Sorry it's been a while – I got a little tied up with a Pansy pic (on my deviant art site – there's a link in my profile...) and Halloween costume buying! (Zombie pics will probably follow next week!)

This chapter is back to Draco! It was getting very long so I had to cut it - hopefully the rest will be long enough to fill a whole chapter or I'll have to split it half Draco half Ginny.

Thanks for all the lovely reviews for the previous chapter (well – I have 2 reviews at the moment but they were both very lovely!)

As I mentioned before, none of JKRs characters or settings belong to me – and neither does anything Disney related…

I think it may be sinful to like both Terry Pratchett and Disney - one fairly cynical view of the world (some would say realistic!) and one whimsical view (although they both love happy endings!)
But it makes me happy (just don't tell Terry, he might disapprove of me…)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was bloody cold on Saturday morning, so Draco pulled his warmest cloak out of the wardrobe. He was looking forward to today; he was escorting two young ladies to Hogsmeade (keeping out of Blaise's way in the morning so he could "get to know Chloe better"), Draco thought that maybe they could visit a few of the shops where he would treat them both to a little something; then they would have lunch in The Three Broomsticks Inn. After that… well he was pretty much guaranteed some action.

He would have to try and be polite to the two Gryffindor girls who would be at the Inn - for Blaise's sake. But Draco was sure that his dates would let rip with a couple of acerbic comments – then he could look all shocked at their behaviour but have a good laugh afterwards…

Although the Middleton bird was actually not too bad, for a Gryff – they'd seen her a couple of times this week (Blaise's doing no doubt – he was really giving his all to this current interest.) and she'd not been too moronic… hell, she'd even given a small smile when he'd insulted a few of the younger students.
She had a strange way of putting you at ease too, in a moment of madness (inspired by some stupid tale that had got him all worked up) Draco had found himself saying things that he'd only ever shared with Blaise… Although he'd been able to pass it off as relevant to the story and she'd said what wonderful ideas he had so that was OK.
Maybe he'd ask his girls to lay off her, purely to spare any embarrassment to Zabini of course…

That Ginny Weasley was another matter though. She'd been eyeballing him all week, looking over at dinner times when she thought he wouldn't notice. Draco was desperate to give her a piece of his mind, or just a filthy look, but Zabini had been over the bloody moon after he'd heard about the whole fiasco in the library and kept telling Draco that he "owed him big time."
Although he'd never admit it to anyone (not even himself) having Blaise happy was the main reason Draco bit his tongue when the she-weasel bothered him. Obviously having a favour owed to you was always a good thing so that enforced his lack of spitefulness towards her.

Before leaving the room, Draco considered his reflection in the mirror for a moment. He thought that he looked pretty fine, with his perfectly tailored clothes (charcoal grey trousers with a white granddad shirt and a casual grey zip up jacket over the top) his expertly cut hair and aristocratic features. The mirror agreed with him in her sultry voice, although he never trusted the damned thing; Malfoy felt sure that they just said nice things no matter what; after all, it had let him walk about with his hair slicked back for ages.

Draco strode purposefully through the castle until he got to the great hall. It was already quite busy in there but his space had, as always, been left unoccupied. Sitting down and pulling some waffles towards his plate, Draco glanced around casually. Neither of his dates was there, probably still getting ready for the Hogsmeade trip, and thankfully neither was the little Weasley. Maybe she was ill and couldn't make it today… although now he thought about it he felt sure she'd mentioned something about being busy that morning…

He shrugged and finished his food; once he was done, Draco rose, nodded to Pansy who was sitting further down the table (flirting shamelessly with any of the boys at the table), and walked at a leisurely pace to the main doors. He spotted the two girls he was looking for immediately; they were the two wearing next to nothing in the clothing department, yet enough lip-gloss between them to drown half the country. Perhaps he should have tried for a seventh year to date; at least Pansy had informed the girls in their year that Draco did not like them to look like trash. Maybe he'd just buy the two some nice new clothes and recommend that they wore them to lunch, then suggest that maybe a lip-stain spell would be more suited to their new outfits – that sort of thing had worked well in the past.

Throwing on his cloak (Black Angora and Puffskein Wool, lined with dark green silk and fastened with silver clasps inlaid with mother of pearl) Draco strutted up to where they were standing and smiled charmingly.
"Melissa, Jennifer… I missed you at breakfast."

