The Count of Azkaban
Chapter 11
Ginny was sitting still, almost unnaturally so. From afar, her face was devoid of all emotions. It was not unless somebody looked at her very closely that one could imagine how tightly she was wound up. Her face was taut and her eyes were looking straight at a single spot on the wall. She looked as if made by stone.
Internally, however, she was anything but calm. Millions of emotions were washing her over. She was happy that Harry was alive; she also hated him for being alive and not helping her. She had had the worst thirteen years of her life and the boy she had loved, had just disappeared making her believe that he was dead. It was a set of complex emotions that even she could not completely understand. All she knew was that she had been catty while talking with Harry.
On some level, she had been surprised that both of them could still use their silent communication. Well she would see him tonight. Thinking that, she laid back on her bed, all the memories of her yesteryears flashing by her eyes.
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Harry Potter was one of the most powerful magical beings in the world. Looking at his controlled self would not give you the impression, but it was the truth none the less. Being a somewhat blend of a wizard and a high elf, he was gifted in both use as well as aid of magic. One of the senses that his being of elven heritage had given him, was the sight. It was not the sight one would associate with foretelling and prophecies, but the sight of magic. If he wanted, he could see the magic all around him. From the smallest charm to the most powerful enchantment, he could see anything. The colors and shades and all. More than that, he had developed a feel for magic. And when he felt a powerful stunner hurled at him, he did the one thing no-one would do; nothing.
The light blue beam of light came near him and was absorbed by him. Rather, it was absorbed by an elven defensive shield. Harry almost smiled as he saw the two witches who held their wands at him. He could feel that the spell had come from the younger Zabini's wand, but he looked straight back into the blue eyes of a friend.
"Hello Blaise!" There should have been a single thud as Blaise's body fell on the floor. Frankly, Grace, who was now looking at her sister's body, was scared out of her wits. In front of her was the hovering body of her sister. Although she was damned sure no spell had been cast by the strange man.
As she saw the strange unknown person approach them, she leveled her wand straight to his chest.
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Ronald Bilius Weasley was standing in the director's room at the national Quidditch stadium, totally covered in sweat. As soon as he had left the bank, he had apparated here and had been on the broom, working off tension. Now as he looked back at his life, he could only see one thing; the height he had attained. He would do anything to keep his position.
As he looked back once again to the events at the Malfoy Bank, he got very pissed off. How dare that slip of a girl try to make him wait in the lobby? He was Ronald Weasley, after all. Ever since his childhood, Ron had had a complex. He had always felt inferior because of their apparent financial situations. Very early, after seeing Harry's money, he had vowed that come hell or high water, he would get rich. Nothing would stand in his way. And nothing had. Not his parents, his brothers or his sister. Neither had his childhood love, Hermione or his best friend, Harry-the-bloody-boy-who-didn't-die-potter.
But now, he was seeing it all slip away. His teams' poor showings and the backing off of his sponsors had been killing him and the scene he had just created, would no doubt displease Draco. He decided to go later in the evening rather than now. Maybe, Draco would have cooled down a bit.
He was damned if he would loose it all. Damn that potter. He still blamed the green eyed boy for everything that went wrong with him. Old habits die hard. Especially of those who are used to dump all their failures on others.
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Lucius Malfoy was sitting in his office, looking over the working of the wizarding government. It had gotten a lot boring over the years. So much so that most of the times Lucius believed that he was in a pseudo jail than anything else; with no liberties and only shadow of power. His son had forsaken him a long time back after marrying that Weasley girl. Now-a-days, he had been relegated back to being the personal assistant of the ex-dark-lord.
Now that they had the world, he wasn't enjoying it. All of his dreams of ruling by the side of the dark lord had failed. In the beginning, when he had pledged his loyalty, support and finances to help Voldemort, he had asked for and gotten a magical contract. When lord Voldemort took control of the wizarding world, he would become the king and make him the minister of magic.
The dark lord had followed the letter of the agreement but not the spirit. He had been reduced to fate worse than death. But he was under a magical contract to the dark lord as well and he was paying for it right now. Prodding on with his work, he looked at the file recently sent by the French government regarding their selling the island of Azkaban to a wealthy businessman as his county. Lucius opened it and was just about to sign when he caught sight of something.
After a long-long time, an evil glint came back into his eyes.
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Harry just reached near the fallen Blaise and smiled. As if by magic, which it was, Blaise's eyes started to flutter open and she saw the smiling face of a man she had met some months ago looming over her. She smiled, her eyes lighting up. Grace was totally taken aback by the smile on her sister's face. Who was this man?
"Hello John!" Blaise said. She seemed to be trying to control something inside her. As a matter of fact, she was in great tumult. But it was a great thing. When she had last seen john, she was leaving him to get back to England. She wanted revenge for her parents and she wanted peace with her earlier life. She needed to settle her dues before walking into her future.
"Hi yourself Blaise" Harry said.
As Blaise looked into the green eyes, she fell back into the time a few months back, while she was in Paris, on the run.
Flashback
It was a beautiful evening in Paris. As always, love was in the year but she had no time, nor inclination for a mundane concept as love at the moment. She was running for her life.
