Dedicated to Alex.
Durmstrang Year 1
Round 7
Writing School: Clarity in writing
Drabble task: For this round's drabble, write at least one scene with multiple characters interacting with each other and their environment. Make sure that all scene details are clear but take care to not over-explain and ruin the flow.
Word count: 870
Blaise hadn't known how happiness felt like for a long time. But then, during his fifth year, he'd heard about Dumbledore's Army. He could have ratted them out, but something in him had told him not to do it. That it wasn't the right thing to do. In the end, he'd checked them out. He remembered it like it was yesterday. It's been right after one of their lessons had ended.
When he entered, there were five people left in the room. All turned as one. There were the trio, Weasley's sister and a blonde Ravenclaw. It seemed that they were picking out books and arranging pillows.
"What are you doing here?" Granger asked. As on queue, all the others, bar the Ravenclaw girl pointed their wands at him.
"That's a Slytherin! How did you get here?" Weasley shouted.
"What are we going to do with him?" Potter asked.
Blaise raised his hands up, to show that he didn't have his wand in them.
"I come in peace."
"What do you mean?" Potter asked.
"Harry, you can't be considering listening to him!"
"I have no choice, Ron."
"You're Blaise Zabini." The Ravenclaw girl spoke for the first time.
Blaise blinked. "I am. And you are?"
"Luna Lovegood," she said, turning his back on him to put some pillows on the sofa."
"What did you mean that you came in peace?" Potter asked, not lowering his wand.
Blaise sighed.
"That night you held the first meeting, I was there, under an Invisibility Cloak. I've been trying to find where you hold the meetings ever since and last week, I followed one of you and saw that you were here. I am not going to tell anyone. "
Granger lowered her wand.
"Hermione!" Weasley shouted, but Potter also lowered his. Soon, the Weasley girl also followed.
"What do you want?" Potter asked. "If you're not going to tell on us."
"I want you to teach me too."
"What?" Four voices asked.
The Lovegood girl then turned around and smiled at them.
"Isn't it obvious? He wants to pass his O.W.L.S. and also he is aware that you're speaking the truth, Harry. That the Dark Lord is back."
Blaise could only nod. Something about the Ravenclaw… unnerved him.
"We'd have to think about logistics. I don't think the others would react well if we brought a Slytherin in, just like that," Granger said.
And something in the air had shifted after that. Even Ron Weasley had lowered his wand in the end.
"He could come before or after. You three come here early every day. And almost always, Luna and I stay late to help you clean out and prepare the next lessons," Ginny Weasley said.
Granger got a pensive look on her face. "We could do that, Harry. But only if you agree."
"Only if he tells us more about his intentions. Trusting Slytherins is not in my nature."
It'd changed everything for him. In the end, Harry had agreed to teach him, and Blaise had unofficially joined the DA. And during the year, Potter, Granger, Weasley, Lovegood and the Weasley girl had become Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luna and Ginny. His first true friends.
It hadn't been easy, but they were only teenagers, and they had much more in common than one would think at first sight.
"BLAISE!"
He turned at the loud voice, a smile on his face.
"Hey Ginny! Hey Luna!"
"What are you doing here? Don't you want to come and meet little Victoire?" Ginny asked him, a drink in her hand.
Blaise laughed. "I've already met her. I think now is the time for the extended Weasley family to meet their newest member."
"I think you're right. Come to think of it, I think we'll stay with you, isn't that right Luna? We're avoiding Aunt Muriel. She got me when I was dancing with Harry earlier, but I managed to escape."
"Unlike Harry," Luna observed, pointing in the distance. And sure enough, Harry was still talking with the elder Weasley. Then she turned to him and smiled. "Do you want to dance Blaise?"
"No, I prefer just to watch for now."
"Fair enough," remarked Ginny. "I am tired from all the dancing. I am going to pour myself another drink. I'll be right back."
"I saw you in deep thought before we came next to you," Luna said. "What were you thinking?"
Blaise looked around at all the people in the Weasley's backyard, from Ron and Hermione dancing together, to Harry who'd finally escaped aunt Muriel and was talking with Ginny at the punch bowl, and to George who was holding Bill's daughter, smiling a rare true smile. Then he turned to her and murmured, "Of life and choices."
Luna threw him a knowing smile.
"Yes, it's nice to have friends, isn't it?"
He nodded. She understood. Luna, somehow, could always read him the best. Indeed, having friends, was the greatest feeling in the world. And it'd all started because his mother had bought him an invisibility cloak he'd decided to use, at the right time.
Together, they watched the party unfold, happiness feeling his chest. It felt like home because all his friends were here.