Hey All. A big thanks to CH, JC and Josie for reviewing my story.

For all the rest of you, I'd really like feed back on the following:

Character development of Hermione/Draco/Harry and most of all Blaise.

Plot flow (does it seem planned or on the fly)

Dialogue: does it seem realistic?

Please review and tell me how I'm doing on those points, and anything else that sticks out at you.

Chapter six: Blaise Zabini

"Draco.." Pansy caught him before he went through the portrait hole. He paused and waited for her to catch up. "You don't have to do this..." She said. He cocked an eyebrow at her. She frowned.

"The first step in destroying a society is to take away their pride. When people begin to feel ashamed of who they are, they'll assimilate into something else." Draco said softly, wondering what had gotten into him. "My Uncle Lacivios told me that, of course, he wanted me to use that knowledge to strip others of their pride." His smile was tight. "It's already happening. How can we feel good about ourselves when hatred is pouring in on us from all sides? When everyone is reminding us we're getting what we deserve. We've already been divided.... And now they'll pick us off one by one..."

"That's a twisted way of thinking." Blaise said, as he appeared from a corner where he was eavesdropping. "Us against them. Always at war, Malfoy?"

"Yes, except Us does not include you." Draco bit out. Blaise smiled.

"Did you ask her yet?" Draco shook his head.

"I'm telling her tonight, we should begin immediately if we want to make this month's black moon."

"And the third drinker?" Blaise asked.

"Who says there has to be three?" Pansy asked.

"I'd say it'll take at least three people to transfigure that much rock... maybe more."

"If I felt like this wasn't my responsibility, I wouldn't have done anything." Draco said, and stepped through the portrait hole.

Pansy and Blaise followed, the former with a worried frown, and latter with a smirk.

The news that Draco Malfoy was going to ask Hermione to pay her life-debt had spread to all the Gryffindors. There was no singing or mild talk in the common room tonight. When Malfoy walked in everything went still and quiet.

Potter, Granger and Weasely were sitting together on a small couch. Potter and Weasley were flanking Granger like body guards, and growled menacingly when Draco appeared.

Draco was looking right at her, but her eyes were fixed on the floor.

"Upstairs." He said quietly.

There was a snort. "We don't have time for that." Zabini choked out, nearly crying with mirth, before Pansy glared at him. Draco looked murderous.

"Not now Draco, we need him alive for what we've got to do." She led Blaise by the ear up the boys' staircase.

Draco hadn't moved, but continued to stare at Granger. Finally, she, Potter and Weasely rose as one.

"Look Malfoy." Potter began. "Hermione is going to do what you want, and we can't talk her out of it... That we understand."

"But just because she's got to do you a favor, doesn't mean you can ask whatever you bloody well want." Weasely said.

"If you ask her for... for anything... which makes her uncomfortable..." The implication was clear, and Potter didn't get a chance to finish the sentence.

Draco's wand was on him.

"How. Dare. You." Draco spat with venom. Potter drew his own wand, and the two combatants were still for minutes as they sized each other up.

"Please..." Hermione's voice broke the tense silence. "Let's just.... Get this over with." She turned without a word and walked up the boys' stair case.

Draco slowly pocketed his wand. With one last contemptuous look at Potter, he followed.

His dormitory was rather dark because of the rain that continued to lash the windows. Blaise had started a fire, and was taking a seat next to Pansy on his bed.

Granger was standing in the middle of the room, her arms folded, her gaze lowered, and her eyes bright. She was still wearing her uniform, except that she had disposed of the outer robe, and was left in her skirt, shirt, vest and socks.

"Sit." He commanded, and she sat on Goyle's bed, which was next to Blaise's.

He took a seat on Pansy's other side and then took a deep breath.

"Granger, I need ... want.. your help." She wasn't looking at him, but nodded. "We need our dormitory back." Her bright eyes widened, and she looked up. "I already know what needs to be done. We're going to use foundation magic..." she opened her mouth to speak. "And the Synergy potion, to combine the powers of several people."

Her mouth hung open in shock.

"That's against a dozen school rules.." She muttered at last. Blaise snorted delicately.

