Chapter 10
A/N:I am sooooooooo sorry about the delay! But I hope this nice long chapter makes up for it a little. As always Read, Review and Enjoy! Love, Saylin
Aspen became aware of the fact that there was a boy face down in her cleavage. He was straddled with his legs spread on either side her hips. She was all but pinned down with the weight of the anonymous boy, but she could at least move her legs from the knees down. She looked over at Blaise and much to her amusement he was in a similar situation with Hermione Granger splayed across his torso and chest. But with her face smushed in his crotch.
Blaise was slowly becoming aware of the fact that the girl of his dreams was facedown in his crotch. She bolted upright and replaced her face with her hand and pushed herself off him using the hand as leverage. Blaise let out a yelp of pain and shot up. Causing Hermione to be thrown painfully once more. Only this time she landed on top of Aspen and Neville who were still trying to disentangle themselves.
Together they rolled farther down the drive. They were stopped by a seemingly invisible force in front of one of the carriages. Blaise ran over as fast as he could he watched Aspen's eyes open wide in shock.
"Don't you see them?" she screamed from underneath Neville and Hermione. By now the entire student body was inside except for them. The carriages began to pull away and Aspen threw Hermione and Neville off her and grabbed Blaise's hand. She dragged him over to one of the still stationary carriages and put his hand on something residing between the hitches. The horseless carriages were no longer horseless.
"If you don't see it, you at have to feel it don't you?" She inquired desperately. Mesmerized Blaise ran his hands over the supposedly non-existent animal.
"It's a thestral." Piped a very red, frizzy, and rumpled Hermione who was currently helping up Neville. "We rode them last year…" she trailed off obviously not wanting to talk about the infamous department of mysteries adventure.
"Don't worry about not being able to see them." Neville said quietly. "You can only see them if you experienced death first hand or seen it." With that he turned towards the school and started slowly to walk back up the drive to the school. Leaving Blaise, Aspen and Hermione standing in an uncomfortable silence. Blaise and Hermione locked eyes for an instant. They stared into the depths of each other's eyes seemingly soul searching until Hermione whirled around marched up to the school.
After about five minutes Blaise turned to follow Hermione but he had only walked about ten paces when he realized that Aspen wasn't beside him. He turned around and saw her still standing where the Thestral had once been. Her shoulders were hunched down and she was staring down at her shoes. He went back to where she was standing and offered her his hand. She looked up at him with big scared eyes, but smiled slowly as she took his hand. Together they walked into the hall.
All became silent when they walked into the hall. But Blaise just nodded o Dumbledore and kept on walking. Aspen was visibly shaken by the number of people looking at her. She clutched his hand with a white-knuckling death grip while her nails were digging into his skin. He just kept walking serenely until they reached the prefect table and they both sat down and began to eat with out paying any notice to the attention being paid to them. Gradually the normal din was restored to the hall and they finished their meal in peace.
Hermione Granger wasn't a jealous person. But seeing the boy she had just rolled around on the ground and shared such an amazing moment with earlier that day stroll into the hall hand in hand with the balloon bra strumpet was more than she could handle. She was just about to get up to leave when both Harry and Ron seized both of her arms and forced her to stay in her seat. She kept shooting glances at them through out the meal and hardly paid attention to the announcements made by Dumbledore.
She was shaken out of her stupor when Harry and Ron both seized her arms and lifted her bodily out of her seat. They stood her up and forced her into the throng of people exiting the hall. Just as she was about to leave the great hall she caught the eye of the strumpet. In space of a moment that they looked into each others eyes Hermione saw at least a dozen different emotions, but anger, sadness, fear, and for some reason most of all she saw apology. She opened her mouth as though to say something but was swallowed up by the crowd and by the time Hermione looked back she was gone.
Hermione, Harry and Ron ushered the First years up to the fat lady in the pink dress. She was sleeping so Hermione was waiting patiently for her to awaken. But Ron lost his temper and yelled "Oi!" the fat lady grunted and opened her eyes half-way. She swung forward to admit them but closed herself before Hermione could get through.
"You're the new prefect and I need you to come up with a new password!" Said the Pink Lady. And before Hermione could stop her self she blurted out strumpet. The pink lady gave her an odd look, but swung forward and gave her a nod. When Hermione got into the common room Ron and the first years were still waiting for her.
"Alright kids the password is strumpet. You have to say that every time you want to get back into the common room. Now girls to the left boys to the right." And with that Hermione sunk into the chair closest to the fire.
Harry and Ron said good-night to Hermione and headed towards their own dormitory. They were first ones to reach the dormitory out of the sixth year boys. But someone was waiting for them that wasn't Dobby.
George was standing by the window looking out at the stars. He turned and smiled at them when he heard them come in.
" 'Ello wankers!" he said as he went over to shakes their hands. Harry looked over at Ron who looked just as shocked as he did. Ron apparently had no idea that George was coming back
"George what are you doing here?" Harry asked still awestruck.
"Well unlike my brother I came back to finish my education. Now don't get me wrong the joke shop is still my goal in life but I just want to finish my education." This statement sounded almost Percy like but George made it his own when he added "Plus I couldn't resist having one more year to give Filch hell." He finished with a smile. With that George settled on an extra bed that Harry hadn't realized was there.
