Now the clock has turned and time stands still

I watched the tears, your eyes fill

And now I wished for nothing more

To see you smile and hold you in my arms.

I was no one before you.

He supposed sighing at this next bit wouldn't do much to help the circumstances. I'll say it again, he doesn't have anything against the way things turned out. At all...

Okay, I take it back. He hoped to Dio that Draco Malfoy finds somewhere to die a slow painful death... maybe like the worst death possible, mentioned in Slaughterhouse-Five. Take the honey and make it molasses that has to be heated to scalding temperature before pouring it on, wait till it cools and hardens first, and make sure it's laced with some pheremone to make some type of magical nibbling creatures ravenous and take a very long time to eat it. Instead of looking up at the sun, make him watch what's happening by cutting his eyelids off and forcing his head down and-...

I'm getting ahead of myself. You'll understand when you read this next bit. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, go read the book... or google it.

Walking onto the platform once more, he breathed in the scent of his sixth year of school. Second to last and he was ready for it to be over. This year would be good, amazing, phenomenal! At least, that's what he hoped.

He heard her voice before he saw her, like fire in my veins, a warmth he would never stop loving. After reveling in the feeling, he turned to find her.

"If you don't get your slimey hands off my ass, you won't have them anymore, capito?"

There was a sound of a solid punch and a bunch of dropped items and Blaise turned to see her storming off away from some idiot seventh year that decided it was a good idea to feel her up. He shook his head. Nothing had changed.

No, that's not completely right.

He looked down and smiled walking to board the train. As he headed down the hallway, ignoring the "oohs" and giggles, Blaise found an empty compartment and put his bag down on the seat to lean against the window and close his eyes. Noemi would be proud to see him refraining from pulling another stunt like he'd done the year before. Seeing his reflection in the glass, he could only smile.

I wonder if she'll even recognize me. She hadn't lastyear... and I do look a bit different now...

Okay much different now, if the truth be told. He was officially six feet nine inches now, a summer rugby player, quidditch chaser/beater, a soccer player, a swimmer, and deep end goalie for water polo. With all the outdoor activity, he was a little darker, dark caramel is what Noemi called him. In any case, his hair grew out and he hadn't had a chance to to cut it with everything going on that summer so it was now unruly, curly, and tied back from his face. If Blaise could travel back in time, he would have been mistaken for a darker version of Casanova.

A more handsome version of Casanova, Noemi's voice piped up in his head.

She'd done just as much building him up as she'd done teaching him how to handle himself. She gave him a sense of confidence, not arrogance and sometime near the end of the summer she'd said something along the lines that she doubted he really had an arrogant bone in his body. He'd complained and said that it was just her way of telling him he was a complete and total cream puff pacifist and he hadn't grown out of the quiet boy he was when he entered his second year at Hogwartts. She laughed, kissed his cheek and told him that that was what he thought of himself and that he'd proven her point.

There was no way she could teach him to be a man, but she did tell him how to treat a woman. Respect and how to be charming. More than that, she taught him to tame his thoughts and thanks to her they were more controlled and more violent since his last encounter with the slowly disfiguring Draco Malfoy.

For the sake of sparing gory details, let's just say Draco said something he shouldn't have again and has been recuperating in St. Mongo's version of the Emergency Room.

"Excuse me..." A soft voice said from the doorway and he looked up.

Elena.

We must really stop meeting like this...he thought a little amused.

"Can I? Every where else is full and I haven't been able to find anyone else that I know..."

He nodded quietly and she came in with a violin sized case in her arm and another bag, taking a seat across from me and sighing as her body slumped against the bench. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, tracing every curve of her with an appreciative eye.

Beautiful.

Her busty Italian heritage had come out quite nicely, she could have been a model if not for her dress. She looked like the typical teenage tomboy that she was. Converse sneaker, ripped shorts that looked a little on the soccer player side, and a fitting t-shirt. She was a bit darker than he remembered, but her eyes and hair gave her away. Still so bright and full of life, her hair dark and glossy over her shoulder, spilling down her chest. She'd let it grow to his surprise, he always thought that she would take the first chance she got to cut it.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met. I'm Elena... Elena Valentin."

Blaise smirked at her outstretched hand and calmed the herd running around his stomach. He'd almost missed the feeling since he hadn't seen her for much time that summer.

