I've been an avid Harry Potter fan since I was about 4 and I will admit that I dabbled a little in writing some pretty terrible fic for it in middle school, but this is my first real try at it! I started shipping Blaise/Padma only a couple weeks ago - don't ask me how or why, I have no idea how this happened because it is the most random pairing of the most minor characters, but I'm ride or die for this ship now. Not sure anybody will actually read this because like I said, Blaise/Padma is an absurdly niche ship and I'm not sure anyone but me even likes it, but if you are indeed reading it then I hope you like it!

Note on book vs. movie canon: I've always believed Lavender survived the Battle of Hogwarts since the book never specifically said that she died. Also, this comes up only very briefly in this fic, but I've gone with Blaise having fled the battle as he presumably did in the books rather than engaging in Room of Requirement shenanigans with Malfoy.

After two years in the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Blaise Zabini knew better than to expect anything interesting to happen, ever. He'd spent the first year after Hogwarts wasting his mother's endless fortune and generally loafing around, but that lifestyle had gotten very dull very quickly. So he'd decided to get a job and, thinking that international magical cooperation sounded interesting, had applied for a position in that department. How wrong he'd been.

When he walked in one Monday morning in May, he figured it would be just another day of filling out paperwork, proofreading documents, and wanting to kill himself. He Flooed to the Ministry from his flat elsewhere in London and took the lift up to the fifth floor, all without incident. But when Blaise arrived at his desk, something completely unprecedented happened: Padma Patil didn't wish him a good morning.

Two years ago, he'd been shown to the empty desk in the corner right next to Padma's, to both of their displeasure. Blaise thought Padma was a stuck-up Ravenclaw goody-two-shoes who had a superiority complex because she'd been working in their department for a whole six months longer than he had. Padma thought Blaise was an arrogant Slytherin git who had a superiority complex because he was pureblooded and absurdly wealthy.

For the first year, they drove each other mad. Padma wished Blaise a good morning every single day in a gratingly pleasant voice, and every single day he ignored her. Then she would try to make small talk with him specifically because she knew he hated inane chitchat of that sort. Then Blaise would make a snide comment and she'd get huffy and ignore him for a few hours. After returning from lunch, they'd trade insults for a little while before once again ignoring each other until it was time to go home, at which point Padma would sweetly wish him a good evening and Blaise would refuse to dignify her with a response.

Then one morning, just for the hell of it, Blaise returned her "good morning" with one of his own, and she'd been so shocked she'd almost fallen out of her chair. From that point on, Blaise would deign to participate in chitchat for a little while every day, Padma would refrain from pestering him as much as she used to before, and the insults they traded became less and less mean-spirited. In that way, they slowly became…not friends, of course, but coworkers who tolerated each other.

Hence on this Monday in particular, Blaise couldn't believe that Padma had neglected to wish him a good morning, for the first time ever in two years. He sat down at his desk and made a ruckus about getting settled in, thinking perhaps she just hadn't noticed his arrival, but she continued to stare determinedly down at the memo she was reading.

Blaise was puzzled. Had he done something to offend her recently? He couldn't think of anything, but she was terribly sensitive and always got cross about the tiniest little things. "Good morning, Padma," he said finally.

"Morning," Padma said, still not looking at him. Her long hair was falling in a curtain around her face rather than in its usual plait, and Blaise got the distinct impression she was trying to hide behind it.

"How was your weekend?" he asked.

"Fine."

He waited for her to elaborate, but she didn't. "Mine was good too, thanks for asking," he said sardonically. "How was lunch with your sister yesterday?"

"How did you know about that?" Padma said, sounding alarmed.

Blaise frowned at her. "You told me about it on Friday. Wouldn't shut up about it, actually."

"Oh. Er, it was good." Yes, she was definitely trying to hide from him. What in the name of Merlin was going on?

Blaise tried to put it out of his mind and set about getting started on his work for the day. Perhaps she was merely tired or feeling ill.

About an hour later, Padma suddenly blurted out, "Are you free on June twenty-third?"

"June twenty-third?" Blaise repeated, startled. "That's over a month away."

"I know, but are you free?"

"I don't know. Probably?"

"Erm, I was thinking…" She paused, looking nervous. "Would you like to come to my sister's wedding?"

"I haven't been invited," Blaise reminded her.

"Yes, I know. I meant—er, I meant, with me. Come with me," Padma mumbled. "As my date?"

Blaise stared at her. "What?"

"Would you like to be my date to my sister's wedding?" Her ears were turning red and she could hardly look at him. Blaise had never seen her so flustered.

A disbelieving laugh escaped him before he could stop it. "Come off it," he said. "Me, be your date? I wasn't aware we actually enjoyed each other's company."

