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christmasspirit) wrote2023-07-03 10:19 pm
christmasspirit) wrote2023-07-03 10:19 pm
Entry tags:
"soaring part 7" by gingerbred
Chapter 07, roaring
Characters: Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Lavender Brown, Hermione Granger
13 September, 1998. Neville and Ginny are able to cheer each other up. Harry, Ron and Ginny exchange information about the events of the last night, and a secret comes to light.
Originally Published: 2023-07-03 on LJ / DW
Words: 5.4 k
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Characters: Ginny Weasley (7G, Chaser), Harry Potter (8G, Captain, Seeker), Ron Weasley (8G, Prefect, Keeper), Neville Longbottom (newly minted Herbology Apprentice and Head of Gryffindor)
Mentioned briefly: Seamus Finnigan (8G fiery Reserve Beater, long time friend of Lavender's), Lavender Brown (8G, Lycanthrope attack survivor), Hermione Granger (8G, Head Girl), Pomona Sprout (Head of Hufflepuff, Herbology Professor), Irma Pince (Librarian Extraordinaire), Elizabeth Wilkins (Member of the Wizengamot, Ella’s mum)
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).
12 - 13 September, 1998. A group of masked individuals attack Draco and Pansy, the 8th year Slytherin Prefects, as they make their rounds. Harry and Ron, coincidentally in the vicinity due to some late night mischief of their own, come to their rescue. S 02
13 September, 1998. Hermione is exceedingly keen to avoid being put in a position where she'll be expected to tell Ginny (and Luna) about the assault on the Slytherins the night before. S 05
13 September, 1998. Minerva informs the Gryffindor witches about the attack the previous evening. Unfortunately she snubs Neville in the process, preempting his briefing of the girls. S 06
Sunday, 13 September, 1998
Corridors near the Gryffindor TowerGinny is just returning from the pitch, broom in hand; she'd been lucky that the rain had stopped. It was her turn to fly off some steam, and unfortunately the boys never think to ask if she'd like to join them. Sure, she was good enough to practice with during the summers when there were far fewer options, but come autumn, it was as though she were forgotten. The irony is generally there were more choices for someone qualified to bat with in the summer at the Burrow than tended to present themselves during term, rules and schedules as they are, and they chose her to play with anyway, but sadly she doesn't see it that way.
The Headmistress' news of an attack at the school has made her more than a little uneasy; for all she doesn't envision Fred laid out before her every time she enters the Great Hall the way Ron does, the loss still sits deep. The very idea that the Troubles could be starting again... It had been grab her broom or have a panic attack - she didn't used to get those - so it had been a no brainer. Flying wasn't sufficient to get rid of all the tension, how could it be considering, although it had helped some. She's still stomping through the corridors, her agitation evident when she rounds a corner too quickly and slams full bore into Neville, their new Head of House.
In spite of her speed, the collision with the diminutive ginger probably wouldn't have knocked the wind out of him, but the broomstick to his ribs is an entirely different matter.
"Oof," he grunts, his face contorting in pain. The impact causes him to rotate a quarter turn, his back connecting with the wall rather ungently, and he slides down it a bit until his knees catch his weight, groaning, "Merlin."
"Oh, Nev!" She cries. Full points for sincerity, if not so much for looking where she's going. It's more than a little strange that this year he could actually take points, not that he'd ever dream of doing so. "I'm so sorry." Failing to notice his legs are back in play, she reaches out to grab him under his arms to try to arrest his slide down the wall. Surprisingly strong for someone so petite, she half drags him back up the wall until he's propped at a sensible height. She snags her wand and applies a simple Cooling Charm to his ribcage, years of playing Quidditch with her brothers having taught her a thing or two.
"Godric's beard, Ginny, watch where you're going with that thing," he stands there rubbing his ribs and glaring at her broom. He still sounds pretty winded, although much of the pain is gone. She's resourceful like that.
"Sorry, Nev, I was..." she hefts the broom in superfluous explanation. Yeah, he'd gathered that much. "The Headmistress spoke to us, y'know..."
"Yeah, all the Heads of House are talking to the girls." There's a tightness to his jaw, and it sounds kind of off. She knows him far too well to miss it.
She pauses a beat to think about it, quickly lands upon the obvious and given their years long friendship has zero qualms about asking, "So why didn't you speak to us then?"
Honestly? It's nice that it occurred to someone. His lips tighten and then he answers, "She thought it would be better if you heard it from her."