Aspen and Blaise waited in the hall until every one had left and went to go and speak to Dumbledore. He was sitting with his chin resting on his interlocked fingers staring up at the starry ceiling. As if pondering the meaning of life. He looked down at the two as they approached and smiled warmly. He surprised them by saying "I assume you're here to explain as to why you both walked in late." It was a statement not a question. Blaise blinked and looked over at Aspen who appeared to be having the same reaction.
"Why yes actually we were Professor. You see I told Blaise about the Thestrals but he didn't believe me so I grabbed his hand and started to pull him down the steps, but unfortunately we slammed into Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. And together we rolled down the hill and Neville was on top of me and Hermione was on top of Blaise. But then Hermione nut-honked Blaise and that sent Hermione flying into Neville and me and then we rolled some more…." Aspen must have realized that she had been babbling on and on. She turned very red and stopped talking. Dumbledore just smiled and had a very amused look in his eyes.
"My dear, I don't believe that I've ever heard the phrase 'nut-honked' in all my days as an educator. But if it means what I think it means then perhaps Mr.Zabini should pay a visit to Madam Pomfrey." Dumbledore couldn't resist to chuckle at this. Aspen and Blaise both turned very red. They were just about to leave when Aspen ran back and grabbed Dumbledore's arm to regain his attention.
"Umm, Professor I had some ideas that I was wondering if you would consider." Dumbledore looked intrigued by this and nodded his head for her to continue. "Well it all pertains to what the sorting hat to say. About standing together or we'll fall as one. Well I thought it might help inter-house relations if there were seasonal dances or something like that. In fact at my old school they had a Halloween masquerade and whoever you walked in with was your date or escort for the evening. And at midnight a bell would ring and every one take off their masks and see who their partner. But you're not allowed to tell anybody what your costume is going to be and you can't tell them who you are. That's the whole fun of it. So what do you think?" She said hoping that Dumbledore wouldn't hate the idea.
Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment then posed her a question. "Should there be an age limit you do you think? Say only fifth years and up allowed."
Blaise decided to chip in his to cents. "I think that's a good idea but there should still be a party for the younger kids or least there should still be a feast for them"
"I do believe that that is a very good idea Mr.Zabini. We could hold the masquerade in one of the dungeons to add to the atmosphere. All right it's settled we'll hold a Halloween masquerade for the older students and a feast for the younger ones. Now off you trot now its getting late." And with that Dumbledore ushered them out of the hall.
Together they walked down to the Slytherin common room. As they stood in front of the bare stretch of wall that was the doorway in the inner-sanctum, they realized that they had no idea whatsoever of what the password. They looked at each other and tried all the ones they could think of. Pure blood, Salazar, mud blood and finally the lamest one they could think of Slytherin Rules and Slytherin Rocks. After about an hour of this they were both sitting with their backs against the wall.
"Why are you in Slytherin? You're too nice. You seem like you should be in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor." Aspen said out of nowhere. Blaise looked at her and busted out laughing.
"I have no idea. My mom was a Ravenclaw and my dad was a Gryffindor. But the hat said that Slytherin is where I belong. Well what about you I mean, aside from having a mouth like a sailor and being able to kick ass, why are you in Slytherin?" He said after he regained control. Aspen looked thoughtful before replying.
"I guess because I came to Hogwarts about a month after my dad died. So there was a lot of darkness in my mind and my soul then. Plus the Hat said I had a dark gift." She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess he was referring to my ability to come up with crafty plans of revenge and pranks." Just as she said this Peeves floated down the hall he just nodded at Aspen and continued down the hall. Seeing Peeves seemed spring an idea into her head.
"I know where we can spend the night come on." With that she grabbed Blaise up off the floor and rushing him in the opposite direction. After about six flights of stairs and three secret passage ways he found himself in front of the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy. Aspen told him to walk back and forth in front of the door thinking that they needed a place to stay the night. Blaise did what he was told and in his and Aspen third pass a door appeared out of nowhere. Aspen opened the door and said "Blaise Zabini, welcome to the Room of Requirement!"
Blaise walked past Aspen and into the room. The room held one HUGE canopied bed with blue, black and silver hangings. There was a roaring fire and two comfy looking chairs with a bathrobe and pajamas for each of them there were also two dressing screens. Aspen grabbed her robe and pajamas and headed towards one of the screens. Blaise grabbed his and did the same. His pajamas were dark blue silk edged in silver with button top and baggy bottoms. He decided to forgo the robe and went out and sat down in one of the chairs. He assumed Aspen's would be similar or the same but he was wrong.
Aspen walked in a silver nightie that reached about mid-thigh. It showed enough cleavage to provocative with out going over board. The robe was black and was about couple of inches shorter than the nightie so you could see the nightie's color underneath. She tied the robe tightly at the waist. She joined him in the opposite chair and poured herself a steaming mug of something.
"Hot Chocolate?" she said innocently obviously having no idea of how she looked in the nightie or in the firelight. She looked beautiful in the firelight. Just as he was watching her she morphed into Hermione Granger and his mouth went dry. Hermione got up stood in front of him and bent down so her face was level with his. She was moving her mouth saying soft incomprehensible words………………..
Aspen smacked him upside the head and reality came crashing back. "As I was saying what side of the bed do you want ?" she looked at him and all he could get out was a garbled "doesn't matter." He followed her to the bed and climbed in on the opposite side of her.
They fell asleep facing away from each other. Sometime during the night they turned toward each other and nestled together with their foreheads touching and their fingers intertwined.
A/N: Hoped you liked it! D It took forever to write!