"falling & soaring part 17" by gingerbred
Apr. 30th, 2024 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
christmasspiritchapter 17, morning, too
Characters: Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Hestia Carrow, Harry Potter / Draco Malfoy, Professor Flitwick, Parvati Patil, Pansy Parkinson, Ron Weasley, Seamus Finnigan, Lavender Brown, Theo Nott, Blaise Zabini, Valerie Vaisey, Flora Carrow, Sheldon Shafiq, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Edgar Martins
18 September, 1998. Ginny isn't having a good morning, Ron isn't enjoying his much either, while Hermione is annoying pretty much everyone, the siblings first and foremost. Hestia comes into her own, as 'Vati struggles with the green eyed monster. Pansy makes a change, capturing Harry's imagination. Draco gets an unwelcome surprise. Professor Flitwick struggles with his enormous N.E.W.T.s Charms class.
Originally Published: 2024-04-30 on LJ / DW
Words: 6.9 k
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Characters: Staff: Filius Flitwick (Head of Ravenclaw, Charms Professor), Gryffindors: Hermione Granger (8G, Head Girl), Parvati "'Vati" Patil (8G, DA, Lavender's best friend and roommate), Lavender Brown (8G, DA, Lycanthrope attack survivor), Harry Potter (8G, Captain, Seeker), Ron Weasley (8G, Prefect, Keeper), Seamus Finnigan (8G, fiery Reserve Beater, DA), Ritchie Coote (7G, Beater, ex-Captain), Jack Sloper 7G (ex-Keeper, ex-teammate), Ginny Weasley (7G, Chaser), Slytherins: Draco Malfoy (8S, Prefect, Captain, Seeker), Theo Nott (8S, Hestia's), Blaise Zabini (8S, Keeper, voracious), Pansy Parkinson (8S, Prefect), Hestia Carrow (7S, Chaser, Lycanthrope attack survivor, Theo's somewhat rabid other half), Valerie "Val" Vaisey (7S, Chaser, Lycanthrope attack survivor)
Mentioned briefly: Staff: Minerva McGonagall (Headmistress), Severus Snape (Head of Slytherin and Deputy Headmaster), Slytherins: Flora Carrow (7S, studious but sadly guilt-ridden twin), Sheldon Shafiq (7S, Beater, flirt), Ravenclaws: Edgar Martins (7R, Prefect), Hufflepuffs: Ernie Macmillan (8H, Head Boy, DA), Justin Finch-Fletchley (8H, DA), Susan Bones (8H, Prefect, DA), Hannah Abbott (7H, DA)
Previously:
The previouslies are very robust. If you've recently read the Christmas Spirit stories, skip them, if not, no worries, I've got you covered. You can find links to the individual stories / chapters in the "christmas spirit index" (LJ / DW / AO3).
The new seating annoys pretty much everyone, the Headmistress not least amongst them. The fact no one but said Headmistress seems to know the rules from one day to the next doesn't help, particularly the many students eager not to run afoul of them. Typically, there are plenty of students without such compunctions, students who believe they're above the rules, and Professor McGonagall finds herself locked in battle with them. The most recent volley, technically unwarranted, was hers, and had led to a generous assignment of detentions for some of the seventh and eighth year Ravenclaws and Gryffindors. (Ongoing)
Lav finally begins to show traces of her old self when she sneaks back into the dorm late Monday night and tells 'Vati she's been seeing Ron. Her friend is naturally pleased to see Lavender, much changed and very withdrawn after Greyback's attack, doing a little better. F&S 10
Theo inadvertently stumbles upon Draco and Blaise... er, blowing off some steam. Without comment, he sneaks back out of their dorm room and promptly endeavours to pretend he'd never seen such a thing. F&S 10
The eighth year Slytherin Prefects are attacked on their rounds last Saturday night. The goal of the attackers remains unclear, and Pansy has little desire for others to speculate about it. F&S 02 Hermione and Harry decided that they might need some looking after and follow them on their rounds the following Thursday. As the Slytherins were unaware of their plans, this leads to some unnecessary tension when they're discovered. When Pansy has difficulty trusting the Moggies' motives, Hermione shows her the arm Bellatrix had mutilated to prove she, too, understands a thing or two about being the victim of violence. It's not precisely sufficient basis for friendship, but it serves to convince the Snakes to trust Moggies, at least a little. F&S 11 - 13
Ginny isn't having a good morning. First her roommate's cat had boobytrapped their floor with assorted hair combs Ginny proceeded to step on, then Fay had engaged in a spot of shit-stirring that left Ginny feeling vulnerable and a touch embarrassed, Harry's affection excessive concern for their friend only added to the fire, and Hermione then proceeded to annoy her further. When Ron then tells her Hermione is likely behind the dreadful new seating arrangements, well, Ginny's joy is complete. F&S 15
Friday, 18 September, 1998
Charms ClassThe Charms class is absolutely massive. It's the largest class Hermione is in anyway. A few students hadn't returned for their eighth year, that's similarly true for the seventh years to her knowledge, but the remaining seventh and eighth years have now been lumped together for their seventh year N.E.W.T.s courses and the result is they're all clearly oversubscribed. Everyone is trying to make the best of things - well, almost everyone - but Charms has always had a lot of students, now the enrolment is patently ridiculous, and Professor Flitwick isn't necessarily the most... assertive of individuals. Hardly a fortuitous combination.
