Chapter 8: Birthday Surprises
"Voldemort gave a mission this important to an underage student?" Dumbledore asked Deepvoice.
"It's as a form of punishment" Deepvoice said, and for a second Dumbledore thought he could detect some emotion behind the masked man's façade.
"What could Draco Malfoy have possibly done to make Voldemort want to punish him?" Dumbledore asked.
"It's not what young Draco has done" the female sounding Death Eater seated next to Deepvoice said "Lucius Malfoy has failed the Dark Lord, so now his son has to complete a suicide mission. That's the Dark Lord's form of justice."
"But Viper, surely Voldemort does not hold Malfoy entirely responsible for the loss at the Department of Mysteries?"
"If he punishes everyone involved in a failed operation, he won't have many followers left" Viper explained "and there was another mistake that Malfoy made."
"It was only a minor mistake on Malfoy's part" Deepvoice said.
"The Dark Lord found the Chamber of Secrets fiasco unforgivable."
"What Voldemort finds unforgivable is of little importance now" Dumbledore said to the two Death Eaters "you've both chosen to betray him, without even knowing who your fellow conspirators are."
"If I was caught, I could not risk Deepvoice being discovered" Viper said "that far outweighs any benefit we could gain from being able to contact each other privately."
"I worry about the two of you not being able to regroup if something were to happen to me though" Dumbledore said "especially if Draco's mission succeeds; which by the sound of this plan is quiet likely."
"I have to wonder how Deepvoice uncovered Draco's plan, when even the Headmaster was unaware of anything suspicious going on."
"I simply found out that Draco had made some sort of arrangement at Borgin and Burkes." Deepvoice explained "I then interrogated Borgin until he told me that Draco wanted his Vanishing Cabinet kept in the store. I then asked around, and found out from the Montague's that a similar cabinet exists in Hogwarts and was broken last year. The rest is easy enough to work out."
"I hope you didn't draw suspicion to yourself with those questions" Viper asked.
"No-one suspects a thing. Now Dumbledore can put a stop to this plan before things get to out of hand."
"I won't" Dumbledore said.
"You'll let – you'll let that boy bring Death Eaters into the school, and kill you?"
"If that is how it must happen, then I'll gladly give up my life" Dumbledore said "but I have been wondering how I would be able to get Harry to accidentally touch your portkey and be transferred to Voldemorts side without causing any suspicion. Now Deepvoice, if Draco can get Death Eaters to invade Hogwarts, then you can kidnap Harry and take him to Voldemort without raising any concern. Then Viper can destroy Nagini and you can complete your mission."
"No!" Deepvoice said "I won't do that!"
"Do you really think that the Dark Lord won't suspect a trap if Harry Potter was accidentally teleported to him?" Viper snapped "I was worried that this plan would fail, but as long as Draco succeeds, we can do this."
"No! This is madness! His only sixteen!"
"I know you disapprove Deepvoice" Dumbledore said "but I also know you'll do it."
"You know me too well" Deepvoice said "I will do it, but I have to wonder how you can call yourself the Light when some of your own plans are as cruel as the Dark Lord's."
Without even waiting to be dismissed, Deepvoice grabbed his ashtray, and was gone. With a heavy sigh, Dumbledore turned to Viper, who was now removing 'her' Death Eater robe to reveal a pale face with greasy black hair that, despite the voice used in the meeting, was defiantly male.
"What do you think of our informant Severus?" Dumbledore asked as Snape took a swig of a potion to restore his normal voice.
"His very good at Occulmancy, so it's hard to read him" Snape explained "but I still feel that he is a bit too involved in this. I wonder if he'll actually have the nerve to carry out his mission."
"I hope so Severus" Dumbledore said "for all our sakes, I hope so."
:later:
Theo was gasping for breath as he reached his dormitory. It had taken seven owls to deliver the huge, heavy parcel to him this morning, and he wanted to get it out of the Great Hall before Hermione noticed it.
