Looking up at the grand stature of the hotel Le Lune, the messy black head, Harry Potter, huffed softly. He looked down at his clothing and rubbed nervously at one of the many black stains on his once beige work pants. It wasn't going to help any. He didn't have a change of clothes and Sirius was going to kill him if he took any longer than the given hour.
The inevitable would come sometime and most of the time the sooner the better. With that in mind Harry straightened himself up, controlled the need to adjust his classes, and made the first step up to the classy hotel with his wooden doors. With every weirded out stair he needed to remind himself to keep moving his feet, but he stubbornly refused to lower his head in front of the classy dressed people that were walking out the doors.
An old looking doorman in a stereotype red jacket looked haughtily over his just as stereotype hawk nose and looked like he would love to throw Harry out. To his relieve that exact thing didn't happen. That would have been a sight, he thought, chuckling softly under his breath while the doorman held the door open for him.
Stepping in Harry's breath hitched at the sight. It was way more huge than the outside would have you believe. The entrance hall was filled with dark brown coffee tables surrounded with white soft looking couches and grandpa chairs. There were sparkling chandeliers scattered over the high roof in between the with white flowers decorated pillars that were holding op the roof. Most of it was carpeted or painted in red and gold. There were lady's dressed in riches and man dressed in smart suits, sometimes old fashioned and sometimes in the clothes you'd find in the latest fashion magazines Ginny had with her a lot.
Harry's head was swimming with the lights around him. How was this a place? It was beautiful, but he was not comfortable at all. Even without his current clothes he didn't think would ever fit into this place, ever. And he found that he didn't want to. He forced himself to keep walking forward and not just stand still and stair. To the reception ahead and you'll be out of here in no time! He told himself in a mantra.
At the reception were three girls seated of which one was luckily unoccupied. To Harry's relieve the girl smiled at him without any sort of disgust in sight. That would make the whole thing a lot easier.
"Hi," Harry smiled shyly at the young black haired receptionist. She looked very professional with her tightly tight back ponytail and neat make-up. "I had a client today that said I should come here to be paid for the services." He smiled toothily and hopeful, trying to get on the girls good side.
The girl smiled back at him again. "I haven't heard of anything, but I'll try to look it up. Who was it that send you and from what company can I say you came from?" She asked politely.
Harry scrunched his nose uncomfortably. "Mister Blaise Zabini send me. I'm from Black Mechanics. He had a fast fix on his car and didn't have any cash on him at that moment." He rattled out. Good, he remembered. Wanting badly to squeeze his eyes together he rubbed them. Good god he wanted to get out fast.
"Just a second, I'll try to get an hold on Mister Zabini," the girl smiled picking up the phone.
Harry nodded shortly getting quite annoyed at the constant smile of the girl. She really looked alright but the smile seemed to get faker an faker with the second. It was her job anyway, he guessed. While she was rattling on the phone he tuned het out. Not wanting to indulge in the formality of her call that was bound to happen. This is definitely why he missed her trying to get his attention when she was done.
"Mister!?"
Harry jumped a little from the sudden loud call. He definitely thought he could hear the hall quieting down for a second at the load noise before picking up the different conversations again.
"Sorry," He apologize, raking his probably dirty hand through his hair, "I zoned out there for a second."
The girl laughed, with the actual crinkles this time he noticed. "I figured," she said, smiling an actual smile. "Couldn't get you to get out of it."
"Happy to be of some amusement to you," Harry told her sincerely which produced a small blush on the receptionists face which Harry didn't notice.
"Mister Zabini will be down in a bit with your money. He forgot about it in his rush. You can take a seat." The girl, still with a small smile around her lips gestured to the white poofs that were lined up facing the reception for such occasions.
Harry looked worriedly from his pants to the poofs. "I think I'll keep standing," he said after a bit. Dirtying those perfectly white things was definitely not done. "Thanks anyways."
And with a nod from both sides he parted ways with the, no matter how small it had been, comfort of being able to talk to someone in a uncomfortable place. He put himself awkwardly at the end of the line poofs in front of a pillar. He was right next to an empty white circled table, but he didn't sit down.
It felt like ages, but Blaise Zabini probably showed up within five minutes. He strode into the hall from an elevator siding the reception in a pale blue suite with ty and brown neat shoos. He had quite a presence and Harry noticed a lot of eyes following the young man's path towards himself. He refused to blush. Not there! But it was a hard battle. With deep inhale he gathered all the self-importance he had, which was embarrassingly little and chose to meet the other man on his way.
Zabini smiled his perfect row of teeth at him, but didn't offer a hand. That knowledge squeezed a little at Harry's heart, but he didn't let it get to him but just went with it.
"I'm so sorry that I forgot about this, Mister Black," Zabini said frowning slightly. "I must apologize."
"It is no worries, Mister Zabini," Harry said, bowing his head a little in politeness. He never actually met anybody who did that in England, but it became a sort of tick ever since he'd been in Japan for a while. "And it is Potter, not Black. Mister Black is my boss."
"Of course," Zabini bellowed. "My apologies again. If you'll follow me, than we can finish up our business."