"Yes, and the three of you are prefects, oh the irony." He said, and then caught Pansy's hand before it could hit him. His sneer grew serious. "I need help brewing it, it will require constant care, and anyone who brews it must drink it as well." She looked confused. "Because the brewer must cast several spells on the brew and add their own blood." Blaise supplied.

"Is ... that all?" She asked. Blaise snorted.

"Isn't that enough?" He asked.

"You've got to collect the ingredients, help Blaise with the potion, and be one of the drinkers.... Then we'll need to go to the epicenter of the dungeons and cast the foundation magic. If it's successful, we'll be back home... if not, we'll be dead I expect." Draco said.

"Or at the very least expelled." Pansy said.

"What makes you think we won't be expelled even if it does work?" Hermione asked, stricken.

"Well, part of the castle will be bound to our blood." Said Blaise. "We could always threaten to bring the entire place down on their heads." He winked.

"But that's!"

"It's better that sticking around..." Draco bit out.

"Who is drinking?" Hermione asked.

"You, Me and Malfoy." Blaise answered. Hermione's brows furrowed.

"I was under the impression that your best subject was charms." Hermione told Draco. He shrugged.

"There aren't many people who are that good at transfiguration." Draco said.

"Harry is." Hermione said.

"Yes, but you are the only one whose got a life-debt we can call on, whose also good at transfiguration. But really Malfoy, for all the times Potter's nearly died, you coulda done to save him once or twice." Blaise said, and Pansy snorted.

"Must remember that when I'm fighting along side him." Malfoy drawled.

"Do you want me to ask him?"

"No." Malfoy spat. "It's bad enough needing--- wanting your help... we don't need St. Potter, we can do this without him."

"Actually Draco.. I was going to have her get Basilisk tooth from Potter." Blaise said.

"Well.... If he's willing, but that'll be it." Draco said grudgingly.

"Having that invisibility cloak for when you go down to the dungeons wouldn't be a bad idea either." Pansy reminded him softly.

"I'll ask him, he won't mind helping me if it'll mean I'm free from this debt." Hermione said.

"What a lovely friend!" Blaise drawled.

"I don't want Potter any more involved than we have to." Draco said, sounding like a petulant child. "We don't need him."

"Right... well, can I see the specifications for the potion, I don't recall them all that well."

Blaise produced Moste Potente Potions, opened it, and handed it to Hermione.

She read, muttering as her eyes continued down the page.

"Basilisk tooth... but they already mentioned they don't have any.... Dragon's blood, that's a class B tracked substance, we'll have to steal it from Snape..... Knott grass cut on Beltane, where on earth.... Aspen leaves, don't have any of those... Sage, that's expected, but it doesn't say whether it should be fresh or dry.... I'll need to do some research." She continued this manner for each ingredient. She went silent when she read over the directions.

"I... I can't brew this..." Hermione said, looking up.

"I already told them, it's too much, it needs a potions master." Blaise said shrugging.

"Why can't either of you brew it?" Draco asked, getting annoyed.

"The spells." Blaise said. "The ones you need to cast as you brew it... it only mentions the ones you need to say in passing, but not what actually is said." When Draco and Pansy looked confused, he continued. "Among the spells are some to preserve the ingredients, or extract essential oils.... But one of them is an ancient magic to imbue the substance with magical empathy... Those spells are trade secrets of the potions guild, and only guildsmen have access to them."

"Do you know a lot about magical empathy?" Hermione asked, her eyes bright with excitement now. Blaise shrugged.

"It's a very interesting concept isn't it..." Blaise began, but was cut off.

"Fascinating, alright, how do we get our hands on the spell." Pansy snapped.

"We could check the restricted section?" Hermione suggested.

"It's a guild kept trade secret, I doubt they've committed the spell to paper... guilds are notorious for their oral traditions." Blaise said.

"You seem very knowledgeable on the subject." Hermione said suspiciously. Indeed, coming from a boy she'd never heard speak before this incident, he seemed to know an awful lot.

Hermione looked him over again.

