The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow II » Harry Potter

2.42 | A Very Granger Christmas

"Are you sure he said 'Unbreakable Vow'?"

"Positive. Why?"

"Well... it's just that you can't break an Unbreakable Vow."

Harry shot Ron a daft look. "I figured that much out for myself, thanks."

Ron shook his head, grimacing. "You don't understand."

Margaret ruffled the pages of her right-side up Quibbler, briefly glancing at her two friends.

Harry had just told them about the conversation he had overhead between Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape after they abruptly left Slughorn's party. To sum it up:

Snape was offering to help Draco; Draco refused and seemed to despise Snape; Snape said he had made the Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco; and Harry thought it was implied that Snape thought Draco was behind the attack on Katie Bell.

"Oh, bloody hell," Ron mutters through his teeth, attempting to smile as Lavender showed up in front of their compartment.

However, for once, she didn't seem to want to superglue herself to Ron. Instead she fogged the glass with her breath and drew a heart on it. Inside the heart, she wrote 'R+L'.

The extremely slow process caused an awkward silence that had fallen over them where Harry and Margaret desperately tried to occupy themselves. Harry discovered the hidden armrest in the seat and Margaret looked at it like she had never seen such a wonderful invention. The two of them avoided eye contact at all costs because they knew that if they looked at each other even once, they were going to piss themselves laughing.

Finally, thank goodness, Lavender whispered a final 'I'll miss you' to Ron and went merrily on her way.

"Lovely!" say both Harry and Margaret together.

"All she wants to do is snog me," says Ron in a pained voice. "My lips are getting chapped-look!"

"We'll take your word for it," says Harry, recoiling in disgust.

At that moment, Hermione paused by their compartment as she saw them. But her eye immediately caught the 'R+L' written on the glass of the door and, without a look at any of them, she walked away wordlessly.

"So, er... what happens if you break an Unbreakable Vow?" asks Harry to change the topic.

Ron paused, seemingly hesitant. "Well... you die."

Deciding that she had discussed Draco Malfoy and his fate enough, Margaret got up, collecting her duffle bag from the luggage rack.

"Going somewhere?" asks Ron.

"To check on Hermione," she tells him. "I'll see you two at King's Cross."

Margaret slid the door open then immediately cringed as the breath fog and the heart with its 'R+L' wiped away. She heard Harry snicker and Ron mutter a grumpy 'shut up' before she closed the door.

The Hogwarts Express rattled on towards London, snow drifting past the windows as they passed through the countryside. She could hear the trolley lady making her rounds, some snippets of conversations as she passed different compartments, some snores and some whiz-bang of fireworks or spells somewhere.

At last, Margaret found Hermione sitting with Ginny in a compartment and knocked on the glass to get their attention.

"Space for one more?" she says, sliding the door open.

"Depends," says Ginny, sniffling. "Do you also have boy problems?"

"I think so," says Margaret, smiling tiredly. "I'm not looking forward to seeing your brother just as much as I'm sure he doesn't want to see me..."