A feeling of dread started in Harry's pits, but he agreed politely and just went with it. In a slight panicked daze he stepped into the elevator with Zabini, who put a key in a hole on the top and turned. The ding indicating the end of the silent trip almost made Harry jump. He had to applaud himself for his self-control that day. Fucking Ron wouldn't believe him if he told. IF he told.
The penthouse they stepped into was deluxe as hell. There was more electronics in the living room the stepped into than Harry had ever seen in one room together safe from an electronics store. Big television screen, game consoles, monitoring sets on the walls for different things etc. It was furnished in modern style and the most breath taking thing was the wall opposite of the elevator which was completely made of glass. Harry was itching to walk closer (which was an extremely long, by the way) to the windows and look out over the city in the slight summer sun. It was England, what do you want? He kept himself in, thought. He didn't want to upset the guy who was going to pay him.
That guy was walking towards a table set against the wall behind the couch facing the big flat screen and Harry followed him up the platform it was standing on. The simple wooden table was scattered with paper and a laptop flipped open next to a smart phone. Harry felt his own old nokia phone burn in his trousers. He never had felt the need to replace it, because he didn't use any sort of social media, but in this situation he somehow felt ashamed for his lack of care.
"Well, you brought the receipt?" Zabini said, sitting at the table behind the laptop.
"Yeah," Harry nodded, getting the folded paper out of one of his bigger pockets. Unfolding it before handing it over. Zabini took the slightly smudged paper without blinking, which Harry appreciated deeply.
"Okay, here we go," Zabini sighed. "I need to archive this, if you could wait just a sec." He began typing away on his shiny laptop looking over at the paper now and again.
Harry didn't have much else to do but let his gaze wander through the room and suppressing the want to grab a book from the bookcase that was covering a big part of the wall or wandering over to the windows. It was actually quite peaceful until a door banged open loudly havinf Harry jump into the air from shock. Zabini stayed suspiciously concentrated on his work and didn't show any sign of having noticed the small explosion or the loud voice that followed that explosion.
"Blaise, I can't find my green cashmere sweater anywhere!" a half-naked blond man belowed frustrated, striding into the room like he owned the place. Eyes on the black head bent over his laptop.
Harry's eyes raked over the most delicious chest he had ever had the chance to admire. It might have been slightly exaggerated, but that fact didn't change the saliva that was pooling in his mouth at the sight of the slender toned chest. A six-pack sat on the slender belly and the arms were slim but toned and almost asking to be licked and sucked and loved. The black, probably expensive, trousers were fitting perfectly around the thin waist letting the fantasy about what laid beneath become wonderfully interesting. Oh, and those collarbones! Those were a state of fucking art!
Harry was losing himself steadily in the delicious stranger when his stair was suddenly met with stormy grey once. The blondes lips formed a funny 'oh' in shock of the unsuspected companion. What came out of the mouth was made Harry cringe slightly, even thought he had been suspecting to hear something similiar that day.
"What the fuck is that filth doing in my penthouse?" the man growled, looking thoroughly offended.
The saliva that had gathered in Harry's mouth dried up instantly and his back stiffened at the glower he received. The attraction that had grew in the first five seconds shrivelled up and flowed away like it never even existed. He felt a glower forming on his face, but couldn't give a damn to try and do anything about it.
"That is the mechanic who fixed your beloved car, because you didn't want to call a tow-truck," Blaise answered evenly without looking up from his typing. "I forgot to leave the payment at the reception so I invited him up. I'm doing the accounting at the same time for efficiency." He said the last words while getting up from the table drawing out his wallet. "A four hundred pounds for you," he said while handing the amount over.
Harry, who had taken the opportunity of Zabini talking to rip his eyes of the furious blond, excepted the wad of money and started counting it.
"Impolite little bastard," the blond hissed from the side. "Counting money like we can't be trusted."
A flair of anger was set a flame in Harry's chest, but he had a lot experience with anger control so he kept it in. Using Zabini's tactic, he ignored the blond and kept counting.
"Don't, Draco," Zabini said patiently, although with slight exasperation. "This is normal procedure. Your sweater is still in the bathroom, by the way. Go and get dressed, so we can leave on time this time."
Harry could almost feel the cold stare on himself and he shivered, but keeping his head by the counting.
"Don't forget who is paying you, Zabini," the voice that spoke had turned cold and the footsteps indicated the blond had left the room.
"Sorry about that," Zabini said, sounding rather tired. "He is a handful."
380, 400… Harry finished. He formed his shoulders in a small shrug showing that he didn't really mind. Zabini was still frowning thought.
"Don't worry about it," Harry said. He wasn't actually mad about the blond stranger named Draco that had waltzed into the transaction and out of it in less than three minutes. He just wanted to get out as fast as possible. "I'll just take the copy of the signed receipt and I'll be on my way." He inclined a little to enthusiastic towards the mentioned paper on the table while stuffing the money into the pocket the receipt had come from earlier.
"Oh yeah, of course," Zabini said, seeming to have forgotten about that part. He grabbed for it and handed it to Harry. "You can show yourself out." He added with a polite nod towards the elevators.
Harry nodded curtly and spun on his heels away from the man towards the elevator. The quicker he could get out of there the better he would feel.