It had been a week or two since I had had any real interaction with any of the Slytherins including my brother, Draco and Pansy. I hated to admit that it honestly didn't feel any different, I hadn't seen my brother when I had attended Beauxbatons and so not seeing him now wasn't a big change.

"Hey have you talked to your brother recently?" Ginny asked as we walked down the hallway toward lunch.

"No not really, I mean I have seen him but I haven't really talked to him, I've been busy and the dungeons are pretty far." I replied entering the great hall and sitting at the table at a spot close to the doors.

"That makes sense, and with homework it's hard to make time for a lot of things." she said sitting down beside me and pulled out an overly large text book, she held the book up as a testament to the homework we'd all been receiving.

"You're telling me, I don't mind the homework though it's refreshing to be here and not home." I said, remembering the time during the summer where I was confined and purposeless.

"I have to complete an 18 inch essay due in history of magic and to be honest I fell asleep during Bings' lecture." she said opening the book and at the same time pulling food closer to her.

"That's the worst." I said, feeling sorry for her, the ghost professor from what I had heard and seen really was an extreme bore. "Day dreaming about Harry were you?" I questioned with a laugh, Hermione had hinted something about Ginny having a thing for Harry.

"Can I be honest with you?" she asked, surprising me a bit, I could tell this was heading for serious but I was curious as to in what subject.

"Yeah."

"Hermione and Ron, maybe even Lavender have all probably told you that they think I have a thing for Harry, but I don't. I mean I crushed on him hard when I was younger, who wouldn't? It's just now there are other people that draw my attention, I like Harry and all but more like a brother."

"That's no big deal, so you don't like Harry, there are plenty of other fish in the sea." I smiled at her and patted her arm but just then we were interrupted.

"Sis!" not being used to being called that except at home, I didn't respond just continued eating with Ginny, but the call consisted even a little louder.

"Mate she isn't going to answer." I heard the exasperated drawl from behind me and I wished who ever the girl was would just answer her brother.

"BLAIR!" I whipped around to find Blaise standing calmly several feet behind Ginny and I with Pansy and Draco in tow.

"Oh, hey Blaise." I replied and stopped eating waiting for him to get closer to actually initiate any real conversation.

"Why didn't you answer me the first time?" he asked with a frustrated look on his face.

"Sorry I'm just not used to you being around to call me Sis at school." I shrugged, but before he continued conversation he turned to Ginny in acknowledgement of her presence.

"Hello Weasley." he said and nodded his head in her direction it was a vast improvement from the day before.

"Her name is Ginny." I said, encouraging him to go one step further in his endeavors to be kind to her for my sake.

"Draco, Pansy." I nodded at them, I did notice how handsome Draco looked with his tie loosened, his eyes looked so striking that day and it took me a moment not to stare. "What do you need Blaise?" I questioned further trying to get some sort of motive out of him.

"Nothing just saw you and thought I would say hello." he replied shrugging looking too laid back so that I knew what he said couldn't be true, but even knowing I let it go.

"Alright then, Hello." I turned back to my food as if I was disinterested, I knew how to get my twin to tell me what was going on.

"Fine, Fine, I actually would like to have a word with Ginny if you don't mind." those words blew me out of the water, even more so than the fact that he actually acknowledged her.

Blaise POV

I could tell I had flustered and shocked my sister, but in order to learn a few things that my parents wanted me to know I had to do shocking things, even if it meant attempting to be friends with people who I had previously hated.

"Umm…okay, if that's okay with her." my sister replied, her eyes wide and shock clearly evident on her face. Looking over at Ginny, she just gave me a quizzical look and shrugged, and I could tell in that instant that this was not a girl to mess with, she, like my sister, knew how to handle herself.

"In private." I motioned toward the doors to the great hall, hoping she would catch on.

"No problem, I guess I'll be right back." Ginny said standing and we walked together out of the doors, out of the corner of my eye I saw the golden trio watching us suspiciously. When we had disappeared from view she turned back to me one hand on her hip and a look on her face that meant business.

"What did you need to say to me?" she questioned a hard undertone to her voice, I wondered what she thought I would say.

"I'm sure you are no more happy about this than I am..." she cut me off at that point.

"Excuse me, But I believe that you were the one who wanted to talk to me, why should you be unhappy about it?" she demanded and I knew I had spoked a little hastily and too rudely.

"I...I'm sorry" I said and oh how it killed me to say it,"I just need to find out some important information."

"Like what?" she raised her eyebrow, she was not one to overlook my rudeness or my apology, neither canceled the other out.

"Well I need to know how much you and your lot have told her." she looked confused.

"Told her about what?"

"About you-know-who and the death eaters returning." I clarified for her, without being too blunt.

"Nothing more than what the ministry has already said. Why what do you know?" she asked, and I knew she was very curious about things that I couldn't tell her. I was scared for myself, Draco was already in too deep, his mother could do nothing when his father joined the dark lord again. I knew my father was only inches away from the line to cross over to the same thing, and I felt as if I was flailing in a world where I was expected to become a death eater even though I fought against it with all I had

"More than I can tell you and more than I can tell her." I said maybe a little too forcefully.

"You're keeping things from your sister?" she asked skeptically.

