Broomsticks and Alibis

Chapter 12

“I’m just saying sorry, that’s all. No need for you to go running to your boyfriend and have me thrown out,” Blaise said to Ginny outside of the Mixed House Marriages classroom.

“Leave her alone, Blaise. Don’t you think you did enough the last time you had a go?” Hermione said pulling Ginny by the shoulder down the hall, intent on getting away from the cocky and attractive Blaise Zabini.

“Look, you both don’t have to run away from me every time you see me,” he continued to follow them. “I’m not a werewolf or a vampire or a big harry spider! Just stop for a minute,” Blaise laid his hand on the back of Hermione’s shoulder.

“Get your slimy hand off me, Blaise!” Hermione had flung around in a rage, intent on punching Blaise square in the nose, when suddenly Draco surprised Hermione as he exited the fourth floor bathroom and collided with Blaise, knocking him to the floor.

“Shit,Blaise. Watch where you’re going,” Draco said in hs normal aloof, pureblood tone.

“Dude, you ran into me, not the other way around.”

“Oh? Sorry ‘bout that. I had my head in this Advanced Arithmancy book. I can’t seem to make heads or tails out of this lesson. Are you any good in Arithmancy, Blaise?” Draco said, knowing full well that it was Hermione’s best subject. He wanted a few minutes alone with her though and he hoped this would be a good way to get her alone. Even if he had to be cocky,arsehole Draco Malfoy, he still just wanted to be around Hermione. When he had seen Hermione walking down the hall with Ginny instead of Krum he decided to keep an eye on her. He wanted to do more to Blaise then knock him down, but he still had to remain friendly and his move had achieved his goal of getting Blaise’s hands off Hermione.

“You going to be alright here Hermione?’ Ginny said.

“Yeah, of course,” Hermione said smirking at Malfoy.

“Well my class is just here so I’ll see ya ‘Mione.” Ginny entered the classroom, followed by Blaise. He was still trying to apologize to Ginny, but she kept telling him to piss off. He finally shut up when Millicent and her feisty cat walked into the class. If she was pregnant, you couldn’t tell because her robes hid her pregnancy. Hermione suddenly felt slightly sorry for Millicent, having to put up with such a stupid git of a husband as Blaise was. Of course, Hermione had her own stupid git of a husband to contend with who was staring at her. Oh he’s good. That was so suave how he knocked Blaise over and then pretended it was Blaise’s fault. I’ll give him that. But the “ I need help with my Arithmancy,” is just lame. Do I really look that stupid Draco? You had Outstandings in almost all of your classes back in our Hogwarts days. You aren’t a fool, but you apparently think that I must be one. Lame. Well, two can play at that game.

“So, I heard you saying that you needed help with your Arithmancy?”

“Yeah, bloody numbers confuse me.” Bloody numbers confuse me? Oh, you will have to do better then that my sexy Dragon. You’re a trader on the Wizard Exchange for godsakes! You can probably do the whole damn lesson in your head in two seconds. You are probably better then me in this subject! Idiot. Hermione saw their Arithmancy Professor waddling down the hall.

“Miss Featherson, do you have a moment?” Hermione waved her over. Draco began to look uncomfortable as if he knew what was coming. “Draco Malfoy seems to be having great difficulty with today’s lesson. I would help him myself but you are on obviously the better choice to tutor a student that is lagging behind. Besides, I have the carnival to work on. The Minister thought my idea was a wonderful one that would bring in a lot of donations and make the war veterans feel good about themselves again. We are even having a powder-puff girls only quidditch game for charity. This was Hermione and Ginny’s bold new plan that she had thought up amidst all of the crap going on in her life. She was impressed with herself for being able to stay on top of things when so many around were not, namely Draco. He couldn’t even go undercover without blowing it the first day, she thought to herself. Of course, she was glad he couldn’t. She couldn’t imagine what her mood would have been like had Draco not revealed himself by sleeping with her last night. That’s actually really sweet. He didn’t want to be away from me for even one night. I do have the best husband in the world. Of course I am going to toy with him and then probably murder him when the time is right. But he’s adorably sweet.

“That’s wonderful Miss Granger! Mr. Malfoy you are in luck. I have a free period now and I would love to go over today’s lesson with you again. It should take us about an hour as today’s problem was a long one. Is now good for you?” Hermione smirked at Draco and then slinked away listening to him make excuse after excuse to get out of tutoring.

“Hedwig!” Hermione greeted the beautiful bird when it dropped a letter on her as she made her way down to the Great Hall to meet Viktor for dinner. Harry wanted a meeting ASAP so Hermione gathered her things and scrawled a quick note for Viktor, laying it on the table where they usually ate, letting him know she would be a little late. Suddenly Neville Longbottom tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hermione I need to talk to you right away. I can’t keep this to myself any longer.” Neville looked panicked, his face unusually pale and his knees were shaking.

