Chapter 7

Blaise stormed into the Slytherin Common Room, the portrait slamming shut behind him. A few first years looked up with frightened eyes, while Theodore Nott scoffed as the boy practically threw his bag on one of the tables. "Keep it down, Zabini. Some people are actually trying to focus in here," Nott snapped, glaring at Blaise from where he was playing chess with a slim blonde girl.

"Shut up, Nott," Blaise shot back as he disappeared down the hall leading to the boys' dormitories. If his friend was sticking to his usual daily schedule, he was certain that's where he'd be. Sure enough, when he threw the door open, Draco was sitting at the small desk in the corner with his back to him and a quill in hand. Upon hearing the door close with a loud thud, his writing paused for a moment before he continued with his homework.

"You're back early," he commented, resting his chin in the palm of his hand as the quill scratched against the parchment. "Weren't you going to find the Weaslette after class?

"I did."

Noticing the unusually sharp tone in Blaise's voice, Draco prompted, "And?"

"She's not tutoring me anymore."

The blonde spun around in his chair immediately. "What?" His brow furrowed. "Why not?" he demanded, his hand gripping the back of the chair.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Blaise countered. "She says it's cause she needs to focus more on her work, but I'm pretty sure it's for another reason."

"And what would that be?" Draco drawled through clenched teeth, trying calming himself down after his outburst.

"Oh, you should know better than anyone else," he remarked bitterly, which did nothing but fuel his friend's vexation.

"You're blaming me for this? You know damn well I haven't done anything to her!"

"That's the point," he muttered under his breath.

Draco narrowed his eyes. "If you have something to say, just spit it out."

After a second, Blaise turned away as his shoulders heaved with a sigh. "Forget it..." The other occupant of the room remained quiet as he controlled his urge to knock some sense into the boy on the opposite side of the room.

"What's going on with you anyway?" Draco inquired nonchalantly, causing Blaise to glance back over at him.

"You're not annoyed about this?" he replied, trying to read the other Slytherins face. The effort proved to be futile, no matter how well he could interpret people's actions. "We both know she's not just Weasley's little sister anymore."

"I don't know what you're getting at. She's just like the rest of those goody Gryffindors," Draco argued, keeping any hint of emotion out of his voice. It didn't take Blaise long to realize he was doing this and he let out a growl of frustration.

"But she's not. You've obviously noticed that." Much to his surprise, Draco exhaled softly.

"I'm not stupid, Blaise," he stated, locking eyes with the boy in order to better see his reaction. "I know you fancy her." He was disappointed to find that Blaise could hide things almost as well as he could.

"Don't be ridiculous," he snorted, folding his arms in front of him. "We're just friends, that's all." With this, Draco turned back to his work.

"Whatever... Just get her back, all right?"

Blaise gazed at him with an incredulous expression. "...Excuse me?"

"Just do it," he ordered with a huff. "You've clearly done something to piss her off."

Just admit you want her to talk to us again just as much as I do, Blaise thought. "Fine, but once I do, you need to talk to her." Draco glanced over his shoulder, about to ask what he was talking about, but only saw Blaise pulling the door shut as he left the room. In the hallway, he started walking back to the common room with a dry laugh. Why do I always have to do everything?

When Blaise had originally schemed his little plan for getting Ginny to admit her feelings to Draco (or vice versa, though that seemed to be the more improbable scenario), he thought t

hat the timing couldn't have been better. However, as he walked into a room filled with cheerful people giving an assortment of pink and red items to each other the next morning, he was silently cursing the irony of it all. Of course Ginny had to go and ruin his plan the day before Valentine's Day.

He made his way over to the Slytherin table where Draco was idly picking at the food on his plate and Blaise couldn't help but entertain the thought that his friend was probably mentally grumbling about the stupidity of such a holiday.

As Blaise took the seat beside him, Draco looked up from his meal. "So, did you talk to her?" he asked.

"Yup. She's going to start tutoring me tomorrow."

He quirked an eyebrow at his simple answer. "She agreed that easily? I thought she was avoiding you."

"No... She's not," Blaise responded bemusedly.

"Wait, who are you talking about?" Draco wondered with a perplexed look.

"Mandy Brocklehurst." When his expression didn't change, Blaise elaborated. "You know, Ravenclaw... our year... Ring a bell?"

"I know who she is," he retorted sharply. "I thought you were going to talk to Weasley."

Blaise scoffed. "Do you think I have a death wish? If I bother her too soon, she's just going to get annoyed and hex me." After a moment, his mouth formed a grin. "Or you could just go talk to her. Maybe she'd listen then."

"Yeah, that's likely," he mumbled sarcastically. "She's not in here yet. You can go wait in the hall for her or something."

"Why are you so insistent that I talk to her? You don't miss her, do you?" Blaise teased, but when Draco shot a dark look in his direction, he finally consented. "Fine, fine, I'm going." He got up from the bench and started towards the door, stopping next to a Slytherin girl with light brown hair. "Hey, Tracey? Mind if I borrow one of these?" he asked, gesturing to the large bundle of roses sitting on the table next to her.

