It wasn't such a great disappointment that his mother had insisted he and Ana stay at the school over Christmas break. Now, he'd be forced to attend that horrid Christmas ball the headmistress had planned since the Halloween dance had gone so well. He'd wanted the weeks away from school to get away from Amanda. Wrong girl. He'd wanted the weeks away from school to get away from Ginny. She'd resorted to flaunting her "relationship" with Dean in his face every chance she got. She talked about him relentlessly in potions. If he had to hear her talk about how nice his kisses were one more time he was going to break something. Not only that, but she did it while touching his hand with her pinky finger. She actually thought he and Amanda were dating. The idea made him laugh so hard he collapsed on his bed. There was a soft knock on his door, but he ignored it. Adela said something he could not understand. He snatched the door open to find his little sister in tears with Adela's hand on her shoulder.
She sat on the bed sniffling saying she was ready to go home and be with her other friends than be at the school with people like "this." Blaise frowned deeply, but didn't interrupt her sob filled account of what had happened. She was on her way to the library when a girl with short brown hair had bumped into her and scattered her books everywhere. Another girl with red hair showed up and helped her pick up her books, but Ana said she'd been in tears so badly she couldn't tell the girl what was wrong. She'd walked her back to the Ravenclaw common room and told her to calm down. Ginny. Blaise turned to the window with his hands in his pockets.
He wondered who the other girl had been. Ana ate a piece of chocolate off his table and said she'd seen him talking to her in the corridor before, the girl with the eyes like Grandmamma. He looked at Ana seriously for a moment. She opened the window and climbed into his bed with a sniffle. He wondered if she realized it was below freezing temperatures outside. She was probably sick. He closed the window and convinced her to get out of the bed so he could take her to see Madame Pomfrey. Ana hugged her bright yellow sweater tighter against her pink shirt she wore underneath.
Ana was given a potion for her running nose and temperature and told to rest on one of the infirmary beds. Blaise sat beside her long after he heard soft snores. He got up to leave, but looked up to find Ginny Weasley staring at him. She glanced at the little girl on the bed, but turned her attention back to the blond boy standing beside her. Madame Pomfrey ushered him to one of the beds in the room before disappearing through the double doors. Obviously she was going to get some medicine for what was ailing the boy. Blaise looked at Ana. A part of him was angry she'd decided to get sick that day, but another part of him was overjoyed. Ginny was there. Speaking of the harpy, she walked over to them with a warm smile on her face.
"I didn't know she was your sister," Ginny said softly. She didn't want to wake the little girl. Blaise nodded. "I saw her in the library earlier. She was very upset."
"She's fine now." He kept his eyes on Ana.
"How long will she be here?" She raised an eyebrow. Blaise glanced at Colin. "Oh, he's here because he cut himself in herbology."
"She'll be leaving when she wakes up."
The girl stirred. She blinked up at Ginny and smiled. "You! Thanks for helping me earlier." She sat up in the bed and smiled at Blaise. "Is she your girlfriend Blaise? She's much prettier than the last- - "
"I have to see Professor McGonagall about the ball Thursday night. You can manage to get back to your house?" He stared at the girl blankly. She nodded. He waved goodbye to Ginny before leaving.
Colin yelled over that he was expected to stay overnight in the infirmary and didn't want Ginny to miss dinner. Ginny invited Ana to dinner with her. The girl jumped out of the bed and followed her to the great hall. She sat down at the Gryffindor table where Ginny introduced her to Dean, Neville, Parvati, Padma, Seamus, Lavender and anyone else within earshot of them. Dean covered his shock that Zabini's little sister was not in Slytherin. After all, Blaise was her brother. Ana enjoyed being at the table with them; they included her in their conversations and no one said anything nasty about her brother. She asked Ginny to walk her to the Ravenclaw portrait hole. Ginny nodded and told her to go ahead and she'd catch up with her in a few seconds. Ana agreed and left the cafeteria walking slowly. Ginny swallowed down her milk, told her friends goodbye, and ran out the great hall quickly. After turning down two halls she found Ana pressed up against the wall with Amelia's wand in her face.
