"Give me ten minutes," Blaise said smugly as he looked at his old defence against the dark arts teacher.

"Only ten?" Lupin asked taking a step closer.

Blaise noticed that his cheeks were sunken and he seemed paler. His once light brown hair was matted with more grey than Blaise remembered him having.

"Just enough to fill in Draco, and Ginny," Blaise said, trying to reassure Lupin that he wouldn't need more time.

"And if you're discovered?" Lupin asked slowly.

"I won't be," Blaise replied with a shrug.

"Blaise," Hermione said in a warning voice.

"Hermione, look. Why would they suspect anything? All of us have played the part well so far, what's to change now?" Blaise asked.

"I don't know Blaise!" Hermione snapped. She took a calming breath before she continued "All I know is that for the first time we've got enough information to take down Voldemort, and you want to rush through our plans just because we can," Hermione said calmly.

Blaise looked up to meet her gaze, and could tell just from the look on her face and the tone of her voice she was anything but calm.

"Hermione, it will only take me ten minutes trust me, and if anything goes wrong, there will just be a few less death eaters for the Order to deal with when you guys get in," Blaise joked trying to reassure her.

"Blaise, how can you make a joke?" Hermione snaped.

"Hermione he's right, they have no reason to be suspicious," Lupin added.

"Fine," Hermione said crossing her arms.

As much as Blaise hated to see Hermione upset, he didn't have enough time to try and reassure her. So instead, he brought his gaze to Lupin's ready for his instructions.

"You have the coin?" Lupin asked darting a glance in Hermione's direction.

Blaise nodded and slipped his hand into his pocket pulling out a coin.

"Where did you get this anyways?" Blaise asked, turning the fake galleon over in his hand.

"It's like the one I made for Dumbledore's army," Hermione answered, smiling sheepishly.

"Oh," Blaise said as he put it back in his pocket.

"Only use it if you need more time," Hermione repeated for the third time.

"Hermione," Blaise sighed.

"What if you don't give us the signal?" Hermione stubbornly asked, biting her lip

"I will," Blaise replied calmly through gritted teeth

"We wait five minutes, and then we go in anyways," Lupin smiled grimly.

Blaise said nothing, he just looked up to meet Lupin's eyes, but to his surprise he wouldn't look at him, instead he was focused on a spot in the corner of the cave.

"Fine," Blaise said.

Suddenly he was feeling anything but fine, when two people who were supposed to believe in you, and your cause wouldn't meet your gaze, it wasn't a reassuring feeling.

"Ten minutes." Blaise said to reassure himself, along with them.

He turned and apparated on the spot.

"Do you think he can do it?" Hermione asked.

"I think we need to get back to headquarters, and wait," Lupin said without looking at Hermione.

Blaise walked down the corridor not speaking to anyone with his head bowed low until he came to Draco's room and without knocking walked in.

"Draco, quick I don't have much time," Blaise said as he shut the door softly behind him.

"Much time for what?" Bellatirx said in a singsong voice.

Blaise turned whipping out his wand, but Bellatrix crackled and with an effortless flick of her wrist, she disarmed him. Bellatrix hopped off the bed with a sinister smile planted on her face.

Blaise said nothing just pursed his lips and he frantically scanned the room for Draco and Ginny. He saw Draco sitting in the chair by the fire with a grim expression on his face, but with another quick glance around the room, it was easy for Blaise to reach the conclusion that Ginny wasn't here.

"Bellatrix?" Blaise questioned as he raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you in such a hurry? Draco and I were just about to play a game," Bellatrix said, taking a step closer.

Blaise said nothing, he just shot a quick glance in Draco's direction, but Draco was watching Bellatrix and wouldn't meet his eye.

"You see, if there is one thing the Dark Lord respects its loyalty. And I'm afraid that some people haven't been very loyal," Bellatrix continued as she took another step closer. "Are you loyal?" Bellatrix whispered playfully, enjoying her game.

"I'm here am I not," Blaise said calmly, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Good, then you're ready to play the game," Bellatrix smiled triumphantly.

"Aunt Bella," Draco said exasperated

"Hush Draco," Bellatrix replied shooting Draco a look.

"It seems we have a leak in this building," Bellatrix continued.

"Perhaps you should check the pluming," Draco replied half-heartedly

"You don't seem to realise Draco that the company you are keeping can bring you down. You must serve the Dark Lord, and be proud you were accepted so young," Bellatrix snapped.

"Are you saying that I am not loyal?" Blaise asked raising his voice slightly.

"I'm asking if you can be trusted," Bellatrix said looking at Draco

"I trust Blaise with my life," Draco said simply as he raised himself up from the chair and held Bellatrix's gaze.

"Good," Bellatrix said, twisting a lock of hair around her finger as she looked Blaise up and down.

Draco nodded towards Blaise, and stood up from his chair, making a move to walk towards Blaise but suddenly fell over.

Blaise froze in his place and quickly looked at Bellatrix "What did you do?" He asked horror struck.

"Draco," Bellatrix whispered as she took a step towards him.

"What did you do?" Blaise asked a little louder this time as he took a step closer to Draco.

Bellatrix crossed the space between her and Draco and crouched down beside his body.

"Stupefy!" Draco yelled sitting up and pointing his wand directly at Bellatrix.

A jet of red light erupted from Draco's wand and hit Bellatrix in the chest sending her to the floor.

Blaise stood there shocked at what had unfolding before him, as Draco picked himself up off the floor and brushed the dust off his robes, he completely forgot about his ten minutes.

"Good acting by the way," Draco said looking up at Blaise.

"Acting?" Blaise asked confused.

"Yeah, I gave you the nod, signaling you that I was going to play dead, and knock Aunt Bella out," Draco replied.

"Oh? And I was supposed to realize all that from a nod?" Blaise asked with a laugh.

"Well I thought it was a clever idea," Draco said pouting.

"It was a smart plan, where did you get the idea from?" Blaise asked.

"Never mind, what's the plan?" Draco asked becoming serious.

Blaise looked at Draco in confusion for a moment before he remembered exactly why he had come to talk to Draco. "We have exactly 10 minutes, well actually not anymore, and we have to hurry." Blaise said hurriedly

"Okay,"

"I wish I had more time to explain, but all you have to know is that the Order is waiting for me to give them the signal so that they can come in, tonight we are bringing down the Dark Lord," Blaise grinned taking a deep breath.

The two moved to leave, and Blaise stopped, remembering a large part of the plan.

"Where's Ginny?" Blaise asked remembering the red head that was always attached to Draco at the hip was nowhere in sight.

"With Voldemort, Bella was sent to babysit while Ginny went to talk to him," Draco said paling slightly as he glanced at Bellatrix's body sprawled across the floor.

"Do you think she's in trouble?" Blaise tensed.

Draco didn't say anything as his expression went dark.

"We need more time," Blaise swore as he dug into his pocket.

"What are you looking for?" Draco asked as the two walked down the hall.

"I'm buying us more time," Blaise said as he pulled out a galleon.

"Blaise paying off a death eater won't help us, they're staying in the Malfoy Manor, I think you're going to need more than a galleon,"

"It's not real," Blaise mumbled as he held his wand and tapped the galleon.

"Then we're really going to need more money," Draco sighed, throwing his arms up.

"No, Hermione spelled this, I just bought us 10 more minutes," Blaise said, putting the coin back in his pocket.

"The Order gave you ten minutes?" Draco asked.

"Ten minutes, then we give the signal with or without Ginny," Blaise replied.

"Wait what's the signal?" Draco asked turning to look at his friend.

"I'm going to set the building on fire."