LV. Hiding
Horace Slughorn was doing his usual rounds of the Slytherin quarters, which he conducted every new moon without fail, just like he had done when he was first a teacher there. It was important that his students weren't behaving in any way that would have reflected badly on his reputation, now wasn't it?
He wasn't really surprised to see that Blaise Zabini was still awake even though it was nearing midnight. Sixth and seventh year students tended to develop odd sleeping patterns due to all the work they put in for their NEWTs, so there was nothing out of the usual there.
"Good evening, Zabini," Horace said.
"Professor!" Zabini jumped and hid something behind his back. Horace wondered for a moment how the boy had managed to survive in Slytherin for so long without learning the art of subtlety. "Why, what a lovely surprise to see you here."
"I know you're hiding something, my boy," Horace laughed. "Whatever is it?"
Zabini looked momentarily dismayed, then handed whatever he'd been so intent on hiding to Horace.
"A muggle comic book. Really, Zabini?" he scoffed. Normally when students hid something from an adult, it was because they had something on their person which was likely to cause trouble.
"Yes, Professor," Zabini muttered sulkily.
"Well you can have it back," Horace replied with a laugh. It was ever so amusing to see an almost-seventeen-year-old young man looking so delighted at the prospect of being allowed to read a comic book. "It's not as though muggle items are banned at Hogwarts, though I suppose some of your classmates think otherwise?"
Zabini shrugged in response and Horace decided to continue inspectingthe Slytherin quarters. He had met some eccentric characters in his time, but Blaise Zabini really was one of the oddest. Well, with a mother like he had, the boy was never going to have turned out normal. It was lucky he was just eccentric rather than outright insane.
