A/N: Here you go. I think that we have six chapters left, but I'm not 100 sure. I hope you enjoy the return of a favored character and leave me some reviews.

Disclaimer: To my everlasting sorrow, this brilliance is split between JKR and myself. Her characters, my plot.

Warning: Seizure if you haven't already figured it out.

I Never Thought I Would Be A Hero

Original Dark Angel

Chapter 9: Blaise's Royally Bad Day

"Blaise!" Ginny threw her arms around his neck. "You're back! You'll have to tell me and Draco absolutely everything."

"Later. Where's Draco anyway?"

Before she could reply, a voice came from behind her. "He's scared and he's hurt."

Ginny spun around and stared at Andy. "What did you say?"

"He's all alone and he's shaking like somebody cursed him. I can feel his fear and it's making me cold."

"Where is he?" Blaise inserted quickly. "This is important, kid. If you're telling the truth, Draco's having a seizure and we need to find him now."

"I don't know! Make it stop!"

"I can't make it stop. Please, where is he?"

"A corridor, right outside a door. There's a statue of a little girl a few feet away." All of a sudden, Andy clapped her hands over her ears. "Don't."

"Krystyna's Memorial." Ginny and Blaise whispered at the same time. "Ryan, Ian and Rowan take Andy to Professor Dumbledore immediately," Ginny ordered over her shoulder before following Blaise."

"Go tell Madam Pomfrey, so she's ready."

"You'll need help," she called out.

"No, I won't!"

Ginny changed directions and headed down to the Hospital Wing. She had just explained the situation to Madame Pomfrey when Blaise appeared supporting Draco's weight. "It was over by the time, I got there, but he's still out."

"This shouldn't have happened."

"None of this should have happened, Ginny. Now, trust me and get out of here. You won't like seeing what this does to him."

"He needs me."

"He needs you to go outside and wait. When he's awake and in his right head, I'll come get you."

"Promise?"

"I promise." Blaise kissed her cheek and pushed her towards the door. "Go find that freaky little seer girl and thank her."

"Oh, I will. Believe me, I will."

At eleven-seventeen, Blaise finally emerged from the room. "You can go in. Just be quiet."

Ginny hugged him and dashed for Draco's bedside. He smirked weakly at her. "So much for impenetrable."

"I'm so sorry that I wasn't with you."

"It's not your fault, Ginny. I thought that they were over or I would have stayed near someone who knew how to handle it. Stop thinking about it, okay? Now, tell me something funny, because I need a good laugh."

"Well, Harry is still walking around as a mute. Dumbledore won't reverse it for him, because he thinks that Harry was in the wrong, so it won't do any harm to let him be taken down a peg."

"I forgot about him."

"He hasn't." She grinned. "Hermione's fit to be tied. She can't counter the spell and who knows how long you'll be up here, although I think that it will be a much shorter time than it will take Harry to apologize to a Slytherin."

"You may be right."

"Blaise is back."

"I know."

"Did he get a chance to tell you?"

"He'll tell us tomorrow."

The First Years watched nervously as a tall dark boy that they didn't know half supported their self-appointed guardian across the Great Hall and helped Draco sit down, Ginny fluttering about the pair. It was a great blow to them to find their prefect so weak. Dark circles under his eyes and an unusual pallor spoke of the last fifteen hours in the hospital wing, for some mysterious ailment that only Ian had any knowledge whatsoever of. This made him, for the first time since he had entered Hogwarts, the one that the others turned to for an explanation. Being such an authority didn't sit too well with the young boy though and the anxiousness on his face was what caught Ginny's eye.

She grinned wryly at the boy and tousled his hair. "Lighten up, kid. Nothing takes down my boyfriend for more than a day without my express permission for fear of invoking the famous Weasley temper. If he survives Blaise and me fussing over him all day then he'll be good."

"I'm fine," Draco said shortly, waving her hand away as she started cutting up his meat. "I still have full use of my hands, Ginny, and am perfectly capable of feeding myself."

The other older boy chuckled and poured pumpkin juice into his friend's glass. "Mate, you're so weak that my two year old niece could force feed you if she was so inclined, and much more neatly than you're currently capable of. What makes you think that you can intimidate Ginny out of doing so?"

Ginny nodded. "If you just give in and let me take care of you, today will go by much faster and you may retain your sanity," she added cheerfully.

"Who kept an eye on the cannon fodder last night?" Draco snapped at her.

Ginny blissfully ignored his temper and smiled. "Blaise crashed in the Sixth Year Dormitory and made sure that they didn't blow the place up in your absence. And, Darling, they are called First Years, not cannon fodder. Do you want some toast?"

"No, I don't think that I could eat all of the meat you just filled my plate with, let alone more food," Draco sulked. "You three, where's Miss Oracle Twin?"

Rowan shrugged. "Dumbledore sent that crazy Ravenclaw girl down to fetch her before breakfast. I think that Professor Snape is testing her psychic skill today, because Potions was canceled and he was complaining about 'That American Brat."

