Starry skies and Gardenias

Filler 01

"Aunt Isabella!"

"Yes, Draco," Isabella said with a silent sigh. The boy's head was swimming in the flames and he seemed sincerely troubled.

"I think I've done something very bad," he said. 

Regulus raised his eyebrows curiously. Draco never sounded so serious, nor so worried.

"And what did you do?" Isabella asked. 

Draco took a deep breath, and screwed his face up as he recollected the incident that had happened that morning.

"So, I got onto the Slytherin team," he said slowly. He knew he was going to get scolded. Uncle Regulus despised that word, and he would never, never call Aunt Isabella that. 

"And we booked the pitch for practice in the morning, but Gryffindor had it at the same time," he said. 

Aunt Isabella nodded at him, asking him to continue. 

"And the Gryffindors were all there, and Flint and Wood had a shouting match," he said. "Then Flint went, 'We have to train our new Seeker' and 'Look at our new Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones' and the Gryffindors were all gaping at it,"

"Then this jumped up little Granger comes up and says, 'At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in, they got in on pure talent'," Draco mimicked. 

"She wouldn't do it without provocation, what did you lot do?" Uncle Regulus said with a sigh. 

"I really can't see anyone doing that just out of the blue,"

Draco turned slightly pink.

"I didn't say anything!" he cried. "It was Flint. He was commenting on how the Weasleys were poor and how the twins were riding old Cleansweeps,"

"Well, I think it is justified, then," Regulus leaned back in his armchair.

"It is not!" Draco cried indignantly. "I did not buy my way in. I practised hard all summer, even you know that, don't you?" he turned to his aunt who nodded serenely.

She had overlooked his training herself. And Aunt Isabella knew more about Quidditch tactics than Flint who said he wanted to go professional. 

"I got in on skill," Draco huffed. "I beat Higgs, by my own talent. Only, father had bought the team new brooms so that they would hold a try-outs. I was just setting the opportunity to show my skills,"

"And what is the bad thing that you did?" Aunt Isabella said patiently.

Draco hesitated for a second, then muttered something under his breath.

"What? Come again?" Regulus said. 

"I called her a mudblood," Draco said, his voice was barely above a whisper, and he wasn't meeting their eyes. Especially not his aunt's.

He could hear Uncle Regulus' disappointed sigh, and he felt his heart drop further.

"Well, did you apologize, for the nasty comment then?" Aunt Isabella said. 

Draco shook his head.

"I can't just go up to her and say sorry," he cried. "It's going to be very bad for my reputation,"

Uncle Regulus just looked exasperated.

"Do you feel bad about calling her that, Draco?" Aunt Isabella asked. 

Draco nodded. 

"I was just angry," he muttered. "I know I shouldn't have,"

Aunt Isabella nodded pleasantly.