Take a Chance

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know..."

Kate Bell rolled her eyes merrily as she passed a singing suit of armour. She dumped her books on a table in the library and sat down to start her Potions homework. Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet had scoffed when she told them she was going to do homework. They insisted that homework was for the end of the Christmas break not for the first day. They had decided to take their brooms out while the snow was falling. She had felt a tug of hesitance when they had mentioned Quidditch but she was determined to finish her homework now and not later when it would be rushed and incorrect.

That was just the type of girl she was. She hated to procrastinate with anything. She was the 'teacher's pet' some would say. The Professors liked her... well except maybe Snape. She handed in all assignments on time and did them to the best of her ability. She didn't talk in class unless it was a designated moment for it. She took notes in class and managed to stay awake in Binn's lessons. She didn't get perfect grades or anything she just tried and that was what impressed them.

After a few hours of studying and finishing her assignments Katie stretched and looked at a clock. It was only nine o'clock and she didn't feel like going to the common room just yet. Yawning she slipped her robe off trying to catch a breeze of cold air. Not an easy task in the surprisingly humid library. She was only in a pair of pyjamas but she didn't see anyone around so she ignored that and pulled a mirror out of her bag. She placed it on the table and grabbed her sketchbook. She had been trying to finish a drawing for days and using the mirror to help but couldn't quite bring herself to do it.

The picture was of her and someone else. She just didn't know who the other person was. So far she had the view coming from someone looking in a mirror. It was a pencil drawing but in her mind she could picture the colour. The dark brown hair falling from her head covered her shoulders and one strand brushed against her face. She was wearing her school uniform and the blouse was out of the skirt with only two buttons done up. Three were left loose on the bottom and two on the top revealing only an inch of her bra underneath on the left. Her skirt was a little higher on her thighs than she would ever consider wearing it. The picture ended just above her knees but she had added onto it after that. Her head was thrown back against a shoulder and her eyes closed. A small smile almost a smirk resided at the corner of one lip and both arms came up and around a neck. That was where Katie had to stop. She had started someone behind her. A hand rested just underneath her shirt on her ribcage while another reaching up to move the solitary lock of hair. She had drawn a basic outline for the shoulders but the head was nonexistent and she didn't know who the person was.

She fully intended to find out. That was what had kept her going back to the picture over and over again. She had considered erasing it at one point because it was such a typical love scene that it seemed a bit clichéd. Only she couldn't erase him. Whoever he was.

"That's pretty good... who's the bloke?" a deep voice interrupted Katie's silence and she jumped a bit before turning towards the person.

She was speechless. She was looking into dark blue eyes that sparkled with mischief attached to a tan, tall and muscular body currently clothed in his pyjamas. Blue silk pants and an open shirt. Raven hair falling around his eyes as he leaned over her shoulder. A playful smile graced his perfect lips when she didn't answer.

"I don't bite you know..." he chuckled as she shook her head to clear it and apologized.

"I don't know," she finally answered.

"What?"

"I don't know who the person is," she repeated shyly.

"Is that why it isn't finished?" he asked sitting down and looking genuinely interested.

"Yes..." Katie was a bit apprehensive. A Slytherin was sitting at her table talking to her about a very personal picture as if it was an everyday occurrence. "Who are you?"

"Blaise Zabini," he answered, "and you are Katie Bell, Gryffindor chaser. I would compliment you on that but I'd be lying. I can't tell a broom from a bludger."

Katie laughed surprised at his sincerity. "Don't like Quidditch?"

"No," he said with a smirk. "I hate heights. It was a bad childhood experience."

"I've got time if you feel like telling it to me," she pushed not even bothering to look at a clock.

"If you're really that interested," he said disbelievingly. "I think I was about six years old which was a rotten age for me. I was a horrid child really. My mom had decided to go shopping that day and my father was at work. So they left me at home with the nanny. Well my nanny decides it's my naptime forgetting that I don't nap anymore. So she sings me a song and ends up falling asleep. Long story short I somehow got up a tree and got stuck. I didn't know how to get down and I couldn't yell for help because no one would hear me. I think I fell asleep at one point and fell out of the tree. Lucky for me I wasn't high up and I landed on my dad as he came home from work."