Ginny scoffs, which is why he likes her. She doesn't play games, and you know just where you stand with her. "Where was she last year?" Ginny demands, and it really isn't fair - staff had done their best, hadn't they - except she, Neville and Luna had basically led the resistance at the school, and even if after the fact it turns out they weren't in anywhere near the danger they'd thought, at the time it had felt very real, and they'd been all on their own.
Neville almost points out that it isn't exactly unbiased, he's usually reasonable that way, and Minerva's a coworker and his boss... Except, Merlin's bollocks, he's tired of being reasonable, and right now he's more than a little tired of Minerva, too, so impartiality can get stuffed.
He slides down the wall again until he's seated on the floor, prepared to have a good sulk, damn it.
"So it wasn't more reassuring then?" He looks up at Ginny. He may be fishing for a compliment, and she doesn't disappoint.
"No, it most certainly wasn't. Reassuring?! Who killed Nagini with a single blow?" The one has nothing to do with the other, but his ego is happy to accept it. It seems today isn't his day for excessive accuracy, pedantry be hanged.
She plops herself down next to him, carefully putting her broom off to the other side, it wouldn't do to assault him twice, and begins a tirade about the safety at the school or, more accurately, the lack thereof. He smiles, because it's so familiar. They'd spent a fair amount of time having just this sort of one-sided conversation last year, and she's well off and flying. Ginny's temperament is as fiery as her hair, and once she gets going, she converts all her apprehension into outrage, which rolls off her in waves. When her anger isn't directed at you, Neville finds it kind of warming, and a good rant does a lot more for her nerves than the flying had.
She finally winds down and catches her breath, feeling a lot better. Nev's giving her a familiar grin, which means she'd sort of lost the plot there for a bit, and she smiles back at him, acknowledging the fact.
"Better now?" He asks with a bit of smirk.
"Yeah, thanks... Well, mostly." She nibbles her lip and looks at him sincerely, and all the days and nights of fear last year come back to him in a rush. By and large he's able to leave it behind him and exist in the moment, but every now and again... The look on her face right now? That's the look she'd had before they broke into Headmaster Snape's office. It's been weird wrapping his head around the fact the man hadn't been their enemy, although really? Detention with Hagrid should have tipped them off then. Maybe because Neville has to confront this paradigm shift regularly in order to work with Professor Snape as a colleague, he's doing a better job of leaving the past year behind him than Ginny is. "Things aren't starting up again, are they?" she asks nervously.
"Ginny, I'd tell you if they were, I swear" he answers just as sincerely, meaning every word and giving her hand a squeeze, but the fear won't quite let her go.
Her next, "So this wasn't some left over Death Eaters?" is a little more hopeful, though, and he smiles gently in return.
"If anything, it's the opposite. Someone trying to get even maybe." The fear in her eyes is receding, but not entirely banished, and so, encouraged by his successes, he adds, "Don't tell anyone, but they worked over Malfoy and Parkinson." And because he's still young and new to the job, he adds, "So it's not 'them', if anything it's 'us'." Of course that along with much of the tone of his exchange with Ginny is part of the reason he's having difficulty gaining the respect he seeks as a member of staff and Head of House, in addition to explaining in a nutshell the problems the Slytherins currently face, whether they'd been involved with Voldemort and the Death Eaters or not.
Appropriate for a staff member or not, Ginny understands him immediately. Parkinson isn't one of her favourites, but she didn't deserve that. And of course Harry and Hermione had gone on and on again about Malfoy for much of the summer, so... She's even more comfortable with the thought he hadn't deserved it either. In fact, the more she thinks about it, the more sure she is that anyone remotely close to Harry - so anyone who'd fought that is - would know enough to know he sees it that way, and he should be the one to judge. "I don't think it's 'us' or 'them', I think it's something else." Considering the four hundred points from Ravenclaw, Neville's inclined to agree, but he's already said too much and at this rate Minerva is going to have his guts for garters.
She nudges him and asks, "How about you? Are you feeling any better?" He shrugs, because, yeah, talking like this was pleasant and comforting, but honestly he's still pretty frustrated about before. "Did you want to talk to us about the ambush?" she asks, and it's just nice that someone thought to.