"Of course we don't," Padma said. "The thing is…erm, I sort of told Parvati that you were my boyfriend and I was taking you to the wedding?"

Blaise was certain he must have misheard. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Well, you know, I've been single for quite a while," Padma began, the words tumbling out in a rush. "And Parvati was asking yesterday if I was bringing anyone to the wedding since they need a final count for guests soon, and she was looking at me all pityingly and saying it was perfectly fine if I wanted to go alone, and I was thinking about how embarrassing it would be to show up to my own twin sister's wedding without a date, especially since I'm her maid of honor and it'll be so obvious to all the guests that I was there by myself, and then it just…slipped out."

"It just slipped out that I'm your boyfriend?" Blaise demanded.

"Yes?" Padma said meekly.

"How?"

"I don't know, I was trying to come up with something and you were the first person who popped into my head!"

"Why me?"

"Probably because I spend the majority of every weekday sitting next to you?"

For a moment Blaise could only splutter in indignation and astonishment. "All right, well, you'll just have to tell Parvati that you lied," he said when he'd regained the power of speech.

Padma shook her head vigorously. "Tell her I'm so pathetic that I lied about having a boyfriend? No bloody way!"

"Tell her I dumped you today, then!"

"But then I'll still have to show up to the wedding alone," she pointed out. "Besides, she wanted to know why I hadn't said anything about you to her until now, so I told her we'd only started dating a couple weeks ago. It'd be weird if you dumped me after only a couple weeks. And it would make me look even more pathetic than never having a boyfriend in the first place."

Blaise groaned. "Do you think I care at all about whether or not you look pathetic? For Merlin's sake, Patil, you're only twenty-one, it's perfectly all right to be single. I am."

"Exactly, which is why there's nothing stopping you from pretending to be my boyfriend for a month or so," Padma said triumphantly.

He opened and closed his mouth, annoyed at himself for walking right into that one. "Why should I help you?" he said finally. "Give me one good reason."

"To be a good friend?"

"We're not friends."

"To be a good coworker?"

"This is going way beyond being a good coworker."

"I'll owe you a favor if you do it."

"What use could it possibly be to me to be owed a favor by Padma Patil?"

"I'll…" Padma took a deep breath. "I'll give you my desk."

Blaise's eyes widened. Though they were right next to each other, Padma's desk was far superior to his. The working space of his desk was much too small and there wasn't enough room around him for him to expand it by magic; the desk was shoved right in the perpetually dank and musty corner on top of a suspicious and irremovable stain in the carpet (he'd tried every cleaning spell he knew, to no avail).

"Really?" he said. "Permanently?"

She closed her eyes, looking pained. "Yes."

Blaise weighed his options carefully. On the one hand, the humiliation of pretending for a month to be Padma Patil's boyfriend. But on the other, having for the rest of his time in this office a spacious desk that didn't have one drawer which permanently smelled of pickles and another which was completely stuck shut. He really thought this must be a desk from the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes which had somehow found its way here.

"All right," he said. "You've got yourself a boyfriend. Now start moving your things out of that desk."

Blaise thought the task would be easy enough. Act all sappy with Padma for one day at the wedding, and that was it. But unfortunately for him, Parvati Patil had always been a horrible gossip, so within days it seemed like the entire Ministry (if not all of Wizarding Britain) had found out about his supposed relationship with her sister.

"I hear you're dating Padma Patil," Ron Weasley, of all people, said gruffly when Blaise had to stop by the Auror Office to pick up some paperwork. "Couldn't believe it when Hermione told me. She's way too good for you."

"Coming from the man who took her to the Yule Ball and ignored her all evening," Blaise said coldly, surprised he even remembered such an insignificant story that he'd unwillingly heard Padma tell at some point over the past two years.

"Yeah, well, I was fourteen, wasn't I? We were all prats back then. The difference is you never grew out of it."

"I'll tell her you said hello," Blaise said, grabbing the papers out of Ron's hands and stalking off. He had some nerve, telling Blaise he wasn't good enough for his fake girlfriend. What did Weasley know about their relationship?

"Oh, I was so thrilled when I heard the news," Astoria Greengrass, who had recently started working in their department, gushed when she came over to Padma's desk to have lunch with her. "I knew it would happen sooner or later what with the way you're always teasing each other and flirting."

"Flirting?" Blaise echoed in alarm. He most certainly had never flirted with Padma Patil in all his life.

To divert suspicion, Padma grabbed his hand and smiled sweetly at him. "I suppose we were the last people to figure it out," she said, making Astoria laugh. Blaise tried not to die of embarrassment. Was the desk really worth all this? Then Padma groaned as she took out the sandwich she'd mistakenly stored in the pickle drawer all morning, and Blaise reminded himself that yes, it was absolutely worth it.

