F&L: Chapter 46

The Art Room was decorated with streamers in Gold and White, with a banner wishing me a happy birthday in big gold letters. Along one wall, a table sat with a whole bunch of sweets from Honeydukes, alongside two whole cases worth of Butterbeer, kept cold by cooling charms. Along another wall, presents were piled up, wrapped in a number of different types of paper, from brown paper and twine to festive wrapping paper with pictures of birthday cakes on it. Several couches had been maneuvered into the room, likely by magic, for people to sit on. Honestly, it was a lot more effort than I'd been expecting from my friends. Speaking of which, all of them were here. Not just my core group of friends either, but also friendly acquaintances like the Weasley Twins and Terry's friend Anthony Goldstein.

"Happy Birthday, Blaise!" Exclaimed everyone as I entered the Art Room.

"Huh, you know, this was a lot more effort than I was expecting." I mused.

"Oh, hush. You deserve it." Scoffed Daphne.

"Yeah, you should enjoy it." Smirked Tracy.

"I suppose." I grinned.

"Here, Happy Birthday." Nodded Fred Weasley, or possibly George, as he shoved a chilled Butterbeer into my hand.

"Yeah, we went to quite a bit of trouble to put this all together." Added George Weasley, or potentially Fred.

"That we did, Brother of Mine." Agreed Fred.

"Thank you. Everything looks brilliant." I beamed.

"Glad you like it. It's your present from us, after all." Smiled George.

"Now go mingle, don't let us keep you." Insisted Fred.

I nodded at that, taking a swig of Butterbeer as I walked deeper into the room. This was my first real taste of the stuff and I had to say, I was expecting it to taste different than it did. Instead of tasting like a butterscotch soda, it was actually more of a cream soda with hints of butterscotch instead of the other way around. Either way, it was good stuff, though it was just the tiniest bit alcoholic, possibly as little as between three to three and a half percent alcohol by volume. That was enough to make it contraband for any student of less than fifth year, but it wasn't enough to make it dangerous to sneak in by enterprising students, like the Weasley Twins. After all, the Twins' whole thing was sneaking in contraband that shouldn't be contraband and selling it to fund their various pranks and experiments.

As I drank my butterbeer, I made the rounds of the Room. Susan, Padma, and Millie had set up a game of Exploding Snap in one corner, and I visited them first. Aside from the cards, there seemed to be a pile of various sweets, small toys, and sickles up for grabs as stakes for the winner that was being watched over by Hermione, who surprised me in that she also had a Butterbeer in one hand that she was taking carefully measured sips from as the other three girls played. In her other hand, a quill sat, presumably for keeping score. It was a rather involved setup and I just had to know what this was all about.

"What's going on here?" I questioned.

"Susan, Millie, and Padma have decided to settle a disagreement with an exploding snap tourney." Answered Hermione.

"A disagreement? About what?" I queried.

"That's private." Sniffed Millie.

"Yeah." Agreed Susan.

"Besides, you'll find out at some point." Intoned Padma.

"That's ominous. Should I be worried?" I asked.

"You should always be worried when women get together on something like this, Mate. Least that's what my Brother Bill says." Opined Ron walking up to me. He had a crudely wrapped parcel that was wrapped in brown paper and twine tucked under his arm.

"Honestly, Ron?" Sighed Hermione.

"Hey, Bill's a smart bloke. I'm just repeating his advice." Defended Ron.

"I think I get what he means, though." I remarked.

I did get it, though in that case, it was because my mind was a few years older than my body. I wasn't sure if that counted, though, since it was about matters of Romance. Of course, I wasn't going to say that out loud in front of everyone. I was pretty sure that was a good way to get hexed at my own birthday party, after all. Thankfully, Ron provided a way to easily change the subject by shoving his wrapped parcel into my hands with a grin. I took the present and the change of subject, with a thankful nod.

"Anyway, Happy Birthday, Blaise." Offered Ron.

"Thanks, Mate." I smiled.

"Open it." Pressed Ron.

"If we're doing gifts ad-hoc, I can give you mine next." Insisted Hermione.

"Right." I confirmed.

Then I tore open the wrapping paper and saw what Ron had gotten me. It was a cookbook, which he seemed to have gotten secondhand from the worn cover and obviously thumbed-through pages. Looking through it, I saw a number of recipes for various hearty fare. Chicken Pot Pie, Meatloaf, Dumplings, and the like. It wasn't fancy food in the least, but good, stick-to-your-ribs food. The sort that'd be good for feeding a large family with less expensive ingredients, a bunch of which could be sourced from a backyard garden. I had a sneaking suspicion about where Ron had gotten this cookbook from. Looking over at him, Ron shrugged at me and cracked a sheepish smile.

