Settlement Hour

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Settlement Hour

The Slytherin boys moved onto the table next to ours while Malfoy placed the bucket of coloured stones in the middle.

"Those people are watching us!" Nott complained.

"Well, let them. We have no secrets. They can watch Zabini make a fool of himself if they've nothing better to do," said Malfoy, briskly dismissing the audience that was accumulating around our table. Terry, Sally-Anne, Megan and Wayne were apparently still dancing, but Ginny and Longbottom had been distracted out of their discussion whether to dance, while Zacharias and Tracey had no pretence of being other than agog to watch the Slytherins.

Malfoy placed a bag of Galleons in front of Nott. "You do the reckoning," he said. "First stone. Blue. And the name is – Eloise Midgen."

Crabbe and Goyle guffawed. Nott moved two Galleons towards Zabini.

"Second stone, also blue. Laura Madley!"

Nott moved two more Galleons towards Zabini while Crabbe and Goyle looked puzzled.

"Third blue stone – Luna Lovegood!"

Nott joined Crabbe and Goyle in howling with laughter while he pushed over two more Galleons. I was glad that Luna was still nowhere in sight.

"Fourth stone – a black one. Zabini's wiles give out and the girl says No. And the first girl to refuse his devilish charm was – Ginny Weasley!"

Ginny flushed pink. Longbottom congratulated her while she explained that it hadn't been a very difficult decision.

"So much for the cheating," said Malfoy. "A spotty, a baby, a loony and a Muggle-lover! And that's how Zabini earns his Galleons. It gets better, though. Here is a red stone with gold writing. Look, everyone! Six Galleons for his first four attempts, and now another six for a single shot!"

Malfoy displayed the red stone bearing the copper-plate inscription:

5. Cneajna Tepes

"Why the colours, Malfoy?" asked Zabini. "Why am I getting six Galleons for Cneajna?"

"The gold writing means she had already agreed to go with someone else when she accepted you. A double triumph, you see – she was willing to break promises for you. A blue stone means the girl liked you and really wanted to go with you. Green means she only accepted you reluctantly, when she preferred someone else, or because she was afraid she'd never find anyone. That's why I'm only handing out one Galleon for green."

"And red? Why three Galleons for red?"

"A red stone means she was willing to have sex with you."

Ginny's jaw dropped in horror. Even Tracey looked displeased by this revelation. But Zabini was coolly asking:

"So what's with the blue? That she only liked me as a friend? Or that she fancied me but was hung-up and uptight about it?"

"I didn't waste time on such artificial distinctions," said Malfoy. "Here's another blue one. Innocence Trichée. Had a good day with the foreigners, didn't you?"

"Well, they were easier game," said Zabini carelessly. "They were out in their ship and carriage, and the Hogwarts girls never saw me talking to them. In the end, though, the challenging girls were more fun."

"Well, you failed the challenge of number seven, all right. A black stone for Katie Bell. Number eight is Tracey Davies. Blue, so two more Galleons, Nott."

Tracey looked very uncomfortable. "You might have mentioned," she muttered to me angrily, "that he was keeping a record of his conquests! Now everyone knows who was fooled!"

"Number nine – blue – is Su Li. Number ten – green – is Sally-Anne Perks. Losing your touch, Zabini. Sally-Anne didn't like you as much as she pretended. Number eleven – green, but with gold writing – is Padma Patil!"

It was lucky I'd already known about Padma's accepting Zabini before she had officially dumped me. I was able to ignore Tracey's triumphant glance and Zacharias's bemused chuckle – which, when I thought about it, might possibly have been intended sympathetically.

"So you enticed her away from her true love, but she only succumbed out of spite. Two Galleons for that little adventure. Now we come to a bad patch I believe." Malfoy shook the bucket, and pulled out three black stones at once. "Number twelve, Lavender Brown. In gold, so she refused you because she already had a date. Number thirteen, Susan Bones. She refused you despite the fact she didn't have a date. And number fourteen, Lisa Turpin. You must have despaired at that point, Zabini. And one pathetic little green – " This one read:

15. Sylvia Fawcett

"Oh, well, one Galleon for Sylvia. What's the total now, Nott?"

"Twenty-two Galleons."

"Well, it picks up a little. Here's a blue one with gold writing."

16. Megan Jones

I was very, very glad that Wayne was not here to see this.

"Sally-Anne warned off Megan," said Zacharias. "Once Megan realised the game, she just changed her mind about Zabini and went back to Wayne."