Three weeks before the wedding, Padma informed him that he was expected for dinner with her parents on Saturday. "Excuse me?" Blaise said in horror. "I'm meeting your parents? At an intimate family dinner?"

"What, did you think the first time you'd be meeting them was at the wedding?" she asked.

"Yes, actually! I thought the story was that we only just started dating, why would you be introducing me to your parents already?"

"In my defense, it was their idea," Padma said. "If I'm being honest, they seem suspicious of you given all the…gossip about your, er, your mother, so they want to make sure you're suitable before the wedding."

To his annoyance, Blaise couldn't even fault them for wanting to check out the son of a serial husband-killer before allowing him to attend their daughter's wedding. "Fine," he said. "I'll be on my best behavior and try my hardest not to kill anyone while we're there."

"Please don't say anything like that in front of my parents."

"Well, it's not as if they have anything to worry about. I'd never kill you for your money, you're far too poor."

"That's the oddest compliment anyone's ever given me."

At six o'clock on Saturday, Blaise Apparated over to Padma's flat so they could go to her parents' house together. "So this is where you live," he said when she let him in, unable to hide his curiosity. He had a hard time picturing her outside the context of work.

"I need a few more minutes to get ready, so you can snoop around to your heart's content," Padma said before disappearing back into the bathroom.

Blaise poked around the flat a little bit. It was very small and cramped, especially compared to his, and comprised of only a kitchen and living area, one bedroom, and one bathroom. But the colorful rugs and throw pillows, the books overflowing the bookcase and stacked on every available surface, the photographs of friends and family waving at him on the walls, made it feel more like a real home than his own sleek but stark flat.

Blaise moved to have a closer look at some of the photographs. To his surprise, he realized he could easily recognize who was Padma and who Parvati in every single one. At least in the more recent ones, the ones from when they were children were almost impossible. But even in the photographs from their teenage years, Blaise could tell them apart. How was that possible? He was pretty sure he hadn't been able to distinguish between them when they'd actually been at Hogwarts together, but now he could do it in hindsight, simply because he'd seen Padma's face all day five days a week for two years.

"Ready," Padma called, and a moment later she'd returned to the main room of the flat. She was wearing a Muggle dress that only went down to her knees. Blaise accidentally stared at her legs for a long moment before hastily raising his eyes to her face.

"I've never seen you wear Muggle clothes before," he said unthinkingly.

Padma self-consciously glanced down at her outfit. "I prefer them a lot of the time, especially in the summer," she said. "Robes are too hot."

Now that she wasn't wearing long shapeless Ministry robes, Blaise realized with some distress that Padma actually had a very nice figure. Oh, Merlin. He coughed slightly. "Erm, shall we go?"

They Disapparated together, and a second later they were standing in front of a quaint little house on the outskirts of a small town. "This is where you grew up?" Blaise asked as they walked up the front steps.

"Yes. My parents have lived here my whole life," she said, knocking on the door.

After a moment or two, it was opened by Shivani Patil. "Padma, darling!" she exclaimed, pulling her in for a hug. "How are you?"

"I'm good, you?"

"Good, good." Shivani let go of her and eyed Blaise with no small amount of suspicion.

"Mum, this is Blaise Zabini," Padma said quickly. "Blaise, this is my mum."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Patil," Blaise said politely, holding out his hand.

Shivani hesitated for a second, but then she shook his hand. "Padma's told us a lot about you over the years," she said.

"Has she?" Blaise said, looking at Padma in surprise.

Padma looked embarrassed. "Oh, you've come up in work stories every now and then."

"More than every now and then," Shivani said.

Smirking slightly, Blaise raised his eyebrows at Padma, who cleared her throat. "Where's Dad?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.

"He's just finishing up dinner. My husband is a wonderful cook," she informed Blaise as they followed her inside. "Do you cook?"

Blaise felt like this was a test. Good thing he wasn't actually dating Padma. "I'm afraid not," he said. "I haven't had much practice."

"That's right, I suppose you must've grown up having house-elves cook for you," Shivani said disapprovingly.

"Mum," Padma hissed. "Be polite."

"What? Everyone knows how wealthy the Zabinis are, Padma, it's hardly a secret. I suppose your mother thinks my daughter is a gold-digger," she added abruptly.

"What?" Blaise said, caught off-guard by the non-sequitur. "N-no, not at all." He wasn't entirely sure Messalina had even heard anything about him dating Padma. He certainly hadn't told her.

Shivani sniffed. "Good, because it would be rich coming from her."

"Mum! You can't say things like that!"

Blaise wasn't particularly offended, as his mother was a gold-digger and there were seven tombstones to prove it, but he appreciated Padma's attempt to defend him nonetheless.

