Disclaimer: I own nothing except my characters.

Note: Again, this chapter was written "ages" ago so it remains the same overall; I changed a bit so it seemed a bit more personal. Not gonna lie, I did not like writing this chapter. Do not die SiobhanPhelps, even though this is a difficult chapter.

And Then There Were 9

"It's more like he deserved it because he's nothing more than a disgusting bloated belly slug rolling in his own filth." I said walking over, as Draco loosened his tie and I placed a nearby wine glass in one of his hands.

"What happened?" Melinda asked, looking from Jonathan, to me to Draco. I shook my head, still angry. "I told your mum I just got back in, she believed me" Melinda explained.

"How's the crowd?" Draco asked.

"Still a few more here, but they should be gone by midnight, I hope. I'll never be able to sleep otherwise," Melinda said as we crossed the hall, heading back into Draco's room. "So, what happened to him?" she asked thumbing at the unconscious Jonathan.

"Draco punched him" I said with a smile.

"Wow, that's great, good job Tam—wait, what?" she said looking confused from me to Draco. "You punched him, but why?" she asked, full of surprise.

"He's an idiot" Draco said simply. "And he gave Tammie a rose, everyone knows Tammie hates roses" he added as if it weren't a big deal.

"He gave you a flower?" Melinda asked wrinkling her nose as I twirled it in my hands. "You're gonna throw it away, right?" she asked as if it were infected.

"I'm going to go back over to Jonathan and give it a good shove up his—"

"I think my parents will be preoccupied long enough for you open your presents Melinda" Draco interrupted, standing up to pull her bag from the corner of the room. "I can leave if you want" he added, still standing, looking uncertain.

"It's fine" she said simply. Draco gave a small smile; I knew it was hiding a bigger smile because it reached his eyes, something that rarely happened.

"I'm sorry I didn't ask you to dance. It's only that, when I do dance with you, I want our full attention on each other and not some stupid gits around us muttering about how awful we look together." Draco said reaching over to pat her hand but she pulled away.

"So what's the reason for you letting your mum lie about who I was to that ugly prune?" Melinda said quietly, though, judging by her expression it looked this was a problem she had already personally dealt with.

"What lie?" I asked looking from one to the other.

"You want to tell her?" Melinda asked fiddling with the bag of presents.

"My aunt asked who Melinda was, she liked her dress—"

"Not that the fat cow could ever fit into it" Melinda mumbled.

"And my mum said she was a muggle, you're friend, sort of like a pet for a class you're taking. Hands on experience with how muggles react in a wizarding social environment to prove muggles and wizards shouldn't bond or mate. She added that if anything went wrong Melinda's memory would be wiped out; but according to education laws, she has to at least get her memory altered so it was okay my aunt showed her spells," Draco explained the fake story his mum told.

"And she believed that?" I asked narrowing my eyes.

"Yep, she kept making her glass refill itself and then levitating random vases" Melinda said in an acid tone.

"Wow, she's dumb…" I concluded.

"I thought Melinda might overreact. Or at least slap her when she tried to pronounce Wingardium Leviosa and nothing happened" Draco said.

"She was sounding it out, you know, as if I were first year, but she sounded it out incorrectly the first few times. It's not: Levaosa, it's: le-vi-osa. Stupid hag." Melinda shook her head, trying to clear the thoughts.

"And you wonder why I stay at The Burrow for Christmas" I said to Draco as I got up to make sure the door was locked and muffled. As I sat back down, I glanced at the clock, eleven-fifteen, plenty of times.

Melinda's resentment for Draco either disappeared or she momentary forget about it the second she opened first gift; which was little money shaped candies from Bill, and a candy key and exotic looking candies from Romania from Charlie. Ron had gotten her the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team photo, the little note attached read: Luna helped. Harry's gifts included a remote control, The Grimm Brothers collection and two England Quidditch Team hats; one looked like it was the perfect size for her younger brother's head. I couldn't help but smile; at least he remembered how much she must have missed her family.

Hermione's package was the heaviest, containing three books: A blue and bronze medium sized blue book titled The Ravenclaw and You; another medium green and yellow book with a fancy dressed wizard and fancy muggle—at least I was assuming—on the cover looking up at the title: Working and Adjusting Between Two Words: A Comedy; and a rather large brown leather book with gold letters titled: A Self-Severing, All Purpose Handbook for Classes. She smiled with glossy eyes as she ran her fingers over George's present, the hair clip with the raven on it, the raven springing to life at her touch.

