And it's been over a week…oops sorry. I've been a bit unwell and stressed with work so didn't manage to upload on Monday, but here we go, Chapter 9
Chapter 9: How many pants is too many?
The next evening, Esmerelda, Hermione, and Ginny were all piled on Hermione's bed, and luckily, as the other girls were out for the evening, they had the room to themselves.
"Why the sudden need for a girls' evening then?" Hermione asked. She was flipping through a copy of Witch Weekly that Mrs. Weasley had sent Ginny earlier that week, and was pulling faces as she perused the articles inside.
Esmerelda shrugged. "We haven't spent much time together just us three this year, and I thought it would be nice to have a bit of time without the rest of the motley crew."
"Yeah, fair enough. I've got six brothers, you don't need to tell me about the need for girl time," Ginny laughed.
"I wish I'd had a sister growing up," Hermione added. "Or even a brother actually."
Esmerelda nodded. She, too, was an only child. Finding out four years ago that Harry was her cousin had meant a lot to her. It was as though she'd gained a brother, not just a cousin.
"If you'd had a sister, Hermione, I wonder if she would have been a witch too, or a muggle like your parents," Ginny pondered out loud.
Hermione thought about what Ginny had said. "I would have loved to have had a brother or sister either way, but I suppose it might have been a bit odd to have a muggle sibling. I mean, I have muggle parents, of course, but to have someone basically your age who is living a completely different life to yours, would be difficult I think." She plumped up the pillows and leant against them, making herself more comfortable.
"Happened to Harry's mum," Esmerelda added. "Both his aunt Petunia and my dad are muggles. Must have been difficult for all of them. I know Petunia never really got over it. I think that's probably because she and Lily were close in age. My dad was a lot older, so I don't think it affected him all that much." The other girls nodded. They too knew about Harry's aunt and her views on magic. It didn't help, either, that she was married to someone even more anti-magic than she was. Esmerelda frowned. Thinking about Uncle Vernon made her blood boil.
Esmerelda had been thinking a lot about her dad's childhood recently, and that of Harry's mum and their aunt Petunia. She felt that the dynamics of mixed families - where at least one member is a witch or wizard - was something that wasn't discussed enough. In some cases, as was evident with her aunts, it was enough to tear a family apart. She was very lucky, as was Hermione. Their families were so accepting no matter what.
"I can't remember you every telling us about what happened with your dad and his family," Hermione stated curiously.
Esmerelda thought for a moment and then took a deep breath. "I'll start from the beginning," she said. "My dad is 15 years older than Petunia, and 17 years older than Lily, so there was quite a big age gap. By the time Lily was accepted into Hogwarts, he was already in his late twenties. At some point after he'd turned 18, cracks had started to appear between him and his parents – I think they had wanted him to take over the family business, but he had other plans, and was interested in travelling the world and enjoying his youth," Esmerelda explained. "I know that he would come to visit whenever his sisters were on their school holidays, trying to see them as much as he could, but the relationship with his parents had become very strained. They died not long after. When Lily left Hogwarts, Dad was away travelling, but they always kept in contact through letters as they had done when she was at school. At some point during this time, the letters stopped suddenly. My dad worried about Lily, so tried to find out through Petunia what was happening. As to be expected, she was less than helpful and was being rather elusive. Dad panicked and returned to England to try and find Lily, but after their parents' death, the family home had been sold and the girls had moved out. Despite his best efforts to find her, it was as if she had vanished. He decided to stay in England in case any news of Lily surfaced, so got a job, settled down and met my mum. Shortly after, I came along."
"Wow," whispered Ginny. "Did he ever find out what happened to her?"
Esmerelda sighed. "He found out later that Lily had stopped writing because she had become a part of the original Order of the Phoenix. She had decided that to protect him and the rest of the family, she had to cut contact to make sure that nobody could trace them. This was at a time when the newspapers were filled with stories of families being tortured or murdered by the Death Eaters. Dad never even found out that Lily had had a child during this time, and Petunia never bothered to tell him. She wrote to tell him that Lily had died in a car accident in the November of that year. Dad was absolutely devastated, and furious with Petunia for withholding so much information. They haven't spoken since as far as I know."
The girls were looking at her, eyes wide.
"I know," Esmerelda replied. "Things could have turned out so differently if Petunia had told Dad about Harry. Maybe we even could have grown up together."
Ginny shot a sympathetic glance her way.
Esmerelda pulled herself from her thoughts and changed the subject to something less depressing. "Ginny, I've heard from a semi-reputable source (aka she'd overheard some Ravenclaw fourth years talking in the corridor) that you may be going out with Darren Finch in Ravenclaw. Is this at all accurate information?" She wiggled her eyebrows making Ginny laugh.