"Why don't you three head off to Transfiguration? You don't want to be late."

"We've got half an hour," Rowan protested. "And you haven't told us who this guy is yet, and I want to know where he came from."

"Keep your nose out of it, kid, and you'll be a whole lot happier. All you need to know is that Blaise is my best friend and he's back from an extended vacation. So get to class and for pity's sake, please stick together!"

"Yes, Dad!"

After the first years disappeared out of the Great Hall, Draco turned to Ginny and scowled. "When did Rowan get a mouth?"

"Look at it this way, you're a better role model than her real father. He was a deatheater, remember?"

"I refuse to answer to anything that promotes the idea of any relation to these kids and especially that."

"Why are you being such a prat today, Draco?"

Blaise stood up and bodily moved Draco's chair closer to Ginny's. "Because he's a bloody martyr, who's too chivalrous for his own good. I'm going over to talk with Snape. Draco, apologize toyour girlfriend. Kiss and make-up, or I'll just wait for Dumbledore to fill you in on what happened." Blaise turned back to Ginny. "When he's come to his senses and you decide to go to class, let me know."

"Will do. Meet you in the common room after classes if he's stubborn." Ginny leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "I'm glad you're home."

"Glad to be here."

Ginny watched Draco out of the corner of her eye after Blaise left. He didn't touch his food. After awhile, her patience ran out and she turned to him. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"No."

"Why?"

"It's between me and Blaise."

"You're not fighting?"

"No."

"Alright."

"I'm sorry."

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry. I can't really explain what for or why, but I am. Is that an acceptable apology?"

"For my secretive boyfriend, it's golden." Ginny leaned over and kissed him for about two minutes, which seemed to improve his mood.

Draco watched the fire burn steadily from his seat on the plush green sofa. His girlfriend slept curled up against his chest. He heard the portrait swing open and rested his head against Ginny's flame colored hair, shutting his eyes hastily. He didn't want to deal with anyone at the moment.

Blaise helped Ryan into the portrait hole and followed to find that the first years and Andy hadn't gotten past the common room. They were standing in a half circle closest to the fire. "What's up?"

"Draco and Ginny," Ian laughed. "Again."

"Alright you lot. Get out of here and let them sleep." Warding off their protests, he continued, "Trust me. Someday you'll want a moment of privacy with your date, and you'll hope that your best mate will get rid of the obnoxious first years so that you can have it."

They were still young enough to look at each other and make faces, muttering "No way!" under their breath. It was almost cute, and for a second Blaise wished that he could be that naïve. Unrequited love was just too much. But the first years had finally disappeared and he paused in front of the couple on the couch, studying them closely.

Ginny was beautiful, slim, lightly tanned, with long red hair escaping the confines of her loose braid. He envied Draco's position, but realized that the pair had changed significantly. She had lost weight over the summer and the fine bones of her collarbone and wrists were more prominent than he remembered. The way she curled up into Draco seemed more instinct than affectionate, Draco's hold more protective than romantic. Draco had lost weight too, his skin now exceeding normal paleness. It must have been one hell of a summer.

"Get some rest, Draco. Looks like you definitely need it."

Silver eyes cracked open and regarded him suspiciously. "How did you know?"

"I know you, mate. Go to sleep. I'll watch the canon fodder for you and we'll have our meeting in the Room of Requirement after dinner."

"Alright."

Life settled into a normal routine. Draco and Blaise returned to their tag team style of protecting Ginny and extended it to a lesser extent over the rest of the new Slytherins. After a few more creature features in Gryffindor Tower, Ginny began sleeping in the Sixth Year Girls Dorm off of the Slytherin Common Room. Most of their time was now spent researching the mysterious curse that Blaise had overheard. But Pandora's Curse was proving as elusive as Draco's search for Nicholas Flamel in his first year.

They had attempted to include the Golden Trio in the search, because Head Boy and Girl could go into the Restricted Situation, but Harry was stubbornly refusing to spend any time at all with Slytherins. Therefore, Ginny put her acting skills to good use, distracting Madame Pince so that either Draco or Blaise could slip into the Restricted Section.

It was after the latest of these expeditions, when Draco smacked a particularly thick book against the back of Blaise's head. "Blasted book bites. Your turn next, if this isn't useful.

"I don't see why you're even bothering to help steal the books. You pick out all the dangerous ones," Blaise complained, rubbing the back of his head. "Why don't you and Ginny start snogging, and I'll grab a pile while Madame Pince runs you out of the library."

Draco stared at his friend. "You couldn't have come up with this an hour ago, before the books decided to kill me?"

"The blow must have jogged his memory," Ginny teased returning from the librarian's desk. "I do like that idea though. Gather the First Years and we'll meet you out in the corridor."

"Will do. I need two minutes."

"We'll give you three." Ginny walked over to a shelf on love spells and Draco followed her. Within seconds, Ginny was enjoying a particularly passionate kiss that she was in no hurry to end. But as all good things must, it did.

