flickerweasleys
Stories don't always begin with stolen glances or promises. Sometimes they start between the lines of a book, behind a Potions desk or in an overcrowded train carriage.
Seléne Montrose is a brilliant, competitive and charismatic Gryffindor: she's always handled Quidditch, books and friendships that transcend House boundaries with ease. With her sharp humour and hidden anxiety about always having to prove herself, she built a solid reputation: a girl who knows how to stand up for herself, even when her heart races faster than her confidence.
Blaise Zabini, instead, spent six years in the silvery shadows of the Slytherin dungeons. Elegant, reserved, unapproachable, with an aura of detachment that makes him difficult to read but impossible to ignore. The son of a feared yet admired mother, he learned early on not to trust others, to protect himself behind a controlled smile, to hint at a lot and say very little.
They'd never really spoken to each other and it would've remained that way if it hadn't been for the Slug Club. Sitting a few seats apart, forced to share the same air and conversations, Seléne and Blaise suddenly found themselves adversaries.
Two opposing worlds. Two characters destined to clash. But behind provocations and glances, there was common ground that neither of them wanted to acknowledge: the fear of showing vulnerability, the intolerance towards those who took everything for granted, the awareness that growing up in an ancient family did not mean feeling understood.
It wasn't love at first sight, nor was it fierce hatred. It was something more subtle: a balancing act, a tightrope that risked breaking with every sharp remark, every challenge thrown down, every silence shared for too long.
As the war approached, two seemingly incompatible students would discover that attraction doesn't always arise only from the opposite that fascinates, but from that unexpected reflection that forces you to see yourself in the eyes of the other.