to go alone!"
Draco now had the name of the Recruiter. All he had to do was step outside his room, walk to the Common Room fireplace and request to speak with Arthur Weasley.
And then he would be free. He would have his home, his inheritance and his life back. He would have a chance of a future with Hermione.
But he would not make that call yet. He would bring Goyle back first. Telling on Blaise now was liable to implicate Pansy and result in Goyle' s eventual imprisonment. If there was going to be anything of his past left after he was done fixing what his father had started, it was going to be his friends.
"I can handle Blaise."
Pansy was incredulous. "Forget the Blaise you knew. You don' t know what he' s capable of. He' s insanely jealous of you. And what if Goyle won' t come? You didn' t see him when he left. He was determined!"
Draco growled. "The hell he won't come. If I have to stun that stupid son of a bitch and float him home, I'll bloody do it. Don't worry about Zabini. He won't be able to harm me."
She searched his face, but his expression gave away nothing. "What do you mean? I can't see how he'll just let you walk away with Goyle!"
Draco flexed the muscles of his left shoulder. The six year old injury may have been the bane of his otherwise excellent physical condition, but today, he was very glad to have it.
"Let's just say he owes me."
**
Ginny Weasley was putting her long hair into a ponytail as she stepped out through the Gryffindor Tower exit. She nearly collided with Harry who was standing directly outside the portrait hole. Her metal hair clip clattered to the floor.
"Harry? I thought you were already downstairs for dinner."
Harry stared at her for a moment and then bent down to pick up her clip. "I wanted to speak to Hermione. She's still in her room, isn't she?"
"Thanks." Ginny accepted the clip from him and finished her ponytail. "She' s packing. Are you waiting for her?"
"Yeah. She seems to be taking a while."
Ginny knew Harry almost as well as she knew herself. At that moment, however, she couldn't read him. The realisations unsettled her. "Is everything alright?" she asked.
He was most guarded when he was troubled.
Harry's response was a breezy smile which was designed to reassure. "My mind's just a bitoccupied."
"That's understandable."
On impulse and because he was looking so disgruntled, Ginny stepped forward and gave him a quick, dry kiss on the lips.
"What was that for?" Harry asked.
"Thanks for this afternoon. For handling Hermione's news so well. Ron hasn' t completely got over her, you know. I'm thankful that at least one of you has the brains to see the bigger picture. I haven't really made time for Hermione this year. I can't help feeling like I should have known-"
"It's been a busy year," he interjected. He was looking at her curiously.
Ginny gave him a wistful look. "It's going to be so strange next year, without you. Without Ron and Hermione too, of course. I know we said we'd put us on indefinite pause, but seeing Hermione and Malfoy todayhell, Harry, if they< can make a go of it, why not us, you know?"
She couldn't work out why he looked triumphant all of a sudden. But the brief look was there and gone before she could analyse it further. "You and me, we're complicated," Harry said, neutrally.
Ginny laughed humourlessly. "Understatement of the year. I suppose Alice Crowley isn't so complicated, then?"
Harry shrugged. "No more than Finnegan is for you."
The slow, rising tension in the air was not aided by both parties being silent.
"Touche," Ginny eventually whispered. "This is a conversation we should save for another time, yes?"
"That would be best."
She held the portrait open for him. "So are you going in to fetch Hermione or not?" she prodded, a little too tartly, when he continued to merely stand there.
Harry's answering smile was not one Ginny could recall seeing on his face before. He looked like the cat that was about to get to the cream.
"Why yes, I guess I am."
**
How on earth did one teen-aged girl accumulate so much junk over the course of seven years? Hermione had spent the remainder of the afternoon attempting to sort her numerous belongings into 'books', 'clothes', 'personal' and 'miscellaneous'.
So far, the books pile was threatening to fall over her and kill her, while the 'personal' pile was