(Edited)
Hello again. Welcome to the second chapter of this story. O^O
I got more than 120 views on the first chappie. More than I was expecting, so thank you all.
Another thing I would like to mention – Arabella lives in America. Basically, I've picked up the whole Privet drive and a few other houses and placed them somewhere in America. Hogwarts is still in Britain though – couldn't bring myself to move it.
Anyway, since they're in America, they'll be speaking like Americans too (some of them, anyway) – that was actually the reason of me picking them up and dropping them in America – I'm Canadian, and I speak more or less the same way as an American does, and I really can't bring myself to write this story while imagining the characters to be speaking British English. I'd die of laughter. Just imagine. My gravestone would say 'Died laughing'.
…..Just like Fred and Sirius and Bellatrix.
WHY DO I TORTURE MYSELF LIKE THIS?! TT^TT
AndCanYouBelieve – OoO – I forgot to add the disclaimer in the first chap.
My bad.
Disclaimer: I killed J. K. Rowling, so I own the characters now – pretty much the same way it goes with peoples wands. Enjoy. :P
Whether or not you write well, write bravely – Bill Stout
Arabella's eye twitched.
That old fart, I can't take care of him, I have work to do, and he's a boy, I don't know how to take care of him, who does he think he is, dumping a kid I don't even know on me-
"Miss Arabella?"
Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out. Repeat again.
"Yes Draco?"
"….No offense, but you're rather red."
She blinked and turned around to the nearest mirror. Indeed, her face had taken the color of – well – red. She laughed lightly through her despair.
"Sorry, I just –," she took in another breath, "Draco, do you know who Albus Dumbledore is?"
"Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"Right. So, apparently, he's kidnapped you – well, not really, but he says in this letter," she flapped the paper, "that a family member of yours was out to get you," Draco seemed to show no surprise on this, "and so, he sent you here. I am to look after you until you get your letter from Hogwarts, which means about three months."
"Okay."
"...You're from Britain, yes?"
"Yes."
"Well, we're in America at the moment. United States of America."
She finally got a reaction out of him. "Really?" he asked, his silver – grey – eyes slightly widened.
"Yep. So you're gonna have to learn some things, that I'm quite sure don't work in Britain."
She grinned at his wary look, "Don't worry, nothing too much. First off, we're going to get Hermione here – think she'll be able to help with some stuff."
Arabella knocked on the Grangers' door. She'd been grateful – albeit a bit surprised – when she'd found Draco's stuff in the spare bedroom – then she had the sudden thought of them being robes that Dumbledore always wore, and was relieved to find they were normal clothes.
It was a rather breezy day, the birds were chirping, there was some faint yelling going on somewhere – it seemed like a nice day, overall.
Until she noticed the yelling was coming from inside, that is.
She saw a bushy head scurry past from behind a window, the yelling now steadily growing louder. A moment later, she heard someone fumbling around with the key, and the door was wrenched open – and there stood a girl about Draco's height, with the bushiest head Draco had ever seen in his life, and eyes that were golden – Arabella blanched.
I swear they were brown last time I saw them.
"Bella! Thank God you're here, no wait, you can't come inside, Anna an' Dad are fighting again-"
"'Again'?"
"Yes, again. Listen, I've got a bag packed inside here, can I please, please, please come and live with you until they calm down, I can't bear listen to them fighting, it's not nice at all, they're practically at each other's throats more than half the day – can you believe – and, oh, here's my bag, did you bring your car, please tell me you came by car -" She peered behind Arabella.
"Yes, you brought your car, right can we go now, and hey, I didn't notice you, who's he Bella?" She said looking curiously at Draco, finally seeming to notice him. She shook her head. "Doesn't matter, you can tell me in the car, can we leave now, Anna'll be coming down any min –"
There was a loud "FINE!" from upstairs, the loud crash of a door being slammed shut and then footsteps.
