CLOUDGAZING - blaise zabini

four

Aurora tapped her foot as she read the assigned potions reading. She checked the time here and there. It was getting tantalizingly close to 4:00, when she was expected to meet up with Blaise.

She sat with Jasmine and Ella, another Gryffindor, in the common room as they all did their homework. As of now, Aurora's excuse to leave was going to be that she needed to excuse herself to meet with Professor Slughorn about taking advanced potions lessons. It was actually quite believable, for everyone knew that Aurora had a knack for that particular subject. Her eyes ran over the same sentence several times before she finally shut her book and stood up.

"Where are you off to?" Jasmine asked, looking up at Aurora with a questioning expression.

"Gotta meet with Slughorn about some advanced potions stuff," Aurora responded, her heart clenching a little bit. She hated lying to her best friend, but until she knew what Blaise was up to, she wanted to keep things on the down low.

"Good luck then, potions expert," Ella laughed, waving goodbye. Aurora waved to both the girls and quickly left Gryffindor tower. She had fifteen minutes to get down to the lawns, and she had no time to waste, either. Her leather bag was slung over her shoulder as she descended the many staircases of the castle as quickly as possible. She had to admit, her heart seemed to be beating a little bit faster than normal.

When she stepped outside of the castle, she looked immediately towards the lake, scanning for Blaise's figure. Sure enough, there he was, sprawled out on the fresh green grass, sketching. Aurora gained a little bit of confidence back- at least she knew that Blaise wasn't just trying to prank her by not even showing up.

As Aurora neared him, Blaise looked up in her direction and waved a tad bit, still maintaining his reserved countenance. Aurora didn't sit down when she got to him, but remained standing, still unsure of the whole situation.

"So, what do you want?" Aurora said, the words coming out of her mouth a little hasher than she meant them to.

"Woah, tiger. Calm down. Did you not read my note? I just want to learn how to cloudgaze," Blaise spoke cooly, a gleam in his eye.

"Learn how to cloudgaze my ass. What do you really want?"

"Okay, okay, you caught me, nice job," Blaise put his hands up. He paused for a moment. "I actually need your help with something."

"I'm listening," Aurora responded.

"You see, I'm kind of devoid of inspiration lately," Blaise started. Auroras eyebrows shot up. "And I'm currently enrolled in an art class here."

"Wait, they have art classes here?" Aurora asked, surprised.

"Yeah, but they're hard to get into," Blaise answered before continuing, "Anyways, we have to do a landscape piece for our first assignment, and its due in three days."

"Where the hell do I come into this?" Aurora interrupted, suddenly impatient.

"If you could just listen for fifteen seconds straight, maybe you'd know," Blaise quipped. "What I'm trying to say here is, I kind of wanted to paint you cloudgazing or whatever for the assignment. It won't take long, I just need to get a basic visual and sketch, and- um- your proportions are pretty nice so you'd be easy to paint and-"

"Fine. Where do you want me?" Aurora said, acting like she was indifferent to the situation. But really, she was quite flattered.

"Wait, seriously?" A look of relief washed over Blaise's face. "If you could just lay down in the grass right there and look up or whatever you do, that'd be great." Blaise pointed to a spot a few feet away from him. Aurora did as she was told, content that she'd actually get the opportunity to observe the sky. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Perfect. This will only be like fifteen minutes or so," Blaise assured her, being extra polite since she'd done him a favor.

Soon, Aurora heard the gentle scratch of quill on paper. The clouds floated by in the bright blue sky, and birds chirped in the distance. Waves lapped against the rocky shore of the Black Lake; nature seemed to be in perfect time with itself.

And Aurora just felt so calm, so relaxed, for the first time in days. She fought to keep her eyes open, and the clouds seemed to be telling her to rest. Before she knew it, she sunk into a peaceful sleep.

+++

"Aurora," a distant but familiar voice called her. She forced her eyes open, fighting to gain a grip on reality. The last thing she remembered was-

"Blaise?" she asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. A pink, orange, and purple sunset was reflected in the lake, moving as the water did.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty," Blaise joked, striding towards her.

"Did I fall asleep?" Aurora asked. She had no idea what time it was. How could she explain to her friends why she'd been out so long?

"Yeah, you did," Blaise told her. "It made for a nice painting though. Minus the drool running out of your mouth." Aurora immediately put her hand up to her cheek, feeling a line of crusty saliva.

"fuck," Aurora said, using her robes to wipe off her face. "Thats embarrassing."

"Not arguing," Blaise laughed, "but we should probably head to dinner so that we don't get arrested by filch."

"You're right." The two began their return to the castle, a comfortable silence between them. At one point, Blaise's shoulder bumped into Aurora's, making her heart beat fast, but she ignored it.

When they reached the doors of the Great Hall, Blaise thanked her and said a curt goodbye. Aurora nodded and they parted ways, each heading to sit with their own friends. Aurora knew her face felt warm, and she knew that she was probably blushing. Something about Blaise definitely intrigued her, but she put it behind her when she sat at the table with her housemates.