"For her own safety of course." I said daring her to judge me further, her red hair framed her pale face and for the first time I noticed how pretty she actually was.

"So how much does she know?" Ginny asked, though I would have suspected she would know how much Blair knew.

"I'm not completely sure, but nothing to do with death eaters and the dark lords workings." I said, wishing I had said less from the way her eyes widened, she seemed to think I knew more than I did. "Try to keep it that way, I know Potter knows things, but try to keep her out of it."

"I can't promise that, everyone has a right to know." she said shaking her head.

"Ginny, I am trying to look out for my sister here, we don't want her to know that much about what is going on in the hopes that maybe she will be safer from harm." I tried to soften my approach, she wasn't all that bad, in fact she wasn't bad at all maybe even a little pretty, and feisty and intelligent. She hadn't done anything to me ever, except defend herself from my arrogance and I was dependent on her help to try and keep my sister safe.

"Well, Blaise." she placed extra emphasis on my name, "I'll do my best to help her stay safe, she's my friend but that doesn't necessarily mean keeping her in the dark. But I'll warn you if she learns anything big." she said, and gave a small smile to the red headed girl in front of me and stuck out my hand for her to shake.

"Well I guess that will have to do, we've come to an agreement." I said taking her smaller hand in mine and shaking it once.

"I suppose we have, but I have a condition." her words made me uneasy conditions were never good things, they always meant the loss of something.

"What is that?" I asked trying not to sound or look as disappointed or as unsure as I really was.

"That you at least treat me and my friends with respect, I don't want to hear you mock me, my brother, or Harry or Hermione. Maybe we could even try to be friends for her sake." that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, because I knew that sometime in the future Blair would probably attempt to make me agree to the same thing Ginny was asking of me.

"You strike a hard bargain Miss Weasley. But I think that I can accept the terms of the deal." I tried to sound as gallant and gentlemanly as possible to make this work, I shook her hand again.

"Well then good day Blaise." she said.

"Ginny." I said with a nod and we both turned and moved back into the great hall.

Blair POV

I was beyond baffled, but that didn't mean I wasn't happy, I was overjoyed that maybe my Slytherin friends and Gryffindor friends could actually get along.

"I see you have taken the opportunity to ignore your true Slytherin friends for your overly loyal Gryffindor ones." Draco said sounding very cocky, it just made me want to laugh at him.

"So where is Astoria today? I'm surprised she isn't with you Draco." I shot the question towards the blonde boy, who turned and gave me a slight glare, most of his previous demeanor gone.

"Maybe she's off bothering someone else, someone who actually cares."

"Really it almost seemed as if you cared for her the other day." I said, causing Pansy to laugh at my comment while Draco just gave me a further glare.

"Sorry, I seem to have hit a sore spot." I muttered more to Pansy than to Draco.

"More than a little sore, that girl has barely let poor Draco here out of her sight for more than five minutes the whole time we have been back at school." Pansy whispered toward me as if gossiping although Draco could hear the whole conversation.

"Really now, I bet it just kills Astoria that he won't giver her a lick of attention." I answered back shaking my head slightly playing along, sometimes, and this was one of those times, it was easy to get Draco mad.

"If only Draco would realize that deep down in his stone heart that he does love her, we would all be less annoyed." that last line from Pansy had done it.

"Oh Shut it the two of you. Maybe I do like Astoria, how would you know?" he nearly yelled but with a usual sneer he just strode off to the Slytherin table shaking his head. His comment surprised me and I wished it hadn't disappointed me the way it had. I didn't like Draco in that way, I hadn't he was just my brothers best friend.

"Well that was sure easy." I said ignoring the disappointment with a laugh shared with the black haired girl beside me.

"Surprisingly so." she said standing next to the table still talking to me, it seemed she would probably wait for Blaise. "Well if I'm not being skinned alive by looks alone here then I don't know people." she smiled almost wistfully as she avoided the heated looks from many at the Gryffindor table.

"Well then, feel free to go get some lunch, I won't keep you." I said, wishing that things weren't as tense as they were, but for her sake she would be better off at the Slytherin table. She moved off with a wave and joined Draco at the table across the room. It wasn't exactly quiet at the table as I waited for Blaise and Ginny but from a far off I could hear a conversation between Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"How do we know if we can trust her?" Ron's voice questioned and I strained to hear their conversation while not looking so they wouldn't know I was eavesdropping.

"How do we know we can't?" Harry questioned further in a defensive manor, he seemed to have a more open sort of trust I had my suspicions that it was me they were discussing.

"Well if we look at it logically, Ginny trusts her and whether or not she can be trusted we can probably get information out of her, you know about the Slytherins." Hermione, always the logical one interjected and I knew instantly that it was me they were talking about.

"Well if this her is who I think it is then I believe your entire conversation is dependent on how I took it." I let them know I was listening, I thought it would be better that way. They all whipped their heads in my direction shocked and guilty looks spread across their face, I almost felt bad for surprising them. But if we were to ever be friends, this couldn't be something I held against them, I understood where they were coming from, I really did. Despite my understanding it still hurt a little to be treated with so little trust, why did people always judge based on family ties and circumstances rather than on true self and character. I supposed it was the times that we were living in, the Dark Lord made trusting people nearly impossible.