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A/N: Hello there! I'm here for yet again another Chapter for our story here. And I must say, I'm really very pleased and thankful because I've 80 reviews…and counting! So to all of you who've been patiently waiting for me to upload the next chapters and for those who have restrained themselves from throwing rotten fruits and heavy things to me for taking so long to update, I GIVE YOU A BIG THANK YOU!

On to our story!

Chapter 25 – Wandering

Draco surveyed the ballroom full off fancy dressed wizards and witches, below him from the grand staircase. He has no intention of joining them soon. After all, he'd just be forced to talk about how to restore the soddy Voldemort's reign over all Wizarding lands and how to kill Harry Potter and his followers. Draco has no intention what so ever of joining in that kind of talk, more so because he had been hanging around the very guy they all wanted to kill and his friends.

Draco sighed. That sodding Voldemort doesn't even have a proper nose! How could he possible rule their world? Somebody would have to maim him first before he could bow to that de-nosed git.

He looked over to where his father was and slipped out of sight and onto the dark second floor hallway. It was lighted by candles and was pretty lonely and Draco was sure that inside the Weasley house, there was nothing like this. He began missing him again. This lonely alleyway leading to different and equally lonely rooms had made the feeling of longing much worse. He sighed as he walked along the dimly-lit hallway, letting his hand skim the walls as he went along.

He wanted to get out of here. He and his mom don't belong here. If only he could make her see that then they'd probably be out of here faster than you can say 'Go!'. His mom deserved better than this dark prison.

His mind shifted to the plan that should be in action right about now. Blaise and his crew were probably inside the Zabini Mansion and searching for the heart. Maybe he should search the Manor too, and save everybody the trouble of going here tomorrow night. He stepped inside the library, the nearest room on his left and closed the door behind him. If ever his father would walk into the room and caught him there, he could always say he wanted to read alone in there. Something he always does.

The library was dimly-lit as well and it was cold. He flicked his wand and murmured a spell and the fireplace cackled as it spit out fire from nowhere. Once the warmth of the fire settle inside the room, he rummaged inside the room, looking behind books, not daring to use magic other than Lumos. He rummaged and looked and exasperatedly ran his hands through his hair everytime he didn't find something behind a book. The shelves were big and one row could've held fifty fat books. He gave up on the second row of book in his first shelf. It's no use doing this alone. There are hundreds of Shelves in the vast Malfoy Library and he could be celebrating his fiftieth year of existence and still no heart. He sighed for the third time.

He went over to one of the couches and sat his disappointed arse down. He normally wouldn't just give up on something but the circumstances against him were telling him that the heart wasn't there. He massaged his nose's bridge irritated at himself and looked around.

Where in the world is the Sadicrium heart? He asked himself. Of course you won't expect any important thing to lie around the house in plain sight. Knowing how careful father is, I bet it's somewhere inside the earth's core.

Draco's eyes fell on the huge painting on the wall, the family portrait that his mother had insisted they do every year. It was one of those few things his father lets his mother take control of and sometimes, it leads to Draco thinking that his father had some bit of love for his mother too.

In the portrait, done earlier that year before he went to Hogwarts, Draco was standing on one side of his mother, stiffly smiling small at the pudgy wizard artist brought in by his mother to do the damned portrait. His father Lucius was on the other side, standing also without a trace of a smile on his lips, looking menacing as usual. His mother was sitting on a chair between them, smiling serenely as she always did. Draco couldn't understand why his mother wanted to have yearly revisions of the family portrait, but if that's what she wants, he's willing to give it to her.

His gaze came upon the hands of his father, just beside his mother's sitting frame. One was on her shoulder and the other on a cane. There was something in the picture that made his heart race.

Draco had always loved reading books in the library and always took to this library. It was unlike his father's private one which was full of Dark Magic books and Ancient Magic scrolls. This library could have belonged to anyone who cared to read, it was full of harmless, knowledgeable books and scrolls. And Draco considered this site as one of his escape rooms whenever there are Dark Army meetings in the house. Which was often as this house could be considered the official headquarters of the Dark Army. So Draco had always stared at the portraits in the library as it changed every year. And he was so damned sure that there was something in this portrait that's not in the others.

