The moment Harry left, Ron got out of the car. He marched across the street, wand up his sleeve, and straight into the restaurant. Straight to the table where Draco Malfoy sat with a pretty muggle named Annie.

She was laughing at something, hands clasped with his across the table.

"I suppose you think he's charming," Ron demanded, striding up to her.

"Excuse me?" she looked at Ron, baffled, nervous. Then she glanced around the restaurant, silently seeking help.

Ron leaned forward. "You don't know. You don't even know what he is."

Draco patted Annie's hand. "I'm sorry about this," he whispered. Then he rose and took a step toward Ron, who drew his wand.

"Don't come any closer."

"Look around you, Weasley," Draco said quietly. "Think about what you're doing."

"I know exactly what I'm doing."

Draco surveyed the room, noted the hostess nervously calling the police. "Why don't we talk about this outside?"

"Why don't we talk about this right here! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?"

"Do to whom?"

"To whom? TO WHOM? Oh, yeah. That's good. That's good. Correct my grammar. Mr. Galleons upon galleons. Is that what it is? Is it her? Did she just decide she wanted someone with a bit more to give her? Because I can tell you right now, I do all right. And I could do better! I could sell my story to the Prophet."

"Yes, that would be a novel idea," Draco murmured.

"What is he talking about, Draco," Annie asked, concerned. "I've never met him before."

Draco shifted subtly, so that he blocked her from Ron's view. "He's upset about Hermione. They broke up, and he thinks it's somehow my doing."

"IT IS YOUR DOING!" Ron paced away, paced back, pointed the wand at Draco again. "What was it, huh? Was it a potion? Is that how you turned her against me?"

"No one turned her against you but you, Weasley."

"Oh! Oh. Is that how it's supposed to be then? Right. That seems so much more likely. That she just hated me, her boyfriend of four years, so much that she thought a death eater werewolf was a better alternative."

All the diners in the restaurant were now alarmed, moving away from the altercation, calling the police on mobile phones, explaining that there was a madman in the restaurant.

"No, he doesn't have a weapon," a woman was whispering into her phone. "But he's brandishing a stick and ranting about werewolves and death, and I don't even know, eating death. Something about eating death."

"You think," Ron continued, jabbing toward Draco with his wand, "that it's more likely she just happened to fall for someone who tortured her-"

"I never touched her," Draco said, cracks appearing in his calm demeanor. "And she hasn't fallen for anyone."

"Oh, right. Right." Ron nodded, swinging his wand toward a man and a woman rushing out the door.

Draco lunged for the wand, and Ron's instinctive reaction sent Draco flying into a wall on the opposite side of the room. Screams followed, then a stampede toward the door.

Ron blinked at the room, surveying the damage. The table Malfoy had been sitting at was shattered, the muggle woman he'd been sitting with lay stunned on the floor. Ron wasn't even sure what spell he'd used. A thin layer of smoke and dust hung in the air.

Ron slowly backed toward the door.

Annie, gathering her wits, rushed over to Draco.

"Did he have a bomb? Oh, god. He had a bomb, didn't he?" She checked her date for injuries, found his head bleeding profusely, a piece of wood from the table sticking out of his stomach. It had pierced his back and gone clean through.

"Oh, God. Oh, God. You need an ambulance."

"I need my phone," Draco managed, blood dripping out of his mouth as he spoke. "It's in my pocket. Can you get it?"

"Yes. I'll call 999."

"No. Call Hermione."

"What?"

"She's a doctor. She'll get here faster."

"Oh. Ok, umm . . ." she found the contact. "What if she doesn't answer?"

"Then you can call 999." He coughed and more blood came out, to the horror of his date. "Tell her I'm hurt, really seriously, and she needs to come now. Right now."

Annie nodded. The moment Hermione picked up, she said exactly that, gave their location, and the phone went dead.

"Ok. Now I'm calling 999."

"It's not neces-" but he broke off coughing, and she called anyway.

Hermione arrived seconds later. Annie stared at her blankly. "How did you-" She watched in stunned terror as Hermione, too, pulled out a wand and began muttering. Annie backed away, eyes wide and frantic, forgotten phone inches from her mouth.

Draco jerked his head toward his date. "You need to-"

Hermione glanced back, cast a quick spell, and Annie went still. Confused, but unafraid. She simply appeared to be in shock.

"We can fix it later," Hermione said, as she returned to her spells. "I can get this under control enough to get you to St. Mungo's."

"I'd appreciate that," he said.

A sharp laugh burst out of Hermione's mouth, quickly followed by tears, which she swept away without pausing in her treatment. "What happened?"

"Ron."

She froze. "No."

"I was also surprised," he choked out, flecks of blood hitting the air with the cough that followed.

"That's not possible."

He raised a hand, wiped it across his mouth, smearing blood across his face. "I think it would have been less likely had he not been quite so drunk."

"Oh, God." She shook her head. "I can't . . . Ok. I can't deal with that now. Right now I just need to get you to St. Mungo's. Then I can send a team to clean up here. And then we can deal with . . ."

She grabbed his arm and apparated them both to St. Mungo's. The moment they arrived, healers rushed over, surrounding them, taking control of the situation.

Ignoring them, Draco met her eyes. "Can you take care of Annie? You, personally? Make sure she . . . I don't know, make sure whatever she believes happened doesn't hurt her."

"Listen, Draco. We can sort this out. Just say that it was a-"

"There are always going to be people who want to hurt me, Hermione. I'm horrified to admit it never occurred to me they could end up hurting her, too."

"Draco."

"I'm serious. It needs to happen. I just don't think I can be the one to do it."

Hermione brushed impatiently at more tears. "But you were so excited-"

"Just make it something that's good for her. Make it be that she ended things because she knew she deserved better."

Hermione said nothing, watching as the healers cast spells and called out demands for potions.

"Hermione."

She nodded. "Alright." She squeezed his hand once, and then went to clean up the mess.