Thank you's to My Beta Dom, icanreadandcount (This time Draco gets jealous), s n o o g i n g Withdrawal (Everyone loves the room service), Echo256 and Latrikana.

***

Wine, Blaise and Aidan

***

"Let's order more wine." Draco declared happily as he tried to walk in a straight line. Ginny was sprawled on her bed, laughing.

"More wine? How many bottles have we drunk already?" She asked.

"Only three, I'm sure we can handle more than that." He had given up on walking in a straight line and had collapsed next to her, laughing.

"Maybe you can, but I can't." Ginny admitted tipsily, "I've only ever had maybe a single glass at my parent's parties. Have we really drunk three bottles?"

"I think I'm responsible for two of them, but you've certainly had one." He frowned a moment, thinking about what she had just said, "Are you telling me that Gryffindors don't have parties with lots of drinking and snogging?"

"No! I mean, of course we don't. Fred and George used to sometimes sneak up Butter Beer from the kitchens, but that did nothing." She smiled slightly, "Besides, how much drinking and snogging could you expect me to do with Ron and the Twins in the room?"

"Good point." He conceded, "We had parties in Slytherin all the time. I've kissed every girl in my year, and lots in yours. I've even had my share of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs."

"That's disgusting Malfoy." She declared. She certainly looked disgusted, and this was even more pronounced when she started to turn green, "Oh, I feel sick!"

And with that she threw herself off the bed, and bolted for the bathroom, stumbling a few times out of a mixture of her drunkenness and her weak body.

"You alright?" He called, and was replied by the sound of her throwing up. Not actually sure of what to do, he opened the door slightly, and slid inside.

She was hunched over the toilette, throwing up. He sat by her side, and nervously patted her hair. She stayed like that for a few minutes more, before getting up and grabbing some tissue to clean her mouth.

"Water." She whispered, and he complied quickly, going into the main room to grab the small room service bell. He shook it once, and a house elf appeared by his side, grinning.

He asked in Russian.

It wasn't until the house elf had flashed away, did he realise that he had asked the elf, instead of just demanding it. This was probably the alcohol's fault. The house elf reappeared with a tray. On the tray was a glass of water and a bottle filled with light purple syrup.

Said the house elf with a smile, before disappearing.

"I've got your stuff." He called, passing Ginny the water. She took it, and drank quickly. It took Draco a moment to realise that she'd been crying.

"What's the matter?" He asked.

"I'm dead." She said, looking forlorn.

"No you're not; the Ministry just think you are." He said, patting her shoulder, "When we get you cured we'll go back to England, and we'll sort everything out."

"No, I'm really dead, I bet they have it written down on an official piece of paper!" She hung her head and started sobbing. Not knowing quite what else to do, Draco started to examine the bottle the house elf had given him. It was written in Russian, which was unfortunate, as he couldn't read Russian half as well as he could speak and understand it. It took him a little while to translate the text. It turned out to be something that reversed the effects of alcohol. Looking over at the sobbing Ginny, he poured out the required dose and made her drink it. She continued to cry for a moment before sitting up straight, looking horrified.

"Oh my god!" She gasped, struggling to stand up, "I'm so sorry! That was so embarrassing."

"It's ok; I probably won't remember this in the morning." He assured her, standing up.

"What time is it?" She asked, looking around.

"Um, around 4 in the morning." He replied.

"Malfoy, what time do we have to be up by?"

"The Port Key leaves at nine."

"Oh god, I really need to sleep, we'll have to be up at half seven." And with that she left the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Draco was about to follow when he realised that she was probably getting changed. Further thoughts led him to shrug, and push open the door anyway.

"Malfoy!" She shrieked, throwing something heavy at the door.

"Sorry, sorry." He said, grinning, "Didn't know, honest."

***

The letter had come for Blaise just after dinner. She hadn't recognized the writing, but the writer had asked her to meet him at the North Tower at midnight. She had only been back at Hogwarts for a few hours, and she was already breaking rules. But that's how it was when you were a Slytherin.

The halls of Hogwarts were dark, and she could feel the chill caused by the stonewalls, but her heart was beating wildly, and her blood warmed her.

The North Tower was empty! Blaise looked around in surprise, and checked her watch. It was 5 past midnight. Had the writer grown impatient enough to leave so quickly?

A noise to her left surprised her and she jumped as she turned to see who it was. A moment later Ron Weasley's face appeared out of thin air, followed shortly by the rest of his body.

"Weasley?" She hissed too loudly.

