Fan Fiction ❯ The Life and Times of a Girl Named Blaise Zabini ❯ Chapter Nine ( Chapter 9 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The Life and Times of a Girl Named Blaise Zabini

Rosy the Cat

Summary: Blaise Zabini isn’t your average Slytherin. She’s smart, she’s
loyal, and she wants to kick Voldemort’s arse. Oh, and she’s not human.
LotR (movie cannon) /Harry Potter fusion with elements from "The Sandman."

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created
and owned by J. K. Rowling, various publishers including but not
limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and
Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark
infringement is intended.

The Lord of the Rings belongs to J. R. R. Tolkien, probably his family,
New Line Cinemas, and probably a bunch of other people.

The Sandman belongs to Neil Gaiman, and DC Comics/Vertigo.

Author’s Notes: Sindarin is the elvish dialect Legolas probably spoke
the most often, since he is a Sindarin Elf.

Chapter 9

Notation: [...] means the words are being spoken in Elvish

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

[Dear Father,
[School has been going well so far. I got 'Outstanding's on my
first two Potions exams of the year, and my other classes seem to be
doing equally well. Professor Dumbledore says "hello".
[I told you about how Draco and I have made friends with Virginia
Weasley, right? Nice girl, silly as you could want when you get her to open
up. I’m still determined to get Draco to admit to fancying her before
Midwinter Break, but things are looking like I’ll have to take their wands
and shove them in a broom cupboard and lock them in to get them to start]
"snogging". [(I feel so evil! *grins!*) She’s a Tolkien fan, too. What am
I, a Tolkienite magnet?!
[In any case, it turns out the delightful Miss Weasley is part
elvish, though naturally not nearly as much as a certain ever-so-loveable
princess we both know. Father, she saw through the glamour, and I managed
to keep her from telling Draco what she saw, but I promised I’d tell them
*something* tomorrow night.
[How much can I tell them? I’m worried.
[Your loving daughter,
[Elessario]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Daughter,
[Tell them all that you feel comfortable telling them. Trust your
instincts; you would not have chosen them as friends if you did not
instinctively know you could trust them. That is one of your gifts.
[My love for you is forever,
[Father]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blaise stared at her father’s response in her hand, absent-mindedly re-
settling the strap of her sports bra under the sweater she’d worn out
jogging that morning. Shifting slightly, ignoring the slight sound of her
stretchy exercise pants’ legs brushing against each other, Blaise’s gaze
settled on the eastern horizon, noting the faint light that heralded the
coming dawn.

Today would be a long day, and she had better get back to her dormitory
before other people started waking.

Giving Verde’s green feathers one last stroke, Blaise turned and jogged
up the steps and into the school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Avoiding Draco and Ginny and, more importantly, their questions, had been
difficult. Not to mention painful. They were both looking rather confused,
and, while Draco looked like a cross between annoyed and hurt by her
evasion of both questions and contact, Blaise had noticed Ginny racing for
the library every chance she got. Most likely the girl was trying to figure
out just what her friend was, but hopefully she would understand the
potential threat posed to Blaise should *any* version of her secret get
out, whether the truth or something that wasn’t, but was close enough to
have her expelled and her wand snapped, by order of the Ministry.

Stupid Ministry and their stupid anti non-human bull cookies...

Grr!

In any case, she’d made it through the day, and all that was left was to
wait for her roommates to fall asleep so that she could make her sneaky-
sneak way to meet D and Ginny in the Charms corridor. They wouldn’t be
doing much in the way of *talking* there, naturally, what with it being all
publicly accessible and the like, but it was as good a place as any to meet
up so they could get to a far more secure location.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blaise parted the curtains of her bed ever-so-slightly, peeking out at
Millicent’s bed.

...

Okay, that threat was a no-go. Yay!

Quietly shutting the curtains again, Blaise crept silently across her unmade
bed (for easy cover-up ability! Just tell the professor that you took a
quick trip to the loo! Fantasmical! ^_^;) and opened those curtains a crack.
Pansy would be the greater threat of her two roommates, after all.

...

Wait, what was that? EEK!!! SHE MOVED!!!

...

No, okay, she was just rolling over.

...?!

