Chapter 15: Ninth day: Tonio Jones.

Suddenly, the door of the compartment opens and Millicent appears in the doorway.

- 'Millicent?' I say, surprised.

- 'I just wanted to check that you were all right', she says. 'I'll go now, they're waiting for me…'

Why does she leave in such a hurry? Oh yes! The compartment is full of Mini-Phoenixes! I think I won't ever be able to hide my friendship with some of them any more… It's really… liberating, I've got the feeling I'm breathing for the first time of my life.

Millicent starts closing the door behind her, when Miss Pimpernel and her boyfriend suddenly fly through the door.

- 'Hedwig, come back!' Potter yells.

He passes me hurriedly and pushes past Millicent.

Whatever happens, I can't leave him alone with my owl, he's going to kill her!

I leap out of my seat and follow Potter.

Charming sight, people must think we're mad people who have just escaped from St Mungo. Although regarding Potter, it's true they could have kept him, a fight against the Dark Lord, it's surprising he managed to keep his mental faculties… Assuming he had mental faculties before, of course… Out of caution, they should still have scheduled him for a neurons transplant.

I keep running behind Potter, who's himself running behind the two feathered transsexual lovers.

Some compartment doors open as we pass, and we can see the heads of surprised students. The owls arrive at the end of the carriage at last. They enter the small room of the lady who gives candies out.

Potter stops in the room and I catch up with him at last. The owls are nowhere to be seen, all the windows are closed, and the second door, which leads to a separate compartment, is closed. Potter moves closer to the closed door to open it.

That's the way the owls managed, they opened this door, entered the next room, and closed the door behind them again… You wouldn't believe it, but owls are animals which everybody underestimates… Everybody except Potter, a god in our world, whose intelligence is reliable…

Potter presses the handle.

STOP! Wait a second, Hermione told me something about the place where the candy trolley is stored… What did she say? Oh yes, the room next to it is the compartment reserved for the prefects. A compartment which, right now, should be empty, except if two prefects decided to take advantage of an empty compartment…

- 'Stop', I say.

Too late, Potter opens the door and comes across…

Ron, bare-chested, lying over Hermione whose blouse is slightly opened. The two prefects cut short their impassioned kiss to look at the two intruders.

Hermione! What were you… ? Hermione! Ooohh, prudish Hermione, it's over… Had we arrived a few seconds later, I wouldn't have been the only shameless girl between us any more… It's a shame we interrupted them then.

After a few seconds of heavy silence.

- 'Have you seen Hedwig?' Potter asks, looking flabbergasted.

I burst out laughing, and pull Potter's sleeve.

- 'Leave them their intimacy', I say.

That's funny, Draco and I were more or less at the same point this morning.

… Draco… Draco…

I keep laughing and drag Potter, who's unable to walk by himself. Doors are still opening as we pass. One of the door opens, and I recognise the Slytherin second year who had said Draco and I made her feel like puking.

- 'And to say that they've been here for seven years', she says. 'I hope I won't go that mad.'

- 'You're already mad', a boy next to her answers.

This is crazy, those two kids remind me of two other people…

Once in our compartment, we see the owls, waiting for us, back in their luggage track. I help Potter to sit down on a seat.

- 'What's going on?' Neville Longbottom asks, frightened by my giggles.

Loony bursts out laughing at my mirth, which, as a result, makes me laugh even more.

I have to calm down. Stop laughing Malorie… This must be nervous.

Suddenly, Ron and Hermione, out of breath, enter the compartment.

- 'I didn't see anything', Potter tells them straight away.

- 'What is it you didn't see?' Ginny asks, sounding surprised.

- 'I'm proud of my cousin, he has a great body', I say at large.

Ron becomes scarlet.

- 'I didn't see anything', Potter repeats.

- 'I'm going to explain everything to you', I say.

It will be a backward explanation for a backward person.

- 'Ron and Hermione have been going out together for a few days, you're keeping up?'

Potter looks at me, amazed.

He hadn't understood yet… Ron and Hermione must be, in his opinion, randy devils. The desire to rush on each other overtook them, unable to resist the torrid atmosphere of the compartment reserved for the prefects.

