Chapter 14 : The Missing Piece of The Puzzle

Theo tilted his head to the side, watching a certain sorely disheveled wizard with one brow raised almost to his hairline. He tried his best to smother his laugh, keeping an amused expression on his face instead as he observed the other glaring at his feets as if it was some sort of a plague.

"This is so bloody unfair!" Blaise finally exploded before throwing his pillow onto the floor. He crossed his arms, and began jutting his lower lip out like a small child.

"I'm not picking that up for you." Theo deadpanned, directing his eyes towards the abandoned pillow on the floor.

Blaise huffed, and glared at him. "Did you even see this?" He promptly attempted to half-lift his legs, which was cuffed to the end of the bed with glowing red bonds-something akin to the rings of Saturn. It glowed even brighter around his ankles at the slightest shift of his legs, and he could almost swore it even tightened whenever his ankles slipped too far away from each other. "I thought it was all just a bad dream! An extremely unbelievable, utterly ridiculous nightmare!" He gestured his hands around exasperatedly.

"Your brain is not quite that advance to imagine that far, mate." Theo sniggered, which earned him an offended look from the other.

"Where did she even learned this charm in the first place?" Opting to ignore Theo, Blaise grumbled moodily as he leaned slightly forward to inspect his legs for the umpteenth times.

"I reckon she finds all of those treasure in the restricted section of the library. She spends most of her time with Granger, who has like the priority access or something. What do you expect?" said Theo nevertheless, acting totally oblivious to Blaise's apparent refusal to talk to him.

Blaise mumbled incoherently under his breath, and threw his hands in the air with defeat. He turned to the table piled high with what looked like half the candy shop, courtesy to his visiting housemates when he was unconscious yesterday, and stared at it for a short moment. Then, he abruptly furrowed his brows, and poked the pile slightly.

"I swear there's much more than this last night."

Theo's eyes suddenly glittered with delight while he let out a short chuckle.

"What's so funny, you mental nutbag?"

Theo smirked. "Remember when that Gryffindor princess of yours shoved the sleeping potion down your throat last night?" Theo snapped his fingers with sarcasm. "Right, you don't. You fainted right away, and missed the highlight of the show." He paused, blatantly enjoying the look of curiosity plastered across Blaise's face.

"Moving on." drawled Blaise a tad bit forcefully, aware of the other's intention.

"Well, Gryffindor lot is a bunch of dense squids for the record." He slowly shook his head while placing a hand over his heart as if he was expressing his pity for the Gryffindors. "She didn't even noticed a very wide awake me watching over her when she spotted your pile of candies over there and sparks of flames literally erupted in her eyes." He added casually, a hint of amusement lacing his tone.

"What happened then?" Blaise prompted, unable to fight the curiosity from taking control over him.

"She whisked her wand out, and transfigured a huge part of it into a pile of ashes." Theo replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I reckon she threw some of it into the dustbin too. Oh, my bad. I meant, tossed it into the dustbin."

"She did.. what?" Blaise's jaw dropped to the floor. His eyes widened comically as he stared at Theo with disbelief. "She did not!" shrieked him at last, looking scandalized as he began frantically digging around the pile of sweet treats. He only emerged a few seconds later with a loud heave of relieved sigh, holding a huge bag of Toffee Eclair in his embrace.

"I would've incinerated it all if I were her." Theo commented with a shrug. "But, she obviously did not so her loss."

"B-But.. it's just some candies!" He protested while hugging the bag of toffees tightly against his chest, almost as if his life depended on it.

Theo scowled at the other's obliviousness. "One word, mate. It's what we called as jealousy."

Blaise instantly tilted his head to the side, and furrowed his brows. ".. what?" Some of the toffees fell on the floor as he became too confused with Theo's words to even notice that he was losing his hold on the bag.

"Most of it is from your fans." Theo stated as a matter-of-fact. "Anybody who could possibly miss the sight of those pink, heart-shaped cards must be extraordinarily blind." He promptly gestured at the said cards neatly tucked at the bottom of the pile.

"B—But.." Blaise frowned, unable to find the right words to say. "—that's so hypocrite of her!" He finally argued. "She has almost the entire male population of this school on their knees for her! One time, I had to fight my way into our chamber because her fans were lining up outside of the chamber to meet her! I was this close to hexing them off into next week. What are they even thinking, trying to court someone's bloody fiancée? Those insolent, pea-brained gits—"

Blaise abruptly halted once he realised much too late what he just said. He gulped audibly, and slapped a hand across his mouth. He quickly made a mental note to bang his head against the wall at the first opportunity later.

To his surprise, there was only silence first from Theo's side for a brief moment.

"Wow," came his eventual response, musing more to himself. "I never thought there will be a day where Blaise Zabini and his infamous casanova arse will finally succumb to the power of love. Never even thought I'll be alive to witness it myself!" Theo spreaded his arms, and just suddenly laughed out loud. "I'm so proud of you, mate!"

