Hanging By A Moment
Disclaimer: Yes, since the last chapter, I have indeed become the owner of all things Harry Potter. Yeah, right.
Author's Note: Thanks so much for the lovely reviews! I really appreciate them! Also, here's the age list that someone asked for (note, the only characters listed are the ones that have an actual part (even if minor) in the story so far or soon to come)
1st Years: Nora Willows, Bradin Cabot, Madrigal Evans
2nd Years: None
3rd Years: Graham Pritchard
4th Years: Christina Woodberry, Kate Judd
5th Years: Jesse Green
6th Years: Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, Blaise Zabini, Crabbe, Goyle
7th Years: Joel Pritchard, Clarissa Hawthorne
Chapter Two:
She's a rebel, she's a saint
She's the salt of the earth
And she's dangerous,
She's a rebel vigilante,
Missing link on the brink
Of destruction
From Chicago to Toronto
She's the one that they call 'oh whats her name'
She's the symbol of resistance and
She's holding my heart like a hand grenade
She's A Rebel by Green Day
He had finished getting ready and headed down to breakfast, Blaise was no where to be seen. When entered the Great Hall, he noticed Millicent and company discussing something, the trio of first years sitting together towards the middle of the table, and Graham sitting by himself at the end opposite from the aforementioned pain in the butts.
"Morning," Graham said, not nearly as tired as the previous night, "Where's Joel?"
"He wouldn't get up. I tried to wake him but then he charmed his pillow to hit me, so I left."
"Where's Blaise?" Draco asked, rather hushed. He had a feeling that Pansy and them were already talking about him; he wasn't sitting with them.
"Over there," Graham said, motioning towards the Gryffindor table with his piece of toast.
Blaise was standing at the end of a table talking to that girl, whose name he couldn't remember. She was the only remaining member of the three girls that had been chasers for so long. "Katie Bell!" he said, suddenly remembering. Pansy, hearing him say another girl's name, snapped up and glared at the Gryffindor chaser.
Blaise and Katie hugged for a second, talking non-stop to each other. This ability of girls always amazed Draco. How could they talk and understand the other person that was talking at the same time? He had enough trouble understanding girls when it was just them talking let alone if he was talking at the same time.
"Can you believe the nerve of him?" Clarissa snapped as she sat down next to Draco. "He had the nerve to charm his pillow to hit me when I tried to wake him up!" She complained, Draco assumed about Joel.
"Toast?" Graham offered, his mouth full of the aforementioned breakfast food.
"Dude, you have got to learn to talk with your mouth empty," Clarissa hissed.
"What?" Graham said, toast still in jaws.
"Gross!" She yelled, pushing his lower jaw up to meet his face, nearly causing him to choke.
Draco continued watching the Katie Bell – Blaise Zabini non-stop talking fest. Whatever Katie was saying, now involved the use of her hands, and Blaise was smiling at whatever she said. Draco's eyes stayed on her smile. It was pretty and didn't seem to belong to the girl that wandered into the Great Hall by herself yesterday. She was an entirely different person with a smile on her face.
"Draco, come sit here," Pansy said, waving him over. He motioned that he was sitting with Graham and Clarissa. Clarissa waved, causing Pansy and Millicent to snarl.
"Well, that ought to take care of her for a good three or four minutes," Clarissa said, pleased with herself. "Oh, Blaise, come sit with us!"
Distracted by the pug-faced girl, Draco had missed Blaise wandering back to the Slytherin side of the Great Hall. A little startled, but she sat next to Graham anyway.
"How's it going?" Clarissa asked with a smile. "Missed you."
"I missed you too," Blaise said, clearly happy that somebody seemed to have noticed she left.
"Toast? See I said it without my mouth full," Clarissa said, offering the toast to Blaise, but commenting to Graham, meanwhile confusing all three of them.
"Um, sure?" Blaise said, taking a piece from the plate Clarissa held.
"Did you sleep well?" Clarissa asked.
"Pansy interrogated me for the entire night. Where did you stay in America? Why were your parents there? Why didn't you just stay enrolled at Hogwarts? What happened to Blake?" There Blaise shut up, as if she had said too much. They sat in awkward silence until…
"Why didn't anybody wake me up? I would have missed breakfast!" Joel grumbled, his hair still ruffled from sleeping.