Both girls giggled and leaned into each other fluttering their eyelashes and flicking back their hair. Melissa, the slightly more sensible of the two, straightened first. "Jenni and I don't tend to go to breakfast often. They don't serve anything suitable for Jen's dietary requirements." She spoke with a very nasal tone which Draco hadn't noticed before.

"Right… well, do you two ladies want to get your cloaks so I can escort you to Hogsmeade?"

Again, they both giggled to each other. Jennifer piped up in a squeaky, baby voice. "Don't be a Silly-Billy – then you couldn't see our wovely clothes, we wore them special for you sweetie." She did a little turn so Draco could admire her outfit; there wasn't a lot to see, a miniscule bright orange skirt and a luminous green boob tube which barely covered her magically enhanced, extremely fake looking boobs. She had weird chunky heels on and a necklace with a peace sign on it, even though she probably didn't know what the symbol meant. In all, Jennifer looked like she was dressed to go clubbing on a very hot holiday, not to go winter shopping in a cold country!

"Me too." Said Melissa, also twirling round. Her outfit was slightly better, a pleated baby blue skirt and a little union jack strappy top, but she had on what Draco considered to be the strangest footwear he had ever seen… white, thigh high PVC boots which turned into massive trainers with a huge heel. The worst thing was the make-up; she had applied so much mascara it looked like spiders had taken up home where her eyes should be, and her face was plastered so thickly with foundation that it was almost orange (up to the very definite line where it stopped and her white neck started.).

Draco closed his eyes for a moment to try and forget the horror of these girls. They'd seemed alright in their uniforms with the minimal make-up the school allowed during the week. Still he was committed now.
"Let's go shall we? I have a lovely day planned for us, full of shopping and fun…"

Both girls squealed appreciatively and grabbed an arm each. Draco grimaced a little when they couldn't see him, led them out into the grounds and started the walk towards Hogsmeade.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Blaise raised his eyebrows when he saw Draco walk through the door to the Inn. He looked thoroughly annoyed about something, possibly the two monstrosities trailing after him. Zabini knew that a lot of the boys wanted to date these two girls but (knowing Draco's taste) they were probably a little crass for him. Malfoy removed his cloak and hung it on the row of cast iron pegs near the gigantic open fire. He glanced round quickly, noticing that the cosy and slightly smoky pub was only half full, although the large mirror reflected the patrons, making it seem busier.

Zabini waved to his friend who gratefully walked over to their large wooden table near the back of the Inn; Draco still had enough manners left to pull out the bench for his companions, but he did pull a face behind their backs. "Blaise, Chloe – I hope your day has been good. This is Melissa and this is Jennifer."

Chloe gave them a shy smile and Blaise nodded his hellos. "Ladies, how has Draco been treating you both?"

"Oooh, just wonderfully!" Simpered Melissa, flicking her blond extensions over her shoulder. "We've been into all the shops and he's ordered us whole new outfits. They were a little bit too snobby for my liking, but Draco assured us we would look delightful in them." She leant over the table and whispered loudly that she was hoping the posh clothes meant he would be taking them somewhere nice in the future.

Draco grimaced as he sat down. "Yes, unfortunately they won't be ready until later today – apparently they had nothing small enough in the shop to fit such slender ladies, so they're performing a rather complicated silk shrinking spell as we speak."

Both girls were indeed incredibly skinny, almost painfully so. Jennifer had been eyeing Chloe as if assessing her worth but she now stopped and cooed over Draco. "Yes, he was so kind too, it's such a long walk from the school that we got all pooped out, so Dwakko summoned his big impressive bwoom and flew us here." As she spoke, Jenni walked her fingers up his arm and when she reached his face, stroked his ear a little.

"Perhaps you could choose slightly more appropriate footwear next time you come to Hogsmeade?" Draco suggested, his left eye twitching slightly as Jennifer tugged on his earlobe.

"You're so funny! Isn't he funny Mel?" Melissa nodded in agreement, murmuring how she was looking forward to next time already and stroking his thigh under the table. Blaise and Chloe found it extremely hard not to laugh when Draco stood rather quickly. Both girls looked a little shocked but their pouts became smiles when Draco said suavely.
"How very rude of me, I've left you sitting without drinks, what can I get you?"

The girls gave their orders, and after asking Blaise and Chloe if they wanted anything, Malfoy retreated to the relative safety of the beautiful varnished mahogany bar (where he was hidden from his dates by a well placed pillar). He pulled himself onto one of the dark wooden bar stools and decided to order an extra firewhisky to help him relax (maybe they wouldn't seem so awful if he was drunk?).

