Fan Fiction ❯ The Life and Times of a Girl Named Blaise Zabini ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

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

The Life and Times of a Girl Named Blaise Zabini

By 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,
and New Line Cinemas, and probably a bunch of other people.

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

Chapter 1

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Blaise Zabini wasn't stupid.

Blaise Zabini wasn't scheming.

Blaise Zabini wasn't ambitious ...Okay, so she was, but more along the
lines of "I'm going to do my best and kick arse while doing it."

Blaise was smart.

Very smart.

Smart as in she'd skipped grades before she went to Hogwarts, and had
been looking forward to High School if she didn't get her letter, rather
than Junior High School like most Hogwarts hopefuls.

In her opinion, she belonged more with the Ravenclaws. Or even the
Hufflepuffs! She worked hard, got good grades (She would be the head
of her graduating class, if Granger wasn't such an over-achiever. How
that girl managed to help Harry Potter and take so many extra classes
at the same time, she didn't know. She worked just as hard as Granger
on the individual subjects, but she knew when to kick back, unwind, and
have some fun, at least!), and was loyal to her family and friends.
Which came to the grand total of three people she was unquestionably
loyal to: her mother, her grandfather (affectionately dubbed "Granda"),
and Draco Malfoy. Her father, Lorenzo Zabini, didn't fit into the picture
because she knew he was a murdering ba***** of a Death Eater.

Oh, and it was her life goal to "kick Voldemort's arse" (as in defeating
him, but she didn't have an aversion to doing so in the literal sense,
along with various other sensitive regions of his body...) in the most
painful and/or embarrassing way, and make it look like Draco did it.
Because, she figured, Harry Potter had far too much fame as it was, and
she didn't really want any, and Draco was always complaining about how
he hated that Harry got so much (in his opinion, undeserved) attention
just because he had a bloody scar.

Eh, whatever made him happy...

But the whole point of all this is that, quite frankly, Blaise didn't
belong in Slytherin.

Stupid Sorting Hat...

It took one look at her last name (Her LAST NAME! Goddess, she despised
everything her father stood for, and the stupid hat made its decision
based on that moron's name?!?), said "Oh *BLEEP*! How did a Zabini end
up here?!? I thought you all went to Durmstrang! Only one place to put
you, and that's SLYTHERIN!"

Stupid hat wouldn't shut up long enough to get a good look at her, much
less listen to anything she had to say!

She hoped that moronic hat met an icky, messy end. Stupid hat...

And then there were all the morons in her house dorm! Bulstrode was rude,
crude, and had a taste for fist fights. Okay, so they might have gotten
along splendidly if it weren't for a fact that Bulstrode always followed
the lead of such ignoble examples of humanity as Pansy Pernella Parkinson.

And Parkinson! She was whiny, obnoxious, and scheming. Specifically, she
was scheming to get into Draco's pants, and/or his bank account. Thank
Elbereth Draco knew that, or they'd probably have to fake at seeing each
other in a romantic sense to keep the girl away. It was already looking
like they might have to do it anyway, just to give Draco some moments of
peace.

No, she didn't *like*-like Draco! Ack! He was like a surrogate brother!
Their mothers were friends, and probably would love it if she and he did
get together, but it wasn't going to happen.

Blarg...

Then there was the fact that both girls were constantly butting into her
business, and trying to read her diary, and trying to find her "plans
for the future" notebook. Pretty much everybody in the school except for
Draco and Professor Dumbledore thought that she and Lucius Malfoy were
vying for the position of Voldemort's second in command, and those idiots
thought that she was writing down her plans to take over the world in that
notebook.

Honestly, some people needed to get their heads examined... Though she
wondered on occasion what would happen if she just handed the dolts the
notebook.

One thing she knew for certain: she'd be keeping a camera handy for the
looks on their faces when they didn't find anything written in it.

Ah, the joys of being a budding Potions Mistress, and being the only
person in the school who could cast ethric light. The "ink" she used
for her more private writings was actually a potion that was odorless,
didn't dry sticky, and happened to be invisible once dry, unless ethric
light was shone on it. She'd developed it the summer after her first
year, having had several close calls where her morons for dorm mates
had almost gotten a hold of her notes for kicking Voldemort's arse,
and she'd been staying at her grandfather's home at the time, which
had a large greenhouse for her to do her work in, as well as Bunsen
Burners (Isn't mundane technology grand? Unlike her father, she had
had plenty of contact with the "Muggle" world, and she was rather
fond of movies, her computer, her laptop, and the internet.) so she
could make potions without using magic and getting in trouble. She'd
been researching a lot of things, but most inks that turned invisible
after drying could only be revealed by subjecting them to heat, like
lemon juice or milk. Which didn't help her because, if she just wanted
to review her notes, it would reveal them for all to see, and she
wouldn't be able to make them invisible again!

So, anyway, she had gotten to thinking about what she could do that
very few people could do, and hit upon a solution: ethric light! Most
witches and wizards these days didn't know what the heck it was, and
the rest assumed it was simply a myth, something that worked only in
"Muggle" Sword and Sorcery novels (I suppose you've noticed that the
only times the word "muggle" has been used, it was in quotations. That's
because it's not the proper term. The correct term for those without
a magical talent is "mundane," or not out of the ordinary). Oh, it was
real, and it promised to be the perfect solution to her situation.

The problem was that she couldn't use magic away from school until she
graduated, unless it was a life-or-death situation.

Which meant no ethric light to test with.

Which meant she would have to work on this at school, with the Pug and
the Baboon (if you can't figure out who these are, you're too slow)
constantly butting in.

Darnit.

But then, her grandfather came up with a solution. He had a small, hand-
held magical lamp of sorts that cast a light similar to ethric light,
if not ethric light itself.

Was it mentioned how much she REALLY loved her grandfather?

That problem averted, she had set to experimenting with various mixtures
which she was assured wouldn't blow up or dissolve paper or do anything
else strange, all with that little lamp shining on her results.

She'd never figured out just *why* Swelling Solution had been developed.
Sure, it made for a few laughs if it accidentally got on somebody, but
who would want to have something swell up insanely? What purpose did it
serve?

Well, in any case, she'd been going through her potions textbook and
brewing everything she knew how to make in several lots, in beakers as
well as her cauldron, and then fiddling with them, using less of one
ingredient, or using more of another, sometimes adding something
completely different that wasn't in the regular recipe. And then she
stumbled upon the solution, almost literally.

She'd been pruning the mandrakes (no, not the screaming magical kind;
the kind that are just useful roots!), and had noticed that the leaves
had gained a sort of shimmery quality when brought into contact with
the lamp, so figured what the heck; might as well try it. She crumbled
up and tossed one dried leaf into a beaker of unaltered Swelling Solution,
which had happened to be the only currently unaltered potion on the table,
and stepped back when a small puff of smoke was emitted from the concoction.
She then proceeded to stir the leaf particles in, hoping they wouldn't
simply swell up, turned off all of the Bunsen Burners, waited for the
various potions to cool, and then proceeded to test them.

Only the Swelling Solution with the crumbled mandrake leaf worked.

And there was much rejoicing!

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

Which brings us to current times. It was early July, Blaise was out of
school for the summer and staying with her grandfather for the month,
and looking forward to her sixth year, having turned sixteen the previous
March.

That's when her life started getting complicated, and she learned that
not everything was as it seemed with her family.

It started when her father skewered her mother on an antique, Zabini
family heirloom broadsword.

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Author's Notes: Ooh, spooky!

What's going to happen next? You'll have to read on to find out!

1-11-03

Revised for terminology, 4-29-04.