That incredible news from Harry made even Ron stop in mid-bite during lunchtime in the Scots castle's Great Hall. Jaw dropping open in astonishment to present to all nearby witnesses a disgusting view of a mouthful of barely masticated food, the redhead eighteen-year-old gawked at where his friends were sharing the Gryffindor table with him and then mumbled a near-incomprehensible:

"Huh? Draco's mum disowned him? What the bloody hell for?"

"No idea," Harry shook his head, glancing over at where Hermione was listening across the tabletop. They were all finishing their last year at Hogwarts after Voldemort and his forces had been destroyed in their attack the previous spring. Since then, things had slowly started to return to normal in the British wizarding world, with many of the school's survivors coming back to being taught by the remaining teachers. Once she'd found her parents in Australia and restored their memories, Hermione then appealed for Harry and Ron into returning with her to the rebuilt magical castle.

This pair of young men agreed, not wanting to break up their close comradeship once again restored after so many recent strains between these three adventurers. Everybody looked forward to an actually peaceful Hogwarts term now that Harry's Dark Lord nemesis and his Death Eaters were either dead or imprisoned. Including, by the way, none other than Lucius Malfoy who'd been swiftly arrested several days after the final battle, filled to the brim with Veritaserum, and talked himself into a life sentence at Azkaban as grim as ever save for the vanished Dementors formerly haunting the North Sea prison.

The rest of the Malfoys managed to get off fairly scot free, though. Narcissa Malfoy had fully cooperated with the Ministry of Magic, resulting in nothing more than the confiscation of Malfoy Manor and an extremely large fine paid from the family vault by that beautiful witch without a murmur of protest. At the Ministry inquest, Harry reluctantly confirmed how Narcissa lied to Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest about the Boy-Who-Lived's presumed death, so that helped her, too.

Using what remained of the Malfoy funds, Narcissa then moved into a pleasant apartment in Diagon Alley, shared by her son who mostly escaped the consequences of his own actions. To Ron's loudly-expressed fury, Harry even more grudgingly explained that Draco hadn't been the one to kill Headmaster Dumbledore the previous year. Rather, it'd been Professor Snape. Even with what else an underage Draco had incompetently attempted his entire time at the castle - becoming a junior Death Eater, trying to bring into Hogwarts a cursed necklace, and all the rest - he couldn't be charged as an adult and receive the proper punishment for everything.

In the end, Draco Malfoy got sentenced by the Ministry Recovery Committee into being permanently expelled from Hogwarts, ordered to serve a six-month house arrest with his mother, and warned that he was forever on very thin ice. Commit one more single crime with the wand he'd kept throughout everything, no matter how trivial it might be, and Draco could next speedily wind up occupying the same Azkaban cell along with Lucius.

Since then, not a single word had been heard about that former Slytherin student, much to everyone's relief including the trio at the Gryffindor table. From what few scraps there were of Hogwarts gossip passed around by interested parties, he'd for once sensibly laid low the whole time, staying in his new home and not venturing out except in the company of his mother the rare occasions the Malfoy heir was sighted in Diagon Alley.

Now, though, for whatever reason, there'd been a serious falling out between Draco and Narcissa.

Finally chewing and swallowing with a loud gulp which produced an exasperated roll of Hermione's eyes, Ron asked Harry, "That's all? Nobody knows anything else?"

Hermione suddenly looked thoughtful and cleared her throat, bringing the boys' attention to her. "Well, I just realized Draco's house arrest was over with last week. Could that have something to do with it?"

Harry shrugged. "Parvati got lucky enough to see first hand how Narcissa yelled at the Gringotts goblins over Draco withdrawing some money without her knowing about it beforehand. They were as nasty as usual back at her, saying she hadn't left any specific instructions her son was to be barred from their vault. I think the big blowup happened right after that. Parvati wasn't able to find out anything more. Believe me, she snooped around everywhere in Diagon Alley she could think of."

Pensively drumming her right hand's fingertips against the tabletop, Hermione was obviously concentrating about this odd event as hard as she would be at any other Hogwarts mystery. Trading jaded glances among themselves, Harry and Ron waited for what they were pretty much expecting.

