Update on this story: I've got till chapter fourteen written so far, but I'm posting it in increments cause I know it won't get read otherwise. I also do that because it gives me a while to digest the chapters as a whole, and go back and make changes.
Looking for reviews on:
Personality and character development. (You see more of Blaise this chapter)
Conjecture on upcoming plot (what do you think is going to happen)
Likes and dislikes (too much dialogue? Not enough description?)
Chapter eight: escape
Pansy screamed. Ginny just managed to hold her scream back, her mind reeling, wondering how she could be standing here staring at it and not be dead.
"My God!" Malfoy gasped. "That isn't..."
The snake was hissing softly, the sound causing all four of them to shiver.
"What is it saying?" Pansy whispered to Harry, moving to stand behind him.
Harry didn't answer Pansy, but instead began hissing in reply. The snake answered him, and he nodded.
"It's alright, I'm going to help her down, she's stuck up there." Harry said.
"Are. You. Mad!" Malfoy wheeled around on him, his eyes wide with horror.
"If she wanted us dead, we'd be dead by now. As it is, she's been alone since her mum died, and unable to leave the hollow in that statue's head. She's not long enough to reach the ground."
Harry raised his wand, but Malfoy caught his hand and forcibly lowered it.
"And what is it going to do when it gets down here... Potter, you've got to think about these things!"
"It's going to obey me." Harry replied dangerously, looking Malfoy dead in the eye. Ginny and Pansy knew this was one of those guy-things. Both boys were used to being followed, and neither one wanted to yield to the other one.
"Look, she could've killed us all with one look, but she kept back her power... she's alone, frightened, she's only a baby."
"Hah! You and Hagrid!" Malfoy spat.
"She couldn't eat us if she tried, she's too small." Harry said, but he was quickly growing impatient. He yanked his wand arm from Malfoy's grasp and raised it again.
Harry called something in parcel tongue before casting a levitation spell. He eased the snake down, more of its length revealing itself from out of Slytherin's mouth as she came closer and closer to the floor.
She settled on the floor in a graceful coil and blinked at the humans in the room with large bulbous yellow eyes.
"I'm looking into the eyes of a basilisk." Ginny murmured in awe. "I've been having dreams about this for ages..." She whispered to herself. "And it's true, it's real."
Harry was speaking in parcel tongue again, and the snake replied at length. After she was finished she approached him slowly, and submissively, circling him once, before resting her head at his feet.
The snake was entirely black, except for the tip of it's tail which had something like a fin on it, that was green. Its tongue was white.
Pansy's mouth was open in horror.
"Come here." Harry held out his hand and the snake raised her nose to touch it, he petted her head and few times, and the snake closed her eyes placidly.
"Harry...." Ginny moaned, wondering at his endless supply of brass.
"We're taking her with us." Harry said at last, and he tossed Malfoy the tooth he'd been holding, and turned around to walk out of the chamber, the snake at his heels.
"What!" Pansy ejaculated. "No, no she's got to stay in here... locked up... You can't take that thing into the school!"
"She can't feed herself.. she needs to be taken care of... Hagrid will love her, she's as close to a dragon as you can get."
"Harry..." Ginny began, trying to be patient with him.
"I'm not letting it happen again." He said quietly. All of them went still. "It ends here... now... she's the last of her kind... the last monster of Slytherin, or whatever... that's it, it ends now."
"But it would end anyway! Just leave her in here and let nature..." Pansy trailed off when Harry spun around, fury on his face.
"How do you know it ends here Parkinson? Does Voldemort have a son? Or a daughter? What if he's here at school with us right now? Did you consider that?"
"He doesn't..." Pansy moaned desperately, but there was an edge in her voice that made it very clear she wasn't sure about that.
"But it'll die if you leave it in here...." Malfoy attempted, but stopped when Harry turned his furious glare on him.
"If you want someone to leave you to die in a chamber with nothing but your mother's rotting corpse for company, you do that Malfoy." Harry spat, and without another word, he spun on his heel and walked out.
The basilisk watched them for a moment before following Harry.
