A Christmas Homecoming by HPFangirl71

Part 1:Draco's Bad Luck

Draco Malfoy looked up at the clock tower as it struck the familiar chords of the hour. As snow whipped around his face, the clock seemed to be leering down at him, almost mockingly so. Returning to London had been a mistake but his mother's pleas to spend the holidays with her had not fallen upon deaf ears. Father had died this past year in Azkaban and now Draco was pretty much all she had, only he was quite certain she might not like the man he had now become.

Walking in this weather had been a huge mistake but mother didn't have a single alcoholic drink in the manor and Draco really needed something to take the edge off and pumpkin juice wasn't about to cut it. The sight of a muggle bar, cheered him immensely as he welcomed the thought of forgetting the horrible events of this afternoon. As Draco ordered something the muggles called scotch, he thought back to the horrid events of earlier.

He had arrived from Italy just that day and mother had insisted upon traipsing him to Diagon Alley for some Christmas shopping. Draco hadn't prepared himself for the multitude of stares coming from the other shoppers. Worse, still than that were the actual sneers and rude comments that had been hurled their way. It had taken all his will power to not just hex the bastards and be done with it! He hadn't expected a warm welcome, for certain, but it had been years since the war and he had hoped for at least a little shred of acceptance from them.

Draco had born the humiliation, as his mother shopped like this was the norm. With a guilty heart, he thought about the fact that for her perhaps this was. Draco had been the one to run away in order to wallow in self-pity and guilt, leaving mother here to face the family's consequences alone. Draco had only narrowly escaped going to Azkaban himself. Italy had offered up the refuge he had needed within the aftermath of the war they'd lost. He had immersed himself in father's overseas business as a means to cope. When that hadn't been quite enough, booze and young Italian boys had worked their inevitable magic.

After several shots of liquid courage, Draco began eyeing the young men within the bar. He was trying to decide which warm body he might keep company with tonight when he saw him of all people. No, it couldn't be Potter! Of all the places to meet up with that prat, it had to be here amidst the muggles and while he was thoroughly inebriated to boot. As if his day couldn't get any worse...

"Malfoy? Is that actually you?"

Draco looked the bespectacled git up and down as he approached him and saw that it was indeed Potter, in short his worst nightmare coming true.

"In the flesh Potter… why, come to gloat!" he sneered defensively.

He watched as the dark haired wizard had the audacity to join him at the bar. It seemed the years had been good to Potter. The hero seemed handsomer than Draco had once remembered but then again, he was probably having selective recollections of their school years together. All Draco knew was that his return home wasn't turning out at all, as he had expected. Damn his Malfoy sense of familial duty! If it were not for mother, he'd be Apparating back to Italy this very moment but instead he was stuck here, chatting it up with the Chosen One! It seemed if it weren't for bad luck, then he'd have no bloody luck at all! With that thought in mind, Draco ordered himself up another shot of scotch, just for luck's sake…