Collide

Oh, this is the start of something good
Don't you agree?
I haven't felt like this in so many moons
You know what I mean?

--Gavin DeGraw

Blaise was seated at the Slytherin table early Monday morning, hunched over his third cup of coffee. The Great Hall was mostly empty although Granger was there, of course, eating some toast and reading a thick book. Not that he was paying attention to anything she did. He felt rather than saw someone slide into the seat next to him.

"You're staring," Millicent Bulstrode said bluntly.

He turned to find his oldest friend at Hogwarts smiling at him. He often felt badly for Millicent. She'd turned into a decent looking girl, but he was a shade under six foot and she towered over him. Plus, there was the fact that he'd known her since they were both eleven that made dating her spectacularly unappealing.

"I was not," he groused in reply.

"You were staring at the..." Another smile. "The Gryffindor table, I believe. Trouble in paradise?"

Blaise shook his head and took another gulp of coffee. "Granger just said something stupid the other night."

"What, did she confess her undying love for you?" Millicent asked jokingly.

He knocked over his coffee cup and swore in Italian. "That's not funny, Millie."

She gave him an odd look, but ultimately nodded and began to fix herself a plate.

Blaise managed to avoid Granger for the first two hours of class that morning. However, they had double Arithmancy after lunch; avoiding her then would be near impossible. That didn't mean that Blaise didn't do his utmost.

"Zabini," Granger hissed. "Are you going to ignore me for the rest of the term?" He tilted his head as if considering her proposition. This only inflamed her more. "You can't. We're partners."

"And that is all we are. I'll converse with you when necessary. And no more meeting in your room," he whispered back before turning his attention to Professor Vector. Thinking back on Friday night, Blaise knew why he was so upset. It wasn't so much Granger and her comment about Slytherins--Merlin knew, that was to be expected, everything was black and white for those Gryffs--but his own reaction to her. When he'd bent his head down next to her, those stupid curly hairs had brushed his own face. And they smelled like vanilla. A Gryffindor had no right to smell that nice, he thought crossly. And then he'd made that asinine comment about the perks of being Head Boy. Why in the world had he flirted with Granger? Ignoring Professor Vector, he laid his forehead on the table and banged it once. If he'd been looking up, he would have witnessed the look of concern cross Granger's face.

Two hours later, Professor Vector dismissed the class, asking Granger and Blaise to stay behind. Once the class left, she held up their parchment. "Who helped you with this?" Vector asked.

Granger looked incensed, but before she could say anything, Blaise cut in smoothly. "Surely you're not accusing the top two 7^th Years of cheating, Professor."

Vector's face softened. "Of course not, Mr. Zabini." She paused. "Because you've done so marvelously on this and ahead of schedule to boot, I've got a bit more of a challenge for the two of you." She briefly outlined the problem they were to attempt to solve. Before dismissing them, the ghost of a smile flitted across Vector's face. "I am so glad this partnership is working out." Looking to his left, Blaise saw Granger roll her eyes.

Leaving the Arithmancy classroom, he quickly headed for the Slytherin common room. Ignoring Granger's shouts of 'Zabini,' he sped up. Unfortunately, Granger was used to trying to catch up to tall boys and a minute later she was planted in front of him, bag over one shoulder and hands on her hips. If Blaise didn't know better, he'd have thought she looked somewhat attractive. He groaned; what the hell was wrong with him?

"What do you want, Granger?"

"We need to clear the air," she said matter-of-factly.

"There's nothing to clear," he said, trying to step around her.

"Obviously, there is." She took a deep breath. "I wanted to...about Friday night...I shouldn't..." Blaise was astonished to see Granger flustered and the smallest of smiles played across his face. "Don't you dare laugh at me! I'm trying to apologize to you."

"You're what?" he said, sure she was speaking Mermish or perhaps Troll. Had Granger just said she...

"I'm sorry for that comment I made on Friday night. The one about Slytherins," she said, head down.

He found the sight of Granger looking abashed slightly adorable and immediately cursed himself for thinking that. Hermione Granger was not adorable under any circumstances. "Fine, it's forgotten," he said curtly.

She still hadn't moved from in front of him. "So when do you want to begin working on this?" she said, holding up the parchment upon which she'd written Vector's new task.

"Is tomorrow soon enough?"

"Tomorrow then. After dinner?"

Blaise nodded once and stepped around her.

*****************************************

"You ready?" Granger asked, standing behind Millicent at the Slytherin table.

Blaise nodded and swallowed his last bite of shepherd's pie. He stood up and slung his bag over one shoulder.

"See you later, Millie," Blaise said.

"Later, Blaisie-poo," Millicent replied sweetly. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Millicent and Theodore Nott exploded in laughter after this last comment.

"Blaisie-poo?" Granger said, barely containing her own laughter as they walked out of the Great Hall.

"Millie's nickname for me when she wants to be annoying." He paused at the foot of the first staircase. "Library?"

Granger nodded. As they climbed the stairs, she asked, "You and Millicent..." If Blaise hadn't known better, he would have thought she was actually invested in the answer.

