A/N Here's the next chapter. If you've noticed the change in the writing style, please don't hate me for it. I've got readers asking me if it's Blair/Tom or Blair/Dark-Lord-Draco (thank you for reviewing by the way!) I'll have to answer it's neither. At the moment, what I have in mind is Voldie as the Dark Lord and Blair/Draco. Don't hate me, Bellatrix/Rodolphus under the Dark Lord works fine in canon too!I may write a Blair/Tom in future but for right now I'm trying to complete my fics and maybe do a little Chloe (Smallville) crossover. '

Oh - I forget to mention Harry's Sixth Year never happened. Dumbledore is still alive, although he might not be for long - cackles-

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Seventh Year

i. Lucius Malfoy will start to realize the potential she holds, and will keep her in mind for the next batch of Initiates.

The Malfoy Mansion is lovely, every inch the glamor and elegance Blair has always wanted a future home to be. The architecture is intricate, and beautiful, and Blair knows how to appreciate 17th Century architecture when she sees one. Gorgeous paintings line the room – paintings Blair vaguely recognizes as having bid for in Magical Madame Cuthereis ' auction. Blair admires how the lines of the paintings skillfully writhe and dance on the parchment, the painted ladies sighing daintily.

She's sixteen going on seventeen now, and Draco's already working in the Ministry alongside his father. Blair's proud to have an older, responsible boyfriend that doesn't just lie around watching past Quidditch games played debating whether the Chudley thing was better than the Howler thing or just lying around reading Playwizard and growing fat, like Serena's older boyfriend Carter Baizen (who just might have been cute three beers and seventy-four Playwizards ago). Carter, unlike Draco, is just an old, saggy douchebag, which Blair helpfully points out to Serena every chance she gets.

Draco pulls her even closer to him, possessively drawing a hand around her waist, his lips grazing the side of her ear in a way he knows to make her shiver in his arms. As much as she denies it, Blair likes it that he knows her so well. "Remind me why we're here again, love? We could be dining in a five-star restaurant anywhere in the world, you know."

Blair rolls her eyes, even though she knows he can't see her, and makes use of this fact by allowing a small smile on her face. "Just because I've passed my Apparition test doesn't mean we have to bunnyhop all around the continent, Malfoy. Besides, you know I'd love to meet your parents."

"It's my birthday." Draco grumbles.

Blair smirks and she can't help but reach up and kiss him. "Trust me, you'll get your present later."

"I'm counting on it." He smirks, but his stare is intense and Blair gulps because even though they've been dating since forever she can't stop falling even deeper wherever she looks into those eyes.

They're broken apart by a discrete cough and Blair turns her head to see an elegant woman waltzing in. Draco holds her for a second longer to whisper, "Just be yourself, love" but Blair's already pasted an angelic smile on her face as she strides to meet his parent.

"You must be Blair," Draco's mother says, looking at her up and down. Blair knows she's internally critiquing her own appearance, but such is the custom for Pureblood families and it's not like she doesn't get evaluated everyday at home by her mother, so she's used to it. Even still, she smooths down her Eleanor Waldorf Original and hopes fervently that she doesn't look fat in it.

Apparently, she's passed the test because Narcissa breaks out in a radiant smile (Blair notes she looks much better when she smiles) and extends a hand, which she shakes dutifully. "I'm Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother. You must be Blair Waldorf, Draco's has said so much about you. Pardon me but…is that an Eleanor Waldorf Original?"

Blair throws her an angelically polite look she's perfected over the ages for sucking-up purposes and replies innocently that yes, it is; did she know that Eleanor was her mother?

In a short span of time, Narcissa's hooked and both of them know it. Blair glances from Narcissa's excitement(as much as a Pureblood wife can show) as she gushes about how beautiful Blair is, to Draco's smug smirk as he winks at Blair, and she knows she's just about got her claws into Narcissa for good – perhaps a little push?

After all, enough isn't really enough when you can have more, is it?

So Blair mentions offhandedly that her mother has two spare tickets for the International Magical Haute Couture Fashion Show, would Narcissa like to accompany her? All she gets is fervent nodding and Blair knows Narcissa whole-heartedly approves.

One down, one to go.

Lucius Malfoy's hard to crack. Once it's apparent that Blair's beautiful and Pureblood he seems satisfied enough, but so reserved and distant and speaks so little Blair's finding it hard to engage him in proper conversation to show off her wits.

He doesn't hate her, but Blair wants him to love her.

Well not, love love her (that'd be icky) but to love the idea of Draco and her together (as Narcissa seems to be).

They're seated at a dinner table and Blair's talking about all the things parents love to hear (school, grades, Purebloods) and though Narcissa is actively responding, Lucius is still silent and swirling his glass of wine and rubbing a spot on his left arm irritably (an itch?), and Draco is increasingly impatient at how perfect she seems to be being and is moving a thumb in circles over her knee in an effort to get her to react.

She's hissing stop molesting me, you oaf but Draco pretends not to hear and simply smiling at her as his thumbs glide over a sensitive spot on her knee and Blair tries her hardest not to kick him (because, really, what if she missed and hit his parents instead?)

She's halfway through the topic of why Charms is her favorite subject when Lucius suddenly speaks.

"How would you ruin Harry Potter?"

Narcissa stills suddenly, and Draco tenses up and his grip on her thigh tightens and his thumb stops moving. Blair blinks, unsure if she should answer properly or answer honestly. It's a thin line between the two and she's not sure which way will have her burned.

"Harry Potter's just a boy," she finally says, smoothing out her dress to hide her fluster. "He's nothing, really. A stroke of good luck. A lot of good luck, actually, considering how many scrapes he's got himself out of. Some people might say he only relies on luck rather than skill to get out of situations, and that his luck can only last him so far. But I disagree."