Four folded up papers fell out of Fred's gift bag. "Spare me the torture and George the annoyance and thank Malfoy for us. We didn't need help, but it was nice gesture" the first one said. The second one was a well detailed, well sketched image of what I assumed to be their shop, Fred's head as the main piece of décor on the outside. "Nice picture of George" Melinda joked. The third paper was a letter of documentation that the twins's approved of Melinda handling their finical assets and keeping the budget, making her the assistant Bookkeeper until she turned of age where she could handle the complete business with the money. I couldn't be happier, their money and business was going into the hands of one of the best people I knew. The last piece of paper were the rights and ownership of the property, the name of their shop, their signatures and the seal of authenticity. The note attached read: "Please make duplicate for Tam, I would've myself but I would confuse them." His last gift was a beautiful bracelet, the silver glittered even in the small amount of light we had. There was something inscribed but after Melinda read it she turned it away from me, quickly moving on to the last four presents.

As expected she received a dark purple sweater from Mrs. and Mr. Weasley, a large gold M on the front. Percy, to my surprise, and certainly hers, a small display case, complete with a cloth and two bottles of potion. She scrunched her nose as she opened his second gift, the same exact thing but a bit bigger. Both of us wrinkled our noses in confusion as Draco laughed.

"It's for your badge, your Prefect badge, and the other one, that's for the Head Boy, Girl in your case. Glad he's so confident" Draco explained laughing again. She nearly fell over as she absently tried to pick my present up. "I swear to Merlin, if this what think it is I'm—"

"Gonna hex me? Go ahead, you won't love it any less" I joked as she unwrapped Charms: An Absolute and Complete Coverage. She looked delighted and gave me a pat on the shoulder which I waved off. She hesitated on the last present, which was from Draco; Draco had gotten up by this point and was now concentrating so hard on a pile of clothes I thought they might spring up without the help of his wand. She looked over the mirror, and laid it down. "Thank you," she said politely, looking halfway in Draco's direction.

"You're welcome" he said moving toward the clothes.

We finished just in time to hear the commotion about Jonathan which ended in his father using some sort of levitation spell to bring him home. I walked Melinda down to her room; we didn't make much chat because we were both exhausted. As I headed back to my room, Mrs. Malfoy was waiting by the door. "I'm sorry about your friend" she started. "I hope Fred was able to comfort you as well as Draco" she said as I shifted. "Though, I'm positive you would've recovered nicely with Jonathan in arm if you didn't punch him in the face." She paused to glare at me. "Regardless," she said pausing again and then looking off, as if thinking of something but not really thinking. "If only you and Draco weren't cousins, such a shame" she said, sounding truly disappointed by this.

After three rounds of brushing my teeth and washing my face I headed to my room again, but stopped to say goodnight to Draco. "Your mother is a ferret Draco" I told him with a smile.

"I threw up in my mouth a bit" he whispered with a laugh. "Night" he added.

"Goodnight Malfoy" I said closing the door gently before hurrying off into my room, closing my own door and climbing into bed.

The remainder of the break seemed to pass with much ease though Abby's situation remained heavy on everyone's mind. I was glad to be reunited on the train with the others; we talked excitedly about Christmas all the way back. I wanted to talk about Abby but Matt said she was showing signs of waking up soon so I didn't say anything as to not jinx it.

Halfway through our ride back to Hogwarts George came to our compartment; all conversations ceased as we looked at each other worryingly. And then, unexpectedly, he bent over and gave me a hug. "I'm sorry," he said squeezing me tightly. As soon as he let go he gave me another hug, this one catching me off guard. "For once I'm proud of you Malfoys" he said wink as he strolled out to join his brother and Lee Jordan.

Once off the train and inside Hogwarts, I scanned the faces, my eyes quickly falling on the boy who was pacing back and forth. "Matt!" I shouted to him as I ran over my arms flinging around his neck, his grip just as tight as he hugged me back, lifting me off the ground a few inches.

"Hey Tam" he said happily placing me back on ground as the others—not including Draco—walked over. "I'm glad you're all okay" he said giving Melinda and Hermione hugs and firm pats on the shoulder to the twins, Ron and Harry. Melinda seemed to let any dislike toward him slip away as she smiled at him, she must have really liked how Abby sort of grew on him.

I was over joyed to see Professor Madison took a day off, and even more excited Courtney was in and out of the hospital wing due to stomach pains. Nothing of great importance happened, though I kept my eyes on each passing day hoping Abby would wake up. On a cold snowy Sunday morning at the beginning of February we all decided to gather in the library, just to form some general idea about what we knew. Melinda and Draco were late, Ron kept falling asleep, Harry and Matt talked while Hermione read and George and Fred joked around, Fred's hand never once leaving mine.

