Blaise had been moved to a private room, richly furnished, complete with a second bed just for Daphne.

Ginny frowned, looking around. "I didn't even know they had these rooms."

Draco chuckled. "I've never known anything but these rooms."

"You would," she replied with an eye-roll.

Daphne ushered them in. Blaise sat propped up in the thick bed, looking worn and thin, but alert.

He waved them over. "I'm doing better, thanks for asking."

Draco rolled his eyes. "If you're conscious you're doing better. It's not necessary to ask."

Blaise raised an eyebrow, not waiting even a minute to resume his infuriating banter. "It is still polite."

About to respond in kind, Ginny cut Draco off. "Blaise, how are you doing?" she asked, a twinkle in her eye.

"Much better, obviously, or I wouldn't be awake to listen to your stupid questions!"

Ginny chuckled. "Yep, he's fine."

Inwardly overjoyed to have his friend back, Draco simply shook his head. "I don't know why we even bother. There's just no pleasing him."

"This is the first he's been awake," Daphne supplied quietly. "Thought you all would want to say hi."

"Of course," Ginny responded with a smile. Draco nodded sharply, not willing to express how worried he'd been in front of others.

"Goyle and I were stuck all alone with these two dingbats," Warrington added. Ginny and Draco both looked offended. "Some sanity from you and Daphne would be useful about now."

"Blaise? Sane?" Draco said incredulously. "I don't think those words go together."

The man in question raised an eyebrow. "And what shenanigans have our Captain and Lieutenant been getting into that you need saving from?"

Warrington shrugged, trying to look casual. "She moved in with him."

"Also, Weasley's been declared missing," Daphne added. "You haven't read the paper yet."

Blaise's eyebrows would have climbed off his head if they could. "Did you stage an accident? So that you could--?"

"No I did NOT stage an accident so I could abduct her!" Draco exploded. "We were keeping it SECRET to keep everyone SAFER!"

Ginny, of course, flushed bright red, and Blaise, of course, instantly targeted this. "My, my, the Weaselette's blushing," he drawled. "What juicy secrets is our Captain not telling?"

Draco hadn't thought it humanly possible to turn a darker shade of red. She proved him wrong. "Nothing, that's exactly it." Ginny tilted her chin defiantly. "Draco's been nothing but a gentleman and it's terrible to see everyone assuming things based on his generosity."

The ardent defense pleased Draco to no end. It even stopped Blaise in his tracks. This was doubly pleasing.

Blaise sighed dramatically. "How can I keep teasing him after that? You're no fun, Weaselette."

She shrugged. "It's the truth."

"She's been a good houseguest, so no complaints so far," Draco added. "Even managed to scandalize my mother in record time, so there's that."

Ginny glared at him. "That was just as much your fault as mine."

Draco chuckled, remembering the lake fondly. "Not just as much, no."

"Speaking of good houseguests," Daphne trailed off awkwardly.

Blaise grimaced. "They've deemed me well enough to go home. Apparently they're worried I'm a security risk, for some reason. Something about a Muggle flat exploding?"

Draco grimaced in kind. "And you need somewhere you can heal, with adequate protection in case you're the next target."

The Charms Expert shrugged. "Pretty much, yeah."

The answer was blindly obvious, and Draco sighed. "Come one, come all, to the Malfoy Home for the Wayward Witch or Wizard!"

"I won't be intruding on your time with your Lieutenant?" he asked suggestively. At Ginny's glare, he threw up his hands defensively.

"Goyle's already there," Draco snapped.

Daphne looked too excited. "Really? Can I come too?"

"Yeah, me too," Warrington chimed in. "I don't want to be left out of a party at Malfoy's."

"It is not a bloody party!" Draco massaged the bridge of his nose. "And no you may not! The two of you don't have a bloody good reason at all!"

"But you'll be hosting the entire team other than us!" Daphne protested. "That seems exclusionary to me."

"Then Blaise can stay at your house and no one will feel excluded," Draco replied. "I am not hosting a live-in Auror team."

"We wouldn't even have to Apparate in to work," Warrington added dreamily. "We could just have off-campus meetings in Malfoy's sitting room."

"I do not find this remotely convincing," Draco replied, once again wishing for sane friends. "Once any of you moves in, you'll be a parasite occupying that bedroom for the rest of my life."

