Chapter 13 – Weasels and Ferrets
Why did I ever think that this would be a good idea? I am beyond stressed helping get the last of these details down with the twins for tomorrow. They keep reassuring me that everything is on track but the only thing I can think about is that something will go catastrophically wrong, and everyone will blame the ex-death eater for this being ruined. Luckily, the twins are keeping me from a full-on panic attack with some kush pretty regularly. I think about how much we've smoked and realize that I don't think I've actually seen the two of them sober. They act the exact same all the time. Funny how they've never seen me in that state either. Fred passes me the blunt as I finish copying the maps that will be at various locations around the faire. As I take a long toke, Granger walks through the door.
"Hello boys! How's everything going? I just wanted to," at this point Granger goes into a coughing spell fanning her hands in front of her face, "is there a fire in here? What's with all the smoke?!"
"Oh I didn't realize we had hot boxed the whole room out. Our bad."
George goes about dispersing the smoke as Granger clears her throat and looks pointedly between me and the blunt. I roll my eyes and take a last puff before passing it to Fred.
"Our dear Hermioninny, thank you for coming. The bags are right over there love."
"Fred, must you call me that? Victor couldn't help it you know. Also, why exactly couldn't you do this?"
"Well dear, you're just so great at these types of spells. Plus being part of the golden trio means no one will get mad at you."
Granger just huffs and walks over to the two bags in question. She picks one up and starts waving her wand in a pattern I haven't seen before.
"Granger, what are you doing?"
"I'm adding an extension charm to the bag so Fred and George can carry around...well...whatever it is they want to carry around tomorrow and not have to run back and forth to the shop."
"Isn't that illegal?"
"No one asked for your input Malfoy."
"Alright! Jeeze!"
Fred wheels over, "Drake my friend, you will learn that the word 'illegal' does not deter our sweet Hermie."
"Oh really? I didn't know you had a bad bone in your body Granger."
"There's a lot you don't know about me Malfoy."
I stop at that statement. She's completely right. I don't know her personally and the only things I think I know about her stem from our time at Hogwarts. Surely there's plenty I don't know, but this is still a surprise. I watch as she finishes the other bag and sticks her entire arm inside digging around until a satisfied look appears on her face. Something so small as a well-executed charm giving her such happiness makes me pause. When was the last time I was that happy with magic? She turns to me and that smile lingers in the corner of her mouth before she squares herself again.
"Ok Malfoy, do you have time to do our session now? Or do we need to postpone until later this afternoon?"
"Ummm, no I think we are all squared away. Right guys?"
Fred spins around doing a wheelie, "Yes we are go for launch! Can't wait to see you tomorrow morning!"
"Oh Malfoy this is going to be great! Thank you for your help with all of this," says George as he outs the blunt, leaving nothing but a small roach in the ashtray.
I turn back to Granger as she's collecting her things, "Great! Ok Malfoy, right this way. We don't need to go far."
We start walking through the store and then take a turn that leads us to the warehouse below. I have only been down here a handful of times, but the size still astounds me every time. There's mountains of inventory stacked to and fro in what I hope is some type of order.
"Granger, what are we doing down here?"
"I've set up another meeting for you."
"Well, I already made amends with the twins so I'm not sure why we would meet in their warehouse."
As we turn the corner by a crate of Pygmy Puff treats, I see why we would be down here. The Weasel is standing on a small ladder reaching for a box that seems to be out of place. He reaches a little too far and stumbles backwards trying to gain his footing, arms rotating wildly like a windmill in a hurricane.
"Arresto momentum!"
Of course Granger saves the day. Weaslebee looks up with a grin on his face which quickly fades when he sees me.
"Mione, good to see you. Ferret."
"Weasel."
"Well then, thank you Ron for agreeing to a short meeting."
I blink quickly knowing I must misunderstand, "Wait. This is between me and Weasley?"
"That's right Draco. Now go ahead."
"Yes, Draco, please go ahead."
I take in a breath and hold it. Am I really about to do this? Am I really about to mean what comes out of my mouth? This is something that I have felt I should do for a while now but to be confronted with it is a completely different story. I am so thankful I smoked before coming down here or we might be dueling instead of me thinking logically about what I want to say. I start to feel a little dizzy and realize I need to take another breath. I take a breath that does not really calm me and look at his blue eyes that are staring at me with unhidden dislike.
"Weasley. Umm, Ron. I apologize that it has taken this long for me to say any of this to you because honestly, you deserve more than waiting for closure from what I put you through. I grew up with my family already disliking yours and fell right into that mindset to please my parents. That does not make the way I treated you ok, nor does it give an excuse for the things I said about your family. Now that I have gotten to know your family better, I can see that I was the one at a disadvantage. You grew up with people who cared about you and loved you, wishing you to become whatever the best version of you is. The fact you did not have as much money as me means nothing as I can see now that this loneliness I have to live with is a far worse fate than being poor. I am sorry for the choices I made during the war, including the choice to use poison that almost cost you your life. I will forever be in debt to Potter for saving you that night. You were not the target of that attack but that does not mitigate the fact that you almost died because of me. Despite the things I have said to you in the past, I do not wish for your pain or death. I can understand if you never forgive me for the way I treated you and your family as I'm not sure I would be willing to forgive you if the tables were turned. But I do want you to know that I am truly sorry for the things I did, and I hope that one day you can forgive me. But if not, I understand and will continue to live with your tolerance of my existence."
The expression in his deep blue eyes went through a range of emotions during my speech but never once did he try to interrupt. I am left standing in wait as he processes everything I just said. My hands are tight as I ball them into fists and relax them over and over again at my side, not daring to break the eye contact between us. Then without warning, his hand shoots out towards me waiting for me to respond. I reach out and grasp his hand firmly and his face warms with a small lift of the corner of his mouth.
