A/N: Okay, so, sorry that it's taken me soooo long to get this chapter up. I had a wee bit of writers' block, but I have decided to press forward and onward despite my lack of inspiration. If this ends up sounding forced and filler-like I apologize. Also, if it isn't the best grammar wise, I apologize, but more on that later.
Disclaimer: Yeah, I only own the plot.
Draco and Blaise were not talking.
The tension between the two was so palpable that the entire Slytherin house had noticed, not to mention a few students from other houses.
"-still can't believe it," Hermione was saying as she, Ron, and Harry took seats at the Gryffindor table.
"Yeah, I never thought Zabini and the git would find anything to fight about," Ron said. Ginny's ears perked at this and she turned her head slightly to hear better. "What do you think managed to turn them against one another."
Ginny peered at the trio through the corners of her eyes and saw Harry glance at her similarly before murmuring, "Who knows. Probably some girl."
Ginny tensed as Ron snorted. The male redhead continued to snigger as he said, "Yeah, I guess Parkinson was bound to come between them eventually."
Ginny let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding as those around trio laughed. It was now a well known fact that Pansy was not favorite to either Slytherin.
Ginny turned her attention back to her food, but she had lost her appetite. She knew as well as Harry that she was the cause of the tension between Draco and Blaise.
Idiot, she thought as she pushed her food around her plate, why bother hurting your friendship with Draco over someone you don't even really care about?
Unless he does care, came an errant thought from the back of her mind, but she quickly pushed it away. It didn't matter if the thought was well placed or not. She wanted to be with Draco, not Blaise. The same voice form the back of her mind questioned why she had to remind herself of this so often recently, but it was again brushed aside.
10
Even if the obvious tension between Draco and Blaise had gone unnoticed by their housemates the fight that caused it did not. It was the source of talk throughout the entire house since it's occurrence the night of the party, quickly pushing Pansy's embarrassment out of the spotlight.
Blaise had stormed into the common room and immediately confronted Draco. The row had escalated quickly from there and those who had edged closer to hear the discussion no longer needed the advantage, as Draco and Blaise's shouting had filled the room. Despite this, the only information anyone managed to glean from the fight was that it was indeed about a girl. It was for this reason Blaise and Draco were not speaking to one another.
Blaise had later regretted arguing with Draco so publicly as it only furthered Draco's anger with him. He had never seen his friend so mad, but he had also never felt so enraged as he had that night. Or so protective of someone.
Especially a Gryffindor.
It was becoming increasingly obvious to Blaise that he harbored some sort of feelings for Ginny. When they had first developed he had deemed them as friendship, but now…
Now it was harder to deny the fact that what he felt for her was certainly more than friendship. Definitely different than what he felt toward Draco. Which did not bode well for Blaise's hopes to reestablish the kinship between himself and the blond.
He didn't dare attempt to imagine how things between them would be if he were to step onto the playing field. It was now Thursday, and still Draco was giving Blaise the cold shoulder. As far as Blaise could tell, he wasn't planning on warming over for some time, either. Ginny was equally cold to him.
Why is it, he couldn't help but think, that when I do the right thing everyone hates me for it? This is why I just do as I please, even if things end poorly I can at least say I satisfied my desires.
With all the frigidity being shoved as a wall against him, Blaise was caught completely off guard after dinner when Ginny managed to confront him solitarily by means of an unused passageway after dinner.
"I need you."
Those were certainly not the words he was expecting, much like the warmth which bloomed in his chest. It was quickly doused.
"I really want to talk to Draco, but he's been avoiding me," Ginny informed him. Why he had allowed that strange feeling - that…hope? - to blossom when she was glaring at him with clear distaste, Blaise did not know. Still, at least she was speaking to him again in her clear voice that rang like bells…
"Are you listening?" Blaise offered nothing more than a curt nod as a response. "Good. I need you to arrange a meeting for me with Draco."
