The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow » Harry Potter

1.45 | Aspects of Before & Later

The Gryffindor common room seemed empty with how silent it had fallen. Some of the remaining fireworks zoomed outside the window once in a while. Crookshanks purred quietly by the crackling fire, yellow eyes staring up alertly at the tensed occupants.

"So, let me get this straight," begins George. "Malfoy stole a book that may be written by your great-grand-someone and now he's blackmailing you every chance he gets."

"Not to mention," adds Ginny, "by stopping Umbridge from expelling you, he's using you to find out what Harry's up to."

"Tell me again, why we can't just get the book back?" asks Ron.

"Because he's made copies of it, hasn't he?" says Hermione. "Besides, even if we manage to get it back, he'd notice. It'll just be a matter of time before he'd have Margaret expelled..."

"Not really," Fred speaks up for this first time in over an hour, which in itself was extremely unusual for him. He looked up at Margaret, his jaw clenched, an unreadable emotion flickering in his eyes. "Not if you use your powers to convince him that he doesn't need the book after all, like you did to stop Umbridge from expelling us."

Margaret met his eyes blankly, any and all of her emotions masked.

It greatly unnerved her that Fred, George and Harry had eavesdropped on her conversation with Draco but she was more annoyed at herself for being so careless. That, on top of the argument she had had with Fred and George about Montague and the Vanishing Cabinet, it only added to the dispute they were suddenly having.

"I can't do that," she says with finality, leaning back on the red armchair she was sitting on. "I can't."

"And why not?" asks Fred, narrowing.

"Because believe it or not, he has resources we don't," she tells them. "Dumbledore told me that my ancestors were obsessed with magical purity because of the time they were known to exist in. Just as the Malfoys are. If there is anyone who knows the inner workings of the Toujours Pur system, then it's Draco."

"There is no 'inner working' to that," Harry speaks up. "It barbarity – the way they treat muggleborns. They merely want purity and think anyone else is unworthy. You can't be possibly proud of being from a family like that."

"Of course I'm not," Margaret snaps, equally irritated with him as she was with Fred and George. "I simply wish to understand what happened to my ancestors and to do so I've to know the way they thought. Why did they suddenly disappear without a trace? What was so bad about this world that they felt the need to move to another dimension altogether? Of course, Draco doesn't know any of that, nor do I plan on telling him; I just want whatever he can find for me."

The clock above the notice board struck midnight. Thankfully, the common room was entirely deserted as they spoke; silencing charms placed around the room by Fred and George to make sure no unwanted ears heard them. Ironic, truly.

Margaret noticed Hermione frowning to herself, and felt a twinge of guilt. "As far as I know, I come from a family of Squibs and Muggles," she says softly, causing Hermione to look up at her, "and I don't mind that. I don't care whether I'm a pureblood, a half-blood or a muggleborn; I never have. I just want to – I need to know if I have any family left in this world... In any case, I want to know what happened to them all those years ago. And if Draco can help me with that-"

Fred let out a forced laugh, cutting her off. He had heard enough of her blabbering for one day. It stopped making sense to him a long time ago. Nothing had to be so complicated...

"So he's Draco now, huh?" Fred spits out spitefully. "Well, have fun with Draco. Hope he's not as useless as the rest of us."

He shot to his feet, rounded the couch and made his way towards the portrait door. George made a move to follow him but Ginny stopped him by grabbing his arm and gestured at Margaret who had gotten up as well.