A Fire, A Ferret, & A Finale
Malfoy Manor, A Few Hours Later, July 30, 1998
“So…maybe casting Bombarda with Finnegan in the near vicinity wasn’t the best idea?”
“Shut up, Ferret!” Dean shouted. “Sorry, his words, not mine.” Dean was translating Seamus’ charades. “Not my fault, I do magic, then boom…Oh, Right! It’s not my fault I have a personal relationship with pyrotechnics!”
Both Seamus and Tracey had gotten blown back from the spell and were covered in soot. Tracey was still coughing it up, and Seamus had already given up on trying.
“Why in the world was a bombarda necessary for a table?” Ron asked.
“HE fed the horrid thing on that table.” Draco shuttered.
“Makes sense,” Harry said, “So are they clear to continue destroying or not?”
Madam Pomfrey looked at Harry with disgust, “You and your friends will keep me in business for the rest of my life. And yes, in theory they are fine, but I don’t recommend letting them continue.”
“That’s not fair!” Astoria shouted. “Tracey’s been looking forward to this all month long!”
Before they could continue a pop sounded out. A house elf started, “Missus Malfoy, we managed to get the extra paintings off the walls. Draco’s modification of the other Black’s permanent sticking charms to get them down. I’m afraid your mother in law is in a bit of a tizzy.”
“Good! I want those horrid creatures to burn.” Narcissa grinned.
“You want artifacts of your family destroyed? Not dark artifacts, but paintings?” Hermione asked.
“All of these paintings are duplicates or other renditions of ones we already have. There is at least one other portrait with these Malfoys in them. Besides, one recently used a horrid word when we were making the new blueprints and the planned destruction.”
“When you say bad?” Hermione asked.
“I’m tr…” Draco attempted to say.
“You have apologized enough for the singular incident. And the punch at the end of our third year certainly rectified that.” Hermione smiled.
“You sure about that?” Pansy asked.
“We pissed you off once, and Snape made us sleep without blankets for two weeks!” Theo shouted
“I’m sorry, but…” Harry asked.
“Pansy thought the thread count was too low.” Daphne started.
“So she burned them.” Tracey continued.
“And Snape refused to let the house-elves get us new ones.” Blaise grimaced.
“It took two entire weeks…” Theo complained
“In that horrid freezing dungeon…” Goyle said sourly.
“For him to let us have new ones…” Millie finished.
The entire Slytherin house shuttered.
“You're saying this as if I wasn’t successful!” Pansy shouted back
“Fair.” Daphne replied.
“I’m so glad that it didn’t happen to me.” Astoria smiled.
“What do you mean?” Blaise asked with suspicion while Theo shouted, “She did it from both the boys and girls dorms and for every year!”
“Oh when I found out, I crashed with the Hufflepuffs.”
“The puffs let you crash!” Tracey
“WTF!” Daphne shouted to her sister.
Hannah smiled, “Of course we let a poor scared first year, who is forced to sleep in the dungeons without blankets, into our common room and bundled her up in a transfigured armchair.”
“Seriously!” Theo yelled.
“Lucky brat!” Daphne shouted.
The lions were cracking up until the snakes gave overdramatic “how dare you” looks.
Everyone had taken a brake for food. Pizza which almost everyone was skeptical of. Harry, Hermione, Dean, Seamus, Justin, Tracey, Michael, and a few others who the oddity had been shared with were diving in with soda too. Blaise screamed when he drank it.
That got everyone laughing. Until Ron tried it. He did the same. Eventually everyone agreed.
“Hermione? I was wondering if we could talk.”
“What’s up Draco?”
“I was wondering if, well, I plan on destroying that room. And I felt that it’s not just mine to destroy. I was wondering if you wanted to. I get you not wanting to go in, especially with me, and Ron and Harry could come with you and…”
“Draco. It’s fine just the two of us. Can I tell her painting off?”
“Please!”
They walked into THAT room. She said something that she needed to get off her chest. “I know that you’re sorry, but are you afraid to touch me or something?”
“I don’t want someone like me and what I have…”
Hermione grabbed his arm right where THAT MARK was. She rolled up his sleeve, he was one of the few to not do so. The girl in front of him was the other. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You wanted to protect your family. And you are making up for it.” She brought his hand to her arm where THAT mark was. She took off her cardigan. They both had tears in their eyes. She hugged him. He laughed and hugged her back.
“Can we be friends this year? Hang out and study together and stuff?”
“Yeah. But I won’t root for you on the Quidditch Pitch!”
