The Family Jewels

If I had more money than the Queen of England, I would not live in a country that believes that haggis is a food and that deep fried Mars bars are a delicacy.

Chapter 36
A man in uniform

Draco did not need an alarm to be awake on time. He was a morning person and his internal clock had him up at seven am on the morning of the Slytherin/Gryffindor match. Hermione was asleep on his chest, her long hair tickling as he attempted to ease out from under her without waking her. She looked like such an angel, her fair skin showing a dark purple love bite on one thigh. He should probably brace himself for more vampire comments. Blaise had gone back to Slytherin late last night; he said he wanted to actually get some sleep.

Draco walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower. He let his mind dwell on his emotional response to Hermione’s wager with Blaise. He knew Blaise was manipulating him, but it was all for the greater good. He wanted to beat Potter and those annoying Gryffindorks so much that he was surprised that he wasn’t shaking.

He got out of the shower and went into his room to put on his Quidditch uniform. His team should be assembling for breakfast soon. This was all part of the routine he had established last year, when he was first named Quidditch Captain. Draco picked up his Quicksilver 2000 and walked through the bathroom to peek at Hermione. She was still asleep, and Draco decided to let her be. He knew she had not been sleeping well, and he was glad he had been there last night to comfort her when she had another nightmare.

Draco walked down the steps to the Great Hall, and helped himself to breakfast. Bacon, eggs, toast and orange juice. Sugar for energy and protein for the muscles. The Great Hall was sparsely populated at that hour on a Saturday, but he noticed that all of his players were there on time. His eyes met Potter’s across the room, and they smirked at each other. Draco was tempted to mouth something to him, then decided that ignoring him was a better statement. Blaise was usually here by now on match day, but Draco figured he was in the Slytherin common room monitoring the activities of the known and suspected Death Eaters in their house.

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Blaise Zabini took a sip of his coffee, never having acquired the taste for tea. He liked his coffee strong and black. Actually, he was such a snob when it came to coffee that he made his own from beans that his mother sent by owl. He was going to need coffee today; he got in late last night, slept badly and was up at the crack of dawn.

Blaise sat in the common room, watching the nervous Quidditch players go to breakfast. Vince Crabbe and Greg Goyle sat down next to him. “Aren’t you going to breakfast, Blaise?” Greg asked, as if the idea of skipping a meal had never occurred to him before.

“Sure, I’ll probably go in a little while. Breakfast on weekends always lasts longer for stragglers,” Blaise informed him coolly.

Blaise heard two Second Year girls let out unholy screeches and sighed. He put down his coffee cup and went over to the stairs up to the girls’ dormitory to find out what was wrong. Someone had charmed the stairs so that their skirts had been blown up around their waists as they walked down the last few steps. A small group of Fourth Year boys were waiting at the bottom, laughing and high-fiving each other in congratulation over their own cleverness. Blaise managed to sort it and sent them all to breakfast before going back to his spot near the fire. He took a long drink of his coffee, wishing there was a way to pour the caffeine directly into his blood stream.

He noticed that both Crabbe and Goyle had the dumbest looking grins on their faces that he had ever seen. This was the last thought to flash through his mind before a curious heat overcame him. A glassy look came over his eyes as Greg and Vince exchanged a look. “He looks ready,” Greg said gleefully.

“What is your name?” Greg asked, reading from a sheet of parchment.

“Blaise Gianni Zabini,” Blaise answered. He didn’t want to, but he had to answer them.

“Are you loyal to Draco Malfoy?” Greg asked.

“Of course,” Blaise answered. They needed Veritaserum for these questions?

“What is your relationship to Hermione Granger?” Greg continued.

“I’m in love with her,” Blaise answered.

“What are the passwords to the Head Dorms?” Greg asked.

“The password to the common room is ‘Checkmate’, the password to Draco’s room is ‘Snitch’ and Hermione’s password is ‘Twelfth Night’.” Blaise was starting to sweat now.

Greg finished the questions on the list, and figured he and Vince could have a little fun. “What does the Mudblood look like naked?”

“She is a goddess,” Blaise finally said, although he was fighting it.

“Does she suck good cock?” Vince asked eagerly.

