Didn't think I'd update this fast, did you? Well, I the writer's block is finally gone, and I had a sudden streak where I wrote about three chapters in a row! So, the updates should be more reasonable for at least awhile!
The Moonlight Glares
Liza Lew
Disclaimer: I don't own any of JK Rowling's wonderful world or characters.
Chapter 20
Mel woke Hermione the next morning at an ungodly hour considering she hadn't gone to sleep until the wee hours of the morning.
"W-what. . . Mel, social activities don't start until past 11. . ." Hermione mumbled, rolling over.
"Not today," said Mel all too cheerily, "Today is a family event. There's a picnic with all the British purebloods at 10:30 am this morning, which means we need to get you ready NOW, because then I've got to help your sister, her friend, your cousin, and your friend. UP." Mel pushed the covers off Hermione, who didn't move.
Mel sighed. "Fine," she said, "You go ahead and roll over. I'll be right back." Mel exited as Hermione snuggled closer into her pillow. Mel came back in carrying a bucket full of shimmering water. She calmly walked up to Hermione's bed, and tipped its contents onto Hermione's face.
"AHHHHHHHH!" Hermione screamed as she bolted up out of bed and ran screaming into the bathroom. Mel wiped her hands. "I'm good," she said, walking after Hermione.
By ten o'clock the entire group was sitting ready to go at the breakfast table, though half the table looked ready to fall asleep. Mrs. Lane, however, looked chipper as ever, and was going on and on about how wonderful the family picnics during the season are.
"Really, the stories you hear from the elderly ladies, and that the children get to have some social time before they enter society! These picnics are so wonderful!" Mrs. Lane cocked her head at Hermione, "Dear you look simply dreadful! Did you have a late night last night?"
"Er..." Hermione began, but Elizabeth interrupted her.
"Oh! I know the perfect thing!" she clapped her hands and a little house elf came in, "Could you please get Hermione an Efac? Oh, and add a bit of sugar." The elf nodded and went back into the kitchen. A second later the elf came back with a cup of a steaming brown liquid in its hands and set it down in front of Hermione.
"Thanks," she said, then looked at it, then back at her mother, "Um. . . what is it?"
Elizabeth gave a bubbly laugh, "Why, it's Efac, essentially Wizarding coffee."
"Oh," as Hermione raised the glass to her lips, and Elizabeth began talking with everyone, there was a whisper in her ear.
"That's about five times as strong as regular black coffee, you know." Hermione tilted her head to see the familiar blond hair.
"Thanks," she whispered, and took a tiny sip of the rich liquid. Caffeine instantly flooded her body and she felt much more alert.
After a bit more of listening to Elizabeth chatter, she got up and announced they were ready to leave. The entire group filed into the fireplace room. Mel was standing next to the fireplace with a checklist in hand.
"Is that of the items we're bringing?" Hermione asked, coming up next to her friend.
"No," said Mel flatly, "It's of the people that are coming with us." Everyone seemed to mingle for a minute more before Mel began the shouting, "Hey everyone! Pay attention!" Ten heads turned her way, and she continued, "Okay we're going to go in a minute! The place we're going to is Dena Creek! There will be a bit of a walk after we floo over there! As soon as you're out of the fire, wait for the rest of the group! Are we clear?" Several nods were seen in the group, and Mel finally began the list, "Okay! Mr. and Mrs. Lane, you're first to go."
Mrs. Lane frettingly explained some last minute things to Mel before her husband took her arm and led her into the bright green fire.
"Okay, Anna and Phe are clear to go!" Anna and Phe, who were in adorable silk dresses trimmed in lace skipped into the fireplace together and were gone within seconds.
"Harry! Get your girlfriend and get over here!" Mel yelled. Harry, who had been over in the corner talking with Ginny, turned around and slowly made his way to the fireplace, Ginny behind him.
Mel sighed as they took their time getting into the fireplace and finally just yelled at the fireplace, "Dena Creek!", whizzing the two off to the location.