Warrington nodded as if this accurately described his plans.

Blaise flashed a winning smile. "You're not worried about your darling Lieutenant?"

Draco looked at her, quickly looking away when she looked back. "I believe she has a need for basic human dignity. Something I find the majority of you mooches lacking."

No one even bothered to address Goyle; he'd always been a mooch, but an unobtrusive one and so didn't count.

Daphne wrinkled her nose. "Human dignity in a Muggle flat?"

The room quieted awkwardly. He didn't dare look at his Lieutenant, but tried to lighten the mood. "That's true. Maybe I should save her from her own idea of human dignity?"

Ginny shoved into him playfully. "It came with free telly."

He raised an eyebrow. "I haven't the faintest idea what that is, but it sounds terrible."

She looked back at him, a challenge apparent in her smile. "I bet you'd like it."

"Don't take the bet, Draco!" Blaise whispered frantically. "She's trying to poison you! Once you go Muggle you never go back!"

"I've seen it," Warrington admitted. "It's like photographs, but with sound and longer. Some of them are fun. They do plays and things."

Ginny tossed Draco a 'See?' look. He sighed dramatically. "If Warrington can survive the experience, I certainly can." The redhead grinned triumphantly.

Blaise looked incredulously at them. "What happened to the two of you?"

Draco looked at the girl, unwilling to admit how rare it was to enjoy someone's company as much as he had. "With your obnoxious face gone, Blaise, I guess I discovered that she's not quite so awful."

Ginny rolled her eyes, still amused. "Unfortunately Draco's not any less of a prat."

Blaise usually understood more than Draco let on, and this was no exception. He shot Draco a sly grin. "I'm overjoyed for you, truly. Let's get me up and over to Malfoy Manor before St. Mungo's sells my bed out from under me, yeah?"

Daphne pushed a wheelchair over to him. A piece of Draco died inside. "Blaise, you can't..?"

"Temporarily, mate," his friend reassured him. Although Blaise didn't seem too confident of it himself. Through maneuvering and leaning on Daphne, he managed to slide into the chair. Draco Apparated over to Malfoy Manor, the rest of the team following suit.

Narcissa happily welcomed Draco's friend into her home, situating him in a room on the ground floor so that Blaise wouldn't have to bother with stairs.

Almost immediately, the fireplace rang. "Malfoy?" it screeched hideously. "Malfoy, I know you have Ginny somewhere! Hand her over, this isn't funny anymore!"

Draco winced. "Ginny, want to go deal with that? I sure as hell don't."

The girl grimaced. "Hermione?" To which Draco nodded. "I guess I'll go get lectured at. Don't worry, I'll Apparate, she won't know I was here."

"Ginny!" Hermione launched at her in a crushing hug. Then pulled her back at arm's length. "What in the world's been going on?!"

"Draco said you were there for the Death Eater ambush at my flat." Ginny braced herself for the onslaught she knew was only minutes away.

Hermione nodded. "It was incredibly dangerous, Ginny. I can't believe they went to that much effort to target you! I didn't even know the Death Eaters operated in such scale anymore."

"I thought we had them running scared," Ginny said darkly.

"They might be now. We've found two places we thought were Macnair's hide-outs, but both came up empty. We're not sure if the spells were wrong, or if he's just keeping one step ahead of us."

Ginny couldn't believe the words out of her friend's mouth. "Where is Slytherin Squad in all this? Tracking down our traitor?"

Hermione smiled apologetically. "Ginny, this is a high-profile case now. We can't trust it to a squad that hasn't earned its stripes yet."

"Then give it to several squads, but make us one of them!" Spots of red formed in Ginny's vision, her cue to calm down, but she shoved it aside. "Stop sidelining us and assuming we'll fail!"

"Harry and I were hoping to have you and Ron leading the charge, as two of our best Aurors. There's no reason to be sidelined," Hermione offered reasonably.

"I am part of a squad," Ginny hissed through clenched teeth. "That squad deserves vengeance on Macnair."

Hermione shook her head. "Be reasonable, Ginny. That squad's a threat to themselves and those around them. They barely deserve to remain standing."

"When have they ever been a threat to those around them?!" Ginny could barely see straight in anger. "Blaise Zabini nearly died in the line of duty!"

