THERE, AT THE edge of Paz's bed, sat Blaise Zabini, looking incredibly anxious. For a moment, she though she still may have been dreaming. Astoria was currently in class and the door was locked, Paz wasn't all too sure how he had managed to get through the lock charm placed on her door. Or how he managed to get up to the girls dormitories in the first place.
Paz rubbed her eyes several times before sitting up, staring at Blaise on confusion.
"Good morning?" Paz offers, earning a soft laugh from Blaise.
"It's noon, happy to see you're finally awake." Blaise states.
"How did you get in my room?"
"Astoria let me in right before she headed off to Charms." Blaise shrugs his shoulders.
"And is there a reason you're here?" Paz questions, leaning back against her head frame of the bed.
Blaise stays quiet a moment. Paz notices he seems to be thinking, possibly holding something back. Despite growing up with Blaise, the two have personally not spent much alone time together. Paz knew he had to need something important, or else he wouldn't be here.
"Alright, first off, this needs to stay a secret. Pansy and Theo can never know I was here.." Blaise begins. Paz tilts her head in confusion as he continues. "I'm tired of being on the wrong side of the war."
He falls back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Paz is unsure of what to do or say next, so she stays quiet until he speaks up again.
"I want to fight the good fight. I always thought I had to be like my parents, but then I met you. All these years you've gone against their wishes and look at you, you're practically in charge of an in school rebellion!" Blaise exclaims, throwing his hands in the air.
"I suppose so," Paz says carefully. Before she can continue, Blaise does.
"I want to join Dumbledore's Army." Blaise states abruptly.
Paz's eyes practically bulge out of her head. She had not been expecting this, not today, not tomorrow, not ever to be honest.
"Blaise," She begins, trying to think up the best way she can explain how this would go down, "It's really great that you want to fight against the Dark Lord and join the D.A, but you have to understand what comes along with it."
Blaise sits up and faces Paz, nodding his head eagerly.
Paz sighs and continues, "I was disowned from my family for fighting against the Dark Lord, I'm a target to the Carrows because of this, and when a war breaks out I'll most likely be one of the first dead. Being raised on pure blooded beliefs and then going against them, I know it seems heroic, but it's sort of tragic when you really think of it. In my parents eyes, I'm a traitor. If you being in the D.A. gets out, you'll be looked at the same."
Blaise grows quiet, slumping his shoulders slightly. After a moment, he lets out a loud groan of frustration.
"It'll suck, but it's worth it. I can't pretend to support the wrong side of the war any longer." Blaise states.
Although she feels as if this may backfire in Blaise's face, he eventually convinces Paz that it will all be alright. Paz lets out a large sigh before getting out of bed and searching through her bag for the enchanted parchment and a spare chocolate card frog.
Once finding them, she explains to Blaise the importance of the two items. Paz has Blaise sign the parchment, just under Astoria's name, which was a shock to him, and then handed him the chocolate frog card. Paz could tell that he was blown away at the measures the D.A. had taken to not get caught, and the consequences of snitching.
Blaise had many questions and Paz happily answered them all, growing more and more excited that one of her Slytherin friends was finally taking a stand. She was slightly nervous how the others would feel about Blaise joining. He was different than Astoria. Astoria had always been quiet and to herself, while Blaise and the others were more open about their past beliefs.
Paz decided not to worry about that now. As the night went on, Blaise eventually left, leaving Paz alone in her room once again. Instead of staying in bed the entire day, which a large part of her wished to do, Paz hastily dragged herself out of bed. She stretched and groaned loudly, her back still being quite sore from everything that had happened in the recent weeks.
Once freshening up and changing into a loose pair of sweatpants and a Slytherin hoodie that she was sure had to be Theo or Blaise's, she swung her bag over her shoulder and left her room. Paz walks through the common room quickly, feeling several eyes following her. Instead of stopping to look at who it was, though she had a good idea, she continued through the common room and out of the exit.