"We have met before... Elena."

She blinked and froze as their eyes met. There was apprehension in her eyes and fear. Apparently she hadn't been around any baritones lately.

Yes, dropping his voice and stretching him out were only the little perks to puberty. Something that Noemi had continued to curse his luck for. He was what some would call a slow bloomer... Joy. His other three sisters had come home for a family function and had been with an inch of trying to jump him until Noemi pointed out that it would be incestuous and pedophilic, there's no need to get any higher on the whore scale. They stared at Blaise in shock and hadn't spoken to him for the rest of the day. His father had come surprisingly. Of course, he'd only seen him once screwing a random woman that they were probably related to in some way in one of the closets around the Zabini household. He decided after a while that it was better to hang out with his friend, Massimo, his girlfriend, and Noemi until someone else he could manage to stand more than five minutes of time with, preferably without being scarred for life, appeared.

He'd convinced his mother to let him stay the rest of the summer with Noemi in her flat in the opera district just outside of the wizarding side of the city. Needless to say in staying with Noemi, who was determined to make him turn out to be eons better of a man than his father was and give him the confidence to go after Elena, there was no chance of him being anything less than what he was now...

Positively Machiavellian.

"We... have?... I don't think we have-" Her voice faultered as he stood, towering over her and leaned down, forcing her legs apart with one knee as he looked into her eyes.

It hadn't been that hard to do as she hadn't wanted his knee to grind into her thighs but all the same his insides were jumping around and he wondered if this was pushing it a little bit? Maybe?...

Maybe a little...

"Yes... we have..."

She blinked, blinked, and blinked again. Her eyes widened almost comically, more than likely the dawning of who the man standing over her was occured.

"You're that guy that was stalking me last year aren't you? " She asked.

He blinked and couldn't help but laugh. Really? Really?

Oh Dio, only Elena... only my dear Elena would say something like that... Only my dear Elena.

She blinked and tilted her head, " You're... not my stalker then?"

"No dear god no... Come on Elena...Is it not obvious?"

Cutely, she blinked and pouted trying to figure it out, "If it was then I wouldn't be having this much of a problem! You'll have to help me out here, my brain isn't quite off of summer break yet."

"I think you've been hit too many times with a bludger dear Elena..."

"Are you... a Ravenclaw?"

"No."

"Gryfinndor?"

"No."

"Hufflepuff?" She asked disbelieving and he chuckled shaking his head, crossing his arms and sitting back into his seat.

He would never tell her that she had the hardest time identifying people if they didn't look exactly the same, nor that it was immensely fun to see her freaking out that she didn't know who he was. Elena was the social butterfly of the school, she knew most people by at the very least their last name. She was great with putting names to faces but it never failed that she would always fail for a while at seeing Blaise's new look as just a new look rather than a totally different person.

"Ragazza bella, piu fortun avro... ma se non memoria..."Beautiful girl with plenty of fortune but no memory.

"Blaise?"She asked shocked with the revelation, " No... Now way... There's no way in hell... You can't be Blaise... Blaise isn't... he isn't... He isn't you~... What the hell, are you doing this on purpose? Everytime I turn around you... you~..."

He raised an eyebrow at her antics as she stood pacing back and forth in the compartment and glancing at him with a mix of derision and disbelief. He could help but watch her and smile. She was so animated after all.

"And even if you were Blaise, which you aren't, you wouldn't look like that. Blaise had short hair, he was lighter than me... His eyes were normal blue... not... not... that blue. Furthermore, Blaise wouldn't-"

Grasping her hands and turning her, he covered her mouth with a single finger and pulled her down between his legs to look into her eyes. She wasn't breathing and shivered a little at the warmth of his hands and the warmth of his eyes. If it was possible, his eyes were even bluer than they'd been the year before and maybe darker with some emotion she couldn't place.

"You think too much darling...If I am not Blaise, which I am, how on Earth do I know that you're an anamorphmagus with a penchant for changing hair and eye color at the strangest times. Or that you, my dear one, have been stalked countless times..."

"Everyone knows that... I'm not exactly the hardest to notice..." She defended.

He lifted her chin to look into his eyes gently and leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "Pioggia di smeraldo e oro di sogna, La mia voce e nel buio."

