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Muse / Harry Potter Fanfiction, Part 3

Ages ago, Robert started inserting the Muses into the action of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. First, the whole gang burst into Chapter One. Then, in a scene unlike anything in the book, Feather met Fleur Delacour and discovered her poetic side.

Robert planned some other scenes that he never got around to posting. This one is from Chapter 24, “Sectumsempra.” Looking for the girls’ bathroom, Mimi accidentally walks into the boys’ loo a few minutes before Harry Potter arrives for his fateful encounter with Draco Malfoy….
 

 
As soon as she stepped through the door, Mimi realized that she had made an embarrassing mistake. This wasn’t the girls’ bathroom at all. A boy was standing with his back to the door, his hands clutching the sides of one of the sinks, his white-blond head bowed. He was crying, Mimi saw, while beside him the ghostly figure of a girl hovered, cooing words of comfort and encouragement.

“I can’t do it,” the boy sobbed. “I can’t … it won’t work … and unless I do it soon …”

Before he could finish, the ghost-girl spotted Mimi. With a yelp she swooped into the nearest stall and disappeared down the toilet.

The pale-haired boy wheeled around, drawing his wand. Instinctively, Mimi raised her right arm to shield her face. There was a flash of bright light, and sparks settled harmlessly around her. The boy aimed his wand again. “Stupefy!” he barked. “Petrificus Totalus!” Mimi squinted as bursts of red and white light erupted around her. Then, as Urania had done in the Prime Minister’s office, she stepped briskly forward and snatched the wand from the boy’s hand.

“Now–” Mimi began. She stopped short. The boy was standing stock-still, his arms rigid at his sides, his fists clenched. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut, his jaw set. She regarded him for a few seconds, amazed. Then her Muse instincts began to kick in.

She had seen him before, she realized, when Dumbledore had shown her and the other Muses around Hogwarts. Someone had mentioned his name … Draco Malfoy, the memory came back to her. He had been standing in a knot of other students, “Slitheries” or something. Slytherins. The center of attention, the leader of his crowd — a different creature from the fearful form that stood before her now.

The boy’s knees began to shake. “Well?” he demanded in a high, strained voice. “What are you waiting for? Finish me off!”

“Finish you–? Oh, my goodness, don’t be silly. I’m not going to hurt you.” The boy opened his eyes and looked at her uncertainly. The Muse of Getting Along With People felt a wave of pity wash over her, as it always did in situations like this. Suddenly she liked this boy and wanted more than anything else for him to like her, too. “Here,” she said. “Take your stick back. But no more fireworks, please. They didn’t work for Mr. Scrimgeour, and they won’t work for you.”

Draco relaxed noticeably. “Scrimgeour? You don’t mean to say you’ve been dueling with Scrimgeour?”

The scorn in his voice and the lack of the honorific “Mr.” told Mimi volumes. She was beginning to sort out this boy’s alliances and now knew where to position herself. “If you could call it a duel,” she said with a laugh that surprised her. “He never knew what hit him.”

“But… You’re his goons, aren’t you? That’s what we all assumed when we saw Dumbledore squiring you around the school.”

Goons? Mimi frowned for a moment over the unfamiliar word but then picked up the thread. “Work for him?” she snorted. “As if! We work for ourselves. Scrimgeour was just as surprised as you were when we showed up.”

All of that was true enough, Mimi reflected. Until they had interrupted his meeting in the Prime Minister’s office, Mr. Scrimgeour had never heard of Muses. Now they were working with the Ministry of Magic, but not actually for it. Although perfectly capable of lying through her teeth when necessary, Mimi much preferred to stick to statements that were at least technically true. Things just seemed nicer that way, and in some vague corner of her mind she suspected it made her more convincing.

Draco wasn’t quite won over. “Which side are you on, then?”

“Well,” Mimi said with a conspiratorial smile, “I found you, didn’t I?” She saw an involuntary grin flicker across Draco’s face and went on quickly. “And none too soon, either, because at this moment you are one person in the world who could certainly use more friends. Crikey, when I think of all you’ve been going through…” Mimi was guessing, but she sensed she was guessing well.

All at once, Draco’s defenses crumbled. His shoulders slumped, and tears welled up again in his red-rimmed eyes. “If you knew how hard it’s been…” he said.

“I can’t imagine.”

“So very hard …. to know what I have to do … and not know … if I can go through with it.”

“Oh, of course you can,” Mimi said. “You’re stronger than you know. And you’ve come so far already. And you’ve got friends.”

Draco looked at her hopefully. “Do you really think so?” he asked.

“I’m sure of it,” Mimi responded heartily. Pat him on the back, or not? Not, she decided.

Draco ran his sleeve across his face quickly and squared his shoulders. “Thanks,” he said. “I don’t know what you are, but you’re just what I needed. I’m all right now.” He strode toward the door just as a dark-haired boy with glasses and a curiously scarred forehead started to enter. “One side, Potter!” Draco commanded, pushing the other boy back into the hall. Then the door closed with a bump, and Mimi was alone again.

What had just happened? She wasn’t sure, but she felt good about it. The boy Draco had been hostile and suspicious, and she had befriended him. He had been wracked with doubt and indecision, and now he was self-confident and purposeful. She had no idea what sort of task or mission he had been so worried about, but whatever it was, she wished him good luck with it and hoped it went well. All in all, she thought with satisfaction, a fraction of an hour well spent.

And now she really needed to find the ladies’ room.

Date: October 23, 2009

Author:

Categories: Fiction, poetry, and fanfiction

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