(A/N)
Reviews, reviews, reviews EVERYWHERE! Beg pardon, got a bit overenthusiastic over there. Anyway, Guest, Flyingberry, Tsukiyo Tenshi, Nikyta, Hellcat-Sakura, Rosemary Lily Marie, Terrence Rogue and PurpleBullet, you are my favorite people on this website. Want to become one of my favorite people too? It's easy, just hit that little blue button thingy that says 'Post Review', after writing one of course.
I understand the comment on the patronus by the way, a crab isn't really the first animal you would think of when seeing Hermione, but I didn't want to do an otter, I wanted Hermione to have that nickname and it fitted really well with a crab because they 'scuttle away' and such, and I just really like crabs. It's okay to think otherwise though, all opinions are allowed. Here in the Netherlands at any rate, I saw in the stats that I have visitors from China too, good to know there are also websites their government doesn't block. But now I'm losing track of what I was saying.
So where was I… Reviews. Right, you all seem rather curious about Ronald, hehehe. I hope I managed to surprise you. I wanted him to make a really huge mistake that truly fixed him as a bad person amongst his family and connections. I decided to change the rating to M because of Ronalds actions, just to be safe. The question is now, what are the consequences? Will he be expelled? Does Hermione get over it? You'll read that in the next chapter, I got it planned out already.
Anyway, this chapter is HUGE. I've been looking all over for a suitable place to split it in two, but in the end I just couldn't bring myself to leave you with all too big a cliff-hanger. Hope you like it, hope you still remember from the last A/N that I don't own Harry Potter, if not so then here's a little reminder.
Chapter 10 – A Variety of Ginger Issues
"Oh, I just love the world on this happy, happy day!", Susan Bones, fourth year Hufflepuff cried out as she skipped up yet another flight of stairs.
"Be quiet, the teachers will hear us!", Justin Finch-Fletchley interjected, as he, Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott were walking with their other Hufflepuff yearmate.
It was Saturday evening. As there were no lessons to attend for Susan on such a day, it had been chosen as the date for the court case with Malfoy. It had been a resounding success of course: Susan was a good actress, and had played her part perfectly, acting up the Hufflepuff loyalty she felt for her family, and her despair when she realized the line might have ended with her. The position of the wealthy Bones family, and the cold stare Susan's aunt gave from behind her monocle helped a lot too, so in the end they indeed got half of all what the Malfoys possessed, including the manor, as Hermione had advised. Madam Bones would be shopping for red and gold curtains and wallpaper the next day.
Susan had been partying with her friends all evening, celebrating her victory. When the butterbeer in the common room ran out they had decided to go fetch some more from the kitchens, which is when they ran into Cedric, who had been there with Hermione and was just returning to the common room. This instigated a change of plans, for Susan wanted to inform Hermione personally how it all went, and thank her. This is why she was now climbing the umpteenth flight of stairs on the way to Gryffindor Tower.
When they finally approached the place Hermione had described as the entrance to the common room, they heard a strange noise though, emitting from a nearby broom closet. The four badgers fell silent, came closer and listened at the door, only to scuttle away as a voice from inside suddenly rang out:
"RONALD! WHAT! NO! I DON'T WANT! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLL LLLPPPPPPP!"
It had been only a few minutes before that when Ron told Hermione they had to talk. Having been friends for three years, she had been inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, and followed him out of the common room.
"Where are we going?", she had asked him, a little apprehensively.
"Just somewhere more private.", he had answered, and she had spoken no more.
"Of course.", she had thought. He was going to apologize to her, but wouldn't want to be overheard doing so because he was a male and those considered it embarrassing to face their mistakes.
"Is this really necessary?", she had asked though, as he pulled her into a broom closet. It was a general rule that one needed a lot of space for an emotional conversation with Ronald Weasley. If only she had listened to that instinct, if only she hadn't trusted him so easily, despite their previous friendship, if only she had known what he was thinking at the time…
Yes, what was going on in Ron's head? Well, mostly that the girl with him was the cause of all his current problems. Where to start, where to start?
Let's start with his social position. Since his first year, he had sucked up to Potter, because that scrawny little guy was like the ultimate celebrity, so he'd get to share in the fame by befriending him. Unfortunately, Potter and Granger turned out to be a package deal, and he couldn't stand the latter. After a while however, he discovered that it was handy to have her help him with his homework, something she didn't do now, so his grades were low enough to make McGonagall write his parents, problem number two.
