Chapter 2 Nasty Shock

Hundreds of boats floated away from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As the graduated students floated away, some looked towards the train and to their futures; some looked back at Hogwarts, remembering their past. Suddenly, four sets of fireworks shot up into the air forming the Gryffindor lion, Ravenclaw eagle, Hufflepuff badger, and Slytherin serpent. The students cooed at the fireworks. The fireworks roared, stretched, jumped, and hissed. The graduated students clapped and cheered. Aria bounced in her seat, laughing and hollering, rocking the boat she was on. The other students screamed and grabbed the edges of the boat for their dear life.

"Stop that, you twit!" one yelled.

"You're going to plunge us all into the lake!" another yelled.

"I'll kill you if the giant squid eats me!" said another.

"Aria, stop it already," Jen said, grabbing Aria's arm. "You're going to get us thrown off this boat."

"Yeah, I don't want to get wet," Lizzy said. "I'm wearing a new dress."

Aria sighed comfortably and threw her arms around both of her best friends. "Can you believe it?" Aria laughed. "It's over! Seven years of work and toil is finally over!"

"Do you think we'll still see each other after this?" Lizzy asked worriedly.

"Of course we will!" Aria said confidently with a nod. "You're my best friends. Do you think you can escape me? I'll definitely hunt both of you down if you try to hide from me."

"You are so corny, Aria," Jen said. "Shouldn't you try to do something more practical after this?"

"Like what?" Aria asked.

"Get a job for example," Jen rolled her eyes. "Try to break your habit of laziness."

"I'm not lazy," Aria argued. "I'm just very, very relaxed."

"You're a lazy bum and you know it," Jen said.

Suddenly, Lizzy gasped loudly and pointed to one of the other boats. "Look! It's Draco and Pansy!" she exclaimed. Aria looked over. "Can you believe they're still together? Do you think they'll get married after this?"

Aria looked over at Lizzy with shock. Aria was sure she didn't say anything about what she saw in the common room. At least, she didn't think she said anything. Then again, her big fat mouth always spouts nonsense. But no, she made a promise to herself that she wouldn't expose Draco Malfoy's rejection to the public. She didn't, did she? Did she? Draco Malfoy would definitely hex her if she had exposed to the public that he had been rejected and discarded by his girlfriend of three years. He'd definitely hex her, cut off all her hair, cover her in molasses, and sprinkle chicken feathers on her. That would be awful. She couldn't have told anyone. Her mouth wasn't that big… Well… hopefully, it wasn't.

"Lizzy," Jen said, dragging Aria away from her own thoughts, "they're only seventeen years old. You expect them to get married at seventeen? You must be mad."

"It could happen," Lizzy sighed theatrically. "It's like a fairy tale."

"What do you mean by fairy tale?" Jen scoffed. "Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson are two of the vilest people our age. If anything, they're the villains of some twisted fairy tale."

Lizzy ignored her. "I bet Draco already proposed to her," she said.

Aria looked at her with shock. Curses! Now Lizzy can read her thoughts? "Where did you hear that, Lizzy?" Aria asked cautiously.

"I didn't hear it from anywhere. It's just pure conjecture," Lizzy sighed. "But wouldn't it be grand if life worked out like a fairy tale though? Why? Did you hear anything, Aria?"

Aria's eyes grew wide as if she had just been caught stealing cookies from a jar. She laughed loudly, making the rest of the passengers of their little boat turn to her and think she was an idiot. Jen and Lizzy exchanged looks as Aria laughed wildly.

"Me?" Aria laughed nervously. "I didn't hear anything. I'm a bit deaf, don't you know? I really can't hear very well. I think I'm going mad as well. So even if I had heard anything, I think it would just be my own imagination. I've got an overactive imagination. I think up all sorts of ridiculous things. It really must be stopped. I could ruin thousands of lives with my imagination. Ruining lives would just be awful, don't you think? I'd get chased out of England with people carrying torches and pitchforks. Pitchforks are sharp!"

Jen and Lizzy stared at her awkwardly as she ranted.

"Aria, are you hiding something?" Jen asked.

"Hiding something?" Aria laughed nervously again. "Why would I hide something? I can't hide anything. I'm a big mouth. It's like vomit. Everything just falls out of my mouth. Why would you say I would hide something?"

"Because you always ramble when you hide something," Lizzy confirmed. She suddenly grabbed Aria's arm and scooted next to her. "You did hear something, didn't you? Best friends shouldn't keep things from each other! Tell us what you know!"

"I don't know anything, Lizzy," Aria said. "I'm a bit thick. Perhaps I should spend an extra year at Hogwarts. I don't know how I managed to graduate from Hogwarts. I swear every homework we ever received was like a stab to my brain. I'm brain dead from all that stabbing, you know. I really don't know anything besides breathing and eating. I'm very idiotic like that. I don't know how I'm going to live the rest of my life being this stupid. Perhaps I ought to get a brain transplant…"

Aria continued mindlessly chattering. Soon, the rest of the people in their boat couldn't take it anymore.

"SHUT UP!"

Everyone tried to smack Aria to get her to shut up. Suddenly, the boat rocked horribly, making everyone in the boat scream for their dear lives and call out for their mothers. Aria was also busy screaming when she saw a frighteningly huge spider on the seat beside her. She screamed like a banshee and stood up, jumping, shaking the boat, eliciting louder screams from the other graduates.

