Hannah knocked on the door and waited, tin of biscuits in her hands. Didly opened the door and looked at her like she was mental. Hannah sighed. When the house-elf looked at you like you were crazy, that probably wasn't a good sign.

"Could you please tell Blaise I am here, Didly. Thank you so much."

Now all that was left was for her to wait. She probably should not have dropped by unannounced, but who didn't like surprises? Especially when there were chocolate biscuits involved.

Didly popped next to Blaise, who was lounging on a couch in his living quarters.

"Miss Abbott be here with a present, Sir."

Blaise raised his eyebrows and put down his book with a sigh.

"It had better be a damned good present. This is a good book."

Hannah turned when she heard his approach. She couldn't help the gasp that escaped her. Didn't he ever wear his shirts buttoned up when he was at home? Did he always greet guests or have guests over with his chest peeking out?

"Did I catch you changing clothes or something? I can wait if you'd like to get dressed."

He smirked. "This is normal dress for me. As much as I love clothes, I like them on the floor than on me sometimes."

Blaise crossed his arms and looked Hannah over once. "Don't you look... pink."

Hannah scowled, which probably didn't work for her since she scowled little. "Well, I didn't wear it for YOU," she snapped before stomping up to him and shoving the tin, pink also, into his hands. "These are for you."

Goodness, he made her act tacky. Hannah let out an exasperated sigh as color started creeping into her cheeks.

He grabbed the pink tin and held it between two fingers and stared at it.

"What the bloody hell is it?"


Hannah snatched it back a bit more roughly than was appropriate for a lady, but he brought out unladylike impulses in her. "Well, they're chocolate biscuits, but since you find the idea so offensive, I'll just be taking them back. Good day."

She headed for the door only to have her arm grabbed.

"When you hand me something with that look on your face, I think I have a right to be worried. You didn't look too pleased when you shoved that thing into my torso." He looked amused as she stared at him dubiously. He rolled his eyes and handed the tin to Didly.

"Sorry, alright? If you had said the word chocolate, I would have been much nicer."

"You were holding it like it would taint you, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the color pink, I'll have you know."

Hannah shook her head at herself. She should never have come here. What had she been thinking? There was no firewhisky to blame it on today. Her brain must be addled then. Just great.

"Obviously, I have interrupted something, so I'll just be on my way. I'll have your pants and shirt laundered and back to you soon. As... as for the teaching me how to take care of myself... I suspect... that's not a good idea at all. I don't..." His chest was really rather distracting. "I don't..." Why on earth couldn't she make any of the words she wanted to say come out of her mouth?

He peered at her strangely. "It's no problem about the clothes. I have plenty," he said distractedly. "Are you alright?"

Her face pinkened. "I'm fine," she all but shouted. Hannah looked anywhere but at him directly. "I see that I have bothered you." She was red as a tomato, she was certain. "I shouldn't have dropped by unannounced. I apologize. I won't do so again."

She hadn't a clue why he was suddenly making her want to jump out of her skin, but when things made Hannah uncomfortable, she tended to bolt. And she wanted to, badly, but she could not quite make herself go.

"The only thing I stopped doing is reading a book I have read before. It wasn't nearly as interesting... and pink as you are."

Her eyes narrowed. "Well, as you tend to lounge about with your shirt not entirely on, I happen to have an abundance of pink in various shades within my wardrobe. If we are to be around each other at all, best you get used to it."

Goodness, where had that come from? And he was raising a brow at her. Hannah knew she should leave. Should.

"Oh, it's a terrible idea, yes? You teaching me anything. I'll probably end up knowing things I never wanted to know as a side effect. But it seems I am full of bad ideas of late. I nearly backed out earlier, but I don't think I shall. You can't be that terrible. I refuse to believe it."

She smiled at him then.

He grinned at her a bit shark-like.

"Oh, you'll learn a load of things, for sure. And I've never been terrible. Promise."

"Lying is sinful."

The look he gave her at that comment made Hannah laugh in a way she didn't know she could. It came up from the pit of her belly and made her body bow a bit. She was a bit startled to realize that she could not recall the last time she had honestly laughed.

"Well," she remarked as she stepped forward and have his chest a friendly pat. "It's important that you believe that, I suppose."

Then she realized she had just patted his bare chest and snatched her hand back as if he'd burned her.

"Scared to touch the big, bad Slytherin, are we?" he said, grinning at her. "And for your information, I have never had anyone tell me I'm terrible at anything."

"Why is it that when we talk I sometimes get the feeling you are talking about one thing while I am talking about another... and your thing is naughty."

"My thing is very naughty."

Hannah rolled her eyes. "And I'm not afraid to touch you," she said boldly. "It's just not proper."

"And who said I'm not proper?" Blaise said with a smirk. "I had one of the most privileged upbringings available."

"You know very well what I meant," Hannah said in a scandalized sort of whisper. "You shouldn't be parading around like that in front of me. We don't know one another well enough for that, I think."

Blaise rolled his eyes. "If you don't like it, wear a blindfold."

Hannah frowned. She just didn't understand him. Worse yet, she did not know why she felt the need to understand at all. "I don't understand you at all."

Hannah sighed and made a face.

"Very few people do," he grinned. "And the people who do understand me... well, I doubt you'd want to go through what they had to."

Hannah hitched her chin up a notch. "You can't possibly know me well enough to know that."

Blaise laughed. "You nearly inhaled all the oxygen when you saw me in this, not to mention when you saw me in just my underwear the other night. Trust me, I know you enough."

"Fine then," Hannah said, folding her arms across her chest. "Be undressed all you like. I'll just have to get used to it, I suppose."

