Blaise Zabini was a bad man.
For five years, he had been beating himself up because he had allowed himself to be manipulated into betraying his best friend. He had helped break up Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley, had been the one to convince both his friends the other didn't want to see them again. He hadn't wanted to, had fought it as much as he could, but the dirt his blackmailers had on him was enough to ruin his career and any social life he had, so he had had no choice.
As he sat on the couch in the dark, nursing a bottle of whiskey, he laughed bitterly, making fun of himself for his stupidity to fall into the bitch's trap. How he loathed the woman who had used a young man's lusts and inebriated state to lure him into her web of lies and deceit.
But he could not undo the past, no matter how much he tried and there was no one in the world who could say he didn't try.
Why had he done it? he thought as he peered blearily down the neck of the bottle of Jack. Why had he thought it was anyone but the mother of his best friend who approached him in that club, two drinks in hand and a knowing smile on her face?
As he once again started berating himself, he poured another glass, determined to drink his pain away. It was the same, it was always the same. Every night, when the noise of the city died down and he was once again alone with his thoughts, he was tortured by the knowledge that it had been his actions that had driven his friends apart. He was responsible and he couldn't change that.