"What in Merlin's most, baggy Y fronts—"

"Shut it, Blaise. I'm trying to appreciate your long-awaited tranformation into a man here."

"Alright, what is that even supposed to mean—"

"Should I be expecting a wedding invitation any sooner?" Theo interrupted, wiggling his brows suggestively. "I would be incredibly most honoured to throw a bachelor party for you. I know a place." He suggested with a wicked smile.

"You wish!" came Blaise's immediate reply, accompanied by a box of jelly beans flying out of his hands. "In case you haven't notice, this—" He gestured wildly at his legs. "—is all her doing!"

Theo popped one of the jelly beans into his mouth with a mocking smile tugging the corner of his lips. "If you change your mind, just be sure to inform me as soon as possible."

Blaise glared. "Don't you have something else to do?"

"No?"

"Why don't you take that bloody book, the one that you forced a weak patient like me to get up from my warm bed in the middle of the night, and go all the way to the North Tower, which is like two bloody towers away by the way, only to get caught by my bloody menace of a fiancée, who cuffed me to the bed like a bloody prisoner, and stuff your face into it until you hopefully finish your last, dying breath?" He finished with a deep breath, still glaring.

"Woah, too much bloody there." Theo commented. "But, good idea." After scanning around, and cautiously making sure there was nobody else, but the two of them there, he carefully retreated the old tome from inside the extra pillow that had been lying next to his crossed legs all this time.

Meanwhile, Blaise was munching on his Cauldron Cake noisily as Theo began shifting through the yellowed pages. He still kept his gaze fixed on the latter, but not necessarily interested in finding out more about the content of the infamous tome. In contrary, Theo had multiple expressions appearing on his face every single time he opened a new page in the tome, his eyes almost rivaling a saucepan by now. At one point, he suddenly let out a loud gasp before abruptly covering his mouth in fear of attracting Madam Pomfrey's attention. He managed to attract Blaise's attention though, who was in the middle of playing the Chubby Bunny game with himself. (From the look of it, he's either a chipmunk in human disguise or he used to be one in his past life.)

".. wat ith zie?" He asked through mouth full of toffees, unable to swallow fast enough.

Despite his eagerness to confide, Theo immediately scrunched up his face with disgust. "Swallow first, you moron. What are you, a barbarian?"

Blaise rolled his eyes exaggeratedly before swallowing everything with much effort. "What is it?" He repeated, directing his eyes to the opened tome on Theo's lap. "Did you found the cure to mental illness, which we could hopefully dump on those mental nutheads proudly identifying themselves as a part of the blasted Wizengamot? Or is there any possible mentions of the Marriage Law and their loopholes perhaps?" He snapped his fingers with sudden enthusiasm. "Ways on how to tame a certain bloody menace of a witch should do too."

"No, I think I found the book!" Theo announced with sparkling eyes, keeping his voice down to a harsh whisper.

".. what book?" Blaise blinked stupidly. From the look, there was no denying that he was genuinely in confusion. "Are you talking about the book that Loony Lovegood had been rambling about since a few days ago? The one full of creatures as bizarre as she is, and also the very same one you've been dying to find for her? Seriously, I swear you're in no place to talk about me and my lady in the first place, mate—"

"I just thought it will be a good Christmas present for her!" said Theo defensively. "You know, to make up for my.. not-so-approriate behaviour, and all." He instinctively rubbed his nape in a bashful manner.

"Sure." replied Blaise mockingly, dragging the word out on purpose.

Theo scowled. "It's not that anyway, you git."

"Then what?" Blaise rolled his eyes dramatically. "What could possibly be more important than this whole madness brought by the ruddy Marriage Law? It hasn't even been a month since we're back to school, and my life has already been turned upside down. My whole future is already looking so far away, and surrounded by darkness now." He stretched out one hand to the front as if calling out for his long-lost lover while the other was placed on his chest. He had an exaggerated pained look plastered across his sharp features, which earned him a judging look from yours truly, Theo.

"That's not what you said just now." Theo retorted. "Pretty sure I smelled jealousy in the air just now, and jealousy equals to love. Darkness my arse, more like surrounded by the vision of seeing her in a white dress, walking down the aisle, am I right?"

"Not right!" replied Blaise, his voice going an octave higher than usual. "Absolutely wrong! Blimey, your assumption is as bad as the Dark Lord's ability to love."

"Yeah, right. Speaking of which, what could possibly be more important you say? How about.. a book containing the spells and incantations needed to bring a lost soul back to life? A lost soul like, say the Dark Lord? How does that sounds to you? Does it sounds important enough to you to fit into your ridiculous list of important matters now?" said Theo while pointedly tapping the opened tome on his lap.

Blaise instantly snapped his head around to face him, gawking with disbelief.

"You mean - ressurection spells - the book - the Dark Lord?"

Theo shrugged, staring down at the tome grimly. "I guess."

Blaise's first reaction was to drop his jaw onto the floor.