"Zabini, Malfoy, and you all proved yourselves time and again." Hermione's eyes narrowed, rising to the bait of Ginny's temper. "No one else on that team is qualified to wear the robes of Auror. They passed by the skin of their teeth. If it were up to me, I wouldn't let them raise their wands within 100 meters of combat."

"Did you even see them fight?!" Ginny screeched.

"I saw them fail," Hermione replied icily.

Unable to stand any more without strangling her friend, Ginny stormed out of the office, slamming the door as she left.

She shoved open the door to Blaise's room. "Hermione's hunting Macnair without us." Her voice dripped undisguised fury.

"She what?!" Draco jumped up in shock.

Ginny smiled maliciously. "Oh, yes. Said we haven't earned our stripes, and that she'd boot every one of the team but the three of us if it were up to her."

From the bed, Blaise simply raised his eyebrows.

"I'll kill her," Draco snarled.

"Also that we're a danger to ourselves and everyone around us," Ginny seethed, but the boys instantly calmed.

"That...was on our official report from our only other mission," Blaise replied sheepishly. "And well-earned."

"I'll still kill her," Draco added, but with less venom.

At Ginny's disbelieving stare, Blaise supplied, "Goyle nearly killed himself and we blew up half a block."

"You're saying Hermione's right?!" Ginny asked incredulously.

Blaise shrugged. "I'm saying she's uninformed, and hasn't updated the opinion. Which is easy to do when the only other mission had a traitor, a deserter, and a near fatality." He gave a self-deprecating grin.

The Slytherins sat sullenly.

"So," Ginny tried to draw them out, "what are we going to do about it?"

Draco gave her a quizzical look. "What can we do about it?"

"You're ok with never getting missions again, and Hermione eventually just quietly disbanding the team?"

"Of course not," Draco frowned.

"What do you want us to do, Weasley?" Blaise asked. "Charge up to headquarters and hold Hermione ransom until she gives us another mission?"

"I'd do it in a heartbeat if it would work," Draco said.

What did she want them to do? That was the question, wasn't it?

"I want to hunt down Macnair before Hermione can," Ginny announced with finality.

She expected them to jump up, applauding her dramatic announcement. Instead, the only response was a slight furrowing of Draco's brows.

"How do you expect to do that?" the blond asked her.

"Don't you guys have, I don't know, contacts that know Macnair?"

"Nott Sr. was the only one who knew him well. Macnair didn't associate with the 'children' until he had to," Draco replied.

"Maybe someone we've captured?" It was a stretch, she knew.

Draco raised an eyebrow at her. "They like us about as much as Yaxley did. Most of them even less."

Reluctantly, Blaise suggested, "There's always--"

"Not going there," Draco cut him off with finality.

Ginny raised her eyebrows, but didn't press.

"Can't you, I don't know," Draco waved his hands vaguely, "get a mission out of one of your Auror buddies again?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Yes, Hermione, Harry, or Ron. They didn't know who they were helping before. Pick which of them will still help now that they know which squad gets the mission."

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "If I'm picking who's least likely to be blindly prejudiced, I'll pick Hermione any day." Reluctantly, Draco agreed.

"I kinda sorta just blew up at her," Ginny winced. "I'm probably not her favorite person right now."

"Isn't there some way you can just bribe her into giving you a mission? Something you can do to make up for it?" Draco asked.

"I don't have anything to make up for," Ginny snapped. But as she said it, a terrible, horrible, positively fiendish idea came to her. "There is a way they can make it up to me though."

"What is it?" Draco asked skeptically.

She adopted her most dramatic voice. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it--"

Blaise raised his hand. "You plural? Am I included in this?"

Ginny nodded. "Yes, you too, Blaise."

About to continue, Blaise cut in again. "Is Daphne included? I don't want to have to push my own wheelchair."

She massaged her forehead. "Yes, she can come too."

Draco raised his hand. She glared furiously at the man, who just smirked broadly. "No questions, Lieutenant. I just wanted to see you make that face."

"Your mission," she ground out, "is to join with me in infiltrating the deepest enemy territory imaginable. At great peril to life and limb."

"I'd do pretty much anything if it helped the team," Draco replied, infuriatingly nonchalant.

Blaise nodded. "Count me and Daphne in. What is it?"

She grinned maniacally. "Would you join me for the Weasley weekly dinner? It's open to any who want to come."

Blaise and Draco looked terrified.