CONTEST WINNER THIS CHAPTER: User Ceylon recommended the song "Your Song" by Parokya ni Edgar for Blaise & Ginny this go around, and I thought it a perfect complement to Blaise's thoughts here. So, this chapter is dedicated to Ceylon - congratulations! Lyrics for that song appear at the bottom of this chapter. Hope you'll find this song somehow and give it a listen.

Remember, I'll accept song suggestions for each couple, as well as digitally manipulated images of live people and your original hand-drawn or digitally drawn fanart for this story up until the end of this fic is published. SEND ME YOUR LISTS OR ARTWORK (rzzmg yahoo . com)! I'll pick my favorites, and reward you, as promised! Here are some of the entries so far: http:/ / s905 . photobucket . com / albums / ac260 / RZZMG / Eros%20Psyche / CONTEST%20IMAGES /

P.S. Unseenlibrarian – Thank you once more taking time out of your busy schedule to beta this one for me! YOU ARE THE BEST!

Important hints in this chapter, folks. Do you see them? PLEASE REVIEW!

CHAPTER EIGHT (#5): Blaise & Ginny

Blaise was utterly content with the path his life had taken tonight. To think, this time three months ago he'd been contemplating suicide. Thank Merlin he hadn't gone through with such an idiotic plan.

He'd hit a low then, contemplating graduation and all that meant for him: having to go home and face his mother and siblings, knowing his secret would be sniffed out by one of them eventually, worrying about what that confrontation would mean for his future, and knowing he'd rarely see Ginevra again. The thought that the witch of his every fantasy would probably take another lover, and that there would be nothing he could do to prevent it… It had eaten at him until he'd become embittered and desperate. He'd wallowed in his pain, dredging up all of the horrible things he'd had to do on account of his cursed magical energies, and there had been a lot of self-hate going on.

Now, he had a fresh perspective on his life, and was beginning to understand that if the bad things in his past hadn't occurred, he wouldn't have Ginny now. If not for being awoken early to his sex-magic, he wouldn't have become aware of his lioness' importance in his life two years ago; he'd probably have just looked at her like any other witch until he'd hit seventeen and his powers had fully manifested. If things had run their usual course, he most likely would have lost all control, the Veela within taking over to claim its recognized mate without care or patience. It would have been an ugly thing, forced - a bad way to start a life-long relationship. Worse, once he'd inadvertently awoken her own Sex-Witch abilities by claiming her, he wouldn't have been able to help her temper them, because he'd have lacked the necessary skills that took years of practice and discipline to achieve. They might have really hurt each other if things had gone according to the natural plan.

So, yes, it had sucked losing his virginity the way he had, and the last few years had been filled with awful games of lies and seduction to get what he'd needed to survive, but he saw it all now as his trial by fire, leading him towards this night – towards this girl who lay snuggled in his arms in bed now. He was finally coming to peace with his past, setting his anger and distaste for his family and his fate as a Sex-Warlock practitioner into its proper place, and forgiving himself for all of the things he'd been made to do since the age of thirteen in order to endure.

It was all coming together for him… finally.

Ginny sighed with contentment, as he ran his fingers through her long hair. I know exactly how that feels, he thought, a tired smile turning up his lips. He'd never truly felt as if he'd belonged anywhere – until now.

He took these precious moments of silence between them to touch his lover as he'd always wanted, and to learn every curve of her body. She was a bit more muscular than his wank-fantasy version of Ginevra Weasley, and her hands were calloused from Quidditch, but he found he liked that she wasn't a lump of butter. It had been the steel in her spine and her healthy glow that had attracted him to her from the start. That and that smart mouth of hers, of course.

Stones, she really was lovely – a contradiction at every turn: Petite, yet strong. Honest to the core, yet capable of great mischief. Sensual, yet still able to blush with shyness. His lovely witch was an everyday girl, yet unlike any in the crowd. And she was his, at long last.

Nothing and no one would ever take her from him now, he vowed.

"Tell me more about your family."

Just like that, his happy glow was snuffed.

