First Time for Everything

Draco Malfoy

As if I didn't need another reason to hate those bloody hippogriff creatures. We all had slept very little, ate close to nothing… and then we had to run at full speed for several, long minutes.

And when we finally thought it was safe to stop running, there was a figure kneeling by a stream, splashing water onto his face. I took out the wand, and then the figure must've heard us or something, because he turned to face us. When I saw who it was, I dropped the wand. "Longbottom?" I gasped, hardly believing Neville Longbottom would actually be alive.

What he did next just shocked all of us. He stood to his feet and glared at me. Then he dove to the ground and snatched up my wand! "Let my friends go, Malfoy."

"Longbottom, I'm not holding them captive or anything!" I insisted.

"Neville, it's okay," Granger said soothingly. "We're all running away together."

"You," he said, pointing the wand at my neck. "You put them under the imperious curse."

"No I didn't!" I insisted weakly. I knew there was no way of proving this.

"Neville, he didn't," Ginny and Ron said at the same time.

"Why are you running away with Gryffindors, Malfoy? Why aren't you fighting with the death eaters?" Longbottom asked threateningly.

"I'm not a death eater," I said, rolling up my sleeve with a sigh. Everyone cringed when they saw what was coming, but Neville looked with interest.

"Oh…" he breathed quietly, looking at the patch of skin on my arm that was no longer alive. It was sort of a blackish color now… it was really quite disgusting. But desperate times call for extremely desperate measures.

"Are you alright?" Granger asked Longbottom.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" he said slowly. He actually looked like he was about to pass out.

"Where are you headed?" Ginny asked him.

"I'm not sure," he said with a little bit of nervousness in his voice. "You?"

"We're going to The Bl—"

"We don't know either," Granger interrupted Weasley.

"Hang on," Longbottom narrowed his eyes at Weasley. "Were you about to say The Blaze?"

No one spoke. We knew we weren't supposed to be telling people about this place.

"You were," Longbottom concluded from our silence. "Who gave you the directions?"

"Luna Lovegood," I said after a little hesitation.

"That little…." Longbottom had a mean look in his eyes. "She's not a distributor! Who else did she give them to?"

"Just us…" Granger said. "I think."

"I knew I couldn't trust her." Longbottom scowled.

"What do you mean she wasn't a distributor?" Ginny asked.

"There are two students at Hogwarts who are The Blaze directions distributors. They are picked by the former seventh years, right before graduation. They have to be trust worthy and no one would have to suspect them of being knowledgeable on the subject. Their job is to give directions to people who want them… but they have to perform a series of tests that last anywhere from a week to a month. These tests determine if the person is trustworthy, if they actually intend on living without magic, and if they aren't going to turn anyone in to the Ministry or death eaters or even Dumbledore."

"So how do people find out about The Blaze in the first place?" I asked.

"Word of mouth. Someone hears about it from an older sibling and they tell some friends. But most people think it's a rumor. Very few people actually seek directions."

Granger asked, "Who are the current distributors?"
"Well, me, for one," Longbottom said slowly. "And Blasie Zambini."

"What?" I asked.

"Blasie was chosen by the last distributor, just like I was. He left Hogwarts about a week before the attack. He knew it was going to happen, so he took off. His parents would kill him if they saw he didn't have a dark mark."

I knew Zambini's situation was similar to mine… but I had no idea he was as desperate as me. I noticed his absence… seeing as he shares my dormitory, but I didn't think anything of it. I assumed he was spending the nights with his girlfriend and that he was skipping classes to be with her. She did seem to control his entire life.

"Who on earth picked him?" I demanded. "And who picked you?"

Longbottom glared at me and said, "Fred and George Weasley."

"What?" Ginny and Ron dropped their jaws. "They… directions?" Ron gaped.

"But," I said slowly, doing the math in my head. "They graduated two years before us. So they couldn't have…"

"Oh, yeah," Longbottom said. "They picked us even though we weren't the right age. They said they didn't trust anyone in the year under them."