"You mentioned you were gonna learn how to cook over the summer. I told that to Mum and she had a bunch of cookbooks she hardly uses, so I figured why not help you out there for your birthday?" He responded.

"I think it's brilliant, Ron. Thank you." I beamed at him.

"Really? None of that stuff is fancy, you know. Not like I'm sure you're used to." Pointed out Ron.

"That just means it's more practical, Mate. Let me tell you a secret about Rich Folks Food. It's all disgusting." I chuckled.

"It is?" Questioned Ron.

"Ron, Mate, do you know what caviar and foie gras actually are?" I queried.

"No, what?" Asked Ron.

"Fish eggs and goose liver." I informed.

"That's bloody disgusting!" Exclaimed Ron.

"I know." I nodded, sagely.

"When you're finished grossing out Ron, here's my present." Cut-in Hermione.

I turned toward her and she held out a thin parcel wrapped in polka dot wrapping paper. It was slim but promising, considering I was expecting a packet that would teach me whatever spell she had been working on with spell creation in her downtime. I opened it and got more than I'd bargained for. In this packet, there were instructions for two spells, one was the Bluebell Flames Spell that Hermione had invented the first time around, but the next was for a spell called the Amanuensis Charm. It seemed to be a limited variant of the Gemino Charm specifically for doubling written words, books, scrolls, notes, and so on. If I was reading this right, because of the more limited functionality, the Amanuensis Charm could be used to create perfect copies of such texts with no degradation of materials or writing.

"Hermione, this is brilliant! Do you have any idea what this means?" I questioned.

"I figured if anyone could use a charm that could act as a printing press, it would be you." Smirked Hermione.

"I'm guessing it's the Amanuensis Charm you had to get Professor Flitwick's help with?" I queried.

"It was. The Bluebell Flames were easy in comparison. Professor Flitwick helped a lot. He said I was looking at the project the wrong way, he said instead of creating a new spell, we could simply streamline the Gemino Charm." Nodded Hermione.

"Bloody Hell, Hermione! You invented a new spell?" Asked Ron, astonished.

"Language!" Hissed Hermione.

"Don't Language me, answer the question." Grumbled Ron.

"Fine. Yes, I did. I also modified an old spell to create a functionally new one." Huffed Hermione.

"Did I hear that right? You created a new spell?" Questioned Padma from over by the game. That caused Susan to look up just in time for her to miss matching a pair of cards and cause an explosion, blackening the front of her outfit with soot.

"Hadaway and Shite!" Exclaimed Susan, in her Geordie Accent.

"Too bad. Looks like it's my go." Smirked Millie.

"To answer your question, Padma, yes. I did invent a new spell. You heard right." Confirmed Hermione.

"That's really difficult, isn't it?" Queried Susan, once she had the front of her jumper and skirt scourgified.

"It's supposed to be." Agreed Padma.

"She's not the only one. I invented a new potion with Professor Snape earlier." I admitted.

"Oh? What's this one do?" Asked Millie as she set the exploding snap deck back up for a new round.

"Turns anything it's splashed on into iron. Yes, that includes living beings." I answered.

"So you're turning blokes into iron now?" Questioned Ron.

"I mean, that's one use for it. I prefer to think of it as a major way to make money, though." I shrugged.

"I'll bet. Iron is in a lot of things. If you can just make a bunch of it, that sounds like a way to make a lot of money." Mused Padma.

"You could revolutionize the Economy! That's Brilliant!" Exclaimed Hermione.

"So could the Amanuensis Charm you came up with, 'Mione." I pointed out.

"It sounds like you two figured out something valuable." Hummed Millie, placing the last of the cards down to reset the Exploding Snap Board.

"Have you done the paperwork yet?" Queried Susan.

"I'm already on it, alongside Professor Snape." I remarked.

"What paperwork?" Asked Hermione.

"The Patent Office of the International Magical Trading Standards Body needs to approve new spells and potions for use in industry." Explained Susan.

"Yeah, there's a bit of paperwork involved." Added Millie.

"If by a bit, you mean multiple archaic forms and processes. My father tried to get a patent to use some of my Uncle's Rasayana Alchemy-derived Cosmetic Potions in the UK and had to jump through several hoops to get the patent." Scoffed Padma.