"Thank you Malfoy, I appreciate that."
I nod and we drop hands and continue to stare at each other, understanding that a moment has passed between us that will set us on a new path with each other. We both jump as Granger starts to clap next to us.
"Oh how wonderful! I am so proud of the both of you!"
There's that word again. My chest feels a little tight, filling again with unfamiliar emotion that I've been devoid of for so long. Weasley's face has reddened so much the color is almost flowing right into his hair as Granger gives him a big squeeze around the middle. She quickly turns to me and does the same. I'm not prepared as her arms reach around my midsection and tighten. The top of her head comes up to my chin and I can smell the warm vanilla sugar shampoo she used. The warmth of her body against mine is the second hug I've gotten in; well I don't know how long. My hands are floating next to her in the air, not sure of where to land, and this seems to signal to her that this is not normal.
"Oh Draco! I'm so sorry I didn't mean to just grab you like that! I just got a little overwhelmed and I'm so used to hugging the boys. I'm a hugger you know. Well of course you actually don't know..."
"Granger," I say, and she stops mid-sentence, mouth puckered into a soft circle and eyes large in something that, in any other situation I would say is fear. But surely she's not afraid of me. "It's fine. I just wasn't expecting that is all."
She nods and pulls her bottom lip into her mouth contemplating what I said. She really shouldn't do that so much or her soft lips will end up chapped and rough. And where did that thought come from? Jeeze that must've been some good weed. I see Weasley shift on his feet and clear his throat looking between the two of us.
"Ha, well, glad that's all done then. Now we can actually be friends Malfoy."
"Friends? You want to be my friend?"
"I mean, yeah. Harry's your friend and my brothers and obviously Mione here. It's not like we don't have things in common. We both like quidditch, purebloods who don't hold to tradition, devilishly good looking." He runs his hand through his hand with the last line and tosses a wink over to Granger, which I strangely do not find I like.
"I'm not sure about that last one there Ronald, but I would like to have more friends. Someone keeps telling me every week about how I should interact more with people. I guess you being one of them wouldn't be so bad."
Weasley grins and gives me a little punch in the shoulder, "Great! So you both are coming tomorrow, right? Mione I think Mum has something for you at her tent. She told me to have you come by at least."
"Oh yes I will be there! I'm so excited! I haven't been to something like this since I was little and went to the renaissance fair at home."
"I know you'll be there Draco; the twins keep going on about how much help you've been. Well, I have to finish up a couple of things, so I'll let you both go and see you tomorrow!"
We say our goodbyes and start walking back out of the store, avoiding flying products as we go. Once we are out on the street, I shove my hands in my pocket, unsure of what we are doing now. But there is a question that's been on my mind.
"What happened with you and Weasley? I thought you two were going to live happily ever after."
She stops rummaging and looks up at me opening and closing her mouth, thinking about if she really wants to say what she's thinking. She looks back down and seems to grab what she was looking for and pulls it out as she begins to speak.
"Ron and I tried to make it work. At first, everything was just a whirlwind, and we were caught up in the emotion of it all. It was nice to have someone to anchor myself to with all the funerals and the papers hounding us. We were best friends and it was just easy. But after the storm started to calm, I realized I didn't want easy. Ron wanted to be like his parents and have me stay home and us just live in peace. But I could see that there was still no peace just because Voldemort was dead and I wanted to do more. I wanted to bring about change and be known as more than Harry's friend. Ron soaked up the attention and for once is finally ok being in second place as long as it still gets him recognition. We started arguing about our future and the romance we thought we had quickly fizzled out. We both realized it wasn't working and decided to call it off and just be friends. The next day he was in the prophet after having met up with 'Lav Lav' at some club with his tongue down her throat. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy he's happy. But I kind of wish his happiness took more time to find you know?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize or I wouldn't have asked."
"No, no it's fine. I'm making you do all of these different things to heal, I should be willing to practice what I preach." She shuffles awkwardly at that and then seems to remember what she was doing beforehand, "Oh yes. So, today was great! You are making great progress, minus smoking the devil's lettuce when I arrived."
"Devil's lettuce?! HA! If you tried it I bet you'd be singing a heavenly song about it instead."
"No thank you. I appreciate being in a solid frame of mind at all times. Anyways, I wanted to give you this for the Faire tomorrow." She hands me a small bottle with a light blue potion.
"Calming draught?"
"This is my personal version. Sometimes I get a little anxious but not like hysterical. I just need a little bit to help take the edge off but keep me alert and not drowsy like a regular draught can sometimes. This shouldn't interfere with anything you happen to consume prior to either. I was worried it would have an effect on your heart rate, but after doing some tests it seems it affects your mind more than the physical body. I know you haven't really been in crowds much since, well, everything so I wanted you to have some just in case. It has a pretty extended latency period so should last the entire festival."
"Thank you Granger. That was very thoughtful of you." I pocket the potion and look back at her. She has a small smile on her face at what I said, or at least I think that's what it's for.
"Ok well I have to go, but I'll see you tomorrow yeah?"
"Yeah. See you tomorrow."
She hesitates a moment and then steps around me, tucking a curl behind her ear as she goes. I watch her go for longer than is probably appropriate until I come back to myself and realize I have no plans. I'm not sure what to spend my time with now that I'm pretty much ready for tomorrow, minus a few last-minute things for my attire. The munchies have definitely got a hold on me though, so I pop home and have Mipsy make me a fabulous lunch. As I'm eating I realize I have gone a couple of hours without thinking of my next hit. That's odd. Normally I have this kind of thing on my mind constantly. Well, I guess it's time to remedy that so as finish my meal, I head over and pull out my trusty box.
"Well well...what's in my inventory then?"
