Silence

Blaise has always been the quiet one; the unobtrusive Slytherin who leaves, for the most part, even the Gryffindors alone. It's not that he's too thick to know what's going on around him, nor that he's too wrapped up in his studies to care, it comes down to the fact that he simply wishes to survive.

The politics of Slytherin House are complex. Professor Snape demands that they show a united front to the rest of the school. Internal Slytherin matters are to be kept in the common room, and there is to be no squabbling or duelling in the classrooms or corridors. It's the only way the house can protect its own when three quarters of the school are determined to believe that you dabble in the Dark Arts.

Slytherins put up a good front against the rest of Hogwarts, but Blaise can see the less than subtle factions that exist within his house. A great many of his housemates support the Dark Lord, if only in thought. Yes, there students in all of the Hogwarts Houses who do, but it is true that they are more vocal and pronounced in Slytherin. They have also become louder in the past year.

Blaise knows that war is about to break out, and he knows that many of his classmates will die. He may not believe in the Dark Lord's ideals, but he is no Gryffindor. He will not fight for the sake of some universal good and be counted among the casualties. Blaise wants to live. He wants the opportunity to grow, have children and carry on the Zabini family name. And so, rather than deal with the conflict, he has decided to let it ignore him.

He will continue to be silent. He will attend classes and learn everything he can all the while fading into the background as an unremarkable and shy little Slytherin. It is a role he has been playing for six years now, and it has worked. With a little luck he will be forgotten about when the time comes to choose sides.

Perhaps even Salazar would be proud of his cunning.