- 'Everybody had more or less understood it, except you', I say. 'Still keeping up?'

Potter is coming to terms with what I've just said.

- 'I didn't see anything', he repeats.

- 'He's got it', I tell Ron and Hermione.

The two lovers sit down on the seat, looking at each other, embarrassed. Ron has slipped his shirt on inside out.

- 'We're almost there', Loony suddenly says.

Everybody stand up and get back their things, scattered here and there. Then the train stops in the station in London.

Draco! Draco! He might be here!

The students get off the train in the greatest mess. On the platform, I'm surprised to see, not my Draco…

Sniff.

But my (almost) complete family. My mother seems very embarrassed towards me.

Not very surprising, making the family turn up without warning, that's not very nice. I always need to prepare myself psychologically before family meetings, so here, without having been able to anticipate… Or to run away.

My two uncles are here, fortunately, they didn't bring their wives and my young cousins. They're talking with my grandfather, whose first name is Edgar. He's got some more white hair in his mop of hair that must have been jet-black in a bygone age.

My grandmother, Magda, is wearing a wide smile which spreads on her face when she sees me.

Yes, I know, Magda, Mona, Malorie... It's a tradition in the family, the first name of the girls must start with an M, my great-grandmother on the side of my grandfather invented that... The surname Moon can't be given to girls. At least to legitimate girls, thus, I inherited the surname Moon and the first name starting with an M... Hurrah for the pure-blood family...

I move away from the Mini-Phoenixes and move closer to the Moons, at a quite unconfident pace.

- 'We came to congratulate you', my grandmother says, a wide smile on her face

- 'For my admission to HLS?' I ask, surprised.

My grandmother burst out laughing.

I thought that was strange.

- 'About your new boyfriend', she says. 'Imagine if the two of you end up getting married. Malorie Malfoy, that sounds good.'

I noticed that too... Oops, I'm starting to be like them, a name freak.

- 'Grandmother', I say. 'I'm barely eighteen.'

- 'Your Grandfather and I got married right after we left Hogwarts', Magda says seriously. 'And we could invite the Malfoys to dinner. We could have a big party uniting the two families.'

Grandmother, please!

- 'Since when can we afford to organise big parties?' I ask, trying to have a cooling effect.

- 'Since yesterday', my grandfather answers, smiling broadly.

And to say that I wanted to make them shut up, I've failed... Apparently, they haven't wasted their time before taking advantage of the Malfoys.

Suddenly, my grandmother's eyes crease.

- 'Your aunt is still here', she tells my mother. 'She hasn't finished kissing her children, we don't hug Malorie, do we?'

Blecchh! Magda Moon hugging me, yuck ! That would kill me.

I glance at my great-aunt discreetly, she's my grandfather's younger sister.

I mean, half-sister... That's complicated... And I'm sure that's not a surprise for you.

She's indeed hugging her children, she even hugs Potter, before hugging Ginny for the fourth time.

- 'She could have abided by your mother's wish', Magda grumbles to my grandfather. 'And given her daughter a name starting with an M, but no, ever since she first arrived at Hogwarts, Molly's been doing whatever she liked, nobody could reason with her.'

As for me, I love Molly, she's funny, a little stifling, but cool. By cool, I mean that she's not a stickler for attitudes to have and principles... At least, not the Moons' principles.

My grandmother waves politely at Theodore Nott's mother who has come to pick up her son, accompanied by two aurors.

Could the ministry be afraid that something might happen to the son of the Death Eater? Or could they be afraid of the son of the Death Eater?

Pansy and Millicent pass in front of us to reach the muggle side, Pansy ignores me totally, and Millicent waves at me, I smile at her in response.

Not far from them, Blaise is clutching all his suitcases, he gives me a small smile, then he disapparates.

Why can't I be in love with him? He's much better than Draco.

- 'Well', my grandmother says, 'We're going to go now.'

My grandparents and my uncles disapparate suddenly.

- 'How nice of them to have come', I tell my mother cynically.

- 'I think Magda actually wanted to have an excuse to see Molly', Mona says. 'And criticize her one more time.'

- 'That wouldn't surprise me.'

We both move towards the way out, in the mean time, so do the Weasleys, Hermione and Potter.

