"Honestly, Blaise..." Ryan shook his head with a strange mix of horror and
amusement, apparently at a loss for words. I'd just finished regaling my
most recent misadventure to him in a hushed whisper, all the while keeping
an eye out for unwanted listeners between the bookshelves. "You really are
lucky you didn't get suspended," Ryan said at length.
"I know, but that's not the point," I said, scanning the library for the umpteenth time before locking my gaze intently on Ryan. "Look, I need you to do me a favor."
"What kind of favor?" Ryan asked, eyeing me suspiciously. He had every right to be wary, as he was very familiar with my past exploits.
I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way. "Don't worry, it's nothing that'll get you in trouble. I just need you to look up a few things for me."
"And why can't you do this yourself?"
"Because, Ryan, if /I/ was caught looking for these things, I'd be in serious shit. Again. But if /you/ were found with this information, you wouldn't be in any sort of trouble."
Ryan seemed to consider this for a moment, then nodded. "What sort of things am I looking for?"
I tapped the point of my quill on my parchment in a fashion reminiscent of Morse code. "I need you to find anything you can about that Order I mentioned."
"Do you know what it's called? Or is it just called The Order?"
"I don't know," I admitted, sighing dejectedly.
"Do you know what it's about?"
"No."
"Do you at least know what sort of people are in it?"
I shook my head. "Nope."
Ryan raked his fingers through his dark hair in frustration. "So basically all you know is they have some sort of vendetta against your aunt, or people like her? That's /loads/ of help."
"Hey, all I'm asking is you look for something, anything that might be helpful," I pleaded. "I'd even be happy with some vague reference in a history book that only has a slim chance of being related. Please? I'm desperate."
"Oh, all right. I'm not promising I'll find anything, though."
*******
Monday went by much faster than I would've liked, as I had detention with Snape to look forward to. Despite my fervent prayers for some massive natural disaster to flood out the dungeons, I found myself outside of the Potions classroom that evening, hoping against hope that Snape wouldn't hold my loss of points against me. The rest of the Slytherins didn't take it too well (Pansy had threatened to break every bone in my body before Draco intervened), but a person couldn't really guess Snape's reaction by the response of his House. Of course, my housemates didn't know anything other than I'd broken curfew, while Snape had probably heard the whole story, unedited.
I took a deep breath, bracing myself for the worst, and knocked. The door swung open on its own accord a second later. Taking this as an invitation, I entered and was surprised to find I wasn't the only victim subject to Snape's supervision. A rather petite girl with flaming red hair that identified her as a Weasley was standing beside Snape's desk, looking both nervous and defiant. Snape just looked irritated.
"Ah, Mister Zabini," drawled Snape in a steely tone that made me cringe. Yes, he was definitely angry with me. "Now that you've decided to grace us with your presence, perhaps we can start. You two will be cleaning out potion vials--no magic." He motioned to where at least two hundred of the aforementioned vessels of various shapes and sizes were collected on a row of desks. "I want them /spotless/, mind you. I don't need any potions fouled up because you couldn't clean the container properly. You'll find everything you need by the sinks." With that, Snape left us to it while he corrected papers at his desk.
Weasley and I trudged over to the sinks, resigned to a very long, very boring night. This wasn't the first time I'd had to do this, so I already knew the fastest and easiest technique for scouring a potion vial, and this fact only made the task more tedious. After a while, my mind began to shut down all non-essential functions, including tangible thought. It was a very odd feeling. Once finally I realized what was happening, I hurriedly cast about for something to distract me.
I settled, for lack of anything better, on the Weasley girl, who had adopted a rather crude method of cleaning. She simply filled the flask and then dumped it, over and over. It did work, but it took an infuriatingly long time to get anything properly clean. I knew I'd be stuck there until all the vials were immaculate no matter what, so I decided to speed the process up a bit.
"What, exactly, are you doing?" The moment the words came out of my mouth I was mentally kicking myself. Sure, Blaise, that'll get a great reaction. Good job.
Weasley, who had been ignoring me up to this point, looked up with raised eyebrows and a slightly annoyed expression. "What does it /look/ like I'm doing?" she asked, not bothering to use a civil tone. "I'm cleaning, genius."
