Undeniable Truths

36~ You're Mental

To say that I'm nervous about the party tonight is an understatement. The auror office is having a formal dinner in celebration of closing a case. The dinner parties were started when Potter became the head auror. He thought the aurors work so hard, that they deserve to all come together to celebrate a common goal being achieved.

Potter has changed so many things about the aurors. He fought tooth and nail to make it so everyone who is arrested gets fair trial. He also fought to lighten the punishments. Instead if automatically sending every convicted person to Azkaban, he payed to build another prison without dementors guarding it. Now, only the worst criminals go to Azkaban.

But like I said, saying I'm nervous to walk into a room full of people who were dead sent on sending me to Azkaban, is an understatement. I know I've seen them all before, but never all in one place at one time. They're all going to be walking up to me and expecting an intelligent conversation, that's not what I'm worried about, what I'm worried about is them seeing right through my Perceus façade. Their entire job is to find and break criminals. I'm not sure I can handle that.

"Master Draco," Willow the house elf says as I stand examining myself in the mirror.

I turn around, "Yes Willow, what is it?"

"Master told Willow to tell him when it was 5:30."

I check my watch, "Thank you, Willow."

I take one last took at myself in the mirror before I turn to walk to Granger's room.

I stand in the door and watch as she works to get her hair just right. She's waving her wand around, sighing, and letting out a stream of expletives.

I let out a chuckle and she spins around with a brush stuck in her hair, "How long have you been standing there?"

"Longer than you'd like," I chuckle as I walk to help her get the brush unhinged from her hair.

"Why am I killing myself to go to this stupid dinner?" She whines.

"Because it's your case that was solved, so you have a speech. Not to mention, you're Potter's best friend, you have to keep up a good face," I reason.

She sighs, "Fine, but we're only staying long enough to eat dessert. Then we're out of there."

I kiss her forehead, "Whatever you say, love."

*+*+*

We pull up to the venue to find a group of photographers out front. I step out of the driver's seat to open the door for Granger, and the cameras go crazy.

I haven't had this many cameras around me since my trials. It sends my anxiety through the roof. I keep my composure and open Granger's door.

"You never told me the press would be here," I whisper through my teeth as I continue to smile for the cameras.

She keeps her smiles going and hugs me for a picture, "I figured you'd assume they'd be here with Harry and I being here and all."

"Well, Granger, you know what assuming does," I whisper back.

She slyly elbows me, "Behave yourself, or you'll be going home and sleeping in the garage."

I lean down to kiss her and the paparazzi goes nuts. They all start shouting, "Ms. Granger, who is your new boyfriend?"

"Is that an engagement ring?"

"How long have you been together?"

"Why have we not seen him before now?"

I quietly guide her into the building, and she shakes her head, "I knew they'd be all over you, but Merlin I didn't think it'd be that bad. Are you okay?"

I nod my head and continue to our assigned table.

"Percy, talk to me, are you okay?"

I clear my throat, "Yeah, I just wish you would've given me a heads up. I've never had that many cameras on me before." I shake my head, "It's not your fault, I should've known. I mean, you're famous, of course the press would be here."

She opens her mouth to reply, but before the words can come out Blaise strides up with Ginny in tow, "Finally you guys showed up, if I had to listen to Jensen tell the story about the werewolves one more time I would've killed myself. Or worse found a werewolf and begged them to bite me."

Ginny slaps his chest, "Blaise, he wasn't that bad. Be nice."

"What're you guys doing here? Neither of you are aurors," Hermione pesters.

Blaise shrugs his shoulders, "We snuck in."

"So you're crashing an auror dinner? You really had nothing better to do?" I jester.

Blaise chuckles, "Well, not everyone is with the worlds most famous witch. Not that I'm complaining. Sorry, 'Mione, but you're high maintenance."

Granger glares, "Says the king of maintenance. You can't even get ready without staring at yourself for two hours."

"Hey! My hair hates to cooperate in the mornings," the dark skinned man defends.

"And you hate to cooperate always," Ginny jabs. "Anyways, we were just leaving, we only stopped by so we could get Teddy from Harry."

"Did Teddy learn to turn invisible, or did you forget him somewhere?" I ask looking around.

Suddenly, the small boy's head shows up out of nowhere, "I'm right here."

"Potter's invisibility cloak, smart," I comment.

"Harry's idea, children aren't allowed here, so they had to hide him," Granger explains.

Ginny chuckles, "Yeah, well better get him home. See you guys later."

*+*+*

"So, that dinner was..." I trail off as we pull in the driveway.

"Awful. I can honestly say, I never wanted to see that much of DeGroot. How many drinks did he have?" Granger chuckles.

I shake my head, "I lost count at eleven. Why is it that drunk people always feel the need to take their clothes off?"

"Right! I mean, the man's almost fifty. You'd think he'd know better than to drink that much," Granger giggles. We get out of the car and stumble inside while she's still laughing.

Suddenly, she looks me dead in the eye and states, "I wanna have a baby."

I drop my car keys and my jaw and stare at her, "And how many drinks have you had?"

"I'm not drunk, if that's what you're asking."

"You're completely mental. We're not even married. Not to mention, we haven't even slept together," I reason suddenly feeling very sober.

She stares me dead in the eye, "Then let's do it."