He walked slowly towards the portrait until he was sure he can distinguish what it was he really is seeing.

Now the problem with Wizard portraits is that they're like Wizard photos. They move and are painted accurately. It's like staring at the real thing. So Draco was sure that he had seen what he was looking for. It was staring blankly at him, telling him that he was a big asswipe fool to not have guessed it sooner.

The heart was on the cane.

His father's cane.

Blaise was ready to curse every single thing in his house to smithereens. It had been four hours now. Four lousy and effing irritating hours and he has nothing. Damned to the core nothing.

Where is it?

"I don't think it's here Blaise." Hermione said for the second or third time that night. She had already told this to him but he refused to listen. Now there was a certainty in her voice as well as irritation and Blaise had reluctantly nodded. They were in the attics with Trey. They couldn't even afford to split up to make things easier because Blaise's house had rooms with wards and only Blaise knew how to turn them off. That had slowed them down miserably.

"Where do you think it is, Hermione?" Trey asked, manually setting the dusty old book on top of the trunk he opened. They couldn't even do magic like Squibs. It might tick off any ward Blaise hadn't known. They were really taking a risk here, as Blaise doesn't fully know how many wards the house has. But so far, he could guess that they were safe. Draco wasn't storming out of the fireplace to warn them if ever, and their coins, safely tucked inside their pockets, weren't burning up.

"I don't know." Hermione said, obviously piqued that she didn't the answer to that one, but hey, nobody did. "I honestly think we were asking for too much when we thought it was just here somewhere."

Blaise took a deep breath. He had sent the house elves to random chores so no one would see them rummaging around the house. House elves are loyal creatures. Ask them to not say anything, they won't. Blaise knew the house elves had more respect in him and would not spill to his father but he wanted to take no chances. The little people know, the little harm it would do them. And that includes house elves.

Suddenly, Draco was shouting his name. For a reason he doesn't have a clue on.

"Zabini!" roared Draco's urgent voice. "Get your ass down here!"

Blaise, Trey and Hermione looked at each other and saw the alarm in each other's eyes before scrambling down to meet Draco, who was then coming up the stairs. "Damn it Malfoy, you're going to blow our cover!"

"Nothing of that now." Draco's face was set with urgency. "I think the heart isn't right here now."

Blaise's heart calmed down a bit. "Yes, I think we have that covered, Draco." He gestured with his head towards Hermione. "Granger figured it out already." He glared at the guy whose face was still covered with anxiety and excitement.

"Draco?" Hermione said, stepping from behind Blaise. "What is it?"

"I know where my Sadicrium heart is you guys. My father has it!" Draco's voice was dripping with excitement.

The three stared at him in excitement. "Your father?" Trey said, coming nearer and eyes brightening. "How'd you know?"

"I'll explain later. Right now we need to tell this to everyone." Draco moved fast and whirled to get down the stairs. Everyone followed him and they all escaped in Blaise's bedroom where the three others were waiting for them.

"Hermione!" Ron jumped up and walked towards them, followed by the two girls. They had the task to stay hidden, and guard the tunnel if ever someone else had known about it while Blaise and Draco were gone to Hogwarts. "Did you find it?"

Celine and Ivanne, both looking white with worry were fiddling with their hands. Celine jumped Blaise and hugged him tightly. "Blaise? Are you alright?" she whispered, Hufflepuff jolliness gone.

Blaise kissed his girlfriend's hair and nodded. "I'm okay."

"Did you find it?" Ivanne asked curiously, looking from Hermione and Blaise and completely ignoring Trey now that they were appearing to be safe. Ivanne wanted to jump him like Celine did to Blaise but Trey was holding himself far from her as possible and she sure has had enough of his evasiveness. "Where is it?"

Blaise shook his head. "It's not here." He said to them. "Draco says he knows where is his though." He said gesturing at the blonde boy with his head. Everyone turned to the boy with excitement in their eyes. "Draco?" Blaise said, prodding him to speak.

