YESSSSSSSSSSS another update
disclaimer a.k.a. jk rowling is better than me
"Mr. Zabini!" Barked a voice. "Would you kindly pay attention?"
The tall, black student was jerked out of his reverie by the voice of the potions master Professor Slughorn. "I'm sorry, sir."
Professor Slughorn frowned, jowls quaking a little. "Humph, you better be. First you show up late to class and now you're just not mentally present for potion making," the teacher said before carrying on with his lesson.
Blaise shot a grin over at his best friend, Theodore Nott before looking hastily back at his potion. Theo had not been pleased. However, Blaise wasn't too worried, he knew his dark-haired friend was just as anxious to get out of their class and go to the hospital wing as he was.
Blaise was getting so antsy by the end of class that he managed to spill most of his potion on the cold stone floor instead of putting it in a vial to hand in to Slughorn. "What has gotten into you, Zabini?" Slughorn asked at the end of class, observing the vial of potion with raised eyebrows. "Your beaker is half empty with the Exhausting Draught."
"Well sir," Blaise said with a wide flirtatious grin at a Ravenclaw girl next to him. "I'd say it's more half full, don't you think?" Before Slughorn could retort, Blaise had grabbed Theo and pulled him out of the dungeons.
The pair were still bickering about Blaise's behavior when they reached the hospital wing. Nodding to Madame Pomfrey, who had finally learned to stop scowling when she saw them, they walked the rest of the way up the isle.
"You know," Blaise muttered to Theo as they passed the witch. "You think she could at least say hello to us, I mean it is the end of November and we've been coming in here often-" Blaise didn't finish. He had stopped speaking when Theo hit him in the shoulder. "Merlin!" Blaise exclaimed, annoyed. "What the bloody hell was-Ginny?" Blaise had finally looked up to see the redhead sitting cross-legged on a hospital bed, reading.
Ginny perked up when she heard her name but blushed when she saw whom it was. "Oh, hi guys," she said, suddenly shy with the memory of what she had just done in the Great Hall.
Theo looked at Blaise with his eyebrows raised but Blaise spoke first, as usual. " 'Hi' is all you're going to say? Merlin's fucking beard-" He was cut off again with another swat from Theo.
"Not here," the boy whispered to his black friend. It was then that Blaise noticed some bodies stirring under their blankets at the other end of the wing, the far end, towards the door.
The two Slytherin boys nodded at Ginny, determined to get the full story out of Draco, and walked to the extra room's door. Ginny hopped out of her bed and stood expectantly behind them.
Blaise turned around. "What?" he asked.
"Nothing," Ginny's face was blank, eyes wide and full of feigned innocence. "I'm coming in too."
"The fuck you are," Blaise began to say, loudly. Ginny cut him off with a look.
"The fuck I am," she retorted, clearly not missing the impressed look on Theo's face before blushing and turning back towards Blaise. "I'm a part of your little 'operation' whether you like it or not, especially now. Besides the Gryffindors need a representative."
Theo once again looked mildly impressed. "Fine," he said, ignoring the splutters coming from Blaise. "She's right, anyway."
Blaise grumbled something rude and Theo heard Ginny say sweetly; "Now Blaise, don't you fret you tiny little heart about me." Theo opened Draco's door with a grin. Well this meeting should be interesting, he thought wryly.
"I didn't invite her," Blaise blurted as the trio trooped into Draco's room.
The blonde boy was at his window, practicing a stunning spell on unlucky bugs that flew too close. WHO? Draco wrote before turning around. Theo could almost see his friend's stomach drop when he spotted Ginny. Theo tried not to grin.
"Me," Ginny said simply, grabbing a chair Blaise was aiming at before he could get his hands on it. The black Slytherin shot a murderous look at Theo who just ignored it. He was too busy watching Draco blush.
Very interesting, Theo repeated to himself before settling on Draco's bed.
Blaise managed to conjure up a thing that semi-resembled a chair that he sat down upon with a face he hoped conveyed superior comfort to the chair he had originally wanted.
WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING HERE? Draco wrote, trying to overcome his shock.
"As if you aren't happy to see us," Blaise grinned wolfishly at his friend.
Draco smiled back. NO, I HATE YOU GUYS.
"Knew it," Blaise said proudly.
Draco laughed abruptly and Theo's eyes snapped to Ginny who had suddenly become very interested in her nails.