He's trying to teach them a new Charm, and despite some of them having already had the seventh year material with him last year, evidently they hadn't covered the Charm's background which might help them better grasp the techniques applied here. Presently he's asking questions about that that are going largely ignored. He pipes up again to the same results, struggling to draw the students' focus without much success, and yet his efforts are unflagging.
Hermione looks at him sympathetically, the conditions really were unfair. She doesn't know what the Board had been thinking when they'd signed off on this. She knows from Professor McGonagall that they hadn't approved a budget for more teachers, and so the Headmistress' hands were tied. The Board had suggested it would have been complicated finding people to cover only a single class of so many different subjects anyway, but it's not as though they'd tried. If they'd simply assigned the new instructors the first years for the core courses and the third for the electives, they'd then have been free to split the seventh and eighth years' N.E.W.T.s group into two classes for the regular staff; Hermione can't help thinking they should have been able to find a couple of people who would have been qualified to teach on that level. That really should have been possible. Heavens, even she should be able to teach first year History of Magic or Astrology, or third year Care of Magical Creatures or even - heavens forfend - Divination, so how difficult could a staffing search actually be? Except there again, without the budget, the plausibility of finding such candidates hadn't exactly been the crucial factor. It was such a false economy, too. It wouldn't have required more than a single adjusted year with two and a half additional positions to solve the problem for all subjects, or one and a half, maybe two positions if they'd limited it to the N.E.W.T. eligible courses, which seems the least they should have done. Instead they'd have what should have been two classes of students with highly compromised instruction, one of which hadn't even proper O.W.L.s to show for their years at the school either.
No, the Board had made quite the mess of things.
The material Filius is asking for is usually covered at the end of sixth year, except both of the years sitting before him hadn't reached that part of the standard curriculum for, well, reasons. Good reasons, to be sure, no one was to blame, well... No. No one. But that didn't change the fact they hadn't learnt the material he's asking them to recite. He's taught the course so many, many times, his memory has grown a touch fuzzy on the specifics, and periodically he forgets that about this group. Well it was all terribly complicated, who'd learnt what when or not... Miss Granger is the first one to be willing to meet his gaze, everyone else was exceedingly avoidant, or their eyes had glazed over, and he's quite certain if he calls on her, she'll know the answer...
And so he does.
Hermione doesn't disappoint, or at least not Professor Flitwick. She provides the answer quickly, correctly and without too much extraneous material. She can't quite help herself in that respect.
Ron gawks and demands, "When did we learn that?" Ginny is forced to agree with him, as annoying as that is, but she's sure she hadn't learnt it either.
Ernie points out they haven't, and he was one of the ones who'd been there last year for seventh year Charms and just the sort to remember. They hadn't even covered it then. Pansy feels vindicated by his saying so. She'd racked her brains and been certain this was new. How typical of Granger to try to make herself shine by making the rest of them look bad; she glares at the girl in question. That Moggie is driving her spare.
That sentiment is only reinforced when said Moggie tries smiling encouragingly back. As if. At this rate, Pansy is going to be forced to Hex something. It's only a matter of time, and probably not much of it.