"/Obviously/," I said, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. "Allow me to rephrase the question in a way you can understand: why do you insist on doing it the hard way?"
Weasley was indignant. "What's wrong with the way I'm doing it? These things are getting clean, aren't they?"
"There's nothing wrong with your way if you want to stay here until four in the morning," I said calmly, dipping a flask under the jet of water pouring from a gargoyle's mouth. "Personally, I'd like to be done while we're still young."
"All right then, what's so great about how you're doing it?" she asked dubiously.
"Well, for one thing, it's a hell of a lot faster." Weasley looked doubtful, so I selected a vial with a sickly yellow liquid dried on the inside from the vast collection. "Watch and be amazed." I proceeded to show her how tilting the flask at the right angle would make the water spin, effectively cleaning the inside and saving a lot of time.
Instead of thanking me, however, Weasley seemed even more irritated, though whether it was at me or at herself for not thinking of it before, I couldn't say. "Why couldn't you have shown me this an hour ago? It could've saved me a lot of frustration!"
I held up my hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, I was just trying to help. There's no need to bite my head off."
Weasley tilted her head to the side and studied me like she was seeing me for the first time. "Why?"
"Er... what?" Did I miss something?
"You said you were trying to help me," she said plainly. "I'm wondering why."
I blinked in surprise. What kind of a question was that? "I told you, I want to get this over with as quickly as possible," I said, returning to my menial task.
"So?"
"Excuse me?"
Weasley sighed in exasperation. "So, what's your point? In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a /Gryffindor/. You're a /Slytherin/. Slytherins do not help Gryffindors, regardless of the circumstances."
"You obviously don't know much about Slytherins, then."
"I know enough," she said. "Most wouldn't give a damn if they got out of detention late as long as the Gryffindor was stuck staying, too."
"That's because they have nothing better to do," I said frankly. "Taunting Gryffindors is the highlight of their day."
"And you're not one of those people?" Weasley asked, sounding more curious than anything else.
"Not usually," I said with a smirk. "Though if the person annoys me I'll make an exception."
"I'm flattered," she said smoothly, picking up on the veiled compliment.
"You should be."
Weasley smiled. "Are all Slytherins smartasses or are you just special?"
"I'm special," I said. "The rest are just asses."
Weasley stifled what sounded suspiciously like laughter, earning an annoyed look from Snape. "Well put." She held out her hand. "I'm Ginny Weasley, by the way."
Ignoring the voice in my head that screamed I was fraternizing with the enemy, I shook the proffered limb and smiled. "Blaise Zabini, at your service."
*******
"Alright, I'm assuming you all practiced your blocks over the past week and have a pretty good grasp of things," Fae said, eyeing the class critically. A few people nodded, but most just watched her nervously. "Good, because today we're having a test."
The students' anxiousness was quickly replaced by horror. A /test/? Surely she wouldn't try to curse them?
Actually, she would. The class watched with bated breath as Cassandra was called to the front first, looking very much like a lamb about to be slaughtered. The hand holding her wand was trembling so violently she couldn't even manage the first movements of the block and soon found herself flat on her back in a Full Body-Bind.
"This is a perfect example of what /not/ to do," Fae said, releasing the curse. "If you freeze, there's no way you'll block anything. You have to /believe/ you can block it, /know/ you can block it. Otherwise, you haven't got a chance."
Fae then proceeded to go through each student, throwing hexes at them until they could at least partially deflect them. The class had to learn fast, or they would be subjected to disturbing and embarrassing curses. Goyle tap- danced half-way around the room, Millicent sang "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" opera-style (much to the confusion of the class), and Pansy had a marble-sized wart on her nose before Fae removed the charms.
When it came to be Draco's turn, he marched to the front of the room, looking determined, if a little nervous. He managed to partially deflect the first curse Fae shot at him, but still ended up gasping for breath as the remnant of the hex hit him straight in the chest. When Fae released the curse, he immediately straightened and braced himself for another, managing to block the second completely.
The class applauded, as he had been the most successful one so far.
"Excellent, Mister Malfoy," Fae said as Draco took his seat. "Mister Zabini, you're next."
