The Detective Club | Blaise Zabini

XX

"I thought you of all people would enjoy the networking aspect of the party," remarked Blaise. She wasn't dragging him like he had dragged her because he easily kept up with her pace and walked beside her.

"Why is that?"

Blaise clicked his tongue, "You'll need it if you leave your family."

"I'm not leaving my family," said Antheia. She was going to destroy her family, there was a very distinct difference. She also didn't need to network with any of the people there.

"Are you going to tell me where we're going?"

"Um. . .give me a second," she regurgitated his words back to him. Although, she reckoned they sounded better coming from him. Blaise scoffed but she could tell he wasn't upset, most likely amused. She stifled a laugh before she said, "You remember Potter's little club last year, right? Dumbledore's Army?"

"Malfoy wouldn't shut up about it," said Blaise.

"How can you stand him? I haven't spoken to him in ages," said Antheia. She encountered Malfoy quite often when she used to be friends with Blaise and they tolerated one another. To be honest, Antheia would speak bad about him behind his back to Blaise, who never said anything. Malfoy probably did the same so she didn't feel bad.

"Aren't you lucky."

"It's not as if anyone's forcing you to put up with Malfoy's annoying arse. He looks depressed every time I see him by the way, is he okay? Although I suppose being a Malfoy will do that to you. If I was born into a death eater family, I'd jump off a cliff."

"Not sure your family is any better."

"Fair," shrugged Antheia, she stopped walking. Blaise looked at her. "Wait a second, wait, wait, wait. In fourth year, when you randomly took my seat in Transfiguration. . . I might be overthinking things but did you do it because I sat next to Malfoy? I liked that seat by the way, yes, he made me want to turn him into a pin cushion but I liked who sat at the table in front of me."

"You're definitely overthinking it. It just so happened I preferred your seat."

Antheia shrugged before she started to walk again. "Right? It was a great seat. Malfoy hardly bothered me, I just had to listen to his side conversations and they drove me insane. You just had to steal it from me. At least your old seat was next to the window."

"Had you listened to Malfoy for any longer, you might not have had any brain cells left by the end of the year."

"What a great friend you are."

"Not his friend."

"Is anyone?"

Antheia had to let go of his hand despite how much she didn't want to in order to make the Room of Requirement appear. Blaise seemed to understand what she was doing, Malfoy probably told him that too. Antheia mentioned Dumbledore's Army to explain it to Blaise, but admittance to the Detective Club pretty much guaranteed knowledge of most of Hogwarts secrets. No one really knew how long it had been a thing for, which meant all the previous members that discovered something about Hogwarts would record it in a log book, which stayed with the president and eventually the members learned about it. Antheia first found out about the Room in Requirement in fourth year. She was technically breaking a club rule by entering it for her own purpose, which was why she rarely went in it, but it wasn't as if she made an unbreakble vow, so she'd be fine.

Once she made the room appear, Antheia pulled Blaise inside, "Remember the day we fought? We had just had a Wizard's Chess match and I lost. I demand a rematch."

Blaise seemed stunned for a moment before he laughed, "Three years later and you're still not over it?"

"No! That was the first time I lost a game of Wizard's Chess. I haven't been able to enjoy a game since." That wasn't exactly true. She never liked Wizard's Chess, she only played it so often when she was younger because Blaise liked it. She found it funny how worked up he would get, scrunching up his face as he concentrated.