[Friday, November 11th, 2016]
"Bombarda!" Hermione shouted.
"Woah. Remind me never to challenge you for a duel." Oveyus remarked before they walked through the doors of the observatory.
"Don't lock me out of an observatory and you won't have to worry about a thing," she smiled, stepping over the rubble and into the building with him.
"Noted," he said, dusting off his pants.
"Reparo!" she cast the enchantment and the wall set about putting itself back together. After getting their bearings, they could see Malfoy was climbing up and down the levels of the large telescope. Hermione had never used it before, mostly because she hadn't wanted to take away time from the students.
"Is this normal?"
"A Malfoy, with dishevelled hair, wrinkles on his shirt and… okay, I can't explain the sneakers, but it's safe to say this is not normal," Hermione said as they began their trek down the stairs.
They approached him as though they were approaching a wounded animal. The last few steps were taken slow and steady. Malfoy was now by his desk shifting through charts and pages of a journal.
He waved his wand at the telescope and it began to cycle through some settings on its own. Gears began turning and the scope shifted to a different angle. Once the telescope seemed to settle into its new position he waved his wand again at the levers on the wall nearby and the roof panels turned to match with the position of the telescope.
"Now this is pretty cool," Oveyus said, a bit awestruck. Hermione considered perhaps she should sign up for a session with the telescope afterall.
"Leave." Was the only thing Malfoy said before he climbed the two steps to the viewing landing of the telescope.
"Come on, Malfoy, you look like a madman. Granger says you're wearing sneakers?" Oveyus said, approaching the base of the telescope, Hermione right behind him. "What are sneakers?" he whispered to her.
"A muggle footwear with rubber soles, meant to prevent slipping," she answered.
"Huh, that seems smart."
"I think so."
"I wonder if–"
"Are you two done?" Malfoy shouted, apparently finished looking for whatever it was he was looking for because he was climbing down the stairs again.
"Malfoy, talk to us," Hermione sighed, walking around his desk to face him, as well as take a look at what he was trying to study. Among the charts and text she could see he had all kinds of constellations and planetary maps. Beside them was a list, half of it seemed to be crossed off.
"Are you–you're cross referencing stars?"
"I have to start somewhere," he said, flipping pages.
"That could take you ages. There's no–"
"I won't fail!" he shouted, looking at her now. His eyes were bloodshot red. He looked as if he hadn't slept since she talked to him. "I won't fail," he said in a lowered tone and lifted his wand to reset the telescope again. That was when Oveyus did something Hermione really wasn't prepared for. He snatched Malfoy's wand right out of his hand.
"Oi!" Malfoy shouted.
"Now just wait a minute!"
Hermione lunged to stand between them, the look in his eye saying he was very ready to punch the Divinations Professor right in the face, just as he had with Rolf.
"Okay! Enough!" she bellowed, pushing Malfoy into his desk. "You are going to calm the hell down and listen! And you–" she turned to Oveyus who still had Malfoy's wand. "Give me that!" she took the wand in her hand and turned to Malfoy, pointing it at him. "This has gone on long enough! We are your friends and we are worried about you, so you're going to listen!" she pushed his wand back into his hands and by some miracle he didn't move.
His expression remained in a state of shock, and she realised it was because she had called them friends. She supposed that was what they had become now.
"Malfoy, buddy, what are you trying to do?" Oveyus finally spoke.
"He's trying to make sure everything is where it's supposed to be. Aren't you?" Hermione answered for him. He seemed determined not to say a word now.
"What do you mean 'everything'?" Oveyus asked.
"The stars, the planets, he's making sure everything is still in place."
Oveyus took a moment to process the information and still it did not seem to click into place.
"Let me get this straight, Malfoy's trying to make sure all the stars of the universe are in their correct location?"
"Well not individually, at least I hope not."
"I hope I'm not interrupting your little Friday morning curiosities but I have work to do." Malfoy's tone was bordering on impatience and well past exhaustion. Hermione eyed Oveyus, signalling that now was as good a time as any to tell him off.
"This is exactly the reason I didn't tell you."
"Well you should have! Maybe I could have gotten another day's head start!" Malfoy shouted again, this time getting back on his feet.
"Sit down or I'll turn you into a toad, mark my words Draco Malfoy," Hermione threatened, pointing her wand at him. His mask came out of place for half a second as she could almost predict he would grin at her, as if to take on the challenge, but it didn't last long. He sat down. "Now would be a good time to explain what you mean, Edore," she said, still holding her wand threateningly at Malfoy.
Oveyus cleared his throat.
"As observant and remarkable as Professor Granger's reading of your charts was, she was wrong."
Hermione and Malfoy snapped their heads to him. Hermione had not guessed what he might say after all.
"Excuse me?" she said a bit offended. She put her wand down.
"It's true. Look, you did a marvellous job in your analysis, I'm sure, but it's far too literal and quite impossible. It might be possible if Malfoy here actually has the ability to change the course of any one star or planet in the universe. Unless a new magic has been invented to do so, I assure you, if that were the case there would be many more omens screaming at us all by now," he clapped his hands together and pointed at the desk.
"But this is great stuff. I'll definitely be telling everyone in class about this. Good cautionary tale. Could always use more of those," he laughed.
Hermione turned to Malfoy and could visually see him relax. He hung his head slightly.
"Wait so what did it mean then?" Hermione said, determined to understand but when she turned to Oveyus once more he was headed up the stairs.
"He'll find out soon enough, and I promise, no life threatening events," Oveyus said, laughing some more as he left the observatory. For once Hermione had no idea what to say.