"We're going to your brothers' shop first, Ron," Hermione commanded, pulling her boyfriend in the direction of the joke shop. "I want some Pygmy Puffs." Her and Ron had the rest of the Hogsmeade visit to themselves, as Ginny and Harry had gone in the other direction. She thought she might become a matchmaker yet.

Ron sighed. "Ok, Hermione. But I never thought you were the type of girl who liked those types of things."

Hermione frowned at him. "Well, at least you're acknowledging that I am, in fact, a girl. Anyway, I need friends for Severus."

The youngset Weasley brother gave a shrug. "Whatever. I need to get some more Nosebleed Nougat anyway."

Hermione didn't even ask what he needed it for. Instead, she dragged her boyfriend into the shop, a small bell signalling their arrival. 

Fred and George greeted them cheerfully, laughing.

"What is it you need-"

"-little brother?" 

Ron's ears pinked slightly. "Hermione wants some Pygmy Puffs."

Both twins turned to her in surprise. "Really?" the asked in unison. Hermione nodded, amused.

"Severus needs a friend."

As expected, the twins' reaction was one of pure mirth and glee.

"A Pygmy Puff named-"

"-after the Dungeon Bat? Brilliant!"

They seemed to communicate silently for a moment, before splitting up and leading Hermione and Ron in opposite directions. Hermione distinctly heard George ask Ron if 'the Nosebleed Nougat was for Daddy Ferret’, who he had heard was now teaching at Hogwarts.

"So you've got a Pygmy Puff named Severus?" Fred said casually. He brought her to the section of Pygmy Puffs on display, a glass box with rows of pink and blue fluffballs squeaking and rolling on the spot.

"Mhmm," Hermione replied absently. She particularly liked the look of a pink Pygmy Puff and a Purple Pygmy Puff who seemed to be wrestling. "Can I have those?"

Fred grinned. "Sure." He took them out and pushed them into her hands. "Free of charge."

"Thank you, Fred," Hermione said graciously. " I'd like you to meet Ron and Harry."

Fred laughed. "Look after the buggers."

Hermione smirked in return. "I will."

They were moving towards Ron and George, when Fred seemed to remember something. He stopped and turned to her, a twinkle in his eye.

"I've got something to show you. I'll be right back," he promised, hurrying to the backroom before Hermione could respond. Standing in surprise for a moment, she shrugged. As she waited, she flipped through a catalogue. There was a sound behind her, and she turned to see Fred with is hands behind his back.

"We were testing with other coloured Pygmy Puffs," Fred winked. "This is the first of its kind." He revealed his hands, which held comfortably a small, pure white Pygmy Puff. Hermione gasped.

"It so cute," she squealed, and Fred looked surprised. He evidently was thinking the same as Ron had earlier: that she wasn't the type of girl to like these things. Tactfully, he kept it to himself. 

"Yeah, well, I want you to have it, Hermione," Fred said, grinning. He handed it over to her, and she shuffled her little Pygmy Puffs until she had two in each hand. "What are you naming him?"

Hermione lost herself in thought. "I'm not sure actually. Maybe..." She smirked. "I'll name him Lucius."

"As in, Malfoy Lucius?" Fred made a face. "Why would you name him that?"

"Professor Malfoy was the one who gave me Severus," Hermione whispered, giggling. Fred's left eyebrow rose.

"Oh?"

"Yep." She gave him another smirk and walked away from him to where Ron was, leaving him looking confused.

"Ready to go, Ron?" 

((It's nonsense and all, but I found the time to post. It's rambling, mainly, because I didn't know how to respond to your last post. D:)) 

"Just get what you want, Draco." Lucius sighed, resisting the urge to hit the child with his cane.

"Alright, alright." Draco said, running up to the man behind the counter. "I want two of every candy you have. Now." 

The man looked surprised, but seeing the Malfoy patriarch spurred him into action. "Of course." He took a large bag and began scurrying around the store, taking doubles of every candy and throwing it in. He was in the Lollipop aisle when he heard a tinkle. Without looking up, he told his assistant, Tracy, to go assist the new customers.

Listening, he heard her exclaim, "Why, if it isn't Harry Potter and his friends!", he stilled and then looked up, his eyes shining. An opportunity for business. A celebrity in his store. More than he could have dreamed.

Hurrying towards the newcomers, he shoved the candy bag into Draco's hand without a backward glance. 

Draco glared at the man, fumbling over the bag before setting it down. He looked up to his father for approval, and was extremely disappointed when he saw the small shake of Lucius' head.

"Leave it be." Lucius assured, turning to the other children. "Be nice, Draco. Say hello."

Hermione was the first to catch sight of the two Malfoys, and Ron and Harry quickly followed. Their chatter with the shop owner died down as quickly as it had started.

