Chapter Three
The month of September passed by in a blur of lessons and homework. Aiofe went running with Blaise and Daphne and the rest of the running club most mornings and then came back to the East house to shower and have breakfast. Daphne had initially complained when she found out that Aiofe had signed her up to go running at the absolute ass crack of dawn but with the presence of Blaise she had agreed to try it, and by late September she had ended up more dedicated to it than Aiofe herself even was.
The house was tentatively settling together. Even Dean Thomas and Ernie Macmillan could be found in the breakfast nook with their other housemates some mornings. The other eighth year girls still weren't overly friendly with Daphne and Aiofe, but they would include them in conversations if they happened to all be in the dormitory at the same time. Daphne still used Aiofe's hair potions every morning, and had taken to just opening her curtain and grabbing them… Which had made Aiofe shriek the first time it happened, when she had soap in her eyes and a hand brushed by her side on it's way to her shower caddy.
Her friendship with the Slytherins continued to grow. Draco had displaced Michael Corner as her tablemate in Astronomy, much to Corner's amusement and mild annoyance. Draco's former tablemate was a pretty seventh year Slytherin girl, so Michael hadn't seemed too put out to trade partners. Blaise and Daphne continued to dance around Daphne's apparent feelings for him.
October first found Aiofe sitting in a corner of the common room, secretively glancing through a jewelry catalog. She had an idea of what she wanted to get Daphne for her birthday, which was in almost exactly two weeks, and she just needed to find the perfect match. She hastily shoved the magazine into her robe when Daphne stepped out of the door to their bedchamber.
She looked excited. Aiofe thought to herself that Daphne had been more open with her facial expressions since they had become friends. She wondered if that was another of the changes Daphne was trying to make to herself.
The other girl plopped down on the arm of the chair Aiofe was sitting in.
"Look. At. These." She shoved a dress catalog into Aiofe's hands. "I finally found the perfect dresses." Daphne had been buying things left right and center since the two girls had decided on their costumes. Aiofe wasn't even sure what all their costumes consisted of at this point.
She took the booklet from Daphne's hands and looked at the dresses on the page. Daphne had circled two, one silver and one gold. They were beyond floor-length, pooling at the bottom hem, with square necklines that reached the collarbones of the models depicted. But the dresses shimmered as the models turned, and she could see that the dress was completely backless and clung to the long bodies of the girls like a second skin. They were beautifully seductive, but they covered enough to not get Aiofe and Daphne kicked out of the dance. Aiofe was slightly shorter than either of the models, but with a good pair of high heels she thought that her and Daphne would indeed look like the celestial beings they were meant to be portraying.
"Size two?" Daphne asked her with a smirk, seemingly already knowing that Aiofe would love the dresses as much as she did. She was already filling out the order form when Aiofe glanced up at her.
"Too bad we don't have time to go into London to shoe shop." She told Daphne. Daphne moaned at the thought.
"Yule break! It's a date! You can take me to that sushi place near St. Paul's you were telling me about." Aiofe grinned. She'd actually been telling her about the first time she'd met up with her mom since she was a kid, when she'd taken muggle transportation to London alone at fifteen to see her. Her mom lived in Tokyo and worked as a clothing designer, and she'd taken Aiofe all over the city of London, to different high-fashion and high-street fashion shops, and even shown her a few of her own pieces that were displayed there. Daphne had eaten up her every word and announced that she would like to meet Aiofe's mom someday.
After a few more moments of plotting out exactly which stores the girls would visit in London, Daphne's suggestions all being clothing related, and most of Aiofe's involving food, the girls joined their housemates in the breakfast nook. MacMillan, Fay Dunbar, Isobel, Michael Corner, and all three Slytherin boys were sat around the table. Daphne and Aiofe squeezed in between Theo and Michael Corner. Aiofe made a mental note to corner the Slytherins later when Daphne wasn't around. She'd need help getting supplies for Daphne's birthday party.
Blaise and Michael were discussing Quidditch. Of course. It was a safe interhouse topic, so it came up often. Draco was quiet, as he usually was when anyone but the three other Slytherins and Aiofe were around. Theo was staring off into space, uninterestedly.
