A/N : and she is back! Well, not really - it's more like she's back and then gone again... exams and shit and new univ and what-not. So without any further delay (I know I know - I've delayed enough already! And I'm sorry! Don't make me feel guiltier TT^TT Pliss TT^TT)
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It was Ronald Weasley.
He was standing about twenty feet away from their table with a tall, beautiful young girl with long, wavy brown hair who he roughly shoved behind him. He stalked forward and leered at Draco, "What are you doing here, Malfoy?"
He shrugged calmly, "I believe I was invited."
Ron lost his temper at that and his face severely coloured up. He gave all of them a scathing look but before he could open his mouth Harry materialised out of seemingly nowhere with Ginny in tow. Both of them succeeded in separating Ron from the table and at the same time, didn't create any sort of ruckus.
Hermione breathed noisily. Pansy turned to her with soft and sympathetic eyes, "Relax, sweetie. Deep breaths." Blaise watched Hermione too. It was Draco who broke the troubled silence, "I didn't know he'd been invited." Hermione took another shivering breath, "Well, neither did I." Then she squared her shoulders and steeled herself. Ron was the one who had cheated on her. She shouldn't be the one being emotionally moved or affected. Time to move on.
Pansy looked at her transformation with satisfaction. Draco looked at her with unease. He wondered how and when Pansy and Granger had become so close, and how had he not noticed? Granted it had been six years since the war and Hogwarts . . . but this was still too uncanny. Blaise looked between the three of them with something close to happiness. They had never been close during school. Draco and Pansy had, if you could call it close. But he had been somewhat of a loner. Draco and Pansy had tormented Hermione. She had hated them with a vengeance. And Hermione and Weaselby had been inseparable. He had an amused smile on, well . . . times change . . . and people change even more.
"Did you see the girl behind him?" Pansy mused lightly. Hermione and Draco both started at the sudden change of topic. Then all their eyes widened, "Hell yes." Hermione exhaled, "It wasn't Lavender! She didn't look familiar. Odd. I'd have thought he'd come with his girlfriend." She spat the last word. Pansy pursed her lips into a thin line, "Maybe he did." Draco raised his eyebrows and Hermione bent her head, her face emotionless. Blaise nodded, "She looked part Veela."
"Actually," a voice spoke up beside them, "I'm not a Veela at all. Part or otherwise." She had a slight French twinge to her accent. Hermione sat up straight and looked at her. The girl smiled tightly, visibly requiring effort to do just that, "You must be Hermione." She waited for a nod before extending her hand, "Hi. I'm Stacey."
Hermione frowned but still shook her hand politely. Stacey visibly relaxed and her smile became easier, "May I join you?" Hermione didn't speak but Pansy nodded, taking charge, "Sure, pull up a seat." She smiled gratefully at Pansy and sat at the small table, "I'm Stacey Corundum Cryolite." Hermione's eyes widened at the name. Stacey laughed, "I know. I have the worst name possible- Stacey Al-two-O-three Na-three-Al-F-six. Family name. Speak about embarrassing!" She shook her head and laughed again. Hermione crooked a smile too, relaxing a bit and Draco looked at Stacey with pitiful eyes, silently thanking his parents for just sticking with Black tradition and also thanking his parents for being Blacks and Malfoys and not Corundums or Cryolites. Blaise and Pansy though, looked utterly lost. Stacey laughed some more, "They're mineral ores for Aluminium." She said by way of explanation, the two of them still looked lost but she went on, "Apparently some ancestor of mine bought a mine and his wife decided it would be a good idea to name their first child after the primary ores there. Enter poor little baby Corundum Cryolite." Hermione snorted with laughter thinking this girl was not actually a bad sort and deciding to give her a fair chance. Pleased with Hermione's positive response, Stacey continued, "Obviously with a name like that any sane person would become bitter too... So this poor soul ended up becoming so bitter and angry, he decided to name all his children as Corundum Cryolite. Thankfully he just had two- Octavius Corundum Cryolite and Augustus Corundum Cryolite. So not too many people are with the cursed name now. But unfortunately for his younger brother, name Aluminium... he actually had a whole brood of children- thirteen! So there are far more Aluminiums in France than Corundum Cryolites." She grinned.
