The Hollow Beneath Hogwarts

5. Fix You

Blaise demolished the remainder of his tea and somehow managed to inhale two more tray-bakes in the process while Harry was still cautiously nibbling the corner of his first brownie.

Hermione had somehow ended up passionately explaining the creation of a Northern Irish fifteen to Sloane using sugar packets as visual aids.

"So," Sloane said slowly, narrowing her eyes at the dessert in her hand, "you basically just throw random ingredients together and pray?"

Hermione looked mildly offended. "There's more skill involved than that."

"There absolutely isn't," Harry muttered into his cappuccino.

Sloane grinned. "I respect that immensely." She lifted the traybake thoughtfully. "Chaotic baking speaks to me spiritually."

"They're good though," Blaise announced.

Before anyone could react, he leaned across the table and took a bite directly out of the piece Sloane was holding.

"Oi!" she gasped.

Blaise looked entirely unrepentant while chewing.

Draco stared at him in complete disbelief.

The absolute audacity.

Sloane laughed loudly before immediately shoving the rest of the traybake into her own mouth before Blaise could steal more. "I would have shared, you greedy bastard."

Blaise smirked smugly.

Draco felt something ugly twist sharply in his chest. Jealousy. Which was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. He barely even knew this girl.

So why did seeing Zabini lean into her space make him irrationally irritated?

Draco decided immediately that Azkaban had clearly damaged his brain chemistry.

Hermione smiled slightly as she looked toward Sloane. "How come you don't really have an accent?"

Sloane swallowed the last bite dramatically before answering. "Oh, that's because we moved constantly." She tucked one leg beneath herself in the chair. "Nevada for two years, New Orleans for a while, Los Angeles for four years..."

Harry blinked. "You've lived all over."

Sloane nodded. "Then when I was eight, we moved to St Louis. Stayed there until my second year of high school." Her expression softened slightly. "Then Nashville." A genuine smile appeared on her face then. "I loved Nashville."

There was longing in her voice now.

The kind that came from missing somewhere so badly it physically hurt.

"But your accent..." Hermione frowned slightly.

"My parents were ridiculously English," Sloane explained fondly. "They made sure my brother and I spoke properly." She rolled her eyes affectionately. "My mother claimed American accents would destroy our vocabulary."

Harry snorted softly.

Hermione smiled. "I went to New York once," she admitted quietly. "Muggle New York though." 

Sloane immediately pointed at her excitedly. "Muggle New York is infinitely better than Wizarding New York."

"Really?"

"Oh absolutely. Wizarding New York is just businessmen arguing aggressively while wearing expensive robes."

Harry laughed.

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment before asking gently, "Why did you move around so much?"

The smile slipped slightly from Sloane's face. Draco noticed immediately. She looked down briefly into her coffee cup before answering. "It's... complicated."