I. social casualty | blaise zabini ✔️

SNAKE BITES

CHAPTER 27

SNAKE BITES

"Banned? All three of them?"

Lyra nodded as she sipped from her butterbeer. Her and Blaise began making it a regular thing to meet in the kitchen. It was comforting for Lyra, even more so than their daily notes.

"But one of them didn't even fight."

"Umbridge said that if Fred would have been let go by Katie and Angelina, he would have been fighting as well. Therefore, it's worth banning him."

"What about you, weren't you going to as well."

"Angelina and McGonagall managed to convince her that I was holding Fred back, apparently Umbridge wasn't paying enough attending to me to notice."

"Well thank god for them, you'd probably have already destroyed the whole kitchen if she had banned you."

Lyra chuckled, "I would have destroyed her office."

"Hmm, well Hagrid might, after that introduction today."

"Yeah, or she'll set fire to his cabin." Blaise chuckled again. "Did you see them, the thestrals?"

Blaise shook his head, "I've never seen anyone die. Did you?"

Lyra shook her head. "It's quite upsetting. Knowing that one day when we see them, it'll be because we watched someone die."

Blaise took a sip of his own butterbeer, washing down the knot in his throat at the thought. "Well let's hope we never do."

And he bumped his bottle against Lyra's. The girl nodded. "What are your plans for the break?"

Lyra could not be more relieved at the idea that break was just a few days away. While she had quite a few assignments, she couldn't wait to go home to her dad and Sirius and the rest of the familiar order members.

"Not much. My mother will probably be working on things for her wedding. They decided on doing it in the summer before 6th year. She'll be working on that and I'll be in my room most of the time."

Lyra felt a pang of sadness for Blaise, his break was nowhere near as exciting as hers, which would explain why he didn't seem to care much for leaving Hogwarts.

"Well what about Christmas, what will you do then?"

He shrugged again, "Mother and I will exchange gifts, her fiancé will probably be included as well, then I'll head to my room. We might visit the Malfoys, Greengrass', or Notts for a while."

"That sounds like a lonely holiday."

Blaise didn't say anything for a while and Lyra didn't exactly know how to comfort him. "Tell me about your holidays."

"Well, this year may be a little different, but usually I go home with my dad. Zara and her family will come over, Fay usually comes alone, her family isn't really close. We exchange gifts and listen to music by the fire. Dad likes to have a dance with one of these old songs he has. Zara's family and Fay leave early but Zara stays and we have a sleepover."

"Your house sounds nice." There's a faraway look in his eyes, like he's imagining Christmas at the Knight house and it makes Lyra say.

"You should come over some time." She freezes as the words leave her mouth because the explanations she would have to make to her family and to Blaise if he ever did decide to come over would be way too complicated.

But Blaise smiles back at her as he says, "Maybe I will."

Lyra smiled back, not feeling as worried anymore about the offer she had accidentally made. She wanted to say more, wanted to keep that smile on Blaise's face forever, but he looked down at his watch.