"Even if you had covered it last year," Justin grumbles, "not all of us were present." Which was true, obviously, for Muggle-borns like him. Ernie nods sympathetically, it's so unfair that he'd such a disadvantage.
They're singing Ron's tune.
Of course, none of the seventh years would have had the material either had that been the case, but that fails to register with the pity party. Hannah and Susan do their best to sound supportive, while Hermione opts to Incendio her own broom instead.
"We would have had it late sixth year..." she explains.
Everyone immediately grasps the issue.
"So you expect us to know things you haven't even taught?" Martins, the Ravenclaws' seventh year Prefect, whinges at the little Charms master.
"No, no, of course not," Flitwick flounders. "My apologies, I don't... It's only... Miss Granger did..." Why educators think comments like that are anything less than a Curse remains a mystery for the ages, and of course Hermione draws instant fire. The class continues and she tries to ignore the intermittent snide remarks, but goodness do they ever get old. It didn't help that the Professor hadn't even thought to give her points. She probably has all their complaining to thank for that.
Ron in particular somehow seems to feel she's to blame for what Professor Flitwick covers - or doesn't - in his class, and can't seem to let it go. One stupid remark follows the next, but by and large Hermione's able to hold her tongue, although she may have started grinding her teeth in frustration. Her parents wouldn't be pleased...
That thought doesn't help things either.
"It's not as though I raised my hand," she finally murmurs sullenly in reply, emphasising a material distinction he refuses to acknowledge in the least.
Where Ron has a point amidst all his griping - he's not entirely wrong after all - is that her answers, her presence ruins the curve. His "You could try not showing off," is far from the best way to address that, though, and typically succeeds in setting off the next round of complaints from the people in their vicinity who frankly couldn't agree with the sentiment more. Again she pushes back because she is not going to pretend not to know the answers. Just to protect their fragile egos? Please.
What a rotten ask.
"The right answer is just the right answer," she asserts, mostly correct, although ironically it's almost definitely not the right answer under the current circumstances. "It's the minimum requirement and far from from 'showing off'..." That's a far bolder claim as theses go, and her 'you stupid nit' or something very similar is silent although clearly implied as far as most in earshot are concerned. The fact they're having difficulty phrasing that in her terms should be a hint that she doesn't generally resort to such epithets, and likely hadn't even so much as mentally now, but then, as already established, they aren't the brightest Lumoses and not overly concerned with being fair.
Professor Flitwick catches some of Ron's incessant grousing and belatedly scolds him for talking. The fact Hermione was technically the last person to have spoken quite naturally only exacerbating the problems. As Flitwick's a soft touch, he doesn't take points for disturbing the lesson, so there's that at least, instead he promptly follows up with another question on uncovered background material for Ron that the boy is pretty sure none of them except maybe 'Mione could answer. Inevitably he bottles it and, despite its impossibility, is left feeling rather stupid by the exposure. Lav's sympathetic noises off to his side don't actually make things better in the least, if anything it just calls attention to the fact people had noticed, which of course they had.
How could they not?
Several of the Slytherins snicker, that was basically a given, but so do most of the Ravenclaw boys, Martins the uber muppet front and centre amongst them - what a plank - and a fair number of their girls as well, a too sizeable portion of the 'Puffs and even a few of their own. Almost no one asks themselves if they'd have known the answer before teasing someone else for failing to. Ironically, in something approximating egalitarian fashion, they're hardly more concerned with being fair towards Ron than they were towards Hermione.
It's anyone's guess why Flitwick thought this would somehow improve the situation - teachers - all it does is irritate the ginger more.
"Maybe don't volunteer?" Harry whispers to Hermione less than helpfully once Flitwick is back in the full swing of things.
"I didn't," she hisses back her démenti for what feels like the hundredth time, particularly frustrated as he'd literally been witness to her not volunteering. What more do people expect? And it isn't as though she thinks she should have to hide her intelligence anyway, hang it all. This was so unfair.
Draco sits there watching, shaking his head. He's been in her proverbial shoes. On balance, sometimes it's easier being ignored.
Charms Class, Transfiguration Class, Free Study Period
Ginny's morning isn't improved by having Hermione in both of her classes, Merlin's beard. Now that she's paying some attention, she really sees it. Snape, the ruddy bastard - well maybe not so ruddy; sallow, sallow bastard - had had it right, Hermione really is an insufferable know-it-all. In fact, the longer Ginny consciously observes it, it almost leaves her more sympathetic towards her brother for having to put up with Hermione's swottiness all these years.
