A/N: Are you guys shocked that I'm posting twice within the same week? I feel bad for dipping! My mother was moving and also is suffering from Vertigo, so I have been preoccupied and to tired to write a good story. But, things are starting to slow down a bit. So, hear we go. Also, I'm TRYING to keep it as cannon as possible but there are obviously things that don't align with the actual books. So just keep that in mind when reading!

The Snake and The Hand: Guilt

Blaise was practically glowering. 'How could Draco?' was playing on repeat in his mind. They sat in the grass near the Forbidden Forrest, a ways away from the nearest group of classmates. Blaise preferred to sit off to the side. Hardly anybody was pleasant to either of them, and Luna didn't seem to care. There weren't any notable Slytherins in this level of Magical Creatures- most had taken their required class and never thought about it again. Blaise was one of those Slytherins, but didn't have a choice. Luna was apparently planning on going into that field after they finished school. Surprisingly, Blaise was sort of beginning to enjoy the class. They had been back for a few weeks now. The creatures Hagrid brought for the more advanced students were worlds cooler than anything he saw in the basic class. He was actually quite excited for today's lesson, as Hagrid had promised them a Dragon. At least, that was before Draco soured his mood.

Luna's rustling in her large orange bag drug him from his cynical thoughts. He glanced over at her. She seemed to be a bit upset, frantic even. He mused that he'd never seen that look on her face before.

"What are you looking for, Luna?" He said, smoothly leaning over to get a better look at her face. Her clear orbs were glossed over and her brows furrowed, she didn't answer him just kept digging in her bag. Blaise's eyes widened and something in his chest got tight. After a brief moment, she simply dumped the bag out on the grass, earning a few weird looks from their surrounding classmates. Blaise certainly did not send a threatening glare to anybody that had the gall to look at them. After a moment, he turned his attention back to Luna.

"I can't find it," her voice was shaking. Hardly did it sound like her normal bells. She sounded very concerned. Blaise's brows pushed together.

"Can't find what?"

"My Magical Creatures book," she said gravely, finally dragging her eyes to lock with Blaise's, whose jaw dropped for a quick tick. He knew exactly where it was. Shoved into the cushions of his favorite lounge chair in their common room. However, there was no way he was going to admit to that- because then he would have to admit he was admiring her work. His face pulled tight. Luna began shoving her remaining belongings back into her bag when it was apparent the book wasn't there.

"Luna, forget it. We'll look for it later. I think I see Hagrid walking up the path anyways. One class without it-" He cut himself off, scowling to the side. Why the hell was he trying to comfort her right now? He was totally blowing his cover. He heard her sniff.

"It was my mum's."

Blaise felt something strike his chest, and he was gonna tell her at that point. He even opened his mouth to confess, before Hagrid's voice boomed over and effectively cut him off. Luna rose silently, he wasn't far to follow.

"Mornin' e'ryone," Hagrid greeted them all cheerfully, "Now I suppose ye' all know what we're doin' today?" Everyone aside from Blaise and Luna gave Hagrid some loud and happy replies and he beckoned everybody to follow him into the Forbidden Forrest.

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His fingers were entangled in her hair. She was desperately jerking him closer. Their lips mashed together, completely in sync. All of their pent up emotions were bursting forward.

However, Hermione ripped away from him- panting. She had far lost track of time and could nearly be certain that she was at least late- if not missed her first class. She glared at him- but it hardly held the same venom as usual. Something was stirring within her. Draco was also out of breath. His pail lips red from the friction. A certain hungry look settled on his features. Predatory, almost.

"We can't." She said breathlessly, trying to ignore how much she had given into it in the moment. He laughed, heartily.

"We just did. Why can't we?" He was practically purring as he slinked a bit closer to her. Cautiously, of course. "I like snogging you."

His statement hung in the air. She stared blankly at him, all little bit of reasoning having left her mind. He had totally tripped her up. She spluttered- face reddening as Draco smirked. His smirk lit the fuse to her anger.