- 'Hello', Molly says to us.

We answer politely.

- 'Harry Potter', my mother suddenly says.

What's she doing? She's not going to talk to him, is she?

- 'I'm glad to finally meet you', she says.

Please, mom, tell me that you're not one of the-boy-who-lived's fans.

- 'Oh?' Potter says, he doesn't sound very surprised.

- 'Yes', Mona answers. 'I really wanted to know what James' and Lily's son was going to look like.'

- 'Mona was one of the few guests at your parents' wedding', Molly explains Potter.

What?!

- 'Really', Potter answers, surprised, he glances at me furtively.

The mother of a Slytherin student? At his parents' wedding? Merlin, the world must be collapsing around Potter.

- 'Representing the Moon family', my mother adds quickly.

Phew, this was starting to frighten me! I had forgotten the Potters were pure-blood, except for Potter's mother. If his parents weren't dead, I suppose I would have been forced to be nice to him.

- 'How was your year?' Molly asks me.

- 'Good', I answer.

- 'Ginny told me you were going to the HLS', Molly says, giving my mother a discreet look.

Translation : my mother and her aunt send each other letters every week in secret, and my mother most probably told her about my studies. Since the platform is full of witches and wizards whose ears can be very sharp when it comes to peddling gossip, they'd better not seem too close.

- 'Yes', I answer. 'I'm leaving right now by the way.'

- 'Have nice studies then', Molly tells me, smiling.

- 'Have a nice holiday', I tell my former Hogwarts fellow students.

Hermione moves towards me quickly and hugs me.

- 'Thanks', she whispers while I'm still in shock.

- 'For what?' I ask.

- 'For everything', she answers in a low voice. 'For your exciting love problems, for having hilariously destabilized Harry, for pushing Ron into making up his mind, for Winky... And for having been my only true friend, except for Ginny.

- 'You're welcome', I answer. 'You were quite funny too actually...'

Hermione releases me, smiling broadly. Then she clenches her teeth.

She's holding back her tears... Look! Me too! You're becoming a real pisser, Malorie.

Suddenly, Ginny imitates Hermione, she hugs me too.

- 'For Christmas, you get rid of the Moons and turn up at the Burrow to see us', she says.

I'm not going to get rid of them, but I may come on the sly.

- 'OK', I answer, smiling.

She releases me, her eyes seem shining too.

Girls are nothing but pissers.

Suddenly, Ron throws himself into my arms too, he releases me straight away.

- 'Well, shall we go?' He asks, making off to the gate toward the muggle world.

What's just happened?

- 'I won't hug you', Potter says, 'I hope you'll forgive me.'

- 'I'll try to get over it', I say.

The Weasleys, Potter and Hermione catch up with Ron.

Mona and I reach the fence at a less hurried pace.

- 'I've heard something about a funny little story that is supposed to have happened yesterday at Hogwarts', Mona says. 'A story about a statue that felt, and a series of revelations...'

- 'Yeah', I say. 'That really happened.'

- 'You and Draco did that to make your relationship public before leaving, and it degenerated?'

No.

- 'Yes, that wasn't really subtle', I say. 'We did it quite quickly.'

We pass the fence, and land on the muggle side of London. We reach platform number seven. After a few minutes, we find the way to platform 7 ¼. It's almost six in the afternoon, the train is supposed to leave in a few short minutes.

On platform 7 ¼, a blue train, with a big HLS written on it, is waiting.

Before boarding on the train, I turn round to my mother and hold her out my bag containing my old stuff from Hogwarts. She takes a small purse out of her pocket.

- 'Narcissa Malfoy seemed really in a hurry to do business with the Moons', she says. 'Malfoy Junior must have understood it was essential if he wanted to keep you.'

Oh my god! I've sold myself! I've only just fully realized.

- 'After that', Mona says, 'we'll never ask you for anything again. I realize that I forced you to go out with Draco Malfoy.'

- 'It doesn't matter', I say. 'From time to time, you have to sacrifice yourself for your family. And then, he behaved correctly towards me.'

That's how you can assure your mother that you haven't slept with a boy... at least not this boy... well yes... Blaise...

My mother has a little reaction, her face seems more peaceful.

