Disclaimer: In case you have been living in a cave on mars with your fingers in your ears for the last ten years or so; JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and all terms and characters associated with the fandom. I only own the story, some characterisations and an occasional OC, I try to limit them as much as possible. Song lyrics which may crop up now and then will be attributed as appropriate.

Chapter 13 - The Biggest Lie

"You turned white like a saint
I'm tired of dancing on a pot of gold flake paint
Oh we're so very precious, you and I.
And everything that you do makes me want to die
Oh i just told the biggest lie. …"

Bright eyes

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Draco walked into the room where the wizengamot had served for hundreds of years in the ministry of magic, which now acted as a trial room for the Dark Lord and his followers. He could see Blaise, standing with Brooks, and two fairly burley guards by either side of them. Draco felt the head of his fathers cane jab him in the back, prompting him to take a seat quickly as the Dark Lord himself swept into the room and dozens of death eaters went scrambling for their seats.

Lord Voldemort stood in front of Blaise and Brooks, eyeing them with the red slits which often seemed to be completely void of anything but malice. "Zabini, is what I have been told true?"

Draco swallowed a hard lump in his throat as he looked at Blaise, he was turning the silver ring on his right hand, the ring which bore the Slytherin crest that they had both wore in school but only Blaise did now. His habit let Draco know he was nervous, Blaise always turned the ring when he was. Draco watched Blaise lift his gaze to meet that of the Dark Lords. "Yes my Lord, it is true."

Voldemort turned his back on him, suddenly addressing the rest of the room. "I hope you are all paying attention to this." His gnarled finger pointed backwards at Blaise, but his face remained trained on the crowded room. "A leak from inside our own numbers, a traitor someone who collaborated with the filth calling themselves the rebellion. Rebellion!" He said it again, flecks of spit flying from lips. "I will not tolerate rebellion. This is why men like him," turned looking at Blaise once more, seething with anger and with his finger trained on him. "Will be rewarded when they have done as he has."

Draco raised his eyebrow and Blaise seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, as far as Draco knew, all that had happened was that Blaise had escaped after being captured, hardly a rewardable action.

"Thanks to the information he has given us, a successful raid was carried out on the rebel hideaway. The men we had lost have been recovered and although the rebels had cleared out by the time we arrived." He threw what could only be interpreted as a filthy look in the direction of Mulicber. "There were several items left behind, which could lead to an identification."

There was a muttering throughout the room as people looked at one another, mostly with nods of approval, Draco only saw a look of disappointment from his father, clearly, he felt that he should have been captured in the raid gone wrong, instead of Blaise.

"SILENCE!" The room fell quiet once more as the Dark Lord spoke to them. "From tomorrow, Mr Zabini will be in charge of raid team ignis. All members of that team will report to him."

Draco swallowed a lump of dark jealousy, there were four raid teams; fontis, terra, aeris and ignis. He and Blaise had been a part of that raid team since the muggleborn re-assessment department was declared as redundant. It was considered by far the most desirable team to be a part of, since their primary function was to seek out insurgents. It would mean the only person Blaise would answer to would be Mulicber, it would mean that Blaise would be a part of the raid planning committee, it would mean that if Blaise had walked in on him that morning, when he was in bed with his Mudblood servant, he could have executed him on sight.

"Mulicber!" The Dark Lord spoke once more, Mulicber jumping out of his seat and bowing to the Dark Lord. "Get to St.Mungo's and start the debriefing. That is all!" He left the room, Darius Nott following close behind him.

Draco looked at his father, who was now standing and looking at him with a scowl he had become very familiar with over the years. "I am going to congratulate young Blaise. I suggest you do the same." He moved over to the now growing crowd of people surrounding Draco's housemate, senior Death eaters, who previously wouldn't pause to give Blaise the time of day should it be avoidable. Draco watched Blaise, his left hand scratching the back of his bald head as he shook hands with people who were nearly falling over each other to deliver their congratulations. Draco narrowed his eyes as he watched his father shake Blaise's hand and give him a prideful pat on the back. He could have sworn he was smiling as other senior people continued to shake the dark skinned wizards hand. Draco had never seen his father look like that before. Although he recognised the expression, it was the same one Blaise had wore when he first became leader of the gobstones club in Hogwarts. He was proud.

Blaise was trying to figure out a way of getting past all the people who had swooped on him. Wearing a huge false smile, he peered over their heads, seeing a head of white blonde hair stalking out of the room, which could only be Draco since Lucius Malfoy was stood at his side telling him his father would be very proud of him if he could see him now; something that Blaise wasn't sure Lucius had any authority on since, as far as he knew, Lucius did not know his father when he was alive. Blaise kept trying to make excuses to leave, so that he could follow Draco and maybe have a celebratory drink with him back home, but found himself being held back by more people, shoving their hands forward for him to shake.

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Draco stormed out of the fireplace, brushing spots of green powder from his robes. The slightly nervous and bruised looking face of Hermione appeared around the door frame, presumably looking to see who it was flooing into the house. He looked at her with disdain. "Mudblood."

Hermione winced, and stepped fully round the edge of the door. "Yes?"

"Firewhiskey now!" He pulled his over-cloak off as she walked across the room, selecting one of the stronger bottles of Firewhiskey from the cabinet in the living room and picking up a crystal tumbler along with it which she placed in front of him. He looked up at her as he poured himself a large quantity of the amber liquid into the glass. "Get the house elf to fix your face, I don't want that looking at me the rest of the night."

