"Who wants milkshakes?" Ron sang out, striding into the auror common area with a tray full of drinks. He paused when he noticed the mood in the room, "What? What's wrong?"
"I don't know where they went, Hermione," Ginny exclaimed, frazzled, "They usually give out the locations at the last minute to minimise the chance of information leaks."
"Fuck!" Hermione shouted, kicking a nearby bin. Ron jumped.
"Shit, 'Mione, whats got into you?" he said, putting down the tray of milkshakes, now forgotten.
"Blaise has been meeting with Death Eaters and hiding it from us," Harry said solemnly, as he paled.
"The same Blaise…" Ron started, his eyes widening.
"The same Blaise I vouched for with McGonagall!" Hermione shouted, throwing her hands over her face.
"Hermione… we all vouched for him… none of us could have known," Ginny said sympathetically, putting a hand on Hermione's shoulder.
"You didn't go on dates with him, Ginny! Fleur warned me that she thought he was lying!" Hermione snapped, wrenching her shoulder out of Ginny's reach.
"There's nothing we can do about that now," Harry said diplomatically, "All we can do is try to warn Fleur and Tonks."
"Fleur and Tonks?" Ron said, perking up, "They're off doing a job for me at the moment. Scoping out the location of the future Quidditch World Cup."
The three others turned to look at Ron frantically.
"Do you know where it is?!" Ginny said frantically. Ron nodded, a little overwhelmed.
"Well apparate us there then!" Hermione snapped, running over and grabbing Ron's arm. The others ran over to join here. Ron looked thrown for a moment, before shutting his eyes and focussing. In a moment, they felt the familiar unpleasant compressing sensation as they apparated away with a small pop.
"Ron, I'm not being funny mate, but this does not look like the site of an international sporting event," Harry said as they surveyed their surroundings. They were in a clearing surrounded by a twisted forest of dead trees.
"Its gotta be somewhere Muggles won't go," Ron said defensively, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, good idea Ron, place it in the literal scene of everyone's nightmares," Ginny said sarcastically, looking around at their creepy surroundings.
"Oi, enough of that," Ron huffed, "Now there's some old abandoned buildings they were gonna look at for me up over there," he said, gesturing through the woods.
"Yeah, probably wise to thin out the number of axe murderers before holding an event here," Ginny muttered darkly as they began walking through the unsettling dead forest, "Here's hoping Blaise hasn't done anything awful to Tonks and Phlegm."
"Tonks and Fleur know how to handle themselves," Hermione cut in curtly, "I just worry about him catching them off-guard."
"Merlin, 'Mione, when did you become so close with Fleur?" Ginny said crankily as they picked their way through wild tree roots.
Gin, you've really got to cut her some slack," Hermione said irritably, suddenly aware that she was echoing the very words everyone had been telling her for months.
"Right here we are," Ron interrupted and they all fell silent as they came to a plain occupied by old farm buildings. They were all incredibly run down and rickety.
"Okay, even I have to admit this place looks super creepy," Harry said, breaking the silence, "Where do we start?"
"We could split up?" Ron suggested, "One of us take that granary, one take the barn…"
"Oh no way, Ronald," Hermione interrupted, "You clearly have never seen a Muggle horror film. There is no way we are splitting up." Ginny and Harry nodded.
"Fine, er, that big wooden shed?" Ron suggested. They nodded and drew their wands, heading towards the large wooden building.
"Alohamora!" Ginny barked at the rickety door, which sprang open. The four of them walked cautiously into the dark shed, eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness that was punctured only by fingers of light streaming through from holes in the shed.
"Right, lets get moving," Harry said, tensed and with his wand at the ready. They searched the room which was empty apart from some old Muggle farm tools, before walking into the next room.
"Ronald, do you know anything about the layout of these buildings?" Hermione asked. She was met by silence. Harry, Ginny and Hermione turned round to find that Ron, who had been trailing behind them, was gone.
"Fuck!" Ginny exclaimed, "Where did he go? Please tell me he just got distracted by something."
Hermione turned back to face Ginny, "Did you hear anything?"
Ginny shook her head, whirling around to look around the room, "lumos."
Hermione lit her wand too and they looked around the room. Rusty pitchforks were leaning against walls, but there was nobody else there.
"What about you Harry?" Ginny asked, turning around to look behind Hermione, "Harry?!"
Hermione whirled around to find that Harry had now gone missing too.
"Who's there?!" Hermione called out into the empty room. The silence was deafening, punctuated by the light creaking of the building.
