Sunday, November 26, 2017
Ginny groaned, slumping back into her seat. "Merlin, they're idiots."
Luna patted her back absently, eyes trained on the circling figures overhead. "Yes, but they certainly can fly."
Ginny laughed helplessly. "Only you, Luna, only you." She groaned, craning her head back to watch her ex-husband's antics, leaning comfortably into Astoria's side.
High above them, circling predatorily in the unusually clear November sky, were Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. The news had quickly circulated through the castle that whenever the pitch was free, and they weren't in classes or meetings, both men could most often be found soaring through the air, chasing the tiny golden snitch, showing off and attempting ever-more daredevil moves in a constant battle to one-up one another, and always, always arguing. Often, the whole school turned out to watch - their seekers' games had a higher turnout than the actual Quidditch Matches, McGonagall had confided to Ginny, faintly scandalized - but by the time they gave in and descended, mid-argument, to the quidditch pitch, only the three girls were left in the stands.
"Draco!" Ginny yelled, cupping her fingers around her mouth, "you looked good up there!" He nodded politely, giving her a confused half-wave, and then turned back to what looked like a heated argument. "You too, Harry!" Ginny laughed when he glared at her. "Are you coming to ours for dinner tonight?"
"Can't," Harry called back, almost cheerfully. "Too much grading to do. Some other time?"
"You? Grading?" Draco scoffed, elbowing him, then looked away, expression confused and a bit sheepish.
Harry didn't seem to notice, merely rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Come on, Malfoy - last one to the changing room is a rotten egg." He took off, leaving Draco gaping after him.
Draco shrugged apologetically at Ginny, nodded to Astoria and Luna, and then turned and loped off after Harry, who was jogging in place a bit further down the pitch. "Rotten egg? What the hell are you on about, Potter? Is that some muggle phrase? It's positively juvenile."
"And yet, you're wasting time chatting when you could be rid of me already."
Ginny could see the blinding flash of Harry's grin clear across the pitch, even though the rest of his figure was rapidly fading in the darkening gloom. She, Astoria, and Luna stood, staring after them, until their bickering voices faded away. "Idiots!" she muttered under her breath.
"Yes," Luna said, shrugging. "Come on, then. I'm starving."
---
Friday, December 1, 2017
"What in Merlin's name happened here?" Ginny asked, surveying the packed hospital wing in horror. For a moment, the room full of groaning, battered bodies whisked her back to the battlefield, and she stumbled. Astoria caught her, supporting her weight without hesitation. Luna's warm hand came to rest on the small of her back, lending her strength. Ginny took a deep breath of asceptic, lemon-scented air. This wasn't the war. The war had been over for years, now. This was just some schoolyard brawl.
Steeling herself, she surveyed the beds, looking for her ex-husband. Yes, there he was, and next to him, the familiar shock of ice-blonde hair. Ginny sighed. "What did you do now?" she asked them, putting her hands on her hips and feeling rather like her mother.
"Er," Harry said, glancing sheepishly up at her.
"It wasn't our fault!" Draco exclaimed. He quailed beneath the combined stare of the three girls - no, five, Ginny realized, spying Hermione and Pansy approaching, a stern, thin-lipped McGonagall in tow. "Well, not entirely," he amended. "Potter started it."
Ginny shifted her glare to her ex-husband. "Harry."
"What? No, not this Potter," Draco said, flapping his hand exasperatedly at Harry. "That idiotic son of yours. James."
"Oh," Ginny sighed. "Harry?"
"Er..."
"He really wasn't doing anything," Draco interrupted, looking extremely put out that he was forced to stick up for Harry. "He was coming to see what the fuss was about, same as I was." He made a disgusted face. "He foolishly tried to reason with the boy, and just got himself cursed for his thanks."
"Harry?" Ginny turned to him, horrified. "Is that true? Did James -"
"No, no." Harry said quickly. "It wasn't him. At least, I'm pretty sure it wasn't." He frowned. "I didn't see who it was, actually. It happened too fast. I think all of Gryffindor and Slytherin were at the game."
Pomfrey bustled between them, arms full of potions vials and eyes flashing exasperatedly. "Yes, without Mister Malfoy here, you'd be in much worse shape, Potter," she said briskly. "Now, drink this, and then be off, the lot of you. I'm afraid I've not got room for anyone who's not injured just now." She waited, tapping her foot impatiently, until Harry had drained the potion, gagging slightly and quickly chased it with the water she handed him. "Oh, and Harry?" she said, as he handed her the empty glass and stood up, wobbling slightly.
"Yes?" he said, carefully not looking at Draco's hand, which had shot out to grasp his elbow and steady him before anyone else had time to react.
"Do try and stay out of trouble for once? You won't always have Draco here to watch out for you."
