Resolving

Two

Becoming Reacquainted

After window shopping a bit, Blaise continued on to Gringotts, where he withdrew enough money to have the goblins glare at him as he walked out. He went back down to Flourish & Blotts and went directly to their Charms section. When he couldn't find what he needed, he went to the front

"Excuse me," he said to the attendant.

She turned around. "Yes?"

"I'm Blaise Zabini, and I'm looking for several books, but they don't seem to be on the shelves." He showed her the list.

"Those books wouldn't be on there, sir. They're limited print books. I'll have to get Mr. Flourish."

"You do that," Blaise said, leaning on the counter. A moment later, an old man with fluffy white hair springing from his head in all directions came out from the back office.

"Blaise Zabini!" Flourish said. "Welcome back! Which books are you looking for?"

"Introduction to Charms, volumes one and two... Er, A Charming Life; Charming To Life; Defensive Charms... Uhm, Offensive Charms; Multi-Purpose Charms...." He shuffled through a few note-filled papers. "And, let's see, Advanced Charms Theory and Charms, In Summary."

"Oh my." Flourish's eyebrows lifted up. "And why in the world would you want those books?"

"I'm teaching at Hogwarts this year. I need them for my curriculum; they'll be the textbooks for my students," Blaise responded.

Flourish smiled. "Then I had better order more of these books, then, eh?"

Blaise smiled back. "I expect so. But right now only I need those books, so if you could be so kind..."

"Of course, of course." Flourish went into the back, came out with all of the books wrapped up and handed them to Blaise. "Two hundred and fifty Galleons, please."

Blaise heard a few gasps from behind him, but he just handed the man his money. "There you are. Thanks for the books, Mr. Flourish."

"You're welcome. Say hello to your father for me!"

"I will." Blaise walked out and Apparated back to his flat, not wanting to bother with the train again. He placed his books on the table and started back on his curriculum.

A week later he had almost completed the curriculum and, as he was getting his breakfast ready, he noticed Snape's letter on the table, tucked under a book. Deciding that putting off the visit to Snape's home any longer would be hazardous for his health, he finished his breakfast, pulled out some of the things he'd found while he had been gone and stuffed them into his bag. Grabbing his wand, he Apparated into the village.

Walking through the small village, he ignored everyone's curious gazes and walked directly to Spinner's End and then to Snape's home. Knocking on the door, he jumped a bit when it swung open quickly.

"You're late," Snape snapped at him, moving aside to let him in.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know I was supposed to show up right after I got your letter," Blaise responded sarcastically. "I had things to do."

"Things? What king of things? You've been here less than a fortnight." Snape sat in an old armchair and motioned Blaise to the threadbare sofa.

"I've been organizing my curriculum. Surely you know how hard that is." Blaise said, settling himself on the sofa. Snape nodded. "And moving in. Arranging a cleaning lady for when I'm at Hogwarts, that sort of thing."

Snape's mouth twitched. "A cleaning lady?"

Blaise glanced around the room. It was quite dusty. "Yes. Dust gathers even when you're not there, professor."

Snape coughed and picked up a bottle of wine from a side table and poured two glasses, handing one to Blaise. "Let us not dance around things. You are here because you now know Granger is teaching at Hogwarts as well. You want to know what has happened. Please, ask, so that I do not have to pretend I don't know why you are here."

Blaise laughed, taking the wine from Snape. "Never one to avoid anything, are you? All right, I will ask. Please tell me what is happening with Hermione."

"Bluntly?" Snape asked, drinking his wine.

Blaise grew impatient as he answered, "Yes, bluntly," giving Snape a 'get on with it!' look.

Snape placed his wineglass delicately down on the table. "It pains me to inform you, Blaise, that Granger is dating your old friend and my old student, Draco Malfoy."

Blaise's wineglass fell out of his hand as he went to put it on the table and crashed onto the floor. "What?" Snape glared at him. Blaise glanced distractedly down at the mess and flicked his wand at it, causing the wine stain to disappear and the glass to repair. "She's what?"

"Dating Draco Malfoy," Snape said slowly, his lips twitching mildly.

Blaise sunk back in his chair, running his hands through his hair. "I- I didn't expect- She can't-"

"Oh for Merlin's sake, boy," Snape snapped, "you didn't think she would stay here and mope about for you, did you?" Blaise just looked at him blankly. "Well if you did, you're a bigger idiot that I thought you were. Granger is not a doll. You cannot place her on a shelf and expect her to be there five years later. She moved on."

Blaise glared at him. "Well, thank you for telling me that, professor. It's exactly what I wanted to hear. I wasn't just asking how she was doing; I wanted details on her love life." He stood up and slung his bag over his shoulder. "Hermione can date whoever she damn well pleases, just so you know, and so can I. I have to go now; I'll see you at Hogwarts at the start of term." He reached into his pocket and gripped his wand, Apparating back to his flat.

~*~

By the second week of August Blaise had finally finished his curriculum, and when he woke up, his eyes landed on the large pile of letters his father had sent him since he had got back. He groaned.

"I suppose," he muttered to himself, "that I shall have to visit today. I've put it off long enough." He pulled himself out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom, taking off his pajamas and showering quickly.