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It had started nearly a decade ago when her parents had been killed by lord Voldemort. He had suspected that the Zabini's had a book with a ritual for immortality. Not able to get it, he had killed both of them. The only reason they were spared was because he didn't know they were there. They had been hiding in a charmed security closet.
They had left and went to live with their uncle, their father's brother, in France. But it seemed the honeymoon was over now. After all these years, they had been found again.
Traversing the back alleys, she had been on the run for some days now. She couldn't use magic, as her wand had been lost during the minor scuffle earlier. Her only hope was the muggle open area. Even that, she knew, was temporary. These death eaters did not worry about concepts like muggles. They would not be the ones doing Obliviation anyway, so who cared.
It was at this juncture of her life that, while on the run, she entered the huge building made of glass and steel, apparently a modern structure. The lobby was full, busy with hundreds of people moving in and out. Her dress was all wrinkled up and dirty at places, but with aplomb borne off her breeding and heritage, she walked into the ladies room and shut herself off. She did not know when she dozed off.
It was nearly three hours later that she was woken out of her fatigue induced slumber by an insistent knock on the door. In the beginning she was afraid and panicked. Then she relaxed a bit. Had it been wizards, they would not have bothered knocking. Getting up and straightening her skirt, she opened the door and found herself in front of a female security officer.
"Yes!" she asked politely.
"I am sorry to disturb you. But our security saw you enter the building a few hours ago but you were not seen later. As part of our security, we were checking up on you to see if you are fine."
Blaise was sure that it was more than that, but there was no point in arguing. She would just have to get out of here and try to hide somewhere else. Her aunt and uncle were already dead and the only saving Grace was that Grace was out on vacation with friends. Without her wand, she could not even apparate and no one would believe her story about wizards and without her wand, she was as good as a squib.
"I am fine. Just had a headache. I will be fine. Thanks for the concern." She nodded and side-stepped the security person to face her fate. A few tears escaping her eyes. She only wanted Grace to be fine.
"Excuse me ma'am!" the security woman called after her. "Our head of security wants to see you."
Resigned to her fate, she nodded. Over the last few years, she had withdrawn unto herself and grown pensive. Her only objective was Grace's safety. Now, she had accepted her fate. She just hoped that Grace would be better at enjoying her life than her.
She followed the security officer to the elevator.
As she got off the elevator, she saw a young man in business suit waiting for them to get off.
He offered his hand to her and said, "Hello miss Zabini. We have been looking for you."
Blaise did the only thing possible and fainted.
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It was several hours later that she woke up. She was in a beautiful room, furnished with utmost elegance. In a few seconds, she got her bearing and remembered all that had happened. She felt strangely comfortable. With the skirt and blouse that she had been wearing, she wouldn't have been so comfortable. She looked and saw that she was wearing a comfortable night dress.
She looked around to see if she could find something about the owner of the room by the things that were lying here. She got up and tried to look around. It was so elegant and comfortable that she was sure it belonged to a wealthy rather than a rich man. But there were no personal effects what-so-ever. There were thousands of questions in her mind and not a single answer. But this was far better than the defeat she had accepted a few hours earlier (she knew the time from the time piece on the wall). She decided to go out and find out things for herself. There was a nagging hope in her mind that these people may be aware of the wizarding world. They knew her name and the odds were that they were wizards.
Steeling herself, she straightened up, put on a robe and opened the door.
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As she stepped outside, she entered what was obviously a huge hall. It looked even bigger than the great hall at Hogwarts. Just as she stepped out in the hall, the same young man she had seen earlier approached him and smiled at her.
"Hello Miss Zabini. Allow me to introduce myself. I am known as blade." He said with a smile and obvious charm of an adventurous person.
She just tried to smile, still apprehensive.
"Don't worry about your troubles. They have been taken care of. All they will remember is that they killed you in an alley. Their wands will show appropriate curses."
The last words were more informative for her than all the other pleasantries. They confirmed one thing that she had guessed. She was indeed amongst some very powerful wizards.
"Thank you seems so inadequate. But thanks anyway." She said, with genuine relief.
"I am not the one you should be thanking, Miss Zabini."
Blaise was perplexed. She wanted to meet her silent savior. As if understanding her thoughts, blade took her arm and led her to the massive grounds outside. There she saw a man younger than all of them, sitting in a lotus position. He seemed to be meditating. Even from afar, and in such a restful stage, he seemed very powerful. His aura seemed to touch her and rejuvenate it. Suddenly his eyes opened and she saw the greenest eyes ever.
End Flashback
That was the first time she saw John Edward Smith and now tears started to flow from her eyes as she looked at them once more. She stood up, put her arms around him and cried. Grace was totally bewildered as she saw her usually-in-control sister let go and fall in the arms of this stranger. As if by itself, her wand arm went down as she saw her sister slowly trying to control herself.
After so much time, he saw a hint of smile on Blaise's face and she was in awe of the man who could help her sister.
Author's notes:
I would like to thank all my reviewers and hope that they will bear these late updates. It's a particularly busy time at work these days.
Tera Earth: Yeah I know Blaise is a boy, but I liked it better when he could have been a girl. In fanfiction, we take many liberties with the creator's characters. I have taken this one. Thanx.
Let me know what you think of this one.
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