Parvati and Lavender Brown, her fiancée, were waiting for them in the sitting room. Greetings and hugs were exchanged with Padma, and then they both turned their attention to Blaise. "Hello," Blaise said awkwardly.

"Zabini," Parvati said. "It's been a while."

"It has," he agreed. Padma smiled encouragingly at him, and he tried to think of the sort of small talk topics she'd be coming up with right now. "Er…congratulations on the wedding. You must be excited."

"Yes, very excited," Lavender said. She, at least, was smiling at him. "And thank you. We're glad you're coming, aren't we, Parvati?"

"Very," Parvati said, though she was still observing him with some mistrust. Blaise couldn't exactly blame her; they'd been out of school for three years, but the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry died hard. Not to mention that her fiancée had nearly died fighting in the battle Blaise had fled from. He gulped nervously. Hopefully that wouldn't come up tonight. He didn't really care what the rest of the Patils thought of him, but he wasn't keen on Padma being reminded of what a coward he was.

Before he had time to wonder why he cared what Padma thought of him, Vikram Patil came in from the kitchen and Padma made introductions. "Pleased to meet you, sir," Blaise said.

"The pleasure is mine," he replied, shaking his hand heartily. "And please, call me Vikram."

"Yes, sir. Vikram," Blaise said, surprised that he was so friendly even though he too must have known all the rumors about Blaise's mother. But then he remembered Padma had said that her father was generally more easygoing than her mother, which seemed true enough so far.

As the meal progressed, Blaise observed that Padma seemed to take more after Vikram, quiet and thoughtful, while Parvati was more like Shivani, talkative and either very friendly or very unfriendly depending on if she liked you or not. He learned that Shivani's family was all wizards whereas Vikram was Muggle-born, that they had met at Hogwarts and both been in Gryffindor like Parvati, and that everyone had been surprised when Padma was sorted into Ravenclaw instead.

Dinner was delicious. Blaise had never really had Indian food before, and Padma told him what everything was, but she was talking very fast and there was a lot of food and in the end he settled for just blindly eating things and hoping they would taste good.

"Oh, careful, that's really…spicy," Padma finished too late as Blaise nearly choked on whatever it was he'd just eaten and immediately guzzled a whole glass of water, then refilled it with his wand and drank another glass.

"Merlin," he gasped, eyes watering. All the Patils were laughing at him, but…not unkindly, he realized.

"It's not his fault, he's only ever eaten bland English food," Padma said, patting him on the back.

"This is definitely a far cry from the stuff they gave us at Hogwarts," Parvati said, snickering.

"You'll get used to it after enough Patil family dinners," Lavender told him. Blaise felt an odd hollow sensation at the thought that they all naively expected him to be around for many Patil family dinners to come. "Parvati, remember the first time I tried Saoji chicken curry?"

Parvati cackled. "I thought steam was going to come out your ears!"

Everyone seemed to be warming to him, and by the time they'd finished eating Blaise felt as if he'd been more or less accepted into the family. It was a strange feeling, one he'd never quite experienced before. His father and six stepfathers had come in and out of his life too quickly for him to get very attached, and his mother wasn't exactly the warmest or most affectionate person on the planet. Family meals at the Zabinis' usually consisted of Blaise and Messalina sitting on either end of a long table and hardly saying two words to each other the whole time. Almost the complete opposite of the loud, lively, and fun dinner at the Patils'.

"D'you want to come back to our place for drinks?" Parvati asked Padma as they left with Blaise and Lavender.

Padma smiled. "Sounds fun. Blaise?"

When he'd been getting ready earlier that evening, Blaise had intended to be in and out of the Patils' house as quickly as possible. But he'd been having a surprisingly good time, and Parvati and Lavender somehow didn't seem to hate him, and Padma was looking at him so hopefully… "Yeah, all right," he said.

They Apparated to Parvati and Lavender's flat, which was also in London. It was bigger than Padma's, but not by much, and Blaise found himself squished beside Padma on the sofa in the cramped living room. They were so close that their legs were touching, and Blaise tried not to let on how conscious he was of it, seeing as he was supposedly her boyfriend and supposedly had done a lot more than touch legs with her.

"You know, Padma, you haven't exactly told me the story of how you two got together," Parvati said after she'd poured everyone a glass of Firewhisky. "And you're not a couple I would've expected in a thousand years, no offense, so it must be a pretty good story."

Blaise suddenly felt nervous, and he and Padma quickly and simultaneously took a sip of their drinks. "Not really, actually," Padma said. "It just sort of happened."

"Oh, c'mon, there has to be some kind of story," Lavender said. "Unless it's something you're too embarrassed to tell us."