After his shower, he dressed and went into the kitchen to make breakfast. As he was sitting down to eat, there was a knock on his door.

"Oh for- What?" he said, opening the door. A young woman stood outside, holding a saran-wrapped plate with a frozen smile on her face.

"Hi," she said, blinking rapidly. "I'm Louise and I'm your neighbor, I'm in three D. I just wanted to bring you some cookies and welcome you into the building since I don't think anyone else really made any effort to get to know you."

"Oh." Blaise took the cookies from her and opened the door a bit wider. "Sorry, I've only just woken up, I was eating breakfast. Please, come in."

"I wouldn't want to disturb you," she said, stepping into his flat. "Oh my, it's quite...bare."

Blaise closed the door. "Yes, I haven't really had time to decorate. I'm Blaise Zabini, by the way."

She smiled and extended a hand. "Louise. Louise Nunn. Nice to meet you, Blaise Zabini."

He shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, too, Louise Nunn." He looked around the apartment. "So, is it really that bare?"

She laughed. "You have one chair, a table and a rug in your living space. A table and two chairs in your kitchen, nothing in the tiny dining area and God knows what in your bedroom. And you've been here a month. Why haven't you gone shopping for anything else?"

Blaise laughed. "I've been working on my curriculum, so I haven't had much time to do anything else, except shop for food. Barely had the time to see my old professor a few weeks ago, I was so busy."

Louise perked up at this. "You're going to teach? Where?"

"At my old school, actually. Turns out the professor whose job I'm taking over is retiring to raise her kids and the professor before her, who was my teacher, died several years ago in a terrible accident. So my old professor wrote me in New York that they needed me and so here I am." He leaned up against the wall. "I'm sorry, I've been dreadfully rude. Would you like something to eat?"

She smiled. "Just coffee, if you have any, thanks." She watched as he placed her cookies in the fridge, poured coffee with one hand and ate his breakfast with the other. "So, New York. Wow, that's quite a while away from England. How in the world did you get from here to there?"

He handed her the coffee and grinned. "Actually, I didn't. I went from here to Paris."

"And from Paris all the way to New York?" she asked.

"No, from Paris to Rome. Then to Berlin, Athens, Prague, Moscow, Tokyo, the Philippines, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington and then New York." He laughed at her expression. "And by no means did I only take a long vacation. I've been gone five years. It's nice to be back in London again, after all this time."

"I expect your family is happy to see you again, after being gone so long, with only phone calls and letters to keep in touch," she said, drinking her coffee.

Blaise's smile turned grim. "Actually, I haven't spoken to them since I left. That's what I'm going to do this afternoon - take the train up to my dad's house and see my sisters and my brother-in-law. And my nieces and nephews."

"That's nice of you," Louise said. She looked at her watch. "Oh crap, I have to go to work. It was nice meeting you, Blaise, enjoy the cookies!" She left and Blaise sat back down at his table, eating breakfast.

His watch beeped at him and he glanced down. Ten AM. "Wonderful," he muttered. Grabbing his coat and satchel, he reached into his pocket and gripped his wand, Apparating to the front door of Zabini Manor.

After standing there for five minutes, he finally knocked on the door. It was opened by a small House Elf.

"Master Blaise!" she shrieked. It was Lyttie. She dragged him inside and the door slammed shut behind him. "Master Blaise is back!" she yelled. House Elves immediately materialized in the foyer and he heard running footsteps from upstairs. As the House Elves surrounded him and hugged him, deafening him with their high-pitched chatter, he looked up at the upper stair landing and saw his father staring down at him.

"Well, come on down, Dad," he shouted above the elves. "I can't come there; you might as well come see me!"

Zachary Zabini started down the stairs and, even though he appeared mad to his son, he couldn't maintain the slow pace and ran down the rest of the stairs and over to Blaise, causing the House Elves to scatter before they were trampled. He almost knocked Blaise over, hugging him tightly.

"Hi Dad," Blaise said, his voice muffled. "How are you?"

Zachary pulled back. "How am I? How am I? HOW AM I?" he yelled. "You disappear for five years and come back and have the nerve to ask how I am?" Blaise blinked. Zachary took a few deep breaths. "I'm all right, Blaise." Tears glistened in his eyes. "How are you?"

"Good." Blaise hugged his dad again. "I'm good. I missed you all."

"Oh and that shows, doesn't it?" a new, sharp voice said. Blaise looked up and saw his sister Zel standing a few feet away. "Shows from the many, many letters we've gotten, doesn't it?"

"Zel-" he started, walking towards her. Her fist came out and tried to hit him across the face but he reacted quickly, gripping her forearm and twisting it behind her back, making sure not to hurt her. "Zel. I realize you are my older sister. I also realize you are mad at me for not writing or visiting while I was gone. But I cannot allow you to hit me because I really don't want to hit you back, which I would because it's just muscle memory. So when I let you go, you aren't going to hit me because I will hit you back and I don't particularly want to do that in front of your husband and children." He let her go and turned to Eduardo. "Hello, Eduardo. How've you been?"