"Uhm, were you serving them before us?" Hermione asked, looking between the owner and the assistant. 

"Yes," the owner began, "but for such esteemed guests such yoruselves-"

"Go back and serve them," Harry said, sounding slightly cool. Hermione turned to him in surprise, because that was what she had been planning to tell them to do. She wondered if maybe he wasn't feeling as mutinous towards the Malfoys as he had conveyed. Ron looked irritated.

"Harry, come on, I want to get some sweets and they're here to-"

"Just because I've got a scar on my head, does not put me before others," Harry said icily to the group at large. "So go back and serve them."

Well. It was for a different reason than she had hoped, but at least the outcome had been right. The owner, looking terrified to have gotten the Boy-Who-Lived angry, scurried back to the Malfoys, and his assistant did the same. Ron watched him go mournfully.

"Harry," he whined, "what's the point of having privileges if you don't use them?" 

'Don't you have any good manners, Ron?" Hermione asked irritably. "It was rude of the owner to stop in the middle of serving another customer. And anyway, Harry doesn't want the attention."

"Damn right I don't," Harry replied.

The three of them waited for the owner to finish with the Malfoys, and when they saw what he was doing (piling two of each sweet into the bag), Ron's jaw dropped.

"How can he possibly afford-"

"He's a Malfoy, Ronald. Of course he can afford half the store."

"Actually I can afford the whole store." Draco muttered.

"Now now, don't boast, Draco." Lucius drawled, moving him aside to pay for the sweets.

"Why not? We're better than them." Draco hisses, glaring at Harry.

"You may be spoiled, but I taught you better than that." 

Before Hermione could do anything to bring peace between the boys, Harry was already talking back.

"You might have more money than us, Malfoy, but at least we have dignity," Harry retorted viciously. "We're not the ones kissing the feet of a half-snake megalomaniac." 

Ron, not knowing how to add on that, settled with a defiant, "Yeah."

"Now now, stop it you two." Lucius growled, his cane moving to hold a rushing Draco back. He turned his head towards the gang. "Ten points from Gryffindor for that very disrepectful outburst, Mr. Potter."

Draco glared at Harry, almost foaming at the mouth to respond. 

Hermione looked on helplessly as Ron went red and Harry's eyes grew more sharper.

"At least you aren't denying it," Harry sneered at both father and son. "You wouldn't be able to stoop much lower than that."

"Harry!" Hermione admonished, and Ron and Harry's eyes turned on her. She fought to keep her skin free of colour, and continued, "That's much too rude. Apologise."

"You aren't my mother, Hermione," Harry said dangerously. "Don't tell me what to do."

Now even Ron looked surprised, seeing this tone directed at one of his best friends. "Look, mate, how about we-" He stopped abruptly and stared in horror and awe as he saw Harry lose control.

He began shaking at first, and then he seemed to glow. The glow grew brighter and brighter until they had to shield their eyes to keep from going blind. And then, it finished, and Hermione, Ron and Draco was on the ground, unconscious.

Harry looked down, feeling extremely sheepish and also worried. He understood that he deserved what he got, but right now, all he could think about was Ron and Hermione looking as if they were dead on the ground.

“Sir,” he said, breathing shakily, “they aren’t too hurt aren’t they? I mean, nothing an Ennervate won’t fix?”

He felt guilty. He shouldn’t have exploded like that, and he shouldn’t have accused Malfoy out in the open like that. Even if it was what he secretly felt. 

Lucius lowered the boy onto his feet. He turned to the three unconscious students, an unspoken spell lifting them off of the ground.

"They should be fine, but we won't know until I get them back to the Infirmary. The proper thing for me to do would be to ban you from Hogsmeade for the rest of the year, but I am a fair man, so I won't be telling your Head of House." He said as he walked out of the sweets shop, the bodies following.

“Thank you,” Harry said quietly, following the man and falling into step with him. “I really appreciate it.”

Perhaps he was wrong about the man. All first impressions aside, he was a much fairer man than many of the people he knew. And he really did seem to be throwing his previous beliefs behind. Hermione’s…fondness for him was proof enough of that.

There was a silence for a few minutes as they made their way back to the castle, in which Harry’s guilt seemed to grow every few seconds until he couldn’t handle it anymore.

“Professor Malfoy,” he said sincerely, turning his head to the man, “I’m sorry for my earlier accusations. I realise that in the current times, they are unfounded, and I apologise.” There, that seemed formal and sincere enough. 

Harry nodded. “Understood.” He hesitated. “I guess Hermione was right then.”

“She tried to convince us you were okay.” He suddenly grinned. “You were quite the popular conversation and even argument topic.” 

“She’d like that,” Harry agreed. “Recognition for her efforts and the sort. She’s become rather…fond of you, although Merlin knows why.” He grimaced. “She named a Pygmy Puff after you.”