Blaise interjected, "So you're French? Hah! I knew it!"
She smiled and nodded in response, "And you are..?" Blaise raised his eyebrows and then realised they hadn't actually introduced themselves, so he began being helpful by pointing to Hermione, "You'd know her too well already- part of The Golden Trio, Best Witch of our Age, printed about in the papers every week- that's Hermione Granger." Stacey smiled at him thankfully and turned to Hermione, who was already smiling at her and Blaise, although she didn't particularly like the introduction much.
Blaise turned to Draco, going anticlockwise from her, "This dashing young man and wannabe pirate is Draco Malfoy. I'm not really gonna introduce him since you're a girl and even though you're all the way from France, you'd still know more about him than I do. He's only the most eligible bachelor in all of the European, and possibly worldwide, wizarding community." He flourished grandly. And Draco gave him a dry look before shaking her hand cordially with a bandaged one.
Blaise pointed to himself, "This brilliant man here, even more brilliant than the other four people sitting at this table put together is the one and only Blaise Zabini. The most eligible taken man in all of Europe and the world! You must've seen his charming and handsome face in numerous newspapers and magazines. He was in news recently for the acquisition of one of the leading potion breweries and also dabbles in art and-"
He was interrupted with a cough from his side, he stopped midway and gestured grandly toward the person who had coughed- "And this lovely lady here is this great man's girlfriend, Pansy Parkinson! She is the most beautiful and most smartestest witch in London, no offence to you dear Hermione, but I happen to actually live with the girl and- Ow! What is wrong with you woman?" He pouted at Pansy, who had just very properly smacked the back of his head. She turned to Stacey, who was fighting to keep the grin off her face and smiled winsomely, "I'm Pansy. I work in a charity and help keep peace, do rehabilitation work, human rights, all that jazz and donation drives. Sort of like a wizard equivalent of Red Cross... have you heard of that? Anyway, all of us went to Hogwarts and were in the same year. Hermione works at the Ministry, Draco does too but he's an Auror, Blaise is an unskilled businessman," "Hey!" "And I work for White Magic."
Stacey nodded, taking it all in, "I went to Beauxbaton and then to University in Germany. I have a degree in healing but work as an emergency helper in rescue missions, which is almost like a healer, and I'm a part time model."
Blaise's face fell, "So you're not Veela? Damn."
She laughed again, "No, but one of my seniors was, Fleur... You probably know her. TriWizard Tournament? Oh and she married the eldest Weasley."
Everyone quitened down, and she belatedly realised that was probably not the right thing to say. Blaise sensed her discomfort and tried helping, "The eldest Weasley? The one who got scarred in the War? Great chap." Pansy and Draco picked up too and nodded vigorously, but only Pansy and Blaise continued to speak, "The Weasleys are a good lot. Great lot! Even the twins. Lost one of them. Sad. Awful. Oh and there is Ginny too! Great family." Then Draco joined in to- "A few of them work at the Ministry. Oh and that remaining twin Weasley? Great bloke. His antics were possibly the only good things in fourth year..."
But Hermione did not join in. Neither did Stacey. Eventually the three of their talk petered down. "Hermione?" Stacey ventured, "Could I talk to you for a moment?" She looked markedly uneasy and scratched her neck, looking at Draco, Blaise and Pansy, before swallowing and saying, "Alone?"
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And she's back again! Hah! (For about a millisecond or so)
And she would truly like to utilise this opportunity to thank everyone for their patience and encouragement and especially those poor souls who PM'd me asking about this story. Dayum. I'm like the proudest I could ever be :) You all make me feel loved and wanted and all I did was ruin it, eh? I actually had this chapter all written out but never got the time (or the working internet connection dammit) to put it up. And I am SO SORRY!