"It's a spider! AAAAAH!" Aria screamed. "It's a bloody spider! Get it away! Get it-"

As Aria pranced around, she lost her footing and fell backwards, plunging into the water. Jen and Lizzy squealed as Aria disappeared into the water. They went to the edge of the water and looked down, waiting for Aria to get back to the surface.

"Aria?" Lizzy asked.

Aria floated up to the surface, sweeping her soaked hair away from her face.

"Are you alright, Aria?" Jen asked.

"This lake is absolutely filthy," Aria commented. "Glad I never went in here."

"You're already in it, you idiot," Jen said, extending her hand to her. "Come on, back into the boat."

Draco and Pansy watched from a distance, scowls on their faces as the other Slytherins in their boats laughed their heads off.

"Do you think she'll say anything?" Pansy asked Draco.

Draco was silent for a while, staring at the idiotic girl who fell in the lake and had the gall to eavesdrop on his conversations. She annoyed him more than any girl had ever done before and he didn't even know who she was. "I'll make sure she doesn't," Draco told Pansy.

The Malfoy Manor was in an uproar. A graduation party was going on. All of Draco's rowdy friends were gathered, making noise and causing a fuss. The manor's maids and butlers were all running around with their heads cut off, trying to fulfill all of the wishes of Draco and his friends. In addition to the noise of the teenagers, loud music was blaring.

"You idiot!" one yelled. "You can't put bananas in butterbeer!"

"Why not?" the other answered. "Who made up the rules governing what can or can't be put in butterbeer?"

"Well, I expect it'll just taste downright awful," the other answered. "You'll vomit all over the place. I don't want to be known as the bloke with the friend who vomited all over the place."

"Don't worry about it!" the other assured.

Lucius Malfoy rubbed his temples in his study as he tried to ignore the racket. Why did he ever agree to a ridiculous graduation party? All of these despicable children will just make noise, break things, and cause havoc in his manor. He must have been insane to allow such a travesty to happen under his roof. Or at the very least demanded that the bloody party be held outside in the garden. Disgusting children, Lucius thought. This is why he only wanted one child and Draco had enough issues for three children.

A rogue spell flew into his study and hit a box on his shelf. The box tumbled off the shelf and fell to the floor, spilling its contents onto the floor. Lucius bolted up from his seat.

"SORRY!" the culprit yelled from the party followed by peals of laughter.

Lucius Malfoy whipped out his wand and pointed it at the door. The door slammed shut. He breathed deeply, attempting to keep himself from exploding. He pointed his wand to the mess and the all of it levitated. Lucius was about to guide it all back to the shelf when he spied a yellowing piece of parchment among the rubbish. Lucius furrowed his brow and walked over to it. He swiped it out of thin air and read it.

On this day, Lucius Malfoy and Kenneth Kinsey made the following Unbreakable Vow.

Lucius Malfoy had vowed to Kenneth Kinsey that he will ensure that their children's lives will be comfortable.

Lucius Malfoy had vowed to Kenneth Kinsey that he will do all he can to ensure the happiness of their children.

Lastly, Lucius Malfoy had vowed to Kenneth Kinsey that their children will marry each other.

Lucius Malfoy will carry out these vows under pain of death resulting from a breaking of the Unbreakable Vow.

Lucius's heart crawled over with dread as he read. Yes, he remembered this. He and his friends had too much Firewhisky and did ridiculous things. Apparently, making an unbreakable vow that promised their children would marry each other was one of them. Lucius looked over to the door and listened to his son and his friends make noise, unaware of how easy they have it. Lucius looked back at the parchment. What was he to do? How can he tell his own son to marry a stranger because his father had stupidly made a vow that he would do so even before he was born, conceived, or thought of? Lucius hadn't seen or talked to Kenneth Kinsey since their graduation. He didn't even know if the man was married or if he even had a daughter capable of marriage.

What if Kenneth Kinsey's daughter was an infant? What if his daughter was only entering school? Or worse, what if Kenneth Kinsey never had a daughter but instead had a son? The thought of marrying Draco to a boy or die made Lucius sink into a chair, horrified at what the wizarding society would say. He was sure Draco would rather kill himself than marry a man.

Whatever the case, Lucius had to find Kenneth Kinsey once again. He needed to know whether he still remembered their foolish Unbreakable Vow. He needed to know if he even had a daughter to speak of. If not, Lucius might as well count himself as dead.

Far away from the Malfoy Manor, on a farm, Kenneth Kinsey held his daughter close to his chest in a tight hug.

"I can't believe my little girl has finished her schooling!" Kenneth said. "Soon you'd be getting married and having children. Soon you'd be moving out of our simple little farm and having your own life. Ohh, what am I to do then?"

"Dad, I can't breathe," Aria Kinsey gasped, trying to pull away from her dad's grip.

"Ken, let your daughter go," Melissa Kinsey said. "You daughter needs to take a shower. She smells like lake weeds. I don't understand why you had to fall into the lake, Aria. Out of all the things to have happen on your graduation day. Honestly!"

"I didn't fall into the lake for my own amusement, Mum," Aria answered as her father released her.

"Well, go on and take a shower," her mother said, waving her off. "We still have to feed the chickens."

Aria skipped upstairs with a laugh. "Ahh… I missed our charming little farm!" she bounded up the stairs. "It's so nice to back!"

As soon as Aria was out of earshot, an owl swept into their small farm house and dropped a letter onto Kenneth's lap. Melissa looked over curiously as the owl landed on a hat rack, looking haughtily at the entire house.

"Condescending little bugger," Melissa griped at the bird. "Who's that from, dear?"

Kenneth stared at the letter curiously. "It's from Lucius Malfoy."