Breaking All the Rules

Chapter Fourteen

Breaking All the Rules

Stress Can Do Wonders

~*~~*~~*~

Molly spotted them as they were about to leave. She had been so caught up in welcoming her daughter home that she hadn't even thanked them. Well she knew the perfect way to do that. "Are you staying for dinner?" she said as she cornered them by the door.

Draco turned behind Julia and Blaise as they put on their coats to go outside and apparate from the cold to the heat of Venezuela. "Dinner? No, no I don't think so we really have to go." He turned back and looked at Blaise who had paused.

"Did I hear something about food?" he asked him. Draco tried his best to at least make him budge toward the door some more.

"No Zabini, you didn't. We're leaving."

Molly, who had overheard the curious voice answered with the truth. "I just asked if you could stay for dinner," she said with a smile. "It's been a while since I've had so many people here."

Draco forced a smile and turned back. "I told you, Mrs. Weasley, we-."

"Is it... home cooked?" Blaise said shyly. Draco looked at him as if he had grown another head.

She looked a little confused at first, anyone who knew her well wouldn't need to ask that. "Why yes dear, all my meals are home cooked," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She smiled at the broad grin that suddenly crept up on Blaise's face.

"Blaise, we have to-."

Blaise ignored him and grabbed Julia's hand pulling her back into the house. "We'd love to stay. Won't we?" she nodded and followed him.

Draco tugged on his arm as he passed him. "Blaise, can I speak to you for a minute please," he smiled broadly before shaking his head sharply in one direction as if he had a weird tick. "In there," he said in a harsh whisper.

"Erm, sure." Blaise walked to where Draco's head signalled. Draco turned to Mrs. Weasley and plastered the broad smile once more.

"We'll be right back."

She gave an indifferent wave and took Julia's hand. "Take your time dear, we'll wait for you."

When she was well out of earshot, Draco walked into the living room to see Blaise inspecting the pictures on the various surfaces. He walked up to him and pushed him onto the sofa.

"What the hell are you thinking?" He glared at Blaise who only stared at him with his eyes trained on Draco's face and every flailing arm. "Here I am, trying to get out of here and there you are, trying to move in? What is that, 'is it home cooked?' my arse." He began to pace up and down and Blaise sat there still only moving his eyes that followed him. "Are you trying to destroy me? I don't want to be here, Blaise." He gave up and finally flung himself next to him on the sofa.

Blaise frowned and slowly let down his barriers. There was no anger there, not because it had all been let out but because it wasn't there to begin with. He raised an eyebrow. Curiosity was his worst trait.

"And why is that?" he said crossing his arms.

Draco gave him an obvious look. "Oh, Mr. big empath doesn't know what I'm feeling?" he said sarcastically.

Blaise glared at him. "I resent that." He adjusted himself on the seat so that he was facing him. "What meaningless self inflicted psychological trauma are you going through now?" he sighed.

"Huh?" Draco frowned.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he stood up, it was his time to pace. "We practically gave you everything you wanted. And to top it all off, you're actually being invited to dinner. Invited. It's a home - cooked - meal, Draco!" he said as if he was striving to make him understand. Draco looked at him guiltily, he knew how Blaise felt about home cooked meals, take-away meals and restaurant meals and... well, just meals in general but home cooked was his favourite because they were rare. The rare things are always cherished the most. "Do you know what that means, Draco, home - cooked?" he enunciated. "What else is there?" he said exasperated.

But he just couldn't bring himself to care right now, he was too distracted. "I - I can't do it, Blaise. It's not right."

Blaise snorted. "That's not what I felt yesterday when I passed my living room. I have Julia now and two against one is a one sided argument mate. The staff didn't like what you did to that sofa by the way."

He ignored the last comment. "I can't protect her like that, Blaise, you know I can't."

He dropped his arms giving up. "What do I know?"

"You went through it too. Sure it was a little different but the principle is the same."

"You're right, it is completely different. Number one, Ginevra is not an assassin. Number two, if it were the same principle, Ginevra would be me. I doubt she's going to go through the next four years spitting out high level spells and killing random people. Though, in the mood she's in right now, I wouldn't put it past her cos people screwing up your feelings like that isn't very nice, mate, believe me. That would also mean that you would be Julia right now." He stopped to survey him and narrowed his eyes before grimacing, "I find that greatly disturbing."

Draco laughed.

"Look, Draco, just enjoy the meal. See where it takes you. Ginny hates you right now so I guess you got what you wanted right? Someone who hates you can't possibly follow you blindly into traps and such and then get in the way of some curse or the other that's aimed for you, am I right?"

Draco looked at him incredulous. "How did you-."

Blaise silenced him. "It's a gift."

