Archive of Our Own ^beta

Blaise watched his mother and her many husbands as he grew up. His father wasn't even one of them. She charmed them. A few little things and they'd be hopelessly besotted. And then she killed them and kept their fortune. Blaise was the only constant in her life. She taught him to charm women. To tell them what they want to hear and take what he wants from them. A kiss to the knuckles, a flattering compliment, and a pulled out chair could lead to sex, money, power or whatever else he wanted. For something real, he needed someone who could charm as well as he could. Or throw it all back in his face. A worthy opponent in his mother's favorite game.

But he had learned much more from his mother than she had intended to teach him. He realized that his mother was hardly one of a kind and he was adamant he would never be led around by his balls like his former stepfathers. For something real, he needed someone who didn't care for his money or status. Ideally someone with their own status and power. His first stepfather had been convinced that his mother hadn't cared about either of those things when she married him. Two years later he fell off his broom and broke his neck.

Blaise was groomed to be the next iteration of his overindulgent mother. On some level, he believes that he's god's gift to women everywhere and is allergic to responsibility. His mother will give him what he wants, or he can put in a bit of work and get it himself. But he remembers how his mother wasn't ever actually happy. He firmly believes that marriage is little more than a sham and nothing more than insurance. But he wasn't sure if he believed her that love was also a sham. She had money, status, a son she loved, even friends to some extent, but it was never enough for her. On some level he knew if he looked at love as she did, he'd end up as unhappy as her. And maybe he wanted to have more than just a child as a constant in his life. Someone who actually chose to stay with him. Someone with some fire and fun to add to his life that he'd never get from variety. Yes he still wanted status, power and money to an extent. But really, he'd want someone worth choosing over and over and over again.

Ginny Weasley had fire to spare. Chaos ruled her childhood but chaos was fun. She hadn't grown up with status, money or power but she was happy. And now? With an Order of Merlin and a professional quidditch career, she had more than she'd probably ever use. She had 6 older brothers who made sure she knew every trick in the book of how men would try to charm their way into her knickers. But even if they hadn’t taught her to be wary around charming men, Tom certainly had.

Ginny Weasley loved Harry Potter. She didn't care about his money or his status. She did like that he was everything she had been raised to admire; brave, powerful, noble and strong. She felt he understood her in a way few else would. Being ridiculed for second hand things, the glory of Quidditch and being praised simply for being good at something you love and of course, having an intimate relationship with Tom Riddle. They were from totally different backgrounds and had many different experiences. She was surrounded by siblings and parents that loved her. He was abused and neglected in a house that hated him for who he was. She was looked down on for her family's politics and poverty outside of her social circle. But within she was well liked and admired. Harry was always treated somewhere between fear, hero worship, and hate. But it was the things they had in common that really doomed them. Both of them were prone to acting first and thinking second. Both of them were incredibly stubborn. Both of them hated to be patronized or distrusted. And yet isn't that what he had done to her? He decided that he prefered her brother and Hermione over her to go hunt Horcruxes. Despite the fact that she was the most qualified person to help look. He trusts his two best friends with his secrets but never her. She stood by him time and time again. She enabled him and he her. But he decided to make choices for her and in that moment he made it clear she would never be his equal.

Ginny Weasley stayed with him because he was everything she was supposed to want and more. It took her two years of their second relationship to realize that he would always be the man, the myth and the legend first, and the boy named Harry second. Maybe she loved the boy named Harry but she'd always be standing on the ground in the shadow of the pedestal on which stood the Boy Who Lived. A pedestal even she had put him on.

Ginny had grown up the youngest of 7. She saw how her parents loved each other and all of them. She grew up as one of many. And she grew up a Gryffindor. She was taught to be brave, chivalrous, and ruthless. Even to her own brother. But Ginny Weasley had one of the most vile, dark wizards of all time living in her head for a year at the age of eleven. Yes she was strong to survive that. But like anyone she was changed. Perhaps it had taken a lot of the nice out of her. It had certainly unearthed her darker side. She was still a Gryffindor through and through. She would always put the cause first, even if it meant losing something precious to her. But who could really blame her for wanting someone who saw that darker side and wouldn't flinch, and would see it as a part of her. Who wouldn't want to change her. Who would put her before the cause. Who would want her and only her and not see her as 1 of 7 but as Ginny.

Ginny was full of fire. She wasn't going to let anyone take advantage of her. Never again. But she remembered how that felt and needed someone who wouldn't back down in the face of her intensity. Someone who would match her and compete with her. Someone who could keep up with her. Someone who wouldn't watch her worst qualities go unchecked or encourage it either.

Ginny wanted a life. She had been a child fighting on the front lines of a war. She had become responsible for so many kids during that year of hell. As far as she was concerned, the world did not owe her shit. But she owed the world nothing either. She wanted to be Ginny. She watched Harry and her brother go off and join the Aurors. Her brother at least seemed to love his job. Harry just seemed to think it was what he was good at and that’s what brave people do so that's what he should be doing. She had asked him "Haven't you done enough for everyone?”