Problem number three was that he had planned to marry Granger. Yes that is right, he, Ronald Billius Weasley, would marry the annoying Granger chit. But it made sense! In a way… You see, Ron knew he would be a really famous quidditch player when he left school, he was very certain of that. He couldn't play all his life though, and he had no intention of getting a job afterwards. That's where Granger came in. She wasn't good-looking of course, but pretty women never cared if a man was married or not, so he could always find his 'entertainment' somewhere else. Granger, as his wife, would get him some children because she wouldn't mind messing up her figure for it, and that would make him his mother's favorite. Then when his quidditch career was done and their kids were off to school, she would get a job to provide for them, and he would enjoy a very, very early retirement. It didn't seem this would happen anymore, now.
But back to problem number one, his social status. After Granger had stolen his place in the tournament, Potter had taken her side, leaving him alone. The whole school, including the Slytherins who were scared of her, had agreed with their wonderboy of course, making him a pariah. Heck, even Malfoy didn't cause trouble, that git seemed preoccupied with something lately. Worst was that she turned his entire family against him. The twins were the first to go, but his sister quickly followed, she wouldn't even speak to him anymore. After the first task Granger was all his three eldest brothers cared about too, and having heard all their reports, his parents were now egging him on to apologize to Granger as well. Not that he planned to, they would realize that he was right eventually.
Such were Ronald's thoughts on Hermione Granger. One thing was certain, his plan was screwed up. There was something that screwed it up even further though, for despite Ron's belief in the opposite, Hermione was a very pretty girl. As a hormonal teenage boy with no common sense whatsoever and even les self-restraint, he couldn't help following his primal urges. Which is why he led her into a broom closet now.
Not realizing his intentions, Hermione went along with it. Before she knew it, she was scampering back into the corner of the cramped space, she'd dropped her wand before even getting a hold on it, and only barely managed to avert her face before Ron tried to force his mouth on hers. His hands were all over her though, ripping her robes apart, tugging at the clothes she wore underneath them, so she did the only thing she could think of. She screamed. Hard.
"RONALD! WHAT! NO! I DON'T WANT! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLL LLLPPPPPPP!"
That's where we get back to our Hufflepuff heroes. Susan quickly identified the voice as Hermione's, and signaled for her friends to give her back up as she threw the closet door open. Surprised to see Ron Weasley there, she stepped aside. A good thing for her, for that was the moment that Hermione regained her senses, withdrew her spare wand from her arm holster and sent a Knockback jinx at Ron with all the power she could muster in her distraught state. The result wasn't pretty. Even less pretty was what Ron looked like after the badger boys were done with him.
The badger boys yes, for the female half of the quartet busied themselves with Hermione. Upon realizing that she was saved, the girl had passed out due to shock and trauma. Hannah quickly took off her yellow-trimmed school robe and wrapped it around her, both to cover up her disheveled clothes and to ward off the cold.
Susan meanwhile picked up Hermione's two wands and stuffed the spare back in the arm holster, which had become visible upon being emptied. She gave the spare wand a thoughtful frown, she'd ask her auntie to get her a spare too, it seemed a wise thing to do. For now there were matters to be dealt with though.
"I'll bring her to the hospital wing, she knows me best from the four of us, so if she wakes I'll scare her the least.", she said in a commanding voice.
"Boys, show that git what loyalty means to us Hufflepuffs, but don't do something that'd get you expelled. Keep him here so that we can easily find you. Hannah, you find Cedric, he's a prefect so he'll be able to get you to the headmaster." Susan frowned a bit after that. "On second thoughts, fetch professors Sprout and McGonagall first. Dumbledore kept Lockhart employed whilst the Daily Prophet declared him a pedophile, we shouldn't trust his judgment. McGonagall will defend Hermione like a lioness, and Sprout will keep McGonagall in check and make sure the little Weasley bastard gets an adequate punishment."
"That makes sense. Should I send some of her friends over after that?", Hannah asked.
"All her friends except me are either male or ginger-haired, it'd be better not to confront her with such things immediately, I believe.", Susan answered. Her aunt, as head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, had many manuals about procedures, also those regarding rape victims. She had read some of them, and remembered this bit.
"Wait, the French champion, Delacour, she's been helping Hermione with her stalkers already, you should get her. After you get the professors though, she'll be in that big carriage and that's all the way over on the grounds."
