"Mama? Papa? Are you in here?" Hermione peeked into the Gold Library, so named because of the gold furnishings prevalent throughout the large room, and spotted… absolutely nothing. She nodded, satisfied, and entered the room, gesturing for Blaise and Marcus to follow her.

They had passed by both Zabini and Flint Manors to get the boy's clothes before swinging around to go back to the Castle. Hermione hadn't seen hide nor hair of either her parents and decided that they were probably out or something.

'Hopefully NOT torturing any Muggles… innocent ones at least,' she thought, flopping into a cushy chair near a large fireplace.

Blaise and Marcus both looked decidedly uncomfortable… They glanced at each other and the only couch facing the chair Hermione had claimed. She watched with a mischievous glint in her eye as they sat down uneasily opposite her… as far apart as humanly possible while still being on the same couch.

'God but these two really ARE hopeless…' she thought, rolling her eyes. A sudden pop in front of her drew her attention back to what was going on.

She rolled her eyes again. Shesh, you'd think that they'd never seen a house elf before, the way they were staring at Nollee.

"What is it, Nollee?" she asked the elf. Nollee bowed deeply to her mistress and said, "Master and Mistress is wanting everyones in the Azure Room, Little Miss."

Hermione nodded and stood up, gesturing for the boys to get up as well. Nollee disappeared, her duty done, as the three made their way out of the room.

Only…

Hermione caught a title of a book out of the corner of her eye and stopped still, almost making Blaise and Marcus bump into her. She turned and calmly went over to the shelf and drew a book reverently out of its place.

Blaise and Marcus looked at her weirdly as they saw the title.

"'Lineage and Blood Magic'? What's up with the book, Sin?" Blaise asked. She smirked at him after shrinking the book to the size of a matchbox and slipping it into the pocket of her jeans.

"Wouldn't you like to know, Blue-eyes…" she teased, sweeping out the room. Blaise looked at Marcus, who shrugged at him, following where the girl would lead.

Marcus snorted. 'Crazy girl leading insane horny gay man and the object of his lust to the ends of the earth. Damn but this is some insane shit…' He glanced at Blaise from the corner of his eye. 'Wonder if he knows that it's his precious cousin's birthday party today…' He shook his head. 'Of course not… Not like the Dark Lord tells everyone everything…' Marcus rolled his eyes as it occurred to him that he really WAS privileged to even BE there today. 'How lucky I am…' he thought sarcastically. 'If anything goes wrong, as it most likely will, I get to take all the blame… JOY…'

"Marcus?"

A voice drew him out of his inner musings and his eyes focused to see Hermione grinning at him in front of a heavily-carved dark wooden door. She stepped closer to him and drew his head down until she could whisper quietly in his ear. What she said was NOT what he was expecting though…

"If you've finished gallivanting around your large head…? You do know that you looked like a crazy man, shaking your head and rolling your eyes at nothing, do you?" she whispered teasingly, laughing as she pulled away and saw him blush deeply.

Blaise shook his head at his cousin's antics and rolled his eyes. "My own cousin is closer to the man I like than I am… Merlin, but I'm pathetic!'