***

Dinner, as it was, was not as enjoyable as Draco would have liked. When he got to the table there was only three seats left on one side for Blaise Julia and himself. The treacherous pair went to one side leaving his space vacant. And directly opposite Ginny.

To count the ways they would pay would be pointless as he'd run out of fingers somewhere along the line.

It's not that he didn't mind the glares or the snort whenever he would speak or not speak at all, the biting remarks and the endless awkwardness in general is what got him.

"So, do you get promotions? Are there any kind of benefits to being... what you are?" Ron asked curiously.

"Well," Julia cut in. "If you don't wish to go out into the field you can settle down into a teaching job. That's what I did." Ron looked at her. "I didn't want to go out into the field and," she said looking at Blaise guiltily, "because of my potions skills, I was allowed to stay on for elixirs and such. Eventually, after a few months, I became a teacher there." She avoided Blaise's gaze.

"You teach?"

"How do you expect we learn, Weasley?" Draco said.

Ginny scoffed. He flashed a glare and rolled his eyes soon afterwards.

Blaise continued. "I suppose you think they just cast a spell that made us what we are? No, no Weasley, we trained for three years to get here." He turned his attention back his spoon.

"How long have you been doing this?" Harry asked from the end of the table.

Blaise looked to the ceiling counting. "Well, training for three years, field for four. Seven years."

"Se... you're joking?"

"Afraid not." He turned to Julia.

"So what else?"

"You travel a lot," Draco added.

"You get transferred?"

"No, it depends on where the mark goes. We have to follow them and bring back the receipt in a week's dead line. If it's not there the first three days into it, you get called in."

"So you've not handed in receipts a lot then?"

Blaise and Draco looked pointedly at Ron and said abruptly. "No." Harry and Ron looked at them.

"You're good then?"

Julia smiled. "Normally, people who have heard of them don't need to ask that."

Blaise turned to her. "You've been following our careers? I'm touched."

She scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself. It's for History. You're the most wanted markers in the business. You're more or less the reason the company's this successful."

"What company?" Harry asked curiously.

"Le-." She was stopped by Blaise's hand over her mouth. Blaise shot him a glare, as did Draco.

Draco was the one to speak. "It doesn't matter." Blaise removed his hand and continued eating. Harry and Ron exchanged looks and decided it was not wise to continue.

When dinner was over, after Blaise's second helping of dessert, they made to leave. That is until Mrs. Weasley asked them to stay. And Blaise accepted.

Draco had now run out of fingers and toes and just about anything else he could count on, including the hairs on his head.

Blaise took a bedroom upstairs, as did Julia. Draco had graciously taken the sofa because it was the closest room to the front door and it was furthest away from Ginny.

***

"So what happened between you and Malfoy? One minute you were all." She smiled happily. "Then you were all." She frowned grumpily. "What's going on? There are so many different emotions in this place it's hard to keep up."

"He's being stupid." Julia turned around from the dressing table.

"He's being stupid? How?"

"By being himself." She picked up a comb and stomped back to her bed. "I know he wants me." She combed through her hair harshly before going back to the dressing table, slamming it down and picked up a brush. "He's acting like he doesn't but I know he does. He's just being stupid."

Julia chanced a breach in her barriers. The first thing she felt was the frustration in Ginny, she seemed to be angry but she wasn't. There was a mask of anger there, perhaps a layer of dislike but it was very thin and hardly there. It was more... Julia smiled brightly when she found what she knew was there.

She was in love with the guy.

"Ginny, would you mind if I just went outside for a second?"

Ginny sneered and slammed the brush down into an unexpecting pillow. "Do what you want," she said grumpily.

She raised an eyebrow and moved cautiously to the door. When she stepped outside, she saw Blaise opening the door to one of the rooms on the corridor. She walked over to him and waited for the opportune moment. She knew he was testing the atmosphere before he entered and that was not a time to disturb him. When he sighed and began to walk in she snuck up behind him and stuck two fingers into his side making him jump and almost scream.

"Knew I'd make you scream one day," she commented before realising how it sounded and looking away awkwardly.

He laughed and walked into the room. She stepped in behind him and looked around.

She walked around the room with her curiosity peeking. "Everyone here has a different personality. There were a few rooms I inspected before coming up with a curse breaker's room. I'm guessing it was a he, as Weasley's are known for them." She frowned at the old looking broom in the corner and ran a hand over it. "It was funny," she said leaving it to pick up a toy dragon. "When Molly said he was a curse breaker I was scared at what might happen when my barriers fell as I slept." She put it down and moved to the window over the bed to open it. "When I went in, it wasn't so bad." She began to struggle with the window because it wouldn't open. Blaise knelt to help her.

"And why was that?" he said as it snapped open.