Eew...Pansy’s babbling about her dream, indicating she’s having one of her
"Kissing Draco" dreams. Ick! Too bad Uncle Dream won’t let her mess with
the Pug’s Adventures into Depravity and Wrongness.

Firmly shutting the curtains, Blaise snagged her black sweatshirt and
pulled it over the t-shirt and flannel kitty pants she wore as
nightclothes, ballet slippers already on her feet to allow minimum noise
and maximum foot muscle-powered traction. Having an Elf’s natural grace,
speed, agility and non-slipping feet-ness was handy, but better safe than
sorry. Besides, Blaise’s father, as well as Dalla and Haldir, had often
commented on the fact that she was quite possibly the klutziest Elf in
existence.

Blaise blamed magically-induced human-like puberty. It *had* to be a heck
of a lot more gradual for Elves! Even if her height hadn’t kicked in yet...

Grr! ELVES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TALL, DAMNIT!!! WHOEVER HEARD OF AN ALMOST-
ADULT ELF THAT’S FIVE-NOTHING?!

Not her, that’s for sure...

Although she was pretty darn tall (comparatively) in Grade School. That
didn’t last long, of course, because she was bumped up several grades...

Aaaaaaaaaanyway...

Blaise slunk down to the foot of the bed, which was the side closest to
the door, and, after one last look around for safety's sake, slipped
through the curtains, securing them closed after her, and lightly made
her way to the door, gliding through that. She silently closed the door
behind her.

"Mew?"

Blaise’s eyes bugged out as she leapt into the air, a silent scream
struggling against her will not to be caught to be given voice to.
From her position perched upon the staircase railing leading up into
the Slytherin Common Room, Blaise stared blankly at the small, furry
figure of Delai as both did their darndest to stop hyperventilating.

"Darn cat," Blaise grumbled as she hopped off of the half-flattened
steel pole that had delusions of banisterhood and opened the door to
her dorm once again to admit her cat.

At least *somebody* would be able to enjoy the warm comfort of her
bed; not that she needed sleep, but Scotland in October could get
*cold*!

That dealt with, Blaise continued on her way up the stairs, through
the Common Room, twisting and turning expertly through the dungeon
corridors, and generally making her way quickly and quietly upwards
towards the Charms corridor.

She had not been there long, however, when her magic-disguised elven
ears picked up the approaching sounds of Filch, the Janitor/cranky-
arse/man-he-should-have-been-a-pirate! (Another of Blaise’s resolutions
for things she wanted to get done before she graduated was to get
Filch to say "Arr!" Preferably with a parrot on one shoulder. ^-^)

Eek!

And his scary-arse cat, Mrs. Norris!

Double-Eek!!

After scrambling around like some spazzing super-deformed anime
character for all of five seconds, Blaise finally let Good Sense
in and shook it by its nicely-pressed lapels, knocking its
scholarly glasses off of its face in the process. Then she brushed
it off, straightened out its coat and hair, resettled its glasses,
and listened. Then, after her trip into the abstract was over,
she leapt up and latched onto the stone support beam that went
down the middle of the corridor, up near the unusually high ceiling
and supported in turn by smaller stone beams that branched off and
connected to the side walls. In the manner of an accomplished
gymnast and martial artist, she quickly pulled herself up on top
of the beam, and brought herself up to a ready-to-run-down-the-
really-narrow-chunk-of-stone position. This wasn’t difficult,
because *she* had taken part of training that was more like
something out of Ranma 1/2: tree-hopping (roof-hopping, whatever.
Elvish lightness and balance is quite useful for that sort of thing,
hence the whole living-in-trees thing the Elves of Lorien have
got going there).

Here she hit a bit of a snag.

Her eyes widening in shock, Blaise felt her feet slip forward due
to having established her footing on an annoying combination of
dust and...*eew!*...dead bugs. Pinwheeling her arms in desperation,
she managed to control her fall enough that she went forward, and
she caught herself against the wall that had been in front of her,
bracing herself against the side of the beam with her ballet-
slippered feet.

Keeping her breathing as light and as quiet as she could manage,
Blaise watched as both Filch and Mrs. Norris passed underneath her.
The whole time Blaise was silently praying in every language she
knew (both "modern" Elven languages, Ancient Elvish, modern Greek,
ancient Greek, Westron, English, Italian, Spanish, Latin, French,
and Japanese) the words "Please don’t look up, please don’t look
up..."

