Absconditus Draco Accubo
* * *
"Jordan!" came a mighty roar from the depths of the earth. "Jordan! Where are you, man?"
A young knight came clanking up the hall, sweating profusely. He stopped outside the door and bent over, catching his breath. Even from outside in the bright hall paved in pure gold and lit with glowing jewels he could hear Ladon through the heavy golden doors. He could hear his labored breathing over the constant roar of the flames of hell beneath them and the chiming harps of the angels above them.
He removed his helmet made of a rare black metal that could withstand even the hottest of fires. Molded by the elves of old and the metal coated with the breath of a Nundu, it was given to the human protector of the Sacred Chalice and melted by the flames of the most powerful of all Dragons ever to walk this earth.
The Golden Dragon. Most revered Dragon of them all, his scales and wings are the color of gold, his heart as pure as any and he embraces all elements, making him the single, most powerful Dragon there ever was or will be.
The Golden Dragon has never taken part in any aggressive action without good cause and he is without flaw, pure and unblemished. He is the defender of the Sacred Chalice that represents peace, nature and life. The Chalice, though the font of peace and truth, had to be hidden away because in the wrong hands it could wreak havoc upon the world and bring about its downfall.
The knight stood up and took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders. He pushed open the heavy golden door and walked into the chamber.
"Ladon," he said solemnly.
"Jordan. I have been calling you. Where is the Chalice?" he asked, getting straight to the point.
Jordan avoided Ladon's eyes and looked down at his toes. "'Tis gone, Sir."
There was an almighty roar and Jordan could tell that even the hells below were shaking because of it. The noise rattled his bones, deafened him and bore him almost unconscious.
"Gone?!" he growled and suddenly the young mans form distorted, spreading out over a vast distance and his arms suddenly became larger, more pronounced.
Then, standing before Jordan there was no longer a handsome man dressed in golden armor, but a frightful yet beautiful dragon, more so than any of the others he had seen.
"I am sorry Ladon," Jordan said and took of his helmet, revealing handsome features and a mop of curly black hair. "I tried, but the man was too powerful. I barely escaped alive."
"Alive?" Ladon growled, spreading his wings menacingly. "You were to protect the Chalice with your life. Now the Chalice is gone and yet you still live? I see I have made a grave mistake upon choosing you as its human protector."
Jordan took a step backwards and sent a pleading glance to the dragon. "But surely, if we are to try and get the Chalice back, you will need me?"
Ladon stamped his foot down on the floor and the castle shook. "The Golden Dragon of fairy tale legends need no one. Do you hear me Jordan? No one!"
Ladon turned and left the room, leaving Jordan's lifeless body and severed head for the Nymphs to clean up.
* * *
"You foolish boy, why won't you listen to anything I say?" said a voice from the darkness of Knockturn Alley as Harry walked on.
"Because what you are saying is absurd, Salamander. An absolute load of twaddle."
Salamander sighed, struggling to keep up with Harry being only capable of an awkward hobble. "'Tis not twaddle, boy. 'Tis the truth I speak, and is that not what you seek?"
Harry stopped walking and ignored the offers of unidentified substances from the strange and suspicious looking people that swarmed around him. "What makes you think I am looking for any sort of truth at all?" he asked suspiciously.
"Is it not what every body seeks, boy? The knowledge of what has really happened what really is?"
"What made you such an expert, Salamander? As far as I can remember, the only truth you have ever sought is where you were going to get your next shot of fire whiskey. That is not the sort of truth I am interested in."
"That may be so boy, but I have moved on to better things. I am sober and have been for twelve minutes and counting," Salamander said proudly and puffed his chest out.
"Ah yes, but was it in this last twelve sober minutes that you came across this strange apparition of your imagination?"
Salamander stood stock still as he tried to understand what Harry had just said. He shook his head solemnly making his breadcrumb-covered beard waggle slightly. "Ah, well no. I mean not exactly."
"Not exactly?" Harry asked, turning and pushing his way through the large throng of witches and wizards offering him a variety of unimaginable objects. Salamander followed in his wake, waiting until there was room enough to walk beside him.