I moved to stand opposite Fae, my wand held loosely in my hand. Fae shot a Leg-Locker curse and nodded her approval when I dispelled it without any trouble. "Good. Let's try again, shall we?" She smiled apologetically and raised her wand.
My eyes narrowed suspiciously. What the hell was she up to?
That question was soon answered as Fae brought down her wand and cried, "/Ariecus!/"
/Bloody hell!/
I dodged to the side just in time, feeling the heat from the curse as it brushed past me. I stared at the wall where the hex had hit for a moment, gasping for air like I'd just sprinted a mile, then turned to my aunt. "Are you /completely/ out of your mind?!"
Fae smirked. "Not completely. Have a seat, Mister Zabini."
I stared for a moment, still rather stunned, then drifted back to my desk.
Fae turned back to the other students, a few of whom were staring in shock, while the others just looked confused. "Can anyone tell me what just happened here?"
"Blaise wussed out," Pansy said smugly, ignoring my glare.
"What makes you say that, Miss Parkinson?"
"Well, he didn't even /try/ to block the spell," Pansy said matter-of- factly. "He just jumped out of the way."
"Exactly," Fae said enthusiastically. "Does anyone know /why/ he dodged the spell instead of blocking it?"
"Because he didn't think he could block it," Cassandra answered.
I rolled my eyes. /Thank you, Captain Obvious./
"But /why/ didn't he think he could block it?"
"The spell was too strong," Draco said abruptly. "He knew it wouldn't make any difference even if he pulled it off."
"Exactly, Mister Malfoy." Fae rubbed her hands together, a sure sign she was pleased. "If a spell is strong enough, no block will be able to stop it. The most important thing to remember when using a block is to not overestimate its strength."
"Then why are we learning the block if it only works for weaker spells?" Cassandra asked. Several people nodded in agreement.
Fae smiled slightly. "Because, Miss Cretian, it can save you time and energy in the middle of a fight. If you don't have to dodge around every curse thrown at you, you can last a lot longer. Of course, then you have to have a good grasp on curses so you know which are blockable and which aren't."
The bell clanged loudly and the class jumped up to leave, barely acknowledging as Fae assigned a two foot essay on blocks.
*******
A/N: I apologize taking longer to post this chapter than the others. My brain took a vacation for three or four days and refused to return, despite my piteous begging and pleading. It didn't even send a postcard, the evil wench. I attempted to write anyway, but all that came out was crap. I wasn't so far gone to not realize it was crap, so I didn't post it. It wasn't just my writing that suffered, either; I was barely functioning at all. Thankfully, my brain came back two days ago and was completely willing to help get this chapter up and running. And it's not even late, technically. *grins* So you can't hate me. Haha!
If the first part seems a little weird, keep in mind that I was listening to Zelda whilst typing (I'd left the N64 on and was too lazy to go turn it off), and hearing the theme for Hyrule Field over and over and having that stupid chicken crow every ten minutes can do strange things to your mind. That's my excuse, anyway.
Thanks again to all my reviewers!
Next chapter: I'm not sure why I do this cuz it always changes anyway, but here goes... the aftermath of Defense class. More detention (sigh) and discussions.
stubbornarse: I didn't really make it a secret they were going to get caught, did I? Just a bit of blatantly obvious foreshadowing on my part. I have to admit, I did have a great deal of fun writing that scene, though. My poor, poor characters... what did they ever do to deserve me?
Gkey: Omigosh, I can die happy now! That's the highest praise an author could ever hope to hear. Thank you! *beams* But anyway, to answer your question: no, Draco isn't a Death Eater here. I don't think he'd be much use anyway, being only fifteen. Besides, I've got other plans for him... *cackles*
JeanB: Wow, so many questions and so few I can answer. I can tell you that, yes, this all involves the OotP, though probably not the way you're thinking. You're right about the Daily Prophet article, though. Blaise is just too distracted by other things at the moment to realize it. Is Fae one of the bad guys? Well, I suppose that depends on what side of the war you're on... The main thing to remember is that this is very, VERY A/U, and that everything will be explained in time. Have patience, tadpole, the answers shall come.