“Yes,” Blaise was sick to his stomach now.

“Have you drilled her up the arse?” Greg asked with a longing expression.

“No,” Blaise was glad to tell them no to something. ‘When does this shite wear off,’ he wondered.

“Have you and Draco made a Slytherin sandwich out of her?” Vince finally asked something that had been a topic of conversation in the common room for some time now.

“Yes,” Blaise had to answer. Vince and Greg high-fived each other in triumph.

“I thought Draco hated the Mudblood,” Greg said, with a frown.

“No, he’s in love with her too,” Blaise answered.

Greg was congratulating himself on figuring out what Draco was up to. ‘No wonder Draco wants to see if Zabini is loyal, he wants to take his woman,’ he thought to himself.

“Well, that’s everything. I have to go report back to Draco.” Greg stood up and he and Vince exited out the portrait hole. Draco’s owl had said to meet him near the Hufflepuff stands before the Quidditch match. They didn’t want to be late. Zabini had given up the passwords to the Head Dorms like nothing, but Greg couldn’t figure out how this made him disloyal, everyone had to answer truthfully.

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Lucius Malfoy was wearing a black Hogwarts cloak over a green Slytherin Quidditch uniform. It had been a simple thing to go back to the invoice from Quality Quidditch Supplies and inform them that his son required another uniform for a portrait for his mother for Yule. Another uniform was delivered by owl within the hour. He would have worn his own from his time at Hogwarts, but the breeches were a different color, and the jumper had the Slytherin crest slightly higher. No matter.

He Apparated to Hogsmeade, and began the walk to Hogwarts. He pulled the hood of his cloak down to cover his distinctive hair. He couldn’t be sure where Draco was, and it was too early for anyone to discover that there were now two Malfoys on the grounds. Once he passed the front gate, he circled around until he came to the Quidditch pitch. Crabbe and Goyle had received strict instructions to test Zabini’s loyalty by giving him very pure Veritaserum and getting the passwords for him. When the Quidditch match was on, it would be an easy thing to sneak back up to the castle and steal the diary from Draco’s room. Any deviation from this plan would require the implementation of his back-up plan, which would be considerably messier. Lucius had always been a wonderful dancer, and this one was going to be played by ear.

Lucius was leaning against the wall with a superior sneer on his face as young Crabbe and Goyle came hurrying up to him. ‘The sneer comes naturally, but the lounging that teenagers do today was disgraceful’, he thought to himself.

“Draco,” Greg Goyle acknowledged with respect.

“Greg,” Lucius answered. “Was Zabini loyal to me?” he asked.

“He said that he was, but he did give us the passwords,” Greg said doubtfully.

“What did he say they were? Maybe he was able to lie even with the Veritaserum?” Lucius asked smoothly.

“Umm, the password to the common room is ‘Checkmate’, the password to your room is ‘Snitch’ and Granger’s password is ‘Twelfth Night’, whatever that means,” Greg answered, wondering if he had written it down wrong.

“Where is Zabini now?” Lucius asked calmly.

“He’s still in Slytherin. It seemed like he got sleepy after we finished asking him the questions, and was falling asleep in front of the fire,” Vince answered.

“I will deal with him later, and remember, not a word of this to anyone. You two are still my right hand men.” Lucius shook both of their hands, intent upon sending them on their way.

Greg smiled, feeling that his rightful place at Draco’s side was within his grasp. “Congratulations on the Slytherin sandwich with Zabini’s woman,” he said with a smirk as he turned away.

Zabini’s woman. Draco had said that the Mudblood Granger was Zabini’s little slut. Apparently Draco had dipped his toe into the pool as well. Lucius thought back to seeing her in Hogsmeade. A pretty little thing with large breasts, he remembered. Lucius was not opposed to using Mudbloods for the whores they were. Perhaps the day just got a little brighter.

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A/N - I have been asked by a reviewer not to put in any HBP spoilers, so I will be using it for the names of the Slytherin Quidditch players only.

Shai- That is not my favorite chapter. It was very late, and I wanted to finish it. Another reviewer wanted the insults to go on for much longer. Perhaps I will revise it when the fic is complete.