Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if that's you.

Author's Note: I'm using the Desi Potters headcanon, and this time, it's actually plot-relevant. Unfortunately for Ginny's hopes, Harry's official name is not Harry, and she just inspired him right out of her reach.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Gryffindor MC (x4); Slytherin MC (x3); Lion's Moon & Shadow Bribery (Y); Shipmas (Y); Golden Times; More than England (Y); Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon (Y); Yellow Ribbon Redux; Ethnic & Present (Y); Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Neurodivergent; Quiet Time (Y); Letter of the Day (Y); Flags & Ribbons (Y) Themes & Things A [Love] (Y); Themes & Things B [Risk] (Y); Old Shoes; Two Cakes! (Y); Feeling So Logical [Sensible]
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 11 – Assignment 01
Subject (Task No.): Alchemy (Task#2: Write about someone inspiring others.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Romance Awareness [D03] (Soulmates Name on Body) (Sensible); Insane Prompt Challenge [162] (Discovery); 365 [160] (Exhausted); Scavenger Hunt [89] (Write a fic that is exactly 2019 words); Galleon Club (hesitate)
Space Address (Prompt): 2C (Growth)
Representation(s): Blaise Zabini/Harry Potter; Autistic Harry Potter
Bonus Challenges: Abandoned Ship; Most Human Bean; Second Verse (Lovely Coconuts; For the Vine; Car in a Tutu; Brooms Only; Unwanted Advice; Spinning Plates; Middle Name; Zucchini Bread; Nontraditional; Found Family; Persistence Still; Not a Lamp; Ladylike); Chorus (Wind Beneath; Creature Feature; Unicorn; Larger than Life; A Long Dog; Tomorrow's Shade; Mouth of Babes; Peddling Pots; Machismo; Wabi Sabi)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: O3 (Orator; Oath); FR (Evolution; Satisfaction); HoSE (Schooner); SN (Rail; Ameliorate); T3 (Thimble)
Word Count: 2019

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Unnoticed Until Shown
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Harry tried not to make it obvious that he was watching Dean and Seamus cuddling on the sofa nearby. He really should have been studying the book that lay open on his lap. No matter how many times he reminded himself that Sprout had promised a quiz tomorrow, he found his gaze drifting back to the newly matched pair of soulmates. Every time he realized that he was looking again, he rushed to drop his eyes again, hoping and praying that no one had noticed him looking.

Dean and Seamus looked happy together, almost giddy to have discovered that their best friend was also their soulmate. The idea made something twist in Harry's chest. It almost felt the same way that his stomach did when he hadn't earned any meals for a few days and all he could think about was how hungry he was. Harry tried to shrink into his armchair at the comparison. It wasn't that he wanted Ron or Hermione to like him like Dean and Seamus liked each other.

They just looked comfortable, leaning against each other like they were at the moment. Even when Seamus would drape himself over Dean like he was a cat, Dean never looked like Seamus was too much to handle or being too needy. Harry blinked away the prickling in his eyes and took a deep breath to steady the hitch he had been developing there. They just looked happy, is all, and maybe Harry wanted the same kind of thing for himself.

He thought of the name curled around his ankle in delicate Norse runes. It was covered by his graying socks, just like Aunt Petunia had trained him to keep it. Even if she couldn't read what the name was, Aunt Petunia had been clear that they would hate being saddled with Harry as a soulmate. If she had known that the runes spelled Blaise, her venom would likely have been even stronger. The Dursleys had never hidden how they felt about soulmates who were the same sex, after all.

Besides, the only Blaise that Harry knew was that Slytherin who was sorted with him, and all the Slytherins hated him because Malfoy did.

Harry sighed, suddenly feeling every sleepless night he had had so far that term. If it wasn't Umbridge keeping him in detention until after midnight, it was staying up late trying to make headway on the growing mountain of homework he had. Then he would wake up early from nightmares and not be able to go back to sleep no mater how exhausted he was. It was doing wonders for his emotional stability, something that people were already questioning thanks to The Daily Prophet's smear campaign.

His gaze drifted towards the cuddling soulmates. He knew it wasn't sensible, but he wanted that for himself. He wanted someone who would look at him with the kind of honest adoration that Dean and Seamus looked at each other with. He wanted someone who love him, despite Harry not being good at anything other than Quidditch and somehow managing not to die. He wanted someone who wouldn't mind him leaning against their side while they were doing homework. He wanted his soulmate.

He just wasn't enough of a Gryffindor to risk it, not when he knew that it wouldn't matter anyway. All it would do was make the other Gryffindors mad at him and give the Slytherins ammunition to use against him. It wouldn't make Blaise—if he was even the right Blaise—care about him or want anything to do with him. It just wasn't worth the risk.

"You could probably get Colin to take a picture for you," Ginny said in his ear. Harry jumped, knocking his head against hers. She straightened from her bend over the back of the armchair to rub the bump. "Ow. I thought you had noticed me coming down the stairs. Apparently, you were really into watching Dean and Seamus snog each other."

"What? No—they're not—" But when Harry turned back to look at the pair, they weren't just cuddling anymore. They were heavily making out. It even looked like Seamus might have his hand down the front of Dean's pants. Harry felt his face heat up with a mixture of embarrassment and secondhand lust. He swallowed hard enough to leave his throat aching, suddenly thankful that his darker complexion helped hide when he blushed unlike Ginny and Ron who showed even the lightest blush. "I guess they are."

"Do they inspire you to do anything other than stare?" she asked, proving his previous thought about skin as she turned pink. "You want someone to snog of your very own?"