She and Parvati both smirked at them, and Blaise coughed and took another swig of Firewhisky. "No, nothing embarrassing," Padma said hastily. "Just not that exciting."

"We still want to hear."

She sighed. "All right, fine. So…you know we sit next to each other at work, so we've gotten to know each other pretty well over the past two years," she began. "Eventually I started to realize that I was, erm, I was attracted to him, and then last month he asked me if I wanted to get dinner sometime and I said yes and that was that."

"You're right, that is boring," Parvati complained. "Anything to add, Zabini?"

"No," he said. "That was exactly what happened."

"But what were you thinking?" Lavender asked. "What was the moment that made you realize you had feelings for her and wanted to ask her out?"

This was the worst moment of Blaise's life; he should've known better than to have drinks with the two most gossipy girls in their year at Hogwarts. He racked his brains, trying to come up with something plausible as quickly as he could.

"Well…it was one day back in March," he improvised. "It was raining, and Padma came into work completely drenched. She told me she'd forgotten an umbrella, so I asked why she didn't just use Impervius, and she looked at me like I was an idiot and said, 'I think the Muggles I walked past on my way here might have noticed if I was mysteriously dry without an umbrella.' So then I pointed out she could use magic to dry herself off, at least, and she got annoyed and refused to do it and sat at her desk soaking wet for hours just to spite me."

Blaise felt himself smiling as he recounted the incident. Padma had a stubborn streak to rival any Gryffindor's; it had once driven him mad, but now it was one of the many things he admired about her. He realized that everyone was quiet, so he looked up and saw Parvati and Lavender wearing matching fond expressions and Padma looking at him with something in her eyes that he couldn't quite make sense of.

Embarrassed, Blaise quickly cleared his throat and wiped the smile off his face. "So, yeah. That was the moment I knew," he mumbled.

"You know, Zabini, I was suspicious of you at first, but you really care about my sister, don't you?" Parvati said, looking at him with a sort of grudging respect.

Blaise glanced sideways at Padma and impulsively took her hand. To further the impression that they were dating, of course. "Yeah. I really do," he said, trying to squash down the guilt he felt for lying. Since when did lying make him feel guilty?

"Good. 'Cos if you ever hurt her I'll kill you myself."

"Oh, honestly, Parvati," Padma said in annoyance.

But Blaise just chuckled. "Noted."

Several drinks later, a tipsy Lavender said, "Hey, how come you two haven't kissed all night? We've been together for hours and I haven't seen you kiss even once."

"Probably because we can control ourselves in front of other people," Padma said, rolling her eyes when Parvati leaned over to kiss Lavender. "Ugh, you two are revolting and I only put up with it because you're getting married in three weeks and I'm happy for you. But after the newlywed phase is over this constant snogging in front of me has got to stop."

"What? We love each other and we're not too embarrassed to show it," Parvati said. "Unlike you."

"Blaise and I aren't embarrassed, we just have a sense of courtesy to the people around us—"

She stumbled to a halt as Blaise reached out and cupped her face in his hands. He smiled hesitantly and gave her a small shrug as if to say Why not? And then he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers.

Padma hummed in surprise—or perhaps appreciation?—but she didn't pull away. On the contrary, she started kissing him back, and Blaise's eyes were closed as he got lost in the moment, in the taste of Firewhisky on her lips, in the softness of her skin under his hand, in the silkiness of her hair as he tangled his other hand in it, in the way her mouth felt so perfect against his and the way her lips parted automatically as he slipped his tongue inside—

Suddenly coming to his senses, Blaise swiftly pulled away and cleared his throat, feeling like his face was on fire. Parvati and Lavender were whistling and applauding, and Padma was studiously avoiding his eyes. Her ears were red again, just as they had been when she'd first asked him to come to the wedding. Maybe her ears always turned red when she was embarrassed. It was kind of cute, Blaise thought. Then he mentally shook himself. Cute? Had he ever thought of anything as cute in his entire life?

What was happening to him?

"Erm, we should probably go," Padma said, practically jumping to her feet.

"Yeah, clearly you two need some alone time," Lavender said with a snicker.

Blaise just barely managed to get out a "Thank you for having us" before Padma dragged him out the door. "I'll see you at work on Monday," she said, and then she Disapparated without waiting for him to respond.

Blaise exhaled loudly and shook his head a little to clear it before Disapparating back to his own flat. Though the memory of the kiss kept him tossing and turning all night.

The desk really wasn't worth this.

"Hey," Blaise said on Monday after an hour of painfully awkward silence. "I'm really sorry for—for kissing you the other night, I shouldn't have—"

"Oh, it's all right," Padma said, giving him a quick smile. "Parvati and Lavender would've just kept bothering us if you hadn't. And it did a good job convincing them even more about our relationship."