“What is it Neville? Did something happen?”

“Yes..I mean no. I’m not sure is the truth. It’s just you’ve been spending a lot of time with him and maybe it’s nothing, but what if it’s something? I couldn’t chance something happening to you.”

“Neville, just slow down and tell me what’s wrong?”

“It’s Krum. That night down by the lake. I was walking to the herbology greenhouse. I’ve been growing these flesh eating plants for the Minister. If we can find a useful antidote it could be used to heal the scars of those who were injured in the war. It might even be able to grow back limbs lost.” Hermione rolled her hand simulating to Neville to move on with the story as she was late for her meeting. “Well Dandylion Hester was there, you know the first victim, killing, I can’t believe she was murdered!” Neville shouted in the Great Hall.

“Shhhh, I know Neville it’s scary and sad at the same time. What happened Neville? You were walking to the greenhouse when you saw Dandylion, the girl that was killed, standing by the lake? What was she doing?”

“She was talking to herself I think. She seemed upset so I went over to talk to her, to try and comfort her. I know I’m not very good at comforting girls. In any case it must have worked because she asked me out on a date!”

“So, you dated Dandylion before she was killed?”

“No. That’s the thing. Suddenly he was there, the Bulgarian Viktor Krum, the Seeker,” Neville stammered.

“Yes, I know who Viktor is Neville, go on.”

“He started yelling at her, saying that she was a cheat. She cheated on him. Then he told me to get away from them. So, I did. I left and then the next morning the news was allover the place. I couldn’t believe Dandylion was dead.”

“I know Neville it’s very sad but we need to catch the killer before something like this happens again. How come you didn’t come forward with this sooner Neville? Harry put out an announcement to the student body asking anyone with information to come forward.”

“Well, that’s the thing that scares me so much. Hermione, I knew the second girl too, Draticula is what everyone called her. We dated last year, shortly before we started at DPU. She was only interested in me because I was a war hero and it didn’t last long. She was mean too Hermione. She made fun of my ears and other things. I didn’t like her, and I might have actually wished her dead a few times. I mean once I had my wand out when I was thinking about her dying for making fun of me for being a virgin and saying other things about me that weren’t nice.”

“Yes well, it hardly makes you a killer simply because you once wished someone dead. Why I just wished someone dead not even an hour ago but he’s still breathing. Though for how long I’m not sure,” Hermione giggled and pat Neville on the hand.

“Should I tell Harry?”

“Yes Neville you have to. You may have information important to the investigation. I will tell Harry now, as I am late for a meeting but he will probably want to interview you for the record. I’m glad you told me this Neville. You did the right thing.” Hermione watched as Neville turned to leave. He would turn around and look at her and then wave again in his normal dorky self. Hermione raced to the spiral staircase where Harry and Ron were waiting for her.

“Upstairs people. We have had a couple breaks in the case.”

“Yes we have,” Hermione said coldly.

“How are you holding up Hermione?” Ron blurted out as she and Ron took their seats in front of Harry’s desk. Obviously, Ron was out of the loop. No, this was all Harry and Draco’s twisted little plan.

“You know. It’s hard. My husband seemingly doesn’t love me. Heartbreaking, isn’t it Harry?”

“Yes ‘Mione. He could come around though at any time. I mean the bump on the head is probably only temporary, so I wouldn’t worry too much. Try concentrating on other things.” Harry was trying to ease his own guilty conscience but Hermione was not going to let him off the hook.

“I dunno, Harry, its all I seem to be able to think about. I loved Draco, so very much. What we had was special. And the sex. Gosh, the sex was mind blowing it was so perfect! The worst part is he taught me to fly and now…” she sighed.. “whatever will I do without his thick,long,big…”

“Alright Hermione we get the picture. You miss having sex,” Harry said uncomfortably.

“Broom…I was going to say broom,” Hermione snickered to herself. Watching the two of them squirm was priceless. Best way to make a guilty guy feel uncomfortable, cry. Hermione turned in quite the acting performance that day in Harry’s office. Like they say though, “Pay backs are a bitch.”

They went over what they had learned thus far. With Neville’s surprise confession, they could add him, whether seriously or not, to the list of suspects. Harry had come up with some startling new information that both Flint and Avery had been overheard talking about the girl that was killed at the Three Broomsticks. Apparently they were worried about whether or not the dead girl had told anyone about the dark magic they were casting in the Forbidden Forest. Something about, tapping into the centaur’s magic. Ron was impressed with Harry’s ability to gather this kind of intelligence, but when she asked Harry how it was he came about the information, he clammed up. Of course it was Draco, Hermione knew that. They really must think she was biggest unicorms arse, to not know when they were lying. Ron was completely in the dark and seemed more focused on trying to ask Hermione to the carnival as his date. The carnival wasn’t for another week and she had loads of plans to make but Ginny was taking a lot on as co-chair. It made sense since Ginny was in such love with her Introduction to Muggle Carnival Entertainers class. She was the top student in the class. Hermione was really just along for the ride, as she had no time to prepare for this event what with her husband being a prick and lying to her and the murder case, that she would eventually have to try and get a conviction for in front of the Ministry, if she wanted to keep her job. It was a stressful time with lots going on. She had nearly forgotten about Viktor in the process.

