Away We Go

September 10th, 1993

Dear diary,

Hello. My name is Blaise Zabini. Before you even ask, yes, I am a male. I'd be awfully shocked if I looked down and I wasn't. If I had a sickle for every time someone messed that up, I would have precisely twenty nine sickles. I keep track.

Moving on, I am thirteen years of age and am currently attending my third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'll be fourteen in December, a most unfortunate time to have a birthday. Curse my parents for their shoddy family planning. November is fine. So is January, or at least, it's better than December. But December? No, no, a thousand times, no.

I'm wondering what horrible event will occur this school year. Last year, there was the whole sorry business with the chamber of secrets and the year before that, it was the philosopher's stone. If I were a betting man, I'd say that this year's main event will have something to do with that fugitive, Sirius Black. The dementors hovering about are a fairly good tip-off.

I suppose I should tell you what incredibly fascinating events occurred during the day. It seems like the thing to do, at least in regards to diaries.

It started out normally enough. Got woken up by Crabbe's snoring, tried to ignore Crabbe's snoring and go back to sleep, gave up and got dressed before any of the others had decided to stir. Sometimes, I'm sorely tempted to smother the gorilla with a pillow if it were not for the inconvenient fact that if he woke up at an inconvenient time, he could crack my head open without having to think, which is most fortunate for him considering that I'm not entirely certain that he can think. Besides, I don't want to have to hear Draco whine for weeks until his dear father sends him a new thug. What? You think I think he's spoiled? Is there 493 knuts to a galleon? Then I went to the common room, schoolbooks in hand. I had to escape the snoring somehow.

It was nearly empty, which was hardly surprising for this time of morning. There were three or four fifth and seventh of years about, studying for their OWLs and NEWTs respectively. Or they might have been catching up on their homework. I don't know, I was just hazarding a guess. Perhaps they were woken up by snoring peers as well. A couple of them looked up to me and then they looked down. I wasn´t about to attack them or make a bucket load of noise and beyond that they didn´t give a damn.

It seemed I was the youngest one there... Well, save for the brown-haired second year girl over in the corner there. What was her name again? Cecilia Something-or-another. I'm quite sure I heard my little sister, Maia, complain about her a couple of times. I´ve never talked to her personally. Who ever really talks to second years?

I sat on the couch nearest to my humble self because it just seemed like the right thing to do. There was a History of Magic essay due in two days and I only had five inches to go. With any luck, which I admit I´m not blessed with, I would be done by the time the other students, led by a desire to fill their grumbling stomachs, marched down the stairs from their dormitories and ruined the blessed peace and quiet. I cracked my textbook open, whipped out my parchment and my quill and went to work.

I was nearly one inch from completion when a small group of second years of the female persuasion tromped into the common room, my sister among them. Odd. Usually, that particular pack of students, as a whole, took longer than anyone to find themselves in the land of wakefulness. My sister would be buried under her blankets until one in the afternoon if anyone would let her. I paid another girl in her dormitory, Francette, five knuts a week to prevent this very occurrence.

"Parnwell!" said the lead girl. Holly, I think her name was. A nice girl; normal, so far as I can tell, but she´s been especially snippy lately. Being the ringleader of her tiny gang must be getting to her.

Cecilia looked up, saw the new arrivals, then looked down again. I could have sworn I heard her mutter something as she did so.

Holly strode over to her and snatched her textbook before she could even react. Poor reflexes, that girl.

"Return that to me," said Cecilia. I couldn´t see the look in her eyes from my angle, but doubtless it wasn´t friendly. "Please."

"Not until you fess up," said Holly. "We all know you did it, so you might as well. It would go a lot less painful for you if you did."

"I haven´t the faintest clue what you´re talking about."

"Well, if you didn´t turn Erica´s hair pink, who did? A house elf?" A few shushes were aimed at her. I couldn´t blame them, really; they and I had counted on another solid half an hour of relative silence.

"Perhaps. That´s an interesting theory; you should follow up on it." Then Cecilia calmy grabbed her book and resumed the activity of reading.

Only to have it snatched from her again. God, that girl´s reflexes really are shoddy. She sighed in such a way that told the world, "I am surrounded by complete and other morons who can´t tell that I have absolutely zero interest in them or their issues with me."

"For the last time, Holly, when I left the dormitory an hour ago, Erica´s hair was as black as pitch. Now leave me alone before I get testy."

"Will you two quiet down?" said an irate sixth year I only vaguely recognized. "Can´t you see that some of us are trying to work?" There were vigorous nods of agreement, I saw.

"This is important," said Holly simply. "And you don´t honestly expect me to believe that, do you? You´re the only one with the motive and opportunity pull such a prank!"

"No," said Cecilia. "Only the most obvious one. Which doesn´t equate to guilt, by the by."

"You asked for it, Parnwell. Tonight at ten. Right here in the common room and bring your wand," said Holly. She really sounded as if she wanted to be shouting. "I´m not letting you get away with this!"

"Wouldn´t it be wiser to punish the person who actually comitted the deed?"

"That´s exactly what I´m doing! Good luck finding a second!" Then back went the second years, up the stairs and hopefully back to sleep. Those in the common room breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Idiots," said Cecilia. I saw that Holly hadn´t remembered to give her back her textbook, whichever one it was. Lacking anything else to do, she stared idly at the opposite wall. I doubt she would have had incredible amounts of success if she went back to her dormitory and tried to re-acquire the book.

I´m really not sure what compelled me to do what I did next. Perhaps I´ll figure it out tomorrow or Sunday. What I did was this: I stood up and walked over to Cecilia.

"What do you want?" she asked, somewhat on the unkindly side.

I smiled. Judging from Cecilia´s continued scowl, it probably didn´t look very sincere or at least, not sincere enough."You need a second, don´t you?"

Her scowl faded somewhat and she looked at me oddly like I was some hitherto undiscovered species. "Yes, I do. But you´ll forgive me if I ask what the catch is."

"None, as far as I know."

"Excellent. You´re Blaise, aren´t you? Maia´s brother? Is there any chance that you´re in league with her and Holly and the rest?"

"No," I said, completely, one hundred percent honest. Maia never really talked to me unless she had something to complain about. She suffered from a common affliction which caused her to believe with utmost certainty that her dear brother knew precisely squat about everything.

"Good," said the girl. "That´s one less thing for me to worry about. I´ll see you at ten."

I nodded and accepted my apparent dismissal. Back to the essay I went.

The rest of the day passed by as per usual. Oh, right, you´re wondering how the duel turned out, are you? The truth is, it´s in ten minutes, so I´d better finish this up.

Wait. I read the clock wrong. It´s five minutes. Oh crap, I must be went.

- B.Z.