After several moments of silence, Hannah spoke again.

"You think you know enough? How can you know when I don't even know what's going on with me these days?"

"So, was that some roundabout way of saying you want to see me naked?"

Hannah blushed. She was curious, and she couldn't say she thought it would be horrible, but he so did not need to know that. He'd use it against her if he knew it bothered or affected her.

"I didn't say want, but if you must parade around like that, go on then," she said boldly. Perhaps too bold.

Blaise grinned before shrugging the shirt off his shoulders and tossing it aside.

"Fancy a drink of some sort?"

"Tea would be nice."

"That was not what I was referring to."

"Oh I know. I just recall the vomiting. You'd think you would as well," she replied, very studiously trying not to stare at his shirtless upper half. She'd seen him in less, but it was daylight outside. Before it had been at night. She didn't know why that should make any difference.

"I hold my liquor well, and if I do happen to get drunk, I sober up quickly. Alas, tea it shall be."

Blaise turned around and motioned Hannah into one of the sitting rooms located off the foyer.

"So, how has life been since you freed yourself?" he asked as they sat down.

"I was speaking of my vomiting, not yours," Hannah replied pleasantly - as if she was talking about the weather and not puke. "It's been rather interesting. My best friend and an Auror were waiting for me at the flat when I got home. Wayne will not pay my rent for certain, and I'll be put out. But I think I already have a place to go. It's all rather odd. I burned my dress in the fireplace. That was very satisfying. Then I baked biscuits."

"You should have sold the dress. In Knockturn you could have made a fortune by saying the dress was cursed and any female who wore it wouldn't be able to marry their intended."

"I wanted to watch it burn," Hannah said with a tad of venom, realizing she meant it. "He had picked out the dress."

Blaise blinked. "Burning it, it is then. Other than your obsession with the kitchen and your pyromania, anything else going on? Where are you going to stay?"

Hannah giggled. "With Harry Potter."

Blaise choked.

"Potter? That pillock? How the hell did you manage that?"

"He's not a... that P word. He's very nice. Ernie panicked and asked him to locate me. Harry was there when I got home. We were just talking and he said he had plenty of room. I think I'll have to bake for him, but I don't mind. I like baking things. It's a place to stay that Wayne has no control over. I'm for that. Besides, it's just until I can manage my own place."

He scowled.

"You should stay here, not with him. You know there's plenty of room here as well. And when you feel like you want out on your own, let me know. I'll find a place for you that's nice and safe."

Why was it when he said that her first impulse was to say yes? Something was wrong with her. But he was offering her a place to stay? Also? Was there something about her that screamed for rescue or something? He almost sounded as if he was worried for her. That was more than passing odd. What was even more-so than that was that she sort of liked it. What on earth was that all about?

"I think I shall stay there... until I am more used to you, then perhaps I could stay here? Not that I'm terribly used to Harry or anything of the sort, but, and please don't take this the wrong way, but you make me a bit nervous. I think perhaps you do it on purpose, but until I get over that, I don't think I should live in your house. Why, I'd be a bundle of nerves all the time. I would like to go flat hunting with you though. That sounds like fun."

"Any type of shopping with me is fun." He sat back and crossed his arms, staring at Hannah until she started to squirm. "And I have a feeling you shall be used to me very quickly." Blaise smirked. "I'll just make it a habit to drop by to check on you often... and to see how many times I can make Potter's eye twitch."

Hannah made a face at him. "You can be very exasperating, did you know?"

His answer was a very toothy grin. Hannah just rolled her eyes.

"You go shopping though? I haven't been shopping for anything save wedding stuff in an age," Hannah then clapped her hands and made a squealing sound. "We should go shopping. For clothes or something. Not that I can afford anything, but perhaps Wayne hasn't frozen my expense account just yet."

"My best friend is a girl and my best mate is Draco Malfoy. Of course I shop. And you haven't met my mother either. My love of shopping is inherited. And bugger Wayne whatever-his-name-is. You said you wanted to start afresh? Then let's. We'll get you a whole new wardrobe."

Hannah giggled and actually got a bit excited. Ernie and Justin hated shopping with her.

"I knew I was right to defend you. Just knew it. You aren't... well, you just aren't. Oh this is so exciting. I feel happy."

Blaise arched an eyebrow.

"Defend me? To whom?"

"Well, Ernie. He was all worried, you see, and I told him I'd been here, and I was standing there in your pants and tee shirt. He didn't even get to say anything. I told him to watch what he said of you, so don't trouble yourself."

Blaise grinned. "Yes, we are definitely going to wardrobe shopping together. I now feel the need to spoil you rotten. Well then, when is a good day for you?"

Hannah smiled, "Well, seeing as how I had already put in my notice at Madam Malkin's and should be on my honeymoon, the better question is when is a good day for you? Because all I have to do currently is pack my things and move in with Harry, and a lot of that is packed now."

"How about I ask you this: when is Potter home?"

"I'm not certain. I don't live there as of yet, so I don't know his habits. I would imagine he's away on weekdays, at work and all, so if you're concerned about running into him, just come by on a weekday. That will be fine."

She didn't know what to make of the way he was smirking at her.

"I would think he's mostly home on weekends... unless the Ministry has him doing something."

Still with the smirking, and it was getting a bit wider.

"What?" she finally asked, feeling nervous.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head over it, sweetheart," he patted the top of her head and smiled. "How about next Saturday, yeah? Is that good for you?"

"But..." Harry might be home. "Well, yes, it's just fine for me."

Hannah blinked at him in confusion. She had an odd feeling he was somehow plotting something, and she would not like whatever it was.

{SUMMARY} Hannah brings Blaise biscuits.