uploaded 3-18-04

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Author's Note: Well, this is hardly my best effort (the dialogue's a bit off), but it's what I've got for right now. Sorry it's taken me so long to update and that the chapter is a bit short, but I've been hellishly busy and will continue to be for another good while. Thank you thank you to my reviewers. Nice to feel like I'm not writing into a void.

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chapter 39: ORCHESTRATION - into the mix

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"So, are you going to tell us, or what?"

"Huh?" Ron looked up at his friends in confusion to find them looking expectantly back at him over the mounds of food on the table. "Tell you what?" He had been thinking about how he needed to hurry up and eat so that he could head up to meet Malfoy in the library. He hadn't the slightest clue what his friends were talking about.

Hermione sighed her sigh that said 'I try, but really, they are just so thick'. "Why you and Malfoy were late for Transfiguration. You two didn't get in a fight, did you?" She looked stern as she asked this.

Ron snorted. "Like you're one to talk." He knew Hermione was embarrassed about what had happened that afternoon, but there was no way he was going to let her live it down anytime soon. Hermione frowned, so he continued. "No, no, don't worry. Snape just forgot to let us out, that's all."

Harry frowned in puzzlement. "Why didn't you just leave when the time was up, then? From what I saw, you're hardly locked up in that room."

Ron bit his lip to keep from swearing under his breath and scratched his head lazy-like to stall long enough to think of a response. He wasn't sure how to explain what had happened in Snape's offices that afternoon, but he was quite sure he didn't want to talk to Harry and Hermione about it. Besides, if he told them about that, then he would have to tell them about the thing with Ginny too. He knew that he should be asking his friends for help in this situation, but some part of him really just didn't want to get them involved. A bigger part of him also felt shame at his involvement in it all and the things he had been forced to do. Of course, he would probably end up regretting not telling them, sooner or later.

"Hnnnn, that room doesn't have a clock, Harry, and Snape always comes in to tell us when to leave. We didn't know it was time to go." Harry nodded at this, looking sort of glum. "Don't worry, Hermione got into enough trouble for all of us today."

Hermione hissed at this, and started playing with the peas on her plate. "Don't you remind me," she said, looking down.

"Come on," Harry said, looking more enthusiastic. "What you did to Zabini was brilliant. That's for sure. He'll certainly not be forgetting that for a long time."

Hermione smiled a little at the thought, but then frowned again. "Yes, but I shouldn't have let him get to me, and now I've got detention for two whole weeks doing Merlin knows what!"

Ron almost choked on his laugh. "Too true that is, Hermione. But, Hermione! He made horns grow out of your head! I think most anyone would be more than a little affected by something like that."

"I suppose you're right," Hermione nodded. "But, oh, that reminds me. I've got to be off, or McGonagal's like to make that three weeks." She hurriedly grabbed her things and started off.

"You know, I need to be going too," Ron said rising from the table. "See ya later, Harry." Harry just sort of nodded, looking lost, as his two friends hurried away, leaving him alone at the table.







Ron was running by the time he got up to the library, but he stopped as soon as he got in the door and was greeted by Madam Pince's death glare. Getting thrown out of the library at this time would be most inconvenient. He paused to look around and see if Malfoy had gotten there ahead of him. He didn't see him, and was just about to go sit at a table to wait when he heard a drawling voice off to the side. "Don't you ever walk anywhere, Weasel?" Ron ignored the question and it's tone, and headed over to a table partially obscured behind one of the book shelves and already piled high with a number of books.

"Well, looks like you've gotten quite the head start." Ron wasn't sure, but he thought that maybe if he stayed completely civil to Malfoy, Malfoy would stay completely civil to him, and they might have a civil evening ... looking up ways to thwart Ron's sister. Ugh. Just thinking about it made Ron feel depressed and hopeless. He flopped into a chair across from Malfoy.

"Yes, well," Draco's voice had lost its sneer, "wasn't really hungry..." Malfoy trailed off before looking up at Ron and shoving a stack of books in his direction. "Here, you can start with these. So far I've just done a basic search, so there are probably some books that I missed, but best to just get started." He then dropped a parchment, quill and ink down in front of Ron. "And take notes on anything interesting, that you think might be useful. It's pointless to have to read the books twice just because we forgot where that one important piece of information was located."

Ron wrinkled his nose looking at the pile in front of him. "You're as bad as Hermione."

Draco looked up from his notes, raising an eyebrow. "Let's hope that's the only trait I share with the Mudblood," he said in a cold voice, before looking down at his notes once more. "Now stop complaining. Or don't you want us to figure out what to do about your sister?"