"What about me?" Ron demanded. "Why wouldn't they tell me about this?"

"Ron, you know you would totally tell someone or something," Ginny said. "You would ruin it."

"Would not!" He insisted angrily.

"So you're going, then? To The Blaze, I mean," Granger changed the subject abruptly. Longbottom nodded.

"Great, now we have another traveling buddy," I rolled my eyes.

"Shut it, Malfoy!"

----

"Luna's dead," Longbottom muttered bluntly when we had been walking for a few hours.

"We know," Granger and I said at the same time. I hated when that happened.

"You do?" Longbottom asked, obviously surprised.

"Yeah," I said bluntly. "We got the directions off her dead body."

"Oh," Longbottom said with difficulty. "I thought she gave the directions to you when she was still alive."

"Nope," Ginny said. "How did she die, anyway? She looked pretty messed up."

"It's not a good story," Longbottom said with regret.

"Yeah, well, we're going on a long journey," I said. "What else are we going to talk about?"

"Fine," he gave in with a sigh. "Well, Luna and I were headed to The Blaze together. She said she was afraid of beginning the journey alone. So I reluctantly let her come with me."

"Longbottom, we don't care! Just get to the part where someone pulls her guts out!" I demanded impatiently.

"Whatever happened to 'we're going on a long journey'?" Longbottom snapped. I didn't think he had an ounce of wit in him.

"Yeah, well, that doesn't change the fact that I'm impatient." I remarked.

"Fine," Longbottom rolled his eyes. "Luna and I got to the second cave when some death eaters came. I ran into the back and tried to hide, but Luna was too slow. One of them saw her. He tortured her and then he killed her. Not too interesting."

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. "Who killed her?" I just knew it was going to be my father.

"I don't know."

"Was it my father?" I asked.

"No," he shook his head. "I'm positive it wasn't."

"And then what? Didn't they search the cave?" Granger asked.

"No," Longbottom said with evident surprise. "They just left. They never looked for anyone else. She said she was alone when they were torturing her."

"How noble," Ginny smiled.

"Well, that's why she's a bloody Gryffindor, isn't it?" I scoffed.

Granger rolled her eyes. "Now, Neville, what's the resting rock?"

"Well, Hermione," he said with a smile. "I think you already know the answer to that."

She bit her lower lip and then she figured it out. She was sitting on the rock with the arrows on it. "We have to go this way," she said, pointing down the path.

"I could've told you that," I said bitterly.

"Yeah, but look," she said. "There are a series of arrows. We have to copy this down."

"Onto what?" I asked.

"Give me that parchment," she snatched the directions out of my hand. "Anyone have a quill?"

Longbottom took one out from under his cloak. Granger carefully copied the arrows onto the parchment. "Make sure they're going the right way," I barked.

"Please, Malfoy," Ron rolled his eyes. "This is Hermione we're talking about here. Since when does she get anything wrong?"

"There's a first time for everything," I raised my eyebrows and smirked.

"Yeah," Granger said, folding the parchment into a small square. "There can be a first time for you to have trust in me for once."

"No," I shook my head. "Malfoys don't trust anyone."

"Still going at that, are you?" She sighed bitterly. "Out here in the middle of nowhere, no one gives a fuck whether you're a Malfoy or not."

I recoiled backwards. It wasn't because of what she said. It was because I had no idea Granger even knew a single dirty word.

Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews! As for when the romance will start… let's just say that I'm not into rushing things. They're going to argue more and more throughout the next several chapters. One thing you might've noticed is all the talk about trust and being a Malfoy and all of that. That's important… it plays a big role in the romance department. NEXT CHAPTER SPOILER: Well, they follow the arrows. And then something shocking happens. Hermione actually gets something wrong? And why does that make Malfoy especially miserable. Let's just say it has nothing to do with the fact that they're lost. REVIEW!