MY LITTLE NOTE: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read the last, revised chapter! Otherwise, you will be SO confused on this one, just trust me and DO IT before reading this one!
Thank you
Oh, and Darcel- yes, I do speak French, not fluently on any level, but sort of yes. :) And thank you Violante for the corrections: I'm still learning! I'm pretty sure that 'saloupe' was the right spelling but oh well lol. By the way, my keyboard either doesn't do accents or I'm just stupid…so any French in this chapter will be incorrect due to accents. Anyway, let's get on with it, shall we?
By the way, we're seeing a LOT of Lavender in here…I wonder why? Apologies in advance for the complete absence of Hermione, Ginny or Ron…
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Draco froze as Harry bent down slowly to pick up the book. "That's my private property," he croaked out, his throat blocking up. Harry gave him one sharp and murderous glance before looking at the small book in his hands and lightly flipping it open.
"'June sixth,'" he read to Draco's horror, "'I can't believe it. Draco has just told me about his parents. It's awful. A bloody crisis. How else to put it? He looked so…dangerous when he talked of them; like he was a completely different person.'" Harry snapped it shut making Draco jump, like a child who has been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "So." The one word held such weight.
"So what?" Draco replied somewhat cheekily, gulping and hoping to dear God he didn't sound nervous. He looked up to where Harry was standing and instead was met with a swinging door.
--
"All right you worthless loads, I've got bread. Eat or it leave it." Draco jerked awake at the sound of Blaise Zabini's raspy, husky voice. The best friend of Millicent Flint (nee Bulstrode), she was also burly and muscular, with a love for all things rough. Her plaid shirt's sleeves rolled up to the elbows, she held a basket in her wind chapped hands full to the brim with what looked like rock hard rolls. Draco made a face as she neared his cell, blowing a wisp of coarse black hair out of her face as she leered nastily at him. "Malfoy. What a pleasure to be serving you today." Her voice carried a malicious sarcasm that even the dimmest Hufflepuff couldn't miss. Draco sneered up at her.
"Nice to know that you know your place Zabini," he replied coolly, reaching for some bread. Blaise scowled darkly, and tossed a roll violently through the bars.
"I'd watch it if I were you- take a closer look at which side of the bars you're on." Laughing unpleasantly, Blaise continued on her way, silently doling out the bread. Draco glared at her broad back and savagely took a bite of the roll.
"I have a press conference in two hours!" he roared suddenly through the bars. The occupants around him looked at him as if he were mad. "If I'm not there the French paparazzi will be all over this bloody case!" Blaise heaved an exasperated sigh and balanced the basket on her hip.
"I don't give a damn about the paparazzi; not if they're French, British, Polish or Nigerian!" she barked back at him. Draco decided that rather than come back with a scathing reply he should stay quiet; maybe he'd get off for good behavior. "Thank you," she said in reply to his silence. Turning to face all the wretched faces, she looked at them with the smugness of the Cheshire Cat. "While you're here, I'm in charge. I won't tolerate any smart alecks, pillocks of any kind or any type of defiance whatsoever." She took a pause to let this sink in. "Do I make myself clear?" They nodded mutely, but of course, Draco scoffed loudly.
"Honestly, who do you think you are? Bubba-laise of the Ministry cells?" he sniggered, swallowing the last of the bread and forgetting his previous thought to keep his mouth shut. Blaise came right up close to the bars and glared at him through them menacingly.
"I swear by Merlin, Malfoy," she whispered, "that if you so much as shift wrong in your seat I will make sure you're the guilty party." Draco stared stonily at her before turning his back and eating his roll morosely. Blaise narrowed her eyes at his back and picked up her basket, strutting out of the room and sending random people glares every so often. Everyone watched her leave and, simultaneously, breathed a sigh of relief as the door clicked shut.
--
Lavender brushed lightly at the canvas with her paintbrush, admiring the graceful strokes she was capable of with the device in her hand. She hastily pulled back her mousy brown hair in a low ponytail and pushed up the sleeves of her baggy artist's jacket. It was a beautiful day in Rome, one of those that inspired her to move there in the first place. The sun was shining and the sky was blue, but Lavender chose to close all of her curtains, creating an inner cave of darkness. It had been a month since the murder of the Finnegans, and Lavender hadn't gone back to England since.
She picked up a china figurine of a ballerina and polished it thoughtfully as she thought back on the night it had happened. Despite Parvati and Padma's efforts to set her up with Fred Weasley, she had gone solo, one of her only friends to do so. It had been a wonderful evening, laughing with her best friends while mentally picking out the more handsome single wizards at the Social. She had even gotten to dance with Terry Boot (a dashing charmer now)! But, partly thanks to her minimal Seer skills, she knew something was wrong in the back of her mind. However, she didn't want to pursue it. So she left that night around midnight, Apparating to her Rome apartment and hoping for the best.
