You had me at this perfect sentence: 'Blaise didn't believe in the saying No one looks at a man's shoes, because he always looked.' His snark about Draco's shoe taste (the same as Neville's!) had been cackling aloud. And this... 'Blaise didn't have anything against poor people as such, but trying to befriend them was inconvenient.' LOVE IT. Blaise is such an ass here, but I love it! Hufflepuffs 'like a swarm of co-dependent bees,' he overconfidence as he approaches Justin. It's PERFECT. ' Ennui wasn't loneliness.' ONLY Blaise would think of using the word 'ennui.'

And then you show us that terrible year, and sneak a good deal of heart into this tale! That last sentence is golden: it shows Blaise's self-awareness for the first time, and it hints at all sorts of possibilities for the future. Gosh, this is a marvelous story. Thank you so much for writing it!

The big question: who ARE you, mystery author?