Meeting their match,

Chapter 38

Several hours later, Blaise lay on his back, his left hand outflung, his fingertips trailing along the ends of Gellert's hair as it fanned across the mattress. They lay naked and spent on the bed, drifting close to sleep. Gellert's head was near Blaise's ribs his body curled in repose. Doing as many things to one another in as many ways as they could manage was deliciously exhausting. The afternoon had consisted of a full repeat of last night minus the cuddling and talking about magic. Blaise gave a contented sigh. The cuddling had been oddly nice last night and he looked forward to repeating it again tonight. He never cuddled, or he hadn't done before Gellert.

"Want to go take a bath in the prefect dorms? The tub is brilliant. You'll love it."

"Yes I remember. That's where you shagged a chick as you so eloquently put it last night," Gellert said, words coming out surprisingly dry and tart. Blaise rose up on one elbow to regard the other man, taken a back a bit by Gellert's reaction.

"Yeah. You shagged chicks too. A great deal more than I ever have I might add."

"A very long time ago," Gellert said.

Blaise shrugged. "So. None of them meant anything did they?" Gellert shook his head without rising from the mattress.

"Hell if you know I wouldn't even cuddle, you should know they didn't mean anything to me either. You cuddled your women, even had them more than once. You told me that last night. So why do you care if I shagged a Ravenclaw chick in the bath? Besides the one I'm taking you to is the Slytherin bath and I've never shagged in it...until now. I was hoping to do that now."

Gellert gave a low laugh and tugged Blaise down to him for a kiss. The feel of their naked chests touching made Blaise's entire body practically thrum with longing. Damn he was ready to go again.

"I'm feeling very dirty. Lets have that bath right now."

He drew Gellert up from the bed and dug two bathrobes out from where Bramble had neatly packed them in one of the trunks because the fastidious elf thought of everything, bless him.

Blaise handed Gellert one of the robes before slipping into the other. "I like it that you're jealous," he told Gellert, drawing him close for one more kiss before they went to take that bath like good little prefects.

"Good," Gellert replied, and his kiss was hard enough to leave Blaise breathless.

If Blaise had enjoyed the jets and bubbles of the prefect bath with the Ravenclaw, it was out of this world with Gellert. They ended up spending an hour in the bath. An amazing hour. Hot bubbling jets combined with the things their own hands and mouths could do to one another was beyond brilliant.

Hunger forced them down to dinner though both wouldn't have minded going to sleep instead were food not such a pressing need. Blaise remembered to bring Bramble the supply list he'd made. There were a surprising amount of people gathered at the staff table for dinner. Dumbledore sat beside a hot brunette in extremely low cut dress robes who looked positively young enough to be his granddaughter. Perhaps she was. Blaise had never given any thought to the headmaster's family or the family of any of the professors for that matter.

Blaise's parents were already there with Bramble, Snape sat with Mag talking quietly. Millicent and Wolfgang sat talking with Regulus and Kreacher. Idly Blaise wondered why a vampire would come to dinner, but then Regulus began firmly encouraging a protesting Kreacher to eat more which answered his question. He wondered if Regulus would work with Wolfgang and their lot against Voldemort. As they were deep in conversation, it appeared likely. That was good. The more the better.

Gellert thanked Mag for the wand and she gave him an almost shy smile as she nodded. "I like to make a wand for each wizard personally, but I figured a generally good wand was better than no wand at all until I get to know you better and can design something more specifically tailored to your personality and specifications."

"I look forward to it," Gellert told her. "Wizards from even ancient times used gemstones and crystals for their magical properties, but you're the only one to utilize them as wands, at least in our time. It's a very good idea."

"They're far superior to wooden wands," Mag said, looking gratified by Gellert's understanding of the magical potential of gemstones.

"I'd like everyone to meet Miss Bera Karkaroff," Albus said, nodding to the young woman at his side. "Her father was Headmaster of Durmstrang before he was killed by Voldemort. She is Headmistress now in his stead. Miss Karkaroff has come to speak with me about an alliance between our two schools which I think is a fine idea."

Blaise noticed Gellert's brief and nearly startled stare at the Karkaroff woman. Did he know her? How could he when he'd just gotten out of prison. Even her father was too young for him to know, considering he'd been in prison for fifty years.

"I am glad to meet all of you," Miss Karkaroff pronounced in heavily accented English. Though she addressed the table at large, her eyes mostly remained on Dumbledore's face and her hand lay lightly on his arm. Was she flirting with Dumbledore, Blaise wondered. No. He was far too old. Gellert wasn't much younger than the Hogwarts headmaster, but he'd gotten a youthening potion and Dumbledore most certainly had not.

"Will Hogwarts students be able to take classes at Durmstrang if the schools are allied," Blaise asked, a bit more willing to return to Hogwarts for his final year were that to be the case. His hopes were dashed when the headmaster shook his head of bushy white hair in negation.

"Not at this point. There is far too much going on to arrange what would likely be a complicated matter with both boards of education. The alliance is merely to combine defensive measures in order to keep both schools safer."

"Well the idea certainly makes me feel better," Sabra Zabini said. His mother's words brought to mind the incident with the dementors the previous day and Blaise recalled a thought that had come to him while floating in that haze of satisfaction on the bed just before he and Gellert went into the Prefect bath.

"I was thinking about the dementor incident of yesterday, and I wonder if the one that spoke to me knew my name because it was able to take it out of my mind. We know so little of dementors and their abilities. If they can take a person's soul, though, it only stands to reason that they can read minds as well if they wish to. Obviously it didn't kiss me, but it was touching my arm. If my speculation is correct, and they can read thoughts, that contact would be enough to allow it a connection to my mind. It was brief, though, so I doubt it got much," he concluded hastily before his mother could begin to freak out about all the relevant information dementors could now have on them all.

"That is a brilliant thought, my boy," Gellert said, turning to Blaise, eyes alight with pleased approval at his deduction. At the praise, Blaise felt his heart fluttering like a little girl or a moth who thought it was a little girl. It felt so good, though, he didn't mind overly much.

Millicent rolled her eyes and said something under her breath to Wolfgang who nodded and gave a sardonic smile before looking at Blaise. "I agree, the thought is a good one and hopefully true," the half giant said. Steady blue gaze moving to Gellert, Wolfgang added,"Sabra and Geo wrote to me about allowing you to remain in their care. I have no problem with that as long as you remember that your loyalty lies with our cause and getting rid of Voldemort."

Though Wolfgang's words were mild enough if firm, Gellert's gaze dropped as though he had been strongly reprimanded by someone dangerous. He nodded. "Yes, of course," he said quietly. "Thank you."

Blaise liked Wolfgang, but seeing Gellert somehow so easily cowed when the half giant wasn't even really trying didn't sit well with him. He hated the nearly broken way Gellert sometimes seemed when dealing with anyone other than Blaise himself. Gellert was beautiful and proud and Blaise hated anything to take that out of him. He was too quick to placate, too eager to be friendly. It wasn't fake. Gellert wasn't lying to anyone, but the way he behaved, as though pleasing others was more important than expressing his own thoughts wasn't good. Blaise supposed that Gellert needed time to regain his strength and confidence after Nurmengard and to feel safe. He only hoped he could help him to do so.