Author's Notes: I am so sorry this took long; I had no idea what to write for this Chapter! I have the rest of the Chapters planned perfectly, some of them even written already! It was just this one that was giving me so much trouble. I am sorry if it is complete and utter rubbish.

Chapter 15 – What Goes Up Must Come Down

The Holiday cheer soon disappeared and in its place was a newfound feeling of animosity throughout the school.

Not even a week after Christmas holidays, the Slytherin House started systematically targeting muggle-borns in the hallways. They would hex them when least expected, and follow them around all day. It was clear to all that something was amiss.

The professors could do nothing but dock House points or give detentions. Even if the assumption that they were doing things under the command of the Dark Lord was correct, the professors were incapable of calling the Slytherins out on it.

Draco could only do so much to warn students when he would hear the Slytherins planning, but in the end, the rest of his House would stop talking when Draco was in their presence. They knew he was not on their side and would only try to stop them.

They also had orders from Lord Voldemort to do whatever was in their power to make Draco Malfoy's life at Hogwarts as miserable as possible.

To get to him, they would taunt his Weasley friend with crude insults and juvenile hexes, and at other times, they would stalk him in the hallways and corner him in deserted areas. Once cornered, he would receive a beating and a reminder that those who defy the Dark Lord are liable to receive severe punishments.

Draco ended up in the care of Madam Pomfrey almost daily for a month and a half. It was mid-March by the time the Headmistress called the Slytherin House into the Great Hall one evening, along with their Head of House and the rest of the Hogwarts staff.

She told the students that they were toeing a very fine line between childish debauchery and illegal behaviours. They would do well to remember that though they were well on their way into a time of war, they were still students in a school where unity was once a respected ideal. Any student found to be physically attacking another would be suspended and given detention until the end of the school year, regardless of their reasons for attack.

Blaise Zabini did not take part in the hexing of students or the almost daily beating of Draco Malfoy. He steered clear of his Housemates and spent most of his time with Draco. When he could not stay away from his House, he stayed in his bed doing schoolwork with his curtains shut and with many spells set so that people could not get to him.

However, one day, he too was cornered and attacked. This was before the meeting with the Headmistress had occurred and there was no way for his attackers to be punished. He was told that if he were to align himself with Draco Malfoy or the 'other side' that he would sorely regret the day he had been born.

It was after this assault that Blaise Zabini had approached the Headmistress about the attacks on himself and Draco, and requested to be moved into the private dorm room with his friend. The Headmistress complied only when Blaise came back a second time, bruised and bleeding, along with Draco who was battered just the same. It was then that she had called the meeting in the Great Hall.

After the group of Slytherins had been chastised, they did not completely stop their taunting or random hexing and cursing in the hallways. However, they did end the physical attacks; if they did not stop those then they would be suspended or even expelled, and the Dark Lord needed them to stay in Hogwarts to perform his tasks.

While all of this was happening in the school, Harry, Ron and Hermione were still researching and devising a plan to destroy the last Horcruxes. They had decided that the best time to go on their expedition would be closer to the end of the school year in another two or three month's time. This would give them an ample amount of time to gather their resources and train the older students in case the battle with Voldemort would take place in or around the school. Until then, the trio would oversee the students' training and do whatever they could to devise a plan of attack and the defence of the castle in case of emergency.

Ginny, for all that was going on around her, was not as upset as she could have been. She had her brother, and friends, who were training her with spells ahead of her years, and she had Draco who would spend time with her and do what he could to keep her cheery, when he was not in the hospital wing.

When Draco was sent to the Hospital Wing resulting from the Slytherin's beatings, Ginny would visit him, if she could. Her friends and brother would not stop her, much to her surprise, and she managed to see him after dinner, when they would have normally been in the library studying together. They still maintained their routine, which did wonders to ease the tension that they were both feeling as a cause of the situation in the school.

At one visit to the Hospital Wing to see Draco, Ginny had happened to notice Blaise Zabini also lying in one of the beds near Draco. He had looked just as battered and beaten as Draco did, but Ginny had not know that he had also been targeted for the Slytherins' wrath.

That had been the first time Ginny had seen Blaise in the Hospital Wing, and Ginny had not been quite sure as to why he had been targeted as well. She had stayed longer that night, almost missing curfew, to hear his story. She had found out that Blaise was not like the other Slytherins; he actually had a conscience, like Draco. He could not bring himself to harm someone physically just because he or she was not like him. He knew that there was more to life than one's status and standing in society and that those were not important enough to cause bodily harm to another person.

At first, Ginny was shocked to hear this, but then she had remembered that she was trying to get past the prejudices that she held for so long. She had made that decision after her fight with Draco earlier in the year, and was now extending the idea to cover other Slytherins, as well, as long as it was deserved.

She had left the Hospital Wing that night just barely before curfew had arrived. Walking into her Common Room, she had ignored her brother and his friends and gone straight to her dorm room to mull over the night's events.

Now, after the Headmistresses' decree that no student could get away with physically assaulting another, Ginny knew that Blaise Zabini was, if not on the Order's side, at least not siding with the enemy. She understood that he was Draco's best mate and that he cared for the boy. That care also extended to Ginny, as she was Draco's closest female friend at the moment. Given that, she had taken to spending time with the boy when she did her schoolwork with Draco in the library. It was better that the boys stick together now that they knew exactly how the rest of their House felt about them.

The Golden Trio had been sceptical at first, but had soon grown accustomed to seeing the darker skinned boy around Ginny and Draco. They felt a little sorry for him, as he had been a target of the Slytherins' cruelty in the previous weeks.

The end of March brought with it a peculiar calmness in the school, which did not bode well for those on the side of good. They knew that this could only be the calm before the storm; something was brewing and they did not quite know what it was.

It would be another week until they would hear of the news in the wizarding world that would only be the start to something big.