I love how you portray Theo and Blaise’s relationship in a matter of chance - the grudging respect but also disdain, them hanging out and presumably knowing eachother for years but also being willing to sell eachother for one corn chip. Do you have any additional headcanons on their relationship? Going off your characterizations of them, what are your thoughts on them as a ship? I’m looking forward to seeing more of Blaise in a matter of fate. 🩷
Thank you!
And, well, obviously I have thoughts about them and the Slytherins' dynamic in general. And don't worry, I plan to have Blaise keep appearing in A Matter of Fate. I have a bit of an arc planned for him, but I'm not sure about the exact timeline.
As for their dynamic, we know from JRK that Draco doesn't like Theo, who is "as pure blood as he is" and of similar status but "cleverer", and that Theo dislikes Draco and doesn't like the various cliques in Slyhterin and never felt the need to join one (discussed more here) and that Draco dislikes Theo in turn. Theo is a clever loner, who probably doesn't like most people and doesn't like to attract attention to himself.
We know Blaise is similar, at least, when it comes to his dynamic with Draco, since they don't like each other. I talked about Blaise more here, and from the little we see of his interactions with Draco, it's clear he sees himself as the winner of his and Draco's pissing contest. Blaise thinks himself very clever, capable, and the best, hottest person in every room he is in, who doesn't need cliques.
As such, Blaise and Theo are both more peripheral to the core Slytherin group of their year — Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, and perhaps Millicent. This leaves them in a situation in which they probably ended up sharing tables in class and sitting next to each other a lot and hanging out, just by process of elimination.
Also, I think they see each other as more intellectual equals than they see Draco, whom they both seem to look down on (They both look down even more on Crabbe and Goyle, if you ask either Theo or Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle should both not be in Slytherin). That being said, in how I see their relationship, Theo and Blaise aren't exactly friendly:
“I wouldn’t bank on an invitation,” said Zabini. “He asked me about Nott’s father when I first arrived. They used to be old friends, apparently, but when he heard he’d been caught at the Ministry he didn’t look happy, and Nott didn’t get an invitation, did he? I don’t think Slughorn’s interested in Death Eaters.”
(HBP, Ch7)
Yeah, Blaise is taunting Malfoy specifically, but I bet he's also glad to have a leg up on Theo. Not to mention he calls Theo "Nott", they are not on a first-name basis, they aren't really friends, but, again, if they want to hang out with a guy in their year who they consider "decent conversation", it's each other.
So, that's kinda how I headcanon their dynamic to be like in the books (and what I wrote into A Matter of Chance).
There is a pissing contest between them too. I like to think every conversation they have has a competitive element to it. Like, every conversation has a "winner" and a "loser". And Theo would be adamant about "winning" with as few words as possible, to prove he doesn't need to "waste words" on Blaise (Theo in A Matter of Chance has learned conversations aren't necessarily a competitive sport, so it's different, but I'm talking about my headcanons for canon). While Blaise seems to be a little more talkative, he would be just as acidic back. And yeah, they would sell each other for one corn chip and consider it a pretty good deal all in all (but then regret not having another kindred spirit to talk to a little bit).
When it comes to shipping them, yeah, I think you (and I) can write some really fun stuff there, so I'm all for it.
I think their relationship would be pretty snarky and banter-heavy, with plenty of snide remarks and not-so-veiled insults. And it would be a competition in a way. Like, they will be "winning" and "losing" conversations and dates and whatnot. And stay on the sidelines and judge everyone else together.
Honestly, I can accept them as a couple in a headcanon for the canon books, like, it doesn't contradict canon. So, we can headcanon Theo came with Blaise to Slughorn's party in HBP.
(I found the name Thaise for them, but I'm not sure how commonly used that is. It's better than Bleo. Or Zabott)