Huffing slightly, he pulled up beside Harry moments later and grabbed his arm, pulling him aside. "I may have been a little tipsy at the exact time I saw what I saw, but that does not mean it was a figment of my imagination, or that I am crazy."
"That is yet to be decided," Harry said to himself more than anyone else. "Now listen carefully, Salamander. I am fed up of you always spouting off some ludicrous story. Last week it was sheep conspiring against man kind, the week before fleas were planning a suicide bombing and now this?"
Salamander glared at Harry. "What do you mean, 'This'? This? This is not a joke nor a cry for attention!"
Harry turned and left the old man glaring at his retreating back. "Do not worry, my boy. You will regret ever doubting me. I swear upon Ladon himself, you will regret it!"
Harry ignored him and emerged from the dark, smelly alleyway and into the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley. He protectively pulled his hood around his face and walked effortlessly through the sea of people. He came to a halt next to the Owl Emporium, waiting for someone to arrive.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find another wizard, similarly dressed in thick woolen robe and a hood pulled tight over her face. He could still catch a glimpse of a thin wisp of hair floating by her cheek and escaping from her hood. "Hermione," he said, nodding his head in acknowledgement.
"Harry," she nodded back. "Ron cannot make it today. Family obligations, you understand."
"Of course," Harry said knowingly and half-turned away from her. "Shall we?" he inquired, and nodded in the direction of Silician, another small alley leading off from Diagon, but much less notorious than Knockturn.
"Of course," she replied and waited for him to take the lead. Harry stepped out of the somewhat protected area behind the large doorframe of the Owl Emporium and into the current of people.
He moved easily through the throng with a skill that even the most agile of people would find difficult to master. Harry carried a certain air, a precise attitude that people around him could instantly feel without knowing it. He didn't need to dodge through crowds because the people unconsciously parted for him.
He stepped into Silician across the way and waited patiently, his nostrils flared for the smell of anything other than manure. Hermione followed a few moments later slightly breathless. "How did you do that?" she asked, sounding respectful.
"Don't know," Harry answered shrugging. "Comes naturally I guess." Harry signaled for her to follow and he turned, heading further down into the deserted alley. Hermione's footsteps followed his and as they passed one of the large manure bins he heard a muffled cry behind him and turned around, looking for any sign of trouble.
"It schmells weally bad down hewe," Hermione said, the arm of her woolen robes disappearing into her hood, where Harry guessed she was holding her nose.
Harry rolled his eyes. "You get used to it," he said curtly and carried on. "Hurry up, it's best not to stay in these places too long."
Hermione hurried behind him, five of her small steps equaling two of Harry's large strides. "You don't suppose you could slow down a tad, could you?" she asked after a while, and Harry's shoulders stiffened visibly.
"If you don't like the pace then find your own way," he said to her coldly over his shoulder but didn't slow and she quickly shut her mouth, moving to a short jog behind him.
A few more minutes of awkward silence passed and Hermione found herself wondering where they were actually going until Harry came to an abrupt halt, causing Hermione to walk straight into him.
"Watch where you are going!" he whispered furiously at her. "We're here."
Hermione looked around the dead end of the long, foul-smelling alley snorted disbelievingly. "This is it?" she sneered. "This is where you have been living for the past four years? Good god, Harry! This is worse than I thought!"
Harry glared at her and she pretended not to notice, though he knew that she knew he was angry.
"Where is the door?" she asked, clearly not impressed by Harry's welcoming preparations. "Or is your establishment too classy for a door?" she asked and snorted at her own joke.
Harry made a strangled noise in the back of his throat and pointed at the sky. Hermione looked up and stopped laughing. "A fire escape?" she asked, clearly flawed. "The entrance to your humble abode is a muggle fire escape?"
Harry ignored her and jumped up, grabbing hold of the lowest rung and pulling himself up. He continued up the ladder not even bothering to wait for Hermione and was halfway up the side of the building when he heard a loud twang and a series of rather profuse swear words.
He smiled despite himself and looked below. Hermione was sitting on the level below him, having stepped on the faulty rung that he skipped automatically and she was glaring up at him. "You knew didn't you?" she asked, venom in her voice. "God, Harry! You are so childish!"
