Chapter 27
Hermione led Harry down the rickety old stairs, and showed him where the dining room was. The room was filled to the brim with members of the Order; Tonks, Shackelbolt, Mad-Eye, and of course, Sirius. Hermione left Harry to be with Sirius, knowing that it might be an emotional reunion.
Draco drew her away from the hubbub, and they stood watching the commotion from the corner, satisfied with the way things had turned out.
Pan showed up late, as usual, towing a very tired looking Dumbledore along.
"I dragged Dad along," she announced. "And he's very happy to be here, although he sure as heck doesn't look like it."
Everyone grinned and laughed, for indeed, Dumbledore looked dead on his feet. But he still managed to work up a smile and a wave for those who were around, and he winked at Draco when Pan finally released him.
Sirius and Harry had finished their greetings, and both were simply grinning so hard it looked as if their cheeks hurt.
Suddenly Pan flounced up to him, and stuck out her hand. Draco was relieved to see that she had discarded her moose headband, and had combed her hair flat. Usually it stuck up in the back.
"Hello, you must be Harry," she said. Everyone kept talking, but eyed the two of them out of the corners of their eyes. "I'm Pan, Draco's sister. I'm older, but I like to annoy Draco, so I don't act like it."
"Hey," Harry said, smiling genuinely. "I've heard a lot about you."
"Knowing Draco it probably wasn't all good," Pan said, shrugging. "But I love him anyway."
Draco was flushing furiously.
Pan continued, "But I'll let you make your own opinions of me." With that, she skipped off, humming off-key and under her breath. Hermione caught a faint strain of God Save the Queen, but decided that it was her imagination.
"Wow," was all Harry could say. "She's amazing!"
"Yeah," Draco said, proudly. "She is something. She's way too hyper, though."
Harry nodded. "She's beautiful."
Hermione gave Harry a funny look, and grinned when she saw the moon-struck expression on his normally stoic face.
Dinner was a raucous cacophony of noise.
Charlie and Tonks were heatedly discussing the merits of the newest version of the Firebolt; Dumbledore and Mr. Weasley were leading a fiery debate over the advantages of magic in the muggle world, and Pan was simply trying to put out the candles with her treacle pudding.
To Hermione's surprise, Harry was trying to help her.
"Try mashing it up," Harry advised, tossing his treacle pudding at the candle, and missing horrendously. "It makes it more aerodynamic."
Ron was busy shoveling food down, occasionally offering pointers for Harry and Pan.
"Underhand," he said between bites of mashed potato. "Throw it underhand."
The food was absolutely sumptuous, and Hermione found herself going back for seconds of the steak, which was marinated to perfection. It seemed there was an endless supply of food, stretching from one end of the table to the other, the legs of the table cracking and groaning under the weight.
Dessert was stupendous. Ice-cream statues and palaces, marzipan people and animals, Mrs. Weasley's famous bon-bons, and every kind of delicious pudding were brought out.
Hermione found that her skirt didn't fit as well as it had earlier when she got up after eating. Draco was also feeling tight around the waistband.
Pan and Harry had finally succeeded in putting out the candles with various projectiles, and were crowing over their victory as they went into the living room to talk with Sirius.
Mrs. Weasley managed to make the clean up effortless, with a quick swish of her wand, everything was spotless. The few dishes Tonks had tried to clean were placed in the sink for later work. She had somehow managed to burn left over potatoes onto a plate, and it would need some help.
Hermione threw on her pajamas and fell into bed, completely exhausted. It hadn't been a particularly stressful or tiring day, but with Harry's arrival and all the food had simply been overwhelming.
Draco lay down next to her, watching her as she stared at the top of the canopy of their four-poster bed.
"So," he began, thinking of all that had happened since June. "What next?"
She rolled over, and stared at him with big eyes.
"Well, you have your trial coming up," she said. "And then there's school, of course. We have to figure out what to do about Natalya. We need to protect Luc from your dad, I'm sure he's looking for both Pan and Luc. And, no doubt, we'll have some sort of run in with Voldemort. That's unavoidable. He's probably amassing his army, and we'll have a full scale war on our hands."
"War," Draco mused, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. "That'll be interesting, and probably dangerous."
"Knowing our luck," she said grimly. "We'll all get killed."
"How can we get killed?" Draco asked grinning at her. "We're best friends with a hero? And plus, you can save us again."
She smiled at ran her hand across his temple. "That's true. I just don't like bringing people back from the dead, not a pleasant trip."
"Well, being dead isn't so great either," he replied. "I can attest."
She sighed. "Well, we have so much to do, how are we ever going to get all this done?"
He laughed, and smoothed her unruly hair back from her brow. "Like we always have."
"And how's that?"
she asked teasingly.
He smiled, his beautiful gray eyes lighting
up. "One step at a time, of course."
A/N: Okay, i'd just like a show of hands on this one. Do you think I should continue this story, Prophecy, or should this be the last chapter? I want to finish the story line, but just with another sequel, titled Destruction. What do you guys think?