Hannah nodded that she understood, and ran off. Justin and Ernie saluted the girls as Susan quietly mumbled 'mobilicorpus' and ran off in the other direction, towards the hospital wing, with Hermione floating behind her.
"Mollywobbles, darling, I think it's time for bed now, midnight has passed already.", Arthur Weasley said softly to his wife as they enjoyed a drink, sitting on one of the worn-down couches in their cozy living room.
"Time for bed it is, but I don't feel like sleeping yet.", she answered him, climbing into his lap. The couch they sat on groaned, as did Bill, who had come down to fetch a glass of water. No grown man ever wanted to hear his parents say such a thing.
Upon being transferred to England unexpectedly early, the young man had found himself without a place to live, so he had moved back in with his parents temporarily, something he severely regretted at the moment. If he was getting another sibling, he didn't want to be aware of the production process. Luckily for his sanity, his parents were interrupted even before he had crept back up the stairs, by a rather urgent firecall. Who in their right mind would call at such an ungodly hour?
"Molly, Arthur, glad to see you still awake. You'd better come through real quick, it's about Ronald, it's an emergency!", McGonagall yelled through the fireplace.
Bill, all mortification forgotten, ran into the living room whilst summoning a robe which he quickly put on, meaning to ask for details. McGonagall had disappeared already though.
"Mum, dad, what's going on?", he asked, frightened for his brother, who often ended up in the hospital due to Harry Potter's heroic adventures. Ron and Harry hadn't been speaking lately however, so what could it be?
"We don't know either, we'd better go find out!", his father answered as his mum got teary-eyed. Bill handed her a handkerchief as he secured one last button on his robe and led them trough the floo.
As the redheaded trio left the fireplace, they tumbled into the headmaster's office, the owner of which looked uncommonly grim, his customary eye-twinkle all but gone. Flanking him on either side were professors Sprout and McGonagall, the latter of which jumped up when seeing Bill.
"Ah, William, of course, it was quite obvious after that ordeal in November. You'll find miss Granger in the hospital wing, though you'd better be careful, she might not want you near her at the moment!"
Bill's face fell at that, but he hid it as he quickly left the office via the spiral staircase. Did McGonagall know about him fancying Hermione? She didn't seem much of a match-maker, she looked an old maid herself with that strict bun and the tartan overload.
Not that anything was going on between him and Hermione to begin with. She'd made it clear that she didn't want any contact with him, first sending him away and then ignoring him. He had been quite a mess because of it, the past month. Not that his manly ego would allow him to admit it, but he was lovesick, and to top it off he went spare with worry about the object of it.
The prophet had said little about how she was doing. Bill didn't know of course that Hermione's letter to Skeeter would be printed the next day, he only knew from Charlie that Ginny had written him that Hermione was fine, but that information had been two weeks delayed because Charlie was back in Romania, and he didn't like third-hand information to begin with.
That's why he went down to the hospital wing anyway, despite the warning from McGonagall that Hermione would probably reject him again. He needed to know that she was all right, to see it for himself…
The hospital wing was silent. The lights were off, the nurse nowhere in sight, the doors locked. Bill shrugged; he probably had a better chance of entering without the nurse present. He easily disabled the doorwards and crept inside.
Yes, creeping up on a victim of attempted rape whilst you physically resemble the culprit, real smart thing to do…
"Ginger, everywhere… RONALD, NO!", Hermione yelled out. She had awoken as she heard the door open, and due to her recent nasty experience saw nothing but the hair color of her visitor for a while, until she noticed its length.
"Oh, I'm sorry Ginny. Wait, even longer hair… William?", she asked confused, still half asleep, and seeing hardly anything in the dark.
"My hair really isn't longer than Ginny's!", the William in question cried indignantly.
"It is!", the girl retorted, but then blushed and looked away, remembering how it felt in her hands as she tied it back like she used to. An awkward silence ensued.
Bill was glad that Hermione was at least capable of speech, but he didn't like her grayish complexion, her face was deathly pale and she had obviously been crying. She looked like a frightened animal, and he yearned to hold her, to protect her, to comfort her. He didn't dare approach her though, not after that last time, so he seated himself at a safe distance.
"You're not still here from after the first task, are you?", he asked after a while, trying not to sound too desperate.
"No, I was hardly hurt then, I only had to be kept because I gave Fleur a blood transfusion.", Hermione answered, attempting a neutral tone.
