Author's Note: This chapter is probably my most random one yet. (Not saying much as there are only 3.) I just started editing what I had down originally and this is what came out. I'm not sure if I'm happy with it, but what the heck.
Micheala90: Thanks for the link. I really like your story. Go Girl!Blaise!!
Broadwaypoetess: Yup, I read your story. And reviewed it. Yes, let's all have a moment of silence for poor Knocturn Alley.
Nerwen Faelvirin: An update, just as you requested.
Elven Sword: I might go back and edit those errors. You know, if I get around to it. Thanks for catching them. The time that Malfoy called Ron "Weasel" was intentional. (You asked about it in a different story's review thingie.) It's good to hear that someone else out there thinks Slytherins are misrepresented.
Disclaimer: Hahahaha, you think I actually own anything? I don't even own this keyboard or the chair I'm sitting in.
Reeeviiieewww… Or I'll be forced to use one of the forbidden curses on you!
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Draco's arm was completely numb. From around his elbow down, he couldn't feel anything but an extremely painful tingling feeling. He had given up trying to pry Pansy off him about five minutes ago. If Blaise weren't so obviously ticked off at him, he would've pleaded with her to beat the other girl off with her shoe or whatever other weapon was at hand.
"Can you please tell me what is going on?" asked Millicent Bullstrode who was not much happier than Blaise. After all, when you're the sort of person who looks like she could be part troll, it is extremely difficult to have school robes to fit you properly.
"I second that," echoed Blaise as she folded her arms over her chest.
Shaking his arm casually, and finding that it didn't detatch Pansy from it, Draco turned and began leading the group down Knockturn Alley.
"You know, Malfoy, I couldn't help but notice that you're the only one of us without anything of value up your shirt. You're not trying to get us into some brothel you've started are you?" inquired a very sarcastic brunette. Her wrist may not have hurt any more, but she didn't get over grudges nearly as quickly as she got over pain.
"Shove it, Zabini," he retorted, stealing the girl's catchphrase.
Just when she may have found good use for her shoe, Blaise was caught off guard by a shriek of surprise.
"Oh my God! Draco, what happened to Knockturn Alley?" a distraught sounding Pansy asked, eyes widened in a manner that made her look like a pug that had had a rocket explode near its rear.
For the second time in less than an hour - maybe even less than half an hour - Draco felt as if his ears would start bleeding and that the eardrums had ruptured. "Pansy... my ears..."
Taking absolutely no notice to what he had said, the girl continued to whine in a very high-pitched voice. "Everything's been taken away! Why? Draco, what happened? What's going on? Draco, I -"
"Parkinson, shut up and put another color changing charm on your hair," Blaise snapped so suddenly that the fake blonde jumped. "My ears hurt from here and Draco's the one right next to you."
Draco looked over Pansy's head to give Blaise an appreciative look, but after receiving a glare from her, found that she only had spoken up because her ears were hurting and not at all to help him. Damn girl had to carry a grudge, didn't she?
"Draco, tell her to stop," begged Pansy, her eyes filling with tears that were supposed to gain everyone's pity but did the exact opposite.
Doing nothing of the sort, Draco glanced around the abandoned alley and voiced his opinions. "The Ministry's probably just paranoid and the people want some action. Nothing to worry about, I'm sure."
Unlike the others, he had seen the warning poster and knew that this really wasn't as casual as he was trying to make it seem. Blaise just stared at him, not believing a word he said.
"Yeah, they just emptied the entire alley and we should just assume that nothing's going on?"
"I'm not saying that-"
"Yes you are."
"No, I'm just saying that this was probably a raid gone out of hand and that things'll be fine soon."
She let out a harsh laugh. "Please, Malfoy. We weren't born yesterday."
"It could be nothing."
"But it isn't."
Feeling something brush against her ankles, Millicent looked down to find a very wet parchment plastered on the ground near her heels. She bent down and carefully picked up the wet paper and made a face as she tried to read it. Well, here was her proof that Draco was trying to sugar coat the situation.
"Because of suspicious behavior," came the voice of Millicent Bullstrode as she read from the flyer. "Knockturn Alley has been closed until further notice. The people thought to be responsible shall have their dwellings searched thoroughly by trained Aurors. In these dark times, we find that we can take no risks that would allow He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to rise to power once again. If we are fortunate, these actions will be all that is necessary."
"What?" the other two girls said in perfect unison.
"The Ministry is cracking down on us?" Pansy asked, looking up at Draco and then over at the others in confusion. "Why? Don't they need warrants or..or... orders or something?"
"I think that they're past that point now, Pansy," Draco muttered.
"Hang on, I think you all missed something," said Blaise, taking the parchment from Millicent and scanning it quickly. "They're going to search our houses. And I don't think that it's just going to be a casual raid."
