Disclaimer: Three years later, still not JKR. Alas.

The second meal at their new table was fairly nerve-racking for Ginny. Despite her general self-confidence, sitting alone—nearly alone, she corrected herself—knowing that she was the absolute center of almost everyone in the hall's attention, was not a pleasant sensation.

"Maybe we can just eat up in the dormitories for a while?" she said to Blaise after the umpteenth group of underclassmen exited the Great Hall with hushed voices and "subtle" glances in their direction.

"Nah. We won't do anything to unite the school if we hide from them all the time. Let 'em stare. And about that…how're we supposed to go about uniting the school, anyways? Won't you get just a little bit tired if you go about uniting the entire school in the same manner as me? Not that I'm complaining…" Blaise trailed off as the characteristic Slytherin smirk played across his features.

Only the slightest bit of color reached Ginny's cheeks before she replied, "Oh, I figured we could make pretty good time of it. After all, we'd have to split the duties on the first few, but after that, I think the students would start uniting themselves."

"Touché. But seriously. Do you have any ideas?"

"Not really," Ginny admitted. "And inducting you was completely spur-of-the-moment. I probably should have put some thought into it, but…I guess it was just intuition."

"Or may-"

"I think," Ginny interrupted whatever angelic statement was about to come out of his mouth, "we should do some more research. Channel our inner Hermione, y'know?"

"Um…" He shook himself a little. "Sorry, I've just never thought of myself as having an 'inner Hermione.' Research does sound like a good idea…but more research? We haven't done any."

"Oh, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I checked out the library yesterday. Didn't turn up anything. I have a couple ideas of other places to look though. And I hadn't met Lijara then, so she'll be a help when it comes to tracking down the right books in the library. One of my ideas will have to wait for the first Hogsmeade trip though."

"Fair enough. When did you want to start?"

She made a face. "I'm sure it isn't the most responsible approach…but not today. Tomorrow I'm free after lunch."

"Same, since the new professor cancelled classes for the week."

"You're still taking Care of Magical Creatures?!"

"I know it doesn't fit the 'Big Bad Slytherin' image, but yeah. You want to go to the library with Lijara then?"

"Sure. And you aren't a Slytherin anymore. Oh crap." Ginny glanced around the nearly empty Great Hall. "I have class now…actually, with you. I was moved up." She answered Blaise's unspoken question. She grabbed her stuff and they headed off to class. On the way, it occurred to her that her early exit from the welcome feast had left her out of the loop. "Sotelus still teaching?"

"Yeah. I think he's broken the curse, as it were. How'd you get moved up?"

"I just…did. I guess a combination of the DA and outside studying. I wasn't exactly expecting it."

"Cool."

They slid into seats at the back of the room just as Professor Sotelus rapped the board with his wand. "G'day mates. This year'll be the hardest yet. Some of this year's coursework was not met with enthusiasm by all of the staff, but I'm teachin' it anyways." Two sentences from the Australian wizard rekindled Ginny's desire to move to Australia in hopes of tracking down a beachy blond wizard of her own. "However, we won't be doing any of that t'day. I am required to start with a lecture on the additional risks you will encounter this year. So…"

His third sentence lost Ginny in a daydream on a beach where everyone had the perfect accent.It doesn't help that Professor Sotelus was far from old, she thought dreamily. But why go find someone else when I've got tall, dark, and handsome in my bed… She started back to full consciousness at that thought, and discovered Blaise staring at her.

"Dream of me, darling?" He whispered, "I know you denied it earlier, but you let the cutest little moan escape from your lips just now."

He dragged his fingertips up her arm and she shivered, already bright red. She took a few deep breaths, and glared at him.

Not at all affected by the full force of a Weasley woman's gaze, he raised an eyebrow. "I am formally rescinding my agreement this morning. Even though my agreement was never formally given, per se…it was more of you misinterpreting a slight inclination of my head." The Slytherin smirk again.

"…You can't do that," was all she could come up with. Not the most convincing retort. Class ended at that point, and Ginny jumped out of her seat and left in a hurry. After she had put enough distance between herself and Blaise, she turned in the direction of the Gryffindor common room, only to remember that she wasn't in that House anymore. And the House she was in had only one other member. One problem of another member. She slumped down against the wall and sighed.

This summer was one thing. It was all in good fun…but this is school! I can't just fuck around without consequences. Ron is here! There is no way I could keep coming up with excuses like this morning…besides, I don't really like Zabini. Not that way. He's just bloody hot. And damn good with his tongue…NO. NONONO. She pressed her fingers to her temples and tried to block out memories of the night's antics to no avail. Fuuuck. Right now we have our own private room; what more could I ask for? It's not like Ron can prove we're fucking with Harry's map. And he can't rule my life anyways. Why do I feel like my life in the summer and my life at school have to be separate? Do I really have to give up on fun for three-quarters of the year? …What's the worst that could happen?

"Hello there," Blaise said as he slid down the wall to sit next to her.

"How did you find me?"

"I asked the portraits," he said reasonably. "Still dreaming about me?"

Instead of turning red, as she was wont to do, Ginny gave him a shrewd look. "You don't want some deep relationship, do you?"