"Man, couldn't you have slowed down a bit?" Blaise asked as he joined his friend in the dormitory "Ma is strict, but I don't think we'll get into too much trouble is we're a bit late."
"It's not just that" Theo said as he placed the package beside his bed "It's Hermione's present; I didn't want her to notice it."
"Present?" Blaise asked "What did you get her, a block of marble?"
"No, I got her one of these" Theo explained, as he patted the small bookcase he kept beside his bed.
"An infinitely large bookcase that is portable and evil looking?"
"Not an evil looking one." Theo said "hers has a cat on it."
"Yeah but, a bookcase?"
"She'll love it."
"I know, but if you're trying to hint that you like her, then wouldn't jewellery have been a bit more appropriate for a seventeenth birthday?"
Theo looked a bit confused, and quickly looked at his large present.
"But Hermione doesn't wear much jewellery" Theo said "and she says she never has enough room to keep all her books. Plus how am I going to afford fancy jewellery?"
"It doesn't have to be fancy. And how were you able to afford the bookcase anyway? Those things cost quite a bit."
"I got Camille to sell my Picard photo"
"The photo you got Patrick Stewart to sign?" Blaise asked in shock "wow, I underestimated just how in love you are with Hermione. Can't believe Camille let you sell it either. Hell I'm not even that much of a Trek fan and I still wish you hadn't sold it."
"She didn't want to sell it" Theo admitted "but thankfully she did, so now I have the perfect present for Hermione."
"Well that's good. But do you think you'll be able to carry it up to the Gryffindor Common Room?"
"I don't know where the Gryffindor Common Room is. Why Blaise, what are you planning?"
"Come walk with me to class Theo, I've been talking with Dave and I think we can give Hermione a nice surprise tomorrow morning."
:that night:
Hermione drew the curtains to her four post bed as she wished her dorm mates a good night. She had been born around three in the morning, so by the time she woke up tomorrow she would really be an adult.
It was starting to get a bit colder at nights, but for now it wasn't so cold that Hermione couldn't indulge in one of her guilty pleasures. Not that there is anything wrong with sleeping in the nude, she reminded herself as she undressed, but she always felt just a bit naughty about being naked while in a room with four other people.
She snuggled under the covers and thought about all the wonderful things in her life until she finally drifted off to sleep.
:the next morning:
Theo didn't bother carrying the bookcase, but levitated it and a pile of other presents that Blaise had collected. Which was a good thing, since there were so many stairs between Slytherin Dungeon and Gryffindor Tower.
Dave led the way, often going ahead to scout for danger from the safety of the walls. It was a good thing Dave had agreed to go along with Blaise's plan, because apart from being the only one who knew where Gryffindor Tower was (Theo was by now quite sick of hearing about the Wonderful "M'lady" of Gryffindor Tower) but also since he and Blaise were burdened with gifts, a birthday cake, and a breakfast tray they wouldn't have been able to hide quickly without Dave's help.
"Well here we are" Blaise announce, as they came to a painting of a well decorated curtain "Gryffindor Common Room. So Dave how long do we have?"
"M'Lady is off visiting Violet in the trophy room" Dave explained as he stepped into the portrait "you should have about an hour. Oh, but if it looks like she's coming back early, I'm bailing on you guys. Sorry."
"That's ok dude" Blaise said "if this fails, we're taking the full blame. We won't rat out on you or Dobby."
"Thanks dude" Dave said "you too have fun in there. And wish Hermione a happy birthday for me."
"Will do mate" Theo said "now how do we get in?"
"Should work the same way as my poster does, so there should be something on my side to… ah-ah, here it is. Good luck guys."
Theo noticed Dave reach outside the portrait frame, and then the whole portrait swang back, allowing them easy access to the Gryffindor Sanctuary.
"This has to the worst thing I've ever done in terms of rule breaking" Theo said as they hesitantly entered the Common Room "are you sure this is alright?"