Katie started laughing and couldn't stop as she pictured a little Blaise falling out of a tree. She couldn't stop and he smiled as she continued to laugh. She was starting to cry because she was laughing so hard. He was quite calm about her reaction. Watching her laugh, he smirked but the small gesture reached his eyes so they looked almost teasing.

"Did that really happen?"

"No," he mocked a grimace. "If I tell you the truth will you keep it a secret?"

Katie nodded enthusiastically.

"I think I was about four and I was finally beginning to understand the Harry Potter hero story. You can imagine at this age I took the whole thing very seriously. I thought 'if Harry Potter is invincible then so am I'. So I grabbed a blanket tied it around my neck like a cape and jumped out a window to fly," Blaise explained. "Thank god my magic kicked in early and I landed in a pile of enlarged mushrooms."

A half smirk slid over Katie's mouth. "A Slytherin taking an example from Harry Potter. Think of the scandal."

"I know that's why we have to keep it on the hush hush," Blaise replied looking around for possible spies. This sent Katie into another round of laughter. "Well I have to go keep up those Slytherin characteristics so I'll see you around."

Katie watched as Blaise walked off and it wasn't until he was out of sight that she registered everything that had just happened. She had just had a normal conversation with a Slytherin guy. A Slytherin guy who wasn't just interested in homework or Quidditch. An attractive Slytherin who wasn't only concerned about Quidditch and school. It was slightly overwhelming. She made her way back to the Gryffindor common room lost in thought.

~*~

When Katie finished her homework the next night she threw her quill down and relaxed back into the seat thinking about bed. The idea made her restless and she didn't feel tired. She was saved from figuring out what to do when a group of girls came down from the dorms. She recognized Angelina and Alicia instantly then Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. She stood up and said hello causing the group to freeze.

"Oh hello Katie," Ginny smiled. "We thought we'd been caught."

"Would you like to join us?" Hermione asked.

"We're organizing a girls night in the Room of Requirement," Lavender explained.

"Butterbeer, chocolate and gossip," Parvati encouraged.

"A girl needs to by fluffy every once in a while Katie and you have been studying all day," Angelina reasoned.

"It's time to relax," Alicia announced with a dramatic flick of her hand.

Katie just laughed at their antics and agreed. She ran up to her dorm and threw her pyjamas in before joining the girls on their way to the Room of Requirement. When they arrived the room looked very different from when they saw it during DA meetings. It was smaller and the whole floor was covered in pillows and mattresses and big fluffy sleeping bags.

Katie flopped down in a mattress and everyone followed suit giggling like first years. Parvati wasted no time and immediately started talking about Cho's newest boyfriend, Roger Davies.

"Didn't he take Fleur to the Yule Ball?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Lavender confirmed. "Cho went with Cedric that year but then he died and now she's been flitting from boy to boy trying to find someone like him. It's a rather romantic story."

Ginny frowned. "It's a bit stupid really. She needs to figure out she doesn't need a man to make her whole."

Hermione smiled. "Yes Ginny our little feminist. I swear when Ron heard he was so relieved you didn't want to date."

Angelina snorted. "A feminist can date and I don't think our little Ginny is going to hold out."

A guilty grin spread over the redheads face. "Of course not..."

Lavender squealed "who?"

"I'll tell you if everyone else here spills," Ginny grinned impishly.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "I think we all know whom I like so I am not going to bother answering."

Ginny pretended to gag. "Why you chose Ron I'll never know."

They continued around the circle. Lavender admitted to liking Harry and Parvati, Dean Thomas. Alicia muttered something about Oliver Wood and winked at Angelina who answered Fred outright without hesitation. Then all eyes turned to Katie.

"Well...that is... ummmm... I'm not sure I like him..." she stumbled weakly.

"Oh my god our darling Katie actually has a crush on someone," Alicia wiped an imaginary tear from her eye. "They do grow up so fast."

