A Mess And A Murder

Chapter 7 - An Impending Funeral

The streets of Diagon Alley were bustling with witches and wizards from all over England. Hermione was in a floral shop choosing some flowers for Ginny’s funeral.

Earlier that day, Hermione had received a letter from the Weasleys, requesting her help for the funeral. Of course, she accepted and made a list of things to gather in Diagon Alley.

She walked out of the shop after ordering some flowers, and pulled out her list. Next, an outfit fit for mourning. With her new job at the ministry as deputy minister, Hermione’s wage had increased. With this in mind, she confidently entered Diagon Alley’s top clothing shop, Twilfitt and Tatting’s. The shop wasn’t very big, but had clothes for every occasion.
“Can I help you?” a friendly witch inquired.
“Yes,” Hermione replied, “I’m looking for funeral wear.”
The witch nodded and pointed to the back of the shop:
“Let me know if you need anything else, dear.”

At the back of the shop, there were clothes of all kinds, all suited for a funeral. It mainly consisted of black dresses, but there were a few skirts and blouses. Hermione took a liking to a particularly elegant and classy black dress. Despite being heavily overpriced, Hermione bought it anyway, along with black heels and a small, black cloak.

By 2pm Hermione was exhausted, but nevertheless made her way to the Burrow.

***

Draco was bored out of his mind. The case had distracted him from his usual loneliness, but now that Hermione was busy arranging Ginny’s funeral (as she had said in a note she had sent him this morning), Draco was feeling lonely as ever. He wanted to do something: make more plans, come up with more suspects, investigate an abandoned house…

But his mind was blank and his energy levels were low, so Draco continued to stare at the wall pointlessly, waiting for the day to close.

***

Over the next week or so, Hermione spent every hour at the Burrow helping the Weasley’s. Neither Harry nor Ron had confronted her but in fact were avoiding her. This made Hermione nervous, as there was a high chance they were the ones that had stolen the plans.

Two days before the funeral, Hermione gathered the confidence to ask them herself.
“Harry?” Hermione called.
Harry turned around and nodded.
“Can I speak to you and Ron in private?” she requested.
Harry and Ron exchanged glances but nevertheless followed her to the bottom of the garden.
“You’ve been avoiding me.” Hermione told them, folding her arms, “Why?”
“You’ve been with him,” Ron replied in disgust.
Hermione looked at Harry:
“Is that the only reason?” Hermione asked, “Honestly?”

Ron and Harry looked at each other. Ron shook his head and turned to go but Harry stopped him,
“You’re not gonna like it, ‘Mione, but Malfoy is still a suspect as far as we are concerned.”
With not another word, Harry and Ron left Hermione to let their words sink in.

“Are you alright, dear?” Molly Weasley asked, breaking Hermione from her thoughts.
“Oh, um, yes, thanks, Mrs Weasley,” Hermione replied, rubbing her eyes and shaking herself awake.
“You look tired, Hermione, why don’t you come inside for a pot of tea?” Molly suggested.
Hermione nodded and followed Mrs Weasley inside.

Molly passed Hermione a mug of tea:
“Anything you want to talk about, dear? I know you have been stressed recently.”
“Hermione sipped her tea:
“Nothing I would burden you with.”
“Don’t worry about me, if there’s anything you would like to say or speak to someone about you know I’m here.”
Hermione paused,
“Have Harry or Ron told you anything?”
“About what, dear?”
“The case.”
“Only what’s in the newspaper.”
“And… and me? Have they said anything about me?”
“No, dear. Is they’re anything I should know?”
Hermione hesitated, then smiled.
“No.”

***

It was the night before the funeral, and Hermione lay in bed, restless. She reached over and switched her bedside lamp on. She grabbed Ginny’s diary and read:

October 24

Dear Diary,

Today, Blaise and I had so much fun. I told Harry I was going shopping, but actually, as you know, I was taking Blaise for his birthday present from me - muggle car racing. It was so funny! Blaise only had, like, a week to learn how to drive but he still had fun. We both did. Afterwards, I took him to a muggle cafe in the middle of nowhere so no one would recognise us. We had such a great day! Cheers to living life to the fullest!
See ya tomorrow (or whenever I next write)
xxx

October 21

Dear diary,

Guess what!!!! Today is Blaise’s birthday!!! He only told me about 2 weeks ago but I still managed to get him a present - muggle car racing! I got the idea from Hermione when she did the same for Ron when they were dating (I can’t believe how long that was ago). I wasn’t sure how he would feel about it, but he seemed pretty happy to me!
I’ll tell you all about the experience next time I write.
Bye for now!!

Hermione closed the diary and placed it back in the drawer. She felt her eyes droop, and as she turned out the light, she fell into a deep sleep.