Draco gets back to his room in the hotel, and all but flops on his bed - he immediately scrambles back up when he feels something hard in the middle of his back, though. Something hard, rectangular, with sharp edges. When he picks it up, it's a book wrapped in Slytherin-green paper.

There's also a note Stuck to the paper that says 'Surprise!'

He could swear the words are burned into the paper, tipping him off to who might've left it or at least sent it via House Elf.

Bloom.

When he unwraps it, there's another piece of paper - this one with lines, for whatever reason - that says 'Draco, I bet you already figured out this was from me. It's the surprise I told you about. Happy very late birthday, I'll try to be a lot more on time for the next one. I couldn't think of anything you didn't already have, but then Sirius told me about the Two-Way mirrors he and James used to keep in touch. That gave me an idea. While this isn't a mirror, you can't eavesdrop on this form. It's also Charmed so any interfering busybodies or nosey Housemates can't take a peek. Or just take it, it'll always return to you or where you last left it in five minutes. A little spell of my own imagination.'

When he looks at what was underneath the paper, he sees a book. A completely blank book.

He's stumped for a minute - she gave him a journal? He gets a quill out and writes 'This Journal belongs to Draco Malfoy.' He's just put the quill down and looks over, only to nearly drop the book from shock - new words appeared, underneath his own and in elegant cursive. 'I know, I made it for you.'

He snatches the quill back up, then writes 'Bloom?'

'Duh.'

He can practically see her smirking at whatever she's looking at.

'Protean Charm?'

'Aw, I was hoping to keep you wondering! Did Siri tell you?'

Draco starts cracking up at that, then writes 'No, I guessed. No wonder it took you so long, that's NEWT level.'

'Surprised?'

'No.'

'Want to go flying for a bit?'

'Absolutely. But I don't have my broom.'

'Meet me at your balcony. And wear something warm.'

Sure enough, Bloom flies over - either she took the makeup off, or it doesn't stay on for her transformation. Either way, she still looks beautiful to Draco. Draco pulls her down before anything else can happen, and moans "Behaving like a Pureblood now is hard…" He then kisses Bloom like he so wanted to for the entire Ball.

One of her hands snakes up to the back of his neck to keep him from pulling away, and he wraps an arm around her exposed waist. The other goes to rest on her back, and accidentally brushes against her wings - it makes her jump with something like a mix of a gasp and a yelp. She quickly covers her mouth with both hands, staring at him with wide, shocked eyes - Draco, on the other hand, gets an evil smirk and asks "Really, now?"

"No! Draco, don't you even think about-"

He pounces at once, trapping her against his chest and putting a Silencing Spell on the door to the Balcony. Then proceeds to effectively tickle-torture her by running his fingers along her wings. And just tickling her, turns out she's extremely ticklish.

After a good ten minutes of tickling her, he finally lets up when she's gone red-faced and is leaning on him. She then goes stiff as a board, and mutters "Dammit, Sirius. I'd hoped you'd stay with the other adults…"

Draco asks "He's-"

"Coming to check on me. I put spells a few doors down, they're worked to tell me if Sirius himself is coming. Gotta go!"

To his shock, she only flies two balconies down before landing and changing back into her dress.


Dumbledore groans to himself softly - things are an absolute mess. Especially concerning Bloom Potter. He tried to persuade Sirius to forgo the annual Pureblood Ball this year, hosted this time by the Malfoys in their Hotel De Malfoy in an island on France, only to have the man coldly reject his advice that he bring Bloom in for an Order meeting. He also said repairs on his bike, which he retrieved from Hagrid before leaving Hogwarts to search for Bloom, were slow going as Hagrid didn't know how to maintain the series of Charms he and James put on nearly every inch of the bike and it was full of dust and cobwebs.

Sirius and Remus have all but quit the Order, and he's treading on thin ice with Minerva - she's an excellent Head of House and Deputy Headmistress, but her temper is something to be feared and she cares far more than is strictly necessary for her capacity as Bloom's Head of House. She's become the mother-figure Bloom never had, and he's sure that's become a problem now.

But, short of Obliviating everyone, both of them, plus all of the Gryffindors in their year, and forcibly removing Bloom from Hogwarts, there's no way to reverse it.

And he needs Bloom to attend Hogwarts, for the Greater Good - while she's here he can keep an eye on her, keep her under his control and on the right path, and the public knows where her support is, that she's on the Light side.

