Broomsticks and Alibis

Chapter 9

The Return of Blaise and Pansy

(shorter chapter but a really important one)

Mixed House Marriage class lasted about five minutes and then Hermione and Draco were sitting in the Dean’s office waiting for a meeting with Harry Potter. Harry finally walked into his office and sat down behind his desk.

“Hermione, it’s great to see you,” Harry smiled cordially.

“I wish I could say the same! How is it that Draco and I were teaching Mixed House Marriages on the request of the Minister of Magic when suddenly a student raises their hand and asks me if I could ever forgive him for what he did to me?”

“Well I don’t know Hermione since I don’t know what the student did to you that would deserve forgiveness.” Harry looked to Draco and Draco shook his head as if to say this was trouble.

“Why in the hell is Blaise Zabini going to school here again! He was sitting there next to Millicent Bulstrode holding her hand and glaring at me. He was laughing at me under his breath!”

“I take it Draco didn’t tell you about Blaise,Millicent and Pansy.”

“Pansy too? No. No,no,no Harry. Draco did not tell me about anything except quidditch! Just what the hell are you two doing behind my back? Why didn’t you tell me Draco? I thought we were married! I thought we were supposed to tell each other everything. And Harry..How long have I known you? How long Harry? Why in the hell are you keeping secrets from me? Answer me! Somebody answer me!?”

“HERMIONE!” Draco shouted finally. “Shut up so we can answer you!”

“Look Hermione. I found out last week that Blaise and Millicent had been back in town for a month. Apparently, Millicent is pregnant and she came back when her mother took ill and was admitted to St. Mungo’s. Blaise obviously came with her. Her Father made a large donation to DPU and the board voted to allow Blaise back into the school.”

“How could you allow this?” Hermione said furiously. Her face was bright red and her eyes wide with anger. “I thought you were Dean here? If Dumbledore were here…”

“Don’t give me that Hermione. Umbridge? If Dumbledore were here he would have his hands bound in the same way that mine are now. It didn’t help that your S.P.E.W legislation passed last year. How do you think DPU can afford to pay the house elves that cook our meals and do the cleaning? Maybe you should have considered that before you forced S.P.E.W down the throats of the Ministry. The money has to come from somewhere ‘Mione!”

“Don’t you blame this on me Harry Potter!”

“Look Hermione, I’m not blaming you or anyone. We rely on benefactors is all I’m saying. The Zabini’s and the Bullstrode’s donated a large undisclosed sum of money to the University. I voted to overrule his return, but ultimately I was outvoted. I’m really sorry. Obviously though if you want to have him up on charges for whatever happened here last semester then I will stand by your side as I’m sure Malfoy will,” Harry looked at Draco at this and he nodded.

“Look babes, I am not going to let Blaise do anything to you. I talked to him yesterday and told him not to so much as look at you.”

“You talked to him yesterday? Funny you never told me!”

“I’m sorry but you were in the library with your “friend” Viktor Krum, supposedly helping him with Arithmancy.”

“What do you mean supposedly?”

“Just what I said. Look, whatever alright! I’m not jealous. I know you aren’t fucking him,okay? Just don’t yell at me. I tried to have dinner with you last night, remember?” Draco said.

“What about this morning?” Hermione said as she had exhausted her bitching rights. Draco looked at her as if to say she must be joking.

“It’s not like I was hiding it from you Hermione. I just hadn’t run into you, what with work and this case and all,” Harry said sincerely.

“Well what about Pansy? You said something about Pansy.”

“Miss Parkinson,yes. Well, after Draco was admitted back into DPU, for obvious reasons, Mr. Parkinson sent me a howler telling me that I had better allow Pansy back into school. Apparently, she can’t hold down a job, keeps getting fired. In any case he threatened to go to the Daily Prophet if I didn’t stop showing favoritism and let her back in.”

“And you just caved? Just like that?”

“Both Blaise and Pansy are only allowed to use their wands under supervision and during classes.”

“Oh well that just makes it all that much better!” Hermione said storming out of Harry’s office and racing down the spiral staircase.

“So it’s all a go tonight Malfoy?”

“Yeah, I dunno Potter. Did she see how angry my wife was over this?”

“Do you want to nab Blaise or not? You think he killed those girls right?”