Blaise Zabini had kept company far more vile than Ginny Weasley. Even at her worst she fell within a shade of grey lighter than some of his old social circle had ever reached. Blaise would never see her as tainted or something that needed fixing. Healing yes, but fixing no. Blaise may be considered a coward by some, but he is a firm believer in taking care of what's yours at all costs. And for her? There is very little he wouldn't do. He believes life is full of the give and take of transactions. He did what he had to to survive and no more during the war. He makes no apologies for that. Being Draco Malfoy's best friend made for good practice at calling out someone you love on their bullshit. And he had too much pride to allow himself to be walked over by anyone.

Blaise and Ginny had their problems like anyone else. He got jealous and so did she. Her mother said they enabled each other to act like children. They countered that they owed nothing to anyone but each other. When Harry quit the Aurors, Molly had made a remark that now there was nothing between her and Harry getting back together and getting married. As if that had been their only problem.

Bill had been the first to welcome Blaise with open arms. He had always known Ginny best. Fleur had liked him too. She understood being judged on her more superficial qualities.

One night after too many fire whiskeys on the beach by Shell Cottage, Ginny tearfully thanked Bill and apologized for the hell she gave Fleur. Bill simply told her that he forgave her. That she had been young and a bit misguided but he knew she had been trying to protect him because she thought he needed it. And that he saw their mother, and what she needed was for him to accept the man she loved. That any man who looked at her like Blaise does would be welcome with him.

Then Charlie, Percy and her father came around. Charlie saw his sister was happy and that was all he needed to see. Percy too had been out of school for long enough that house rivalries seemed silly to him. After all, he had never been a fan of how Harry Potter seemed to have been a magnet for danger. He would never say so to anyone but Audrey, but he was very pleased his sister was staying away from dangerous careers and men alike. Unless you count the quidditch pitch of course.

Blaise hadn’t been a Death Eater but he had had to grow out of some racist viewpoints. Watching friends die, go to prison or wish they had died in the name of blood supremacy had certainly forced some uncomfortable reflections. Hermione had vouched for Blaise and that had been enough for Arthur.

George and Ron had taken some time. Ron had taken an issue with his proximity to Draco Malfoy. Reformed or not, the man was a prat. George personally thought the family had enough drama queens. Blaise took the pranks in good humor, and even got George back occasionally. George concluded the man was alright after all. To get on Ron’s good side, he had introduced Ron to his old housemate Tracey Davis.

All of this got Molly to warm up to him. (especially getting Ron to stop appearing all over the gossip pages with a new date every week) She just had trouble getting over the fact that Blaise wasn’t Harry. She liked Blaise. He was such a gentleman. But he had no interest in marrying her daughter. She also wanted Harry to officially be part of her family.

But then Harry had gotten married and brought his husband around for dinner and it finally clicked that he didn’t have to marry her daughter to be family. She wouldn’t stop trying to convince Ginny and Blaise that marriage was a good idea, no matter how opposed they were.

Signora Zabini liked Ginny well enough. At first she thought the girl was ideal for a first marriage. She had money and glory from being a Quidditch player and a war hero. She was rather rough around the edges and had little appreciation for the finer things in life. But she had no need to use her darling boy for his money and she would help Blaise’s image. But her son never married the girl. And she didn’t even encourage it because he was hopelessly besotted. She was happy that Blaise was happy. Even if he’d never get a divorce settlement, just being around the girl had made most of the more self righteous circles welcome Blaise. While she wouldn’t go so far to say that she enjoyed the girl’s company, she could see why Blaise adored her.

Blaise ended up running the marketing and P.R. for Pansy’s fashion brand. Ginny played Quidditch professionally until she turned 33. She managed to play for 5 years longer than average, but even her body had limits. Then she worked for her sister-in-law in the Daily Prophet sports section.

They had talked about children off and on. For a while they were content with their nieces and nephews. And their friends' children that they considered their nieces and nephews. First Ginny wanted to finish her Quidditch career. Then she wanted to be a little more established in her writing career.

They had their first child when she was 38. And then their second four years later. And then a third two years after that. Two girls then a boy.

After their oldest girl had been born, Molly finally stopped pushing them to get married. But they did a little less than a year before their youngest was born. After all this time, they realized they dreaded being apart more than til death do us part.

They watched their children grow up and have children and then grandchildren of their own. They saw the world together. They made something of themselves that would be marked in the history books. They lived a full, long life together. And when Blaise passed into the everafter, Ginny holding his hand, Ginny desperately wished that she had gone with him.

She spent four years living without him. The longest she had since before they had gotten together the first time, in that first year after the war. She drove her children and grandchildren mad with worry as she insisted on teaching the great grandchildren to play quidditch, her first love, on the fastest racing broom that money could buy. She spoiled them rotten and pranked them as well as she could. She was determined to make the most of her time left instead of moping over Blaise. Not to mention that if he saw that she’d rather die than live without him, she’d never be able to wipe his signature smirk off his face.

And when she did follow him to the everafter she thought about this life that they had built together. The two teenagers that were afraid to commit to a label. The young twenty somethings that were too afraid to say I love you. The thirty somethings, afraid to vow something permanent. She almost regrets not jumping in sooner.

But then she sees him as he was when he was 22 - when she was first willing to admit to herself that she loved him. And as she throws herself into his arms, she thinks to herself that it was all of their dancing around each other that made them so special.