Hermione paled "Oh my God, she's going to come down any minute, gogogogogogo -"
She shoved Arabella and Draco from the doorstep, grabbed her shoes and bag, locked the door as quietly as possible and shoved the key into her pocket.
"Right, as long as she doesn't look at the window, we're safe. Can we go now?"
Arabella looked at the digital clock installed in the car again. Her house was about half an hour from the Grangers' and they'd only been gone for about 5 minutes, in which Hermione had put on her shoes properly and was now rummaging through her bag.
Arabella coughed slightly. "So, are you going to tell us what happened…?"
She didn't look up from her bag. "Yeah, just gimme a second – found it," she said triumphantly, holding out her mobile. Draco stared at it.
"What's that?"
Hermione's mouth fell open. "Are you kidding me? You don't know what a mobile is? Have you been living under a rock –"
Draco looked deeply offended. "I've never seen one in my world, what did you expect –"
"Your world? What are you, from Mars?" She said incredulously.
Arabella coughed again. "Magic, honey, he's the son of a wizard."
Hermione's face changed from incredulous to sudden realization. "Oooh." Then something clicked inside her. She crawled onto the backseat she and Draco were sitting on so she was more or less on all fours and brought her face close to Draco's. "Really? Can you do magic? Do you have a wand? What's the magic world like? And how do you –"
"Hermione, put on your seat-belt."
She hurriedly put on her belt and opened her mouth to continue her questions. Arabella sighed. She reached her hand out to turn on the radio to full blast. Draco immediately covered his ears, wincing. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Alright, alright, I get it," she muttered. She raised her voice over the radio, "Okay Bella, I'll tell you what happened, you can turn off the radio now!"
"Right. So?"
Hermione fidgeted in her seat. She briefly thought about changing the subject just to annoy Bella, but decided she didn't want to chance being sent back home.
"They were fighting."
Draco snorted.
Arabella sighed. "Are you going to tell me why?"
"AnnacheatedonDad."
They all lurched forward into their seats as the car screeched to a halt. "You're kidding!"
"They're getting divorced."
"What?!"
Hermione sniffed and waved her hand in front of her, willing the water in her eyes to go away. "Have you suddenly become incapable of understanding English?" Her voice wavered slightly.
Arabella felt completely lost. "Why would she even think of cheating on him? He's been faithful, hasn't he? And you're like – eleven, right? They've been together for more than five years, what could've -"
Hermione shut her eyes tightly and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't know – I think it might've been me, 'cause she started acting all weird last year, when they found out about the magic. You know she never drinks other than on special occasions, but she'd started going with her friends and coming back drunk. One day she'd left in the evening with her friends again, and didn't come back till twelve the next day."
Arabella's eyes were wide. "What did you guys do?"
"Dad didn't want to start fighting with her, so he asked some of her friends and eventually found out she'd slept with someone. He asked her about it and they started fighting. They're getting divorced in two months."
Arabella frowned, at a loss for words. Deciding she'd talk to Hermione about it later, she turned back around and started the car again. "I'll talk to you about this later, if that's okay with you. Might as well tell you why Draco's here, first."
After explaining everything about Draco, Hermione had volunteered to help Draco as much as she could and they all settled into silence. Arabella changed course to a shopping center, figuring she'd need more groceries now, with two kids on her hands.
Arabella stopped the car in front of a mall. She looked at the back seat, expecting both the kids to be somewhat awkward and minding their own business, and was pleasantly surprised when she saw them poring over Hermione's mobile in Draco's hands, while Hermione pointed out things every now and then.
"You two want to stay in the car, or come with me and see if you want anything?"
"We'll come with you – I need new headphones and some other stuff." Hermione said, tucking her mobile inside her pocket. She glanced at Draco. "Think we can buy him a phone?"
"Those go in that cabinet. Put those in the fridge, you can't eat them right now. No, Hermione, no," Bella said as she snatched the pack of chocolate from her hands and put them on top of the fridge.
Hermione pouted and climbed onto the counter.