Blaise looked flustered. "Look, Ginny, I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong idea last night…I just thought we were on the same page…I mean-"

"Good." This time, it was Ginny who smirked. "Then I formally rescind my agreement this morning. I don't, either. I've just…never done something like that at school."

Blaise, composure regained, nodded. He stood up, and pulled Ginny up with him. He eyed her for a moment. "Oh? Have you ever done something like this," he leaned in and started sliding his hand up her shirt as he placed kisses up her neck, "in a open hallway," his lips captured hers for a minute, "while the rest of the school is at dinner?"

Initially resistant at the thought of getting caught, Ginny got caught up in the thrill of the moment as Blaise slid her shirt off and pushed her against the wall. She got him out of his shirt a little while later, and pulled him into the small alcove to their right. "Open hallway—is a little—exposed—for anything—e-else," Ginny managed to get out.

"I love your thinking," Blaise said, disengaging his tongue from Ginny's. "Y'know," he said in a conversational tone as he undid his belt, "skirts are a wonderful thing…"

-------------------------

"I'm hungry," Ginny said plaintively as they made their way back to their dormitory.

"That's what you get for skipping dinner to satisfy a different kind of hunger."

"I didn't plan to skip dinner." She tried to glare at him, but ended up giggling. "C'mon, we're stopping by the kitchens."

After requesting that food be brought to their dorm, Ginny and Blaise headed to their new, empty common room. The portrait guarding the room was, oddly enough, that of a puppy. A small yellow Labrador- completely nonmagical, but adorable. It also explained the current password of "rawhide." Ginny halted right inside the doorway, puzzled. "This looks kind of like the Gryffindor common room."

"Hmm…seems fair. Didn't you notice it looked like the Slytherin one yesterday?"

"Not really," Ginny admitted. "I was a little stressed. And then distracted. And now…I'm starving!" She leapt towards the table on which food had just materialized. "Let's eat!"

After both had scarfed down sufficient food, Ginny spoke up. "Hard to believe this is only the second day of school. Hell, I've really only known you two days."

"Mmm…I wonder what you're like after I've known you for a week." Blaise closed his eyes and leaned back, rather than pursue his teasing of her. After a while, he spoke again, "Something tells me this year isn't going to be like the rest. Last one, though." He lapsed into silence again. "Eh, that's too much to think about for right now. So…tell me what happened over the summer, Miss Ginny?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've always been hot, no denying that. But you've always had such a…" He searched for the word. "Pure? Righteous? A…good girl vibe. You were untouchable last year, and I know guys were after you."

Ginny flinched, and then smiled. "I hung out with Charlie for the summer. On the basis of an internship. I think Charlie wanted me ready for the real world, away from the sheltering of my pack of guardians. It was his own way of protecting me." She skimmed over some of the details. "We played with dangerous animals during the day, and were animals at night. Not Charlie and I! Ew," Ginny said at the look from Blaise. "He had some pretty hot dragon-trainer friends. It was…an experience. I think we reinvented the phrase 'drunken debauchery.'"

"I thought the Weasel seemed more keyed up this morning than usual. I take it he wasn't thrilled with the, ah, new you?"

"Not terribly. He called me a slut right before we left for school. He also tried to destroy all of my clothing that he deemed 'inappropriate,' which turned out to mean anything inappropriate for a nun. Mum wasn't too happy about that. Hermione's got him mostly under control here, I think."

"Are they…a couple?"

"Ron and Hermione? No, not yet. It's ridiculous. Completely and utterly ridiculous, especially since everyone else in the world can see they'll end up together. Now, my turn with the questions. Why did you abandon your parents' way of thinking?"

"I told you. Draco did, beginning of last year."

"That's not why, that's who. I want to know why."

"I've never been comfortable with my parents, and other Death Eaters, lifestyle. Slytherins, we're supposed to be in it for ourselves. And yes, I know I'm not a Slytherin anymore," he said before Ginny could correct him yet again. "And not all Death Eaters are from Slytherin. I know. Following the Dark Lord isn't being in it for yourself, it's being someone else's slave. And the things they do? It's…horrible. I know that isn't all that good of an explanation, but Draco's better with the deep stuff than I am. I just want my own life, and it sucks that I can't have it."

"Yo-"

"I get it! It's not as simple as 'not being a Slytherin.' My parents will kill me if they get the chance. Draco's parents will kill me. Pansy's parents will kill me. Hell, Pansy's parents would kill Pansy if they knew we were still friends…luckily those sorts of things don't leak back to them as much. My parents decided so much of my fate before I was conceived, let alone born." He sighed. "And they decided it again, when they remained loyal to the Dark Lord.

Neither said anything for a while. Ginny tried to understand the concept of a family in which the parents would kill their children, under any circumstance, and failed miserably. Life in the Burrow did not sync with Blaise's home life.

"I could do with some stress relief now," Blaise murmured after a good deal of time had passed. "I'm really not good with the deep stuff." He stood up and yawned exaggeratedly. "I'm beat. I'm going to bed…care to join me?"

Ginny looked at his proffered hand, and laughed before accepting. To talk about things like that, and then this? If he was anything at all, Blaise Zabini was resilient.

A/N: So, there you have it. After an inexpicable three-year hiatus, and even more inexplicable return, I give you...an update. Reviews are nice, but you knew that.