((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))

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Chapter Three

"Because nobody knows
That's how I nearly fell
Trading clothes
And ringing Pavlov's bell
History shows -- but rarely shows it well
Well,
well,
well...…"

Aimee Mann - Pavlov's Bell

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"Wait, don't tell me, I interrupted a lovers tryst?" Nott pulled a seat out from under the table and sat down without being invited, pulling a hip flask from his inside pocket he took a drink before replacing it and grinning at his two former roommates. "I take it your not pleased to see me?"

Being 'not pleased' to see Theodore Nott was somewhat of a massive understatement for Draco, although Blaise had expected him to show himself up at some point, he wasn't too happy to see him either, especially since the age-old gay jokes seemed to have sprung to the service almost immediately once again. Blaise saw Draco's eyes narrow and his fist start to clench and knew he had better pipe-up before hexes started flying between the two old enemies, a bar room brawl was the last thing Draco's already bruised public reputation needed, despite how much he might want to hex the sneaky fucker into oblivion himself.

"What are you doing here Nott?" Blaise raised his eyebrows. It was better to get the conversation started before the inevitable enmity between the three of them went from the simmering seethe to a boiling all out argument, if Nott would allow him.

"I came to antagonise you two, why else do you think I'd be here?" To this, Blaise sighed, there never had been any winning with Nott and there never would, best he could do was attempt to keep attempting to keep the peace, at least as long as the banter remained fairly mild, playing into the role of middle child fairly well, considering he had no natural siblings and was in fact older than the other two. It had never been secret that Draco and Blaise could not stand Nott and never could, making their minds up about him early on in their Hogwarts career that since he would never go along with their plans, he could not be their friend and had forced not only exclusion but also the isolation on the son of Darius Nott, one of the oldest living Deatheaters.

To any outsider, who may have glanced into the corner at the three men who appeared to be locked in conversation, it may have been a strange sight. Nott, with his almost black hair, slicked back from his face, his stringy frame hidden beneath ill-fitting clothes which were as cheap as they looked, his skin showed the signs of a poor complexion during adolescence, his sharp green eyes often gave piercing looks to those who vexed him.

Draco's pale skin and almost white blonde hair, was fairly long and well conditioned and tied back in a pony tail at the nape of his neck to keep it out of his face when he played quidditch, the decision to grow his hair long had been one taken with much enthusiasm from his mother, his grey eyes were another inheritance from his father. His clothes were slightly loose but well suited to him; they obviously had cost more than a handful of galleons and were very different to those of Notts. Although Blaise often teased him for being 'skinny' and his mother fretted him that he never ate enough, his arms were toned as well as his body, but in turn for Blaise's teasing of his slim frame, he teased Blaise for his well-built one.

Blaise was the most starkly contrasted to the other two, he had no hair, he had gotton into the habit from being fairly young of keeping his head either shaven or a very close crop, Draco insisted it was to prevent his afro growing through again, something which Blaise denied to the death had ever existed in the first place. Unlike the other two, he was broad shouldered, with well muscled arms and legs and a well defined torso, sometimes visible under the snug fitting shirts he wore to his wife's delight and sometimes insistence. His skin was naturally dark, but since he spent much of the good weather outdoors his skin often darkened even more during this time, his eyes were of such a dark brown, they appeared black unless you were up very close.

Even with their physical differences, any fool could see their personalities clashed more often than not, of course since Draco and Blaise were life long friends, they had ganged up more than once on Nott, playing pranks on him and teasing him, not in the jesting way they would with each other but sometimes in a fairly overly malicious way. One of the cruellest and longest running practical jokes which Nott had suffered at the hands of the pair had involved the stealing of a photo album he thought he had hidden better. Along with photos of his mother when she had been alive, were one or two of places he had been taken as a boy, a couple of he and his father and one which had led to some of the most painful taunts he had ever had to endure. He had gone to a relative's house for a week during the school holidays, the only relatives he had aside from his father whom were living and they lived on a farm. One crisp morning, his third cousin once removed, had teased him and they had jokingly chased the chickens around the hen coup, she had snapped a picture of him catching one of the chickens as it tried to flap out of his grip, since she had been very pretty he had let her and he had kept the photograph as a reminder of a rare pleasant memory. It hadn't been until the 'rich boys,' as he called them, had gotten hold of it, did he realise the unnatural act it could be viewed as if you looked at it from a certain way. He had been Nott the chicken fucker for three solid years after that, he had found feathers tarred to his bed, he had been sent raw and live chickens through the owl post on various occasions, one of the first years had accidentally coined a rhyme which on occasion, Blaise and Draco took to singing in unison in the common room, Nott had never set foot within 200 yards of his cousins farm again, mores the pity as it had been one place he had actually been allowed to have a little fun. But even with that in consideration, Nott had often given as good as he had got, he hadn't earned the nickname 'Captain Sneaky' by accident. As they sat in the rickety wooden chairs in the corner of the pub, Draco and Blaise had no idea to the kind of extent Nott would go to, to pay back the two for their childhood taunting and by the time they had found out, it was too late.