Ginny sat up on one elbow and looked down at him with an impish face that was hard to refuse.

He rubbed a weary hand over his face. "You really don't want to go there, kitten - trust me."

What do you know? He was wrong. She did want to go there.

Her face settled with annoyance. "Wearing the big girl pants, remember?"

Yes, she'd said she wanted honesty from him in all things, so despite his internal concerns he'd opened his soul to her by divulging his deviant sexual history already, but this… Shite. She was going to push this, too, wasn't she? Fuck. She was. And she was going to run for the hills once she learned all about Carmen and her spider brood, he just knew it.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

Taking a deep breath, he plunged into the darkness that was his family life. "My mother's name is Carmen Zabini. She's a Sex-Witch licensed and practicing the craft in Italy, as you know. Her mother was a Veela – one of the Delacour from France - who caught the attention of the wealthy Zabini heir. Long story short, my grandmother seduced my grandfather using her 'talents'. Mamma was born soon after, and as a half-Veela, she inherited the powers of sex-magic. She's used those powers to build the Zabini dynasty."

He stared up at the ceiling, casting his distaste into the illusionary clouds that hovered at the top of the room. "As I told you at the start of the night, she's been married seven times now – all wealthy purebloods, the lot. They're from all over: Spain, America, England, Morocco, Sweden, Germany, and Russia. She's never changed her last name for any of her husbands, but she did give each one an heir to inherit their family fortunes. She's also slept with just about every unmarried man who's passed through the Italian Ministry for the last twenty-five years. She's amassed a pile of riches and made strong political connections that way." He grimaced. "I call her a Black Widow because she's killed off five of her seven ex-husbands in various 'accidents'. My father narrowly escaped her attempt to off him soon after I was born. He buggered back to Morocco after that, and I didn't see him again until the summer between third and fourth year. She's set in November to marry another man – her long-time paramour, a Sex-Warlock who lives in Rome. He'll be husband number eight."

"You don't like her." Ginny didn't even phrase that as a question, as the answer was obvious.

Blaise sniffed. "I don't really think the woman knows how to love. I do know that she poisons everything around her, turning people inside out, using them to get her ambitions met - anything to stay on top of the mountain." An odd thought occurred to him then. "If she'd gone to school at Hogwarts instead of Beauxbatons, she'd have been sorted into my House without a doubt."

"Funny how there's seven children in both of our families," she noted with a small chuckle. "What was it like growing up with mostly sisters? I'm the only girl. I always wanted a sister."

Blaise chuckled as he thought about it. "My two older sisters – Maria and Diana - are twenty-one and twenty, respectively. They're Geminio copies of my mother in personality, although they look different because of their fathers. One's a blonde with green eyes, the other is dark haired and dark-eyed. My three youngest sisters are fourteen, ten, and six years old – Ebbe, Raina, and Anya. They're a handful – always getting into mischief. Ebbe has a head for numbers, Raina is a Diva in the making, but my favourite is Anya, the youngest. She's shy and sweet-tempered, doesn't talk much, and she likes to draw. She likes to make people happy." He felt the frown pulling at his lips. "I hope my mother doesn't crush that out of her as she gets older."

"Wait, one of your sisters is fourteen? But you're the only Zabini in school here," Ginny pointed out.

"She's at Beauxbatons," he informed her. "Mother insists that the girls all go there, where she went. Lorenzo went to Durmstrang, and she sent me to Hogwarts – to make sure she had connections at all three magical schools… to give her a reason to visit, and get involved in the politics."

"And… your brother?" she hedged.

That jealous pit in Blaise's belly opened up again. "We're not close, despite the fact he'd have made the perfect Slytherin – or maybe because of it, I'm not sure. In a phrase, he's charming, attractive, and ruthless. He sets his mind to having something, and he gets it - and doesn't care about collateral damage. At twenty-three, he's had twice the number of lovers I have, but I don't sense a Sex-Warlock about him. I think it's just who and what he is that draws partners in. He's mother's favourite, of course."

