Chapter Ten

You and Me

Zabini waited patiently as the young man bounded up the hillside towards him. He had seen the guy take out both of his men. Not that he minded terribly. He never liked either of them and he was more than happy to get rid of them with out lifting a finger. More money for him.

The boy stopped at the top of the hill, taking in the scene. Hermione sat beside him, his wand at her.

"Just you and me, boy."

Behind the mask the man smirked a familiar look. He stepped forward.

Zabini dug the wand slightly into Hermione's arm causing her to flinch. The boy stopped.

"If you want her dead, keep coming."

"You don't really want to-"

Zabini dug the wand deeper into Hermione's arm.

"Don't tell me. I won't kill her. But I will kill you."

"Then we're at an impasse. I need her and so do you."

"Quite. You can't beat me with brains and I don't care to try to fight you."

The smirk grew more pronounced. Hermione squirmed behind her blindfold. "Smarter than Miss Granger here?"

"Smarter than her and Snape put together."

The man laughed. "That so? Then I challenge you to a battle of wits."

Zabini narrowed his eyes. "For her? To the death? Is she worth it?"

The man's face grew serious. "She is to me. Pour your wine."

He came over and sat down as Zabini poured the wine. He pulled out his wand and waved it over the goblets. "I have poisioned one of these goblets. The game of wits has begun. It ends when we find out who is right... and who is dead."

"It's so easy. If you're who I think you are, you would never leave it to chance and you would put the poison in front of yourself because you would know only a great fool would take what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can't chose the wine before me. But you must have known I wasn't a great fool or you wouldn't have known how to get as far as you have. So I can't chose the wine in front of me."

"Figured it out then, have you?" he smirked.

"Not at all. Because a certain Potions master must have taught you that spell. So how do I know you didn't make a deal with him? He's a criminal and by association, so are you. So I can't chose the wine in front of you."

"Riiiight. I won't even go there. Please continue."

"Where was I?"

"Potions masters."

"Right! And since you knew I was a wizard, you had to know that I came from Hogwarts and since I work with Snape, I can clearly not chose the wine in front of me."

"Are you insane?" the man in black demanded. "That makes no sense. None."

"I can't chose your wine because..."

"Oh just pick already!" he snapped."

"I have! And I chose-"

The man dropped his head into his hands, watching through his fingers as Zabini switched the glasses. He put his hands down. "You chose?"

"Yes."

"Then let's drink."

Zabini raised his glass and drank. Then he laughed. The man drank as well and set his glass down. "You guessed wrong."

"You only think I guessed wrong! That's what's so funny. I switched glasses while your back was-"He suddenly faltered and stared at the man across fro him. The man crossed his arms and watched.

"Oh, you're right, alright. Or you would have been if I hadn't poisoned both drinks and drank the antidote before I came here. And if you'd bothered to ask, it's iocane powder."

He got up and walked over to Hermione, untying her hands and her blindfold. She stared at him and he gave her a smirk.

"Who are you?"

"Don't worry about that now. Let's go." He took her hand and led her away.

888

Harry stared in horror at the scene before him. This was not supposed to be happening. He was supposed to be winning. He was supposed to be in charge. What the hell had gone so wrong?

Ron was now out of the picture, for what that was worth. It wasn't possible, but his plan was falling apart. Someone else was rescuing his bride.

(A/N: Ah, how I love this story.