of the Castle on Thursday evening. For reasons he did not wish to dwell on, his first instinct had been to take on Draco's appearance. That had bought him some time, but he had not been expecting Nymphadora Tonks to call him out for what he truly was.
The death of the male Auror (what was his name? Bligh?) had been an unfortunate necessity. 'Unfortunate' in the sense that people tended to get nervous when Aurors went missing, especially if such a thing were to happen on school grounds that were being monitored so closely by Ministry law enforcement.
Still, it was a thrill to be able to use one of the precious Death Portals Wormtail had given him the previous week. They were small enough for him to carry, concealed inside his clothes.
Wherever Bligh went, he was now dead and gone. Sadly, the pretty Auror with the sharp tongue that he was keeping in the makeshift Death Eater barracks would meet a similar fate. She was a spirited thing and reminded him of Hermione.
The only good thing to come out of the kidnapping was that nearly all the students had returned home early for the summer holidays, and the investigation had been moved back to the Ministry. It was now possible to move around the nearly deserted Hogwarts without needing to shift into a teacher, a patrolling Auror or anyone else, for that matter.
Blaise went from bored and impatient, to quietly interested, when he finally spotted the object of his mission that evening. He had certainly waited long enough for them to return after following Granger from Hogwarts to Knockturn Alley.
Draco was wearing a cap and so was harder to spot if you were looking for his telltale head of hair. Granger was easy enough to notice, though. Her shoulder length curls were loosely tied up, but Blaise unfailingly recognised her. He also knew, even from some distance away, that she was frowning slightly. The smooth, creamy skin between her eyes, an inch above where her freckles appeared on the bridge of her nose, would be delicately creased.
She did that when troubled and it was clear that she was troubled now. No doubt Malfoy was the reason for the frown. He was dragging her down the street and up to the Cobblestone Inn with a clenched jaw and an extremely tense expression.
There was little about Hermione Granger that Blaise had not taken close notice off over the past year. He thought it odd, given that he did not think nor expect that he would ever become attached to anyone, in such a fashion.
She wasshe was different, wasn't she? Something boys like him and Malfoy could admire from a far, but never touch. Not banal, like other Gryffindors. Not austere, like Ravenclaws or possessed of no imagination, like most Hufflepuffs.
Oh yes, she was a tad wound up, but she more than made up for this with her other, more pleasing attributes.
She had a mind made for organisation and if given the right impetus, leadership. It was all there in her foundations. Potter trusted her judgement implicitly. Apart from wholeheartedly approving of her intellect, Dumbledore considered her a necessary temperance for Potter's more impulsive tendencies.
Potter was a chapter in a history book. He was a Chocolate Frog Card. His lot was to fall in battle, a martyr for the ages. Harry accepted this and he tried to live his life in a way that would prepare him and his loved ones, for it. There were times when Blaise admired the boy, almost.
Granger's destiny was more uncertain. If Blaise had his way - and he often did - he would attempt to cloud it even more. He had thought about making his interest in her known, over the past few months, but they had been busy months and it wasn't everyone who could handle NEWTS, a School Captaincy and a Death Eater apprenticeship all at once.
It was because he fancied himself enamoured with Hermione, and as a result noticed so much about her, that he soon worked out that she had recently become involved with someone.
Not just any fellow student, but someone she didn't want anyone to know about.
First, it had been her surreptitious reading of the book on Fida Mia, in the library. That had set alarm bells ringing once he discovered what the spell was all about.
She had disappeared in the middle of the Seventh Year Graduation Party a fortnight ago, and Blaise had noted that the only other person conspicuously missing