She fell onto the bed with a sigh. "The last time he was here, he had a girl over," she continued at his intrigued look.

"Really?" he said slyly. "Was it a friend-girl or a girl-friend?" he smiled.

She shook her head. "And Molly said he was a good boy, how blind loving mother's can be."

He lay back on the pillow. "Indeed."

She looked at him; he was so different than he was when he had left years ago. So much had happened to him and so little had happened to her. He had had other things to preoccupy himself with marks and such. All she had was a set of students that reminded her more of him than she'd like to admit. To say she missed him would be an understatement. When she had told him that she wasn't going out in the field he had looked at her in a way that she would never forget. She told him that she would distract him too much and that it would have caused way too many problems. She never thought he had forgiven her for it and apparently he hadn't because of what he had said to her on the island.

"It won't be the first time you've hit me there."

He had told her never to speak to him again the day after when the ship had come to take them. He told her that she'd ripped out his heart and fed it to the camp's wolves. That she wasn't going to speak to him and give him hope in order to rip it out again.

She had let him go that day and thought about him everyday since knowing it was over.

Yet, here he was. Lying down next to her, letting her talk to him and laugh with him and... touch him. She didn't think it would be so easy after what she had done.

"Julia."

"Hmm," she said lost in thought. When she came to he was sitting up and staring at her point blank in the eyes. "Oh," she said surprised and smiled, "hello."

He smirked having caught her. "Hey," he said quietly. He continued to stare at her.

"What?" she eventually said.

"I want to hear you."

She blinked numerous times trying to decipher that cryptic message. "Huh?"

"I want to hear you," he repeated.

"You can't hear me?" she asked confused. He sighed and she felt that she was missing something terribly obvious. As she worked this out she realised he was suddenly kissing her.

She opened her mouth in surprise, which only encouraged him more, and she went back on the bed holding him close to her. Eventually, when she had given up on figuring it out, she lost it and instantly her barriers dropped. As they did, he stopped.

He smiled. "There you are," he whispered into her mouth. She looked up at him. He was staring at nothing as if he were having a conflicting conversation in his head. He frowned and looked at her answering her questions. "I can hear you. Why are you feeling guilty?"

She suddenly understood what he meant and slammed them up again. How was he able to do that, just make her barriers fall like that? She got up and walked to the centre of the room feeling very freaked out. "How did you - why - why did you do that?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "I wanted to hear you, I told you already."

"You're not supposed to do that, Blaise, it's dangerous. We have complex minds, Zabini; you can't just go around probing into them. Didn't you learn anything in class?" She felt a tugging on her neck and reached around to put the pendant on her chain back in front of her.

He smiled. "I know, it was... different, there was a lot of things to sort through before I got to where I wanted-."

"No! No Blaise, you shouldn't want to do anything with my mind. I don't want you there. There are things in it that I don't want you to know."

"I'm sorry," he said truthfully.

She looked away for a while pretending that she was thinking about it. The truth was, she was never able to stay angry at him. Ever. It was annoying actually.

"It's alright, just don't do it again."

He stood up and walked to her. "That's not what I'm saying sorry for."

"So what are you saying sorry for?"

He sighed and looked at her as if apologizing beforehand and closed his eyes before he spoke, he wasn't sure he wanted to see her reaction to what he had discovered. "I can't believe you would do this to me, that day before we leave. I hate you and every reason you have had forced into your mind about this," he said softly. Even without channeling her feelings, he knew she had become tense. He knew it because he had too. He was upset that he had hurt her so much with it, even after four years it was like a vivid portrait that she kept in her head. There was so much pain painted around it that he hardly saw it. "I hope you're happy with yourself," he continued. "Don't go feeding my heart to the wolves all at once, Raymond, make sure to rip it up and give them an equal share..."

She felt the tears burning down her face as he quoted every line he had said to her the night before he boarded. She closed her eyes; it had been scarred into her mind so vividly that it played like a film in her head. She pictured everything, even the noises of the forest that buzzed around their fire.

Blaise opened his eyes and looked down at her with her eyes closed and knew painfully that she was reliving it. He had seen it in her head, he didn't even know she felt so bad about it. He had tried to hate her for it, he really had but it was impossible. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn't hate her, it was just a foreign concept with him which had made it even harder to look at her. He grasped her hand and pulled her closer and she stepped toward him putting her head on his chest. He swallowed hard before speaking. "Don't ever speak to me again."

Julia looked at him in her memory four years ago. He looked younger, even as he was getting up and walking away. "Blaise, please just-," she began and squeezed his hand as if he was really walking away from her and she was trying to pull him back.

He squeezed her hand tighter. "I wouldn't want any hopes for us before you rip out again." She openly sobbed into his chest. He dropped her hand and held her tight. "Julia, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it I swear."