She gulped and looked up at him with wary eyes, " Blaise... really?"

Blaise nodded and her eyes wandered over him, down to his waist and back up again. He almost held his breath at what she would say.

"Noemi, got to you huh?"

Blaise chuckled, "You could say that."

"It's... a good look for you. Any heart's you're planning to break just don't break one's that I know, alright?"

He shook his head again as she stood and launched herself back into her chair and pouted.

"I'm sorry about my terrible memory."

"It's okay."

"Is it possible that one year you come back, you could at least try to look like you did the year before?"

He laughed,"I'll see what I can do."

He stuck his hand in his bag and pulled out a velvet box and handed it over to her. "I have gift for you seeing as how we didn't get to see each other over break. Happy Birthday."

She blinked as he handed her the box with the bracelet he'd made especially for her... Just for her...

"I'm terrible at wrapping, magic or no. But it's charmed," he said as she looked at the velvet box and smiled. "For your condition."

She blinked, " You make it sound like I'm crazy."

"Well... you do hear voices. If I didn't know better, I'd say that's crazy."

She stuck out her tongue and opened the box the bracelet was enchanted steel and if used correctly could probably take out most of someone's teeth. When he'd been hanging out with Massimo in his father's jewelry shop, he'd seen a piece like it and took up an apprenticeship with his family. He was sure she'd put it to good use other than keeping other people's thoughts out of her head.

"Are you ready for the year?"

"Yep, couldn't be better..." She said grinning. The door opened with Malfoy's sneering face and she glared back at him.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Elena asked growling at him.

"Come now Elena... you remember what happens when you disobey me don't you?"

Blaise blinked and frowned as she stood turning to face him.

"I just want a kiss darling..."

"Oh yeah?"

She marched over and grabbed his collar and punch him into the opposite compartment.

"I don't give a damn what you can do to me... I'm not some servant you can order around..." She turned and closed the door as he pulled out his wand.

In a wave of panic, Blaise grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the door to shield her. But there was no light coming from the end of his wand, only silence and her body falling into Blaise's arms. Her scream would haunt him forever.

Watching her rest for the rest of the train ride he thought he might be running a fever. The rage boiling up inside him ran hot through his body and over his skin. He wanted to slaughter a ferret faced Slytherin.

"Oh my head~..." She groaned breaking him from his violent train of thoughts as they were soon flushed out with worry.

"Elena... babe are you alright?"

Her eyes rolled to meet the worried azure eyes looking down at her, "What'd you say?"

"I asked if you were alright..."

I have got to cut down on the terms of endearment...

He didn't actually plan on cutting down on anything as he smiled at her lovingly. She would never know, not at the rate it was going. She would never know how he felt about her and somehow he became okay with it so long as he got to stay by her side.

"I'm fine," she groaned. "Just dizzy. That one sucked bad...How far are we?"

"Not very...Time enough for you to change..."

She nodded as stood pulling her bag down as he sat down and watched her. He was still shaking with worry and rage as she calmly rifled through her bag to pull out her uniform...that was until she started unlacing her shoes.

He swore if he was of a light complexion he would have been Gryffindor Red.

"Uhm... Elena, you're not about to change in here are you?"

"Uh... yeah... Don't worry, your honor will be spared."

He scoffed and reigned back the blush, staring at her in embarrassed shock as black peaked over the top of her shorts. He turned his head to advert his attention to the passing scenery. She had to have been doing that as payback, right? Stealing a glance in her direction she hummed lightly pulling her button up over her tank top and her skirt over her shorts and her knee high socks over her painted toes. They were covered in glitter and he almost laughed. He never pegged Elena to be a ooh~ shiny type of girl, but at least she hadn't planned on really undressing in front of him. As shameless as she'd always been about herself, he didn't think he could deal with that without exploding.

"Is that why... you hardly have anything on when you get on the train?"

"Of course, it's a lot easier to change that way." She said swinging her les onto the space beside him and pulling on her black shoes for school.

She sat back with a satisfied grin, munching on chocolate.

"Could I ask," Blaise started making her stop eating for a moment. "What he did to you?"

"It's a type of binding used for predetermined marriages. He can cause me pain whenever I don't do something he likes. It's supposed to be like a training tool for marriage."