Fortunately, neither Filch or Mrs. Norris looked up, though it
had been a close call with that cat for a moment... Anyway, now
that the immediate danger was gone, there was the little problem
of getting down without falling splat on her face.

Gah! Where are nosy friends when you need them?!

Managing to contort her spine in just the right way, Blaise finally
was able to get a good look at her watch.

11:30!? 'Pixie-doo,’ Blaise thought to herself in a mixture of
annoyance and chagrin. This would teach her to be over half an
hour early for appointments...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12:15

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘...And I thought Daddy’s endurance exercises were bad,’ Blaise
agonized to herself as she shifted ever-so-slightly to combat
gravity’s desire to work its ways upon her gravity-defying Elf-self.
Elf-light or not, forty-five minutes of being frozen in this position
while exerting her muscles to keep herself up was doing *murder* to
her poor ickle body. Her aches had aches! She had aches in parts of
her body she didn’t even know she *had*, as well as some she preferred
not to acknowledge.

Finally, she spotted Draco and Ginny sneaking around corners at
opposite ends of the corridor. They made their way down to the middle,
standing just under her.

"Hey." Draco.

"Hey." Ginny.

"..." Both.

"Where do you suppose B is?" Draco.

"I dunno. Do you think she went back to bed because we were so late?"
Ginny.

"No, that’s not like B. She’s probably hiding in one of the suits of
armor, planning on scaring us or something." Draco.

"...Well, that’s not very mature." Ginny.

The silence went on for a while, and Blaise was tempted to just tell
them to kiss and get it over with.

...

Wait, what *was* keeping her from doing just that?

"Oh, for crying out loud! Would you two shojo manga rejects just snog
already?! You two are so emotionally frustrated I wanna rip my damn
hair out sometimes!" Blaise hissed down at her friends, glaring with
the power of an annoyed, ignored, and in pain person.

...

Yeah, that sounds about right...

Startled, Draco and Ginny jumped a bit and finally looked *up*.
Ginny’s jaw fell open, while Draco merely raised an eyebrow.

Doing her best to look cute and pitiful (considering her state of
denial about just how cute and pretty she was, Blaise was probably
firmly treading the territory of Overkill), the latter of which
wasn’t too hard considering how much pain she was in, Blaise pouted
her lips, and said, "Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get down!"

Her glare was rather nasty when both of the non-stuck people in
the hallway collapsed against each other, laughing uproariously.

"...Some friends you two are!" Blaise growled down at them. "And
hush *up*, darnit! Do you *want* us to get caught out after
curfew?!"

Ginny looked up at Blaise, frowned in confusion, and said, "But
Malfoy and I are both Prefects. We could’ve just told any
professors that caught us that we were patrolling the corridors
and...What?"

Draco shook his head, smirking in that ever-so-Draco way he has,
and drawled, "My, Weasley, have you always been this devious, or
is it merely the continued contact with Slytherins that is
distorting your ever-so-noble and heroic Gryffindor attitude?"

Ginny went beet red, then snarked, "Considering the amount of pranks
and such that my brothers have hit you with, I would have thought
you of all people would have realized that Gryffindors can be as
devious as anybody, Malfoy."

"Touché."

"Hel-lo! Some help here would be nice!" Blaise finally snarled, then
let out a rather pathetic whimper. "I think I’m slipping...and rock
walls aren’t doing much for my hands, here...Owie..."

After some quick thinking, Ginny and Draco managed to levitate
Blaise down gently in a joint effort. After curling up into a fetal
position and whimpering in pain some more, Blaise finally managed
to stand up, and proceeded to shake Draco vehemently for being late.

"...You know, I don’t think Malfoy’s supposed to be turning blue-
ish like that, Blaise," Ginny finally interjected, concerned and
doing her best not to examine *why* she was concerned.

"...Oops." Blaise finally released her bestest (alive) guy-friend

*Gasp!* *Thunk!*

Both girls stared down at their male friend, then slowly drew their
mutual gaze up to each other. Finally, Blaise allowed her eyes to
go particularly wide and cute, and said, "Draco fall down go BOOM!"

