Bleeding Red and Gold REDUX Chapter 12

I know I've mentioned this in the original, but I'll say it here as well, just in case. No smut. At least, not until I feel comfortable writing it. And I have no idea when that'll be.

Enjoy Chapter 12.

WARNING: Some profanity. This is rated M for a reason.

oOo

Tracey had rushed into the Great Hall, intending on trying to find Harry as soon as possible in case Mrs. Zabini decided to move up her plans a little bit and try to slip some poison into Harry's food or something. Unlikely, but being cautious never hurt anybody. It generally saved lives instead.

Unfortunately for her, her Gryffindor … friend … was either not yet awake, or had already eaten, as he wasn't anywhere to be found at the Gryffindor Table. As she was scanning the Great Hall, Blaise and Daphne had caught up to her. Blaise tapped her on the shoulder, but Tracey forestalled his inevitable question.

"I'm going to Slughorn's party with Harry. Now help me find him." She said, as she turned towards the staircase leading to Gryffindor Tower.

Blaise wasn't done questioning his female friend, but Tracey had just glimpsed Harry and his friends walking down the stairs, and rushed towards them.

As she approached, the Weasel saw her and his expression changed into one of disgust.

She heard him mutter, "Slimy snakes."

Harry elbowed him, and said, "You're going to be married to one."

Just then, Daphne and Blaise had caught up, and judging by the icy glare on Daphne's face, she had definitely heard what the Weasel had to say.

Harry smiled at her, and said, "Hey Tracey. Sorry about Ron here, he hasn't gotten any more emotionally sensitive since he was eleven."

Tracey brushed off Harry's apologies, and said, "Harry, Blaise here has something to tell you."

Harry looked up, having never spoken to Blaise Zabini before, wondering what he could possibly want from him.

"Oh? Well, what is it, Blaise?"

"Po-err… Harry. There's something you need to know, and I'd prefer not to discuss it here." Blaise said while glaring at Tracey, who smiled back sweetly.

Harry, curiosity aroused, nodded, and gestured for Blaise to lead on.

Blaise looked surprised, as if he didn't expect Harry to want to hear it now. Thankfully, Weasel interrupted at the moment.

"Come on, Harry," he said, tugging on his arm, "I want breakfast. I'm starving."

Hermione, who had just caught up to the group, whacked him on the back of the head.

"You're always hungry, Ronald. Go ahead and eat if you want, but I want to know what Blaise has to tell us."

Blaise shook his head. Were all Gryffindors this impatient?

Ron grumbled, but stayed put.

Tracey shot a meaningful glance at Blaise, who turned without another word, and went off towards the empty classrooms of the first floor.

After they had all piled into one room, Blaise locked the door and placed privacy wards around the room, before turning around to face the Gryffindors.

"Alright, there's something you need to know. I don't know if you've heard any of the rumors about my mother, but she's a master assassin. She's motivated by money, and money only. She's killed all of her husbands who were rich, but she's made it look like accidents each and every time, and she's gotten away with it."

Harry nodded to show that he understood, wondering where this was going.

Blaise looked down, "And her next target is you, Po-Harry."

Ron's head shot up, and he immediately went for his wand.

"You Slytherin scum! Still following old Voldy, huh? Well, guess what, your master's dead! So you all can go and hide in some shithole somewhere."

Daphne merely drew her wand, looking just as doll-like as she always did, but Tracey had her wand in her hand, and was looking at Ron warily.

Blaise, meanwhile, was fuming.

"You know what, Weasley? You don't know shit about my family and my life. So why don't you do everyone a favor and fuck off? Go and run back to your mummy and her coddling, eh?"

Ron's face turned red, just as he always did whenever someone brought up his mother.

"Stupefy!" he cried.

The jet of red light streaked across the room, but Tracey cried, "Protego!", blocking the spell, before sending back an "Expelliarmus."

Ron blocked the spell, and rounded on Harry.

"Your bitch of a girlfriend attacked me. Still think that the little slut is good for you?"

Tracey glared at him. "Shut up, Weasel. I don't even know how you survived the war."

Harry quietly said, "Ron, stop insulting my friends."

Ron's face, impossibly, turned even redder.

"You're defending this slag? Don't you remember all the hardships that we went through during the war? These slimy snakes probably never had to go through anything. Their families are probably safe, rich, and laughing at us somewhere."

Harry immediately turned to Tracey, knowing her background. She looked on the verge of tears, being reminded of her family again. She turned and ran out of the room.

Daphne stood up, looking murderous.

Harry left the room, to go after Tracey, leaving an outraged Ron, a pissed off Ice Queen, and a couple of very confused and wary friends.

oOo

Samantha Zabini was furious. She'd never thought that her son would betray her like that.

One did not survive long in the business of assassination if they weren't careful and paranoid. Thus, Samantha had attached a listening ward to the letter that she'd sent her son, just like she always did. Sometimes she regretted it, as she really didn't need to hear about Blaise's roommates' fantasies about women. However, occasionally she'd pick up some useful information. This time, though, she was very glad that she'd been paranoid enough to attach a listening device to all her letters.

Her son had told her secrets to that Potter boy! He'd betrayed her trust. She had, of course, never told him everything, but still, the boy had a lot of knowledge of her actions, whether she had willingly told him, or if he had found them out himself.

She would have to figure out a way to fool both her son and that Potter boy.

'Perhaps she should send a letter containing false information to her son.' she mused.