~~X~~

"Come on, Ginny." Hermione urged, looking over her shoulder as she pulled the said girl along behind her. Alright, maybe pulled didn't quite do justice to what it actually looked like. She literally had to drag the witch along with a highly amused Draco striding with leisure behind them.

"Hermione, I don't care even if he's on his deathbed." grumbled Ginny as she struggled not to stumble upon her own legs.

"Don't be like that." Hermione scolded. "Malfoy told me it's quite bad. What if something happens to him?"

"I would be excluded from the Marriage Law?" Ginny looked up hopefully. "Or maybe, the least they can do for me is finding a whole new partner for me. A much, much more good-looking one, and most importantly, one with brain unlike that good-for-nothing thickheaded prat—"

"Ginny!"

"What?" said Ginny defensively. "First, he hexed me with a Confundus charm, then he went ahead and told his mum about me despite our mutual agreement, and then he just had to injure himself right before my eyes. I was worried sick about him, only to find him wandering out of the Hospital Wing late at night! He should be thankful I didn't hex him into next week."

Hermione shot a pointed glare at the stubborn witch.

"Oh, alright." Ginny relented, albeit reluctantly of course. "I'll just come in, and see if he's still - unfortunately for me - breathing. Maybe I could sneak up on him if he's still hopefully asleep to shove a pillow square in his face and drown him to death or something. D'you reckon they'll pay me the compensation for surviving spouse or something? Or, should I say reward since I'm actually doing everyone a favor if you think about it since I'm getting rid of the Blaise Zabini after all."

"They should." Draco interjected from behind them. "Imagine a world without Blaise Zabini hogging every open space in it. Blimey, I could even smell the sweet scent of freedom already. I'll definitely owe you one for that, Weaslette."

"I know, right?"

Hermione mustered her most murderous glare towards Draco before turning to the redheaded witch. "Ginevra!"

"You sound awfully lot like mum." Ginny made a face while she tugged her hand free from Hermione's hold. Half-willingly, she stepped forward ahead of the other two, and entered the Hospital Wing first. Her gaze instantly fell on the bizarre sight of Theo on top of Blaise on the latter's bed. Theo had Blaise's both hands pinned up above his head, and they simultaneously looked up at the sound of her footsteps.

"What the—"

Hermione's surprised gasp instantly could be heard emerging right behind her, followed by Draco's revolted gagging.

"I don't know you guys are into this." Draco furrowed his brows. "Merlin, if I had known, I swear I would've begged Professor Snape days and night for petition to change my dormitory. All this time, I could've gotten molested in my sleep, and I didn't even know!" He shuddered at the thought, and almost instinctively crossed his hands in a protective manner.

The two wizards on the bed, who was frozen after being caught off-guard just now, finally snapped out of it, and quickly scrambled to distance themselves from each other. Blaise especially, made a huge show of supposedly dusting himself from all the sins forcefully inflicted on him, which was honestly just a distraction to allow some time for Theo to grab the old tome, and hopefully hid it from view. Unfortunately, they were reacting much too late as Hermione's scrunitizing gaze had already zeroed in on the ancient volume.

"What is that?"

Blaise stopped blabbering at once while Theo gulped audibly.

"Umm.. i-it's—"

"It's nothing!" Blaise interrupted loudly. "Just some book for.. bedtime stories. Yeah, bedtime stories!"

"What are you, five?" Ginny looked totally unconvinced before she promptly inched closer towards the sweating Theo. "You hate reading." She stated as a matter-of-fact while narrowing her eyes in Blaise's direction.

"And that's some real ancient runes on the cover." Hermione observed.

"When two all-too-powerful witches are teaming up against you like this, you better start speaking up, mate. Do it fast before they blow you up into bits." Draco advised with a serious look. (He would know, he got punched by one of them once.)

"Give it to me." Ginny demanded, holding out her hand impatiently.

"No." Both of them spoke up in unison.

"Over our dead body first!" added Blaise after a quick thinking.

"What are you waiting for then?" Ginny retorted back. "Drop dead now then, and I'll happily walk over your dead bodies."

Blaise blinked before exchanging a glance with Theo.

"Just give it here, mate."

"No!" Blaise suddenly wailed, stretching out his arms in front of Theo in his failed attempt to use his body as a human shield.

Ginny rolled her eyes, and simply brandished her wand instead. "Accio Tome!"

"No!" His wailing grew even louder as the tome flew out of Theo's hands, and went right into Ginny's hand. The witch smirked victoriously at him. Still sobbing, Blaise suddenly straightened up, and began turning all around on his bed, searching frantically for his own wand. He eventually sat up properly, wand in hand with a satisfied look. "You ask for it, Ginevra! Accio Tome!"

"Oho, you did not just do that! Accio!"

"Ginny, stop!"

"Back off, woman! This is mine!" The tome quickly flew out of Ginny's hands all over again, right into Blaise's waiting hands. "Protego!"