Faxton: You know me too well. *grins* Of /course/ I'm not going to let you know who those people are yet! That'd be too nice, and I'm just not a nice person.
"I know, but that's not the point," I said, scanning the library for the umpteenth time before locking my gaze intently on Ryan. "Look, I need you to do me a favor."
"What kind of favor?" Ryan asked, eyeing me suspiciously. He had every right to be wary, as he was very familiar with my past exploits.
I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way. "Don't worry, it's nothing that'll get you in trouble. I just need you to look up a few things for me."
"And why can't you do this yourself?"
"Because, Ryan, if /I/ was caught looking for these things, I'd be in serious shit. Again. But if /you/ were found with this information, you wouldn't be in any sort of trouble."
Ryan seemed to consider this for a moment, then nodded. "What sort of things am I looking for?"
I tapped the point of my quill on my parchment in a fashion reminiscent of Morse code. "I need you to find anything you can about that Order I mentioned."
"Do you know what it's called? Or is it just called The Order?"
"I don't know," I admitted, sighing dejectedly.
"Do you know what it's about?"
"No."
"Do you at least know what sort of people are in it?"
I shook my head. "Nope."
Ryan raked his fingers through his dark hair in frustration. "So basically all you know is they have some sort of vendetta against your aunt, or people like her? That's /loads/ of help."
"Hey, all I'm asking is you look for something, anything that might be helpful," I pleaded. "I'd even be happy with some vague reference in a history book that only has a slim chance of being related. Please? I'm desperate."
"Oh, all right. I'm not promising I'll find anything, though."
*******
Monday went by much faster than I would've liked, as I had detention with Snape to look forward to. Despite my fervent prayers for some massive natural disaster to flood out the dungeons, I found myself outside of the Potions classroom that evening, hoping against hope that Snape wouldn't hold my loss of points against me. The rest of the Slytherins didn't take it too well (Pansy had threatened to break every bone in my body before Draco intervened), but a person couldn't really guess Snape's reaction by the response of his House. Of course, my housemates didn't know anything other than I'd broken curfew, while Snape had probably heard the whole story, unedited.
I took a deep breath, bracing myself for the worst, and knocked. The door swung open on its own accord a second later. Taking this as an invitation, I entered and was surprised to find I wasn't the only victim subject to Snape's supervision. A rather petite girl with flaming red hair that identified her as a Weasley was standing beside Snape's desk, looking both nervous and defiant. Snape just looked irritated.
"Ah, Mister Zabini," drawled Snape in a steely tone that made me cringe. Yes, he was definitely angry with me. "Now that you've decided to grace us with your presence, perhaps we can start. You two will be cleaning out potion vials--no magic." He motioned to where at least two hundred of the aforementioned vessels of various shapes and sizes were collected on a row of desks. "I want them /spotless/, mind you. I don't need any potions fouled up because you couldn't clean the container properly. You'll find everything you need by the sinks." With that, Snape left us to it while he corrected papers at his desk.
Weasley and I trudged over to the sinks, resigned to a very long, very boring night. This wasn't the first time I'd had to do this, so I already knew the fastest and easiest technique for scouring a potion vial, and this fact only made the task more tedious. After a while, my mind began to shut down all non-essential functions, including tangible thought. It was a very odd feeling. Once finally I realized what was happening, I hurriedly cast about for something to distract me.
I settled, for lack of anything better, on the Weasley girl, who had adopted a rather crude method of cleaning. She simply filled the flask and then dumped it, over and over. It did work, but it took an infuriatingly long time to get anything properly clean. I knew I'd be stuck there until all the vials were immaculate no matter what, so I decided to speed the process up a bit.
"What, exactly, are you doing?" The moment the words came out of my mouth I was mentally kicking myself. Sure, Blaise, that'll get a great reaction. Good job.
Weasley, who had been ignoring me up to this point, looked up with raised eyebrows and a slightly annoyed expression. "What does it /look/ like I'm doing?" she asked, not bothering to use a civil tone. "I'm cleaning, genius."
"/Obviously/," I said, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. "Allow me to rephrase the question in a way you can understand: why do you insist on doing it the hard way?"