- 'You know', I say. 'I don't care about your asking me to go out with Malfoy. What's bothering me is the fact that you're like the others, you always forced me to keep up appearances. Not showing that we really get on with the Weasleys, not saying that I'm a half-blood, forcing ourselves to have friendly relationships with the other pure-blood families... That, that's bothering me. Because I'm sure that everything would have been simpler, had I been able to talk freely and not to hide my friendships...'

…and my loves.

My mother remains taken aback.

- 'I wanted...', she starts. 'You know... I mean, after you were born... First, I had hidden my having a child from everybody, so that they could not know for sure who your father was. At last I had to tell the family, and they helped me to hide, I don't know what they thought when I didn't tell them who the father was. All this to tell you that appearances were always very important to me, so I raised you with them. And I'm sorry if it hurt you.'

Here I am, I caused an emotional scene with my mother, of course I couldn't have shut up.

Long silent seconds go by.

- 'We'll see each other for Christmas', I say.

- 'It's a pity you don't have holidays, I would have loved to be with you a little while', Mona says, sounding sad.

Me too. But I'd rather die than say it.

I board the train, then start looking for a compartment before realizing that there are no compartments in that train, but only rows of seats. A surly-looking man moves closer to me, two houselves are following him.

- 'Your name?' He asks.

- 'Malorie Moon', I answer.

The man consults a piece of parchment.

- 'Go and take a seat', he says, pointing out the seats lined up behind him. The dormitory compartments won't be opened until all the students have arrived, after dinner.

The two houselves behind him rush at me to take my luggage.

I may become a real SPEW militant, Hermione would be proud of me.

The surly-looking man moves away with the two elves who are carrying my suitcases.

I move forward in the aisle in the middle of the train.

There are about ten students, and forty seats. The students are seated at a little distance from one another. A smooth-brown-haired girl and a boy who seems charmed by her are talking next to a window.

I mean, they're trying to talk, the girl speaks French, and the boy speaks something that sounds like Ikea.

I sit down two rows behind them. Suddenly, the girls turns towards me and says something in French to me.

- 'What?' I say.

- 'French? Espanol? Deutsch? English?'

Is she asking me what languages I speak?

- 'English', I answer. 'Nothing else.'

The girl seems disappointed.

- 'Aziliz', the girl says, pointing at herself.

Bless you.

- 'Malorie Moon', I answer.

She goes back to talking with the boy.

The train starts moving. I look at my mother outside until she disapparates.

And the worst of it is that I'm like her, I want to keep up appearances. After all, if I didn't, I would have asked her where I could find my father a long time ago. If he hadn't been a muggle, I wouldn't have been ashamed, and I would have sought to know him.

The train speeds up, it passes sorts of space walls, as the knight bus does, but in a more violent way. After a quarter of an hour, the train stops, and a new student boards the train which remains stationary for at least a quarter of an hour before starting to move again.

The train does the same thing several time. Around eight in the evening, the train stops in a small station in the middle of nowhere. All around the train, there are pastures for cows, and a village on the horizon.

The man who asked my name enters the carriage, and introduces himself, he's named Isidore. He tells us that we are in Russia, about twenty miles from St Petersburg.

I was dreaming about that! Landing anywhere on the planet... Yet, I'm not happy...

Once Isidore has made his presentation in their languages, the students look euphoric.

Isidore asks us to stand up, and to stay in the aisles between the seats. He pushes a red button near the door behind him, and suddenly, the lined up seats transform into four big tables full of dishes.

After a relatively silent dinner, considering that nobody understands the others, we are lead one by one into tiny individual compartments. I find my luggage waiting for me in my compartment. I put away my things, take a shower, and go to bed.

At half past eleven, I realize that I won't sleep for several very long hours. I get up, slip a cloak on and go out to look at the cows through a window in the corridor, right in front of my compartment, which doesn't have any windows. I contemplate the stars, and the moon. Near the train, the cows have stopped grazing.

I don't risk forgetting Pansy, being surrounded by her fellow creatures.

- 'Do you speak English?'

I turn round abruptly. A brown-haired boy is looking at me.

- 'Yes', I answer.

- 'I heard you saying it to the French girl this evening', he says. 'There's only two of us, I believe.'

