A jet of green light slammed into the boy's chest, his body flying backward. The Great Hall erupted as Harry's glasses clattered to the ground.

Draco pushed her in her chair just as her legs gave out. The High Table stomped and shouted with the crowd. Hermione's smile was still stale on her face when they finally sat.

Hermione watched them slip Harry's glasses onto the boy's nose, and remove the body from the Hall. When she turned back to the table, a girl with fiery red hair was sitting across from her. The girl's shoulders shook.

The snakelike man returned to his chair, and the crowd began to stand and mingle. People approached the table. Conversations drifted through her ears.

"Excellent work with the Mudblood, Draco. I can hardly recognize her."

"Thank you, my Lord. It was a pleasure to break her—"

The man next to the redhead excused himself, and the snakelike man beckoned the girl into his chair. His fingers slipped into her hair as he murmured to her. The redhead nodded, her eyes cast downwards.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I will be better, I promise…"

There was a commotion while she stared at her pudding. A familiar laugh and then a crash. A stall of conversation. A murmur—

"Theo, watch her. I'll take care of this."

And the pale-haired boy next to her rose from his seat. She reached for her champagne glass. She drank. The quiet boy to her right murmured to it, and it refilled.

She took a bite. Sugar swam in her mouth.

The chair next to her pulled out. The pale-haired boy dropped into it.

"Apologies, my Lord. It was Blaise's birthday two days ago, and it seems he hasn't sobered up since."

The boy ate two bites of his pudding.

People came to the table for conversation. She listened without hearing. Some stood from the table. Some sat back down.

Against the wall stood two boys in black robes and gold belts. They stared at her, and glanced away.

"Let me see what's keeping him. I summoned an elf to brew up a Sobering Potion—" The pale-haired boy left again.

Hermione looked at the two boys on the wall again. The red-haired girl ate her dessert quietly. The pale-haired boy returned, muttering something to the man on his left.

A bell chimed, and the snakelike man stood, thanking his guests.

A man in gold robes stood up next. "Now, if you'll follow us down to the Quidditch Pitch, I'm sure Mr. Finnigan, Mr. Finch-Fletchley, and the Norwegian Ridgeback we've procured will have quite the show for us!"

The names meant something to her, but it vanished amidst the crowd's screams.

The snakelike man glided across the room, nodding at those who bowed and accepting a kiss to his knuckles from others.

The boy next to her guided her to her feet. She followed him down the steps, toward a dark-skinned boy and an olive-skinned girl.

"You've embarrassed me enough for one night, Blaise. I'm taking you home before I regret thinking of you as a friend."