Aiofe leaned in so only he could hear her words. "If you're feeling down, I can feel you up."
He snorted at her. "I can't tell if they're getting better or worse, Malone." They two had kept up a steady stream of pickup lines since the start of the school year. They'd gone dirtier, but she was pretty sure they weren't getting any better.
She leaned in again. "We're like hot chocolate and marshmallows… you're hot, and I want to be on top of you."
This one got him to laugh so she sat up straight, satisfied, and pulled the coffee carafe towards herself. Draco passed her down the plate of pastries, almond croissants today, and she gave him a smile of thanks.
"You guys have any Sunday morning plans?" She asked the table.
"The four of us are going to play a two-on-two at the Quidditch pitch." MacMillan nodded across the table at Draco and Blaise. She was surprised that the four of them were willingly spending time together, but she supposed Quidditch would be the thing to bridge the great divide between houses.
"Detention." Theo spoke up next to her. She raised her eyebrows at him, wondering what he did that got him detention.
Isobel and Fay were making the trek to the owlery to mail some letters, and Daphne hesitantly asked if she could join them. Seemed like everyone was getting into the unity spirit, then.
"What about you?" Isobel asked Aiofe.
"I was thinking of making a quick trip to the library. Then maybe I'll come watch you guys play." She addressed the last part to MacMillan and Corner.
The nine of them finished breakfast in companionable conversation, switching topics easily from Quidditch to the next Hogsmeade weekend to the Halloween dance, which had been announced at Friday evening's dinner in the Great Hall, and back to Quidditch. Apparently there was some sort of Cup happening in the summer. No one brought up the last World Cup.
The other girls headed out to the owlery and before long the four boys followed after them, leaving only Theo and Aiofe in the nook.
"Wait up, Theo. I'll walk with you." He politely stood by the door while she ran back into her room to retrieve the library book she had just completed and then they headed out together.
"How do I go about getting a shit ton of alcohol for Daphne's birthday?" She asked as they walked towards the stairwell.
"When is Daphne's birthday?" She rolled her eyes but didn't make a comment about the fact that he had been housemates with Daphne for eight years now. She supposed they hadn't been that close of friends until this year.
"The fourteenth."
He shrugged a shoulder. "Draco, Blaise, and I can take care of it. Can be our contribution to her birthday." Aiofe smiled at him in thanks. Honestly, she was really hoping he would say that.
"So what is this super secret Halloween costume Daphne was alluding to this morning?" He asked her.
She gave him her best Malfoy smirk. "You'll just have to see at the dance."
"Fair enough, I guess. You'll have to save me a dance so I can see it properly." The idea of dancing with Theo made her heart thud.
"What are you going to dress as?"
He grimaced. "Are costumes required?"
"It's a masquerade, Theo."
He made a noise of discontent in the back of his throat. "Any suggestions, then?"
She paused to think for a second. "Erik, from phantom of the opera is always a good choice." He looked confused so she added, "it's a muggle opera, they've got the literary adaption in the library." She looked him up and down. "For you maybe Hannibal Lector or Jason Vorhees, though." She said with a wide grin.
"I think if I knew who either of those people were, I would be offended."
Before she knew it they were at the door of the library and saying goodbye. She'd meant to walk Theo to his detention, not for him to walk her to the library, and she hoped he wasn't late for detention.
"Later, Malone. Try not to turn into a total swot while I'm gone." Were his romantic parting words to her. She realized after he walked away that she'd forgotten to ask him what he got detention for.
At ten o'clock on an unseasonably warm Sunday morning, the only other person in the library was Hermione Granger. Aiofe wandered through the shelves of muggle fiction, selecting a poetry tome by William Blake, and joined the former Gryffindor at her table. If Granger was surprised, she didn't say anything about it.
"Morning, Granger. What brings you to the library on this beautifully warm Sunday morning?" The girl lifted her own book, a thick nonfiction on the rights of magical creatures in the wizarding world.
"Theo Nott is an absolute font of obscure old magical legal knowledge, if you had any questions about the subject." Aiofe told her. She wasn't sure about the relationship between the two, if they were mortal enemies or just never spoke because of their different houses, but Granger could do what she wanted with the information.