"You two! Out ofmy library! Out! Out, I say!" They ducked the flying books, quills, and parchments, attempting to apologize and plead for forgiveness, but the irate woman would hear none of it. "Isaid out!"

Moments later, Blaise and the first years left looking quite pleased with themselves. "Shall we adjourn to the common room, ladies and gentlemen?" he offered dramatically, as he offered his arm to Ryan and Rowan. Both girls were considerably shorter than him, so it looked absolutely adorable, and Ginny almost gave in to the desire to snap a picture with the camera in her bag, but was interrupted by a blur of short red hair running by.

Taking one look at the girl's face, Ginny started after her with Draco not far behind, pausing only to order Blaise to return the first years to the Slytherin Common Room. They were both too late. Andy had run full tilt into Potter, sending both of them to the floor.

"Watch where you're going, Davis!" the Golden Boy snapped, pushing her off of him.

Andy's eyes filled with tears, but before she could move, her eyes clouded over and light began to radiate off of her and she began to chant as she rose to her feet.

You past is always shadowed, your future sadly clear.

Your fate twisted by the loss of what you hold most dear.

Though it may spur you on to greater deeds,

tragedy is where your path will lead.

The light left her and she started to crumple, but Draco wrapped an arm around her and slipped his other behind her knees.

"Out of the way, Potter," he ordered harshly as the little girl's head came to a rest on his shoulder as she slipped out of consciousness. "Ron, report this to Dumbledore. I'm taking Andy to the Hospital Wing. You can find us there."

"On it."

Draco sat with the Third Year after the Headmaster left. Andy had refused to speak to the old man and feigned sleep, but Draco had a considerable amount of patience with the Oracle Twin's antics by now.

"That was some freaky moment back there, brat." She ignored him, and he shrugged. "I don't care about Potter's future any more than you do, so I'm not going to ask anything beyond how you're doing."

"We're fine."

"Good. Ginny had to go help Blaise with the First Years, but I wanted to talk to you. What were you running from?"

"We weren't running from anything. We were just running." Andy pulled a balled up piece of parchment out of her robe's pocket. "We can't do anything about this anyhow." She offered it to him. "You can read it. There's nothing personal and it even mentions that Veritas girl that you like so much."

Draco accepted the letter and scanned it quickly.

Andrea,

It's me. Miss you. Guess what? I just pulled the coolest, most awesome, "bloody brilliant" prank ever! (The last description came from Carrie. She helped me pull it.) We charmed the teacher's chairs in every classroom with a youth charm, so that whenever one of them sat down they looked like they were sixteen or so. None of them realized it until fourth period. It was great. Carmichael looked ready to explode. "I'm going to test every wand in this school, until I find the one who did this!" Yeah right. There are like five hundred students. So Carrie and I are going to get away with this. The only problem now is how on earth to top it. Got any suggestions?

Carrie's really cool now. She has these awesome sweets that do crazy things. She orders them from some terrific joke shop in Britain. She calls me Drew. I think you might like her too. When you come back of course. Hope England is as fun as here is. Bye.

Andrew

"Doesn't seem that bad. What's the matter?"

"He's not using our name, and he isn't talking about us together like we always do. And now he likes Veritas, and I hate her. He's not supposed to like anybody. We're twins. It's supposed to be us together and now it's like we're barely related. I don't like it."

"Who said that you two had to be the same in the first place?"

"Mom. But I liked being together. He's my best friend. But then Dumbledore and Carmichael split us up and nothing will ever be the same."

"Life's like that. Blaise and I used to spend every waking minute together. But this summer, my father turned him into a statue for my old house. That's were he was and Ginny and I had to wait for the adults to rescue him. Oh, and for future reference, Carrie is a great kid who has been through a lot."

"Yeah, like what?"

"She was part of a set of triplets, who tried to act alike, but were so different that it hurt them to do so. Her sisters were killed before her eyes by a vampire and one of them was turned and abducted Ginny. Carrie had to slay her own sister, and then to keep her safe and out of any more trouble with my cousin, Dumbledore moved her entire family to the USA. And she's just learning about magic. She didn't know that she was a witch until last April. Her parents hid it from her."

"Oh." Andy looked away, then back up at him. "I still don't like her."

"That's fair. Can I ask you a question?" Andy nodded at him seriously. "Why did Carmichael and Dumbledore split you two up?"

"We're more powerful together. We can see at will as long as we're touching. It's harder to do that when we're apart, and it really tires us out."

"That makes sense. I'll let you get some sleep then, okay?"

"Hang on a sec." Andy sat up and grabbed his hand, getting that far away look in her eyes, before shaking it off. "She's gonna say yes, Draco."

Draco stared at her, as she returned to her pillow yawning, and half asleep. "Thanks, Andy. That's more encouraging than you know."

"You're welcome. Call me Rea."

"Sure."