The dessert.
By the time the elf reappeared and disappeared the dinner plates and the dessert plates appeared, Hermione felt like she had spent an eternity sitting at that table and the end of the most awkward dinner of her life is twenty spoonfuls away from the sophisticated Sticky Toffee Pudding.
"So... Hermione, how long have they been ... Coming out the two of you?" The redhead's words surprised the brunette who looked up and found her best friend raising an eyebrow towards her in an interrogative way.
Pansy raised an eyebrow curiously, "Wait, didn't you know you were dating, don't you guys talk in letters all the time, Salazar, you're literally the couple of the moment, the prophet doesn't publish anything on the front page other than about them." she said with some humor that would have been funny, if the relationship wasn't really fake .
The redhead looked at pansy tensely: "Actually, yes, every week, but I guess... Hermione forgot to mention it, didn't she?" she turned her head back to the brunette
Hermione swallowed nervously, "oh, a couple of months." she replied without much detail, knowing that it wouldn't be enough for the young Weasley
"Six." specified the perfectly posed man next to her, causing the laughed-haired woman to look at him in surprise.
Ginny raised her eyebrows and tilted her head as if the information didn't make sense in her head, "Wow, six months, shortly after you called off your engagement to Ron?"
The atmosphere at the table became even more tense after Ginny's question, as if all the air had been sucked out of the room in a matter of seconds. Hermione felt her heart pounding, aware that there was no way around that topic now. How could they not have discussed it before? She and Draco were supposed to be prepared for all sorts of questions, but the emotions tied to her past with Ron always felt like a ticking time bomb.
It's not like she still loved him romantically like the first year of their relationship after the war, but she wanted to upset him, she wanted the redhead to know that he didn't try hard enough to keep her by his side; That was one of the reasons why she accepted the false relationship with Malfoy, although the edges were beginning to distort.
Draco, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed. With his perfect posture and his jaw tense, he just took a spoonful of the Sticky Toffee Pudding , as if the conversation didn't concern him in the least. Tense as he was, his ability to remain indifferent was disconcerting.
Hermione, however, knew that she wouldn't be able to keep that mask for long. she took a deep breath, smiling hesitantly at Ginny. "Yes, a while later. I think it was... It was necessary to clear up a few things before starting something new, but it wasn't immediately after, Ginny ." Her voice trembled slightly, hoping that the woman in the light blue dress would not inquire further.
Ginny, who rarely let anything slip through, frowned. "Clarify things?, I mean, I'm glad you found... something else, but I don't understand how everything changed so quickly." The redhead fixed her gaze on Draco, as if trying to read some sign in his cold expression. "I mean, the last I heard from your love life was that your engagement had been called off."
"Things aren't always easy to understand from the outside, Weasley," Malfoy interjected, his tone sharp, but surprisingly calm. "Granger and I... We understand each other in a way that may seem unconventional, but it works. And that's all that matters." His gaze passed fleetingly to the brunette and then took her left hand that was resting on the table surprising her with his touch, but she quickly swallowed hard and nodded weakly.
The discomfort at the table was palpable, and Hermione felt the urge to escape, to get away from those inquisitive gazes that tried to unearth more than she was willing to reveal. Especially when it wasn't even quite real. However, something about Draco's firmness in speaking, and the way he had taken the reins of the conversation, give her a strange sense of relief, almost of security.
Ginny, however, didn't seem satisfied. "How about Ron? ¿Is... Okay with this?" she asked, now with a softer note in her voice, perhaps noticing that the subject was more delicate than she had originally thought.
Hermione felt all eyes fall on her again, and although she wanted to answer, it was the man next to her who did it first.
"It's not something that concerns you, right? The decisions we make are ours. What he thinks doesn't change anything for us." The man's tone was non-argumentative, he had practically trained himself in his work over the past few years to make his voice sound like law, and although Hermione felt a slight prick of discomfort at how blunt he had been, she couldn't help but feel some gratitude for having put an end to the freckled woman's questions.
The silence that followed was thick, interrupted only by the faint clinking of cutlery against plates. Hermione picked up her spoon and tasted the dessert, feeling how the sweet, comforting taste of the toffee slightly eased the strain on her shoulders.
Savannah Zabini, meanwhile, shot one last look at Narcissa, a look that didn't go unnoticed by Draco. It was a look charged with meaning, a complicity that he found difficult to accept, but that was there, in front of his eyes.
Ginny, sitting next to Blaise, tried to relax and follow the rhythm of dinner, but felt as if her every move was being watched and judged, not only by Savannah, the mother of her boyfriend, but by Draco and Narcissa as well, whom she did not blame for looking at her cautiously after mentioning the ex-fiancé of his girlfriend and daughter-in-law respectively (and quite hypocritically since she had also hidden her relationship with Blaise from Hermione and was currently hiding it from her family).
