A/N: I'm back! Enough with the small talk, back to the story! Thanks for the reviews.
~Chapter 6~
The next morning everyone was back in the staff lounge for breakfast. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were a bit drowsier than the others after their late night tryst. After racing to his room Harry changed quickly into his pajamas and jumped into bed as if he expected Filch to check in his room to see if he was in bed. Quiet conversations were occurring around the table as everyone ate their breakfast.
"Well everyone," Professor McGonagall was saying as she cleared the plates after their breakfast, "let us adjourn to the other room where you will all travel by Floo powder to Diagon Alley. I trust that you will have an easier time finding your way to Diagon Alley than you did finding your rooms last night," she said with a pointed look at Harry and his friends. All four of them turned bright red while Cho and Parvati giggled obviously understanding what McGonagall what implying.
When they reached the fireplace McGonagall pulled out a small piece of paper, "All right then, your fitting times at Madame Malkin's are as follows. Hermione, and Ron, you will all be fitted first 10 this morning. Harry and Neville will be next at 10:30. Parvati and Cho you will follow at 11. Finally, Ginny and Draco will be at 11:30," she put the paper away. "You may all spend your time as you wish before and after the fittings and please remember to return for dinner by 6 p.m." She reached for the Floo powder on top of the fireplace. "Step forward one by one please."
Neville went first. He grabbed the Floo powder in his hands and said "Diagon Alley," in a clear loud voice. One by one they all took the Floo powder. When they had all reached Diagon Alley, Draco broke off from the rest of the group.
"Well, thanks for joining us then," Ron called to his retreating back as he finished wiping off the smudges of Floo powder from his face. Shaking his head he turned back to the others, "Well what do we do first?"
"You and I are going to go to Madame Malkin's as we have an appointment in ten minutes," Hermione told him.
"Oh," Ron replied, he'd hoped he had a chance to look around a bit before having to go to his fitting.
"Well then we'll go to the book store while you are doing your fittings and then meet you at Madame Malkin's," Harry suggested.
"Sounds like a plan Harry," Hermione agreed handing him her book list. Ron handed over his as well and they exited the building they were in. Hermione and Ron headed one way to the robe shop while Harry and the others went in the opposite direction toward Flourish and Blotts.
"This brings back so many memories of our first year," Hermione was saying as she and Ron walked. "New books, new robes, isn't this exciting Ron?"
"I guess if you took out the new books and new robes part." Ron didn't get what she found so exciting. Yes it was great to be back at the school, but only because she and Harry were there with him. He thought back to the previous night. It was like a family reunion in the Room of Requirement. He hadn't felt that comfortable since he'd left Hogwarts. Sure he'd made friends at school and he'd had a lot of fans while on the National Quidditch team, but no one in the world knew him like Harry and Hermione did.
They arrived at Madame Malkin's Robes for all Occasions shop and stepped inside. Madame Malkin herself was behind the counter. "Oh hello!" she said cheerfully, "Ron and Hermione I presume?" The two nodded as she came out from behind the counter. "Great! If you'll both step this way, we'll have you finished in no time." Ron and Hermione followed Madame Malkin to the back of the shop.
In the room were two platforms to stand on and next to each was a small table with measuring tape and a quill and parchment. She directed Hermione to stand on one and Ron to the other. "This is Isadora and Clive," she said motioning to the two people also standing in the room, "they will be measuring you for your robes. I'm just going to go and get some colored material so you can choose what you'd like for your dressing robes." With that she turned and left the room.
Isadora and Clive stepped forward. With their wands they pointed at the tape measurer. A moment later they had unraveled themselves and were winding around Ron and Hermione's bodies. Ron looked over at Hermione as the tape wrapped itself around her slender waist. She didn't notice he was looking at her as she raised her arms so that the witch could get better measurements.
Clive tapped Ron on his arm to get his attention so that Ron could also lift his arms, "What? Oh sorry," Ron apologized realizing that he'd been staring at Hermione. He sighed and tried to focus his attention on what Clive was doing. Clive was now pointing at a rack of black robes on a far wall and one of them removed itself from the hanger and flew over to where Ron was standing. He put his arms straight up in the air so that the robe could come down over his body. Ron was already quite bored. He hated just standing there getting measured and pinned up especially when he wanted to be outside exploring. Clive was busy pinning and measuring and didn't seem too interested in small talk.
