Green Eyed Monster | Draco Malfoy

30. Offerings for the Order

Chapter 30 - Offerings for the Order

Dinner was a fascinating event at number twelve Grimmauld place. Between Fred and George Apparating every two feet they had to travel, Tonks' amazing animal snout impressions, and Sirius' sarcastic remarks about cleaning the house it felt as if there was always somewhere to look.

I couldn't really make myself feel up to the task of eating. If anyone was going to bother me about it I could easily tell them that the sight of my right hand fingers being chopped off had nullified the urge, but I don't know if anyone would believe me. My appetite had already dwindled over the summer from a mix of knowing the Dursleys wouldn't always feed me, and a sick worry for when my stomach was full and would make me drowsy. Drowsiness meant sleep and sleep never did me any good nowadays...not with the nightmares. The effect of malnourishment was showing, I'd already gotten a few comments on it. I was thinner than I normally was over the holiday and I could already hear the old, familiar ring of 'little dead girl' from my Slytherin adversaries.

"I don't think we need to hear any more of your business dealings, thank you very much, Mundungus," Mrs Weasley glowered, though Ron, Fred and George were all still howling from the story of one of his cons.

"Beg pardon, Molly," Mundungus slurred, daring to wink at Harry who looked as confused as I felt annoyed. "But, you know, Will nicked 'em orf Warty Harris in the first place so I wasn't really doing nothing wrong-"

"I don't know where you learned about right and wrong, Mundungus, but you seem to have missed a few crucial lessons." Mrs Weasley seemed to dislike Mundungus Fletcher even more than I did. It was nice to know I was not alone.

Fred and George, across from me and a few seats to the right, laughed into their butterbeer, closing their eyes tightly to try and contain themselves around the sounds of George's hiccoughs. Mrs Weasley threw a dark look at Sirius before she left to grab something or other for the table. Sirius, between Harry and I, lowered his voice.

"Molly doesn't approve of Mundungus," he informed us.

"Wonder why?" My sarcasm made Sirius smirk at me slightly.

"How come he's in the order?" Harry asked quietly, leaning toward us slightly.

"He's useful. Knows all the crooks - well, he would, seeing as he's one himself. Caught him stealing from my own house, you realize? He swore not to do it again, but it doesn't matter in the end. I don't really care about anything besides the people here, anymore. Besides, he's not here for my benefit. He's also very loyal to Dumbledore: he helped him out of a tight spot once. It pays to have someone like Dung around, he hears things we don't. But Molly thinks inviting him to stay for dinner is going too far. She hasn't forgiven him for slipping off duty when he was supposed to be tailing you."

"He couldn't tail both of us," Harry defended, I rolled my eyes.

"So you're saying he's useful, but he's unwanted?" I elaborated, giving my naive brother a weighted look. "Harry, you really need to learn the important life lesson that sometimes people use other people just because they can. Sometimes they don't need any other reasons."

Harry frowned at me, but silenced while he took time to think over my words. I hope he saw at least a bit of truth in them, I didn't doubt that it happened to him often simply because he was the Harry Potter. It even happened to me and I was only that girl, Audrey Potter.

Mrs Weasley brought out dessert, which I didn't even pretend to want to eat since everyone was scrambling for a piece. When that was finished, a few people started to move chairs to talk to people - Fred and George switched places with Ginny and Hermione so that Ginny and Hermione were in front of Harry and Sirius, but the twins could be in front of me. They must have been working to improve my mood...they also must have known how quickly it worked.