“Yeah I do,” Draco said after some thought.

“You are protecting Hermione and all the other girls in this school by doing this. If you don’t want to do it I will get Ron to do it.”

“The Weasel? Are you kidding me? You know it won’t work. It has to be me and we both know it.”

“Yeah. Nevertheless, if you have cold feet and can’t go through with it then I will completely understand. It’s your call Malfoy. I wouldn’t blame you if didn’t do it. It’s risky. I’ve known Hermione for a long time but on this one I just can’t answer you. I mean…” Harry stumbled with his words. “If she loves you then…Only you can answer that. I’m leaving it in your hands. If I see you enter the quidditch game though I’ll know that you decided to do it and it will all be a go.”

“You think a week, no more right? I can’t stand thinking it may be longer,” Draco said sullenly.

“Well that too depends on you. I will have every Auror at your disposal Malfoy. Just say the word and we will be there.”

“I’ll try to make it a day. The sooner Blaise is gone the better. It took everything in me today not to kill him when he fucking spoke to Hermione,” Draco yelled.

“Should I be worried Malfoy? I don’t want anyone else getting killed. You didn’t have to tell those girls parents that their daughter won’t be coming home ever again. It broke my heart and I want the bastard caught but not if it means another person has to die. I want this over and done with but it has to go according to plan. No deviations.”

“Figure of speech Potter. Excuse me Hermione is probably pissed that I am still up here.”

“Take off early today Malfoy. Take Hermione somewhere and be with her, just the two of you. I know if it were me and Ginny I would want to do that.”

“Yeah. I will, if she isn’t too pissed with me already.”

“I won’t move until I see you on the quidditch pitch tonight.”

“I’ll be there.”

Draco left Harry and proceeded downstairs. Hermione was nowhere in sight. He cursed and then started an exhausted search to find his wife. He finally found her nestled up with a legal book in the library.

“Let’s go home. It’s been a really bad day and I just want to hold you.”

“Are you talking to me? Go on back and talk to Harry since you two are so fond of each other these days.”

“Hermione, please. Let’s go home. I have a game tonight and I want to rest up.”

“A game? A quidditch game? Draco you don’t honestly think that you can play with the big boys, do you?”

“The Big Boys? What the fuck am I?”

“You know what I mean. More than half the DPU team has played Professional Quidditch. They quit and came to play here because they wanted to attend school and that was the agreement Harry had with them. I was talking to Viktor about it.”

“Well, if Viktor says it, then it must be true. Look, I don’t want to argue let’s go home.”

“Go on ahead. I’ll be there later. You’re going to get really hurt Draco and I don’t want to see it happen.”

“So what are you saying? You aren’t going to come?”

“I have to. I said we would take Ernest and Matilda to their first quidditch game in thirty years. Apparently, Ernest was quite the seeker back in the day. I told them we would meet them at six o’clock. It’s a big step for them, their first in returning to the Wizarding world. I can’t let them down.”

“Please come home Hermione. I’m not going to ask again. Come home with me.”

“I will Draco. Why the sad face hot dragon? I’ll be along in a few minutes.” Hermione smiled. “I want to finish researching something that may be pertinent to the case. Oh, I amost forgot! The Minister owled, said he couldn’t make our meeting but that he wanted us to begin thinking about something we could do to involve all of the young war veterans. Something to make them feel useful and good about themselves at the same time. I’m sure he has his own self serving reasons for wanting to do something good but it is a step in the right direction. I was pondering some ideas over, but you and I will need to sit down and discuss it, maybe tomorrow. Okay Dragon?” Hermione winked at Draco. He looked like he was either really tired or sad and she wasn’t sure which. Perhaps Blaise’s return bothered him too, Hermione thought to herself.

“Fine, see ya there.”

“Love you,”Hermione said.

“Me too.”

Draco hung his head as he left. He knew she wasn’t coming. He began to have second thoughts about he and Harry’s plan. Draco had everything to lose. As he spun around to apparrate, he saw that bloody Bulgarian seeker swagger up to Hermione in the library.

POP

He was back in the little room at the Tavern. He opened the closet door and looked at his new quidditch uniform.

“You’re right Hermione. I’m going to get my arse kicked tonight. That much I am positive about.”

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Couple big chapters coming up next!