Tastes of Italy

Theo Nott was at the end of Pansy Parkinson's wand. Red sparks sparked their way toward his chest in a broad target but was aptly diverted with a flick of Theo's wand. They splattered throughout the air as fireworks. Their clicks a little applause.

The fight of Pansy and Theo continued.

"Theo kept stealing Longbottom's toad," Pansy gushed with a finger extended in accusation. "It was a game to see how much detention Longbottom would get with Snape when he sniveled about the creature."

"At least I don't think of dumping my boyfriend because he's bad in bed."

A horrifying awful shrieked left her parted lips. She clutched her chest as if the dagger he'd stabbed her with was of muggle blade. Her lips sloped to an awful frown. It brought out the bulldog-like quality that used to earn her remarks.

Ernest's face was worse. His eyes were twice their regular size.

"That's why you avoided me that week? I thought it was all about getting into a relationship with a Hufflepuff, not shagging!"

She reached out for him with helpless arms. "Please, Ernie. Please. Listen to me."

"I can't believe you'd be that shallow!" Ernie looked distraught. He unraveled. He dug his finger through his hair, allowing their messy strands fall wherever.

A few tears dribbled from Pansy's kohl lined eyes. "That was only at first. You showed me how to love in spite of it."

"In spite of?" He echoed in distress.

The expression brought Draco from his silent reverie. He was roused alive, absorbing the scene before him. Hermione felt his magic come alive throughout the room.

"What's this now?" Draco asked cautiously.

His eyes took stock of Susan's position around Theo's waist, Pansy's ready-to-cast dueling stance, slouched with despair, with Ernest between them in total disbelief. Not a single face was unaffected by the situation in front of them. The tension was so thick, it was smoke. They all choked on its intoxicating hold of their throats.

They fought in Paris, sure. But it was nothing like this.

They argued with who was right and who was a horrible friend, to which one replied they were no longer friends, then another argument. School yard hexes came next. They went their separate ways in anger and sheer exhaustion of an all-night scandal.

But the betrayal of all their secrets was another thing. It was as if the end of their friendship was near.

And that only led to sides having to be chosen.

Hermione's knees buckled and sent her back into her chair. The stress of one thing after another was enough to having her begging for death.

It was supposed to be a fun holiday!

One where she could be engaged and in love and lay on the beach near the ocean with a drink in one hand and Draco in another. It was a holiday that made the war seem unreal. The chance she had to experience a happy, unprejudiced friendship with witches and wizards her own age abroad, absorbing new emotions and memories other than with Ron and Harry, who were frankly sick of her always mothering them like the two toddlers they behaved like.

Harry and Ron were on their own adventure, one that didn't need her.

She didn't resent them for joining the Ministry. Neither enjoyed schoolwork or learning or essays or reading. Of that, she understood well.

But, part of her felt they moved on just so easily without her. They joined the work force. Ronald didn't contact her for help anymore. Harry was never in emotional need for her wisdom either.

It was as if they walked along without care whether she was ready or not.

She hadn't.

There was too much in the magical world that awaited her exit from Hogwarts. After the war, she wasn't ready. It was too soon. Too soon after Fred, and Lupin, and Snape. Too soon after the death and destruction to move on like it hadn't happened. It was too soon to be so happy in a world that was just flipped on its head. To go on pretending as if the world was unchanged after the war was too much, even if it was enough for Harry and Ron to endure, she couldn't.

Part of that attachment was what led her to Draco Malfoy. He, too, was ready to start but knew it impossible to be totally unaffected by everything. They shared that horror, those nightmares, the struggle of who they once were with who they had to be now.

A drunk haze convinced her to pursue him but it was a lie to say it was the alcohol that made her do it. If she was truly honest with herself, it was because she felt that of all the survivors of the war, he'd be the one of which she could relate to the most. A bit of connection, as shocked and guilt-ridden as she felt about it.

The stress was different in her life now. A friend's argument was not the end of the world. They were all alive, safe, as happy as they could be, supported and loved. That was all she wished for as a young woman of two years ago. She had it. It was there.

Draco stood between the pair of fighting Slytherins as a bit of safeguard between the fiery Pansy and the just as equally angry, Theo.

Their shouts were all a hum as she watched on in awe. How ungrateful they'd all seem to the ones who fell during the war. How shallow and insignificant it all sounded.