"Reducto!" Ginny smirked viciously just as the shield shattered easily due to her well-placed Reductor curse. "You do not mess with a member of the Dumbledore's Army, my sweet. Petrificus Totalus!"

Thankfully, the spell missed him by an inch. "Oi, that was uncalled for!"

"Be thankful it's not my Bat-Bogey hex!"

"She's going to kill me!" shrieked Blaise, diving under his pillow, and unintentionally flinging the tome away. The sight didn't went unnoticed by Theo, who quickly had his eyes on the tome with a longing look.

However, Ginny beat him to it as she summoned the tome right into her hands. She stared at it for a short moment, tilting her head to the side in wonder. Then, she shook off any thought that might had occured to her, and handed it over towards Hermione instead.

"Go on, Hermione." She encouraged. "Let's see just what on earth this lot are trying to hide from us."

Theo visibly blanched while Blaise was still cowering under his pillow, not even aware of the current situation. Meanwhile, Hermione was deep in concentration as she slowly traced her finger over the cover that been inscribed with a wealth of runes.

"Where did you guys even dig this out?" mused Draco, intrigued by the golden letters.

Ginny crossed her arms. "Somewhere illegal I reckon."

"Oi, that's not true!" Theo protested almost immediately. ".. not entirely anyway."

"I knew it."

"Hi." A vague, and dreamy voice suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Am I interrupting something?" They looked up almost in unison, coming face to face with none other than Theo's very own fiancée, Luna. If he was panicking earlier, he became even way beyond that now. He quickly jumped out of his bed, where he had taken a seat earlier along with Draco, and his hands noticeably became restless. He unconsciously attempted to straighten up his pyjamas, which was an extremely futile effort on his part.

"Hi, Luna." Ginny greeted back with a smile. "Did you come to visit this?" She abruptly pointed at Theo as if he was diagnosed with a highly infectious disease.

"Yes. Thanks to you for telling me, I come as soon as I can after class. I don't know what to bring though, so I brought some Gurdyroots for you, Theodore. It's best for warding off Gulping Plimpies." Draco, who was the nearest to the side table, instinctively reacted by leaning away as far as possible the moment she placed the evil-smelling green plant there.

"You could've brought something normal." muttered Draco before he quickly changed the topic upon noticing the stern glare from Ginny. "What's with the name though? The last time I ever heard someone calling him with that name is when that one time I came to visit him at his house, and his mother yelled at him for stepping on their family's pet to death."

Theo waved dismissively. "It's a long story."

"I'm sure we have time for it-" No sooner had he spoken those words than they were interrupted by a loud gasp from Hermione. Everyone instantly zeroed in on the brunette, catching her mix of surprised and annoyed expression. It managed to pull even Blaise out of his safe haven, the latter carefully peering over his pillow while glancing warily at Ginny.

Hermione huffed, and glared at Theo. "You have this all this time, and you didn't even bother telling any of us about it?"

The rest - save for Blaise - alternated a glance between the two with confusion.

"Look, you're getting it all wrong." Theo tried to explain, though he still looked partly guilty. "I don't have it all this time. I just found it last night."

"But, you must have known about it beforehand for you to be able to find it!" Hermione argued back. "We could've figured out about this Black Book a lot more sooner than this."

"I know that book." Luna suddenly blurted out. "The Black Book, I meant."

"The Black - what?" said Ginny and Draco simultaneously. Then, they turned to face each other, and scowled.

Hermione sighed, and began to flip the pages to the one particular page that she was reading just now. "The Book of the Dead or better known colloquially as 'the Black Book', was an Ancient Egyptian book made out of pure obsidian. The Book of the Dead contained ancient spells and incantations that could resurrect the dead and summon the Warriors of the Book. It also consisted the spells and incantations needed to bring a lost soul back to life as well as to perform other rituals such as the deterioration of the undead. It's counterpart, the Book of Amun-Ra, was better known as 'Book of the Living'." She finished by slamming the book shut, looking up expectantly towards the other. "Don't you guys see it? This is the book that the Death Eaters are looking for because this is what the prophecy meant."

".. seeks the way through the Living and the Dead." murmured Draco absently. He began repeating the prophecy under his breath, trying to piece the puzzles together. He eventually snapped his head up, eyes widened in realisation.

"Exactly." said Hermione, confirming his thought. "They are trying to resurrect him, just like what had been foretold in the prophecy. In order to do so, they need the book to figure out how. Quite amazing actually how they managed to figure it all out."

"Oh, trust me. They could be quite resourceful when they want to." Theo scoffed. "That is if they are not too busy creating entertainment out of hanging people upside down of course."

"Well, that settles it then." Blaise spoke up from his bed. "Let's find the book, and destroy it or we could find the other book, the one about the living, yadda yadda yadda, and be right there to send their mad master back on a one-way trip to hell when they resurrect him. I am so done with being ordered all around by a mad man."