Fleur? Who in Merlin's name was Fleur? Then it clicked. Of course, Delacour, the champion Hermione had saved. But that girl was partially veela, wasn't she? What did the paper say again…
"Blood transfusion… With a veela. That's why you se- Why I was kept away.", Bill stated, trying not to sound too accusatory.
"Yeah… Male humans and veela's… No good.", Hermione reacted lamely. She knew they were both thinking 'but you, Bill, are the only one I sent away'. She however, didn't want to draw attention to that, afraid to have him find out about her embarrassing feelings for him. He however, perceived it as if she thought he was some sort of hormone-ruled savage that had been wanting to do unmentionable things to her, but was to nice to mention it.
He decided to try to divert her attention from that train of thought, by asking her if there were any lingering effects, and she briefly explained them.
"So, if you long since got away from here, why are you back then?", he asked after that.
"You didn't know?", she asked surprised, frowning. "What are you doing here then? In the middle of the night, might I add."
"I'm staying with my parents at the moment, and they were called here for Ron so I came along, and then McGonagall just sent me here, I don't know why either." Bill noticed her shiver that moment, but didn't connect it to Ron being mentioned, he just blamed it on the cold. He now realized that she wore only a pair of thin hospital pajama's, whilst she sat upright, which must mean that she was freezing. He grabbed a nearby blanket from the bed he sat on, came near her for the first time in a month, and wrapped the woolen object tightly around her shoulders. She sighed.
"It was a rape attempt. One of many, but the only one to nearly succeed." She didn't look at him, choosing instead to watch her right hand fumble with her wand holster, therefore she didn't notice his facial expression, which was an odd combination of murderous hatred and deep concern. A lone tear trickled down her cheek now.
"I don't know what it is with those idiots, but they seem to think that since I saved a veela, they are allowed to bother me at their leisure. I don't even have the veela allure, I have a medical statement saying that for Merlin's sake, but still…", she trailed off.
Bill didn't know what to say to that, instead he joined her in watching her hand hold a seemingly invisible object. It took a moment before he realized that it was the wand holster he had given her, he hadn't thought she would wear it, but supposed it made sense for her to wear it now that she must feel in constant danger of being jumped on unwillingly.
Hermione gave a sad sort of smile as she noticed him looking and guessed what he must think, and for the first time really looked him in the eye as she spoke.
"It saved my life. Or my virginity, or my innocence or whatever. I blasted that bloody bastard away with my spare wand, just as he was ripping the buttons off my shirt, which enabled some Hufflepuffs to detain him. You can say a lot about 'Puffs, but loyal they surely are."
Again, the only reaction Bill could muster was a nod, but this time they felt as if it conveyed more than words ever could. They quickly looked away again though, and more awkward silence followed.
After a while, Bill made an attempt at casual conversation.
"So, does the other veela stuff bother you much? The amount of hair must be annoying, but I see your teeth shrunk too, that should be nice."
"The teeth didn't shrink due to the veela blood.", she muttered darkly.
"Why've they changed then?", the man said confused. Hermione didn't seem one to use spells to better her appearance.
"Ronald knocked them out during his… Episode.", she growled. "I didn't feel like letting them grow back all the way to their former glory."
"He… He… What?!" The exact meaning took a moment to penetrate Bill's mind, but when it all clicked he went livid. So that's why his parents had been called to Hogwarts in the middle of the night!
"He was the one to attack you? Merlin, and I thought…" What had he even thought? Had he thought at all?
"One of them.", the girl choked out as she broke down in his arms, which he had readily put around her.
"He was the only successful one. I got some nasty wounds in a duel with Krum, the other blokes I just hexed away, or Cedric or one of the others would. But he succeeded. Got me into a broom closet, cornered me… If not for…", at that point she couldn't speak anymore. Bill didn't like the idea of Cedric being the prince who defended HIS fair maiden, but decided that that was not something to talk about now.
"How? Why Ron? I mean, he's obvious, clueless and generally stupid, if anyone, I wouldn't expect him to be able to take you off guard."
"We were friends, William." She looked at him intently. "Not best friends, we could hardly stand each other. But we fought side by side for the same cause, and you and I know very well the sort of bond that such a thing creates." They gazed into each others' eyes some more, both knowing that she meant the fight after the world cup. And Bill understood now, he realized he trusted her with his life, that he had not a single doubt about any aspect of her. Hermione averted her eyes after that. "Then imagine that that other person would betray you, you wouldn't even think of the possibility."