Just as he'd ordered the drinks, the door creaked open and the sunshine poured in, half blinding those sitting inside the dim, candle-lit inn.
Draco could just make out a female looking figure silhouetted against the light; as the person moved forward slightly, their hair caught the light and it seemed as though a halo had formed around their fiery locks... Definitely a woman; a fit one too from the looks of things, although he still couldn't quite see them clearly from where he was.

"What is she doing here?" one of his dates shrieked. The fact that the person had red hair suddenly sunk in and Malfoy realised that the vision which had just closed the door was none other than Ginny Weasley. Draco wondered if his day could get any worse, at least no one had seen him staring at her. Although scanning the room, he noticed that a few other people were taking their fill of the view provided by the curvaceous red head.

Much as he hated to admit it, she looked pretty damned good... Draco didn't have a clue what the picture on her T-shirt meant, he just saw that it was moulded to her body perfectly and was so thin he could see her bra underneath – well, the pattern on it anyway – it was tiny blue stars and red polka-dots. Instead of looking slutty, it fitted with the top really well, almost as if it were a faded design on the shirt itself.

Weasley had obviously heard what Melissa or Jennifer had said and automatically reached for her pocket (could the girl not afford even one new pair of jeans?), probably going for her wand... Draco noticed that she came up empty handed; she then reached her hand up to her hair and paused. Weasley lowered the hand slowly and then smiled as she saw that Chloe had left her seat to come and greet her, the two exchanged a few quiet words and then hugged as if they'd known each other for years.

As the embrace finished, the Weaslette turned towards the bar and their eyes caught. Draco couldn't figure out why the girl looked so on edge, it wasn't as if anyone would do anything to her in the middle of the pub... Chloe pushed her to the bar and then returned to Blaise who was looking awkward left alone with the two Slytherin Sixth year girls.

Weasley stood stiffly next to him and pulled a small money pouch out of her voluminous cardigan pocket which she tugged roughly around her; even though it fell open again seconds later. Malfoy realised that she was going to order a drink and for some unknown reason felt like being gentlemanly. "What's your poison Weasley? This one's on me."

The she-weasel looked up at him with mistrust in her eyes. "I can afford my own drink you know Malfoy."

"I'm buying a round. Don't take everything so personally, for Merlin's sake."

"Oh... I well; I was going to have... I'll just have a pumpkin juice." She looked so unsure of how to act in the situation and she seemed small and vulnerable. Despite past experiences telling him that she was anything but defenceless, Malfoy felt a little manly protectiveness blossoming inside him.

"Have whatever you want Ginny." Well, she'd asked him to call her Ginny last time they spoke hadn't she?

Looking slightly shell shocked, Ginny stared at him for a long moment but finally said, "Fine – if you insist, I wanted a butterbeer and I was going to have a quick firewhisky at the bar... it's been one of those days."

"Huh." Malfoy muttered, thinking exactly the same thing.

"You too?" Ginny asked, looking ever so slightly sympathetic.

Draco nodded "Possibly worse..." He caught Madam Rosmerta's eye and ordered another butterbeer and a firewhisky. Rosmerta looked at them for a moment, Draco thought she might ask the Weaslette's age but Rosmerta obviously decided to let it drop, something she often did if the kid looked ok. After all, Draco knew that she'd been drinking in this very same pub for years before her own seventeenth birthday. (His grandfather had taken quite a fancy to her before he found out how young she had been.)

When the drinks arrived and the bill was settled ("Put it on my tab please Genie."), the two downed their firewhiskies wordlessly (Weasley only winced the tiniest bit) and then Ginny helped Malfoy carry the drinks back to the table. There seemed to be, for the moment at least, a slight truce between the two.

When they reached the table, Blaise stood up and beckoned Ginny to sit on the bench with him and Chloe; she gratefully slid in and greeted him warmly. It didn't take long for Draco to notice the frosty looks Melissa and Jennifer were giving her, however she was making small talk with Chloe and Zabini and hadn't noticed yet.

Draco sat back down between the two girls and Melissa immediately asked him what on earth the piece of trash was doing sitting at their table. Draco explained quietly that she was friends with Chloe (he didn't say out loud, but he thought Melissa had a cheek calling Ginny trash – she may have been exceptionally poor but she certainly wasn't cheap.) and that they'd just have to put up with her for an hour or so.

