Stammerer

Chapter Six

"She deals in witchcraft,

One kiss and I'm trapped.

How can heaven hold a place for me,

When a girl like you has cast a spell on me?"

Space, "Female of the Species"

"I can't believe you said all that to him!!!" Caroline cried.

Colin shrugged, unrepentantly. "It was fun watching him get all angry. He's normally so cold. You must really turn him on."

"Oh, shut up," she shot back, but the words rather lost their effect with her nose so stopped up and her throat scratchy. As Caroline's luck went, not drying her hair, then spending an afternoon in the chilliness and dampness of the dungeons, serving a detention, led to her getting a cold. She cursed Zabini with everything profane should could come up with. Ginny and Rosemary were quite impressed, but Colin had stuffed cotton in his ears to block out the tirade. He wasn't usually offended by a good bout of swearing, often indulging in his own. Her language had been that colorful.

"What I can't believe is that you survived your little... encounter with him last night," commented Ginny. "He looked like he was quite ready to beat the living shit out of you."

Colin ran a hand lightly over the roguish (or so he thought) black eye he currently sported, grinning slightly. "Oh, Zabini's mostly talk. He socked me once, then sat me down to have for a brief conversation that entailed his reasons for not flat out committing murder. He said his mother had taught him better."

The group lay sprawled again by the lake, not sunbathing as there were quite a few clouds, but enjoying the time not spent inside the castle walls.

"The worst of it, though, is that he practically believed all you said," grumbled the Hufflepuff, pouting a bit. "His opinion must be very high of me."

"Relax, sweetheart," coaxed Rosemary, rubbing her friend on the arm, then wiping her hand off on her skirt. She didn't want to get any germs. "He was obviously jealous."

"Not only was he jealous," added Colin, "he was jealous when you two aren't even in a relationship."

Caroline blinked. "And this is good how?"

Colin tapped his chin thoughtfully. "It's good because Zabini got so upset, even though you aren't in a relationship. That means he doesn't want you seeing anybody else, meaning he wants you to be shagging him and only him, meaning he wants a steady relationship. All adds up, really."

"When did you become the relationship guru?" questioned Ginny.

"Remember that time by the lake with the giant squid..." said Rosemary.

"That was incredible!" laughed Caroline.

"Could we focus on Caroline's humiliation, not mine?" begged the male Gryffindor.

"Oh, fine," agreed the too kind Ginny.

Caroline scowled.

"Okay, so..." said Rosemary, getting a sly look on her face. "Blaise Zabini wants to get Caroline in bed. How do we help him achieve this?"

Ginny laughed maniacally while Caroline stood up hastily from her seat in the grass. "This cold, not to mention you lot's very company, is making me excessively tired. I'm going to lie down."

"By all means," allowed a thoroughly pleasant Rosemary.

"We'll just give Zabini a heads up," murmured Ginny, watching her friend's retreating form.

Oh, she wants to conquer the world completely,

But first she'll conquer me discretely,

The female of the species is more deadly than the male.

**********

"All right, now where did she stash my Veryan?" murmured Madeline Higgins to herself, opening the door quietly and stepping inside, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini following behind her. Caroline went tense when she saw the dark-haired Slytherin, but kept up the pretenses of being asleep. "And quiet, you two, Mary told me Caroline is not feeling well and went for a lie down."

"That's Hayes?" asked Zabini, casting curious eyes in her direction. Caroline remained perfectly still and prayed he didn't think to do anything.

Madeline began rummaging through Mary's trunk in search of her precious historic fiction.

"So why are you two following me around the dorms?" Madeline asked pointedly.

"Because I am your devoted slave," replied Malfoy proudly.

"Because I want to see what the Hufflepuff dorms look like."

"Scratch that," Malfoy said, ignoring Zabini's statement. "I am your devoted master."

"You're my what?!?" demanded Madeline, quite obviously displeased.

"Did you miss the 'devoted' part?" Draco asked petulantly.

The happy couple left the room, Madeline muttering something about "spoiled, self-centered prats," closing the door softly behind them. Caroline lay perfectly still, listening to the voices floating down the stairwell. Zabini's wasn't one of them. Surely he had left the room with them? Madeline couldn't possibly have been so cruel as to let the bastard remain... could she?

Shifting ever so carefully onto her back, still pretending to sleep, she cracked one eye, scanning the room as best she could. Seeing no one, she lifted her head just a mite to get a better look.

Zabini pounced from the other side of the room, jumping onto her bed, on top of her, seizing her wrists and holding them tight against the mattress. She squealed in surprise, then in anger, finding the Italian Slytherin annoyance above her, smiling mischievously.