He nodded bravely between sobs. "I know."

"No you didn't. You've been feeling guilty about it ever since. I'm so sorry. Can you forgive me? I- I." He cupped her face and stared hopefully into her eyes.

She smiled behind them. "I want to hear you," she said shakily. "Say it so only I can hear you."

He stood up straight, "I don't know if you can, it could be dangerous. There are a lot of things in there."

She moved closer to him it were even possible. "Then make it safe for me, I'm sure you can manage it. Tell me, Blaise. I want to hear it."

***

She clung to the stinging red cheek and sobbed quietly.

The man she had heard as Girard reprimanded the man who hit her and crouched down as he sucked on the hand she had bitten. He put a hand on her shoulder ignoring her flinching back as he did so. As she flinched away from him, she noticed the wedding ring on his finger. It shone under the light of the streetlamp above them. It looked very expensive.

"What is your name?" he said.

She didn't answer; she didn't even look at him.

He sighed. "Another silent one. You see that man there, the one who hit you?" he pointed up and waited for her to look, which she eventually did. They all did at some point. She stared at the man in contempt. "He can do a lot worse than hit. Now what is your name?"

She looked at him. "Ginevra."

"Good, first step is communication. Do you have a second name?"

"Weasley."

"Weasley? Where do I know that name?"

One of his men stepped forward. "Ministry, Sir."

He nodded distracted, "Thank you, the Aurors, you have family there don't you?"

She sneered, "So?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I take it that you don't like your family then?" he asked her.

She shook her head and turned to the ground again. "I don't have a family anymore."

The man stepped out again. "Sir, is this necessary? If there's no one to look for her we'll just kill her, one less witness for you to worry about it." He sounded confident.

Girard turned on him, "Shut up," he snapped. "You think that if her body turns up somewhere that there won't be an investigation?" The man stepped down again a little less confident than before. "Be they her wanted family or not," he said eying each of the men before him, before settling them on the one who spoke against him, "she is still their family, and family doesn't stop looking. Ever." He stopped glaring at him and looked back at the girl in front him. "Ginevra? Can I ask you a question?"

She simply nodded.

"What did you see?" She looked at him wide-eyed. The last time she had heard that, the person it was said to was bludgeoned with sticks, bottles, knives and god knows what else. "Don't worry; I won't do anything to you."

Yet, she thought to herself.

He turned her toward him. "Ginevra, what did you see?" His tone got more urgent and Ginny's eyes began to tear. He sighed. "Very well. I shall have to take care of it myself."

That same man smiled and stepped forward again. "Sir-." Ginny looked at him and grimaced at the look in his eye.

"No, leave this to me." Ginny began to shake. "Where's my wand?"

"Here it is sir." He took it and pointed it at Ginny.

"Look at me, Ginevra." She slowly brought her gaze up to him, the tears crept out like small waves.

She may have been acting strong all this time after witnessing that interrogation. Even though she didn't know what was going on, why the man was being beaten or why she had to look over that fence, she knew one thing. Having family or not and not having anything to really live for, she didn't want to die. "Please," she said quietly, it was almost inaudible. She began to shake her head pleading and bit her lip.

"Obliviate!" he shouted.

Her eyes flew open as she gasped loudly sitting up and grasping the sheets into balls in her hands. Her hair flew forward over her shoulders and she looked around the room and the darkness that engulfed it. She narrowed her eyes to the room. Something was different. There wasn't anyone in her room, she knew that much. Apparently nearly a decade away from it did not take away her sixth sense when it came to her territory. She sighed between ragged breaths and wiped some of the sweat off her forehead. Getting up and walking to her closet to find her robe, she mashed something on the floor. It was the brush she had thrown on the ground just after Julia had left.

She bent to pick it up and smiled. She loved that hair brush. She had charmed it in school to always find it way back to her room if it was ever left somewhere. She had had to pay careful attention to it in school because if she had ever lost it, it would have come back home. She didn't want that but it had happened on more that one occasion. She continued to her wardrobe.

She had taken it with her when she had left. She lost it just after she had found a job at a bookstore in London. She had been so upset because she really didn't want to go home for it seeing as there was no b-.

But that's a lie isn't it?

She shook off her previous thought and reached into the wardrobe. There had always been a burrow. Girard had brainwashed her. The second he had muttered that memory charm he ruined my life.

She stopped reaching into the wardrobe, her hand pausing on the robe hanging on its peg.

'Memory charm?' she thought to herself. Understanding crossed her features and she grabbed the robe before flinging it on and running outside. She didn't care who she ran into as long as it was someone. She had been in that state before, having nightmares that she would fly awake from with a cold sweat. This time there was something different, she could feel it. She only now realised what it was.

She remembered her dream.