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Chapter Text

Hermione jumped to her feet and stormed off across the dance floor, disappearing into the crowd. Ron watched her go with a mixture of anger and satisfaction on his face.
After rejecting Padma’s invitation to dance, Ron sat infuriately with Harry. Suddenly they saw Cedric Diggory approach.

“Hey—Harry!”

“Yeah?” Said Harry coldly, since he saw Cho waiting for Cedric two tables over.

Cedric looked as he didn’t want to say whatever it was in front of Ron, who looked clearly bad-tempered. “Could we go outside for a bit? It’s kinda important”

Harry stood after looking wondering at Ron, who shrugged. “Sure” And then they left through the entrance hall, leaving Ron alone.

All the satisfaction he’d had washed over when left alone, leaving him in a state of bothered boringness, sitting there on a chair. He watched the people having fun on the dance floor, he could see a glance of Hermione’s dress while being spined by Krum, Fred exuberantly dancing with Angelina after signaling something at George on the other side of the floor, Ginny wincing every time Neville stood on her feet, Seamus and Dean laughing on a table on the other side of the room… Damn, even Malfoy was what seemed like slow dancing with Parkinson. Was he the only one not having fun?

“Hey Ron, wanna dance?”

Ron looked up to the thin, slightly curved hand in front of his face, belonging to no other than one of Malfoy’s besties, also known as the biggest flirt in their year, Blaise Zabini. He’d seen Blaise dancing with some girls, probably from Beauxbatons, when he was angrily looking at Hermione and Krum earlier. He wasn’t one for details, but how the fuck did Zabini manage to look ever more handsome that he did on the daily. “The fuck Zabini”

“Zabini huh, I didn’t know we were on such a formal basis. Do I have to start calling you Mr. Weasley then?”

“Don’t be a git, alright, Blaise?”

“Yeah, Blaise is alright. So, I couldn’t help but notice your sorrowful presence, I mean those robes can be seen from 10-feet away, and not in the good sense. They are pretty much an offense, I bet any designer would happily go to jail if they got to burn those things” After Ron gave him a mad look, he sat next to him with a smile “Not up for jokes today, are we? Point being, those robes are absolutely a cry for help.”

And of course, Zabini could fucking talk, he was wearing the most expensive looking suit he’d seen that day, way cooler than Malfoy’s Dracula ass looking suit. It was a simple black suit which jacket was embroidered with small elegant flowers, and underneath a black shirt. He, and his goddam perfect clothes, had come to humiliate him.

“You fucking know I wouldn’t wear them if I could”

“So why aren’t you dancing? I saw you come in with Padma earlier. I’m pretty much exhausted at this point but you haven’t left that seat all night.”

Was Zabini really that much of a gossip to come and ask him directly? Huh, he didn’t think his whereabout where that noticeable. Still, it wasn’t Zabini’s problem and he wasn’t gonna be Slytherin’s laugh expense tonight “Yeah yeah, you’re better than me sure” Ron rolled his eyes, exasperated. Why was Zabini even talking to him? “Who did u even bring to the ball?” He’d been stuck with Padma, surely Zabini would’ve had a similar luck.

“Oh, I’m with Elaine” Blaise pointed with his head to the dance floor, to one of the most beautiful French girls Ron had seen. He’d reckon he saw the brunette girl chatting with Fleur a couple days ago. “She’s part veela, that’s so cool, don’tcha think?”

Oh, the ever-loving, fuck. Of course, Blaise -fucking flirt- Zabini did not only manage to score a Beauxbatons girl, but also a Veela, to the Yule Ball. Fucking great.
“Why are you even talking to me? You seemed to be having fun just fine”

“Well, I told you. You simply look the most miserable I’ve ever seen anyone look. And there are ghosts in Hogwarts Ron, and you win by much.” And he was right, Ron took a second to analyze himself. His frayed thousand-year-old robes that didn’t favor him at all, much less his mood. Seeing Hermione dancing and laughing with Krum bothered him so much, and since Harry had left he couldn’t even try to mask his bother.