Almost.
Which is sort of funny, as the hand waving has really been toned back so much since the war, a fact Ron will happily share with Ginny should she ever think to ask, but then he's such an utter muppet, at present it isn't too likely. His inability to convey any story like that without making it all about his terrific heroism means that's also probably for the best. He was only going to annoy Ginny further, and how.
By the time the smart students head off to Arithmancy - Hermione inclusive, naturally; give Ginny a bloody break - she really does need that break.
Except their free study period isn't quite the breather she's looking for because, for fuck's sake, Ron and Harry have that hour free as well, and Ron seems determined to be a complete knob. Top marks there for once then; such a rarity. What did she do to deserve this?
Somehow the year is shaping up to be a competition Ginny doesn't actually want. The challenge unissued, the terms undefined, and yet the further they get into the school year, the more they seem to be taking shape. And it's certainly not that she's academically ambitious - anything but; she was strictly of the twins' school of thought on that count - but she's highly competitive, and the idea of willingly ceding any territory to Ron, of all tosspots, gets under her skin in a way that's simply unmatched.
So everything was now being weighed against each other.
He's ever so courageously returned to Hogwarts against sheer impossible odds, having missed so much school in between... As if the last year had been so fruitful for anyone. His sixth year ended abruptly when Snape... oh, but they aren't allowed to say that anymore, are they? Well people's sensibilities and revisionist histories don't change facts, not one iota. When Dumbledore was bloody well murdered, that's when his sixth year had ended. Well hers had ended just as abruptly, hadn't it, and more relevantly fully two months earlier in the school year with the Battle on 2nd May. Of course, in the interests of accuracy, his sixth year was a year earlier, she freely acknowledges that. Now they were both sat in the same classes, all but one anyroad, and he seems to feel he should be celebrated as the better student as he's a Prefect, which is complete tosh.
Or maybe because he's floundering in N.E.W.T.s Potions - it isn't as though his self congratulations are all too specific, it's more of an air - whereas she had had to 'settle' for CMC? Except she didn't even like Potions, she certainly doesn't like Snape, and the only reason Ron was in the class was because Slughorn had been there his sixth year to completely change the rules for him and smuggle him in. Well, most likely he'd done the rule changes for Harry, of course, and Ron had merrily ridden on his coattails there once again, but the point remains. She'd had to do it all on her own, hadn't she? And as far as the comparisons go, she'd had higher marks in the course than he had, even if they'd ultimately been insufficient to advance to the N.E.W.T.s class. Under normal, non-Slughorn circumstances, his wouldn't have been sufficient either. As was, her year hadn't even been able to properly sit their O.W.L.s. That didn't mean she wasn't the better student, just that she hadn't the certificates to show for it, and what were they when they're at home? Just bloody bits of parchment.
Oh, and of course there's the Order of Merlin to his name. Second Class, mind. She doesn't have that either, Second Class or not. Which also doesn't seem fair. She'd fought just as hard, hadn't she? Just as bravely? If he mentions the damn thing one. more. time, she'll be forced to swot until she's Os in all her N.E.W.T.s, to show him who's all that if it's the last thing she does.
After she finishes ramming the Order down his throat, that is.
Fuming.
Wanker!
Seamus doesn't make things better by agreeing with everything Ron says, either. Arse kisser. Well, probably not, they just seem to be of the same opinions a lot of the time. More than Harry, anyway, who's mostly doing his best to ignore the siblings' squabble. No, Seamus seems genuinely convinced the OoM is the complete bird magnet, going on and on about the blasted thing. Ron just beams.
Prat.
And of course Ginny goes straight from sitting next to Ron to sitting next to Hermione at lunch again.
Fucking hell.
What she really needs is a break from these people. With the way her day is going, preferably a long one.
She should have skipped the meal and gone flying, shouldn't she?
