Disclaimer:In case you have been living in a cave on mars with your fingers in yours 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. Some lyrics may crop up now and then and will be attributed as appropriate.

Chapter 21 - Middleman

"I travelled though the atmosphere as a wall of feedback climbed
The pegs were gold, the band was old, they played in half time
Now every dream gets whittled down just like every fool gets wise
You will never reap of any seed deprived of sunlight

So I have become the Middleman
The grey areas are mine
The in-between, the absentee
Is a beautiful disguise

So I keep my footlights shining bright just like I keep my exits wide
'Cause I never know when it's time to go, it's too crowded now inside
The dead can hide beneath the ground and the birds can always fly
But the rest of us do what we must in constant compromise

So I have become the Middleman
The grey areas are fine
The "I don't know," the "maybe so"
Is the only real reply
It is the only true reply"

Bright Eyes

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Draco laughed.

Blaise looked at Draco with a curious smirk on his face. "I must say, mate, I am quite pleased with that reaction." He put his hand on Draco's shoulder and squeezed it. "You know for a minute there , when I walked in, I was a bit worried you'd become attached to the filthy little mudblood. Come on then, do you want to do the honours or shall I?" Blaise pointed at the sleeping Hermione in the bed.

Draco looked at Blaise and furrowed his brow. "What? Wait a sec. Blaise, you are joking aren't you?"

Blaise cocked his head and looked at Draco curiously. "Of course I'm not joking, you daft git. Look, I'll get us another house elf to make up for it, don't worry." Blaise smiled at his friend. "Don't start getting sentimental on me at this stage in your life, mate. I know she's a good fuck, but..."

Draco looked up at his friend like he'd completely lost the plot. "What in the name of all that is unholy do you mean?"

"Well... Aw, mate, you didn't think she was just fucking you, did you?" Blaise threw his arm around Draco's shoulders and gave him a friendly shake. "Mate, she's gonna have to die, we can't leave her alive to tell anyone that she's been fucking us both, when we kill everyone else."

Draco shook his head and shrugged Blaise's arm from his shoulders. "Wait. Back up a minute, please. I have had enough of people bursting into rooms with information that my brain can't put together. You've been sleeping with Herm... Granger? Start with that, then explain what you mean by; when wekill everyone else..."

Blaise tilted his head and looked at Draco. "Well, of course I've been sleeping with her. Why should I go to the whore house when there's a fairly decent, piece of pussy, in the house that I can fuck whenever I want to for free? No restrictions, no romance, no having to put a fucking ring on her finger."

"Wait, what?!" Draco felt he had used that word far too many times in the past few days. He was completely confused. He had felt that he was lacking a good deal of knowledge when his world had initially been thrown into disarray, but now he wasn't so sure that he knew anything at all.. "So,you've been sleeping with her?"

"Yes... I thought I'd already established that. Now, is there someone in Draco's brain that I can talk to?"

"What about Frobisher?"

"There's a Frobisher inside your brain? Well ok. If you think I'll get more sense out of her..."

Draco shook his head, confused for a moment. "No... You know fine well that I was inquiring whether or not you were fucking Frobisher."

"Wellof course I've been fucking Frobisher." Blaise said with a chuckle. "I needed a way to get into all this didn't I? I needed someone who would be involved and who could vouch for me. I knew Frobisher would probably be involved, she never could mind her own business. And I knew it wouldn't take much for me to convince her that I wanted to join them. Stupid bloody Gryffindor's, at least you can count on them to be gullible." Blaise smiled at his own cleverness. "When I found out that Nott was involved, well that was just the icing on the cake, wasn't it? Imagine the look on Darius Nott's face when we bring his son in before all the other Death Eaters and reveal him as a traitor."

Draco took a step backwards, trying to take everything that Blaise was saying in. "So, you're not working with the resistance?"

Blaise laughed. "Merlin no! I'm sorry, mate, did you actually I think I had changed sides? I'm sorry. I bet I had you all worried there, thinking you were going to have to hand me in." Blaise moved over to Draco, putting his arm around his shoulders and turning him to face Hermione sleeping in the bed. "Let me explain everything properly. When it became obvious that there were a few stupid, but organised people, trying to over throw the Dark Lord, I figured that they would probably have someone from Potter's lot involved with them. Frobisher seemed an obvious candidate; after all, even though she's a pureblood, she always had that stupid sense of impropriety about her. So, I thought to myself; why don't you fuck her a few times, see if she knows anything. Well she did. Once I had convinced her that I wasn't happy with the new regime, then it was just a matter of patience. All I had to do was bide my time, give them a few bits of almost worthless information and wait for the right time to spring a raid." Blaise smiled a little, giving his friends shoulder a squeeze. "Now, I have to admit, mate, I hadn't thought of doing it this early in the game. But you've actually given us a perfect set of excuses. Last night when I went back to the house, I made it look a little messier, then went straight to the ministry and told the guys there that I thought you had been surprised by an attack at home and they had taken, you, your dad and Granger. Now, unfortunately, here's where we hit a slight problem. You see, you remember that raid that went hideously wrong?"

Draco shook his head a little, a bit dazed by everything Blaise was telling him. "Erm, the one that had something to do with McLaggen?"