The other girl seemed to mull it over. "I'll keep that in mind, thank you." She said, politely.
Aiofe lifted her book to hide her grin. She'd been hanging out with the damn smirking Slytherins too long.
A few minutes later Granger hesitantly asked her if she was settling into her new house well. Aiofe was slightly surprised the other girl was initiating a conversation, but figured maybe she was lonely without her friends at school.
She told the other girl about how most of her friends had chosen not to return for eighth year, and she'd had to make new friends. She carefully watched Granger's reaction to that, the slight tightening of her lips, the twitch in her left eye, and knew her suspicions about Granger's complete lack of a social life were correct. Merlin, she really was turning into a Slytherin. Theo and Draco watched her for reactions all the time the same way she'd just done Granger.
She sighed and put her book down. "Come on, Granger. It is much too nice outside to be sitting in this stuffy library all day." The other girl hesitated, but Aiofe wasn't taking no for an answer. She stacked Granger's book on top of her own and headed up to Madam Pince to check both books out, giving the other girl no choice but the follow her.
Once they crossed the threshold to the library she gave the other girl her book back. "Where are we going exactly?"
"Quidditch pitch. Some of my friends are playing a pickup game." She didn't tell her that those friends were Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. "Then we will just see where the day takes us."
She led Granger over the grounds to the pitch. At some point the girl must have recognized the head of white-blonde hair zipping across the field to catch quaffles and chuck them at Michael Corner's head, but to Aiofe's surprise she didn't turn back. Aiofe couldn't even begin to psychoanalyze that. She knew they were supposed to hate each other, even her house had been privy to a few of the knock-down drag-out brawls between Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Draco Malfoy. She pushed the subject out of her mind for now, not wanting to scare the girl off by asking her about it.
She led Granger up into the stands of the pitch. "Honestly, I'm not all that into Quidditch. We're mostly just waiting for Daphne to get back from the owlery." She told the other girl.
"Do you all come out here often?" Granger still sounded like she was conducting an interview. Politely formal, yet detached. The fact that she was sitting in the stands of the Quidditch pitch watching Draco Malfoy fly around on his broom was the only thing that gave away that Hermione Granger might actually desire her company.
Aoife nodded up at the sky. "Those two are out here pretty much every day. Corner and MacMillan are recent additions to it though. Not sure if it will become a recurring thing." She stretched her legs out on the seat in front of her. She was wearing muggle shorts today, as it was warm out and it was Sunday, so she figured she might as well get some sun on her legs.
"So, are you going to the Halloween dance, Granger?"
"Why, are you asking me?" Her words caught Aiofe off guard and she gaped at the girl, who gave her a teasing grin in return. "I'm not sure yet. I haven't had the greatest track record with balls." Aiofe chose to let that one slide without a dirty comment. "And I'm not sure who I would go with… I haven't even begun to look for a costume. What about you?"
Aiofe nodded to her. "Daphne wouldn't let me out if it if I even wanted to skip it. I don't have a date yet, but I'm not too worried about it." Aiofe was pretty sure she could talk one of the guys in her house into escorting her. Corner would be a decently safe option.
Granger was watching Draco fly, chewing her lip. It was clear she wanted to ask Aiofe something that she thought Aiofe might not like. Aiofe nudged Granger's shoulder with her own. "Thinking of taking up flying?"
"God, no. I'm afraid of heights." Aiofe smiled at her reference to the Christian god. Witches and wizards didn't do that often, but Aiofe had heard it from her friends back in Ireland all the time.
"What's on your mind, then?"
Granger seemed hesitant. "I don't want to be rude…"
"I won't be offended. Unless you tell me you think he's hot, or something equally disgusting." She nodded towards Draco, who had finally noticed them sitting in the stands.
The other girl still seemed hesitant but she nodded. "I just wonder what you see in them…?" She seemed to realize her words sounded mean so she added, "I just mean that with everything that happened last year, and…" Aiofe cut her off.
