Chapter 24: Don't forget to knock
Once again, thank you for reading this if you've been following the story and have waited nearly two months for me to get anything together in the form of a chapter. I truly appreciate your patience and welcome any angry faces directed towards my seriously annoying writer's block and failure to even TRY to pound out a chappie. But I'm back from the beach and completely sun-soaked, so I'm going to give this chapter a shot.
For any new readers, thanks for dropping in—come back soon!
Hermione could hardly stand, but she managed to drag herself out of the bar and into a cab. Minutes later, she found herself in the most unlikely of places--Blaise Zabini's flat.
BANG! With one flick of her wand, Hermione managed to blow up Blaire's door and found the owner of the flat scrambling to the foyer wrapped only in a sheet followed by the most unlikely person.
"What the—" Hermione struggled to steady herself on the remains of Blaise's mangled doorframe. In front of her, Blaise was struggling to keep the bed sheets on her body while her guest pointed a wand directly at Hermione.
"Well, lookie here. Fancy seeing you here Mudblood, came over to check up on your new model employee did you?"
"Pansy, don't—" Pansy shot a glare at an embarrassed Blaise who was looking nervously between Pansy and Hermione.
"Shut up, and don't say a word," hissed Pansy at a cowering Blaise. She turned her attention to Hermione who was quickly sobering up. "Now, where were we? Oh, right, so, you think you can come traipsing around London and blast people's doors open do you?"
"I came to talk to Blaise. I never expected you to be here. But now everything is making sense to me. Nice little plot you three had going against, it nearly fooled me."
Pansy laughed, "Darling, your dearest Draco wasn't even involved in nearly as much as you think you know. Here, have a seat."
With a flick of her wand, Pansy threw Hermione against the sofa and held her there with several charms. Hermione struggled to break free, but it was a hopeless cause. She looked fearfully at Pansy, who mere laughed at the witch writhing and struggling against what felt to Hermione like invisible ropes.
"No need to squirm dear, I'm not going to hurt you……physically at least. Let's see..what new news, other than me having the most wonderful time romping around in your dear beau's bed, would make you want to die? Oh yes, this should be entertaining…" Pansy flicked her wand several times and Blaise ended up in front her Hermione in a trance-like state. Slowly, she began to speak.
Hermione's eyes filled with tears as Blaise spoke in a low grave voice about the details of Draco's ploy to return into the good graces of wizarding society using Hermione's influence. Slowly, but surely, the tears that Pansy was anticipating flowed freely down Hermione's face. Once Blaise stopped speaking, Pansy undid the binds on Hermione.
Hermione got up slowly and straightened the hem of her skirt. She threw a disgusted look at Pansy, and an almost pitying look at Blaise. Without a word, she apparated out of Blaise's flat.
"Hermione! Please, let us in! Hermione!"
Ron and Harry had been attempting to enter Hermione's home for the past hour. It was Saturday morning, the day of the IWF ball, and Ron, Harry, and Draco had spent the entire evening and early morning searching for her. No locator charm could locate her anywhere until around eight in the morning she appeared at Stoneybrooke.
"Sirs, perhaps you should take your leave now. Miss Granger will not be up for some time." Harry and Ron looked behind them to find the butler, Mr. Castleton, standing directly behind them with a sad, serious face they had never seen.
"Reynold," pleaded Harry, "We must see her. Is she alright? We've been searching all nigh— "
"Sir," replied the butler in a rather harsh tone, "Miss Granger is aware that you and Mr. Weasley are out here, but she has requested that she is not disturbed. She did, however, ask me to tell both of you that she will be in attendance at tonight's ball."
Harry and Ron looked at each other, then back at Mr. Castleton. Sensing he had nothing else to say to either one of them, they each muttered a good-bye and disapparated.
From the top right window, a face disappeared back behind the curtains.
Piles. Piles and piles of newspaper clippings and crumbled wiz faxes. Those were the only things that Hermione could see on her floor. She had watched Reynold convince Harry and Ron to leave. As soon as they took their leave, Hermione crawled back into bed feeling like her entire life was flushed down the toilet. 'It might as well have been,' she thought as she browsed the headlines of every major wizarding newspaper and gossip rag that poured into her room that morning.
MAD-CAP GRANGER ON RAMPAGE!
HERMIONE HELL-BENT ON HURTING HARLOT!!
MYSTERY MISTRESS MAKES GRANGER FRIZZ UP! (SECRETS TO SMOOTHER, SILKIER HAIR INSIDE!)
A sea of bold, black letter and exclamation points, combined with terribly alliterations made Hermione want to spend the rest of her life in exile on some distant planet. Burying her head in her pillow, she recalled the events of the night before.
Draco…plot…Pansy…Blaise….
Any other woman would have broken down into pieces and probably would have escaped, but not Hermione. The battle to save her reputation and re-ruin Draco's was just beginning. Taking another gulp of her what may have been her twelfth cup of coffee, Hermione grabbed her robe and began to promptly dial her press secretary, as well as her personal stylist. She did, after all, have a ball to attend.
