Draco looked between Ginny and Blaise, completely and thoroughly, pissed off.
"It's nice to see you too, sweetheart." Blaise patted his cheek, grabbing a piece of toast from their makeshift breakfast.
"What the hell are you doing here?" He hissed. "I thought you were in Italy."
"Things changed." Blaise brushed the crumbs off his black shirt.
"That's your explanation?"
"Would you like the full story? Because the last time we spoke you were all 'Dark Lord' this and 'kiss my snaked encrusted knuckles' that."
"You're working with The Order." He growled. "And you didn't think to mention it?"
"I wasn't aware we were on speaking terms."
"Oh fuck off Zabini."
"Fuck off yourself Malfoy."
Draco leapt up, his stool scraping across the wooden floor.
"Guys!" Hermione yelled. "First of all, it is way too early for this masculine bullshit and second, Ginny, please explain what is going on." She rubbed her temples.
"We're your new duelling partners." She smirked.
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"I said no. Find someone else." Malfoy crossed his arms. Hermione glanced at Ginny apologetically which only angered him more.
"There is no-one else." Ginny bit back. "At least, not anyone that can be spared." She dumped a large duffle bag on the floor.
Granger grabbed his hand from where she was sitting, slowing his heart rate slightly. Blaise's eyes flicked to the spot and some kind of new understanding dawned on his face. He felt like punching him.
"How is everyone?" Hermione proffered, attempting to break the tension.
"Ok. Remus is worried." The She-Weasley spoke between mouthfuls, helping herself to their breakfast too. Apparently nothing was sacred here. "But there's something you should know." She continued.
Malfoy leant forward, interested in spite of the company he found himself in.
"Magical creatures have been disappearing." She whispered, her eyes darting around as if the walls were listening.
"We think he's gathering an army." Blaise added.
Hermione stilled, her eyes glazing over slightly as they did when she was thinking and assessing her options. "Which means he's found out that something is wrong."
Weasley nodded, "that's what we thought."
An awkward pause elapsed. About half an hour ago he'd woken up with Hermione sprawled across his chest. She'd looked over at him shyly and retracted from any further physical contact. He wasn't sure if it was something she wanted to do more of again.
"Anyway!" Ginny punctured the silence. "Hermione, I could murder a shower. Mind showing me which room's mine?"
Blaise thrummed his fingers on the counter. The tap dripped slightly and there was a faint whistling of wind coming through the fireplace.
Draco glared at him and he glared back.
From upstairs, voices started to rise. He could discern Hermione's lilting tone with biting consonants and imagined she was probably using both hands to make a point.
Blaise sighed and undid a button from his shirt, exposing the top of a tattoo Draco didn't recognise.
"There's something you should know Draco." He coughed. "My family-" Blaise started, pulling the collar away from his neck.
He waited for him to continue, biting back an insult once he felt a wave of seriousness wash over them both.
Blaise moved over to the sink, turning the tap to stop the drip. "They've gone into hiding."
"What?"
"Yeah." His voice wavering slightly.
"But why? I thought your father was helping The Dark- You know Who with the banks. He was invaluable." Draco felt his heart thump through his chest as flashes of Blaise's mum and dad filled his head. They had dinner together most weekends when they were in third and fourth year, before everything went dark.
"To the wrong people apparently." Blaise smiled sadly. "All this time they were playing both sides."
Draco let out a low whistle, "I…didn't see that coming."
Blaise rubbed his chin. "Yeah, me neither."
"When?"
"About three months ago."
Draco puzzled over the timeline. It was around the same time things started to go downhill.
"Remus found me before they went and offered me a place in The Order. Said I could fight."
"You should have run."
"You're still here." Blaise responded, his eyes darting down to the dark mark. "You know, you might be a prick, but I never thought of you as one of them."
Draco tried to pull his sleeve down to hide it.
More shouting sounded from upstairs. He grimaced and Blaise smirked.
"So what's the deal with Granger?" He asked.
Draco's eyes flashed in warning.
"Easy." Blaise held his hands up. "I just didn't realise the binding was so…personal."
"Yeah well, you try being blood bound to your ex-nemesis and let me know how that goes."
"Ex?"
Draco shrugged.
"No I'm sorry."
"What?" Draco tried to play it off, sipping some coffee. His insides were squirming.
Blaise leant forward and cocked his head to one side. "Oh no." He laughed, throwing his head back with a lion's grin. "No, this is too good!"
Draco crossed his arms.
"Oh it all makes sense now! Wow Pansy was actually onto something."
"Keep your voice down you buffoon. And what has Pansy got to do with this?"
"I just can't believe I didn't see it." Blaise laughed, sizing him up. "All those insults. The obsession. It was all foreplay. Ever since third year, no, fourth year?" He stroked his chin, "definitely fifth year."
"You are reaching Blaise."
"Stay in denial all you want darling." He chuckled.
