Unity Pairing and Bed Sharing Ch. 35 Redemptions and Write-ups
Hermione resumed her normal class schedule over the next few days working to catch up on assignments she’d missed and to stay on top of all of her projects. She was, of course, quite the topic of conversation. Many students tried to apologize for their earlier behavior and suddenly everyone supported her decision to be with Draco.
The Slytherin house as a whole was continuing to be denigrated, with many seeing Angelica’s actions as proof that even the youngest among them were evil. As she sat down with Draco at the unity table for dinner, they were still talking about how they could help Angelica.
“It's simply not fair, her mother is literally hospitalized from the torture she received. Angelica had no choice. It's so similar to your situation, Draco, how did you get out of charges?”
“My family is wealthy. Many pure-blood families lost all of their fortunes trying to maintain crumbling estates and refusing to work with muggle-borns. My father is many things but financially reckless isn’t one of them. We were able to hire a good lawyer. Also, I was able to exchange all the information I had on the Death Eaters they really wanted for my freedom. Still, with all of that, my father ended up in Azkaban for life, as he should have.”
“How do we change the narrative around this? People need to know the kinds of homes you all come from. We need them to understand that you and Angelica did what you had to to survive.”
Theo came scuttling over to sit with them, interrupting their conversation.“What do you want Theo?” Draco asked as he looked at his former friend with an icy cold glare.
Theo sat, seemingly impervious to Draco’s ire.
“Hello, you two! How is my favorite inter-house couple doing this evening?”
Draco huffed out a sigh. “We’re fine Theo. Now go away.”
He held up his hands, the gesture aiming for conciliatory. “I will leave you be, it's just that I was thinking, Hermione,” He looked over at her with a sickly sweet smile, “that with all of the conflicting press about Slytherins and such, as well as you obviously being a topic of media interest, that now might be an opportune time to say some nice things about our humble little house to the press? Give us some positive coverage? You obviously wouldn't need to say anything nice about the Averys, but possibly help distance the rest of us from them?”
