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Thirty-five: Turn Your Back on Paradise

"Alright Draco, please come in now," he heard his father say. The voice sounded far away. Draco wasn't really here - his mind and spirit had left with Luna.

He entered his father's office, where Lucius was calmly seated. Mrs Malfoy, Pansy, and Mrs Parkinson were sitting in front of his desk, all of them looking very grave and furious.

Draco forced himself to sit. "You owe both Mrs Parkinson and Pansy an apology," Lucius sternly told him.

"Sorry," Draco mumbled.

"What you did was very, very wrong. I'm not sure if the damage you have caused will ever be fixed. But what has happened has happened, and we can't let a foolish blunder like this ruin your future. Mrs Parkinson has very graciously decided to put this matter behind us, on certain terms, so that we can all move on."

Draco didn't quite understand where this was going. "So then, what's going to happen now?"

Lucius was still calm in his response. "What we've all known is going to happen. Luna will no longer be working in our shop. I have already sent her an owl –"

"You sacked Luna?" Draco exclaimed.

"Yes, we all felt that it would be best for you to never see her again. Luna has taken our generosity for granted. We don't blame you for what has happened, I hope you understand this. You made a very stupid error of judgement, and that was wrong, but it's clear that she was the one who tempted you in the first place. Once she's gone from your life forever, things will naturally return to normal."

Draco couldn't believe what he was hearing. He didn't want things to return to normal! He didn't want to go back to that life – he couldn't go back to his dull, meaningless life without Luna. He couldn't be Pansy's slave again – he couldn't even look at the girl anymore!

"No – I can't –" he whispered, trembling.

Lucius ignored him. "Now, the ring."

"Wh-what?"

"The ring, Draco," his father answered impatiently. "Let's not waste any more time. We can get the engagement done with here, then we shall announce it to the party. We've prepared an extravagant cake for this occasion, which the house elves will bring out after the announcement."

Draco's body was shaking. He felt like a hopeless young child. "No – no," he muttered feebly. He clutched the ring tightly in his pocket – surely they couldn't force him to do this!

Growing angry, Lucius muttered "Accio ring!" and the ring flew away from Draco's grasp and into Lucius's outstretched hand. Everyone stood up, except for Draco.

Mrs Parkinson snatched the ring from Mr Malfoy's hand, admiring the jewels. This was most certainly an extremely valuable ring. Her greedy delight was shamelessly displayed as she marvelled at the shining diamonds, ogling particularly at the large stone in the middle. "Isn't it stunning, dear?" she whispered breathlessly. Pansy, who was still furious at Draco, didn't reply.

"Draco, place the ring on Pansy's finger," Lucius commanded.

Draco didn't budge.

"Draco!"

Still he didn't move.

"No matter then," Lucious snapped. Using his wand, he slid the ring out of Mrs Parkinson's hands and slipped it onto Pansy's finger himself.

"There. Now it's all done with," he proclaimed after examining the way the ring looked on Pansy's finger. "You two are officially engaged to be married. We have all discussed that the best thing to do now would be to have the wedding as soon as possible. I think the middle of August would be most convenient – do you all agree?"

There was a murmur of consent from everyone except Draco, who absolutely refused to believe what had just happened.

"Good, in that case, we shall – "

Lucius stopped in the middle of his sentence. A putrid, burning smell suddenly filled the room. Lucius recognized the scent immediately, and Draco realized what was going on. Everyone in the room abruptly turned their attention to the jewellery on Pansy's finger, from which the foul smell was emanating.