Disclaimer: Not J.K. Rowling, don't sue, blah blah blah...
A/N: YAY! Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix comes out tomorrow! Anybody gonna see it?
Thank you Lilly for beta'ing this chapter!
8. It Gets Serious
PREVIOUSLY:
All of a sudden an owl flew by and dropped a letter in front of Hermione's feet. "That's strange, since when are owls allowed in here?" Hermione thought to herself as she took the letter from the floor.
"What's that?" Todd asked as he went by her side and saw her pick up a piece of paper.
"I don't know," Hermione said, opening the note.
You will be mine. Hermione Granger, you will be mine.
One way or the other, you'll be mine.
"What kind of crap is this?" Hermione asked.
"What does it say?" Todd asked as he looked at her curiously. He never got an answer; Hermione was already gone and running to the lifts. "Hermione, what does it say?" Todd yelled as the lift doors closed. "Women." He shook his head and went back to his office.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Hermione dashed like mad into the Ministry of Magic. She quickly handed in her wand and went anxiously to the lifts. If she were in less of a hurry, she would probably have stopped and thought of the last time she had been in the Ministry of Magic, but now was not the moment.
Hermione hastened out of the lift onto Draco's floor.
"Hi, Blaise, bye, Blaise," Hermione said quickly as she power-walked in the direction of Draco's office.
"Hermione? Hey, wait!" Blaise called after her, but-- too late. She had already entered Draco's office, shutting the door behind her.
"Hermione? What's wrong? Why are you out of breath?" Draco asked as Hermione lay her head against the door and attempted to steady her breathing.
"I got... I got..." Hermione tried to say in between breaths.
"Hermione, catch your breath first," Draco said.
"I got this," she said, still slightly out of breath. She held up a piece of paper, similar to the one Draco had gotten earlier that day.
Draco snatched the paper out of Hermione's hand and opened it.
"Fucker's gonna pay big time," Draco said in a deadly voice.
"Draco, don't get carried away," Hermione warned.
"Get carried away? Oh, I'm not getting carried away, babe," he said calmly as he walked over to his desk. "No, not at all; But fucker's gonna pay!" he yelled, slamming his fist down onto his desk and making Hermione jump.
"Draco--"
"The bastard sent me one this fucking morning, and now you! Hermione, you know I'm not going to take that, and this letter is a threat!"
"Draco, it's not a threat."
"Yeah, well, it's not nice, either."
"Draco, just--"
"Hermione," he said, turning to face her with a serious face, "I'll handle this."
Hermione sighed. "Promise me you won't overreact."
"Overreact how?"
"Just don't get carried away, okay?"
"I'll try not to, darling," Draco said as he put his arms around her waist, pulled her close to him, and kissed her.
- - -
Blaise Zabini sat in his office desk and stacked up all the paper work in a neat pile.
"Bye, Blaise," Hermione said as she passed him on her way to the lifts.
Blaise looked up. "Bye, Hermione!" he called back; she waved from inside the lift. Prudently minding his own business, Blaise got back to making sure all the papers were properly organized.
"BLAISE!" Draco yelled fiercely.
"Shit!" Blaise muttered, startled by the loud noise. All the neatly organized papers floated to the floor. "Fuck." Blaise sighed as he looked at the floor to the scattered papers.
"Who cares about bloody papers!" Draco yelled; he waved his wand, and all the papers neatly landed back on Blaise's desk. "I have no idea why you bother by putting all these papers together by hand when you can do it by magic," Draco said irritably.
"Magic isn't always precise, you know," Blaise said as he looked over the papers to make sure they were correctly put together.
"Forget about the bloody papers; I have something more important for you to do."
"Oh, yeah?" Blaise replied sarcastically, raising one eyebrow. "And what would that be?"
"Look, Hermione is getting the same weird messages I'm getting," he said, handing the note to Blaise.
"What!" Blaise gave the note a wide-eyed look.
"You heard right. I need you to figure out who's sending these messages."
"How am I supposed to figure that out?"
"I dunno, just do! I'm going to pay you for it."
"How much?" Blaise asked, and he raised an eyebrow again.
"Double your salary, now figure out who it bloody is!"
"Right away, Mr. Malfoy." Blaise nodded. Draco walked back into his office.
"Hey, Blaise." Blaise looked up and saw Sarah O'Dally standing next to his desk.
"Oh, hallo, Sarah."
"I finished the papers you asked me to write," she said as she handed them to him.
"Thanks."
" No problem." Sarah was about to walk away, when Blaise got an idea.
"Hey, Sarah?"
Sarah looked back at him. "Yes?"
"You worked in the Department of Mysteries for a while, right?" Blaise asked.
"Yeah, two years. Why?"
" Who was the best person that solved mysteries?"
"Why, you got a mystery on your hands?" Sarah asked curiously.
"Um, you could say that. Do you know anyone who could help?"
"Well... two, actually, they're the best; they can solve almost anything."
"That's what I need."
"Here are their names," Sarah said as she wrote down two names on a scrap of paper.
"Thanks." Blaise smiled.
"Don't even mention it." Sarah smiled back.
Blaise heard an office door close, and he looked down at the paper.
He shook his head and smiled slightly as he read the names. He gave a small chuckle. "You have got to be kidding me."
A/N: Oooh who were the two? I'm in a good mood so leave me a review guessing who it is and if you're correct I'll send you the beginning to the next chapter a few days before I post the full chapter.