Never Trust the Irish

Blaise Zabini watched with mild interest as Draco Malfoy started picking on Harry Potter and his merry band.

Really, it was quite tedious. Draco insults Granger for being a mudblood, Weasley defends her, Draco insults Weasley because he's poor and makes nasty comment about Weaslette, Harry defends her, Draco insults Weasley's mother, Weasley beats Draco up, the lot of them get detention.

Oh, there went Weasley, right on schedule. Blaise sighed. Boys could be so stupid sometimes. Snape swooped down on them, no doubt giving Weasley a huge punishment and Draco some stupid little reprimand.

Blaise's eyes automatically flickered towards the giant hourglasses set in the walls. Sure enough, about twenty red stones flew upward from the base of the Gryffindor hourglass. As per usual, no green stones were retracted from Slytherin.

Not at all interested in her now ice-cold eggs, Blaise reverted to her favorite pastime. People watching. She knew more about the students at Hogwarts than they themselves did. She wasn't noticed much, and she liked it that way.

She often envisioned what might happen if she ever stood up on the middle of the Slytherin table and started throwing potatoes at Draco and Pansy. She always immediately decided that it wasn't worth it. Being invisible had its advantages.

Her gaze raked down the Gryffindor table. Blaise had quickly figured out which house was the most interesting to watch. Gryffindors had so many different personalities that it was startling.

There was Harry Potter, boy hero. He was mildly entertaining, but took himself way too seriously. His comrades were even less interesting than he was. Their base goodness nauseated her. How could someone mindlessly do what was expected of them, day in and day out?

She grinned wryly. Like she had any room to talk. People would swoon in droves if she ever spoke up in class, talked to anyone, or turned in her homework late.

"Blaise Zabini?" they'd say. "Who is she, again?"

Turning herself from her depressing thoughts, she began to watch the more interesting Gryffindors.

She had been highly disappointed when Fred and George Weasley graduated. She had enjoyed watching them. They were so funny, and had that wonderful wicked streak. They would have done well in Slytherin.

Speaking of Slytherin-ish Gryffindors, there was Seamus Finnigan. He was almost as fun to watch as the Weasley twins. She smiled every time she caught sight of him.

He was a stereotypical Irish lad. Loud, boisterous, and stubborn, he was a lightning bolt on legs. He had trouble staying in one place for elongated periods of time, so was constantly in motion. Surprisingly graceful motion, for a boy.

He also had rather attractive dimples and a delightful twinkle in his bright blue eyes.

Not that Blaise noticed, or anything.

No, she was too absorbed watching him pull various pranks. The creativity and spontaneity of the pranks astounded her. Blaise had never done a spontaneous thing in her life.

Right now, Seamus was talking animatedly to Dean Thomas, watched intently by Lavender and Parvati. They had quickly given up on Harry and Ron as lost causes (admittedly with some pointed shoving by Hermione and Ginny) and transferred their attention to Seamus and Dean.

Blaise smiled ruefully to herself, shaking her head. Those shallow, giggling girls had no chance with the Seamus Finnigan she knew. And she knew him rather well, considering she'd never spoken a single word to him.

He would never have anything to do with such empty-headed girls. He admired girls with spunk, filled with sparkling vivacity. Blaise knew this from the fact that he had fancied both Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger. Not madly and passionately, and not so that even he realized it. But Blaise, an expert people watcher, had been able to detect a hint of wistfulness in his gaze as he glanced at the two girls with Harry and Ron.

Now Blaise was the wistful one. She herself had no spunk, and no one had ever dared to call her vivacious. Or sparkling. In fact, she was too busy being invisible for people to call her anything.

Sighing to herself, she rose from the table and walked out of the Great Hall. No one spared her so much as a glance.

Or so she thought.

*

Over at the Gryffindor table, Seamus was telling Dean about the last game between Puddlemere United and the Kenmare Kestrels. Not without some small bit of pride, he related how the Kestrels' keeper, Patrick Finnigan, had made an amazing one-handed save, effectively winning the game for the Kestrels. Without his save, they would have tied Puddlemere when their seeker caught the snitch. Seamus was quite proud of his uncle.

In the middle of his description, he noticed a pretty auburn-haired girl walking out of the Great Hall. He had a feeling that he'd seen her before, a briefly disorienting sense of déjà vu. Like something on the edge of his consciousness that couldn't quite focus on.

Shaking this from his head, he continued with his story.

*

Later, Blaise was coming from the last class of the day, Potions with the Gryffindors. Not everyone had made it into Advanced Potions, and she had been surprised to see The Golden Trio of Gryffindor in there.

She hadn't been surprised to see Seamus Finnigan. Under that dynamite exterior was a startlingly sharp mind. She happened to know for a fact that Seamus had ambitions to become an Auror. She had overheard him telling Dean Thomas as much last term.

Blaise struggled under the weight of her book bag. She really needed to buy a new one, as this one was practically falling apart. As if on cue, the seam in the bottom of her bag ripped, spilling books and parchment onto the stone floor of the corridor.

Muttering unprintable words under her breath, Blaise crouched down and picked her books up, aware that the delay would make her late for dinner. As if anyone would notice.

"Need some help?" a voice said, in a rough Irish brogue.

Blaise looked up, startled. No one had ever bothered to help her before. But she didn't need to look to know who that voice belonged to. It could only be one person.