"Stupefy!" she shouted angrily. She stepped over Amelia's rigid body and led Ana towards her common room. The girl thanked her profusely before going inside. Ginny frowned at Amelia lying in the corridor with that's mug expression on her face. She laughed suddenly and ran to her own common room. Seamus told her Professor McGonagall was waiting in her office with the other prefects and heads. Ginny stood at the back of the group with her arms crossed over her chest, sending Blaise angry glares. He raised an eyebrow, but kept his attention on the headmistress. He yawned at the end of the speech and made no attempt to hide it.
He tried to beat everyone out of the room, but a blonde Hufflepuff girl jumped in front of him and ran out first. He did the polite thing after that and waited. Dean started talking to Ginny, but she waved him away. She stood in the hallway with her arm crossed over the chest of her pink sweater. The moment he got close enough to her she called him every foul name she knew and then told him how stupid he was for allowing Amelia to hurt his sister.
"I thought you were evil before, but now I know why you won't join Voldemort. You're probably hoping to start your own rule."
"For your information I had no idea who attacked my sister. Do you think I could be so careless over my own blood? Believe me, Amanda will pay for this," he said coldly.
"Amelia." Ginny frowned.
"Whatever her name is. Where is Ana?"
"I stunned Amelia and took her on to her house. She's a good girl. You don't have to thank me."
"Come to the ball with me tomorrow." It was a command.
"I'm going with Dean," she said nastily.
"Really? He said he hadn't gotten around to asking anyone. Which made me wonder if the things you've been sputtering in potions class are true. Come to the ball with me tomorrow night." He pulled her against him and kissed her. Ginny's breath melted away and the rude reply she had for him turned into thoughts of waking up with the sun shining through the window on hot summer days. "Do it." She nodded.
Blaise sat in the Slytherin common room with his arithmancy book spread across the table before him on top of a long piece of parchment. He hadn't been in the common room since the beginning of the school term, but he felt like he didn't miss the place much with Draco being gone and all. People dressed in their school uniforms and green and silver ties lay sprawled all over the place, mostly near corners where they were whispering and occasionally glancing Blaise's way. The green carpeting was warm against his feet after he kicked off his shoes. A smell like ripe lemons filled the room, killing all the fresh air someone had just allowed in through the open window. Blaise picked up his parchment and began to write down some important spells little known witches had created over the past century. Why the hell did arithmancy seem to remind him of history of magic all of the sudden?
Someone dropped down in the chair adjacent to his, but he kept his mind on the essay in front of him. The net weight of five basic love potions combined with…Blaise stared down at the book in horror. He slammed it shut and threw the parchment, ink, quill, and book into his black bag.
"Amanda, I've been waiting for you," he said mockingly. He looked up into honey colored eyes that went round with fear. "You see, my little sister has brought it to my attention that you have a problem with her. Now, I assure you if she wanted to, she could hex you into tomorrow. She is in Ravenclaw after all. On the other hand, I told her I would handle it." He took his wand out of his bag and twirled it in his hands with a malicious smile on his face.
"Pansy told me to do it! She said I'd be kicked out of their groups if… if I didn't. I didn't mean to hurt - -"
"I don't care for your excuses. You or any of your friends go near Ana again and I will be practicing my new hexes on you hags," he spat out at her angrily. She nodded.
He snatched up his bag, waved to her dismissively, and left the common room through the portrait hole. Pansy was asking for him to show her how he really felt about her. If she continued to berate his little sister he would have no choice but to show her not to mess with someone of his blood. A Slytherin fourth year by the name of Joseph Timber bumped into him, stopping him in his tracks. The boy laughed nervously when he saw the glare in Blaise's eyes and tried to get pass him. Blaise smiled at him widely and shouted loud enough that the boy would have detention for the remaining of the week. The boy nodded with a forced smile and ran down the corridor until he got to the portrait hole. With a deep sigh, Blaise continued to his lonely room on the second floor. He lay across the bed staring at the ceiling until he felt a deep rumbling in his stomach. His dark eyes stared at his pocket watch and he found that he was in fact late for the Christmas ball. How long had he been staring at that cursed ceiling? He took a quick shower, brushed his teeth, pulled on his dressing robes and shoes and ran down to the great hall.