After a few more moments of staring at each other, the two burst out
in surprisingly quiet laughter, each taking hold of one end of Draco
as Blaise led the way off towards the intended destination.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After having made their way successfully to their intended ultimate
destination of a classroom whose door only existed on Tuesdays and
Thursdays, hence Blaise’s insistence that the trio meet at midnight
after Monday, Ginny and Blaise plunked Draco down and woke him back
up with a spray of icy-cold water from the Gryffindor’s wand.

"I’M AWAKE, I’M AWAKE!!!" Draco screeched in a very non-dignified
manner that would have earned him a disapproving whap upside the
head via a silver snake-headed cane if his father were present and
not on the run, his only contact with family disapproving letters
whenever he heard rumors of Draco acting not in accordance to Lucius’
plan for his son.

It was rather amusing, hence the two girls’ rolling on the floor,
laughing their metaphoric butts off. Draco, on the other hand, was
not amused by their amusement.

"Grr..."

"Oh hush, D, and I would suggest that you two make yourselves
comfortable before I start explaining," Blaise said dismissively,
waving off her bestest buddy’s ire even as she gestured to the
dust-laden desks that were in the room, perching herself on the
edge of the equally dusty teacher’s desk. Draco and Ginny picked
some desks for themselves in the front row, and looked expectantly
up at their friend.

Blaise smiled nervously at the two, and began.

"My name is Elessario, daughter of Legolas, sister of Dallandra."

She paused, then disengaged her personal glamour, which melted
away to reveal herself in all her pajama-clad Elven glory, not
that she would have thought herself to be particularly glorious.

"...And I’m not human."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blaise stared blankly after her friends as they headed off to
their respective dormitories, seeking the comfort and warmth of
their beds.

"That went better than I thought it would," she murmured to
herself, absent-mindedly twirling her wand between her fingers
with speed and dexterity that would make most martial artists
envious. She stopped mid-twirl, however, when she sensed Haldir’s
presence.

"Indeed it did." Pause. "Blaise-"

"Elessario," Blaise snapped. "My name’s Elessario. ...Sorry, Haldir.
I didn’t mean to take my frustrations out on you, but I have no
right to go about using the name of my niece like this. If it
weren’t for my stupid, stupid brother-in-law and the equally
stupid, stupid laws the Ministry enforces, I wouldn’t have to do
this; I wouldn’t have to hide."

She turned suddenly to face his spectral image, confused at the
rather odd look on his face before he composed himself once more.

What was that about...?

"As you wish, Lady Elessario," Haldir said, bowing his head slightly
in acknowledgment of her claim.

Blaise smirked slightly, and made to whap him on the arm playfully.
"Silly Elf..." She trailed off, however, when her hand simply passed
through him, forcefully reminding her that, not only was he not alive,
but he was different from any other ghost she’d ever encountered. Most
ghosts were tangible to her, and they weren’t the gray misty things
that most living people described them as. They retained their color,
though the older ones *did* tend to look a bit faded; Blaise had
mentioned this to her mother shortly after they first met (Officially,
that is. Blaise had to be reminded of that one nightmare Death had
gotten her out of when she was little (see "The Birth of an Immortal"
by Rosy the Cat,
http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/view_ch.php/35709/97138#fic_c ). ),
and, after Death had finished her little rendition of the Happy Fish on
Tuesday Dance, the Endless had informed her that she was seeing a more
intact version of the dead person’s self image, and they were tangible
to her because, as far as either of them could figure out, that was just
something they had in common. Or something like that.

On the plus side, Blaise could pull pranks on ghosts. There was the time
she had timed her morning stretching perfectly, and ended up smacking
Nearly Headless Nick in the face. On the not-so-plus side, ghosts tended
to hang around her more often than most kids, so she had to get rather
blunt when she wanted to be alone.

Sighing, Blaise leaned against the wall. "Sorry, Haldir," she muttered,
looking sadly away. It rather annoyed her that something like this was
beyond her control. She’d partially freed the Elf from his prison on the
astral plane, allowing him to return to Earth (Arda, Middle-Earth...
Such a lucky planet with so many pretty names!) in a ghostlike form,
but every time she tried to break through the bonds that kept him from
Valinor and the Hall of Mandos, she got her psychic arse whipped.