Hermione looked intrigued. Clearly this was new information to her as well.
Ginny blushed. "Well, we're not going out going out. Not officially," Ginny admitted. "We did kind of end up hanging out at the last Hogsmeade weekend and we've been on a couple of walks around the grounds, but I don't know how I feel about the whole thing. How am I meant to know if I actually like him, or if I'm just kind of spending time with him because he asked me to?" Ginny asked.
"From my experience, you'll feel totally nervous and excited at the same time when you spend time with him. He'll make you feel comfortable too, as though you don't have to try too hard with anything you're saying, or to be anyone you're not." Esmerelda's thoughts flitted to Fred and how when they talked it made her feel jittery. Right, that's enough of that. She decided to ignore her stupid brain for bringing up the thoughts she was trying really hard to ignore right about now.
Hermione spoke up. "I completely agree. You should never feel as though you're forcing anything that isn't natural or trying to act like someone you're not. And sometimes," she continued, "there just isn't a spark. There isn't always a reason for it but it's just the way it is."
Ginny sat for a moment taking in what she'd been told. "I don't think there's a spark." She looked a little disappointed. "He's asked me to hang out with him tonight. Do you think I should go?"
"No harm in going, in my opinion," Esmerelda replied. "I think, use tonight to confirm how you're feeling either way. After that, you'll probably have a better idea of whether there's anything there, or if it's more of a friend thing."
"Yeah. Thanks, I think I'll do that." Ginny readjusted on the bed and crossed her legs. "I was thinking, could we maybe do some of that nail varnish stuff you brought with you?" she asked, looking at Esmerelda.
Having grown up in the wizarding world, Ginny had never encountered muggle beauty and cosmetic products until coming to Hogwarts. Esmerelda and Hermione on the other hand, were very familiar with them, and Esmerelda regularly had a stash of them in her trunk for occasions such as this.
"Of course we can," Esmerelda replied, happily producing a selection of nail colours from her trunk at the end of her bed. "Which colour would you like?"
They all considered their options and then chose a nail varnish each before Hermione conjured some trays for them to lean on. Esmerelda, having had the most experience with painting her nails, neatly began applying the deep green varnish she had chosen.
"What are the boys up to today?" she asked of the others. She glanced over at Ginny who, tongue stuck out in concentration, was doing a sloppy job of painting her nails. "Here let me have a go," Esmerelda offered and took Ginny's hand into her own.
"Thanks," Ginny replied, passing the varnish over to Esmerelda. "I think Harry and the twins offered to help Ron practise some saves before the next Quidditch match, so they've gone out to the pitch."
"It's been so hard for them not being able to play, but I'm glad they're helping Ron out. Hopefully that will help with his confidence," Hermione said.
"You've clearly not seen Fred and George try to teach before," Ginny replied. "I tell you what, I'm glad I'm not out there." She grimaced.
"Oh dear, I'm sure they aren't that bad," Hermione said kindly.
Ginny smiled. "Fred and George are many things, but patient is not one of them. Especially where Ron is concerned."
Esmerelda grinned to herself. She could imagine Fred and George shouting at Ron, thinking that they were helping, and Harry, in the middle, trying his best to be encouraging. Poor Ron.
Hermione brought her right hand up to her face to inspect her handiwork. "Not bad, considering I had to do this one with my left hand." She started on the other hand. "Esmerelda, I've been meaning to ask, how're things going with the mystery man?"
"What! You have a mystery man!? Why didn't you tell me?" Ginny asked.
Her heart started beating rapidly as flashes of her lips barely inches from Fred's flashed into her mind. Esmerelda froze.
It wasn't that Esmerelda didn't trust Ginny. In fact, Ginny was one of her closest friends, and she normally wouldn't hesitate to tell her anything. On this particular occasion however, the mystery man in question was, in fact, one of her brothers. Esmerelda also knew that Ginny was a very discerning person and was good at reading people. Would Ginny be able to suss her out straight away? Would she ever talk to her again if she found out? It was all too complicated to even think about.
She had to answer. She'd been silent for too long.
"It didn't really mean anything. It was someone from another house that I thought I might have liked, but then I realised there wasn't anything there," she managed to reply.
"Oh that's a shame," Hermione stated. "Last time we talked you were quite keen on him."
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. She needed to try not to contradict herself too much. "Yeah, I think I just realised, after we nearly kissed, that there wasn't anything solid there. It was more of a physical attraction, not anything to base a relationship on. We decided to just be friends." She'd done an alright job of being vague but still giving enough information to keep them satisfied. It was all pure lies of course.