"I don't think that's something anyone wants to do," except maybe Minerva, an ungenerous voice in his head adds, "but on the other hand, it's sort of my job now, isn't it?" And sure, he'd tried to turn the position down when it was first offered. Hell, he'd gone so far as to try to convince Minerva that she could do Head of House and the Headmistress' job. Instead she'd promised to support him where- and whenever possible... and maybe this is what that is, all that is, the assistance she thought she owed him for talking him round... but he's left feeling dissatisfied.
"Did you tell her that?"
"There wasn't really time..."
"Well then go speak to her, you numpty. It's not like she can read minds. Uh, she isn't a Legilimens is she?" she adds.
He smiles, "Not to the best of my knowledge. The only one we've got is Professor Snape, and I hear he refuses to do it anymore."
"Then don't expect her to guess," Ginny suggests confidently, but Neville doesn't seem convinced. "What's going on with you anyway?"
It's Neville's turn to unburden himself. "Some days I have to wonder if being offered the job, even the apprenticeship, was less a reflection of my unparalleled academic prowess," his wry grin is self deprecating as always, "than about how I dispatched a certain snake."
She looks briefly stricken for having mentioned it, "I'm sorry, Nev. I didn't mean to imply..."
"No, no," he chuckles, fully aware he's being contrary. "I mean, it's nice that people remember, or appreciate what I did, it's just... I'd also like to be appreciated for what I'm doing, not just what I did, y'know? Some days I wonder if anything I'm doing is good enough on its own."
"Impostor syndrome," she nods definitely, too much time spent with Hermione not to have heard of the hallmarks.
"How's that?" he asks, lost.
"Look, Nev, you're good at what you do, yeah? You may even have a greener thumb than Professor Sprout." His expression says that's close to blasphemy and she laughs. Growing things was never his problem, confidence was, and whatever it is McGonagall's doing with him, the last couple of weeks, he's been regressing. "Seriously, have you thought about carving out a competency niche for yourself? Something that you're good that no one else is?"
He looks thoughtful, "We do have some new additions to the greenhouses this year... A number of things we didn't used to grow. There are some changes to the Potions curriculum, and Pomona wanted to supply the new ingredients ourselves. She thought it would make for a nice little challenge. If it doesn't work, we can always order them in..." He'll need to give it some thought, but it's less about the suggestion itself than that she taken the time to try to cheer him up.
"Thanks, Ginny," he tells her sincerely as he rises. He extends a hand to pull her up off the floor.
"You're welcome, Nev," and then with a laugh, she claps the dust off his back and bum, sparing no more thought for propriety than she would with Harry or Ron.
Gryffindor Common Room and Boys' Dorm
Ginny swoops into the common room in a far better mood than she'd been in when she returned from the pitch, well, and barrelled into Neville. Speaking to him had made all the difference. She feels better having given him advice. Less hopeless. More in control. More capable. It's nice. Now she imagines it's time to talk to Harry. There's weirdness afoot at the school, the golden trio have been behaving a little oddly all day long, Hermione hadn't been there at lunch, nor when the Headmistress had spoken to them earlier, and either Ginny needs to update the others, who have no way of knowing what was said, or they have something to say to her, or maybe both... She means to clear the air no matter which, and Harry's the best bet of the three. She'll only end up arguing with Ron, and Hermione, although often visibly uncomfortable and exceedingly twitchy when prevaricating, will ultimately keep whichever secrets she deems necessary, of that much Ginny is sure.
No, Harry is the softest touch.
She looks around the common room and doesn't see her target of choice. She spots Seamus, off in a corner with Lavender, gently trying to coax her out of her shell as he's done since the beginning of term. Ginny goes back and forth on how she views Lav's fragility. Some days she gets it, does she ever, and some days she thinks the girl just needs to knock it off and pull herself together, except then she remembers the extent of the blonde's wounds and... Ginny can just hear Ron telling her she'd certainly never had to endure anything like that. It really shouldn't be a competition, except some days it is, and there's been a lot of gatekeeping the last several months.
That said, objectively Lav's injuries really had been something else.
Right now Seamus is trying to encourage her to join them for dinner in the Great Hall, but after Greyback's attack... Lavender just isn't ready yet. And of course the new seating arrangement doesn't help in the least. She wouldn't even be at his table, unless someone were willing to switch, and right now the Headmistress was cracking down on that. This close to the new moon is probably Seamus' best bet, though. Lav'll be at her most vulnerable, but that still doesn't seem to mean she's going to change her mind. Ginny remembers what those early months with her brother Bill were like. Seamus is going to have his hands full, but he's clearly a good friend.