He chuckled and shook his head. "Me and Millie? No, no. There's just no mystery when you've known someone since you were children."

"I know what you mean," she agreed quietly.

"So you and Potter..."

Granger shook her head. "And not me and Ron either," she added quickly. "Despite all the rumors to the contrary."

Opening the door to the library, Blaise waited until she'd entered and walked in behind her. He threw a wave to Madame Pince who smiled at him. "So the rumor about the three of you in the Room of Requirement is untrue?"

She flushed. "I wish I knew who started that one."

"What are you doing here with the Mud--" Draco Malfoy began to say as he blocked their way.

"I've told you a million times, Malfoy. Don't ever use that word in my presence," Blaise said, the slightest hint of a threat.

"Answer my question, Zabini," Draco continued. "What are you doing with her?"

"Hermione and I happen to be working on an Arithmancy project together. If you'll excuse us..." His arm shot out and shoved Draco to the right. Gesturing to Hermione, they walked past a gaping Draco Malfoy. Turning the corner of the stacks, Blaise glanced over at Hermione who was also gaping.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

"You called me 'Hermione,'" she said quietly.

"That is your name, isn't it?" he snapped.

"Yes, but...you always call me 'Granger.'"

"It's just a name. It's not as if I've asked you to marry me or something. Stop gaping." Realizing what had just come out of his mouth, Blaise felt his face heating up. He thanked Merlin for his swarthy skin so that Her--no, no, Granger, he corrected himself--couldn't see him blushing.

"All right then...Blaise," she replied, closing her mouth. They made their way to Granger's favorite table in the middle of the muggle section. For the next hour, they didn't even see another student. Each of them bent over a copy of the parchment. Occasionally, one or the other would disappear into the library and return holding a thick book. Blaise felt like they were missing something major and he was beginning to get frustrated. He yanked off his tie and threw it down on the table next to him. While skimming yet another Arithmancy book, he undid the top two buttons of his shirt.

"W-what are you doing?" Glancing up, he noticed that Granger was staring at him, open-mouthed.

"Pardon?" he asked, not knowing to what she was referring.

She pointed at her own collar. "What are you doing?" she repeated.

"Undoing my collar. It's stifling in here." He tilted his head at her. "Is that a problem?"

"N-no," she stammered out and he went back to his reading. He peeked up ten minutes later and caught Granger staring at him. More specifically, she seemed to be staring at the top of his undone collar.

"See something you like?" he asked, feeling cocky.

She flushed. "Of all the..."

"It was a joke," he quickly covered. She didn't need to sound so angry.

Granger said nothing and bent over her book again. Several minutes later, she'd shoved a book it toward Blaise. He grabbed it and scanned the passage she'd pointed at with her index finger. "Hermione, this is brilliant," he said quietly. She flushed again but this time with pride. While he scratched some notes on his parchment, she fiddled with her tie. "You can take it off if you'd like," he suggested without looking up. "No one will ever know that the Head Girl has removed her tie," he added jokingly.

She didn't respond so Blaise looked up to gauge her reaction. Just in time to watch, mesmerized, as her slender fingers loosened her tie, pulled it off, and undid the top button of her shirt. His mouth suddenly went dry at the brief glimpse of her exposed neck. Shaking his head, he bent over his book again. They worked in silence for another thirty minutes before movement from across the table caught Blaise's attention. Granger was stretching and yawning.

"Call it a night then?" he asked.

"I still have an essay for Transfiguration," she admitted with a shrug.

"And you know we're going to have a quiz in Potions tomorrow."

"Pardon?"

"Snape's only given out two detentions this week. Four detentions or fewer guarantees we'll have a quiz." He laughed as Granger's mouth dropped open. "Surely you've noticed it."

"I don't believe you."

Blaise shrugged and then fished around in his bag. Pulling out a piece of parchment, he handed it to her. It was a table for the entire sixth year, documenting number of detentions per week and quiz dates. Hermione read it, biting her bottom lip as she did, in silence. "So we'll have a quiz tomorrow?"

He nodded. "Do you want me to walk you back to your room?"

Granger began to shake her head, but suddenly stopped. "All right," she agreed while she packed up her books.

As they exited the library, Blaise noticed she'd put her tie back on. 'Pity,' he thought, 'she does have a lovely neck. Wonder what it'd be like to...' Squeezing his eyes shut for a moment, he forced thoughts of Granger's neck out of his head.

She must have noticed. "Are you all right?"

Blaise nodded.

At the top of the staircase, she hesitated. "Blaise, why don't you want to hear Draco use the word 'Mudblood'?" she winced as she asked.

"My sister is married to a muggle," he replied simply. "And my niece and nephew are half-muggle."

"But you're a Slytherin," she said rashly.

"Just because I'm a pureblood doesn't mean I buy into that sort of thing." He shrugged. "And Frank makes Therese happy. You can't help with whom you fall in love, I suppose."

"No, I suppose you can't," she said.