Harry scowled at the floor and shuffled his feet. Draco puffed up proudly, and Ginny giggled as Astoria reached out and poked his chest, deflating him somewhat. "Come on, you great peacock," she said, shaking her head. "You can preen just as well out of Madam Pomfrey's way. And," she whispered, leaning in so only those closest could hear her, "McGonagall is coming this way."
Draco blanched. "Come on, Potter. I don't fancy another lecture, just now."
"Hermione's with her," Ginny added, when Harry seemed inclined to argue.
He glowered at her, but allowed her to take his arm and help him across the infirmary. None of them mentioned that Draco was still holding his other elbow, nor that, the further they walked, the more Harry leaned on his human crutches - on Draco, in particular.
"Can you get him back to his room, Draco?" Luna asked abruptly, once they'd reached the wing the teachers' rooms were in.
"Well, I - "
"Good," she said cheerfully. "We've a meeting, and we're late already. Thanks, Draco!" She hooked one arm through Ginny's, the other through Astoria's, and dragged them away from the two staring men.
"Luna?" Ginny asked, once she judged they were out of earshot, "Do we really have a meeting?"
"Yes," she said cheerfully. A smug grin bloomed on her face, and her eyes twinkled. "Well, sort of. I need to talk to Sasha and Tilly about something, and I figured now was as good a time as any. And this way, Draco will have to go into Harry's rooms and, judging by what I know of Harry, treat some injuries that he considered too minor to bother Poppy with, but that Draco won't be able to ignore. So, you know, all to the good."
Ginny and Astoria stared at her for a moment, shocked at her deviousness, then impulsively kissed her, one on each cheek. Luna giggled. "Come on, then," she said, tugging them forward, "let's go scheme."
---
"Where are the boys?" Ginny asked, looking curiously around the room Tilly had directed them to. It was Al's certainly, and she recognized Scorpius' things by now, but the extra beds and belongings confused her.
"Hermione came by to collect them earlier," Sasha said, looking up from under her spiky bangs. She was sitting cross-legged on one of the beds, painting her nails a truly lurid shade of orange. Ginny thought of Ron's eternal Chudley Cannons obsession and shuddered. "I forget where they were going - somewhere to look at some primary source, blah blah. It didn't seem terribly important." She rolled her eyes fondly.
Ginny smiled. "You didn't want to go, I take it?"
Sasha shrugged, an unreadable look passing swiftly over her face. "Couldn't even if I did, could I? I doubt Mum would be too excited about me taking trips off campus with strangers."
"But, couldn't Hermione or Pansy -"
"No dice," Pansy spoke up, from where she'd been lounging, near-invisible, on the fourth bed. "I tried."
The flare of hope in Sasha's face died, to be instantly replaced with a stoic indifference. Ginny opened her mouth to ask who her parents were - maybe she could do something - but Astoria got there first.
Sasha shrugged. "Dunno where Dad is, do I, but Mum's named Erin - Erin Davison."
"Really?" Astoria asked, eyes lighting up. "Oh, that's wonderful! She was one of my best friends, when we were students. Her parents sent her to Beauxbatons when things started getting rough here. I wonder... I'll be right back."
"So," Ginny said, frowning around the room, "Who else lives here, and why do you two look so cozy?"
Tilly and Sasha shared a worried glance. "Oh. I guess we forgot to tell you. We, ah, all stay here. Most of the time, anyway."
"All?" Pansy asked, eyebrows raised. She looked pointedly at the four beds.
The tips of Tilly's ears turned red, but her voice didn't waver. "That's right. I sleep here, Sasha there, and Ivan over there." Pansy caught Ginny's eye then, eyebrows climbing even higher. She flicked her eyes to Tilly's hand, and Ginny followed the motion to see it firmly grasped in Sasha's. Well. That would be why the girls had been allowed to stay. But... "There's only four beds."
Tilly's mouth curved into a sly smirk. "Oh, Al and Scorp share that one. It's not like it's any different than before - they had the beds shoved together, when it was just the two of 'em in here. Al's dad knows - Scorp's too."
Ginny snorted. Well. It looks like Harry and I will have to have a little chat. She was distracted by Ivan, who stomped into the room just then and slumped onto his bed. "I can't do it," he muttered into his pillow.
"Ivan?" Luna said, going to sit beside him. "What can't you do?"
"Oh, er, hullo," he said, sheepishly emerging from the pillow. "I've just been trying to figure out costumes. Only Mum's out of touch for a few weeks and I don't know who else to ask about a sewing machine. And contacts! No one will talk to me because I'm a boy." He scowled darkly at the wall.
"Come with me," Luna said. "I might be able to help with that."
"You sew?" he asked skeptically, taking in her outfit.
"No," she giggled, "but I am a dancer. I don't make my own costumes - they're made by a friend. And he can probably help you get what you need. You can get on all right without me, right girls?" They nodded, and she led a much more cheerful Ivan from the room.
"So," Tilly said, rolling her eyes and obligingly fanning her fingers as Sasha attacked her nails with sparkly aqua polish, "what's the plan?"