Chapter 10 - Learning Italian
Cornering the various girls to ask if they would be candidates in the upcoming courtship rituals was a much more nerve-racking job than just avoiding a rabid veela and his allies. But somehow Harry managed to do it. Only Luna had said yes right away. Everyone else was thinking it over. At least none of them had said no and they had all been less emotional than Ginny Weasley. The most difficult one was Blaise Zabini.
"Could I talk to you for a minute?" Harry said quietly. He was amongst seldom-consulted selves at the back of the library. Blaise Zabini, the legendary ice queen of Slytherin turned around and sent Harry an icy glare.
"What do you want, Potter?" She sneered.
"I wanted to ask you to consider entering the courtship rituals as a candidate." Harry said quickly hoping to get this over with as quickly as possible. He wasn't sure why he had actually decided to ask her when he knew she would just laugh in his face.
Blaise's eyes went wide for a second before they narrowed dangerously, "Is this a joke?" she hissed.
Harry could help thinking to himself, "So there's some fire under that ice."
"I give you my wizards oath that this is no joke." Harry replied earnestly watching the girl for her reaction.
She tilted her head studying him. "Do you really think I would do this after what you have done to Malfoy?" she asked.
"What I have done to him!" Harry exclaimed, "He's the one trying to get me. I have done nothing to him."
"You refusal to talk to him is sending him insane, Potter. You do know that veela denied contact with their mates suffer horribly. You must be enjoying seeing him fall apart after making his life hell for the last five years." Blaise replied.
"I made his life hell! What about all the things he did to me? He starts everything. It's not my fault if he suffers for it when I manage to turn the tables on him." Harry was beginning to lose his temper now. This had been a mistake.
"Really Potter, calm down I was just making sure this wasn't some joke. You Gryffindors are too easy." She replied curtly. "So tell me why you want me as a candidate."
"Well, I just thought… I don't know what I was thinking. I am asking all the girls at school that I think might be good as candidates to enter is all and I thought I'd ask you." Harry stumbled the words out in reply.
"Potter, you do know I am in Slytherin." She stated rising one eyebrow.
"Of course I know!" Harry replied, "but you're not part of Malfoy's little click of death eater wannabes. There's nothing wrong with being in Slytherin."
"I never thought I'd ever hear a Gryffindor say that!" Blaise replied surprised. "And certainly not the Golden Boy himself."
"I'm not the Golden Boy!" Harry sighed, "I'm just Harry. And I could have been in Slytherin just as easily as Gryffindor you know."
"You! In Slytherin! Don't make me laugh!" Blaise replied amused.
"The hat wanted to put me in Slytherin at first. Said it would help me on my way to greatness but I refused. I had just had a run in with Malfoy and didn't want to be in the same house as him. I kept telling the hat, 'Not Slytherin'. So it put me in Gryffindor. Just think but for Malfoy, we would have been housemates all these years." Harry said.
Blaise's mouth had dropped open hearing the revelation. Harry smiled at her mischievously and continued, "So what do you say about entering the rituals?"
Blaise recovered herself. Harry Potter was very different to what she had previously believed. While she never gone along with Malfoy's group and their belief's that all Gryffindors were stupid and Potter doubly so, she found she had greatly underestimated Harry Potter. She admitted to herself she was somewhat flattered that he had thought to ask her to be a candidate. Her parents would hit the roof when they found out. That was another plus, Blaise thought. Teach the bastards right for sending her all the way to England for school. But it would be impossible once Malfoy found out. After all Blaise had to live in Slytherin House and with a rampant veela on the loose that would be impossible, unless…
"Potter, I will consider this on one condition." Blaise said firmly.
"And what's that?" Harry asked.
"You do something about calming Malfoy down. It would be impossible to be in Slytherin as he currently is and if he were to find out about this." Blaise replied.
"I'm not sure if there is anything I can do." Harry said thinking.
"Talk to him! You can do that can't you?" Blaise huffed.
"Actually I can't. As soon as he sees me, he goes into full veela mode. Anything I said to him about calming down would be ignored when he's like that." Harry shrugged.
"Well, put it in a letter and owl it to him. Better yet, give it to me and I will make sure he gets it. He'll owe me a favour then for getting you to contact him." Blaise replied.
"Actually, if I gave you a book on meditation techniques with the letter, you could get him to practice calming himself with meditation, before you gave him the letter." Harry said nodding his head as he thought.
"That sounds like an acceptable plan, Potter. Perhaps you would have made a good Slytherin after all. We will proceed on that basis." Blaise Zabini stated in an amused tone.
Harry smiled and nodded his agreement, "And you'll enter the rituals as a candidate?"
"I only agreed to consider it, Potter." Blaise replied.
"Fair enough. Well I better be going. I'll drop the book and letter to you here in the library this time tomorrow." Harry said turning to go.
"Oh, and Potter! When I win the courtship rituals, I insist we live in Italy and the children speak Italian as their mother tongue." Blaise stated curtly.
Harry was stunned, "Okay I guess." He managed to reply, "I'd better go, ummm Ciao!"
"Wrong Potter, that's not Italian for goodbye, the word you want is Arrivederci." Blaise corrected.
"Guess I have got a lot to learn then, Arrivederci." Harry sighed.
Blaise Zabini brightened. "You might make an acceptable husband after all, Potter!"
"You know you can call me Harry!" Harry replied.
Buon, Harry, molto buon!" she replied smiling.
Harry practically ran back to Gryffindor Tower after that little encounter. What had he gotten himself into?
At least, Harry had survived the first week of school.
But tension was raising and it would be the weekend where it would explode.