"I think, next weekend, we'd better visit Diagon Alley," Hermione announced to her friends. She then frowned across the table at where Ron and Harry were giving each other matching sardonic expressions.

"There, Hermione?" wondered Harry several days later, looking dubiously down one of the offshoots of Diagon Alley's main street. It was a lane which he'd never visited before, at the avenue's furthest end with tiny, two story buildings serving as residences on the upper floors and stores or workshops on the lower levels. Staring ahead, Harry could see the high wall separating a magical shopping area from mundane London.

Hermione checked for the dozenth time the slip of paper she'd been carrying throughout their long walk. "The address says so. Draco signed the lease just yesterday."

"A lease for what?" an extremely baffled Ron wanted to know. "I was expecting the slimy git to move out of his mum's house and find a fitting bolthole somewhere in the worse parts of Knockturn Alley. Why here?"

Harry and Hermione regarded their friend with mutual puzzlement. Harry was the first to ask Ron, "Is there something unusual about this place? Like, they might sell magical stuff Draco could get up to no good with?"

Ron shook his head. "Dunno. Never been here exactly before, see, all the times Mum and Dad brought us, but they mentioned once it's got a fine reputation for providing wizards and witches with the best in home furnishings."

At this point, Hermione was looking really lost. "Why on earth would- I thought people could transfigure any sort of chairs or tables they wanted with their wands."

Her confusion produced a wide grin from Ron at this rare chance to tell Hermione something she didn't know about the magical world. "Not bloody likely. Oh, we could, but who'd want to? The spells for that are really obscure, plus they'll wear off sooner or later. Much easier to drop in and buy from some wizard specializing in woodwork. When you do that, you know it'll last practically forever. It also comes with protections against breakage, stains, what have you. Other extras are feather-light charms or growing and shrinking when necessary. In a lot of wizarding weddings, the parents on both sides chip in to give their kids a full set of furniture like that."

Ron peered around with growing interest, mentioning to his fascinated listeners. "Come to think of it, Dad told us our family clock came from somewhere here."

Hermione brightened at hearing that. She'd seen the referred clock often enough at the Burrow, which was enchanted to indicate the Weasley family's health and safety, and had always meant to research how it worked. However, it'd kept slipping her mind as something to be put off for later. She unwillingly acknowledged this might be the same for now, what with the necessity of solving what Draco was up to now-

"Oh, look, it's the Weasel, Scarhead, and the Bookworm," a very familiar voice drawled from behind the trio.

That made them all instantly spin around, drawing their wands at the same time with equal speed and pointing them at where…

Draco Malfoy was standing there in the middle of the main street, hands empty of his own wand and arms prudently held away from his body, signifying he was utterly defenseless. Except, one could never depend upon that, seeing how Draco then struck back by a completely unexpected move. Saying a bit loudly to be heard throughout the closest onlookers, he declared, "Careful, you lot! This isn't Hogwarts. Hex me in broad daylight and in front of witnesses who'll all testify I was acting in a total peaceful manner, and you'll be the ones arrested this time!"

Lowering her wand, Hermione shamefacedly admitted to her friends, "He's right, Harry, Ron. Put them down."

Glowering at a smirking Malfoy, Harry did the same. An angry hiss of "Ron!" from Hermione finally made the last of their company sulkily follow her order.

Ron then let his already hot temper run away with him by snarling at somebody he truly detested, "I know you're up to something! This is probably one of your dirty Slytherin tricks, consisting of pretending to argue with your mum, move out, and opening a place here! I bet you're plotting to start up the Death Eaters again or doing something even worse!"

Draco blinked. He stared at a fuming Ron and then his glance moved to a stone-faced Harry and a cautious Hermione. Finally, the blond teenager started…laughing.

This merriment was nothing less than honest amusement, rather than the sadistic mirth the Golden Trio had gotten used to in years of taunting by Malfoy and his cronies back at Hogwarts.

A slow realization began to creep over Harry, Hermione, and even Ron that maybe they'd made a mistake today. This mood wasn't improved any by Malfoy eventually calming down a bit to giggle, "Are you saying, you spent your precious time together investigating me? Oh, yes! Listening to gossip, doing hours of research, visiting Ministry offices and quizzing bureaucrats, having the most fun ever since the three of you took down the Dark Lord, isn't that right?"