Blaise nodded. "Yes, Peakes, his servant had been communicating with a few members of the resistance and got caught and interrogated. Well he gave them enough information so that, unfortunately, they might end up figuring out where this building is actually located before their supposed to. So, because you're my best friend, I made this big song and dance about it having to be my raid team who were in charge of finding you and they've let me. Right now I'm supposedly out following leads. What I'll tell them later is that I suspected Frobisher being involved somehow, not sure why yet, I'll make up something. Then I'll tell them I followed her to where you were being held, went home, got your wand, or say that I had your wand on me, I haven't decided yet. Then I'll concoct something about getting in and managing to find you undetected. Then we can tell them about how we stormed through the building together, taking down the resistance. We'll be heroes, mate!"

Draco just stared into nothing. He felt numb. "So, that's your plan?"

"Well almost, after we've killed Granger, we'll go room to room, kill everyone in the building as we quietly as we can so hopefully, we don't end up with too many on us at once, when we've got rid of everyone, we'll get your dad, who, when I checked up on him on my way down, was babbling on about seeing leprechauns dancing the fandango, then we'll take him back with us. When all the confusion enchantments have worn off, he won't be able to tell what was real and what wasn't over the last few days, so he won't say anything about you and Granger, in case he looks like a bit of a tit. You can just say that your dad had come round, you'd been talking and got surprised by an attack. They won't question it."

"So, you want to kill everyone?" Draco said.

"Well I'd like to avoid killing Nott if we can, but if it's unavoidable, it's unavoidable. There's no records of me ever having been here, there will be no witnesses, we'll be home free and treat like kings. Now, I've told this lot that I won't bring the cavalry coming until at least tomorrow night, so even Nott won't expect anything this early."

"I see a problem with your plan." Hermione said, opening her eyes and causing both boys to jump. "You've gone mad, Blaise." Hermione sat up, swinging her legs around and putting her bare feet on the floor. "You have missed things, there's going to be a paper trail, you are going to get caught and when the Dark Lord discovers all the lies you've spun, he will find out what your hiding and he'll have you killed in the blink of an eye."

Blaise raised his wand, pointing it at Hermione. "How long have you been listening, mudblood?"

"Long enough to hear your ridiculous plan and pick enough holes in it, you couldn't use it as a net." Hermione said, standing up.

"Well, believe it or not, Granger, your opinion matters very little to me and you're not going to be alive long enough to see the whole thing executed." Blaise said, pointing his wand directly at Hermione's chest.

She raised her chin defiantly, she wouldn't close her eyes. She wouldn't give him the pleasure of seeing how scared she was.

Draco raised his hand and placed it on the crux of Blaise's elbow. "I think you should maybe lower that wand, mate."

"What?!" Blaise looked at Draco. "You're protecting her? She's just a filthy little mudblood!" Blaise scowled. " And I'm your best friend!"

"I'm sorry to say this, mate. But she's making a lot sense." Draco said, guiding Blaise's arm down slowly. "To be honest, you're sounding like a madman. How many people are in this building? Thirty? Forty? More? You think the two of us can kill them all? All someone needs to do is get one lucky shot, take one of us out and we're fucked."

"We can manage it!" Blaise said. "We survived the battle didn't we?"

"Even I hate to admit this, mate, but I think we only survived that battle, through a great case of luck, combined with the other sides lack of unforgivables." Draco said, shaking his head a little.

"Since when did you start trying to be the level-headed one?" Blaise said.

"Right about the time you start trying to be the pig-headed one." Draco said with a small smile on his face. "Come on, mate, let's work this out together. Trust me."

"How touching." A voice from behind them said.

Blaise and Draco both snapped their heads around, seeing Theodore Nott stood in the doorway.

"I must say, I'm impressed." Nott said, stepping inside the room. "Blaise, you have not only managed to concoct the most idiotic plan in the history of the wizarding world, which had to be pointed out to you by a muggleborn of all people. But you made the assumption that I was stupid enough not have listening charms placed inside this room before allowing you to bring a Death Eater into it."

"Er technically..." Draco began, only to find himself interrupted by Nott.

"Shut up, Malfoy. I was talking to this, soon to be dead, traitor, in front of me." Nott said, raising his wand and pointing it at Blaise. "Now, Mr Zabini, what to do with you..."

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Author's Notes:

I must stop ending chapters on threats of imminent death...

Hope I haven't thrown you all too much for a loop. I think there's about two more chapters left to go from this point, unless I hit upon something that I had never realised when writing the next chapter.

SPECIAL NOTE: I have been threatened upon pain of death, that I DO NOT (as if I have any control over my characters) allow Nott, to kill Blaise. Again... I have personally promised my beta that I won't do it. I have been told there will be lots of tears if it does happen and a few of them will be mine, so I am behaving myself... For now... hehe...

Thanks go to; ImperfectSilver, (even though she doesn't normally read these, pscht!), Writer Of Mysteries, IvEgOtAnOtHeRcOnFeSsiOnToMaKe, snapefan2007, GiggleGinny, fantasygirl26 -Another-Imperfect-Soul-, Twiist and all my regular reader's such as allycat1186, ascii27 and Parcheezie who probably didn't have the chance to review the last chapter by the time I wrote this one.

Special thanks go to: Twiist and Jonathan J Strange, who both suggested a few changes which contributed to a couple of lines that had me laughing for a good solid five minutes. Well, at least I amused myself, ten points to whoever comments on said lines.

I am working right through at the moment, trying to write while the inspiration is within me to actually do something about it so chapter 22 might come in the next few days.

So, as always, please R&R and don't forget to take part in the poll I'm running on my profile page, you get to choose what I write next.