Harry sighed, his moment of pleasure spent and passed, he carried on and climbed over the top onto the flat roof. He ran over to the far side of the roof and quickly tapped his wand on the floor in the corner. "Angelus Nunqualm Demigro," he whispered and he heard it click on the other side. A handle magically appeared in the ceiling where he had tapped his wand and he pulled it up and waited for Hermione, dangling his legs into the hole.
She finally emerged over the side of the building and stumbled onto the roof. "You do this everyday?" she asked, breathless as she stumbled over to his resting-place, anger long forgotten.
"Twice," he said simply before sliding off the side and into the building. Hermione looked down into the darkness and couldn't see anything. She felt a pang of dread in the pit of her stomach as she realized she couldn't tell how far down it was.
"Hurry up! I don't like leaving the hatch open for too long!" Harry shouted up from the depths and Hermione couldn't tell if it was just a distorted echo, but it sounded like he was shouting from a long way down.
If he can do it, I can do it. She took a deep breath and launched herself off the roof and into the dark depths, vaguely aware of the trap door slamming shut above her. She expected the floor to arrive any moment now, but it didn't come. After falling about five seconds she could feel a scream coming on but before she could start it, she hit a large air filled balloon of sorts.
The balloon cushioned her fall and then shrank, bringing her to the ground. Amazingly she found the child that still resided in her soul pleading to 'Go again, let's go again!'
Hermione still couldn't see much, mainly because the place had absolutely no windows, and she strained to make out where Harry was, as he wasn't making a sound. "Harry?" she asked defiantly, suppressing her doubt.
"Incendio!" he muttered and a small ball of flame erupted from the damp fireplace in the room and spread a flickering light over the surroundings. Harry watched Hermione from his seat by the fire with amusement. He could see her brain working knew exactly what must have been going through her head.
He watched her take in the complete lack of furniture except for the chair he sat in, watched her look for other doors leading out and seeing none she chanced a glance above her, possibly looking for some sort of fire escape type contraption. There wasn't one.
"Well this is...homey," she said, her lip turning up in disgust. "Can we please get on with business so I can get out of this...place?"
Harry ignored her complete lack of manners, completely unlike her old self, and stood up, motioning her closer. But hell, is there anything left but her appearance that is anything like her old self?
She walked over wearily, one hand in her pocket, gripping her wand protectively. Harry chuckled at her and she sneered at him.
"Why did you ask me to come? So you could laugh at my displeasure of being in this...dump?" she said, looking speculatively at the pile of rubbish in the corner. He could never be bothered taking it out so it had been sitting there for months. It didn't matter though; the room was so large that he didn't even get a whiff of it. "Or did you want to laugh at my displeasure of being in your presence which is, if possible, even worse."
Harry rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. He pulled the hood of his robes down and turned away. "Hermione, the world does not revolve around your sad little life."
"How dare you insinuate that my life is 'sad'!" she said, spitting the word back in his face.
"I have every right to insinuate anything I please Hermione, because since we met up you have done nothing but insult me. Forgive me if you find this partake of innocent conversation insulting. No, actually, don't," he said as an afterthought.
"You are even more arrogant than I remember!" she shouted at him and pointedly turned to face the wall.
"Some women like that in a man," Harry said with amusement.
"But you are not a man. You are a childish little boy with a chip in his shoulder."
"Granger. For once in your life please, just keep your thoughts to yourself."
Hermione sighed huffily and turned back around. "If that is all you have to say to me, then I will leave."
Harry chuckled loudly. "I'd like to see you try! This place was designed to keep even Salazar Slytherin himself out. It will be no easy task finding your way out of my, 'humble abode' as you so nicely put it. " he told her, voice full of mirth.
"What was it you wanted to talk about anyway?" Hermione asked, a slight edge to her voice.
"I wanted to talk about Blaise," Harry said coolly, looking her straight in the eye.
"No," she said, backing away, her eyes full of anger. "No way, Harry. We went over this before."
"Yes, I know we did," Harry said, advancing on her. "But this time it's serious. He's a Death Eater Hermione."
"You're lying," she hissed at him. "I know where he is at all times!"
"Where is he now?"
There was a long silence and Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously at Harry as a glint of victory passed over his features.