Neither of his dates seemed to take that particularly well. "What is that weird picture on your top?" Jenni demanded of Ginny with a sneer on her face.

Despite being interrupted mid-sentence, Ginny very politely answered. "I'm not sure – my friend's parents gave it to me as a present." Jenni tutted and looked ready to say something else equally as rude but was interrupted.

"It's Eeyore..." Blaise shrugged when the table turned to stare at him. "My second father was related to the Disney's – they run theme parks and make animated films based on muggle fairy tales and other books. Eeyore, despite being a miserable bugger, is a very popular character from a few of their featurettes..."

He stopped before explaining about Winnie the Pooh, from the shocked look on everyone's faces Zabini thought he may have gone too far already. He didn't know why the Disney stuff had seemed so enjoyable to him, it seemed silly to enjoy something marketed for a muggle's view of magic when you wielded the real deal, but something about the whole idea had pleased the young Zabini. Perhaps because no matter how tough the hero or heroine had it, there was always a happy ending for them.
His third father had been very disapproving and had destroyed all of young Blaise's toys, books and clothes with one wave of his wand. His mother had comforted Blaise and replaced all of the items she could find. (The husband in question had suffered a very nasty heart attack just two days after the incident.)

"Anyway, let's look at the food, shall we?" Draco said loudly, handing round the menus and distracting everyone. Blaise shot him a thankful look and they all started reading. Draco told Mel and Jenni that they could order anything they wanted; he heard Blaise say the same to Chloe.

Draco wondered for a moment if Ginny would feel bad not having someone to pay for her, but he certainly wasn't going to incur the wrath of his two dates and he doubted Blaise would think to offer, in fact Draco wasn't sure why the thought had entered his head... He decided in the end to leave things be, Weasley had invited herself here after all.

When the young waiter came to take their orders, Melissa chose the food for both herself and Jenni, which Draco thought was a little odd – he didn't think Jennifer seemed the shy type that needed someone else to talk for her. Ginny was last and ordered a small portion of pumpkin chips and a side salad. The waiter (who, from the look on his face, wanted to spend a little more time at the table with so many girls) recommended the house special, but Ginny - although agreeing it sounded delicious - declined.

"Can't you afford it?" Melissa said loudly, trying to embarrass Ginny. A flush ran across Weasley's face and her lips pursed slightly but she said nothing.

"Maybe she's trying to lose a bit of weight – looks like she needs to." Jennifer joined in, even though Draco thought that Ginny looked fit and healthy compared to the two emaciated girls on his side of the table.

He clenched his jaw but said nothing on the matter; instead he excused himself and went to use the bathroom. On his way back, Draco caught the waiter and handed him two galleons, instructing him to bring the red haired girl the special and say it was on the house ("Oh, and keep the change."). The boy looked confused but agreed to bring the food and not to mention that Mr Malfoy had told him to do so.

When he returned to the table, the atmosphere was no better than it had been before. The two younger girls were giving Ginny nasty looks which she was pointedly ignoring and Blaise and Chloe were trying to talk peacefully with everyone (rather unsuccessfully).

When they saw Draco, Jenni piped up. "Ooh, we though you might have left us, you know - to escape the awful company." Little did she know that he had considered it, but not to escape the same person she had meant.

"Of course I hadn't left. I would never dream of being so rude. We wouldn't want people to think that Slytherins have no manners now would we." He wondered if she would understand that he thought she was going too far with her comments, but considering her apparent lack of brain cells he doubted it.

Eventually their food arrived; when the waiter put the plate down in front of Ginny, she turned to him saying that he'd given her the wrong food. When he insisted that her meal had 'been upgraded' she murmured quietly to him. "I don't have the money to cover this…"

"It's on the house. You did want it, didn't you?" He said, flicking his eyes nervously towards Draco. When Ginny said that it looked lovely he quickly made his escape.

Melissa looked outraged and whined, "How come she gets something free. That's not fair – I want my food for free. Draco, make him come back…"

"Your food is free Melissa – I'm paying for it." Draco reminded her stonily.

"Oh… yeah, well it's not fair that you should have to pay when she doesn't." She jabbed angrily towards Ginny with her knife.

"It's fine, really. Please drop it and enjoy your food. Would you like me to pass Jennifer her plate?" Jennifer's plate had for some reason been left next to Mel's rather than at her own setting.

"Oh, I can't eat that!" Jennifer said with a giggle. When Draco asked her (with forced patience) why she had ordered it if she didn't want it, she informed him that she hadn't – it was all for Mel.