Ginny sat at the table with Ana, Dean, a Hufflepuff prefect named Alicia Jennings, and a Ravenclaw named Lucille Lexington. Ginny had the top of her hair pinned up with sparkling hair clips. She wore a powder blue dress that fell to her ankles where he saw matching powder blue ballerina slippers. The gold earrings in her ears shined from the light of the floating candles. When she looked at him standing in the doorway, her pink lips stretched into a smile bigger than the one she'd just given Ana. Ah, this is what grandfather meant. His breath caught in his throat, but he coughed softly before making his way over to the nearly empty table. Dean and Lucille went out onto the floor holding hands with silly smiles on their faces.
Ana almost choked on her lemon juice when she saw him standing at the table. "Blaise! We looked for you, but Adela said she didn't know where you were! What happened?"
"I fell asleep," he said with a chuckle.
"Oh, I was worried that something had happened," said Ana.
"She's been going on about how she thinks something bad is going to happen to you before tonight is over with," Ginny said softly.
Blaise stiffened. Usually when Ana had strange feelings about things they actually happened. The air in him disappeared as he glanced around the large decorated room. Blue, red, gold and green ribbons were hanging beautifully from the ceilings. The tables were decorated with white lace tablecloths with candles in the center of them. He saw Pansy standing near one of the vacant tables with Millicent, Amelia and a girl he didn't recognize. Pansy cocked her head to the side with a wicked smile on her thin lips. The girl he didn't know turned to him with a sneer he recognized all too well. Malfoy. Or maybe it wasn't. Blaise sat down in the chair beside Ginny and dug into a piece of pumpkin pie. He was too hungry and bored to even be thinking about Draco's incessant madness.
After eating two chicken legs, two pieces of pie, rice pudding, and drinking three glasses of pumpkin juice, he was ready to dance. He basically yanked Ginny from her chair onto the dance floor without uttering a word. She laughed loudly as she stumbled into his arms. He twirled Ginny around and smiled at Pansy as she looked at them with complete horror on her pale face. The girl he didn't know pointed and laughed at something beyond them, but Blaise didn't bother to turn and see what it was. Couldn't be Malfoy. Ginny wrapped her arms around his waist as he spawn them around the room again, her hand clasped in his and her head resting against his chest.
He danced with Ana a few rounds after dancing with Ginny, but they sat back down at the table as the hall began to clear out. Ana sat on Ginny's left watching him with a strange expression on her face. They smiled in unison when Colin Creevey appeared before them with his camera in hand. He snapped about five pictures of them before going to the next table. Was there ever a moment when that boy didn't have his camera? Ana kept her smile as Ginny turned to her and started a discussion about her charms classes. Ana grew animated when she came to the subject of transfiguration. She avoided a frown from Blaise as she talked about how important being a metamorphigus was when trying to become an Auror. Ginny nodded and said something too low that Blaise could not understand.
A boy sitting at the Ravenclaw table caught his attention. Blaise had hated the boy ever since his first year when he dropped that cauldron on his foot. The stupid thing had broken three bones in his foot. He frowned and looked at the professors sitting at the table at the north end of the hall. A few were scattered around the room, some dancing here and there. Blaise glanced down at the watch in his pocket, but turned his attention back to his sister when she called his name. She wanted to play the piano in his room. Didn't he have a piano in his quarters when she'd come last time? He nodded.
The candles lighted on their own as they stepped through the doorway. Ginny was amazed at how wonderful and home-like the room was compared to the girls' dorms at the Gryffindor house. Ana ran to the large black piano beside the window with a gleam in her eyes. Ginny sat at the table with her chin resting on the palm of her hand as she watched the girl skip from one of Beethoven's symphony to Mozart's Ave Maria. Blaise took a gold case from underneath his bed and unlocked it. Inside was some of the most expensive candy Ginny had ever seen.
She knew it was expensive because her father had bought her mother some on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary last year. He took the top box of candy out the case and slid it towards her. After eating a piece of the chocolate he locked the case and slid it back under his bed. Ana wandered over to them; no doubt tired of playing the piano. Ginny offered her a piece of candy, but the girl declined. She said she was tired and wanted to go to sleep in her bed. Ginny offered to walk her to the Ravenclaw hall and Blaise agreed to go as well.
