And every time she thought like that, she knew it was stupid. The fact that he had horrible judgment in social skills didn't make him any less of a potions master.

Besides... she really needed to know if his potions needed to be diluted or not. The potion she'd given to Draco could really be dangerous if it'd been given to someone smaller than him. Like a child. She needed information from him, and she was pretty sure she'd be able to hold in her temper. Though, being a Weasley, sometimes that was easier said then done.

"Blaise? Do you have a second?"

"Define a second. Is this 'I need to ask you a quick question' second or 'settle down for a lecture worthy of my mother' second?" he shouted through the door with a grin. He quickly put down the beaker he had in his hand and turned down the fire under the cauldron he was working on. Stalking over to the door, he opened it with raised eyebrows.

She narrowed her eyes. "It's more like 'I think I might have poisoned your best friend because I wasn't sure if your potions needed to be diluted or not' second."

He lost all amusement. "Why was Draco needing a potion? And I dilute certain potions, yes, but I wasn't counting on you rushing into my lab. Was it a blue-tintled bottle or green?"

"It was green, and it was already in the rooms. It was a headache potion." She surveyed him as he came farther inside her office. Had Draco not told him what happened? Why wouldn't he have told him? "Draco came in here Sunday night. He'd been hexed in the face, had his shirt burned off, and had several cuts and abrasions on his chest and arms. He'd also been hit with an energy sapping potion." She felt like she should explain more, but Draco was the one who gave too much information at one time. She would let Blaise digest everything first.

Blaise's eyes kept widening. "He took a hex to the face and got knocked around? By <i>who</i>?"

"Alecto Carrow. Who is not dead."

What the FUCK?!

"No, really? Because dead people hex other people all the time." He growled and stalked into his lab, leaving the door open. He was tired of Draco not telling him things. It was fine when he was out wandering about because he got that Draco needed time, he really did, but he was home and had people who cared if he got his arse killed.

He put his hands on his head and sighed. "I'm going to kill him," he said. "I'm really just going to kill him. But I'll deal with that later. What potions did you give him, and in what order?"

Ginny followed him slowly into his lab, feeling like an idiot. She should have owled Draco before saying anything.

Fuck that. Draco should have told him, and I needed to ask Blaise the questions.

"I gave him the headache potion in the green bottle. I wasn't aware that it needed to be diluted, if it does. If it doesn't need to be diluted, than we need to figure out something else for Draco, because the potion really made him... act oddly."

"The green bottles are stronger dose potions, for more than headaches. Like severe migraines and concussions. Blue bottles are properly diluted for child or adult. Half for child, full for adult. Draco's always had strange reactions to headache potions. I know how to correct the potion, because I remember the problem from Hogwarts." He shook his head. "I'm almost afraid, but acting oddly how?"

"He danced a jig." The corner of her smile twitched before she realized that it was not really a funny situation and tried to stop it. "He got better after that, and he's better now, but he'll probably be sore for a bit. The hex to his face and the energy sapping curse probably won't be going away for a bit. He'll get better, but it'll take time."

She leaned against his counter with her arms crossed over her chest. "I'll keep the other potion amounts in mind."

He raised an eyebrow. "So, now that you're done telling me my best mate is an arse and nearly died and never told me, do you have anything else to say?"

"You're an arse for going along with his stupid plan." She was beginning to see that his abrasiveness wasn't really anger at her, so she didn't take his snapping personally. It was a Slytherin thing, she assumed.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about, Weasley?" he asked tiredly.

"Do you like penis, truthfully? I'm assuming you don't, but I've got to admit that you make a rather smashing gay man."

If he were anyone else, he would have either choked or walked into a wall. But since he was a Zabini, he slowly turned towards her. "I'm sorry, I think I'm hearing things. Surely you didn't just ask me if I liked penis. I have one, you moron. And for your information, I'm not gay," he said firmly before grinning a bit. "Unless Potter's walking around in just his pants, because then I'll be gay any day of the week.""

