Okay, here we have it folks, the final sin...Lust. Three guesses who is lusting after who!

But seriously, I hope you have enjoyed the story so far, I assume you have, although of course I won't know unless you review the story.

I've written a M rated finale which I'm tossing up on whether to put it in as a final chapter 8 or not. What do you think? The other option is just to post it as a one-shot and you'll be able to access it via my profile. Any thoughts on this conundrum are more than welcome.

Again, I hope you've enjoyed the story. I didn't start out expecting to fall in love with these two characters, but they sort of developed lives of their own, as I'm sure you have all experienced before. It turns out I actually really love this Slytherin pair...who would have guessed!

Chapter 7: Lust

Daphne hadn't been present at the Battle. Her parents had sensed a rising unease amongst their acquaintances, and the growing number of missing students from the halls of Hogwarts had made Daphne and Astoria uneasy.

So she and her parents had reached the mutual decision to withdraw from the school. She and Astoria had packed their bags, bid their headmaster adieu, and flooed to one of the Greengrass country manors without the intention of ever returning.

Snape hadn't even raised an eyebrow.

Hogwarts was not the place it had once been.

Walking through the dilapidated ruins, however, even Daphne was shocked by the aftermath of the war. She had heard from the survivors what had happened at the grounds. The Dark Lord and his armies had invaded the grounds, he had given the Hogwarts inhabitants an ultimatum to hand over Harry Potter (who had suddenly revealed he was still alive after all those months of absence), and then...well nobody was really sure what happened next. But everybody was certain of the outcome.

Voldemort was dead.

Harry Potter had dueled Voldemort.

Harry Potter had won.

As a result huge numbers of pureblood families who had shown allegiance to the Dark Lord during the wars had fled the country. Unlike the end of the first war the families were not staying in England to see the fallout. Those families that might have pleaded immunity by imperious, or offered up names in exchange for leniency, were not so hopeful this time.

This time it really was over.

This time the wizarding population had watched the Dark Lord fall. They had watched his body burn afterwards at a huge bonfire which the witches and wizards watched with torn expressions. So many people had died during the war, and even now with loved ones reunited they were not sure how the price of war had become so high.

For Daphne it was even higher than she cared to admit.

Her best friend Blaise, her childhood companion, her knight-in-shining-armour...Blaise had not returned.

She wasn't sure where he had gone to during those last months of war.

She had watched as his emotions, so tightly controlled for as long as she had known him, had begun to simmer beneath the surface of his pureblood society mask. For all their lives Blaise and Daphne had been able to smile in the face of tragedy, the smile that was so well known to all their peers. Smiles and sweet words were the weapons employed in their circles, and smiles and sweet words were what Blaise and Daphne had been nurtured with since birth.

When the war was happening Daphne and her family had stepped back, letting those who wanted to join the meat of the action participate. Daphne knew better than to step into the turmoil. She knew that if she continued to attend the galas and manor parties, continued to meet her friends over afternoon tea and at late night feasts, that eventually the war would abate and the world would return to order.

She knew that in the end there would be a winner. She hadn't known which side would come out on top, and it hadn't mattered to her really. Oh, she had a preference of course. Nobody who had a soul could watch without disgust the horrors inflicted on those unfortunate to have non-magical blood flowing through their veins. But Daphne knew better than to let her disgust and horror show on her face.

Through the war she had been to feasts where she listened to the hosts brag about their 'pets' - muggles or half-bloods who they kept in their dungeons to 'play' with. She had watched as social norms began to include serving dinner platters on the bellies of naked men caught by the death eaters. She had watched as muggle children were herded into playpens and encouraged to fight tooth and nail until the death.

It was absolutely inexcusable. There were no words in any of the languages Daphne spoke that could describe the horrifying sights she had been witness to.

And all of it she watched with a serene smile on her lips.

She knew better than to let emotions show.

Blaise had, like her, kept his feelings locked tightly beneath his chest. But as the months dragged on, and as more and more such 'parties' were held within their social circles, Daphne had watched as the strain on Blaise had taken its toll.

Only somebody who knew Blaise as well as Daphne did would have known. It was something you could only see if you were looking for it. It was in the way Blaise handled his steak knife, the way he had started to seek solitude more and more frequently in his manor's garden. It was in the particular tone that had started to creep into his voice, in the way his lips drew themselves together when a Death Eater walked into the room.

Blaise had begun to unravel. And Daphne had been powerless to stop it.

And then, one day, without warning, Blaise had disappeared.

His mother had flooed to Daphne's in panic, tears streaming down her face as she asked Daphne where he was. Daphne had been floored, she had never seen Mrs Zabini in such a state, and had been forced to admit she had no idea where her son was.