Even more troubling than her own feelings of inaptitude were Blaise’s
feeling of guilt. Haldir wouldn’t have even known there were people
capable of freeing him from his prison as much as she had if she hadn’t
been so darn nosy and persistent regarding the astral plane as a
potential gateway to Valinor. And she also felt guilty because, deep
down inside, she didn’t *want* Haldir to leave for Valinor, and thus
leave *her*. There was a part of Blaise that cared far too much for
Haldir than was healthy for a marooned half-Elf to care for a long-
disembodied Elf...or something.

Finally pushing slightly off the wall to regain balance necessary for
walking, Blaise smiled weakly at her friend and said, "Well, I’m off
to bed before someone checks and notices I’ve been gone for several
hours. Good night, Haldir." Waving absent-mindedly, Blaise set off
striding down the hall in the general direction of the Slytherin Common
Room, unshed tears shimmering in her eyes, though of course nobody could
see them. Haldir looked after her sadly even as he appeared to fade
away, back to the astral, and thought to himself, 'Rest well, Elessario
my friend.’

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

Author’s Notes: My, that was fun. =~_^= A bit of forewarning: the chapter
after next, or maybe even the one after that, will have Blaise’s story
collide with the climax of "The Sandman", something that I’ve been
planning for a few weeks. Bad author! Planning stuff that’s not going
to happen for a while when you should be working on current chapters!
BAD!

...Well, it was that or run the risk of losing really good ideas that
you’ll all (hopefully!) appreciate later. In fact, I think you already
do! The stuck in the hallway scene for this chapter was thought up about
a month ago, or maybe two. I forget.

...

Anyway, as always, thanks go out to you, the readers, for keeping me
smiling with your feedback and such. Special thanks go to Rhonda-
sensei, as always, for keeping my spirits up even when I’m stuck in
the Quagmire of Writer’s Block. *shiver!* Also, thanks to Carolyn, my
sole fellow otaku at church, who finally managed to find my site and
read some of my stuff. Unfortunately, she hasn’t read Life and Times
yet, but I hope to get her opinion on that soon.

Forever and always, thanks also go out to you, the readers and
webmasters/webmistresses who read and host my stories. Specific
thanks go out to my wonderful reviewers:

Jaya- Thank you! I consider "strange" to be a compliment. Who wants
to be average, anyway? And thank you for the spelling correction.
*thwaps self in the head* Boy, do I feel shtupid...

moondaughter- =O.O;= Wow, I’m addictive? Weird. =^-^= Ever so glad
you like my story; and for the record, *I* rather like your avatar
icon. *Dreams of Orlando* =*-*=

Katzgirl7- Thanks, and I’m glad you like the story so far. But just
remember fic writer union rules: When placing a lust object, even an
Immortal one, into your story, it is preferred if you return them
whole and undamaged. Other than that, have fun! =~_^=

silverblaze- Thank you, and yes. *evil grin!*

Sushinase- Thank you! *joins in the Happy Fish on Tuesday dance*

Anyway, no, I won’t give away the secret of Ginny’s Elfyness yet, so
there! One thing I can say, though: no, Blaise and Harry aren’t gonna
end up a couple, nor are they going to be a couple at any point in the
story. Sorry to the Harry fans, but this is a Blaise-centric story,
and there isn’t gonna be much of Harry, and at this point I don’t see
much interaction with the Dream Team at all, but that last one might
change. I dunno. Blaise is Immortal, and is likely to want to go for
the long haul as far as relationships go, if you know what I mean. If
you don’t, you should long before this is over and done with.

Fantasyangel- Ah, thanks for clearing that up. And thanks for the
review! ...Okay, maybe, and I stress *maybe*, I might put some more
of the Dream Team in later chapters. But it’ll probably be a while.

Summer- As I said before, thank you very much for the review. You’re
the first one in a while to email one in, instead of using a review
system of some kind. Yes, fanfiction.net can be frustrating at times,
but things should be better soon. *directs Glare of DOOM!(tm) at the
techs for FF.net* Anyhoo, hope middle school is going well for you,
and never let the *spiritually* ugly get you down!

Well, that’s all for this time, people. The next chapter will come
out when it is good and ready, but I’ll be the first to admit that
I want it to be ready soon! Enjoy!

Ja mata ne!

-- Rosy the Cat (rosythecat@yahoo.com)

9-20-03