Before the room could lapse into awkward silence, Theo cut in. "We need to talk, all of us," he emphasized, giving a subtle hidden meaning to both including Ginny and asking why Draco wasn't speaking.
Draco ignored him. "Oh no," Blaise cut in. "The break-up talk." Ginny smiled slightly and Blaise laughed at his own joke as Draco raised his wand to reply.
"Please!" Theo yelled, startling the other three. "Be serious! It's November 27th and we're quickly running out of time before Christmas break. What needs to happen before then?"
The room was quiet, the three still stunned slightly at Theo's outburst. Blaise finally ventured: "I don't know, you're the one with the plan. Or was that question rhetorical?"
Theo just sighed before sitting up straighter. "You're right, I'm sorry, I have to tell you what we need to do, although we still all need to work together to make this happen. Now, Blaise, where are we with the members?"
Theo barely noticed that Ginny watched in rapt silence as Blaise rattled off the names of their fellow conspirators and their various levels of commitment. Theo took notes as the tall black boy spoke and nodded or shook his head at certain people.
"Good," Theo announced when Blaise had finished. "So we only lost Bulstrode, Byrd and Goldstein, but he was a maybe anyway."
"Anthony Goldstein?" Ginny spoke up. The three boys jerked their heads towards her, as if they had all forgotten she was there. She blushed at their motion but went on. "I don't think he's a maybe. I mean, maybe to you guys, but not to us. Seamus contacted him the other day. He said yes," Ginny finished lamely.
It was quiet for a moment before Blaise spoke. "Well good, who else have you taken from us?"
Ginny frowned. "Listen, I'm not taking anyone. You're the one's who got us in this mess in the first place."
"What do you mean 'we're the one's'? Slytherins aren't evil!" Blaise's voice was getting louder.
Ginny scoffed. "Oh yeah? Then who's that guy that's trying to kill us all right now? I forget his name. It's something with a 'v'. Oh, it's on the tip of my tongue!"
Blaise jumped up. "Listen you filthy little blood traitor-!"
Ginny echoed his motion and rose quickly to her feet. "Blood traitor!" She yelled. "What the hell are you doing right now, you idiot!"
Theo interrupted them before they could take out their wands. "Stop it, both of you!" His voice was commanding, different from his normal, soft-spoken tones. They all looked at him. "We need to stop arguing with each other. That's what inhibits our ability to work together."
Blaise rolled his eyes before sitting back down on his poorly conjured chair. Ginny smoothed her hair into a ponytail before mimicking Blaise's motion and settling back down onto Draco's desk chair. "Sorry," she mumbled.
IT'S OKAY. Draco wrote before Theo could say it. He stifled an inward chuckle at Draco's concerned face. BLAISE DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO ACT CIVILIZED SOMETIMES, DO YOU, BLAISE?
The young Slytherin looked extremely grumpy. "I know how to act fine, Draco," he spat. "And don't go sticking up for you little girlfriend all the time, it's annoying."
"Okay!" Theo said loudly, trying to cover up the blush in Ginny's cheeks and the loss of color from Draco's. "Speaking of Gyriffindors, how is your and Neville's plan coming along? And how do you think we can integrate our two 'teams', Ginny?"
With a final look at Blaise, Ginny launched into an explanation of how Neville thought they all should meet. "In the Room of Requirement. It's perfect and a safe environment for all of us to meet and hash out our feelings towards each other." She glanced again at Blaise but quickly back at Theo who smiled in encouragement.
"That's a great idea. I can get in contact with the Slytherins but can you rally everyone else?" Theo asked, making a note of all this in a book.
Ginny nodded. "Most of us, well everyone who was in DA, have these enchanted galleons that grow hot when the date is changed on the original galleon. Then those who have their galleons will tell others who don't have one. And I promise they will be discreet. What?"
Theo, Blaise and Draco were staring at her. "A little Death Eater-ish for you Gryffindors, isn't it?" Blaise finally said and with a glance at Draco he added. "I mean that's just like the Dark Mark."
Ginny nodded, agreeing. "Except," she said, loosely quoting Hermione from two years ago. "We decided not to deface a person's skin to send a message." She too, flicked her eyes to Draco.
Theo chanced a look at his friend who was absentmindedly rubbing his arm staring out the window. The room descended into silence.
NOW ALL WE NEED IS A DATE FOR A MEETING. The purple letters surprised them all; they hadn't thought Draco was paying attention.
"What about the first weekend in December? Next weekend?" Blaise put in.