She narrowed his eyes. Ginny pushed off the counter and stood in front of him, straight on. "I meant the fact that Draco paraded about like he was gay, with you as his man-candy, and you went along with it. Knowingly went along with it. You both lied to me." She held up a hand when he opened his mouth to respond. "Alright, you didn't come out and bloody well say you fancied his penis, but it was implied. It was wrong to do. It was mean, and it hurt my feelings." She shook her head. "I felt I was betraying you by fancying who I thought you were involved with."

Blaise rolled his eyes. "It is not my fault you have Gryffindor feelings about the minor misdirection about my sexuality. I mean, I have a girlfriend, for Salazar's sake." He crossed his arms and stared at her with a small grin. "Did Draco ever tell you he was gay? I mean, what made you think he was a homosexual in the first place?"

"It was implied, Blaise Zabini. It was implied that you were gay. And whether it was said or not, you perpetuated the 'minor misdirection'. Ultimately leading to me feeling like an arse. It was mean, and don't give the line that you're a Slytherin and I should get used to it. Just because you're an arse doesn't mean you can hurt people's feelings and get away with it."

She wasn't really angry or sad enough about it to cry, but if it'd make him realize what he'd done was wrong, she'd do it.

He kept up his stance and his grin. "If it helps you to know, the first time I knew about it was the first day we opened. He didn't even ask me about it or anything, but he <i>did</i> ask me to go along with it. I was doing a favor for a friend. Nothing Slytherin about it."

"But you knew the night of the dinner at your house." She frowned. Alright, so that fact that Draco had pretended to be gay and he hadn't said anything to Blaise made her think better about the situation. It still didn't change the fact that he'd gone along with it. Doing a favor for a friend of not. "It doesn't matter that you didn't know at first. You knew that night, and you still went along with it. Did you ever once consider how I might feel in the end?"

"No," he said honestly. "But how do you feel now?"

"Better." She saw him grin and narrowed her eyes. "About him. Still iffy about you."

Blaise laughed. "But I teach you to dance and let you get in my giant cauldron. What is there not to love about me?"

"You are egotistical, stubborn and conceited. You go along with stupid plans because you think that it's friendship. You leave the toilet seat up in the bathroom and you still haven't returned my dress."

He snorted. "Thanks, it's a gift, I know, and of course it's friendship. I'm male and I'll have it shipped to you. Anything else you'd like to address while we're airing grievances?"

She sighed, holding her hand up and counting on her fingers. "Arse, toilet seat, gay, dress. Nope. I think that's it." She rose an eyebrow. "And you? Do you have anything you'd like to say?"

He shook his head. "I'll probably start bringing my girlfriend 'round. She'd love to meet you. She was so angry at Draco for pretending to be gay, it was almost funny. She's taken Draco on as a pet project almost. That being said, you can bring your boyfriend around. It'll be fun."

"You mean Hannah? Yeah. Harry told me all about that. I don't think he likes you. Kept saying something about the Dion." She shook her head, freezing. Boyfriend. She looked up at Blaise. "Did he call me his girlfriend?" She took a step closer. "Did he?"

Blaise snickered. "Calm down there. You're acting like a niffler that just spotted a full pot of gold! I haven't talked to him since Halloween. I was just assuming that. Once Draco has his eyes set on something, he usually gets it. Besides, Narcissa wants to meet you, I think. Anyone who can hook in her son is interesting to her. And if Potter doesn't like me, then that's his problem. Hannah likes me, and it's only her opinion that I care about regarding our relationship."

Ginny stopped listening after he mentioned Draco's mum. Seriously. Seriously! Alright. Couldn't stand him less than a week ago. Now talking about being his girlfriend and popping 'round to see his mum. Narcissa freaking Malfoy. "Right." She nodded to herself before turning and heading back to the door. She stopped and looked back at him, her eyebrows furrowed. "Wh- I don't-" She shook her head, clearing it of the thoughts. "You can bring Hannah around any time."

He looked at her strangely. "Did you just get hit with a Confundus or something? What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. It's fine. I'd love to see Hannah around here. I know she's living with Harry, but I haven't really seen her since school. You can bring her by whenever. Maybe we can go out for lunch." She took another step towards the door. "I have some charts I need to finish up. I'll make sure to pay attention to which potions need diluted or not. I'll owl you if I have any questions." She turned back towards the hallway, her eyes wide.