Well, the best didn't happen.
The next thing she knew there was a red marked owl tapping at her window, a black envelope in its beak. Lavender gripped the figurine in her hand tightly as she recalled the sickening whoosh of dread her stomach had issued as she opened the envelope delicately in her fingers. And the message inside-
Ms. L. Brown-
We regret to inform you that your acquaintances Mr. and Mrs. S. Finnegan have been the victims of a tragic incident at approximately 1:32 last night. We are very sorry for your loss.
-E. Macmillan, Department of Dark Incidents
It was so impersonal! The causality of the letter shocked and angered her; it was in the garbage two minutes later. As Lavender was contemplating this there came a loud knock at the door, brisk and business like. The ballerina slipped out of her quavering hands and smashed on the floor, her porcelain slippered foot two feet away from her split head. Lavender took a deep breath and walked over to the door calmly, opening it smoothly.
"Harry," she said blandly, forcing a smile on her worn face. "How lovely to see you. Won't you come in?" Harry smiled gently and stepped inside, stooping a little to avoid the doorframe.
"Thank you Lav," he replied, stomping some of the dirt off of his shoes. "Fab place you've got here." He waved around the mellow blue room and Lavender smiled.
"What's on your mind?" she asked, closing the door shut quietly. Harry sighed and suddenly looked very uncomfortable. Lavender noticed that he kept fidgeting with something in his hands; a small, red something. An awkward silence fell, deafening both the adults before Lavender hastily said "Won't you sit down?" Harry nodded gratefully and sank into one of Lavender's blue pouffes. She settled into one across from him and crossed her legs.
"Rome is beautiful," he blurted out quickly. Lavender rolled her eyes, looking much more like herself than she had been for the past few days.
"Spit it out Harry," she interrupted.
"Yes I suppose I should…I'm here about the murders."
"Murder…such a coarse word," Lavender mused dreamily, stroking the fabric of her chair in a daze. Harry almost threw up his hands in frustration but instead cleared his throat loudly. She jumped. "Oh sorry Harry, I tend to do that sometimes."
"I know," he replied grinning. She threw a pillow at him with lightening speed and he chuckled. "Anyway." Lavender kept silent, biting her lip and waiting for him to continue. It took awhile. "Umm…did you know that Padma was friends with Malfoy?" he said after a few minutes. Lavender blinked at him in surprise.
"No, I didn't," she said after a second or two. "I did hear a rumor…"
"Yeah, I'm checking into it," Harry cut in bitterly. "He claims otherwise, but I just found this," he held up the book, "and I haven't read it all yet but I'm guessing it'll help a lot." Lavender leaned forwards and squinted her eyes slightly, fixing her hair with an absent hand.
"Hmmm…I'm guessing it's a diary."
"Very good. It was Padma's," Harry answered, tossing her the book lightly. She caught it in her lap and looked at it for a second, taking in the cover slowly.
"I can see that," she said quietly, opening it up. Harry sighed, ran a hand through his hair and sat back in his chair.
"I was hoping you might be able to help out…Parvati was her twin and everything and I know you're Pav's best friend, but I know you were pretty close to Padma too…besides, Parvati's not being too cooperative at the moment." Harry grinned slightly and Lavender giggled.
"Sounds like her." She flipped a page and looked down on it intently. Without thinking, she began to read aloud. "'Do you know who one girl everyone overlooks is? Ginny Weasley. I never really gave her a second thought besides for that whole diary catastrophe and just ten minutes ago I had a great conversation with her. People surprise you sometimes, you know?'" There was silence. Lavender chuckled dryly. "She could never write anything without making a point, could she?"
"That's the way she was," Harry replied, leaning back and sighing. He drummed his fingers on the side table before sitting up straight, as if he had just realized something.
"What?" Lavender asked, seeing his face.
"Do you remember seventh year?" he asked abruptly. Lavender raised an eyebrow.
"Of course…" she said carefully.
"Do you remember the Quidditch final, when everyone made bets on who was going to win and everyone bet on Gryffindor?"
Lavender, not exactly sure where he was going with this, answered with caution. "Yes, I do."
"Well, we all know that Slytherin won…" he trailed off painfully, obviously still a little bitter about it. She waited patiently for him to continue. "…but you knew before anyone, if I recall correctly. You and Parvati went around giggling your heads off and whispering together in the corridors." Lavender sucked her breath in sharply.
"How did you know we knew?"
"Oh come on Lav, it's not a big deal. It was the school Quidditch Cup for crying out loud!" he said chuckling. She looked at him sharply.