He goes and stands next to me and looks at the cows outside.

- 'What's your name?' I ask.

Yes, I'm being polite! You're surprised, aren't you? Well, you're right, I'm desperate here, and I need some social contact.

- 'Tonio Jones', he answers.

- 'Malorie Moon', I answer.

- 'You were at Hogwarts?' Tonio asks.

- 'Yes', I say a little gloomily.

- 'Was it that bad?' He asks, surprised by my reaction.

- 'No', I say. 'Hogwarts is fine, it's me in fact, those last days, those last nine days to be accurate, were kind of exhausting.'

- 'Why the last nine days? It's been nine days since the Dark Lord was destroyed', Tonio says.

Suddenly he stops.

- 'Are you one of his followers?'

- 'No', I cry out. 'The problem... is a guy. But it has nothing to do with you-know-who.'

- 'That's always a guy', Tonio says, smiling. 'Tell me the story.'

- 'We don't know each other, and you want me to tell you the story?'

- 'It's often more easy to talk when you don't know the person', Tonio says.

I look at him, flabbergasted.

- 'In fact', I say. 'I hadn't seen him for a while, and then he came back suddenly, I wasn't prepared. And when he's here, I'm distracted...'

- 'Why distracted?'

Because I love him.

- 'Because... It's complicated', I say. 'Especially those last days, it was worse that the years before.'

- 'He was bullying you?' Tonio asks, sounding worried.

In a certain way.

- 'No', I say. 'We went out with each other.'

- 'You like him then?'

No I don't like him! I'm mad about him.

- 'No', I say. 'I was sort of forced to go out with him.'

Tonio gives me a strange look.

- 'I come from a noble pure-blood family', I explain.

- 'Oh, I see. This must have been hell then.'

I hesitate a few seconds, not knowing what to answer.

- 'No?' Tonio asks, surprised. 'You ended up liking him? Is that the problem?'

- 'No', I say. 'The problem is that I liked him already before.'

But what on earth has got into me, I'm crazy, I don't know this Tonio Jones.

Tonio looks surprised.

- 'I thought you went out with this boy because of your family.'

- 'Yes, and no', I say. 'Let's say that in a way, it suited me to have an excuse.'

Bloody hell, I'm nether at a shrink's nor confessing, I have to shut up.

Tonio stays transfixed.

- 'I'm kind of special', I say, embarrassed.

- 'I don't have trouble believing that', Tonio answers.

Hey! Are you OK? You want to learn learn good manners, old man, if a girl tells you that she finds herself ugly, you tell her that she's wrong, even if she looks like a goat. If I tell you I'm crazy, you tell me I'm not!

Tonio turns round to the window. I take advantage of it to glance at him out of the corner of my eyes.

He's not really awesome, cute, correct, nothing more. But he's got something... I can't say what... Maybe it means I like him... Maybe I could forget Draco with him.

- 'This boy', Tonio says suddenly. 'Did he like you?'

- 'No', I answer. 'We'd been hating each other for a few years. We fight quite often.' .

- 'Why did he want to go out with you? Because of his family too?'

- 'In a way, yes', I answer.

I can't tell him too much here.

- 'Maybe the boy is like you', Tonio says. 'You don't know, maybe he was very glad too to have an excuse to go out with you.'

….Impossible…

- 'Impossible', I say.

- 'Why impossible? Maybe he had the same feelings as you and he'd hidden them just like you', Tonio explains. 'Maybe he didn't understand how to handle his feelings, and then, as soon as he got an excuse to court you, he took advantage of it. Maybe his trial was a godsend for him.'

Trial? Trial? I've never told him about the trial.

- 'I've never told you about the trial', I say.

Tonio looks caught out.

I look at him, searching for an explanation.

He has beautiful blue-gray eyes... Eyes that can be very sweet, and terrifying the next second... Eyes I've already seen...

I release the edge of the window and jump on the boy standing next to me. I start hitting him with difficulty.

- 'You ferret, bastard, asshole!!' I yell. 'Bloody Malfoy!'

- 'Malorie wait', I'm going to explain.

Around us, the doors of some compartments open to see where the racket is coming from.