Draco sat on a nearby stool. "Question," He said turning to Hermione.
"In the Wizarding world, people take marriages rather seriously – is that not the same with muggles?" He couldn't help but notice Hermione and Arabella had discussed the divorce as if it were a rather normal occurring thing. They'd clearly been upset, but not as upset as he'd seen some Witches and Wizards discussing relations.
Draco had figured out by now that Arabella was a squib – she wouldn't know so much about magic otherwise, unless she had magical children, which she didn't, as far as he knew. He surprisingly didn't feel any revulsion – same with Hermione being a muggleborn. He suddenly didn't understand his father's hatred towards them. It's not as if they asked to be who they were.
Hermione looked thoughtful. "I suppose by your standard, it wouldn't really be showing much – I've read about relations in the Wizarding world, and they take their relations rather seriously. Well here, we do take them seriously, but people aren't that good – in a sense meaning they don't always stay faithful – they tend to 'fall out of love' usually. Especially here in America. Make sense?"
Draco nodded his head slowly. "I suppose..."
"Anyway, that's all cleared up. Bella, can we go get Harry?"
Bella fought the urge to whine. "Not now. Seriously tired. It's ten already. Bed. Now."
"Miss Arabella,-"
Bella waved her hand. "Really, Draco, call me Bella."
He thought of Bellatrix then – how she'd react if she knew he was using her nickname for a squib.
He mentally shrugged. What she doesn't know won't kill her, he thought snorting.
"The extra mattresses are in the guest room – go on and help Hermione. You can bring them into the living room."
Another thing Draco wasn't accustomed to – working. He had thought about using his father's haughtiness and decided against it. He himself objecting to being called spoilt. So since Hermione was working, he shoved down his still-not-quite-grown Malfoy pride down, went to the guest room and brought out the mattresses, while Hermione carried in the blankets and pillows.
Another thing he found queer – Hermione. Unlike girls her age he'd seen at his parents' parties and other places, she didn't wear skirts or anything much girly. Sure, she was wearing earrings, but there were relatively simple – nothing like his mother's dangly ones. And one of the things he'd noticed - and was very grateful for – he noticed she didn't wear perfume. Thinking about it over, he realized she could've easily passed for a boy if it wasn't for her delicate features.
They set up the mattresses quickly, sleep being the only thing on everyone's minds at the moment. Hermione threw her bag on a couch and flopped down on her mattress. Having washed and changed into their pajamas, they all felt like dropping dead.
Arabella waited for Draco to lie down, then switched off the light. She opened her mouth to bid them good night, when she was struck with a sudden thought.
She walked in front of them both and sat down between them. She prodded them both with a finger.
"I just closed the light - you're not asleep yet and you know it." She received muffled moans.
"Okay, okay, just look at me. I just want to see your eyes and I'll be off." They both turned to look at her, both half glaring at her from hooded, glowing eyes –
"...I wasn't seeing things then...Your eyes are glowing…." She said in awe.
They blinked sleepily at her. "Huh?"
She blinked back. "Nothing, you can see in the morning – goodnight."
Okay, so like, I seriously need reviews. You guys have fingers, right? Use them and type in some bloody words – figuratively please, I don't need any more blood on my laptop.
Please.
And I'm so hooked on HP/DM, it's worrying. And I have a question. Why do we call it them 'Drarry'? It's riddikulus. Really. They should be called 'Harco'.
Haaaaaaaaaaarcooooooooooooo.
Sounds beautiful. O^O
Another question - I'm stuck on who I should pair Harry with. I initially thought Ginny, but then I'm like wtfno, and now I'm swinging between Pansy and Luna. Halp.
Last question – what would y'all think if I made this a music-fic? Somewhat, anyway. I was thinking about it, and I suddenly imagined Dumbledore singing Blank Space.
*Switches laptop on to autopilot and dies laughing*
Right. Jarvis here. Please excuse her. Hopefully she'll be back to write the next chapter.