The Department of Magical Retrieval

Episode 3: The Dress

Fern slammed her head dramatically on her desk causing it to creak slightly under the force. It had taken her all bloody week to fix the mess that had been left in her office. As nice as it was for them to "clean" it up, it still needed to be reorganized, and she'd spent all week doing just so. After the unpleasantness with Malfoy, they'd setup this "fundraiser" for exactly a week after. This meant, the fundraiser was on Saturday night, which also happened to be tomorrow. Fern groaned aloud at the thought of having to entertain Goyle as she heard someone gingerly knocking against her door.

"Yes, yes, come on in. Don't be alarmed. It's only my brain that's dead."

She said, her voice muffled by the desk still underneath her face. She heard the distinctive laugh of Zoe Accrington, of which she'd been certain had been on the other side of the door.

"I take it your in need of a few drinks, then?"

Fern plastered her face off of her desk and sighed.

"You have absolutely no idea."

--

"Really? A fundraiser with Malfoy?"

Zoe asked, sporting a slight butterbeer mustache, a look of surprise on her face. Fern frowned.

"Well, er, yes. He offered to host and I didn't want to be rude. Besides, we could use the funds."

Zoe sighed, wiping at her mouth, nearly getting her chestnut hair in the mix during the process.

"Well, I don't envy you. I heard what he said to Ron."

It was Fern's turn to be surprised and she nearly spat out her own drink.

"Ron? How do you know about that?"

Zoe rolled her eyes indignantly.

" Oh please , half the office heard about it when it happened. There I was, sitting at my desk working, when Ron came bursting in demanding to see Hermione. He was all red-faced and looked positively peeved. He then proceeded to yell about how Malfoy had said that he'd read a bit in the Weekly about their, er, breakup. Ron said that he'd read she'd been reported to be seeing another man. It was a bloody right mess , it was!"

Fern flinched as she remembered the entire conversation vividly. However, Malfoy had never mentioned another man. It seemed, that was all Ron. She couldn't fathom why he'd even believe the filth written in the Weekly . Everyone knew Rita Skeeter blew smoke up her own arse. She reported on what she wanted to hear from someone not what they actually said.

"Malfoy's a real prat , I reckon, going around saying things like that to people. It's shameful, but I guess not entirely unexpected. He is Draco Malfoy , after all."

Fern didn't understand why, but she felt she needed to right the accusation, on Malfoy's behalf.

"Well, actually, Ron started the fight. He mentioned Malfoy's "Death Eater" money and Lucius in Azkaban. If you ask me, Ron came in looking for a fight."

Zoe set down her butterbeer and peered at Fern curiously.

"Why are you sticking up for that worm ? Don't you remember all the cruel things he did during school?"

Fern shrugged non-committedly, talking from behind her own drink, afraid to say too much.

"I don't know. It just doesn't seem right to let someone take the blame for something they didn't cause, now does it? But it doesn't matter."