Chapter 23: Courts and Credit Cards and Calzones
Hermione and Draco were brought down what felt like one hundred yards beneath the building they walked into not ten minutes ago. They followed a depressing witch who looked like she hadn't slept in days.
When the witch stopped at a large door, the teenagers knew that they were somewhere they never wanted to return to.
"The trial ended early and they are still deciding on a verdict," the witch said in a monotones voice. "The defendant is in another room with an auror. You may see her if she is released, otherwise you will have to make an appointment to say good-bye before she is taken."
Hermione tried to cry out "taken where?" but there was a lump in her throat that made it hard to breathe. She felt it close up as Draco put his arms around her and the woman left.
"She's going to be let free," Draco assured her. Hermione looked up at Draco. "All she did was cast a few spells outside of school and resist aurors, right?"
Hermione wimpered a little. There was something Nina had done that no one else knew about, or so she hoped. Nina had only even told her about it three weeks ago when she admited ot being afraid of having to go face everyone at the trial.
"What did she do?"
Hermione looked down the hall to make sure that they were alone and led Draco to the two chairs beside them. She lowered her voice and leaned in to Draco so that hey were inches apart. "Well, Nina wasn't always like she is now. She actually had quite the bad streak when we were younger. It wasn't even until she was first sent off to Durmstrang." Draco nodded, letting the information come to him in his anxious wait to hear what Nina did. "During her first year she did anything that she could to break whatever rules that she could. She even dated every guy in the school and in some cases, well, let's just say that if I want my boyfriend to remain my boyfriend, then you might want to stay on her good side."
Draco winced and held himself, only imagining the pain. "Ouch."
"Yeah. Well she also broke some, er, not-school rules," Hermione continued. "She would walk around and accuse everyone of being a death eater. She was always right, but no one believed a twelve-year-old girl, though pretty much everyone there was a death eater. She also would cause chaos, letting all the animals go free through the halls, even conjuring up some too, filling the halls with water, and anything that even the Weasley twins would bow in respect to. In her fourth year, she blew up the headmaster's office and flew off on his prized broom into the mountains where she created a twister that flew the school onto the top peak of one of the mountains in the Himalayas! They were stuck there for three weeks. After that she was sent to Beauxbatons where she straightened up and began her humanitarian streak, but because of her past, everything she did was consifered trouble."
"Hermione, she disabled innocent boys of their-" But Draco didn't finish what he was saying when Hermione sent a look his way that shut him up. It wasn't an angry look, but it still did the trick. 'Did I tell you how pretty you look today?" Hermione put her head on Draco's chest and let him put his arm around her. "I have a question."
"What is it?"
"Well, I always knew that Nina's mum was a muggle, but I never understood why her father married her."
"That's not a question," Hermione replied, but after thinking, she realized that she never knew wthe answer.
"Her mum is a squib's child from an old family. It was fixed for them to be married before their parents were even born."
Hermione and Draco looked in the doorway where a relaxed Nina was leaning in the open doorway with one arm above her head on the doorframe and her ankes crossed. Hermione jumped up and grabbed Nina in a returned hug.
"Welcome back to high school reality and a world of pain from the two of us, for scaring us senseless," Draco said, joining in on the hug.
"I'm sorry guys," Nina said, looking down. "There was just some stuff that I had to do before I came here that I'm not so sure Dumbledore would approve of."
Draco was about to ask what kind of stuff she had to do that the free spirit Dumbledore wouldn't approve of, but Hermione interrupted and asked Nina what her punishment ended up being.
"That she has to spend the rest of her Hogwarts carreer with me at her tail," a redhead in a black robe said, walking up behind Nina.
Hermione was about to faint as Draco searched for words to come to his mouth. Behind Nina was a boy, 6'2 with blazing blue eyes and fiery red hair, who no doubt came from the Weasley line.
The boy held out his hand. "Hello Hermione, it's been quite a while," he said in a thick American accent. Hermione, with a puzzled look on her face, took his hand and shook it. "You probably don't remember me. I stopped by at my cousin's place a few times you stayed during the summer, but it was only for a minute at the most. I was usually with Fred and George or Gin."
Hermione still couldn't place the boy.
"He's Ron's cousin," Nina explained (I acctually wanted it to be Bill or Charlie, but that just wouldn't fit in with my completely accurate and on the dot story ;-)). "He works for the American Ministry, but just moved here a few weeks ago."
Hermione nodded, still unsure of the character.
"What did you mean by 'she has to spend the rest of her Hogwarts carreer with you at her side?'" Draco asked.