"Shhh!" He whispered. Turning around and grouping at midair. He seemed to catch hold of something, and the air turned silver as he dragged it. It was an invisibility cloak, and underneath it were Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.

"What is this, a set-up?" She asked, backing away.

"No, no, it's nothing like that." Granger shook her head, "We just wanted to ask you some questions."

"And what about this letter?" She asked, flapping the piece of paper in front of their faces, "Just a trick?"

"No, Harry wrote and asked you to meet us here." Ron said, looking confused, "He didn't sign it because we didn't think you'd come if you knew who it was from."

"Oh.I thought." Blaise started, blushing. Harry and Hermione realised straight away, and looked uncomfortable, but Ron's look of confusion just became deeper.

"You thought what?" He asked. Hermione quickly stamped on his foot, and he hopped around for a moment, before realisation hit him, "Oh! Um, sorry."

"Forget it." She snapped, "What do you want?"

"We want to ask you about Malfoy." Harry explained. Colour faded from Blaise's face, and she backed into the wall.

"I don't know anything about that." She stammered.

"About what?" Hermione asked.

"About Malfoy's disappearance!"

"We didn't say anything about his disappearance." The brown haired girl said slyly. Blaise winced at her stupidity, "But now that you've brought it up."

"We're just trying to help." Harry said, trying to sound reassuring.

"They're trying to help the stupid git, I'm just tagging along." The red haired boy corrected.

"Ron!" Hermione snapped, rolling her eyes, "I know we don't get along with you Slytherins, but if Malfoy's in real trouble, we can't just ignore it."

"You just love playing the heroes, don't you?" Blaise hissed, "Anything to get a bit of attention."

"Look, I think the question here is, do you want to help Malfoy or not?" Harry asked.

"Of course I want to help him." Blaise said, "I'm just not sure how you could help me."

"Ok, not to blow our own horns or anything, but you are talking to the people who, in out first year got past our teacher's best defences in order to save the Philosophers stone, in our second year Harry faced a basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, in our fourth year Harry made it through a maze of killer beasts, ended up face to face with You-Know-Who and lived, and all three of us at the end of our fifth year took on a group of grown Death Eaters." Hermione took a deep breath, "Not that we're blowing our own horns or anything."

She hadn't mentioned what had happened at the end of their third year as no one was supposed to know, and she didn't want to upset Harry by bringing up Sirius.

"And we're connected to some of the best Aurors of our age." Added Ron.

"Ok, how are you still alive?" Blaise asked, "No, forget it. What do you want from me?"

"We know you know something about Malfoy's disappearance." Harry told her, "We just want to know what you know. It might be really important. We're good at putting thing's together."

"Look, I'd really like to tell you, it's just." Blaise sighed, looking frustrated, "You're Gryffindors, it'd be betraying Slytherin."

"We're trying to help Slytherin here, or don't you want Malfoy back?" Hermione pointed out.

"It's not just Slytherin I'd be betraying." Blaise locked eyes with Hermione, who she seemed to decide was her equal, as she was the only other female there, "If I tell you, you can't go to Dumbledore, or any of your Auror friends."

"We promise." Said Hermione hurriedly.

"This is going to get my father in so much trouble." The dark haired girl said miserably, "I can't believe I'm going to do this."

Ron and Harry glanced at each other, a worried look on their faces. Blaise looked so upset.

"My father spent most of the holidays at the Malfoy Manor, working on something top secret. My father is.he's a.oh god. My father's a Death Eater, along with Lucius Malfoy." Blaise looked up angrily at the three friends, "He's not evil though! He only joined up so that when You-Know-Who takes over, my mother and my sisters and me will be safe. They were working on something really important, but it went wrong because Draco interfered."

"How do you know that?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"I overheard my father telling my mother so." Blaise snapped angrily, "He took something really important. My father called it the Vessel. So Draco's on the run with this thing, and my father and Lucius are after him. When they catch him they'll kill him, and destroy the Vessel."

"Why would they destroy the Vessel?" Harry asked, "If they want it enough to kill Malfoy, why destroy it?"

"I can't believe Lucius would actually kill him own son." Ron said, his voice was filled with horror.

"They don't get on very well." Blaise explained coldly.

"So? I don't get on with Percy, doesn't mean I'm going to kill him." Ron countered.

"It makes sense Ron." Hermione cut in, "They have to kill Malfoy to stop him from telling anyone what he's found out. Once he's been found dead, there'll be a search of Malfoy Manor, and all the other Death Eater homes. They have to get rid of the evidence."

"Do you have any idea what the Vessel is?" Harry asked Blaise.