"I might as well say it now, since the gloves have come off." Pansy untucked her arms from her self-embrace. Eyes watery from the devastation they were causing. "Theo is the reason Draco was a death eater."

Draco's brows shot straight to his hairline. "I beg your pardon."

His eyes narrowed as he beheld his male friend so fiercely. Jaw clenched tight. "Nott?"

It was all a matter of two seconds before he grabbed ahold of Theo's shoulders and held him up high against the wall. A look of surprise and acceptance twisted Theo's face.

"Nott," Draco growled through clenched teeth. "Is that true? Did you weasel out of things? Is that why?"

The lack of answer was answer enough in Draco's eyes.

Hermione shot to her feet. "Draco! Put him down."

"No, I don't think I will. Not until he answers me. Getting a bit tight up there, Nott?"

Theo's head bobbed. "A smidge."

"Then answer quickly before you pass out," Draco said.

Pansy rushed to Draco's side and pulled at one arm with all her might. It didn't bend nor affect his hold on Theo. The opportunity to use her talon-like fingernails as a weapon was lost.

Then she applied her sharp tongue to the situation. "Have you gone mad? Put him down before you hurt him!"

"Not. Until. He. Answers." Storm clouds gathered in those icy grey eyes. Ever so slight his hands shifted to Theo's neck. The look, the total determination on his face frightened Hermione to her core. She sent surges of her magic around him like a cloud to soothe the anger that resided there in those storm clouds of his. His negative energy, his magic, the very anger that held Theo against the wall. She hadn't seen him like that in so long. "Theo, when your father came to you, did you push him to me?"

Pansy pleaded with Draco to release him. She was so terrified. Her hands clutched her face. Tears streamed down her face. "I'm so sorry, Theo. I didn't mean to tell him. Draco. Let him down for Salazar's sake, he's going purple."

She was in hysterics.

The frantic nature of Draco's magic was unlike anything Hermione ever felt in him. It was pure rage. His walls of control were close to collapse. She darted across the room to him, latched her arms around his neck and cuddled herself close.

His chest heaved with each breath. Smoke poured from his nose as his fiery dragon clawed up through him.

"Please, Draco. Please, please. Don't do this." She whispered into his ear with hope it would be enough. "Remember yourself. Remember all you've been through. Please. Don't let this be who you are. You are more."

Theo started to grab hold of the hands that held him. The hysterics of Pansy heightened, but she no longer sat idly by as it happened. She fought against Draco's hands with nails as knifes to cut and slice his flesh open.

It took a while for the antics to work, but he finally dropped Theo to the ground and staggered away, Hermione latched onto his back in a hug.

She applauded his decision. "Good job, Draco. Thank you. I know that was difficult. Let's just go upstairs and rest for a bit, hm? Come cuddle me and forget it. You're so strong."

How could his expression be explained to relay the devastation and emptiness he felt? He was lost. His face a hollow shell of the Draco of the morning, so in love, now angry and used up. Hermione kept kissing his cheek through her silent tears to revive her Draco back.

Theo coughed like a chain smoker. His breaths were ragged and hoarse. Everyone heard him struggle to regain air in his lungs, especially through the tight hug that Pansy had around him.

It was a silent, anxious moment. No one dared disrupt the peace in fear of what might break down between them all. Even Susan, who sobbed, kept her face buried in the folds of Ernie's robes as she shook in fear.

A croak came up from the floor of a limp body. "I was scared. He told me what I would have to do as a death eater, and I couldn't do it. It all suddenly made sense. I couldn't be one of them. I wasn't like them."

Draco remained frozen as a statue. "So you condemned me to damnation to save yourself."

"You always wanted to be one," he answered. "I thought it was best for both of us."

It was a long time before another sound was made. Pansy, Ernie, Susan and Hermione knew it had to be either Theo or Draco to make the first one. Whether they were still able to be friends or whether the group would disband forever as indifferent acquaintances.

The tension made Hermione sweat with anxiety. She wished they would all come together, to solve their differences, come to grips with the past.

Draco was over it, she thought. He bore his ex-Death Eater status not with pride, but acceptance over his mistake. He did not hide it. It happened. If anyone were the first to declare their regrets, it was him to announce that joining the ranks of Voldemort, no matter how coerced it was, was the worst decision he made.