"I'm right across the hall, Weasley," Blaise said slowly. "Is it because I mentioned Narcissa? She's not going to bite your head off for dating her son or anything, or even if you're not dating she'd like to see who her son was obsessing over."

"Seriously, I'm fine." She sighed, back still to him, before turning around with a smile on. "It's not- It's fine. Really. If I have questions, I'll make sure to bring them up with you." Just walk away, Red. Get out of this room.

"You're a shit liar, you know that?" he asked casually as he leaned against the counters. "I can always tell when Draco's lying and I can certainly tell when you're lying. If it's something I said and it's bugging you this much, let me know and I won't say it. It's almost stupid how much it's getting to you."

Her smile faltered. "I'm almost stupid, then? Right. I'm stupid. Sure. I think people who are not gay are gay and then expect my business partner, and who I thought was my friend, would hopefully take my feelings into account when doing something. Sure was stupid there, I suppose." She cocked her head to the side. "And assuming that your best friend would inform you about almost dying, I was stupid there as well." She narrowed her eyes at him. She knew how to do this. She'd done it plenty with Fred and George. "So, please, tell me again how stupid I am."

"Why should I went you just did a smashing job of insulting yourself over and over again?" he asked dryly. Blaise stopped and stared at Ginny. "Answer me this: if you hadn't known he was gay, would you have seen him as a person? Not a patient, but as a person? Or would he just be the Death Eater who had a schoolboy crush on you? Can you honestly say you would have given him a flying fuck if you knew he honest-to-Merlin liked you?"

"Well I guess we'll never know if I have more moral fiber than a garbanzo bean, now will we? I wasn't given the option." She threw him a glare. "And I was healing him, wasn't I? Considering even St. Mugno's wouldn't do that, I think I've earned a little more respect than you're giving me, Blaise Zabini."

"I'll give you more respect when you stop being a bitch about something that happened a long time ago," Blaise said harshly. "So he implied something about his life that wasn't true. I'm not the one who believed it, now was I? The only time we were together around you that I was actually aware we supposed to be in a realtionship was when we had dinner and if you had woken up and actually looked at Draco, which you were trying so hard not to do, you would have seen he was focused so completely on you I'm amazed he didn't walk into walls. Good on you for healing him when others wouldn't. Quite frankly, he needs someone he can be open with when it comes to the serious things. I'm hoping you're picking up on the hint here, since it wasn't me he came running to when he was hurt. It was you. I was used to get close."

Ginny squared her shoulders and set her legs apart.

"First of all, it happened last week. That was not too long ago. Secondly, yes, I tried as hard as possible the night of the dinner to ignore him. One, I was with my boyfriend, two, I felt bad for thinking inappropriate thoughts about someone I thought was involved with you. You say he needs someone to be open with? Excuse me for being a big wary about that fact because he lied to me about parts of his life. I don't think it's exactly the right way to start a relationship where the people involved can be open with one another. Lastly, he came to me because I'm his healer. I heal him. It's what I do."

She took a deep breath. Most of that had been said at once.

He grinned. "Feel better? Good. Now, trying telling that to Draco. He needs to hear it. Would it honestly help if I said I'm sorry for being dishonest with you?"

Nodding slowly, Ginny crossed her arms over her chest again. "Considering that's why I was angry with you, yes." She let out a little breath of relief that she'd avoided what she'd hoped to avoid being brought up. Her being panicked about the talk of being a girlfriend and meeting his mum was not something she wanted to talk to Blaise about. "Grievances aired. The air is clear. Clear air. We're good. I've got charts." She turned to leave.

"Oh, before you leave to make sweet love your charts, care to tell me what you're going to be doing with Draco now that you know he's interested? I'd hate for it to be awkward," he said with an easy grin.

She rose an eyebrow at him from the doorway. "Oh, there are plenty of things I plan on doing with Draco now that I know he's interested, but I think talking about what I plan on doing will be much more awkward than if I didn't." She grinned at him before pulling the door closed.

"Coward!" Blaise shouted with a laugh. He heard her laughing through the door with him.


Summary: Ginny confronts Blaise about him fancying men. The air is cleared and the word penis is thrown about.