Blaise paused briefly before saying, "Draco and I aren't exactly on speaking terms."
"So?"
"So getting him to agree to anything may be a problem."
Ginny tilted her head slightly and narrowed her eyes as she examined Blaise. "Fix it," was all she said before leaving him to stand alone.
Later that night, Blaise would find himself in a similar situation.
He was sitting alone in the boys' dormitory trying to figure out a way to fix his friendship enough with Draco to arrange a meeting between him and Ginny.
Perhaps, he mused, by simply offering to arrange a meeting, I can mend thing. We've never been the kind to address an issue directly.
Part of Blaise desperately wanted to make a correlation between this and his feelings for Ginny, but he firmly silenced it.
The door opened then, and Draco walked in coolly, as though he didn't notice Blaise sitting on the bed directly next to his. He opened his trunk and began rummaging through it. Blaise intentionally ignored his existence although he was mentally tracking Draco's every movement.
Eventually, Draco straightened, having found whatever he was searching for. Instead of walking to the door, as Blaise had expected him to, however, Draco crossed the short distance between their beds and dropped something onto the bed next to Blaise. Without glancing at Draco, Blaise allowed his eyes to rest on the object. He was surprised to see that it was a stuffed dragon.
That…
"When we were six," Draco said slowly, "you gave this to me and asked me to be your friend. It's the first toy I ever remember owning, and the only one I own now. It…has always been my most…cherished gift. Since that day, we've never fought. Not once."
Blaise slowly lifted his gaze to meet Draco's and tacitly he knew this was an apology. He gently lifted the stuffed dragon to be level with his chest and gazed at it once more. He remembered that day, the day they met. They're father's were meeting for business matters and they were told to go entertain themselves.
'Why don't you show you Blaise your quarters, Draco,' Lucius had suggested offhandedly.
'Yes father,' Draco had answered automatically. He'd led Blaise up the stairs without so much as a glance back at his father. Blaise had paused, however, and caught his father's eyes as Lucius stepped away to led him toward his office. Blaise's father had smiled, waved, and followed. Blaise did the same.
'These are my quarters,' Draco had informed Blaise, waving a hand about in the air to indicate the room into which they had stepped. It had been a large room with a book case running along two walls, a sitting chair with a lamp in the corner and a desk pressed against another wall. It had been the saddest room Blaise had ever seen.
Until he had seen the actual bedroom, that is.
'Where are all the toys,' Blaise remembered having said.
'Toys,' Draco had repeated in bewilderment. So Blaise had pulled the dragon from his bag and had shown it to Draco. He had been so amazed by the toy that Blaise decided he should have it.
Blaise rose from the bed, pressing the memories of the past back into the recesses of his mind where they belonged. Slowly, he extended the hand he held the toy in toward Draco, offering it to him once more.
"Then you should hold onto it," was all he said - was all the needed said. Draco accepted the gift graciously, although without the wide grin he'd worn back then.
"Now, about why you're really here," Blaise said as Draco placed the toy gently back into his trunk and closed the lid. He straightened and offered an almost sheepish smile to Blaise - if Malfoy's were capable of such things.
10
Ginny could not believe the bold and audacious behavior she had exhibited in front of Blaise. It was so unlike her in everyway. In fact, it was almost…Slytherin. She shivered at the thought.
It was only because I was so mad, she reasoned. I was mad at Blaise for the way he'd treated me, and I was mad that he was stupid enough o go ruining his relationship with Blaise! That's the only reason I acted that way.
Despite her reasoning, the fact remained that she had acted very bold. It was a wonder to her that Blaise did not retaliate in any form. It wasn't very Slytherin of him to let her reign over him as she had, was it. Yet that was exactly what he had done.
Perhaps…but of course the very thought that Blaise might have feelings for her was ridiculous.
