Chapter 640: Hermione’s Worries Curiosity, frustration, anger, regret. Ignoring the mixed and complicated looks behind him, Draco simply led Pansy and the others around t |
Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff and Cho Chang of Ravenclaw.
Although their fame at Hogwarts had never come close to Draco and Pansy’s group, it was even less comparable now, especially after Lucius had stepped in to push things further.
Still, they had once been the perfect couple everyone at school admired, so even though she did not know them well, Ginny recognized them immediately. The only question was whether they had come with good intentions or ill ones...
In any case, for some reason Cho Chang did not come forward. Instead, Cedric led a group of people in identical robes toward Draco and the others.
If there were no surprises, these wizards were probably members of the Auror Cadet Corps, the greatest beneficiaries of last year’s Special Decree. What Ginny could not tell was whether meeting them here was simply part of a prearranged patrol route, or whether they had already known Draco would appear and had come looking for him on purpose...
...
As the two sides drew closer, Cedric’s smile came into view.
He had clearly expected Draco to respond in some way, so when Draco merely flicked a glance in their direction and then looked away as though he had seen absolutely nothing, Cedric was stunned and furious.
That dismissive attitude immediately darkened the faces of everyone on Cedric’s side, but before long, their anger turned into heavy mockery. After several months of grueling training, they were brimming with confidence in their newfound strength. To put it bluntly, these hot-blooded Auror cadets did not believe that report that had already spread far and wide.
Even their Auror instructor could not have done that.
So almost instinctively, they dismissed the report as false. Perhaps it was nothing more than wishful thinking on their part.
By now, Hermione had already more or less figured out their intentions from their expressions and reactions.
They wanted to step on Draco to raise themselves up.
That was not hard to guess...
Just as Hermione’s eyes turned cold and she was about to speak, Pansy, who had quietly become Draco’s spokesperson, reluctantly let go of his arm and took over the exchange herself.
“Cedric, Scuff, Velluto, Figg. Now that you are standing before me, can you represent your respective families?”
“...”
“Or have your families already decided to follow the Ministry of Magic? Or even make an enemy of the Parkinson family?”
“...”
It was only a few simple sentences, and for the time being the Ministry of Magic was still their ally. Even so, those words were enough to leave Cedric and the others with their backs drenched in cold sweat.
They might have been impulsive and unwilling to submit, but if the Ministry of Magic valued them, then they were not complete idiots. It was obvious that Pansy’s words were both a warning and a threat.
Small families had their own ways of surviving. In the face of overwhelming trends, their strength might not be enough to change anything, but that very weakness could also become the advantage that allowed them to continue existing.
But all of that rested on one condition.
They had to keep a low profile.
And if the Parkinson family set its sights on them, the result would be devastating...
The moment they realized that, everyone regretted it.
Cedric’s growing confidence and strength had given them the illusion that they could dare to tug at a tiger’s whiskers. They had also forgotten that Pansy was not merely some lovestruck girl with eyes only for Draco...
In front of Draco, Pansy was simply a girl whose eyes held no one but him.
In the eyes of others and even her parents, she was a cold and elegant noble young lady.
And when she was with Hermione and the others in private, she became a sharp-tongued little devil with a subtly scheming streak.
Just like now, beneath that beautiful smile, Cedric, who had approached with his robes swaying only moments ago, was now covered in cold sweat. His face had gone taut and ugly, yet he was still forcing himself not to be the first to lower his head.
Even Cedric probably had not expected things to turn out like this.
At the same time, he failed to notice that the companions behind him had already lowered their heads and quietly stepped back a few paces, as though they had nothing to do with him at all...
Hermione, having realized that the matter was already settled, kept stealing glances at Pansy. The curiosity in her eyes made it seem as though she were seeing her properly for the first time today.
Ginny, meanwhile, had watched the entire scene unfold and curled her lips in disdain.
“Throwing your weight around.”
That was what she said, yet she had no intention of stepping in to help Cedric and the others out of their predicament. On the contrary, she was more curious about where Cedric and the others had found the nerve to provoke Draco.
