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 guess who broke their leg during a pandemic and has learned just how annoying that combination is? And even tho' I'm much better now, it is taking me a bit to get back into the swing of everything.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 14); MC4A
Individual Challenges: True Colours; Bonjour-Hi; Shadow HP Bribery (Y); Writing with Music; Gryffindor MC; Slytherin MC; Magical MC; Shifter MC; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Ethnic & Present; Setting Sail; Hold the Mayo; Gender Bender; Lunar Era; Old Shoes (Y); Feathers & Such; Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift [Bailey]
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 14 – Assignment 01
Subject (Task No.): Aquatic Studies (Task#3: Write about a connection between two unexpected things or people.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Fantastic Beasts [180](Harry Potter); 365 Prompts [196](Blaise Zabini); Scavenger Hunt [14](Trio Era); Days of the Year [Feb 20th](a human's bond with their pet); Hot Tea [08](Fairy AU); Black History Month [01](the face of a movement); National Weddings Month [03](Bridesmaid); Crochet Week [09](Blanket); Penguin Awareness [02](Bewildered); Colours [01](Cobalt); Flowers [08]("...smell nice"); Locations [06](Forbidden Forest); Crystals & Gemstones [01](Gryffindor); Tarot Reading [06](following their heart); Sytherin OTPs [23](Blaise/Harry); But Can You Spell It? [D](Danger); Trope Zone [Tol/Smol](Ruby Red); New Year's Kiss [Harry Potter](Owlery)
Other MC4A Challenges: FaB [3D](School); Set [2C](Full Moon); WiB [5A](Bird); Vocab [4C](Question); Ship (Heroic Shadow)[Fa Med 2](School); Fire [Hard](Education); Chim [Karma](Gender Bend); Hangman [04](Neurodivergent Character); Hunt [Fa WD](Atheist)/[Wi WD](Black)/[Fa Items](Letter)/[Wi Items](Ribbon/Cord); Garden [Chore List](Arguing/Debating)/[Bed Types](Castle)/[HPverse](Slytherin N/PR)/[Word Song](Outrageous)/[Rose Types](The Whistles & Bells)/[So Many Fandoms](Harry Potter); Prompt Harvest [Tropes](Gender Bend)/[Alternative Universes](Creature AU)/[Items](Blanket)/[Settings](Forest/Woods)/[Settings](Castle)
Representation(s): Fem Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini; Autistic Harry Potter; Desi Potters; Fairy Zabinis
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Ariel's Temptation; Easy Zephyr; Lettuce Hold Hands; Over the Hills; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Middle Name; Mother Hen; Unwanted Advice; Lovely Coconuts; Most Human Bean; Muck & Slime; Casper's House; Hot Apple; Snow Lemon; Bad Beans; Under the Bridge; Esbat); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Creature Feature; Vid Tangent; Wind Beneath; Abandoned Ship; In the Trench; Surprise!; Infinity; Turtle-Duck; Forked Path; Sitting Hummingbird; Some Beach; Getting On; Mermaid)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3(Toad); SN(Rail; Intercept); FR(Satisfaction; Evolution); O3(Orator; Oust); War(Orator; Sanctuary; Ennui); TY(Enfant); Measure(Rampant; Ennui); Wings(Ichtyology; Rosette); Share(Ameliorate; Augur)
Word Count: 2037
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The Whistles & Bells
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Blaise Zabini had a habit of wandering the halls at night. He had a good excuse for it, if he ever slipped up enough to get caught by any of the staff. He had been a dedicated student of Professor Sinistra, and now he was one of the very few students taking her NEWT level class. Since Hogwarts lacked the observation rooms that other magical schools had for Astronomy, the only time and place to study the stars was late at night in the Astronomy Tower. Even when there wasn't a class scheduled, the excuse worked due to the nature of independent study.
But he still had the habit of wandering the halls at night. Something about the old castle covered in darkness drew him out of the nominal safety of the Slytherin dorms like a siren's song of seduction. Or maybe it was the echoing emptiness that called to him. After all, even the ghosts and portraits slept in the hours he felt the urge to prowl the halls from dungeon to tower and back again.