"Not really. When I was listening to my parents, I heard my father refer to it as a 'she' but he talks about our boat in the same way." The Slytherin shrugged, "It could be a person, or it could be a vase. I think it's more important to find out what it's a vessel for."

"Good point." Hermione nodded, "Thank you Blaise, I know this isn't easy for you."

"I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing it to help Draco." She sighed sadly, "I'll help you when I can, but I can't make any promises."

"Well, at least we know what's happening now." Ron said.

"Do you have any idea what you're going to do?" Blaise asked.

"We'll need to go to the library, find out some tracking spells." Hermione started, but was cut of by Blaise.

"Won't work, Draco's got an amulet to prevent him and anyone with him from being tracked."

"Damn." Harry whispered.

"Look, it's late, we're all tired, we should continue this tomorrow." Hermione said, "We can meet in the Room of Requirements, maybe that'll be some help. We'll owl you with a time."

Blaise nodded, and was about to walk away when Harry called out.

"Um, do you want me to walk you back to the Slytherin dungeons?" He asked, blushing slightly. Blaise looked surprised, and was about to turn him down, when it occurred to her that he was trying to help her. Besides, he had an invisibility cloak, so they wouldn't get caught.

"Um, ok." She said after a moment, and felt slightly pleased about how happy he looked.

As Harry and Blaise walked off Ron turned to Hermione with a sigh.

"It's the dark hair, you know?" He said, taking hold of her hand, "He just can't help himself around girls with black hair. Now me, I prefer brunettes."

"How sweet." She said, smiling warmly at him.

***

Ginny woke up to the smell of burning, and sat up bolt straight, ready to scream. But when she looked around she saw Draco sitting on the floor, a cauldron bubbling on a magical fire in front of him.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"You're awake? Excellent." He said, smiling at her, "I've almost finished."

"What is it?" She slid out of bed, and peered into the cauldron. The liquid in it was a deep purple.

"An antidote to the potion we drank." He explained, "We still have enough of the original potion to turn back about four more times, and we can make the antidote easily."

"Why are you making the antidote?" Ginny asked.

"It might indicate how important our problem is if Noginski knows that we have to wear a disguise." Draco didn't look at her as he said this, as he was measuring out some liquid amber.

"For someone so paranoid, you seem to be trusting Noginski a lot." She pointed out, "If you're risking revealing our true identity."

"I've heard my father talk about Noginski quite a bit, and they really aren't on good enough terms for him to betray us." He insisted, "In fact, the last time I heard my father speak about him he said 'if I ever see that man again I will curse him to the other side of oblivion'. Noginski wasn't much of a supporter of You-Know-Who, so he and father fell out over it."

"You didn't mention they used to be friends." Ginny said, her voice holding a dangerous spark.

"Not friends, acquaintances." Draco corrected, "And the potion is ready. Should we have breakfast?"

"What else haven't you told me, Malfoy?" She asked, sounding worried.

"Nothing important." He insisted happily, "I'm hungry."

"That's not reassuring." She told him, but he was ignoring her, looking for the room service bell.

"Where is it?" He mumbled to himself, "Hey, Weasley? What do you want for breakfast?"

"Um, eggs on toast." She decided.

"Is that all? Weasley, you're hanging out with one of the richest young men in England, why do you insist on doing everything on such a small scale." He asked.

"The richest youth in England seems to have no idea how to act inconspicuous." Ginny snapped, "I think you did ask for this room, you know? You can't stand having anything but the best. With you throwing all this money around, we're going to get caught in no time."

"So, just eggs on toast for you then?" He said sarcastically with a nod. Ginny gave a frustrated sigh and collapsed on the bed, while Draco made a sound of triumph as he found the bell and shook it gently. The house elf appeared beside him, and smiled happily.

It asked.

I'd like a full English breakfast with extra bacon, and my cousin would like eggs on toast. He bent down and lowered his voice to a whisper,

"What did you say to him?" Ginny snapped, still lying on her bed.

"Nothing my dear cousin." He called back, winking at the confused looking house elf.

They ate their breakfast quickly, and Draco asked the house elf to bring them two small flasks. It did so without questions, and Draco poured the antidote into the flasks.

"Don't drink it unless I say so." He instructed as he passed the flask to Ginny, who nodded.

"What time is it?" She asked, packing the last of her things into her trunk. They would not be returning to the Hotel after they had visited Noginski, as it seemed foolish to stay in one place for too long.

"Quarter to nine." He said, checking his watch, "Hurry up."

"I am hurrying." She snapped. He shrugged, and turned away, looking into the mirror. He seemed to look at it for a long time, before cursing and hurrying over to push the last of her things into her trunk.

