Velvet Persuasion

Chapter One:

The look on Blaise Zabini's face was smug as he made his way to Potions. He got the usual looks; some from those who were disgusted by him, some those who were on 'friendly' terms with him, and some from those who wished to be the object of his affections.

However, on the other hand, here were many more too embarrassed by what they had done to even look at him. He liked teasing them best.

His newest victim was Harry Potter.

However, Harry had, instead of blushing at Blaise's expression like the others, held his composure, knowing that the Slytherin's actions lacked true meaning. Blaise smiled wicked in response to Harry's nonchalant attitude. Harry Potter, apparently, had a habit of making himself a challenge in some way or another to all who knew him; Blaise was no exception.

Surprisingly (at least to Blaise), Harry had been the modest, considerate and romantic and loving type whom Blaise usually stayed with for a while before moving on. It had surprised Blaise even more, however, that Harry had not tried to change the Slytherin as a person; the Boy Who Lived was actually agreeing to sleep with someone with no strings attached.

Considering that he had purposefully modified his traveling path to Potions so that he caught Harry, Blaise did give Harry credit on not looking the Slytherin's way once. But he mentally laughed at the sight of Harry distracting himself by speaking to Ron.

He vaguely wondered if Harry would want to see him that night.

(Scene shift)

"Children," Professor Snape snarled. "This is a mandatory project. Anyone who does not complete it had the alternative of Detention for the next two months."

The Potions Master paced around the room; casting a glare at any Gryffindors he came across. "It is a research project, and considering that I am assigning partner for this, I expect it to be thirty-six inches long on the potion of your choice."

There were groans all around the room. Blaise was weighing his options: a long, thirty-six inch paper, or two months Detention with Snape, during which they would have the hot, rough sex that Blaise always had with Snape.

But he'd probably just tell me I could make it up, so I'd still end up doing the damn thing anyway. And since there'd be no partner the second time, so I'd end up doing it all…

So, it was between a project and hot sex with Snape, or a project and hot sex with someone whom Snape chose. He was leaning towards the latter; after Harry, he didn't quite feel like having Snape.

"…must all have a Gryffindor partner," Snape was saying, "as the Gryffindors must all have Slytherin partners."

There were more groans around the room, and Draco, who was next to Blaise, swore loudly.

Snape sent Draco a glare, but nothing more, and he continued. "And those of you who debate with me about whatever partner you receive will have half of your earned grade deducted from your paper, and what I see as the point equivalent from your House Points. Any questions?" Of course, Snape didn't wait for an answer. "Thanks to your Headmaster," he spat, "you have two and a half weeks to do this, though it should not take you half as long. Unfortunately, Madam Pince in the library, Madam Pomfrey in the Infirmary, and I will be available to help you. Now keep quiet so that I can pair you off."

Blaise listened for no one's names seldom his and Harry's, though it was made obvious by some people in both Houses that they wanted to be paired with him.

Snape smiled gently as he called Blaise's name…and frowned as he paired the Slytherin off with Hermione Granger.

Blaise swore under his breath. Out of all of the multitudes of Gryffindors in the room whom he had slept with, Snape had to match him with the one person with whom he absolutely would not.

Hermione? The Mudblood?

The first show of any emotion towards him that morning, however, came from Harry at that moment. Harry had only glanced at him, but the Slytherin could still catch the crestfallen look in his eyes before the brunette looked away.

Harry had been paired with Pansy Parkinson. She glared at Harry, but stopped when she caught Blaise glaring at her.

Snape, with a sly smile towards Blaise, directed them to sit with their partners and discuss the outline of their paper quietly.

Draco grudgingly left his seat; he had been paired with Seamus Finnigan. He was lucky, in Blaise's opinion. Seamus was wonderful in bed. Very gentle.

"Damn him," Blaise muttered, looking at Snape. "All the gods damn him."

The old man knew what he was doing. He had purposefully paired him with someone he would not sleep with. In hopes of what, though? That Blaise would run to him? Two could play that game.

Blaise leaned on his desk, his right arm supporting his head, and cast a tentative smile and an arched eyebrow towards Snape, who had moved to sit behind his desk.