Hermione's giggling caught Ron's attention and he looked over to where she and Isadora were carrying on with their conversation. Ron thought back to the night before. He'd just stood there holding her and all she had wanted was for him to let her go. He never seemed able to concentrate when he was near her. He wondered when he stopped seeing her as just a friend and when began seeing her as the girl he wanted to spend more time with. Sure they spent plenty of time together, but he'd never as more than just friends. Ron didn't think that Hermione thought of him that way. She glanced over at him and smiled. It always had the same affect on him, making his stomach do flip-flops. He returned the smile and she looked away again, her cheeks slightly pink.
'Well, look at that,' Ron said to himself. He was still looking at Hermione when his robes were rising above him and appeared to be trying to strangle him. "Hey! What the-"
"If monsieur would only stand still and raise his arms," Clive was saying, "then the robe would just slip off."
Ron raised his arms and the robes came off uncovering a very red faced Ron. "Sorry 'bout that, Mate." Hermione was laughing out loud at him from her pedestal. 'No more Hermione watching!' he told himself firmly.
Madame Malkin walked back into the room with an armload of fabrics. "Well then," she said putting the fabrics down on a table, "here are the colored fabrics I was telling you about." A bell sounded in the front of the shop. "Oh, excuse me. Why don't you pick out what colors you'd like and Isadora and Clive will finish with your fitting?" She was at the door when she turned again. "Oh, I almost forgot, these robes won't be finished today as there will be eight of you to fit. They will be delivered to you back at Hogwarts within the week."
As she walked out Ron and Hermione stepped off their platforms and walked over to the stacks of fabric. Behind them Isadora and Clive were ready to write down their selections on the parchment in their hands.
"So what do you think," Ron asked pulling up a bright orange fabric and holding it up against himself.
"Ugh, no!" she replied scrunching up her face at the hideous color fabric. She picked up a hunter green fabric, putting it up against his chest she said, "I think this will look divine on you. It brings out the color in your eyes," she said looking up at him.
"Er-thanks," he answered. "I think you should get this color," he said picking up a light periwinkle blue material, "I remember when you wore this color to the Yule Ball. You looked fantastic in it."
Hermione blushed at his compliment. "Thank you Ron, that was lovely of you to say."
The picked out another color each, Hermione a light silver color and Ron a gold color, and headed back to the front of the shop. Harry and Neville were already there and were being led into the back by Madam Malkin.
"Hey, did you get the books?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah," Harry replied stopping in front of them, "they are going to have them delivered for us and should be at the school by the time we get back."
"Darn," Hermione said, "I really wanted to start reading them!"
Harry and Ron looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "Well," Harry said, "you two can head on to Hogsmeade, all of us have our fittings at different times so we just agreed to meet at the Three Broomsticks as we finish. Ginny should be done with her fitting by 12 or so and we can meet up with Fred and George there."
"Sounds like a plan. I guess we'll meet you there," Ron agreed, "Well see you there in about a half hour."
~~~
Ginny walked into Madam Malkin's at 11:30 as Cho and Parvati walked out.
"I'll see you guys at Hogsmeade," she said to them as she passed. The two girls smiled and nodded continuing on their way. Madam Malkin ushered her into the back room to get her started on her fittings. It was about five minutes later that Draco walked in and began his fittings.
Ginny ignored the by now familiar sense of sympathy that she got for him whenever she thought about how life must have been for him these past four years. Since he hadn't even acknowledged her presence she ignored him as well during the fitting. While she was picking out the colors for her dress robes when Draco finished his fitting. He didn't even look over at the fabrics before telling Clive that he wanted the royal blue and maroon colors for his robes. After Clive wrote down the colors Draco walked out of the room with out sparing a glance in her direction. Ginny quickly picked her colors, the same silver color Hermione had picked and a lilac, before hurrying out of the room after him.
She didn't know why she was following him, but only that she didn't like the thought of him being alone the rest of the afternoon. "Hey, Malfoy!" she called out to him.
He didn't stop or turn around, "What do you want."
"I want you to stop walking for a moment!" she countered.
Draco stopped and turned to her, "This had better be good," he told her.
"Um…what are you doing for the rest of the afternoon?"
Draco looked her up and down, "What's it to you?"