Ana hugged Ginny and Blaise goodbye before turning and walking down the corridor. Some of the occupants in the pictures snored softly, grunting whenever Ginny giggled at something Blaise said. He pressed her against the wall and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. When he pulled away from her, they were both smiling. She played with the zipper on the front of the gray jacket he wore. He'd changed into blue jeans, a long sleeved gold shirt, gym shoes, and a gray jacket. Ginny wanted to go outside and play in the snow, but Blaise reminded her that it was almost time for curfew. She ran ahead to the Gryffindor house to get changed. He stood in the corridor in the candlelight smiling.
"What's so funny, Zabini?" asked Amelia. Blaise smirked at her, but she returned the action. "Why are you standing in the dark alone?" Blaise remained silent. Pansy and the girl from the ball appeared beside Amelia suddenly. The girl was dressed in a short lilac skirt and a yellow sweater with her blonde hair in a loose bun on her head. Her olive colored eyes were glued to Blaise. The complacent expression on Blaise's dark face turned into a smug smile. Pansy slapped him, but his smile didn't falter.
"What were you doing at the ball with that trashy blood traitor?" she asked angrily. He still didn't say anything, he was too focused on the blond girl, whose hair was slowly shrinking. "Answer me, you asshole. You used poor Amelia here for fun and left her out to dry."
Amelia revealed her wand from under her jacket. "Yes, you did. Mr. Zabini."
"What's the matter, Blaise? You look as if you've seen a ghost." His voice was dry and empty. There were dark circles under his dull gray eyes and his white blond hair was messy. Still not Draco. "I told you the dark lord wanted you. Even if he has to kill your little genius sister to get to you, he will. Luckily poor Weasel came along or stupid Amelia here would have performed a well done Cructius curse on her." He sneered.
Blaise laughed loudly before saying, "Malfoy, you are the lowest scum on the earth. When Harry Potter defeats Voldemort I want to personally be the one to send you to Azkaban."
Malfoy growled and slammed him against the wall hard. An elderly wizard dressed in red robes woke up and said foul words to them before realizing what was going on. He disappeared from the frame. "Never speak the Dark Lord's name with your traitorous mouth!" His right hand wrapped around Blaise's throat and he squeezed hard.
Blaise pulled Malfoy's hand away and shoved him against Pansy, who fell over. Amelia's attention went to the people struggling on the floor. Blaise turned to run.
"Impedimenta!"
"Expelliaramus."
Blaise slammed into the wall, knocking several pictures to the floor. Amelia's wand fell onto the floor where Draco picked it up. Ginny couldn't see. Some of the candles had blown out when the magic was done.
"Avad - -"
The candles popped back on. "Crucio!" Draco doubled back and yelled in pain. He dropped the wand as he fell to his knees trembling. Amelia reached for her wand again, but Pansy already had hers pointed at Ginny. "Expelliaramus! Stupefy!" Pansy's wand flew into the darkness down the corridor and Amelia froze. "Impedimenta!" she screamed. Draco was knocked down the corridor into the darkness. Pansy screamed and followed him.
Blaise blinked. Ginny smiled at him. They were sitting in the hospital wing with Ana at her side asleep. He glanced around the empty room before looking back to her with a curious expression on his face. She filled him in on what had happened. Pansy and Draco had gotten away, but Amelia had been expelled and was going to face a trial. They don't know if she was honestly unaware of that girl being Draco or not, but they were going to give her a truth serum. Blaise nodded. Ginny rested her head on his shoulder. She'd saved his life and probably hurt the only best friend he'd ever had. A part of him was thankful, but a part of him was angry with her. Draco and he had sworn to be best friends forever. Nothing could ever come between the bonds he'd made with the boy, even though it had been made when they were only eight years old. Why did he still worry for someone who'd just tried to kill him? When her blue eyes looked up at him any anger he'd felt towards her before then became happiness. He kissed her deeply before settling back into the bed to go to sleep.