"Oh, well, I would explain, but, um, you're a Malfoy," the Weasley said, not realizing that Draco and Nina were friends. Hermione, realizing that, put her hand in Draco's and laced their fingers. That was when he put the pieces together. "Oh, um, sorry dude." Draco nodded in acceptance. "Well, in the muggle world they have something called a probation officer. It's kind of hard to explain, but let's just say that a few levels up is baby-sitter. That's what I am going to be to Nina for the next few months, or until they find someone else. Actually no one wanted this except for Umbridge, but I sweetened her up and told her that her intelect was far above that of a baby-sitter and that she should just let me so that she didn't have to take tiem out of her busy schedule," he said with a laugh.
"Oh," Draco said, not fully understanding. "Er, what is your name again?"
"Oh, sorry, just call me Eddie," he said, holdign out his hand to Draco. "I was this close to slaping my parents when they named me Edwin."
"How about-"
"Not Winnie the Pooh," Eddie said, interrupting a smiling Nina.
Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to Eddie. "So what part of the Ministry are you with to get the honor of teen-watching?"
"Well I've actually only been in the ministry officially for one year so I'm really not sure, but I've been interning at the one back home for years. You guys are much more uptight than we are, no offence," Eddie explained. "If you have to place me though, I'm with law enforcement."
"Did you ha-"
"Enough chit-chat Adriana Bronwen Crawford." The teens all looked up at a stern looking woman and man accompanied by Narcissa Malfoy (A/N I'm sorry, but I forgot that I put Lucius in the previous chapter. He is not there. He is in jail). "We are leaving this instant and you are to be home-schooled until you turn eighteen."
"No," Nina said, stepping back. Her voice was higher pitched than usual and her face had a sort of scrunched-up look to it.
"Yes you are and Mister Malfoy, take those fingers of yours away from those of the mudblood."
"Says the daughter of a squib," Hermione said. "And the woman who practically raised her daughter as a muggle for her entire life."
"I did that because of the oath I was forced to make to my father on his deathbed," the tall, hypocritical woman said with a sneer.
"Whatever, you're still the daughter of a squib and muggle without any power of her own," Hermione said lightheartedly. "At least I can pull a rabbit out of a hat or make you bald."
With a huff and turn of her nose to the air, Mrs. Crawford walked down the hallway to wait for her husband and friend.
"Draco, son, what are you doing with the mudblood?" Mr. Crawford asked as nicely as he could muster.
"You mean the girl your daughter has known for her entire life as her best friend?" Draco 'corrected' him. "I'm dating her. Your daughter and I are just friends and that's all that we ever will be."
Eddie decided that now would be a more than good time to step in and prevent anything else that could set off a wizard's duel in the hallway. "With all do respect, sir," Everyone looked at Eddie. "It was decided by the Minister that Adriene would complete her years at Hogwarts where she will be closely monitered by me every day. Technically she's in my custody until she graduates."
Nina looked like she could kiss Eddie. Mr. Crawford, on the other hand, looked like he was ready to pounce the youths that were undermining him. He pointed his finger at Eddie and said, "if you value your temporary Visa, you might want to learn to respect your elders." With that, he and Narcissa walked down the hall and out of the teens' sights.
The train ride home, accompanied by Albus Dumbledore, was one of applause for Eddie and Draco's bravery. Hermione blushed and hid in Draco's shoulder when they focused on her and repeated what she had said to Nina's mother. The sky was beginning to grow lighter. The trial had been at eight in the evening and taken three hours including waiting for the verdict. Along with getting to the train (which involved some waiting in silence for Dumbledore and then getting dinner to eat on the train from a nearby Pret a Manger where Hermione had to wait outside with Draco because he was causing a scene with his asking what every single thing that he saw was), waiting for the train, then the train ride so far, the evening had lasted
"I know that we shouldn't," Dumbledore said as the train began to slow down, "but we are just arriving at King's Cross where I have arranged for a little day for the four of you, or moreso a few hours. I have tube passes for all of you, but they are not to be taken lightly. They are for breakfast and whatever else would take you until noon, which is when we will have lunch together at a lovely café a few blocks from the statio, but we can meet here. I have something called a credit card. It is connected to an account for each of you set up by the school. Everyone fourth year and up will be getting them for the next Hogsmead trip." The train screeched to a halt. Dumbledore stood up, tipped his hat to the other occupants of the train car and left.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again," Draco said, "that man is off his rocker."
Hermione rolled her eyes and slapped Draco on the arm and stood up. "Come on, we have seven hours. What shall we do first?"