"But, it's lost." Luna stated as a matter-of-factly. "Thousands of years ago since the last guardian of the book, an Egyptian king, died. They said it was buried with him among all of his other treasure, but it was never found when they discovered his tomb."

Draco abruptly raised a hand, halting the Ravenclaw witch from talking further. "How did you even know that?"

"My father published an article about it once in the Quibbler." She blinked, staring back at him weirdly as if that much was obvious to everyone. (Unfortunately, it's not.) "Some locals in Egypt told him of the story when we stayed there during our expedition to find Flaming Gee-Bees. We didn't find any Flaming Gee-Bees so he thought that story is better than nothing at all."

"What in the name of Merlin is a Flaming Gee-Bee?" whispered Blaise with confusion.

"It's better if you don't ask." replied Hermione in an equally low whisper.

"At least, she is not talking about those Umgubular Slashkilter." murmured Theo.

"Umgu— what?"

"Never mind."

Blaise shot an unmistakable look of judging towards the latter, but didn't argue further. He began focusing his attention on Draco and Luna instead, who were currently involved in a heated argument regarding the existence of Luna's many imaginary creatures, when he suddenly recalled something.

"Ginevra," He called out, shaking his cuffed legs indignantly. "About time you unleash this, don't you think?"

Ginny raised a brow with arms folded closely to her chest. "Now, why should I?"

"Just because, woman!" He snapped back, undoubtedly growing upset of the witch's nonchalant demeanour. (Well, it was quite understandable though considering he had been forcibly restrained to his bed all night long, and he was quite certainly about to die of suffocation here due to the lack of ability to move around.) "This is quite absolutely barbaric, don't you agree?"

"Oh, I don't know." Ginny flipped her hair indifferently. "Manners maketh man, they say. I didn't see anything remotely close to that though so I assume it is perfectly fine to be slightly barbaric after all."

Blaise groaned, and slumped his face against his arms, muttering something incoherent under his breath. It took him a few seconds to emerge back, albeit begrudgingly.

"Alright then." Blaise huffed before biting his lower lip. "Ginevra, my sweet little sunshine— Merlin, I can't do this!" He shook his head a few times as if to clear it from the petrifying thought before looking up with exasperation. "She is nowhere near sweet, and even calling her something as simple as little sunshine will be an insult to the poor sun!"

"Why you—"

"I'll do it." Hermione interjected impatiently, already sensing the brewing tension. She effortlessly undid the spell with a wave of her wand before sending a reproving look in Ginny's direction, in which the younger witch replied with a loud, indignant huff.

"Oh sweet Salazar, like finally!"

"I told you." Theo quipped, inclining his head towards Hermione. "Whatever that charm is, she obviously found it in the library so you could wager the Brightest Witch of Our Age would naturally know about it."

Hermione shrugged. "Where's Cra— I meant, the other patients though?" Hermione prompted - though she was smart enough to stop herself from mentioning any names - as she craned her neck around, and finally took notice of the empty beds around them.

"Not here, that's for sure." Blaise answered without looking, still obsessing over his feet.

Theo did a quick roll of his eyes. "He's totally out for the count this morning so you might as well question the wall if you're expecting some answer from him." Blaise shrugged, thoroughly unconcerned. "If you are really curious though, I'll spare you from the torture just because I know Draco will go nuts if I'm not treating her lady right." Hermione visibly blushed in response to the blunt statement, though Theo remained oblivious. "Those lot was deemed fit to be discharged this morning so Madam Pomfrey ushered them to class as soon as they spooned their last bit of breakfast. Quite amusing actually to see the priceless look on their face when they realised they no longer have any excuses to evade class."

"Shame." commented Blaise, turning to them with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "I was already planning on presenting those fellow housemates of us with a special gift. You know, some good luck charms for speedy recovery."

"Yeah, right." said Theo, definitely unconvinced. "Ten galleons there is a high amount of Bulbadox powder already secretly crammed into those seemingly harmless charms."

Blaise gasped dramatically. "I would do no such thing! How could you accuse me of something as preposterous as that?" His expression betrayed him though as he squinted suspiciously at Theo, assesing him as if trying to figure out how the latter was able to guess his move.

"You - did - what?" Hermione interrupted sharply, her prefect instinct naturally kicking in.

"Nothing." Blaise replied a tad bit too quickly. "Nott is just being his usual bumbling foolish self. Of course there is no such things as Bulbadox powder-filled charms as he mentioned—"

Much to his relief, Blaise was quickly saved by the sudden angry outburst from Draco, and the arrival of Madam Pomfrey. (The former bedgrudgingly admitted that the Ravenclaw witch had quite a solid cause to defend her imaginary creatures, her main argument being half of the world is still left unexplored, and new discoveries were being made almost yearly, if not monthly, around the world.)

"The wound is healing quite nicely, and there is no other visible injuries as far as I can see." Madam Pomfrey muttered, more to herself as she fussed over Theo. She inspected his affected hand first, turning it all over again for any sign of further injury before slowly nodding her head in approval.