Ron had mentioned that Oliver Wood used to date Dandylion and before him, both Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan had dated the young witch, so their list grew longer.

“Is there anyone she didn’t date? I mean from what I can tell she dated nearly everyone!” The other deceased girl, nicknamed Draticula, wasn’t any better either. She seemed to have loads of enemies, including Neville Longbottom. Hermione felt exhausted by this. How were they supposed to weed out the innocent from the guilty?”

“Why not just round them all up and use Veritserum on the suspects?”

“He can’t just do that Ron. Some of these suspects come from highly regarded Wizarding families,” Hermione said in a patronizing voice.

“And many sit on the board here at this very school,” Harry piped in. “Besides…I already tried it on Blaise Zabini and it was inconclusive. I think someone has been passing around a potions cheat sheet, with information on how to counteract the veritserum effects.

“Cheat sheets? Say it isn’t so Harry!” Harry said genuinely shocked.

“Honestly Hermione, you can be so naïve. Not all of us live for tests like you do,” Ron said.

“Just do it anyway Harry. Give them the serum and see what ya get back. At least maybe we can narrow down the suspects.”

“I can’t Ron. It takes a full moon’s cycle to make. I only have limited quantities and the Ministry frowns on Aurors who use it too often. It’s like saying you suck and can’t do your job without magic.”

“Well we are wizards Harry. Magic is what we do.”

“I know Ron. I just can’t alright? We have to do this the good old fashioned way.”

“I have to go,” Hermione stood to leave.

“Where are you going?” Both boys said with sympathetic gazes.

“To mourn the loss of my marriage. I was just starting to like being a kept woman too. So sad.” Hermione bust out laughing at seeing their expressions as soon as she was out of their sight. Right about now Harry was feeling some massive guilt and this comforted Hermione.

“Herminoninny!” Viktor Krum gimped up to Hermione and hugged her around the waist as Draco stopped short, witnessing the embrace.

They sat down at the table in the Great Hall for dinner, and Draco suddenly felt sick. He threw his food away, ignored Pansy’s incessant whining for him to sit with her and talk a while and then excused himself to the potions lab.

“That fucking Krum! If he touches my fucking wife one more time, I swear to god I’ll Avada his arse! He actually touched her and she allowed him to. I swear to God, wait ‘till I get my hands on Hermione tonight. No more Mister Nice Guy. I’m a Malfoy damnit. I’m not going to fuck her. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll leave her begging for it. God damn why won’t this bloody potion work!” Draco screamed aloud to himself in the potions room. He had tried and failed three times to mix the proper potion. Of course the potion came from a cheat sheet, so it was likely missing an ingredient or two. An Invisibility potion was extremely hard to make and extremely rare. Only certain wizards like Dumbledore, even had access to the ingredients. It was no use, this cheat sheet he bought and paid fifty galleons for from Flint did not work. He was royally fucked it seemed.

“Thought I’d find you here. Take it Malfoy. Don’t say I never did anything for you.” Harry gave Malfoy his Invisibility Cloak. Malfoy stared at it and slid it over his hand. His hand disappeared. “Go fuck your wife. She really needs it and I can’t take listening to her go on about all the sex she’s missing anymore. I almost told her today. She was twirling her wand in her fingers though and I remember what she did to Ron once when he crossed her. Do me a favor though. Don’t get anything on it.” Harry said and Malfoy raised an eyebrow at Potter. “You know what I mean! Get the room really dark. The cloak won’t cover everything, but it will get you in without being seen.” Draco thanked Harry and then stuffed the cloak into his pocket and then went to spy on Granger… his wife,…on her date with Krum.

“How bloody fucked up is that?” Draco said aloud. “My wife is on a date! I’m so not going to fuck you Hermione. Well maybe just for a minute but then I am definitely pulling out and make you beg for it…”

REVIEW!?

I just have to ask…Have you all seen the Tom Felton (aka Draco Malfoy from HP movies duhhhh, everyone knows that) videos on You Tube where is singing and playing guitar? All of his original stuff are love songs! Check it out if you haven’t. I will try to link it here but if it doesn’t work he is You Tube name Feltbeats lol It’s him too with Draco Malfoy hair and all! Link : /watch?vIANd9Ieii1Q