Ginny sighed and said: "It's no good, when he's like this, there is no persuading him otherwise.... Besides... he just wants to make sure the chamber of secrets is never a threat again, you've got to respect that?" She walked off following Harry.
Pansy and Draco were right behind her.
Harry was waiting at the main entrance to the chamber proper, the basilisk behind him, looking over his shoulder at them. After Malfoy had stepped through, Harry stood at the mouth of the chamber for a moment, looking at the statue of Slytherin.
The basilisk said something, and Harry patted her head reassuringly.
"It'll be alright." He said.
Then, with a muttered command, the vault-like door swung closed and locked with a hissss.
Hermione felt like her arm would soon detach itself from its socket. Her arm was taught, her hand in Blaise's as the two of them hurtled down the hall towards Gryffindor tower. She could hear Snape on their heels, hurling spells at their back, and gaining on them, but he was still not able to see them properly and luckily kept missing.
Her lungs were on fire and her legs were weak as she struggled to keep up with the tall boy in front of her.
Without warning, Blaise stopped, twisted around, caught her in his arms and pulled her to the side of the corridor, his hand over her mouth. Snape hurtled past them, still calling out curses to the empty corridor ahead. They waited precisely five seconds before pelting down a side corridor that would put them directly in front of the Gryffindor portrait.
Far behind them, Snape detected the foot steps going in the opposite direction, and turned around to give chase.
Hermione could see the fat lady ahead, and hope dared to blossom in her chest.
"Welcome home!" Blaise yelled at portrait, and she opened up in time for them to run straight through into the common room.
Both of them collapsed onto their knees, gasping for breath, their fingers still intertwined. They were both windswept, red in the face and sweaty from their run.
The common room had fallen silent when the two burst through the portrait, and remained silent as they struggled for air. Through the continued gasping, and the roar of the fire, Blaise and Hermione caught the sound of distant footsteps.
They stopped breathing as panic returned to their faces, and turned to look at the closed portrait hole, incredulously.
"Bloody hell!" Blaise murmured as he heard someone stop, gasping in front of the portrait, and knew who it was. He got to his feet abruptly pulling his wand out.
For one wild moment, Hermione thought he was going to duel their approaching potions professor, but he pointed his wand at the people in the common room.
"Listen to me, you lot, and listen well." Every face looked stricken with fear. He might not be popular, but no one messed with Blaise Zabini. "We. Were. Not. Here." He spat. Then he grabbed Hermione and dragged her up the boy's stair case. On their way up they could hear Snape screaming at the portrait to let him in.
"I'm a teacher, damn it, you will open!" he was yelling, before Blaise closed the door to the sixth year dormitory, and leaned his back against it.
Hermione was gasping again, her nerves completely overwrought by this time. She had experienced tension, terror, guilt, then terror again, relief, and terror once more. She was gasping, willing her heart to stop racing, praying it was over. But it wasn't over.
Her heart stopped as she heard Snape from inside the common room this time.
"Did someone just run in here?"
There were some murmured replies from the students she couldn't hear.
"Do not lie to me!" Snape roared.
Hermione cringed, knowing the lower-years would crack easily if Snape kept that up.
"Damnation!" Blaise spat, looking around wildly.
"What can we do... where can we hide?" Hermione asked, her throat constricting and her eyes threatening tears.
"We need a plausible excuse for why we are out of breath... think. Think. Think." Blaise said in frustration.
An insane idea came unbidden to Hermione's mind, and without thinking she obeyed it.
She grabbed Blaise and led him over to his own bed, kicking off her shoes. She could hear Snape thundering up the boy's stair case through the pounding of her own heart in her ears.
She put her arms around the thin boy and fell against his bed, bringing him with her. The surprise on his face was the last thing she registered before she shut her eyes and kissed him. He was too shocked to react immediately, but soon he reciprocated mechanically. Both of them were too busy listening to pay too much attention to what they were doing, and so it was sloppy and wet.
The door to the dormitory banged open, but the crash was almost unheard through Snape's roar.
"POTTER!" He screamed, walking into the room fully.
Then he stopped dead.
Hermione and Blaise parted in shock, their faces struck with horror at the sight of their potion's professor.
