Eight-Legged Freaks

Chapter Six

The Gryffindors and the Slytherins had separate classes all morning. They only had a chance to apologize during their first break. Hermione, Ron, and Harry came in and found them doing homework by the fireplace. After they put their bags down by the entrance hole, they came and stood by the fire waiting to get their opposing housemates' attention. But the Slytherins continued with their homework, ignoring their presence. They waited for a time and Hermione was just about to clear her throat when Blaise spoke up, not pausing in her writing.

"Do you have something to say, or are you just going to stand there?"

"Um-,"

"I mean I know we're good looking but this is getting ridiculous," Pansy gave a quick, playful grin at Draco, who smirked in response, and then they both continued working.

"Well . . . we wanted to apologize," Harry said.

"For what?" Blaise fixed her steady gaze on them.

"For this morning," Ron answered. "It was-,"

"This morning," Draco started, as he paused on his Herbology essay. "This morning was a bit of disappointment. I mean," he stared at them with intense grey eyes. "I thought Gryffindors were made of stronger stuff than that. Then again . . ." he paused at the guilty looks he was receiving then returned to his assignment and continued, "Then again, it only proved what we've been saying from the beginning."

Hermione whispered, "What's that?"

"That Gryffindorks," he put an exaggerated emphasis on the name and laced it with a hint of disgust. "Aren't as brave as people play them up to be."

Ron began, "Look, we're sorry if we hurt you in any way-."

"Hurt us? Goodness, no. Shocked? Yeah. What you guys pulled was something I'd expect from one us," Blaise smirked. "I guess we underestimated you-,"

Hermione exclaimed, "No! We aren't like that. We were just . . . overwhelmed. We didn't know they would act like that. It won't happen again."

Pansy gave a fake sweet smile, "We won't let it happen again."

Draco shooed them away with his right hand, "Off you go."

Harry asked, "What do you want us to say?"

"Nothing!" Pansy said. "Absolutely, nothing. We'll tell whatever teacher that is popping in to check on us that this isn't going to work. Maybe they'll see sense and let us go."

But they didn't. Professor McGonagall said, "Where would we be in the world if everyone quit after one bump in the road, hmm? You guys are going to stick this out." So the Housemates found themselves ignoring each other for the next couple days. Neither house said a word to the opposite house . . . until Wednesday rolled around.

For a bit, it was just like any other morning. Draco, Hermione, and Harry took their showers and joined the others for breakfast but this morning they had a visitor. The portrait hole opened to reveal a worried looking Professor Dessen.

Hermione asked, "What's wrong?"

"Are you letting us out?" Pansy asked eagerly.

Professor sighed, "Yes."

"Seriously?"

"No! Stop asking. Ms. Zabini, can I talk to you for a second?"

Blaise nodded, "Sure." She put her napkin down on the table and walked over to the Dark Arts professor. The students watched Professor Dessen talking to Blaise in quiet tones. Then she pulled back and crossed her arms and Professor watched her for a moment. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Blaise nodded again.

"You sure? You look a bit pale. Well-," she smiled, "Paler than usual."

Blaise made a small grin and assured, "I'm fine, Professor."

"Alright," she turned to wave at the other students and then left. Blaise made her way over to her seat and sat down. Draco and Pansy stared at her expectantly and then she said, "Engorgement Charms." She shuddered and looked down at her plate. She pushed it away and asked, "Are you guys finished?"

"Yeah," Draco said. He, Blaise, and Pansy stood up, got their bags and left for class leaving the Gryffindors and their curiosities to wander what just happened.

(There's a break here. The website just has issues)

On Wednesday's, the Seventh Year Gryffindors and Slytherins end the day with Charms. Professor Flitwick stood in front of a chalkboard with Engorgement Charms written in large letters. Seeing this reminded the Hermione, Ron, and Harry of this morning. They searched the room and found Draco and Pansy talking to each other in the back with the other Slytherins but no sign of Blaise Zabini. 'Maybe she's sick,' they thought as they returned their attention to the Charms professor.

