No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 43

Blaise, clearly the only one of them that showed any signs of maturity, turned to her instead "Your dad's okay then?"

"Yeah." She paused "Mum says they're finally having a proper wedding, she's planning to change her name first thing on Monday, but I can keep mine if I want."

"Do you?"

For a moment her victorious grin faltered "I mean... I fought so hard for that name right? Every time Snape called me Black or I was written 'Arlene Burke' only, but honestly? I don't see the point anymore."

Draco, Pansy and Theo suddenly ceased to find the letter interesting anymore and were now listening in "What do you mean?" asked Pansy.

Arlene bit her lip and stared at her shoes "Back on our first day this year, we passed by mum's family- I have cousins who go to school with us you know, and her parents and siblings were there and they just stared at us with these looks and I flipped them off of course, but-"

She paused and took a deep breath "I always used Black-Burke to show that I was proud of my heritage, that I didn't care that I was related to Sirius Black because this was my father's name, and Burke because it was my mother's, but what's the point now? Mum's changing it because that name means nothing but pain for her, so who will I keep the name for? The men and women who abandoned their own flesh and blood because she had a baby without having a ring first? I don't know, it just seems kind of pointless now."

"Plus," she added "I fought so hard for that name, but after everything that happened this year, it just seems like a worthless cause, I mean, why would I care about something as trivial as a name when I have all these other, way more important things to worry about? Also, we'll be the only Blacks –the ones that hold the name anyway- so I won't be judged based on someone else."

Pansy shrugged "You're overreacting, it's just a name."

She was right. It was just a name, and a name only has as much power as you allow it to.

She shook her head "Anyway," Arlene's returned with a vengeance "on more important news, we're moving into the Black Manor, in Berkshire. Also dad and Sirius are getting checked out from the hospital tomorrow, mum says they'll be registered as animagi, and the Ministry's issuing a public apology, Peter's trial is next week , what else? Oh and she wants me to give this owl to Ron. Apology gift for sending his rat to prison I guess."

"Why are they giving Pettigrew a trial?" Questioned Draco "I mean, wasn't your mother publicly ostracized for years for demanding Black get one"

Theo threw his legs back up on Draco's and lit another cigarette "Ministry's corrupt," he announced "we should know, our parents work there."

"At least it's a happy ending." Shrugged Pansy, snatching away the cigarette and ignoring his protests as she took a drag "Flint's getting recruited for Puddlemere, Astoria's dating that fifth year from Ravenclaw, my parents are letting me spend the entire summer with the Malfoys-"

"In hopes of you two realising you're in love and are soulmates of course." Theo teased.

Draco rolled his eyes "She's right though, Miles and Peggy are dating, Jade says she's going to muggle collage which I find stupid but whatever, Arlene's finally broken off her friendship with that annoying Hufflepuff girl-"

"I don't know who any of these people are." Pansy dismissed in a bored tone.

"Our quidditch team? And me and Sage are still friends by the way just because we don't have the same friend group and are in different social circles doesn't mean that-"

"Also Theo's deeply deranged father agreed that he come over as well -not the whole summer though," Draco continued, ignoring them both "And I don't suppose Blaise's mum would have an issue with it, Arlene yours won't mind would she?"

"I suppose not-"

"Perfect!" We'll have a huge party then, firewiskey and everything,-"

"Alright!" Arlene interrupted "as much as I would love to talk about everyone's happy endings and whatever this" she gestured at Draco who had spontaneously planned out their entire summer "is, unfortunately I do have to give this to Ron. Bummer."

She grabbed the owl and left them to their own devices, ignoring Theo's "You just want to go make out with Granger." Which was not necessarily untrue.

Pansy was right though, about happy endings. It wasn't an ending per se, since life has only one true beginning and one true ending, and she was sure that that year wasn't the first nor last time that any of them would experience heartache, but it would have to do for now.

And Arlene truly was happy, not just for herself, but for Ron who's finally getting a proper pet, for Neville who was finally going to stop struggling in class because he was finally getting a new wand, for Harry who was finally getting a parent figure and for Lupin who's finally not going to be alone anymore, for every single classmate who got that A they wanted and every first year who got the Chocolate frog card they hoped for.

She knocked on Hermione's compartment and felt her heart melt when the other girl smiled at her. Because maybe there were bad things too, there always was, Theo's dad was still a git, her mum's side of the family were still assholes, Harry was still living with his terrible aunt and Hermione was keeping the relationship secret from her parents, and maybe it wasn't a happy ending at all and it was just Arlene that decided to focus on the good things.

But it had been a long, long year, she figured she deserved that much.