The night went on much like this. Hermione, drifting between the couch near the fire and wherever Blaise and Theo might be, stayed relatively steady on her feet, despite her steadily increasing fatigue. She managed a cordial, though stunted, conversation with Daphne and Adrian, both of whom tried (and failed) to mask their curiosity at her return to England and, in Daphne's case, her relationship with Blaise. Hermione found that conversation particularly grating, given that the woman was married and why the hell did everyone care about her friendship with Blaise anyway? The man in question was keeping a careful distance from her, never terribly far away but not hovering, which Hermione appreciated. Despite his tendencies to overstep, to romanticize what was, essentially, a friends with benefits relationship, he was a good and perceptive friend.