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Chapter 8: Matchmaker, Make Me a Match
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"Ok, what couple will be our first victim?"
"Let's start with Dad and Ginny. How are we going to do this?"
"Don't worry, I have a plan," Lily said.
"What is it?" Julia cleared her throat and tossed her hair and put her elbow on the couch arm and put her head in her hand, batting her eyelashes at Blake. Blake snorted.
"Her? She's your plan?"
"Yes, because I have charm." Blake snorted again.
"Yes, and because she's not related to him, so it's not so icky."
"It's icky enough flirting with your best friends' dad."
"If all goes to plan, she won't have to flirt with him. Same thing with me, if I have to flirt with Ron, I will." She shuddered, and Blake laughed.
"Ok, if it comes to it, how are you going to charm Ron?"
"Hey, she's just like your mum. Dad fell for the bookwormy type already, he'll do it again." Lily clapped her hands together and said to Julia,
"Ok, Miss Weasley, Operation: break up Dad and Ginny has just begun. Go for it." As Julia got up and walked away, Blake said,
"What is she going to do?"
"First, she's going to talk to Malfoy, get him to rekindle the secret relationship he and Ginny had going before they became public that died when she thought he didn't want her anymore and went for Dad, and then she'll feed her aunt a load of crap so she'll go to Malfoy, and voila! Dad's single."
"And where does her "charm" come into play?"
"You know how convincing she can be. She'll do well, she wouldn't let us down." Julia made her way down to the Great Hall where she knew Draco Malfoy would be there eating dinner. She walked over to the Slytherin table, with everyone's eyes on her. She sat down across from Malfoy and put her head on her palm. Malfoy looked up.
"Um, are you lost?"
"No," Julia answered sweetly.
"Well, you do know this is the Slytherin table, don't you?"
"Yes, I do."
"Then why the hell is a Gryffindor scum such as yourself sitting at the Slytherin table?"
"I need to talk to you."
"You've got nothing I want to hear…what's your name?"
"Julia Carter."
"Ok, Carter, I don't care what a Mudblood lover has to say."
Julia straightened up and said coldly, "Excuse me?"
"I've seen who you've hung out with, Weasel King, the jumped up Mudblood, and Potter," Malfoy said, voice dripping with coldness and dislike.
"So, that doesn't mean I'm a Mudblood lover," Then she told a lie. "I don't think they should be here in school with us purebloods." Malfoy raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"If you think that, then why are you in Gryffindor?"
"Why would I be sitting at your table if I was lying?"
"Touché. I believe you. What do you want?"
"Um…you might not want the rest of your housemates to hear about this, you might lose face in front of them, and we all know that's the worst thing that can happen, lose your dignity in front of all these inferiors," Julia said, casting a look of disgust to everyone in the hall. Malfoy nodded and he stood up, and so did Julia. Crabbe and Goyle stood too.
"Sit down!" Malfoy barked. And like obedient lap dogs, Crabbe and Goyle sat and went back to shoveling food in their faces. Julia and Malfoy left the Great Hall and went outside for a walk on the grounds.
"Ok, what did you want?"
"Ok, I know about your little thing for the youngest Weasley." A slight flicker of fear crossed Malfoy's face.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Carter."
"Oh I think you do, Draco. I know that you two used to secretly date Ginny Weasley, and she left you for Harry Potter."
"What's your point?"
"What if I could get her to meet you again?"
"She wouldn't, she thought I didn't like her anymore."
"Trust me, Draco, I can be very persuasive, and I know she still has feelings for you, and that the reason she went out with Harry was to make you jealous, so she will come once she is informed that you are waiting for her. What do you say to that?"
"If you can pull it off…"
"Believe me, Mr. Malfoy, I can be very persuasive," Julia said, dropping her voice to a whisper on the last word.
"Why are you doing this?"
"I'm trying to split Harry and Ginny up. She doesn't deserve a Mudblood loving fool such as him. I've found out in the few days I've been here that she's different than the other Weasleys, and she deserves better than Potter."
"I totally agree with you, Julia. Ok, if you can arrange it, tell Ginny I'll meet her at the Astronomy Tower at nine tonight." Julia smiled sweetly.
"I shall tell her. Good evening, Mr. Malfoy." She gave a small nod and left. When she got back to the common room and Blake and Lily came to her asking how it went, she burst out laughing.
"Oh my God, that was so easy! All I had to do was feed him this load of muggle born hating crap and he fell for it. He said that he'll meet Ginny at the Astronomy Tower at nine."
"What all did you say?"
"To gain his trust I told him I hated muggle borns, I hated Harry and wanted him to suffer, and I understood about losing face in front of," She mockingly gasped, "inferiors." Blake and Lily laughed. Julia cleared her throat.