Weasley was indignant. "What's wrong with the way I'm doing it? These things are getting clean, aren't they?"
"There's nothing wrong with your way if you want to stay here until four in the morning," I said calmly, dipping a flask under the jet of water pouring from a gargoyle's mouth. "Personally, I'd like to be done while we're still young."
"All right then, what's so great about how you're doing it?" she asked dubiously.
"Well, for one thing, it's a hell of a lot faster." Weasley looked doubtful, so I selected a vial with a sickly yellow liquid dried on the inside from the vast collection. "Watch and be amazed." I proceeded to show her how tilting the flask at the right angle would make the water spin, effectively cleaning the inside and saving a lot of time.
Instead of thanking me, however, Weasley seemed even more irritated, though whether it was at me or at herself for not thinking of it before, I couldn't say. "Why couldn't you have shown me this an hour ago? It could've saved me a lot of frustration!"
I held up my hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, I was just trying to help. There's no need to bite my head off."
Weasley tilted her head to the side and studied me like she was seeing me for the first time. "Why?"
"Er... what?" Did I miss something?
"You said you were trying to help me," she said plainly. "I'm wondering why."
I blinked in surprise. What kind of a question was that? "I told you, I want to get this over with as quickly as possible," I said, returning to my menial task.
"So?"
"Excuse me?"
Weasley sighed in exasperation. "So, what's your point? In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a /Gryffindor/. You're a /Slytherin/. Slytherins do not help Gryffindors, regardless of the circumstances."
"You obviously don't know much about Slytherins, then."
"I know enough," she said. "Most wouldn't give a damn if they got out of detention late as long as the Gryffindor was stuck staying, too."
"That's because they have nothing better to do," I said frankly. "Taunting Gryffindors is the highlight of their day."
"And you're not one of those people?" Weasley asked, sounding more curious than anything else.
"Not usually," I said with a smirk. "Though if the person annoys me I'll make an exception."
"I'm flattered," she said smoothly, picking up on the veiled compliment.
"You should be."
Weasley smiled. "Are all Slytherins smartasses or are you just special?"
"I'm special," I said. "The rest are just asses."
Weasley stifled what sounded suspiciously like laughter, earning an annoyed look from Snape. "Well put." She held out her hand. "I'm Ginny Weasley, by the way."
Ignoring the voice in my head that screamed I was fraternizing with the enemy, I shook the proffered limb and smiled. "Blaise Zabini, at your service."
*******
"Alright, I'm assuming you all practiced your blocks over the past week and have a pretty good grasp of things," Fae said, eyeing the class critically. A few people nodded, but most just watched her nervously. "Good, because today we're having a test."
The students' anxiousness was quickly replaced by horror. A /test/? Surely she wouldn't try to curse them?
Actually, she would. The class watched with bated breath as Cassandra was called to the front first, looking very much like a lamb about to be slaughtered. The hand holding her wand was trembling so violently she couldn't even manage the first movements of the block and soon found herself flat on her back in a Full Body-Bind.
"This is a perfect example of what /not/ to do," Fae said, releasing the curse. "If you freeze, there's no way you'll block anything. You have to /believe/ you can block it, /know/ you can block it. Otherwise, you haven't got a chance."
Fae then proceeded to go through each student, throwing hexes at them until they could at least partially deflect them. The class had to learn fast, or they would be subjected to disturbing and embarrassing curses. Goyle tap- danced half-way around the room, Millicent sang "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" opera-style (much to the confusion of the class), and Pansy had a marble-sized wart on her nose before Fae removed the charms.
When it came to be Draco's turn, he marched to the front of the room, looking determined, if a little nervous. He managed to partially deflect the first curse Fae shot at him, but still ended up gasping for breath as the remnant of the hex hit him straight in the chest. When Fae released the curse, he immediately straightened and braced himself for another, managing to block the second completely.
The class applauded, as he had been the most successful one so far.
"Excellent, Mister Malfoy," Fae said as Draco took his seat. "Mister Zabini, you're next."
I moved to stand opposite Fae, my wand held loosely in my hand. Fae shot a Leg-Locker curse and nodded her approval when I dispelled it without any trouble. "Good. Let's try again, shall we?" She smiled apologetically and raised her wand.