"This is too creepy," Ginny muttered. Hermione agreed.
Hermione felt the hair begin to raise on the back of her neck as she sensed someone behind her. She whirled around and everything went black.
Hermione awoke to the familiar dull thudding in her head that indicated she had been hit by a nasty stunning spell. Her eyes were blurry as she slowly regained consciousness.
"Ginny?" Hermione murmured groggily. A flurry of laughter drew her back to her senses and she became aware of her surroundings.
She was standing up, bound to a wall. At one side was Ginny, who had turned her head and was mouthing at her wildly. At her other side was Harry, and beside him was Ron. Across the room, on the opposite wall, were Fleur and Tonks. Standing in the middle of the room were Blaise, Crabbe, Goyle, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson.
"We had to silence her," laughed Pansy, "She wouldn't stop shouting at Blaise."
"Appalling language," Malfoy smirked, "Hardly a polite way to address your host."
"Malfoy you git!" Ron exclaimed, wriggling against his binds. Malfoy laughed, swaggering over and winding up dramatically before punching Ron as hard as he could in the stomach.
"Easy, Malfoy, we have a job to do," Blaise grinned, flashing his dazzling smile. He began walking over to Hermione slowly, making a tutting noise. Pansy grinned ludicrously and Crabbe and Goyle giggled.
"Smartest witch in your age and you didn't figure out the Slytherin double agent," Blaise laughed, standing right in front of Hermione.
"You didn't even make it to a proper meeting before we figured you out," Hermione spat, "You don't even know where the headquarters are."
Blaise chuckled. "See, that's what your auror buddies over there said," he said, jerking his head towards Fleur and Tonks, "But you forget, while you were the brightest witch of your age, I was the brightest wizard."
Blaise hitched up his sleeve and tapped his arm with his wand. The familiar tattoo of the Dark Mark faded into vision.
"I'm not going to tell you anything," Hermione said fiercely. Blaise quirked a smile.
"Maybe not," he said dismissively, "But you're going to show me."
Hermione was confused. Blaise drew closer, grinning his usual charming smile. Only now Hermione could see the menace hidden beneath the surface.
"The Order Headquarters!" he bellowed unexpectedly. Hermione immediately thought of going to bed in her room at Grimmauld Place, before realising quickly Blaise must be attempting to do Legimency. She frantically pushed all thoughts from her mind. Legimency was incredibly complicated, surely Blaise hadn't fully mastered it and she had pushed the thoughts from her mind quickly enough.
Blaise's eyes widened and he stepped back from Hermione. Hermione inwardly groaned. He had seen it.
"You and… Delacour?!" Blaise exclaimed wildly, stepping backwards and blushing. Everyone in the room's eyebrows raised except for Fleur and Tonks.
"What?!" Pansy shrieked, looking from Hermione to Fleur, "Granger and Delacour what?"
"Granger and Delacour… were fucking the whole time I was dating Granger!" Blaise said, his eyes still wide and shock still evident on his face. Goyle dropped his wand and Crabbe's jaw fell open.
"Well to be fair, you were a Death Eater the entire time we were dating, so I would call us even," Hermione said darkly. Blaise stormed back over to her, fuming, grabbing her face roughly in his hands.
"I'm Blaise Zabini," he hissed proudly, "Nobody makes a fool out of me."
"Relax, Blaise," Malfoy said uncertainly, putting a hand on Blaise's shoulder and trying to draw him back, "We're here for a purpose remember?"
"Yeah, Blaise, you were only dating Granger to get into the Order," Pansy said, "Calm down."
"It's the principle!" Blaise said haughtily, "She was supposed to be interested in me!"
"You're getting side-tracked by your ego," Malfoy warned, "Who cares if she got with the Veela?"
"Yeah, I mean look at her," Pansy said, "Even I would consider switching teams for that."
Hermione raged, thrashing against her bonds. Pansy smirked.
"Aww Granger, did I bother you by talking about your half-breed pet?" she sneered.
"This blood purity crap is getting old," Harry said through gritted teeth. This earned him Malfoy's attention who released Blaise and moved over to heckle Harry and Ron. Blaise, now free from Malfoy, looked at Hermione with pure anger. Clearly bruising Blaise's ego was a mistake he did not intend to go unpunished.
Pansy had moved over to Fleur and was playing with her long silver-blonde hair while looking at Hermione, clearly trying to wind her up. Hermione gritted her teeth. Suddenly her breath caught in her throat as Blaise unexpectedly slapped her across the face.