"Who cares about Knockturn Alley? Half the things my parents have could get them fired from the Ministry or maybe even get them put in Azkaban!" Millicent stated in horror as the truth began to dawn upon all of them.
"I can't have my house searched! What are we going to do, Draco?"
"I don't know, Pansy, alright? Shut up and let me think."
"Draco, I'm scared. What's going to happen to us?" Pansy whimpered, clutching tighter to Draco's arm that was beginning to turn paler than was normal, even for him.
"Draco," Blaise said suddenly, forgetting the fact that she was incredibly pissed at him now for a few moments. "My mom said she was going to Knockturn Alley. Where is she?"
She wasn't worried, or concerned really. Well, not incredibly that is. She had a fairly decent relationship with both of her parents and even if she didn't, the thought of having her family chucked into Azkaban made her feel paranoid. Contrary to the beliefs of many people, the Slytherins really weren't always abused, molested and raped by their parents. They didn't grow up with their parents telling them that they loved them or with any other acts of kindness, but they were still a family and had certain concerns about each other's fortune - even if it only was for personal benefit.
Draco made a face, twisting his bottom lip around before shaking his head at her. "Do you think she went back to the mansion?"
"How should I know? If I was inside her brain, I wouldn't ask you where she was."
"Hey! Calm down," Millicent barked out. Blaise turned in surprise, not ever having been yelled at by a classmate (except for the time when she melted Draco's Ominoculars at the Quidditch World Cup - hey, she had to do something to keep him from vaulting down from the stands to impress the dancing Veelas). Taking a slow breath and running a hand through her bangs, Millicent continued, "If we jump at each other's throats, we won't get anywhere. I don't think that anyone's in immediate danger, so let's just relax, alright?"
Everyone fell silent. The situation floated over their heads more heavily and constricting than the rain that continued dripping onto them. Blaise who sneezed, shaking water off her face and hair in the process, finally broke the silence.
With the seriousness of the situation finally sinking into everyone and thoughts of some sort of horrible practical joke on nearly everyone's mind, Pansy sniffled and buried her face into Draco's arm. "Draco, are we going to die?"
"Parkinson, if you don't shut up this instant, I'll make sure that you will," Blaise threatened, the other girl's pitiful moaning causing her left eyebrow to twitch repeatedly.
The fake blonde looked over at her, positively terrified. She knew first hand that the girl's temper was nothing to be messed with. Madame Pomfrey had actually been quite impressed with the way a pug's nose had been transferred ono Pansy's face one time in third year.
"Either this was a lucky break or whoever did this really knew what they were doing," she had said while examining the snout that blended in surprisingly naturally with the unfortunate girl's skin and twitched when she prodded it with her wand. Their Transfiguration professor had been much less amused, but it was Pansy who really suffered in the long run because people found that saying that she looked like a pug had taken on a whole new meaning.
After that, Pansy, and most of the Slytherin House, had steered clear of Blaise and her temper.
"D-Draco, make her stop," Parkinson whined, shrinking away from the girl's glare.
That was her breaking point. A lot of frustration had been pent up inside of the Zabini girl and it was about time for it to come out. And the blonde was acting like the perfect target.
"Pansy, no body cares about you!" she spat out venomously. "Not Draco, not Millicent and 'specially not me! We've got out own things to deal with." Her dark eyes darted from face to face as she breathed heavily through her nostrils. "Now, we're all going to finish buying our school stuff and then worry about the Ministry. Understood?"
Millicent blinked several times at the other girl's outburst and took several steps back, thanking her lucky stars that she wasn't the one receiving the blunt anger. "Well, I'll see you all at school."
Tucking the parchment into her pocket, she quickly made her escape. Regrettable as it may have been to not watch this first hand, she knew that she would hear about this at school and if Pansy fainted, Blaise would need someone else to take her anger out on. That was what Draco was there for.
None of them really noticed Millicent's departure, but that was to be expected. As Pansy's bottom lip trembled and she clung tighter to Draco's already numb arm, Blaise's eyes flashed.
"Get the fuck off him," she ordered, voice low and deadly. "What part of "he can't stand you" don't you understand?"
Instantly, Pansy let go and eyed Blaise the way one would a bomb or guard dog. For someone that wasn't a jealous girlfriend or angry ex, the girl was acting pretty possessive. But not was not the time for that to be mentioned if you valued your body parts. Still, she actually sniffled when Blaise took Malfoy by the wrist as a precaution and began dragging him away.
"Blaise-" he began cautiously, testing the waters.
The brunette whirled around and shouted, "Shove it!"
