Chapter Twenty-Six: Study Buddy
The happy little tune that Blaise was humming as he tucked the ends of his button-down shirt loosely into his trousers did little to diffuse the stagnant atmosphere in the room of his shared Slytherin third year boy's dormitory.
Blaise felt grey eyes following him as he made his way back and forth between his four poster bed, his closet, and the shared bathroom to get ready for what Draco annoyingly referred to as his "date". Blaise was sure that every movement of his was being watched, even without turning around to give any attention to his dear roommate. But Draco's incessant and unwanted attention was certainly making him uneasy. After all, who liked to be watched while changing?
After fully dressing himself, Blaise stepped away from his bed to stand in front of the full length mirror next to his bed. He observed the reflection before him critically, and frowned at the question before him.
"Hm… one button or two..." Blaise muttered, fiddling with the buttons at his collar. After a few seconds of unbuttoning and re-buttoning, Blaise ended up deciding to forgo both buttons. It looked more relaxed and casual. Again, he reminded himself, this was NOT a date.
A snort sounded across the room, breaking his train of thought. From the way the mirror was positioned, Blaise was able to sneak a glance at Draco whose bed was directly across from the face of his mirror.
Draco was lounging on his lavishly dressed bed, supported by plush pillows, playing with a practice snitch. Miraculously, as if having a finely tuned sensor, Draco was able to dart his eyes back towards the snitch just as Blaise flicked his eyes towards him using the reflection of the mirror. The snitch darted left and right above Draco's head, but before it flew past his arm's reach, Draco reached out and snatched it at the last moment.
Fed up, Blaise spun around to face Draco, an arm resting on his hip. There was a damn hippogriff in the room and it would only drive him nuts if he didn't address it.
Now that Blaise was fully facing the blonde, and giving him all of his undivided attention, Draco need not be discreet anymore. Draco's eyes narrowed and examined Blaise up and down. "Sweet Salazar, you finally ready for your date?" After he uttered the words, Draco immediately bit his tongue and his brows furrowed slightly, just a tiny bit concerned. He didn't sound jealous just now, did he?
After an eye roll and a long exhale, Blaise replied, "For Merlin's sake, it's not a 'date'. Will you stop trying to make it one?"
Draco was quick with his rebuttal. "I don't believe you," he retorted coolly. "First you take weeks to convince Gryffindor's little princess to be your potions partner, now you're going to the library to study with her. Slytherins and Gryffindors don't mix. I think anyone can add one and one together and figure out that there is something wrong with this scenario." He released the snitched again and adverted his eyes from the Italian in favor of the little fluttering gold ball, thus, missing Blaise's smirk. Draco was reacting just the way Blaise thought he would.
"You sound jealous." Blaise commented, satisfaction apparent, complete with the smug grin on his face. There was just enough bite to his tone, and he knew that it would make his friend immediately defensive.
Just as he predicted, Draco frowned looking affronted. Blaise didn't miss the slight hint of pink on the tip Draco's ears. It was hard to miss against his alabaster complexion.
"Me? Jealous? Of what? That's nothing to be jealous of, if fact, I question your sanity by working with… with HER sort." There was no mistaking what Draco was trying to insinuate with the way he emphasized the words 'her sort', but Blaise was going to make him spit it out.
Arms crossed and looking at Draco squarely in the eyes, he pushed, "You're going to have to clarify, Draco. What's 'her sort'?" He tapped his chin, "She's sort of a brilliant witch. She's sort of wickedly clever. She's sort of pretty if you ignore the fact that her hair swallows up her face, but that's not something that can't be fixed-"
Draco raised his tone then. "She's sort of a Mudblood! Did you forget!?" he seethed and stared angrily at Blaise, cutting off Blaise's rambling of how 'amazing' Granger was. "You bloody happy now? Geez!" Now fully sitting up and cross-legged, he threw his hand up with a frustrated grunt before running one hand through his hair. "Do you need me to spell it out for you what you're getting yourself into?"
Ridiculous! Draco felt so betrayed by his so called best mate. A few study sessions with Granger and Blaise was so enthralled with her that her Mudblood status was suddenly overlooked. Well, Draco knew that she really a Pureblood, but to the rest of the school population, she was a Mudblood, and not just any Mudblood, she was his Mudblood to bully. He made it clear since first year that Granger was his prey.
Anger seemed to radiate off Draco when Blaise only shrugged nonchalantly and muttered, "Go on Mate, I'm all ears."
Draco was acting strangely. Never in all their years of friendship has Draco looked so flustered. From Blaise's vantage point, Draco appeared nervous, not to mention confused if the ever so slight darting of his eyes and the gripping of the duvet were of any indication. As if choosing the correct words to say, Draco opened his mouth and then closed it a few times before he finally settled on saying in an rehearsed tone, "Imagine what the other Purebloods will do if word got around. You'll be the laughing stock amongst our social circle, not to mention the other families will turn on you." Looking down, his bangs shielding his eyes, he quietly added, "I'm just…looking out for you, alright?" Draco almost sounded as if he was convincing himself with that last statement.
Blaise's hardened features softened to one akin to pity at Draco's words. He had a hunch as to why Draco was overreacting, but Draco's explanation of 'looking out for him' was not what he had in mind. However, Blaise was going play along with it as to refrain from bursting Draco's bubble. He replied easily, "Mate, you of all people should know I don't care about those things. Neither does my mum. She's been dating all types of men, wizards or otherwise. Let others judge. Besides, they all think I'm using her for getting high marks in Potions. But if the worst happens, we have enough galleons to last several generations, even if neither myself nor my mother are particularly fiscally responsible in our lifetimes. Even if all Pureblood Britain turns on us, we'll still be fine living in another country."
