in the end ~ d. malfoy

Chapter Thirty-Seven

February 2016

Luna says vaguely that she doesn't know how soon Rita's interview with Harry and Maya will appear in The Quibbler, that her father's expecting a lovely long article on recent sightings of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks.

Talking about that night wasn't easy for either of them. Maya broke into a cold sweat as soon as the exact details of her kidnapping came up, and Harry's grip on his tankard tightened on every question pertaining to Cedric Diggory. Rita had grilled them for every piece of information possible, prying and cross-questioning until Maya had felt like her head was spinning from all the twists she'd voiced out. She'd left feeling exhausted and confused, but a bit triumphant as well.

For once, Maya knows that she's done the right thing. With dangerous Death Eaters out in public, people need to know exactly what they're up against.

'Can't wait to see what Umbridge thinks of you two going public,' says Dean, sounding awestruck at dinner on Monday night. Seamus is shovelling down large amounts of chicken and ham pie on Dean's other side, but Maya knows he's listening.

'It's the right thing to do,' says Neville, who sits opposite Harry. He's rather pale, but goes on in a low voice, 'It must have been . . . tough . . . talking about it . . . was it?'

'Thanks, Neville, ' Maya replies, quietly, giving him a smile; He brightens slightly, "And yeah, it was hard, but people need to know that Voldemort's still out there, "

'That's right,' says Neville, nodding, 'and his Death Eaters, too . . . people should know . . ." Neville leaves his sentence hanging and returns to his baked potato. Seamus looks up, but when he catches Harry's eye, he looks quickly back at his plate again.

After a while, Dean, Seamus and Neville depart for the common room, leaving Harry, Hermione and Maya at the table waiting for Ron, who hasn't yet had dinner because of Quidditch practice. Cho Chang walks into the Hall with her friend Marietta, determinedly avoiding eye contact with Harry, who looks crestfallen.

'Oh, I forgot to ask you,' says Hermione brightly, glancing over at the Ravenclaw table, 'what happened on your date with Cho? How come you were back so early?'

'Er . . . well, it was . . .' says Harry, pulling a dish of rhubarb crumble towards him and helping himself to seconds, 'a complete fiasco, now you mention it.'

He tells them the chaos that took place in Madam Puddifoot's tea shop.

'. . . so then,' he finishes several minutes later, as the final bit of crumble disappears, 'she jumps up, right, and says, "I'll see you around, Harry," and runs out of the place!' He puts down his spoon and looks at Hermione. 'I mean, what was all that about? What was going on?'

Hermione glances over at the back of Cho's head and sighs.

'Oh, Harry' she says sadly. 'Well, I'm sorry but you were a bit tactless.'

'Me, tactless?' says Harry, outraged. 'One minute we were getting on fine, next minute she was telling me that Roger Davies asked her out and how she used to go and snog Cedric in that stupid teashop — how was I supposed to feel about that?'

'Well, you see,' says Hermione, with the patient air of someone explaining that one plus one equals two to an over-emotional toddler, 'you shouldn't have told her that you wanted to meet me halfway through your date.'

'Why would you even do that in the first place?' Maya questions, looking at him with incredulity.

'But, but,' splutters Harry, 'but — you told me to meet you at twelve and to bring her along, how was I supposed to do that without telling her?'