Great Hall - lunch
Hestia, the sporty Carrow, cheers, had always been the more assertive of the twins even before the lycanthropes' attack had permanently cemented that as part of her character. The changes were strange; it was difficult, sometimes, knowing where the virus ended and you began - not that that probably mattered anymore as it's incurable - but it had helped that assertiveness and aggression weren't exactly foreign to her character. The same was true for Val, naturally - also a Chaser on their Quidditch team - and the two Slytherins have talked some about how they suspect these developments must come as a greater shock for Lavender Brown, because that wasn't really who she'd been at all before Greyback, was it? The Slytherins also suppose they're lucky in having partners who openly accept them for who they are, or have become, which Brown certainly doesn't seem to have going for herself either at the moment. In fact, using her to contrast their positions has made some of the adjustments easier, returning to school this autumn as all three girls had for the first time since their respective attacks and the infections that had accompanied them.
It helps, some, to understand the Slytherin Chasers may still be better off, for all Brown's attack had been strictly physical and, its severity notwithstanding - no one could deny that - of fairly short duration and under what were - as bizarre as the concept should be in a normal world - more 'acceptable' circumstances. There, too, the Slytherins' individual attacks had unfortunately also shared several horrific hallmarks. They hadn't been anywhere near as lucky as Brown had been, but then they'd literally been thrown to the wolves last year as punishments for their families, who were viewed as insufficiently loyal to the Dark... You-Know-Who. Now that was a perverse blessing, of sorts, and their assaults had been used to help exonerate their families before the Wizengamot last summer. That didn't make the facts of those assaults easier, though, especially not when you were the one on the receiving end, nor had the associated publicity, how ever much restraint the clever clogs in charge had attempted to exercise in their framing of the relevant testimony.
Watching Brown, on the other hand, did.
The Slytherin Chasers both have loyal friends and boyfriends, and they know, know, they're loved just how they are. That makes a lot of things easier. Even if they'd had a tougher go of things - anyone daring to argue they hadn't would pay a ridiculously heavy price for their audacity or stupidity - objectively they're doing better than the Wolf-Moggie is. That just seems to improve their conditions, the fact of which improves them still more. They will be alright. If there had been any doubt - and in darker moments, maybe there had occasionally been some, not that it's generally admitted - it was gone. More acutely aware now of what helps them than they'd been at the start of the year, they've reached a point where they're both keen to pursue those things proactively.
Like those relationships.
Val's boyfriend has graduated, and she isn't able to see him very frequently, obviously, and as a seventh year, she doesn't enjoy the same expanded privileges the eighth years now do, which might have helped. Hestia's boyfriend Theo, however, is right there at Hogwarts, he just sits at a different table. She and Val have spent three weeks now sitting side by side, bolstering each other's confidence and spirits. It helped with some of the initial awkwardness changes to things like their diets had made, but the time has come for the Wolf-Snake hatchlings to leave their nest, and either Sheldon needs to swap seats with Theo so he can join them - although Theo had seemed a little reluctant; Draco was apparently still fragile - or one of the other Slytherins at his table needs to exchange seats with Hestia. That much seems clear.
As such the girls had begun low key lobbying the others to facilitate the change, without any takers...
Until now.
Bolder than Theo by far even before her changed circumstances, Hestia hadn't hesitated to approach Pansy to ask if she'd switch seats with her so the seventh year could sit with her boyfriend. Pansy had refused, naturally, not eager to be shunted to a table of less relevance; say what you like about how grating they were, plenty, but their table had the Head Boy and Head Girl. Including Pansy herself and those two, of the fifteen individuals seated there, there are six Prefects, and if you count Abbott, one erstwhile Prefect as well, and that's of a total of the sixteen Prefects at the school this year. Even allowing for the age ranges of the seating groups and roughly deducting those who hadn't returned this year, Pansy figures there are still about ten tables where the fifth through eighth years and approximately half of the fourth are seated; an even distribution would have seen one or maybe two Prefects per table. That, plus two thirds of the Golden Trio, irksomely a fact still worthy of acknowledgment. If it can be said of any table, theirs is a power table. So sitting with Val, Flora and Sheldon instead? No offence, but not nearly as attractive to her eyes.
Except for today, that is, when that grating, insufferable, know-it-all of a Head Girl has decided they're somehow friends, having shared a non-moment last night, and seems hell bent on letting everyone know what happened to Pansy last Saturday. Circe's left tit. Granger can get stuffed. What is she thinking? And Pansy just can't take it anymore.
As a N.E.W.T.s student, she can't do a thing about the classes they share at this point, but meals? That's in her power.
Probably.