“And so what, why don’t you go snoog your veela and stop bothering me?” Ron directed an angry look at Zabini and first, the boy gave him an incredulous look for the sudden anger but then, he -what the fuck- smirked at Ron. And of course, Blaise Zabini with his goddam perfect suit that probably costs more than his house, his fucking veela date and his perfect face, came to act filrty with him. Damn, he didn’t need more humiliation tonight.

“Look, Weasley” he drifted his look back to the dance floor and then back to Ron. Ron would’ve sworn he saw him raise his brow in annoyance for a second before turning back at him and smiling. “I’m just trying to be civil; you know, the whole magical cooperation thing should apply to the houses as well. Also,” Blaise chimed and put his face so close that Ron could feel the Slytherin’s breath on his cheek. Suddenly he felt a tad nervous about the closeness, but he wasn’t going to back down. “your brothers and I are planning to spike the punch with some Vodka. Maybe it’ll make your night better.”

Ron couldn’t have been more questioning. Why the hell would Fred and George (oh, coz Percy would never in his life participate in such a thing) be involved in a plan with the Slytherin? He didn’t know if he should be offended they didn’t ask him instead, or mad they were fraternizing with their real enemy, damn even worse than Hermione, at least Krum was a cool quidditch player.

With a thousand thoughts running through his head in the span of seconds, Ron turned to Blaise to give him his best incredulous look. However, when he turned his head all he could think about was the proximity of Blaise’s face to his; the sweat in the boy’s forehead from dancing, the smell of his definitely expensive cologne, the feelings of their breaths together and the bat of the boy’s pretty eyelashes when he looked down.

He should’ve frozen in the moment, because after what seemed like hours (but were pretty much two solid minutes) he saw Blaise look back at his eyes from his lips and -fucking again- smirk, before backing down.

“Anyway, I better go, Snape won’t distract himself” Blaise stood and looked down at him “I’ll be done in like twenty minutes” he smiled “if you’d be interested in taking the offer of that dance” And with a wink and a laugh, he left in direction to what Ron distinguished as a totally not suspicious-looking Theo standing next to the punch.

What the fuck had just happened.

Chapter Text

“So, how did it go, Romeo?” Theo allowed himself to smile for a couple minutes, he’d definitely seen the whole act, however from afar all that was clear to him was Blaise’s nervous expression and shaking hands when he walked back.

“I don’t even know” Blaise turned his head back at where Ron was sitting, once again with Harry. “I gave him all the signals you know, asking to dance, asking about his day, making jokes—I even invited him to drink!” It was exasperating knowing all the Gryffindor did was continuously get mad at him, why wouldn’t he understand his intentions? “You don’t think he is that oblivious, do you?”

Usually, Blaise would be the one to help them in the romance area. He was pretty much what they considered a professional (“It’s in my blood”, he always joked, “you know my mum, she has married eight men, seduced many more”).

“We shall see” Theo looked at Blaise’s face, his usual confidence all gone and replaced with a nervous smile. Huh, Blaise really liked the Weasley boy. “Let’s ask Pansy, you know she’d love to know how her little dare turned out”

He’d seen Blaise flirt so many times he’d lost count, but never had he looked this nervous. It was strange to see Blaise so doubtful in what was literally his area of expertise.

“Yeah, we should. Let’s go get the Gryffs though,” Blaise looked to the dance floor, where he saw one red-haired twin dancing. “rejection is better handled when drunk, isn’t it?” And with that, Blaise’s nervousness washed off and his usual assurance came back.

“Are you guys ready?” George asked the Slytherins. They quickly chatted about the plan and got in their positions, Blaise leaving the room and George signaling to his brother. The plan was to distract McGonagall and Snape (because, do you really think Sprout and Flitwick would care about a little alcohol?) and make Theo add some vodka to it. The twins tried to spell the punch earlier, but McGonagall had used a spell to avoid getting it spiked, so the only way to do it was the muggle one. Coincidentally, Zabini had already known of the existence of the shitting-on-parties spell (Snape’s Slytherin reunions were boring as fuck) so he’d brought a muggle bottle; but he was almost caught by Snape earlier.

It seemed bulletproof, Blaise would guard the entrance hall (as he saw Snape leave earlier), George would go chat up with McGonagall about their quidditch permits and Fred would keep a close eye on the whole operation, while slow dancing with Angelina to avoid suspicion. Theo, who was actually the last one to get involved, was the most important piece of it all: he had to pour the whole bottle of vodka into the punch.

