NOVEL WEB Chapter 458: Makeup.
"You've got to be kidding me." Hermione whispered in horror as she looked at Loki with a gaze of disbelief.
"No. I'm not. Walburga Black was supposed to be dead until recently when she returned back. Technically I'm not supposed to say this, but since I helped her out in an indirect way she's become warm towards me. Which is why she's adopted me and hopes to support me in her own way."
"But…but what about me? I'm a mudblood? I haven't heard good things, if anything, about Sirius's mom from him. He always said-"
"-that she loves dark magic and supports Voldemort, didn't he?" Loki completed.
Hermione flinched at the mention of Voldemort as dark memories resurfaced but remained calm-headed nonetheless before looking at Loki with unblinking eyes indicating her curiosity.
"Well Sirius wouldn't be wrong…in a way…but that's only 'cause it 'seems' that way to everyone else. In truth, she's a sweet old lady who is just out to do the best she can for her kids and the Black Family as a whole."
Hermione kept staring at Loki silently, unable to believe a word that came out of his mouth.
"She still does use the term Mudblood though…but to her, it's more a curse to use for the bottom dredges of society that torment others and leech off of them? Rather than a term for good people. Evidence? Well, she's pretty good with kids too. The children in the orphanage love her, most of them are muggles."
Hermione wanted to launch at Loki when he said that Walburga did use the term Mudblood, but when he said everything else, it made her hatred simmer out.
So Hermione took a deep breath and slapped away Loki's hand from the top of her head before opening her eyes once again as Loki asked her a question.
"So? Do you want her support? To take down that pink toad? It'd be very beneficial for us. And I promise you I won't let anyone take away your rights to the newspaper, ever. I'll write it into the contract too if that suits you better. In fact, I'll just do it even if you don't want it so that you know I have nothing to hide."
"Ppppsssshhhhhhh…" Hermione deflated like a leaking balloon and collapsed into Loki's chest.
"So that's a yes?" Loki asked after some silence and Hermione simply nodded in his chest.
"And by the way…" Loki started saying something again which caused Hermione to flinch but she calmed down quickly, "Wouldn't you think that a person with such a punchable smile should get the best punch we can afford??"
"*Pfft*" Hermione choked and quickly calmed herself, before scolding Loki by punching his shoulder, "No way Loki! You must respect her! She's a teacher at Hogwarts!"
"Yeah, and the only thing I've learnt from her till now is how to smile like an idiot all the time. And even that Lockhart was better at…you know what…I think I enjoyed Lockhart's dramatic dramatizations more than Miss Pink Fudge's textbook reading classes."
Hermione smiled and nodded before her eyes turned moist and she frowned again.
"I wonder what Daph would've told us if she was still here."
"Oh don't remind me of that. She'd have probably just remained silent and ignored her until she did nothing to her. But wait a second! What if this pink pig touched Astoria!? Oh god, that would've been so much fun to watch!!! Just imagine! She'd probably have stared at her so hard that she'd have burnt holes into her. Maybe even cursed her with calamity for her entire life!?"
Hermione laughed a little, agreeing with Loki about it, and quickly wiped away her tears before settling on the couch Loki was just sleeping on.
"I did the printing this time, it's your turn to manage the deliveries!" Hermione complained as she dropped her head backwards and promptly fell asleep.
Loki looked at Hermione with a slight smile on his face as he pulled out his wand and made a few quick flicks as he used the ink pot in her bag to do something a little silly before he left the room quickly to manage all the deliveries for the end of the week.
After a few hours when Hermione woke up, she looked out of the window to estimate the time and realised that it was already late in the morning.
"Oh no! Did I miss breakfast!? I hope I'm not late for my first class! It was Professor Snape's class!!!"
Hermione quickly pulled out her pocket stopwatch, looked at the time and *sighed* in relief, it seemed like she'd woken up early by habit, it was just one of those days the sun was acting weird because you'd lost track of it for a long time, so she quickly packed up her things before walking to the great hall, deciding that she'd schedule in more breaks to curb her exhaustion.
'Now that we have the Black family as our backer we should be able to hire more employees, right?'
'....good job Loki!!! I'll be taking my paid vacation soon!'
As she packed her things, however, she noticed something off-
"Why is my ink pot out? Did I leave it out after all the work last night?"
"I probably wasn't in the right state of mind after that 'revelation' from Loki yesterday night…"
With her packing done, Hermione walked towards the Great Hall.
On the way she passed by several girls but frowned when she found them laughing while pointing at her for some reason.
Eventually, she met Luna who was jumping around the halls and looked like she was having fun while doing so.
"Don't run in the halls Luna, I might have to dock points for that from Ravenclaw if I see you doing that again."
Luna paused, froze and looked at Hermione inquisitively.
She slowly walked up to Hermione with her wide eyes and analyzed what she was seeing. Her gaze continuously shifting all around Hermione's face.
"Hmm? What's wrong?" Hermione asked patiently, wondering if it was just another quirk that Luna had picked up from somewhere. "Is something on my face?"
Luna shook her head.
"I did not know you had Nargles following you too…I'm happy that you're not paying any attention to them! They multiply when you do so."
Hermione frowned but knowing Loki's insistence on treating Luna normally she *sighed* and just nodded, "I hope you'll stop running in the halls, Luna. See you later."
Hermione walked to the hall with a prance in her own steps as she started remembering that the newspaper she'd worked so hard on was coming out today.
It was always a joy for her to see her works published for the world.
"But Professor Umbridge's article…it'll take some time to gather all the evidence."
"But will they like it?"
"I hope we don't get in trouble for it from Professor McGonagall."
"But…"
"I think it felt nice writing such a piece…I should do it more times in the future."
With her self-reflection done, Hermione stepped into the great hall and began walking towards her usual spot on the Gryffindor table.
Except with each step she took, she realised that the hall was turning more and more silent. But her thoughts kept her occupied.
'Oh! I forgot to congratulate Loki that he now has a family!'
'Is that even something you congratulate others for though?'
'...wait a second…if Sirius is Harry's godfather, what is Loki to him then?'
Eventually, she reached her seat opposite Harry and Ron, but they were looking at her with wide eyes as if they'd seen a ghost.
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A/N : My schedule is going to be wonky for a while, close relatives have visited home. Sorry to be a bearer of bad news...but maybe you're up for another mass release!? Let me know!!! Thank you for reading!
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