Well that's one of the boys accounted for. She Banishes her broom to her dorm room, nearly taking out one of their Firstes in the process - they really need to learn to be faster on their feet - and not having discovered Harry or her brother in the common room, she heads for their dorm. They're more likely to speak with her if it's just them anyway. Neville, obviously, no longer shared the room, and of course she'd have no problem asking Dean to give them some privacy if he's there. There're advantages to remaining on excellent terms with your exes. Ron, well, they'll argue if they must; she doubts he'd leave, even if she asked, if it came to that.
In the end, Harry is there, Dean is not. Neither is Ron for that matter, although as luck would have it, he shows up soon after.
"Heya, Harry," she drawls as she enters. There's a hint of the panic of a caged animal behind those specs of his, and suddenly she has a burst of inspiration as to how best to manage him. It's not rhyme nor reason, she just goes with her gut. Flopping down onto the bed next to him, she smiles knowingly and simply states, "Malfoy and Parkinson. Spill." She's right, it was a good guess; his panic only intensifies. Her smile just grows and she says nothing more, waiting for him to fill what's quickly becoming a pretty oppressive silence. Sure enough, it's not long before he begins to tell her about his late night excursion with Ron.
Speak of the devil... As if conjured, the door opens and her brother appears, his timing typically bad. Perversely, the arse brightens slightly at the sight of her there. Not that Ron's fundamentally changed his mind about her being allowed to get on with her life after Fred's death, of course not, but it seems to have dawned on him at some point that if she is going to move on, he'd vastly prefer her to do it with Harry rather than anyone else. Yeah, good luck with that. He should have thought of that months ago when he'd helped torpedo their relationship, the nit. She's trying to calculate if she'll need to change her approach to tickle the details out of Harry in her brother's presence when Ron flops down on the bed next to her.
Like brother, like sister.
"She knows," Harry informs Ron simply. "About Malfoy and Parkinson."
That last bit was sort of unnecessary, as today that's been topic number one between them. Well, after they got past Hermione's point deductions anyway...
"I thought you said McGonagall was going to keep them out of it?" Ron demands.
Harry shrugs, because it's not like he was there when the Headmistress spoke to the girls. They look to Gin who shakes her head stubbornly, rather tired of being constantly excluded, "You first. What happened last night?"
And so they fill her in.
"Yeah," she says thoughtfully, a good deal paler than she was before. She tries to hang on to Neville's words, if there were a threat, if she needed to worry, he'd tell her. There's comfort in that. But what happened to Parkinson... "No, McGonagall didn't mention any of that. Just that one of the girls had been jumped. Are you sure... Because she made it sound like..."
Harry's pretty pale as well, "I know what I saw, Gin." Unconsciously, and just a touch insultingly, she turns to Ron for confirmation, and he shrugs. This really isn't their story to tell.
"Well?" She prompts, growing impatient. Somewhere in her chest she can feel the hint of another panic attack coming on.
"We don't know what would have happened, we just know what did happen," Ron snarls.
Ginny is about to jump down his throat. There'd been far too much of that already, people downplaying other people's traumatic experiences, but then she registers his displeasure at the whole thing and begins to reevaluate why. He shrugs again, "I'd say Harry got the details there right." His disapproval now patently clear, he adds, "McGonagall shouldn't have told you about Parkinson."
"But she didn't, I swear..."
"So how'd you know then?" Ron sounds accusatory, and she has no intention of landing Neville in it. Honestly she doesn't think he'd known the details or he'd have said. Or at least hinted. At this rate, she'll need to fill him in.
"I know people," she shrugs. "We talk." The boys look grim. It was really only a matter of time before the story got out. It's not right. Of course, if there are enough versions of the story circulating at the same time, people are unlikely to credit the real one with much accuracy.
"The thing is, McGonagall made it sound like they weren't sure there was a threat to the rest of us..." Ginny tries to explain.
Harry's face goes red, Ron's ears tinge to match. They're always the first appendages to go, the apples of his cheeks will be next.
"They aren't taking it seriously," Ron fumes. "Just because we got there in time..." Harry can still hear Hermione asking him if they had. He doesn't share that thought with Ron, he's mad enough as is.
"No," Ginny interrupts. "It wasn't that they doubted there'd been an attack, just that we probably weren't in any danger."