"Feeling better, princess?"

"Not at all, Zabini, so if you would be so kind as to FUCK OFF!!!"

"Gladly, with your cooperation," he replied with a wicked grin. "Did you miss me?"

"No."

"That hurts, darling."

"The truth does, sometimes," she growled fiercely, struggling against his hands on her wrists. "You really shouldn't get this close, Zabini, or you'll likely catch the cold I've got."

He shrugged. "I'm not that worried as I took a preventative potion before I came here. We can swap bodily fluids as much as we want," he concluded with a glint in his eyes.

"That is entirely disgusting," ground out Caroline, attempting to free her wrists again.

"I try. And I'm not moving, so you might as well-"

"You bloody fucking bastard!"

"My dear Caroline, your words wound me," Blaise smirked, easily pinning her down; he was quite enjoying the flush on her face, the tousled state of her hair, and her flashing eyes.

"Oh, I'll wound you, all right!" Which was when her leg suddenly jerked up toward a strategic place and Blaise quickly flinched back, his grip on her wrists dislodged. Caroline swung up into a sitting position, knocking Zabini into a lying position on the bed. She made to shove him off entirely, but he grabbed her upper arms and pulled her down on top of him. Their faces inches apart, their breathing hastened and mixing with the other's, their bodies tangled... yes, Blaise was beginning to have those warm thoughts again.

"You'd be a little tiger in the sack," he mused absently, his eyes locked on her slightly parted, moist lips.

Naturally, Caroline took offense, bringing up her arm to elbow him in the stomach. Zabini's breath left him in a whoosh! and the Hufflepuff used the opportunity to wrench her arms free. The Slytherin recovered quickly, however, and as Caroline tried to get up, he caught her around the hips and forced her back down into a straddling position over his own hips.

She screeched indignantly, then gasped, eyes widening to saucers. Zabini grinned wolfishly up at her, knowing she was feeling the accumulation of his warm thoughts.

"You are a virgin!" he exclaimed jubilantly, judging by her expression and the amount of red her face exhibited. "Would have thought from your passionate and fiery-"

A resounding smack left him stunned and stinging, his face turned decidedly to the right. Hayes, though she had the perfect opportunity, did not move, her jaw slack and eyes wide once more, one hand, the violent one, clapped over her mouth. Blaise thought he heard a muffled, "I'm sorry," in the ensuing silence.

After a long pause, cheek throbbing, he finally muttered, "Well, that smarts."

In one swift movement, Blaise had Caroline back onto her back, his palms on the bed on either side of her head, one of his knees and thighs in between hers. Her breathing was shallow and her eyes were slightly fearful as she gazed at his grim visage; she chewed on her lower lip nervously.

"Life, with you around, is certainly never boring," he murmured. Then he swooped down, his tongue sliding across her lower lip, coaxing her teeth to release it and her mouth to open. Both complied, their owner a little bemused and befuddled, and he was soon tasting her again, reaching deep inside. Her mouth was responding, too, her tongue moving to greet him, to taste him in return. Blaise leaned his weight onto one arm, allowing his other hand to crawl under her shirt and smooth over the skin of her stomach. She moaned softly, her breath coming more rapidly than before. They were both running out of air, but neither was inclined to stop. He shifted his attentions to her the juncture of her neck and shoulder as before, moving his weight again so that he could slide both hands under her shirt. He ran his tongue over the crook of her neck several times, then bit down at her pulse point, teeth marking her, making her gasp at the slight but exhilarating pain. Gentle yet firm lips then went to suck and soothe the wound, tongue lapping at her highly sensitized skin. And his hands were moving further north, fingertips grazing the lace edge of her bra. She arched into him, silently begging him to continue.

At that moment, the door opened, admitting a thoroughly startled Hufflepuff. "Oops. Caroline, I thought you were up here for a quick lie down, not a quick shag."

Zabini groaned heartily, easing himself up, shooting Caroline a very, very regretful look. She ignored that look, blushing furiously and trying to straighten her appearance.

"Don't mind me, of course," the overly-helpful Hufflepuff said quickly. "I'll just grab my wand and you two can get back to... it."

In a flash, Blaise was back down, watching the intruder expectantly.

"No, no, no, no, Janet, it's all right. We're done," responded Caroline, scrambling out from underneath him to sit on her pillow, arms wrapped securely over drawn-up knees. Zabini groaned again, flopping onto his stomach in exasperation.

Janet blinked. "Oh, well. Sorry about that." She skipped back to the door. "You two have fun. Oh, and Caroline, your cat is sitting outside the door, looking quite pitiful. Should I let him in?"