"Still not going to tell me who he is then?" Hermione asked, intrigued. Esmerelda could see that Ginny was also listening raptly.
"Uh, no. I think because it didn't work out, I'll keep his identity a secret for now." The others nodded, showing they understood.
"Ginny, if you don't mind me asking," Esmerelda said, "how are you feeling about the whole Cho thing?" They all knew, except maybe Harry himself, that Ginny had fancied him for years and that he had paid her hardly any attention at all, which had crushed her. It seemed now though that Ginny had begun to move on.
"If I'm being honest, it does hurt a little, seeing Harry fawn over someone else. Especially someone as cool and pretty as Cho." Poor Ginny. "But I've kind of moved on now. I know that no matter how much I might want something to happen with Harry, it probably never will. He sees me as a friend or maybe even as a little sister, but not as anything romantic. So, there's no point carrying on as I was before. I think that's probably one reason why I said yes to Darren. I was forcing myself to see who else was out there and to explore other options."
"And just because it might not be successful this time, with Darren, doesn't mean there isn't someone wonderful out there for you," Esmerelda replied. "You're amazing Ginny and drop dead gorgeous. I mean, the red hair is obviously a large part of that," Esmerelda smiled teasingly, "but you also have so many other brilliant qualities. Plus, you're only 14! You've got your whole life to find someone who deserves you." Ginny returned her smile.
"You are a soppy one, I don't know why I even bother being friends with you," Ginny replied with a smirk.
Esmerelda smirked back. "Should I just stop doing your nails then?" she asked jokingly. "You'll have eight lovely ones and two horrendous ones. You okay with that?" Ginny stuck her tongue out in response and elbowed Esmerelda in the side. "Careful with the nudging or you really will end up with two messy nails!" Esmerelda warned.
"How are yours going Hermione?" Ginny asked, leaning over slightly to inspect Hermione's pale blue fingernails. "Ooh they look nice, and they suit you."
"You know we're probably going to have to take this off fairly soon anyway, once a teacher spots them. Nail varnish is probably against the rules," Hermione stated.
"I'm surprised you don't know Hermione, I thought you knew all the Hogwarts rules," Ginny teased.
"I don't think Hogwarts' rules account for such Muggle-ish things as nail varnish," Esmerelda replied.
Hermione laughed, "I actually think you might be right."
"Clearly a massive oversight on their part," Esmerelda retorted. "And there's always a first time for everything. I quite like the thought of being the reason behind a new Hogwarts rule. Something to tell the children, you know?"
"I kind of hope Umbridge notices," Ginny said. "I can picture the new Educational Decree now." Ginny put on her best Umbridge voice again. "All muggle beauty products are now prohibited. Anyone seen to be using them must submit themselves to questioning...and nail varnish remover.'"
"God forbid she finds out about false eyelashes," Hermione laughed.
"Or fake tan," Esmerelda added. "I might put some on tomorrow and see what she thinks."
"If you turned up to class bright orange, she'd probably think you'd had a run in with one of the twins' Skiving Snackboxes, and that right there would be detention worthy in itself," Ginny added.
"Totally worth it," Esmerelda replied.
…
At lunch the next day, Esmerelda sat down next to Ginny, and the two girls were discussing ways to help Harry with the DA. They were in the middle of deciding when the next meeting should be
when Harry appeared, sinking down on the bench next to her unceremoniously.
"What's with you?" Ginny asked, looking at the sullen boy across from her.
"Harry's managed to get another detention with Umbridge," Hermione replied in his place.
"It's not me who's done anything Hermione," added Harry, slightly exasperatedly. "You know that Umbridge is just trying to prove a point. She wants me to confess that I'm making the whole thing up about Cedric and Voldemort and everything I saw last year."
Esmerelda surveyed her downhearted cousin. "I'm not sure if she's genuinely an idiot or just so far up Fudge's arse that she'll believe any old propaganda and lies he's trying to propagate," she added.
"I vote for both," Ginny quipped, biting into her croissant. Harry smiled meekly.
"You'll be alright Harry," Esmerelda reassured, even though she wasn't fully sure she believed it. Detention with Umbridge was a vile business. So far, she'd been lucky to escape the worst of the teacher's temper, given that most of it was normally directed at Harry.
Ron looked at Harry sympathetically. They all knew what detention with Umbridge entailed. Esmerelda glanced down at Harry's hand. The scars from his last detention still very visible, but less red thanks to Hermione's salves.