Draco gave up in confusion and just started on his own excellent meal. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying their food too; Jennifer produced a bag of celery sticks from her bag and nibbled on one incredibly slowly. Melanie was wolfing down her two meals and in fact finished a minute or two before the others.

When they had all finished, Draco asked if anyone needed another drink, but his two dates declined saying that they were off to 'powder their noses'. As they stood, Jenni 'accidentally' knocked her barely touched drink all over Ginny.

"Oops." The two girls sped off quickly tittering behind their hands. Ginny rolled here eyes and told Malfoy to calm down. He was livid, which was strange… The dirty trick was something he'd seen done many times before but it had never bothered him quite so much. Perhaps this time it was because Weasley hadn't done anything to provoke the girls, she hadn't even reacted to their rude comments. In fact she'd been a much better companion than either of them and actually made normal conversation.

Ginny quickly pulled something from her hair, Draco realised it was her wand, that's why she had touched her hair at the door earlier. In doing so she let that vibrant crimson mane down and it really suited her, Merlin only knew why she insisted on wearing it up the whole time. She cleaned herself up quickly (being a normal teenage boy, Malfoy had been quite enjoying her 'wet t-shirt' look) and put her wand in one of her pockets with a slightly defensive look ("just in case…").

"Why do girls always use the loo in pairs?" Blaise mused, trying to change the subject.

Ginny spoke up properly for the first time, she'd been so quiet around Jennifer and Melissa, she'd been so quiet around Jennifer and Melissa. "Normally it's so we can have a quick chat, you know talk about any dishy men… or stupid women. Also it's nice to have someone with you to make sure you don't walk out with loo-roll stuck on your shoes or your skirt tucked in your knickers.
On this occasion however I would imagine it's so Jenni can hold back Mel's hair." When she said the girls nick-names, it was in a perfect imitation of their voices which made Draco chuckle.

"You mean she's in there…?"

"Yup."

"Poor girl." Chloe said. "And Jennifer barely ate... No wonder they're so skinny – do you think they have a stomach problem?"

The other three at the table looked at Chloe. Blaise whispered in her ear for a moment and she seemed surprised. "On purpose?" she said, to which Zabini nodded.

Any further discussion of the subject was brought to a halt by the door banging loudly open.

"Shit" Ginny whispered and then threw herself under the table, for a brief moment putting her head in very close proximity to Draco's groin.

He turned to see who had caused such a violent reaction and saw Scarhead, the mudblood and the Weasel King. Groaning, Draco wished that he'd been able to hide from them too – his day had been bad enough already without a confrontation with those idiots. He'd just keep quiet and with any luck t-

"Chloe! Are you alright?"

What did Potter think they were doing to the girl? From the sound of his voice you'd think she was shackled to the wall being tortured or something. Mind you, Middleton did look pretty shocked, presumable due to the female Weasley flinging herself to the floor… Well, not entirely to the floor, and if she didn't move soon Draco was going to be in a rather awkward predicament.

Why had she thrown herself under there? Presumably it was because she was ashamed to be sitting with Slytherins. Draco felt a little put out by that thought. Chloe was still sitting with them, and neither he nor Blaise was cowering under the table. He had a good mind to ask her loudly what on earth she thought she was doing… although maybe he'd just let her be for a moment longer.

As the trio arrived, Ginny burrowed her way under his legs and curled herself up as small as possible. She would be well hidden there, the backs of the benches were solid wood and anyone standing by the table wouldn't be able to see under it without crouching. Normal people didn't tend to do that sort of thing without a good reason.

"Chloe?" Brought out of her shocked state, Chloe attempted a smile at Potter.

"Hi Harry…"

"I said are you OK?"

"Of course… why wouldn't I be?" she asked him, her face changing quickly from surprised to defensive.

The boy wonder stammered for a moment before his idiot sidekick stepped in. "Because you're with these two… Slytherins." Weasley spat out the last word as if it were the worst insult he could think of.

Chloe very calmly said. "Yes of course I am… I invited Blaise to show me round Hogsmeade and we arranged to meet Draco and… and his friends for lunch."

Both the Gryffindor boys opened and closed their mouths a few times and muttered random words... "Invited?" "You…" "Wha…" They looked exceedingly foolish and Draco loved every second of it.

Rather disappointingly, Granger took both boys by their elbows and directed them to the bar. "Get yourself a quick drink, Butterbeer only Ronald. I'll sort this out."
She came back to the table with a wry smile on her face.