"He's visiting his sister in London," she lied, and Harry could tell she was making it up.
"You and I both know he is doing no such thing, Hermione. He was spotted by none other than Igor Karkaroffe at the last Death Eater meeting."
"Harry," she said, he voice shaking with anger. "Show how to get out of this shit hole now, before I hex you to the moon and back!"
Harry smiled knowingly at her. "I'd like to see you try, and I've been to the moon. It's far too overrated."
"Harry!"
"Alright, alright," Harry said, raising his palms up. He walked over to a little hole in the wall, and pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the hole and muttered "Aureus Aquila Abeo."
From the point that his wand was pointing at, a narrow walkway sprung up, leading all the way up to the top where the trapdoor was. Harry climbed onto the walkway and hurried up to the top, with Hermione close behind He pushed open the trapdoor and climbed out.
Hermione followed close behind and after clambering out of the trapdoor she headed off to the other side of the roof and onto the fire escape without even muttering a word of goodbye.
* * *
"Severus," Albus Dumbledore said, looking grave. "Are you quite sure it was Zabini?"
"Yes," Snape responded, sounding annoyed. "The boy was in my house for seven years, I think I would be able to recognize him. It has only been four years after all, since graduation. And plus, Igor has met the man. Unmistakably Blaise."
"Yes, yes of course Severus, forgive me."
"Well now that we know, what do you plan on doing about it?"
"Do not know, Severus. I think that this is a very sensitive matter that needs to be handled with utmost caution. If Zabini thinks that we have figured him out then one of our very important Order members could be at great risk."
"Yes. Miss Granger. Surely we could get someone to tell her of the great risk?"
Ï have already thought of that, Severus. I have conatcted Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter and they were to meet Miss Granger this morning in Diagon Alley. If all goes well, we will have Miss Granger out of there before danger becomes evident."
"Yes, assuming it all goes well. I may be mistaken, but didn't Potter and Weasley sever contacts with her after her wedding?"
"Yes, that is correct, but there is no one you can trust more than an old friend with your best interests at heart."
* * *
* * *
"Jordan!" came a mighty roar from the depths of the earth. "Jordan! Where are you, man?"
A young knight came clanking up the hall, sweating profusely. He stopped outside the door and bent over, catching his breath. Even from outside in the bright hall paved in pure gold and lit with glowing jewels he could hear Ladon through the heavy golden doors. He could hear his labored breathing over the constant roar of the flames of hell beneath them and the chiming harps of the angels above them.
He removed his helmet made of a rare black metal that could withstand even the hottest of fires. Molded by the elves of old and the metal coated with the breath of a Nundu, it was given to the human protector of the Sacred Chalice and melted by the flames of the most powerful of all Dragons ever to walk this earth.
The Golden Dragon. Most revered Dragon of them all, his scales and wings are the color of gold, his heart as pure as any and he embraces all elements, making him the single, most powerful Dragon there ever was or will be.
The Golden Dragon has never taken part in any aggressive action without good cause and he is without flaw, pure and unblemished. He is the defender of the Sacred Chalice that represents peace, nature and life. The Chalice, though the font of peace and truth, had to be hidden away because in the wrong hands it could wreak havoc upon the world and bring about its downfall.
The knight stood up and took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders. He pushed open the heavy golden door and walked into the chamber.
"Ladon," he said solemnly.
"Jordan. I have been calling you. Where is the Chalice?" he asked, getting straight to the point.
Jordan avoided Ladon's eyes and looked down at his toes. "'Tis gone, Sir."
There was an almighty roar and Jordan could tell that even the hells below were shaking because of it. The noise rattled his bones, deafened him and bore him almost unconscious.
"Gone?!" he growled and suddenly the young mans form distorted, spreading out over a vast distance and his arms suddenly became larger, more pronounced.
Then, standing before Jordan there was no longer a handsome man dressed in golden armor, but a frightful yet beautiful dragon, more so than any of the others he had seen.
"I am sorry Ladon," Jordan said and took of his helmet, revealing handsome features and a mop of curly black hair. "I tried, but the man was too powerful. I barely escaped alive."