"It's fine, I get what you mean. I wasn't here last year so maybe I just have the luxury of not knowing exactly what happened. They've all been perfectly nice to me. And I know that just because he's treated me alright doesn't mean that Draco should be instantly forgiven for all the horrible things he no doubt participated in during the war… but he's trying to change. They all are. I know it doesn't excuse it completely, but they were just kids when the war began. You all were. There's no doubt in my mind that none of them did the things that they did of their own volition." Aiofe had put together bits and pieces of history from things the others had said in front of her when she had her nose buried in a book and they thought she wasn't listening. She knew Theo's father was horrifically abusive, and Draco's was almost to that point as well. She knew Draco had mostly acted in defense of his mother during the war. Narcissa Malfoy had been tortured repeatedly by You-Know-Who before the final battle, and had passed away sometime in the late spring of what should have been their seventh year. Aiofe had read about her death in the Daily Prophet and felt guilty for her passing thought of good riddance at the time.
Granger seemed to absorb all that without answering. Instead, she went back to watching the four boys flying around at breakneck speed and they sat in silence through four or five more goals that Draco scored against Corner. They'd seemed to have wisely chosen not to pair him up with Thomas.
Before too long Aiofe spotted Daphne's blonde head coming towards the Quidditch pitch. The bag thrown across her shoulder seemed to have something large in it. Picnic, Aiofe hoped. She seemed startled by the presence of Granger sitting next to Aiofe on the bench seat, but carried forward anyways.
Aiofe signaled for Granger to follow her out of the stands and they made their way to Daphne.
"Aiofe… Granger." Daphne greeted the two girls.
Daphne led the trio away from the pitch and towards the bank of the lake. "I found Granger here studying in the library on a Sunday, so I dragged her outside for some fresh air and sunshine." Aiofe told her. She could tell the situation was weird for both of them, Slytherins and Gryffindors being natural enemies.
"On a Sunday, Granger?" Daphne repeated.
Luckily the girl in question didn't get upset about them teaming up on her. Instead, she sassily replied that Aiofe was also reading in the library on a Sunday when they ran into her.
"Poetry, Granger. I was reading poetry. Not magical law." She pulled the book out of her bag and showed it to Daphne, who was indeed unpacking a picnic. "Ever read Blake, Granger?"
The other girl shook her head. "I've never been much of a poetry reader. I prefer non-fiction." Daphne snorted and tried to pass it off as a cough. "Is he one of your favorites?"
"Mm. I wouldn't say he's one of my favorites. I prefer more contemporary authors like Rupi Kaur and Nikita Gill. But I do really like one of his poems." Aiofe flipped through the book to find 'the Tyger'.
"Well, let's hear it." Daphne demanded when Aiofe had stopped on the page. Her and Granger settled onto the blanket she had set up. They looked like two school children ready for story time.
Aiofe cleared her throat and began to read out loud.
" Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"
Daphne had lain back at some point during her reading. Daphne loved poetry. She sat up and eyed Granger. "Well, what did you think?"
The other girl nodded at her. "I liked it. Maybe I judged the genre too quickly." She conceded. Daphne seemed to accept that, and she pushed a couple bottles of iced pumpkin juice towards Aiofe and Granger. She'd only grabbed two bottles so Aiofe and Daphne split one.
At some point while the three girls sat around eating cold cheese and slices of bread, fruit, pastries fresh from the kitchens, and little chocolate dragons that Granger kept charming to fly, Daphne and Hermione had decided that Aiofe should read them more poetry, so they spent the first part of the afternoon lounging in the shade while Aiofe read aloud.
She had read most of the good poems in the book and switched to reciting a few of her favorites; 'Alone' by Poe, 'I don't need more friends' by Kaur, and 'What I Have Learned So Far' by Mary Oliver. They'd both loved the Rupi Kaur poem, and she'd promised that next time she would bring a book of Kaur's poems to read to them.
Towards the tail end of that discussion she had looked up and seen Blaise leading Draco across the grounds towards them. Draco's body language was very, very reluctant. Next to her, Hermione had tensed up as well.
"Relax Granger. He's probably going to be way too terrified to even speak to you, nonetheless call you a slur or something." Daphne's words weren't exactly reassuring but Hermione seemed to actually take them to heart, letting her shoulders fall back to where they were before.