Harry takes the lack of general warnings as an indication that Professor McGonagall is now sure the ambush was targeted. It could be wishful thinking on her part, and it doesn't mean she's right in any event, although by now he has some insights as to how the Headmistress might come by her information, but deep down, he doesn't disagree either. No, it feels about right. And if it is, if the attack was directed at the Slytherins specifically, then it probably isn't just the girls who should have been warned, is it? He wonders if Malfoy fully appreciates the threat, and then nearly laughs at the thought. Yeah, if there was one thing they'd learnt at the trials, Malfoy had seen quite a few threats over the past several years. He'll have known the score before any of them.
Now that they've caught Ginny up, there's no more need for Hermione to hide in the library. All well and good, but obviously it would help if she knew that. Fortunately Harry's already worked out the solution to that particular problem once today.
"I'm going to tell 'Mione to meet us later," he explains as he casts his Patronus. "You can fill her in on the Headmistress' announcements."
Ginny laughs as his Patronus materialises, "Because one reprimand from McGonagall wasn't enough today?"
He waves to shush her, but figuring 'Mione's still in the library, takes the hint and whispers his message, "We have news, meet me and Gin for dinner," and off it prances. He wonders if the fact it whispers will be enough to placate Madam Pince. On consideration, probably not. Oh well, too late.
"Pince is going to Crucio her," Ron remarks dryly, watching the stag disappear through a wall. And if Pince bans 'Mione from the library, he reckons there are excellent odds 'Mione might Crucio Harry, too.
Fortunately Hermione's in the owlery instead, sending her latest dispatch off to Madam Wilkins. Luckliy she's also smart enough to know Harry's telling her she can stop avoiding Ginny. She might even have been a little embarrassed at being so utterly transparent if confronting the younger woman hadn't been something she'd been so eager to dodge.
"That's becoming a habit," Ron notes indicating where the Patronus had just vanished. Harry shrugs. If his friends don't have the good sense to appear at meals, what's he supposed to do? And at least this time he hadn't conjured it on the table or anything.
Ginny is still wrestling with some of the details from the ambush the night before, instinctively fighting to keep that feeling of panic from rising. One of her better coping mechanisms is regaining control of some, any aspect, so she focuses in on a detail. "So you mean to tell me there were ten attackers, and you couldn't recognise a single voice? None at all?" Ginny prods as if that will make the difference, and Harry finds himself nearly laughing again. Why, now that she mentions it... He thinks Ron is about to give her a suitably sarky answer when his roommate takes them by surprise.
"No, we wouldn't have been able to."
"How's that?" she asks, and something in his phrasing draws Harry's attention too.
"Those blokes were wearing Mischief Masks, one of George's new lines. It obscures the wearer's head, their eyes, their hair... completely hidden. It disguises voices, too, so there'd be no way for us to identify them."
"Does it change accents, too?" Harry goes into a spin. That had been the only reliable bit of information he'd been able to provide the Headmistress. At least he hopes it was reliable. Bloody hell.
"No, but if you suggest it and he makes it into a product, George is paying out Inspiration Fees..."
"Ron, that's terrible!" Ginny scolds.
"I thought that was pretty generous of him. He doesn't have to you know, he's the one doing all the work..."
"No, Ron, the Masks. You can't have people running around Hogwarts with stuff like that," Harry seems to have taken up Ginny's cause. It figures. It's not like he's in any position to talk with his Cloak and all.
Ginny gives Harry a bittersweet smile. It's nice that he's taking her side and standing up to Ron. Finally. It's too little, too late, but it's alright; better late than never. They can't go back to where they were, and she clearly doesn't want to. Harry shrugs, that wasn't the point of his agreeing with her, he'd done it because she's right.
"We need to report it," he tells Ron in no uncertain terms.
"You can't do that! McGonagall will ban the lot." That might just be true. "You've got every pre-teen and teenager..."
"Nearly," Ginny corrects. Ron continues as if she hadn't.
"...in wizarding Britain between these walls, and you want his products banned here? That's almost his entire customer base, for three quarters of the year, too. You can't do that! You'll ruin him. He's only just getting back on his feet." That much was definitely true.
Deeply conflicted, Harry sits there, thinking. In light of those objections, Ginny also seems less sure what to do, and these days, of the two of them, she's far less prone to self-doubt. Naturally George had had a far rougher go of things this summer than Ron by any stretch of the imagination; deliberately doing something to jeopardise his recovery... And of course in a very real sense, Harry is a stakeholder. Not that he ever wanted to see a return on those Galleons, but he'd literally invested in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes' success. It sort of goes against the grain to risk anything that might make George fail now.
