DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but the obvious new characters and the plot.
Some background on Aly in this chapter. Also, little bit of Ron time too. Please enjoy. And review!
After a few days, Draco and Hermione felt that they both had come up with a solid plan for the Formal Gathering to present to Professor McGonagall. After classes, they made their way to the Head Mistress' office to discuss their ideas.
"Ah, Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Granger, I see you have outlined a proposal idea for Inter-House Unity. Come, now, let us see what you have in mind." With that said, Hermione began. She introduced the idea of a Formal Gathering that would be held in the Great Hall. She spoke of the charming of the House cup to magically select a pair, each from a different house, to be each other's designated mingling partner for the night. She proposed that silencing charms should be placed around each dyad, in order to ensure that students spoke only to those chosen as their partner.
After McGonagall granted the idea, Draco moved onto his part of the presentation. He reassured her that the possibility of students seeking to harm one another did not go unnoticed to them. He requested that, with her permission, the castle would be also charmed to magically disarm any and all students wishing to harm one another. However, Draco did amend that the idea of charming the entire castle was massive, and if she'd prefer only to charm the Great Hall at least consent to magically prohibit students from leaving the Hall at all before Midnight, when all charms and spells would have expired. Hermione added that to exemplify the idea of unity, she and Draco would agree to be each other's partner.
McGonagall beamed. "Never before have I seen such maturity from a young wizard and witch your age. You have shown strength to move on after such unpleasant times and courage to move forward instead of receding in fear of the unknown. But, above all else, you have ventured into unification with such precision that it is, without a doubt, the proudest moment of my life!" Hermione and Draco exchanged smiles. The Head Mistress turned to the portrait behind her where a twinkle-eyed, white-bearded, wizard smiled so elegantly down at her. She turned to face the students again. "Albus would've been just as proud of the both of you." Hermione began to tear. Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat and all traces of happiness on his face began to fade. McGonagall spoke only to Draco. "Mr. Malfoy, believe me, Albus would be most proud of you. The war is over, dear. Your past has been forgiven; you do know that, don't you?" Draco eyed her apologetically. "Albus loved us all, including you, Mr. Malfoy. Trust that he knew the goodness in you, I'd reckon, even before you did." She smiled confidently.
"With that said, I grant you permission to use the charm, but only on the Great Hall. Even with Voldemort gone, there is still some evil in this world. In order to protect our school, we cannot afford to render the entire castle incompetent with disarming charms." She smiled when she noticed that even so, both students appeared genuinely happy for being given the opportunity to move forward with their plans. "Alright, when shall we host the Formal Gathering, then?" McGonagall asked.
Hermione responded. "Well, we want to give everyone enough time to prepare. Also, we need to orchestrate the entire event which could take time in and of itself. Not to mention, Christmas/New Year's Holiday, next month. So, we estimate by mid March." Draco nodded in agreement.
McGonagall nodded as well. "We'll make it on Friday, the 19th of March at 7pm." McGonagall made a note of it amongst her parchments.
"Thank you, Professor." Draco and Hermione said in unison.
"Well, would that be all, then?" She looked up at them. They nodded and proceeded to leave.
With November nearly over, it was announced that on March 19th, there will be a Formal Gathering held for all students. Flyers were flown around and posters with animated fireworks were hung up in practically every room. Banners with the four house colors blending together decorated the entrances of the castle. Soon enough, everyone was talking about the Formal Gathering. As expected, some students opposed the very idea of it; having heard that their partners would be from another house and would be picked the night of. Anxiety grew rapidly by the end of the month.
December arrived swiftly and with it came the whitest of winters that Hogwarts has ever seen. Everyone seemed excited for many reasons. With Christmas in a few weeks, students were eager to spend the holidays with their families. However, there were a few students that wouldn't have had a problem if time slowed and Christmas took longer to arrive. Alatriel wondered why so much time had passed so soon. She sat, during her free period, in the Great Hall, watching students smile and laugh, discussing their holiday plans with one another, and making gift lists. Everyone has someone to be with for Christmas. She watched a young witch ifrom Hufflepuff jump excitedly as she read a letter sent by her parents. I guess maybe it would be a good idea to send my parents a Christmas gift, or at the very least a card. She glanced down at the book she had been pretending to read and sighed. Hell, who am I kidding? They probably wouldn't even open it once they saw that it was from me! There wasn't a frown around that she could see. She'd be the only one. I can't take this shit! Tears fighting to come out, she blinked them away and in less than a minute she was out of the Hall. She made her way outside and sat by the lake, in the same spot that she sat with Draco, her first full day at Hogwarts.