Ron pressed his lips together at the cold tone, but then on impulse, he reached out and put a hand on Draco's arm. Startled, Draco looked up. "Thanks for helping, Malfoy. It's not like you have to."

For a second Draco didn't say anything, just looked sort of uncomfortable. "Yes I do," he said finally, shifting his arm out from under Ron's hand. "Now, we'd best get going."

Ron sighed as he looked down, confronting the stack of books before him. Steeling himself, he pulled over the one off the top, opened it, and set to work.







"And I'll also expect you to come in at six o'clock every morning before breakfast for another hour of work. I hope you two weren't expecting to get off lightly for what you've done. These are very serious offenses and you should be grateful no one considered having you expelled." Hermione hung her head lower with every harsh word McGonagal uttered, looking like she wanted to curl up in a ball on the floor. Blaise, standing beside her, mimicked her posture, but wasn't listening too closely to McGonagal's tirade. His take on the situation was: he knew he wasn't supposed to do it, he did it anyway, now just let him be punished and get it over with. Granger really seemed to be taking it to heart, though, and he had to bite his lip to keep from smiling at that. He'd gotten her back, and good. He couldn't care less about the consequences on himself.

After another five minutes of lecturing, McGonagal finally excused them. They had an essay due in her class the next day, so they were allowed one night without detention. Tomorrow it would begin. Blaise couldn't help smiling as they walked down the hall. Now it was Weasley's turn to keep her end of the bargain.

"What are you smiling about?" Granger sounded to be in quite the bad mood. Blaise grinned wider. "You got into just as much trouble as I did."

At this Blaise stopped and turned, putting on the most serious face he could manage. "You know Granger, you're right about that. But I have a thought. I think, that the trouble we got into today means a bloody hell of a lot more to you, than it does to me, and that the expression on your face when you snapped meant a lot more to me, than it did to you. Tooteloo." With that, Blaise turned and strode off down a side hall, leaving a scowling Hermione Granger behind him.

When he reached the end of the hall, he headed down the stairs, making straight for the hall of deserted classrooms where Ginny had said she would meet him. He was perhaps a bit early, but he had his homework along anyway, so it really didn't matter. Besides, he always preferred to be the person who got there first. That way it would feel more like they were meeting on his territory.







"Oh, here's something." Ron turned his book around and pointed to a paragraph half-way down the page. They'd been in the library for two hours already, and it was starting to feel as though their search would be more fruitless than they had first hoped.

Draco leaned over and scrutinized the words Ron was pointing at. Ron thought Malfoy looked like he should be wearing glasses. Who knew that Malfoy could be so intensively studious?

"Yes," Draco said. "Yes, I think I saw this bit when I took it off the shelf. Later on I think it mentions some specific cases. Why don't you go through and see if you can pick out all the things they have in common." Draco put the end of his quill in his mouth and started gnawing on it as he passed the book back to Ron.

"Yeah, okay." Ron shook his sleeve back and turned to the next page, picking up his own quill as he did so.

"What's that?" Draco used his quill to point to the simple bracelet circling Ron's wrist.

Ron looked down at if for a moment, frowning. "Dunno. Hasn't it always been there?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Draco looked far away for a second, but then he stuck his quill back in his mouth and went back to studying the text in front of him. With a sigh Ron did the same, hoping that the stuff he was looking at meant they were getting somewhere.







He had been several hours at his homework when there came a creak at the door and Blaise looked up to see Ginny Weasley entering the room, an enigmatic smile curling her lips. "Have any trouble with the little favor I asked you for?" Ginny's voice was pleasant and Blaise smiled as he put down his quill. He was definitely in a good mood.

"It's done, as you asked. One of the other Slytherins owed me a favor and helped out. Though I have to say, I earned two weeks of detention doing it."

"Oh, poor baby," Ginny pouted sympathetically. Coming over and sitting on the table, she ran her fingers through Blaise's hair soothingly. "You do know that I am eternally grateful?"

Blaised reached up and touched a finger to her lips, stilling her. "Yes, well it wasn't exactly your gratitude I was looking for." He arched one eyebrow suggestively as Ginny's lips curled under his touch. Leaning forward, Ginny brought their lips together in a brief, teasing kiss.

"Of that, my dear Slytherin, I am perfectly aware."

Blaise felt her slip something onto his hand and he looked down to see a bracelet very similar to the one he had delivered to her brother. "What's this for?"

Ginny came tauntingly close before responding. "Oh, that's just to make sure that this is extra special," she said before leaning in for a rough kiss.