With gentle affection, Ginny touched her fingertips to his lips. "I don't see how that could be. He sounds dreadful." She heaved a great sigh. "I'm sorry for bringing the subject up at all."

Turning into her palm, Blaise pressed a kiss on the inside of her wrist. "Don't be. You'll need to know these things, because unfortunately, it'll be impossible to altogether escape my family. But, I don't think my mother will 'out' us for what we are, especially now that we're mated. She will try to use it, though." Her eyes flared with concern. He snuggled closer to reassure her. "I'll run interference as best as I can, but there are going to be times you'll have to face her or my siblings and hold your own." He gave her his most brilliant smile of encouragement. "I don't envy them facing your temper."

His lioness snickered, accepting his compliment with a wicked smile.

They remained quiet for a bit after that, just touching, learning the shape of each other's curves and angles. She pinched his cheek. He tweaked her freckled nose. They caressed not just with fingers, but with magical auras, determining the breadth of the others' powers in small, tender strokes and fondling. Feeling the way in which their auras entwined, encountering the proof of their souls' connection was mesmerizing, and unexpectedly erotic. Blaise had never experienced anything so moving in all his life as those few minutes of silent discovery.

He could feel Ginny's uneasiness slide through her aura, though, and knew she was turning over ideas that didn't settle well.

"Ask me," he whispered, coaxing her to give up her secret thoughts.

"I… Well, why hasn't your mum figured out what you are yet, if she's that powerful? I mean, I could feel that you were somehow different from everyone else prior to tonight, and my abilities hadn't even woken up yet. Your aura has always been like a… a vibrating hum against mine."

Reaching up, he nudged aside a long strand of hair that fell against her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. "That's because I've been focused on you for two years. You were sensing my desire for you, without realizing it. As for my family, I've been very careful to dim down my aura when I'm around them. They know I've got the potential to be a Sex-Warlock – there's no completely hiding it - but they think it's either still waiting to manifest, or that it never will. As I told you, sex-magic is a gift of Veela heritage, and the Veela traits are female-dominant. Males born to such women may not ever manifest their powers, and those that do, usually it's because another sex-magic practitioner has had sex with them. When two sex-magic users touch, it begins to 'awaken' their abilities. When they fuck, the gift fully manifests. At least, that's how Madame Aset explained it."

"So that's why I've been able to kind of sense your moods over the past two years!" she acknowledged. "We were in physical contact a lot because of Quidditch. My sex-magic didn't fully awaken, though, until we touched each other with equal desire tonight."

He nodded. "As I said, it was my fault that your powers woke up early a few hours ago. I'm also betting that's why none of your brothers are Sex-Warlocks: they've never realized their abilities because they're not with Sex-Witches. Well, all except that one married to that quarter-Veela sister-in-law of yours - she most likely woke up something in him when they first went at it – that is, if he was born with the gift."

A frown marred Ginny's face. "So, you said your powers 'woke up' at the age of thirteen after… what happened to you in the showers. That means Bole or Derrick was a Sex-Warlock, doesn't it?"

Blaise's chest tightened at the memory once more. He wasn't sure he'd ever be able to get over what had happened to him, even if he understood its place in his history. "I've been wagering for years that it was Bole. Of the two, he seemed the more obsessed with shagging everything that moved. After he graduated, I know he married his classmate, Amelia Greengrass. From what I've heard through the Slytherin grapevine, he's turned the girl into a depraved sex addict over the years - hard-core BDSM shite, where she's the willing submissive and does whatever he wants. She lets him abuse her, tie her up, pass her around to his friends, and he also uses her to seduce people for him. That kind of thing sounds much too similar to what my mother and my older siblings have been up to for me to think it pure coincidence. Bole has to be the one."

"Have you ever confronted him or Derrick?" his lioness asked. "I mean, now that you're older and have control of your abilities."

The thought made a core of ice run through Blaise's chest. "No, and I'd rather not see the man ever again, honestly. He and his warped wife deserve each other, as far as I'm concerned."

