A/N: THIS is the chapter to surprise. This is NOT a transitional chapter. Isn't that fun? These aren't as long as I made the first few, but I promise they're worthwhile. Took me long enough, didn't it? Thank you for the reviews- I got a lot more than expected. Please don't hesitate to do the same with this one!
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"Twenty one bottles of beer on the wall, twenty one bottles of beer…take one down, pass it around…twenty fucking bottles of delicious beer on the wall…" Draco sang longingly, looking out the small window. For a change it was a beautiful day outside, but Draco of course was still holed up in his little cell. Bones looked at him in annoyance while picking at his teeth with a gritty toothpick; this made Draco nauseated so he looked away and stopped singing.
He had silently watched the other suspects be dragged in over the past three days. One major difference between the Ministry and the Muggle justice system was that the Ministry didn't care whether they caught the wrong person. As long as the blame was on someone, all was good. Not surprisingly, two of the five new suspects were Padma's ex boyfriends. Draco gazed out at them with unmoving, ice cold eyes, and they looked back in terror. They were former Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, so it was no surprise that they couldn't take the dank conditions of the dungeons. Mike Diggory, the late Cedric's equally good looking younger cousin, and Lee Jordan mostly talked to each other, trying desperately to ignore the other more foreboding occupants around them. Draco thought with disgust of when Harry had brought them in, apologizing fit to burst for the inconvenience. "'We know it wasn't you chaps, but it's procedure, you understand,'" he mimicked. The other prisoners looked at him in surprise. "Did I say that out loud? Oh no," he drawled lazily, not sounding like he cared in the slightest. Adrian Pucey, the third suspect, glared at him with a face blatantly laced with hate, but Draco just smirked and looked away.
Draco glanced quickly at the remaining two, who looked utterly miserable and wretched: Parvati Patil and Dean Thomas. Harry hadn't brought them in at all, but instead followed the man who did, bellowing his brains out…
--FLASHBACK—
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR BLOODY MIND?!?" Harry roared furiously. The man in front of him snorted.
"I thought you of all people knew Potter, that no one is assumed innocent until proven so."
"I'll notify the Minister of this!" Harry growled angrily.
The man sneered. "I think he'll agree with me."
--
Draco mused on this memory. True, Minister Percy Weasley had grown more and more ambitious over the years, to the point where he was acting like Barty Crouch at the height of his fanaticism. In fact, he probably would approve the fact that all suspects were under Ministry custody; Severus was right.
--
"I can't believe this!" Ginny screamed in frustration at the bulky guard. He remained stoic and unmoved. "Can you please just let me in already? I just want to give them some biscuits for crying out loud!" Hermione put a hand on Ginny's shaking arm, and pushed her aside gently. She looked imploringly into the man's face.
"Please, we just want to see our friends," she said softly. The guard looked down at her worn and weary face and sighed, nodding. "Thank you!" Hermione cried happily, grabbing Ginny's hand and running down the stone corridor. Ginny yelped and held onto the basket she had nestled in the crook of her arm before.
"You're going to pull my arm out of its socket!" she shrieked as they ran. Suddenly Hermione stopped, breathless.
"We're here, this is it." With distaste, they looked at the scene before them; maybe fifteen people locked away in little cells, silence shrouding the room. With a gasp, the girls hurried towards the cells of Dean and Parvati, conveniently placed next to each other.
"Oh my God, oh my God…" Ginny kept repeating as she reached in and clasped the icy hand of Parvati. Parvati gave them a weak smile as Dean fought to pretend like they were in the Leaky Cauldron having a chat.
"Hermione! Gin! Good to see you," he greeted. Hermione gave him a sympathetic grin, and looked around the prison cells.
"Well, they're not- terrible," she finished, trying to be optimistic. Parvati suddenly threw down the cup she had been holding onto the stone floor, and it smashed loudly. The other people under custody looked up, startled.
"It is! It's easily the most degrading experience I've ever had in my entire life! For God's sakes, she was my sister, no, she was my bloody twin!! Why on earth would I kill her?" Ginny and Hermione shrugged helplessly. Dean put his bowl down on the floor gently, looking pensive.
"You know I'd never kill Seamus, or Padma," he said quietly, looking at the two girls on the opposite side of the bars.
"Of course!" Ginny exclaimed, dropping the basket of biscuits and feeling as if she'd break with the confusion in Dean's voice. "This is complete bull, Harry's trying his very best to get them to release you…"
"…favoritism that is," came an amused drawl from behind them. Parvati sighed in exasperation and leaned back against the wall as Dean rolled his eyes.