"You disagree?"

Lucius gaze is on her now, and Blair can't help but think this is where Draco got his gaze from – the gaze that burns holes in you when they're about to explode. She's not sure if it's a good or bad thing, but she's already got his attention so she should just as well continue.

"It's impossible for him to just get out of scrapes like those on pure luck. Going up against a group of highly trained professionals with years of experience in the Dark Arts, and winning every single time? That doesn't exactly qualify as luck." Blair takes a deep breath. If she's able to solve her 'puking problem', she can handle this. "I think it's his connections. He has somebody intelligent in the Mudblood Granger, who can't handle herself in a fight but is rather intelligent for solving problems that they run up against. He finds loyalty and warmth and support in the extensive family of the Weasleys, two of whom are inventors, one who works with dangerous creatures daily, another who is married to a Veela girl – hence broadening connections with her Veela family – two of whom used to be Prefects and carrying enough influence with these positions and three of them as part of their House's Quidditch teams, lending them popularity within their House. And lastly, he is recognized and appreciated by Dumbledore, the school's headmaster."

Lucius is leaning forward now, his chin brushing the tip of his silver cane. "Pray continue."

Blair honestly cannot tell if he is offended, so she just swallows and tries to effect her conniving mind and past manipulations as best as she can. "If I were to ruin him, I'd take away his public image first. The public sees him as a figure to rally around, the source of You-Know-Who's defeat, someone who must have extraordinary powers. If I was to corrupt that image – hints of him practicing Dark Magic , even simple things like cheating on Ginny Weasley with a slut, preferably someone associated with pureblood regimes, it would destroy the hype around him."

"And if you can't get any dirt on him?" Draco is the one who asks, his eyebrow raised but a smile on his knows her too well that if she decided to ruin Harry Potter, a Virgin Mary reputation wouldn't save him either.

Blair scoffs. "Impossible," she throws a sidelong look at Lucius. "But say, if that was the case, I'd use Dumbledore against him."

"Dumbledore?" Lucius echoes softly.

Blair shrugs. "Harry Potter is You-Know-Who's greatest adversary, and before Harry Potter there was Dumbledore - it makes sense that the public would seek to link the two by seeing them both as an extension of the same thing. At the same time, he's closely tied with Harry Potter, almost like an official guardian of him. He's the one who propagates most of the hype around him, fueling things that doesn't necessarily need to be fueled and absolving Harry of his sins that most students would have been punished just thinking about. If any hint that the relationship was unnatural… or that Dumbledore was associated with some undesirable deeds, both would bear the blunt."

She's got Lucius hooked now, and finally with his attention gained, she decides to throw in a bit more.

"And there's always the friends issue. If you want to see someone completely destroyed, turn everyone against him. The public, his reputation, his relationship with Dumbledore, his relationship with Sirius Black, his relationship with his girlfriend and all his friends and the Weasleys – all of them have to go. It's particularly in the Gryffindor spirit, really – they all claim to be noble and daring, but truth is all of them need a friend in order to be noble and daring together, and they're horribly sensitive. I heard that Harry Potter cried himself to sleep when Cedric Diggory died – and they weren't even close."

Draco sniggered. "Where'd you hear that?"

Blair shrugs nonchalantly, spreading the tension a bit thicker before she caves in a produces a hot-pink Galleon her pocket. "Most of the popular girls have one," she says by way of explanation. " It's called a Gossip Girl coin. It's held by a Protean Charm so if anyone sees anything about anyone, they can just tap on it and mass-send out the blast. Very effective if you want to get the dirt on anybody, really."

Lucius stares at it greedily, so much that Blair's hand itches to retreat the coin back into the safety of her pocket. It was slightly discomfiting the way a grown, cultured man like Lucius Malfoy stared at something so pink. "Does it mention Harry Potter?"

"Frequently." Blair smirks. "That's how I figure somebody reporting the juicy details still manage to keep in touch with Harry Potter - I wouldn't know all the places he and Ginny have had sex in otherwise."

"Ugh," Draco said, looking slightly green.

Lucius stares at it for a second longer, before he glances upwards. "May I...mayI have one of these?" he asks, fingering the edge of the pink coin, as though afraid to grasp something so pink.

Blair smiles brilliantly at him. "Be my guest. I always carry an extra one with me just in case."

Lucius abruptly toasts her with his wine glass, and sweeps the coin into his pocket. He looks lighter, somehow; and happier and Blair has barely said a word in thanks for the dinner before he gets up and rushes out of the door, drawing out a black cloak and gripping his left arm as he leaves. Blair notes the worried looks Narcissa and Draco exchanges, but it's not her place so she doesn't say anything.

It's a week later before Blair reads that Rita Skeeter is considering publishing Dumbledore's biography with 'startling new insights' into the life of Albus Dumbledore.

Lucius starts to smile at her whenever she comes over for tea after that, and Blair's got the feeling that Gossip Girl might just have helped her win over Lucius Malfoy after all.

He, she notices, is no longer rubbing his left arm as furiously now.

AN: Sorry I only included one future scene, but I thought this scene was pretty long in comparison to all the other scenes and besides I think winning over Lucius is a pretty important step in the direction - not only in the direction of Blair/Draco but also Lucius as a Death Eater, aka introduction to Voldie is in store for Blair. Not so soon, though, she's only sixteen/seventeen.

I think Blair's a little OC in this, and I apologize. I know she shouldn't talk so much, then again if she's aiming to impress Lucius she would definitely go out all the way until she's sure she's got his approval. And Blair doesn't sound British, I know - but she's still a New Yorker through and through. Besides, I think Eleanor would kill her if she got a Brit accent from Hogwarts.

R&R!