"Today we will be learning about Engorgement Charms. Can anyone tell me what they do?" No one raised their hand to answer the question. "How about Ms. Granger?"

"Well they enlarge things," she answered.

"Excellent. Five points to Gryffindor." He clapped his hands together, "We'll be practicing the charms on spiders-,"

"DAMNIT!"

"Mr. Weasley, is there a problem?"

"Why spiders? No on in here likes spiders. I mean- come on, who in here likes spiders?"

Dean raised his hand. "I do."

"Ew, shut up!" Pansy said, throwing a crumpled piece of parchment at him. Students laughed at the exchange.

"Alright, simmer down. I'm sorry to say but we will be working with spiders. Now-," Professor flicked his wand and jars of spiders appeared in front of every student.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"MR. WEASLEY, IF YOU PLEASE!"

(There's a break here. The website just has issues)

"That was so-," Ron shuddered.

"We know," Hermione and Harry and answered back.

"That thing got to the size of my hand," Ron exclaimed.

"We know."

There was a pause and then-

"I mean, I have huge hands-,"

"RON, WE KNOW!"

The Slytherins had reached the portrait first but they hadn't said the password yet. Hermione asked, "Something wrong?"

Draco nodded, "Yeah, you mind not mentioning this Charms class once we go in there, Weasley?"

Ron asked, "Why?"

Draco shrugged and Pansy answered, "It's just really annoying."

"Am I really-,"

"Yeah," everyone answered in unison.

"Fine, fine. Equality," Ron said and the portrait hole opened. Blaise was sitting at the table doing homework. She looked up at the sudden sound and smiled when Pansy and Draco kissed her cheeks, a practice, the Gryffindors noticed, that was done in greeting to a friend they hadn't seen in awhile. They sat down on either side of her.

Pansy touched her shoulder, "How are you feeling?"

The Gryffindors, who had dropped their things by the entrance and sat opposite them, then noticed how sick Blaise looked. Her naturally pale skin looked sheet white, making her black curls and blue eyes stand out more than normal. Despite this, she smiled and said, "I'm fine."

"Did you take anything?" Draco asked. He, Pansy, and Hermione started getting out their books.

She shook her head. "I don't need anything when I have notice, you know?" Pansy nodded and the three of them continued to talk as they did their homework. Hermione was glaring at her two friends who stood up from the table.

"Where are you going?"

"To play Wizard's Chest," Ron answered.

"You guys were assigned some homework today. Aren't you going to do it?"

"Hermione, we have homework that's due tomorrow that we haven't finished. Doesn't it make sense to finish that first?"

"Of course!" Hermione paused, "….are you going to do it?"

"Not now."

"Ron!"

"Hermione, come on. We're not in the homework mood right now. We'll do it later."

Hermione shook her head, "This is exactly why you two end up doing your homework late at night."

"We won't end up doing our homework late at night."

They ended up doing their homework late at night. Hermione, Pansy, Draco, and Blaise turned in an hour or two after dinner. Blaise and Pansy took their showers; Blaise took a drink from a vial she keeps by her bedside and as the four of them were going to sleep, Harry and Ron were just getting started on their homework. Hours passed by.

Harry yawned as he looked at his watch. "It's one o'clock. Are you almost finished?"

"Yeah now all I have to do is Ancient Runes, you?"

"I just started on it. You're gonna need your book."

Ron rolled his eyes and searched his back pack for the book. All of a sudden he threw the bag across the room. Harry looked up from his work and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Dean put the spider in my bag!"

Harry dropped his quill and went over to the bag which landed by the boys' beds. He searched through it and then said, "It's not in here."

Ron stood up slowly on his chair and said, "That means it got out." He looked at Harry and asked, "Will you look for it?"

"Are you serious?"

"You think I would ask if it wasn't important?! Do you know what this is doing to my pride?!"

"Are you gonna help?"

"God no!"