"He's been a complete pain in the arse for as long as we've been here," Parvati explained. "It's like he doesn't even know what he's saying half the time." Ginny looked over at the aforementioned person and narrowed her eyes when she saw it was Draco. Hermione decided to ignore him, and proceeded to continue talking with Parvati and Dean. Draco stared icily back, his face void of any emotion whatsoever. Ginny reached into her robes pocket silently, and smiled grimly when she felt her fingers close around the suede of a book cover.
Without a word or indication to her friends, she got up and walked over to Draco's cell. He watched her approach with growing apprehension and dread; no doubt she'd cease this opportunity to do something potentially traumatizing. But to his immense surprise, all she did was slip a thin, red suede book between the sturdy bars and into his lap. He looked up at her questioningly, to which she answered with an oddly formal nod and departing back to her friends. Curiously, and ignoring his screaming instincts, he picked up the book and let it fall open on his knee.
September 25
I hate Snape. He should honestly go join a herd of Hippogryffs and gallop into the sun- who knows, maybe he'd burn himself…
"How did she get this?" Draco muttered to himself in slight awe, for there was no doubt in his mind- this was Padma's diary.
September 30
It's a funny thing being a twin. At least twice a day I get a "Hullo Parvati!", and I have to force a smile and say winningly, "Sorry mate! I'm her counterpart." Then, it's guaranteed, a series of emotions will flutter across their faces in that brief instant: embarrassment, disappointment, and annoyance. I mean honestly, it's not as if I went up to them and told them I was Parvati! It's not my bloody fault I had to share a stomach with her.
You know another thing that's interesting? First impressions. They're so easy to engrave, but a bitch to scratch them out. They're one thing you can't re-do, but they can be conquered: hey, I'm living proof! Yesterday, I was in Transfiguration, and since it's gotten so much more dangerous over the years we've had smaller classes. So, I have Transfiguration with Slytherin, and Hufflepuff has it with Gryffindor, etc. And I'm sitting there, writing some sort of opinion essay, for my own enjoyment. And that prat, Draco Malfoy,-Draco sat up at the sight of his name on the page-has the nerve to peek over my shoulder and read it as I'm writing it! Well, oblivious as I am, I couldn't ignore that there was a very bright blond head in the corner of my range of vision. So I turn around and say "What do you want?" And do you know what he says? "It's good." It was completely bizarre.
But I saw him again this afternoon, in a deserted classroom (there are so many at Hogwarts): he was writing too. I had to go in…I never was very good at quelling my curiosity…and I grab the parchment. I was always such a rude, grabby person. :) Of course, he's completely shocked and nervous-"Was not," Draco mumbled to himself-and tried to get it back, but the smart boy had left his wand in his Common Room. So I read it.
I know I shouldn't have, but it was actually good. There was one part that really jumped out at me, hold on let me remember…
"There isn't just one way to live. People have choices you know, and I don't mean whether to have the ham and cheese or the turkey sandwich for lunch. I mean the big things, like whether to go spastic on the general public while wearing a daft looking mask and unflattering black robes. That's one way to live…but not the only way."
Long story short…we talked until morning.
-Padma
Draco ran an absent hand through his hair in bewilderment, looking down at the tiny book he held in his large hands. It looked so out of place there, especially in a Ministry cell. He looked back down at it, and closed it with one gentle prod of his finger; it flipped closed and stayed that way.
That's the way he liked it best.
--
The conditions of the Ministry cells disgusted Hermione to no end; scum on the walls, clammy bars, freezing cold. She glared at the guard as they walked out, who gave her a bemused look. Hermione sighed and kept on walking, knowing that she shouldn't have been angry at someone who didn't have anything to do with the conditions as much as she did. Ginny was walking next to her, pale but looking oddly determined about something. Hermione chose not to comment on this as they walked out and then Apparated to their apartment.
"That was pleasant," Ginny said flatly into the stale silence. Hermione sank into the sofa, exhausted.
"Draining," she added. "I hate to see Parvati and Dean like that, it's sickening…and Lee and Mike too, there's no way any of them could have done it, it's just insane!" Ginny nodded fervently, getting out some leftover Chinese from the fridge and attacking the clumpy rice with chopsticks.
"Not much we can do," she replied as she swallowed a lump.
"That's the maddening part," Hermione pointed out. "We're the Divine Bearers of Biscuits." Despite her sour mood, Ginny giggled and sat next to Hermione, offering her the carton. "No thanks, not hungry." Ginny shrugged and ate some more, chewing slowly. "This must be hell for all of them."
"Who's 'all of them'?" Ginny asked sleepily, placing down the half empty carton.