She grabs Hestia as they're leaving Charms that morning, feeling some artificial urgency as it's the only class they share today, and tells her she's agreed. They can swap seats. And then off she vanishes. Well, that is to say technically she goes to Ghoul Studies, but the effect is the same.
Of course if Pansy had known Weasley would end up sitting at the new table - he's been walkabout of late, which meant his seating arrangement wasn't such a known factor, well, unless she'd checked the roster, that is - too obvious by half - she wouldn't have been so quick to try to accommodate Theo and switch with Hestia.
Hestia arrives early for lunch to the Great Hall to collect Pansy as soon as she enters the room. Hestia's sister Flora and Val obviously both know about the seating swap, the three have done nothing but whisper about it gleefully since Pansy had made Hestia the offer, but Sheldon might not have picked up on it yet, and anyway it seems good form to escort her to her new table. Hestia is incredibly keen on Pansy not demanding her seat back, at least not until the adjustment to the magical seating chart becomes permanent and she'd have some say in the matter, too. Unfortunately none of them are quite sure how and when those changes take place. McGonagall had taken what was once a simple, functional thing and made a complete hash of it, on this much they're all in complete agreement. Rumour has it some of the Ravenclaws may be looking for a way to alter the chart itself, but as McGonagall obviously knew where she'd intended everyone to sit, or should know, that hardly seems likely to be of much help in disputes. Perhaps they're hoping to fallback on plausible deniability, but this morning would seem to prove how little difference that's likely to make to the Headmistress when meting out punishments. Time will tell for sure, but it seems a forgone conclusion.
Pansy slips into her new seat, and the other Slytherins greet her warmly. Hestia whispers an explantation to Sheldon, who thankfully immediately comprehends the situation and wishes her a lot of fun with Theo before turning his charm on Pansy. For their parts, both Flora and Val flash huge smiles at Hestia before she leaves to take her new place between her aforementioned boyfriend and Draco. On the one hand, they're clearly sad to see her go, but on the other they're also very visibly so supportive.
'Vati watches the scene play out with not a little envy and a soupçon of inner turmoil. She'd become increasingly jealous of how the Snake wolf-girls were able to be there for each other, how that - well, and presumably the other Carrow twin, too, obviously - had been enough for each of them, how they'd helped each other heal, while she clearly hasn't been sufficient to do that for Lav. That hurts. Nimue's knickers, she only recognises Carrow and Vaisey must also be lycanthrope victims because, in an effort to be able to be supportive for her friend, she'd read up a little in advance - and it was only 'a little' because there wasn't more literature on the subject - so she'd recognised the peculiarities of their eating habits straight off. All that effort just for Lavender, who promptly didn't even bother to so much as appear to meals, despite how ferociously 'Vati has defended her empty seat. And had she ever; there had been a lot of potential takers, mostly amongst the Quidditch set. The result of that was they'd only had three Gryffindors actually sitting at their table, herself, and seventh years Ritchie Coote and Jack Sloper, and Jack had proceeded to swap into Ron's spot at some other table, because he was a no show as well. That meant they now had two permanently empty Gryffindor seats, and the otherwise rather amiable Ritchie generally looks like he could Avada 'Vati where she sits for her role in making their table rubbish.
She can't even blame him, really.
A lot of people, Lav chief amongst them when it was discussed, made excuses for Ron's absence, supposedly assuming it has more to do with the Great Hall having been used as a morgue briefly after the Battle. 'Vati hadn't found it all that convincing when she'd first heard it, and she finds it far less so now that Lav confided in her Monday night that she's begun seeing the ginger, leaving 'Vati with a pretty good idea why those two seats specifically have been empty all this time. As happy as she'd been when Lav first started becoming more her old self - and Lav was and 'Vati truly had been - she's now beginning to grow jealous of Ron, too, and it's not a great look, even she knows that.
If anything, that just makes her more resentful, though. Ron's pretty rubbish himself sometimes, so full of himself and his fool OoM. Second class.
So at present 'Vati can't help framing wolf-Carrow's abandoning her friends and twin more as a matter of her failing to truly appreciate her support network, and doing so for a wizard, no less.
Wizards ruin everything.
It's no coincidence that more criticism of Ron begins to creep into her talks with Lav. It won't be a coincidence either when that inevitably leads to the blonde withdrawing from her.
