Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the responses to the last chapter. This chapter is a little bit shorter, but that is just kind of how it worked out with what I have planned. Regardless, I think you guys will still enjoy - especially the ending ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. All rights belong to JKR.

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Ch. 6: The Only Option

"Come on, I know a safe place we can go to regroup," I said, gesturing for Granger to follow me out of the store.

I quickly led her out a back entrance, into an alleyway that was hidden from muggle eyes and was perfect for apparating to Blaise's house. Once the door to the store was shut firmly behind us, I stopped and reached out to grab her by the arm.

"What are you doing?" she cried, yanking her arm away from me so forcefully she nearly fell over backwards into the brick wall of the building. Her brown eyes were not wide with fear as I would have expected, but instead narrowed in what seemed more like suspicion.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I mocked. "Would you like to apparate us to Blaise's home, to which you have never been?"

Her face grew flushed, and, judging by the way her eyes narrowed even further and her face pinched up, I knew it was from anger and not embarrassment. "I meant," she snapped, "what are you doing helping me? What do you care if I live or die?"

I rolled my eyes. "Granger, someone just tried to bloody kill you; do you really want to do this right now?" She stood resolutely in front of me, arms crossed and expression unmoving. I groaned. "Merlin's beard, Granger! Just because you annoy the piss out of me doesn't mean I want you to die. Despite what you may think, I'm not so evil as to throw you to the wolves in a foreign county away from everyone you know."

Her expression wavered for a moment, but she still wouldn't budge. "I don't trust you."

She was an absolute mule, this woman, I swear. "Granger," I said slowly, losing my patience. "If I wanted you dead, why in the bloody hell would I have shoved you out of the way back there?"

She lifted her chin. "To lure me into trusting you so that you could bring me somewhere more private to kill me," she said as though it were obvious.

I stared at her. "You're a lunatic." She stepped back again when I reached for her arm; apparently the pure lunacy of her logic was lost on her. I tilted my head back, eyes closed, and took a deep breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth. When I felt more composed, I turned to look at what had to be the most stubborn woman on the planet. Despite my inner feelings, I let my features soften, hoping to ease her concerns. "Granger," I said, softly this time. "Someone is trying to kill you, and it isn't me. I know you have a very poor opinion of me, and I will be the first to admit that I am many terrible things, but a killer is not one of them and I think you know that." I saw a crack in her shell, and I pushed forward. "But if that isn't enough to convince you, just think logically. I have had so many opportunities to hurt you, and yet I haven't. That person back there though, they very much tried to hurt you. The longer we wait out here, the more you are taking a risk." Her shoulders sagged a little as she looked away from me. I knew the bookworm wouldn't have been able to resist sound logic. "Now, will you please let me bring you to Blaise's house? It's warded and everything, so it's a safe place to make a plan."

Still not looking at me, she held out her right forearm. I grasped it lightly, ignoring how weird it felt to be voluntarily touching her, and apparated us away before she could change her mind.

Luckily for us, Blaise was out running errands of his own this morning, which gave me time to think of answers for the thousands of questions I knew he would have. I groaned internally at the mere thought of the hell he would give me for helping the girl who used to be the subject of many of my angry rants back at Hogwarts. I could picture his smug grin already, practically hear the innuendos he would surely make.

Once we were safely inside the house, I used my grip on Granger's arm to steer her towards the sitting area. "Stay here," I said as I lightly pushed her towards one of the plump couches.

She plopped down unceremoniously and frowned at me. "Where are you going?" she asked my back.

Ignoring her, I went straight to the kitchen to make tea. I always thought better with a fresh cup in my hands, and the manners that had been drilled into me since birth had me making a cup for Granger as well without a thought. They were ready in mere seconds with the assistance of a little magic, and I returned to find Granger exactly where I left her, albeit begrudgingly judging by her demeanor. I set the cup gently in front of her and then settled in the armchair across from her with mine. When I noticed she had yet to move other than to fix her glare suspiciously at the cup, I sighed. "Granger, if I was going to kill you, poisoning your tea would not be how I did it; poison just doesn't have the same satisfaction," I attempted to joke.

She snapped her glare up to me. "Well you would know, wouldn't you?"

I looked quickly away, not wanting her to see how much her words actually stung. The unintended effects of the cursed and poisoned items that I had meant for Dumbledore during sixth year were frequent visitors of my nightmares. Her words weren't exactly wrong, but that only made them sting all the more. "Fair enough," I mumbled, still staring blankly to my right.

A few moments passed, and only when I saw her reach for the cup and take a sip out of the corner of my eye did I turn toward her again. Simple as the action seemed, her small step of trust toward me made me feel the slightest bit less like the sad excuse for a human being that I did when I thought of my past sins.

I cleared my throat. "Alright, well, let's get to work; who would want to kill you?"

"Aside from you?"

"Granger," I started to protest, but she was smirking, clearly joking. "Ha ha," I mocked. "But seriously, if we can find out who the threat is then it will be much easier to make sure they are no longer a threat and then we can both return to our lives."