"Don't worry about it. My Dad knows the head of the Patent Office. They worked together as Junior Clerks when he was just starting out. I'm sure he can get your paperwork done quick." Offered Ron.

"You'd do that?" Questioned Hermione.

"Sure? What are Mates for?" Shrugged Ron.

"You're a good bloke, Ron Weasley. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise." I praised.

With that, however, I had to go back to mingling with my other guests. I made my way over to another section of the room, where Terry, Harry, Neville, and Anthony Goldstein sat playing gobstones. The game wasn't one of my favorites, given how the stones spit at you when you lost a point. As I approached, that happened to Neville as one of his stones was knocked out of the circle, coming to rest near his seated form. It then spat a foul-smelling gobbet of water at Neville that soaked into his cardigan sweater vest and smelled like it had been dredged up from a sewer. With a sigh, Neville cast Scourgify on the front of his Cardigan. At the very least, that particular charm made these sorts of games somewhat less hazardous than they otherwise would have been.

"Tough break, Nev." Consoled Harry.

"Thanks. It happens, though." Shrugged Neville.

"What happens?" I queried.

"That was my last stone. I'm out." Answered Neville.

"That's a shame." I remarked.

"Nah, it's still just the first round." Refuted Terry.

"Though we'd be on the second already if someone hadn't bottled my shots during the opening." Scoffed Anthony Goldstein.

"That wasn't my fault! You never said what you were going for!" Protested Terry.

"They've been arguing this for a bit, now." Informed Harry.

"Oh? What happened?" I asked.

"Terry took a bunch of shots that ruined the complex strategy that Anthony was trying to set up." Shrugged Neville.

"Of course, Anthony never told Terry what his strategy was." Explained Harry.

"Hence the impasse." I nodded, seeing the argument.

"Blaise, Mate, tell Tony he should've told me his strategy." Demanded Terry.

"It was a standard Gobstones Strategy, you should've realized what I was going for!" Insisted Anthony.

"Nope. Sorry, but I'm not getting in the middle of that." I refused.

"Great, now they'll be arguing all game." Sighed Harry.

"That just gives you a better chance to win, Mate. Use it to your advantage." I smirked.

"Well, I'm going to grab a Chocolate Frog. Anyone else want anything?" Announced Neville.

The other three spoke up, placing various orders for sweets with Neville. Anthony, it seemed, was fond of Jelly Slugs, while Terry asked for a Pumpkin Pasty and Harry was good with a Chocolate Frog for himself. My stomach growled then, and I decided to head for the buffet myself to grab a Cauldron Cake. I followed Neville to the table, who seemed to be in pretty good spirits. I realized that it was the confidence I was seeing, something he'd lacked at the start of the year. This was a far cry from the timid, meek, boy that had his Rememberall stolen by Malfoy during our first flying lesson. It was an odd realization to know that this was a result of my friendship and that without me, it would've taken Neville years to grow out of his shyness on his own. He had just been starting to do that when my knowledge of the original timeline ended, after all.

"Confidence looks good on you, Nev. I'm glad you found it." I grinned.

"Yeah, well it helps that I've got friends now." Responded Neville, bashfully, scratching the back of his head as he did so.

"What are Mates for, Nev?" I nodded.

"It's just, back home, I didn't have friends. Uncle Algie wasn't exactly supportive and Gran is, well. . ." Neville trailed off.

"Controlling?" I supplied.

"Gran." Finished Neville, lamely.

"Well, we're your friends now, Nev." I insisted.

"Yeah. You are." Nodded Neville with a smile.

We arrived at the buffet table and Neville gathered up a pile of sweets, grabbing Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, and Jelly Slugs in his arms before heading back to the Gobstones Game. As for myself, I grabbed a Cauldron Cake and made my way over to the couch, where Daphne, Tracy, Hannah Abbot, and Parvati Patil were sitting. Tracey had her guitar out and was strumming idly as everyone sat with a Butterbeer in hand, sipping occasionally from the mildly alcoholic contraband. As I approached, Daphne nodded at me and gestured to a spot next to her.

"Here, Blaise. I saved you a seat." Offered Daphne.

"Thanks, Daph." I grinned.

"Daph?" Questioned Tracey.

"I'm trying it out." I shrugged.

"And because it's your birthday, I won't even hex you for it." Huffed Daphne.

"Can't blame a bloke for trying." I quipped.

