For the Tomato Day Challenge at The Golden Snitch.

Step 2: Cut off any rotten parts and take out the core. Write about a character trying to find the good inside them.

Bonus prompts: (word) magnificent, (word) angelic, (character) Blaise Zabini, (word) help, (colour) tomato red.

Gabrielle couldn't be called a bad woman. She was, to this day, her parents' daughter in everything from inherited looks to the ethics and morality she learnt from them. While the ethics part was clear enough for Gabrielle, who worked hard like her father and was always meticulously organised like her mother, the morality part was blurred.

She wouldn't call herself a bad woman, but that didn't mean she was a magnificent person with no flaws and who never doubted of what was right.

"You're staring again," her boyfriend said. He was shaving in front of the small mirror of their bathroom and she, sitting on the bed still wearing her pyjamas, was looking at his eyes (so beautiful) through the mirror. "Is this about our relationship again?"

Gabrielle opened her mouth but it felt dry. She was not usually like this, eloquence being one of her best attributes but, in the light of day, the situation felt strange again.

"It's not that I don't want our relationship, Blaise," she told him, sitting on her hands in order to calm down her nerves. He stopped what he was doing, magically cleaned his face and then turned around to see her directly. He leaned against the sink and crossed his arms on his chest, raising and eyebrow.

Gabrielle didn't need the mirror to know she was blushing tomato red. His expressive gestures always got the best of her, making her forget the usual coolness she reflected (not on purpose, but who had time to smile when the schedule was tight and she had to run from one job to the other).

"I'm listening," he said. His voice wasn't strained, he showed no anger. He knew the facts as well as she did and didn't cower from them.

Gabrielle sighed and looked down. Her hair fell in front of her face, blocking her view of him. She pulled it back, playing with it as she loosely braided it.

"You are still a wanted Death Eater, Blaise," she said. His eyes, for all his expressiveness, told her nothing. He stood there, waiting for her to finish her part and it seemed to Gabrielle that he wasn't breathing. "I know you are not a bad person. I know you were marked against your will and only because your friend pushed you to that but you still comitted crimes, Blaise. How good of a person can I be if I'm hiding you here?"

He laughed then. It was a lovely sound that prompted Gabrielle to stand and cross the space between them to kiss his lips. In them, she found the sincerity of his actions with her.

"You are angelic," he said, looking at her with what Gabrielle could only describe as love. "I don't need you to remind me of my mistakes, Gabrielle, but you do it because you recognise them by what they are: mistakes. You are a good person because you see that distinction. A bad person wouldn't."

She felt silly speaking of being good or bad as if she was a little child and pressed her lips into a tight line. His answer did nothing to alleviate the worries in her mind.

"I just wish..."

"You can't help thinking what would happen to you if I went back to that," he said. "I know that but, believe me when I tell you I won't be the man who I almost was. You're not the only one trying to find good inside you, Gabrielle. It's even easier for someone as kind as you are."

She blushed again, but this time he kissed her. First her lips, then her cheeks and her temples.

"You worry too much."

"What if they come to hunt you down?"

"They won't," he told her with certainty. Gabrielle tried to seek the hint of a lie in his face but she didn't find it. "Trust me. There is no one in the world who could separate us, Gabrielle."

And she trusted his words.