"Do you think I'm a joke?!" Her voice was harsh and she was able to regain her hateful glare. "Leave me alone Draco. I'm not a plaything."

With that, she left him- deciding that she was going to skip class and spend the rest of her day studying in her room. "I'll hex you if you bother me," was the last thing she said before the door to her room slammed closed. Draco stood for a moment, his fingers running over his lips that still held a smirk.

"What a minx...," he whispered huskily to himself- before he too turned to head up the stairs to his room. "I'll make her mine, yet."

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/

It really happened too fast.

The had all originally maintained a wide distance to the juvenile, yet quite deadly, Hungarian Horntail. The dragon was sleeping and faced away from them in an opening in front of a large cave. Hagrid was talking lowly about the creature and he was taking notes. Blaise was quite fascinated, and Luna's misplaced book left his mind. He'd assumed she'd come to terms with finding it later and probably wanted to see and learn too. He wasn't paying attention to her. He didn't see her start to stray from the group. And she wasn't paying attention either, lost in her mind. She never misplaced that treasure before. As she mentally retraced her steps, they physically brought her unknowingly closer. Too close.

Blaise did see the dragon begin to stir. He was excited for a moment. That was quickly extinguished when he saw what had stirred the young Horntail. The light hit her hair just right, and if time would of stopped right there- Blaise may of regarded her as beautiful. But it was happening all to fast- there was no pause button to stop the horror that was unfolding. With a flick of his spiky tail- he sent Luna flying back. She folded as her back it a tree and crumpled to the ground. The dragon fled- scared. Everybody stood up, but by that time, Blaise had taken off running.

He could chalk this up to his life being on the line too, if she were to be dead right now. But if was ever going to be honest with himself, now was the time. He didn't give a fuck about that. He slid into the dirt beside her, not caring about his fancy robes or shoes and calling to her a bit desperately. "Luna, Luna, Luna!" As he expected, she didn't answer. His fingers immediately slid to her pulse. It was faint, but it was still there. He let out a harsh breath. He noted the blood seeping from her abdomen, her torn clothes. Luckily, the wounds across her stomach didn't look too deep. The Horntail's spikes weren't nearly full grown and the deepest one probably went in about an inch. Which, he did note wasn't good- but better than impaled. At this point, Hagrid and the rest of the class had joined the area. Hagrid was blubbering about getting her to the Madam Pomphrey.

Obviously.

He scooped her up as safety as he could without hurting her any further and took off towards the castle. As he ran, he kept an eye on her- waiting for her to open her eyes and look at him and say something stupid that would make him mad so he didn't feel like this right now. So he didn't feel so fucking desperate.

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By the time Hermione and Draco got word of what happened that morning- it was already close to dinner. They both had hurried to the medical bay and Madam Pomphrey greeted them out front.

"Hello, dears," she said it quietly, ushering them inside. Luna was in the first bed. A large curtain surrounded her area. Hermione noted that it was rarely a good sign. The Mediwitch pushed back the curtains, allowing Draco and Hermione to step inside. Blaise was already there. He was sitting on the far side of the room with his head in his hands- not even bothering to lift it when everybody stepped in.

Luna looked suspended in time. Her chest was barely moving with each passing breath. Her whole upper torso was bandaged tightly, as well as her head and arms. Bruises poked out from the top of her blood stained chest bandaged. Hermione had one hand over her mouth. Surely, Luna was annoying- her exact opposite. But it was Luna, her friend. Somebody they all relied heavily on during the war. Somebody Hermione regarded as incredibly strong and talented. But here, she looked about as fragile as an icicle. Draco was similarly shocked. For once, Luna was silent as a church mouse, barely moving- doing nothing, actually and Blaise looked so damn remorseful, he momentarily questioned if it really was Blaise sitting in the corner.

