Weep No More

Percy looked at Pansy, Pansy looked at Draco, and Draco glared at Percy. Hermione, on the other hand, kept saying, "Four, four for such a pretty square. Yellow, red, silver, brown, colours so pretty. Look, such a lovely square with such points."

"What are you two up to?" demanded Percy, his wand raised. "What have you done to Hermione?"

"Hush, little wizard," Hermione whispered. "Father and Mother are taking me out to buy dresses. Father wants his princess to look like his queen." She suddenly let out a painful howl and clutched her stomach. "Knives, they've got knives. So sharp, so deadly. Oh, the pain! Designs on her skin. The snake, the badger, the lion, and the raven dance freely on her skin."

"I'm giving you two seconds to explain what you've done to Hermione," Percy said, "Otherwise I'll take you to the Ministry."

"And say what, Weasley?" demanded Draco. "Mr. Minister, I found these Hogwarts students in a room at Hogsmeade while I was waiting for a good fuck from a whore?" He crossed his arms against his chest.

Percy turned bright red and seemed to choke on his tongue.

Pansy cleared her throat. "Can we just get on with this? I have no intentions of spending anymore time baby-sitting a stupid, little Mudblood."

"Watch your tongue!" snapped Percy. "Start explaining, Malfoy."

"Granger seems to have been the victim of a wrongfully made potion," Draco said angrily. Leave it to a Weasley to make things worse. "Pansy has the antidote so let's just get this over with this."

"He pushed her over the cliff," Hermione said. "He cried, 'Let's get over with this,' and shoved her. She fell into darkness and broke her neck. She wept, wept for him all the way from Heaven."

"She's been speaking rubbish all this time too," added Draco.

"Rubbish?" roared Percy, looking incredulous. "Don't they teach anything in History of Magic anymore? That's Arnold's Curse, a tale of darkness going between love and the Dark Arts!"

"Arnold's what?" said Pansy.

"Arnold Crunk invented the Cruciatus Curse, you cretin!"

"Don't call her a cretin!" warned Draco. He turned to Pansy, "Do you have the antidote or not?"

Pansy glared at Percy, her eyes burning into his. She reached into her bag and pulled out a leather-bound book. Flipping to the right page, she handed it to Draco. "You have to say the spell while standing on top of her. She had to be directly beneath you for it to work. You seemed to have given her a Marleese Potion," she said.

"Marleese Potion?!" exclaimed Percy and Draco.

"You made her insane!" snapped Percy. "You've managed to make her go completely barking mad, you stupid fool! I should have you tossed into Azkaban."

Draco ignored him and walked over to the bed where Hermione was on. "Get up, Granger. It'll be better if you lie on the floor so I can be on top of you without touching your bits." Pansy snorted.

Hermione bit her bottom lip, and mumbled, "Round and round the horses go, running all about. One falls down, and the farmer comes out with a shotgun." She clapped her hands for effect.

Percy gulped. Hermione had gone beyond insane. Quite frankly, she was frightening him.

"Come on, Granger, that's right," said Draco, as he settled her on the floor. "Are you sure this is right?" he asked. He had managed to place one foot on either of Hermione's sides, so she was playing with the fancy shoelaces on his boots.

"Yes, yes," Pansy said exasperatedly. "Just get started, Draco."

"I better do the antidote," Percy interrupted suddenly. "Merlin knows you'll just get it wrong, Malfoy."

"I'll have you know I've got full marks in Potions, Weasley," said Draco. "And this antidote is just a simple spell." Draco looked down at the book, and suddenly exclaimed, "Oi, this isn't in English!"

"Of course not!" snapped Percy. "Madam Marleese only spoke in Wilt, the language of the Wilkens." He silently added a "You barbarian!"

"I don't speak Wilt. How the bloody fuck do you pronounce jm?" Draco stared down at Hermione.

"Such beautiful eyes," she commented. "Like two wooden coins. Brown as chocolate. Staring deep into one's soul, analyzing, trying to understand."

"My eyes aren't brown," Draco said noncommittally.

Pansy shrugged. "She's probably colour-blind as well."

Percy cleared his throat loudly. "Hurry up, Malfoy. Who knows if there are any side-effects to that blasted potion?"

"All right, all right, Weasley. No need to get your knickers in a twist, you poofter." Draco rolled his eyes. "I need complete silence for this to work. The slightest mispronunciation could make it worse."

Pansy settled herself onto the chair near the fireplace and sighed.

"Aken jup lok estero uuh jm porko tista," recited Draco. "Firo aken pol bigi hya -"

"It's pronounced hiya not heeya," Percy interrupted, earning a glare.

"Hiya igo tun aapa esto tipo -"

"It's said teepo not typo," said Percy again.

"Shut up, Weasley! You're going to mess this up," snapped Draco. Hermione grinned from beneath him.

"At least try to pronounce the words right, Malfoy. If not, we might all get infected by the potion you messed up!" yelled Percy.

"If I want to say typo instead of teepo or heeya instead of hiya, I will! I'm a Malfoy, bloody hell, not some poor Weasley looking for a good fuck!" Draco roared, losing complete Malfoy calm.

Percy's face had turned bright red as Pansy stifled her laughter. "Look here, Malfoy," he said angrily. "Be glad I don't have half the Auror team here ready to lock you up where you and your Death Eater father belong."

"Don't you dare mess with my father, Weasley!" warned Draco. "It's not his fault your father never heard of a birth control potion and had seven children too much!"

"Oh, the screams!" wailed Hermione, suddenly. She covered her ears and started twitching on the floor. "Pain shoots through them like arrows. Burning, killing one after another. The screams and wails are dreadful to my ears." She started to sob.

"Er, Draco," Pansy whispered.

"Is she all right?" asked Percy.

"She's just bloody brilliant," Draco said sarcastically.

"Draco..." Pansy said. "Draco!"

"What is it, Pansy?" demanded Draco.

But Percy had already spotted the problem. "Malfoy, there seems to be a miniature black hole above your head," he said, trying to remain calm.

"Such beautiful darkness, so fulfilling," muttered Hermione from beneath Draco.

"What in Merlin's name is that?" Draco squeaked.

"Get out of there!" Pansy shrieked. "It's getting bigger."

"You must have said the spell wrong. Quite impressive," said Percy, adjusting his glasses. "Though, yes, getting out of there might be a good idea."

From somewhere Percy imagined hearing a bird chirp. Of course, he dismissed it to his imagination for what where the chances of there being a bird in the room?

Draco grabbed Hermione's wrist and pulled her off the floor. She clutched to him like a lost girl. He made a mental note to burn his robes. Pity, though, they were his favourite.

Pansy wondered how Percy could have thought a black hole getting larger by the second was impressive. It was the last thing she thought as all four disappeared with a loud pop.

Somewhere, awfully close by, a bird did chirp. A rat ran over a dead corpse, and trumpets sounded in the distance.