But it's not ridiculous that Draco should have feelings for you, that same rebellious voice from the back of her mind questioned. All at once the signs she had been ignoring presented themselves to her minds eye with stark detail. Blaise warning her about Draco, the way Blaise would sometimes look at her during her lessons, the electricity she had felt between them that time as he teased her and pulled her to her feet and into his arms, the kiss he'd bestowed on her at the dance, his look as Draco embraced her from behind before he slipped into the crowd, how he had found her so quickly after her escape from the party, his strange behavior and the second kiss, and, last of all, the way he was allowing her to walk all over him.
All this came to Ginny's mind, and all her doubt was washed away. Blaise did have feelings for her, and he was trying to hide them for either her sake or Draco's.
But I want to be with Draco, she mentally protested.
Is that really what you want, the rebellious voice questioned. You never even considered Blaise. Now you know he is available to you, and he has feelings for you.
"It doesn't matter."
"What doesn't matter?"
Ginny jumped at the voice and whipped around to find Blaise gazing at her with guarded curiosity. She realized that once again he had caught her speaking aloud to herself. She stared at him blankly, her mind buzzing and whirling in an attempt to find something to respond with.
"Never mind," Blaise murmured, shaking his head. And in that simple gesture, Ginny saw all of his defeat and she felt her heart break for him as her mind supplied the words he had not spoken, but that weighed down upon the air about them all the same.
It doesn't matter.
"I just wanted to let you know," Blaise began slowly, breaking the silence, "that Draco will be waiting for you in the Room of Requirements tonight at ten."
Blaise turned to walk away, this time leaving Ginny alone, staring after him. Before he could disappear from sight, however, Ginny called out to him.
"Blaise, wait!" He paused and slowly turned to look at her, his face void of all emotion. "Thank you," Ginny murmured. "For everything."
Blaise stared at her for another moment and something the very much resembled pain or confusion flashed across his eyes before he whipped around and stormed away, as though offended.
Ginny knew better, though.
A/N: Okay, so, I promise that there is a good excuse for any poor grammar or spelling. I want to take this chance to give a shout out to Nightingale Angel who asked me to put up the next chapter as a Christmas gift. Alas, by the time I received the review it was Christmas Eve and with so many parties, family, and friends to visit I did not have the chance to finish the chapter. I did make a good start on it and was therefore able to finish it this day, New Years Eve. How appropriate, right? My New Years Resolution is to stay the course and finish this story in due time! Anyway, as I am eager to put this chapter up I have not sent it through my beta. Sorry about that, and Happy New Years to all! And now...
REVIEW RESPONSES!!!
CH 1
rowan-greenleaf: OMG how long have you been reading this!!!! OMG! OMG! I loooooooooove your stories! GDS and TWI are, like, two of my faaaaaavorite stories! You do know that The World Inverted was the first story to get me to squeal like a maniac in SOOOO LOOOONG! I put that in my review right? And now you are READING MY STORY! OMG! I'm so excited!!! Um...ehm...-ehem-...onto the response to your actual review now... .
Yaaaaaaaay! I'm glad my story is relatable! Of course, I am also an avid Draco/Ginny shipper, but I have found that Blaise/Ginny can be quite a lot of fun, too. I had to cast Draco in a poor light a little bit so that Blaise could take center stage in this comedy. I will redeem him in the following chapter, because I just loooooove Draco too much to let anybody hate or dislike him for too long. I was hoping that the revalation of the list would help cast him in a better light after the incident with Ginny. He just REALLY hates to be used, and being who he is people tend to try to use him quite a bit. There IS a deeper reason for Ginny's attraction to Draco than just looks. I touched on it in an earlier chapter, but I will try to delve into more later.
CH 2
rowan-greenleaf: I just realized that you have reviewed each chapter seperately and I feel soooo spoiled! XD It's funny, I didn't really notice the irony when I wrote this, but now that you mention it...
Sophia: Thank you! Although, she had Harry are doomed. Their relationship barely made the cuttingroom floor. The funniest thing is, I don't think Blaise even realizes that he's flirting with her yet.
