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 need be.

Author's Note: So I wrote this in only a few hours. Enjoy the pining.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 13); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Beauty of the Abstract; Shadow HP Bribery (Y); Gryffindor MC (x3); Ravenclaw MC; Slytherin MC (x3); Magical MC (x7); Neurodivergent (x4); Rowl in Her Grave; Rian-Russo Inversion (x6); Ethnic & Present (x3); The 3rd Rule; Ship Sails; Setting Sail; Hold the Mayo; Gender Bender; Do It for Howard; Zed Era; Old Shoes (Y); Gwen's HP Checklist [Heroic Shadow]; Skittles [Pan Masc]; Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift (Y)
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 13 – Assignment 02
Subject (Task No.): Astronomy (Task#1: Write about someone or something that stands out.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [935](In Denial); 365 [25](Believe); Herbology Club [3-3](Mamihlapinatapai); Auction [1-1](Dialogue)
Other MC4A Challenges: Su Bingo [5E](Heat); AU [4A](Gamer); Hunt [Sp Items](Potted Plant); Ship (Heroic Shadow) [SuBig](Lemonade); Chim [Limu](Sharing); Fire [Hard](Cutlasses); Garden [Word Song](Amazing)
Representation(s): Agender Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini; The DA as Family
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Lyre Liar; Muck & Slime; Abandoned Ship; Surprise!; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress; Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread; Mother Hen; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Brooms Only; Car in a Tutu; Clio's Conclusion; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts; Trickster's Union); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi; Fizzy Lemonade; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Tomorrow's Shade; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Bast's Blessing; Wind Beneath)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Toad); SN (Rail; Ameliorate); FR (Satisfaction; Evolution); O3 (Orator; Oath); TY (Slainte)
Word Count: 2098

(^^)
In Denial
(^^)

It was just a normal night.

Actually, it wasn't a normal night at all.

It was Game Night.

Once a month, all of the surviving members of the Defense Association gathered at one of their homes (usually Harry's, because he was the only one who owned an actual house that had been wired for electricity, but only if he could arrange for Andromeda to take Teddy for the night), and they would play any game that suited their fancy. Depending on how many people were available at the time and where they decided to meet, they would play either video games or board games. Sometimes (only very occasionally), they would play other kinds of games—the kind which usually involved some kind of alcohol or were the result of them imbibing some kind of alcohol.

Harry always did his best to become invisible during those games. It seemed like nearly everyone had done more stuff than him and had no problem doing things with each other just for fun. Or at least it looked like they were enjoying themselves when they kissed each other or made out in closets for the strangely specific seven minutes required.

Ginny had looked especially happy when she had come out a round of that game not only looking very flushed and disheveled but dating Luna who had looked like a cat who had gotten into the cream.

The thing about Game Night wasn't that kind of stuff, though.

It was the Slytherin contingent.

About a year after the end of the war (and six months after the establishment of Game Night), Justin Finch-Fletchley had tentatively asked if he could bring his boyfriend. Having Theodore Nott join them had gone surprisingly smoothly. It helped that Theo had been friends with Luna when they had both attended the same primary school and had only drifted apart after Luna's mother had died and Luna had stopped attending Muggle school. Reconnecting with him had also brought Luna out of her shell a bit.

But one Slytherin had slowly morphed into several. Theo had eventually brought Daphne and Tracey. With Daphne came first her sister Astoria and then later Astoria had dragged in Draco like a grumpy kitten. And one night about three months ago, Tracey had brought along him.

Him being none other than Blaise Zabini, of course.

He was just as handsome as he had been back in their sixth year. The hair that he had worn cut short had grown out. He wore it now in dozens of thick twists which sprung out in different directions. Every month so far, Blaise had shown up with the twists dyed a different color or colors. The first month they had been a bright blue. The next month some of the twists had still been that blue but there were also an equal amount that were sunshine yellow and neon pink. Last month they had been Gryffindor red and gold, something that had made Daphne and Tracey burst out into giggles all night.

Harry told himself that the vivid colors were the only reason that he kept looking at the Slytherin. It made sense, after all. Ginny had caught his eye with her bright red hair. Cho had looked amazing in her cobalt Quidditch robes. Cedric had been hard to miss in his canary yellow ones, too.

But just liking how Blaise did his hair didn't explain why Harry felt like there were butterflies in his stomach every time Blaise smiled. Once, Blaise had actually laughed, and Harry had felt like the world had flipped its poles. Then Blaise had glanced over at Harry and they had accidentally made eye contact. Harry had immediately frozen in place like a deer in the headlights of a car.

Luckily, there had been a swell of friendly bickering over Astoria's apple pick that had broken the moment before it could become awkward.

Harry just had to remember that there was no possible way that Blaise Zabini could be interested in the likes of him. He could admire the other man's beauty from afar, but it would never be more than that. Harry was too scruffy and scrawny for Blaise to ever be willing to be seen in public with him, and that was besides the staunchly devout following Harry still had from various reporters. It wasn't reasonable to ask anyone to put up with that.

That wasn't even taking into consideration how Harry didn't really fit the expectations of being a man even though he was definitely not a woman. He was sort of just figuring that part out, with the dubious help of Theo and Luna. It wouldn't be fair to drag someone into that confusion.

Then tonight, Blaise had shown up with all of his twists done in a deep indigo that was close to violet. Harry couldn't stop his heart from pounding in his chest. He might not understand what drove Blaise to change his hair color so frequently, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that tonight Blaise's hair was exactly Harry's favorite color.

Not that many people know that part.