He instantly made a face of terror and shut up very, very quicky. He had worked out over the summer - because Quidditch did jack squat for toning the body and how was he going to get a girl if he was as scrawny as Weasley or Potter? - but he knew that that meant nothing when Blaise was on a rampage. She would have him on his back, begging for mercy before he could react. Actually... that sounded like an interesting position. He'd have to give it a try sometime.
After leading them out of the desolate Knockturn Alley, the girl stopped and spun around to glare at him once more. Her long hair flew around her in thick, wet clumps and then plastered itself onto her shoulders or face. "What, Malfoy?"
"N-nothing," he responded, quailing under her flashing eyes. "Just... you're really possessive."
She snarled at him and then looked around like she hadn't heard what he said. "For getting you out of there, you owe me an ice cream. A big one."
"Now?"
"No, next year," she snapped sarcastically.
"Yes, ma'am," Draco said as he ducked out of the shelter of the buildings and into the rain that had been steadily increasing. The streets were now mostly empty with the people hiding under the shade of their umbrellas or running with their arms over their heads from one building to the next. He felt bad for abandoning Pansy and really sorry for her because he knew how scary Blaise could be when she yelled. If the Dark Lord had been female, who knows what he could have been able to do before he was thwarted originally.
"Ow! Watch where you're going, jackass!"
Malfoy turned, looking over his shoulder at Blaise who had been thrown unceremoniously on her butt after running into a black haired someone who had also been knocked back off his feet.
"Sorry," he mumbled, fishing around for his glasses on the ground and finding that the impact had cracked them. Where was Hermione when she could have been useful? "Here."
He reached out with one hand, intending to help the rather blurry person up.
"Don't touch me, Potter!"
That time he recognized the voice and, putting on his disfigured glasses, recognized the person that he had crashed into. "Oh, Zabini."
"Yes "Oh, Zabini." Who did you think I was?" she spat before getting to her feet and brushing her hands against the back of her jeans to wipe them off.
Seeing as she looked surprisingly like a vampire or other creature of darkness that had been thrown in a lake and then fished out, Harry chose to not reply. Nor could he hold eye contact with her. So he dropped his gaze, thinking it to be the wise thing to do at the moment. It wasn't until after she yelled at him once more that he realized that it was more of a stupid thing to do because the rain had made her loose shirt much more form fitting than it would have been dry and that his eyes were more or less on her chest.
"What the hell, Potter?" she snarled and instantly crossed her arms tightly over her small breasts. "You're worse than Malfoy."
"Blaise, I think that was a little low," commented the Slytherin casually though he was thoroughly enjoying the show.
"Shove it."
"Zabini, it wasn't like I saw anything," Potter said, trying to defend himself.
The girl's eyes flashed and she rounded on him, positively fuming. "Just because I'm less developed than Lavender Brown doesn't mean that I appreciate being stared at. You're really, really asking for it, Potter."
"Blaise, remember what your mum said? Be calm and don't start fights? 'Specially with the Boy Who Lived?"
"Shove it, Malfoy!"
"Blaise, ice cream?"
She sulked and her lips came dangerously close to a pout. After shoving her way past Harry, she walked in the direction of the somewhat famous ice cream parlor. "Watch your back at school, Potter."
Wonderful, Blaise Zabini wanted him dead. Well, that was definitely going to put a damper on his happy mood. And here Potter was thinking that he'd be safe at school. Big mistake apparently.
"Draco?"
"Yea, Blaise?"
The girl sighed and for a moment he thought that the majority of her rage was done and over with. Then she cracked the knuckles on her right hand.
"I need to hit something."
He patted her shoulder carefully while remaining a safe distance from her so that she wouldn't get any ideas. "You shoved Potter pretty hard into the street."
"After he shoved me!" she protested. "And stared at my chest!"
"Lucky bastard," Draco mumbled before yelping as Blaise's foot connected sharply with his shin.
"I heard that!"
"Zabini, if you beat me to a bloody pulp, I won't be able to buy you ice cream."
The girl tugged moodily at several strands of her soaked hair and thought about the situation for a while as she watched Draco hopping on his good leg and trying to shake the jolt of pain out of his bad one.
"But I could steal your money," she said brightly.
"Oh, Blaise," he began, looping a casual arm over her shoulders. "You wouldn't do that."
The Zabini girl rolled her eyes and looked up at the falling rain and the thick storm clouds that had rolled in. Why did it have to pour the one day that she was out buying school supplies? Couldn't it have waited? Better now than earlier, she decided. Wet horse smelled horrible.
When she looked down and over at Draco to reply, she found that his eyes were focusing on an area that was very much off limits.
"Aaarrgghh! Malfoy!"
"Ow! Bloody hell, Zabini! I was only looking!"