"Alive?" Ladon growled, spreading his wings menacingly. "You were to protect the Chalice with your life. Now the Chalice is gone and yet you still live? I see I have made a grave mistake upon choosing you as its human protector."
Jordan took a step backwards and sent a pleading glance to the dragon. "But surely, if we are to try and get the Chalice back, you will need me?"
Ladon stamped his foot down on the floor and the castle shook. "The Golden Dragon of fairy tale legends need no one. Do you hear me Jordan? No one!"
Ladon turned and left the room, leaving Jordan's lifeless body and severed head for the Nymphs to clean up.
* * *
"You foolish boy, why won't you listen to anything I say?" said a voice from the darkness of Knockturn Alley as Harry walked on.
"Because what you are saying is absurd, Salamander. An absolute load of twaddle."
Salamander sighed, struggling to keep up with Harry being only capable of an awkward hobble. "'Tis not twaddle, boy. 'Tis the truth I speak, and is that not what you seek?"
Harry stopped walking and ignored the offers of unidentified substances from the strange and suspicious looking people that swarmed around him. "What makes you think I am looking for any sort of truth at all?" he asked suspiciously.
"Is it not what every body seeks, boy? The knowledge of what has really happened what really is?"
"What made you such an expert, Salamander? As far as I can remember, the only truth you have ever sought is where you were going to get your next shot of fire whiskey. That is not the sort of truth I am interested in."
"That may be so boy, but I have moved on to better things. I am sober and have been for twelve minutes and counting," Salamander said proudly and puffed his chest out.
"Ah yes, but was it in this last twelve sober minutes that you came across this strange apparition of your imagination?"
Salamander stood stock still as he tried to understand what Harry had just said. He shook his head solemnly making his breadcrumb-covered beard waggle slightly. "Ah, well no. I mean not exactly."
"Not exactly?" Harry asked, turning and pushing his way through the large throng of witches and wizards offering him a variety of unimaginable objects. Salamander followed in his wake, waiting until there was room enough to walk beside him.
Huffing slightly, he pulled up beside Harry moments later and grabbed his arm, pulling him aside. "I may have been a little tipsy at the exact time I saw what I saw, but that does not mean it was a figment of my imagination, or that I am crazy."
"That is yet to be decided," Harry said to himself more than anyone else. "Now listen carefully, Salamander. I am fed up of you always spouting off some ludicrous story. Last week it was sheep conspiring against man kind, the week before fleas were planning a suicide bombing and now this?"
Salamander glared at Harry. "What do you mean, 'This'? This? This is not a joke nor a cry for attention!"
Harry turned and left the old man glaring at his retreating back. "Do not worry, my boy. You will regret ever doubting me. I swear upon Ladon himself, you will regret it!"
Harry ignored him and emerged from the dark, smelly alleyway and into the hustle and bustle of Diagon Alley. He protectively pulled his hood around his face and walked effortlessly through the sea of people. He came to a halt next to the Owl Emporium, waiting for someone to arrive.
He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find another wizard, similarly dressed in thick woolen robe and a hood pulled tight over her face. He could still catch a glimpse of a thin wisp of hair floating by her cheek and escaping from her hood. "Hermione," he said, nodding his head in acknowledgement.
"Harry," she nodded back. "Ron cannot make it today. Family obligations, you understand."
"Of course," Harry said knowingly and half-turned away from her. "Shall we?" he inquired, and nodded in the direction of Silician, another small alley leading off from Diagon, but much less notorious than Knockturn.
"Of course," she replied and waited for him to take the lead. Harry stepped out of the somewhat protected area behind the large doorframe of the Owl Emporium and into the current of people.
He moved easily through the throng with a skill that even the most agile of people would find difficult to master. Harry carried a certain air, a precise attitude that people around him could instantly feel without knowing it. He didn't need to dodge through crowds because the people unconsciously parted for him.
He stepped into Silician across the way and waited patiently, his nostrils flared for the smell of anything other than manure. Hermione followed a few moments later slightly breathless. "How did you do that?" she asked, sounding respectful.