She made her way to the Gryffindor house, having to wait a few extra minutes after missing one of the main staircases. Paz hid out of sight from any possible Carrow interaction until a Gryffindor entered the common room, Paz sneaking in right behind. She then quickly made her way up to Ginny's room, where Neville, Seamus and Lavender were chatting amongst themselves.
"Paz!" Seamus exclaims, smiling happily towards the exhausted looking Slytherin.
"Good to see you Finnegan." Paz smiles, resting her bag down near the door and taking a seat at the edge of Ginny's bed, where she stay lay motionless.
Paz made a mental note to eventually bring up Blaise joining the D.A., though was not in the mood for any sort of argument. She knew Neville would not be happy hearing that she didn't discuss it with him before hand. Paz of course couldn't blame him, everyone was growing paranoid at this point, and Blaise randomly wanting to join the D.A. was out of the ordinary.
"No luck with Ginny yet?" Paz questions, her eyes fixating on Ginny.
Neville sighs.
"Nope. McGonagall stopped by an hour ago with Madam Pomfrey, says she's alright but they don't know why she hasn't woken up yet." Neville states.
"I can't believe how much has changed since my first year." Paz groans, leaning back and propping herself up on her elbows.
"It's awful," Lavender says, "It's always been weird, but we could always handle it, you know?"
The others nod in agreement.
"We're handling it better than I thought we would." Seamus adds in.
"Bringing back the D.A. was a good move, it's keeping everyone busy. Giving them hope." Neville states, as the others agree.
"Speaking of the D.A...." Paz begins, standing up from Ginny's bed, "We've got a new recruit."
The others look at her in confusion.
"Who?" Neville asks, looking at Paz with slight concern on his face.
"He's a good friend of mine," Paz says, beginning to slowly pace back and fourth in front of the group of three, "It was very random, I really hadn't expected it-"
"Just tell us Paz, it's fine." Seamus interrupts.
Paz sighs, "It's Blaise- he asked this morning. He's already signed the parchment and he has a chocolate frog card."
"Zabini?" Seamus exclaims, standing up while doing so.
"Calm down Seamus," Neville says, holding out his arm, "That's- that's fine with me Paz. If you trust him, I can trust him."
Lavender nods in agreement. Neville shoots Seamus a look, resulting in Seamus nodding his head as well and sitting back down.
"I promise he won't cause any trouble, and he won't be telling Pansy or Theo anything. He can't have people knowing he's a member." Paz explains, knowing what would happen if word ever got out.
—————
The end of February was approaching and the weather was beginning to warm up. Spirits were slightly lifted as less and less snow storms were occurring, though they were usually replaced with cold rain. Paz had always loved this time of year, not only for the weather that she found very cozy, but also because her birthday was approaching.
Paz always loved her birthday because it meant gathering up her closest friends and having a night of no worries. Just her best friends and, if they were lucky, some dessert. This year, though, Paz hadn't even realized that her birthday was just days away. All that was on her mind was her return to classes, Blaise's up and coming first D.A. meeting, and visiting Ginny, who had finally woken up around a week ago, as much as possible. Due to all of this she has completely forgotten about her birthday, until Pansy had mentioned it to her one day in the common room.
Sitting comfortably next to Blaise, Paz waved Pansy over as her older sister emerged from the girls dormitories. Pansy took a seat opposite of Paz and Blaise next to Theo, who seemed out of place.
"So, what are your plans for your birthday this year?" Pansy asks excitedly. Paz tilts her head in confusion.
"My birthday isn't for a while, I don't see a point in worrying just yet." Paz shrugs, looking back down to the book that sat comfortably in her lap. She quickly looks back up once she notices them, including Theo, all shaking their heads and lightly laughing.
"Your birthday is next Tuesday Paz." Theo states.
Paz was completely caught off guard by this. She felt as if she was losing track of nearly everything, and now she has even lost track of herself. Paz lets out a load groan and falls against the side of Blaise.