“We’ll see.”
Hermione’s hands lit with blue flames that released and devoured the room. He looked at her in awe.
“Professor Lupin taught it to me!”
“He was the only competent teacher in for that class.”
“Yep!”
“About this room?”
“Redecorated it. But leave the burn marks on the ceiling. And that crack. Please.”
“Are you sure you want to see her?”
“Yes. Are you okay with me tell her off?”
“Yeah, do you mind if I use it for a Patronus? Also, would you teach me to produce a Patronus? My friends have a bet. Is it a Dragon or a Snake?”
“Oh my god! That’s awesome.”
“Can we start right now?”
“Yes. Do you have a good memory?
“I don’t know. Wait I think I do” He spoke the spell, and a small wisp of blue jetted out from his wand.
“What was the memory?
“Seeing you at the Yule ball. And then you were crying and…”
“How about something before Hogwarts?
“I had a good birthday way back when!” He shouted the spell again. A dragon-like-creature shot out and slowly disappeared.
“Better, but you need something more!”
He thought about what had happened that day. Hermione’s kindness and forgiveness and how right now it was just for him “Expecto Patronum!” A Dragon came out and soared about, then quickly turned furry, and then wingless. To Draco’s horror and Hermione’s joy, a ferret started scampering about, jumping onto Draco’s shoulder.
“Bloody Fucking Hell!
Hermione was cracking up, “A Ferret! That’s awesome!”
“What’s yours?
“An otter! See!” She cast the spell and whispered to it. It scampered and swam around the room and went to Draco’s head.
“BOO!” It shouted in his ear.
“What the? You can send messages with it! Cool! And just so you know an otter is just an over-glorified water ferret!”
“Alright!” she laughed. “Let’s go tell your Aunt to fuck off.”
Draco led her through the basements, below the dungeons and go to a storage room. He gave a password and said simply, “She is my guest. No harm will befall her.”
“What’s up with that?”
“I just want to make sure you’ll be safe.”
“Thanks, Draco.”
He smiled.
“Draco! Sweetums! And what is that? The little mud-blood who nearly died on the carpet? Hahahahaha!”
“Shut up!”
“Draco,” Hermione said putting her hand on his arm, on his MARK, “It’s fine. I need to have a word with her.”
“Look. I’m alive and I survived this war. I’m not 100% fine, but I’m getting there. And I don’t need your little words to make me feel bad about myself. I got my family back. I made friends with Slytherins! Your husband is in jail. You get to rot in hell with your boss. And I get to change this godam world for the better. Have fun!”
“And I’ve got something to say. Mom and Aunt Andromeda are friends now. Mom freed our elves, and yours too! And she donated your dark artifacts to the ministry! And she will brake your want, once we undo some of your crimes! And Hermione here, is my friend! And she will be, for the rest of my life.
“Our lives Draco!”
He laughed, “I just cast a bloody Patronus using today! My friends and I burning this manor! As my memory! Good luck with it all!”
He grabbed Hermione’s hand and ran with her, all the way upstairs, but not outside.
“We’re not going out with our friends?”
“I wanted to make sure you’re okay!
“I am!
“And I wanted to give you something. Uh, through here.”
“OH MY FUCKING…” she fainted before she could finish.
He laughed and woke her up, “Here, I made it myself. I know its lame but…”
“It’s a library card?”
“For this library!”
“Seriously!”
“Yeah, and there’s a book here that I want to give you, but I don’t think having it at Hogwarts is a good idea. I’ll show it to you someday.”
“I can spend time here. Reading!”
“As much time as you want. The Library has a different Floo than the rest of the house. And the wards to the library are tight. Only a handful of people can Floo into the library and enter the grounds. One of the only accesses is the Hogwarts Library. You can come here whenever you like.”
“I thought I knew what Belle was feeling, but wow! No wonder she fe…never-mind.”
“Let’s go. Before you try to move in.”
She laughed and they went outside.
“Where were you guys?”
“Burning the torture room, visiting Bellabitch, and a quick glimpse of the library!”
“She fainted!”
“And there was something else! Draco…?”
“It was neither a snake nor a dragon.”
“Huh?” Harry asked.
“Expecto Patronum!” Draco shouted while a Ferret visited each and every guest.
Everyone burst out laughing. Some even on the ground. Others crying.
Harry shoved Ron half a dozen Galleons.
“Wait you two bet on it?” Hermione asked.
“It was a joke, but Ron has always been concerningly good a Divination!” Harry laughed.