"Hey, Hermione has always said that her dream day would be to have breakfast in bed and then just laze around with a good book." Blaise said "well we're giving her breakfast in bed, as well as cake and presents. You said yourself she'd like it."
"I know but, oh shouldn't we change the trimmings on our robes to red or something? I feel like we're going to get into so much trouble."
"Relax Theo, no-ones up yet, see look around yourself."
"Hay, this is a nice Common Room"
"Yah seems pretty cosy."
"Did I ever tell you that the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Gryffindor?"
Blaise almost allowed the breakfast tray and the birthday cake to crash into each other as he looked at his friend in shock.
"No, I would have thought you'd have been in Ravenclaw if you weren't in Slytherin" Blaise said "I remember how much you wanted to go there."
"Yeah, I really wanted to be in Ravenclaw like Alice" Theo said "but the Sorting Hat said that that was the one house that I could never go to, and said Gryffindor, but I refused to go to Gryffindor."
"Why would you refuse to go to Gryffindor?" Blaise asked "this seems cool, and according to Dave these a hot lady guarding the entrance."
"Why not? Look at me Blaise, I'm bloody terrified of breaking into Gryffindor Tower. I'm too big of a coward to be in Gryffindor."
"You're not a coward Theo."
"I'd never be as brave as Hermione or Harry. No, in the end Slytherin was the right choice for me; it's a pretty good compromise between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw."
"No offence mate, but I have always wondered how you ended up in Slytherin. Anyway, time to take our potion."
Blaise reached into his pocket and withdrew the small bottle of pink liquid that Dobby the House Elf had given them. Last year Dobby had been the only Elf cleaning Gryffindor Tower, and had used this potion whenever he needed to clean in the girl's stairwell. Now that a few female house elves had come back to clean, Dobby had an excess supply that he was glad to lend Blaise and Theo.
They had so far tested it with the stairs in Slytherin Dungeon, but as Theo took a swig of the pink goop he couldn't help but wonder if he would turn into a House Elf. Fortunately nothing happened this time either, so he gave the bottle to Blaise, who downed the rest of it.
"Ok, let's go" Blaise said, heading off to the nearest steps. Despite having done this before Theo still felt a massive surge of relief as first Blaise and then he stepped onto the stairs and nothing happened. They went past five doors, and then Blaise reached the sixth year's dorm, opened it…
…then closed it again. Waving his hands at Theo to get him to turn back (not an easy task when you are levitating a bunch of presents).
"What's wrong?" Theo asked.
"Wrong stairs" Blaise said "now quick let's get out of here; before the urge to place Weasley's hand in a dish of warm water becomes overpowering."
They did manage to get back down the stairs without dropping or damaging anything or waking up all the Gryffindors, and then they made their way up the other stairs, and this time opened the door to the sixth year girls dorm.
Four of the beds had their red and gold curtain's drawn, but Emma Malone was sprawled over the top of her still-made bed in her uniform, probably too tiered after a night out with her boyfriend in Slytherin to even draw the curtains.
Theo noticed that around one of the beds were a lot of flowers, and concluded that it had to be Sally-Anne's bed. That was really the one danger in their plan; Sally-Anne and Blaise had once been going out, but had not parted on friendly terms. She was likely to call for McGonagall just to get the two of them in trouble. As for the remaining beds, Theo couldn't tell which one belonged to Lavender Brown and which one belonged to Pavarti Patil, but Hermione's was recognisable; with books on most available surfaces.
He and Blaise approached Hermione's bed and set down their stuff. Blaise whispered her name through the curtains, but when that got no response he parted them a bit.
Hermione was all snuggled up under her blankets, with just the top of her head visible. Theo thought she looked so cute like that, and he really didn't want to disturb her.
"Let's let her sleep" he said to Blaise "we'll just leave everything here and wait in the Common Room."
"Oh come on Theo, we've come this far. And I don't want to be waiting in the Common Room if Weasley comes down before Hermione."