On the other side of town, Draco mulled over the events of the previous night, as well as the events that were meticulously reported in the daily papers. In almost everyone single newspaper he read that morning, Hermione had made the front page. Draco hastily scanned one of the articles.
OLD RIVALRIES NEVER END
BY: MORTICIANA ARTEMIS
Old enemies are never too far apart it seems. The infamous Pansy Parkinson was seen leaving the scene of what looked to reporters as an apparent girl-fight involving the aforementioned Ms. Parkinson, an unidentified woman who also left the scene, and the ever news-worthy Hermione Granger.
The incident, which witnesses say occurred at the home of a new tenant at the Willow Oaks Magical Complex at Fourteenth and Dragon Rd. in London, was apparently thought earlier to be a domestic dispute. Witnesses saw Miss Granger exit the flat, which had the door blown up into shreds, but she did not seem in a hurry. Shortly after her exit, Miss Parkinson and the anonymous friend exited the flat as well.
Investigators have dismissed the incident as a squabble between the two former rivals from Hogwarts. However, sources say that there is a reason to believe that Hermione-Arm Candy Draco Malfoy was the center of the little riff. Could this be the end of the romance between England's most newsworthy couple?
Draco shook his head and clenched his fist in anger. The complex that was mentioned was where Blaise lived, and if he was seeing the pictures correctly, the flat, which was shown as a picture spread after the brief article, look very much like Blaise's.
'But what is Pansy doing at Blaise's and why on earth is Hermione there?'
Draco looked at a few more articles, then threw all the papers into the fireplace. He leaned back on his chair, staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out how he could have let his little plan get so out of control.
"I don't bloody care if she's in bed with Britney Spears, I have to go in and see her!"
The loud screams coming from her front door were enough to jolt Hermione back to reality. She had been on the phone all morning long with her press secretary and her personal assistant attempting to smooth out the situation that Hermione had gotten herself into.
'Honestly,' thought Hermione as she got up, ' of all the things I could have debuted with as my first scandalous action, it had to involve not one, but three people. And the press doesn't even know half of it.'
Throwing some powder into the fire, Hermione called out to her butler.
"Reynold, let her up."
As always, no sooner had Hermione given the ok, Ginny Weasley burst into the doors of Hermione's suite.
"Why is it that every time you get yourself into the papers lately, it's with the oddest characters?"
Hermione smirked, waving Ginny in and sitting back down. Ginny plopped herself down on a loveseat across from Hermione.
"Dearest, honestly, what did I tell you about Malfoy? BAD NEWS. Now, tell me exactly what happened? Or is it true that you and Pansy are both preggers with Malfoy's child and he has another lover in Bulgaria? Was that whom the mystery woman was?"
Hermione almost laughed. The papers were concocting ridiculous conclusions, not to mention far-fetched rumors that were no doubt spreading world-wide.
"Well, first, let me tell you about the romp Britney and I just had." Ginny threw the paper and Hermione managed to duck before it clobbered her on her forehead.
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you, but do not, under any circumstances repeat any of this to anyone, at least until such time that I say so." Ginny leaned in and listened intently as Hermione gave her a play by play of everything that had transpired the night before. When she had finished, Hermione was a bit in awe at the fact that for the first time in what seemed like years, Ginny was rendered speechless.
"And you're still coming tonight? He's going to be there 'Mione! And bloody hell, he'll be having a jolly laugh at your expense. I say hex him, hex the hell out of him. Make him grown a snout, and oh, I don't know, give him a terrible disease or –"
"Gin," interrupted Hermione, "I can't not show up. My best friends are being inducted into one of the most prestigious foundations tonight. But trust me, he is not going to disappear quietly into the night. He and I will have a few words."
"But Hermione, I don't think this ball is the right place to have a 'few words' with Malfoy. I mean, I saw the damage done to that flat door, and I don't want to know what part of Malfoy you might be tempted to blow up if you even come within fifteen yards of him!"
"No worries, Gin. This is going to be very simple and to the point. I will be asking him to resign as CEO of VERSACELF, or else I will gladly publish the pictures of him and Pansy in every possible media venue I can manage to get a hold of. Surely that's a fair trade. He leaves my territory, he can relish the fact that his paltry reputation has been restored, and I can finally move to the New York office without the fear of him ever being part of my life again."
The last part of what Hermione had said came as a surprise to Ginny. "New York? As in the States? It's not like you to run like that!"
"So what!" Hermione barked. "I have always wanted to move there, and now, I have a perfect reason! Ginny, he made me feel like the biggest dolt, bigger than Crabbe, Goyle, even the lowest flubberworm. I cannot even begin to imagine being in the same city as him, save the same country. I have spent all my life being so bloody strong and resilient. Well, no, this time I'm going to run away rather than face it every day, because I have never, ever, been so hurt or humiliated as I am now."
Ginny watched her friend curl up into a small ball on her chair. Instinctively, Ginny got up and went to Hermione and took her into her arms and cooed words of encouragement into her friend's ear as she wiped the tears from Hermione's eyes.