"Oh my gosh, if I was catholic, I'd be in confession for hours telling of my many times breaking the eighth commandment. And I'm not done yet either." Lily smiled.
"Go to it, finish your dirty work. Ginny's here right now, she's sitting with some of her classmates." Julia spotted the Weasley red hair on one of the girls sitting in the corner by the window and went to go talk to her aunt. She cleared her throat and they all stopped talking.
"May we help you?" One of the girls said snobbishly, looking down her nose at Julia.
"Ginny, can I talk to you?" Julia said, ignoring her aunt's friends.
"Um, what about?"
"You'll find out, trust me, it's nothing bad, I just need to talk to you alone."
"Well, what a Slytherin associator has to say to Ginny she can say to the rest of us," A different girl said. Ginny raised her eyebrows in interest.
"What do you mean?"
"This evening at dinner, she went and sat by Draco Malfoy, and actually talked with him. If that's not a house traitor, then I don't know what is," The first girl said with a toss of her hair.
"Oh, I could think of another way to betray your house. I'm sure Ginny could too," Julia said, looking pointedly at Ginny.
"Is that what this is about?"
"You might say that." Ginny got up and said to her friends,
"Sorry girls, but this is important." The girls left the common room and set off down the hall.
"What do you want, Julia?"
"I know what you're trying to do."
"What?"
"Going out with Harry to make Draco jealous."
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Why would I want to make Draco Malfoy jealous?"
"Because you thought he didn't want you anymore."
"So what if you know about that? What are you going to do about it?"
"What if I told you that Malfoy wants to meet you at the Astronomy Tower tonight at nine?"
"I'd say you're full of crap."
"That's what I was talking to him about today."
"Really? He says he wants to meet me?"
"Yeah." Ginny was doing some deep thinking.
"Will you do me a favor then?"
"What?"
"Tell Harry I can't meet him tonight."
"You tell him."
"I can't…"
"You have to break it off yourself. I'm not your messenger." Ginny sighed.
"You're right. I have to talk to Harry." Julia smiled.
"Good girl." Julia started to walk away, but Ginny called her back.
"Wait, why are you doing this?"
"Let's just say I'm setting a few things right." With that, Julia went back to the common room, while Ginny set off to find Harry.
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"Oh my God, these people are so easily manipulated."
"Did it work?"
"It was so easy. I should do this for a living." Lily laughed.
"Just stick to the Auror dream first, Jules." A few minutes later, Lily set off on beginning, Operation: break Ron and Hermione up. She found Ron sitting by himself in the common room, while Hermione was in the library, and Harry was, Lily assumed, talking to Ginny.
"Where's Hermione?" she said, sitting next to him.
"In the library. Why?"
"Oh nothing, just wondering why she wasn't with you."
"Believe me, I can't stand the hours she spends in the library."
"I want to ask you a question."
"What is it?"
"When you see yourself in the future, do you see yourself with Hermione? I mean, you hate spending time in the library, Hermione loves it, you love Quidditch, and it's not among Hermione's list of favorite things. And you two fight a lot."
"Where did all this come from?"
"Just answer the question."
"I don't know."
"I mean, you two do seem to fight an awful lot."
"I know."
"And that doesn't really describe a happy couple."
"I know."
"And, it seems that Hermione has more of a connection with someone else, rather than you."
"Who?"
"Need I say names? I think you know." Ron looked at Lily.
"Why should I believe what you say, Beth, or should I say, Lily?" Lily's eyes widened.
"I know all about your little fake name. I know your name is Lily Walker." Inwardly, Lily breathed a sigh of relief that Ron didn't know her real last name.
"So why should I trust someone who's been lying to us for the past week?"
"I'm not trying to trick you into anything, I'm trying to help."
"Bull crap."
"I'm serious." Ron looked away from Lily, ignoring her.
"Fine then, Ron. I'll leave you alone, for now." Lily got up and walked away. She found her brother and friend sitting across the common room.
"Jules, you go talk to him. He won't talk to me about anything."
"What makes you think he'll talk to me?"
"I don't know. Maybe you have a whole Weasley connection thing." Julia sighed and got up. She went over to her future father and sat down. Ron was about to say something, but Julia put a hand up to stop him.
"I'm going to ask you one question, Ron Weasley, and you'd better answer it. Just one simple question is all I'm asking. Will you promise to answer me?"
"I guess."
"Promise?"
"Yes."
"Do you love Hermione?" Ron shrugged.
"She's my best friend, of course I love her."