"How could he..."

She shrugged, "Because he's a smarmy little git."

"Are you sure that-"

"I don't need anyone to come and save me Blaise, I'm fine."

No matter how much he wanted to tell her she was wrong. Blaise couldn't, he wouldn't. From her body language, she was already ashamed that he'd seen her that weak, bringing up the fact of why wouldn't help her.

He smiled instead and pulled her towards him to hugged her gently, " I know... you're the Cinderella with an AK-47."

She laughed at that and hugged him back. When the train stopped her followed her out of the train. There wasn't much more Blaise could do for her but take her hand and guide her to an awaiting carriage. Arriving at the Great Hall, they split and as usual she was pulled down across tables and held up before making her way to the Ravenclaw table. It all felt normal as new students arrived, dinner was eaten and they went to their separate houses.

It wasn't until the next morning when Blaise took a seat beside Pansy that anything had obviously changed. He groaned.

My lucky day.

Where Pansy was Draco was sure to be. They were like magnets and lo and behold the bastard himself appeared with a smarmy grin. In Blaise's opinion, if there was a curse stronger than Avada Kedvra, it would have been made specifically for Malfoy. He'd have to get to work on creating a spell like that would make him suffer until death instead of the immediate fall into oblivion that the Killing Curse offered.

"We ought to have a good quidditch season with old Ravenclaw out of the way..."

"Why is that Drakkie?"

"How many times do I- oh never mind. Without their star player Elena the Ravenclaw team is nothing."

"You really think so?" Crabbe asked.

"Of course, I'm the one that controls her after all."

Blaise bit his lip from speaking and stood taking his bag and heading to class with not another word. He took the rest of his breakfast, and his chocolate flavored coffee with him out into the hall in the thermos Noemi had gotten him for completing his summer training, or rather surviving it.

"Yo, yo, yo, Blaise!"

He almost chuckled and turned to her. She waved and laced her arm with his, pulling Blaise towards class.

"We have to sit together this year, we never do and it's not fair..."

Her pout silenced his protests as she pulled Blaise into a row just behind Hermione, Harry, and Ron. He sighed as class began and he could feel Malfoy's eyes burning holes into his back. Blaise had half the thought to snicker a bit.

The poor bastard.

To make matter worse for the sniveling ferret, he was in a very accidental in touching atmosphere with her. Being so close, pulling her hair away from the cauldron and brushing his fingers across her skin. Torturing Malfoy and every other guy in the class and be close to Elena?

Best first day ever.

Of course Elena went right along with it, smiling up at him, grinning even and thanking him for keeping unneeded ingredients from the cauldron.

"Cork a sample of your potions, label it and leave it on my desk." Elena took care of it as he cleaned up their work station.

Blaise carried her bag to the door for her and they headed out together.

"Hey, Zabini!"

He turned and pulled Elena out of the way, just in time to dodge some hex that bounced off the corridor walls. She'd spun into his arm and tilted back a little in the flurry of moment. Holding her in his arms, everything else melted away. She sighed a little moving closer to the welcome warmth of him while the hexes stopped flying and Blaise forced himself to pull her up on her feet and let her go. He never thought releasing something would be that hard.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded, "Nice reflexes there..."

"Had practice..." He answered tentatively through slightly clenched teeth.

She laughed and they continued to class. She'd been his practice when Noemi told him he must learn out to tango at the very least.

All the other dances are simple, she'd said. The tango is the sexiest and if you're going to learn to dance before your Seventh Year Ball, looking like that, you'd better learn something extremely sexy.

He shook his head. What Noemi asked of him is what she got and to his luck Elena was taking the same class with her cousin at her cousin's behest. It had been the best class he'd ever taken with her.

"What exactly did you do over the summer? Besides learn the Argentine tango and create a bit of a fan club for yourself." He laughed. "You look like you... uhm... beefed up a bit..."

"I could ask the same of you. You look like an Amazon."

She blushed, " I do not."

"You do and I guarentee I am not the only one that thinks so... You didn't wonder why some idiot tried to feel you up at the train station?"

"Don't bring that up again, please." She said scoffing as they entered the greenhouse and once again Draco and the Golden Trio followed.

This is going to be a long year...

