Chapter Three: Adrianna
"He's definitely a mush!"
"Oh but look how beautiful he is!"
Feeling like he'd been dreaming, Draco opened his eyes to see two pairs of eyes staring at him in excitement. He got up hurriedly, panting. The sunlight poured into ungrateful slumber. He first looked at the faces. They looked like girls but Draco wasn't so sure. Both of them had such short hair. Then he looked at the rest of them. They had on school skirts and they weren't much too tall.
He felt a bad crick in his neck. Unable to recognize the place, Draco looked around.
It was a large park and he'd been sleeping on a wooden bench. He couldn't remember everything after his chat with Harrison. He thought he'd been wandering around the dusty lanes far too long.
"Look at iz 'air!" One of the girls said suddenly. "He looks like one o dem frem da magazines."
"Look evin iz eyes are pretty!" The other replied. She appeared to be chewing on some pink gum. "An' hee smells nice too!"
Draco got up and dusted himself hastily. Clearing his throat, he tried to find a way around the girls politely but a few more emerged from somewhere. Some had pigtails and the others had tied up their hair really tight.
"Ooooh lookie dat gurls, iz da handsomest boy in de pool!" One of them squeaked. Breaking into a timorous sweat, Draco was about to dash his way out when two taller figures appeared.
"Back off kids, stop scaring the poor mush!"
Draco squinted in the brightness to see two people in similar school uniforms. One of them, a boy, looked at Draco, puzzled and surprised. The girl looked at him sneering to herself. Her sneer was even better than the sneer Draco gave Hermione Granger. She had shiny, dark hair and a very piercing look in her deep, hazel eyes.
The little girls scampered off but stopped a few yards away to stare at him again.
"Are you from dem States?" The boy asked Draco.
"What?" Draco was still panting.
"Don't be ridiculous Charlie!" The girl laughed snootily. "I'll bet you all a nicker he's a woollyback from some lowly…"
"No I am NOT!" Draco said loudly, suddenly feeling very awake.
"Really?" The girl sneered again. "Well where are you from then?"
Draco racked his brain for an answer. "Temporary Amnesia…" He finally stuttered.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Charlie apologized almost immediately. But the girl simply raised her eyebrows. She had a very similar look in her eyes to Sergeant Harrison.
"Come, we'll show you around a bit. You've slept all through the morning." Charlie offered.
Draco looked up at the sky. The sun was high on his head.
"I'm Charlie and this is my friend Adrianna."
Adrianna- like bells tolling in the snow. Draco shook himself and stared at his apparent hosts. They didn't look bad to trust.
"What's your name, punk?" Adrianna asked him loudly.
"A-Adam." Draco stammered.
Adrianna and Charlie began to walk. Draco decided to follow them anyway. He looked around the park. The girls were following him but he decided to ignore them now.
"So, um… how big is Liverpool?" Draco questioned.
"Bigger than where you're from." Adrianna answered, giving him a very nosy stare.
Draco flattened his hair and looked Charlie. "It's big enough. You can't walk around. You'll need to take the bus."
"Oh, I'd prefer to walk around at least for now." Draco gulped.
"Really? I wonder why!" Adrianna replied. Draco had the feeling she saw him like a ghost- right through.
"Oh come Adrianna, don't be so mean!" Charlie said softly. Adrianna. Draco liked hearing the way her name rolled in his mind. "Look- there's Cassidy… she's with Violet." Charlie said aloud.
They crossed over the path to come to the sidewalk on the road. Two girls stood there, giggling to each other. They both had blond hair and they both looked like they'd been drunk. Adrianna happened to think so too.
"Blitzed again are you?" She asked casually. "Here, meet Adam- the newest mush Charlie picked up in the park."
Draco jumped as she mentioned his newly found allonym. He tried to smile at the drunken girls but it didn't seem to matter much to them.
"Ooooh look Vi, he's a pretty lad!" One of them cried, trying to touch Draco's hair. He dodged her quickly and stood a foot apart from the party.
"Pull yourselves together girls." Adrianna commanded. "Now, my papa told me this morning about this mush. He'd been to papa's office last night. He's to find a job and papa thinks we should help him." She rolled her eyes as she said we.
