Must Be Nice

Disclaimer: Same as before

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, its just hard for me to come and write this all down, but I’ll try to do better from now on. Thanks to everyone that reviewed my previous chapters. By the way, does anyone know the new address for aff.net?
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Blaise Zabini was agitated. Actually, he was beyond agitated, and if he could find a word for that, then that is what he would be. Draco had been acting very strangely towards him for the past couple of days. Usually Blaise knew the cause when he was the cause of Draco’s bad moods but this happened so suddenly, and so completely out of nowhere, that Blaise couldn’t even fathom what he might or might not have done. And now, instead of enjoying his walk to their dance lesson as was usual between the two friends, he was contemplating the cause of his best-friend’s foul mood.

Suddenly, Blaise decided that he had had enough. It had been three days of coldness from Draco and he wasn’t going to stand for it any longer. He grabbed the blonde’s shoulder to indicate him to stop.

“Draco, I want to talk to you for a bit before we get to class.”

Draco shrugged off his hand. “Whatever it is can wait until later. I really do not want to be late for class.” He started to turn away and continue on the pathway that led to the studio.

Blaise began to get angry and called out to him before he could take more than a few steps away.

“What the fuck, Draco! Just tell me what the hell I did to you so I can just apologize, and we can just get on with our lives.”

Draco stopped walking and turned to Blaise with a puzzled look on his face.

“What are you on about, Zabini?”

“What am I on about?” Blaise asked incredulously. “You have been a complete git to me the last 4 days. You completely ignore me when I try to speak to you and when you do decide to talk you practically bite my head off. What is wrong with you?”

“I don’t know what you are carrying on about. There is nothing wrong, at least not with me.”

“Oh, so you’ve been acting like a premenstrual woman for the hell of it?”

Draco let out an exasperated sigh. “Just leave it, Blaise.”

“No I will not leave it. I refuse to be treated like this any longer!” Blaise was practically stamping his foot like a small child who didn’t get his way. And Blaise always had his way; no if, ands, or buts. That was just how it was and he wasn’t about to let Draco’s moodiness change that.

A small smile could now be seen on Draco’s face. “I seem to remember a time when you allowed me to brood in peace. In fact, I believe it was a great source of amusement to you.”

Blaise felt a small wave of relief; it was good when Draco started to get into a teasing mood. It meant that a storm was about to pass. “Yes,” Blaise replied. “But that was when it wasn’t directed at me.”

Draco ran a hand through his hair. “Look, Blaise, I just had a really long couple of days. I did a lot of thinking and it really didn’t do anything to put me in a good mood. I just have a lot on my mind.”

Blaise studied him for a moment. It didn’t look as if he was lying, and after knowing Draco for such a long time, he would know in a heartbeat if he was intentionally lying to him. He decided to accept his explanation.

“Anything I can help you with?” He didn’t like Draco going through tough times by himself. In the past he was known to do some stupid things when he had no one to talk to. Like when he became a Death Eater back in their sixth year at Hogwarts, but Blaise didn’t want to think about that at the moment. “I’d rather you talk to me if something big is going on than you trying to deal with it by yourself.”

He saw Draco’s eyes momentarily flicker towards the black bandana covering the small portion of his left forearm. It seemed as if he had understood Blaise’s underlying meaning. Draco then rolled his eyes and smirked at him.

“Blaise, it’s fine. Really, it is just me being stupid, so I apologize for acting like such a git.” He suddenly began to laugh.

“I don’t know what is so funny about you acting like a jerk,” Blaise said, smiling slightly. It had always amused him how Draco could alter his emotions in a matter of seconds. Though, at times it could be extremely disturbing and irritating.

“We are standing here like a couple of females talking about my feelings. I’m just glad no one is close enough to hear what we are talking.” He looked over at a couple of girls that were eyeing them from a few meters away and gave them a small smirk and a wink.

It was now Blaise’s turn to roll eyes. It was just too easy to get girls at this school and it wasn’t because they were extremely handsome or because they had participated in the biggest war of their time, though those were big pluses to the female population at U-CoW. It was because they were members of that was known here as ‘The Houses’. The Houses were similar to muggle co-ed fraternities with the exception that there was no pledging and it was exclusive to Hogwarts graduates. There were four Houses, the same as at Hogwarts, Snakes, relating to the Slytherins, Griffins, relating to the Gryffindors, Ravens, relating to the Ravenclaws, and… Blaise honestly didn’t know what the former Hufflepuffs were names; Huffs or Puffs maybe? Both sounded like stupid names to him. And did any Hufflepuffs even attend this university? What the hell is a Hufflepuff anyway, he wondered.

Blaise suddenly realized that Draco was looking at him strangely. He must’ve been thinking for much longer than he thought.

“Come on, then. Let’s get to class.” Blaise began to walk towards the building again, ignoring the look that Draco was sending him.

When Blaise and Draco reached the studio they were pretty much the last students to arrive. When they had settled themselves into their favorite spot on the floor against the wall, he turned to listen to Nina as she began to go more into detail about their upcoming assignment.