"Ron, go!" Mel said sharply, who was now losing patience and looked like a lion ready to kill. Ron, with very scared eyes, jumped into the fire as if he was a mouse running away from the lion and squeaked, "Dena Creek" before he was gone.
"My turn next?" Chels asked cheerily, skipping up to Mel.
Mel gave her a devil stare and pointed at the fire place. Chels obligingly stepped into the fireplace and disappeared.
"Go ahead Hermione," Draco said, gesturing at the fireplace. Mel rolled her eyes. Hermione stepped forward into the fireplace and turned back to smile at Draco.
"Will you go already!" Mel said, exasperated.
Hermione shut her eyes tight, "Dena Creek," she said timidly. He body began whizzing and whizzing around until she stopped and balanced herself, carefully opening her eyes and stepping out of the new fireplace to find herself in a small cottage… which was deserted. The fireplace whizzed behind her and Draco stepped out. He looked around for a second.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Draco said, looking around the cottage.
"What?" said Hermione.
"Nothing," he said, pushing past her towards the door, "Let's get out of here." He tried turning the handle. It was jammed.
"What's wrong?" Hermione said, trying to push past Draco towards the door.
"Nothing," said Draco, moving to block the door from Hermione's reach. "You know what?" he said, "Why don't you go wait for Mel to come through the fireplace, I'm sure she'll need some help with the picnic basket."
"Okay…" said Hermione, as she went back to the fireplace. Something's not right, she thought, wasn't everyone supposed to wait for us? And where IS Mel, she should be here by now… Hermione sat down on a loveseat near the fireplace and looked around the little room. It was rather picturesque.
There was a window in one wall looking out over a field of grass, framed by lace curtains. Beneath it was a small table made of white whicker, with two matching chairs, set with a silver tea set. On the opposite wall was a door, which she assumed led to another room, and on either side of it a portrait of an old-fashioned pureblood. One side was a wizard, the other a witch.
The wall with the stone fireplace was across from the door leading outside, which had a small round window next to it. Draco was standing there, apparently thinking. In the center of the room was a little white whicker coffee table, with a sheet of glass for its surface, and on either side was a blue loveseat, one of which Hermione was sitting on.
Bored, Hermione began studying the fireplace. It was old, that was for sure, and completely made of stone. There was a mantel where some flower pots stood, and a large mirror was above it. Hermione began studying the mirror before her eyes did a double-take on the flower pots. Shouldn't one of them be a floo powder pot? So the group would be able to get home?
She got up to inspect and found that neither was. In fact, both flowerpots had dirt and some dead flowers in them. Slowly Hermione turned around.
"Hey, Draco, there's no floo powder here. . . how are we supposed to get home?" Hermione asked with concern.
"Not by floo powder, that's for sure," said Draco.
A very long way away, Mel stopped her spinning in the fireplace just in time to step out into a very crowded room full of witches and wizards waiting to walk out to their games of croquet and cricket. Anna saw Mel come out and waved to her, jumping up and down.
Mel made her way through the crowd to the stair case where all but two of their large group were assembled. Mrs. Lane saw Mel approach and gave a sigh of relief.
"Oh, there you are Melvissa! Now, every is here, we must be off to meet the rest of the group, it's a long walk!" Mrs. Lane and Mr. Lane took the lead and Ginny, Harry, Ron and Chels followed after them out of the crowded building, the rear brought up by Mel flanked by Anna and Phe.
"Mel you really are slow! We waited fifteen minutes for you!" Phe said.
"Sorry," said Mel, "I had this lovely thing to lug," she said, gesturing at the picnic basket that probably weighed as much as Phe herself.
"Oooohhh," said Phe.
"So Mel," said Anna, "How is it going with my sister and Draco? I haven't been able to talk to them since the season started!"
"Oh, I'm pretty sure it's going fine," said Mel, smiling and looking around the group, "Hermione was saying that. . . wait. . . where are those two? I thought they came before me!"