"What the-!" he sighed and started looking around the area. He checked by and under his bed, came around and checked Ron's bed, and then he took a long sigh and searched by Draco's. He looked under the Slytherin's bed and found nothing. He came back up to tell Ron it wasn't over here but went still when he found two sleepy grey eyes looking back at him.

"What are you doing under my bed, Potter?"

Harry should have felt guilty for looking under his bed but just because it was Malfoy . . . he didn't. "I'm looking for something, Malfoy."

"I realize that. What are you looking for . . . under my bed-," he stopped to check his watch. "At one in the morning?"

"Dean had said he would put one of the spiders from Charms class in Ron's bag. Ron found it and threw the bag over here and the spider got out."

He expected a "Keep away from my stuff" or a "Well shut up, I'm trying to sleep." What he didn't expect was Malfoy to make a soft groan, get up, and help look for it. Harry looked at Ron who gave him the same "what-the-hell?" look he was probably wearing on his face as Malfoy started looking by the couches. After the initial shock, he began searching again too.

After a few minutes it occurred to Draco that Ron wasn't helping. He looked up from the table and asked, "What are you doing on that chair, Weasel? Aren't you going to help? It was your fault in the first place."

Ron exclaimed, "I didn't think he was serious!"

"I don't care. Get your ass down here and help!" Draco fixed him with an icy glare until he got down from his chair and started looking. Ron asked, "Why are you helping us, Malfoy?"

Draco turned around from the fireplace and glared, "I'm not doing this for you."

Ron grinned at how distressed Draco was and teased, "Sure you're not."

Draco pointed a finger at him, "I'm serious. I'm not-,"

He stopped as Blaise stirred in her sleep. She muttered, "Shut up." Draco waited a minute before turning to the two Gryffindors and said, "We need to find the spider before Blaise wakes up."

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

(There's a break here. The website just has issues)

"Guys lets just stop. We've looked everywhere. Ron, we still need to finish our homework and Malfoy, you look like you could use a rest."

Malfoy was walking to the girls' beds. He said, "No, I'll keep looking. You guys can stop." Ron nodded and followed Harry to the table. Secretly, he was grateful that Draco was going to continue looking. The idea that he would be sleeping with a spider that he KNEW was crawling around, one that was enlarged because of the Engorgement Charms they learned today, it made him a little uneasy. He said over his shoulder, "We'll help you look after. We're almost done."

Draco didn't respond. He bent over and looked underneath Pansy's bed. When he didn't find any, he moved on to look under Hermione's. He was in between Hermione and Blaise's bed, Hermione on his right, Blaise on his left. He turns to crawl left towards Blaise's when he meets her cobalt blue eyes staring down at him. 'Well now I know how Potter felt,' he thought.

"Draco?"

He scratched the back of his head and winced, "Yeah, Blaise?"

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

She yawned, "Well can you go to sleep, please?" Her eyelids drifted shut.

Pansy piped up, "SERIOUSLY."

"But I wanted to finish-,"

"Finish what?" Blaise's eyes opened up again. "You said you weren't doing anything."

"Well I'm not."

"Dormez-vous, s'il vous plait."

Draco nodded, "Alright." He got up and walked to his bed. As he climbed he could see Blaise watching him. She watched him until he had his eyes closed. 'Alright, I'll wait until she falls back asleep before I continue looking,' he thought as he drifted off to sleep.

On the other side of the room, Harry and Ron were whispering about Draco.

"I mean how weird is that? Him just getting up and helping you?"

"Yeah, I thought he was gonna hex me for going through his stuff. I mean he hadn't said much to us since Monday. I felt bad about that."

"Yeah."

"I mean, he can be nice."

"Sure, when he's not calling you names or insulting your family and—oh! Let's not forget after he's had his," Ron gave Harry a teasing grin, "Morning bath." He and Harry snickered.

Harry paused his quill. "Did you hear that?"

"What?" Ron asked. "Hear wh-,"

"Shh," Harry and Ron strained his ears.

After a moment Ron said, "That's just Blaise. She's always muttering in sleep, did you notice that?"

"Yeah."