"Is he alright?" asked Luna, in which Theo immediately came to wonder if she was genuinely concerned or it was simply her good nature making an appearance. Merlin, if only the boy knew.

"Oh yes, and I don't see any point of detaining him here any longer than necessary either. You're free to go now, Mister Nott. I'm quite certain they just started serving lunch in the Great Hall so you might be able to arrive just in time to grab a bite before class." She turned to look at Blaise straight in the eyes. "While you, Mister Zabini, would have to stay for a while. Your bruises are looking quite nasty for the time being so it's best to stay put, and rest. I'll be back with your potions later." The school's matron quickly disappeared into her office just as quick as she came.

Theo's first reaction was to groan out loud.

"Well, guess what's up next?" taunted Draco while patting the other's back with mocked sympathy.

Blaise raised a hand as if he was in class, clearing his throat before answering. "Transfiguration, am I right?" Nobody replied, but he resumed talking anyway. "And if I'm not quite mistaken, it's the last day to perfect the Conjuring Spells. Good luck with that, mate."

Theo glared at the other's smug look, ready to strangle the living daylight out of his - unfortunately - fellow housemate. But, Luna being her usual self, didn't see the silent exchange, and proceed to tug Theo out of his bed instead.

"Come, Theodore." said Luna while pulling Theo to his feet. "I'll walk you to the Great Hall."

Theo gave one last, tortured look towards them before he was being dragged out of there by the bright witch. That left the four of them there, but Draco and Hermione quickly got the message. The couple promptly bid a hasty goodbye towards Blaise before they literally made a run for the door, successfully leaving the two alone before they even realised what's happening.

"And yet, she said they have absolutely nothing in common." Ginny scoffed when she finally realised their intention. She glanced once at her assigned partner, weighing her options before rising to her feet at last. "I'm out of here." She announced unnecessarily, already turning her back to the only patient left in the room. Obviously, being left alone with the other was not an option to her. If anything, it should be the very last thing on earth she would like to do at the very moment.

However, Blaise apparently had another idea in mind. Ginny was barely a few steps away when Blaise caught her hands in one quick, swift motion, successfully spinning her around to face him all over again. There was a sheepish grin carved onto his face as Ginny's gaze automatically landed on him.

"Stay?" He pleaded even before Ginny managed to open her mouth, trying his best to muster the infamous kicked puppy look. "It's just that - I'm all alone here - I meant, don't take it the wrong way, but.." He trailed off hesitantly as he looked down while rubbing his nape with his free hand. He eventually decided against resuming his words, and just looked up expectantly at her instead. "Just stay for a moment, would you? At least, until Madam Pomfrey brings me the blasted sleep potion to knock me out. I'm sure Professor McGonagall won't mind. In fact, she should be elated since this is what exactly the kind of things they promote here, don't they?"

Ginny didn't reply right away, clearing her throat repeatedly instead to indicate his tight grip on her wrist.

"Oh, right. My bad."

"You don't have to grip on me that hard." mumbled Ginny while rubbing the sore spot. Then, almost naturally, she sat down on the chair next to the bed. Very subtle and quite a smooth move on her part, but it didn't went unnoticed by Blaise, who was already grinning broadly. He kept his mouth shut though, aware of the likeness of her sprinting out of the room the moment he broached on the subject. For the next few minutes, they sat in complete silence, unsure on what to do or say.

"So.." Blaise finally ended up of breaking the silence first. "Do you want to help me up?"

Ginny quickly eyed him with suspicion. "What for? As far as I can see, there is absolutely nothing wrong with your legs so you should be able to do that on your own. But, you're not allowed to leave your bed so there is no point either way."

"Come off it, Ginevra. You cuffed me down to a bed all night long. A bed, mind you. You can't exactly expect me not to lose all of my senses down there." Blaise halted, tapping a finger to his chin. "Merlin's beard, that just sounds so wrong, isn't it? Anyway, just give me a hand here, woman. Any seconds longer, and I think I'm going to go mad from being bedridden for so long. I need some fresh air."

"B-But.."

"Blimey, you're just as bad as Granger." Blaise rolled his eyes before gesturing towards the farthest end of the ward. "There is a huge window down there. I'm not going to run away or wander off this place if that's what you're worried about. I'm just going to take some fresh air there. Happy now?"

Ginny made a face, but stood up nevertheless. "Fine then." She made a huge show out of expressing her apparent distaste as she slowly inched closer to Blaise to help him out of the bed. After pulling his arm over her shoulder, they slowly made their way to the window, but not without a series of endless grumbling from Ginny.

"Seriously, Ginevra," said Blaise when they finally arrived. "You would've think I'm condemning you to an eternity of hell."

"That's not exactly far-fetched." She pointed out.

Blaise rolled his eyes while releasing his hold around her, using the wall to support his weight instead as he stuck his head out through the opened window. He promptly closed his eyes while inhaling deeply.

