𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄

Part 26

1.

Granger seems taken with the situation. She invades their living room, armed with books and Weasley brats, sniffling and red-haired.

“Go away,” Draco tells her. “Potter’s not even here- he’s at work.”

“That’s fine,” Granger says as she starts to spread her books all over a low table.

“Don’t you have to work?” Draco asks, curling his lip at her. “To pay all the bills Weasley can’t afford?”

“Ron makes the same pay as Harry,” Granger says. She smiles. “I found a passage in this book about the corporeal potential of ghosts.” She pushes the book across the table toward Draco and nods at it.

Draco skims the words then rolls his eyes. “And?”

“And you didn’t read a word,” Granger says. “Anyway, Harry was asking me if it’s even possible because he thinks that Viola, well,” she frowns. “I hope she wasn’t raped- that’s awful.”

Draco purses his lips and says nothing. The more he has thought about it, the more he is starting to agree with Potter. Someone attacked Viola, maybe at school, maybe in the park, and now she’s made some tale up about seeing ghosts from Potter’s past. It makes him ill to think of it, but it makes the most sense.

Granger bats a Weasley brat away from her lap, telling the boy to go and seek James out. “Anyway, I read this very interesting account- albeit from 1732- of a woman who claimed her dead husband came back from the dead as a ghost and got her pregnant with their son.”

“And?” Draco drawls. “She had obviously drank a Babbling beverage for morning tea.”

“No!” Granger insists. “The woman lived on this remote little island off the coast of northern Ireland. It was over fifteen months after her husband died before she gave birth. The Wizengamot sent a team of scholars out to investigate and they speculated that some ghosts are capable of producing a specific type of ectoplasm that acts as sperm during semi- or full corporeal intercourse and thus they can impregnate women.”

“You’re full of shit, Granger,” Draco mutters.

“And you’re going to be a grandfather,” she says, smiling smugly at him.

Draco stares at her in horror. The word makes him cringe. “Don’t ever say that again!” he hisses.

“I know it sounds ridiculous, but did you ever think Viola could be telling the truth?” she asks. “You live in a world where you can do magic. You, a man, gave birth! Don’t you think things like this are possible?”

Draco wants to slap the Mudblood bitch and tell her to shut her filthy mouth. But, she’s Potter’s friend and he thinks that he is a bit beyond acting like that, although he does clench his hand around his wand.

“How is Harry, by the way?” Granger asks. “Do you want me to put a pot of tea on?”

“I didn’t invite you to stay,” Draco says. “I didn’t even invite you here.”

“I invited myself,” she says. Granger wanders off into the kitchen. Draco can hear her rummaging around in cupboards, opening and slamming the doors. “Earl Grey or Orange Pekoe?”