AN: Wait – what's this? Another Chapter? Within two days? I think I just outdid myself.

Chapter 5

Involving the Blonde

It was rather early the next day, when the modest fireplace burst into a thousand green flames and quite a ruffled looking young man stumbled out, a string of unprintable curses tumbling from his mouth.

"Merlin, Draco, get your mouth out of the sewer. What would your mother say!" Blaise hissed over the breakfast bar, mopping up the coffee he'd spilled upon his friend's hasty and unexpected arrival.

Draco Malfoy just rolled his eyes, "She'd be shocked that I'm out of bed this early."

Blaise pulled a face at his too-hot coffee that had burned his tongue. "What the hell are you even doing here at this hour in the morning – it's not even noon!"

Draco strolled into the kitchen and peered into the cookie jar, "You said it was an emergency! You know," he added, sticking his arm into the jar and feeling around for his favourite chocolate caramel biscuit, "I'm not a complete sloth – I do actually come when it's something serious."

Blaise raised an eyebrow over his coffee mug, "You didn't come after Juliet broke up with me and I needed you! How was that not an emergency?"

"Meh," Draco, finally having retrieved a cookie, shrugged as he nibbled at it. "You guys were so not meant to be together. We all had bets riding on how long you'd last."

"WHAT!" Blaise all but shrieked, "How am I the only person nobody told?"

"Told about what?" Came a drowsy voice from the bedroom door.

Draco's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as he raised both of his pale eyebrows to his hairline. Blaise was about to say something, but Draco had already grasped his elbow and was dragging him into the bathroom. As he slammed and locked the door behind them he glared at his best friend. "That – she's your problem! You drag me out of bed at this ungodly hour because you slept with Granger!"

"Drake," Blaise said slowly, trying to shift, because being backed up to the sink by your male friend is not the most comfortable of positions. "it's not what it looks like."

"That's what they all say." Draco pointed out flatly.

Just then there was a knock on the bathroom door. "Um, Blaise..." came Hermione's timid voice, "...about last night..." This, of course, caused Draco to again raise his eyebrows accusingly at his friend. How was he going to talk himself out of this now, eh?

"Ah, um, Granger," Blaise shouted out over Draco's shoulder, "could you, I don't know, go...make us some tea? Please."

They heard her shuffling away outside.

"Explain. Now." Draco demanded.

"This is not normal." Draco, leaning with his elbows on the breakfast bar, whispered to Blaise who was next to him sipping on his third cup of tea. It had been an hour since Draco's arrival and after Blaise had explained the whole Granger-incident they'd come out of the tiny bathroom to find Hermione attempting the unthinkable: cleaning up Blaise's living room. So now they were watching her bustle about from the safety of the kitchen, not really sure what to do with her. She acted like they weren't even there as she went about her business.

"I think she's maybe gone a bit mental..." Blaise whispered back after a while, his light eyes never leaving her kneeling body as she plucked the little fuzzy bits off his brownish carpet thing.

Draco took a bite out of his jam sandwich and glanced at his friend, "Do you think we should, I don't know, refer her to St. Mungo's or something? She seems like she's lost in her own mind or something..."

"Nah, I don't think she's that cracked. Maybe she's just OCD?"

Draco snorted, "OCD? Are you kidding me? Look at her!" he jabbed what was left of his sandwich in Hermione's direction. "There's totally something not right with her!"

Blaise sighed, Draco was right. Hermione was mumbling quietly to herself, rocking on the balls of her feet – plucking at the fuzzy bits in a steady rhythm. Occasionally she'd give a little shudder or look up with a terrified look in her eyes.

Not for the first time he wondered what had happened in roughly ten years to cause such a transformation in her. Blaise had never been fond of Granger in their school days; she'd been a bossy know-it-all; but he had admired her bravery, even if it was a bit reckless. But now it seemed as if everything of her former self had been squashed out. A fire doused by wet sand.

He'd never thought it possible, not after the admittedly awful way they'd all treated her during school and yet she'd still stayed strong.

It was slightly disconcerting seeing her like this. Broken.

And yet, he couldn't help but think that somewhere buried deep under whatever issues she had, the Gryffindor Lioness was lying dormant, just waiting to be woken up. He'd caught a glimpse of that old fire the previous night in Diagon Alley when she'd so viciously attacked him.