"You know, for someone that just recently proclaimed her love, you sure do have such a peculiar way of showing it." Ginny's head snapped up even faster than Snape being offered shampoo, squinting her eyes at the Slytherin who was calmly enjoying the late September air. "As you might had noticed, my fans generally went to such great lengths trying to appeal me. Gifts, praises, you name it." He added when he received no response from her, sounding like he was bragging quite proudly until he mused his next words quietly. "But you, dear one, are truly one of a kind."

"And that's supposed to be a bad thing?" Ginny finally replied, inquiring in an almost challenging manner. (Let's just plainly ignored the fact that she didn't even bothered denying that she did proclaimed her love to the Slytherin wizard after all.)

"No." He popped his eyes open before shifting his gaze towards the Gryffindor witch. "It just made it nearly impossible for me to ignore you." He tilted his head to the side, openly staring at her in amusement. He was not bluffing when he said it was nearly impossible to ignore the witch because she really was making it hard - for anyone for that matter - to resist the temptation to figure her out. It was, after all, such a rare occurrence to witness a witch carelessly blabbing her feelings right to his face, and not exactly making an effort to deny it afterwards. (Boys being boys, especially a heartthrob the like of Blaise, obviously he was more used to shy girls confessing their feelings through carefully written handmade cards, or sometimes in the case of the more rabid one, stalking him everywhere while screaming bloody murder on his every step.)

Ginny raised a brow. "Well, glad to know.. I supposed." It really didn't take a genius to notice the thick sarcasm lacing her tone.

"I'm serious, Ginevra."

"Good for you."

"Dead serious."

"Sure, I'm certain that is the case."

"Ginevra-"

"What do you want me to do about it then?" Ginny snapped at last, looking annoyed rather than angry. "I caused the all almighty Blaise Zabini to notice my existence at last, oh wow, big deal as if the Ministry haven't already made sure of that. Should I what, grovel on the floor while shedding tears of joy or something? Why would I do that when I wasn't even sure if I was thinking straight when I said those words to you?"

"Ha! That's not what you said just now." Blaise smiled shrewdly, having caught her off-guard. "Besides, you certainly don't seem quite that unsure last night when you blasted my poor candies to bits. Jealous much, love?"

Ginny blanched involuntarily, not expecting him to know about her reckless act last night. It was simply a spur-of-the-moment decision for her. Maybe it was the frustration building up inside of her or maybe she had been possessed by the devil inside of her, the next thing she knew the tip of her wand was already shooting a powerful blast of red light in the direction of the carefully stacked colorful treats. When she realised much too late of what she had done, the damage was already irreversible, and she did the first thing that she could came up with. She fled the Hospital Wing, and locked herself up in her chamber, wondering what on earth brought that on. She was more than happy to spend the next few days brooding over her sudden mindless action until Hermione came along, and almost blasted the door off its hinges. And then, well, you know the rest of the story.

"Well?"

Ginny gulped. "I-I think I should.. get going."

"Nu-uh, you're not going anywhere without answering me." He firmly took ahold of her arm despite his recent injury. "No more running away, Ginevra. Let's talk this out between us. I'm tired of having to wonder all by myself what have I done wrong." His voice just suddenly dropped an octave, and took on a grim tone.

"I'm not running away from you." Ginny frowned, but avoided from looking into his eyes.

"Look, I was wrong, alright? I've been thinking real hard, and no matter how I looked at it, I think this is quite certainly my fault because of my reaction, isn't it? The way I stupidly blurted out all of those nonsense, and all, I don't blame you for getting mad at me. I know I was simply wrong by reacting the way I did after you, you know, just suddenly confessed like that, albeit accidentally. But, you can't entirely put all of the blame one me either because I actually have a rather good reason behind that, you know." Ginny instinctively raised a sceptical brow. "If you could just put yourself in my shoes for a moment, won't you agree the sheer idea of you, Ginevra Weasley, a war heroine, actually falling for an ex-Death Eater like me is quite far-fetched that the mere thought of it being possible would never have occurred to any sane lot in the wizarding world, myself included?"

Ginny opened her mouth to speak, but he instantly cut her off. His face morphed into a deadly serious expression. "Look at me, Ginevra. Look very carefully, and closely. Look past all of those snotty, little brat act, and open your eyes to the real me inside. Could you see it? The monster that had been blindsided by the greed for power, and glory? The one who narrowly escaped being sentenced to a lifetime in Azkaban eventhough he deserved absolutely no forgiveness? The one that even I myself couldn't forgive." A short, bitter laugh escaped from the hollow of his throat when Ginny remained silent. "You can't so how could you, Ginevra? How could you possibly fall for me when you didn't even know the real me? Even if you do, how could you possibly fall for someone so inexplicably tainted, and horrible like that? It just doesn't make sense. I don't know why on earth the mental Sorting Hat would put us together, but you, of all people, deserve someone much better than me."