"I was in Italy all summer. You know, enjoying the sun, the beaches. I stayed with Noemi for most of it."

Her eyes softened with the tone of my voice, "All I had was mom around besides Draco and his mother."

She beamed up at him as he squeezed her hand comfortingly. He never thought he could feel so out of breath and while not standing perfectly still. She squeezed back and released his hand as class began. The class passed fairly slowly between more notes and small jokes between them and half paid attention to a lesson they'd already read, studied, tried and tested.

After classes were over, Blaise headed to the Quidditch pitch with the Golden Trio to watch the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw team scrimage. It was going well once Harry and Elena shook hands as captains and ascended to start the game.

"Alright everyone play fairly," Elena said and stood up on her broom. "No fighting, biting, or anything. This is just a warm up for the season."

Her team sucked on their teeth but agreed leaving the Gryffindor team a bit confused as to why and how Elena was standing on her broom. The game started and never once did Blaise think he'd be so scared watching a Quidditch game. Her broom looped in the air around Harry's and Blaise could have sworn she was trying to give them all a heartattack when she managed to deflect a bludgeon with a solid kick and flip back onto her broom. All the while doing what seemed to be the cha-cha. Blaise shook his head , not daring to believe what he was seeing, when something across the field caught his eye.

Platinum blonde and sneering: Draco Malfoy.

His body stood on instinct and headed down to see what he was plotting only to reach the quidditch pitch too late. She was screaming above his head. In some agony that was indescribably horrific to his ears. Falling, falling so fast from so high above the quidditch pitch, she knew she was going to die. Unlike all the other times she'd fallen while she perfected her broom riding, the tether to her broom was broken in the panic. It didn't recognize her anymore because of the curse she was under. She was falling and there was no chance of anything saving team had stopped the game to swing by and save her and they missed her grasping hand by inches and they tried and tried to get to her but she was falling, flailing, too fast for any of them to get a good grip on her.

Draco snickered and watched her fall and Blaise was racing across the field to catch her idly flying broom and beeline to catch her. He zoomed across willing it to go faster in time to catch her a hundred or so feet above the ground. The force was too much and they crashed, tumbling over the field, rolling across the pitch with her head tucked into his shoulder so that he bore the brute force of the fall. When the world finally stopped spinning and her broom hovered beside them, Blaise heard her whimper against his chest as her team set down and surrounded them.

She'd fallen off her broom plenty of times, they'd seen it but the magic tether she had to her broom always kept the broom aware of her falling so that she could catch on at the last minute and go zooming off into the sky and keep playing. They'd never seen her fall like that.

"Get back," Blaise said softly feeling her tears soaking through his shirt.

He covered the back of her head with a hand and swung her up into his arms as he rose to his feet.

"I'll take her to the Infirmary..."

Cyrus nodded and Blaise headed towards the large arching doorways. She trembled but didn't fight as he hid her bruised body and tear stained face in the folds of his robes and hurried through the corridors to somewhere safe for her. There was a range in which the spell could work, right? So maybe if he got her far enough away the effects would fade away. Blaise knew how illogical this thought was but it didn't matter as he crossed the threshold into the infirmary and she broke into violent tears. Madame Pomfrey seemed to be on call to somewhere else in the castle meaning the large hall was empty except for her sobs and Blaise's barely restrained anger.

"Elena," He whispered softly sliding down against a hidden corner as her body shook and shuddered with the force of her crying.

She needed help and there didn't seem to be anything he could do for her except hold her close, stroke her hair, rub her back, and wait until she could speak. He held her as if she would vanish if he didn't.

"I-I-I f-f-fell..." She choked out and he sighed and kissed her forehead lightly.

"You're alright now, aren't you? Nothing broken?"

She shook her head, " H-Hu-Hurts..."

"Madame Pomfrey should be back soon-"

"Don't leave," She said the only solid phrase. It was so soft, so quiet, he had almost missed it. Almost.

"I won't," He promised, "Take deep breaths and dodn't hesitate to tell me if you need something. I'm here for you..." I love you.

He still wonders to this day she knew what he meant. If even with the charm blocking everyone's thoughts, could she hear his? She only curled up against him as her hair turned a shifting ebony and her eyes closed. Blaise wrapped her up in his cloak gently and rocked her back and forth far longer than the time it took her to stop shaking. By the time Madame Pomfrey arrived from saving some poor first year, she was already asleep.