"Wait one minute!" Clarissa and Draco said in unison.
"I tried to wake you up-"
"-but you charmed your pillow-"
"-to hit me-"
"-and me-"
"-so I hit you with it -"
"-and left you to sleep-"
"- then you have the nerve-"
"- to yell at us about letting -"
"- you oversleep - "
" - we ought to be yelling at you -"
" - for hitting us with a pillow!"
"All right, sheesh, I'm sorry," Joel muttered. "Is there any toast left?"
"Toast!" Graham, mouth once again full, said, instantly regretting it.
"Dammit, Graham!" Clarissa yelled, slamming her glass of orange juice down, juice splattering everywhere.
"Glad to be back," Blaise replied, rolling her eyes.
The trios of first years disappeared shortly after breakfast, they appeared to Draco as if they would be as inseparable as the Gryffindor Dream Team. He just hoped they weren't as annoying. Fat chance, they were Slytherins after all.
Clarissa excused herself to gossip with a fourth year Slytherin, Christina Woodberry, who had apparently heard something about Ravenclaw Mandy Brocklehurst that 'simply couldn't wait' as Christina had put it.
"Quidditch Try-outs, three days, be there," Joel said.
"Sure," Graham replied.
Joel rolled his eyes. "I was talking to Draco, but whatever you can come too."
"Shut up," Graham hissed, flinging a piece of scrambled egg at Joel.
Joel lunged over the table to wrestle him. "Is that any way to treat your cool older brother?" he teased.
"I don't know. If I ever find a cool older brother I'll let you know," Graham said, still in headlock with Joel.
"Oh now, you're a funny guy, are you?" he teased right back.
Draco heard Blaise sniffle. He looked at her and she quickly stood up and hurried out of the dining room. Concerned, Draco left Graham in his headlock and rushed after her.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked, placing his hand on her shoulder.
One second he's trying to comfort her, the next he's flat on his back, Blaise's wand pointed right at his chest. It took her a second to realize who he was and when she did, she tucked her wand away and quickly helped him to his feet.
"What in Merlin's name was that for?" Draco asked, brushing the wrinkles out of his robes.
Blaise blushed. "I'm so sorry, Draco, I just got paranoid when I felt someone touch my shoulder. I didn't realize it was you."
Draco groaned that it was alright but deep down wondered what on earth had happened to Blaise that made her that paranoid. Sure, people have snuck up on and scared the daylights out of him, but he never brought them to the ground.
"Were you alright in there?" He asked again, this time hoping the response wasn't him hitting the floor.
"Yeah, I just guessed it got to me. I miss my brother." She said, and again for the second time that morning, she seemed to have regretted mentioning him.
Blaise folded her arms over her chest and started walking out to the castle grounds. Draco quickly followed suit after turning around, nearly walking into a Hufflepuff.
"So, um maybe do you want me to give you a tour of the grounds today? Since its Sunday you know, and we don't have class yet." Draco asked her.
Blaise kept walking but looked at him. "Draco I went to Chicago and Toronto for a little while too, not to memory erasing camp. I went here for three years, I think I know my way around," She commented, but after perhaps noticing the look on Draco's face, she added "but I probably don't remember everything, so why not?'
Draco straightened up, making himself half an inch taller, as if he was someone important. "Well, as you can see this is the outside, and this here is the bridge connecting to that hill over the – what do you think you are doing?" He interrupted himself.
Blaise had climbed up on the ledge of the bridge, and was walking the edge like a balance beam. She waved her arms in the air like she was losing her balance, but she had a smile on her face at the same time.
"Am I making you nervous?" She teased, the sadness from talk of her brother disappearing as fast as it came. Blaise's actions certainly boggled Draco's mind, but he felt oddly connected with her.
"Yes." Draco admitted, extending his arms to catch her. Blaise wiggled even more, delighting in the fact that Draco actually seemed nervous.
"Come on," he said and he made an attempt for her hand, which nearly caused him to fall over.
Blaise looked down at him and smirked, "I don't think I'm the one you should be worrying about."