Alatriel's POV:
It never used to be this way. I looked over at a group of students just relaxing on the grass talking amongst themselves. I couldn't help but remember a time when I was about eight years old. My mom and dad took me on a picnic in Highland Park. That was on the Brooklyn side. I remember that we woke up really early in the morning to get everything ready. Mom had prepared the sandwiches the night before and all we needed to do was pack the utensils and radio and such. My mom and dad were both NYW Alumni, which meant a lot to them because the school emphasized both Magical and Muggle study. Combining Magical and Muggle properties were what my family and I lived by. You could say we had the best of both worlds. Thus, we enjoyed spending days without the use of magic, something we'd tend to call Muggle Time. *laughing to myself*
That picnic was one I'll never forget. Mom and dad had also brought our sports equipment because they knew I loved to run around and get active. After all, it was in my genes to be active. Mom had been captain of the Volleyball team her senior year at NYW and dad had played Shortstop on the school's Baseball team during his senior year. So, I guess it was inevitable for me to want to play sports. Once we set up the net and we got into place, hours rolled by like minutes as we played against each other in volleyball. Then we took a break and ate while listening to the radio play Pop music. Mainly hits by Michael Jackson and Madonna. After a good resting period, we switched over to baseball. Dad pitched to me and, although I was never really good with batting, when I finally hit the ball I ran for dear life. Mom pretended that the ball slipped out of her hand after she had caught it, which made me run faster as I rounded third, giggling the whole time. She threw the ball to my dad, but he dropped it. ERROR! Yeah! I remember thinking. I slid into Home plate, which was really a piece of cardboard we had found by the parking lot. Dad was too late to get me, but he charged anyways. I screamed with delight when he had tried to tag me out. "Nuh uh, daddy. I'm safe! Ask mom, ask mom! I'm safe!" I had said laughing the whole time while trying not to let my dad touch me with the baseball.
My mom had ran up to us and said, "I dunno, kiddo, we're gonna have to see an instant replay of that just to make sure!"
I laughed and said "Okay, watch." I pretended to swing the bat in slow motion at an imaginary ball. Then I ran slowly around all the bases and slowed down extra at Home plate. Dad played along and, in slow motion, tried to tag me but missed as my foot touched base. Then to make me laugh harder than my mom and I already were, my dad screamed in slow motion, "Nooooooooooo!" I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard. Then as if someone had pressed play my dad sped up and grabbed my stomach and started to tickle me. "Aly scores!" he screamed and my mom made a sound like a loud applause and cheering fans. "I'm a star….daddy!... Just …like you!" I had said between laughs.
He stopped tickling me, and smiled. God, that was the happiest smile I can remember… "That's right Punky Brewster! You're daddy's little Star!"
Back to General POV:
The bell rang, snapping Alatriel out of her thoughts. She wiped at her face when she realized she had been crying. Great… She thought, sarcastically. "Time for Experimental Healing." She said to herself. She got up from the grass and made her way into the castle. She took her usual seat next to Neville and Luna. And today's class was sure to be a good one, but Alatriel kept finding herself thinking about that picnic. I'd give anything to make dad that happy with me again…
Luna noticed that Alatriel seemed to be in a different world. "Alatriel is something troubling you?" she asked nonchalantly.
Alatriel wondered why Luna always used her full first name instead of calling her Aly like everyone else had. "No, I'm okay. Just a little tired is all, hun." I replied. That was the end of that conversation.
Meanwhile, Draco couldn't have been happier that his free period had come. He made his way to the kitchen to get a snack. Harry had passed by and decided to get a snack as well. He spotted Draco. "Oy, mate." He said as he grabbed an orange from the fruit basket.
Draco had been in mid bite of an apple when Harry had come in. "Mmm…" Draco gave a small wave. "Oy… Pwwotter… " he said through mouthfuls of apple.
Harry smiled a bit. "I'ma head out to the pitch, practice some Quidditch. Come along?" Harry said as he peeled the orange.
"Awight.." Draco said as he swallowed what he had been chewing. Together they headed out to the pitch and practiced the remainder of their period, talking about Quidditch related things.
The week flew by and Friday came. Ron Had just come out of Hexes and Spells III, and looked forward to his free period. Draco and Hermione had been discussing decorations for the Formal Gathering between assignments during the class, and Ron felt a bit left out. His temper had been under control but just barely. Hermione smiled apologetically every so often just to calm him down. It seemed to him, like ages since they had any time alone together.
Ron's POV:
I didn't understand what could be so bloody important about the decorations that they couldn't wait till later to discuss. Bloody Malfoy! I might as well have not been there. As soon as the bell rang I got up and left without saying a single goodbye to either of them. My intentions were to make bloody sure 'mione knew I was pissed off. I hoped that she felt guilty. Serves her right! My blood began to boil and I knew I had to calm myself down. I can control this. "Come on, Ron, easy there." I coached myself. My anger started to drop. I need to keep myself busy. If she's too busy for me, then I'll just be too busy for her. That's all.