"Then talk to him Ron. He needs to pull those products, because this isn't okay," Harry finally tells him, highly perturbed. He doesn't appreciate Ron keeping him in the dark - as if he'd never do such a thing, and it had been less than a day at that - and he's feeling very manipulated so as not to tell the Headmistress. While that last may be a perfectly common response, it doesn't make it any more reasonable. The truth is, Ron has a valid point and Harry isn't being unduly coerced here, he's simply being confronted with the ramifications aforehand. This is just yet another crappy situation with no easy solutions anyone cares to take responsibility for. Other than talking some sense into George, that is. Of course the question remains if that would be sufficient.
Jack Sloper sticks his head in the door to announce it's time to head to dinner. The expressions of the trio are enough to send him packing. Always with the drama, that lot. No good deed...
This is when Harry would usually ask Ron if he wants to go flying later because they don't sit together during meals any more - or wouldn't even if Ron bothered to appear in the Great Hall, that is - and so it takes a spot of planning. He can't believe Ron just sat on the information about the Masks this whole time and right now he really doesn't feel like flying with him again any time soon. Ron for his part seems to sense it and apropos of nothing announces to the room that he has plans later, but doesn't specify. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, Harry figures, but he's no more likely to hide out in the library than than Harry was, so maybe there's something to it. Merlin knows he disappears often enough. That's fine. Harry certainly doesn't need him to fly.
He can fly all by himself.
Hell, maybe he'll ask Malfoy. Hermione should like that.
Gin does, too, when he actually does it just a little while later, but for completely different reasons: Ron would go mental at the thought. But then 'Mione doesn't always see the humour in things. It's the ultimate nose thumbing at the ginger, and right now his sister and best friend both kind of feel like he deserves it, even if he doesn't know it's taking place. Probably especially then. It's just some guilt-free venting. They can't explain any of that to Hermione either, not without telling her about the Masks; she'd want to report them to the Headmistress, and they're now in agreement not to... Well she probably wouldn't find it funny anyway, so that's no real loss.
And so that's how it starts, "Malfoy! Privileges!" Harry croons, turning to the blond beside him. "Just waiting for us to use. Come flying with me tonight." Malfoy stares at him like he's grown an extra head or turned purple or something. Greengrass would probably like that. Harry smirks impishly and stage whispers, "I can walk you home if you're worried."
Gin manages not to inhale her pumpkin juice at that, but only just. 'Mione kicks him under the table. She's getting good at that, but it was still worth it. So worth it.
Harry calculated correctly, though; in light of the Heads' talks with the witches, everyone assumes he's referring to that. Well, that and calling Malfoy a girl. That tracks. Even the Slytherins pick up on it and decide they needn't fillet Potter at their earliest convenience for insensitivity. It was close, though. But in a strange way, the teasing provides them useful cover. Even later, when all the different versions of the stories of the previous night finally begin making the rounds, one thing most people can agree on, the Chosen One wouldn't be ridiculing Malfoy if he'd just been attacked, not after Harry'd spent much of the summer trying to convince the Wizengamot and wizarding world the Slytherin was innocent and had helped save them from Voldemort. Whether people were inclined to believe his version of events or not, they believed the sincerity of his defence and rule out this sort of inconsistency in his actions.
Clearly they haven't spent much time around teenagers.
Shameless and so ridiculously entitled, the Moggie will continue in that vein for a number of days until Draco eventually realises the best way to get Potter to finally shut his gob is to call his bluff and just say 'yes'. The look on his stupid face is too precious when he does.
Naturally, Harry, too proud by half to renege, will be left scrambling to ditch Ron that evening so he can go flying with Malfoy instead. Who'd have thought? And if Ron ever finds out, he's never going to forgive him.
Written with oodles of love for lostangelsoul3.
no subject
Super smart Gin, figures out how to trap Harry & make him spill, all thanks to the unwitting Neville. Poor Nev, it's rough to find yourself the Head over your co-conspirators in a WAR... so pardon his slip with Ginny.
Appreciate the Harry who sends patronus to Hermione (LMAO over Mme Pince crucio!) and that Harry realizes that offering to fly with Draco is an excellent idea, plus... purple Moggie!