Ginny's face took on a concentrated expression. "Amelia Greengrass, you said? She's Daphne's sibling?"

"Oldest of the three," he confirmed.

She lay back and stared up at the ceiling, thoughts filled with concern etched across her pretty features. "I didn't know that sex-magic could do that – change a personality with such drastic consequences."

Blaise rolled onto his side, propping his head up on a hand, and stared down at her. "I'll tell you what Madame Aset told me several years ago: orgasms are powerful and influential experiences for the human psyche. Sex-magic's sole purpose is to induce them in you and your partners so the part of you that's Veela can feed off of the energy. As a result, it's easy to become addicted to the high you get from such magic. It's like a drug in that it can enslave by provoking pleasure. If you're not aware of its influence over you, it can enthrall you just as much as your companions." He pushed a long strand of ginger-black hair back from her forehead with a tender touch. "For some people, like Bole, it can also be wielded as a persuasive tool. He can make his partners crave what he can give them so much that they're willing to try out or continue to do things that might have been morally questionable or repulsive otherwise. That's why it's so important to know how to control it – so you don't become a victim to it, or make your sexual partners victims to it."

His brave Gryffindor tried to hide her fear, but she was too honest in her feelings to completely mask it. "Did I make you a victim when I woke up?" She gripped his hand and held it tight. "I didn't… force you, did I? The first time, I mean."

Blaise shook his head. "Hard to force the willing, kitten. Yeah, it was unexpected when your desire amplified mine, but that's our nature. It's what we do. If anything, I should have been in better control of the situation as the more experienced one. I took you rather hard." He cupped her sex and rubbed over it in a tender manner, not wanting to enflame her desire – the need to fuck had been sated for the present – but to let her know that he cherished her. "Are you still hurting?"

When she made to tell him that she wasn't – a blatant fib to salve his concerns – he stopped her with a knowing look.

"I'm… sore," she admitted, dropping her gaze to his chest, a pretty blush creeping up her cheeks. "All over, though. Not just there." With a naughty, sudden shift, she glanced up at him through her thick lashes and grinned. "Are you sore?"

Fresh minx! Blaise chuckled. "Aching all over," he exaggerated with waggling eyebrows. "In fact, I think I'm officially done in. I'm sure I'll never recover."

She gave him a playful smack on his hip in chastisement. "Liar, liar, pants on fire. You have more stamina than a horse. In fact…" Her teeth nibbled upon her bottom lip then and he knew she was up to no good. With a stroke over his shaft, she had his tired length stirring.

Blaise groaned and fell across her in exaggerated exhaustion. "Woman, you'll be the end of me!"

Writhing about, she managed to get her arms and legs around him, and pulled him into her in a fierce hug. "I hope not, but if you've got to go-" She wiggled her hips against him, fitting him perfectly into the cradle between her thighs, pressing him directly over her damp core. "-at least it'll be with a smile! And what a handsome smile it is, Mister Zabini."

Sitting up on his elbows, he stared down at the woman who was going to be his lifelong companion – his lover until the moment of his last breath – and marveled at his luck. How had he managed this one, he'd never know… but he certainly had this blessed game to thank for it.

"I'll give you that forever, my lioness," he promised her, and dropped his lips onto hers, kissing her with his whole heart in his mouth.

TO BE CONTINUED…

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Musical Selection for this Chapter: "Your Song" by Parokya ni Edgar. Lyrics are as follows…

It took one look…
and forever lay out in front of me.
One smile, then I die…
only to be revived by you.

There I was,
thought I had everything figured out.
Goes to show just how much I know
'bout the way life plays out.

I take one step away,
and I find myself coming back to you.
My one and only…
One and only you.

Now I know that I know not a thing,
not at all…
except the fact that I am yours,
and that you are mine.

Oh, you told me that it wouldn't be easy.
And no, I'm not one to complain.

I take one step away,
and I find myself coming back to you.
My one and only…
One and only…

I take one step away,
then I find myself coming back to you.
My one and only…
One and only you.