Draco took her hand and pulled her down to him, where he laid down and put his rms around her, causing her to do the same with a different smile on each of their faces.
"Considering that not all of us want to spend a day of freedom from the school sleeping on the train, why don't Eddie and I go out and grab some coffee?" Nina suggested.
Hermione mumbled an "mm" of agreement and Nina stepped out of the car, followed by the tall redhead she had only met less than a day ago.
After coffee and a breakfast of more coffee, espresso, and cappaccino, Hermione and Nina dragged the boys to Camden Town, Portobello Road and Covent Garden/Piccadilly Square where they tried on almost every item of clothing they could find. Before they left the car, Hermione and Nina made sure that they were all in muggle clothing that they found in the train in another car. There were four outfits and were all the right size.
Boys turned to watch Hermione and Nina walk down the roads in their jeans and sweaters and girls stopped to stare at Draco and Eddie. Hermione was wearing a pair of tight, dark blue jeans with a black, v-neck sweater and black heeled boots. Nina's sweater was turquoise that folded over at the top and slid off her shoulder and went down to her bum, but seemed to disappear for a few inches between a few inches below her belly button and the top of her pants (making it look like she was wearing a skirt and expertly showing off her tattoo that seemed to have moved from her collarbone to right above her left hipbone, in fact, Hermione didn't even remember seeing the tattoo all school year so far) with black leg warmers and tan Uggs. Hermione suspected that Nina had something to do with the little gap and wondered how she wasn't frozen. Draco was wearing a black sweater and khakis, and Eddie had on baggy jeans with a blue sweater. Hermione and Draco's arms were wrapped around the other's waist for the entire time.
"So Eddie," Hermione said, taking one of Draco's french fries, "you never did get around to telling us how this whole thing was going to work out?" As she said 'this whole tihng', Hermione pointed to Eddie and Nina with the french fry.
"Well," Eddie began, "it is really up to the professors, but the options are that I either live in the prefect tower and sleep with Draco and my dear cousin, or Nina and I get our own room, but I'm not so sure that either one will be a problem from what I've heard." Ending at that, Eddie, too, took one of draco's fries and plopped it into his mouth. "Classwise, though, I am going to just pose as a student who is just close friends with Miss Crawford here. If you all haven't noticed, I look pretty young."
Hermione had to admit to herself that Eddie didn't look any older than the rest of them. He admited before that he was really nineteen, three years older than them. He finished school a year early because of extra classes and advanced placements, and because of his past experience with the ministry back home in New York, he was immidiately offered a job. Back to his looks, though, he was tall, tan and handsome with, from what she snuck a peak at while actually trying to sneak one at draco, a toned sox-pack with arms to match.
"Really?" Nina said sarcastically. "I tohught you were going to pose as a teacher."
"What did you mean with the living arrangements?" Draco asked, struggling to take the last french fry out of her hand before bringing it up to his mouth and biting the french fry out of it.
"I'm not supposed to say, but for now I'm a new Ravenclaw prefect who Ron can't recognize, so say good-bye to my hair and eyes because they're going black and green when we get to the school," Eddie said. "I'm not so sure that we want the school knowing that there's a ministry official watching over a student."
"But can't Ron know at least?" Hermione asked.
"Only those who you can trust, a.k.a. Ron, Ginny and Harry," Eddie told her as he took a sip of his milkshake. "I've done my research and listened to Aunt Molly's gossip."
At noon, the group walked into the restaurant Dumbledore was supposed to meet them in and looked for a man in a robe and hat, but Hermione was the one to almost faint when she saw her beloved headmaster sitting casually at a table wearing a dark green suit at a table for five.
"How did you all enjoy your day?" He asked them as they sat down. He looked at the three bags in each Nina's and Hermione's hands and smiled. "I see that you kept busy, but remember that the money does have a limit."
"Thank you professor," Nina said from her seat to the old headmaster's right. "And also thank you for your support today. It meant a lot to me."
"Think nothing of it," he said, "and also think nothing of your past for I have made it so that it can not be brought up again."
"But all she did was a few schoolgirl pranks," Draco said from between Hermione and Eddie, not understanding why Dumbledore was now so serious.
"One time I made everyone who I didn't like's head disappear for three weeks," Nina told him, "but there are still some other things that I have done that are far worse that people in Azkaban hold in high respect. Some have even told me that they wish that they were jailed for what I di-oops," Nina slapped her hand to her mouth.
"Don't worry Miss Nina," draco said, patting her hand softly. "No more questions or discussions of what occurred in the past for today. How about we look at the menu. This place makes a delicious calzone."
ccccccc