"It's Daphne. She can absolutely blame you." Snarked Parvati.

"Yeah, I'd be careful if I were you." Affirmed Hannah.

"Oh? Should I ward my door tonight?" I queried.

"I think that might be for the best." Nodded Tracey, sagely.

"Curses foiled again. However shall I get my vengeance now?" Deadpanned Daphne.

The girls all broke into giggles at that and I couldn't help but chuckle along with them. Daphne may come off as a bit of an ice princess at first, but she was actually a pretty good sport once you got to know her. I was lucky to have her as one of my closest friends. Besides, there really was no one I would rather have in my corner. I had taken her down into the Stone Dungeon under the Forbidden Third Floor Corridor with me, after all. Actually, now ow that I thought about it, it was obvious that Daphne wasn't just one of my closest friends, she was my Best Mate. Honestly, I wasn't sure why it'd taken me until so late in the year to realize that. Maybe it was because I just had so many close friends that it had been hard to tell. Who knows? I at least realized this now, though.

"Seriously, though. Happy Birthday, Blaise." Offered Daphne once the giggling had died down.

"Thank you." I beamed.

"Yes, Happy Birthday. You know, my sister is very fond of you." Mused Parvati.

"Oh?" I asked.

"Yes. I think she has a crush on you. You're not going to play with her heart, now are you?" Teased Parvati.

"Perish the thought." I intoned.

Internally, I was scrambling. This was just what I didn't need. Honestly, it seemed like half the girls in my year were crushing on me in some way. If this were me back in Junior High in my old world, I'd have been ecstatic. It wasn't though, I had the mind of a high schooler in a Sixth-grader's body, and that complicated things a lot. Even just indulging a schoolgirl crush one of my friends might have on me would be kind of gross just based on the power imbalance from the differences in maturity levels. Unfortunately, as I thought on this, my internal conflict must have been noticed, because Parvati just let out another giggle.

"Relax, Blaise. I'm just teasing you." Giggled Parvati.

"Besides, Blaise spends most of his time training. I don't know if he'd even have time for a Girlfriend." Scoffed Tracey.

"You really do work way too hard." Mused Daphne.

"Yeah, you should relax every once in a while." Added Hannah.

"Daphne, you know exactly the sort of things I work hard because of. Are you saying I should slack off?" I questioned, thankful for the change in topic.

"Not slack off, no. You could stand to take a day off here and there, perhaps." Pressed Daphne.

"Well, if I did that, I wouldn't be able to do half the things I do." I insisted.

"Blaise." Intoned Daphne, giving me a look.

"You know, now that I think about it, I don't know if Padma would even have a chance with Blaise." Opined Tracey.

"Yeah, he and Daphne are basically a couple already!" Smirked Hannah.

"Tracey!" Hissed Daphne.

"Et Tu, Hannah?" I queried.

"I can see it." Nodded Parvati.

That led to yet more giggles only this time, they weren't solely at my expense. I felt somewhat better about that, even if Daphne was threatening to wreak vengeance on our entire friend group because of it. The fact that she had a blush coloring her normally pale features when she said that made me think there actually was something there on her end. I also couldn't deny that there could be something there on my end. Down the line, of course. I wasn't going to date her before she matured some, after all. It was that whole high-school mind in a sixth-grade body thing coming into play once again to make things awkward for me romantically.

Nevertheless, the rest of the party passed with everyone just hanging out and having a good time. There wasn't any conversation about learning spells or potential plots, it was literally just a good time. That was something of a rarity for me, and I realized now that Daphne was right. I could stand to do this more often. I'd gotten so mixed up in the plot, training to be able to foil Voldemort's return or save the lives of my closest friends, that I hadn't really done this a whole lot, just hang out. I didn't realize how much I had missed this until now, but I had missed being able to just vibe with a group of friends without having to worry about plot-mandated problems or mysterious visions of doom from the Fates.

When it came time to open gifts, many of them were along similar lines as Ron's Gift. Things that would help me relax or pick up a hobby. Tracey and Hannah, for instance, had gotten me more guitar lesson books, while Susan had gotten me a book on Magical Gardening. Harry, meanwhile, had purchased me a translated copy of an account of Tiberius Claudius Viator, a Roman Wizard and Distant Ancestor of mine who, in One-fifty AD, traveled to Han China to learn under the Court Alchemists of the Emperor Huan of Han. Meanwhile, the Patil Twins got me a new telescope with better magnification than the one I already had and Millie got me a magical watch that was enchanted to always have the right time. Anthony and Terry both got me books, in Anthony's case, it was a book on the History of Magical France and its association as a stronghold of Alchemy, while in Terry's case, he got me a book on the History of Grindelwald's War.

