Chapter 16:

Victim Pillows and Hubbub Causing Broads

---

Hermione frowned at her canopy- she did not like small, dark, enclosed spaces.

'Stupid wall. Stupid Zabini. Stupid…' Hermione's frown deepened as she ran out of things to be angry at.

Sniffing, she attempted to stifle her anger by stuffing her rather limp pillow onto her face. Realizing that a lack of air was a very bad thing, she removed the pillow and threw it across the room, satisfied when she heard the muffled sound of goose-feathers meeting stone.

"Stupid pillow," she huffed as an afterthought.

Hermione sighed and decided to never again to go on a walk with a Slytherin boy- or any boy- after angering an enchanted wall. Though it hadn't sounded quite so complicated in her head…

After coming to the conclusion that trying to sleep was an utter waste of time, Hermione drew her bed curtains closed and proceeded to stare absently at the crease where the two scarlet fabrics met, while pondering just where the night had begun to…die a painful, gruesome death.

Perhaps, she pondered, it was when Zabini had asked her to go on a walk in the first place. After all, if it wasn't for him she would have been perfectly fine by herself with no revenge-seeking walls attempting to smother her.

With a sigh she relented: 'It wasn't his fault. At least… not entirely,' she paused in her thoughts recalling how Blaise had spent an hour and a half trying to figure out where the Gryffindor common was.

Hermione's brow crinkled; maybe it wasn't such a great idea to leave him stranded in the hallway. But, she reasoned, it would have been idiotic to reveal the common room's location.

'And he was a bit annoying. Yes,' she decided, 'I was perfectly justified in leaving him.' With the satisfied nod of one who has no conscience to speak of, Hermione dropped off to sleep, not in the least bit worried about the lone Slytherin wandering about school aimlessly.

Blaise shuddered and glanced behind his shoulder; he could have sworn someone was following him. Shrugging it off as a hallucination (he was very tired, after all), Blaise continued his trek down the corridor.

When he had first noticed that he was alone, his reaction was outrage. How dare she leave him after he saved her from the evil wall! In Blaise's humble opinion, she should have kissed his boots and groveled at his feet.

He paused in mid-step as the image of Hermione in a princess costume thanking him, the handsome knight, for saving her from the evil wall, which resembled a gigantic black dragon, popped into his thoughts.

With a glazed look he muttered, "All in a day's work, madam. For I am your-"

"Ooooh, a wee student out of bed! Me thinks Filchie should know…"

Blaise flinched at the recognizable sing-song voice of Peeves.

Turning around to face the poltergeist he tapped his feet nervously.

"Ah Peeves. Simply splendid to see you on this fine night-erm, "he paused after glimpsing the sun-streaked sky through a nearby window. " Right. Morning, I mean."

The small, floating man stroked his goatee and smirked in the general direction of the Slytherin.

"STUDENT OUT OF BED IN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

Blaise cringed while turning and running as fast as he could. Just before turning the corner he looked over his shoulder to see the poltergeist already hassling the winded caretaker.

"So that's where I am. Thanks Peeves," he whispered under his breath while correcting his direction and heading back to the Slytherin common room.

Imagine…all that hubbub because of a broad- and a Gryffindor even! Blaise stumbled past a suit of armor and inwardly cursed his dangerous taste in women.

---