"Right," said Blaise. Convincing them. Because their relationship wasn't actually real. "No harm done, then?"

"Nope."

"That's good."

But for the rest of the day—no, the rest of the week, he couldn't shake the sense that something fundamental had changed between them.

All things considered, Blaise was more than ready for the wedding to be over with so that he and Padma could quietly "split up" and go back to the way things used to be, back when their relationship was no deeper than constant bickering. Blaise missed those simple days more than anything.

There was just one final hurdle: the wedding was being held at the Patils' house, and Padma was going to stay there for two days before the wedding to help out with last-minute preparations, and she'd volunteered Blaise to come with her.

That was all well and good, until they arrived and Blaise realized that unlike his own childhood home (well, manor), Padma's did not have any spare bedrooms and so he would have no choice but to sleep in her room. With her. In the same bed.

"I'll just sleep on the floor," Padma said the first night when they finally were allowed to go to bed after hours of helping Shivani sort wedding presents.

"Of course you won't, it's your own room," Blaise said. "I'll sleep on the floor."

"But you're the guest, you ought to have the bed."

"I'm no Gryffindor, but I believe the chivalrous thing to do would be to let you have the bed."

"Oh please, I'm not the delicate medieval lady to your knight in shining armor, I can handle sleeping on the floor for two nights."

"But what if someone comes in here unexpectedly while we're asleep and sees one of us on the floor?" Blaise said. "It would seem odd since we're supposedly together."

Padma frowned. "Why would someone come in here unexpectedly while we're asleep?"

"I don't know, what if Parvati is nervous about the wedding and wants to talk to you?"

She paused. "That's actually quite possible, she does have no concept of personal space or knocking first," she admitted. "Fine, we'll both sleep in the damn bed. It'll be fine, it's only two nights."

"Yeah," Blaise said uneasily, suddenly regretting suggesting it.

They both took turns in the bathroom getting ready for bed, Blaise now wishing he'd brought more substantial pajamas despite the hot weather. Padma's short nightdress was hardly much better than his boxer shorts in terms of covering up skin, and they carefully avoided looking each other as they climbed in bed.

"Goodnight," Padma said finally, rolling over to face away from him.

"'Night," Blaise mumbled.

It wasn't too long before he heard her snoring softly. Interesting. He wouldn't have pegged Padma Patil as a snorer. Blaise was wide awake for at least an hour, lying frozen still flat on his back because he was too scared to move and accidentally touch her.

Then Padma rolled over in her sleep, and now her bare leg was touching his. Blaise inhaled slightly and his heartbeat sped up as he felt the warmth of her skin against his. Oh, he was going to die.

He took deep breaths and tried to force himself to relax. Honestly, it wasn't like he'd never touched a girl before. He was being utterly ridiculous. Also, his back was really starting to hurt from lying so stiffly in the same position for so long.

Blaise steeled himself and slowly, carefully rolled over to face Padma. To his relief, she didn't wake up. But to his horror, she mumbled something in her sleep and shifted closer so that she was all but snuggling with him. Blaise didn't know what to do. Uncertainly, he let his arm drop until it was gently draped over her. This was the most comfortable position he'd struck upon all night, and she felt so soft and warm nestled in his arms…

The next thing Blaise knew, he was being awoken by morning sunlight streaming in through the cracks in the curtains. He blinked a few times, and then the memory of the night before came back to him and he turned his head. Padma was still asleep, and while she was no longer in his arms the way she had been when he'd fallen asleep, they were still touching.

For a moment, Blaise simply gazed at her. She looked so peaceful, her face smooth and relaxed rather than having the perpetual furrow in her brow he was used to from watching her read through the nitty-gritty fine print in a legal document. And her hair was long and loose, strands of it falling messily all over her face and the pillow. She was…beautiful, Blaise realized in amazement.

At that precise moment, the door burst open and Parvati said loudly, "Padma, wake up! Mum's being a nightmare about flower arrangements and I need your help!"

Padma woke up with a start and Blaise hastily pretended to also be just waking up. "What?" Padma said blearily.

"And put on some clothes, the pair of you, Zabini in his underpants is the last thing I want to see the day before my wedding," Parvati said, and then she closed the door again and thundered back down the stairs.

Padma sighed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "I suppose it was a good thing we both slept in the bed," she said wryly.

Blaise was shaken, but he managed a small laugh. "Yeah."

All day, he couldn't stop looking at Padma. Along with Parvati, she had always been one of the prettiest girls in their year at Hogwarts. Blaise had known that. But somehow, he hadn't known it until that morning watching Padma as she slept. Seven years at Hogwarts with her and two at the Ministry, and it had taken seeing her sound asleep and snoring with her hair a mess and no makeup for him to realize how beautiful she was.