Though the Potions Master did not physically smile, there was twinkle in the man's eyes that confirmed Blaise's suspicions. Blaise changed his look to playful, running his hand through his hair and winking subtly. Severus, of course, was not a flirtatious type of person, and instead showed him the semblance of a smile, which told Blaise that Severus would be up late that night…just in case Blaise felt like traveling through the dungeons. All things considered, Blaise really wanted to see—

"So," came a cheery voice from beside Blaise, and he turned. Hermione Granger was sitting next to him. He sent a small glare at Snape before giving her any attention.

"What Potion did you want to work on?" she asked, straight to the point.

Blaise rolled his eyes lazily. "Whatever you want is fine with me. Just don't get in my way."

She huffed. "Well, I'm working on Polyjuice Potion, since you decided not to care. It—"

"That's in the restricted section of the library," Blaise said.

"How do you know that?" Hermione asked accusingly.

"Saw the spine from one of the shelves a few years ago. Got the book at my aunt's house."

Yeah, you saw it a few weeks ago, he chided himself, while you were in the library with Oliver Wood. Wonder how he's getting along now…

At the look Hermione gave him, he added, "Auntie works at the Ministry. Diagnoses those under the influence of potions. She could help us, you know."

"Hm." Hermione seemed to look him over, deciding whether he was lying or not. Apparently he was deemed a truth teller, because she continued without further delay, "You could write about that! Your aunt's job and how it's linked to those who use potions for unauthorized purposes, for the wrong situation and even by accident! This is perfect!" She began taking notes on her own words, which annoyed Blaise. "And since Snape's given me permission to get a book from the Restricted Section—" she reached into a pocket of her robes and pulled out a note, which Blaise presumed was signed. "—I needed the book for an extra credit assignment, but we can use it for this, too. Now can you get eighteen inches from your half of information?"

Blaise shrugged lazily. "Probably."

"Tomorrow is Saturday, so meet me in the library at two with one-fourth of your half done. That's four and a half inches.

"I know that," Blaise snapped. "Besides, I can't go Saturday. Sunday, I can make it." Saturday was usually a busy day for Blaise, and he would not sacrifice any part of it without a fight.

"Why not tomorrow?"

"Because unlike you, I have a life to attend to."

"Only if having a life means sleeping around," Hermione muttered.

Oh, so she did know about him. Blaise had begun to worry that his reputation hadn't gone around as much as he had.

"You can wait on Saturday," Blaise said, not answering her comment, "but I will not arrive until Sunday, Granger." Blaise was used to getting what he wanted, one way or another, and he wasn't going to begin backing down now.

Hermione turned from him in frustration, taking out a book and a piece of parchment labeled as an essay for Theory of Magic. She sent Blaise a reproachful look before beginning to write.

Blaise caught Snape's eye again, pouting and shaking his head slightly, letting the elder know he wasn't coming over that night. Snape glared at Hermione icily and barked, "Granger! Is that for my class?"

Hermione jumped, looking around, and she cringed, replying, "N-no but—"

"Put it away, now! Fifteen points from Gryffindor!" Blaise was laughing on the inside. He'd had no idea that Snape would be that angry

Perhaps Granger will

A/N: My first comment is for you to not judge this story based on writing style alone. This story, honestly, is not that good, but I am posting it because at the time it was a good plot idea. I wrote this originally a few years ago to answer the question: why is Blaise such a slut in Harry Potter fanfiction? Why would so many people sleep with him in the first place? This story was also written before the sixth book had been released, so at the time it was unknown whether or not Blaise had been a boy or a girl, so the descriptions of how Blaise looks are very vague. I had been out of writing practice then, and I wrote this to get out the writer's block. Please don't hold me accountable personally, unless it's for being too lazy to go back and clean this up. I mean, I am cleaning it up in the sense that I'm sort of pulling out some the plot kinks, but I'm not really making that much of an effort. I hope that you all enjoy this story for its plot rather than my writing style.