"Mind if we join you guys? Merlin, Granger, I haven't heard about you spending your weekends outside the castle library since that time you punched Malfoy in the face." Aiofe had once heard someone say that Blaise could talk a basilisk out of eating him, and she agreed. Daphne and Aiofe laughed so loudly that Hermione even seemed to chuckle against her will, though she eyed Draco warily afterwards.
"It was a good right hook, Granger."
"What?! Where did you learn to throw a punch? I've never even tried." Aiofe grinned at Hermione.
"Well, there was this boy in my primary school that always liked to steal my books…" All three Slytherins and Aiofe laughed.
Aiofe could tell that there was still tension between Draco and Hermione, so she stood up. "Come on, Granger. You can teach me how to throw a punch. We can use Draco as a target." She pulled Hermione to her feet.
"Excuse me?!" Draco asked.
"Oh, I'm really not that good, I only know the basics…"
Aiofe untied the sweatshirt she had around her waist and transfigured it into a thick throw pillow, which she handed to Draco. Blaise and Daphne watched from their spots on the blanket, supremely amused. Hermione still seemed reluctant so Aiofe stepped up in front of Draco herself.
"You can just correct my form." She gestured for Draco to hold the pillow up, and then she punched it. Draco had lost all sense of offense at being the punching bag and was opening cackling at her attempt.
"Oh, Malone, that was terrible. You are so lucky you have Daphne's mean ass to protect you, because if you hit someone like that they would laugh at you."
Hermione seemed to be trying to stifle her own smile.
"Okay, okay, stand back Aiofe." Hermione took Aiofe's place in front of Draco and the grin slid from his lips. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Daphne sit up on the blanket, tension now in the air.
Hermione ignored it and punched Draco squarely in the pillow. He whistled.
"No one is going to be stealing Granger's book bag on the street." Aiofe stepped back into punching range.
"Oh, come on! That wasn't that different than mine!"
After a few more failed attempts and more laughter from Draco, Blaise stepped up next to her to show all three girls how to throw a proper punch. Daphne was, of course, instantly great at it. After a few right hooks Draco banished her back to the blanket, claiming that he could already feel a bruise forming on his arm.
Aiofe improved, slightly, but Blaise told her she should ask Theo for further help, as she needed a higher level of instruction than he could provide. She scowled at him.
The five of them decided to head inside for dinner, as it was getting close to six in the evening and both boys were apparently starving. They parted ways with Hermione at the Entrance Hall.
As soon as they were out of earshot Draco was just overcome with curiosity. "Where in Merlin's ballsack did you run into her?" He demanded.
"She was in the library when I went to check out a book this morning. Think she's been kind of lonely without her Gryffindor friends, so I invited her to watch you lot play Quidditch with me." He opened his mouth and she cut him off. "No, I didn't tell her we were going to watch you and Blaise play, I just said some friends." Aiofe debated if she should tell him about her conversation with Granger in the stands, but decided to wait and play it by ear. "And then she seemed alright enough so I invited her to hang out with me and Daph and it went from there."
"Well, are you going to hang out with her again?"
"I don't know, dad." From there the conversation devolved into jokes about her calling Draco daddy until they got back to the common room. Theo was sitting at the table with Zacarias Smith and Joseph Banks. The three seemed to be chatting about the benefits of some sort of charm that she didn't know, and didn't want to know the purpose of.
"Oi, where have you lot been?" He asked as they all settled around the table.
"Hanging out with Hermione Granger." Blaise supplied.
Theo raised an eyebrow as though he didn't believe him. He looked at Draco, who shrugged.
"Granger taught Aiofe how to throw a punch." Blaise continued.
Theo gave her a disapproving look. "You needed a Gryffindor to teach you how to throw a punch, Malone?"
She grinned at him, ignoring his scorn. "I made Draco be the punching bag."
Smith and Banks, who had apparently been listening into the conversation, joined Theo in howling laughter at that. Theo ruffled her hair. "Thatta girl."
Draco was starting to look increasingly unimpressed with the conversation, so Daphne changed the topic and Aiofe turned her attention to the table spread. She tuned out their conversation and allowed her mind to wander to the upcoming month. She wondered if Granger really was going to hang out with them again. If Daphne would like her birthday present. If she would end up getting asked to the dance. It was going to be embarrassing if she really had to ask one of her housemates…