Short Change Hero

Chapter 28: Everything Comes Down to This

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Here in the Black

"Is this real or imagined,
Because if I'm asleep,
Well then I don't need to scream for long,

Here in the black it comes for me,
Here in the black I'm lost..."

Here in the Black By Gary Numan

Still Thursday October 31st, 1996

In the hallway just outside the Slytherin's common rooms, half past ten at night

The word uninterested came to Blaise's mind while he slowly slipped away from the fifth year girl he hadn't even bothered to get the name of. Even with his fairly polite demeanor there was no easy way to let her down, so when some of her friends managed to capture her attention he left the party.

Sighing aloud in order to push away the oncoming brush of guilt, he walked down the dimly lit corridor leading out of the dungeons, wondering where Pansy had run off to. He still had been trying to get her to talk about what had been bothering her, but it was Pansy. Out of everyone he knew he had still yet to come across a witch who was more stubborn than she was, but that had not deterred him from looking.

Walking up the winding staircase leading to ground floor of Hogwarts, he heard talking as he rounded the last bend forcing him to almost run into someone. Looking up he saw Crabbe and Goyle staring down at him with distinct mutual expressions of abhorrence; which was curious and strangely amusing considering the fact probably neither of them knew the definition of the word.

"You following us Zabini?" Crabbe snarled. Other than raising his left brow, Blaise allowed the rest of his facial features to remain indifferent almost in a way he picked up from Malfoy.

"I find it rather fascinating that you think I would spend any of my time following the likes of you ..." He replied. The two of them glared down at him while shoving past him as he continued speaking. "But, if you must know, I was looking for Pansy. So you must excuse me, I have more important things to attend to..."

Then continued walking around the corner that led down a narrow corridor where he was able to relax only slightly. Something about those two this year faintly unnerved Blaise. He couldn't quite place what it was but the malcontent behind their actions was loud and clear. With pursed lips, he made his way to round another corner but was stopped by a singular ball of blue light flying past him right into the stone wall three feet to his right.

The explosion of light burst and crackled before him as he peaked around the corner to see someone lying upon the stone cold floor while two other people tossed spells. The second he saw the flaming red hair whipping around from the jerky movements caused by blocking spell after spell, he knew who it was. Ginny Weasley and well, the other he wasn't able to make out just yet.

'What in Salazar's is going on?' he thought to himself as he watched her jump out of the way of yet another spell that flew his way. The color of this one was vibrant red splattering against stone with another crackling sound.

"This is pointless Ginny," the other person, defiantly a boy, spoke. "I underestimated you, yes. It is truly remarkable how you managed to push past the spell, yet again. I'll give you that. But this is getting tedious-"

"Is that what it is?" she called out from behind a stone pillar. "Tedious? Pointless? Then why do I get the feeling that you are a bit anxious?"

Blaise watched the two of them gripping at their wands, ready to cast another spell while he leaned against the stone wall. In that second he knew the other person wasn't going to acknowledge what she said with a response. The only thing Blaise could hear was his own shaky breath while he reached for his wand slowly in case he needed it.