Chapter 29
Hermione didn't go down to dinner the next night. She didn't want to deal with him. How dare he accuse her of not trusting her friends, she trusted them with her life. Alright, so maybe they couldn't be completely trusted not to get themselves killed, do their homework or to not absolutely say the wrong thing at times, but she trusted them completely. She did not have trust issues. If anyone had trust issues it was him, he obviously didn't trust a person to have a personally beyond the one he assigned them.
They didn't really speak at all when they occasionally stumbled across one another. Hermione spent more and more time helping Harry paint Grimmauld Place. She particularly liked when Ron, Pansy and Neville would come over on Friday night. They would invite Dean and the Creeveys as well. They looked a little skinny. Collin had taken a job working in the Hogwarts fields, so they weren't outright starving.
Hermione stilled simmered with the unfairness of it all and Malfoy's Laissez Faire approach. Sometimes you had to actively get involved and fix things, why couldn't he see that.
"I wonder what will happen now that Blaise Zabini's been arrested." Dean said.
"What? When?" Hermione asked.
"Marcus Belby arrested him." Dean continued. "This morning."
"They've been having their little tiff about our world's coffers for a while." Harry said. "Arresting him is a pretty drastic step though. Belby thinks Zabini needs to do what he's told and he's flatly refused."
"You can't just arrest someone because they believe in different policies." Hermione said. "That is completely illogical."
"Solved the problem though, didn't it?" Dennis said. "Belby's raided the Gringotts vaults."
"Yeah, but who's vault's?"
"People who aren't here anymore." Ron said.
"They still belong to someone." Pansy said. "Someone will be the closest relation to that person, and that money belongs to them."
"They probably don't need it." Ron said.
"Who are you to say that?" Pansy fired back. There was obviously some tension in the Weasley household.
"All I'm saying is that there are pressing needs now." Ron fired back.
"It could turn out that its your money and how will you feel when you ended up subsidising the running of Belby's Ministry."
"There must be some fairer way of everyone pitching in." Harry said. "Like I said, taxes. There just isn't any mechanism for collecting them. "
"Well I can't afford to help." Dean said. "I don't care what anyone says, I've got nothing to give, I am seriously living from knut to knut."
The conversation went on and on. The euphoria about defeating the werewolves was certainly wearing off and the problems were coming out of the woodwork. Hermione felt overwhelmed with the scale of them. There were no easy answers and it didn't seem that everyone was interested in pursuing solutions either. Malfoy seemed to be quite happy with the status quo.
Things didn't seem to change much between her and Draco. They both kept to themselves after their little tiff. She would see him outside once in a while. She would watch him from the window where he didn't notice her. He didn't look happy and he looked tired. She had no idea what he did all day. She wondered if Belby had raided any of the Malfoy's wealth. Maybe that is what he was worried about. He obviously thought Belby was a thief, out to steal all their money.
The unilateral approach was a bit hard handed, but they really did need to do something about it and perhaps a unilateral decision was all that could be done. A necessary evil if you will.
She wondered about herself and Malfoy, it might not be any wonder that they weren't on speaking terms, it would be a miracle if they were. It would be silly to think it could be any other way.
She wanted to ask him about what was going on. He knew a lot more than them about what was going on, she was sure of it. The Gryffindors had always been a bit sidelined when it came to gossip, they were often the target of it, but often the last to hear it. Gossip seemed to finally reach them through the Patel sisters.
Maybe they didn't have to fight. Maybe they could be civilised for the sake of the baby, it shouldn't be that hard. It was just that he rubbed her the wrong way. She wanted nothing to do with him, but she also wanted to engage with him because this ridiculous attraction still drove her impulse to seek him out. Obviously she fought it every chance she got, but it was still there underneath it all, along with her resentment for it.
There weren't as many people the next time she went to Diagon Alley, she liked going on market days. It was nice to see everyone and to learn how they were getting on. She ran into the Patil sisters who were shopping at one of the garden stalls.
"A bit of a quiet day, isn't it?" Hermione said.
"Its not unexpected considering the fight between Entwistle and Nott." Parvati said.
"What fight?" Hermione asked.
"They had this huge fight. Wands drawn and everything. No one is really sure why, neither of them has made any statement why. And now that Nott has been arrested, there are stirrings of malcontent."
"Because Entwistle wasn't?"
"Well no, he's Belby's mate, isn't he?" Padma said. "They've been thick as thieves since fourth year."
She could have said something about Malfoy thinking Belby was a thief, but she did not contribute to childish gossip. Particularly as the Patil girls would spread it far and wide.
"He can't just favour his friends like that, that's unseemly." Hermione said.
"It looks like he just did." Parvati said.
"But he's the Minister." Hermione said.
"And an eighteen year old boy." Padma said. "And discretion has never been the biggest part of his valour."
"How did we end up with him as Minister again?" Hermione stated with creeping doubts about Belby's fitness for the job. "Cho would have done a much better job."
"Cho's a bitch." Padma said revealing a past between the girls that Hermione didn't know about. "It would so have gone to her head if she won, she would be completely impossible."
"I still think Lupin should be Minister." Parvati said. "Why couldn't we just force him to do it?"
"Apparently he is still struggling to make a reasonable wolfsbane potion and he is drained and deflated most of the time." Padma said. "That reminds me, did you hear Eddie Carmichael is back? He's a werewolf now. Seriously, I couldn't think of anyone less suitable to be a werewolf. He is still the biggest geek on the planet."
I'm glad to hear he isn't dead." Hermione said.
"Lupin is taking him under his wing." Padma continued.
"Now that he's a werewolf, Lavender thinks he's all dishy." Parvati said with derision. "That girl is an idiot. She works at Hogwarts at the nursery for the littlies."
Hermione's head was spinning with the gossip. Those two really were professionals. They were practically the news grapewine at the moment. But she'd had enough for one day. The news on Belby and his actions left her a little disturbed.
Malfoy came into her room later in the afternoon as she was sitting reading one of the old tomes from the rather spectacular Malfoy library. He walked in her room and she bristled because he didn't knock. She had no idea what he wanted.
He leaned back on the wall and didn't say anything until she looked up.
"I want you to stay here as much as possible." He finally said.
"Why?"
"Its just not safe." He said. "There is too much uncertainty."
"I can't just stay here all the time, I'll go mental." She said. "I know things aren't ideal, but I think you're overreacting a bit. Besides, I am quite capable of taking care of myself."
"You're a target. I don't want you to go out alone. If you need to go somewhere, I will take you. Or have Potter go with you."
She was going to dismiss him until he mentioned her taking Harry as a guard. That told her that he was quite serious. Age old rivalry meant that he would not recommend her relying on Harry for anything unless he was dead serious. Obviously he was willing to put that aside.
"What's going on?" She asked with more suspicion.
"Its just a mess out there." He said. "And you are way too trusting."
"I thought I didn't trust anyone." She said.
"You don't trust the people you should, and have a ridiculous propensity to think everyone else is trustworthy. What I am saying is that you are too trusting to see trouble coming. Just if you need to see your friends, do it at Potter's house." He said with his arms crossed. There was no humour or teasing in his voice. He pushed off the wall and left the room before she could question him further.
