brother.'
'I know,' Ginny said. 'And why? I mean,' she added loyally, 'not that there's anything wrong with my brother…'
'She wasn't supposed to sleep with him,' Blaise clarified. 'She was supposed to disguise herself as Hermione and get information from him.
Pansy always was a little overzealous. I doubt her father's very pleased with her at the moment. Especially since she developed a perfectly ridiculous crush on your brother and insisted on giving him one of the protection charms.'
'I thought she wasn't allowed to do that.'
'She wasn't, but she asked anyway, and of course she was told it was impossible. So she decided to make her own. And that,' Blaise said, with some relish, as if she were telling a particularly gruesome ghost story, 'is pretty dark magic, let me tell you.'
'But they're just protection charms,' said Ginny.
'The only way to protect against dark magic is to engage in dark magic,'
Blaise said; Ginny wondered privately if this was actually true, but held her tongue. 'And this type of protection charm requires some part of a Dark creature — acromantula feet, kelpie hair, incubus blood. Pansy decided to make a charm out of basilisk eyes. It was the strongest kind of charm there was.'
Ginny suppressed a shudder. Her experience with basilisks had not been a positive one.
'For that,' Blaise went on, 'she had to have a basilisk. So she made one.'
'She MADE a basilisk?'
'Well, all you really need is a chicken egg, a toad, and a strong stomach.'
'A toad?' Ginny goggled. 'Oh! Trevor!'
'Terrible name for a toad,' said Blaise dispassionately. 'Anyway, so she made a baby basilisk, and killed it before it got large enough to be dangerous. She took its eyes and mad a cloak pin from them, and gave it to your brother.'
'She's completely mad,' Ginny said. 'She ought to be locked up, she — she gave my brother a pin with basilisk eyes in it? Isn't that dangerous?'
'It was only a baby, and the charms on the pin were very strong,' said Blaise. 'It shouldn't have been able to harm him, or anyone. But then it started to malfunction. She was never sure why. Maybe there was something unusual about your brother — '
'He's a Diviner,' Ginny said in a blank voice.
'Maybe that was it,' Blaise said, although she sounded dubious. 'Or maybe the charms she put on it to bind the power of the basilisk's eyes weren't strong enough. Either way, it started acting up whenever Weasley felt threatened, although I doubt he knew what was happening. Because the Basilisk was a baby, the charm couldn't kill, but it Stunned Malcolm, it knocked you off your broom — '
'That's ridiculous! My brother would never feel threatened by me!'
'I didn't say he did. I doubt that it was even directed at you, you just happened to look across the pitch at that moment. It was probably directed at Draco or one of our Beaters.'
Ginny pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. 'I'm getting a headache,' she moaned.
'Pansy tried fixing the pin after that — she was always having your brother meet up with her and forcing him to help her brew up all sorts of odd concoctions. Our whole room was covered in mugwort and rue and all sorts of nasty things. I've no idea if it helped — it must have, since as far as I know he hasn't Stunned anyone since. But you lot found out the truth about him and Pansy pretty soon after that, so that's all I know. She never talked to him again.'
'You mean he never talked to her again,' Ginny muttered.
Blaise waved a dismissive hand. 'Whatever.'
'I thought you were friends with Pansy,' Ginny said.
'I am — I mean, I was. Until I found out she was the one who shot Draco with that arrow.'
'She what?' Ginny reeled and gripped the table.
'Well, her father ordered her to, and I think Lucius Malfoy was the one who told him to in the first place. Look, I really don't know much about it, and I can't tell you much more. I don't want to get anyone else in trouble besides Pansy.'
'Well, if you can't tell me anything why did you even come? Just because Draco asked you to? I thought you didn't care about him.'
Blaise's eyes snapped wide open. 'Not care about him?' she said. 'How dare you? You don't even know him!'
'I know him,' Ginny retorted angrily.
'You don't.' Blaise's voice was firm. 'He's just some blond Harry Potter in your head. Practically a Gryffindor. And maybe he's happy enough playing that part; it isn't like I don't know what he gets out of it. But that's not who he is. He's not some sweet uncomplicated fair-haired hero who's going to carry you off into the sunset. He's flawed and damaged and unfeeling…you Gryffindors, you don't understand capriciousness or complications. Everything's so straightforward for you. You expect simple love from someone who's never even learned to like things properly.'
'He's different than he used to be,' Ginny began — but Blaise cut her off.
'How can you say he's different when you never knew him before? I knew him. Not the Draco you all know, but the way he was. I remember when Moody turned him into a ferret, and you all thought that was so funny.
He came back to the dungeons covered in bruises — great big bruises the size of tea saucers. One of the bones in his hand was broken. And did you know he used to get so nervous before every game with Gryffindor he'd be sick? Sometimes on and off all day? None of the other teams, just Gryffindor.'
'You can't ask me to pity him the way he was,' Ginny said. 'I can't even pity him now.'
'I'd never ask a Gryffindor to pity a Slytherin.' Blaise's head went up.
'Never mind. I can see you don't understand. I've told you what I know.'
She began to rise to her feet. 'It's up to you what you do with it.'
'Wait.' Ginny got to her feet so quickly she almost knocked over her chair. She moved to block the other from the door, and Blaise stopped and looked at her angrily. 'I want you to stay and tell Sirius and Professor Lupin what you just told me.'
Blaise looked horrified. 'Run to a teacher? I would never — !'
'It's not running,' Ginny said hurriedly. 'They'll be here any minute anyway. And they're not just teachers — they're Aurors. They'll know what to do. And they're friends of mine.'
Blaise's chest was rising and falling swiftly. 'I didn't come here to betray all my friends to you — '
'Then why did you come here?' Ginny said softly.
The other girl replied without looking at her. 'I don't know.'
'Sirius and Lupin will know all sorts of questions to ask you that I couldn't possibly think of,' Ginny said. 'Especially about Pansy and about whatever it was she was getting Ron to cook up with her, with the mugwort and the rue, and about her dad, and about Draco being poisoned, and if you really want to help him, then you have to stay.
Because I know this is hard for you to do, Blaise, but if you only do it halfway then you might as well not have done it at all.'
Blaise's eyes were full of angry tears. She swiped at them hastily with the back of her hand, smearing her eye makeup. It just made her look prettier. 'Fine,' she said. 'I'll stay. But — '
'But what?'
'I need a drink,' Blaise said, and sniffled.
Ginny started to laugh. 'There's a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey in the cabinet. Will that do?'
Blaise smiled. It was the first time Ginny had ever seen her really smile, and the difference was pronounced. When she really smiled, she had dimples. 'That'll do fine.'