"Good point. Umm… but do we have to wake her up?"
"What? You want to just stand around watching her sleep like some sort of weirdo?"
"Well no but –"
"It will be fine" he said as he placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder and started gently shaking her.
"Hermione, wake up Hermione."
Hermione moaned a bit, and then turned around.
"Hermione, we have something for you" Theo said.
"Go away" she mumbled.
"Hermione, it's your birthday" Blaise said "time to get up and have breakfast in bed."
"Five more minutes."
"Okay, but only five more alright" Theo said.
"Damn it Theo, haven't you learned anything from living with Camille? 'Five more minutes' means at least another hour of sleep." With that Blaise grabbed the edge of Hermione's bedcovers. "Ok Hermione, you have until the count of three before I pull the blankets off and start tickling you."
"Umm… Blaise are you sure that – "
"One!... Two!...THREE!"
:meanwhile:
Sirius fell through the veil, Cedric died in a flash of green light before he knew what was happening, and Harry couldn't move or do anything to defend himself as Uncle Vernon picked him up and threw him hard against the cold wall of the cupboard and then –
Someone screamed.
Harry woke up.
There was still screaming; lots of screaming.
"Harry!" Ron jumped out of bed "I think that's Lavender!"
While Harry had to agree that Lavender did have a distinctive scream, he had to wonder how Ron could pick her scream from the other screaming voices – both male and female – that could be heard.
"Quick guys!" Neville said, jumping out of bed and grabbing his wand "something's going on down there!"
Harry followed the rest of his dorm mates out, and almost crashed into the seventh year guys as they ran down. Within seconds all the Gryffindor boys were in the Common Room, as were most of the girls. However there was still a lot of commotion around their stairs, many were pointing up and yelling.
"It's probably just a rat or something" one of the seventh year boys complained.
However it wasn't a rat; within seconds a burning man ran down the stairs, trying to put out the flames with his wand, while an angry girl ran behind him firing hexes.
"HOW DARE YOU COME INTO MY DORMITORY YOU PERVERT!" Sally-Anne Peaks yelled as her prey managed to extinguish itself.
"It's not like that Sally!" Blaise protested; his robes destroyed, his white shirt soaked, and what looked like soggy cake in his charred hair.
"How did you two losers get in here anyway?"
"I assure you, it had nothing to do with YOU!"
As Sally-Anne stood there looking angry and the rest of Gryffindor House tried to work out what had just happened, Lavender and Pavarti walked down the stairs carrying another Slytherin. He was covered in boils and under the effects of a Jelly-Legs Jinx. They reached the bottom and then ungraciously threw their prisoner to the ground.
Behind them marched Emma Malone, rubbing her head and looking grumpy and behind her, wrapped up in a red sheet was…,"
"Oh Merlin, Hermione!" Ron gasped.
"Blaise! Theo!" Hermione snapped "What the bloody hell do you two think you're doing?"
"Her-Her-Har- Hermione…," Theo stuttered from the floor. Hermione seemed to take pity on him, and undid the jinx. He got to his feet, ran to Hermione… and still couldn't say anything coherent to her.
"Theo, why the hell did you –"
"Happy Birthday Hermione!" Blaise said "We made you a cake, but Sally-Anne used it to set me on fire."
"You…you…" now Hermione was having trouble finding the right words "you MORONS!"
"We… wanted to, to, well do well um, breakfast in bed" Theo said "and well, it was supposed to be well, well, umm, kinda nice but, but, but well, we well, well, we didn't know you'd, well, that you wouldn't, that you slept, that you, well, that you… oh god I can see down your top!"
With an expression of indignant horror, Hermione slapped Theo across the face; causing him to scream in pain as his boils burst.
"I knew Nott was some kind of pervert." Ron said to Harry.
"I can't believe you two!" Hermione cried "I cannot believe that you would –"
"What is going on here?"
