Zambini grasped Malfoy's shoulder as he stepped onto the dance floor. Hermione mentally shook her head at that. When talking with Blaise Zambini, it was often possible to forget that he was Draco Malfoy's friend. Mainly because he wasn't invested in being a pompous asshole 24/7.

Zambini bowed, as Hermione curtseyed, and they stepped into the dance. Neither noticed Draco Malfoy striding off to find something to drink and eat.*

"So, Millicent mentioned your mother is rather infamous..." Hermione asked tentatively.

Blaise chuffed out a dark laugh, "She must have told you barely anything, or you'd have known enough not to ask!"

Hermione giggled, and said "You needn't answer, you know."

"Oh, but I must. How can i refuse such a lovely lady?" Zambini said, as Hermione's cheeks began to warm. "My mother has had eight husbands. They are all deceased. The appelation the public has given her is the Black Widow."

"Eight husbands, eight legs?" Hermione Granger asked.

"Yes, and all dead under 'questionable circumstances'" Zambini said, his mouth curling as he said the last two words.

"How so?" Hermione Granger said.

"They willed their estates to her, you realize?" Zambini said, smiling, "So the former heirs would like to blame my mother for poisoning their fathers against them. And then literally poisoning them."

"And what's the truth?" Hermione Granger asked.

"My mother married once, for love. He died young. I'm the only thing she has to remember him by." Zambini said. "Nobody believes that she's honest about things."

"Why not?" Hermione said.

"Slytherin," Zambini said with a smirk, "Her husbands generally suffer from some sort of terminal condition, and lack the familial ties to make it bearable."

"The heirs are entitled gits?" Hermione guessed.

"Exactly," Zambini said with a smile, "So, she marries old, dying men - gives them plenty of fabulous sex." Zambini leaned close to Hermione's ear, "I've heard them, you know? I always was an inquisitive kid."

"Oh, dear." Hermione said, blushing.

"And then, when they're ready, she gives them a painless poison." Zambini says smugly.

"And no one's prosecuted her for it?" Hermione asked boldly.

"Oh, they have, just never successfully," Zambini said, "I'm sure most of the heirs think she slept with the judge too."

"And?" Hermione said.

"Sealed and signed permission for a merciful ending to their lives, made in sound mind if not sound body."

"Astonishing." Hermione said.

"Not really, just Slytherin," Zambini said. "It helps that the men generally want to drive their heirs spare."

Hermione laughed at the rhyme, and then changed the subject to something more lighthearted. Before she knew it, they were parting.

"Enchanted," Zambini said with a smile.

*Draco hasn't been eating because he's been so busy watching Granger.

[a/n: I'm not going to do every single dance at a chapter at a time! I promise!

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