At that point, Malfoy started laughing again, choking out through this, "It's so nice that you're obsessed with me, my own personal stalkers! I haven't had such a wonderful compliment like this in so long!"

Right now, Harry and Hermione were scarlet-faced in their sheer embarrassment, but Ron's visage was beginning to turn actual beet-red. Knowing he'd pushed that Weasel Gryffindor almost to the moment of exploding, Malfoy allowed himself a mocking smile sent in Ron's direction for one last goad anyway.

Just before Ron would've done something deplorable, Draco next announced to them all in a genuinely happy tone, "Why, gentlemen…and lady…if you're so curious, I'd be quite glad to just show you! Follow me!"

Draco stepped forward, to casually brush past Ron looking about as if he were to commit some serious physical and magical violence against that blond pillock. Ignoring this with magnificent hauteur, Malfoy kept on walking, this time passing by Harry and Hermione who made way for him. Watching Draco's departing back, all three of the friends looked at each other, shrugged in unison, and then did as what their Hogwarts schoolmate had instructed.

It was only a few dozen yards further on until Draco stopped in front of a small shop squeezed in between its neighbors. When Draco put his hand inside a robe pocket, Hermione looked up at where a new shop sign was hanging from an overhead pole attached to the building front. The sign declared this location to be: THE PANTECHNICON

Trying to think of where she knew that name, Hermione was distracted by Draco pulling out a door key and using it to open the front door. Pushing the door ajar with one hand while putting away the key with his other hand, Draco stood there while giving the others a nod of permission. "Go right in."

"Hold it!" Ron snapped before Harry or Hermione could move. "He might have a trap for us in there!"

Draco momentarily glanced up at the heavens in his sudden disbelief to then utter a resigned sigh. "Fine, I'll go first."

Ron growled, "Ah-HAH! You're planning to ambush us from inside!"

Noticing that Hermione was about to hex both of those idiots any second now, Harry hastily said, "Shut up, the two of you! I'll check it out!"

Indeed, that's exactly what he did, edging past Draco sending a toothy smile towards a suspicious Ron fingering his wand. That left Hermione crossly glowering at those stupid boys while they all waited for Harry to return. This took no more than several moments, before a clearly baffled Harry stood in the shop doorway. Sending towards Draco a gimlet eye, Harry announced to his friends, "It's safe, but Draco better be prepared to start explaining."

"Of course I will, Potter," snickered Draco. He watched Harry turn around and go back into the shop, following after and bringing Ron and Hermione along with him.

With four people now inside the small front room, it was decidedly crowded. It didn't help either that there was also a very large cabinet set in the middle of the room. This upright piece of furniture reaching nearly to the ceiling was freshly polished, down to the brass knobs set at the center edges of the two large hinged doors presently shut tight. Looking at this, Harry couldn't help thinking that the cabinet was big enough for someone to step inside-

As if she'd been reading Harry's mind, Hermione abruptly pointed at the cabinet and identified it in a horrified voice. "That's a vanishing cabinet!"

Things instantly connected themselves inside Ron's head. With blurring speed, he had his wand out and the tip of this digging in the soft flesh under Malfoy's chin while snarling at that berk, "I knew it! You're going to bring Death Eaters to Diagon Alley, just like you did at Hogwarts when Dumbledore got killed! Quick, Harry, Hermione, wreck it before anyone comes out!"

Draco just sneered back at the Weasel. "You just committed assault on me, you know that? Oh, and if the rest of you damage that paid-for cabinet, its owner Mr. Greengrass and me, we'll sue you lot in court for everything you've got! Mind you, for Weasley here, that'll probably amount to only two knuts and a sock with a hole in the heel!"

During Draco's last words, Hermione cautiously approached the cabinet, her own wand out and ready. Harry had done the same, aiming his wand at the cabinet where Hermione had left him room to cast any necessary charms in her approach. Tensing when Hermione touched and gripped the left doorknob, Harry nodded to Hermione looking over her shoulder. Stepping out of the way while opening the left cabinet door with one swift movement, Hermione stood there waiting for anything at all to happen.