To be totally honest, Theo didn’t really think the plan would work. First of all, did they really think they could fool Snape and McGonagall that easily? Also, he saw one twin add an extending charm to the bottle and a multiplying spell to the liquid, wouldn’t that magic trigger the protective spell on the punch? Finally, and foremost, why the hell were they using him for the most important part? He has just helping them because of his boredom. Either way, he had condemned himself when he agreed to the plan.

Seeing the last twin leave his side, he apparated the bottle.

It was now or never.

“I can’t believe we actually did it” Theo said. He couldn’t, really. It had been so easy it almost made him suspicious.

Pouring the whole bottle had taken him at least three full minutes, in which he was surprised no one seemed to want punch. His stance hadn’t been exactly unnoticeable but hopefully behind the sea of people he wasn’t that evident. After reducing the bottle and putting it in his pocket, he made sure to bump Fred’s arm on his way to Blaise. Currently, both Slytherins were waiting for the Gryffindor twins to finish filling a couple cups on the other side of the room.

“It did though,” Blaise looked as surprised as him, but managed to mask it with his joy. For a moment Blaise thought he’d seen Gryffindor’s prefect in the move to ruin their plan, but actually Percy walked right next to Theo without noticing, way too focused on some man from the Ministry. “so, we can rest assured that if we get caught, at least we drank tonight”

“Oh, definitely.” It wouldn’t be a surprise if Snape called them to his office first hour tomorrow. “Let’s go”

They counted how many drinks they were carrying, most of their friends were probably dancing, but they’d surely appreciate something to drink “Do you want to get your boyfriend one as well?” Theo asked, holding another empty cup with a suggestive expression on his face. He was surely enjoying seeing flustered Blaise.

“Just fill it”

“I can’t believe you guys actually did it” Pansy said when Blaise gave her a cup. She’d been going on about how his plan to spike the drink was so dumb earlier, but she was also the first one to sip her drink. She laughed to herself, before adding “I’m glad though—Maybe it’ll give you a bit of courage with your lion”

“Ugh, don’t tell me about it” Blaise said while falling next to her. “I fucked it up”

“Wait, did you already do it?” Draco asked surprised, he knew Pansy had dared Blaise to ask Ron out tonight, but he didn’t think he’ll do it after all that Hermione drama earlier. “Why am I the last to know?”

“Don’t worry Blaise, you didn’t fuck it up” Daphne told him sweetly.

“No, he definitely did.” With the biggest smile Theo had showed that day, he decided to rub some salt on the wound “Tell them what you said about his robes.”

Blaise hid his face with his hands before sipping at his drink and saying “I told him they were a cry for help and that any designer would kill to burn them” he held his eyes closed, as in pain.

All that was heard were the Slytherin’s laughs.

“You’re right tough!” “I’d be damned if I said I hadn’t thought it” “A CRY, Blaise why are you so funny”

“But that’s the problem guys” He sat properly, directing his worn-out eyes to his friends. Not one of them hadn’t a smile on their face, suddenly he understood why a first year Hufflepuff had called them bullies. “It’s true. And now I can’t back down. He’s poor and that’s why his robes look like that and I can’t simply back down, it’s not a lie” Damn. Until he told Theo it hadn’t seem so cruel, but now he was worried the Gryffindor would take serious offense to it.

“I told you, you usually are a bit mean when you flirt” Daphne said, laughing behind her teeth. “It’s hot though, it gives you a bad boy vibe”

“Right, that’s how you talk too.” Draco said. “You offend me at least once a day”

“I know but—“

“No buts, Blaise” Pansy took Draco’s cup to fill Blaise’s. “As much as I love, “she laughed “love, to know what you called him. There’s only one way to fix whoever he took it” she put the drink on his hand and raised it to his lips “so drink up, and go talk to him again”. Blaise gulped down half of his drink before talking.

“Yeah, um—Yeah, okay. I’ll go” With a deep breath he put his best calm face and confident smile, standing and grabbing both cups. He turned to his friends and said “Pray to Merlin for me” before walking away. He heard some laughs behind him, but all his mind could focus on was a certain red-haired boy.