When the two finally showed up they were both blushing, Draco was the same color as an apple while Melinda's cheeks seemed to be the only area still red. George, who had seemed to morph back into his old self as soon as we met on the train remained in his good mood, congratulating Melinda and half nodding, half twitching in Draco's general direction. Except Ron, the rest of us seemed happy that Melinda and Draco were together again. We ended up going over the same information about The Fates because Hermione needed to hear it repeatedly for no real reason.

One afternoon in late February we got word that Abby was awake; Dumbledore seemed only too happy to let us take the Saturday off to get visit her, so we quickly took off, Matt was already there, the two of the laughing and joking. "Oh Abby…" I said as I ran in and threw my arms around her.

"Dramatic much?" she teased as felt my eyes swell up. "C'mon, if I'm going to play Quidditch next year I gotta learn to take a hit" she said motioning to the bandages as Matt shook her head. "This hasn't left my side all day, he's like my own personal body guard" she said and then pretended to whisper "So annoying" with a fake roll of the eyes.

"Oh speaking of Quidditch" I interrupted as I pulled her present from the bag. "Here," I said handing over the box. She quickly opened it, her smile bright as she quickly put on the bracelet, Matt tying it for her. The others came in behind me, each of them greeting Abby.

"Tam" Matt said motioning me out in the hallway. I followed, Fred taking my place next to Abby. "They don't know what did that, Abby doesn't remember anything, but it's clear she fought" he said as I nodded. "I know we know it's Burnner, I do, but we can't do anything about it. We need to corner her, we need to find our own way" he said as I nodded again, anxious to get back inside.

"But she's okay, right?" I asked as he half nodded. "Matt, what aren't you telling me?" I asked him, my tone a little harsher.

"I made sure the doctors put her on a strict visitation list. If any irregular potion gets into those cuts…" he trailed off, I already knew what he was going to say anyway. "But, assuming she stays here and heals she'll fine in a few weeks," he said. "I should go though, I'll back later and probably tomorrow, I need to make sure she's okay" he said, his voice hinting at something.

"Matt, this isn't your fault" I told him but he didn't respond. "I know you feel that way, I do too but—"

"My parents insisted I leave school that day to help with the shopping, they never insist anything. I should've known…I just wish Courtney would tell something, anything" he said but then sighed, said goodbye and headed off.

"Hey, we should get going…" Hermione gently reminded as eight o'clock came around and Matt came back with chocolates and teas. We all agreed and started to gather ourselves together to leave.

"Now, remember, if you wander the hall at night and the nurses ask you what you're doing, what do you say?" George asked as Abby blushed.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" she said, half embarrassment, half overjoyed. George nodded as he stood up from his chair.

"We'll see you soon Abbs" he said as he gave her a light peek on the forehead. I could've sworn Abby squealed and if she had a heart monitor attached it would be going crazy.

"Deal" she said as George nodded and headed out.

"Keep writing" I told her as she nodded and I left, giving one last look before I left.

Even though the following week flew by and Abby did indeed write every other day I could still tell something was bothering Matt. Something he couldn't tell me. But I knew it wasn't bad, I could feel it. He did relax one morning when we received a letter from Abby's mum that she should be returning soon and she wanted to personally thank us for our continued support.

Finally, one rainy March night after dinner did we really get excited, an older women came in, asking to speak with Dumbledore, she looked sort of like Abby's mum but I couldn't be sure. I looked around excitedly, wondering if Abby was already in the common room but Matt seemed keen on going in the opposite direction, toward the conversation so naturally the rest of us followed.

"I don't blame you Albus, you're a good man and I don't blame Hogwarts, I always loved this school" the woman was saying, her voice shaking. Her and Albus were talking in an empty classroom.

"Thanks you Mortisha. Now, have you made all the arrangements?" he asked. I leaned in, arrangements for what? I wondered as Mortisha shook her head "You know if we can help with anything, anything at all, we will" Dumbledore said patting her on the shoulder.

"Oh, no, no Albus, we can manage. I just don't know how this happened. The Healer said she was getting better; I only left to go home to get her some clean clothes and her robes, she said she needed to go back school; she needed to tell her friends something…" her voice on the verge of crying. "It was no more seven hours Albus, I needed to change myself and…" She trialed off again.

A sudden wave of nausea passed over me as I looked at the others. "I apologize for coming here like this; I just wanted to tell you before you heard it in the papers. I just don't understand. She was doing so well, they widened her visitation list, in fact, I was leaving and her friends were coming in" she said as I wrinkled my nose. That wasn't us, I thought to myself wishing I knew who these friends were. "The Healers don't know when—oh goodness my baby Abby is gone!" She exclaimed as she turned into a sobbing mess as I felt as if a cauldron of boiling hot water had been dropped on my head.