Chapter 7
Hermione paced around her new apartment, trying not to feel overwhelmed from everything she had just unraveled. She pulled out her phone to reread the text she had received from Luna earlier:
Hi its Luna finally got service please call soon
The text message was received through Ron's phone, since Luna never bothered getting her own.
Hermione tensed as she replayed her conversation with Luna after that. They only had 5 minutes to talk before their connection was abruptly cut off. But in those 5 minutes, Hermione was glad to have at least discovered a few important things: Ron was in a delirious, confused state when he was talking to Luna, Blaise, and Theo in that footage. Luna had attempted to perform a spell to heal him, but was interrupted since the confused Ron had disapparated with her.
And apparently, he was apparating and disapparating to the most random places, dragging Luna with him. The last place they apparated to was a casino not far from the nearest Muggle hotel. It was there that Luna finally managed to get service to call Hermione. Plus, Ron had fallen asleep on an empty pool table, which made it easier for Luna to get a hold of his phone.
When Hermione first received the message, she had felt an intensely strong wave of shock, grief, and anger all at once, as soon as she had seen that the message was from Ron's number. She had calmed down after seeing that it was Luna messaging her, but even now, she was still feeling the aftereffects of having seen her ex-fiance's number on her phone.
A hot tear trickled down Hermione's cheek as she sat on her couch, revisiting the memories she had spent with Ron over the last three years of serious dating. He had been so good to her….and she had opened her heart to him. She had shown him sides of herself that she would have never shown another living soul.
Then just like that, they were over.
She rubbed her temples as more hot tears ran down her face.
Then her doorbell rang. Hermione flinched and sat there, staring at her door without moving. She remembered she had told Harry to come over right away, so that she could break the news to him about Luna-- and her plan to track her and Ron down.
She hastily grabbed some tissues to wipe her face and glanced at herself in the mirror to make sure she didn't look like she had almost bawled her eyes out again. Then she opened the door.
"Hi Harry-- oh…" Hermione's face twisted with disgust as she noticed who he had arrived with. "You brought him."
Draco, standing beside Harry, returned her scornful glare. "Got a problem with that, Granger? I'm after the Weasley git more than Harry is, so respect that."
Hermione winced. Did Malfoy just call Harry by his first name? She shook her head and gestured for them both to come in. "Whatever. Have a seat. I've got some news about Luna."
"Great…" mumbled Harry as he clumsily walked in her house. "Gotta warn you though….Draco and I are still a bit drunk, but we can still follow along."
Hermione tensed again. Even Harry was calling Draco by his first name. She then huffed and refocused. "Well, you better listen carefully….it's absolutely necessary that you hear about this as soon as possible."
They sat at her kitchen table with her. After she disclosed the news, Harry and Draco stared at her with a mild look of shock in their exhausted, drunken eyes.
"Um…okay, so wait," Harry rubbed his forehead. "Draco and I beat the snot out of Ron, before he disappeared. How could he have disapparated with Luna that day?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "If you listened carefully, you will have caught the small detail-- Luna wanted to perform the healing spell on Ron in her garden at dawn. She said the spell would only heal him if it was performed 'at the right atmosphere and at the right time.' So she made plans to stop by his apartment at dawn and fetch him herself, since he was too crazed to find her himself.
"Well…then later that evening, you and Malfoy came to his place to beat him up. Then dawn came later, and Luna arrived at his place. After she briefly acknowledged his wounded state, she gave him a ride back to her mansion, went to the garden with him, and…before she could whisper more than just the first few words involved in the spell, Ron went crazy and disapparated with her."
"Apparently, Nott saw the whole thing," Draco remarked, lazily scrolling through his phone. This muggle device was quite addicting to attend to.
Harry nodded, looking just bit less drunk now. "Yeah…okay, I get it now. I think. Did you ever figure out why Ron was acting crazy in the first place?"
"Well, when I asked Luna, she simply said the nargyles were stuck in his head, telling him things that they wouldn't tell her," Hermione rolled her eyes. "So I couldn't get much from her. We will have to track Ron down and investigate him ourselves, and I got just the plan to do that."
Draco sniggered as he kept his drunken eyes glued to his phone. "Sure you do. Jealous women are always ready to spring into action."
Hermione turned to Draco and fumed. "Ron is my ex-fiance!" Her voice was raised. "I don't give a damn about what woman he's with anymore!"
"Mm-hmm," Draco drawled, still scrolling through his phone. "Keep tellin' yourself that, Granger. Once a Weasley, always a Weasley. Same goes for any bimbo who falls in love with one."
Hermione shot up from her chair, raising her fist to punch Draco in the nose.
But Harry shot up and grabbed her arm. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down…both of you," he slurred. "I'm…I'm not drunk enough to deal with this….Hermione, let's hear your plan. That's what we came here for."
"Yeah Granger, stop wasting time," said Draco, shifting so that he could rest his feet on the chair across from him. His eyes were still glued to his phone.
Hermione felt like exploding with fury. But then she took a silent, deep breath, and slowly sat herself back down. There was no way she was going to let this loathsome arsehole get on her nerves.
She turned to Harry and spoke firmly. "Anyway…here's the plan. We're simply going to track Ron and Luna, using this MACUSA Real-Time Hex Indicator map," she pulled out the map from her nearby purse. "Luna told me that she performed the Avenseguim charm on Ron's phone, as well as her purple shoelaces. So now we can track their whereabouts, and apparate to their location." She scanned the map. "Right now, they are still at the casino where she called me. The connection was interrupted though, so they are either in a place with bad wifi, or they are around too much magical activity. But bottom line, we will apparate to their location as soon as possible."
"Of course," said Harry. "Are we…are we going now?"
"Well, the sooner the better," said Hermione. "We can apparate to the casino right now, while they're still there."
Harry rubbed his temples. "Man, I'm still sorta drunk, but okay. Gimme a moment….I'll need to bring my cell phone in case…." he felt around his pockets, then rolled his eyes. "I think I left it in the car. Sorry, one moment."
He turned to leave the table and head out the front door.
Hermione sat in silence in front of Draco, next to the chair where he was resting his feet on. She kept her eyes focused on the front door, waiting for Harry's return, and didn't bother to shift her gaze to Draco.
Draco, who was still lazily scrolling through his phone, didn’t even seem to notice that Harry had left, nor the awkward silence that was now taking place.
Hermione sat there, stiff and stone-faced. Her eyes only shifted once to glance at Draco's shiny black shoes resting on the chair next to her. Ugh, the nerve of this entitled arsehead, she thought silently.
The silence felt like forever. Then finally, Harry came back through the front door, bringing Hermione a wave of relief.
"Alright, let's get going," said Hermione immediately standing up and walking his way.
Draco, head still facing down on his phone, slowly stood and followed behind.