CH 3
rowan-greenleaf: Now I understand why you thought he needed redemption when I'd thought I'd redeemed him. You just hadn't read that part yet.
CH 4
rowan-greenleaf: Yay, I'm glad I am doing well. I've really always thought of Harry as the sweet heart, romantic guy while Draco would be the bad boy type. I guess that makes Blaise the silent guardian type? Maybe...
CH 5
rowan-greenleaf: Secretly it's an excuse to get Ginny alone with him. Muahahaha! Subconsciously! XD Anyway, the real reason is that, Draco comes from such a well-to-do family where throwing dances is the norm. Therefore, if you can't dance then you've got no chance. He chose Tango, because it such an intense dance. If you want to grab a well-to-do guy's attention what better way than to engange a tango with him? Of course Ginny ends up doing the tango with Blaise and it is in this way the plan to put her indeffinitely with Draco is undone. (Plus, have you ever seen people tango? It's so smexy.)
CH 6
rowan-greenleaf: She IS pretty darn lucky with men, isn't she?
CH 7
rowan-greenleaf: You know, the funniest thing is that Ginny sympathizes with Draco more than with herself, too. I mean, her initial reaction was shock, but after that she was thinking completely about how terrible Draco must feel for what he did. That might have been something of a cloak for herself, too, though. If she thinks that he didn't mean it, then it doesn't mean anything. It was just a misunderstanding and it wouldn't have happened had things been sorted out correctly. Poor Blaise get the brunt of the anger. XD He kind of asked for it, though.
CH 8:
rowan-greenleaf: Alas, yes, it is a Ginny/Blaise. I promise there are still some Ginny/Draco moments to come if that's any consolation.
CH 9:
kiss-of-pain: Thank you for adding my story to your favorites list.
snowfire81: Your review made me giggle hardcore. Ginny, of course, can't realize she love Blaise yet or there would be no story. So, you see, I torture these characters for the enjoyment of my lovely readers. As you see in this chapter, though, she's getting there. It's taken her ten chapters to realize he liked her, after all.
Saphira00: Thank you for adding my story to your alerts! By the way, is that Saphira as in from the Inheritence series? I love Chistopher Paolini.
Sympathetic Me: Thanks. Yes, a mixture of writers' block and procrastination stall me quite a bit. You write? Hm...I may have to wonder off to find your stories...
hecate0808: Why thank you.
Hishava: Thank you for adding my story to your alerts!
Bella O: Read it in a night! Oh my goodness! Yay for sleep deprevation! XD (Seriously, though I hope it didn't cause too much damage...the sleep deprivation, I mean.) Yeah, I've noticed that, too. I don't understand why people feel they have to villize Harry in order for Ginny to get with Draco or Blaise. Drama, I guess, but Harry isn't evil. Sometimes, Ginny just needs a wee bit more excitment. Although, there is an author who has villified him and I still love her work!
Cara-Lupin-05: Thanks for adding my story to your alerts!
rowan-greenleaf: That is definitely the reason the list is in that order. It goes from most attainable to least attainable. (That explains why Ron is on the bottom.) I'm glad you didn't notice, too, because I am LOVING these reviews. I will be putting up a G/D soon, though. After this story gets put up.
xBlackRoses12x: Yay! I'm glad you like it!
springingawake1894: I know, she's soooo freaking lucky that way. I'm surprised it hasn't caused any drama with the creators of the list. Then again, they have been humbled by the biting Draco incident.
NatalieH: Thanks for adding my story to your favorites!
Lady of the Celestial Moon: Thank you for adding my story to your alerts!
Nightingale Angel: Thank you for adding my story to your alerts. I'm glad you loved it, and feel free to rush me anytime. I tend to procrastinate if not needled. Unfortunatly, I could not get this up for Christmas, but it is up in time for New Years! Also, in case you did not read the ending Authors Note, I made a shout out to you. A belated Christmas gift and a thanks for giving me reason to get my rear in gear.