Nothing did. Harry kept on pointing his wand at the cabinet, a growing look of puzzlement on his face. Even Ron craned his head to watch with equal bafflement, ignoring how Draco stood stock-still under Ron's wand holding him prisoner.

Hermione edged from her position out of any possible spell-fire, to look into the opened cabinet for herself. She saw nothing there at all in the empty space reaching to the back of the cabinet.

An extremely scathing remark then came from Draco: "Is everybody finished? Weasley, remove your wand, now!"

Ron jerked his wand away, gaping at Draco next grumpily rubbing at the bottom of his jaw which was developing a serious bruise there. "What's going on?!" Ron shouted at Malfoy.

"That's what I'd like to know, too," contributed Harry, seeing how Hermione was also speechlessly nodding out of the corner of his eye.

Draco folded his arms across his chest. He regarded them all with cold contempt. "Fine, if that's what it'll take." He stepped forward to close the cabinet door. Turning to icily eye his unwanted visitors, Draco Malfoy announced to no one in particular, "I'm Diagon Alley's newest manufacturer of replacement vanishing cabinets."

"What?" weakly came from Hermione. Ron and Harry couldn't even manage that as they stared in shock at Draco, whose dark mood abruptly lightened at seeing how all three Gryffs were so discomfited. Deciding to lay it out for them in the hope they'd finally go away and stop bothering him, Draco deigned to begin a gracious explanation.

"It happened a few weeks after Mother and I moved here. I was trying to come up with some kind of a plan for my future after the house arrest. Thinking about what I went through at Hogwarts, there wasn't all that much I learned there which might be useful, so instead I started remembering other things."

Pausing to send an exceedingly evil smirk at Harry, Draco gleefully informed them, "One of the greatest memories was in our sixth year when I caught Scarhead snooping with his invisibility cloak on the Hogwarts Express, stunned him, and broke his nose."

Harry glared back at Draco, before muttering in a reluctant aside to a surprised Ron and Hermione, "Yeah, Tonks found me afterwards and got me loose, fixing my nose." A scowling Harry returned to where a smug Draco was regarding them all. "What's that got to do with cabinets?"

"Nothing, really," Draco responded happily. "I just wanted to hear you confess I beat you at least once."

Observing how Harry's fingers tightened on his wand at that verbal jab, Draco hastily went on. "Well, you know what I spent doing the rest of the entire Hogwarts year, fixing the vanishing cabinet in the Room of Requirement. It was the hardest thing I'd ever done, using every bit of the magic I had."

"You brought the Death Eaters into school then!" yelled an angry Ron at Draco, who lifted merely one eyebrow in response.

"It was either that or have the Dark Lord murder me and my parents for disobeying his orders, Weasley. Naturally, I picked us rather than anyone else. You don't like that, I'm sure, but so what? If you'd been in my shoes, would you have chosen to have your own family being slaughtered? So, shut the hell up!" Those last words were gritted with matching venom towards Ron looking rather taken aback.

"That doesn't tell us why we're here today," spoke up Hermione trying to keep the peace in the shop room. She was uncomfortably aware how some of her own actions and decisions during the recent war didn't exactly show Hermione in the best light, either. Especially the events concerning the memory spells which convinced her parents they didn't have a magical daughter and the irrepressible compulsion to move to Australia for their safety.

Draco sighed. He waved a hand at the cabinet. "It occurred to me in my house arrest that I'd never heard about anyone else who managed lately to build a new one or fix a broken vanishing cabinet. I did some discreet inquiries, only to find out that all the other British wizarding cabinetmakers and repairers were either retired or died off. At that point, I had a real brainwave. If those cabinets were so rare, people would pay a lot to have a working example, and I was probably the only wizard around able to do it now. I talked Mother into buying one cheap and spent the next couple of months building the other cabinet to complete the set. She thought it was just a hobby to keep me busy, and didn't mind."

Harry frowned. "But, the latest rumors going around the castle said Narcissa disowned you."