Draco went on to tell them what happened and where he found the heart. He also told them of how he came to the ballroom to double check and see up-close if the heart was really on the cane. The cane was a figure of a snake's head. One eye was a diamond, and the other one was a pale pink jewel, that was doing tiny beating movements. That was what made Draco sure that it was the heart. "It looked like the Sadicrium heart Uncle Sev showed us in the book."

"Does your father know you're here?" Blaise asked. When Draco nodded, he said. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him I was coming to get you. I was bored and had no one to talk with but Crabbe and Goyle had passed out from too much firewhiskey." Draco said. "I'll tell you what, guys. I'm rescheduling this meeting for tomorrow at Granger's house. Our problem is just telling the others about it."

"Since when did he become a Wizard CEO? Meeting? This sounds like a bloody company." Ron murmured to Ivanne and she half-smiled.

"Oh you know Draco Ron, he's just being…er well…Draco." Ivanne whispered back.

"Aherm!" Draco cleared his throat and glared at the two. "I'm just here and I can hear you." He said.

Ron reddened and Ivanne beamed up at him. "Sorry."

"Anyway," Hermione said. Trust Granger to get right into business again. Blaise thought to himself. "Ginny and Harry and Luna should be at the Burrow and I could always invite them for a post-Christmas breakfast early tomorrow morning."

Draco nodded.

"I'll owl them right after we get back to our house." Hermione said.

"What about Colin and Daphne?" asked Ivanne.

"I'll owl them too and explain. We'll just tell them to tell their parents that I'm having a post-Christmas breakfast." Hermione shrugged.

"Can we just leave the Creepy and take his girlfriend with us?" Trey asked. "Daphne's brains are awesome but it seems it doesn't work when it comes to choosing a guy."

Ivanne's eyes slit as she said. "My father is a brilliant man, but he seems to not have a good sense of judgment when it comes to picking a guy for me to marry." She said in a hard tone. Trey whirled around and looked at her.

"Sure Castle, whatever makes you sleep at night."

The two glared at each other and tension was in the air. Hermione tactfully cleared her throat and turned the direction of the talk again towards the problem at hand. "How about Blaise's heart?"

Draco stood up and drove a hand through his hair again. "We'll just talk about it tomorrow. For now we have to get out of here." He glanced at Blaise who has his hands around the Hufflepuff still. "At least they have to get out of here. You're coming with me Blaise."

Blaise nodded and looked down reluctantly distancing himself from his girlfriend. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Celine nodded, her warm smile returning and kissed him on the cheeks. "You take care of yourself alright?" He smiled and nodded back.

"I'm pretty sure there are no monsters in the cave as you all got here safely, but take extra caution as you go out of the forest and always be on your guard." Draco said to the other five.

"I don't know Drake, maybe I ought to escort them first out of the cave." Blaise said. But Draco was shaking his blonde head.

"My father threatened to send some guards on me if I'm not back immediately. If I don't come back immediately and if you're not with me, he'll think of something fishy and we both know that what they believe in would always be what they would even though it isn't true." Draco reminded Blaise. "Oi Goodhouse, Weasley. Take care of the girls back there."

Blaise hurriedly added. "Keep an eye on Celine too."

"Don't worry Zabini, Celine is in good hands." Goodhouse said. "We'll be leaving then."

The five made for the fireplace that served as the tunnel's entry into Blaise's room. Before Celine went into the hole, she looked back and called Blaise.

"Blaise?"

Blaise cocked his head in recognition.

"I trust you'll not dance with anyone tonight."

A/N: Okay! We're definitely getting there. I suppose it's a pretty decent chapter. I can't promise much for the next one, but just wait and let's all see what'll come out of my hands.

Snowfire81, thanks for the answer. I can be a little insecure at times.

Malfoy's Granger, thank you, thank you for the reviews. You're one of my favorite reviewers, honestly.

Liz, ha-ha! A cookie again? Anyway, accepts the cookie how about a cake this time?

Oh, and of course I can't end this without my favorite phrase: TOODLES!