"Umm… no," said Anna flatly, "but mom doesn't seem to be worried, so I wouldn't be. I'm sure they'll show up."
"Right," said Mel, as the group arrived at a field bordering a creek and a woods where several pureblood families were already seated.
Back in the little cottage, Hermione had given up trying to ask Draco what was going on. Instead she had resorted to exploring every inch of that cottage. As she made her way through the tea set, cup by cup, she opened the sugar bowl to find a scrap of paper. It was blank. She took it out to inspect it more thoroughly.
"Draco, what do you think this is?" she asked, holding it up for him to see. He was sitting on one of the loveseats.
Hermione walked over towards him, scrutinizing the paper. She sat down next to him, and all of a sudden the paper burned in her hands. She tried to drop it but she couldn't. She screamed.
"Hey! What is this thing!" she waved her hands in the air, the paper still attached. Draco reached up and calmly took the paper out of her hands. It now held a message in a scrawled cursive. Draco sighed.
Hermione looked at and felt her hands. They weren't burned. In fact, they were perfectly fine. "What was that?" she asked.
"You don't want to know," Draco said, crumpling up the paper.
Hermione's eyes glinted, "Yes I do," she said, and lunged for the paper, ripping it out of Draco's hands. She toppled over and fell onto the floor face-first, triumphantly raising the hand with the paper above her head.
"I'm okay," came her muffled voice. She got up slowly, reading the piece of paper. The smile on her face dropped and she became tense. "Okay." She crumpled the paper up again, "I demand an explanation now."
Malfoy avoided her gaze. That was a mistake. She whipped out her wand. "Malfoy, darn it, look at me! Tell me what the heck is going on with us being here! NOW!"
Malfoy didn't answer. The old witch in the portrait did. Hermione's eyes went wide as the creaky old voice started talking.
"You're being given an honor," began the witch, "To be sent to the Devralief Cottage with your betrothed."
"The what?" said Hermione, "With who?"
"The Devralief Cottage," repeated the witch, "Also know as Dena's Cottage. Every few years, an unknown pureblood pair, that has the potential to be magnificent together, but does not currently achieve it, is sent here. They cannot leave until they have worked out their differences."
"But Malfoy and I have worked out most of our differences! We're friends. . . aren't we?" said Hermione at the portrait.
"Friendly maybe, but this cottage was made for more than friends." The witch said.
Hermione looked at Draco. "You knew. You knew the instant you flowed here."
"Possibly," said Draco, getting up, and starting to get angry, "Considering the tale tells of a witch and a wizard who enter the fire separately and are not yet at the romantic part of their relationship!"
"You expect me to be more than friends with you?" Hermione yelled back at him.
"Considering we're DATING, maybe, possibly, YES! And the fact that we're stuck in this COTTAGE until we get there!" yelled Draco, approaching her.
"You've got it all wrong! There's no way in hell I could love you! There's too much in the past, you ferret! You have ridiculed and hurt my friends and I since I MET you!" Hermione screamed back, moving a bit closer to him, screaming into his face.
"Like I could ever be expected to MARRY a girl who I thought was a MUDBLOOD all my life, yet HERE WE ARE in Dena's fucking cabin! Haven't you heard the tales? We can't leave this place until we literally snog!"
Hermione just then realized she was barely an inch from his face.
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Decided I had to leave you on a cliffie again, but don't worry, the wait shouldn't be too long!
Thanks to my awesome reviewers! There were 28 of you, and that brought ch19 up to second-most reviews total! (second only to ch8 in which Draco and Hermione are tricked into going on a date.)
Thanks againt to my beta, Flo, who keeps me in line (especially making sure I write "floo powder" instead of "flow powder" -- if there are any "flows" left, that is entirely my fault, not hers)
As for this time's question, who is one person in the Harry Potter Universe you would like to go on a date with? (for fun)
See you next chapter!