Blaise had to admit that Nina was looking deliciously delectable in her form fitting outfit. It was a shame that he had no interest in older women and even less interest in dating his instructors. Though, he did enjoy their friendly banter and the fact that he seemed to be her favorite student.

He turned to Draco to see if he was admiring their instructor’s current attire, but soon realized that he wasn’t. Draco was currently discreetly looking at a brown-haired, former Gryffindor out of the corner of his eye. Blaise shook his head. Well now he new the source of Draco’s thoughts this past weekend. And how did he know? It was quite simple; Draco hadn’t so much as looked at Hermione in over two years. Also, Hermione had mentioned their short interaction from the previous Friday.

Hermione and Draco’s relationship was a great mystery to him. Not so long ago Draco was in love with her and Blaise suspected that Hermione had some non-platonic feelings towards him as well. But he wasn’t completely sure about that, after all she had been in a serious relationship at the time. Blaise had understood when Draco said he had needed some time to get over her, but now it had been little more than a year Draco claimed to be rid of any romantic feelings for her. So why did not try and reconcile with her?

Blaise looked over at Hermione who was currently sitting diagonally across from him on an adjacent wall next to Cecee. He could definitely see why Draco had been so taken with her, she was absolutely adorable and seemed to get more so as time went by. Blaise smiled to himself as he thought about the many people who believed he was interested in more than a friendship with Hermione. He was as extremely affectionate as he was protective over her so it was easy to see why some people thought that. And though they had done some… things together, they would never be anything more than friends.

His eyes drifted over to Cecee who was leaning back against the wall looking like she’d rather be some where else. Blaise smiled, he knew how much she hated listening to Nina speak unless it was something dance related. As he continued to study her he thought about how beautiful she was. She had the most beautiful grey eyes that contrasted nicely with her caramel complexion, the same skin tone that he had. Her wavy, dark brown hair was shoulder length and she had a lovely voice that had a soft island twinge to it from when she lived in the Caribbean as a child.

Looking at her next to Hermione he wondered how two such wonderful girls could be such close friends with someone as arrogant as he. Then he noticed that she had just stuck her tongue out at him and was now smirking at him. Oh yeah, she was more like him than he thought.

“Alright everyone, that’s about everything you need to know for the project. If you have any questions please come and talk to me before I tell you your partners. After that we can make it a short class and you can all leave after meeting with your respective partners.” Nina was now saying.

Blaise saw this as his chance. He stood up and walked over Nina, smiling when she noticed him approaching.

“I know I’m in trouble when Blaise Zabini comes to ask a question.” She teased with a toothy smile.

“You know me too well, Nina. But I actually wanted to ask you a favor.”

Nina laughed. “No, Blaise I will not encourage your playboy ways by pairing you up with your next prey. I am your teacher, not your dating service.”

“No, no, Nina. I was just hoping that you could put Draco and Hermione together.” He said hopefully.

Nina’s face turned thoughtful. “Hmm, I was never under the impression that they cared much for each other.”

“Well they do have an interesting history with each other, but I think that they would work brilliantly together.”

She seemed lost in thought for a moment. Blaise began to get nervous because she hadn’t spoken for a long time. Just when he was about to walk back to his seat defeated she spoke.

“I suppose…” She began softly. “They are two of my more naturally talented students. It would be interesting to see what they could do together. Well, I guess I’ll have to change your partner after all.”

“You paired me with Hermione?” He asked, completely surprised. She always seemed to pick the worst girls as his partner.

Seeming to know what he was thinking she smiled. “I did. Are you sure you want to give her to Draco?”

Blaise thought for a short moment. He might be passing up the only chance to have a great partner. But this was much more important.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

Nina picked up her clipboard and made a few notes on the paper in front of her.

“So who’s my partner now?”

She continued studying the paper in front of her and casually said, “Cecile.”

Blaise smiled. Working with Cecee would be a dream. He’d been hoping for that opportunity for a long while now. “I could kiss you right now, you know.”

Nina laughed. “Save that thought until after you graduate. Now go sit down to I can give everyone their partners.”

Blaise returned to his seat next to Draco ignoring his questioning gaze. Nina began calling out the names of the pairs and Blaise watched Hermione closely as her name was paired with Draco’s. At first she looked to be in shock. Then as Cecee began to try to get her attention she looked as if she was going to cry. Maybe he had made a mistake asking for them to be put together.

He looked over at Draco who was resting his head against the wall with his eyes closed. His face was completely void of emotion; Blaise had no idea what he was thinking. Blaise looked back towards Hermione and saw that Cecee had left her and was now walking over to him with a bewildered look on her face.

“Hey Blaise,” she said softly when she reached him. She looked over at Draco. “Draco, are you alright?”

Draco stood up and gave her a small smile.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said as he left the pair to go walk towards Hermione.

Blaise watched as he crouched in front of Hermione and began speaking in low tones.

“I hope this doesn’t turn out badly.” Cecee whispered as she too watched the pair.

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