His brother-in-law smiled. "Good. You haven't met Atton or Taris, have you?" He pulled the little boy who was hiding behind him out and pushed him a bit towards Blaise. "Go on, Atton. It's your Uncle Blaise."

Blaise knelt and smiled. "Hi, Atton," he said. "Wow, you're big. The last time I saw you, your mum was still pregnant with you."

The little boy smiled shyly. "Mum had another baby a while ago," he said. "Taris. She's my little sister."

Blaise grinned. "I've got a little sister too. As older brothers, we've got to take care of our sisters, you know that, right?" Atton nodded, and fled to hide behind Eduardo again.

Eduardo laughed and shrugged. "He's a bit shy," he explained. Moving forward, he tipped his arms outwards a bit and offered the bundle of blankets in his arms to Blaise. "Here's Taris. Want to hold her?"

"Sure," Blaise said. He took the baby in his arms and looked down at her face. She looked like Lilithe, the same eyes and nose, but the other features were unfamiliar. "What a lovely child." He tickled the baby's nose and she sneeze.

Zel nodded. "Yes, another beautiful baby to continue in the Zabini tradition," she said.

Blaise looked at Eduardo, who laughed and shuddered. Handing the baby back, he said, "I think I'd like to go see Mum's grave, if you don't mind." They shook their heads and motioned him towards the back hallway.

He walked outdoors and went through the familiar paths. The grass covering her grave was brighter than the rest and there were fresh lilies on the grave.

After staying by her grave for twenty minutes, he followed the path back to the house. A passing House Elf told him the family was in the drawing room and he went to find them.

"I saw Isabella a while ago," he said, sitting down across from Zel and casting a look around the room. "She said something happened. And I notice that June isn't here, even though she must have left Beauxbaton by this time. What's happened?"

Zel twisted in her seat. "Well, after she left school, we knew she was going off on a holiday with some friends. But then we got a letter from her and she said she was running away from us to be with some boy she met there. She's been missing for a long while, Blaise. We can't find her anywhere, not even through the Muggle officials."

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "They've been missing for how long?"

Zachary spoke up. "Three years, almost. We tried to tell you, to get in touch with you, but by the time the owl reached where we heard you were; you were gone. And when even Hermione didn't know where to find you, we knew we would have to try to find June ourselves."

"And you're sure you don't know where they-" Blaise stood up suddenly. "Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Hear what?" Zel asked, but he was already out the door, with his wand at the ready.

Five corridors down and three left turns later, he found the source of the noise. June and Luc were standing in a room, straightening up.

"Now when we go in, we'll bring Quincy with us, in front, so that they won't-" He heard June say. She didn't get any further.

"Expelliarmus," Blaise shouted. Luc's wand flew from his hand. Blaise jerked his wand around again and Luc slammed into the wall. "Who the hell do you think you are, running away with my sister?" he hissed at the man, stalking over to him. June tried to say something, but he flicked his wand at her and she flew gently into a chair as her mouth snapped shut.

"Non, jamais je ne lui ferais mal!!" Luc said rapidly.

"I don't care if you didn't hurt her; I know she's not hurt. I want to know who the hell you think you are, taking her off like that and only now coming back." Blaise dug the tip of his wand into Luc's neck. "I can make you talk, you know, even without magic."

"Je suis son mari, le père de son enfant. Je vous en prie, ne me faîtes pas mal!!" Luc said in a high tone, squirming away from Blaise.

Blaise turned to June. "Husband? What- You're not old enough to be married with a child!"

She glared at him until he undid the spell. "Of course I am, you idiot," she said when she was able to speak again. "Let Luc go; you're making Quincy cry." Blaise didn't let Luc go, but he let June up and she picked up the baby from his stroller. "Let him go now," she told Blaise, glaring at him.

Blaise sighed and undid the spell on Luc, moving away as the Frenchman staggered and gasped in air. "Sorry," he said.

"Sorry!" Luc said, his accent very heavy. "You were going to torture me!"

Blaise's mouth twitched. "No, I just wanted to make you think that." He half turned and then whirled back around, pinning Luc to the wall with his bare hands. "If you hurt my sister," he said in a low tone, "I will make you pay in blood. Do you hear me?"

"Oui, oui, j'ai compris!" Luc said, the terror coming back into his eyes. Blaise let him go as the family arrived.

"June! Luc!" Zachary said. His eyes fell on Quincy. "Who is this?"

June smiled and went over to her father, holding her son out. "Dad, this is Quincy, Luc and mine's son."

Blaise smiled and walked quietly away. Zel caught up with him just before he reached the front door and said, "You're leaving already?"

He bent down and kissed her cheek. "I'm going home. I'm tired. Come over anytime. By which I mean, of course, owl or call me beforehand and let me know. If I'm in a good mood, I might even let you decorate my flat. But at the moment I and very, very tired and I wish to sleep in my own bed." She hugged him and he squeezed her back. "I'll come around for some of my things before term starts and I start teaching. You'll see me then, too."

"All right." She sniffed and smiled at him. "See you."

"Bye," he said, walking out the door and Apparating home.

He spent that evening sitting in his chair with a glass of Firewhiskey, drowsily staring out of his window.