“Where is everybody?”

Hermione looked up from her Potions text at the question, trying to conceal her surprise. It was the first time he’d actually spoken directly to her when they’d not been surrounded by others. Staring at the dark Slytherin, she did her best to pretend that they conversed often. “Slughorn had a meeting with Dumbledore. As to the rest, well, they’re always a bit late.”

“Great,” he muttered sullenly before taking a seat across the room from her.

She sighed at the blatant hostility the quiet boy showed simply because her blood was not even partially pure. Looking back at her book, she studied the potion and tried to figure out how Harry’s had turned out better than hers.

“Do you know The Doors?”

Hermione again found herself completely stunned, unable to hide her surprise this time. “Excuse me?”

“You are Muggleborn, aren’t you?” he asked with a hint of amusement and a hint of smugness at catching her by surprise.

“Yes, I know of The Doors,” she said tightly, annoyed that he was apparently laughing at her. Glaring at his perfect cheekbones and beautiful eyes, she focused back on her Potion dilemma.

“My fifth stepfather met them, you know? He had all their, what do you call them? The round plates with music? Very troublesome, those Muggle devices, but he loved their music,” Blaise volunteered as thought he were giving the secrets of the Pharaohs instead of discussing Muggle music.

“Albums,” she said with a sigh before raising her head once again. “I would have though being familiar with Muggle music would have you banished from Slytherin. Did you need anything in particular, Zabini, or were your attempts at idle chit chat with a Muggleborn considered your civic duty for the year?”

“Well, Granger,” he drawled lazily, “I don’t wear a button that flashes my interest in Muggle music. That would be rather stupid, after all, and I’m not stupid. Far from it, in fact. As for the rest, I’m bored. You’re here. And it amuses me that you are so very uncomfortable looking at me as I speak to you. I wonder if that’s because of my general opinion regarding those of your blood or if there might be another reason so that intrigues me.”

“As if I’d never any other reason!” she exclaimed with a ‘you must be joking me’ look of dismay. “You call me Mudblood yet expect me to engage in a polite discussion of Muggle music with you just because you’re bored? Your arrogance is amazing.”

“You know, Granger. Just because the instructions are written down doesn’t mean you have to follow them exactly,” he told her with a definite smirk, brown eyes looking at the book in her lap. “Though it is rather amusing to see you glaring at Potter as he bests you, once again, you just need to learn to deviate from the path once in awhile. True, your at an disadvantage automatically because of your blood, but you‘re a stubborn bint so I‘d expect you to try new ways to improve instead of simply following some dull book.”

“I do not need advice from you regarding my classes,” she said stiffly, glaring at him and wondering why she’d ever thought he was even remotely attractive last year. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a Potion to analyze. You’ll just have to find some other way to cure your boredom.”

Blaise remained quiet as she got back to studying the book, wondering where Slughorn and the others were, wishing they’d get there because she could feel Zabini watching her, studying her as if she were some sort of difficult Arithmancy problem, and she hated that she was aware of him. Knowing she’d gotten the last word, however, made her focus a bit more easily. She didn’t see Blaise’s sullen scowl became an amused smirk or the way his fingers slowly stroked his jaw as he contemplated her for several silent moments. Thus, she was surprised when she heard the husky drawl that was becoming annoyingly familiar.

“What about The Ramones?”