Or perhaps she should move forward with her plan, and kill the Potter boy using more… secretive means when he came to the manor. She was fairly certain that Blaise didn't yet dare to directly oppose her. Still, the boy was growing up fast and quickly becoming useless to her. And in her line of work, useless meant that he was dead weight. And assassins always got rid of dead weight.

She sighed. While she didn't love Blaise in the way that a mother should love her son, she still felt a certain sadness to know that Blaise's days were numbered.

It was unfortunate that she'd have to kill her only son.

oOo

(The Next Great Adventure)

Death was quite pleased with the one he had chosen to get rid of his Master. The dedication that the woman possessed towards gold was quite foolish, but quite useful in this instance. And with a little bit of fear, he had managed to coerce her to kill the hero of Magical Britain. He smiled. He'd be free soon. Then he'd make sure to get rid of those accursed items.

Death still remembered the day when the three Peverell brothers had crossed his stream safely. He still berated himself over his greed for their souls, and his overconfidence in his own cunning and abilities. He never expected the youngest brother to be so prudent, nor did he expect anyone to be able to collect and master all three items.

As he strolled along the platform, waiting for his Master, his sister, Fate, appeared by his side.

"Still waiting for your Master?" she asked.

Death's good mood vanished. It did not bode well that his sister was here. He'd come to understand that whenever his sister came, it was never pleasant, and she never brought good news. Recently, she'd spent every minute trying to convince him to give up his quest to kill his Master. It was getting really bloody annoying.

"What is it, sister? Are you going to try and convince me to give up on killing this Harry Potter again?"

Fate merely shook her head.

"When are you going to understand that your little assassin will never be able to kill your Master?"

Death shrugged. "So what? At worst, she fails, and I gain another soul."

Fate looked at her brother with sadness.

"You're changing her fate."

Death smirked at her. "You lost that bet to me, remember? I get to change one person's Fate. And I chose Samantha Zabini."

"You're killing an innocent person." Fate appealed, knowing it was hopeless.

"That's just too funny." Death replied, laughing. "You know that appealing to my nonexistent sense of humanity isn't going to work. Why do you even try?"

Fate just shook her head, making up her mind. She hated doing it, but she would need to interfere in mortal affairs for the first time in a millennium.

She'd have to go and visit Harry Potter.

oOo

Harry, along with an interested Neville, an approving Hermione, and a very reluctant Ron, elected to take Ancient Runes and Arithmancy for their last year at Hogwarts. Harry knew that the courses were quite difficult, but he also knew that it would help him in whatever profession he chose. Especially as he no longer wished to become Auror. He'd had enough of battling Dark Wizards for a lifetime.

Harry was rather worried about Blaise's mother, but he knew that there was nothing he could do about it. He would just have to make sure that he avoided Blaise's family at all costs. He had also taken to making sure that he prepared his own food at mealtimes, just in case.

Ron was still bickering with Hermione over their course selections, and Harry was getting quite tired of him.

Harry still wasn't very forgiving of his best friend over the incident with the Slytherins a few days ago, but decided to take it easy on his friend, especially after seeing what Daphne had done to him. Future wife or not, she had still cursed him silly with quite a few creative hexes. By the time that the spellfire had eased, Ron had resembled something of a mixture between a weasel and a shrew.

Daphne had gotten two weeks' worth of detentions and fifty points deducted from her House, but Harry got the feeling that she didn't give a damn. Harry really couldn't figure that girl out. She was so cold, so emotionless in almost any situation, but insult her friend, and she became one scary witch. Even Hermione couldn't match her in the "scary" department.

Harry had finally found Tracey using his Marauder's Map that he'd kept inside his moleskin pouch. She had disappeared back up to the Astronomy Tower again.

When he found her, she was staring out at the lake again, eyes red from crying.

Harry didn't say anything. He was never good at comforting girls; Cho Chang was a testament to that.

Still, he did his best, sitting down next to Tracey and tentatively putting an arm around her.

Tracey had said, "I'm not Daphne. I won't smite you."

Tracey had leaned into his embrace, and they had sat there without saying much. Harry had just been her rock, helping her get through what he himself knew was a difficult time emotionally.

In the end, Harry had apologized for Ron's behavior, and once again did his best to take Tracey's mind off things.

And, before she'd left, she had placed a quick, chaste kiss on his lips, before she ran down the staircase again.

Shaking his head out of the memories, he quickly finished up his breakfast, and handed in his form to Professor McGonagall. As he was walking back to his seat, he caught Tracey's eye, who gave him a shy smile. He smiled back, before turning to talk to his friends.

Ron was still grumbling about Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, and Harry was finding it to be really annoying.

'Perhaps he had really grown up, and Ron hadn't.' he mused, for he didn't like Ron as much as before.

He had become much better friends with Neville over the course of the week, and he felt that he could talk to Neville about certain things that he could never have discussed with Ron. In fact, all that he really recalled talking about with Ron was Quidditch and schoolwork.

After waiting for Professor McGonagall to hand out the schedules, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville all headed down together towards the dungeons for Potions, a class which Harry had now come to enjoy, ever since Snape had stopped teaching it. Unfortunately for Harry, he no longer had the Half-Blood Prince's book, so he was fairly sure that his Potions ability was greatly diminished, and that Slughorn would be quite disappointed in him.

Still, as he entered the Potions classroom for the first class of the year, even with a potential assassin after him, he felt that this year would be his happiest year at Hogwarts.

oOo

Thank you for reading. Please review.