And after this weekend, it would all be over. They'd stage a breakup and go back to being no more than regular coworkers. Well, good, Blaise thought forcefully. This had been a stupid idea in the first place, and the sooner it was over the better. All it was doing was making him confused and irrational. As if he would ever be attracted to someone like Padma Patil under normal circumstances.

The day passed in a flurry of wedding preparations and that night in much the same manner as the previous one, and when Blaise woke up early the next morning, Padma had already left to help Parvati get ready. He grabbed some toast for breakfast and changed into his dress robes, then made himself useful to the frazzled Patils until the guests started arriving.

As the boyfriend of the sister of the bride, Blaise was seated in the first row with Parvati's parents and grandparents. Apparently he even outranked the aunts, uncles, and cousins, which he felt rather guilty about seeing as he wasn't actually dating Padma and by all rights shouldn't be at this wedding at all, let alone right in the front row.

Despite Parvati and Shivani's last-minute panicking, the ceremony went smoothly. Blaise's breath caught in his throat when Padma, the maid of honor, processed down the aisle in an elegant lilac dress. In his opinion, she far outshone the brides.

"You look very nice," he told her sincerely as they danced together during the reception.

She smiled, a little shyly. "Thank you," she said. "So do you."

"Thanks."

After they'd danced for a while, Padma went off to say hello to some of the guests and Blaise was left to his own devices. He was sipping some Butterbeer by himself when he was approached by a pretty blonde woman whom he vaguely recognized as a cousin of Lavender's.

"Hello," she said, batting her eyes at him.

"Er, hi," Blaise said rather uncomfortably.

"What's the maid of honor's handsome boyfriend doing over here all by himself?"

Blaise licked his lips. The charade would be over soon enough, he was absolutely not attracted to Padma, and here was a good-looking girl showing interest in him. So he found himself blurting out, "Funny story, actually, I'm not really Padma's boyfriend."

She looked surprised (and pleased). "No?"

"Yeah, we work together and she needed a date to the wedding, so I agreed to go as a favor."

"Oh, how funny! So you don't actually like her?"

"Not at all, we've just been putting on a bit of an act. In fact, I can hardly stand her, to be honest," he fibbed.

Blaise heard someone inhale sharply behind him, and he turned around to see Padma standing right there and looking as if she'd been slapped in the face.

Oh no.

"Padma," he said anxiously. "I-I didn't know you were—I'm sorry, I can explain—"

"You don't have to," she said, forcing a smile even though he could clearly see her eyes shining with tears. "I mean, every single thing you just said was true."

And she turned around and quickly walked away. "Padma!" Blaise called, aghast, but she just picked up her pace.

He dithered for a moment, wondering if he should chase after her to apologize or just let her go. Normally he would've simply shrugged and turned back to his conversation without a second thought, but…to his surprise, he realized that since befriending Padma Patil, he'd somehow developed a conscience.

So to Lavender's bemused cousin he said, "Sorry, I have to go," and he hurried off after Padma.

She'd had a head start, and Blaise had some difficulty making his way out of the very crowded reception, so he lost track of where she'd gone and ended up wandering around looking for her for a while. At last he went inside the house and finally found her upstairs in her bedroom.

The bad news was, Padma was sitting on her bed crying. The even worse news was, Parvati was there in her wedding dress patting Padma on the back and talking softly to her, and when she heard Blaise's footsteps, she looked up and glared at him so fiercely it was a miracle he didn't drop dead on the spot.

"Get out, Zabini!" Parvati said furiously. "Haven't you done enough?"

"I wanted to apologize," Blaise said rather lamely.

"You have some nerve—"

"Parvati, don't," Padma said quietly, wiping her eyes and refusing to look at him. "It was my idea in the first place, it's not his fault."

"So he's not the reason you're in here crying?" Parvati said. "No, Padma, it bloody well is his fault!"

"Parvati, I'm really sorry that we lied to you, and to Lavender and to your parents and…well, everyone," Blaise said. "And Padma, I'm sorry for what I said just now, I didn't mean it—"

"Oh, shut it," Parvati snapped. "This is supposed to be the happiest day of my life, and instead I'm in here comforting my sister because you made her cry, and if you don't leave this room and my wedding right now I will hex you into next Tuesday!"

Blaise opened his mouth to protest, but then his newly-developed conscience told him that he'd already done enough to ruin the wedding. "All right. I'm sorry," he said, swallowing past the lump in his throat. "Congratulations again. It was a beautiful ceremony."

And he Disapparated back to his empty, lonely flat.