Theo nodded. "Sounds fine to me. After all, we don't have Hogsmeade to look forward to anymore thanks to the Carrows and Snape. Snape!" Theo slapped a hand to his forehead. "I almost forgot! What happened, Ginny?" All eyes turned to her but Theo noticed that she looked at only one pair. For strength? For comfort? Theo didn't know.
Ginny's eyes took on the slightly unfocused look when remembering a story, although they never wavered from their object of sight. "He took me up to Snape's office," she began, voice steady with a slight monotone to it, as if she were reciting lines.
"I woke up on a desk and he put restraints on me and he began to…" she trailed off, voice becoming hoarse as she remembered the horror she felt and Snape's warning to let people draw their own conclusions, although she didn't really think it mattered with this crowd.
Draco's mind was in turmoil at these words. After listening to what Ginny had just said, he was stunned. He berated himself the rest of her speech internally for not having asked her about it on their walk back to the hospital wing.
If you weren't so busy being selfish and insulted with what she said about you… Draco trailed off in his own mind, still fuming.
"Then Snape burst in and sent him away. He released me and you came in," Ginny said, still staring at Draco and clearly meaning him. Theo glared at Blaise, still angry with his friend for telling Draco, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
"Snape is on our side, I promise. He still talks to Dumbledore's portrait sometimes, he's hidden it away in the castle so the Carrows stop messing it up. But there's nothing he can do to help us, they would know right away and it's far to risky." Ginny took a breath and was finished, eyes snapping back into focus and away from Draco. Her cheeks looked pale to Theo, instead of their usual pink.
"It's all right, Ginny," Theo said gently. "What you did was hugely brave in ways that you don't understand. You helped us out a lot." Ginny grinned at him weakly. "Alright," Theo said in a decisive voice. "We will all meet next weekend in the Room of Requirement. As a safety measure, Draco, I don't think you should be present at this meeting. Don't look at me like that, you know as well as I we could blow the entire operation with you there and that's final. I'm sure one of us will come straight here after it's over and tell you what happened."
Draco looked like he almost understood.
Shuffling his notes together, Theo stood up and motioned for Blaise. "That's all I have for right now, but I'm sure I'll see you two soon," he nodded towards Draco and Ginny, the later of which was getting up rather quickly and leaving the room. Blaise took care of his ugly chair and said goodbye to Draco.
Following the girl out of the room, Blaise caught her arm before she could retire back to her bed and her reading. "Listen, Ginny," he began, apologetic tones in his voice. "I'm really sorry about that in there, it's just that I'm stressed, we're all stressed. This isn't a game and we need everyone to trust us."
Ginny shook her arm free of his grasp, although without meaning anything by it. "I'm sorry too," she admitted. "But you have to understand, yeah, we're stressed but that doesn't mean we, I mean Neville and I and the rest of us Gryffindors, think this is a game. We know what's at stake and we are taking this as serious as you. And you need to trust us. We know what we're doing. Besides," Ginny added, a sly look playing across her face. "Could you have pulled off that little stunt without me this morning? Who else could have done it?"
Blaise looked at her with an odd sort of appraisal in his eyes. Finally he said, "I can tell why he likes you."
Ginny spluttered. "Who?"
"Don't make me regret joining forces with an idiot," Blaise said shrewdly. "You're not that stupid, even if you are a bloody Gryffindor blood-traitor."
It was Ginny's turn to regard the tall boy with a look. His insult also gave her time to compose herself after his little comment. "Listen, what's with all the blood-traitor comments all of a sudden? You were perfectly nice to me almost a-"
"When, Weasley?" Blaise interrupted. "When was I civil to you? Was it all the countless times we've hung out? Or were you thinking of that one time almost a month ago while you were just starting to tutor Draco? Or were you thinking of this morning when I cooperated with our stunt, or the other night when we planned it out with you?"
Ginny was silent, thinking back. He had been polite, hadn't he?
"Of course I was civil those times. What was I going to say when you were helping my mate? I'm not so mean as to deter you from working with him and him back further in his schoolwork. Of course I was cordial the other night, we were working out a plan that benefits all of us. And why would I spoil it the day of?" Blaise shook his head in mild amusement.
"Ginny," he said in a flat voice, devoid of his usual charm. "We aren't friends. I'm not even supposed to interact with you, none the less talk with you as much as we've been doing. It's in my upbringing in a pure-blood family that was concerned with such things as that. It's in my training; I suppose you could call it. So I can act in whatever way I want to you." He shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'no harm done, it's just they way things are'.