"I can't believe you all people forgot your birthday." Pansy says jokingly.
"I can't believe Theo of all people remembered." Paz jokes back, her eyes already back down and focused on her book. She is quick to notice the silence that is now lingering over the group of four.
The four then continued to do homework or read, Pansy eventually announcing that she was heading off to bed for the night. Thirty minutes later, Blaise had done the same, leaving just Theo and Paz.
Theo seemed to be semi-focusing on some sort of Transfiguration homework, while Paz was glancing between her book, then to Theo, every so often.
Paz then glanced over to the ring that still was placed on her finger before looking back to Theo.
"You've never been good at remembering birthdays Nott, I'm surprised you remembered mine." Paz teases, attempting to break the awkward tension between the two.
Theo glances up, a small smile tugging at his lips.
"It's obvious you weren't gonna remember, someone had to." He responds, then turning back down to his work. "How are your classes treating you now that you're back?"
Paz reflects back to earlier that day, where she was verbally beaten down by Alecto Carrow. She had been attending classes the last week, doing her best to stay out of trouble. With professors like the Carrows, though, holding her tongue was hard to do.
"They've been alright. I don't think they can get any worse at this point.." Paz laughs awkwardly.
Theo looks as if he was thinking hard for a moment before closing his homework and looking towards Paz.
"I've been thinking about all those things I said to you, the night you got thrown in the dungeons and all," Theo says, scratching the back of his neck. "I didn't mean most of it, and I wanted to apologize. I just don't know what's right and what's wrong anymore, Paz."
Paz frowns, setting her book aside. She knew there was much pressure on Theo's back, but there was also a lot of pressure on hers. On Pansy's. On Blaise's. On Neville's and Ginny's and Harry Potter's. Paz knew that statement was a lie, Theo knew what was right and what was wrong, he just didn't know how to pick between the two.
"It's alright Theo," Paz finally breathes out, "I know you're stuck, but you should know that you have me as a way out."
"It's not that easy." Theo states, then relocating his seat and taking one directly next to Paz. He looks towards his left arm and sighs. "I really appreciate you Paz, I appreciate everything you've done for me, but you can't do anything about this."
"I know," Paz answers honestly, "I can't change your mind. Only you can."
Theo lets out a loud sigh before sinking into the soft couch cushions. Paz follows his actions. Without a second thought, Theo grabs a hold of Paz's hand, holding onto it oddly tightly.
He knew what he wanted. Theo wanted to get as far away as possibly from Hogwarts, from Voldemort, from everyone that had made him the way he was today. And he wanted Paz right by his side. He wanted a new life and he wanted to build it along side Paz.
But as he sat in the Slytherin common room, gazing into the fire with Paz's hand comfortably in his own, he knew he was being childish. This was a war. He wasn't playing make believe at Malfoy Manor anymore, this was real. This is life or death. He had chosen his side in the war.
There was still a small part of him, a fire burning deep down inside of him, that was pushing him to do the opposite of what was expected of him. This part of Theo was telling him to push away everything he had been taught all these years. To finally be his own person and make his own decisions, to not care what his family thought of him and do what he knew was right.
If he listened to this small, burning part of him, he would lose a lot, if not nearly everything in his life. But at the same time, Theo would finally get to be with the girl he loves. It would be simple. He would fight the good fight with Paz by his side, and no matter what would happen, at the end of the day, he would have her. Everything would be alright.
That, though, wasn't the case. So instead of admitting this all to Paz, the girl who was absentmindedly humming beside him with her hand in his, the girl who he was madly in love with but couldn't be with, he stayed quiet. Instead of saying how much he regrets ever getting this damn Dark Mark, he keeps his mouth shut, and wonders how he would have turned out if he had been as brave as Paz and stood up for what he truly believes in.
yay this was a quick update!! hoping to get the next chapter out by tuesday the latest. i really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you so much for 500 reads!
gia