There's some irony, as Hermione sees it, that Parkinson is now almost definitely sitting with some of the Ravenclaws she'd rather Avada, the numbers alone dictate it, but then she wasn't able to take Hermione's word for Terry's character, or Ernie's or Justin's either for that matter. In the end, they were all rather the same to the Slytherin. All in all, she's been very brave. It's such a pity Hermione hasn't been able to get through to her, a thought which completely fails to recognise the role she's played in the Slytherin's change of seats.
The first Draco hears of the seat swapping is when he arrives at lunch, because he and Pansy hadn't shared any other classes after Charms either, and suddenly there's Hestia to his side instead of Panse.
He shouldn't have thought the single exchange would matter that much, but it's dreadful.
Theo very mistakenly believes his friend has begun seeing Blaise, something that's done, obviously - of course it is; his great, great uncle was a 'confirmed bachelor', after all - but all very sub rosa. It goes universally unacknowledged. As a result, naturally they haven't talked about it, or what it might potentially mean. So for one thing Theo's been trying to give his friends a little space to, erm, well, do as they please, he supposes, and if he isn't there, logically he can hardly observe that nothing takes place beyond the one... tryst he'd happened upon. And for another thing, he assumes his attention and support are less necessary in Draco's life at present. He's trying to be a supportive friend, he isn't - too - jealous, and he doesn't begrudge them whatever happiness they might find... But likewise, so oddly, he doesn't feel a need to hang about slowly becoming a third wheel. Or not so slowly. Blaise could be a force of nature. So Theo's withdrawn some, and Draco hadn't really noticed as Pansy filled the gap.
Well now he begins to notice.
It proves very lonely and - potentially worse - boring for Draco.
Hestia's a team member and a mate; he really wouldn't have anticipated much of a problem. He just hadn't realised how much the dynamics at the table depended on the roles each of the very small group seated there plays; Pansy's was evidently crucial. The shape of the highly questionable new tables means one can only converse easily with one or two people to either side, unless one wished to include the whole table in the conversation, that is, a generally unappealing thought, to say nothing of impractical. To his one side were Potter and Granger, which meant no conversation beyond Potter's insipid offers to 'go flying'. Hardly diverting. Potter's welcome to take a flying leap... If Draco were to raise his voice, he supposes he could always shout at the Weaslette or Lovegood... He fails to see how that would materially improve his situation.
To his other side are now Hestia and then Theo, beyond them Daphne and Harper. Harper would presumably prove interesting enough; they're far from close, but they share enough commonalities as teammates, Prefects and especially now that they're in the same classes, but he's sat too far away, and his attention always seems to gravitate towards Daphne anyway. Daphne, for her part, although that one seat closer, is just too soft-spoken for Draco to have much of a conversation with at the distance, and quite frankly not his first choice in any event. Or second. Or third... She was far too convinced of the world's 'good', he knows better of his own lived experience, and talking to her tends to leave him frustrated and wanting to... just straighten her out, except it wasn't as if any good would come of that either. What's the point in making her as miserable as he is? At least not now that the Dark L... You-Know-Who is vanquished and she's no longer a liability anyway.
Cheery thoughts.
Ah, and, cheerier yet, he has Potter to thank for that.
Someone Avada him now.
Exacerbating his problems, Theo's attention is now actively drawn elsewhere - witches are proving a plague - and apparently, so she wouldn't be insulted, he thought to mention to Hestia that Draco is pretending to be an island, or something, and is demonstratively ignoring them all. Splendid. Really, all Theo'd had to do is tell her it's a safety concern, and she was on board. Last year had certainly taught her that. The result is she dutifully ignores Draco, except somehow Pansy always seemed to remember to talk to him anyway, and when Theo wasn't so distracted, he'd think to cast his Notice-Me-Nott and they'd still have a spot of fun. As is...
No, this truly is dreadful.
Draco's bored out of his gourd.
He doesn't say a word all lunch, and he already hadn't spoken to anyone since breakfast...
Fucking hell.
He spends a great deal of time just contemplating and playing with the food on his plate, truly fascinating, overcome by the thought that, at this rate, the year will prove incredibly long.
And what does he have to look forward to after that?