In other news, I got a laptop, which means now that I will have more fanfiction up faster. I mean, if I'm still writing a story, of course you will all have to wait. But the many stories that I have neglected finishing/posting because of my lack of computer access will be posted now. Even though I don't have internet, I'm in college now, so I can still use wireless and submit it. The good thing is that I can type at home, so that I can put it up all at the same time. That's awesome. And my mom just bought a laptop, too, so she now has an incentive to actually PAY FOR INTERNET, which means that I'll probably have the internet at my house pretty soon. I would rather like to talk to a lot of my fans more, and that will give me the venue to do it.

In addition to this, I wanted to announce that the authoress that inspired me to better my own writing skills and major in English (with concentration on Creative writing), samurai-ashes, is leaving She says that she's grown out of fanfiction, and that she's going to go into more original fiction.

I want to say, first, that I HATE it when authors/authoresses do that. I think that if you decide to become involved in fanfiction that you should do it for life. I understand that there are things in life that happen and that people want to actually be legally published and all of that, that you want an education, that people in your family pass on, that you may lose your inspiration. But I would suggest a HIATUS rather than leave fanfiction. Take myself for example. I'm in college now. I've been on fanfiction for almost four or five years. Things change. Interests change. But you can still connect fanfiction to them. I plan on writing fanfiction as long as possible, just so you all know. I might take a while to post things. I might be busy, but I will never QUIT, and it bothers me that people are doing that. These are people who inspire others with words. People who give others hope that yes, an anime ending might suck, but that they can read better. There is hope that one day, there will be a professional writer who began with fanfiction and knows how to do things right/the best way possible. Some of these stories affect people's lives; they keep people from crying at night, they make people laugh right after a family member has gone. They parallel the lives of characters we love to our own, no matter if you like anime or movies or books, or if you like YAOI, YURI, or just regular old pairings. Fanfiction is a way of life, of sustenance, and a lot of people do not appreciate it…

Samurai-ashes leaving scars me more deeply than you all will know. There were times when I wanted to quit, because I thought I wasn't good enough. I was new and scared that I had no skill. I didn't know the rules. I didn't know how to write fanfiction at all. But she helped me. She spoke to me and counseled me and through reviewing and critiquing her fiction I learned how to construct my own, how to take ideas from seemingly nothing and spin it into a nicely themed one shot, or how to write a PWP and make it so enjoyable that it was acceptable. And when she reviewed my stories, I felt like GOD had come down from Heaven and personally held a conversation with me. You all think I'm a good writer, but I wouldn't have been HALF as good as I am now without reading her stories. I read her livejournal. I read her stories (which were slightly better, as they were unedited versions of her works and I enjoy well written lemons). I told everyone I could about her. Half of my friends read YAOI because of her Third Grade Logic, which is one of only two stories on this entire site that made me cry while I was reading it. I was rooting for her. I loved her, and she's leaving now…I just wish that she would reconsider, just a little. She doesn't have to start writing new stories. I would just like her to stay and help other people develop their skills some more. There are others who will still be reading her stories months from now. Will she ignore the 'Review Alerts' email? Will she refuse to reply to someone who has taken the time out to give her an honest opinion of her story? I still feel incomplete in my writing skills, and I feel like there's a hole being ripped in my artistic soul because after she leaves, I'll just be some stranger to her. I will no longer be 'one of her fans' or 'that girl who read her stories' or anything like that. It bothers me that, in the end, I will just be a screen name on fanfiction. She doesn't know my name. She doesn't know where I live, and she certainly doesn't know how she changed my life. When I email her, she'll think, 'who the heck is this?' because in the end, I mean nothing to her. I was just a portion of a part of her life that is now over.

I just had to get that off of my chest, because people quitting fanfiction breaks my heart. She was one of my favorite authoresses…

However, to cope with the loss, I will be saving all of her stories as Word Documents on my new laptop to commemorate her memory. One day, six years from now, I will find her on livejournal, or I will go to see her when her original fiction comes out, with a copy of Third Grade Logic in my hand, and I will ask her to sign it. And I will tell her who I am. And I will tell her that I am one of her oldest fans. And I will cry. Because I fell for her writing style and she broke my heart.

I keep saying 'samurai-ashes is leaving'. It's a testament to my denial—

The truth is she's already left.

sob

"I will [ALWAYS return, for I am the darkness…"