My eyes narrowed suspiciously. What the hell was she up to?
That question was soon answered as Fae brought down her wand and cried, "/Ariecus!/"
/Bloody hell!/
I dodged to the side just in time, feeling the heat from the curse as it brushed past me. I stared at the wall where the hex had hit for a moment, gasping for air like I'd just sprinted a mile, then turned to my aunt. "Are you /completely/ out of your mind?!"
Fae smirked. "Not completely. Have a seat, Mister Zabini."
I stared for a moment, still rather stunned, then drifted back to my desk.
Fae turned back to the other students, a few of whom were staring in shock, while the others just looked confused. "Can anyone tell me what just happened here?"
"Blaise wussed out," Pansy said smugly, ignoring my glare.
"What makes you say that, Miss Parkinson?"
"Well, he didn't even /try/ to block the spell," Pansy said matter-of- factly. "He just jumped out of the way."
"Exactly," Fae said enthusiastically. "Does anyone know /why/ he dodged the spell instead of blocking it?"
"Because he didn't think he could block it," Cassandra answered.
I rolled my eyes. /Thank you, Captain Obvious./
"But /why/ didn't he think he could block it?"
"The spell was too strong," Draco said abruptly. "He knew it wouldn't make any difference even if he pulled it off."
"Exactly, Mister Malfoy." Fae rubbed her hands together, a sure sign she was pleased. "If a spell is strong enough, no block will be able to stop it. The most important thing to remember when using a block is to not overestimate its strength."
"Then why are we learning the block if it only works for weaker spells?" Cassandra asked. Several people nodded in agreement.
Fae smiled slightly. "Because, Miss Cretian, it can save you time and energy in the middle of a fight. If you don't have to dodge around every curse thrown at you, you can last a lot longer. Of course, then you have to have a good grasp on curses so you know which are blockable and which aren't."
The bell clanged loudly and the class jumped up to leave, barely acknowledging as Fae assigned a two foot essay on blocks.
*******
A/N: I apologize taking longer to post this chapter than the others. My brain took a vacation for three or four days and refused to return, despite my piteous begging and pleading. It didn't even send a postcard, the evil wench. I attempted to write anyway, but all that came out was crap. I wasn't so far gone to not realize it was crap, so I didn't post it. It wasn't just my writing that suffered, either; I was barely functioning at all. Thankfully, my brain came back two days ago and was completely willing to help get this chapter up and running. And it's not even late, technically. *grins* So you can't hate me. Haha!
If the first part seems a little weird, keep in mind that I was listening to Zelda whilst typing (I'd left the N64 on and was too lazy to go turn it off), and hearing the theme for Hyrule Field over and over and having that stupid chicken crow every ten minutes can do strange things to your mind. That's my excuse, anyway.
Thanks again to all my reviewers!
Next chapter: I'm not sure why I do this cuz it always changes anyway, but here goes... the aftermath of Defense class. More detention (sigh) and discussions.
stubbornarse: I didn't really make it a secret they were going to get caught, did I? Just a bit of blatantly obvious foreshadowing on my part. I have to admit, I did have a great deal of fun writing that scene, though. My poor, poor characters... what did they ever do to deserve me?
Gkey: Omigosh, I can die happy now! That's the highest praise an author could ever hope to hear. Thank you! *beams* But anyway, to answer your question: no, Draco isn't a Death Eater here. I don't think he'd be much use anyway, being only fifteen. Besides, I've got other plans for him... *cackles*
JeanB: Wow, so many questions and so few I can answer. I can tell you that, yes, this all involves the OotP, though probably not the way you're thinking. You're right about the Daily Prophet article, though. Blaise is just too distracted by other things at the moment to realize it. Is Fae one of the bad guys? Well, I suppose that depends on what side of the war you're on... The main thing to remember is that this is very, VERY A/U, and that everything will be explained in time. Have patience, tadpole, the answers shall come.
Faxton: You know me too well. *grins* Of /course/ I'm not going to let you know who those people are yet! That'd be too nice, and I'm just not a nice person.