Malfoy was holding up the next stone, another blue one.

17. Cecilia Rivers

"Traitor!" hissed Nott. "You knew that I – "

"Traitor yourself," said Zabini. "On the contrary, I thought you had already invited Cecilia to the ball and that she would earn me double stakes with her gold writing. It was a dreadful disappointment to discover that she only accepted me because you hadn't asked."

Malfoy cleared his throat loudly and displayed another blue stone.

18. Daphne "Queenie" Greengrass

"With gold letters!" This was the first time Zabini had looked discomforted. "I don't believe it! Who – ?" He caught Nott's eye and hissed, "Explain this!"

"Well, you were trying it on with everyone. Including Cecilia. So I thought I should be allowed a turn too, even though no-one was paying me. And when I told Queenie that you didn't like her any more, she was very quick to accept me. What are you complaining about, Zabini? She accepted you in the end, didn't she?"

"It was much harder than it should have been, thanks to you," said Zabini sourly. "I spent a long time trying to convince her that I had no previous commitments."

"Well, it paid off," said Nott. "Four Galleons for getting the girl you wanted. And she kept her promise to go with you, even though it looks as if you carried right on flirting after she accepted."

"Let's finish this up," interrupted Malfoy. "Number nineteen, Lilith Moon, and number twenty, Emma Spinks, both gold names on black stones. Slow learner, aren't you, Zabini? Not a single Gryffindor has accepted your advances! And finally, the last stone – "

"That was the last one," said Zabini. "Emma Spinks was the twentieth, the last girl I asked."

"It's thirty-two Galleons," said Nott. "Not bad. Thirteen said yes; only seven said no."

"It isn't finished," hissed Malfoy. "Look, here's another stone in the bucket." He held up a blank white one.

"But there wasn't another one!" said Zabini. "That would make twenty-one."

"There were twenty-one stones," said Malfoy.

"There were not. Boys, didn't he say twenty?"

Nott agreed; Crabbe and Goyle began to agree until they saw Malfoy frowning at them.

"We agreed to 'stones in the bucket at ten o'clock on Christmas night'," Malfoy corrected them. "Well, here is another stone in the bucket on Christmas night. I dropped it in myself at half-past eight."

"That's cheating!" roared Zabini.

"No, it isn't. There was nothing in our contract that said I couldn't slip in an extra stone. Or anything to stop you taking it out again if you'd bothered to check on the stones and discover the extra. The contract only said, I could take any white stones found in the bucket and find out what girls would have said if you had asked them."

A dull flush suffused Zabini's bronzed complexion. I did wonder who was left who might accept him since all the girls seemed to be taken.

"I take the white stone," Malfoy said. "I choose any girl in the room – any girl except these twenty, I mean – and I ask, 'Would you have come to this ball as Blaise Zabini's partner if he'd asked you?' And if the girl says no, you get your thirty-two Galleons. And if she says yes, you give me thirty-two Galleons. Plus whatever else you owe me for the twenty-first girl's answer. That was our bet. A binding magical contract."

"Fine," said Zabini angrily. "You try it. Pick a girl. But they all have partners already. They're not going to be interested in me when I'm not there in person to turn on the charm."

Malfoy took the white stone and sauntered around the hall. He did not go far. Alone at a nearby table sat Millicent Bulstrode, gulping butterbeer, and scowling again. Probably she was disgruntled that no-one had asked her to dance. Apart from joining the progressive at Longbottom's invitation, she had been sitting there all evening.

Malfoy tapped her on the shoulder with the stone and asked her a question. Millicent looked surprised. But she said something.

The stone turned blood-red.

"Got you, Zabini!" cried Malfoy. "You owe me thirty-five Galleons!"

"What? No, I don't! We agreed that Bulstrode was off limits. She's out of the bet. It doesn't matter what she said!"

"We agreed that you couldn't invite Bulstrode to the ball. We never said anything about whether I could ask her at this stage of the bet."

Zabini sprang almost to Malfoy's throat. "That's twice you've cheated this evening!"

Malfoy shrugged. "Binding magical contract, Zabini. You give me your money or you suffer the curses."

This time Zabini yelled so loudly that Professor McGonagall appeared beside us and threw some kind of spell between him and Malfoy. Malfoy looked furious at the interference, but Zabini sulkily conceded, "It's all right, Professor. We'll sort it out tomorrow."