He would have been a different wizard had he not joined the death eaters. Hermione and he wouldn't have bonded together, that was for sure, but it was difficult to be upset over his regret because the death eaters changed his life in a way he viewed as torture. He was never to be free of them. The things they did during the war, watching his lunatic aunt cut her way through a classmate as an inhuman monster. His father was reduced to a whimpering old fool.

Voldemort and the Death Eaters ruined Draco's entire life. And that was Theo's fault.

That was significant.

"Come, Mione. Let's get settled in our room," Draco said quietly.

She slid off his back and rejoined her hand in his.

The butler of the Zabini home showed them to their room up on the second floor. It had an adjoining loo with a magnificent stone shower with a large, flat plate for a shower head. There were candles all over the room. Dark silk sheets with a fluffy down bedspread. There was a window that overlooked the street. It bustled with people about their lovely summer day, not a clue to the chaos that reigned behind the closed doors of the townhouse.

A tray of tea and other treats were placed on a coffee table near a pair of overstuffed couches. Two plaid throws rested against their backs. Hermione dropped into one, completely ready to disappear into their fluffy embrace until Draco started to unbutton his shirt.

Her brow twitched, but she asked no question. That was until he approached her, entirely nude and started to pull at the edges of her blouse.

"Draco. What are you doing?"

"Let's shower," he said.

"I took a bath this morning, remember?"

"Please." He tapped his fingers down the length of her collarbones and back up toward her throat. His hands rested at the base of her neck. A single thumb stroked the flesh there below his grip, a throbbing life pulse all too easily extinguished with the tiniest bit of pressure.

Staring into his eyes, deep silver pools, she nodded.

It was impossible to deny him anything with those looks. More so, his bare body aided his cause by being so beautiful that it hurt not to touch it. She ran a fingertip down the length of one of his little white scars near his hip. He sighed a heavenly sound.

She stood, body flush with his, and breathed in the sigh with hunger for that goodness to be in her. That warm tingly air to slide down her throat, fill her lungs with all essence of him, rise again like a bubble and tease her lips as she exhaled.

As she leaned in for a kiss, he gripped just below her bum and pulled her up to his level, planted a kiss upon her lips and explored the sweet folds of her mouth with his probing tongue. He flexed his fingers into the flesh of her thighs. Their hot pain and pleasure urged Hermione forward, grinding more into his embrace.

His legs moved them to the loo. He mumbled a spell between their breaths. Water shot out of all the nozzles. Steam wafted in misty clouds as water trickled and poured all around the shower.

Hermione swung a leg down, ready to undress herself, but Draco's hands kept her locked in position and pulled her into the wet warmth. His kisses wouldn't let her sound a protest. They kept her tongue locked in a dance with his as hot water soaked through her clothes, socks, and knickers. The weight of the water as it drained through the fabric added a sensation across her flesh as Draco's lips moved down her neck, sucking at her pulse with his tantalizing lips.

Her nipples stuck through her blouse; a fact that enticed him harder. His hand tangled in her hair the next moment, not a breath later, and tugged at her curls. It strengthened as he kissed his way down her chest, toying with her taut nipples.

She struggled in his hold as he'd faintly brush his teeth against her sensitive buds. It was delightful the mix of sensations: the heat of the water, the in and out of his breath, and the cold firm of his teeth as they clipped her pink flesh. Her legs tightened. The apex of her thighs just grazed against the seam of her pants.

The rumblings of a shudder started and stopped as she tried to grind herself against him. Gushes of her excitement wet her knickers through, though they were already drenched from the steady fall of water.

She was lost in the moment, eyes closed, pushed against a hard, cool wall as pleasure rippled in every nerve, when she noticed the desperation in his eyes as he dug through the zipper of her pants to reach that ooey space hot with need. His burned brighter than hers. Draco needed release. The lower than low point he was at was the base for his ascent to mounds of pleasure and love that came with their bond.

With his fingers working against the perfect erect clit, growing tauter and more sensitive by the minute, curling her toes, sending juice down his fingers, Hermione worked up the courage to take charge. Just after she felt his fingers thrust in her a few more times…and a few more.

"Draco," she said softly.

She pulled at her nipples. Her eyes rolled. She'd curled her toes for so long her feet started to cramp.

"More?"

His mouth was at her ear, breathing heavily as again and again his fingers shot up inside her. A long cold shudder fell down her spine. She gasped out.

Once she found her breath, she tried again. "I want something…else."