"No, not like that. Do you love her like men and women were meant to love each other? Do you see yourself twenty years from now married to her with a house full of little bushy red heads?" Ron didn't answer.
"You promised to answer me, Ron." Ron sighed.
"No. I don't."
"If you don't love her, and you don't see yourself together, why are you still with her?"
"Because it's what everyone expects. I keep telling myself that it'll be different someday."
"God, you two are so stupid. Why are you running your lives on what other people expect of you? And who says these things, I've never heard anyone around here say that you two belong together. Actually they say Hermione belongs with her other best friend." Again, Ron didn't answer her. All of a sudden, a memory hit Julia. It was when she was eight, and her dad and grandma were talking in the kitchen.
"It always seems like Harry and Hermione are out of the loop in this family. We need to make sure they're included more."
"I know. I wasn't in charge of making sure everyone was invited to this get-together."
"But you see them more than the rest of us. Why do they get forgotten until the last minute all the time?" Ron rolled his eyes.
"Probably because they're not blood related to us, Mum. And they have their own Christmases to celebrate. Harry told me once that they like the little times with just thrm and the twins."
"See, if years ago you and Hermione got married and Harry married Ginny, then we'd all be one big happy family."
"No, it wouldn't be. Think of all the people that wouldn't be here if that had even been close to happening. Luna wouldn't be here, Jules, Seth, Noah, Cole and Ryan wouldn't be here, Draco wouldn't be here, neither would their kids, and Blake and Lily wouldn't be here either. Doesn't sound very happy to me."
"I guess you're right. We can't have every thing we want, can we?"
"Nope."
"Oh, I see. Let me guess, your family has a lot to say on this subject, don't they."
"Because if you and Hermione get together, and Harry and Ginny stay together, then it'll all be one big happy family, right?"
"Do something bold for once in your life, Ron. Do the unexpected." With that, Julia got up and left Ron alone with his thoughts. After a while, he got up and went over to where the second-generation trio was sitting.
"What's your whole purpose of this? Why are you all suddenly taking an interest in the relationships of all of us?" The three of them shrugged at the same time.
"We consider all three of you friends, and you all don't seem the happiest," Julia said. `Actually it's because if we don't intervene, you'll be screwing up the futures of the three people in front of you,' she thought.
"And what's the point of staying in relationships that you don't really want to be in anymore? It's not fair to either one of you," said Lily.
"You know what, you're right. Would one of you do me a favor, go to the library and tell Hermione I want to talk to her."
"I would be happy to." Lily said and set off for the library. When she got there, she found her mother right away, but she had her head on her folded arms on the table, sleeping. Lily hesitantly tapped her mother on the shoulder and Hermione jerked awake. She blinked a few times, looking around to see where she was and she calmed down a little when she saw she was in the library.
"Hermione?" Hermione turned to the sound of the voice, and when she saw Lily, she said,
"What's up, what do you need?" Lily noticed that Hermione didn't look herself, like she had just seen something that scared her.
"What's the matter?"
"What? Oh nothing, I just had a bad dream."
"That reoccurring dream again?"
"Yeah. I heard the screams, and the curse. It was Voldemort killing those people, and I heard her scream." Hermione sighed and ran her hands through her hair.
"This bothers me so much. I wish I knew what this dream was about and who I'm dreaming about." Lily wanted to tell Hermione who she was dreaming about and why, but she knew she couldn't.
"Anyways, what did you come for?"
"Ron said he wants to talk to you."
"Why couldn't he come talk to me himself?"
"I don't know, I was just on the way to the library for a book, and he told me to get you for him." Hermione sighed and closed her book.
"Alright. Is he in the common room?"
"Yeah."
"What book are you looking for?"
"Oh, it's one from the restricted section."
"You have to have a note for it."
"I know, I do. It's for extra research." Hermione raised an eyebrow in question.
"Seriously, Hermione." Hermione didn't say anything, but she had an idea what book Lily was going to get. After Hermione left, Lily went to Madam Pince and took out the note that Dumbledore gave her a couple days ago. Madam Pince was suspicious as usual, but she finally believed it wasn't a forgery, and went to go get the book. Madam Pince brought back the book, and said,
"Why do you need this book anyway?"
"For extra research." Madam Pince handed Lily the book and Lily quickly left to avoid more questions. She brought it back to the common room and hid it upstairs in her dorm under her pillow. She came back down and saw that Hermione and Ron were talking; rather Ron was talking and Hermione was listening. Lily took a seat with her friends who were watching Ron and Hermione out of the corner of their eye. Lily crossed her fingers, hoping this plan would work.
A/n: Chapter 8 people!! This chapter took a major revamp from what it used to be, I hope you enjoyed it, please review!!!!
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