Of Wings in the Night

8

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Ginny glared daggers at Malfoy. Hermione had the feeling that if looks had physical effect, the Slytherin would be chopped up into tiny pieces and ground forcefully into the floor. The annoying ferret was still smirking coldly.

"Gin, I think I hate you for dragging me out here," Hermione murmured.

"Mione, I think I agree with you for once."

"Ooh, Gin, Mione, don't be so hard on yourself. At least you can catch a glimpse of a real wizard while you're here."

"Hey, Hermione, do you see any wizards around here?"

"Nope, unless inbred albino ferrets count," Hermione replied cheerily.

"You know, ladies, you should go into the Muggle theater...as clowns. Oh, wait--I forgot, you're no good at that either. Maybe the Muggles will take pity on you and let you enter as dogs. You're--"

Draco had been about to say 'ugly enough,' but he became suddenly and irritatingly aware that this was not the case. Both girls were built delicately and had, to his dismay, developed into stunningly pretty young women. And--what had Granger done to her hair?

"Aw, poor little Drakie-poo's at a loss for words." Ginny had pitched her voice at an annoying shriek that eerily resembled Pansy 'pug-face' Parkinson's voice.

"Yeah, I think his vocabulary just ran out." Hermione snickered.

"Shut up. I just couldn't find words to describe your total canine-ness. I mean, you slobber over anyone who's nice to you, you sit up when the teachers snap their fingers, and you're disgustingly bright and chipper at unearthly hours."

For some reason, Draco was extremely proud of that last riposte; he half-expected a roar of applause from an imaginary audience. Instead, he got two disgusted glares.

"If we're dogs, then what does that make you Slytherins?"

Draco mock-bowed towards Hermione. "Dragons. We're powerful, we're overwhelmingly gorgeous, and we love the night."

Ginny snickered at the 'overwhelmingly gorgeous,' but Hermione flared, "You're not so powerful now that Voldemort--" both Ginny and Draco winced "--is gone forever, the overwhelmingly gorgeous bit is highly debatable," (Ginny muttered, ‘Albino ferret’) ”and who says Gryffindors can't love the night too?"

The blond boy opened his mouth, but no words came out. Who says Gryffindors can't love the night too...who, indeed? Does Mala count as a Gryffindor? She's a cat...so am I...I don't know... that stupid Patil girl...why should I care? Because she's good. I'm not. She's kind and caring and just...nice. She's smart and funny and pretty, for a cat. And I...like her. She's the only one who looks at me and sees past everything to the soul inside. God, this is really lame. I'm mooning over a cat. Snap out of it, Draco.

Draco shook his head slightly and looked up. For some reason, Crabbe and Goyle were there, looking at him with even blanker expressions than usual. "Uh...Draco...aren't you coming? Breakfast is starting..."

It became slowly obvious to Draco that the Great Hall doors were open and students were streaming through. "Yeah, whatever, come on." They really are like dogs. Huh, for once the Mudblood was right.

Harry and Ron came in about a minute after Ginny and Hermione sat down. Ron was instantly rendered incapable of speech by a generous helping of scrambled eggs. Well, incapable of comprehensible speech.

"Io'e, Ih, whaar ou ar's aki' a'oo?" Hermione and Ginny looked at each other quizzically. Harry translated, chuckling. "Hermione, Gin, what're you girls talking about?"

"Oh, Hermione and I got here before the doors opened and Malfoy came along," Ginny answered, spearing a sausage.

"Oh, that's nice," Ron said, swallowing and starting to shovel another spoonful of scrambled eggs into his mouth. Suddenly, he started choking. "Whoa! Malfoy what?"

Ginny's words filtered through Ron's brain as Harry lifted his head and mentally translated the words into a sentence. They began talking at the same time.

"If he tried anything--"

"Slimy git, if he--"

Hermione laughed. "Calm down, it was just the usual insults. We've dealt with him for over six years. He didn't try anything new."

"Well, if he does..." Harry growled. Hermione suddenly noticed that his eyes kept sliding back to Ginny. She smiled inwardly; this little romance would, she felt, soon come out into the open. And they both deserved it--after all, Harry had had to grow up more quickly than his peers so that he could kill the most evil and powerful wizard in history on his sixteenth birthday and deal with the press and paparazzi, and Ginny had kept her crush well hidden for the last few years, supporting Harry and secretly adoring from the sidelines. Hermione wasn't about to play matchmaker, though--she'd been rooming with a self-proclaimed ‘agent of love’ (namely, Lavender) for quite a few years and quite firmly believed in not interfering...much. However, in this case, she was sure that they couldn't help but get together. Well, Harry and Ginny were both rather shy when it came to this sort of thing--maybe just a tiny push in the right direction. Not too big, of course, Just a nudge.

Hermione felt an unexpected wave of wistfulness wash over her as she thought of Ginny's inevitable claim on Harry. What? Come on, you're Hermione Granger. You've learned to live without depending on a partner to complete you. You're confident, self-sufficient, and brave. You don't need a boyfriend, you don't want a boyfriend. You've said so a million times. Hermione bit her lip. Maybe I didn't mean it, she snapped back at herself. Maybe I do want to have someone there for me and only me. Maybe I do want to have someone think I'm...I'm... She couldn't complete the sentence even in her mind, although she knew perfectly well what she would have said if she'd had the courage to go on.

Maybe I do want someone to think I'm beautiful.

"And then McGonagall and Snape had a limbo contest while Dumbledore and Flitwick taught me and Malfoy how to hula and Professor Vector played the bongos."

"What?" Hermione's head shot up.

Harry, Ron, Ginny, and the surrounding Gryffindors dissolved in helpless laughter, attracting odd glances from the other houses. Harry recovered just enough to wheeze, "You should have tuned in in time to hear Ron going on about how Snape declared his love to me." Then he was off again. Hermione rolled her eyes, but laughed anyway.

Parvati gasped out, "Ron...you should go into acting...that was the funniest thing I've heard in...forever!"

Ron mock-bowed. "That'll be a Galleon from each of you.”

As one, the Gryffindor seventh years rose and dragged Ron to the common room, where there was much wailing and throwing of pillows.