Sending an irritated look towards Potter for daring to use his mother's first name, Draco huffed, "That's private family business! No, no, you'll just all keep meddling to find out the truth, I'm sure, so… After I built the new cabinet and successfully tested it, I showed them to Mother and proposed I start a cabinetmaking business with our money. Well, she flatly refused, telling me right off that no true Malfoy would ever lower themselves to physical labor in trade. Mother wouldn't budge at all, so I took my inheritance early, moved out of her apartment, and leased this shop. I demonstrated to Cyril Greengrass, Daphne's father, the working cabinets just yesterday, and he bought them straight away. This one here will be picked up later in the afternoon. I've already got orders for three more, and inside the year, I should be quite rich like a proper Malfoy should be."

Hermione in her daze over this astonishing explanation couldn't help asking, "What about your mother?"

Peering down his aquiline nose at her, Draco still said civilly enough, "She'll get over it, sooner or later. When I'm set up for life, I plan to find a pureblood wife and have a family. The prospect of grandchildren alone should have her see me again, even if I'm nothing more than an ordinary merchant. Hell, we don't talk about it, but Jacques Malfoi, my six-times great-grandfather was a French wizard who ran a potions shop and became immensely wealthy from that. Mother will have a fine time plotting to match my children with other purebloods-"

"Right, that's it!" announced Ron, briskly heading towards the shop's front entrance. "I don't need to listen to any more about Draco's potential spawn! Harry, Hermione, I'll be outside!" He escaped out of the shop at that point, slamming the door hard behind himself.

Looking just as uncomfortable on his own, Harry cleared his throat. "Er, good luck with your business…Draco." These words came out with as much effort as teeth being pulled. Harry sent one last disbelieving gaze at his school enemy, who was innocently staring back. Turning to his best female friend, Harry mumbled, "Ron and I will wait for you, Hermione, if you want to stay behind longer, okay?"

Moving just as fast as Ron's earlier desperate flight, Harry cowardly left Hermione alone with Draco in the shop.

That dumbfounded young woman continue to regard in her shock how Draco blissfully continued standing by the cabinet, crooning with genuine delight under his breath, "Now, that's the third wonderful memory, right there!"

An annoyed drawn-in breath from elsewhere distracted Draco, causing him to glance over and ask politely, "Anything else I can do for you, Granger?"

"Yes!" Hermione snapped at a Slytherin clearly having all too much fun over this. "Why are you so happy? I'll give you a pass for once that you're not going to cause trouble, but I can't help feeling suspicious about you acting like I've never seen you do before!"

Draco just smiled pityingly at the uncomprehending girl. He knew it was unlikely they'd ever meet again, so he might as well as answer as honestly as he'd done for the last few minutes. In a serious voice, Draco told Hermione, "Because, right now, I'm free. I've paid for all I've done. The Dark Lord isn't going to take over. There's nobody demanding I meet their expectations and demands about my life. I can now be like everybody else, going through on my own what comes tomorrow and the next day and all the years after that."

"Oh," said a disconcerted Hermione in a very quiet whisper, who hadn't been expecting someone she'd loathed for a long time to bare their soul to her in such a revealing way.

Keenly watching Hermione, Draco then sent a quick glance towards the shop front with the door firmly shut and no sign of an intolerable Boy-Who-Lived and his loudmouthed redhead companion. Hermione started at Draco's next words:

"One more thing, Granger. I'd never do this before Potter and Weasley, but…thank you."

A few moments later, Hermione found Harry and Ron out on the main street of Diagon Alley. She was soundlessly working her lips, as if talking to herself, making the two young men eye her with shared concern. Before they could say anything, Hermione addressed one of them, "Ron, what's that single word you always say, about someone or something who behaves like you don't expect?"

"Uh…," Ron blankly began. He looked down at Hermione's upturned face, waiting for him to answer. "Mental?"

Hermione nodded in satisfaction. "Mental! That pretty much explains the whole day!"

Harry also nodded with relief. "Mental!"

Ron perked up at what was a soothing balm to his recent uncertainty. "Mental!"

"Mental!" repeated Hermione, getting in between Ron and Harry and linking her arms with theirs.

Locking their gazes over Hermione's head, the young men gladly chorused "Mental!" and they all began walking down Diagon Alley, matching their strides with each other.

All was well, all was well.