All heads in the room turned to the entrance, where a grumpy Professor McGonagall now stood; looking from Hermione, naked save for some sheets, to Theo who was on the floor trying to heal his boils, and Blaise, who was just plain wet and dirty.
"Oh crap Theo" Blaise said "we are sooo in the wrong Common Room right now. We better get going now."
"Mr. Zabini, would you care to explain why you are in the wrong Common Room?"
"Oh, we just took a wrong turn at the stairs. You know how easy it is to get lost in Hogwarts."
"Mr. Zabini, it's one thing to terrorise the members of a rival house, but I hope you aren't insulting my intelligence."
"No! No! No Professor, never. We just came to well, umm… you see we erm… ok, I cannot think of any good excuse that's going to get us out of trouble."
"Well then –"
"They weren't trying to do anything bad professor" Hermione spoke up "It's my birthday you see, and they decided to surprise me with breakfast in bed. These actually some really good smelling bacon and eggs up in the dormitory going cold right now –"
"They were in the girl's dormitory?"
"No! Well yes they were" Hermione admitted "but it wasn't to do anything bad. They were just trying to do something nice for me, since I'm seventeen now. But well, since I didn't know they were coming I well, I wasn't really dressed to receive guests. And then well, it's just all a big misunderstanding."
"There seems to be no misunderstanding Miss. Granger" McGonagall explained "two boys – two Slytherin boys – were in your dormitory. And no matter how well meaning their intentions were, this violates just about every rule Hogwarts has about being out of bounds."
"We weren't in the Forbidden Forest though" Blaise said.
"Mr. Zabini, you are not really in a position to be making jokes. Now how did you and Mr. Nott get in here?"
"We just walked in professor."
"You walked in?"
"Yup, the portrait just opened for us, and then we went up the stairs."
"Mr Zabini, do you realise –"
Before McGonagall could finish her sentence, the Portrait door slammed shut and Professor Zabini stormed in; even while still in her pyjamas and with her hair out of place, she looked beautiful. However Harry had never imagined that she could look this angry.
"Blaise Arduino Zabini!" She spat "What have you done this time!"
"You do not want to know Mother."
"How bad is it Minerva?" She asked.
"Your son – and Mr Nott – have somehow broken into the girls dormitory and caused quite a disturbance." Professor McGonagall explained.
"Blaise…how did I raise my son to be such a pervert!"
"I wasn't being a pervert Ma! Honest!"
"My own son. And Theo! I always thought that if Blaise started acting too stupid you'd at least try to talk some sense into him!"
"Well I uhhh…,"
"Professor it wasn't like that!" Hermione protested.
"Thank you for trying to defend my son Hermione. Now you two! Sixty-points from Slytherin! Each! Both of you come with me!"
"Mary I can handle this for you if you want" Professor McGonagall said.
"Sorry Minerva, I have to handle this. I'm sorry my son is such trouble."
"Mary, they are only teenage boys, and they were trying to do something nice for Miss. Granger, please don't come down too hard on them."
"I'll deal with them Minerva. Blaise, Theo… come with me. NOW!"
They both followed Professor Zabini. Blaise seemed to have gone as pale as it was for a black person to go. Theo was visually shaken by the whole affair, and Harry wondered just how shy he was. Was his Boggart a crowd of people laughing at him maybe? Despite his obvious fear though, he still managed to turn back to Hermione.
"Happy Birthday Hermione" he said, before following the Zabinis.
The room was silent for a few seconds until the portrait door slammed shut. Then McGonagall cleared her throat and looked towards Hermione.
"Miss. Granger" the Professor said "do you have any idea how they may have gotten in here?"
"No Professor, I don't" Hermione said "I'm really sorry about this."
"No apology necessary" she said "Happy Birthday Miss. Granger; and please go and put some clothes on."
McGonagall left without another word, and for a while the whole room was silent. Until Ron started giggling.