Ginny narrowed her eyes, a hint of annoyance flickering across her face for a split second just as Blaise grabbed her arms, and began shaking her as if trying to bring her back to her sense. Wordlessly, she took ahold of his grip on her arms, and willed it to stay still as she finally fixed her gaze on him with surprising composure.

"Like I've said before," Ginny began with a smile that didn't quite reached her eyes. "People would've think I ought to fall for someone much better than you. War heroine or not, I've always been known at being excellent in choosing my date, you know."

Blaise couldn't help adding, "Except that one time you went with Longbottom to the Yule Ball."

"In case you'd forgotten, love, Neville is as much of a hero as the rest of us are. He proved himself worthy of a true Gryffindor when he withdrew the sword from the Sorting hat - which was already a rare occurrence itself - and killed that blasted snake. So, my record still remained perfectly unaffected." Ginny shrugged.

"Well, that is definitely about to change soon." responded Blaise with a quiet murmur, clearly hinting himself as the incoming spoiler. Being a bright witch she is, Ginny obviously didn't missed the apparent self-hatred in his tone. She sighed, and hesitated for a few moment before mustering her courage, and reached out to touch his face.

"I don't like doing this because I'm horrible at it, but hear me out." There was a high determination lacing her voice. "I'll be the first to admit that I do not know the real you. Aside from your name, and several trivial facts about yourself, I have absolutely no idea who you are or what you've done. But, I've been at your trials, and I've heard all of the possible crimes that had been listed out under your name. It's obviously enough to make any other girls running off into the opposite side, me included if I were to be honest with you, but I don't exactly have any other choice, do I? I was fatefully paired with you, as cruel as it is, or else my magic would be forcefully taken away from me, and my wand snapped into two. All of my memories about magic would be completely erased, which is basically my whole life since I was raised in a wizarding household. I couldn't possibly let that happen, and I like being a witch too, thank you very much, so I had to make the best out of this. That's when I started telling myself to look past everything, and to accept you for who you really are. It's not easy, but you admitted it yourself that you could never forgive yourself, which means at least you're decent enough to reflect on your misdeed. That alone is enough for me though I do wish for you to be able to forgive yourself one day."

Ginny could've sworn she saw Blaise's eyes glistening with tears for a split second, though he would later denied it vehemently.

"It got easier, you know." Ginny resumed nonchalantly as if she did not just saw the Slytherin wizard currently about to bawl his eyes out. "It became easier for me to be around you after that, though not fully that at ease yet at the time. For the first two weeks, I spent most of the time observing you discreetly. I began making a mental note on what you do on daily basis to get the general idea of who you really are, but it's not until during our detention that you truly intrigued me." She spontaneously cracked a smile at the thought.

"What? Why?"

"You proved me wrong, albeit unconsciously of course."

"How so?"

"Do you remember when we first met?"

"You meant the day we really first met or—" Blaise cringed slightly, unable to finish his words when the vivid memories of it came to mind.

Ginny chuckled. "Definitely the latter. You left me with quite an impression there, you know."

"Look who's talking."

"The point is it's not exactly a great first impression on your part so I grew very sceptical of you despite my own words of trying to accept you for who you really are. Quite hypocrite of me, I know, but it's not like I could help it since I grew up with six - or maybe just five since Percy had always been the perfect little wizard he is - extremely rowdy brothers, and they are like the epitome of what you see is all there is. My past boyfriends didn't give me that much of a surprise either so naturally, that happened." Blaise noted she didn't look remotely guilty though. "You proved me wrong by showing me that there must be more to you than meets the eyes. Out of curiosity, I started eyeing you more closely afterwards, and before I knew it, I was actually already.. growing fond of you. I began to realise that I do not care of who you are in the past or what you've done because you must have your own reason for it, and everyone made a mistake at least once in their life. Even me. During my first year here, I was the one who released the Basilisk, and almost caused the death of my own bestfriend, and few other students. Harry too I supposed because I doubt Voldemort will come out of his diary after so long just to have a little chit chat over some tea." Ginny's hands fell to her side as she averted her eyes away, most likely in shame at the revelation. When she spoke up again after a few seconds of silence, it became cystal clear to Blaise as on how she managed to win so many hearts effortlessly. "They say a boy and a girl can never be just friends forever, you know. I guess this is why." Blaise was left with his mouth hanging open as he stared at the witch like never before.

About an hour later, when Madam Pomfrey approached the bed with the promised potions, she instantly furrowed her brows at the sight that welcomed her. Placing the tray aside on the side table, she inched closer while observing the young wizard inquiringly.

"Mister Zabini?" She called out. "Are you alright?"

All she got in response was a broad grin from the unnaturally happy student.

"Madam Pomfrey?" said Blaise just a moment later once the school's matron finished providing him the potions.

"Yes, Mister Zabini?"

"I think I'm in love."

And then, there was the loud snoring from him, leaving a very flabbergasted Madam Pomfrey there.