Pandora Malfoy and the Philosopher's Stone

Chapter Thirty: Wingardium Leviosa

Hermione and I spent the next week refusing to talk to Harry and Ron, and for me, my brother as well. Although the two of us made sure to seem like we weren't at all interested in what lay under the trapdoor, it was what our conversations frequently turned back to when we had nothing else important to talk about. We bounced theories back and forth, but other than deciding it was likely connected to the break-in at Gringotts, we didn't get much more of an idea about what it could be.

At breakfast on Friday, when the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone's attention was caught immediately by a long, thin package, carried by six screech owls.

A broomstick, I thought, watching interestedly to see who it was for. And clearly an expensive one, with that many owls.

The owls soared down and dropped the package in front of Harry, then another owl dropped a letter on top of it. Harry ripped open the letter first, and I watched his face carefully as he became more and more excited as the letter went on. He passed the note to Ron, who read it, then said something. I was sure I saw his lips form the words 'Nimbus Two Thousand'.

"Someone's sent Harry the most expensive broomstick you can buy," I murmured to Hermione, frowning. "Merlin, Draco'll be jealous."

Harry and Ron quickly got up and left the room, taking the letter and the package with them. Draco followed them out.

"Come on, Dora," Hermione said, a minute or so later. "Let's go back to the common room."

I followed her out of the Great Hall, passing my incredibly irritated brother in the Entrance Hall, and started climbing the marble staircase with her.

"Well, it's true," I heard Harry say, ahead of us. "If he hadn't stolen Neville's Remembrall, I wouldn't be on the team."

"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" Hermione said angrily, stomping up the stairs to meet them at the top, looking disapprovingly at the package in Harry's hands.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us?" Harry said.

"Yes, don't stop now," Ron said, "it's doing us so much good."

Hermione marched away, her nose in the air.

"You could be a bit nicer to her, you know," I said, frowning at them. "She's right, Harry, you did break the rules to get on the team — you could've got yourself killed — and as well as not getting even a single detention for it, you get given the most expensive broomstick on the market as a reward. I hardly think that's fair — especially as, from what I know, your parents were ridiculously rich, so you could easily afford to have bought the broomstick yourself."

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Ron got there first.

"Oh, piss off, Malfoy."

I gave the slightest of twitches at my last name, then turned and followed Hermione back to the common room.

***

Perhaps it was because I was so busy, what with the mystery of the trapdoor keeping my mind occupied, on top of all my homework, but I could hardly believe it when I realised I'd been at Hogwarts for two months. The castle felt more like home than Malfoy Manor had done since that Christmas all those years ago. My lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that we'd mastered the basics.

On Halloween morning, I woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought we were ready to start making objects fly, something we'd all been dying to try since we'd seen him make Neville's toad zoom around the classroom.