Finally, Daphne got me an expensive set of talking mirrors. It wasn't simply a matched pair, either, but a network of twelve mirrors, one each for me, her, Millie, Hermione, Susan, Harry, Ron, Tracey, Terry, Padma, Hannah, and Neville. As was explained to me, the twelve runes that were etched into the frames of the mirrors each corresponded to a different mirror, while to hang up you had to press the rune aligned with your mirror. Best present ever indeed. With these, my core group of friends and I could talk with each other no matter where we all were.

"Thank you all." I nodded at everyone.

"Of course!" Beamed Hermione.

"Hadaway, Man. It was nothing!" Waved off Susan.

"Not nothing. You had best appreciate this." Insisted Daphne.

Variations of those were murmured around the friend group as the party continued. By the time everything was winding down, everyone had their fill of sweets and the two cases of Butterbeer the Twins had smuggled in were all gone. It had been a good night, one of the kinds I rarely indulged in these days. As I made my way back to the Slytherin Dorms to take my Bluemoon Grass Elixir, change, and go to sleep, I wondered to myself just what was keeping me from doing this more often. Surely I could afford to take more time out from my training? After all, it wasn't like another day here and there could actually impact my performance against the various adversaries I'd face, could it?

Unfortunately, as I slept that night, the Sight decided to remind me of exactly why I needed to train in my downtime. . .

XXXX

It started as the usual dreams of doom and gloom, with my friends dying to known dangers. I saw Hermione killed by an unchained Dragon during the first task, Neville Crucioed to death by Death Eaters, Tracey and Hannah slain by Dementors, and Harry killed by Voldemort in the Graveyard at Little Hangleton. It was all fairly standard stuff, but then things began to shift. I saw a Small, Redheaded Girl who had to be Ginny Weasley curse Ron in the back at the same time as I saw Padma, Millie, and Susan fire deadly spells at Harry and I while a Man with curly, perfectly coiffed, blonde hair and a too-white smile laughed in the background. I saw Terry get eaten by the Basilisk and Daphne be crippled in a duel with Malfoy who used an unknown curse to shatter her legbones in such a way they couldn't grow back.

It seemed the shift in visions had gone from general portents of gloom and doom to specific portents about next year. I got the sense that like all of these less specific, slideshow, visions, these were the shades of things that may come to pass, not necessarily things that would come to pass, at least not if I had anything to say about it. Of course, I could guess at what was going on in each of the visions of Second-Year thanks to my Meta-Knowledge and previous visions. I doubted anyone else could figure it out this far in advance, but that was one of the benefits of being a seer in my position as regards canon events and the first trip around the timeline.

Ginny cursing Ron had to be Tom Riddle's influence from the Diary puppeting her body around like a sack of meat. The Basilisk was self-explanatory, though it was interesting that Terry had been eaten instead of just petrified. Daphne and Draco, well the terms of my bet with him would expire early next year, and I had seen a vision of him training under Rittmaster von Todesicht, so the spell he used to cripple her could have been learned there. It was the bit about what had to be Lockhart turning Susan, Padma, and Millie against Harry and I that puzzled me. In canon, Lockhart had been nothing, just a fraud with a half-decent grasp of Obliviate. Fortuna had warned me that he was more dangerous this time around, though. I was clearly seeing that in action here.

Just before I woke up, however, I got the same ominous warning from the Fates about how I couldn't save everyone. Once again, that warning made me not resign myself to my fate, but if anything, it made me want to fight against it even harder. Just before I started awake in my bed, I vowed silently that I would either find a way to save them all or make one. Like Hannibal Crossing the Alps.

It was with that quote from Hannibal in mind that I began the last batch of classes before the end of term. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the next chapter. It's mostly character interactions at Blaise's Birthday Bash, but there was also a version of the You Can't Save Everyone Vision at the end that was targeted at Second-Year, giving Blaise better insight into the sorts of things he is going to be up against next year. It's not just the Diary and Basilisk this time around, but Lockhart has been upgraded from Fake Villain to Real Villain as well.

At any rate, the next chapter will be another time-skippy one as we go through the last bits of First Year, including the House Cup and Exams. Then we will be officially done with First Year.

Stay tuned. . .