"You are Sergeant Harrison's daughter?" Draco wondered aloud, not mighty surprised. Adrianna nodded her head. She was about to say something when the two girls began to crack up again.
"I'd say he'd make a very good model." The other girl replied, giggling.
"Ooooh I'd pay him for just a night of staring at him!" The first said, looking at Draco with a mad satisfaction in her eyes.
"If you knew who I was, why did you ask me?" He demanded, feeling very threatened.
"Just to be sure you are not some dandy from Manchester." Adrianna replied haughtily.
"Why don't we take him to Joe's? Maybe he can work in Joe's kitchen." Charlie suggested.
"Kitchen?" Draco scoffed but immediately wished he hadn't. He wasn't at Malfoy Manor anymore and he'd have to do with whatever was given to him.
Adrianna raised her eyebrows again. "Yer one of dem rich kids, aren't you?"
"N-no" Draco stammered and looked away. He knew Adrianna didn't believe him.
"Alrigh' les go ova to Joe's." She said finally.
Draco was left to follow them again. He began to breathe in the city around him. It all seemed new to him.
Strange blue buses rolled past speedily, reflecting many faces and emotions. School children ran around with their parents, dancing around to tunes unheard of as if jiving with the unseen zest life brought specially for the innocent. Large and sprawling buildings lay strewn about lazily, looking over the people bustling about with their daily chores. There was a light buzz in the air. Draco didn't know if the others heard it, but he did. He heard the buzz of life pumping right through every arterial lane.
Despite everything, Draco couldn't remember when he last felt so happy and relieved- perhaps when he last caught the snitch in a Quidditch match.
They passed lanes of red brick houses, a large hall and a few strangely named pubs. "What does the Cavern mean?" Draco asked, not able to take his eyes off the statue outside the entrance to a basement pub.
"That's where the Beatles played before they became big enough for the world!" Charlie said excitedly.
"Who?" Draco puzzled, smiling to himself as he saw three teenaged girls exiting the club, laughing and letting their hair go loose in the cool air.
But his party had stopped. "Where are you from?" Adrianna asked him quizzically. "You don't know John Lennon?" But she wasn't sneering at him anymore. There was a new found look of curiosity on her face.
"Um… I don't really move around much." Draco said quickly.
"He must've been one of those people that live under a rock!" Violet squealed excitedly. "Like Tarzan!"
Draco felt too stupid to ask who Tarzan was so he just shut up. "The Beatles are only the greatest band in history!" Charlie supplied Draco with the information. "Back in the early 1960s, even before Ringo was a part of the Beatles, they played at various smaller clubs all around Liverpool- the Cavern Club, the Casbah Coffee House… they are legend today and forever- John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr- the Liverpool lads that changed the world."
"And um… what was so special about them?" Draco asked Charlie. He hadn't had such a thirst for his surroundings.
"They played music." Cassidy said. "No, they created magic!"
Draco cringed at the word like it was a murderer. "So, these um… Beatles, they changed the world with their music? And everyone feared them?"
"Feared them? Are you a 'edcase?" Violet cried. "Everybody LOVED them! Well maybe except a few other bands- they were most powerful an' all… but the world loves the Beatles. An' aar ay they broke up!"
"So, they were powerful and yet people loved them?" Draco tried to work this out. It seemed to be so different. The Dark Lord can learn something from these Muggles.
At last, they reached a tiny restaurant called Joe's Palace. "Here's your place." Adrianna said nodding at the small red brick shack-like pub.
Draco stared at through the walls of his future employment. This is what Muggles do for a living? He still wasn't used to not having his way around.
"Hey Joey!" Adrianna yelled as they entered inside. The place was as small as one room of the Weasley's Burrow. Red paint peeled off the walls groaning and complaining about the utter lack of care. The tables and chairs drooped with an air of dismay and umbrage. People mopped around as if in a daze or perhaps they were under a spell. Only, Muggles can't do magic. Draco reminded himself. He didn't understand how they could do without it.