The compulsion to do so had only gotten worse over the years, too. During first year, it had been little more than a stray thought that had been easily squashed if the risk of getting caught was too high. Fifth year had been particularly bad, as if the compulsion was responding to the rising sense of danger that lingered in the air like cloying perfume. Now that he had started his sixth year, Blaise was driven from the dorms nearly every night. It was so bad that Daphne and Tracey had taken to automatically covering for him instead of needing forewarning to do so.
Blaise didn't quite understand the urge, only that it was connected to his lorelai heritage. His mother was not much help when he had posed the question to her. She was full of secret smiles and forehead kisses that should not have been as reassuring as they were. Then she would always tell him the same thing.
"Just let the magic guide you, sötnos," she would say. Her voice would be low and soft just like a prayer. "She is clearly trying to, and she would not be so cruel to lead you into a trap. So just listen."
Which is how Blaise found himself shivering in the cold winds while staring at the October full moon hanging fat and heavy in the dark sky. The few diurnal owls still present in the owlery glared down from their perches while the nocturnal ones flew in and out of the large arches that served as both windows and doors for the residents. He whistled for his owl, despite knowing that Pumpkin was likely to be out hunting at this hour. It was more to give a plausible excuse anyway.
"I never understood how anyone actually got their owls to answer to things like that," a voice said behind him. Blaise twisted away from the window he had been standing beside to look at the speaker. He was not surprised to see that it was Harini Potter, the famous Girl-Who-Lived and so-called Golden Gryffindor, with a thin and ragged-looking blanket wrapped around her shoulders like it was a shawl. Her normally loose curls had been tamed into a braid that had had three ribbons woven throughout it. The violet and cobalt ones nearly blended in with the inky color of her hair, but the ruby red one practically glowed under the moonlight spilling through the window.
She wasn't really looking at him directly, just like how she never seemed to look directly at anyone. Blaise knew that it annoyed a lot of people, because he had heard the whispers about why she refused to do so. He tried to give those people a bit of leeway, because he knew how backwards and narrow-minded the British wixen were compared to the rest of the world. He still had to grit his teeth against the surge of protective rage that pounded through him at the memory of how Tracey would stiffen to hear the judgments, because she knew that it was only her lack of celebrity status that kept the same whispers being passed around about her.
"Your owl didn't come with a list of commands?" Blaise asked in lieu of anything else to say. It was not impossible, of course. Not every post owl was sold with more than the basic amount of training that allowed them to carry mail. But like everyone else in the school, Blaise had seen Harini's owl, and unlike the majority of students, he recognized the breed despite the unusual coloring of the bird. Stygian Owls were outrageously dangerous if not fully trained, due to how territorial and protective they could be.
As if to give an example to his thoughts, the owl in question flew down from the perches above, almost hitting him with her snowy white wings as she did, to land on Harini's small shoulder and glare at him in clear suspicion.
"Hedwig was a gift," she explained even as she brushed the back of her fingers against Hedwig's chest. The contrast between the dark sienna of Harini's skin and Hedwig's creamy coloring was as dynamic as the one between Harini's beatific smile and Hedwig's judging gaze. Blaise was reminded of how protective Daphne got whenever Tracey was stressed to the breaking point. "She's the first one I ever got, so it wasn't like I was going to be asking a lot of questions, was I?"
"Well, you wouldn't want to seem ungrateful," he agreed readily. Something prompted him to begin inching closer as Harini shifted her grip on her blanket-shawl to hold up a letter for her owl to take. "It would be like asking the bridesmaid for a kiss before the wedding. Doesn't matter the motive if the wrong person snaps a picture."
"Why wouldn't it matter?" she asked in the same kind of flat tone that Tracey tended to use when she was confused. Blaise paused in his movement as Hedwig made a sharp cheet and flared her wings open protectively over Harini. He was close enough now to touch if he leaned just slightly forward while reaching out. "If the couple loves each other, wouldn't they at least ask before getting angry over something like that?"
"Most wix don't marry for love," Blaise answered. He gave into the temptation to touch the tips of his fingers against her arm. Startled, Harini jerked away which made Hedwig fly into the air. The owl turned her flight into a dive towards Blaise, all without dropping the letter that Harini had given her. Without thinking about what he was doing, Blaise pulled Harini towards him and curled protectively over her much smaller body. His wings instinctively unfurled from the nether space they hid within most of the time.