Draco stared blankly at Blaise before he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He was quiet, and rolled his head back, eyes locked to the vaulted ceiling beams as if they were the most interesting things in the Wizarding World at the moment. Blaise wished he had the ability to know what was going through his head.
After a long period of them both being silent, with Draco staring up the ceiling with seemingly a lot on his mind, and with Blaise observing him, Draco finally swung his legs over the edge of the bed. With another long sigh, he stood up, his features tight and shoulders tense. With his back facing Blaise, he muttered somewhat cruelly, "You do whatever you want. I don't care. If this all blows up in your face, I reserve the right to remind you that I've warned you against this."
"Sure, Mate." Blaise said cheekily. Blaise could only offer a bitter smile which was lost on Draco since the blonde walked away with his back kept towards Blaise before locking himself inside the shared bathroom.
Blaise knew Draco was torn. Compared to Draco, he had so much more liberty to do whatever he pleased whereas Draco had to live up to the cookie-cutter expectations of being a Malfoy. There was a lot of things that Draco could have, based on his family's fame, wealth, and status. But of the things he truly yearned for, there were a few that were forever out of reach, out of question. He was bred to have a predisposition to push the forbidden fruit as far away as possible.
What would it take for him to realize that there were some things that were worth taking the risk?
Blaise was willing to push his buttons hard enough to find out, because he knew that underneath the verbal spats, the name calling, the bullying, and the rivalry, something about Granger intrigued Draco ever since the their first train ride to Hogwarts, and he was pushing her away on purpose. Deep down, Draco perhaps even fancied Granger, and Blaise wasn't going to let him muck it up.
There was absolutely no reason for Blaise to feel nervous. After all, it wasn't like it was a date or anything, but he still found himself checking the tidiness of his overall appearance by looking at his reflection in the passing windows on his way to the library. He paid little thought as to why he was doing it, and just attributed his actions as merely a customarily habit of a well-bred Pureblood and a young man of meticulous tastes in his outward appearances.
True to the characteristics of the creature on his House's emblem, Blaise, like many of his housemates, was able to watch his footfalls carefully enough to make his way to the back corner of the library practically undetected. Madam Pince did give him a cold stare as he walked past her, but he frequented the library enough these past few weeks to study with Hermione that the Hogwarts resident Librarian knew that he wouldn't maim her precious tomes in any way. In actuality, Madam Pince trusted Hermione to heavily reprimand Blaise if he dared damage a book.
"Aherm." Blaise cleared his throat lightly to announce his arrival. Hermione was so absorbed in her reading that she hadn't notice. Slightly startled, she looked up and commented, "Oh! It's you, Zabini. I didn't think you'd actually show up. We usually don't study this late together."
Blaise figured as much by Hermione's look of surprise and he pretended to be offended.
"How many lessons did it take before you actually let me be your Potion partner? I wouldn't even miss this even for the World Cup." He deposited his book bag on the table and sat himself down in the seat across from Hermione. "Actually, I lied, I wouldn't want to miss seeing World Cup." Blaise amended, "But you understand right? We blokes are crazy about Quidditch."
Hermione stared. It was obvious that he wasn't going to leave any time soon and was serious about doing their Potion essay together.
"No offense but Longbottom is a lousy partner and I'm not exaggerating when I say you're the best Potion partner that I've ever had." He dramatically looked around the room back and forth before leaning in and said in a hush voice, "Don't tell Draco that. He's not a bad partner, but he doesn't believe in "division of responsibilities" like you do. He likes to do everything himself when it comes to Potions, it's his favorite subject after all. I reckon he's already jealous that I'm working with you on the Potion essay. I'm sure he wishes he had the best student in class to vet ideas with."
That brought a small smile to Hermione's lips and she chuckled, "So Malfoy is a control freak, why am I not surprised. Your secret's safe with me, Zabini."
"Hey, those are your words, not mine!" Blaise replied with a smile of his own and started to pull some parchment, quill, and ink from his bag. "So, where are you at with the essay?"
"I'm still reading through these texts, but I think I have a topic in mind." She pushed Thirty Selected Creatures and their Magical Blood Properties and the Blood-Replenishing Potion section from Advanced Potion-Making across the table toward Blaise.
Blaise's eyebrows shot up at the sight of the books and he let out a low whistle. "Aren't you the overachiever." Hermione gave him a look and he added quickly, "Well, just a tiny bit. You have to admit to that much. Snape asked for a six feet parchment on a potion ingredient of our choice by the end of spring term and you choose 'blood' as your research topic? We haven't even used blood extensively as an ingredient yet and here you are flipping through a textbook meant for Sixth and Seventh years."
"Fine, you're right." Hermione's shoulders sagged a little. "It's a little much isn't it?"
"It's fine, Granger. Don't look so down. But, I will warn you that you won't get a word of praise from Snape on your parchment nor a pat on your back for going above and beyond what was required, so I hope you're prepared. But that aside, I wholeheartedly agree that you should choose a topic that interests you."
"Thanks, Zabini for the forewarning. What are you writing about?" Hermione asked, rather intrigued at what a 'normal' regular achieving student would write about.
"I'm going to write about Bezoars," Blaise replied with a smirk.
"Lazy arse."
A/N: Hello, this is Cookie. Sincerely sorry for the terrible wait. Real life had taken me down a different path which didn't allow me to write. Going to try to get back into writing now!
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I always imagined Blaise to be sort of a liaison between Hermione and Draco. So...Christmas didn't happen yet... but it will! Next chapter!
Take care, love you all lots.
~Cookie