"What's she saying?" Ron asked.

Harry listened for a bit and then said, "She thinks someone's tickling her."

"What?"

"Listen, listen."

The boys stilled and then they could hear a sleepy voice going, "Stop tickling me." They looked at each other and started to laugh.

"She's the first person I've ever heard sleep talk," Harry said.

"Charlie talks in his sleep. Ginny, too," Ron told him.

Harry asked, "Really? What kind of stuff does she say?"

"One time she started shouting for Bill to give her stuffed Pygmy Puff. She was like, 'I'll tell Mom. Give Fluffy back!'"

"How old was she?" Harry chuckled.

Ron grinned, "What do you mean 'how old was she?' It happened this summer!" He and Harry laughed again and stopped as they noticed Blaise's muttering had gotten louder.

"Stop it. I'm trying to sleep."

Harry looked at Ron, "Was she talking to us?"

Ron shook his head, "No, I don't think-,"

"Seriously, stop tickling me!" Blaise sat up from her bed. She looked and saw Harry and Ron by the table doing homework. She scanned the room and found Draco, Hermione, and Pansy asleep in their beds. Everyone was away from her but there was still something . . .

She pulled off her covers and finds a HUGE spider crawling on her leg. Her heartbeat raced and she began to sweat and then she started to scream.

The screams made Ron and Harry's blood run cold. They were loud, piercing, and blood curling. Draco and Pansy woke up to her yells. They got up and ran toward her bed as Blaise got up and ran into a shocked Harry's arms, crying into his shoulder. Pansy and Draco searched her bed but they didn't see it. Ron just noticed that the spider was still on Blaise's leg and not a second later, Blaise did too.

"GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF! PLEASE GET IT OFF ME!" She started sobbing and gasping for breath.

With all the courage he could muster, Ron grabbed the spider off her leg and threw it across the room. Draco grabbed his wand and Petrified the spider before killing it. By the time he and Pansy came over to Blaise, she was still trying to catch her breath and she was sobbing, "It was on my leg!" over and over again. Draco held his arms out to her and she let go of Harry and walked into Draco's open arms.

He held her close and said, "Calm down, Blaise. Breathe? You gotta breathe. Calm down. It's gone now."

Pansy rubbed her lower back and said, "It's dead now. Just relax."

She finally caught her breath back but she was still sobbing, "It was on me. It was on my leg. It was in my bed."

"It's gone now, Blaise," he whispered. He started rubbing her back that was shaking in sobs. "I killed it, Blaise. It's dead. It's gone. Here, you can look at it. It's over-,"

"I DON'T WANT TO SEE IT!" she took a shaky breath and whimpered, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that-,"

"It's okay. You're upset. It's okay."

"It was HUGE!"

Pansy answered, "I know-."

"No you don't. It was in my bed. It was on my leg!"

"I know, Blaise. Come on, let's go to the bathroom," Draco said. He put his arm around her shoulders and started walking her to the bathroom. Halfway there, Blaise pushed Draco out of the way. She fell to her knees and was violently sick on the floor.

"Oh my God," Pansy muttered.

Draco bent down and picked Blaise up. He carried her to the bathroom. As he shut the door, he called, "Pansy, get the medicine." Pansy summoned the pills and went into the bathroom, setting them on the counter. Draco was holding Blaise's hair away from her face as she threw up in the toilet and was rubbing her back with his other hand. He looked up and asked, "Can you clean up the mess out there?"

Pansy walked out and closed the door behind her. She got out her wand and Vanished the mess. When she finished Harry asked, "Is she okay?"

Pansy scratched her forehead and sighed, "She will be."

Ron asked tentatively, "What happened?"

Pansy hesitated. She took a deep breath and replied, "Blaise has arachnophobia."

All of a sudden, everything made sense. Professor Dessen talking to Blaise this morning, Blaise not showing up for Charms, being asked by Draco to not talk about it, Draco getting up to help find the spider and telling them to do it before she woke up. They were quiet for a moment and then Ron said, "I am so sorry."