It isn't until nearly the end of the meal when McGonagall orders the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor firsties to report to her in the Great Hall after classes that he has a bit of distraction. The selection, Turkeys and Moggies, is quite telling, he thinks. That will almost certainly be about the seat swapping earlier this week where after a perfectly stupid number of exchanges, the first years of those Houses had wound up seated with the older Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. That had seen to the round of detentions previous to this morning's, and if Draco doesn't miss his guess - which naturally he doesn't as he's far more realistic than, say, Daphne - this meeting with the Headmistress will lead to still more. Well there's that at least. There really is something to that saying: 'misery loves company'.
He begins looking at the other Houses' firsties and placing mental wagers as to which are most likely to fold first, offering up their older housemates in sacrifice... The brunet to his far right, for example, shouldn't last long at all. Not going by the way he keeps shifting in his seat...
Slightly cheered, Draco resumes eating with a little more vigour, which is probably for the best, as his peas really couldn't stand any more mushing.
"Hey, 'Mione," Harry whispers in her ear, thankfully putting an end to some of her less pleasant lines of thought about some of the boys seated at Parkinson's table, "how do you reckon Parkinson and Carrow were able to swap seats like that? Do you think that's still acceptable by McGona..." Hermione's brow furrows automatically, and Harry catches himself with a chuckle and corrects, "Professor McGonagall's rules?"
"I honestly don't know at this point. It wasn't anything too radical," definitely not like switching everyone out for firsties anyway, "they're in the same House and only a year apart..." She doesn't mention that she suspects there's some internal logic by which everyone was awarded a sort of unspoken point value and in which Prefects and Quidditch players enjoyed an extra bonus. She has a sense that it might have presented a bigger problem - this late in the game anyhow - had the other Carrow twin, neither Prefect nor team member, switched seats with Parkinson instead. In the first few days back, that shouldn't have been a consideration at all. Now though...
As far as Hermione can tell, there's definitely quite a bit of societal shaping involved here - which had been the point after all, to foster an environment in which there was more exposure to one another - but people are up in arms enough over the seating; there's no advantage to pouring petrol on that particular fire by suggesting a different flavour of elitism was playing a role as well this year. It's not that she doesn't trust Harry with the information, he's matured so much the past few years, but he has this way of just telling Ron and Ginny things without reflecting on them much, and the next thing you know there's trouble in store. Or at the least another argument she simply doesn't need.
She knows for a fact there's some added coefficient for diversity, the number of Muggle-born weighted against the number of purebloods. A ratio of those with Death Eater family members to those in the DA... There's clearly weight given to gender as well, the tables were too balanced for that to have been left to chance. Parkinson and Carrow both being female purebloods will most assuredly simplify things.
Some of the difficulty with the exchanges was a portion of the diversity at any given table was achieved as an average between the members of the different Houses, and yet the exchanges now took place exclusively within Houses due to some flagrant attempted abuses. It meant the Ravenclaws behind the recent firstie swap-in had had to organise those shifts with other Houses as well to get away with it for as long as they'd needed to achieve the result, and then it had all been for naught anyway, things snapping back to their original configurations, or some week two iteration thereof. She'd admire their determination if they weren't such rule breaking louts.
And, uh, well, potentially sex pests or worse.
"It's only a small change, and Professor McGonagall usually lets it go if it's just for a meal or so." People sometimes needed to speak to their Housemates about their assignments after all. That was only reasonable. She'd lobbied for that freedom with the Headmistress herself. "It's only when they try to repeat it, ignoring the seating plan, that things get touchy..."
'Tetchy', more like, as in 'McGonagall is ...' and 'rather' lately, but 'Mione has a point.
"You'd probably need to see if they keep to their new seats," she muses, although something about the way Carrow and Parkinson had behaved had both Hermione and Harry feeling this was at least meant to be a longer term thing. Their intentions clearly don't dictate what eventually comes of it, though. "Then we'll see if they're sent back to their original spots or even given detention." As it hadn't been too egregious a change, there was always a chance that even if it was seen as a bridge too far, they'd still get off with a warning, admittedly less of one after this morning's unpleasantness, but a chance nevertheless.
"Hmm," Harry replies, for a change looking even more contemplative than Hermione does. "Interesting."
He files it away for later.
Written with oodles of love for lostangelsoul3 and
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erexen, and a belated happy birthday to erexen. ❤️🎁😘
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Date: 2024-05-02 12:18 am (UTC)