Blaise spent Sunday alone and miserable. Old Blaise, normal Blaise, would've been in a huff about Parvati yelling at him when Padma was the one who'd roped him into this nonsense and none of it was his damn fault. But this new Blaise, who apparently had quite a lot less backbone than the old one, couldn't do anything but think of the look on Padma's face and hate himself for causing it.

If this was what having a conscience was like, Blaise didn't care for it one bit. He didn't have much experience with second-guessing himself or regretting his actions. The day he'd run from the Battle of Hogwarts when his fellow students were fighting and dying around him was one of the first times he'd experienced true self-loathing, and even that was nothing, nothing compared to how he'd felt when he'd realized he'd made Padma Patil cry.

Why was this affecting him so much? She was hardly the first person he'd insulted. Hell, it was hardly the first time he'd insulted her. The things they used to say to each other in the beginning of their time together at the Ministry had been far nastier than anything Blaise had said at the wedding.

Inexplicably, he thought back to that day in March when Padma had come in soaking wet from the rain. He thought of how ridiculous she'd looked, like a drowned rat, how irritated she'd gotten with him for suggesting simple solutions to her problems, how simultaneously exasperated and amused he'd been at her stubbornness. He thought of her resolutely ignoring the steady drip, drip of her robes onto the floor and going about her day as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Blaise thought of the way her ears turned red when she was embarrassed. He thought of her tiny little flat, decorated in a way that was just so her. He thought of the kiss they'd shared. He thought of her being abandoned all night by Ron Weasley at the Yule Ball. He thought of all the stories she'd told him over the years that he had somehow absorbed and remembered as if they were stories from his own past, even though he'd always told himself he couldn't care less about her pointless chitchat. He thought of how at home he'd felt with her and her family, in a way he'd never felt in his own home with his own mother.

And that moment, sitting alone in his flat on the dreary Sunday after her sister's wedding—that was the moment he knew.

On Monday morning, Blaise strode into the Department of International Magical Cooperation with more purpose than he'd ever shown in his two years there. Padma was already at her desk, and she hardly looked at him when he arrived. "Morning," she mumbled.

Rather than saying it back, Blaise all but yanked her to her feet, spun her around to face him, and kissed her fiercely before she could say a word.

When he finally drew back, half the office had swiveled around to stare at them. Padma's eyes looked like they were about to fall out of her head. "W-what?" she stammered.

"Good morning," Blaise said. "Also, I'm an arse and I'm sorry and I think I'm in love with you."

He waited anxiously for a response, but she just continued to gape at him. "But—but what about—at the wedding, you said you couldn't stand me," she finally managed. "And you were flirting with that other woman—"

"I was in denial. About my feelings for you. I—I've never felt this way before, not about anyone, and that scared me," Blaise confessed. "And under normal circumstances, if a pretty girl came up to flirt with me at a wedding, I'd flirt back. So that's what I did, to try to pretend to myself that nothing had changed. But when I looked over and saw you standing there…I realized everything had changed. I'm sorry I said I couldn't stand you. Nothing could be further from the truth. You're…to be honest, you're one of the only people on this earth I can stand."

"How romantic," Padma said dryly, but to his relief she was starting to smile.

"Sorry, I'm rubbish at this sort of thing. Feelings and all that," Blaise said sheepishly, making her laugh. "What I'm trying to say is, I see you here from nine to five almost every day of the week, and if you were anyone else I would be sick of you by now. But somehow, during the little time I have that I do not spend at this office, I miss you. Because I love you."

Padma looked so beautiful when she smiled, it made him dizzy. "Well…" she said a little slyly. "If you really love me, you'll give me the good desk back."

"Done," Blaise declared. "And anything else you might want from me, it's yours."

"How about dinner on Friday?" she said.

"Tonight," he said. "Because I can't wait five whole days to go on a proper date with you."

"In that case, tonight sounds perfect. Also, I think I'm in love with you too," she said, beaming at him. "But you'll have a lot of explaining and apologizing to do to my sister when she gets back from her honeymoon."

Blaise laughed. "Not looking forward to that," he said. "I hope I didn't ruin the wedding too badly?"

Padma shook her head. "Oh no, I don't think anyone noticed a thing," she assured him. "I managed to send Parvati back outside a moment after you'd gone, and when I went out a little later she was already dancing happily with Lavender."

"That's good," Blaise said, relieved. He cleared his throat and smiled shyly at her. He didn't think he'd ever been shy around a girl before, but something about her made him feel like a third year with a crush. "So, erm…would you like to be my girlfriend for real?"

Padma pretended to think about it, and then she broke out into another smile. "All right. You've got yourself a girlfriend," she said. She went up on her tiptoes to kiss him again. "Now start moving your things out of that desk."