<<At least she makes their love public and doesn't hold back from what others might think of dating a Slytherin.>>
If there was one thing the Weasleys knew well, though, it was how to hold their ground under pressure. So, with an almost imperceptible sigh, Ginny set out to get through what little was left of the night, not only for herself, but for Blaise, since the people at that table, except for Neville and Hermione, were important to him, they were part of his world.
"Have you talked to Potter lately, he recently received recognition for the most captures in the last decade." Malfoy's comment towards Ginny completely surprised Hermione, who looked up and nailed her " boyfriend " in a stunned way.
she understood why Ginny had mentioned Ron, that's how she was, she got angry and used everything she had at hand to protect herself and attack, but she wasn't like that, it wouldn't have crossed her mind to mention her ex-boyfriend, even if Harry was her best friend.
Ginny raised her eyebrows, surprised by Harry's mention. It wasn't that he didn't expect to hear his name in some social conversation, especially considering his notoriety, but that it was Draco Malfoy who brought it up at that precise moment seemed disconcerting to her.
Ginny let out a slight sigh and forced a smile, trying to remain indifferent. "Yes, I spoke to him a few days ago. Harry is... well, as always. I guess he's still good at what he does."
The brunette woman could feel the tension rise again. she knew that Malfoy's comment was not accidental; nothing was with him, and she wondered what the hell he was up to. For a moment, her eyes met Blaise's, and he noticed the annoyance in his eyes. He was a man who rarely seemed taken to extremes, he hadn't even reacted badly an hour ago when he learned of the relationship between his mother and Narcissa, but it was clear that Harry's subject didn't sit well with him.
The man in the petrol blue suit dropped his knife and fork with more force than necessary, making a slight rumble that reverberated across the table, attracting the attention of everyone present. "it's necessary to talk about him now?" he asked with a calmness that, in contrast to the noise of the cutlery, sounded forced, not at all like the calm that Malfoy used to feign and that came out much better. His dark gaze shifted from Draco to Ginny, and then stopped at his plate. "We don't need to mention people who are not present tonight."
The redhead looked at Blaise, squinting with a mixture of confusion and anger. "It's not like there's anything to overcome. Harry and I have moved on, and I have no problem recognizing their accomplishments. Why should I have it?" her comment was on air, but everyone noticed that it was clearly directed at her boyfriend.
Silence fell on the table again, denser than ever. Hermione swallowed, getting even more tired of that night and praying that everyone would eat their dessert faster; she couldn't help but wonder if the platinum blonde had made the comment to provoke something, but she didn't understand why. Their fake relationship was complicated enough without adding more conflict to the mix.
Malfoy, for his part, shrugged his shoulders with calculated indifference, though his tone maintained an edge. "I just thought it would be relevant, considering the connection you have with him. Nothing more."
Blaise tensed even more, his jaw clenched. It was evident that the mention of Harry, particularly coming from Draco, made him deeply uncomfortable. Although he would not have admitted it out loud, the fact that Draco spoke openly about Ginny's ex-boyfriend to irritate them without considering or thinking about how that made him feel at a disadvantage, as if the shadow of Potter still hung over his relationship with Ginny. And for Draco to bring it into the conversation... In such an intimate context, it made him feel betrayed, as if his best friend was playing with fire just for the pleasure of seeing something burn.
The redhead noticed it. she squeezed Blaise's hand under the table, trying to reassure him, but the tension in him wouldn't go away.
The red-robed witch, who had been watching everything silently, couldn't help but intervene, seeing that the situation was going to get worse. "Well, I think we can all agree that Harry has done an amazing job. But, neville, how's everything at Hogwarts? I've heard that you've been making changes to the teaching program." Desperate to change the subject, she tried to move the conversation to something more neutral.
Ginny smiled tensely waiting for Neville to rescue them, grateful for the turn in the conversation.
Malfoy, meanwhile, continued to eat his dessert with an expression that mixed satisfaction and nonchalance, as if everything that had just happened had been entirely incidental.
But the brunette knew that Draco never did or said anything without having a goal in mind, after everything that had happened at Hogwarts because of his lack of perception he had become a pragmatic man and although she could not completely decipher his intention, she could not help but wonder why he had chosen that moment, that conversation, to stir up the waters.
Part of her said it was revenge, because Ginny had started by mentioning Ron and he'd decided that the scales should be balanced, but that would mean he'd been uncomfortable or even...jealous, which didn't make sense because... It was a fake relationship , wasn't it?