His attention perked. Fingers withdrew from her as he remained poised still.

"Why don't you set me down and I'll show you what I have in mind?"

The moment her feet hit the ground, she pushed him against the wall. One hand kept him against the wall while the other gripped his cock in her palm, his entire manhood under her grasp. The thing that made him her hot, white dragon a roaring rutting beast.

A gleam in his eye brought forth that animal once more. The deep hollow roar of his cock that demanded his share.

Her hands moved up his cock in painfully slow motions. He'd thrust himself deeper into her grasp, but she'd slack her grip so that the only release came at her time, her schedule. Draco burned with fury and aching primal need.

"Do something," he demanded. Oh, yes. She saw it now. The dragon was alive within his frame. It resided inside Draco's flesh held at bay by the limit of his pale skin. "Stroke me. Suck me. Something."

The beast growled.

Hermione kept her gaze level with his, a power over him, as she worked up the length of his cock, back down its slick skin, and up toward its head. She rubbed his head with her thumb, smearing the little pre-cum already leaked.

His bottom jaw shuddered. A hollow low moan of anguish as tension built within his body.

She enjoyed the power she had. His cock begged for her touch and tempo as she stroked him firmer and harder. Water squished from her hand as she pumped. Draco stayed against the wall as her hand forced him to, but a sudden twitch down his spine sent him forward, overtop of her. He breathed ragged.

Raking claws of the dragon ripped her blouse to shreds. They tore through her clothes, yanked her pants to her knees, and turned her around.

Now, her cheek rested against the stone wall. Cold touch on her face, hot hands at her body. She held her breath as he positioned himself at her opening. It was wet. He was ready, too. The smell of her sex sent him in a rage over her.

A hot cock shot up; her hips in spasm. She reached up and gripped the wall with all her might. Her entire body wanted to collapse in pleasure. Floods of tingles surged on her center as he withdrew himself. An aching loss. She yearned for it back. A quiver of a whisper left her lips when she held air replace his place inside.

He ate up her need with the same power she'd exercised over him. There was that puff in his chest as he watched her bum wiggle in anticipation, whimper in rutting lust for his cock to part her once more. He let it go on for a while longer as her need climbed to heights unheard of. Finally, Draco gripped her hips, pushed himself through the warm folds and depths over and over, allowing her bum to slap against his lap as he bucked into her wildly. A fire built between her sex.

Her moans turned to screams. His length tore through the comfy, loving depths of her sex into the hard, raw flesh that left her thighs shuddering more than once as he continued his ragged shag.

His fingers scratched up the back of her thighs. "You're so tight, Hermione. I'll never tire of it."

She gasped from her recent orgasm, more aroused than she'd been before. It hurt to continue with his cock against her clit, but she wanted it. She wanted all that inside her.

"Harder. I want it harder."

Draco's grip on her hips tightened. "As you wish."

His cock punctured through her body with a sensation she'd never felt. The sharp, burning, eye-rolling sensation made her weak. She dropped her hands to the floor in front of her, unable to support herself. Chills dropped down her back. Her thighs shook constantly as he shagged her against the wall.

There was a point where she felt lost in his eyes. He fucked through her. He lost sight of the world in which she was in and sought the only pleasure he knew how to find.

He shook against her back with his shooting climax and fell to the floor in exhaustion.

How long had they been there? Time had lost importance. Ten minutes, ten hours. None of it mattered.

Draco laid beneath the pouring warm water. Each breath the rise and fall of another minute. Hermione's knees knocked together as she regained her composure.

He was in a lot of pain. Not physical, but mental. The pain filled him up his emotions with more power than the other ones combined. So much pain. Too much for Hermione to stand it. She adorned herself a robe, grabbed a potion from her trusty satchel, ceased the water flow of the shower, and slipped the potion between his lips.

"Shhh." She ran her fingers through his hair as the potion took effect. "Sleep, love."

Once Draco was tucked beneath the sheets, Hermione dressed for an outing and exited their room. It was at the same time Pansy closed a door down the hall.

"How is he?" She asked.

Hermione sighed and shook her head. It was difficult to rally a response to the state of her fiancé. He was broken.

"Down a whole bottle of firewhiskey, did he?"

"No. He showered for a while, to think. He's too wired to do much of anything except torture himself. I gave him a potion. He needs time to rest. Gather himself."