I made my way to the library. I hate this bloody place! I had to do something to take my mind off of everything. I found a seat in the corner by the window. Minutes ticked by and I hadn't done a single thing. Grrrrrrr Just then Luna passes by and in a desperate act I called her over to keep me company. "Oy, Luna!" I said a little too loudly which, thankfully, only earned me a frustrated look from nearby students instead of the wicked librarian.
Luna came over. "Hello, Ronald." She said to me, without any sort of emotion as she sat down.
Blimey, I'll never get over how mental this girl is…. "So watcha got there, Luna?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"This month's issue of The Quibbler." She said, continuing to read it.
Oh, hell, she never let's off with that bloody Quibbler. "Anything, good, then?" I asked immediately regretting that I did.
Luna looked at me. It's possible she was trying to figure out if I was really interested. "Actually, there's an article in here about a scandal involving Viktor Krum." She said matter-of-factly.
Really? " Oh, yeah?" I asked, intrigued by anything that might shine a bad light on Krum. He was, after all, Hermione's ex-boyfriend. Oh, how I bloody loathe him!
Luna continued without looking up from her magazine. "Yes. It's not surprising, really. If I could be honest, he didn't exactly sit right with me."
I smirked. Funny, the one girl that thought poorly of Viktor Bloody Krum and its LUNA!
"I mean, sure, he was quite a dashing boy; many girls at Hogwarts wanted to date him."
Yeah, and one of them did! I thought, anger boiling over again.
She continued. "But, he didn't seem all that nice... or smart... Would you like to read about it?"
I thought for a moment. "Is it bad?" I asked.
Luna replied with a smirk. "Oh, yes. It's horrid."
"A'ight, then." I said. Luna smiled, for the first time since I'd seen her today. She took a second copy of The Quibbler out of her bag and handed it to me. How many copies did she have in her bag? But I didn't ask. I flipped through the pages to find the article. And sure enough, there it was. Complete with moving picture. Headline reading: "Krum Kicked Off For Kid!" According to the article, Krum had a child out of wedlock with some groupie harlot who threatened to sue him for abandonment. He was kicked off the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team because of the scandal. I started snickering.
Luna looked over at me. She smiled politely. "I knew that you didn't fancy Viktor Krum. That's why I told you about the article. To cheer you up." She told me.
"What'd ya mean, 'chee'r me up? I'm a'ight." I said defensively.
She smirked. "Oh, Ronald. You're always a joker." She said, then focused herself back on The Quibbler.
Mental, I tell ya "I'm completely serious. I don't need cheering up." I told her, rather unconvincingly.
She noticed. "I understand why it is that you are upset. I'd be upset too if I couldn't spend time with my boyfriend. Not that I have one, but I'm sure that if I did, I'd be upset too if we couldn't spend a lot of time together." She said, without taking her eyes off of the magazine.
I couldn't believe it. She saw right through me. "How'd you know?" I asked, defeated.
"Well, it's quite simple really. What with the Formal Gathering being the biggest event of the year, aside from our N.E.W.T.S, Draco and Hermione would have a lot to do. If she's busy with that, then that doesn't seem to leave a whole lot of time left to spend together, now would it?" I was confounded. She continued. "Plus, you never would've called me over to sit with you, unless you didn't have anything else to do, and needed the company. I may not seem like I pay attention to details, but honestly, that's all I ever really do. I know you never really thought much of me over the years but I'm sort of used to it." She finished, without so much as a blink while reading.
I'm such a bloody git… "I… uh.." But I didn't know what to say to that, Luna Lovegood always knew what to say to make someone speechless, and it wasn't always a good thing.
She looked over at me. "I don't mind, really, I enjoy the company as well. Besides, what are friends for?" she smiled and went back to reading.
I couldn't help but feel like punching myself right in the face. Here I am using this poor girl for my own selfish reasons, when in fact she knows that I'm using her and still, she manages to remain content. And she called me a FRIEND, which made me feel even worse. I'm really sorry, Luna. I promise I'll be a better friend. "So…" I started. Luna looked up at me. I continued. "Do you think it's true, then, about Krum, I mean?" She smiled. With that, we discussed the entire article from start to finish. Who knew Luna and I had some form of commonality? The rest of the period flew by, and as the bell rang, I actually felt a bit sad to leave.
AN: Hmmm... What's going on here? :D Well, well, well... Ron has a sensitive side... Hope you enjoyed! Please review!