"She's half animal," Blaise hissed.
"You yourself said you wanted to ask her out once," Hermione countered. Blaise smirked.
"That's before I realised you were an easier target."
Hermione looked over Blaise's shoulder. Crabbe and Goyle were watching, slack jawed as Fleur was kissing Pansy. Hermione's stomach wrenched uncomfortably before Tonks caught her eye, flashing her a warning look. Hermione looked back at Blaise.
"Did you even want to be an auror?" she asked, trying to distract him.
"I'm good at it," he shrugged cockily, "And we need some more Death Eater representation in that department…"
As he continued to ramble, Hermione peeked over his shoulder again. Pansy had stepped away from Fleur and was touching her lips, stunned, while Crabbe and Goyle gawked at her. That's when Hermione saw it. In Fleur's hand was Pansy's wand. She had evidently slipped it away from Pansy while kissing her. She flashed a smile at Hermione before flicking the wand. In an instant, Goyle's forgotten wand, still on the ground from where he dropped it earlier, was in Hermione's hand. Another flick and Hermione could feel her invisible bonds dissolve.
"Expelliarmus!" Hermione roared, and Blaise's smug smile faded as his wand arced out of his hand. Hermione turned to Harry and Ron before Malfoy could respond, whipping out a quick diffindo to sever their bonds. The second Ron was free he hooked a solid punch into Malfoy's face, flooring the blonde Slytherin.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that for," Ron said with a large grin on his face.
Tonks and Fleur were now free, the latter duelling with a surprised Crabbe. Goyle whirled around wildly before spotting the confiscated auror wands. He grabbed one for himself and turned to toss one to Pansy, only to come face to face with two Pansy's.
"Pass me the wand already!" one Pansy said impatiently.
"Don't give it to her, that's the metamorphmagus auror!" the other Pansy interrupted.
"Shut up, you!" the first Pansy spat, "Goyle, its me! Pansy!"
As Goyle frantically looked from Pansy to Pansy, Harry came up behind him, hooking him into a headlock as Ginny darted forward and grabbed the bundle of wands.
"Here!" Ginny shouted, tossing Harry and Ron a wand each, before tossing one to the now transforming-back Tonks.
By now, Malfoy was back to his feet, quickly disarming Ron, who's wand was caught by the real Pansy.
By now, Blaise had used the chaos around him to retrieve his wand and whirled around to fling a nasty hex at Hermione, who deftly deflected it. Hermione stepped forward to stun Blaise, but was interrupted by Harry and Malfoy crossing her path as they duelled. With a pop Blaise had apparated away.
"They're escaping!" roared Hermione, quickly stunning Crabbe before he could apparate away.
Another pop rang out as Pansy disapparated away. Tonks let out a string of expletives as Goyle hit her arm with a hex that caused it to break into angry looking boils. Fleur swiftly stepped in and stunned Goyle.
Harry raised his wand, ready to stun Malfoy when Malfoy hit Harry with a expelliarmus, smirking and waving as he disapparated.
"Fuck!" Ginny swore, looking around at the partially destroyed shed, "We didn't even get half of them."
"But we're all still standing," Tonks said, nursing her boil infested arm, "That's all that matters for now."
"Hermione," Ron interrupted, beginning to purple, "Was what Blaise said true about you and Fleur?"
Ginny and Harry turned to look at Hermione who was blushing ferociously.
"Erm… We were going to tell you about us tonight," she said weakly. Ginny's jaw dropped and Harry looked surprised. Ron lost the ability to speak, making a gurgling noise.
Fleur sighed and crossed the shed, wrapping Hermione in her arms.
"I'm sorry, its all my fault, I should have listened to you about Blaise," Hermione said into Fleur's hair.
"Non, we should not have lowered our guard around him," Fleur soothed before pulling away and looking like she was about to kiss Hermione. Hermione stopped her with a finger on her lips.
"Nope, not after you've just had Parkinson's tongue in your mouth," Hermione said with a grimace. Fleur laughed gently.
"I am sorry about that," she said sheepishly, "The second she made that comment about changing teams for me I saw my window and started releasing my thrall. I figured I could get her wand off her that way."
"You are incorrigible," Hermione said, but she was smiling.
"I'm glad you're safe too, Granger," Fleur said with a knowing smile. Hermione grinned and put a hand behind Fleur's neck, pulling her in to a kiss.
Ron made a louder gurgling noise.