"Blaise Arduino Zabini!" He said in a girly voice "why is my son such a pervert?"
Harry found himself laughing along with the rest of the house. The only one not laughing seemed to be Hermione.
"How funny was it when Zabini got in trouble off his mummy?" Ron continued "And he was covered in goop."
"I thought you had a thing for Professor Zabini?" Hermione asked when the laughter died down.
"That's not the point" Ron said "I mean, did you see any of that? And what about when you hit Nott and all those boils burst? Man that was so great!"
"NO IT WASN'T!" Hermione yelled "those were serious boils Pavarti put on him, it must have hurt like hell."
"Serves the git right for looking at you naked" Ron said "How did they get your clothes off anyway?"
"They didn't! I just like to sleep in the nude! It wasn't Blaise or Theo's fault this happened!"
"Not their fault?" Sally-Anne protested "they came into our dormitory! How did they get in here in the first place? Those sickos."
"But they came with a large pile of presents." Emma Malone reasoned "hay Hermione, bring them out here, let's see what you got."
"Oh yah, that was so sweet of them" Lavender said.
"Come on Hermione, open them!" Pavarti added.
"Oh you're not going to let them off the hook just because they brought flowers and chocolates are you?" Ron asked.
"They aren't completely off the hook" Hermione said "Anyway, I think I'll open them upstairs."
"No way!" A fourth year called out "I want to see what they got you!"
"Yah" said another girl "what was so great that they had to come into your dorm?"
"Come on, we're all up way too early. Let us see!"
Hermione went pink as the whole room began demanding to see what she got. "Okay, okay" She said "I'll open everything out here… just please let me go upstairs to get dressed first."
All the girls around Hermione parted so that she could return to the dormitory. Harry noticed that Ron was looking at her retreating, scantily clad figure the same way he had first looked at Professor Zabini.
"Hey Harry" Ron said "let's get our presents and get Hermione to open them too."
"Ah, I actually gave my present for Hermione to Blaise" Harry said "He said he was going to arrange a special delivery for all her gifts… but I didn't think they'd deliver it in person."
"You gave Hermione's present to them?" Ron asked.
"Yeah" Neville said "He got presents off Emma, Hannah, and me yesterday. Didn't he ask you for anything?"
"Yes he asked me" Ron said "but I wasn't stupid enough to give it to him. I mean look what just happened. He ruined Hermione's birthday!"
Just then Hermione came back downstairs, fully dressed and levitating a large pile of gifts. She had a massive smile on her face as she placed them down and picked up the nearest one.
"Thanks Harry" she said as she unwrapped the heavy book on advanced Artithmacy that he had given her. She then unwrapped her next present; a book from Blaise titled "101 things you didn't know about the Magical World"
Then she got to Theo's gift; which was too large to be a book. She opened it, and then her face lit. The gift turned out to be a large wooden box with a cat etched into the side.
"He got me an infinite bookcase" Hermione gasped "this is… wow. My books were starting to get damaged from being knocked about in my bottomless bag. This is… wow. I can't believe Theo got me something so amazing!"
She put the two books she had already received into the bookcase, and then went back to opening presents. Every time she got a book (which was most of the time) she placed it into her new bookcase, and Harry swore that at one stage she even gave the cat's face a quick pat.
:Later:
Hermione was in a pretty good mood, even though she had just come from History of Magic and was on her way to Potions. She should have been feeling worse than she was, since Malfoy was in both classes and had spent the morning being an obnoxious git.
"I heard that Nott and Zabini saw you naked today" He had hissed from the seat next to hers "I think I would have started screaming too if I had had to look upon your filthy body. I almost feel sorry for the poor bastards."
Hermione decided just to ignore him; despite the embarrassing scene that morning, she was overjoyed to have new books and that wonderful new bookcase. "Though I guess Nott wouldn't have minded. I bet to him, even a Mudblood's body must be better than being alone and hideous. Like he is now."