"Parvati, Dean and Harry," Hermione said shortly. They both took a moment to think, as they often did.
"Harry's probably still at the office," Ginny said sadly.
"They've got him working full-time; this wasn't just idle Muggle killing fun," Hermione reasoned, bringing her feet up on the couch and resting her head on her knees. "This was a planned attack. For whatever reason, Padma and Seamus were in the way of something."
"Well in that case, bringing in ex-boyfriends is completely pointless," Ginny mused, throwing her chopsticks on the coffee table. Hermione shrugged.
"The Ministry's never been very good at catching people until Harry came along…but even he thinks that this attack was just completely unexpected. I mean, not trying to sound conceited or anything, but wouldn't they have gone after Ron, or Harry, or me? I don't get it." Ginny watched as the older girl bit her lip, trying to decipher in her mind what went through the murderer's head.
Suddenly, Ginny jumped up with wide, excited eyes. "Hermione!" she exclaimed. Hermione looked up at her, perplexed.
"Whatever is the matter Ginny?" she asked wearily.
"I know how we can catch this asshole," Ginny replied simply, and after noting Hermione's look of complete confusion, sprinted off to her room and shut the door behind her with a click.
--
"This is like a bad Muggle movie," Draco complained as Crabbe and Goyle strapped him to a chair under a very bright light. The two grunted and left him sitting there, squinting so that the light wouldn't hurt his eyes too much. It didn't really help. Draco sighed and tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair lightly to pass the time.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Ta-
"Stop it Malfoy." Draco looked up; Potter.
"Oh cripes, what do you want Potter?" Draco said in exasperation. "I let you take me into custody, I'm behaving, what is this, Story Time or something?" Harry rolled his eyes.
"Not without a fight you didn't," he replied, referring to the first part of Draco's exclamation.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"Whatever floats your boat. Anyway, I'm here to basically interrogate you-"
"Goody," Draco interrupted sarcastically.
"The faster I ask, the faster you get back to your cozy cell," Harry taunted. Draco scowled.
"It's hardly comfortable," he sniffed.
"Not the point…Malfoy, did you know Padma before any…err, snogging?" he asked awkwardly. There was a pause.
"Oh bloody hell, I never snogged her!" Draco yelled angrily. "I mean honestly! It's truly pathetic that you people hang onto school gossip for five odd years." Harry grinned slightly.
"It really is," he agreed, stunning Draco into silence. "But seriously. Did you?" Draco sighed and nodded, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah. We used to study. End of story." Harry looked at him closely.
"Somehow, I don't quite believe that," he said slowly. Draco blinked at him, looking completely indifferent.
"Fab. Now can I go?" he asked. Harry shook his head.
"Not until you tell me the truth," he replied shortly.
Draco sighed; Potter was more infuriating than ever…time for a little fun. "Je ne sais pas quoi faire…je suis dans un piece petit avec un garcon tres penible, et malheuresment, il est toi."* Harry threw up his hands in exasperation.
"You're incredible," he said, sighing. Draco smirked.
"Merci beaucoup saloupe."** Frustrated, Harry turned to leave as Draco shook from suppressed laughs.
Thump.
Harry turned around slowly to face a frozen Draco, looking on the floor desperately, looking as though he wanted very much to use his hands to pick up the book that had fallen on the floor, out of his pocket.
--
Dean clasped Parvati's shivering hand in his own through the bars, rubbing it gently to warm it up. Her dark eyelashes brushed her skin softly as she breathed slowly in slumber. He looked at her fondly, tucked a wisp of brown hair behind her ear, and settled down to go to sleep himself.
It was cold, but Dean had had worse. When he was a boy in his Muggle house, his mother worked 24/7 to get enough money for heat, as his dad had run off with some Indian girl when he was born. So it was always cold in Dean's memories. He closed his eyes and almost immediately fell asleep. It wasn't ten minutes after he had drifted off that a jolt of something like Muggle electricity went through their joint hands, like a little shock of dark energy. Dean shifted in his seat, but didn't wake up; neither did Parvati.
Under Parvati's robes, her hidden forearm glowed eerily, forebodingly…invitingly.
--
So there's the real version. I'm so sorry to give you that crap version before, but I figured that if I didn't you'd all yell at me hoarse. Virtually of course.
FRENCH TRANSLATIONS:
*Je ne sais pas quoi faire…je suis dans un piece petit avec un garcon tres penible, et malheuresment, il est toi.
(I don't know what to do…I'm in a little room with a guy who's a pain in the neck and unfortunately, he is you."
** Merci beaucoup saloupe
(Thanks a lot bastard)