Blaise Zabini was not the type of boy your eyes would rest on when scanning a room. He was average looking on first glance, to be sure. His hair was an almost black, brown, and his eyes were hardly lighter. His skin was of a bronze tint, but it was obviously sun starved. He looked slightly foreign, but not conspicuously so. He was the same height and build as Draco, but without the platinum hair or eyes he didn't cut such an impressive figure. Still, he wasn't bad looking at all, and he'd certainly look better if he wiped the sneer off his face more often.

Right now, his face was impassive as he surveyed her, much the same way she was surveying him.

"My mother is a Potions Mistress." He said tonelessly.

"Can we get the spell from her?"

Blaise snorted, Draco tutted and Pansy actually looked sympathetic.

"Women aren't allowed in guilds." Pansy said.

"What!" Hermione was on her feet. "What kind of backwards..." She huffed, unable to think of words to express her outrage.

"I'll ask her anyway.. she might've seduced it out of one of them..." Blaise said off handedly.

To Hermione's great surprise, that small comment had Draco on his feet, holding Blaise by the collar of his robes just as he had done last night.

"You're pushing it Zabini!" He hissed. Blaise had not flinched as he was seized, but rather, he smirked as Draco put his furious face right in Blaise's.

"Careful Malfoy... you keep forgetting you need me for this little endeavor." His sneer dropped and his voice was menacing.

"You want out just like I do." Draco retorted.

"We all want out, and if you can work with Granger, you can work with each other.. honestly!" Pansy said, as she took hold of Draco's robe and pulled him to the other side of the bed so that she separated the two.

Blaise righted his collar and smoothed his casual robe, his smirk back in place.

"And if your mum doesn't have the spell?" Hermione asked.

"Or won't give it to you..." Pansy added.

Blaise looked pensive.

"Snape. He's a guildsman."

Draco snorted. "Yeah, and he's just going to hand it over when we ask."

"Yes..." Blaise said, a sinister smile twisting his features. "Yes... he will." Then he chuckled and got up.

He walked over to the Slytherin bookshelf in the room, ran a hand over the tomes, and selected one. He opened the book and flicked a few pages until he found the one he wanted. Then he walked back over to where the others were and took a seat next to Hermione, his eyes on the page the whole time.

She only had to wait a moment for him to hand the book over to her.

"Dormis Veritas Potion" Was printed on the top of the page, followed by a description: "A potion given to induce a suggestive sleep. This potion is an excellent means of interrogating someone without the drinker's knowledge."

"There is a subtle irony to poisoning a potion's master." Blaise whispered, a smile on his face.

Hermione turned to him wide eyed.

"Are. you. Mad?" She said as she looked at Blaise. He turned his smirk to her.

The firelight flickered in front of them, casting half his face in complete shadow, and making his eyes glow gold.

"I bet you get that question a lot." He replied lightly.

"Why do you say that?" Hermione replied in a small voice, for some reason feeling extremely intimidated by the pureblooded boy sitting next to her.

"Because there is a high correlation between madness and brilliance, Ms. Granger." He said with a smirk.

"How can a mudblood be brilliant?" She said defiantly. Feeling intimidated always made her defensive.

"My Dear Ms. Granger, you should never insult yourself." Blaise said smoothly. "Others will insult you enough.. if you can't maintain your own pride, be sure no one will do it for you."

Hermione put her nose in the air, trying to appear unconcerned. But Blaise had pointed out something Hermione had spent her whole career at Hogwarts trying to hide, the fact that she was extremely insecure, almost to the point of low self-esteem. Her pride had sunk so low that she sometimes thought of herself as a "mudblood." The reason: no matter how much she read, there were still things she didn't know or understand in the wizarding world. Sometimes her pureblood friends would mention something vital in passing, normal for a wizard, but esoteric to Hermione's ears.

"Blaise, even if we give him this potion... he's going to go to sleep... how are we going to get to where he sleeps to ask him?" Pansy said, breaking up the two's stare-down.

"We have to get into his quarters when he takes down the wards, then slip him something in his evening drink, he should fall asleep almost immediately... then we can ask him and slip out." Blaise said.

"Hiding where?" Pansy asked. "We can't just slip in without him noticing, we'd have to be invisible."

"Potter's invisibility cloak." Draco said. Blaise shrugged.

