"You're a grown man Draco, but the Ferret still lives inside you."
Draco left his most recent therapy session unable to get Ben's parting words out of his head. He had learned much the past few weeks. Apparently, his brief, seventy-three-second tenure as a ferret had left quite the impression on Draco's psyche. Granted, it didn't help that Potter & Co. used the incident as inspiration for the nickname he seemed destined to carry for the remainder of his life. Ben had suggested that part of Draco's inability to fully cope with the incident was tied up in this nickname, and that forgiving his tormentors was part of the process.
It was all such a load of bollocks.
He stopped in his tracks at the sound of a conversation that would have been private, had the speaker not been such a shrill bitch.
"Ronald!" He could just imagine her face right now. Lips thinning reminiscent of McGonagall. He was waiting for the day her accent slipped into a Scottish brogue. "Do me a favor, please."
"Anything, 'Mione." Stupid nickname. Not as bad as 'Ferret,' but still, it can't have helped Weasley's cause.
"Start fucking other people. Please. It's been six months, and it's time for you to move on."
Draco nearly swallowed his tongue to keep from laughing at the revelation that:
1. Granger knew words like that,
2. Granger had been fucking Weasley (old news, but still, to hear it confirmed was another
thing),
3. Granger had apparently broken Weasley's heart,
4. And now, Granger couldn't get rid of Weasley.
She could call him 'Ferret' all she wanted, but at the end of the day, she let a freckled Weasley dick into her life, and there was just no coming back from that.
"But, I thought..." Weasley sighed. "You are fucking other people?"
"I told you not to wait, Ron. We're not 'on a break,' we're 'broken up.' There's a difference."
"Are you fucking other people, or not?"
"I'm not," Weasley exhaled in relief, "answering that, Ronald! It's none of your business."
And she stomped away gracelessly, leaving Weasley seconds away from sobbing. There was no way Draco could stick around to listen to that, so he tiptoed in the opposite direction before running soundlessly, Scooby-Doo style to get away as fast as possible.
And, as Providence would have it, he ran right into Granger.
"Watch where you're going, Ferret!"
It stung, but it stung less than usual. Draco took a moment to marvel at the miracle of therapy. Now all he had to do was be the bigger person, and walk away without saying something arseholi—
"Maybe you should hide a map under that wig, Granger! At the very least, it'd keep you from getting turned around and running into Weasley again. Maybe 'stupid' really is a sexually transmitted disease."
So, okay. He was new at this whole 'bigger person' thing. Therapy was, he reminded himself, a process, and sometimes, the desire to say something both cruel and stupid might be too overwhelming.
And stupid it was. The indignant look on Granger's face was proof of that. "Were you listening to our conversation?"
Draco snorted in a flustered, rushed way that fooled no one. "What? No. What conversation? Of course not. I mean, that is to say, yes, I did hear every word you two said, but I wasn't trying to listen." Nailed it. "So, to answer your question, Granger, no. I wasn't 'listening' in a creepy way. It was just more like you're so loud, that it's impossible to not hear. Do you know what I'm saying?"

YOU ARE READING
The Ferret
FanfictionIt's debatable, but having an *actual* spirit animal is not shaping up so great for Draco. The more he tries to embark on a self-improvement journey, the more his inner ferret seems to call the shots. And it just can't seem to stay away from Hermion...