Finally, Blaise lifted his head. He looked worn out, but Draco noted that he looked worried. That was an expression that was far and few in between for Mr. Zabini to sport. They connected eyes- Draco's brow shot up. He received quite a nasty glare from his best mate. Madam Pomphrey cleared her throat.

"As you can see, she's not in the best of shape. I will certainly need to keep her for a few more days. That being said, I don't expect Mr. Zabini to sit here that whole time. So, I've informed the Headmistress. She should be here any moment with your temporary... er... replacement." Blaise opened his mouth to object- Draco held back a snicker. "It will only be for a few days. You won't do her any good sitting here." She gave Blaise a stern look, before the sound of two sets of foot steps could be heard in the distance. "Looks like they're here."

Moments later, McGonnagal appeared, with the youngest of the Weasley clan in tow. The all stared at her for a tick, aside from Madam Pomphrey, who had started to change some of Luna's bandages. Blaises' eyes were on the Mediwitch like a hawk, worry obvious on his face. Ginny narrowed her eyes for a brief second, before her dazzling smile took over and she looked to Hermione, who gave her a small smile in return.

"Mr. Zabini- as you are fully aware of the situation with Ms. Lovegood, you do know that you can't remain here through her treatment and must continue to attend classes," McGonnagal started. Blaise scoffed under his breath, but she chose to ignore it. "That being said, Ms. Weasley here has offered her services. In the meantime, the elves are moving her stuff into your dorms. I trust you will all be on your best behavior while Ms. Lovegood makes her recovery." She gave them all a stern look. "Now, let's leave Madam Pomphrey to it."

Blaise shot up to object, his fingers curling into the palms of his hands so tightly it drew blood. He didn't want to leave her here alone, he didn't want a replacement partner- certainly not Ginny Weasley of all choices. He glanced up at her as Draco and Hermione stepped from the room. She had a hungry look in her eyes and a smirk stretched across her features.

"Come along, Blaise," she said smoothly, not waiting for the Slytherin to rise before she slipped out of the curtain. Blaise glanced to Madam Pomphrey and then finally to Luna, before he unwillingly trudged out of the room in pursuit of Ginny.

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It was late. Very late. Blaise was sitting in his favorite chair, holding the book that had started the whole situation. His anger was begging for him to throw it in the fire. Stupid book. His grip tightened on it as he bitterly thought 'No, stupid me.' It was true. He was acting fucking stupid. He let out a sigh, thumbing through the first couple pages. As Luna had said, he could tell this book belonged to her and one other person- as there were two sets of handwriting throughout it. One writing was mostly about potions in relation to the specific beast, and Blaise remembered Luna explaining what kind of accident her mother died in, so he assumed that to be her writing. That meant that Luna's writing was the bubbly, scrawled writing. Blaise laughed quietly. True to form.

"What are you laughing about?" A sultry voice wafted across the common room, forcing Blaise to look up. Ginny stood there in one of his sleep shirts. His brows furrowed and he stood.

"What are doing, Ginny?" His eyes narrowed. She smirked, hips swaying as she walked towards him.

"Well, I figured we could make the best of a shitty situation, no?" Blaise scoffed, looking away from her. She was in front of him now, smirking wildly up at him. "You know we had a lot of fun together." Her fingers were dancing above the hem of his belt. He finally glared down at her. They had a good time, she wasn't lying about that. But sex was hardly at the forefront of his mind, an indication to himself that he was most definitely changing. Playboy Blaise would have jumped on the opportunity to fuck the lights out of Potter's ex and Weasel's sister- even if to only rub it in their faces. But right now, he was more disgusted than anything.

She was leaning up, her eyes closed. It was quite obvious she expected him to kiss her. He growled, shoving her to the side so he could make his way up the steps and continue his evaluation of Luna's book in peace.

As he shut his and Draco's door, he leaned up against it and ran a hand down his face. What the fuck was happening to him?

A/N: Please let me know what you think! Oh and, Ginny and Blaise had a past er... entanglement... prior to the war. For the drama.