"Will he let us borrow it though?" Pansy asked. "This plan has so many flaws.. we don't know where Snape sleeps to wait for him.."

"I do." Draco said. "I've been to his new personal quarters."

"We don't know what kind of wards are on the door." Pansy continued.

"I do." Draco said again. "He uses the same kind as my father, I know because father told me when he came back to the manor from seeing Snape."

"We don't know how to break the wards."

"Zabini could do it." Draco replied.

"What makes you think so?" Hermione asked, fearing the answer.

"His whole family's up to their eyes in the dark arts.. mark him well Granger, you're sitting with the next dark lord." Draco spat.

Blaise had yet to look cross through any of Draco's insults or shows of aggression, but a streak of anger flickered and died on his face after that comment. The room seemed to grow colder.

"Can't you do anything yourself Malfoy?" Blaise asked dangerously.

"Draco can go with Potter to get the basilisk tooth and the potions ingredients." Pansy said in an exasperated voice.

"What? Why do I have to work with Potter." He spat Harry's name.

"Yes, Pansy... Why don't you be a good little minion and fetch it for him... It's obvious thatalthough he thinks this is his responsibility, his only task should be to delegate." Blaise spat back, his voice full of venom.

"You two are so similar." Hermione commented with a smile.

"I am NOT like HIM!" Draco yelled, getting to his feet.

"I agree with Granger... honestly!" Pansy said, pulling Draco down next to her. "Draco, no more arguments or we'll never get this done!"

Blaise got up and walked over to the other side of his own bed; The same bed Pansy and Draco were sitting on. He knelt and pulled out a large leather case.

"Granger, ingredients.." He said shortly, clearly wanting her to read them off.

"You really want to go through with this?" Hermione asked, amazed. One identical sharp look from Draco and Blaise was all the answer she received.

"A wine base, so we'll need a glass, gold, or pewter cauldron... and wine too."

"Malfoy?" Blaise asked.

"Got it." Draco said and got up to retrieve something from under his bed. He ignored the simultaneous tut from Hermione and Pansy.

Hermione read the rest of the ingredients and Blaise extracted them from the case. Aside from the wine, the ingredients were fairly ordinary, though the brew itself was complex.

Pansy left to get her spare pewter cauldron, the one Hermione had used to brew her a pain and cramp relief draught. By the time she was back, Hermione and Blaise were already preparing the ingredients atop a table Draco had conjured.

Pansy set the cauldron up and heated the wine, then stood back next to Draco to watch Blaise and Hermione work.

It struck her as odd that Granger and Zabini could work so seamlessly, each preparing and adding an ingredient without exchanging a word.

Pansy wasn't the only one who had noticed it. Hermione was also observing her opposite's potion work. As she had pointed out in her letter, Blaise Zabini's scores were always closely rivaling her own. She had known this, and yet she never made an effort to speak to him before all of this took place. She watched him stir, wondering over his personality.

He seemed so quiet in class, never asking questions or giving answers, or even speaking to class mates. Draco had said that his entire family was into the dark arts, and that wasn't the first time she'd heard such a rumor about the Zabini's. The family seemed unpopular even among pureblooded wizards. Perhaps that was why Blaise was such a loner, but it seemed a larger issue than that.

For the most part Blaise was ignored, taken for granted as part of the background. Though sometimes Hermione got the impression people were scared of him. Perhaps he, just like Harry, was suffering under the unwanted relationship to the dark lord. Maybe people fancied him an heir of slytherin, of sorts, and skirted him just the same.

Now that Hermione considered it, Blaise even looked like Harry. His face was pinched with thinness, his body was wiry. He was taller than Harry, the same height as Malfoy, but just as thin. His black hair was slightly messy, but that might have been from the scuffles with Malfoy.

His eyes were drawing most of her attention at the moment. They were gold right now, reflecting the firelight. They were almond shaped, and framed with very thick, long, black lashes. His eyes, she realized, and his dark coloring, were what made him look slightly foreign, perhaps even Arab. But with a name like Zabini, he had to be European, perhaps Italian, Spanish, or Sicilian.

Hermione didn't understand how she could have missed him. She blinked a few times in contemplation.

"You know, I hardly ever see you around school. Do you disillusion yourself or something?" She asked witlessly. He laughed.

