Tuesday, September 30, 1944
8:11 P.M.
"You said what?" Draco demanded, cupping a hand around his right ear and, from his position beside Hermione on an ornately adorned bronze and royal blue couch, leaned in toward the direction of Hermione's mouth.
"You heard me!" She laughed and pushed him away, lounging back on the Ravenclaw sofa in the Room of Requirements. It had redecorated itself as the ultimate Hogwarts common room, and three couches, each representing a different house or houses, created a semi-perimeter around the crackling fireplace. "Now he thinks I'm a Seer or something of the sort. Ooo, did that shake him up, let me tell you."
"Good Merlin, Hermy, you kill me," Lavender exclaimed, bouncing from her seat curled up alongside Ron on the half red and gold Gryffindor and half yellow and black Hufflepuff sofa. She plopped down dangerously close to the fireplace, whipped out a marshmallow from her fuchsia book bag, and jammed it on the tip of her wand, sticking the marshmallow into the dancing flames without an ounce of hesitation. "Rock on, lassie!"
"He really fell for it?" Harry asked. At her tale, his face had lit up like a Christmas tree in spite of himself, his arm resting across Ginny's stomach as she lay, fully stretched out, along the silver and forest green Slytherin sofa. The back of Ginny's head rested in Harry's lap, her deep auburn hair contrasting sharply with the black of his uniform robes.
Hermione absently nodded at her best friend, but her real focus was on Lavender as the girl leaned closer to the hearth, examining the doneness of her browning marshmallow. Hermione watched in a kind of horrified fascination as Lavender's mane of sleek blond-streaked hair drifted closer and closer to the red-hot flames...
Hastily, she muttered a silent prayer and a fire-dousing charm under her breath, but—just in time, it seemed— Lavender pulled back, delicately blowing on the marshmallow. "Lav," Hermione began slowly, releasing a breath of absolute relief, "Please never try to roast a marshmallow on your wand or use an American and Scottish accent in the same sentence. Ever again."
Lavender simply grinned in reply, apparently not realizing or caring how close she had been to becoming toasted herself, and gave Hermione a thumbs-up sign, simultaneously taking a big bite into the gooey white fluff.
The Head Girl sighed in exasperation, wondering why she even tried, and turned her attention back to Harry. "Sorry, Harry; yes, he fell for it, hook, line, and sinker." She smiled to herself, momentarily reliving the magnificence of the night before. "You should have seen his face when I asked him what a Voldemort was. I swear I needed a camera."
"What a Voldemort was, that is going in the scrapbook!" Ron exclaimed, digging a red coloured toffee out of his pocket and popping it into his mouth. He chortled to himself and shook his head, muttering, "What a Voldemort was; honestly, that girl's brilliant, she is..."
"So, come on." Ginny splayed her hands out above her head. "Don't leave us in suspense! What'd he say?"
Hermione hid a smirk as Riddle's completely expressionless face popped into her mind, picturing him as he'd been when he given her his comeback. "He said it was the name of his pet snake that died this summer... and with whom he was extremely attached."
Pppst!
As soon as the words left her mouth, Ron spit the toffee clear across the void between the House sofas, where it landed cleanly in the middle of the fireplace. Lavender cackled, Ginny held back a laugh, and Hermione's eyebrows flew up in surprised amusement as she watched it rapidly melt and disappear.
Ron glared at all three girls and started to cough loudly. At this, Hermione actually prolonged her smirk, feeling like she had somehow turned into Draco. "Yeah, Ron, I almost lost it right in front of him exactly like that, exactly... minus the toffee, of course," she added with a laugh. She frowned. "Actually, I was rather terrified that I was going to burst out laughing right in his face."
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