Her eyes got big. "You brought it in here?"

"No! Well . . . yeah- but not on purpose! Someone put it in my bag during Charms today."

"Oh well what are you apologizing for?" she asked.

"It was in my bag."

Pansy rolled her eyes and muttered, "Whatever. It's okay. It wasn't your fault." She turned and walked back into the bathroom. Harry and Ron turned away and looked back towards the dead spider. Ron asked, "You suppose we should . . ."

Harry replied, "Yeah." He got his wand out and Vanished the spider. "We should go to sleep."

"But what about the homework?"

"We're almost done. We'll do it before breakfast tomorrow." As they put on their pajamas they stared at Hermione's still sleeping form.

"How did she sleep through that?" Ron wondered as he climbed in to bed.

Harry shrugged, "I have no idea. 'Night."

"'Night."

(There's a break here. The website just has issues.)

Pansy came back into the bathroom and Blaise was washing her face in the sink. Draco was sitting on the toilet, asleep with his head in his hands. Pansy leaned on the counter next to her. "You okay?"

Blaise nodded as she wiped her face with a towel. She put the towel aside. She bowed her head and took a long breath and then she hopped onto the counter. She put her feet in the sink and turned on the hot water. She grabbed the towel and lathered it with soap and started scrubbing her legs, hard.

Pansy added some cold water. "That water is too hot." Steam was coming from the sink and was fogging the place.

Blaise glared and turned off the cold water. "Hot water kills germs."

"What germs? You just took a bath!"

Blaise continued scrubbing and didn't respond. Pansy shut off the hot water and cried, "Blaise!"

She looked up and said, "That thing could have laid its babies-,"

"Oh, come on!"

"It could have laid its babies on my leg and I need to know that they're dead." She turned on the hot water again.

"You're not gonna do that by burning your skin off!" Pansy shut if off again.

She turned it back on again. "I'd rather have it burn then have an infestation on my legs or my clothes. In fact-," Blaise hopped off the counter. She removed her PJ bottoms and stood in her underwear. She dropped the pants in the bathtub and opened the tap to hot water. She went back to her spot on the counter, glared at Pansy for turning it back off, turned it back on, and resumed scrubbing at her legs.

Pansy said, "At least, use warm water."

"No."

"Yes!" Pansy turned down the hot water and added some cold.

"Stop it! Warm water is not gonna kill the family of spiders, growing on me. Please stop," Blaise looked at her with wide cobalt blue eyes filled with fear.

Pansy grabbed her shoulders. "Blaise, this is your OCD talking."

She swatted her hands away and muttered, "I don't have OCD."

Her friend studied her. "Did you take your sedatives?"

"Yes!"

"Well take another one."

"I don't need another one."

"Okay well wash the soap off and let's go to bed. It's getting late."

Blaise hesitated.

"What? Do you need a sleeping potion?"

"No, I don't like how groggy I get in the morning." Blaise looked up through her curtain of dark hair and asked shyly, "Can I sleep with you?"

"Of course!" Pansy gave her friend a reassuring hug and then woke Draco up while she washed her legs. After she dried them, the three of them headed out of the bathroom. Blaise was relieved to see Harry and Ron were asleep. She was embarrassed about the way she acted and didn't want to see them. Draco climbed in his bed and wished the girls good night. Blaise climbed into the bed with Pansy and tried to go to sleep.

Half hour later, she still couldn't sleep. All over her body she could feel things crawling on her. In some part of her mind she knew she was just being paranoid but she couldn't help it. She glanced over at Pansy who was sound sleep and as quietly as possible, she got out of the bed and made her way to the bathroom.

"Where are you going?"

Blaise turned around to see Pansy staring at her. "I have to use the bathroom."

Pansy shut her eyes again and said, "Hurry back."

Once in there, Blaise used the toilet and took a long shower. She then changed back into her pajamas and sat down on the toilet thinking. After awhile the door opened and a tired Ron Weasley walked in and shut the door. He looked up to see her sitting on the toilet and asked, "Can't sleep?"

