Begin Again (George Weasley/Draco Malfoy)

Six.

Harry was starting to feel better by Christmas, but the news about Sirius Black betraying his parents and him being Harry's Godfather had him shaken for a few days. Cedric had decided to go home this year, unlike last year. So I was pretty much alone at Hufflepuff's Common Room.
   
I woke on Christmas with the usual stack of presents from my mum and grandparents. I had a sweater from Mrs. Weasley that was basically the same as the one she gave last year. The last present that I opened was one that had no note, so I had no clue who it was from. I unwrapped it and saw a Firebolt broom. Like I said, there was no note so I had no idea who got me this broom. Draco would have left a note, and my mum and grandparents would have left one too. Oddly enough there was no present from Draco this year.
   
It turned out Harry had gotten one too, and Hermione was the only one who seemed worried about it, but Harry and I weren't. We visited Hagrid together and he told us that he had a hearing for Buckbeak attacking Draco on April 20th, but because of the request of professor Dumbledore, they will not make Hagrid responsible for the accident.
   
My dad wasn't at dinner, even though I stayed behind to spend the holiday with him, I should have known it was getting close to the full moon. I should start keeping track of them if my dad is going to be in my life now. After dinner I was joined by Professor McGonagall and Hermione. Professor McGonagall was holding Harry's new firebolt in her hands. She asked me for my new broom as well. When I asked why Hermione answered saying that they think it could have been a gift from Sirius Black, since he was friends with both of mine and Harry's parents. I didn't even think about that option this morning. I hand them my broom, and Professor McGonagall says they will give it back if there were no traces of it being tampered with.
   
When my dad came back from being "ill" he spent a lot of time with Harry and I. He was teaching Harry how to produce a Patronus, which is very hard for someone at our skill level to do. When Harry masters the charm, he will be able to protect himself over the Dementors.
   
Ravenclaw versed Slytherin in Quidditch the first week after Holiday break. Slytherin won, but it was a very narrow win. This was good news for the Gryffindor team. They would take second place for the cup if they beat Ravenclaw. My team, however, was still in last place.
   
January faded into February with no change in the bitter, cold weather. Professor McGonagall still hadn't given Harry and I the Firebolts back yet. Unlike Harry I wasn't really concerned about it. I still had a perfectly good Nimbus 2001 to ride on. Worrying about the broom and trying to keep up with his school work was interfering with his lessons with my dad. He wasn't doing very well, from what Harry had told us.
   
It wasn't until about a week before the Ravenclaw VS Gryffindor game that Professor McGonagall brought us our brooms saying they had not detected anything on there. So, if Sirius Black sent us these brooms, he didn't mess with us or our parents. That only made me wonder who it was from even more. That very same day Ron entered their dorm to see blood on the floors and Scabbers was missing. He accused Crookshaks of eating him.
   
That seemed like the end of Ron and Hermione's friendship. Each was so angry at the other that neither Harry or I couldn't see how'd they would ever make up. The twins tried to make Ron feel better, reminding him how old Scabbers was and how he had been looking off color for ages. This only upset Ron more.
   
At the Ravenclaw VS Gryffindor game I sat with my Hufflepuff friends and Hermiome joined us. I already told both her and Ron that I was not going to be put in the middle of their drama. If Crookshanks ate Scbbers or not, it wasn't going to affect my friendship with either of them just like it didn't with Harry.
   
Harry seemed distracted by the Ravenclaw Seeker, a fourth year girl called Cho Chang, the entire game. So much so that we saw Oliver Wood yelling at Harry about it. Harry caught the snitch in the end, winning them the game. They had a nice party in the common room that night.
   
No one slept in the Gryffindor house that night, and not because they were partying too hard. Sirius Black had attacked Ron in his sleep with a knife. Well, Ron was fine, actually, but he did wake to see Sirius standing over him holding a blade and their curtains were slashed up now. The entire house waited in the common room while the teachers searched the castle yet again. Ron was sure enjoying all the attention, being that he was the one who actually saw Sirius Black people kept coming up to him and asking to hear the story. Each retelling got wilder with more detail than the previous one. 
   
Hagrid had invited the boys over at 6 for tea at his place. I hung out with Draco in the library. Where he told me his dad was going to go in hard at Buckbeak's hearing. Hermione was worried that Harry was going to try and sneak into Hogsmeade again, and she threatened Harry that she'd tell Professor McGonagall about the map if he did. Which I agreed was right of her. Harry didn't need to be out of the castle, and since I received a Firebolt for Christmas with no note as well, I was worried I was going to be a target now too.
   
Hogsmeade that weekend was honestly the most fun it's been all year, because I hung out with the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan for most of the day. I decided that I wanted to be around some more men because of the threat of Sirius Black around us these days. George was kind of showing off, cracking more jokes than usual but he didn't exactly over do it. I did promise my friends a drink at the Three Broomsticks later in the day, so I said goodbye to the twins and Lee and met them at the pub. 
   
Before we knew it, March had flown right past us, and Hagrid had to take Buckbeak into London for the hearing. We waited anxiously all day for the verdict. At lunch time, the three of them came over to me at the Hufflepuff table looking very somber.
   
"Hagrid has just sent this," says Hermione, handing me a piece of parchment. I take it from her and unfold it to read the letter saying that Buckbeak had been sentenced to Death.
   
Harry started going on about how they couldn't do this to Buckbeak. That Buckbeak wasn't dangerous. Ron said Malfoy's dad scared them all into it, which I'm sure he did. We stayed back after our Care of Magical Creatures lesson to talk to Hagrid, but he wasn't in much of a talking mood. He walked away from us blowing his nose into his handkerchief. We quickly discovered that we weren't alone. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were all standing by a tree waiting for us to pass.
   
