t w e n t y - e i g h t

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D-Day, Christmas

Ginny exhaled noisily as she ran her fingers through her hair roughly, completely aggravated by the situation they were in. “We searched all the rooms down that hallway last night and heard nothing with the ears, nothing. I didn’t even hear the slightest thing. Lavender wasn’t in the Gryffindor common room or dorm which means she’s in on the whole plan with Parkinson! And we don’t even know where the hell the boys are and Pansy fucking Parkinson is going to get to our friends. What the bloody hell happened over break? I’m not in some fucking twisted book, yet . . .” She took a deep breath in, trying to calm down as she puffed out air. “How did things happen? How did everything turn out like this?” She finished her ranting as she let out an exasperated groan, collapsing on Zabini’s bed.  

“You sure can use profanity well,” Blaise stated with an impressed nod of the head as he sat down next to her. “Look, we may not know where the boys are but we do know that they’re in trouble and most likely bait to Draco or Granger, either one of those two. What we can do right now is keep those two lovebirds safe, we can’t let them out of our sights—if we do, just shoot the killing curse at yourself. We need to protect them. That’s our job right now.” He told her reassuringly, getting the plan into Ginny’s head.

“I know, I just—my boyfriend and my brother are trapped . . . wherever they are and I’m sure they’ve caught on that they’re bait for any one of us. If only there was a way to find where they are.”

Blaise did a double take on Ginny as he heard her words. A light bulb went off above his head, shining brightly at his new idea. He snapped his fingers loudly and pushed Ginny up and off the bed. “I think it’s time we use that map again.”

“What ma . . . p. That’s brilliant! No, y-you’re brilliant!” She yelled with joy as she shook her head approvingly. “O, okay, why don’t you stay here and keep them busy while I run over there and grab the map. Then, we can find out their location and probably Parkinson’s too. Why didn’t we think about that before when Parkinson returned? We could’ve caught her sooner.” She said with excitement and she practically flew out of the bedroom before Blaise could even process what had happened.

“You . . . do that.” Blaise said, gluing his lips together awkwardly as he continued to stare at the empty spot where Ginny had been occupying a few seconds ago. “I’m stuck with the couple, again.” He said with slight rancor as he stumbled out of the room. “Where the hell are they? I need to find them first in order to keep them busy! I need that damn map, myself.” He protested as he looked around the empty common room. “They’re on their own for now, I need that map to find them.” He ran out of the room, hoping to catch Ginny while she was still in the empty corridors.

Right after Blaise disappeared; Hermione and Draco poked their heads out of Hermione’s bedroom and furrowed their eyebrows simultaneously. “What map do you reckon he was talking about?” Draco asked as he looked down at her.

“I think I have an idea of what he’s after . . . but how would he know where—oh, I understand.” Hermione said as she opened the door fully, rising from the ground since she was on her knees looking out the door. She got up and dusted herself off. “I wonder why he wanted to keep us busy.”

“He probably just wanted to ruin our Christmas.” Draco joked as he shrugged his shoulders. “Who knows? He’s quite the sadist, you know. He just doesn’t show it much.”

Hermione chuckled and shook her head. “Zabini is nice and he doesn’t seem like a sadist at all.”

“You’re right, he’s a narcissistic bloke, can’t seem to take his eyes off of himself.”

“I think you might be confusing yourself with Zabini.” Hermione told him with a devilish glint in her eyes as she laughed at his facial expression. “Close your mouth, you’ll catch a fly.” She warned him and laughed once more at his confused expression. “It’s a muggle argot. You wouldn’t understand . . . my apologies.”

“Are you having fun teasing me?” Draco asked, cocking up an eyebrow as he placed his hands on his hips. “But I suppose you’re right about me being a narcissistic bloke. I mean, I don’t blame people for looking at me constantly. I’m a work of art.”

Hermione rolled her eyes at Draco and lightly shoved his chest. “Get off your damn high horse, Malfoy.” She told him with a playful sneer as she shook her head. “But . . .” She started and smiled as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “What do you want to do now? I mean, we have a lot of things to do at night so what do you suppose we do? Think about it, this is our best chance. I’m sure Ginny and Zabini won’t leave us alone this whole day so why don’t we just leave when we have the chance? The chance is now, they’re both gone and away, we can just slip out quickly and—“

“Let’s go to the Great Hall and get some lunch, I’m getting really hungry.” Blaise yelled enthusiastically as he waltzed into the room with a complacent grin stuck on his face. “I’m sorry, was I interrupting something?”

“As a matter of fact, you were.” Draco told his friend with a threatening gaze—of course it was an empty threat.

“Well, then let’s get going. Weaslette is waiting for us over there. She’s by herself right now, so we should probably get going before she loses her patience.” He warned them as he stared at them intensely. “You two didn’t think you’d celebrate Christmas alone, right?” He asked and laughed when the couple cleared their throats. “Oh, that’s quite embarrassing . . .”

“You should be em—“

“Oh, not me, you two should be embarrassed. You two are going to spend quality time with your friends.” He told them with a smirk as he crossed his arms across his chest.

“Zabini, I thought you two would give us a little bit of time together before the four of us gathered—“

“You thought wrong, Granger. Now, let’s get moving or that fiery ginger won’t let us off easy.” Blaise said as he waited for the couple to drag their feet out the door with lingering groans. “Oh, spending time with us isn’t that bad, I don’t understand why you two are so against it.”

“Well, what about you? I thought you were going to go retrieve a map, the Ma—“

“How’d you know about that?” Blaise asked with panic as he froze in his tracks.

“We heard you muttering to yourself—rather loudly—and stormed out of the room.” Hermione replied back with a knowing look. “Who were you two trying to find?”