"Don't know," Harry answered shrugging. "Comes naturally I guess." Harry signaled for her to follow and he turned, heading further down into the deserted alley. Hermione's footsteps followed his and as they passed one of the large manure bins he heard a muffled cry behind him and turned around, looking for any sign of trouble.
"It schmells weally bad down hewe," Hermione said, the arm of her woolen robes disappearing into her hood, where Harry guessed she was holding her nose.
Harry rolled his eyes. "You get used to it," he said curtly and carried on. "Hurry up, it's best not to stay in these places too long."
Hermione hurried behind him, five of her small steps equaling two of Harry's large strides. "You don't suppose you could slow down a tad, could you?" she asked after a while, and Harry's shoulders stiffened visibly.
"If you don't like the pace then find your own way," he said to her coldly over his shoulder but didn't slow and she quickly shut her mouth, moving to a short jog behind him.
A few more minutes of awkward silence passed and Hermione found herself wondering where they were actually going until Harry came to an abrupt halt, causing Hermione to walk straight into him.
"Watch where you are going!" he whispered furiously at her. "We're here."
Hermione looked around the dead end of the long, foul-smelling alley snorted disbelievingly. "This is it?" she sneered. "This is where you have been living for the past four years? Good god, Harry! This is worse than I thought!"
Harry glared at her and she pretended not to notice, though he knew that she knew he was angry.
"Where is the door?" she asked, clearly not impressed by Harry's welcoming preparations. "Or is your establishment too classy for a door?" she asked and snorted at her own joke.
Harry made a strangled noise in the back of his throat and pointed at the sky. Hermione looked up and stopped laughing. "A fire escape?" she asked, clearly flawed. "The entrance to your humble abode is a muggle fire escape?"
Harry ignored her and jumped up, grabbing hold of the lowest rung and pulling himself up. He continued up the ladder not even bothering to wait for Hermione and was halfway up the side of the building when he heard a loud twang and a series of rather profuse swear words.
He smiled despite himself and looked below. Hermione was sitting on the level below him, having stepped on the faulty rung that he skipped automatically and she was glaring up at him. "You knew didn't you?" she asked, venom in her voice. "God, Harry! You are so childish!"
Harry sighed, his moment of pleasure spent and passed, he carried on and climbed over the top onto the flat roof. He ran over to the far side of the roof and quickly tapped his wand on the floor in the corner. "Angelus Nunqualm Demigro," he whispered and he heard it click on the other side. A handle magically appeared in the ceiling where he had tapped his wand and he pulled it up and waited for Hermione, dangling his legs into the hole.
She finally emerged over the side of the building and stumbled onto the roof. "You do this everyday?" she asked, breathless as she stumbled over to his resting-place, anger long forgotten.
"Twice," he said simply before sliding off the side and into the building. Hermione looked down into the darkness and couldn't see anything. She felt a pang of dread in the pit of her stomach as she realized she couldn't tell how far down it was.
"Hurry up! I don't like leaving the hatch open for too long!" Harry shouted up from the depths and Hermione couldn't tell if it was just a distorted echo, but it sounded like he was shouting from a long way down.
If he can do it, I can do it. She took a deep breath and launched herself off the roof and into the dark depths, vaguely aware of the trap door slamming shut above her. She expected the floor to arrive any moment now, but it didn't come. After falling about five seconds she could feel a scream coming on but before she could start it, she hit a large air filled balloon of sorts.
The balloon cushioned her fall and then shrank, bringing her to the ground. Amazingly she found the child that still resided in her soul pleading to 'Go again, let's go again!'
Hermione still couldn't see much, mainly because the place had absolutely no windows, and she strained to make out where Harry was, as he wasn't making a sound. "Harry?" she asked defiantly, suppressing her doubt.
"Incendio!" he muttered and a small ball of flame erupted from the damp fireplace in the room and spread a flickering light over the surroundings. Harry watched Hermione from his seat by the fire with amusement. He could see her brain working knew exactly what must have been going through her head.
He watched her take in the complete lack of furniture except for the chair he sat in, watched her look for other doors leading out and seeing none she chanced a glance above her, possibly looking for some sort of fire escape type contraption. There wasn't one.
"Well this is...homey," she said, her lip turning up in disgust. "Can we please get on with business so I can get out of this...place?"