Draco pushes me back, grabs my wrist, and pulls me in his empty compartment. He closes the door and takes his wand out.

- 'Assurdissium', he casts on the door.

- 'You're really the worst of the cockroaches', I cry out.

Draco pushes me against the door and kisses me violently.

But he doesn't have the right appearance.

I push him back abruptly.

- 'Our agreement is over', I cry out. 'You were supposed to behave correctly with me, and you... you...'

ASSHOLE!

- 'ASSHOLE!' I yell.

- 'Let me explain', Draco begs me. 'The ministry and I were seeking for a safe place for me to stay, then one day, Weasley told you were going to the HLS. I suggested to the aurors that it was a good hiding place. They made arrangements with the HLS committee. I wanted to go to be with you, I had spent a year far from you, and yet I have never thought this much about you. You were obsessing me even worse than when I was at Hogwarts. I'm... It's been like that since our fourth year, since this ball thing, I was wondering who I should invite, and I realized I wanted to go with you... But I couldn't, I don't know why, instead of inviting you, I started teasing you...'

…

I stay still, unable to move.

- 'I shouldn't have let things evolve that way', he says. 'Malorie, I love you.'

Draco moves slightly backwards, waiting for me to react.

- 'Don't worry about our agreement' he says, sounding sorry. 'I'm going to tell my mother not to change anything to the business she's already doing with your grandfather and your uncles.'

Suddenly Draco's hair become blond again. He looks for a bottle in his clothes, and starts unscrewing it.

- 'Wait', I say.

Draco looks at me, amazed. In a few seconds, he has got his appearance back.

- 'You look better like that', I say.

I'm really saying powerful things.

Draco looks at me hopefully.

- 'Malorie', he says in a feeble voice. 'What you've just said... I should have told you who I was... But you've still said it, so... Shall we stop being stupid?'

Yes!

- 'We'll see', I say.

Draco looks at me, waiting for another answer.

- 'Will you make up your mind to kiss me?' I ask suddenly.

Draco, surprised, hastens to obey.

Five seconds from now, we'll be on my bed

Five seconds later, Draco and I are on my bed.

We hear the gong of a faraway church ringing for the first time outside.

And what if he's lying? ...

We hear a second gong.

…No, he can't be...

We hear a third gong.

He's said too much.

Fourth gong.

But maybe…

Fifth gong.

After all, his trial is very important to him.

Sixth gong.

Maybe…

Seventh gong.

Yes?

Eighth gong.

No?

Ninth gong.

Oh, I hate myself.

Tenth gong.

I hold Draco tighter against me.

Eleventh gong.

I've only one thing to say : HAPPINESS!

Twelfth gong.

It's midnight, nine days have passed since Draco's return and the end of the war. And my story with Tonio Jones, alias Draco Malfoy, is beginning...

Fin

Note de l'auteur : Voila c'était le dernier chapitre, j'espère que cette fic vous aura plu. Pour info cette fic fait partie d'une saga (en français) qui s'appelle "Cinq femmes... des Moon". On y retrouve les histoires de plusieurs membres de la famille de Malorie.

par ordre chronologique :

"les temps incertains de Meredith Moon."

"Comment Magda est devenue Madame Moon"

"Le grand amour de Molly moon prewett Weasley".

"Un jour Mona Moon sera une rebelle" (publication de cette dernière ces jours-ci).

Plus une autre fic que je ne commencerais que dans quelques mois ou Malorie sera présente (les 5 Moon en fait).

Voilà c'est tout, merci de laisser une review en francais ou en Anglais. Ca fait plaisir à tous les auteurs.

Note of the author: Veils it was the last chapter, I hope that this fic will have rained you. For information this fic is part of a saga (in French) which is called " Cinq femmes...des Moon ". They find the stories of several members of the family of Malorie.

by order chronological . there:

"les temps incertains de Meredith Moon."

"Comment Magda est devenue Madame Moon"

"Le grand amour de Molly moon prewett Weasley".

"Un jour Mona Moon sera une rebelle" (publication of this last these days).

More another fic than I would begin only in some months or Malorie will be present (5 Moon in fact).

Here is it is everything, thank you for leaving a review in français or in English. This pleases all authors.