Draco folded the newspaper and set it beside his plate.
"I'm going to copy this article out and annotate it paragraph by paragraph."
Pansy's expression changed.
"Copy... copy it out?"
Draco stood up and picked up the newspaper.
"If I can't even understand my enemy's logic, I don't deserve a seat at the Malfoy family's table. Of course, that was something my father said."
He left.
Pansy stared blankly after him.
Blaise Zabini lazily raised his eyelids from across the table.
"His father is getting more and more like Professor Holmes."
He prodded the sausage on his plate with his fork.
"Or rather, like one of Professor Holmes's students."
The Gryffindor Common Room.
The fire in the fireplace blazed brightly.
Fred leaned against the arm of the sofa, a newspaper spread across his lap and his legs crossed.
George sat on the rug with his back against the sofa, also holding a copy.
The two had just returned from the Wolfmane Academy base, and their clothes still carried a faint smell of rune ink.
"Even though I think he's a bastard."
Fred spoke first, his tone very casual. He clearly wasn't really insulting Percy.
"He did a very good job with this."
George turned the newspaper to the second page and glanced over the section on "housing."
"Rare praise. Too bad Percy can't hear it."
"He's learning from the professor."
Fred closed the newspaper, folded it twice, and stuffed it beneath a sofa cushion.
"The professor saved werewolves. He wants to save unemployed wizards."
George thought for a moment.
"Maybe it's for his political record."
"Still as ambitious as ever."
Fred shrugged.
"Maybe we'll have to call him Minister Weasley someday?"
George flicked the corner of the newspaper with a finger.
"Oh, Merlin. Will he hold up our company's approvals?"