She suppressed the irritation she felt at his snide replies, "Well, everyone is meeting at Hogsmeade for a drink and the we're going to look around and do some shopping or whatever," she know she was rambling, "what I wanted to know was…that is if…well, I wanted to see if you're interested in coming with us."
If she had pulled her wand on him, he couldn't have been more surprised. "You can't be serious," was all he said.
"Why not?"
"I'd just as soon not go thank you." He turned around again walking away.
"You know you really need to stop walking away when someone is talking to you!" she yelled at him.
He turned around and walked right back up to her, bringing his face close to hers. "And you need to stop meddling in my life."
"You don't want to spend the next year alone do you?" she asked genuinely saddened by the thought.
Draco was taken aback by the concern on her face. It had been almost six months since anyone cared on bit what happened to him. He stepped away from her, "Yes, I do." He turned again and left her.
~~~
The month went quickly for them as they prepared lesson plans and read textbooks. None had ever expected that so much planning went into teaching. They spent day after day in the library reading books and finding out the best way to present material. Draco alone left himself detached from the rest of the group. While the others spent the afternoons together planning and asking each other for advice, Draco preferred to spend his days in his room and only came out for meals.
Ginny frustrated him many times in that month always making it a point to ask him how everything was coming along and if there was anything she could do to help him. He wanted to yell at her to leave him alone and to mind her own business, but found that he couldn't do either. None of the others cared that he never met them in the library and that he never tried to make conversation with them. If he were honest with himself he'd admit that the real reason was because she reminded him of her.
Four years before, after he'd left Hogwarts, at his father's insistence, Draco had opted to stay home and help run his father's business. It was a tough year and his father demanded a lot of him. He realized quickly that his father was not acting himself. With the fall of the Dark Lord, Lucius had become even more and more fearful that Voldemort was really dead. He spent more time out searching for him than helping Draco with the business. What little time he did spend with his father, Lucius would be going on and on that the Dark Lord was somewhere regaining his strength and would return for his faithful.
Draco didn't spend much time worrying about his father's actions because he was spending more time with Alison. He had met her in his father's office and was immediately taken with her. She had initially brushed him off telling him that she didn't like his cocky attitude and was sure that they'd have nothing in common. But persistence won out for Draco and she agreed to a date.
Being with Alison made Draco realize just how truly cynical and cruel he'd been. She was nothing like him, always smiling and laughing. She never had a mean word for anyone and helped wherever she could. Draco wondered how she could have ever come to work for his father. Whenever he tried to intimidate her she'd stand up to him, whenever he was being unfair she'd be the first to tell him off but whenever he did something productive, she'd be the first to compliment whenever she treated others with respect, she'd be the first to praise. It wasn't long before Draco wore a smile more often than a scowl and was earnestly trying to build relationships with the people who worked for him.
As he and Alison got closer, Draco and his father grew farther and farther apart. About a year after he started working with his father, Lucius disappeared. No one knew where he had run off too or why he had left. It was now fully up to Draco to take over his father's company. He was getting more serious with Alison and wanted to have something to offer her when he asked her to marry him. Since she had never liked the way his father had done business, Draco decided that he wouldn't use his father's Ministry connections to do his work.
He worked hard for the next year to turn the company around. He was very proud of himself and what he'd accomplished, but nothing made him happier than Alison agreeing to marry him. They got married soon after that and it wasn't long before they'd had a child.
Bethany had been the light of his life. He never thought he could love something so much in such a short amount of time. He lived his life for his daughter. He'd come home from work early to spend more time with her and Alison. They'd spend weekends in the park and were planning on traveling.
Then, about six months before, tragedy struck. He was at work one day when he got a message that he needed to hurry home. When he got there his entire house was up in flames. Draco's agonizing screams could be heard a great distance away after he found out that his wife and daughter had been in the house. He was devastated. Everything that he had worked for no longer seemed important to him. He couldn't go anywhere without thinking of Alison and Bethany. When he'd gotten the letter from McGonagall he thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to put the whole incident behind him and forget about his family.
But now, the youngest Weasley was making him remember things he longed to forget. He didn't know what to do anymore and he hoped that the beginning of the semester would be enough to keep her out of his hair. He sighed somehow doubting that.
A/N: The Malfoy mystery finally revealed! Zee, were you close in your suspicions? I hope that you all are enjoying the story. It's going to be great when they actually get students. I think they are going to realize just how tough their teachers really had it! Anyway, review if you have time!