"Mr. Zabini, would you please explain why you and Ms. Valentin look like the plague?"

He chuckled despite the situation and stood with her in his arms. She clung to him, refusing to let go as he tried to lay her down on one of the beds.

"She fell off her broom and would have crashed to her death, but we ended up rolling across the pitch for a while. She's asleep."

She frowned,"Elena fell off her broom? Is she sick?"

"No," He replied with a meaningful stare.

From the first moment Blaise walked into the Infirmary in his first year during a lonesome wandering, he and Madame Pomfrey had a link. Nothign too obvious, but an understanding an almost companionship. He would never be sick but would come to the Infirmary to get away from everything. He'd help her when she asked him and asked her questions about different healing charms and the practice. She was the reason he considered going into medical wizardry instead of being and Aurora.I was also pretty good with healing charms and if being an Auror didn't work out I could handle working at St. Mongo's. She approached the bed as Blaise set Elena down and coaxed her hands into his so that she could be examined and know he hadn't left her side.

Madame Pomfrey peeled away the layers of her uniform and gasped as the bruises and darkening black ancient runes on her shoulders were revealed.

"I have never seen something so cruel..."

"What is it?" He asked as she pulled down edge of Elena's tank top across her back to get a better look.

"It's the oldest and the most distrurbed forms of binding. It's where the Dark Mark originated from."

Blaise swallowed hard.

"It compels the person to obey for fear of excruciating pain. It's like the Unforgiveable Curse stamp. It drains the life and will out of the person until they are nothing more than a glassy eyed doll."

As Blaise looked down at Elena and Madame Pomfrey left the bedside to retrieve her wand and some salve, he almost began to cry. Elena opened her eyes and looked up at him with soft and empty eyes. Why hadn't she said something, anything, about what Malfoy was doing to her. When she'd told him what it was, why did she leave out that it would drain the life out of her?

Why wouldn't she let him help her?

"I know what you're going to say."

"Why didn't you tell me?" He whispered, "I could have-"

"I don't need someone to save me-"

"Yes you do!" Surging to his feet in rage seeing her lying there like that. Didn't she understand? Was she really so stubborn that she wouldn't admit that it was killing her?

"Look at what he's doing to you! Why won't you just let me help you? Why on Earth are you being so stubborn?"

She blinked and his eyes widened as tears overflowed at the words. An overwhelming sense of guilt came over him and he turned to leave.

"Blaise," she whispered and he took off running at that soft call.

Not now, he couldn't and he remembered arriving at the Room of Requirements with no memory of how he got there. Sitting in the middle of the room was a phone and a violin sitting on a desk surrounded by mirrors, empty space, and a chair.

He sat down and picked up the phone and dialed that number he remembered so well and waited for her to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Noemi," Blaise whispered softly in a broken tone that made her worry.

She'd been home watching television and eating on the floor of her workspace in her flat when the phone rang.

"Blaise? How on Earth are you calling me? Aren't you at Hogswart?"

"The Room of Requirements... I need to talk to you."

She went silent for a moment and leaned over to turn off the television and set the fork she'd been eating with down.

"I'm listening."

He doesn't remember exactly what she said or what he said for that matter, but when he hung up the phone he opened the desk, took out the pad of paper and picked up the violin without thinking. By the time he finished, three hours had passed and felt a little better, but not much.

He walked out and headed to the infirmary after snatching some food from the table and heading back out. Had Blaise sat at that table, within firing range, there's no telling if they would just kill me or send him to Azkaban. Not looking forward to either of the grim choices, he left. When he entered the infirmary, the place was silent and she was still sleeping, lying there quietly. From where Blaise stood it seemed that the curse had spread and her tears had not been wiped. He rollled the scoll up with simple note attached: Find Me and left the room. She stirred, murmured, and drifted back into whatever peaceful dream she was having as he kissed her cheek and headed back to the Slytherin common room. Blaise never thought the cold feel of the Slytherin common room's leather couch would be soothing until that night. The night where if he entered his bedroom there was no telling if I would strangle the man lying in the adjacent bed in his sleep. He closed his eyes and dreamt of warm eyes and sunlight.

He only wished he could make dreams reality.