On God?

Chapter 46

in which she starts to heal

"Blair? You want to go up to the roof with me?" I heard a soft voice ask from the door.

I turned from where I was sitting, a chair drawn up by the window to stare at the street below. There were several figures sitting on benches, wrapped in black cloaks and staring at my house. They were most certainly Death Eaters.

Blaise was leaning his left side on the doorframe, arms crossed as he watched me with a careful expression.

"It'll be sunset soon. They look pretty cool from up there. Better than in here, at least."

I stood up, giving him a smile. "Yeah, I'd love to. Is it just gonna be us two?"

"Uh yeah. Emma is preoccupied trying teach Kreacher how to make brownies, and Theo just grunted at me and waved me off."

I giggled, reaching for the blanket folded at the foot of my bed. "Alright then, hopefully Emma doesn't burn the house down while we're up there."

We were half way up the many, many stairs when I felt myself begin to tire. I hadn't gotten any exercise in Malfoy Manor, and my muscles had gone weak. I paused, trying to catch my breath as I held onto the railing, glancing upwards at the many stairs we had yet to go.

"Do you want me to carry you up?" Blaise asked gently, and I turned away, gritting my teeth as I took another step forward.

"No. I'm fine." I said, beginning the next set of stairs up.

"Blair, don't push yourself too hard, it's going to take a while to get all your strength back-" Blaise started, and I whirled to face him.

"I said, I'm fine! I feel perfectly fine, I'm strong enough to walk up a stupid flight of stairs!" I exclaimed.

Blaise was silent, nodding at me.

It took a few more minutes to get the roof, but the sore muscles were worth it when I made it up.

He had set up a small space on the roof, a blanket cushioning us from the stone that we would sit on, some food, and two glasses of Butterbeer.

"Geez Blaise, this is...wow." I said lamely, moving on shaky legs to sit down. "You really didn't have to go through the trouble of all this."

"Nonsense. I wanted to." Blaise said, sitting down next to me and pulling the sandwiches closer. "Eat, I know you're hungry." He offered, glancing up at me.

"Damn right I am." I muttered, grabbing one and taking a bite. "Where did you get these?" I asked after I had finished chewing. "Or did Kreacher make them?"

"Actually...I made them." Blaise sounded vaguely embarrassed as he replied, and I glanced over at him. "Why, are they terrible?"

"No, they're actually really good." I said, a light blush lighting up my face.

"Of course they are. Anyone can make a sandwich." Blaise rolled his eyes.

"Anyone can cook." I muttered under my breath, brought back to one of my favorite childhood movies, Ratatouille.

"What was that?"

"Oh nothing. Just remembering the story of a rat that knew how to cook." I hummed, taking another bite of the sandwich.

"...I can't understand if that's a comparison to something." Blaise said, amusement lacing his tone.

"No no no! It's an actual story, so there's this guy named Linguini, and a rat named Remi, and a girl named Collette..."

We spent the few hours like that, sitting until the moon was out as I explained the plot of my favorite Disney movie to Blaise, often using my hands to express vividly.