𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐒 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒

chapter 6

Chapter Six -

After dropping Harry off at his common room with a promise that he would pick the teen up for their Hogsmeade outing the on the weekend, Blaise took a meandering route back to the Slytherin dorms, using the extra time to gather his thoughts. More specifically, he focused on the way Harry had erupted into a blushing, stuttering mess at Granger's insinuation that they were in a relationship.

While Blaise would have to be stupid not to notice Harry's attraction to him, he also knew that Harry was wary to act on his feelings. The Slytherin was pretty sure it had to do with the way that Harry was so inexperienced with relationships in general, by no fault of the teen's own. Though he soaked up any sort of positive attention, Harry was tentative at best when returning affection. It made Blaise smile and quiver in anger simultaneously: Harry was so easy to please, and so loving, but his hesitant demeanor was all too telling.

He had mixed feelings about Harry's friends. He knew the green-eyed teen harbored a fierce devotion towards them, and they returned it to some extent, but Blaise was reluctant to fully entrust Harry's well-being to them. They were able to hurt Harry far too easily with poorly chosen words and actions.

Harry had been a complete mess when they met. He'd been utterly drowning in grief, having just lost his godfather and no one-not his friends, family, nor a single member of the faculty-had seen fit to speak to him about his loss. Blaise's jaw clenched in anger. The adults at Hogwarts were complete imbeciles, almost neglectful in caring for their students' emotional well-being. If he were to count the incidents where Harry had been physically endangered during his time at Hogwarts... He already felt a strong urge to maim something-or someone.

Nonetheless, Blaise wasn't in a hurry to put a label on his and Harry's relationship. They were growing closer in a manner that was comfortable for both of them; their connection was something that went beyond the shallow affairs of teens into something that was deeper, more permanent.

Blaise would stop at nothing to protect that.

He let out a quiet sigh as he reached the entrance to the Slytherin dorms. He already considered Harry as good as his; he only tempered his affection because Harry wasn't quite ready for something more serious. Blaise grimaced internally; he sounded like some lovesick teenage girl. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he muttered the password to his dorms. He ignored the thick silence that greeted him after the entrance's stones ground to a halt and calmly sat down in a comfortable armchair in a far corner of the room.

Blaise couldn't care less about what was going through their feeble minds. No doubt Malfoy's screeching had alerted the entire northern peninsula to his and Harry's friendship.

He suppressed the urge to smirk in remembrance; the disbelief on the blond's face had been comical. He had an inkling that Malfoy Junior's absurd reaction had much to do with ill-concealed jealousy. Blaise remembered when Harry, a thin slip of a boy at the tender age of eleven, had turned down the blonde's offer of friendship. Since then, Harry had pretty much avoided members from the Serpent House like the plague. Malfoy obviously took some sort of twisted pleasure in the fact that he was the only Slytherin Harry spoke to on a regular basis, regardless of the fact that most of their conversations consisted of hurling insults and, on some occasions, spells. Seeing Harry interact with Blaise so easily-another Slytherin, of all people-had clearly rubbed salt in a wound the youngest Malfoy had let fester for years.

Blaise glanced around the room, taking in the hushed whispering of the older years and the deliberate, if apprehensive, quiet of the younger Slytherin members.