"I beg to differ," she said quietly, getting up and crossing to the window. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked out the window. Harry frowned and got up as well, coming up behind her.
"What happened?" he asked gently. She sighed and turned around, and to his surprise there were sparkling tears nestled in her pale blue eyes.
"This is quite a long story," she said hesitatingly. Harry shrugged and put his hands in his pockets comfortably.
"I've got time…and a case to solve," he added pointedly. She sighed and motioned for him to sit down again.
"All right. I'll just go get some t-" she began.
"No Lavender, we need to get this done," he said firmly, cutting her off. Lavender grinned slightly.
"Harry, I kind of need the tea to explain," she replied. Harry looked embarrassed.
"Oh. Well all right then, tea would be corking," he mumbled sheepishly. Lavender smiled and scuttled off the kitchen, where she pointed her wand at a black iron kettle and was satisfied when it whistled. She carefully poured out two teacups and walked back with them in her hands gracefully. Setting it down on a knit coaster on Harry's side table and her own, she sat down. As she began, she slowly stirred the tea in her hands.
"Parvati and I both loved Divination; I think we really were the only ones that did, actually. Anyway, I loved the idea of being able to know what would happen before it did- knowing your fate. I used to get those Tarot Cards and try to decipher them, but I never really was any good at it. I mean, I thought I had found an 'unidentified object' when it was Uranus for goodness' sakes!" Harry grinned as he remembered the memory, but didn't interrupt. "Divination was really Parvati's forte. She was amazing! You know, she wasn't joking when she said that she saw loads of stuff in the crystal ball; she really did. In our third year, she saw Dementors crowding in on three figures on the Hogwarts grounds. Trelawny lapped it up of course; anything related to death she loved. Morbid little bitch," she added, making Harry laugh. "I still don't know what that vision was about, but it got Parvati interested. Fourth year comes 'round and she sees you carrying Cedric's body." Harry sat up slowly, intrigued. "That freaked her out a little, really. Almost went mad, lying up in our dorm claiming she had a migraine. And no one knew but me."
"No one?" Harry interrupted, not able to take the curiosity anymore. Lavender shook her head.
"No. She made me promise not to tell, she was tortured by being able to see things. I would've loved that," Lavender sighed, sitting back and tapping her spoon against the tea cup thoughtfully. "The years went on and she saw more and more. The crystal ball was her specialty, her best friend and most hated enemy all in one. Sixth year, she saw Ron and Hermione sitting on a wall somewhere worrying about you. Later the same year she saw you bleeding in the forest- your last encounter with You Know Who before you joined with the Ministry, right?" Harry nodded mutely. "That's what I thought. Seventh year she didn't really see much besides for Malfoy catching the Snitch and winning the match; she also saw him raising the cup, looking around and only getting a quarter of the crowd to cheer for his efforts. That made her furious you know. Stewed about it for weeks afterward, doing anything she could for him like picking up his quill or doing his homework. He just thought she was flirting, but she didn't want to have to be part of the booing crowd." Harry tried to absorb this all in, a daunting task, for Lavender was giving him more information than all of his interrogated suspects combined.
"Are these visions why you got all tight lipped?" he asked her warily. She shook her head slowly. "What then?"
"Well…after we graduated, we kind of split off for a bit. Maybe six months? We all did that, to sort ourselves out a bit. I came to Rome to paint and she said she was off to her Granny's in Norfolk. But the thing is, I Apparated to Norfolk as a surprise a couple weeks later and she wasn't there. Her grandmother said she didn't know what I was talking about. I thought it a little odd, but I brushed it away. I met her a few months afterward and she seemed a little different somehow, distant, you know? Her eyes never fully focused; she told me she had an accident in the woods one day with an animal. I believed her too…" Lavender looked up. "But now I'm not so sure."
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"Dean…Dean, wake up." Parvati gently shook her sleeping boyfriend through the bars with her hand. He jerked awake with a snort.
"What? Where? Oh. Morning Parvati," Dean said smiling, kissing Parvati's fingers as they clasped around his hand. He looked up into her face and felt his stomach disappear as he noticed small dots of moisture in her eyes. She bit her lip and squeezed his hand harder. "Don't worry, we'll get through this…" Dean started to reassure her, but Parvati shook her head.
"It's not that. Look, I…" she trailed off and swallowed. He waited patiently, worriedly, until she began speaking again. "I need to tell you something. And you have to promise not to tell Harry."
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A/N: OK. That's this chapter. Now, I have to make this announcement on all my other updates too, but I'm just here to say that I will be taking a break- finals are coming up, school is ending, and life is pretty much all over the place. I need to take this break and I promise you a phenomenal chapter (with plenty more Draco, Ginny, Hermione and Ron) when I return. Until then, Enjoy!