AN: As promised, here's the BONUS chapter! Hope you enjoy!
"Are you coming to Hogsmeade this time?"
Blake nodded in response to Tracey's question.
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it," he said, thinking back to the heaping sacks of snacks Zabini and the others had brought back for him. I'll get Connor, Harry and Astoria a thing or two as well.
It was the Friday before the second Hogsmeade trip, and the five of them were back at it in the boys' room. As Charlotte and Zabini complained about an essay McGonagall had set them, Blake recounted how the year had gone so far.
Dumbledore's hidden the information about the soul-splitting spell. It's likely related to Horcruxes, especially considering information on Horcruxes have been removed too, and if he detects that I make a move for it, it's over. That crazy old man would probably wipe my memory and never let me near Harry or Hermione again. It's impossible to fight Dumbledore and win head on - right now, at least.
I highly doubt the Greengrass family have access to it, but it's far more likely the Black family has information about it somewhere, hence why my objective is to find and coerce Sirius Black into allowing me access to the Black family library, and also for Astoria and Greengrass's sakes too.
Separately, the essay business is going well. Since Nott's become a customer, he's recommended me to his friends - even if it's in secret and none of them admit it to each other or anyone else, they're slowly but surely familiarising themselves with me. Even if they are talking about me behind my back, it doesn't matter - the more used to it they become, the more they'll normalise muggleborns subconsciously. Connor's loudmouth has also brought business from his year too.
The only year below me that I've not gotten any customers from so far is Astoria's - if I get Nott and Connor to yap enough, it should be fine.
Protecting Harry from Black and protecting Lupin's reputation are both givens too.
The only other matter is convincing Greengrass to do business with me - I've already started on some theory for some potions, charms and enchantments. All I need is the Greengrass's family ties, knowledge, experience and name to succeed.
And you want to do it with her, specifically, a small voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Connor's said. Shut up, he told himself.
Either way, Sirius Black is the key to practically everything I need to do right now. Once I capture him, everything else should fall into place.
/
"Woah!"
Blake looked around, and he had to say, his friends hadn't been exaggerating about Hogsmeade. There's just… so much!
Honeydukes in particular were bustling with life and products - chocolates, nougats, toffees, Every Flavour Beans, magical sweets, the list was endless. The shop was entirely filled with Hogwarts students too - Blake had seen at least 20 people in his year in the shop already.
"What should I get?" he muttered to himself.
"The Fizzing Whizbees," Zabini suggested.
"The toffee-chocolate-nougat," Charlotte responded.
"Jelly Slugs," Tracey replied.
"Hmmm…"
"Oh, just get them all," Greengrass said irritably.
"What's put your knickers in a twist?" Zabini sniggered. "OW!"
"If I ever hear you say that again, you'll be sorry, Zabini."
"How threatening," Blake said sarcastically. "Consider me shook!"
Greengrass sent some type of hex at him, but Blake preemptively raised a shield, smirking at her when the spell failed. However, the smirk was soon wiped off his face when she pinched his arm lightly.
"Oi!"
"Just because you know more spells than-"
"Oh, for Merlin's sake," Tracey groaned loudly, as half the shop turned to look at them. "Stop flirting!"
"We're not-"
The shop burst out laughing, and Blake could feel his face go very red.
"Tracey!" Greengrass growled, as the tips of her ears turned distractingly pink, "just wait till we get back!"
Soon, the group paid for their items and made their way outside.
"It's freezing," Tracey said, teeth chattering. Blake noticed that the girl seemed to be huddling very close to Zabini, apparently for warmth. Zabini doesn't seem to mind one bit though.
"Agreed," Greengrass said grimly as she walked side by side with Blake. Why's she so far away from me? he thought. Do I smell or something?
"Let's go to the Three Broomsticks," Charlotte suggested. The group made their way to the small inn quickly, and found themselves sitting at a large table in the corner of the room. As they ordered, Blake spotted some familiar faces on the other side of the room, and he almost audibly gasped.
Harry's here!? I thought he wasn't allowed out! Did he use the Invisibility Cloak? No, there's checkpoints, he couldn't have gotten past them, and the Dementors. But then how?
"Potter's here?" Zabini questioned in a low voice, seemingly having followed Blake's line of sight.
"Wasn't he not allowed?" Tracey asked.
"I'm gonna go say hi," Blake said. "Don't drink my butterbeer, Zabini."
"Why would I-"
Blake got up and left before the halfblood could finish his sentence, feeling very satisfied as he heard Zabini swear at him behind his back.
"Hello, Gryffindors," Blake said as he discreetly slid into their booth.
"Blake!"
"You're here too?"
"Blake…" Harry said, looking somewhat apprehensive about Blake's reaction to his sneaking in.
"How'd you do it?" Blake grinned. Harry seemed very relieved that the Slytherin wasn't judging him for his arguably silly choice to come to Hogsmeade despite the obvious threat (which Blake had the feeling Hermione had already mentioned enough), and quickly explained the map, showing him how it worked.
"Damn," Blake whistled appreciatively, looking at all the names on the map. "That's some really - wait. Cornelius Fudge!?"
As if on cue, the Minister of Magic, accompanied by McGonagall, Flitwick and Hagrid walked into the Three Broomsticks. Simultaneously, Ron, Blake and Hermione moved to push Harry down under the table and hide themselves from view, moving a Christmas tree to obscure them. Through the branches, Blake could see that Greengrass, Zabini, Charlotte and Tracey were watching both the adult party and theirs carefully, trying to listen in, but they were apparently unsuccessful.
They're going to want to hear what happened.
"Rosmerta, my dear," the Minister began.
What the hell could he be here for? Blake wondered - but he found himself answering the question with an obvious answer quickly. Sirius Black.
And Blake was proven right, as the adults delved into discussion.
AN: Essentially, the conversation here will be cannon from the Prisoner of Azkaban (it's basically Fudge explaining that Sirius Black betrayed the Potters, mentioning Pettigrew and the Fidelius, etc. It's in Chapter 10, if you want to look for it. I'm going to skip to straight after the conversation for the next chapter.
AN: If you would like to view up to 20 more bonus chapters on all my fics so far including this one, and would also like to support me, please visit my P@TR30N, at pa tr eon.com / GhidorahWriter (remove the spaces).
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