The restaurant seemed to be working like a well charmed clock. Waiters came in from the back door with trays of steaming hot dishes and served them to the customers hastily. A few others took orders and flailed them away to the back of the small window to the kitchen.
"Wow" Draco breathed in wonder.
"Well, it's not much but you can make do with it here. And if Adrianna butters up Joe, he may even let you stay for the nights." Charlie whispered into his ears.
Presently, Adrianna sauntered back with a very large man. He had a small French moustache and a goatee. His hair looked coifed and his eyes sparkled a melancholic blue. Draco didn't know what to make of him.
"Here's the boy, Joe. His name's Adam." Draco heard Adrianna's voice. It seemed much softer and polite now like warm butter melting on hot toast. "I'm sure he can take Freddie's place."
Joe, the middle-aged man, took a good look Draco. "Are you sure he ain't one of them Martin 'Enries?" He asked Adrianna.
"Naah, I'm sure he's just some woollyback. He says he's lost his memories. That's what papa told me." Adrianna said softly.
"Hey, I'm not a…" Draco began but was kicked on his shin so hard by Charlie that he felt his eyes burn.
"So, Adam darrafact?" Joe asked, turning to Draco. "Well, alright. Freddie was one of my best and God help him in de city of London but ye'll do."
Draco gave him a wry smile, still a little wary of the place. Muggle life wasn't going to be easy. What with no magic, he wondered how he'd be able to do anything right!
"Now remember, Adrianna's bin kin' 'nough to take the responsibility on her." Joe said suddenly. "If you're going to be doin' some fishy business, she'll be de one sendin' ye up the wall… and I wouldn't wanna be that!"
Draco looked at Adrianna. She didn't look at him anymore but gave Joe a very sweet smile. "He'll do good here Joe, I just know he will." She assured.
Then she left with Charlie and the rest without saying a word to Draco.
Joe turned with a frosty eyed look at Draco. "Now ye boy will start with cleaning up the tables."
"Cleaning?" Draco's stone grey eyes suddenly turned in the future. He could see the whole magic world laughing at him. Draco Malfoy, the waiter in some lowly pub where someone called the Beatles might've played. "Uh huh, yeah sure…."
Draco took off his blazers and began for his work. "Ah, you'd better put this on!" Joey handed him a dirty rag cloth. Draco wrinkled his nose and put on his apron.
It wasn't easy work. He had to take dirty dishes to the even dirtier kitchen and bring hot plates on a large tray while dashing into others like him. The heat of the kitchen came down on him like fire.
By the end of the day, he was more exhausted than he'd have been after a Quidditch match.
Joey gave him some fresh bread off the oven with cheese and butter. "Take some beer from the shelf there."
The other waiters had packed up and left. "Now there's Adrianna." Joey said suddenly. Draco turned to look. He had expected Charlie and the girls to be with her. But she stood all by herself in the heat of the kitchen smiling at Joey. Draco felt dirty and disgusting. He usually had girls swooning all over him. But Adrianna now saw him like nobody else ever had.
"Hey, come on up mush… the guys want to take you out to the Casbah this night." She said suddenly. "Aah yeah, the Casbah… The Beatles, man dose wer dem good times." Joey sighed out loud.
"B-but I'm…" Draco looked at his clothes. "Oh don't worry… you don't have to be some fancy Martin 'Enrie to get into the Casbah. They'll take you for the money."
"W-well, I don't have a-any." But Joey thrust a few notes into his hand. "That's yer pay fer the day."
"C'mon mush, we don't have all night!" Adrianna said loudly as she turned out.
Draco took off his apron, ruffled his hair and followed Adrianna. "Hey, I'd really like to thank you…. You know, for everything."
"Aww, you're a sweet guy!" Adrianna laughed. "Not like some of 'em others. But it's cool. You're the topic of the town now- new guy from London."
"Oh r-right."
"Say, you've been through some hard times, haven't yeh?" Adrianna said suddenly as they crossed the road over to a small door with neon lights that shone The Casbah Coffee House.
"Yes… I'd rather not talk about it."
"Oh, well that's alright." Adrianna looked away straight to the door. "We've got you."