"Oh yeah, you will be singing a different tune when you fall off that bridge," Draco snapped, pulling himself back up.
"Tune?" Blaise laughed "Who says tune? That's like an old person saying."
"Shut up!" Draco yelled at her, but in a friendly way.
"Draco, I'm falling," she laughed, her arms flailing.
For those few brief minutes, the world around them suspended. Their problems were forgotten; Blaise's mysterious life was left unnoticed, her apparent heartbreak overlooked; Draco's family problems dissolved, his planned out future disappeared. What was left was two sixteen year olds acting like, well, sixteen year olds. And whether or not they noticed it, that was the moment their lives changed forever. They were intertwined, whether they liked it or not. But their peaceful moment was soon interrupted by a high pitch shrill voice shouting –
"DRACO!" Pansy screamed to get his attention, so loud, that both Draco and Blaise were startled. As if in slow motion, Draco watched Blaise's saddle shoe miss the edge of the bridge and she fell off the edge. He grabbed her wrists as she fell, catching her at eye level, revealing the fear in her eyes that only seconds earlier had been happiness.
"You moron!" Draco yelled at Pansy, but when she saw Blaise fall, the pug faced witch vanished.
"Draco," Blaise cried, her wrists aching. "Don't let go," she whispered.
"Never." He replied, although entirely unsure of how he was going to pull her up. Blaise was skinny and he was fit, but not strong. Seekers were supposed to be light and slender, not muscular. And pulling a teenage girl up and over the edge of a bridge, definitely required muscle.
"Draco," she said, quieter than before.
"I'm trying," he said, pushing his foot against the bridge wall. Suddenly he felt himself falling backwards his hands still attached to her wrists. For the second time that day, he landed on his back, but now he had a companion, lying half on top of him, half next to him.
"Ouch." Blaise said after a second of silence. "Ouch."
"Funny, I have that exact same thought." He said causing Blaise to giggle. He liked her giggle and something inside he wanted her to do it again.
Blaise sat up slowly, relieving Draco of the weight on his stomach. He sat and looked around, there were no visible injuries on him. The same could not be said for Blaise, however.
"I think I'm bleeding," she said, and Draco quickly saw that her knee high socks were ripped where her knees skidded against the wall of the bridge as she fell. Her wrists were also slightly purple from where he had held her up.
"Can you walk?" he asked, pretty sure that she couldn't. Her legs were messed up.
"Yes," Blaise replied stubbornly, "No." she said, a split second later once she tried to stand up.
"Here, let me help you," Draco said, helping Blaise to her feet. It quickly became evident that she couldn't put weight on either leg yet. "I'll carry you back to the common room."
"You'll carry me?" Blaise said, one eyebrow raised in a truly Slytherin manner.
"Well, I could just leave you here bleeding to death and all." He told her, knowing very well that her wounds were not fatal.
"Well, if this is my only option…" she said, slowly climbing onto Draco's back.
"Oof!" He said, grumbling under her weight.
He couldn't see her but was pretty sure she was glaring at him. "Shut up, this was your idea," she told him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"And whose idea was it to stand on the edge of a bridge?" He reminded her.
"Point taken." She muttered, hugging him tighter.
"I think that that was the longest possible route back to the Slytherin tower." Draco said, dumping Blaise onto the Slytherin couch.
"Hey, you were leading the way," Blaise told him, gently touching her knee.
"I know, smarty pants." He muttered, examining her knee. "It looks bad."
"Why thank you, Healer, I would have never come to that conclusion myself." She said, pulling out her wand and summoning some sort of liquid from the girls dormitory.
She poured some on her knees and most of the wound closed up. A small scar on her left knee remained, but that was the only evidence that she had ever been hurt. He wanted to ask her what kind of potion that was but the way she was avoiding his eyes told him that she did not want him to ask. And for once, Draco ignored his urge to be pushy and nosy, and just let her walk up the stairs, with a small limp, and put it away.
"Are we going to continue this tour?" Blaise asked, suddenly reappearing from her room.
"You mean you didn't see enough when I carried you piggyback throughout half the school?" Draco replied.
Blaise rolled her eyes. " I want to see the quidditch pitch."
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