After all, no one knew better than she did just how powerful Draco truly was...
Wait.
Cedric is close with my brothers and the others, and there is also Harry... could it be...?
At that thought, Ginny’s eyes widened slightly, and an inexplicable sense of agitation rose in her chest.
Even so, she had no intention of voicing her doubts at a moment like this, no matter how badly she wanted answers. After all, aside from the possibility that Cedric and Draco were not on good terms at all, she could not think of any other reason Pansy would be this merciless...
...
Just as Ginny had guessed, whatever the purpose of this visit was, Cedric had very clearly stood on Harry Potter’s side back in the year of the Triwizard Tournament.
Pansy did not know what had happened between Cedric and Harry Potter afterward, but there was no way she would forget what had happened back then so easily.
Draco might not care in the slightest about an insignificant nobody like him, but that did not mean Pansy and the others could forget, especially when he was standing here so openly dissatisfied with Draco and clearly looking as though he intended to do something.
That was exactly why Pansy had taken the initiative, and why Hermione had not spoken up to stop her...
And just as Cedric and the others found themselves trapped in an impossible position, unable to advance or retreat, Draco kept walking without the slightest pause and passed straight through the middle of them.
The moment felt strangely quiet, almost unreal.
Then Draco’s voice broke the silence.
“Aren’t you leaving? Finish your patrol early and go back to sleep.”
“Oh... wait for me, Draco.”
“Mm...”
Pansy was the first to react, nearly losing the cold composure she had been maintaining, while Hermione, with a strange look on her face, hurried after them as well.
Both of them understood that there was nothing more they needed to do, because in front of Draco, Cedric’s pride was worth absolutely nothing.
That kind of utter disregard made the veins at Cedric’s temples throb uncontrollably. His body swayed as though he had suffered a tremendous blow, and his pale hand tightened even harder around the wand hidden beneath his robes...
But that was all.
He did not dare.
And he could not.
At that point, silence and the fact that he still kept his back straight were probably the last remnants of dignity he had left.
Watching all of this, Ginny, who had only now fully grasped what it meant, stared at the pale blond figure slowly disappearing into the darkness.
The clever girl seemed to understand something at last.
What that scene revealed was the gap.
...
Curiosity, frustration, anger, regret. Ignoring the mixed and complicated looks behind him, Draco simply led Pansy and the others around the corner of the corridor and out of sight.
He left so decisively that it was obvious he had no intention of lingering. Only after quite some time passed did they finally accept that Draco and the others had truly gone...
No one among Cedric’s group had expected things to end like this. Even though, at this distance, they would not have been able to hear anything Draco’s group said anyway, not one of them seemed inclined to move or speak.
Even Cedric Diggory, who should have been the pillar of the group, only stood there blankly in silence, head lowered, as if lost in thought.
It was as though he had suffered some heavy blow.
That only made the others even less willing to say anything carelessly.
And in this strange silence, perhaps only his girlfriend, Cho Chang, could vaguely understand what Cedric was thinking.
Only Cho Chang knew exactly why Diggory had thrown in his lot with the Senior Undersecretary of Magic, and why he had deliberately distanced himself from those former friends...
With that in mind, Cho Chang did not step forward to comfort her boyfriend. Instead, she merely glanced silently at Ginny, who had only just realized, again, that she had been left behind, tugging at her robe with one hand and waving with the other as she hurried after the figures ahead.
Just like the Ginny she used to know, all energy and momentum, like a little boy charging forward.
Still, Cho Chang could not help feeling curious.
Why was a Gryffindor with a Slytherin...?
...
That was one question Cho Chang was never going to get an answer to.
Even Hermione, one of the people directly involved, probably did not fully understand what she herself was feeling, let alone Ginny, whose mind was still a complete mess after everything that had happened recently.
At that moment, she had probably just followed her instincts and run after them.
As for Hermione.
Not long ago, she had been having an intimate exchange with Draco, yet now, later that same evening, she had to watch Miss Parkinson rub her soft pink cheek against someone’s arm.
