CLOUDGAZING - blaise zabini

eleven

"Spill it," Jasmine said bluntly as soon as she shut the door of the dorm. Aurora stood in front of her, a poorly concealed giddy expression on her face. "What's going on between you and him?"

Jasmine didn't even need to Blaise's name; Aurora knew who she was referring to.

"Promise you won't tell anyone? Nobody at all?" Aurora questioned, looking her best friend in the eye.

"I promise," Jasmine nodded solemnly. If Aurora could trust anyone, she knew it was Jasmine.

"We've been hanging out here and there," Aurora started, playing with the sleeves of her sweater that she'd worn to Hogsmeade that day. "I suppose we've been friends since you wrote that awful note in Charms. We just kind of... clicked." She paused for a moment. "And we're dating now."

"What?" Jasmine practically screeched, her eyes wide. "I didn't know you liked him!"

"I didn't fully know either, until yesterday," she admitted, realizing that things had happened rather fast. "It's just, I don't know. In the moment, it felt like the right time to just go ahead and ask him out. Why not, right? It's our second to last year here, we're about to be flushed out into the real world, Voldemort is back now-- I might as well take risks and have fun."

"You're a miracle worker," Jasmine sighed in disbelief, smiling a little. "You seduced the cold, sarcastic Slytherin that is Blaise Zabini."

"I didn't seduce him!" Aurora exclaimed.

"Sure, sure. Whatever you say," Jasmine laughed. "In all seriousness though, I'm happy for you. You two are cute together."

"Okay, that was too sappy, but thank you," Aurora smiled as she and Jasmine began to prepare for bed, laughing and joking about trivial topics as they did.

+++

"Where are we sitting, Blaise?" Draco mumbled as he begrudgingly strode into the Charms classroom with Blaise at his side.

Blaise panicked. He was dying to sit next to Aurora, but it was going to be difficult to do that without directly telling Draco what he wanted. He and Draco were already on subpar terms, and wanting to sit next to some wild Gryffindor girl was only going to strain their relationship even more.

"I dunno," Blaise responded quietly, trying to sound nonchalant. He discreetly scanned around the classroom for Aurora's head of blonde hair. Finally, his eyes landed on both Aurora and Jasmine, sitting in the very middle of the right side of the lecture hall.

Blaise and Draco never sat in the middle. Ever.

Luckily, Blaise also spotted a pale, red-headed girl clad in Slytherin robes two seats over from Aurora: Eva Skimble.

"Why don't we sit in between those two Gryffindor girls and Eva? I noticed you two've been hitting it off lately," Blaise nudged Draco, thinking back to the way Draco had been talking with Eva the night before.

"Not a bad idea," Draco smirked, adjusting his pristine robes. "Good thinking, Zabini."

"I'm here to deliver," Blaise deadpanned, relief washing over him. For once, Blaise was thankful that Draco was a bit of a player.

The two boys approached their chosen seats, Draco eyeing Eva with a hungry sort of look in his eyes and Blaise looking at Aurora with disguised affection. They slid in their seats, Blaise quickly winking at Aurora when she looked up.

Blaise unpacked a notebook from his bag, quietly scribbling a note on the top right corner of a blank page. Then, he slid it over to Aurora.

She leaned over slightly to see what it said, wondering why Blaise seemed so uptight. It read, Draco doesn't know about us. He'd flip a lid if he did. We've gotta keep this quiet for now, I'm sorry.

Aurora nodded at him to show she understood before jotting a response, That's okay. Jasmine knows, but she won't tell anyone. she hesitated before continuing to write, thanks again for yesterday. I had fun.

Blaise smiled, glancing at Aurora briefly before Draco could notice their interaction. Soon enough, class began.

"Welcome students. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and for those of you who went to Hogsmeade, I hope you had a safe trip," Professor Flitwick announced, standing behind his podium at the front of the hall. "Today will not be a lecture. I'm giving you all some time in class to work on a project during which you all will be researching the history of an assigned charm. Let me be clear-- this is not a partner project by any means. I want this room to remain quiet for the entire period."

Students throughout the hall nodded their heads, some with vigor and excitement about the project, and some with resistance at the 'no talking' bit.

"If you'll look under your chairs, students, each of you will find a slip of paper with a charm written on it. Find the charm assigned to you in our textbook and research it throughout the class, taking as many notes as possible on the historical context of your spell. A two-page essay on your topic is due tomorrow, so you should do well to be efficient. That's all, get to work please," Flitwick finished his instructions and immediately began to grade papers at his podium.

Aurora awkwardly stooped down to look under her seat, picking up a small piece of parchment when she did. Written on the paper, in tiny, slightly messy script, was 'relashio.'

Aurora had heard of the Charm before, it was used to draw objects out of someone's hold by force. In fact, she'd seen it used just the year before, in an after hours (and definitely against school rules, for that matter) duel. Immediately, she flipped open her textbook to the Table of Contents.

Then, she set to work, focusing as much as she could, considering Blaise was right next to her.

Blaise had received the 'Muffliato' charm, a spell he knew too well. It allowed clandestine conversations to be held in the midst of the most crowded areas by filling everyone in the area's ears with a buzzing noise. Draco often used it when plotting against classmates or passing information to his little gang. Although he was becoming increasingly ashamed of it, Blaise belonged to that gang. And he was itching to get out of it.

He grazed through his textbook, reading bits of information here and there at an unusually slow pace. He had a lot on his mind-- his growing attraction to Aurora, his dissatisfaction with his friends, and trying to stay afloat in his studies.

Before he knew it, class was over, and he had very little information on his topic. Already, he knew it would be a late night of desperately trying to finish his paper.

As Aurora stood up to go off to her next class, she brushed her shoulder against Blaise's lightly, risking a brief look back at him before she left the room with Jasmine.

Blaise smirked, as per usual, caught between the desire to run after Aurora and talk to her and being rooted to his spot by the necessity of keeping things a secret from Draco.

A/N: another lil note haha!! I've been updating pretty frequently as of late, but I'm about to go back to school so I might slow down on the updates just a bit. (maybe once every week or two?) anyways, hope you guys are still enjoying the story!! I promise to write as much as I can!

-ivy :)