Blaise shook her head, "I got a lot on my mind. Did you need to use the bathroom?"

Ron shrugged, "Not really."

"Good. I wasn't going to get up anyway."

Ron rolled his eyes and shook his head. The two of them sat in silence for a while; Blaise on the toilet, and Ron leaning on the counter. After awhile Ron says, "Look I'm sorry about the spider in-,"

Blaise stopped him. "It's okay. Draco told me about it." She squinted up at him. "Do you always apologize for things that aren't your fault?"

Ron shrugged again. "It felt like the right thing to do."

Blaise said, "To take the blame for something that's not your fault? Spoken like a true Gryffindork—I guess that's another spot where the line between bravery and stupidity gets a little blurry." Ron smiled despite himself. "So how did it get in your bag again?"

"I thought Dean was joking around in Charms when he said he was gonna put it in there," Ron paused before adding. "I've never heard any one scream like that before."

Blaise ducked her head and bit her nail. She replied softly, "I know it's pretty bad. I can't sleep because every time I close my eyes I see that thing on my leg and then it brings me to these other thoughts like what if it laid eggs on me or I get some kind of disease or something. And then I had to take a shower because I had this sensation of them crawling all over me and I'm thinking about taking another one because I'm starting to feel it again." She looked up at him with a self conscious smile. "I know I sound ridiculous-,"

"No, you don't. I hate spiders."

"You do?"

Ron nodded, "That's why Dean put it in the bag. He knows how much I hate them. Why don't you take a sleeping potion?"

"No, I get really groggy in the morning."

Ron asked, "What was it . . . that made you so scared of them?"

Blaise turned away and didn't answer. There was a bit of silence and then Ron said, "Me, I was six." He pulled himself onto the counter and said, "I broke Fred's broomstick by accident and he got so angry he turned my teddy bear into a spider." Blaise shuddered at the thought.

There was a pregnant pause before she asked, "Why did you grab it off my leg then if you don't like them?"

Ron said, "I didn't think about it. I just saw how . . . upset you were and I just took it off."

She looked up at him and asked, "Even though, you're scared of them?"

Ron shrugged, nonchalantly. "I thought it was pretty brave of me."

The sides of Blaise's mouth curled up in the slightest smile. "No once again Weasley, your stupid side came out to play." Ron chuckled and her smile grew bigger as she said, "Thank you."

"No problem . . . so are you gonna tell me or what?"

She gave him a quirky smile that said, 'Wouldn't you like to know?'

"Is it embarrassing?"

She smirked and asked, "Can I trust you?"

He said indignantly, "I'm in Gryffindor!"

"That doesn't mean anything. Peter Pettigrew was in Gryffindor, wasn't he?"

"You know about that?" Ron inquired.

Blaise nodded, looking at her nails. "He tells people about it when he gets drunk at dinner parties."

Ron looked horrified, "You go with him to dinner parties?"

She argued. "More like we go and he happens to be there. There's only one person who likes him and I'd say 'like' is a bit of stretch. It's more like tolerate."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Draco's mother refuses to let him in our house after what he did to Sirius. Then mine and Pansy's mother support her."

"Did she have a thing for Sirius?"

"I hope not. They're cousins."

"Seriously?"

Blaise nodded, "Yeah, their fathers were brothers."

Ron wrinkled his nose and said, "That's so odd. Sirius was so kind and Narcissa is so-,"

Blaise huffed, "Excuse me! Aunt Narcissa is one of the nicest people I know. Uncle Lucius is mean."

"Why would she marry him then?"

"It's called arranged marriage, Weasley. Ever heard of them?"

His eyes rounded, "You guys do that?"

She nodded, "It's tradition."

"That's terrible," he exclaimed. Ron looked straight ahead for a moment and then asked, "So…who are you paired up with?"

Blaise scoffed, "I'm not gonna tell you!"

Ron laughed, "That bad?"

She hit him on his arm, which made him laugh harder. "No!"