"So stupid!" He muttered to himself, looking furious.

"What is it? What's the matter?" Ginny asked, sounding panicked.

"The mirrors Weasley, the damn mirrors!" He snapped, glancing at one of them, "The hotel staff can see us through the mirrors!"

"You mean they can see everything that's been going on in here?" She asked.

"Yes, that's damn well exactly what I mean." He had finished and was pulling the trunk closed, "It's a damn good thing I put silencing spells up, so it'll take them longer to figure out who we really are. We can't check out, we'll just have to say that we're spending the night at Poltrick, and we'll be back in the morning. That should buy us some time."

"What could they have seen that would tell them who we are?" Ginny asked.

"Well, I expect the potion making would look a bit suspicious." Sarcasm dripped from his voice, "Besides, these people can lip read, and we've been calling each other by our real names all night."

"You're being paranoid." She snapped.

"As I said before, better paranoid then dead." He pointed out. They left their room, and went down into the lounge, where there was a large group of young witches and wizards. The woman from the night before was talking to a handsome wizard who Ginny recognized, but she couldn't think from where. The woman turned around and saw them, and waved them over.

"Promise not to be overcome with a fit of jealousy Weasley?" Draco mumbled. Ginny scowled at him, but then recognition hit her, and all she could see was the man in front of her.

"You're Aidan Lynch." She gasped, and then felt immediately stupid.

"Yeah, that's me." He said smiling charmingly. Ginny was vaguely aware of Draco saying something to the Russian woman, but that really didn't seem very important to her. She had fancied Aidan Lynch since she was thirteen and had seen him in the Quidditch World Cup. She had wanted to cry when Krum had used the Wronski Feint and Aidan had ended up crashing to the ground. "And what's your name?"

"I'm G-Emily. Emily Bowcott." She said holding out her hand, "I saw you playing in the World Cup a few years ago, you-you were very good."

"Didn't catch the snitch." He said, shaking his head, he didn't shake her hand, but instead kissed it, "You off to see Professor Noginski?"

"Yeah, he's my uncle." Ginny explained, hating that she had to lie to this handsome young man, "Doubt he remembers me, I haven't seem his since I was little."

"And how old are you now?" Aidan asked, and Ginny realised with a thrill that he was flirting with her. She knew that she was only fifteen, and that he wouldn't look at her twice if she were in her true form, even though she was prettier that way, but it was still wonderful.

"Almost nineteen." She decided, and was very relieved that this body didn't blush.

"Well, I think I'll be saving a seat for you next to me at the lecture." He said, smiling. He then glanced over at Draco, who was standing behind her, looking very annoyed that no one was paying attention to him, "Is this your brother?"

"My cousin, Nathan." She said, introducing them. Draco glared at the Irish seeker, and simply looked at the hand that Aidan offered.

"You two look a lot alike." Aidan said, looking uncomfortable.

"Yes, but unlike my cousin, I have manners." Ginny said, glaring at Draco.

Malfoy was about to speak, but was suddenly interrupted by a long stream of Russian. The young woman was calling out to all the people in the lounge.

"What did she say?" Ginny asked Draco, who was looking very moody.

"I'm not sure, maybe Lynch knows." Draco snapped, and Aidan looked alarmed by the boy's hostile words.

"She said that The Port Key was about to leave." He said, glancing nervously at Ginny.

"Excuse my cousin, he's unnecessarily protective." Ginny smiled, and dragged Draco over to the Port Key, "Now whose jealous?"

"He's too old for you." Draco snapped, "Besides, we should try to keep to ourselves."

"I'd love to, but I already said I'd sit next to Aidan, too bad." And with that she placed her hand on the Port Key, which was a statue of a castle, and Draco had no alternative but to follow suite.

A moment later they were standing in the Entrance Hall of a castle.

***

Molly Weasley sat in her kitchen, reading the Daily Prophet. She glanced up at the clock to see if Arthur had arrived at work yet, but his hand was still at 'Travelling', along with the stump of Ginny's hand.

After Ginny's death, her hand had remained fixed on travelling, which had upset Molly every time she had looked at the clock. After a few weeks of this Arthur had walked over to the clock, and had tried to remove the hand. It had not worked, and the best Arthur could manage was breaking it off near its start, making it almost invisible.

Molly looked away, turning back to her newspaper. She didn't see Charlie's hand flicker from 'at work' to 'in mortal danger' and then back again. Nor did she see the tiny stump that had once been Ginny's hand move from 'travelling' to 'at school'.

***