Hermione swallowed in spite of herself, she wasn't sure what exactly had put him in such a bad mood, but seeing as he was intent in taking it out on her, she wouldn't allow him to get to her. "Anything else, sir?"

He raised his eyebrow at her. "Yes, you can remember your place and remove the tone of your voice along with yourself from the room."

Not waiting for further insults, she left the room to leave him to his drinking, she would see what the house elf could do to clean up her bruises, but more because she was sore than that he had ordered her to.

Draco necked the contents of his glass, the familiar burning sensation in his throat felt good, relieving. He would have been happy to sit and consume the rest of the bottle glass after glass in quick succession, had there not been a knock at the door. He sighed, if Granger was having her face fixed by the house elf, then he would have to answer it himself. Pondering who it could be for a moment, as he stood up and started making his way to the hallway, it occurred to him it could likely be another well-wisher for Blaise. In which case he would take great pleasure in telling them to piss off.

He opened the door, eyeing the figure on the doorstep and them slamming the door in their face. He growled under his breath as a loud knock came again and he opened the door with a raised eyebrow. "What the hell do you want Frobisher?"

Victoria Frobisher smiled at the scowling Slytherin in front of her, she had her reading glasses on and her hair was pulled back from her face in a loose bun at the nape of her neck. In her right hand she held a briefcase, it's likely contents were pieces of parchment, bottles of ink and quills, in her left hand she clutched her Daily Prophet press pass. "I'm here to see Blaise."

"He's not here." He tried slamming the door again, but found she had shoved her briefcase in the doorframe, blocking it. His momentary pause of shock left him unable to stop her from pushing the door open and brushing past him into the hallway.

"That's alright, he told me to meet him here."

"Oi Frobisher, I said you can't come in. Get out!"

Ignoring him, she undid the fastening on her cloak and threw it over his arm. "The newly appointed leader of raid team ignis told me to wait for him at his place of residence, for the interview that will be the basis for the feature spread in the daily prophet tomorrow. An article which we were ordered to run by the ministry." She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and held it up for him to see, the only words he bothered reading were the ones which said; Darius Nott, which were scrawled in black ink at the bottom of the page.

As Frobisher made her way into the living room, Draco looked at the cloak in his hands, shook his head and dropped it on the floor, following her through to the living room and looking thoroughly appalled as she selected a bottle of black vodka from the cabinet and started pouring herself a glass. "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear Frobisher, I would like you to leave the house and go back to your own, not to make yourself at home."

She shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of her glass, he started to move to forcibly remove her himself, but the sight of Blaise appearing in a flash of green flames in the fireplace stopped him. Blaise smirked at the Daily Prophet reporter helping herself to their alcohol in front of a clearly vexed Draco. "Ah, Frobisher, you're here already. Has Draco been keeping you entertained?"

"Blaise, a word please?" Draco beckoned Blaise and left the room, going to the library.

Blaise smirked at Frobisher and moved over to her, "Just need to have a quick word with the wife. Make yourself at home." He slipped his arm around her waist and bent his head, kissing her fully on the lips, a kiss which lasted until she pulled away and hit him hard on the shoulder with a smirk.

"Get off me you horny bastard." She bit her lip coyly and took a seat on the settee, getting out her pieces of parchment and quills.

Blaise walked into the library, seeing Draco stood by the desk, his arms folded and wearing a scowl on his face. "Now Darling, what seems to be the problem?"

"I-am-not-in-the-mood-for-your-jokes-Blaise." He hissed at him. "What is she doing here?"

"She's got to interview me for the Prophet, Nott's orders, thought a bit of good PR would be good considering the cock ups which have been going on the last couple of days."

"Why her? You know I can't stand her."

"Because she was the one who they sent to interview me about this promotion thing. Speaking of which, you rushed out of there really quickly today, I didn't have chance to speak to you. Where were you going? Off to meet that lass from this morning?"

Draco looked a little shocked for a moment, he hadn't been aware that Blaise was home that morning, concluding to himself he could have no more than heard the sounds from the bedroom or seen the clothes on the floor of the living room. Deciding he would change the subject before Blaise started asking him just who the girl was, since he was sure that Blaise was more than aware when he was lying.

"Well couldn't you ask for somebody else to interview you?"

"Oh will you stop being so childish? School is over, we're not Gryffindors and Slytherins anymore, we're adults."

"Well you might not be a Slytherin anymore, but I certainly am." He started to leave the room huffily, but found Blaise blocking the doorway.

"Oh that was a low blow."

"Get out of my way."

"Look, obviously you're pissed off with me about something, we can discuss it when Frobisher's done with her interview, before your dad gets here."

"My father's coming?"

"Yes, he told me he was going to come over tonight after dinner, wanted to talk to us both about something. He would have told you himself, but you took off didn't you?"

"Fine, whatever, we'll talk when she's gone, but next time you have an interview, do it at the office, or her office, I really don't care as long as she's not here."

"Fine." He brushed past him, making his way back to the living room, to Frobisher, who was still sat on the settee, sipping her glass of black vodka, her hair now undone. Blaise shut the living room doors, smirking at her. "Now Frobisher, let's get to some in depth interviewing." She smiled as he climbed aboard the settee next to her and slipped his arm around her shoulders.

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Author's Notes:

What's Blaise up to? Whose side is he on? What does Lucius want to talk about? What is Draco going to do?

'Friad I'm not going to tell you yet… Muh ha ha ha ha ha!

Well obviously you'll find out stuff in the next chapter, but you'll have to wait till I've written it, won't you?