And thank you to :
PoisonousWine : Oh you :) Thank you for saying that. And I hope you're still reading! I remember you saying you wouldn't because this suspense for waiting for chapters *coughsorry:(cough was 'too much for' your 'little heart!' :P
spam3 : Aww thank you :3 here - have a grateful internet hug ^w^
silvermoon96 : Yes ma'am, you are so right when you assume I won't tell you why Draco's a virgin and Astoria's pregnant or how or where I am going with that... But believe me - I will when I figure it out myself :P I do have a fair idea now and it'll be a highly convoluted twist and maybe people might not like it because it's sad and horrible OH NO! I have given too much away! :O *clamps mouth shut* :I
Also, if it isn't too much of a bother - Please forgive me for probably making you forget what you were reading! You must have looked in your mail and been like- "Huh? What on earth is Entangled? O_o" In fact - I bet a lot of people would have done that. Eeps :S
TheAngelOnYourRight : You wouldn't be too satisfied with this chapter, ne? :S Nothing really happens in it. I don't know... it's a filler chapter of sorts or something... Gah. The next one will be better, I promise :D But it won't focus on Draco and Hermione and their confrontation... But something else is revealed in it *conspirational grin* And sorry for making you wait so long :(
idunnomyname : LOL! Well, the IITs aren't that great anyway... there are snakes and cows and buffaloes in the hostels there and kids get food poisoning because of the food! Wow I can't believe how long I've taken to update this! We were talking about entrance exams then and now we're already finishing off with semester exams in univ! Yikes! Well, anyway, You'd asked me whether I was ever going to update or not - here's your answer :P Although my end of semester exams start next week and I haven't even started studying yet . . . Holy shit I'd better hurry up! :O
GottaGetBackUp : Well. Shit.
You reviewed thrice to contribute to thirty-five (And I got thirty-seven till now) But I never updated! AAAARGH! *pulls hair out and runs around screaming* And I don't know what starkid is and I'm not even a Potterhead and aghdefvcikjdjnefdkjsvfhed. Mesa sorry :'( Mesa so sorry :'(
Timex : Haha! Me too! Wow we're so alike aren't we!? XD And maybe we underestimate them - maybe they do know what they are doing! Or maybe they don't :P
anon : I kinda tried to mature the characters a bit, when we read them in the books they're still in their teens and well, pretty dumb if you think about - house rivalry and bullying should end when you have bigger things to worry about like wars and genocide. . . so I just tried to make them realistic, maybe that does make them slightly ooc but honestly - I think it's just nicer to make everyone grow up. Pansy need not always be a bitch and Draco need not always snit on Hermione and Hermione doesn't need to act like a stuck-up, uptight and fierce bookworm all the time either. At least, that's what I think :P And I find it fascinating how much people change and how fast - I guess I just emulated that tendency of us humans in this too :P
Sugnadha : Sorry sorry sorry! And Draco isn't being nice per se... he's just being normal, in his own way. Like I said there ^ I sorta made 'em grow up :P And HELL NO! I am not 'edward cullening him' as you put it. *affronted face* He's still Malfoy, a deeper, nicer and older Malfoy :)
ohsobrilliant : Well, I think you made it a thirt-six :P And I'm sorry I said that - keeping benchmarks and targets is a really bad thing! This time I decided I won't do that... Kinda makes me look like an attention seeking kid :P And gets your hopes up too, unnecessarily at that... Well, although it WAS my fault but yeah still - I'm rambling, aren't I? :P SOOO - wassup? :P
Superasianamazing : Woohoo! I updated! :D BTW - I liekz the namez :D
Annnnnd - that's it for now, folks! (Imagine me saying that liked how they did in Looney Tunes :D Boy, I miss Looney Tunes :( Who else used to watch that? Who's your favourite character in that? :P )