Daphne had joined his mother in her search for Blaise. Together they had constructed a tale to cover his disappearance. They told their peers that Blaise was vacationing in France, that he had become tired of the English weather. It was a plausible alibi - in societies like the one Daphne and Blaise belonged to it was a regular occurrence to holiday in Portugual just because one had grow tired of the British menu.

But the pair could find no sign of Blaise. Their subtle questions yielded no clues. His bedroom had been packed but no note or letter had been left.

Daphne was torn between hurt and fury that he hadn't even attempted to contact her.

And now, now that the war was over and the Light had won, Daphne had been hoping with every fibre of her being that Blaise would suddenly pop up out of the woodwork. He would suddenly appear one day, tell her she was an idiot for doubting him, and they would carry on like always.

But he hadn't appeared.

It was weeks after the war had ended and there was still no sign of Blaise.

Daphne's stomach was in knots. She could no longer eat, she simply sat on her balcony and stared into the distance for hours on end as if suddenly he would appear on the horizon.

But he hadn't.

Her mother was worried about her. All around the country people were celebrating, hosting great balls and dances in celebration of the victory. Daphne attended those that her mother forced her to go to, she smiled and shook hands with the 'right' people.

But her heart was no longer in it.

Her heart had disappeared.

It had been a terribly bittersweet moment when she suddenly realised she had been in love with Blaise. She hadn't been doing anything in particular. In fact she had been packing her schoolbooks into a box for storage, thinking about nothing in particular.

And suddenly it hit her.

She was in love with him.

Blaise.

She suddenly realised that she had been in love with him for a very long time, longer than she realised. She wondered if she had even been in love with him while she dated all those boys back at Hogwarts. It wouldn't surprise her.

What a wonderful thing, to fall in love with your best friend. Somebody that she knew completely, and that knew her both inside and out. Somebody who she could very well imagine her life with, and who would be a perfect match for her in their society. Blaise and Daphne understood each other.

And then to have that torn away before she even had the chance to realise it!

It was not fair.

And she hated the world for it.

So she sat on the balcony and stared at the horizon. She attended the dinners. But where once she had worn a mask for society that hid her inner feelings, now she wore a mask for society that hid the abyss that lay beneath. Because that's what was left inside her, a gaping chasm. When she felt brave enough to explore her feelings she usually came out feeling exhausted, it unleashed so much emotional turmoil just to bring his face to mind, and as a result she found herself getting more and more fatigued. Dark circles had started to appear beneath her eyes that she hid with glamours. Her hair, once naturally silken, had turned lank. She had surprised herself by falling back into the habit of biting her fingernails - a habit she thought she had outgrown when she was ten.

Although she had survived the war, Daphne was not sure how much longer she would continue to survive herself.

Daphne stared at the slip of paper in front of her. An owl she hadn't recognised had delivered it and then flown off before she could give it a reply.

She had opened it and almost immediately had felt her legs disappear from her. She had sat down on her bed, eyes wide in a mixture of disbelief and horror and her face drained of colour completely.

D.

The lagoon. 6 o'clock.

B.

It was his handwriting. She was sure of it. It had to be, who else would sign such a message 'B'?

But even in her certainty there was an element of doubt. What if she just wanted it to be his handwriting and was therefore imagining it? What if, instead, this was all some trap? The war had only just ended, and although she had been considered neutral what if this was someone from either side who had decided neutrality was not good enough?

But then again, who else would know what 'the lagoon' meant?

At 6 o'clock sharp Daphne told her mother she was going out and apparated to an area close to the lake of Windermere. The Lagoon was a joke between Blaise and herself. When their families used to picnic by the shores of Lake Windermere she and Blaise used to spend the afternoon exploring. One day they came across a small pond, hidden by a cluster of thick trees. They had laughed and played around the lake, calling it their 'lagoon' while Daphne pretended to be a water nymph and Blaise pretended to shoot her with his wand.

As they grew older they used to take day trips to their 'lagoon', and they had never seen anybody else nearby. Whereas the picnic spots by the lake were always crowded, the 'lagoon' was a little piece of paradise that nobody but Blaise and Daphne knew about.

There was a little clearing, and when Daphne had gone through an artistic phase she would force Blaise to sit by the rocks by the side of the pond and pose for her for hours. Sometimes they would spy foxes and rabbits, and it was an unspoken rule that at the 'lagoon' they were not allowed to hunt any of the creatures. Blaise was fond of hunting, but he abided by Daphne's rules and kept their secret.

So Daphne appeared by the side of Lake Windermere and began to make her way to the 'lagoon', stomach clenched in a whirlwind of different emotions. She hoped desperately that it was Blaise who had sent the message, but was preparing herself to be disappointed.

As she neared the lake her heart jumped into her mouth and she almost dropped her wand in her hurry as she broke into a sprint towards the man sitting by the edge of the pond, idly skipping stones.