Hermione had kept ignoring him. Though in hindsight Binns probably wouldn't have noticed if she had punched him in the face.
"Hay Granger, have you ever seen Nott naked? Damn I wouldn't even wish that on you."
"You know what Malfoy" Xanthe had butted in from the seat behind "I wouldn't wish Parkinson's or Bulstrode's grotesque naked bodies on you, but I bet you've seen both."
"And you would know all about naked woman, wouldn't you?"
"If you're bringing my sexuality into question, then I have a boyfriend. And at least I'm not a pretty-boy like you!"
"No, you're just a freak!"
"No Malfoy, you're the freak!"
Hermione had always thought of Xanthe as strange – not in a harmless silly way like Luna, but in a more unpredictable, scarier way. However it was at that moment that she realised she had begun to warm up to Blaise's pincushion of a girlfriend.
Hermione and Xanthe teamed up against Malfoy for the rest of the lesson, and when outnumbered and without back-up Malfoy had taken up the 'just ignore it' approach himself. After they were dismissed Hermione spent her short break with Xanthe, exchanging notes to see if between the two of them they could piece together what Binns had been talking about while they were teasing Malfoy about his effeminate grooming habits.
Hermione was almost to the Potions classroom, and was looking forward to seeing Blaise and Theo and thanking them for their presents. She arrived at the classroom to find only one other student present; Blaise.
Only Blaise.
No Theo anywhere in sight.
"Oh hullo Hermione" Blaise asked with a hint of caution "are you still mad?"
"No" Hermione said "well, ok maybe a bit. How did you and Theo go?"
"Sixty points off each, scrubbing bedpans for a week and Ma says that if I ever embarrassing her in front of her old house again she'll embarrass me in front of the whole school."
"She feels embarrassed?" Hermione asked.
"I think the embarrassment started when I was sorted into Slytherin" Blaise explained.
"I'm sure she's proud of you even in Slytherin."
"She actually sent a Howler to Dumbledore demanding I be sent into Gryffindor."
"She really sent a Howler?"
"Yeah, Dumbledore called me up to his office and told me about it. He seemed surprised that she was the only one to send him one. Apparently his record is seven in one year."
"Seven people complaining about what houses their kids got put in?" Hermione asked "that's ridiculous."
"I know" Blaise said "but I guess Ma had some pretty bad experiences with Slytherins."
"But still, in the end it's just a house."
"I guess."
By now Hermione was starting to lose interests in houses, and was instead wondering where Theo was.
"So, where's Theo?" She asked, trying not to sound worried. After all, Blaise would have said something if he was injured or expelled.
"Well umm… his not feeling so hot, so his gone back to bed."
"Sick?"
"Well… he thinks you hate him" Blaise explained "he thinks his ruined your friendship and you don't want to see him, and on top of that, his boils aren't going to go down until tomorrow."
"No!" Hermione protested "I don't hate Theo! His my friend. And I want to let him know how much I loved the bookcase, and how sorry I am for slapping him."
"Well, it wasn't the smartest thing his ever said. Want to see him during lunch?"
"Yes please, do you think you can get him to come out?"
"Nope. But there's nothing stopping you from going to him. Except a force field, but that's easy enough to get around."
"Go to him… in his dormitory?"
"Yup"
"In Slytherin?"
"Well we both broke into your dormitory; fairs fair."
"Blaise, won't it be dangerous? I mean, I'm muggle-born!"
"So is Matt Powers, and his lived there for two years."
Hermione didn't want to go to Slytherin Dungeon. Even if she could feel safe there, the thought was extremely distasteful. However she inwardly cringed at the thought of going back to rarely speaking to Theo, even though he was still always around. It had been alright before, when he was just the 'shy friend' of Blaise, but now he had become a very important friend to her, and she couldn't let him crawl back into his shell. Not because of another stupid mistake of hers.
"Ok, after class we'll go see him" She said "just make sure his fully dressed before I go into the dorm."