"Well who is it?" they demanded.

"IthinkIlikeBlaiseZabini," Katie mumbled.

"What was that dear?" Hermione goaded.

"Blaise Zabini. I think I like Blaise Zabini," Katie whispered. And indeed she had been thinking about it during her study time and she felt the beginnings of a crush starting to appear.

"Now you have taste Katie dear," Ginny smirked. "Blaise Zabini is sex-on-a-stick if I do say so myself. Don't tell anyone I said that though."

"Why?" Parvati asked confused.

"Well you see the guy I am seeing is a tad bit jealous," Ginny explained. "And although Blaise Zabini is sex on a stick Draco Malfoy is beyond yummy."

"It's the bad boy syndrome," Katie replied sagely.

"Draco Malfoy?" questioned Angelina.

"They aren't even that good looking," Lavender exclaimed.

"You just don't like him because of Quidditch," Ginny teased Angelina.

"Its their attitudes that make them hot Lav," Hermione explained. "Every girl goes through a bad boy stage."

"I most certainly did not," Parvati exclaimed haughtily. "I went through a partially less than perfect stage."

The group gave her a look that quite plainly said 'uh huh' and they burst into giggles. The conversation continued and Katie half listened as she thought more about the raven haired Slytherin. She most definitely had a crush on him.

~*~

"Katie Bell I can't believe you slept in Snape is going to kill you," Katie scolded herself as she tried to stuff her text into her bag. She was practically flying down the stairs to the dungeons when she tripped and flew into a very stunned Blaise.

"You know talking to yourself is the first sign of illness," Blaise told her as he caught her. "Maybe you should go see Madame Pomfrey? I mean Snape can't blame you for being late if you're looking after your personal health."

"You know... I think that might work," Katie agreed.

"I have a spare I'll take care of Snape you go see Pomfrey," Blaise offered. "Maybe try sleeping more as well."

"I can't! I have to finish my homework and do some extra work in Potions to keep a good grade up," she replied stress evident in her voice.

"We can work on that later then," Blaise waved her worry away and looked at her critically. "You have to look sick if you want Pomfrey to believe you."

Katie stood shocked as he loosened her tie slightly and undid the three bottom buttons of her blouse before refastening them in the wrong holes. She shivered as his hand grazed her stomach. Then he took her hair out of its braid and let it fall before messing it up so it looked like she had just gotten out of bed. Then he flicked his wand in her direction making her skin go slightly pale.

"You are brilliant," she glanced at herself in a window. She made her skirt crooked and nodded at herself before starting to head to the Hospital wing. She paused before going. "Blaise?"

He looked up at her from the floor. "Yeah?"

"Thanks," she smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. The action caused her to flush as she continued on her way.

~*~

Katie was in dreamland for the rest of the day. A permanent smile graced her face and she was nice to everyone. Draco Malfoy teased her on the way to lunch and she simply smiled at him and laughed. She knew she looked like she was infatuated and she didn't care of Malfoy thought the boy was unlucky.

She quickly finished lunch and headed to the library where she took out her sketchbook and started to finish the picture. She was so busy concentrating on the sketch and putting so much effort into it that she was done quickly. As she placed the last bit of detail to his eyes she looked up and saw a group of Slytherins enter the library. She scanned the group quickly and found Blaise. Her smile turned to a frown as she saw Pansy hanging off his arm. She bit her lip as he leaned down to her face and whispered in her ear. A single tear ran down her face as Pansy giggled and placed a kiss near his lips. No one saw her leave the library save the icy grey eyes of Draco Malfoy.

~*~

Katie wiped her eyes and smiled pathetically. She was in the Room of Requirement once again only this time it was only Ginny, who had found her crying, Angelina, Alicia and Hermione.

"I don't know why I'm crying," Katie told them scornfully. "I've hardly know him a week and it was only a small crush. I am pathetic."

"Its completely normal, Katie doll," Ginny said encouraging.

"Yeah Ginny cried over Harry when she had a crush on him," Hermione said with a smirk in the redheads direction.

