back in a waiting room alone. He had sent Pansy a Patronus telling her that she needed to come back now and to meet him at the hospital once she got to Paris.
About an hour later a disheveled looking Pansy rushed through the doors looking for her fiancé. When she found Blaise all he could do was wrap his arms around her and cry. She had never seen Blaise cry before so she knew what happened was nothing short of something absolutely terrible.