The girl smiled ruefully at his explanation. What had she been expecting, anyway? She didn't even want to be friends with Blaise, or any Slytherin for that matter. Did she? "You're right, Blaise, we're not friends. But if we're going to continue to not be friends, call me Weasley, only mates call me Ginny."
Blaise smiled back with a 'touché' type feel to the action. "Then don't call me Blaise, agreed?"
The odd pair shook hands.
Meanwhile, Theo had taken a moment to talk to Draco while Blaise and Ginny were outside the room. Collecting his notes a third time since the other two had left, Theo was stalling. He didn't know how to approach this subject.
THEO, IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TO ME, SPIT IT OUT. Draco wrote, looking amused. YOU HANGING ABOUT HERE FIDDLING WITH YOUR NOTES IS PAINFUL TO WATCH.
Theo sighed. He might as well get it over with. "You know, it is November…"
REALLY? Draco wrote, clearly intending sarcasm.
Theo ignored it. "You should be talking by now. I've done some research in my spare time about your condition."
Draco raised his eyebrows, impressed. When did Theo find the spare time for that? Draco was also touched that he had gone through that trouble for his sake but he didn't admit to that feeling.
"And while uncommon, full recoveries are not rare. Except in all the cases of full recovery, the injured person had a constant and rigorous regimen of oral practice. By this time in their recovery, others were onto full sentences, not without trouble mind you, but nonetheless…and you're still writing letters in the air."
Draco frowned, not bothering to try and disguise his anger, but Theo pressed on.
"How is your speech therapy coming along anyway?" he asked, trying to sound open and friendly. He had seen the anger in his friend and he wanted to steer him away from it.
The anger quickly dissipated from Draco's face replaced with deep shame. Theo felt his stomach drop but he wasn't going to say anything until Draco confirmed his suspicions.
IT'S NOT. LISTEN, BEFORE YOU GET MAD- But he was cut off.
"Before I get mad?" Theo asked as his voice rose. "Too fucking late! Draco you idiot, I thought you were going to ask her a long time ago? We need you too, you know, for this plan to work. You can't go screwing around with this. It's a sensitive time line! Get over your stupid feelings towards her and man up!"
Draco suddenly pushed Theo down onto his bed, forcing him to sit there and read what he had to say. LOOK, he wrote quickly. I DON'T HAVE ANY FEELINGS FOR HER. STOP SAYING IT. YOU BOTH NEED TO STOP SAYING IT.
Theo wasn't having any of this. He stood up and pushed Draco back, shocking the blonde haired wizard. Theo had never participated in any of Draco's school related fights and he had never seen him be really physical in this way before, even when he was playing Quidditch.
Theo took advantage of Draco's hesitation and pushed him again. "Don't be so Merlin damned thick!" Theo pushed Draco again. "Why can't you just get over your emotional problems and process the shit in you brain once in a while?" He pushed him again and Draco ended up slamming his back against the wall.
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? was all Draco could write. He was pinned as a result of the shock at seeing his friend like this.
Theo rolled his eyes and groaned in heavy annoyance. "I give up!" The boy cried, tossing his hands in the air. "I bloody give up. When you want to talk about your stupid girl problems, I'm here. Just hurry up and ask me to listen soon so we can get a move on with more important things like saving the lives of students, alright?" Theo gathered up his notes once more.
"You fucking let me know when you're ready to let go and admit that holding yourself back because you're afraid of not being a proper Malfoy is no longer a problem and you can go on living your life and talking and helping us with the stupid plan that I've put so much fucking time into!"
Whith that, Theo slammed out of Draco's room, catching Blaise and Ginny shaking hands. "See?" he cried, turing back towards his stunned friend. "Even they're mates now and you know how hard Blaise is to please."
Ginny and Blaise looked around astonished, dropping the handshake. Blaise started to smile in an effort to lighten the situation. "Well, no, you see, we've actually just decided not-"
"Fucking shove it," Theo growled, storming past Blaise. "Come on, hurry up, we're late for class again."
The two boys left their co-conspirators speechless, which in retrospect, wasn't really that hard for one of them.
Ginny sat back down on her bed and commenced in her reading, although her eyes didn't really register the words on the page.
"Wow," Ginny said, not looking up from her reading, knowing that Draco could hear her. "Theo's really nice isn't he?"
Draco didn't respond.
ZINGGG ten points for theo
review?