Harry ignored her complete lack of manners, completely unlike her old self, and stood up, motioning her closer. But hell, is there anything left but her appearance that is anything like her old self?
She walked over wearily, one hand in her pocket, gripping her wand protectively. Harry chuckled at her and she sneered at him.
"Why did you ask me to come? So you could laugh at my displeasure of being in this...dump?" she said, looking speculatively at the pile of rubbish in the corner. He could never be bothered taking it out so it had been sitting there for months. It didn't matter though; the room was so large that he didn't even get a whiff of it. "Or did you want to laugh at my displeasure of being in your presence which is, if possible, even worse."
Harry rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. He pulled the hood of his robes down and turned away. "Hermione, the world does not revolve around your sad little life."
"How dare you insinuate that my life is 'sad'!" she said, spitting the word back in his face.
"I have every right to insinuate anything I please Hermione, because since we met up you have done nothing but insult me. Forgive me if you find this partake of innocent conversation insulting. No, actually, don't," he said as an afterthought.
"You are even more arrogant than I remember!" she shouted at him and pointedly turned to face the wall.
"Some women like that in a man," Harry said with amusement.
"But you are not a man. You are a childish little boy with a chip in his shoulder."
"Granger. For once in your life please, just keep your thoughts to yourself."
Hermione sighed huffily and turned back around. "If that is all you have to say to me, then I will leave."
Harry chuckled loudly. "I'd like to see you try! This place was designed to keep even Salazar Slytherin himself out. It will be no easy task finding your way out of my, 'humble abode' as you so nicely put it. " he told her, voice full of mirth.
"What was it you wanted to talk about anyway?" Hermione asked, a slight edge to her voice.
"I wanted to talk about Blaise," Harry said coolly, looking her straight in the eye.
"No," she said, backing away, her eyes full of anger. "No way, Harry. We went over this before."
"Yes, I know we did," Harry said, advancing on her. "But this time it's serious. He's a Death Eater Hermione."
"You're lying," she hissed at him. "I know where he is at all times!"
"Where is he now?"
There was a long silence and Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously at Harry as a glint of victory passed over his features.
"He's visiting his sister in London," she lied, and Harry could tell she was making it up.
"You and I both know he is doing no such thing, Hermione. He was spotted by none other than Igor Karkaroffe at the last Death Eater meeting."
"Harry," she said, he voice shaking with anger. "Show how to get out of this shit hole now, before I hex you to the moon and back!"
Harry smiled knowingly at her. "I'd like to see you try, and I've been to the moon. It's far too overrated."
"Harry!"
"Alright, alright," Harry said, raising his palms up. He walked over to a little hole in the wall, and pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the hole and muttered "Aureus Aquila Abeo."
From the point that his wand was pointing at, a narrow walkway sprung up, leading all the way up to the top where the trapdoor was. Harry climbed onto the walkway and hurried up to the top, with Hermione close behind He pushed open the trapdoor and climbed out.
Hermione followed close behind and after clambering out of the trapdoor she headed off to the other side of the roof and onto the fire escape without even muttering a word of goodbye.
* * *
"Severus," Albus Dumbledore said, looking grave. "Are you quite sure it was Zabini?"
"Yes," Snape responded, sounding annoyed. "The boy was in my house for seven years, I think I would be able to recognize him. It has only been four years after all, since graduation. And plus, Igor has met the man. Unmistakably Blaise."
"Yes, yes of course Severus, forgive me."
"Well now that we know, what do you plan on doing about it?"
"Do not know, Severus. I think that this is a very sensitive matter that needs to be handled with utmost caution. If Zabini thinks that we have figured him out then one of our very important Order members could be at great risk."
"Yes. Miss Granger. Surely we could get someone to tell her of the great risk?"
Ï have already thought of that, Severus. I have conatcted Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter and they were to meet Miss Granger this morning in Diagon Alley. If all goes well, we will have Miss Granger out of there before danger becomes evident."
"Yes, assuming it all goes well. I may be mistaken, but didn't Potter and Weasley sever contacts with her after her wedding?"
"Yes, that is correct, but there is no one you can trust more than an old friend with your best interests at heart."
* * *