She bit her lip. 'Don't wait to be happy,' she said, her voice tight.
'Is that what you want for me?' he said, and there was a little edge in his voice, the bright cutting side of a razor. 'To be happy?'
'More than anything,' she said, and there was truth in that, and a little bit of a lie.
He stood there for a moment, very still. Then he turned and lifted the finished Pensieve off the bed. 'Thanks for this,' he said. 'I couldn't have — not without you.'
'Draco — ' she burst out, without really knowing what she was saying, 'if things were different — '
'Stop,' he said, and she did. He looked at her for a long time, standing so still that every previous stillness of his seemed an incomplete copy of this one. Finally, he spoke, and she closed her eyes as he spoke, hearing only the cadences of his soft voice, and the words it shaped. 'For a long time,' he said, 'I waited to hear you say that if there was no Harry in your life, then you would be with me. I waited, but you never said it, and finally I realized that you never would. Not because you don?t want me. Just because it doesn?t matter. Because you would never imagine a life for yourself without Harry in it.'
She looked at him, profoundly shaken. Her voice, when she spoke, was just above a whisper, 'You can love more than one person at once, you know.'
'Oh, yes,' he said. 'I know.'
'But you have to make choices,' she said.
He looked away from her. The torchlight painted his pale hair with gold. 'We are only given one life,' he said. 'I remember.'
Her heart contracted. 'Draco-'
'I?ll see you at the party,' he said, and backed towards the door.
She stared at him as he went out, letting the door slam shut behind him. Then Hermione stood and looked after him for a long time.
Sirius looked around himself in wonder. Narcissa had transformed the Manor's grand ballroom, previously a vast, dank, and cavernous space, into a wonderland of light and color. On the western terrace, Sibby Malone & The Electric Piccolo Bands Roadie Elves were setting up the bands gear. The heavy velvet drapes had been stripped from the huge floor-to-ceiling windows that ran the length of the western wall; beyond the windows, the grounds could be seen, sloping down to a lake the color of dark malachite and a distant border of trees. Above the treetops, the sun was going down in a welter of blood and topaz, suffusing the ballroom with a rose-glowing, ethereal light.
Not that it needed any more light. Everywhere were strung ropes of glowing multicolored lanterns. Their shapes changed as they twisted lazily in the air — a lamp would be a glowing bee at one moment, a radiant starburst the next. The lanterns cast deep patches of color against the pale marble floor, patterned with glowing golden stars in the shapes of familiar constellations. Narcissa had consulted a professional Diviner who assured her that the configurations of the stars were the very luckiest, promising luck, love, and beneficence to the birthday boy. Long rosewood tables lined the walls, piled high with all manner of fanciful culinary concoctions, and a spectacular bar, tended by Madam Rosmerta, who had jumped at the chance to come down from Hogsmeade for the occasion, was lined with multicolored drinks that smoked and steamed.
'It's beautiful,' said Sirius, turning to Narcissa, who smiled at him.
She was looking unusually lovely in lilac silk robes with a gorgeously beaded bodice. 'And so are you.'
Narcissa beamed — like her son, she smiled rarely, and like her son, the rarity of her smiles made their laser-bright radiance all the more spectacular. 'You don't look too bad yourself.' She fingered the lapel of Sirius' elegant dark suit. 'Kenneth Troll?'
'Armani for wizards. Narcissa — I appreciate you doing all this for Harry. Especially when Draco didn't even want a party for himself.'
Her smile turned a little sad. 'I suppose this is still for him in a way, even if I won't admit it. Maybe that's wrong of me-'
'No. If it makes Harry happy, Draco will be pleased. Although he'd rather be tortured to death by pixies than admit it.'
'Ugh, don't mention pixies. Bad luck!' Narcissa swatted Sirius lightly on the arm, then turned as Anton, the ghostly butler, floated through a nearby wall. He wore a translucent flowered bowtie in honor of the occasion.
'The first guest has arrived, Madam,' he announced.
The first guest turned out to be Charlie Weasley, looking handsome and pleased to be out of his work clothes for a change. He wore an elegant black suit against which his Weasley-red hair stood out startlingly. 'I'm early, I know,' he said, cheerfully, drew a gold-colored bottle out of his pocket, and handed it to Sirius. 'Here, I brought something.'
'A bottle of wine?' said Narcissa, her eyebrows arched.
'Giant wine,' said Sirius, squinting at the label. 'Good stuff, this —
half a glass'll knock you out, a full glass and you get your eyesight back in three months. Bit strong for young Harry, don't you think?'
Charlie shook his head. 'That's for you, Sirius. I've got something else for Harry.'
Charlie seemed so suddenly grave, Sirius' curiousity was piqued.
'What did you get him?'
But Charlie refused to say a word on the subject, and Sirius soon ceased to press him on it as the guests started to arrive in earnest, and the anteroom began to fill up with friends, family, and even Snape, everyone there to celebrate Harry's seventeenth birthday.
'Oh Draco, come on,' said Ginny in a wheedling voice. She grinned sideways at Harry, who was sitting next to her on the bed in Draco's room. Harry was already dressed for the party, in black trousers and a dark green Calvin Klein Wizardwear shirt. He smelled pleasantly of aftershave and as usual, his hair tumbled untidily all over his head.
She knew Hermione was still putting on the finishing touches in the other room — she was as careful and methodical about her appearance as she was about any potion — and she herself hadn't even begun to get
