From the Grave

Chapter Twelve- Venus

   "Toast? Uh, whoever you are. Have you seen Harry?" I take the piece of toast Ron offers me and take a bite. "Thanks, and no, I haven't seen him." "What are you, anyway?" Ron asks, stuffing a piece of toast into his mouth. I try not to stare. "Uh, I'm a human."
   "No, I meant are you a picky eater or someone who likes eating?"
   I try to hide back a smile. Good old Ron; caring more about someone's eating habits than their gender. Honestly, I'm surprised he can talk at all with that wad of bread in his mouth. "Ron! Don't talk with your mouth full!" Hermione whacks him in the ribs and he starts coughing violently. I start forward, but Hermione makes a fist, wraps her arms around Ron's stomach, and pushes violently. The huge glob of half-chewed toast flies out of his throat and lands with a wet smack onto the floor. I wince, but Hermione is unfazed. After he finishes hacking up the remaining pieces of bread lodged in his lungs, Ron looks at Hermione indignantly. "Mione, what'd you do that for? You nearly killed me!"
   "I saved your life," she says primly.
   "After you made me choke!"
   "You need to learn proper manners, and it was an accident anyway. It's not like you actually died or anything."
Ron opens his mouth to say something else, but leaves it hanging open in shock when Sirius saunters into the Great Hall, dragging Remus along behind him, one arm around his waist. Remus looks amused. In the dead silence that follows their entrance, Sirius suddenly whoops and kisses Remus. Instant chaos. Amid the pandemonium that has now broken out, I spy Harry and Draco wander in, glued to each other's sides. Harry and Draco??? Never would have guessed it. Still, I'm not evil, so I resolve to ask McGonagall to assign Harry as Draco's guard instead of me. I tell a shocked Ron and Hermione so. "And I don't want to have to keep babysitting him, even though he was clearly abused and manipulated by his father, so it's a win-win." I add.
   "How do you you know that?" Hermione asks me, startled. "He called me a mudblood! And he's a Slytherin."
   "What does that have to do with anything?"
   "Come on, everyone knows that Slytherins are evil. All the dark wizards come from Slytherin," Ron says.
   "All of them?"
   Hermione squirms uncomfortably. "Well, not all of them, but a great number of them have. It's scientifically proven!" She starts to launch into a rant way above my level of intelligence, so I glance away, and lock eyes with Ron. He rolls his eyes, and I snicker, amused at his clear lack of respect for her speeches.
"-and anyway, how do you even know those things you said about Draco are true?"
   "Huh?" I realize my mistake immediately. She glares at me and opens her mouth, so I go for the less risky option. "Oh, you know, his immediate compliance with anything and everything McGonagal said when she became the power figure- at least in the immediate area." I shrug. "I knew right away. Plus the way he acted when I knocked him down, and his behavior afterwards. He also
disassociates like, all the time. There's a bunch of other clues if you want me to go into the details," I offer, knowing full well that I have just outed myself as well as Draco. I mean, they were bound to find out eventually. It's not like I can go back "home" if my drunk knife-wielding dad really killed me, right?
   "WHAT??" Oh, shit. I must have said that aloud. Suddenly all the random couples popping up are the least of my problems. How am I possibly supposed to explain this one?