"Sorry Chloe, there's a bit of history between Malfoy and us – but you shouldn't have to be stuck in the middle of that, I'm sure you're more than capable of choosing your companions wisely – perhaps you may even be a good influence on them."

Draco raised his eyebrows at her statement but Granger merely tucked away a stray strand of her unruly hair and continued.
"Anyway, I'll get Ron and Harry out of your hair, but I need you to do me a favour. Could you pass a message on to Ginny please?"

Chloe paled slightly. "She's not here Hermione."

The bundle under Draco's legs shook very slightly in the pause that followed Chloe's lie.
Finally Granger said, "Well… Maria told me that she is going to be detained this afternoon, so she won't be able to meet with Ginny later. If you do happen to see Ginny, could you let her know?"

Chloe nodded mutely and the Bookworm, after another quick look at them all, walked away. She was just about to drag the two boys from the bar when Jennifer and Melissa returned from the toilets. Potter's eyes practically popped out of their sockets as he took in their apparel.

Draco could see the overly made-up eyes of both girls scanning the table and staring at the empty space where Ginny had been. Jenni opened her mouth to say something and Draco just knew that (given how the day was going) it was going to be something along the lines of "Thank goodness that awful Gryff girl has gone."

For a split second Draco considered using the Langlock spell on them both, but yet again Granger saved the day and interrupted loudly.

"Close your mouth Harry before you drown us all in drool. Honestly!" This caused both girls to look over to the bar, Melissa gave him a look of pure disgust but Draco thought he saw Jenni's eyes widen slightly before she too scowled at him (as all good Slytherins should when presented with one of the trio.)
Potty blushed a little, Weaselbee chortled at him and Granger towed them both away (she needed a little extra force for Potter.) She paused at the door for a split second and Draco could have sworn her eyes went straight to the part of the bench that Ginny was cowering behind. She looked up, caught his eye and winked before closing the door… the bint actually winked at him.

He didn't get long to think about it because as soon as the door closed, Ginny crawled (rather clumsily) from under his legs and over the bench, all the while giggling her head off. In fact, she was laughing so hard that she got stuck half way and Draco had a glorious view of her wonderfully peachy arse. There was a rip just under her left pocket and he could see that her pants had the same pattern as her bra.

Unfortunately his ogle was cut short by a shriek from Melissa. "What has she been doing under that table? Have you been laying your filthy, blood traitor hands on my man?"

Ginny, who had now made it over the bench and was sprawled on the floor, took one look at Melissa and laughed even harder.

"Are you laughing at me?" Despite Ginny shaking her head, Melissa hissed, "Draco, she's laughing at me, make her stop."
Before he could respond, Jennifer decided to take matters in to her own hands. She pulled out her wand and leaped towards Weasley, wailing some undecipherable words.

The next few seconds were a blur of movement and sound, but all of a sudden, Jenni was hanging upside down from the ceiling and Ginny had two wands in her hand. She wasn't laughing any more.
Looking at Melissa, who also had her wand drawn, Ginny said. "I didn't want any trouble. If you're going to start a fight then I have to warn you I will kick your arse."

Melissa looked from her to Draco, who shook his head slightly. She put her wand down and shrugged nonchalantly at Ginny who nodded back and said, "Right. I'm going to leave now…."

Ginny slowly lowered Jenni back to the floor, and with apologies to Rosmerta, Blaise and Chloe, she marched out of the Inn.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Have any of you seen a picture of an Angora rabbit? I looked it up on Wikipedia (English version) and the picture is hilarious – it made me think of a puffskein!
Very amusing, this is why I decided Draco's cloak is made of it ;)

I couldn't find Rosmerta's first name anywhere so I made one up! Feel free to correct me if it's wrong!

Not sure if it's a UK thing or not, but a 'granddad' shirt is the same as a band-collared shirt.
I happen to think they look rather lovely on blokes so just go with me here…
(Plus I wanted Draco to have casual-ish clothes but look sharp still!)

On a more serious note, I hope I haven't offended anyone with Melissa and Jennifer's behaviour. I know weight issues are not a joking matter but the scene was stuck in my head and wouldn't go away...
(I understand some people are naturally slim – lucky beggers - but I think it's a shame that so many young girls feel the need to be super-skinny when it's not their natural shape.)
Anyway, if anyone takes real offence I can always alter the chapter, but I do plan on redeeming them slightly later on...