Disclaimer: As usual, all I own is this fanfic. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling, no copyright intended!
Chapter 18: Draco's Worst Nightmare
The rest of the week passed by uneventfully (for the most part, that was), except for Demelza, Fred, George and Lee talking to each other near groups of students in between classes, at mealtimes, or during free time. They were doing anything they could to make sure everyone would be fooled by Demelza's decoy duty in convincing them that she would be Harry's date. Most of the girls would glare at Demelza for 'ruining' their chances to be Harry's date. Some of them even tried asking Harry himself, only to be shot down due to the fact that even they believed Harry to have cheated his way in. Ginny even witnessed some of it and it was taking alot of willpower to avoid giving Demelza a mouth full of broken teeth. Saturday morning after breakfast, Demelza and Tori were talking about the decoy duty out in the courtyard. Daphne and Adrian heard them as they passed by and approached the two third year girls.
"Hey Tori, Demelza!" Daphne and Adrian greeted in unison.
"Hey Daphne, Adrian!" Tori and Demelza greeted back.
"You know, Demelza," Daphne began suggesting, as a smirk developed on her face. "All the glares you've been receiving from many of the girls could put you in some kind of danger. What if I offer to help be apart of your decoy duty? Maybe Adrian can help out too, if he's okay with it. Tracey even told me about Harry asking her to be his date for the Yule Ball and that she accepted."
"That's actually a good idea, Daphne," Demelza told her in an impressed voice. "It's like the more of Harry's friends who go along with this, the more confusion will start occurring and the worse it'll get."
"Then maybe we should do it." said Tori.
"I agree," stated Adrian. "The others will even start asking themselves or each other who Harry will be going to the Yule Ball with."
The discussion had the group giggling like crazy. They left the courtyard to let Harry and his other friends know (in secret) about the plan of adding fuel to the fire in the decoy duty plan. Meanwhile, Fleur was walking outside along the shores of the Black Lake. It was moments later when she crossed paths with Andi and an utterly terrified Draco Malfoy following closely.
"Hello, Andi!" Fleur greeted. "Did I do something wrong?"
"Not at all, Miss Delacour," assured Professor Tonks in a soft voice. "I was looking for you to ask you to follow me to my classroom. It seemed like Mr. Malfoy did something terrible to you the other day and I'd like you to explain the full story if you're okay with it."
Fleur nodded her head ecstatically, much to Draco's horror. He widened his eyes as his fear intensified by the second. Still, the Malfoy scion knew he had no choice but to follow Andi and Fleur over to the potions classroom. Once they were inside the classroom, Andi whipped her wand out to cast some privacy wards and locking charms on the door. Draco and Fleur sat down on chairs in front of the teacher's desk before Andi down on the teacher's chair behind the desk. Draco could feel the inside of his mouth drying up with fear as Andi glared at him.
"Alright, Miss Delacour," said Andi as she turned her attention to Fleur, giving her an encouraging nod. "What's the full story behind Mr. Malfoy's actions towards you?"
Fleur relayed everything to Andi on Draco's behaviour. As Fleur kept telling her story, Andi gave Draco one, nasty glare. Draco felt his limbs gradually losing sensation as he saw his life flash before his eyes. He knew he was in an extremely great risk for expulsion at best, and facing Lord Anthony Delacour's wrath at worst. Andi's arms and legs were trembling with anger when she found out that Draco had touched Fleur inappropriately. Andi even showed her gritting teeth at Draco to show him how angry she was. She thought Draco would learn his lesson, but now she knew he needed a much harsher lesson.
"You, young man, have just gotten yourself into even bigger trouble!" Andi told him. "As bad as touching a lady in an inappropriate spot is, you did that to Lord Delacour's daughter. Did you even think to consider the consequences while you were still ahead? I thought you were beginning to learn, but now I know that you kept up that behaviour and refused to grow up. I doubt your mother will be very happy with you for treating a lady the way you do."
"F-F-Fleur gave me permission." Draco nervously tried defending his actions.
"Did my anger give you any clue, Malfoy?" asked Fleur in anger, also glaring at him and folding her arms across her chest. "It should have, you should've thought it over better. My papa will be pressing charges against you for squeezing my bum, once he finds out about it."
