Hermione found Blaise Zambini in the library. He was trying to find a good book to teach him History of Magic. She bumped into him, deliberately, and said, quietly, "follow me, but not too closely."

Zambini, impressed with her display of ungryffindorish subtlety, simply nodded to the books he was looking at, and followed her quietly out, leaving a half corridor between them. She passed into a few more dusty hallways (he'd have to clean his robes), and finally stepped into an unused classroom. Except, when he stepped in, he saw that it was actually pristine.

He pulled his wand out, and began to cast "Finite-"

Hermione Granger stopped him with her hand on his arm, "Now, now, what way is that to treat a good rendesvous point?" Her smile was proud.

"What?" Zambini said, coming back to himself enough to realize that this was deliberate magic. He flushed (his face not changing color in the slightest), and said, "Oh, sorry. I thought it was a trap."

"Just one of the Weasley's old Potion labs." Hermione Granger said lightly.

"Oh, I'd wondered how they managed to make so many different objects."

"This one's spelled for silence and privacy. Snape was far more likely to object than most teachers." Hermione said

"Yeah, Flitwick's version of flipping out would involve much excitement and demands that the Devil Twins show him how they did That, and That oh and of course That!" Zambini said.

"Anyway, to business. Why can't you tell me anything more about the author of these missives?" Hermione asked. Her frustration was so visible it was a wonder that she wasn't vibrating with anxiety.

"Uh-uh-uh." Blaise said, "You know what comes first. The conditions for the favor."

"I get to set them, right?" Hermione said, "Nothing immoral or amoral. Nothing that breaks the law without a damned good reason."

"Can I get you to amend that? would you really refuse to put a color changing potion into the water? Just for a joke? That's rather amoral, wouldn't you say?" Blaise said reasonably.

"No, I wouldn't, I suppose."

"I want you to consider doing something a little immoral. Like scaring your friend Harry... You'd of course have right of refusal at the point in time, so if I managed to come up with something I thought was mildly immoral and you disagreed, you could always not do that as your favor."

Hermione chewed on her lip for a moment, before saying, "Oh, all right."

Blaise Zambini said, quietly, "I can't tell you more because the author of those letters is a Death Eater's child."

Hermione Granger just looked at Blaise, seemingly realizing he was telling the truth, and then her mind started to mull the possibilities. They weren't endless, but there were a LOT of death eater's children at hogwarts.

[a/n: reviews welcome!]