"Something like that... I like to keep a low profile." He replied quietly.

"Like a snake in the grass." Malfoy spat from behind her. She jumped slightly, accidentally cutting her finger with the knife in her hand.

"Ouch." She muttered, and was about to put her finger in her mouth, but Blaise stopped her.

"You were just chopping Gabrathea.. I'm not sure you want to put that in your mouth..." he smiled an evil smile. "Although, if you're interested in that kind of thing, I won't stop you."

Hermione's face turned red. Gabrathea was an aphrodisiac, used in small amounts it would relax someone and make them trusting and amiable, in larger, more concentrated doses it multiplied the intensity of pleasurable stimulus, and was used to obvious effect.

"I.. no..." She sputtered, still blushing. Blaise pulled her to the window, which opened when he looked at it. Hermione's eyes widened. He held her hand out into the rainy windswept storm and let the rain clean the cut.

"Was that wandless magic?" Hermione asked, shivering slightly from the cold and the rain. Blaise nodded.

"A specialty of my family." He said. When they came back over to the table, Malfoy had cleared away the contaminated Gabrathea and cutting board. Pansy was cutting up some more with a fresh knife.

"Sorry." Hermione muttered, and attempted to restart her work. But her finger was still bleeding, and she didn't want to contaminate anything else.

"Wouldn't leave your blood out where Zabini can get it." Malfoy said contemptuously, glaring at the other boy. "Who knows what he'll do with it."

"I was thinking of creating a copy of Granger, whose sole purpose would be to follow you around telling you facts about muggle culture." Blaise said lightly, not taking his eyes off the potion. Pansy snorted.

"Besides, if you are so worried about Granger, why don't you wrap her finger up. Or would you rather delegate that task as well?" Blaise sneered.

"I've got it." Hermione said, pressing on her cut with her handkerchief.

"Who says I'm worried about Granger." Malfoy spat. Pansy made an irritated noise.

"Can't you two give it a rest? He's only saying that cause it makes you mad... the same as when you make fun of Granger dating Potter and Weasely. You'd do well to take a leaf out of her book and act like it doesn't bother you, then maybe he'd leave you alone." Pansy spat at him.

"Bet you're loving this Granger." Malfoy jeered, turning his anger at being admonished on her.

"No.. not at all, actually. I do wish you both would stop fighting. I mean..." Hermione blushed again. "Niether one of you could be that bad..." She said quietly.

Pansy snorted again.

"He'd skin you as soon as look at you." Malfoy said. "But go ahead and trust him, it is the Gryffindor way."

There was THUNK, and Hermione spun around. The large butcher knife Blaise had been cutting with was sticking out of the table. A look a purest hatred was on his face as he examined the knife, as though it had offended him.

"Hand slipped." He muttered, and pulled the knife out. He continued chopping as though there had been no slight on his personality at all.

Hermione's nose scrunched in indignation. Unpopular seemed an understatement, the Slytherins seemed to hate him. And everyone else just ignored him! What could be so wrong with the boy? He didn't have a single friend as far as she could tell, and she decided to rectify the situation.

She held out her good hand to him. He looked at it in mild surprise.

"I've never formally met you, nor have I ever known you, but I'd like to." She said, still holding her hand out. He looked at her as though she were mad, and then his expression cleared and he smiled. Far from being reassured, that smile unsettled her even more.

"Get lost." Blaise hissed. "I don't need your friendship... I don't need anyone. I'm only working with you lot so I can go back to my solitude." He stepped forward, looking angry now. "I don't want to be around anyone, I just want everyone to leave me alone." He hissed, his face darkening.

The entire room, it seemed, was darkening... the fire flickering and dying out.

"Leave." He spat, and turned around, breathing heavily.

Once he'd turned around, the fire sprang back to life. He resumed cutting as if nothing had happened.

That was two times he'd used wandless magic. Was that the reason he didn't want to be close to anyone? Hermione didn't know what to think, but she knew how she felt. She was scared, and intensely curious at the same time.

She turned and left the room without another word, pondering the mystery that was Blaise Zabini.

A/N:

Please review! Especially on the items mentioned above.