"Exactly, Mr. Malfoy!" stated Andi in a no-nonsense voice. Then she pulled out some kind of box from under the desk, opened it and non-verbally cast a charm that caused some specified slips of parchment to fly out and onto the desk. After she read them, she looked up at Draco once more and angrily addressed him. "That was a complaint box, where students can file a complaint on a slip of parchment about problems from fellow students, such as being bullied for example. Lord Harry Potter secretly told me about the complaint box the other day. The slips I was looking over were all from Miss Astoria Greengrass. The complaints she filed informed me of you touching and/or squeezing her bottom relentlessly with a lustful expression on your face, smacking her across the face anytime she tried steering clear of you or when she refused to sit by you at meal times, and forcing her to remove all of her clothes so she'd be in her undergarments in the common room, in plain view? One evening after dinner, I even heard her telling her sister how humiliating she felt to do that."
Draco pathetically tried to keep his collywobbles concealed, but Andi wasn't fooled in the slightest. She got up and walked into her office, making sure to close her door and cast the necessary charms so the Malfoy scion wouldn't hear what would happen. Moments later, Draco saw his mother pulling the door open with an outraged look on her face. Narcissa grabbed her son by one of his ears and dragged him into the office, with Draco seething in pain. Fleur was watching the ordeal with amusement on her face, seeing Draco finally getting more of his just rewards. Once in Andi's office, Narcissa practically threw her son onto a chair as she also glared at him. Anthony Delacour stepped out of the fireplace, followed by Dennis Greengrass a couple minutes later. Even they were glaring at Draco, making sure there wouldn't be any mercy.
"How do you explain this outrageous behaviour of yours, young man?" Narcissa demanded her son. "I find it hard to believe that you would treat a lady like a trophy or an object rather than a person! I didn't raise you to behave that way, young man, and you'd better be ashamed of yourself!"
"And as it turns out, Draco," Dennis angrily told him. "That whole marriage contract as a repayment ordeal had been a bluff, your father just wanted more power, wealth and fame. There wasn't any debt I had to repay."
"Exactly, Draco," Narcissa told her son in anger. "After your father had been arrested, I spent hours after hours after hours looking for any sort of clue about Dennis being forced to have Astoria married to you as a debt repayment. There was none, Lucius was just looking for excuses to gain more wealth, fame and higher status."
"You're in so much trouble that you're likely going to die in prison!" Anthony berated Draco. "Sexual harassment of my daughter will result in you facing trial at the french ministry, especially since I work there. She also wrote a letter to me the other day explaining what you did. Did you think I was going to allow you to get away with that?"
"Not only that, but doing the same countless times to Tori will have you face trial here first," Dennis informed Draco, his voice still filled with anger. "And finding out about you committing assault and battery on her many times by smacking her across the face will add more to your record. Your father is in just as much trouble."
So the adults walked into Andi's private quarters to discuss Draco's fate. Once they came back into the office, Andi fire-called Albus to inform him of Draco's inexcusable behaviour. Once Albus stepped out of the emerald-green flames, Andi fire-called Amelia to have her bring some aurors over to arrest Draco. After Amelia and the few aurors arrived, Albus motioned with his hands at Draco as if to tell him to hand his wand over (something Draco only did reluctantly).
"You're hereby expelled from Hogwarts, Mr. Malfoy!" Dumbledore declared as he snapped Draco's wand in half.
"Draco Malfoy, you're under arrest for multiple counts of assault and battery, sexual harassment, and suspicions of conspiracy!" Amelia informed the Malfoy scion as he found himself with wands pointed at him and was placed in magic suppression handcuffs. "Now Draco, you don't have to say anything, as it may harm your defence in court. Anything you choose to say can be given in evidence."
Draco was led out to be taken outside the wards to be apparated over to the ministry and into custody to await his trials. Amelia gave Albus a suspicious look before leaving, to let him know that she had her eye on him. Albus developed a fearful expression on his face, knowing Amelia was one, tough witch. Andi also gave the headmaster a similar look, since she never trusted the ole coot because of placing Harry with abusive relatives and ruining Dora her chance to be an honorary big sister to him. Dumbledore left the potions classroom and back to his office. Anthony also went to check on Fleur, then he left to return to the french ministry when she assured her father that she was alright.
Concurrently, Ginny was wandering the corridors by herself. Ron and Hermione had been keeping their distance from her even more than usual, much to Ginny's dismay. The Weasley girl couldn't walk anywhere all that much without being reminded by her peers that Harry never would've shown romantic interest in her, and the fact that she caused Ron to wet his trousers in retaliation for his reminders about how Harry would react if she tried to convince him to ask her to the Yule Ball. Ginny wanted to clobber anyone who dared to inform her that she would never be with Harry because (in her delusional mind) Harry was her knight in shining armour and always would be. Just when she thought that things couldn't get any worse, she crossed paths with her mother. The expression on her mother's face made Ginny realize that she was the reason her mother was there.