Right then and there, Blaise Zabini, made it his mission to find and fix the Gryffindor Lioness as he sipped thoughtfully at his Earl Grey.

Draco's voice roused him from his reverie, "You should maybe take her back home soon, or you'll have Potter and the Weasels blasting down your front door."

"...They don't know she's with me." Blaise pointed out, "But I suppose you're right; Potter would have my head and my job if he found out that I took her in."

"Kidnapped her. Technically you kidnapped her." Draco stated.

"Yeah, well, either way she'll have to go back. You don't know by any chance where she and the Weasel live?"

Blaise knew that Granger was technically a Weasel too – nobody could have missed the marriage, it was publicised all over the Wizarding World and not only the British one. The only marriage that was possibly more famous than hers to the Weasel was that of the Weaselette to Potter. But that wasn't really surprising, was it?

"Ummm..." Draco hummed for a few seconds, a little crease forming between his pale eyebrows. Blaise had known him long enough to know that that meant that Draco was actually thinking about the question. "Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, that's all I know. In some huge villa that the Weasel bought a few years back; I remember 'cause it was all over the front page of the Daily Prophet: 'Quidditch Legend and One Third of The Golden Trio, Ron Weasley, splashes the cash on 5 Million Galleon Villa. For more, turn to page 13.' You really couldn't miss it." Draco said flatly.

"Could you by any chance pop by the Ministry and find out? I'm not keen on leaving her here on her own, you know, I might come back and find my house in an irreparably clean state." Blaise said, putting his nearly-empty mug on a stack of filthy plates by the sink.

"Wait. Just so I get this right: You hall me out of bed at an unthinkable hour in the morning because you kidnapped missy know-it-all who should be a mental patient in St. Mungo's and now you want me to just 'pop by the Ministry' to inconspicuously ask for her address. What have you done with my best mate Blaise?"

"C'mon Drake, stop being such a drama queen and make yourself useful for once in your life."

"I feel insulted." Draco grumbled. Nevertheless, he stepped over Granger (still kneeling on the round) and into the fireplace.

With a whoosh of green flames the blonde was gone again.

Blaise sighed, tugging at the hem of his tight black t-shit before walking over to the woman on his floor. He stood next to her for a few seconds, then decided to crouch down. "Granger?" he touched her shoulder lightly.

She was wearing his shirt and boxers that he'd put out for her last night, and Blaise couldn't help but smile at the sight of her nearly drowning in them. She seemed so small, so petite. He'd remembered her taller and, well, sort of bigger; but not in fat way.

She twitched under his touch, her big brown doe eyes looking up at him. "Sorry, would you like me to start on the windows now?" she asked, thoughtfully stroking the brown carpet under her, which was now fuzz-thing free, Blaise observed.

"Eh, no, Granger. No, you don't have to do the windows. I'm just letting you know that I'll be taking you home as soon as Draco comes back, okay?"

Hermione's eyes practically welled with glistening tears and her bottom lip started trembling. She wrapped her arms around herself in a protective manner, fear rattling her breath.

"Oh, eh, don't cry start crying on me now, please, Granger." Blaise awkwardly patted her back, completely flustered with the situation.

Just then, the fireplace erupted again and Draco stepped back into the room, shaking dark ash from his platinum hair. "Got it!" he waved a small piece of parchment around. "I swear to Merlin, Blaise, the looks they gave me when I asked. You'd think –"

But Blaise interrupted his friend's ramblings, "Change of plan, mate. I'm not letting her go. Not before we've figured out what's going on here."

"We?" Draco asked, "Listen, mate, I never signed up for anything."

"We'll I'm not letting her go before that, so you might as well help me."

"Wait, so I just possibly tarnished my good reputation and will be at the centre of the Ministry's rumour mill for nothing?"

"Um, yeah."

AN: So thanks for all the lovely reviews you guys wrote, it really spurred me on! That and the fact that I'm generally on a creativity high at the moment. It's like a whole herd of plot bunnies is grazing away in my mental garden! 'Tis a wonderful feeling, indeed. Although I don't expect Chapter 6 to be up anytime soon; I haven't even started it yet and school starts in a week again and I have a shitload of summer work still to do. Ugh. But yeah, don't let that distract you from reviewing!