"If it's Malfoy, then I'd say that's bad."

""No!"

"No its not Malfoy or no it wouldn't be bad?"

"No it's not Draco and if it was it would be bad because he's my cousin."

"You're related to Malfoy?"

"Is that such a surprise?"

"Yes!"

"How? We look exactly alike besides hair and eye color. He looks like his father and I look like my mother and those two were brother and sister and they looked alike—all the Malfoys look alike."

"There's more?"

"Yes there's Uncle Luke who's the oldest. He has three sons: Viktor, Lucien, and Kraven. Then there's Uncle Xavier and he has three daughters: Sonja, Selene, and Erica."

"Is that it?"

"Well there's Lucas but we weren't told much about him. Just that he turned gay and ran off with Pansy's uncle so they were disowned."

Ron studied her for a moment. Blaise looked back with blank blue eyes and when she finally asked what he said, "I don't understand how you can say that so calmly."

"Well it's the rules," she said simply.

"Why don't you break the rules?"

"I do break them. I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

There was a brief silence and then Ron asked, "I'm a rule?"

"Its not a big deal-,"

"There's a rule about my family?"

"There's rules about everyone!"

"What's the rule?"

"What?"

"What's the rule? I think I should know. What is it?"

"Weasleys are as filthy as Mudbloods and should be treated as such."

A swirl of emotions crossed Ron's face: shock, hurt, and anger. "You're not allowed to hang out with us because we're poor?" Ron thundered.

"No,, they say you're not real Purebloods because of the way you treat the Muggles and the Muggleborns-,"

"Because we treat them like human beings? Is that what you're saying? They are, Blaise. They are just as human as you and me. They give birth the same way, they have the same body parts, they walk on two feet. What is it that sets them apart from us, hmm? Because they're born in another world? Is that it? 'cause if it is, let me tell you now, when we say Muggle World or Wizarding World—'World' is in name only. We're all from the same planet. We were all born and live in the same . . . we live coincide with them and the idea that we are better than them because all our ancestors were born on the right side of the 'fence' that separates our world from theirs is ridiculous. And the fact that me and my family are considered filthy for thinking that, is ridiculous too." Blaise looked away from Ron's glaring ocean blue eyes. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. Then he continued, "You don't even know me . . . or my family. You're all so quick to judge people. Is that why you guys just stick together? Why you don't become friends with anyone else because you think you're better than them?"

Blaise saw red. She whipped her head back at him and her cobalt blue eyes flashed with anger. "How dare you? How dare you sit there and tell me that I'm quick to judge people when most people don't come near me or my Housemates because they see our uniforms and automatically think we're devoted followers of the Dark Lord? And do you think any of them know me? Do you think any of them know me, or Pansy, or Dra-any of the other Slytherins? She stood up from the toilet and stood in front of Ron's face. She pointed to the door, "Outside this common room, it's 3 against 1. Who do you think the one is?" She glared at him. "Who do you think people automatically look at when something bad happens or something goes wrong, hmm? I mean you talk about us being mean to the Mudbloods but we get treated just as badly. We get the same dirty looks and we get picked on-,"

Ron rolled his eyes, "Please, you guys do not get picked on."

"People say terrible things to get the boys riled up and if Pansy and I were to walk those hallways by ourselves without Draco or someone with us, we'd get harassed. You can bet on that."

"I've never seen any of that happen here, ever."

Blaise said over her shoulder as she walked to the door, "Well people see what they want to here. They see Draco Hexing some kid but they don't see the kid saying something about his father and that woman he got involved with, do they?"

Ron retorted, "Yeah, well Snape does the same thing to us!"

Blaise looked back at Ron, ocean blue eyes staring back with fierce intensity. "That is one teacher. Snape is one teacher out of the whole faculty and he favors us because he understands what its like to be a Slytherin in this school." She opened the door and said, "Slytherins stick together because we're all we've got."

She walked out of the bathroom and shut the door. Ron glared after her and hopped off the counter. He lifted the toilet seat muttering. "And yes I did have to pee."