"Let's go and get some fresh air. Fancy a walk around the lake?" Ron asked. The others nodded and they rose from their chairs and headed towards the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Cloaks!" Harry remembered as they were nearing the door. It wasn't too bad in the castle, but they'd certainly need something warm once they got outside. They ran upstairs to retrieve some more weather-appropriate clothing and headed out once more.
They wandered slowly out of the castle and towards the lake. It was a nice clear day, but freezing nonetheless. Esmerelda was glad she'd grabbed her scarf and gloves as well as her winter cloak. They started around the lake, talking as they went about their Christmas plans.
"Are you looking forward to skiing, Hermione?" Esmerelda asked her. "I've never been. I bet it's amazing."
Ron looked perplexed at the idea of the muggle sport, even though they'd all explained it to him a number of times.
"I am," she said. "I haven't been in a while and it's something I really love doing. Of course, it'll just be nice to see Mum and Dad and spend time with them properly too."
Esmerelda could understand that. Although she did have one magical parent, unlike Hermione who had two muggle parents, hers also lived mainly in the muggle world. As a result, she sometimes felt a bit separated from her parents when she was at Hogwarts. She imagined it must be even harder for Hermione. Her parents probably understood very little about Hermione's other life, through no fault of their own of course. Hogwarts and the Wizarding World were just very different from how muggles lived their lives.
Hermione turned towards her. "Do you have any set plans with your parents or are you just having a relaxing few days?" she asked.
"I'm not entirely sure what Mum and Dad have planned but I think we're meeting up with some close friends, and then going to pick out a Christmas tree like we always do and decorating it of course. Are you sure you don't want to come round mine for Christmas Harry? Mum and Dad have been asking about you."
Harry smiled. "I know, they sent me a letter inviting me for Christmas a few weeks ago but they understood that Sirius needed me more."
Esmerelda nodded.
"It'll be really good for Sirius too. He desperately needs some company I think," Harry said. They all nodded in agreement with that. Poor Sirius had been alone for far too long. A busy Christmas surrounded by family and friends was probably just what he needed.
"I'm glad we'll all get a chance to spend some time together over the holidays though," Harry added. There were plans for them all to head to Grimmauld Place later in the holiday season.
They carried on around the lake, talking about other small matters and just enjoying each other's company as they went. As it was December, it was a gloomy day, and there wasn't much natural sunlight. After walking the perimeter of the lake, they were well and truly frozen when Ron suggested they head back to the common room to warm up before lunch. They walked back towards the castle, heads down in an attempt to brace themselves against the fierce wind that had picked up and was cutting right through them.
As they rounded the corner, Esmerelda almost bumped into someone. The resulting shock caused her to stop in her tracks, and Hermione and Harry, who also weren't really looking where they were going, walked straight into her.
She looked up at who she had almost collided with and saw that it was quite possibly the worst person that it could have been.
"So Gryffindors are oblivious as well as stupid," Malfoy drawled upon spotting who he was talking to. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled from behind him.
"Malfoy," Esmerelda said bluntly. "While always a pleasure, we have better things to do with our time. If you'll excuse us, we've got to finish off our packing." She tried to barge past him, but Malfoy stuck his arm out in front of her, blocking them from passing.
"I'm surprised Weasley has much to pack at all." He looked smugly at Ron. "I doubt his family can even afford more than one pair of underpants," Malfoy spat. Crabbe and Goyle guffawed yet again.
Esmerelda turned to look at Ron. He was becoming red, but Esmerelda could see that he was trying not to lose his temper.
"I'd like to strangle him with my underpants," Ron mumbled under his breath.
Esmerelda tried not to laugh.
She turned to Malfoy. "And I bet you've got loads, Malfoy. Being rich and all. They're probably made of silk or something," Malfoy nodded immodestly, but looked slightly confused by the turn of conversation.
"Why do you need so many?" she asked. "Can't stop shitting yourself?"
Harry snorted and then looked away, not interested in getting into a fight with Malfoy. Behind him, Ron's mood improved significantly. Esmerelda could have sworn she even heard a hint of a splutter coming from Goyle. Malfoy looked both perplexed and enraged. Before he had a chance to answer, Esmerelda pushed past him, flanked by the others, as they entered the castle.
…..
I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. I feel like little chats between the female characters are something we never get to see in Harry Potter – I suppose it is written generally from Harry's POV to be fair. I enjoyed writing one into this chapter anyway. There was also a bit of backstory in regard to Esmerelda's dad and Harry's mum, as I had a comment on a previous chapter enquiring about what had happened.