In fact, Harry didn't think that any of his friends knew except for Luna, who always knew everything.

Harry eyed Luna who was sitting in an armchair across the room with Ginny on her lap. The blonde was already looking in his direction with a knowing smile on her lips. Meeting his eyes in a way that she normally avoided as much as he did, Luna raised her glass in a salute and tilted it slightly towards him.

This was torture, pure and simple, and it was all Luna's fault.

"Harry, come over here," Hermione called from beside Tracey on one side of his vee-shaped couch. Obediently, Harry headed her way.

She had claimed the corner spot that was normally his. Harry wasn't going to fight her for it either, not when he knew that the pregnancy was making her back ache. The curve in that spot was amazingly comfortable. That did mean that Harry tended to end up hanging around the potted plant he had stashed in the corner farthest from the arrangement where most of the group had gathered as they debated what to play while they waited for everyone to arrive.

"Tracey was just telling me about something that I thought you might find interesting," Hermione explained once he had settled on the opposite side of her from Tracey. As had become her habit over the years, she wrapped her arm around his and interlaced their fingers. He relaxed into the familiar touch. "Did you know that in magical Britain, it's considered bad luck to just approach someone for the sake of starting a relationship?"

"What?" Harry asked, unable to process that.

Hermione didn't sound like she was about to launch into an angry rant about how restrictive that would be. In fact, she sounded a bit like she did whenever she was scheming. Not that Hermione did that a lot. She mostly left the tricks and schemes to Ron and George, if only because Hermione didn't like lying or hiding information. Something within her was always going to want to share what she knew with the entire world. Last time she had used that tone of voice was right before she announced she was pregnant with her and Ron's first child.

"Oh, yes," Tracey agreed, picking up the thread of conversation, "there's quite a few superstitions around anything that involves exchanging names. It can make things overly complicated at times, but then again, there's enough evidence of how magic can be finicky when it first comes in contact with other magical things, that it can be hard to tell what is wisdom and what is merely superstition."

"But how do people meet each other?" he asked, even more confused now.

He thought back to how pale and shaky Ron had been after he had dared to approach Fleur to ask her to the Yule Ball. At the time, Harry had only thought it was from being rejected, but what if it was more than that? Then again, neither Viktor nor Hermione had seemed ill around that time, and one of them had to have approached the other, right?

"They are usually introduced by people who know either them or the other person," Tracey explained just as Daphne handed her a glass of the blackberry lemonade that Harry had made special for tonight. The regal-looking blonde sat down next to her wife like a bird alighting on a perch, spreading out the skirt of her periwinkle dress with a deliberate casualness. Harry felt his heart trying to escape his chest through his throat as he realized that Blaise had followed her and was now sitting beside her. Tracey continued as Harry tried to think of an excuse to flee before he did something embarrassing. "As a completely random aside, I would like to introduce my friend Blaise Zabini, son of Claudia. He's hopelessly besotted with you and would like to court you."

"Oh, brilliant," Hermione agreed while Harry was still trying to untangle his thoughts. "This is my friend Harry Potter, child of Lily and James. Amazingly enough, he is also hopelessly besotted with you, Blaise, and would probably need to be courted before anything happened."

"Hermione," Harry whispered urgently. He couldn't believe she was just telling people that. Didn't she know how weird it would make everything? He would need to pack up Teddy and move to France just to escape the weirdness. Hermione rubbed his arm with her free hand as if to soothe him.

"He's a bit shy," Hermione said in the bossy tone she tended to get when she thought that someone was missing something obvious, "but don't let that fool you. He would love to go out with you."

"Hermione," Harry interrupted, even more urgently now, "you can't just agree to a date for someone else!" She just patted his arm. He groaned and turned his eyes toward the ceiling. "This is how people die!" He lowered his gaze at his friend who was smiling at him in her best impression of Luna. "Do you not watch movies?"

"I won't pressure you if you truly do not want to be courted," Blaise said, speaking up for the first time. Harry was startled into meeting his dark gaze, freezing like a deer yet again. "But I would really like it if you would give me the chance to prove that we are not living in a horror movie. I have to admit that I was hoping that our lives had settled into a nice romantic comedy by now."

"Did you…" Harry trailed off and swallowed against the lump in his throat. Hermione's hand tightened reassuringly on his arm. "You understood my reference."

"Yes?" Blaise replied, sounding confused about why that might be a big deal. He finally broke their eye contact to look between Daphne and Tracey as if they had the answer. Tracey was grinning so wide her face had to hurt. Daphne rolled her pretty green eyes and patted Blaise's knee a couple of times.

"Think about how often someone actually understands what you and Tracey babble about, love," Daphne said in her perpetually bored tone. She picked imaginary lint off her periwinkle dress. "Potter likely shares a lot of those exact same experiences, with the added bonus of needing to worry about what will get passed along to whichever reporter is in charge of the Harry Potter life column for their publication."

"Oh," Blaise said. His eyes were even more intense when he looked back. "You wouldn't happen to be interested in going to a viewing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, would you? Tracey was going to go with me, but she's being sent out of the country next week and won't be able to."

"I have never seen it," Harry admitted. He leaned forward eagerly. "Is it true that it has Tim Curry in it? Because I love Tim Curry."

Blaise smiled just as widely as Tracey was. His teeth were incredibly white against his dark face, and his hair twists seemed to quiver with his happiness. Harry's stomach felt like it was full of butterflies, just like it always did when Blaise was openly happy around him. However, he was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, there was a real chance that Blaise might be genuinely interested in him and also willing to put up with all the madness that came along with Harry's life.

Maybe this really could work out.