She quirked an eyebrow. "You can return to your life at any point, you know. This doesn't involve you."

"We've already been over this, Granger. As odd as it is, I may be the only ally you have here, and I'm not that cruel that I would just let someone kill you. Besides, if something happened to you and Potter found out I could have done something about it, I'm fairly sure he would hunt me down and have my head."

She laughed at that – a full, genuine laugh, unlike the small snorts she had given me in the past. "You have a point there. But you aren't my only ally here, I have a friend in the city named Charlotte – the one who got me into the club, remember?"

I narrowed my eyes at this, thinking as I took a slow sip of my tea. "And you met Charlotte when you arrived here?" She nodded. "And just how sure are you that you can actually trust Charlotte?"

"What are you suggesting?" she said, aghast at my implications.

I shrugged. "I'm just saying, you don't know her well, she is a new factor in your life, could be suspicious." I took a long sip of tea, letting her digest what I had just suggested.

She placed her now empty cup on the table with more force than necessary before crossing her arms over her chest. "Charlotte has been nothing but a great friend since I met her."

"How did you meet her, exactly?"

She hesitated. "Well, she recognized me when I was in a café, and she approached me."

I blinked. "You do understand that that sounds suspicious, right? Some stranger just recognizes you for your celebrity status and befriends you. Sounds stalkerish really. Perhaps she is obsessed with you and has gone bonkers so now she wants to kill you."

"That is enough! Charlotte is a good friend, and that is that."

I leaned back in my seat, totally unfazed by her little tantrum. "Then why aren't you with her?"

She huffed. "I don't want to put her in danger, obviously."

"Oh, but putting me in danger is fine," I snorted.

She shrugged. "You offered."

I felt my lips twitch. "I suppose you have me there. Fine, if Perfect-Miss-Charlotte is off the suspect list, then I ask again, who would want to kill you?"

She drew her legs up beneath her and sank further into the couch as she got lost in thought. I noticed a slight frown forming and a crease appeared between her brows. It was an expression I had seen on the girl often in our classes, though sometimes that felt like an entire lifetime ago. To see her making the same expression here, in Blaise's home in France as we drank our tea together felt utterly surreal. "Well," she said eventually, pulling me from my thoughts, "it isn't like there is anyone in particular. Former death eaters or supporters of Voldemort and his cause, but that isn't particularly helpful."

I sighed. "No, I suppose it isn't, especially considering how many of his supporters remained hidden and are still hidden, probably waiting for their next opportunity."

She tried to hide it, but I saw her release a small shudder at the thought. "This is going to be more difficult than I thought," she mumbled, almost to herself.

I nodded in agreement, trying and failing to run through possible suspects in my mind.

"Well, then if we can't figure out who is trying to kill me, what do we do?"

I stood. I had had a feeling it would come to this. In fact, I was waiting for the opportunity to bring it up since we left the shop. "You go back home."

She leapt to her feet as well. "What?" she cried.

"Go home. You'll be safer there; you can stay with your band of misfits and report the incident to the aurors to investigate. Hell, for you, they may even assign round-the-clock guards. Plus, there's a chance the wannabe-killer won't follow you." I shrugged. "Seems like the most reasonable option."

She looked horrified. "I will do no such thing! Someone out there wants me dead, and I will not just run away and let them go free!"

Of course she would want nothing to do with the most reasonable option. I rolled my eyes. "Stupid Gryffindors, with your foolish courage. Does self-preservation mean nothing to you?"

She stood straighter. "Of course it means something, but not at the cost of my sanity. I cannot go on knowing my attempted murderer is just on the loose out there – I'll lose my mind."

I sighed, running a hand over my tired face. I hated to admit it, but I actually understood her reasoning there. "Fine, then you can borrow one of my owls to write a letter to Potter so he can come up here and help you."

"I'm not doing that either."

"You are bloody killing me."

She put her hands on her hips. "Harry is an absolute worrywart, and his auror training has only made that worse. He barely even let me come here to begin with. If I tell Harry then he is just going to worry his head off and demand I come back home, which we just established is not an option."

I flopped back down in my seat. "Okay, so just to recap: you won't contact your only friend here, or your friends from home, and you won't go back home."

"Correct."

"And you can't go back to your hotel because whoever tried to kill you most likely knows where you live and has a trap in place."

"Right."

"So that leaves you with one option," I frowned.

"I believe it does."

"Are you sure this is seriously the most appealing option?"

She scoffed. "Most appealing? Not at all. But it is the only option I have left."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, wondering what that hell I was getting myself into. I knew as soon as I spoke the words that I was going to regret this. "Well then, welcome to your new home, roomie."

XXX

Exciting things are coming! I'm hoping this interaction didn't seem too ooc; I tried to make it clear that this kind of was the only logical option for the both of them, and this is the reason they find themselves here. If anyone has any suggestions or issues with my portrayals of the characters I would love to hear them! Also, I am moving back into school next week, so I'm hoping to keep my updates regular but that may be a little difficult, so just a heads up!

Reviews would be very lovely, I want to know what everyone thinks!

Thanks for reading :)