Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if that's you.

Author's Note: I have no problem with just being friends with benefits. However, it has been my experience that if those relationships are light on the friendship side of things, they get very unfulfilling very fast. However, having a friend who you also have benefits with is flecking awesome.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Slytherin MC (x2); In a Flash; Old Shoes; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 11 – Assignment 03
Subject (Task No.): Care of Magical Creatures (Task#2: Write about someone expressing anti-Muggle sentiments.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Romance Awareness [D08] (Spell/Potion Reveals Soulmate)(Connect); Insane House Challenge [829] (Friends with Benefits); 365 [188] (Destroy); Galleon ("Checkmarks" - The Academy Is)
Space Address (Prompt): n/a
Representation(s): Blaise Zabini/Draco Malfoy
Bonus Challenges: Muck & Slime; Abandoned Ship; Second Verse (Persistence Still; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Lovely Coconuts); Chorus (Fizzy Lemonade; Machismo; Tomorrow's Shade; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Wind Beneath; Creature Feature)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: SN (Rail); FR (n/a); HoSE (Schooner)
Word Count: 802

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Checkmarks & Empty Spaces
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Blaise had liked the arrangement that he had with Draco Malfoy. It was a nice one that benefited them both, no matter what Draco tried to claim when he was feeling peevish. Honestly, Blaise wasn't even how they had started sleeping together or how they had managed to not destroy each other yet. It had just been a casual thing that they did for years. It was not messy and did not mean anything. Whenever they met up, they both knew what they were going to do and they just that and did it very well. Then they went their separate ways, returning to their separate lives that did not connect in any way beyond how both of them still lived predominantly in the wizarding world.

And yet, something was missing from it all, and as Blaise was staring down the future from the other side of twenty-five, that missing something began to nag at him. He would circle the empty space in their relationship, poking and prodding like it was a sore tooth. On the surface, it appeared as if he and Draco were highly compatible. They definitely had the bedroom part of things down pat. So Blaise decided to try extending the hand of companionship to his lover.

"Why would I want to go to some Muggle place?" Draco asked snidely when Blaise suggested they visit a museum together. It had become a bit of guilty pleasure of Blaise's and of course, it was the first thing that came to mind as a way to connect with Draco outside of the bedroom. He could share his favorite pieces of art and maybe see them anew through someone else's eyes. But it appeared that Draco was having nothing of the idea. "There's bound to be Muggles all over the place, and if they created the things on exhibit, then it's bound to be rubbish. Muggles aren't capable of creating anything worthy of being called real art."

"You'd be surprised," Blaise commented drily, thinking of the van Gogh paintings displayed in the National Gallery. There was something about the Impressionist that drew Blaise in and made him feel like he was breathing for the first time every time he laid eyes on a piece. "Just try it?"

"Are you trying to be adventurous?" Draco demanded to know. "There's plenty of ways to experiment with things without involving Muggles."

Blaise had to clench his teeth to keep from snapping at his sort-of friends with benefits, just apparently light on the friendship part. As it was, things continued unraveling until Draco ended up slamming the door as he stormed from Blaise's flat. Seeing as nothing was going to be happening right then, Blaise decided to poke the empty feeling left behind while enjoying the works of his favorite painter.

Later that night, he decided to look back up the potion that he had found while trying to help Tracey escape her abusive childhood home. It had revealed that their mutual friend Daphne had been her soulmate. The two had bonded immediately, allowing Tracey to legally leave her father's tender care before she had reached her majority. The pair were always happy, seeming to bask in each other's presence even when they were as mad as wet cats with each other.

He would later swear that it was nothing but a haphazard accident that he had actually brewed the thing. Or maybe it was just a hazard all together, because now he had a vial of a potion that had no other use than to reveal the name of his soulmate. It was just waiting for him to decide if that was something he wanted. After all, there was no telling what was going on in his soulmate's life. They could have their own Draco Malfoy or maybe even a spouse or child.

The potion just sat innocently in its vial, as if it didn't have the power to change someone's life. Soulmates might be made for each other and stronger together, but that didn't guarantee that magic and fate hadn't already given up on them ever meeting to form that bond. Their souls resonated before they were born, but that didn't guarantee that life and circumstances hadn't taught them lessons that made them incompatible now. Draco's attitude towards Muggle artwork was a good example of how compatibility on one level didn't mean compatibility on all levels.

He prodded the void absently, wondering if maybe his soulmate had a similar one.

Just a mouthful would give him an image and name, maybe even a location.

Just a mouthful would let him know who might be willing to be more than a casual thing, more than a means to an end or notch on a bedpost.

Blaise uncorked the vial and downed it in one shot.