He stared back at them, an equal dose of horror on his own face as he took in their position on Zabini's bed, their red faces, sweaty brows, and heavy breathing. All of them were galvanized as they stared at each other.
Snape was standing there in his button down white shirt, partially open to reveal his chest, and black trousers, the same thing he'd been wearing in his chambers. Outside of his chambers, he looked so odd without his potions master's garb. To further the effect, his mouth was hanging open and his eyes were popping in shock.
Running up to the sixth year dormitory, expecting to find potter and whatever he'd stolen from his personal stores, and instead finding Blaise Zabini, heir to all that is evil, laying astride Hermione Granger, princess of Gryffindor goodness, snogging her senseless, was slightly disconcerting to say the least.
"What." He sputtered. "But... Potter..." He attempted, looking utterly bewildered. "You... What." He seemed completely lost, then, sense seemed to return to him and he was able to speak coherently. "What in God's name are you two doing!" He roared at them, turning his rage against them instantly.
They stood up guiltily. Hermione's eyes were on the floor, but Blaise looked directly at his potions professor.
"I would've thought that was obvious... sir." He imbued so much hatred in to the phrase it shocked Hermione. He was another one with too much brass for his own good.
"Indeed." Snape said, his normally silky tones distorted with rage. "It appears we have a severe breech of school rules, and from a prefect no less!" He snapped. Hermione winced, tears now leaking out of her eyes.
"What on earth possessed you... No, do not answer that question! I don't care... fifty points from Gryffindor and Slytherin and detention to both of you... Now get downstairs!" He stormed.
Hermione hastened to obey, her eyes downcast and teary, she nearly ran from the room and down the stairs.
Blaise took his time, striding purposefully across the room but Snape stopped him at the door.
"Mr. Zabini." He called, making Blaise pause. "I would've thought you had more sense than to pursue such fruitless avenues of....wantonness. With your situation it is especially unwise, I thought you understood..."
"And what about your situation Professor Snape?" Blaise turned around in the door frame, seething with hatred. The flames in the room died and the air turned to ice. "It appears you can't have normal relations either, but the reason isn't as clear to me... Tell me, is there a reason you are not open with your..."
"That!" Snape cut him off, cursing Ursula for telling the boy. "Is not your concern!"
"Indeed." Blaise sneered in a perfect imitation of Snape. "And likewise, what I do is not your concern. Good evening Professor." Blaise snapped, and walked down the stairs.
The fire sprang back into the life and the room warmed after Blaise left. Snape let out the breath he'd been holding, which he hadn't even been aware of. Only the dark lord could ever do that to him, make him aware of his own mortality like that. Zabini was dangerous, and Granger probably had no idea... "No, she definitely has no idea." Snape reminded himself, completely forgetting the reason he was in Gryffindor tower in the first place.
He walked out of the room and down the steps, where every single shocked face turned to him.
"I am disgusted." Snape began. "We do not have cases of this type of impropriety in Slytherin house. I shall be informing Professor McGonogol tomorrow that she needs to instruct her students on morality." He told them all, and heard the Granger-girl's sputter of horror, indignation, and remorse. She sobbed a little more silently as Snape glared at them all.
Only Zabini dared glared back, and a shudder rose through Snape when their eyes met.
"Just make sure you stick around and listen to it." Zabini said, in a clear carrying voice. As an afterthought, he put his arm around Hermione's shoulders, and smiled as Snape seethed.
Snape glared at the two of them and then swept from the room.
"Stupid sod." Blaise said in satisfaction.
Harry was indiscernibly grateful for the presence of the basilisk, when it warned him someone was coming.
He rushed them into an empty classroom and shut the door just in time to hear someone thunder through the halls, muttering to himself furiously as he went.
"Put the whole school in danger.... Just so he can snog that silly little girl... don't know what Dumbledore is thinking of!"
"Snape?" Ginny asked. "Walking from Gryffindor tower?"
"You don't think!" Pansy spluttered in fear.
"Blaise and Hermione! Did they get caught?" Ginny said, and the four of them quickly made their way to the tower, throwing off the cloak only when they were in front of the portrait.
