The Gloriana Set

Epilogue: Five Things

Hello wonderful readers!

In 2018, I posted "Mine," the first chapter of "The Gloriana Set" on Archives Of Our Own. Back then this story was only 120,000 words, Theo was little more than a plot device, the Squeaky Mice were in two chapters only and the Astoria revenge scheme never happened. Azkaban, Love Diggles, the Halloween Festival, the Snape portrait and the Slytherin Party weren't part of the story either. So much changed as I posted the story and dug into the characters and plot.  

This whole story is about love (yes, Bluebell, all kinds of love), so no wonder it's now more than a quarter-million words. Big theme. 

So here we have the Epilogue—not too far in the future. (I've learned that lesson from JKR.) And in the spirit of breaking just about every writing rule in this story, I even introduce a new character. I hope you enjoy it and cheers to Happy Ever Afters!

Hermione awoke bathed in sunshine. Draco's high-ceilinged bedroom at the Chateau de Malfoi was five times as large as his room at Hogwarts, but very similar, with the same blue velvet curtains with golden fleur-de-lis and the colorfully painted furniture. But this room's main window overlooked expansive grounds dotted with statues and fountains, with vineyards in the distance. The carved wooden desk held his glass Patronus ball on its delicate silver stand.

With utmost caution, Hermione sat up, blinking in the morning light. The long lump beside her, hidden beneath the cream silk coverlet, didn't move. Thank Merlin.

She reached out an arm and pulled her beaded bag off the nightstand, along with her wand. A muttered spell and she'd summoned her LOOP notebook and pen. With any luck, she'd have time to record her thoughts and plan her day. Hermione flipped to a fresh page and touched ink to paper. It was important to keep a disciplined mind.

Her thoughts refused to comply, however; instead they roamed freely over the weeks at Hogwarts since Narcissa's trial. Pansy had proven very creative at distracting the student body from Draco's perceived villainy. When the school had settled down a bit in December, and Draco started getting threats again, everybody's Secret Gift scrolls suddenly vanished. Ernie and his prefects tried to re-create the gift list, but of course half the students lied about their drawn names, which created more chaos.

The Squeaky Mice thrived on the uproar, and Hermione darkly suspected that Leila, with Pansy's encouragement, was happily making things worse. Percival wore his transformed "POTTER STINKS" badge for an entire day before noticing it read "DO YOUR HOMEWORK." He complained to Draco, who spent most of Friday night in his room working to change it back. Hermione watched from his bed, where she was reading Vasile's "Curses of Home and Hearth" book while wearing a small lacey thing and trying not to look smug. The next day Hermione secretly taught the switching spell to Leila, who charmed the badge to flash phrases like "EAT YOUR VEGGIES" and "WRITE YOUR MOTHER" and Hermione's favorite: "POTTER'S CUTE."

With all the gift scrolls vanished, Ernie begged Hermione to help him cast the spell again. Hermione airily refused, proposing a nice trivia tournament to take everyone's mind off things. So the Head Boy recast the spell himself, adding all his prefects' suggestions, and the charm collapsed under the weight of its many amendments and assigned everyone the same name: Marcus Fixe. The student body revolted and the controversy raged on until McGonagall herself took a hand a week before the Holiday Feast, casting an efficient spell that assigned each student a name and prevented any swapping. Hermione drew Ernie's name, and wrapped up a stack of books on effective leadership and his very own Life Organization Optimization Plan.

At the Holiday Feast, Draco presented Lavender with a pair of socks with Theo's faces in little hearts, charmed to show Theo blowing kisses. Lavender put on the socks right there at the Gryffindor table and shortened her skirt to display them, and Hermione couldn't hide her grin at Theo's outraged expression. Luna gave Draco with a hand-painted model of the "Malfoy Meditation Retreat," complete with a tiny Fountain of Renewal trickling minute drops of water. Draco managed a pained smile and quiet thank you, but Hermione thought it was lovely and set it up in his bedroom at Hogwarts.