Ginny and Hermione lay side by side on the bed.
"Truce?"
"Truce."
"This whole thing is just so insane." Ginny mused. She suddenly gasped, turning violently to face Hermione. "Have you…in this bed?!"
"Ginny!"
"Well it's a fair question apparently." She scoffed.
"No, we haven't. We just sleep here, because-"
"-the binding. Yeah, yeah." She narrowed her eyes.
Hermione blushed, staring at the ceiling. It was insane, wasn't it?
"You're smiling!"
"Can't I smile?"
Ginny sat up, looking at her with that pitying expression again. "I just don't want you to get hurt."
"We're all going to get hurt in this war one way or another." She sighed.
Ginny breathed, "about that…"
"What is it? Harry? Ron?" She sat up.
"No, no." Ginny continued. "It's about Blaise. Apparently his family were sending money to The Order." She lowered her voice.
Hermione frowned, not expecting that.
"And You Know Who found out, so they had to vanish."
"Why not Blaise too?"
Ginny shook her head, "that's not the point Hermione. They can't send money anymore, it's too much of a risk."
She let her words sink in. "What about Harry's inheritance?"
"Went on securing this place and other things."
And their mission to find Horcruxes, Hermione thought to herself. She had also rather naively assumed that the professors had unlimited funds. They would need money for supplies and restocking healing potions, weapons, replacement wands…
She stared at Ginny. "How long do we have?"
"Months, maybe less."
She nodded, processing the information. "So they want to draw the battle forward?"
"Yes." Ginny agreed.
Hermione felt stupid for forgetting somehow that they were in the midst of all this. She had been distracted. "Then we should train. Now."
"You and Malfoy against me and Blaise." Ginny projected outside, drawing a circle with her wand "Anyone who steps outside this has to forfeit."
"Forfeit? What is this truth or dare Weasley?" Malfoy grunted, assuming a defensive position.
Hermione felt the warmth of him next to her and tried her best to concentrate on Ginny. He smirked briefly as if he'd heard her thoughts.
"Who says we can't have fun." Ginny grinned.
Blaise sauntered over next to her, adjusting the straps around his chest. They were all dressed in the newest fighting leathers - a parting gift from the Zabinis.
Hermione tested her mobility - she could stretch more easily in these and there were no cloaks to weigh them down.
"Nice arse Granger." Blaise called.
Before she had time to utter a retort, Malfoy shot a muting charm at him. Blaise mouthed 'not fair' and broke into silent laughter.
"You know." She murmured so only Draco could hear. "You're awfully possessive."
"I don't care." He growled, making her chest rumble.
"Diffindo!" Ginny shouted out of nowhere.
Hermione grabbed Draco's arm, silently casting a shield. She watched his eyes widen as a golden sphere burst, softening around them.
He looked like he might kiss her for a moment before waving his wand to dispel it.
Blaise shook his head in bewilderment.
Then they erupted, Ginny slashing spells that Draco countered easily, even lazily. She saw her cheeks grow redder with frustration.
Blaise joined in after a zoning out for a moment and backed Ginny up. He tended to favour his left side, Hermione noted, shooting back spells to unbalance him.
Draco flicked his eyes at her, registering her tactics and grabbed her hand. Their magic seared between them, charging before leasing with each spell.
The thrumming in her ears got louder, rhythmically pulsing as if she could hear hear Draco's pulse as well as her own.
"We need to separate them!" Ginny yelled to Blaise, who nodded, circling around their side, shooting spells at Draco while Ginny tried to combat Hermione.
Draco swung her around so they were touching, back to back. Her mind flashed to Malfoy Manor.
She kept her eyes on Ginny, both of them locked into a battle of non-verbal spells with flashes of magic.
At her back, she felt Draco try harder, his breathing louder with every movement.
She saw Blaise's eyes widen and Ginny's mouth drop open.
Confused, she turned around to Malfoy and saw they were tethered by strains of golden light, moving between them like distended nerves.
She shot a spell at them both while they were distracted and light exploded, propelling them outside of the circle.
"Time out!" Grunted Blaise, who was holding his side.
"Guess we won." Draco purred into her ear, passing her and offering a hand to help Blaise up.
Ginny rearranged her belt, retightening it around her waist. "That wasn't normal magic."
"Don't we know it." Hermione muttered, watching Draco slap Blaise on the back and say something offensive into his ear, earning him a jab in the stomach.
"The defensive shield." Ginny continued. "Do you think you could extend it?"
She furrowed her eyebrows, thinking of the possibility. What if they could cover The Order, or better yet, the location of the battle? "We could try." She resolved and Ginny nodded.
"Ok, round two!" Ginny yelled. "And this time, let's try you two at opposite ends. See if you can still do your freaky golden light shit."
Draco rolled his eyes at her and she laughed, feeling weirdly optimistic for the first time in a while.