mara_202: Not Like Her (Harry/Blaise, PG-13)
Title: Not Like Her
Author:
mara_202
Rating: PG-13
Prompt Set: 50.2
Prompt: #3, Gold
Word Count: 679
Summary: Love was useless anyway; it was the material things that really mattered.
Warnings: Nothing really.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of it's characters.
Notes: I called Blaise's mother Elena Martelli-Zabini here. The Elena part comes from the 'famously beautiful' which reminded me of Helen of Troy, which is Italicised to Elena, and the Martelli I picked at random from my Italian in 3 months book, LOL. Usually I just call her Elena Zabini, but, well... *points at second paragraph*
Thanks to
moonshadow_nal for betaing!
:::
Elena Martelli-Zabini had loved once, a deep but foolish love. After two years of marriage, her husband had told her he had met someone else and wanted a divorce.
No one divorced a Martelli. It was a taint on her reputation, an abomination! And thus, Elena did the only thing she could have possibly done; she killed him.
That day, her foolish faith in love died too. She vowed she would never let herself be so vulnerable again. Love was useless anyway, she resolved, it was the material things that really mattered. She kept his name as a constant reminder of that.
She didn't feel remorse when she killed her second and third husbands -- the fools should have known better than to fall in love with her -- and only felt the slightest pang of guilt when she looked up from the bloody remains of husband number four -- he had been attacked by a vicious flesh-eating plant -- and saw seven-year old Blaise stand in the door-opening, looking at the scene with wide eyes, before turning and running away. It was only for the best that he realised there was no such thing as 'love' as soon as possible.
Years passed -- and several husbands passed away -- and Elena saw less and less of her son, as he first started his education at Hogwarts, and later joined some obscure gang called 'the Order' or something along those lines. She assumed it had something to do with the war going on in the wizarding world, but really, she had more important things on her mind. Husband number eight, for example.
As another year without any visits of Blaise passed, she decided to invite him for tea. She promptly received an owl in return, with a slightly confusing message. There is someone I want you to meet...
Two days later, she noticed here hands were trembling when she put the teacups on the tray.
The doorbell rang.
"Harry, this is my mother, Elena Martelli-Zabini. Mother, this is Harry Potter." Blaise smiled -- smiled?! -- at the raven-haired bloke next to him, an expression in his eyes that Elena knew only too well: she had looked that way at her first husband.
She forced herself to smile politely and shake the guy's hand. "Nice to meet you, Harry. Why don't you sit down, while I discuss something with Blaise."
Blaise looked at her inquiringly as she dragged him to the kitchen.
"So, where have you been, all this time?" she asked, meanwhile pouring hot water into the teacups.
He shrugged. "I stayed with the Order first, and later with Harry."
Silence.
"Tell me about this Harry," she said neutrally.
"What do you want to know?" Blaise asked, in the same light, carefully neutral way.
Elena studied her son carefully. "You love him," she stated.
"So what if I do?" His voice, while still light, now carried a hard edge. "I'm not like you, Mother."
"Oh, Blaise..." she sighed sadly. "Don't you know that love will only bring you pain?"
"I'll take the risk," Blaise said shortly. "You wouldn't understand. And now I'm going back to the living-room, to my boyfriend."
"You are the one who doesn't understand!" she cried, almost desperately, at his retreating back. "I know what it's like! Your love will destroy you!"
"Harry saved me, Mother. And if you don't mind, Harry and I will be leaving now. It was stupid of me to bring him. I should've known you wouldn't understand." She inwardly cried about the bitter resentment in his voice. What had she done wrong? All she had ever wanted was to protect him!
"No..." She was so lost in the scenarios of doom playing out in her head that she didn't even notice Harry -- who had a slightly bewildered expression on his face -- greet her, nor the door slam shut.
:::
Months later, Elena saw her son again. He was walking through Diagon Alley, with Harry Potter. He looked happy.
She realised with a jolt that Blaise was, indeed, his own person...
End.