"Now that was pathetic," Ginny said rolling her eyes. "You figured it out in a day. It took me four years even while he was flirting with other girls."

Ginny scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out making a funny face causing Katie to finally smile and laugh. "I'm not going to cry anymore!" she declared.

"That's good no point really," Alicia encouraged.

"It only makes everything worse," said Angelina.

~*~

Katie made her way back down the library intent on finding her sketchbook because she had forgotten it when she had left the library in such a hurry yesterday. She rounded the corner to the table she had been sitting at and saw someone leaning over the table. A raven haired Slytherin someone to be exact. He had a curious and confused look on his face. She backed away slowly not wanting to face him. She couldn't. Not after he had seen her picture.

She evidently was not having a lot of luck that day because she backed up into Draco Malfoy, Blaise's closest friend. He looked at her funny and then realization dawned on his face when he saw Blaise. To her surprise he pulled her quietly away into an alcove down the hall from the library and handed her a book. She looked down and saw it was her sketchbook that he had given her.

"But what-" she asked confused. Blaise had just been looking at it... hadn't he?

"He's looking at my sketchbook," Draco answered neutrally. "I wanted his opinion of a picture I drew. Although I think he would find yours a bit more interesting."

"I think he would prefer it to be Pansy's wouldn't he?" she snapped irritably trying to be as quiet as he was.

"Bell, Slytherins aren't the most direct people when it comes to their feelings. I'm not trying to generalize but when the whole school is against you, sometimes for a good reason, you don't tend to trust as easily as you would. Blaise is one of those people. Pansy is his cousin and they trust each other with their lives. She was just giving him a sisterly peck on the cheek. Now why don't you go back in there and explain to Blaise why you avoided him at dinner yesterday? Its bad enough skipping a study period with a little redhead but skipping it to listen to Blaise whine could be the death of me," Draco explained. "Aren't you bloody Gryffindors supposed to be dashing off to do daft things?"

Katie smiled slightly as the blonde boy strode away trying to retain his mean aura. Ginny had obviously been getting to him. She wiped the smile of her face and tapped her fingers on her sketchbook as she glanced back at the library. She wasn't sure if she could go to him just yet. She needed to gather up some courage before she went and did something "daft".

~*~

"Katie Bell you are going to go and talk to Blaise this instant! He spends more time with my boyfriend than I do!" Ginny whined.

"I know Gin but this has to be perfect," Katie declared. She finished putting some tape on the present she had just wrapped. She had all the lines straight and neat in the silver wrapping paper and she added the card and a green bow at the last minute as an afterthought.

"You had better really like this guy because I am having withdrawals," Ginny sighed. "I haven't gone without kissing Draco at least once a day for months. You know when the last time I got to talk to him, never mind kiss him, was? It was a week ago, seven days, one hundred and sixty eight hours, ten thousand and eighty hours, six hundred and four thousand eight hundred sec-"

"I get the point Ginny," Katie interrupted before the girl could start counting in hundredths of a millisecond. "I thought you said you weren't dating yet."

"Well we aren't technically," Ginny replied with s sigh. "I just call him my boyfriend because what else am I supposed to call him? The man I just happen to snog on occasion while we enjoy stimulating conversation in his-"

"Ginny, I mean this in the nicest possible way, please shut up," Katie pleaded and Ginny glared half-heartedly at her before jumping off the bed. She looked around at the other beds while Katie finished writing in the card.

"You know I think the seventh year dorms are a bit bigger than all the rest," Ginny noted.

"They aren't really. The bathrooms are a bit smaller so the room looks bigger." Katie signed her name with a flourish and jumped off the bed. She linked her arms through Ginny's and pulled her forward. "Come along we have a few Slytherins to ambush."

"I like how you think, Katie doll," Ginny smirked.

~*~

"DRACO ALCANDER MALFOY!" Ginny's voice rang through the Great Hall and heads swivelled so fast many people winced as they gave themselves whiplash. They ignored the pain intent on watching the littlest Weasley unleash her fury on the Malfoy heir.