Pansy nodded and reached out a helpful hug. "You haven't told him I gather."

"Right. Because I'd love to see his head literally catapult off his neck to the next country in disbelief. Lovely story for the kids, eh?" Hermione said sarcastically. It was short, which she instantly regretted. She fell farther into Pansy's embrace. "I've never seen him so upset. I thought he was going to murder Theo for real. My entire life flashed before my eyes."

"The prat had a fit," Pansy said soothingly. "Can you blame him? Joining Voldemort was the worst mistake of his life. It almost cost him his life. His mother's life. All he holds dear."

That was not news. It was true. Draco's entire life was threatened by Voldemort and his loyal dogs.

It just felt a relief to release it was not a lapse in his shield. There was not a hidden rage below him that he wanted to avenge. If it were, she wasn't sure how she'd fare in his life.

Hermione nodded. "Seems a bit obvious, doesn't it? 'Course he's upset. It's brought back horrid memories."

"Thought he was back to his old Slytherin ways, didn't you?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Hermione gently withdrew from their embrace.

The Slytherin witch narrowed her eyes as a serpent's stare. "The Gryffindor Princess was worried the Slytherin Prince was back. Did that shatter a few feelings? Perhaps, scare up a reality with him as the father of her child?"

Taken aback, Hermione stepped away, insulted to say the least.

"Pansy Parkinson, you despicable bitch. How dare you say that to me?"

A roll of those eyes took her anger back down a ways.

"You know I had to ask about it," Pansy said with a tap on the shoulder. "Draco is my friend, too. There are some things I owe to him."

Hermione groaned. "Couldn't find an appropriate time to accuse me, could you, so kick me whilst I'm down."

"Oh. Now, now. Don't disparage. It gives wrinkles." The witch snorted. "Want to do something? Let's get out of this house prison. Things are so queer here. Blaise and Daphne is too much to handle, not to mention Theo and Draco's nonsense. We need to get out."

Leaving Draco was the last thing she wanted to do. She chewed on her lower lip unable to think of a response that wouldn't awakened another fight between friends.

"That potion won't wake him for hours, if not all night. He won't need you," Pansy said softly. "Come with me. We can explore Italy. Take our minds off things for a bit. Let's enjoy our holiday as we should have without all these wizards to muck it up."

She couldn't help but laugh. "A shag holiday might have been more pleasant than this."

Pansy agreed. "Next time, we'll take the models and leave the boyfriends at home."

"Next time."

The girls gathered their things and left, but not without kissing their significant others goodbye. Ernie was a bit more reluctant since things between Pansy and him were torn, but he still wished them well and waved as they walked down the street.

It was a beautiful tour through Milan. Shops overflowed with bustling people. Their accents were delectable as they spoke English to the pair.

They sampled cafes with coffees of every flavor. Little candies in silver wrappers, too, at the request of the owner. It was entirely flattering to have so many things shoved into their hands which Hermione politely accepted with many thanks, and Pansy took with grace, used to such treatment.

Hermione and Pansy toured through boutiques next, at one witch's request, and then found their way to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at the request of the other. The art museum was refreshing to the palate after trying on every maternity blouse at the insistence of an excited 'aunty'.

Items were purchased for the baby. Wee baby Malfoy.

"Merlin. I can't believe it. 'Nipper Malfoy'. That's what I'll be hearing, so soon." Hermione sipped from the throw away cup in her hand. It was full of warm tea. It soothed the swirl of her young pregnant belly. A babe. In her belly. Her hand rested against the empty stomach that was not so empty now that she thought of it. "Can you imagine? Pushing a pram down these streets with a nipper with bright blonde hair."

Pansy wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "Oh no, dear. He'll look bald."

"What? No. He won't."

"Yes, huh. Those little blonde babes are bald things running around. I swear, you better hope for your hair."

Hermione laughed. "Right. As if Malfoy genes are so easy to overtake. I'll have a twin duplicate of Draco. And he won't be bald!"

"Bald nippers, all your future."

The girls chuckled as they walked, happy as two birds on a steady twig.

They carried on their afternoon with great joy. The two hadn't laughed so much in so long. Their worries of the Zabini house were far behind them as they explored Milan as it was meant to be enjoyed. The rest of the ninnies in the house just didn't know what they missed out on.

A bag of Pizzelle's was used to satisfy the complaints to be given upon their return.