"BLAISE" she yelled as she rocketed towards him, almost knocking him over in her enthusiasm.

Blaise laughed and wrapped his arms around her.

"Miss me?" he said cheekily.

Daphne didn't say anything. She breathed in the scent of him, her face buried in his robes, his arms wrapped tightly around her. She was horrified to find tears springing to her eyes and she tried to subtly move her head against his chest to wipe the tears away without his knowledge.

She couldn't believe he was here, flesh and bones in front of her.

All that time...all those days that had dragged on and on in the knowledge he was dead...

Suddenly Daphne realised exactly what this meant. It meant that he had been alive while she had been pining like a miserable soppy schoolgirl in her room. How pathetic of her!

She stepped back from Blaise and glared at him. Blaise raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"How. Dare. You!" she stormed, deciding that the least he could do was to act as a punching bag for her. He had made her believe he was dead, believe her life was over...he had made her believe she had failed him by realising too late what her feelings really were.

She stomped his foot, and then took a solid kick to his left shin. Blaise yelped and hopped on one leg, rubbing his shin.

"Ow! Daph! What was that for!" he said, still hopping as Daphne stepped back and admired her handiwork as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"That's for leaving without telling me" she said, "And for making me think you were dead all this time. And for leaving me to deal with your mother. And...well...And for being an absolute prat!" she finished.

Blaise had stopped his hopping and was now staring sheepishly at her. For the first time Daphne noticed how drawn he looked, how thin he had become. She took in the state of his dress - his clothes were torn in places, and he had scars along his legs and arms.

"Where have you been?" she asked, suddenly realising there was a lot more to this story than she had first thought.

"Where did you go? Why?" she asked him.

Blaise looked at her, then turned and resumed his seat on the rock he had been sitting on when Daphne arrived. He gestured for Daphne to have a seat next to him. She did, and the pair of them sat staring at the pond. The light was dimming as the sun approached the horizon, and the little clearing of their 'lagoon' was turning twilight.

Blaise took a deep breath.

"I couldn't do it, Daph" he said, his hands were in his lap and he was studying his thumbnail intensely. "I couldn't sit back and keep doing it all while they were treating people like that."

Daphne looked at the pond. She knew what he meant, she remembered the guilt that haunted her every day during the war. The guilt that she should do something, and the knowledge that there was nothing she could do.

"And when mother started keeping 'pets', it was the last straw" he said quietly.

Daphne cast her mind back to that day by the pool, where Blaise had stormed and raged about his mother's actions. She had tried to tell him to accept it, to do what he could behind the scenes, but ultimately to just get on with it. Obviously he hadn't been able to.

"And I tried, Daph. I really did. I tried to pretend it was like it always had been. I tried to go along with it all. I made sure out 'pets' were well watered and had food, and I went along to the 'hunts' and cheered on the Death Eaters, all the while hoping that those poor sods would escape. None of them did." he said, and Daphne stole a glance in his direction. He was completely focused on his thumbnail, and she could see the turmoil behind his eyes, in the crease of his forehead.

"And I just couldn't Daph!" he finally exclaimed, standing up and pacing along the pondside.

"I just couldn't sit by and smile and nod and let it all happen in front of my. I had to do something!" he said, and it was Daphne's turn to study her thumb. She suddenly felt that familiar guilt she had during the war, the guilt that told her that she, too, should be doing something.

"So I left. I left and wandered the country side" he said, and Daphne raised her eyebrow at the image.

"Yeah" he smiled, "I know, how would someone like me survive in the countryside!" he said, sensing her amusement.

"I actually took refuge in some muggle villages" he explained, and Daphne nodded. Unlike many of their kind Blaise and Daphne had always enjoyed 'playing muggle' in the little county villages. Their parents would take them and they would enjoy the novelty of having no magic for a day or two. It wasn't a surprise that Blaise had been able to survive in the muggle world.

"And then I used my knowledge of all our friend's houses to help a lot of the 'pets' escape" he said. At this Daphne looked at him, startled. She had heard that some families' 'pets' had escaped, but it was startling to discover the cause. Blaise, like Daphne, had intimate knowledge of all the pureblood houses. They had spent hours as children exploring the large manors and castles that belonged to the other families. It would be easy for someone with such knowledge, and such pure blood, to enter the dungeons and help the prisoners escape.

But still, he could have been caught...or worse.

Daphne shivered, knowing that it was not the cold air that made her do so.

"And then I set them up in the little villages too" he said, taking his place by Daphne's side on the rock once more.

"Most of them have muggle relations, being half-bloods, and so they were more than happy to take on an alias and live as muggles" he told her.