Chapter Text

“He wasn’t there”

“What do you mean he wasn’t there?” Daphne moved a bit to the side, her worried tone matching her frown.

“He just wasn’t there” Blaise sat down next to her, same two cups he left with were put on the table, far from him so he could rest his head on it. Daphne heard a muffled explanation “There was only Percy on his table and he wasn’t in the whole room, I looked. I scared him off, he’s probably already in bed”

The sadness in Blaise’s voice moved Daphne. He was either drunk or head over heels for the Gryffindor.

Remembering she’d only seen Blaise have two cups, she tried to comfort him. “Maybe you’ll see him later. Or you could talk to him tomorrow, in case he left.”

“Yeah, sure” Blaise lifted his head and showed a sad smile at his friend. “I have to get drunk, wait—Where’s everyone?” he had just noticed, it was just the two of them and a sea of half empty cups.

“They’re partying, as you should, you know. I think Pansy dared Draco something about that cute Beauxbâtons boy we saw earlier. I don’t know where Theo left. And Tori is over there.” They both looked to the dance floor, where Astoria was dancing surrounded by three Durmstrang boys; in that moment, she saw them and waved at them to come over. Daphne stood up “I’ll go dance too, you should come —” she punched him on the shoulder jokingly before walking away “have some fun dude, there are still like two hours left”

Blaise smiled briefly while waving at her. He really should get his act together, how come he was letting this ruin his night? He was Blaise-goddam playboy-Zabini. This wasn’t the first time he’d been rejected, but he’d never felt so disappointed before.

After uselessly running the whole interaction through his head, he decided to leave the Great Hall. Maybe getting some air would help lift his spirit up; the noisy music, although pleasant zt first, was making his head hurt. The doors were wide open, so he left through the Entrance Hall and quickly found himself in the ground floor. He walked past the kitchens and stood around, barely looking at the statues and artwork with his head full of thoughts.

Suddenly, he felt himself be pushed into a near open room. He fell onto the floor, bumping his arm on a hard table-like object.  Blaise quickly sought for his wand on the pocket of his pants, blinking rapidly to accustom his eyes to the dark room. Suddenly, a blinding light appeared and Ron Weasley was in front of him, with a cloak on and a mad expression. Blaise stopped his hand before reaching his pocket, trying to recall how many drinks he’d had, because there was no way whatever that was happening was truly happening.

“Ron—“ he called and stood up, looking around. It seemed like they were on some type of warehouse full of desks. He tried to approach the Gryffindor.

“What did you mean at the ball?” The question confused Blaise and made him stop on his tracks. Out all of the things he’d said?

“What?”

“Why did you ask me to dance? It’s not common for you to mock me. Like Malfoy sure, it’s a daily must, but you?” Ron kept his wand raised at Blaise. The Slytherin boy raised a brow, that was the only clear thing he’d said.

“What do you mean? I asked you to dance”

“Why did you? I mean, do you want to duel? Because if so, let’s do it here and now, no public, no Malfoy drama.” Oh, he remembered the duel prank Draco had put on the Gryffindors in first year, Theo still bothered the blond about how it had backfired at him.

Maybe it was the alcohol, or just the fact that he was probably day-dreaming, but Blaise’s confusion only grew with each word. He sat down on a near table and answered “What do you mean duel? I asked you to dance.”

“Stop being a fucking git Zabini. You mock me with your money and your Veela date and then ask me to dance. I’m telling you, what the fuck do you want? Because we can solve this with a duel right now, fair and square, I don’t think you Slytherins even have the—”

“I asked you to dance because I fancy you”  

The sudden darkness left Blaise blinking again, looking up trying to find the other boy’s eyes. He reached for his wand and brought the small light back. If Blaise had known occlumency in that moment, all he would find in Ron’s mind would be the word Fuck repeating itself until it lost meaning.

Blaise was going to talk, but he distracted himself seeing the Gryffindor’s expressions change, from angry to confused, to looking as pale as a ghost to matching his hair. A laugh left the dark-skin boy and it acted like a trigger, making the red hair direct his anger at him once again. Definitely not the emotion the Slytherin had wished to cause.