"Yeah, go ahead," she said with a wave of her hand, "but you owe me, got it?"

"Got it," he grinned, taking one deep red rose from the pile and continuing on his way. When he got out in the hallway, it was only a few minutes before he spotted Ginny's bright red-hair in the crowd of people going to breakfast. Deciding that she'd probably ignore him if he called her name, Blaise fought his way through the crowd and caught her by the wrist. She jumped before whirling around to face him. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Blaise? What're you doing?" she hissed. He didn't answer as he had pulled her over to the side of the hall. "Blaise, I thought I told you-" She cut off her words when a laugh escaped him.

"I just came over to say Happy Valentine's Day," he told her brightly as he offered her the rose. She took it between two fingers gingerly, sending him a curious look.

"What are you up to?" she murmured, tilting her head to the side questioningly. He opened his mouth to reply, but paused in order to rethink his choice of words.

"...What if I told you that I was joking about everything I'd said?" He didn't need to be more specific, she understood.

"You weren't though." He frowned at her unfortunately true accusation. She gave him a small smile. "Give me some time, okay? I need to think things through."

"And what am I supposed to tell Draco? He keeps pestering me about you," Blaise muttered, which caused a flustered expression to appear on her face.

"He does?" she uttered with mild embarrassment. "But I bet he hasn't actually called me by my name yet, has he?" she continued sourly.

"Don't be so hard on him. He's as confused as you are," he pointed out with a playful grin. She rolled her eyes, twirling the flower between her fingers.

"I'll find you when I've sorted this all out, alright? Until then, please stop accosting me in the hallway. People'll start wondering."

"That's fine with me," Blaise agreed as she walked past him before he followed her into the Great Hall.

True to his word, Blaise left Ginny to her own accord for the days that followed, regardless of how irritable it made his best friend. Thankfully, the girl hadn't put off thinking about the matter because three days later, she was sliding into the chair next to him in the library. Without glancing up from his essay, he inquired, "Does this mean I can start talking to you again? I'm assuming you wouldn't be here otherwise."

A surprisingly cheerful laugh passed her lips. "Yes. This whole thing is stupid anyway. Whether or not you're actually right about... you know..." she trailed off awkwardly, at which he chuckled.

"And how do you feel about him?" he pried. She shook her head.

"You don't need to know that," she chimed, placing her books down on the table. Blaise fought back a snicker, doubting she even knew that answer to that question. It was then that a lofty voice caught their attention.

"Decided to join us again, Weaslette?" She rotated her head to see Draco standing on the opposite side of the table, his lips turned up slightly despite the careless tone of his voice. She raised an eyebrow in Blaise's direction at the nickname, but he simply shrugged with amusement. Sighing, Ginny faced the blonde once more.

"Do you always have to call me that?" she griped, resting her elbow on the wooden surface and placing her head in her hand. "It's really annoying."

"Why do you think I do it?" he smirked, taking his seat across from her. Her lips formed a small pout.

"Git..." she mumbled, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms. At the same time, Blaise scooted his chair back before standing up and slinging his bag over his shoulder.

"Well, I need to grab some lunch before classes start again, so I guess I'll leave you two alone," he announced. Draco and Ginny both whipped their heads around to face him.

"But-" they began in unison before looking at each other. Neither knew what to say until Blaise broke the silence with a quiet cough.

"If you guys don't have anything to say," he gestured towards the door with an entertained expression, "I'll just be on my way."

"I'll come with you," Draco said quickly, standing up and grabbing his back.

A hint of exasperation appeared on Blaise's visage and also slipped into his tone as he asked, "See you later, Gin?"

"Yup," she piped, opening her book and pulling out some parchment. Her eyes then shifted to Draco as a grin spread across her lips. "I'll see ya later too, Malfoy."

He returned her gaze with an equally mischievous look. "Same to you, Weaslette." The girl sighed once more as Blaise chuckled before the two Slytherins left her to her work.

"Ginny!" The red-head paused in her step and turned around to see Blaise coming towards her with the Great Hall door creaking closed behind him.

"Yeah?" She couldn't help her voice from sounding weary — it had been a long week and she wanted nothing more than to play a game or two of cards before hitting the sack. After a moment, a crease formed between her eyebrows. "Wait... Where's Draco?" she wondered, noticing the lack of her friend's usual companion.

"Oh, he'll be out in a minute, but I wanted to talk to you about something," he explained. She shifted her weight impatiently as she fought back a yawn.

"What is it?"

"It's just that-" His words halted when he heard the door open behind him. Ginny's eyes darted to the side curiously, but before she could see who it was, she felt his hand close around her wrist. She let out a small yelp as he jerked her forward, but any words of protest abruptly died on the tip of her tongue as he caught her lips with his.

Before her mind could even grasp what was going on, Blaise pulled away, unable to stop a smile from coming to his face. "That's all I wanted to say," he told the shocked girl with a shrug. She could only stare after him as he walked past her and disappeared around the corner, completely oblivious to the other person standing in the corridor.

A/N - Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! As always, please review : )

-Twilight-Songstress