L'Harry Potter e'tait faire par J.K. Rowling
Draco Malfoy looked the Thestral squarely in the eye. He could swear that there was a tinge of red behind all that murky white colour, but if he told anyone, they wouldn't believe him. They'd just continue on treating him like a mentally unstable, ex-Death Eater-now-Auror by keeping their distance.
"Do you know what happened to Daphne?" Draco asked the Thestral. The horse-like creature snorted in reply and shook its head wildly. Draco moved onto the next Thestral.
"Do you know what happened to Daphne?" Draco asked. This Thestral also snorted and shook its head.
"You know you look really stupid right now, right?" said a voice behind Draco.
"Shut up, Granger," Draco said without looking. He asked the next Thestral about Daphne and got the same reply.
"Why don't you just use Legilimency?" Hermione asked, walking over to Draco.
"I think I'd prefer not to go into a Thestral's mind, thank you very much," Draco snorted, moving on to the next Thestral and repeating what he had done earlier.
"Fine, throw away help the first chance you get," Hermione said as she walked away.
"Wait! Granger!" Draco yelled, striding over to Hermione.
"What?" Hermione said impatiently.
"I was just wondering," Draco said slyly. "Exactly what happened between you and the weasel?"
Draco got another Hermione-slap as an answer.
*
Ron Weasley walked miserably along the corridors of the Ministry of Magic. The night after Ron's mum had found out about the engagement to Fay, she had told Ron's father, who had not been at all pleased. Soon after, several owls had been sent out; Bill, Charlie, Percy, and no doubt Bill's and Percy's wives had known of Ron's engagement. No one had been easy on him, but Ron had been spared his life. Rather luckily, too, since Ginny would have nearly killed him, had he not been awake at midnight.
As if to make matters worse, a muttering Draco Malfoy bumped into Ron.
"Well, if it isn't the heart-breaker," Draco remarked upon seeing Ron. "Heard you had a rough night with your sister and all."
Damn it! How fast did rumours- and truths- fly? Wait. Rough night. With Ginny?
"I don't give a damn, ferret," Ron muttered as he shuffled past and into the Auror Office with only a second to spare.
"Hi, Ron," Fay said eagerly as she passed. Ron smiled affectionately, wishing that he could sweep her into his arms. Sadly, the Auror Office rules didn't allow that.
"You know the rules, Weasley," drawled a voice from behind him. "No public displays of-"
"Yeah, yeah. I know the rules, Turpin," Ron said, without looking to see the source of the nagging. Lisa Turpin was always on about the rules. Even worse than Hermione.
Hermione…
Ron shook his head to clear the thoughts away as he reported to Harry, the Head Auror's, office.
A month later…
The wedding would be in two weeks. Hermione knew that much. She also knew that she wasn't invited.
So surprising.
Apparently, everyone in several Ministry Departments, including Hermione's and the Auror Office, had been invited, including Malfoy. Everyone had been invited but her.
"What're you wearing to Ron's wedding?" asked Pansy as she walked in (Hermione had forgotten to lock the door), carrying the usual delivery of more paperwork for Hermione.
"I'm not going to the wedding." Hermione said quietly, as she took the stack of papers from Pansy.
"You aren't?" Pansy asked, "But it's Ron Weasley's wedding. I thought you two were friends. Weren't you two seeing each other at some point?"
"We were even engaged," Hermione said glumly. Ginny had obviously not told Pansy about what Ron had done.
"You two were engaged?" Pansy shrieked. Hermione nodded.
"But then he found Fay Dunbar," Hermione couldn't help but spit Fay's name. "And he broke off the engagement."
"That bastard!" Pansy cried. "Well, you're much better without him."
"That's what everyone says," Hermione muttered.
"Everyone says it for a reason," Pansy said. "And that reason is that you are way better off without him."
"Shouldn't you be going somewhere?" Hermione asked as politely as she could.
"No, you're my last stop until break," Pansy said, not realizing that Hermione wanted her to go away. "So-"
"What about you? Are you seeing anyone?" Hermione asked, trying to steer the conversation away from herself.
"Oh! Me? I'm not seeing anybody right now," Pansy said. She seemed oddly jovial. "But I think Adrian Pucey fancies me,"
"The Quidditch player?" Hermione exclaimed incredulously. Pansy nodded enthusiastically.
"I know, I couldn't believe it either," Pansy said. "But he's already asked me out a lot of times, ever since he got traded and landed himself on the Tutshill Tornados Quidditch team."
"Have you seen him yet?"
"Oh, no. I barely even know him."
"But when you were in Hogwarts, you seemed popular." Pansy widened her eyes at Hermione who quickly amended her statement, "Popular among Slytherins that is. Pucey's a Slytherin right?" Pansy chuckled.
"Yes, and, well, everyone knew me and most wanted to befriend me," Pansy said pointedly. "But I didn't really feel the need to learn the names of everyone. At the time, the only people who mattered to me were in Draco's gang and mine."
"So you admit to have started a gang?"
"Not one of those nasty Muggle ones. My gang was more of a… posse."
Hermione just smiled in reply.
"Oi! Granger!" came the annoying voice of Draco Malfoy as he strolled into Hermione's office. He ignored Pansy, who ignored him back.
"I was walking past Turpin's cubicle when she told me to give you this," Draco thrust a pile of papers onto Hermione's desk. She groaned. Even more papers to deal with.
"Oh, shut up, Granger," Draco spat. "Stop complaining. At least Thestrals don't want to kill you."
"All with good reason," Pansy said coolly.
"Can it, Parkinson. No one likes you," Draco said with malice.
"I like her. Ginny likes her. Astoria likes her!" Herione cried, as she pulled out her wand and pointed it at Draco. "And at least she has friends, Malfoy. Unlike you! So why don't you shut up. And while you're at it, leave, or I'll hex your sorry arse off!"
"Well, the ex-Weasley seems very petty today," Draco sneered. "And mind you, I said petty, not pretty, so don't go getting any day-dreams, Granger. You'll never be pretty."
"Just get out, Malfoy!" Pansy shrieked as she whipped her wand out as well. Draco held up his hands and smirked as he backed out of the room.
"I can see some people woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," Draco said as he left the room.
"Close the door!" Hermione yelled after him. The door slammed shut with a resounding bang.
"Why is he even an Auror?" Pansy asked Hermione on Malfoy had left. "His attitude's horrible,"
"I think it had something to do with Harry being influenced by Dumbledore's thoughts on 'giving second chances' and 'finding the good in everyone'," Hermione laughed bitterly.
"You'd do anything to get him out of the office?" Pansy inquired. Hermione nodded.
"Well, not anything," Hermione said, "but most things."
"More than you would want to kick Ron's arse?"
"Well… it would be nice to kick Ron's behind," Hermione put stress on the word to discourage further swearing. Pansy just grinned mischievously, causing her to look much like a Chesire cat.
"Wouldn't everyone love to have a go at Ron?"
"I guess."
"Then meet me and Ginny at the Burrow. I'm sure we'll think of something."
And before Hermione could object to going to her ex's home, Pansy had left.
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