Chapter 45: Some Things Are Better Left Unasked

The door to Professor McGonagall’s office closed behind them. For several moments, Hermione Granger, Victoria Crabbe, and Georgina Goyle stood in the corridor without speaking. Then Victoria sighed.

“Well. That could have gone better.”

Hermione turned towards her.

“Could it? I thought being caught by a Muggle security guard, escorted out of a shopping centre, intercepted by Professor Snape, and given detention by Professor McGonagall was a rather impressive achievement for a single afternoon.”

Georgina winced. “When you put it like that...”

“How else would you put it?”

Victoria considered. “An adventure?” Hermione stared at her. Georgina made the mistake of laughing.

“Don’t encourage her!” Hermione exclaimed. “We’ve lost forty House points between us, we’ve got detention tomorrow, and Professor Snape now knows more about Draconia’s love life than any human being should!”

Victoria’s expression changed.

“Oh.”

Hermione frowned. “What?”

“Snape knows.”

“Yes, Victoria. He was standing right there.”

“And McGonagall knows.”

“Again, yes.”

Victoria looked at Georgina.

“Which means...”

Georgina’s smile disappeared.

“Lucius.”

The name hung between them. Hermione stopped looking annoyed.

“Oh,” she said quietly.

For the first time that afternoon, none of them felt like laughing. They found an empty classroom a few corridors away and went inside. Hermione closed the door, while Victoria and Georgina settled onto the edges of two desks.

“Do you think Snape will tell him?” Georgina asked.

Victoria looked troubled. “He’s a friend of the family. He’s known Draco since she was little.” Hermione pulled out a chair. “That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll tell her father.”

“No,” Victoria admitted. “But he might.”

Georgina folded her arms. “And if he does...” She didn’t finish. She didn’t need to. All three knew Lucius Malfoy well enough to imagine his reaction. Victoria stared at the floor. “Bloody hell. We didn’t think about that at all, did we?” Hermione shook her head.

“We were so busy worrying about whether Alex would be nice to her that we never considered what might happen if her father found out.”

Georgina looked down at her hands. “He’d be furious.”

“Furious?” Victoria gave a humourless laugh. “He’d go absolutely spare. His precious daughter, the Malfoy heiress, dating a Muggle boy? He’d probably have a fit.”

Hermione considered that. “And Draconia knows it. That’s why she hasn’t told him.” Victoria nodded slowly.

“She didn’t even tell McGonagall it was a date. Just said she wanted to visit the shopping centre.”

“Which was true,” Hermione pointed out. “She simply didn’t volunteer the rest.”

Georgina looked towards the window. “I wonder what he’d do.” Victoria’s expression darkened. “At the very least, he’d forbid her from seeing Alex again. He might pull her out of Hogwarts, keep her at the Manor, arrange some dreadful pure-blood engagement...”

“Let’s not get carried away,” Hermione said, although she sounded less certain than she would have liked. “We don’t know what he’d do.”

“No,” Victoria agreed. “But we know Draco’s terrified of him finding out.”

That silenced them. Victoria and Georgina knew how seriously Draconia took her father’s expectations. Hermione remembered something Draconia had said while choosing her clothes.

I want him to like me. Not my name, not my family. Just me. At the time, Hermione had found it rather touching. Now she understood that there had been more behind those words than she’d realised.