"Welcome home." Harry said, impatient to find out what happened.
Horror stricken faces met his when Harry entered the common room. He scanned the room and saw Blaise and Hermione sitting in 'the Slytherin section,' Blaise with his arm around Hermione as she cried softly.
"What happened?" Harry asked, running over to them.
Draco, Pansy and Ron all joined in the half circle to hear the answer.
"Let's go upstairs to talk about it..." Blaise said, feeling constricted, but Hermione shook her head.
"No.. I c-can't..." She sniffed and wiped her eyes.
"He's not going to come back tonight... Hermione." Blaise reassured her, making Draco and Pansy's eyes widen.
"What happened?" Pansy reiterated, desperate to know.
"Snape... caught us..." Hermione was going to say 'kissing,' but her voice failed when she looked at Malfoy's face.
"What!" Harry gasped. Blaise tutted.
"No... no. Listen. He chased us all the way back here from his rooms, but wasn't able to see us properly. We hid upstairs and he found us up there, but he doesn't have any proof it was us who did it." Blaise whispered, so no one outside the circle could hear.
"Where's Ginny then?" Ron asked looking at Harry. Harry looked around. Ginny wasn't in the common room at all... then he remembered and slapped himself on the head. He left the common room without another word.
"Well, that clears everything up." Ron muttered, annoyed. "I knew I should've gone instead..." He said, looking angry at being left out.
"Hey, what happened?" It was Millicent, followed by Crabbe and Goyle.
Harry and Ginny reappeared in the common room. Harry was apologizing to Ginny, but she just waved him off easily.
"What was that about?" Ron asked them as they reappeared.
"Oh, just Potter's new pet." Draco said sarcastically. Pansy snorted.
Blaise raised his eyebrows at them, Hermione looked mildly curious through her tears.
"What's going on?" Neville asked. Behind him, Seamus and Dean were looking curiously at the strange mixed group.
"Everyone back up!" Blaise called, definitely feeling congested. The fire rose up behind him, causing sparks to fly, and everyone backed up obediently.
"Potter and I can tell you about it.... Upstairs." There was finality in his voice.
"They can't go up there, you heard Snape with his rubbish about morality... what was that all about anyway?" Ron asked, directing to comment to Blaise and the question to Hermione.
Hermione's cheeks burned. Now that she was away from the situation, she was utterly mortified by her actions.
"I'll explain everything." Blaise said lightly. "Upstairs." He glared at them and they obediently cleared off, leaving only the girls to stare at the two.
"Hermione and Ginny, I suppose you can manage to piece together the story for Millicent and Pansy?" Blaise asked. Both girls nodded. "Don't cry forever... Hermione." He pulled her around to face him, and gave her a hard look. She nodded, blushing furiously.
Blaise nodded at the other girls and walked up the staircase.
"What was that all about!" Pansy exclaimed. "Zabini never... I mean... never ever ...." She trailed off, amazed.
"It's been an extraordinary night.." Hermione said, and led the girls up the stairs.
Up next: McGonogol and Snape lecture the occupants of Gryffindor tower about the birds and the bees... A little bit more is revealed about the mysterious hatred between Blaise and Draco (they have MAJOR reasons to hate each other)... and Blaise shares his views on good, evil and God.
Special thanks to all my reviewers including:
Rain4life: Draco is overly sensitive to Blaise's taunts because they've got major history. Blaise knows exactly what will make Draco the angriest the fastest. More of that is revealed in chapter fourteen when they finally lose it and fight each other.
Blaise is going to appear like two different people in the upcoming chapters ... as he struggles with who he really is, and the person everyone else thinks he is.... But one of your hopes for him will be revealed (in a much later chapter when you meet his best friend) Blaise does not care about pure-blood, he just doesn't want anyone to get close to him, but he will find it impossible to get Hermione to stay away from him. As you can see in this chapter, he's starting to care about her.
I'm glad you like the tension, it's only going to get worse for Hermione and her poor twisted love-life. Who will she choose!
Jen: Hermione is about to get more Blaise than she can handle.
Daniellovr, Nikki, CH, Kim, BluDiamond and Bree: Thanks for reviewing.