Draco's reaction however was much different. He had spat out his drink when he had heard his middle name and started coughing. He may have had a chance to escape if he hadn't almost died while choking on the offending pumpkin juice. Then again a quick death may have been the best escape when compared to the slow painful one that Ginny was promising with the death glare she was giving him.

"What did I do?" he whispered to Blaise who shrugged. He was torn between concern for his friend's life and trying not to laugh...too hard.

Ginny however had made her way to the Slytherin table already and stood there glaring at him venomously. She tapped her foot impatiently waiting. Only the poor boy had no idea what she was waiting for.

"What do you want Weasley?" he asked trying to make his voice firm. There was a small tinge of uncertainty in it though.

This only seemed to enrage the girl further and quite suddenly she grabbed the boy by his ear in an exact imitation of her mother and began to drag him out of the hall. She paused momentarily to tell Zabini he had better follow. Her voice didn't allow any argument and the raven haired Slytherin wasn't about to challenge that.

The Great Hall would have passed it off as another Weasley/Malfoy fight only another sight marked the night as a momentous occasion. Severus Snape was laughing so hard he was choking and crying. The Great Hall went into silence again as the Potions master fell off his chair in a fit of mirth. Needless to say Collin Creevey's camera was snapping constantly because he was sure that nobody would believe what he or she was seeing without proof. It was in this moment that Ron Weasley turned to Harry Potter with a look of the utmost bewilderment.

"The whole world's gone completely nutters."

~*~

Outside the Great Hall Blaise was no less confused. Ginny had dragged Draco down a hall and motioned Blaise to follow. When they came to a potions room Ginny had stopped, let go off Draco, pushed him against the wall and began to start kissing him well and thoroughly. She hardly had the sense to wave towards a classroom, which he went into if only to get away from the two entwined people who had began to make moaning sounds.

What he found in the classroom, or rather who he found made him pause for a few seconds before fully entering the classroom. She sat on top of a desk playing with a bow on a package in her hand. Her head was down but it flew up when he closed the door. She bit her lip out of nervous habit and flicked her hair behind her shoulders.

She didn't look at him as he wandered over to her and he smiled, amused with her shyness. When he reached her he stopped. He didn't move, didn't speak and didn't make any indication of what he was thinking. She waited a few moments before handing him the package. The surprised look he gave her made her smile, now she was amused only she was happy to have broken the calm of the steady waters that were Blaise Zabini. Her smile didn't last though. It returned to the nervous frown as he carefully unwrapped the present.

When he finally had it open she let out a breath and relaxed when his face didn't show disgust. In fact it was quite clearly displaying amazement. He looked at her and then the picture continuously until he placed it on a nearby desk and tilted her chin up.

"It's beautiful," he whispered before kissing her forehead. "It doesn't quite compare to you though." And that is when he kissed her. It was a soft kiss that left her breathless nonetheless and her body shook with the sudden torrent of emotions.

"Thank you," she whispered blushing at the compliments and his lips gently grazing her neck. He stared into her eyes a moment before leaning forward again. The moment was broken as Ginny entered the classroom attempting to fix her bra underneath her shirt.

"What do you mean nothing is wrong? You can't go around yelling my middle name in front of the entire school and expect me to believe nothing is wrong," Draco was scowling heavily. "Bloody women."

"There wasn't anything wrong now fix my goddamn bra right now," she snapped irritated with the stupid piece of material. The blonde slipped his hands under her shirt and fastened her bra quickly as she Ginny looked up at them.

"Oh darn," she said before hitting Draco. "I told you we shouldn't have come in here."

"Why the bloody hell not? Blaise is in..." Draco then noticed the two other occupants in the room. "Oh."

Katie just laughed and hugged Blaise smiling as Draco started berating Ginny. Ginny finally shut him up by telling him she was that close to cutting of any and all kissing until he learned to hold his tongue.

"Run while you still can man," Draco muttered. "Once they get you under their hand its all abuse and crazy hormones."

Blaise looked at Katie and smirked. "I think I'll take that chance."