mercy | draco malfoy

three

Pushing her trolley full of magic supplies through the crowd of wizards and witches, Elizabeth made sure to keep a keen eye out for the all too familiar platinum blonde hair of her two best friends. With a few kind gestures to other acquaintances and friends from above, below, and in her year, Elizabeth made her way to the area that her family always went to before boarding the train. When she arrived at the familiar pillar she was greeted by what seemed like a sea of ginger-haired people, only to realize that it was the Weasley family. Arthur was the first member of the family to notice her and it only took a matter of seconds for a particular set of twins to turn around and dart over to her.

"Why, Hello there, m'lady," Fred greeted as George took her trolley and caused her to hasten her walking in order to stay with him.

"Hello? What's the big idea with stealing my trolley, George?" Elizabeth asks while looking between the two in an extremely confused manner.

"Were just helping you with pushing your trolley, Elizabeth, calm down we would never do anything to you" George retaliates with Fred adding a quick "Or your personal belongings!" at the end of it, just as the three reach the rest of the Weasleys.

"Ah, Elizabeth!" Arthur greets as he turns toward the girl accompanied by his two most troublesome sons, "How have you been this summer?"

"I've been great, Mr. Weasley," Elizabeth replies as the twins move over to their mother. "It was nice to spend some time with my family and take a short break from my studies. How was it with everyone being back at the Burrow?"

"Well, I'm glad you had a good summer. Things at the Burrow were well, but if you really want the details of how things were while I was at the ministry, I would talk to Molly." Arthur replies with a small laugh as his wife walks over to them with her daughter.

"Hello dear," Molly greets Elizabeth with a quick hug before looking behind her and walking over to Elizabeth's parents, "Natalie! Benjamin! How are you?"

Turning back toward Ginny, Elizabeth let out a small chuckle, "I swear our parents get more excited about seeing each other than we all do."

"Tell me about it, while we were on our way here, all Mum was talking about was seeing your parents. Dad was also very excited to meet Hermione's parents and how he was going to ask them about anything and everything muggle." Ginny whispered to Elizabeth as she looked to her right and saw her father and Hermione's mother talking. 

"Hey uhm, where's your brother?" Elizabeth asks after both girls turn back to each other. 

"Which one?" Ginny replies with a small, knowing smirk. As Elizabeth lets out a small sigh, Ginny looks slightly behind the older girl and points, "He's right there with Harry and Hermione." 

Elizabeth turned her head slightly, managing to get a glimpse of the trio before a man walking by obscured her vision. Quickly turning back to Ginny, Elizabeth smiled and quickly spoke, "I'll see you on the train? Or even in the Great Hall?"

Ginny nodded with a smile, turning back to talk to Percy, while Elizabeth spun on the balls of her heels toward the trio. 

Without even trying to, Elizabeth managed to scare Ron just by walking up next to him. The result of which was being greeted with a "Bloody Hell," instead of a nice "Hello," which she had received from Harry and Hermione moments after she arrived. 

"I'm so glad that you were able to meet up with us before the train left the platform," Hermione began but was soon cut short after the books she was carrying began to slip out of her arms. Elizabeth was quick to catch a seemingly already read and annotated copy of Spellman's Syllabary as it slipped from the top of the stack. 

"Of course! I couldn't just miss out on talking to my best friends and one of my favorite families before we departed. I will need to take my leave once Draco and Cassie come around so that I can talk to them and their mother," Elizabeth began to ramble to herself as she placed the book back on Hermione's stack, but was cut off by a rather dramatic scoff from the brunet boy next to her. As she looked up in confusion she could see the smallest hint of a smirk on Hermione's face and when she turned slightly toward Ron she was able to tell that he was trying his hardest not to laugh.

"What? Did I do something wrong?" Elizabeth questioned her friends, thinking that she had managed to do the simple act of putting a book on a stack, wrong. 

"Oh, it's nothing, Elizabeth, Harry's just, well," Hermione began to create some sort of excuse for Harry's odd behavior but struggled since she as well did not know what the problem was. Attempting to turn to Ron for help, she found that the ginger-haired boy had become extremely interested in the conversation of the seventh-year couple standing next to them. 

"I just think it's so interesting how you manage to bring Draco or even Cassiopeia into every little conversation or event. I mean we get it you're friends with them, but their family is full of horrible people, Elizabeth." Harry seemingly burst out, leaving both girls beside him to look at him dumbfounded. He was even able to regain the attention of his best friend who was now staring at him with his mouth agape. 

"I'm sorry, I just, I know that you guys aren't really fond of the twins, more Draco but I just wanted you all to see that they really aren't that bad once you get to know them. I've always asked before and you all say that it's okay, I guess I just thought that you all were starting to like them." Elizabeth said quietly while picking at the ends of her fingernails. Hermione gave her a small smile and attempted to comfort her but was only able to move her hand slightly before the stack of books started to tip.

Elizabeth was about to speak up again when she saw the very set of twins that had caused the tense moment. Unluckily for her, Harry had also noticed that the Malfoy family had arrived on the platform and with a large huff he turns and walks away from his three bewildered friends. 

Hermione turned toward Ron and looked at him pointedly, silently telling him to go after his best friend. Ron stumbles to a start while trying to catch up with Harry as Hermione turns toward Elizabeth and speaks.

"I'm so sorry, Elizabeth, I really don't know what all that was about," She waits until Ron is out of earshot before she continues with her sentence, "And for the record, I think that Draco and Cassie are okay, and I think that Draco is really changing because of you. Of course, he still has his...moments but, they didn't happen as often this summer as they had the previous two school years."

"You really think so," Elizabeth asks as she looks up shyly at Hermione, who shakes her head.

"I do. Now you better go say hello to them before Draco pouts for a month when we get to Hogwarts," Hermione chuckles at her own joke and turns slightly to the side to finally place her books down on her trolley. After she sets them all on top of her luggage, she turns and pulls Elizabeth into a hug, whispering, "Don't you worry about Harry, if he does anything more than that, I'll hex him." 

Elizabeth lets out a genuine laugh, but Hermione could hear the wetness of it as she pulled out of the embrace. She moved just slightly so that she could see Elizabeth's face and wiped away the tears that had gathered on her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I honestly don't know why I'm crying," Elizabeth admits as Hermione's hands move down to her shoulders and stay there, her thumbs rubbing small, comforting circles where they landed. "I think Harry raising his voice and acting like that sort of embarrassed me."

Hermione nods in understanding and gives a small smile to someone over Elizabeth's shoulder. 

"Well, I best go find Ron and Harry. Merlin knows what they're doing at this moment, probably fell into the tracks or something. I'll see you either on the train or at Hogwarts, Elizabeth." Hermione spoke as she made to get her trolley and take it to her parents before she went after a particular pair of raven-haired and red-headed boys.

Elizabeth wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her jumper and turned around toward the person who was seemingly behind her. When she turned she was face-to-face with one of her best friends. 

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I honestly feel like this chapter is a whole mess but that's okay. Also, from now on the chapters will be shorter (like 1000-1250 words each,) I just had the first two chapters longer for better character introductions/ story set up.