Daphne thought of all the missing half-bloods and muggles that had been listed by the Ministry of Magic after the Battle of Hogwarts. Perhaps the death toll wasn't quite so high, not if some of those listed had escaped into the muggle world.

"Why didn't you tell me" she asked him softly, still hurt that he hadn't let her in on his plan.

"I thought about it" he said honestly, "I did, truly. But if I told you then either you would have forced me to take you with me, and that would have distracted us both, or else I would have been forced to leave you with knowledge that could compromise the both of us."

Daphne nodded. It made sense. Unlike her Gryffindor counterparts who seemed to be under the delusion that 'the more the merrier' applied to all situations, including warfare, Slytherins knew that the more people involved in a plan, the more chance the plan had of unravelling.

She looked at Blaise. He was now studying the opposite end of the pond, lost in thought. She moved her left hand to his, closing her eyes when his hand enclosed hers. She had known she had missed him, known she would trade her life for his, but she hadn't realised just how much a part of her he had become. Sitting there, his hand on hers, it felt as if she was suddenly, finally, whole again.

"I missed you" she said quietly.

Blaise smiled. "I missed you too."

Daphne turned her head to study his face, his eyes crinkled as he grinned at her.

"Bet you didn't miss having a duelling partner who can beat you!" he said.

"Prat" Daphne said, rolling her eyes.

She squeezed his hand softly and he squeezed hers in return.

"But seriously Blaise" she started, gathering her courage. She had honestly thought she had lost the chance to ever hold his hand again, and had thought she had lost the chance to ever tell him what she had realised in his absence. Now that she had him here she wasn't going to let him go without saying it.

"No Blaise, you don't understand" she started, "When you were gone...when I realised that you had probably died...I realised something else...I mean we've been friends forever so maybe that's why it took me so long to figure it out..." she trailed off.

She looked up at Blaise again, his face had suddenly become darker, more intense. He was staring at her with and expression she had never seen before, an expression that made her tingle inside.

She noticed that her breathing had quickened, her heart was speeding up as well. She had never felt so aware of the presence of somebody else, and simply holding hands suddenly seemed like the most intimate action imaginable.

Her breathe hitched as she watched Blaise's face inch closer towards her own, and she lifted her chin towards him. The pair of them shifted, moving closer together, his free hand circling behind her to rest on her lower back. She hesitated for a moment as their noses touched, before tilting her head to meet his lips.

She had kissed many boys before, but she had never, in all her life, experienced a kiss like this one. The warmth of his lips, the taste of him saturated her very being. His tongue and hers danced, and she couldn't help but give a slight moan at the contact. Blaise's hand pulled her closer, and she was aware of their chests touching, aware of the hand that had been holding hers releasing it and moving up to her head, brushing through her blonde hair.

She opened her eyes for a moment, watched his closed eyelids flutter as they kept kissing. Her hands moved to behind his neck, and she played with his nape with one hand, the other trailing down and tracing the contours of his neck, his chest, his hips.

Blaise shifted again, pulling Daphne half into his lap as he deepened the kiss once more. The hand behind her back shifted towards her chest and she sighed into his mouth as she felt him undo her outer robe, revealing the sundress she had been wearing underneath. His hands caressed her curves, and she followed suit.

The air around them should have chilled them, but Daphne was only aware of the heat between their bodies. With the hand she had been using to play with his hair she started to undo the buttons of his shirt, aware that if he was going to take off her outer robe then it was his turn lose his shirt. Her hand touched the bare skin of his chest, curling her fingers in the hair that marked him as a man. She had never noticed that Blaise had chest hair, but now as she ran her fingers down his chest she knew she would never forget it. Blaise gave an involuntary shiver, and suddenly Daphne found herself pulled away from him. He broke the kiss, leaning backwards and giving her a long look.

"Daph, are you sure about this? Because if you're not...then I completely understand" he said, and Daphne bit down a laugh at what a gentleman he was trying to be.

"Blaise, I told you. When I thought you were...dead..." she hesitated, unsure of how to put the words.

"When I thought you were gone, it was only then that I realised what I really felt" she said, suddenly embarrassed as she felt a blush spread its way up her neck.

Blaise smiled. "Daph, I've loved you for years." he said, and Daphne looked up at him, eyes wide. That was unexpected, she thought to herself. But now, looking back, it suddenly made sense. All the times Blaise had looked out for her, had been there whenever she needed a shoulder, had gone out of his way to make sure she felt special...he really had loved her. How blind could a girl be!

Blaise was smiling again, and he lowered his face to hers once more.

Again, please review. And if you would like me to put up my finale chapter, which is quite racy and so I'm not sure if you want it or not (what's the trend on FF nowadays as far as racy stories go?). Anyway, it is written, it just needs me to press the 'upload' button.

xoxo