Caroline was slow to reply, being somewhat distracted: she had moved her legs so that they were crossed Indian-style, when Blaise had promptly flipped to his back and scooted so that his head was lying in her lap. Frowning distantly, she asked, "What was that, Janet?"

Janet was smirking to herself. "Otis," she reminded.

"Oh, yes! Let him in, please."

The other Hufflepuff nodded, though neither of the other two noticed, and let the cat in while letting herself out.

Blaise had tuned out the Hufflepuff conversation, mind rather fixed on forcing down those warm thoughts so that he could think properly, though he knew instantly when the odd cat entered the room. Surely enough, when he turned his head he saw the furry black bugger watching him intently, tail swishing slowly, almost contemplatively, over the floor.

"Your cat bothers me," he muttered, returning the strange feline's gaze.

"And what should I do about it?" questioned Caroline derisively, though he could tell she didn't mean it. Her brow was furrowed, but not in anger or disapproval, and she was absently brushing a few dark hairs out of his face. He turned his head so that he was now looking back at her, studying her a bit. It rather amazed him that he was so easily turned on by this little Hufflepuff (a Hufflepuff!). He barely knew the girl, but since the moment when had first felt her lips under his own, her soft curves beneath his hands, the attraction had been powerful. He couldn't keep his hands off her. And she had as yet given him a headache. Other aches, perhaps, he thought, ruefully rubbing his sore cheek. That hair of hers, though... something had to be done.

"Why the hell did you do that to your hair?"

Her hands had been gently curled into his curls, playing with the wavy hair and massaging his scalp, which had all been quite nice, until he had asked her his question and her gentle hands became terrible claws, trying to rip all the thick hair from his head.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" He jerked away, sitting up and rubbing his scalp. "Damn, woman, it was just a question!"

"I'm so sorry, Zabini, are you tender-headed?" she asked, expression and tone dubiously innocent.

He snorted, but countered with, "You never answered my question."

"You didn't even know I existed until my head glowed orange," she answered, glaring at him.

He cocked an amused brow. "Trying to catch my eye, were you?"

Caroline flung up her hands. "Not you, specifically, I was just saying that you, and the rest of the school, for that matter, ignore Hufflepuffs. Granted, I was somewhat recognized for being one of the few non-Slytherins who could talk to Slytherins and not immediately be turned into stone, but Hufflepuff was still largely glossed over. We had a few shining, and also tragic moments with Cedric, and now few people realize that there is still a house standing without him. So I dyed my hair orange to get a little reaction."

"You definitely got that."

"Not so much," she contradicted with a sigh. "Madeline and Justin dating Slytherins, King and Queen of Slytherin, as it were, got much more attention for Hufflepuff than I ever have."

"I must admit," Blaise said, smiling slyly at her, "the altruistic dying of your hair for such a noble cause (he emphasized the words here, milking them for every ounce of sarcasm he could get) is very commendable. I really think that you could probably unite all the houses if-"

"Oh, shut it!" exclaimed Caroline sourly, though with a slight twitch to her lips.

He laughed out loud, then leaned over, cupping the back of her head with one hand and drawing her towards him. She sighed, whether in contentment or resignation, Blaise couldn't tell, before he gently pressed his lips to hers. This kiss, while still rather heated, was not so demanding as the previous one; his lips lightly sucked on hers, nibbling at her lower lip. His tongue softly ran between her lips, asking permission to enter. Once granted, his tongue massaged her own rather than plundering her mouth. Caroline was hard put to decide which kiss she enjoyed more. Then she thought that she shouldn't be enjoying them at all. Damn conniving Slytherin bastard...

She drew back from him, and it was his turn to sigh, his clearly in frustration. "We're done," she said firmly, repeating what she had earlier declared.

Zabini watched her carefully. "You didn't mean it the first time-"

"I do now," she replied quickly, ignoring the color that crept into her cheeks.

"Fine," he growled, eyeing her less appreciatively. Turning to get off the bed, he found the cat staring at him more intensely than before, or so he could have sworn. He also could have sworn that the cat was smirking at him- if cats could smirk.

"What's wrong?" asked Caroline, standing next to him, glancing at Otis as well. The feline stood up, stretching on his front paws for a moment, then went to wind himself around Hayes' legs, purring.

"Nothing," said Blaise, watching the now normal-looking cat, wondering if he was losing his mind.

He didn't notice, and neither did Caroline, who had turned to pick up a textbook, that the cat silkily followed Blaise out the door.

The female of the species is more deadly than the male.