"I, um, what are you talking about?" Harry said, stumbling over the words worse than his attempt to ask Cho to the Yule Ball last year. He clutched at the edges of his book and tried not to panic. Ginny was too close to the truth of his thoughts for his comfort. She smiled knowingly as she slid around to sit on the arm of his chair.

"I bet you anything that your soulmate is just waiting for you to ask," Ginny said in a conspiring tone. She leaned towards him so that her breath fanned over his cheek as she continued. "I bet you wouldn't even have to ask. I bet your soulmate would love it if you just grabbed them and laid one on them, regardless of who was watching."

Harry risked a glance around the room. Seamus was standing now, both hands reaching to help Dean up from the couch. No doubt that they would disappear up to the dorm until time for dinner. They would come down freshly showered and with no sign of having done anything that would have warranted bathing in the middle of the day. Everyone would politely ignore it, just like the rest of the fifth-year boys had taken to ignoring how the pair rarely slept alone anymore.

Harry wondered what it was like to not sleep alone, to have someone who didn't think that was weird or babyish. Maybe Ginny was right. Maybe Blaise was just waiting for him to make the first move. He licked his lips as he looked back at Ginny, who suddenly seemed closer than she had been.

"Do you really think that?" he asked. Ginny's brown eyes were wide and earnest as she nodded very solemnly. Her lips twitched into a weird pucker-like thing before she visibly forced herself to smile encouragingly.

Harry closed his book as he got up. Nervously, he wiped his palms on the sides of his trousers. Maybe it really wasn't as big a deal as Harry was building it up in his head as. He didn't tend to hesitate about anything else in his life. Why start now?

"Thanks, Ginny," Harry said. "You're a good friend. You've really inspired me."

He was already turning towards the common room door as her expression changed from expectant to confused. He marched his way out of the room, certain if he stopped for longer than a moment, he would lose all the courage that Ginny had just gave him. Fortunately, the stairs decided to cooperate and stayed in place. Unfortunately, that meant that he arrived at the doors to the Great Hall in next to no time.

Even though it was at least a full hour before dinner began being served, there was a lot of people in the Great Hall. The empty tables made good places to spread out study materials, especially for groups. People were also allowed to talk at a volume greater than a whisper, unlike in the library. Even Umbridge's Educational Decrees couldn't overcome such a basic need in the student body.

This far into November, the majority of the Slytherins were present. (And who could blame them? The dungeons got cold quick once September was over.) Harry could easily pick out the Slytherin he was looking for in particular. Blaise Zabini was even darker than Dean was, almost a true black opposed to just dark brown. Which had always made Harry curious about how his eyes were such a bright violet, until he had read about the different ways that magic tended to leave a visible marker in witches and wizards. Unlike Dean (who kept his hair very short), Blaise kept his hair in long braids, each one no bigger than a piece of twine. Harry had no clue that hair could be braided that small.

As always, Blaise was bracketed on either side by the same pair of witches. The brunette on his right was Tracey Davis, and she was currently explaining something with the way her hands kept moving as she spoke. On Blaise's other side, Daphne Greengrass sat like a queen listening to a page report. Every so often, her icy blue eyes would check their surroundings. Harry froze like a rabbit when that gaze landed on him. He felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest when she nudged Blaise and nodded in his direction.

Ginny would hex him if Harry wasted her pep talk by backing out now.

That thought seemed to inspire his feet to finally unstick from ground. Harry still couldn't seem to remember how to breathe as he approached the trio. He was certain that he was going to pass out or self-combust like a phoenix when Blaise stood as he got close. Greengrass stood as well, standing with her wand ready at Blaise's left. Harry tried to not let the show of prepared force influence his intentions, because it was understandable that they would be nervous about his presence after the brawl at the Slytherin versus Gryffindor game a fortnight ago.

"Do you need something, Potter?" Greengrass asked in clear expectation of being answered.

Harry flicked his gaze to her before returning to looking at Blaise's face as it comported itself through several tiny expressions that Harry was having even more trouble deciphering than he normally did with people's expressions. He swallowed around the lump in his throat. Then he opened his mouth to speak only to close it when nothing came out. His eyes slid shut as the horrified embarrassment washed over him. What a time for that old issue to flare up!

"Cat's got your tongue, Potter?" Davis asked. Harry found himself blinking at the brunette, because for all that the words matched Dudley's favorite taunt, the tone was kind. He would even say they were sympathetic if he didn't know better. She tapped her nose. "It helps me to take three slow breaths before trying again. That doesn't always work, and I end up having to use my hands, but not everyone knows sign, so that might now work best for you."

"Tracey," Greengrass hissed only to get a sharp gesture from the other girl. Harry blinked at the interaction, not comprehending any of it. Blaise let out a long-suffering sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. Then he lowered the hand and met Harry's eyes fully for the first time.

Any doubts that Harry had evaporated in an instant as he suddenly knew he had the right Blaise. He could see the same knowledge growing on Blaise's face as well. Then as one, they moved towards each other. The kiss was everything that Harry had longed for and even more besides, because each brush of their skin sent energy tingling through Harry's body.

He could definitely understand why Dean and Seamus could barely drag themselves apart most of the time. He also definitely needed to thank Ginny for her pep talk. She really was a great friend.

"I should have realized," Blaise muttered against Harry's lips as if he couldn't bare to pull any farther away. That was another thing that Harry could definitely understand. "I should have realized that of course your father would have made sure that you had a proper Hindu name. All Potters do, regardless of Angelical names. Oh, Haridard, will you forgive me making you wait?"

Harry just kissed him again in answer.