The entire afternoon was spent in their outing. The two girls returned with their bags of purchases. As Pansy hid her bags from Ernie, Hermione popped into her suite to check on Draco. He was fast asleep. She checked his pulse and it was steady, normal, and healthy. She stole a Pizzelle just for him, placed on the bedside so that when he woke, he'd find a warmed cookie waiting to ease his woes.

His pale cheek laid against the pillow; an arm tucked below his head as he slept. Hermione couldn't stop herself. She kissed him once, then twice.

There was something so stunning to his form. She froze.

"God, you're so perfect," she breathed. "Even in your darkest…I'll never stop loving you."

She brushed the bangs away from his face. "You're going to make a wonderful father. So proud, and so reliable. So loving and so, so, well so beautiful."

He gently exhaled. The beloved sigh of his breath. She kissed his cheek once more for good measure.

Their friends gathered in the parlor in quiet congress until she entered the room. They righted themselves rigid and silenced. She grew suspicious. Her eyes instantly narrowed as she seated herself round the table and made her tea in their silence as they made themselves more and more awkward.

She laid out the biscuits from the pastry shop for their interest. They were greedy with the treats (it was good she saved one for Draco) but their quiet nature still plagued their behavior.

"You ought to be more careful…" She sipped from her teacup. "People will think you're up to something."

Susan side-glanced Theo. It was a curious expression.

Ernie was a bit better in his pretend indifference. "I take exception to that. We're not up to a thing. A bit of discussion between friends is not so suspect."

"It is when you fall hush like that."

She couldn't help but notice the direct gaze of Pansy's up at the ceiling as she raked her fingers through her smooth ebony locks. Hermione honed in on the behavior abnormalities of her dear devoted friends.

"Oh Pansy." She sang like a little bird. Her voice fluttered over to Pansy's shoulder and sat there, to the complete ignorance of the witch. "What are you plotting over there? Out with it. I can smell it from here."

The witch stiffened and tried to not so gracefully sniff herself. When she found her scent all satisfactory, she waved in dismissal. "Don't you start. I'm fresh as a rose."

It was time to try with the less secretive of the group. She turned her attentions to the former yellow members of their school. Legs crossed, hands joined, a soft innocent smile.

"Susan, Ernie. Please see reason."

"Oi. Don't start on them, Mione. It's my plotting they're hiding," Theo said suddenly. His voice was raspy, but seemingly normal. Close enough to it. "I've just made us plans in Turkey that I don't think you'll approve of. The Hufflepuffs have finally gotten onboard so don't go changing their minds. A bit of adventure is what they need. Adventure and fun."

Hermione nodded. "That is the point of this holiday, is it not?"

Theo's eyes lightened in cheer. His tongue stuck in Pansy's direction with a giddy smile. "Exactly what I said."

"That is not the point of this holiday. You were an add-on. You weren't apart of the purpose of this. Hermione and I were going to shag our way through the continent actually, before you lot were thought of. So don't go telling me, Theodore Nott, just we ought do."

"But you like my idea, Pans."

The witch's crossed legs bounced around as she inspected her manicure. "I never said I didn't."

"You're a backward witch," Theo said as he shook his head.

"She's got a point," Ernie retorted. He seemed rather relaxed. Time apart from his witch served him well, it seemed. There was hardly contention between the pair, though they sat across from one another, they regarded each with a bit of softness as if they were still soft toward the other.

It settled Hermione's tension to find things in working order between her friends. One thing returned to normal at the very least.

She stirred herself another cup of tea. It was a beautiful mix of chai and chamomile flavors. Lady gray was her favorite tea. It reminded her of when she was a young nipper, with her parents. Chai was a close second. It was so different, unlike typical tea, that it heightened her taste buds in a delighted twist of usual Earl and Lady gray that was served at Hogwarts.

"You have to say that, don't you? She's your hen."

"Fancy a cuppa, Sus?" Hermione questioned. When the witch nodded, she handed over a filled cup of milky tea to her friend. "I think we all know that our holiday has been trying. A bit of mix up might be nice. Alright, Pansy?"

Pansy nodded.

"Alright, Theo?"

He, too, nodded. "You'll give it a try, then? A true Hufflepuff try? Not one of them Gryffindor tries. We all know that is half-arsed, at best."

"Well, I'll be sure to use my whole bum." She smirked. "Just for you."