With a defiant cry, Hedwig pulled out of her dive without touching him. The lack of immediate attack gave Blaise enough breathing space to process the foolishness of what he had just done. He took a deep breath to prepare for the recrimination that Harini was sure to heap rightfully upon his head any moment now. The soothing scent of mint and sage seeped into him like the chill of the night around them. The brightness of something lemony cut through it all like a dagger sliding out of a hidden holster.
Something within him, the same thing that had driven him to wandering the halls at night, demanded that he take the girl who smelled so good away from the castle with its history of dangers that targeted her. Harini needed protected! She needed it immediately!
Dragged beneath the tsunami of instinct, Blaise scooped the girl up into his arms. Harini immediately began to fight her way free, despite how small she was compared to him. (After all, Harini had consistently been the smallest in their year group, and even now as a sixth-year, most of the fourth-years were taller than her, let alone Blaise who was easily half again her height.) Then he dove out the window he had been looking out when Harini had arrived. Harini immediately changed from trying to get away from him to clinging to him as if afraid that he would drop her.
As if that was even an option.
He would never drop his mate, the one that Magic herself had chosen for him.
With powerfully beats of his spotted wings, he flew them to the nearby safety of the Forbidden Forest. The forest had its own set of dangers, but none of it targeted his mate any more than expected as something living and containing magic on a night such as this. He landed with extra care near one of the streams that meandered through the woods to feed the Black Lake. Harini immediately squirmed free of his arms and took enough steps to get out of easy reach.
Blaise shook his head in bewilderment. The fresh air was clearing some of the instinctive responses from his mind that had been brought on by the scent of Harini. Oh, she's going to be furious, and rightfully so.
"What the hell was that?" Harini demanded as she crossed her arms, furious just Blaise had known she would be. Blaise licked his lips and carefully breathed through his mouth instead of his nose. How did he explain what had just happened? By now, he knew as well as anyone in Slytherin that Harini had been raised in the muggle world. Malfoy had a tendency to tell everyone about his obsession with the Girl-Who-Lived and every single thing that could be discovered or noticed from outside of her confidence. The moth-like wings that he still had spread in presentation to her would have given it all away to a wix raised in the magical world, but Blaise didn't even know how to begin explaining everything to a wix raised in the muggle world.
"Okay," he said as he carefully breathed out, "not to sound weird or anything, but you smell really nice."
"Oh, well, that explains everything then," she snapped, throwing her arms in the air. Blaise rubbed his face, using the gesture to cover his eyes in embarrassment even as his wings refused to even droop the tiniest bit from their proud presentation. He felt more than heard her move closer to him. The cool scent of her wrapped tentatively around him again. "Not to sound weird or anything, but your wings are really pretty."
He spread his wings extra high and wide in response to her voiced appreciation. She giggled soft enough that he knew he probably wasn't supposed to have heard it. He let his hand drop and found himself caught in her emerald gaze, shocked to his very soul at the unexpected gift he was receiving.
"My friend Luna has wings like that," she told him in a whisper, "only hers are red like her dirigible plum earrings. Yours are purple like your eyes." She touched the tips of her fingers to his cheekbone, as if empathizing her description. She had to stand close to him and on the tips of her toes to even do that. Magic pulsed between them like the charging of a runic array. He itched to have her pressed close to him again but didn't dare risk whatever this was by just doing so again. "I like purple."
"I am glad," he responded, feeling like they were both talking about something else entirely, "and I am very sorry for just kidnapping you like that."
"Meh," she said with a growing grin. "Not my first time, and not as bad as some of them. At least we didn't end up in a cemetery, and you fly smoother than a Ford Anglia, too. Overall, four out of five stars. Would recommend."
"Only four stars?"
"Well, I didn't get a meal out of this kidnapping, and the Forbidden Forest is a bit less hospitable than the Burrow."
"That is…" Blaise paused, thinking it over. He sighed. "That is fair. I will take that under advisement."
She cupped his cheek gently as the smile now on her lips.
"You do that."
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An Ending
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