That provocative little gesture made Hermione’s eyelids twitch.
At the sight of it, Hermione puffed out her cheeks slightly, her gaze flickering as she quickened her pace and moved to Draco’s other side.
Unlike Pansy’s rather direct move, Hermione’s actions were much more subtle.
As they walked, the backs of their hands brushed by accident.
Their arms touched from time to time.
Those sneaky little tricks only made Hermione’s heart beat faster, and all at once, she no longer felt there was anything she needed to envy in Parkinson at all...
To be fair, even though her heart was pounding so hard it felt ready to leap out of her chest, Hermione did not let any of it show on her face. She even managed to throw the occasional annoyed look in Pansy’s direction.
Anyone who did not know better might have thought Hermione was embarrassed by Pansy’s bold behavior.
Little did they know that, out of sight, the thieving cat in Pansy’s eyes was doing almost exactly the same thing.
Draco, who had no reason to stop either of them, cast Hermione a rather strange sideways glance.
This tsundere little thing... had she drunk some suspicious potion or something?
...
That seemingly harmonious and affectionate scene was abruptly cut off when Ginny finally caught up from behind.
Hermione was far too timid, and the fact that she had managed even that much was surprising enough already, so the moment she heard footsteps, she sprang away from Draco’s side like a startled rabbit.
Her face went blank, as if everything she had just done had been entirely accidental.
Even so, the little gesture of toying with the ends of her hair exposed exactly how flustered she really was...
As for Pansy, she had no interest in revealing that other side of herself in front of a stranger, much less when the newcomer was that Weasley girl.
As if everything Ginny had just seen had been nothing but an illusion, Hermione let out a light cough with her fist near her lips before Ginny had even caught her breath, then spoke in a slightly stern, serious tone.
“I think things like this are only going to happen more and more in the future. For all we know, most of the school may be thinking the same way.”
“Why do you say that? Potter did not get this kind of treatment back then. At least, I did not see anyone trying to use him.”
Although Pansy had already grown used to Hermione’s presence, she still bickered with her the same way she always had. Even if Hermione was probably right, and even if deep down she had long since admitted that Hermione really was a little smarter than her, Pansy still wanted to pick some flaw out of her argument.
Draco had no intention of stopping them.
He knew perfectly well that this was simply how they got along...
Subtle as it was, the phrase both enemies and friends probably described the relationship between Pansy and Hermione quite well.
In any case, Hermione only shrugged at Pansy’s unprovoked nitpicking, but the look of disdain in her eyes nearly made Pansy bristle on the spot.
She was not stupid.
Just as Pansy was about to snap back, a hesitant voice came from behind them.
“Is it because... Harry defeated that person?”
“...”
“...”
Pansy and Hermione both turned at the sound of the voice, wearing identical looks of surprise that made the corners of Ginny’s mouth twitch.
Had she really been ignored all over again in that short span of time?
Was her presence seriously that weak...?
Pansy, whose relationship with Ginny had never been good, did not care much, but Hermione, as Ginny’s friend, felt a little embarrassed.
As though trying to make up for it, she turned, linked arms with Ginny, and continued the earlier topic.
“I think that is part of the reason, yes. But do you really think Potter was never being watched? If it looked that way, I think it was only because someone else was protecting him.”
Draco did not particularly care how many people wanted to use his fame as a stepping stone, but he was very interested in what Hermione was saying.
“You mean Dumbledore, right?”
“Exactly. What I do not understand is what you people were thinking, raising you up this high. Who knows what kind of rumors are spreading outside by now, or how many people have already set their sights on you? Isn’t that just putting you in danger?”
Because she had not been present and no one had explained things to her beforehand, Hermione looked especially worried and anxious now.
And when she saw Draco’s completely unconcerned expression, she only grew more helpless and irritated.
Perhaps she was just too worked up.
Standing in front of Draco and waving her little fist at him, Hermione did not notice the complicated light in Ginny’s eyes as she watched from behind.
Was this really the same Hermione she remembered, the proud and confident Hermione?
Was that jerk’s charm really that overwhelming...?