"Sure," she said, and Seamus bent down to pick up her Arithmancy and Transfiguration textbooks, along with a few loose pages of parchment.

"I haven't seen you around much," Seamus said conversationally, picking up a few more pieces of parchment. "Are you a Ravenclaw?"

"No, I'm a Slytherin," Blaise said. As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she berated herself for saying them. She of all people should have known not to mention that to Seamus. He was full of Gryffindor pride.

"Nasty lot of people," Seamus said, in the same mild tone as before. This surprised Blaise. She was so used to being right about people that it caught her off guard when she was wrong.

"You mean Draco, of course," Blaise said.

Seamus laughed. It was a wonderful sound, lilting and merry. Blaise had never heard anyone laugh like that before.

"Of course I mean Malfoy," Seamus said. "Unless there are some other random evil Slytherins running around."

"Draco isn't evil," Blaise contradicted.

Seamus gave a snort of disbelief. "He's not?"

"No," Blaise said. "He tries really hard, but he's rubbish at being bad."

"And why is that?" Seamus asked, looking genuinely interested.

"He's too much of a sheep. If he'd grow a backbone, he could be really and truly evil."

"You sound as if you'd enjoy it," Seamus said.

"It would be interesting to see," Blaise said.

"You have a strange idea of interesting," Seamus said.

Blaise laughed. "You'd be surprised."

Seamus looked at her, and then looked at the pile of books in his hands. "You can't carry all of this down to the Slytherin dungeons," he said matter-of-factly. "I'll help."

"Thanks," Blaise said, not able to recover from her surprise fast enough to say anything else.

*

So that's who this girl was. Seamus had been startled to see her in Advanced Potions, sure that he couldn't have overlooked her, especially since she was in his own year. He had suddenly recalled that wisp of memory of an eleven year old Blaise Zabini sitting under the sorting hat, and the hat calling out, "SLYTHERIN!"

Seamus could have kicked himself for failing to notice her, but he hadn't spared her a thought after that day. With the thrill of finally being at Hogwarts, she had slipped from his mind as easily as if she'd never been there in the first place.

Now fate was giving him a boot up the arse, bringing her straight front and center to his attention.

She had a troubled look on her face, as if she was doing some quick thinking. Seamus wondered if she was embarrassed to be in the company of a Gryffindor. Slytherins were proud that way.

*

He wasn't far from the truth. Blaise was currently berating herself for accepting his help. She shouldn't be attracting attention this way, it could only lead to trouble. First Seamus, then Draco, then the Dream Team, and sooner or later everyone would know who she was. She wouldn't be able to hide behind her guise of invisibility any longer.

She was sure Draco would notice her, because what kind of Slytherin Prince would fail to notice a Gryffindor in his dungeon? There was going to be a fight of some kind, and she would have caused it. She had never caused a single thing in her life.

"It's not an Arithmancy problem, you know," Seamus said, cutting into her thoughts. "Contrary to popular belief, walking really isn't that hard."

Blaise looked at him in astonishment. She wasn't going to...she wouldn't...too late. She laughed. Loud and boisterously. Uninhibited guffaws, that rang down the hallways, so different from her familiar quiet chuckle.

Seamus just stood there, raising his eyebrows at her as she gasped for air. But she knew him all too well, and could tell that he was fighting a smile.

"You Slytherins don't joke much, do you?" Seamus asked.

Blaise regained her composure, taking a few deep breaths. "Some do," she answered him. "I just don't happen to be one of them."

"That's one thing I can't understand," Seamus said as they resumed walking. "People need to laugh. Without laughter, life is just..." He seemed to search for the word.

"Bleak?" Blaise supplied.

"Yeah," Seamus said. "Bleak. Don't you think so?"

"I wouldn't know," Blaise answered. "You'll have to show me."

Oh. Merlin.

Had she really just said that? Her, Blaise Zabini, the girl everyone loves to ignore, had actually just said something that bold? Was it really that bold? Seamus didn't seem to notice.

"Sure," he said with a laugh. "Here's a start. Are you ready?"

"Yes," Blaise said, looking at him in excitement.

"How many kittens does it take to paint a wall?" Seamus asked, again fighting a smile.

"I don't know, how many?" Blaise answered.

"One, if you throw it hard enough." Seamus delivered the punch-line with a completely straight face.

Blaise burst out laughing. "That's horrible!" she managed to get out, between laughs.

"I figured it might appeal to your Slytherin sensibilities," Seamus said with a shrug. "See, now? Wasn't that fun?"

"That was horrible," Blaise repeated, although she was smiling. "I can't believe you actually said that. Poor little kittens." She completely ruined this reprimand by bursting out laughing for the third time that day.

Seamus just shrugged again. "Which way is your common room?"

"I can get there from here," Blaise said. "I'll just levitate these books in front of me. I don't know why I didn't think of it before."

Seamus tried to hide his disappointment, but again Blaise caught his subtle change of expression. But she was determined that Draco Malfoy not see her with a Gryffindor. He'd kill Seamus.

"I'll see you later," she said, and muttered the levitation charm. Holding her books out in front of her, she made her way to the Slytherin dungeons.

*

Seamus stood still, watching her until she turned a corner out of sight. Then, swearing a blue streak under his breath, he began to walk towards Gryffindor tower.