Friday's Child // Draco Malfoy

27

Parts of this chapter have been directly lifted from JK Rowling's book - Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - I am in no way trying to plagiarise her work or pass it off as my own, and the parts I have taken (mainly dialogue between the trio and Scrimgeour) are not mine and the credit lies solely with Rowling. I will put asterisks before and after the section where some of the content has direct quotes that are taken from the book.

* A matagot is a magical creature that resembles a black cat

Over the next few days, Juno spent much of her time at The Burrow. It was deemed the safest place to be, with the order constantly flitting in and out - plus, it seemed dangerous to be continuously making the journey between her home and the Weasleys'. This also meant she could be kept in the loop, and that she could spend much of her time with Harry - she was hellbent on ensuring he was as okay as he could be.

Molly Weasley, however, was making that a particularly difficult feat.

She was doing everything in her power to keep the four of them apart.

It was abundantly clear that as soon as Ron, Hermione, Harry and Juno found a moment alone together, they would be huddled up in whispers, plotting their next move against Voldemort. Molly was painfully aware of this. Despite knowing deep down that it would always come to Harry fighting the Dark Lord, despite knowing it was his battle to face - she couldn't bear the thought of a boy so young, on the cusp of being freshly eighteen, with hardly even a wrinkle to show for his short life, would have to face so much; such atrocities and violence. That in itself was bad enough - but knowing her son would follow Harry to the far corners of the earth, knowing his loyalty and his want to protect his friends - knowing he'd sacrifice every part of himself for those dearest to him it - was too much for Molly to even begin to try and comprehend. Thus, she did all she could to prevent their scheming - separating them at all hours of the day, and working them so hard, preparing for Harry's birthday and the upcoming wedding of Bill and Fleur, that they collapsed with exhaustion by nightfall.

Harry insisted he didn't want a party. He said it didn't feel right to celebrate with the circumstances as such. He was grieving Dumbledore, and Hedwig, and Moody, and the world was far too dark a place to plaster on fake smiles and pretend like it was all okay just for the sake of him and a day that suddenly felt all too insignificant. Mrs Weasley immediately shut down his existential train of thought - she countered that the world wouldn't be worth saving if we couldn't cling on to the glimmers of light in the darkness - that those were the moments to live for, and the moments to fight for and that he, of all people, deserved a few measly hours of self-indulgence, a few hours to play pretend and just be a boy for once in his life. Juno had agreed heartily, wrapping her fingers around his forearm and squeezing excitedly, insisting it would be so much fun - and who was he to say no when her skin was against his and she was smiling at him with the ferocity of the sun and moon combined. He begrudgingly agreed then, and it was made all the more worth it to see the excitement flash across Juno's face. She and Molly immediately set out to bake a cake, and the latter instructed the golden trio to begin party-prep, ensuring each job was on different ends of the property - so to keep them as far apart as possible.

On his actual birthday, however, Molly could not deny them time together, as much as she would've liked to, so the four were left to their own devices. The morning began with Juno and Hermione toppling into the boys' room and falling onto Harry's bed, landing on him with an 'oomph' before bellowing an over-the-top rendition of 'Happy Birthday'. The boy grumbled beneath them, but they just sang louder, until he finally stirred awake, pushing the cover off his head and reaching tiredly for his glasses, rubbing his eyes and greeting them a sleepy 'good morning' and 'thanks', a coy grin taking over his face as he realised how close his body was to Juno's. Ron was grumbling under his breath in the bed on the other side of the room, so Hermione, with a devious grin went and collapsed on top of him, causing him to grunt and complain even louder.