Bill's throat went dry. It was the ultimate betrayal, and his own brother had been the one to commit it.
"Why were you even friends with him?", he asked hoarsely.
Hermione nearly laughed at this, she would have had she been in a better mood, for this reminded her of a conversation between Cedric and her, one they held during one of their kitchen expeditions.
"Honestly 'Mione, you must have the widest network of friends of all people I ever met, so how in the world did you end up with Potter and that idiot Weasley as your best mates?", Cedric had asked.
It had been during what Hermione tagged 'The Firebolt Fuss', the period in which Ronald refused to speak to her because she had told McGonagall of Harry's Firebolt. Harry had actually been on her side, contrary to popular belief. He understood she was acting in his best interest, which was the whole basis of their friendship. He was just frustrated because she could have checked the thing for curses far faster, enabling him to fly on it. She just didn't have enough confidence to trust herself with such a task back then, and therefore Harry had quickly forgiven her. Still, he didn't want to lose his best male friend, and she was extremely busy with her overlapping class schedule, so for the sake of peace in Gryffindor Tower they had decided not to mention this to Ron, and it had worked perfectly.
"Well,", Hermione had begun her answer, gathering her thoughts, "it all started on the Hogwarts Express. I had read a lot about Harry Potter as the savior. Didn't believe a word of it of course, the evidence lacked sense. I mean, if his parents and Voldemort died that night, and the only other one present was a toddler no one ever spoke after that, then how could anyone know what happened? I did realize however, that this must be how the wizarding world saw him, as some sort of god. They had blown it all out of proportion, and if trouble were to arise, they'd expect him to solve it all." She snorted slightly at that. "Then I took one look at him, saw the scrawny little kid that he was, and knew that if my life depended on him, I might as well start writing my obituary."
Cedric laughed along with her, but wondered where this was going.
"I soon found out that I was the only one to think so. Except Harry. And that he seemed quite scared at the thought. So I sought him out, and we reached a kind of silent agreement that I'd help him face all the responsibility unwillingly bestowed on him."
"That leaves Weasley though.", Cedric interjected.
"Yes, it does."
Ron liked to think that Hermione had had no friends before Harry and he 'saved' her from that troll. He liked it even more that his making her cry had placed her in its path in the first place; it was disturbing, but he liked that kind of power. This was not the truth though, like everyone but him saw.
In fact, Hermione was very popular, but only along those who were able to appreciate her company. Her intellect had isolated her during her first week or so, which made her seek refuge in the library, which in its turn attracted the attention of the Weasley twins like previously discussed. Then, when she met Cedric, things took a turn for the better.
Together with Cedric, and Percy Weasley, whose help they enlisted because he was a prefect, they started the inter-house study group. There was one for every year, and it was a huge success.
Via the group, Hermione became good friends with her Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff yearmates, as well as the two Slytherins who joined. The Gryffindors in general looked down upon study groups, but Neville had joined for sake of his grades, and never regretted it. Hermione had a way of bringing forward the best in everyone. She created a safe, welcoming environment in their little corner in the library, and then appointed tutors for every subject so that each member could shine in that what they were best at.
She gave Herbology to Neville of course, but teamed him up with Hannah Abbott. Both were shy, but together they dared to stand up and explained everything as good as professor Sprout did.
The two snakes, Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini took on Potions together, not daring to leave each others' side amongst all those others at first, but remaining together once they found out they liked each other even more than they liked potions. In the privacy of the study group she let slip her cold ice princess demeanor a bit, and he dimmed down his macho attitude.
Justin Finch-Fletchley was one hell of a storyteller; he made them see the goblin rebellions in a whole new light as their History of Magic tutor.
Terry Boot was great at Transfiguration, and Michael Corner had a gift with Charms. With some aide from Hermione in teaching techniques they managed to get the group trough both subjects with superb grades.
And thus the list went on and on. Cedric, Percy and some other older students Hermione befriended because of the study groups gave similar reports. The groups raised not only the grades of the students, but their confidence and general happiness too. Percy even won over his girlfriend Penelope during those afternoon study sessions, and he was eternally grateful to Hermione for that.
This is how Hermione, unseen by Ronald, became one of the most beloved and appreciated people residing in Hogwarts. After a while even Dean Tomas and Seamus Finnegan joined the group, even Hermione's shallow dormmates, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil did. Harry couldn't though, because the meetings clashed with his quidditch training, and not understanding that Harry would have wanted to go, Ronald decided not to join.