"Look at him blubber," says Draco as we pass him and his friends. "Have you ever seen anything so pathetic? And he's supposed to be our teacher."
   
Harry and Ron both made furious moves towards them, but Hermione got there first screaming, "You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!" She now had Draco pinned to the tree with just her wand. He was terrified of what she was going to do with that wand. He was quivering with fright. 
   
"Hermione no! He's not worth it!" Ron shouts at her. She doesn't listen
   
"A-Adelaide!" Draco calls, "You're the only one with sense in this group! Call her off! Please!"
   
Her wand was pointed at his neck, and he was too scared to move. I walk over to her so she can see me. "Hermione, hurting him isn't going to change anything. They're not going to not execute Buckbeak because you put a curse on Malfoy. There's nothing we can do except support Hagrid through this."
   
She lowers her wand but she doesn't let Draco go that easily. She punches him dead in the nose. His head flies back and smacks into the tree. Then she really does let them go, and all three of them take off into the castle. Hermione turns to us with a proud smirk on her face and says, "That felt good."
   
"I'm sure it did," says Ron, smiling.
   
"Harry, you must beat Slytherin in the Quidditch final!" Hermione said, shrilly. "You just better had, because I just can't stand it if Slytherin wins!"
   
Hermione wasn't in Charms class that day, even though she walked up to the door with us as soon as we walked in she was nowhere to be seen. Something was up with her class schedule, and she wouldn't tell us what. But she was taking way more classes than we were and we didn't know how. Because most of them were at the same times on the same days as each other.
   
The Quidditch final was on my birthday that Saturday. As much as I shouldn't want the Slytherin's to win, my boyfriend was on the team so I kind of did want them to win a little bit. I honestly didn't care who won. I'd be happy if Draco won and I'd be happy if Harry and the Weasley twins won. It didn't matter to me. But I could only openly cheer for the Gryffindor team during the game.
   
Draco kept on Harry's tail the entire game, making sure he didn't miss the snitch. After a few fouls, and a penalty given to Gryffindor because Fred and George blasted a Bludger at Marcus Flint, Gryffindor ended up winning the game when Harry caught the Snitch before Draco could. I felt bad for Draco for losing, but I felt happy for my friends for winning the school cup.
   
The only other thing that was monumental that happened over April and May was that Easter came and I spent it with my dad, and Hermione walked out of Divination class when Professor Trelawney said her mind was too mundane for her to be good at Divination, so she called her a fake and a fraud, said that her class was a waste of time, and walked out of the class leaving everyone stunned.
   
June was at the Castle now. The Weasley twins were not stressing about taking their O.W.L. exams in the slightest bit, but Percy Weasley was going crazy about his N.E.W.T. exams. According to Ron he was driving the entire Gryffindor tower insane. He was already a stick in the mud, but Ron said he's been much, much worse since the exam season started. Our third year final exams went by rather quickly, Hermione apparently failed her Transfiguration exam, and we spent about 30 whole minutes trying to calm her down before we took our Defense Against the Dark Arts exam.
   
Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge was here with someone from the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures to execute Buckbeak. We decided that we were going to visit with Hagrid after dinner to see him before they executed his Hippogriff. He wasn't exactly happy to see us though.
   
"You shouldn't have come," he said upon opening the door for us. He had taken Buckbeak outside already, and chained him up in the pumpkin patch. Hagrid was trying his best to stay calm, cool, and collected, but we could all tell he was a right mess.
   
"Isn't there anything we can do, Hagrid?" Asked Harry, "Dumbledore - "
   
"He's tried," says Hagrid, "but he's got no power to overrule the committee. The executioner, Macnair, he's an old friend of Malfoy's, and you know what Lucius Malfoy is like. He's got them scared. Dumbledore's gonna come down while - while it happens. He wrote me this morning. Says he wants to be with me. Great man, Dumbledore. You better go back up to the castle, I don't want you watching. If Fudge or Dumbledore catch you up here without permission, you'll be in big trouble, Harry. You too, Adelaide. Everyone knows Sirius Black was good friends with your dad, too."
   
Hermione then let out a shriek.
   
"Ron!" She called, "I don't believe it! It's Scabbers!"
   
Ron gaped at her
    
"Scabbers!" Said Ron, blankly. "Scabbers! What are you doing here?" Ron went to pick up the rat. "It's okay, Scabbers. No cats. Nothing here to hurt you."
   
Hagrid stood up, his eyes fixed on the window. "They're coming. You lot gotta go!"
   
We all whipped around. Ron stuffed Scabbers into his pocket, and we snuck out Hagrid's back door. Well I did. Because, like Draco had said back in April, I was the only one with sense in this group, and I think that's because a Hufflepuff's Fight or Flight reflex is usually Flight where a Gryddindor's is usually Fight. They tried to stay, and they told Hagrid they'd tell the truth, that they couldn't kill Buckbeak. Eventually Hagrid got them out of the house and we made our way to the castle again.
   
Ron stopped dead on our way back up the hill. "It's Scabbers," he said, "he won't stay still."
   
"Ron, let's move, they're about to do it!" Cried Hermione.
   
The rat was squealing loudly, but not loud enough to cover the sounds from Hagrid's garden. There was a jumble of indistinct male voices, a silence, and then, without warning, the unmistakable swish and thud of an axe. Hermione swayed on spot. "They did it," she whispered. "They really did it."

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Here's part 6!

My favorite part is how she watches her friend punch her boyfriend in the nose and couldn't even react to it.

It was funny to me.

-Emily Winchester.