The Dragons of Raveana

Raveana Draconis and the Dragon's Maw

Blaise swept into the library quickly, bestowing an innocent smile on the glaring librarian. The grin fell from his face as he swept between the shelves, eyes traversing the spines and signs marking the different sections. His fingers twitched as he spun down a row and halted abruptly.

Hermione Granger regarded him from the other end of the small corridor, her eyes narrowing at his sudden appearance. Both glanced from each other to the dusty collection of books resting forgotten on a low shelf.

Giving an arrogant nod in greeting, he glided forward and dropped to one knee in front of the books. He licked his lips as he read over the titles adorning the spines, a gasp of relief escaping him as he found the book he was searching for. His fingers froze above the tome as a shadow fell over him.

"Excuse me." Hermione purred sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him as her ink-stained digits hovered over a book resting several shelves up. The darting of her orbs to the book he was almost holding had him internally wincing and moving his hand slightly to rest over the tome next to it.

"No problem." He lied grimly, locking his fingers around both books and pulling them from their places. Straightening, he stared into her blank eyes for a second before offering a chilling smile and nodding his head in farewell. As he stalked around her, he made sure to keep the first book hidden beneath the second, crossing his fingers his actions had gone unnoticed. "See you in class."

"Later." The Gryffindor witch replied absently, her gaze already resting on the row of books he had abandoned.

Shaking his head in anger, Blaise stormed toward the librarian's desk. The elderly witch shot him a warning look when he slammed the tomes down in front of her, eyebrows arching when she read the title of the second book. "Good morning." He offered suavely, tugging gently on the sleeve of his robe.

"Good morning, Mister Zabini. Doing a little research?"Mrs. Pince asked, recording the name of the book and several other facts. Sixth and seventh years were allotted the privilege of removing books from the library for short periods of time due to their increased class schedules and workload. This new rule had been enacted after several Gryffindor and Slytherin seventh years had gotten into a fight which led to the destruction of several hundred books, some of which were irreplaceable.

"New hobby." Blaise returned calmly, glancing at the clock to see how much longer he had before class started.

"Ah, well be sure to take care of these books." She murmured, patting the cover of one of the books lovingly. Blaise gritted his teeth in a parody of a smile, her words reminding him of the tome now resting in the bottom of his desk drawer.

Smiling in thanks, he accepted the books and fled the cavernous room. He glanced over his shoulder as he pushed the door open, managing to catch a last look at the Gryffindor witch watching him from the shadows of one of the shelves. Smirking, he slid the books into his bag and made his way to class.

XxXxX

Blaise sat down across from Draco at the Slytherin table. His eyes flew over the vast array of food presented for their lunch before darting to Draco. The blond was eyeing him with a concerned look, one of his hands wrapped around the base of his cup. Hauling his bag into his lap, he rifled through its contents and drew forth one of the books he'd borrowed from the library "The Dragon's Maw." He muttered, finger stabbing the cover as he dropped it in front of Draco. He shook his head when the blond arched an eyebrow and stared doubtfully down at the cover.

"The what?" Draco mumbled, placing the tips of his fingers on the book and spinning it around on the dark wooded table. He glanced at the Gryffindor table, noting the narrowed emerald eyes focused intently on him. Curling his lip, he returned his attention to the wizard staring blankly at him.