Nott looked away from Blaise and turned his attention to Draco, Blaise had always tried to be the peacekeeper, he had always stepped in when things had gone too far and fighting had broken out, Nott didn't want the peace keeping tonight, he wanted to wind the brass key in Draco's side and watch him get slowly, more and more irked by his verbal mocking, after all Draco's private life had been the subject of much gossip in the social circles of wizarding England, although most people chose not to bring it up when he was actually in the room.

"So Malfoy…" Nott sneered at the pale, blonde haired half of his two ex roommates. "I heard that the Queen Bee finally came to her senses and left the hive. What happened? Did she finally find someone to pollinate her?"

Blaise did not bother to lean over the table and grab Draco's wrist to intercept the punch which hit Nott square on the jaw, he was quite glad to see the cocky bugger get the smirk knocked off his face. He sat back quietly in his chair, not even wincing as Draco launched into what was a small tirade considering some of the blow outs he had been witness to over the years. "Fuck you Nott! And you can stop fucking referring to Pansy as that while your at it. You think you're bloody clever? Waltzing in here with your cheap shots and cheaper haircut? Why don't you just tell us why you're here then go back to the rock you crawled out under of?"

Nott rose his left hand and held it to the side of his face almost as soon as the resounded 'Thwack!' sound had come from Draco's clenched fist connected with his jaw, it ached straight away and he worried for a spilt second that the bone had broken although after the first few throbs had died down he realised it wasn't. If looks could kill, his certainly said 'Avada Kedavra' he had been prepared for a not-so-eloquent rant from the dragon, he had not been so, for a fist slamming into the side of his face, that had been a mistake he shouldn't have made in the first place in underestimating the shortness of Draco's temper. He guessed the pollination comment had gone a step too far.

He growled slightly, a sound uncannily developed unconsciously by almost all boy who lived in the Slytherin house over the years, and he stood to his feet. "I came here to remind you two; that you both have something I want and I will have, I was going to be lenient and give you two weeks to get things together, but since you've made it all to apparent that you don't favour my company, I'll make it five days instead."

Draco narrowed his eyes even further. "Don't be so sodding ridiculas Nott, you know that we don't have the third piece and you know that we don't know where she is." He picked up his glass, necking the contents, he was so angry, but glad that Blaise had chosen not to intervene when he had hit Nott or he had the feeling he might have hit Blaise as well in temper.

"That Malfoy, is not my problem." He stuffed his hand in his back pocket and pulled out a rolled up magazine which he threw onto the table, it rolling out a little flatter but still half curled as its spine hit the wooden top of the table. "A parting gift…." Sneering again at the pair, he turned on his heels and stalked out of the pub, muttering things under his breath the whole way.

Draco glanced down at the glossy front of the magazine, the unmistakable font spelled out the words; 'The Quibbler' at the top in white letters, the main cover of the magazine being a pale blue colour with, to Draco's annoyance and Blaise's dismay, knowing that it was only going to make him more angry, a large photograph of Draco on the cover, probably a stock publicity shot from the Thrushes PR office., along with the large printed letters of the magazines main article: 'Draco Malfoy - The Truth about his involvement with underground troll breeding.' Blaise winced as Draco swore loudly, apparently, they hadn't obliviated enough people at the Bulstrode Party….

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Authors notes:

Thank you for taking the time to read chapter three, please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better.

I know I promised more explanation in chapter three, but I had an epiphany about 3 paragraphs into this chapter and I think I can get this done in about 11 chapters more. It sounds a lot I know but it suddenly came to me how I was going to get from where I was to where I wanted to be. Chapter four will be along very soon, I'm going to say right now I don't know if the next part will be one chapter or three, I am trying to keep each chapter to around 2000 words so it's not too much in one go so I am going to cross my fingers and hope I can coherently convey the next bit of the story without going off on too much of a tangent.

The next chapter will be very important though so please keep reading and thank you very much to those who have been reading along. At this point I would really like to thank Sugar, Mira and Lou for reading the chapters as I've been going along and their encouragement. It really helped guys. Also namelessxfreakand MalindaBeatle, thanks for leaving reviews, you rock.

I would also like to thank anyone who read all this waffle. Go you…. claps I have had far too much caffeine and it's left me unable to stop writing all of this.

Once again please leave a review if you've read this far, I'm getting the chapters out fairly quickly but I love to hear what people think.

MWAHS to those who know who they are!