"You'd better follow me right now, young lady!" Molly ordered her daughter.
Ginny nodded her head obediently before reluctantly following her mother over to an abandoned classroom. Once they were in one, Molly closed the door before casting privacy wards and locking charms on it. Then she pointed a finger to a chair as a way of ordering her daughter to take a seat. Ginny saw the hint and sat down, just as her mother started pacing back and forth in front of her, with her hands behind her back. Once she stopped in front of Ginny, Molly faced her daughter with her arms folded across her chest with an angry look on her face.
"Do you care to explain this behaviour of yours, young lady?" Molly began berating her daughter. "What made you think causing Ronald to wet his trousers was the right solution? I was also informed that you smacked Neville across the face a couple weeks ago. In fact, Harry even sent me a letter informing me about your childish behaviour and how you think he is your boyfriend. What have you got to say for yourself?"
"Well, they kept lying to me about Harry never being interested in me!" Ginny whined. "Everyone knows Harry and I are meant for each other!"
"Don't give me that attitude, young lady!" Molly snapped. "You know darn well that those were stories your father and I would tell you when you were five. We never said that it would happen for real. You're thirteen years old, Ginevra Molly Weasley, not a little child anymore. Now I suggest you start acting like someone your age before you exacerbate the situation. If I get one more complaint about you assuming that Harry is yours and yours only, I may just pull you out of Hogwarts altogether and have you live with your great-great aunt Muriel, along with getting you a private tutor. If Harry even has a better idea for a proper punishment for you, your father and I will agree with it, have I made myself clear?"
"I guess," Ginny responded with uncertainty. "But Harry would never…"
"Okay, then I'll just march up to Dumbledore's office and inform him that you wish to be expelled," said Molly. "And…"
"Okay, okay!" Ginny reluctantly agreed, putting her hands up in defeat. "I'll be good."
"Good choice, young lady!" Molly responded in a satisfied voice, before warning her daughter in a serious voice, "But remember, one more complaint about your rambunctious behaviour and I'll tell Dumbledore to expel you."
Then the Weasley matriarch left the classroom and outside the school wards to apparate back to the Burrow. Ginny remained seated, as she still believed that Harry would eventually notice her and ask her to be his girlfriend (thus she continued living in false hope).
'I just know Harry will come to me, I'll wait!' thought Ginny. 'As long as I'm behaving, he'll realize that I'm not bad at all. I know he'll soon change his mind!'
Back in his makeshift quarters, Harry and Tracey were practicing the dance for the Yule Ball. Tracey was also practicing on keeping her concentration on Harry, since she knew worrying about the crowd watching her wouldn't do any good.
"I want you to tag along to shop for dress robes, Harry," said Tracy. "But given that decoy duty plan Demelza came up with, I also don't wanna ruin that in any way. If we went to Hogsmeade together, it would make our fellow students and our teachers suspicious."
"Maybe you, Daphne and maybe Tori should have some girl time," suggested Harry. "When you go to try on dress robes. Maybe you can surprise me with what kind of dress robes you end up picking."
"Excellent idea, Harry!" Tracey replied in an impressed tone of voice. "I'll have to think long and hard on the kind of dress robes I wish to get."
Harry nodded his head in agreement, then he and Tracey resumed the practice for the champions' opening dance for the Yule Ball. Meanwhile, Narcissa had just walked out of the Slytherin common room after getting her son's belongings out, which told everyone that Draco had been expelled (though, they didn't yet know that he had also been arrested). Most of the student body (especially the pure-blood Slytherin fanatics) kept their distance in fear because Narcissa had so much pure rage inside her that others believed she would take it out on them. It didn't take long before word about Draco's expulsion started spreading and it was now the top discussion throughout the castle.
To be continued!
Author's note: I'd like to give a shout-out to 'setokayba2n' for suggesting that Harry inform Molly by letter about Ginny's childish attitude.
Also a shout-out to 'Phoedra135' for suggesting that Fleur send a letter to her father informing him about Draco's actions towards her. While I had Lord Delacour personally confront Draco, the main idea belongs to Phoedra135.