One evening, Zabini dropped something on his pillow without comment before bed.
What's that? A newspaper?
Blake picked it up.
GREENGRASS FAMILY VALUES: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
Blake's heart immediately sank as he read the title, and the author of the page - Rita Skeeter. This can't be good.
Underneath, in smaller print: What the neutrality stance of one of Britain's most prominent wizarding families means for ongoing 'social alliances' - and whether the golden rule of pureblood society still applies.
He read the piece. Then he read it again.
It was careful - nothing directly stated, but everything strongly implied. The Greengrass family's well-documented neutrality, their historical position on relationships outside their social tier, a quote from someone described as a source with knowledge of the family suggesting the Greengrasses had always taken a pragmatic approach to personal connections. There was a photograph, clearly taken at the World Cup, showing him and Daphne in the Top Box. He was looking at her with an expression that, completely out of context, looked extremely stupid.
F*ck, he thought, cheeks reddening in embarrassment. I look like I'm ogling at her!
He'd been listening to her explain the Irish defensive setup. That was all.
But below it, was a picture of them outside, in the corridors, looking away from each other, body language so tense that anyone could tell things weren't normal.
How the hell did she get this?
He put the paper down, reading the worst line once more.
Sources say that after pressure from her family, the eldest Greengrass daughter was forced to reject Blake Renshaw, viciously citing his blood status as a muggleborn, and her own as a pureblooded witch from the Sacred 28 as her reason. It's been reported that Blake Renshaw has been regularly seen in tears in private, while Daphne Greengrass appears to remain completely unfazed. The Greengrasses…
He couldn't read anymore, as he felt his face getting hotter and hotter with anger. This middle aged, shameless woman was so bad at her job that he had to resort to lying and slandering Daphne to get an audience, and Blake had never wanted to hex a woman so badly.
He knew the Greengrass neutrality position was true - he had always known it was true, but Celia and Cyrus had nothing to do with whatever was currently happening between him and Daphne. That wasn't the issue, and it was obvious to anyone that knew them, but for the general public? Horror.
More pressingly though - how is Skeeter getting this?
He'd been asking himself this question for a while now, actually. The detail in her pieces was too specific, especially while she was doing the same things with Hermione and Harry - even Hagrid. Names, locations, specific things said in specific places - things that couldn't have come from observing them at a distance or from general gossip. Someone was feeding her information, or she was getting it herself, which meant she'd been somewhere she had no business being.
This is bad, he thought. Imagine if she catches us investigating Moody, or doing stuff with Astoria's cure in the Room of Requirement.
"What're you gonna do about that?" Zabini asked, coming back from the bathroom.
Blake sighed. We need to deal with this sooner or later.
"We'll see."
/
He brought it to Daphne at their next Potions session that evening. She was already in the Room of Requirement when he arrived, notes spread out, which he'd been told by Charlotte was Daphne's way of making sure there was less room for anything other than work. He chose not to think about that too hard.
"The Skeeter pieces," he said, sitting down. "Have you read them?"
"Of course."
"What d'you think? How's she getting those pictures?"
Daphne shrugged without looking up. "Not sure," she said flatly. "Either way, it doesn't matter. There's nothing else for her to make up, so it'll die down soon."
"You… you don't want to catch her?"
"Why would I? She's going to run out of lies to put out sooner or later."
"I- I guess… - but what if she catches us doing this, or stuff to do with Moody?"
"She doesn't know about that, and besides, she probably wouldn't realise what was happening - she's only interested in us. Once she realises she won't get anything, she'll give up."
Blake was surprised. She's getting slandered… and she doesn't care?
They kept working, as Blake tried his best to focus on the work instead of why Daphne was refusing to catch Rita.
/
The next day, all three of the girls showed up to their dorm. Without a word, they all marched in, lounging in their usual places as if nothing had happened at all.
"Zabini, where's the snacks I left here?" Daphne asked.
Zabini narrowed his eyes, before levitating a small bag of chocolate crackers onto her lap.
"Blake, get the Exploding Snap out," Tracey said in between bites of Daphne's snacks, getting crumbs everywhere in the process.
"Oi!" Zabini said, irritated. "You're getting crumbs all over my bed!"
"That's not the only thing I've gotten onto your bed, but you weren't complaining about that!" she responded with a smirk.
There was a moment of pure silence.
Wait - is she saying-?
"Tracey!" Zabini shouted, his face flushed in embarrassment, as realisation dawned on the rest of them, while Tracey was laughing hysterically.
"What the f*ck!?" Blake said, recoiling.
"Yuck!" Charlotte immediately jumped off Zabini's bed, casting spells to clean her clothes thoroughly.
"That's actually disgusting, Tracey," Daphne said, crinkling her nose. "Already?"
"What can I say?" Tracey shrugged smugly. "He couldn't keep his hands off me!"
"She's lying!" Zabini shouted. "I swear, she's lying!"
Blake and Charlotte clamped their hands over their ears as Daphne chided Tracey, and Zabini covered her mouth so that she couldn't speak anymore.
As the couple struggled against each other, Charlotte couldn't hold herself from laughing, falling from the chair she was sitting on, hysterical.
Despite everything, Blake couldn't stop himself from laughing, and he felt a small weight lifted off his shoulders.
If nothing else, he thought, looking at Daphne's face slowly curling into a smile, at least this is back to normal.
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