CLOUDGAZING - blaise zabini

sixteen

Aurora thrust her arm in front of Blaise, signaling for him to stop. Blaises eyes widened as he recognized the voice from the shadows.

"It's over Parkinson, convinced that blasted Zabini to help me with it," Draco's cold voice spoke.

Aurora's heart sank. Surely she hadn't heard him properly. There was no way Blaise had helped him with anything. They weren't friends anymore, right? She looked up to see Blaise with his eyes closed, face full of dread.

"You should have let me help you, Draco," Pansy spat. "Blaise has gone all soft, you know. You've made a mistake."

Draco chuckled. "Parkinson, you can glare at me all you want, but I don't need a witch whose best subject is charms helping me with the type of work I'm doing. Plus, Zabini was easy to sway, anyway. Told him I'd hurt his little fuck-buddy Aurora if he didn't help me out, and he was all in."

Grabbing Blaise's hand, Aurora pulled him down the stairs, leaving the cruel whispers of Draco and Pansy behind them. Her grip was tight on his hand, and guilt and regret ate away at his heart.

They walked in an uncomfortable silence down the nearest staircase, until Aurora finally stopped when they reached the second floor.

"You want to explain to me what we just heard?" she asked angrily, tears welling in her eyes. A few portraits gazed down at the with a concerning look in their painted eyes. Her voice echoed as she spoke, her lip trembling just a bit.

"He said he was going to hurt you!" Blaise shouted back, looking down at her, angry at her lack of understanding. Remembering that Draco could possibly hear, he lowered his voice and spoke, "I didn't have a choice."

Her eyes softened a bit, and she asked, "what did you do?"

Blaise paused. What did he do? Finally, he answered, "something with a vanishing cabinet. I don't know, he needed me to activate it or something. He put an apple in, and it came out bitten."

"We have to tell someone," Aurora said quickly. "No, you have to tell someone."

"Aurora, look, we can't do that. He'll hurt us, you know he will."

"So what the hell are we gonna do?" Aurora squeaked, panic setting in.

"I don't know, we just have to wait. Look, lets just go back and we can talk about it later," Blaise said, scratching his forehead nervously. Clearly, his plan of forgetting the vanishing cabinet even existed was not going to work out.

+++

The quidditch game, Aurora had to admit, was pretty fucking incredible, despite the dismal events before it. She had scored three goals (Blaise scored none) and Ron Weasley had done an incredible job as keeper, as the Slytherins had walked away with only ten points.

A roaring party had taken place in the Gryffindor common room that very night, the perfect way for Aurora to forget about her boyfriends, dealings with a potential death-eater. A group of fifth year Hufflepuffs had acquired a small amount of firewhiskey from the kitchens, and given it to the Gryffindor team as a sort of congratulatory gift. Aurora drank some now, the burning sensation roaring through her throat. She shared her glass with Jasmine, who was talking quite loudly to seventh year Porter Kaufman.

Suddenly, Ron was pushed to the center of the room by Ginny, who had started, along with her friends, to chant "Weasley! Weasley! Weasley!"

Soon, the rest of the room joined in, holding up glasses of Butterbeer and Firewhiskey, swaying merrily to the rhythm of the chant. Aurora linked arms with Jasmine and a fourth year boy who looked up at her admiringly, and began to chant as well.

For a brief moment, her life was everything she had hoped it would be when she stepped on the Hogwarts express in her first year. She was surrounded by friends (her roomates Ella and Annie were dancing rather drunkenly right before her eyes), she was a member of a winning quidditch team, drinking firewhiskey at a celebratory party.

The crowd began to roar cheers of approval as Lavender Brown stepped to the center of the room, planting her lips firmly on Ron's.

Aurora looked up, snapping out of her moment of Bliss, remembering her kiss with Blaise the night before outside the library.

She finished her glass, handing it to the fourth year next to her, said goodnight to Jasmine, who was now sitting in Porter Kaufman's lap, looking happy, and retired to her dormitory for the night.

+++

Blaise sat propped on his bed, his roomates reading in their beds or off gallivanting in the dark corners of the common room.

He flipped through the sketches he'd drawn of Aurora, smiling faintly at the happy memories pictured before him. He gazed at the painting of her laying in the grass, staring up at the clouds: the picture that had started it all.

He tossed the sketchbook to the side, turning to dig loudly through his nightstand, earning a glare from Theodore Nott from behind his Potions book. Blaise, after about thirty seconds, produced a silvery-blue pen he'd purchased from Scrivenshaft's in his second year. He'd spent his entire savings he'd made from selling faulty protection talismans to students of all ages when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. He laughed at the memory.

He shook the pen gently, and he closed his eyes for a moment. Then, he wrote a few words on his arms.

Back in the Gryffindor dormitories, Aurora felt a light tingling sensation on her arm as she was changing into her favorite nightgown, which she usually wore whenever she was having a rough night. She turned over her arm to inspect it, and her eyes widened as she saw it.

Words, written in Blaises dramatic, flowy, handwriting were there.

Tomorrow, ten a.m, by the Black Lake. Let's talk.

In spite of herself, she smiled a bit, running her finger over the message. She had no way of responding, but Aurora hoped Blaise knew her answer was yes.