“STOP WITH THE MOCKING. Why the fuck would you say you fancy me? I can’t believe the fucked-up version of what you think is a joke. On Merlin, why would—” Ron surely felt confusion, but mostly anger. The Slytherin had literally been dancing with a fleet of girls all night long, how was he even gonna insinuate he had feelings for him, a boy, a Gryffindor, him.

“It’s not a joke” Blaise propped up and made the light leave his wand and float above them. He approached the red head, words leaving his mouth as naturally as the air he breath in “I fancy you, that’s why I asked you to dance. I fancy you so I talked to you and told you to wait for me and dance.” He stopped about a foot away from the other boy “I know you’re not interested because you left, but I wasn’t mocking you. I asked you to dance because I fancy you”

This time, Ron face went pale in a second, to rapidly blushing when he murmured “I went with Harry to help him with something about the second task” he looked right at Blaise’s eyes for a second, their similar heights making it so easy, before looking left to the door “I didn’t think you were serious, either way”

“Would you have stayed then?” Blaise felt a bit of hope, then. Maybe he really hadn’t offended Ron, it’s not as if the Weasley boy was that sensible.

“You can’t fancy me, you like girls, you were dancing with some girls earlier.”

Was that the whole problem? “I’m bi, Ron” Blaise raised his eyebrow and then chuckled, seeing the other boy blush. “And I don’t like those girls, I like you”

“But you brought a girl to the Ball, the Veela.” Ron didn’t know if he should continue to be angry. He was definitely confused, but mixed with what? Anger? Disgust? Happiness?

“Oh, Elaine? I wanted to ask you—” Blaise felt a bit embarrassed, after all he’d jumped to conclusions. “but I thought you’d asked Hermione. And she needed a date, so I offered”

It was Ron’s turn to sit down, he walked to a desk a couple foot away from Blaise and hid his face in his hands. What the Slytherin was saying made so little sense, however there was a strange feeling in his gut that we couldn’t decipher. He looked up, the dark-skin boy was just standing there, looking almost shy, something completely different to his usual flirty confidence. Why was he thinking so much? After all, he was a Gryffindor. “So, you fancy me?”

Blaise furrowed his brows, in an exasperated look directed to the marble floor. “Do you want me to say it all over again? I said I —" He was interrupted by a sudden push, once again.

Mad, he looked up to the Gryffindor, and in no time he had soft lips silencing any complain he thought to mutter. Ron’s right hand had his shoulder pushed tightly onto the door, in contrast to his left hand softly cupping his jaw. It was so easy for Blaise to get lost in the kiss, hazy with feelings. He drew his trembling hands to Ron’s shoulders, opening his mouth deepened the kiss. It felt like hours, the adrenaline pumping his heart, the butterflies demanding to escape through his throat; it felt like hours, but after what were only minutes, they separated, quick breaths leaving their mouths.

Like all night long, all Blaise could focus on was the cute boy standing in front of him. With his lips red from making out, a blush tinting his freckled cheeks, his sweet brown eyes half closed and short breaths— Blaise was definitely enjoying being as close as he’d ever been to the Gryffindor, trying to record every part of Ron’s face in his memory. He lifted his hand to the boy’s cheek and ran a thumb against his freckles, before pressing a chaste kiss on Ron’s lips. Blaise smiled before lightly pushing Ron to get him to back down.

“You taste like punch” Ron said, licking his lips. “—and alcohol” It made Blaise laugh.

“What do you want to do?” Blaise rested on the door, his usual confidence back again. “You do owe me a dance”

Ron directed a ridiculed look to Blaise “You’ll dance with me in front of everyone?” When Blaise nodded, he lifted the sleeve of his cloak to show his horrid robes “On this thing? You did say they could be noticed from ten feet away, would your Slytherin pride let you be seen with me?” He felt Blaise’s elbow nudge his side softly and laughed.

“I’m sorry about that. But you admitted you didn’t like them either” Blaise smiled when Ron sent him a No, Really?  look. “I can teach you a glamour spell, if you’d like.”

“Yeah, that’d work.”

“Let’s go, I think we might catch the last songs” Blaise winked and held Ron hand in his, dragging him out of the room. Ron barely had time to close the door behind him when he was pushed against it, Blaise’s hot lips kissing him passionately. When he backed down, Ron felt his face blushing. “Now we’re even—Come on.”