Cedric already knew all of this, though, so she went on from there.
"Well, the study group was going strong, and I was very happy. Then however, I overheard some older Slytherins talking about ambushing a seventh year Hufflepuff just before the Halloween feast. I knew the teachers would think those Slytherins were just pranking me if I told them, so I decided to sort it out myself. Ronald made a stupid comment about me having no friends, and I took it as an excuse to run off, pretending to cry. My idiotic dormmates, who hadn't joined the study group yet at that point, they must have seen it and convinced everyone that I was crying in a bathroom somewhere. I however went to find that 'Puff, found her only just in time too."
"Who was it?", Cedric interjected curiously, earning a disapproving glare from Hermione.
"You probably know her, so I won't tell, I have her confidence. Anyway, she got this mischievous look and told me we'd just make the ambushers ambushees. She taught me the body-bind hex then, we took them down with it, she left to find a teacher and I went down to the feast. That's when I ran into the troll. I hid in the bathroom, where I'd have been safe, but Ronald locked me in with the troll. Then Harry and he defeated it in the most ridiculous manner possible, and from then on he considered me worthy of his presence."
"And you just went along with it? I can't believe you LIKE to put up with that prat?"
"Well, he kind of grows on you, like an endearing helpless puppy that tries to bite off your fingers on a regular basis. The point was though, that he and Harry are kind of a package deal."
"Ah, it's starting to make sense now."
"And I calculated that within three generations one fifth of the population of the wizarding world will either be a Weasley or directly related to one, so I figured it would be prudent to be on good terms with him.", Hermione added, and Cedric bursted out laughing.
She didn't feel like telling this to Bill though, so she just cried harder, effectively cutting off the conversation. It made him hold her tighter as well, something she didn't mind at all.
Those strange feelings came back, those feelings that made her think that everything was great. Intellectually she knew she couldn't be in love, she hardly knew this young man after all. They had only spoken during that week before the world cup, and that day she went to see her parents. And they had fought a bunch of Death Eaters together, the adrenaline of that was probably to blame. So why did she still feel that adrenaline after months? She did know that this was not some random crush, she'd had those before.
Her biggest crush probably had been Cedric, and really, he had all she'd ever look for in a guy, but as previously explained, he was too much like a brother to her.
She'd had a major crush on Lockhart as well, for about five hours. When she first got his books she had thought he was God's gift to women, but then, thorough student that she was, she had made a timeline of his accomplishments the same afternoon and noticed that they overlapped. When realizing that he was a fraud, her five-hour crush faded immediately, and she sent her timeline to the Daily Prophet, anonymously. She had been lucky, it ended up with Rita Skeeter, who somehow found out in the ministry records that he was a known pedophile, and had a field day painfully eliminating his career. Dumbledore still employed him though, to teach in A SCHOOL FULL OF YOUNG CHILDREN, to the teachers' collective abhorrence, but with the truth out in the open they had at least known to be on their guard. Needless to say, Lockhart's demonstration of werewolf wrestling moves on Harry had not been appreciated, yet Dumbledore had refused to fire him until he lost his memory due to that backfiring charm.
Yes, Bill Weasley was nothing like Lockhart. He was a bit like Cedric though, in personality. He was just as kind, caring and helpful as the sixth year Hufflepuff, but he was a bit more resolute and solid. More distinguished too, and so dashing…
Thus it was a very busy day for some of Hogwarts' inhabitants. Let's not forget the outside world, however.
Lucius Malfoy enjoyed his twenty-third shot of firewhiskey in the Hogshead pub in Hogsmeade. Not that he really enjoyed it, he was far too drunk and depressed for that. In a few short hours, he had lost half his wealth. His wife hated him now even more than she already did, for money and family were the only reasons she married him in the first place, in that order. Also, he'd had to give up the manor, which contained most of her expensive clothes.
Giving up the manor had at least ensured that everyone was sworn to secrecy, his reputation was safe.
He looked up as some blonde tart seated herself next to him. Trough his bleary eyes she almost looked pretty.
"What has you looking so miserable?", she asked, leaning forward.
"Well,", he drawled in an odd combination of a drunken slur and his usual aristocratic accent. "there's this little something where I lost half my money and my wife's support because our child is female and we passed her off as a boy for fourteen years."
"Oh, do tell!", Rita Skeeter cried out gleefully, feeling this was the story that would bring her eternal fame.