Sirius has threatened more than once to very publicly pull her from Hogwarts and tutor her himself if that's what it takes to keep him away from her, and Remus agreed at once saying he'd help teacher her the stuff he took that Sirius didn't.

He's heard from McGonagall that all the Professors are getting invited to the birthday party he's throwing Bloom, some plan that the three of them are cooking up - whatever it is, he's not in the loop and he's certain it won't be for the Greater Good.

He is certain that Sirius and Remus had proud looks on their faces when they were talking with Minerva while he was busy trying to help Severus even a little with his Mark burning. Minerva seemed pleased, and had dragged Severus away from him soon after his Mark wasn't burning quite so badly. She then set up a Privacy spell, had her back facing him, and the only thing he could discern was Severus' surprised expression before he cautiously nodded. And then smirked, one that he gets when he comes up or is faced with a particularly Slytherin plan.


Voldemort is in a very bad mood - for months, he's been searching for Bloom Potter. How bloody hard could it possibly be to find one teenaged Witch with hair as distinctive as hers? Especially since she could sneeze and the media would be all over it instantly.

But no, she somehow managed to drop off the face of the planet - tracking spells aren't working, there's been no sighting of her in the Wizarding World, and if she's chosen to hide in the Muggle World then she's hiding amongst the doomed sheep.

Only problem with that is…she can defend those sheep all on her own. And, even though nobody admits it in his earshot, those sheep have come up with some highly destructive toys of their own.

Add to it the fact that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoys' Marks aren't working at all, haven't been working ever since that searing agony burned through all their Marks and nearly made him pass out as it spread through his entire body, and he's a very unhappy man. Especially since the Malfoys were their main source of funding - there are other wealthy Pureblood families in the fold, but the Malfoys were the top bunch.

Lucius is a high-ranking member of the Wizengamot, he's got Fudge's ear, and the Malfoy family's influence is embedded so deeply in the Wizarding world that you couldn't tear it out completely if you killed them all. And, and, to make matters even worse, he's working on repealing laws that were made by the 'unwilling' Death Eaters to help them when their Dark Lord finally returned - and supporting ones that are making it much harder for them to remain undetected.

Fudge was elected because he was a weak-willed sop that would shy away from any kind of major confrontation - or would at least go down the path of least resistance, as is the case with choosing between smearing Potter and admitting the Dark Lord is back.

Or, at least, that's what the Death Eaters in the Ministry say he's trying to do - for some unexplainable reason, any story that gets printed involving the volatile, fire-haired witch gets burned out of the pages as soon as the papers are printed. The entire section will just burn away, and no amount of spells can determine why its happening.

It's put a stop to Fudge's smear campaign, stopped it right in its tracks.

The same phenomenon is happening to anyone else that tries to publish anything about Potter - except for the Quibbler, which is suddenly getting dramatically increased popularity due to the fact that they're the only source of info about Potter.

They've been writing the story about the fight in the Graveyard, though Potter didn't give any specific names…yet. It's only a matter of time, though, since the Dark Lord said them all in front of her - he wasn't expecting her to survive, or to leave, and now they're all waiting for the fallout of when she names them all.

Or, maybe she won't - she said that particular detail wasn't one she remembered, likely due to the stressful ordeal of fighting for her life against the man that killed her parents, would kill her if given the chance, and has made a direct attempt once before and an indirect attempt through an object he cursed.

The Death Eaters currently in the Ministry say Fudge is on thin ice with the public, and is doing anything to make himself look good in the public eye - it isn't working very much, seeing as the Dailey Prophet is coming out filled with burn-holes at every turn and Fudge's public announcements that Bloom Potter is a lying, insane, attention-seeking brat always come off more desperate and fearful than remotely convincing. There's a power in written words, with the lack of tone and the fact that people are more prone to believing something 'reported' than a stammered answer to a reporter while Fudge is visibly sweating, and it would appear Bloom Potter knows that very well.


AN: Hey, everyone! So sorry about the late post, but I had to finish up homework due tomorrow morning. Got it done, though - hooray!

If anyone's wondering, I got a positive response for the new HTTYDxWinx idea that popped into my brain, so I'm going to write it...just post it AFTER this one and my other currently-active story, Dragon Princess, is finished. Too many stories going at once, and nothing gets done, unfortunately.

Anyway, I have to go for now - class in the morning, and all. Enjoy! More chapters coming soon!