Irrefutable Certainties

Chapter 13

Selene POV

I zone out across the great hall. There are magazines and chatter that are littered throughout the crowds of people. "Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger-Malfoy Split" is today's headline. It's one that I've seen so many times growing up and being at home it never made an impact on me. I mean, I could see them together and happy, so it didn't matter. Being at school makes the headlines seem more real in a way. I just got a letter from Dad though, you would think that he would have mentioned if the split had happened. At the same time, I guess it is the Malfoy way to push off admitting anything is wrong until it is done. But I know my parents. They have been going to therapy, things have been better lately, I guess. I mean, at least they have been living together again. Or they were before we came back to school.

"This is insane, they can't honestly be believing that crap," Scorpius snaps.

Rose shrugs, "It's the biggest gossip Hogwarts has seen all year. Everyone wants to know everything about the Malfoy, Potter, Zabini family. We're a private group, so they don't get much except for a few roomers. Let them have their fun, we all know that the roomers aren't true." She takes a few bites of her lunch, "Selene, cheer up. You've heard these roomers your entire life. They've never been true before, why would they be now?"

"There's a family meeting this morning?" Bexley asks. "Apparently we didn't get the memo, James." James shrugs in response and they sit down with the rest of us.

"It's not a family meeting," Korrin snaps at his younger brother. "We're trying to get all of our gossiping out now before we get bombarded with questions from the entire school. Not to mention, we're being there for our friends."

"If we really want to talk in private," T.R. gestures towards the group of students who are obviously trying to listen in but are trying to act inconspicuous, "we should probably move somewhere private. Take our lunches somewhere else. There are too many people in here for privacy."

"At least being in here you know for sure who is listening, but it's also too loud for anyone to hear anything concrete," Lyra states coolly, "I don't really know why we have to meet up like this every time there's a rumor about any of our families. It seems like over kill."

"I know this is out of character, but I agree with Lyra," I shoot my eldest sister a quizzical look. "Don't give me that look, Selene. It's stupid that we think that we're so exclusive that we can't talk about our families in front of anyone else, or that we must get our story straight with everyone else before we talk to anyone else. This is ridiculous. I'm going to class, before we end up being late." Rose grabs her backpack and leaves the great hall.

"I think this is a Malfoy matter," I state, "we don't need the entire Malfoy, Potter, Zabini family here. There's no point in all of us getting into trouble for being late. Scorpius, Rose, Lyra and I will discuss what's going on. You guys can leave." Everyone shoots me a look.

"Nice of you to finally speak up," Scorpius teases. "You've been out this whole lunch, but sure. Everyone leaves, we'll discuss this as a family."

"Is there really anything left to discuss?" Lyra looks down at her nails. "I mean, we know it's not true. So, leave it be. We won't talk about it to anyone, because we know that just makes it worse. Court dismissed, or whatever. Let's go to class."

Everyone pauses for a second and then finally gives in. That's one thing that drives me crazy about being part of this group. If one family goes down, all of us have to step in. For some reason we all see drama as a security breech, and everyone has to get together to get our stories straight. Sure, sometimes the drama is something that needs to be discussed, but this is the most common rumor we've been hearing all our lives. Depending on the year, it could be any of our parents that are "split." More often than not, it is my parents, but still. We don't have to get together like this every single time this happens.