No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 25

She wrapped the seven token gifts, and placed them along the typewriter inside the charmed bag and thought about where to go to next.

Ever since the holidays started, Arlene had the thought of Hermione on her mind, recently, it was because of that letter, but mostly it was about her gift.

Arlene was more aware of the muggle world than most purebloods, she did, after all, live in a muggle building, but she still wasn't that much informed in order to pick out a muggle present. And considering the fact that Hermione was the only witch in her family, any item that was charmed without a wizard or witch of age would warrant a ministry visit and she didn't want to put Hermione in trouble. So, she went with the safest option, books.

With that sorted, she thought about who else she would get a gift for, she had already gotten her mother a statue of Lady Justice and a couple of Agatha Christie's books, except that they were from a magical library, which meant that the author bio wasn't about how unlike all the female writer of her time she used her own name, but rather about how she became both a muggle and magic icon.

Then she thought about Pansy, should she get Pansy anything? Crabbe, Goyle and even sometimes Draco made plenty of purist remarks, the former way more than the latter, but Pansy was never more than your average fourteen year old 'insecurity manifested into bullying' and after seeing how passionate she is about magical creatures and that day before Sage's date, Arlene had started to look at Pansy in a different light.

It wouldn't be that much of inconvenience anyway, both she and Blaise were Magizoology nerds, so she wouldn't need to make extra trips.

Alene made a plan in her head, she would go back to the store she had left her mother at, get a unicorn themed object, go to the bookstore and get two copies of a Magizoology book, preferable something of Newt Scamander's and another for Hermione, then to a music store that she had stumbled upon months prior that was known for selling some muggle tracks.

A wave of guilt fell on the girl as she thought about her friends, she hadn't even sent a letter to any of them since she went home.

Arlene knew that Sage would be fine, too happy about her father's return to even notice. Draco would be fine two, probably being spoiled to death with a couple hundred presents. And Blaise? Well, Blaise's mother fit the perfect description of 'rich widow with a lot of secrets' after all, having seven husbands dying in mysterious ways warranted some rumors but she had seen the woman interact with Blaise on several occasions, he would definitely be having the time of his life.

What worried her were the other two.

If her mother's words were to be trusted, Mr. Parkinson was a raging traditionalist purist asshole and Mrs. Parkinson was a meek 'better seen not heard' trophy wife, not to mention how much Pansy seems to hate going home, she did not have a happy family life, as a matter of fact, Arlene had once overheard her mentioning to her friend how scared she is of her dad.

But the person she was Mega worried about was Theo.

Theo's mother, a woman remembered as lovely and sweet, committed suicide back in first year and left Theo in the care of his father, his father who was one of the most famed death eaters to escape justice. Moreover, Theo confided in her and Blaise countless times about how living with his emotionally absent father in that large, cold, dark mansion sometimes felt like he was being suffocated. Remembering that, she felt even worse about it.

Alas, she would make it up, she introduced Theo to The Beatles a while back and he was hooked, of course, his father would never allow him to listen to muggle music, so the only ones he has are the ones that were gifted to him by her and Sage.