Chapter Two: Warning

Whipping around he stared in shock. Sitting on the floor against the wall were two girls. One was scared half to death by the sight of himself and Draco. She clung to the other girl like she was her life line. The only other thing he could clearly see about her was a mass of curly brown hair. The other girl with brown eyes stared at him, her long red hair catching the moonlight, her eyes filled with terror.

For a moment nobody moved. Green eyes clashed with brown. Until something bright in the girl's hands caught his eye… A cell phone. In the distance he heard the noise of sirens, getting nearer and nearer with each passing second. Quickly looking around for something heavy, Harry picked up a chair sitting nearby and hit one of the windows with as much force as he could muster. The noise of glass shattering upon impact with the chair caused the brown haired girl to start screaming wildly.

Flinging the chair to the side he pushed Draco in front of him towards the window. Draco, getting the hint, scrambled out. Harry moved up to it and looked over towards the two girls again. The last thing he saw were a pair of bright brown eyes before he pulled himself through the window and ran as fast as his feet could carry him.

Hopping into the car, Harry turned on the ignition and slammed his foot on the gas. Heading up the street and making a sharp turn he went as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the sirens. After a good fifteen minutes and not hearing anymore sirens for a while, Harry pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the car.

Still breathing heavily and heart pounding fiercely against his chest Harry took a look at Draco. His face was pale and he too was bringing in ragged breaths. His eyes held something akin to shock as though he couldn't believe what had just happened. He was staring straight ahead of him, through the windshield.

Feeling a bout of anger rising inside of him, Harry turned towards Draco.

"What the hell happened to them being on a trip?"

Coming out of his stupor Draco looked at Harry and nearly winced at the withering glare coming from his friend… He had fucked up.

"I don't know. I mean, they… they were suppose to be gone!"

"Well they bloody well weren't were they? What the hell were you thinking Draco? Thought you were good enough to take the reins now?"

Feeling a need to defend himself Draco turned to glare at Harry.

"Hey! I could…" But Harry didn't let him finish his sentence.

"No Draco, you couldn't. You wouldn't be able to make decisions that would possibly get us caught or maybe even cost us our lives! You simply panic. You don't think ahead. You weren't careful tonight! You told me they were gone Draco. I'm not too keen on getting caught again. It's idiotic moves like this that got me thrown into juvi in the first place!"

"So that's what this is? You're blaming me for getting you chucked into juvi? If you would have just let me pull you up the damn escape we could have run and you wouldn't of have been caught!"

Harry turned away from Draco and ran a hand through his hair. An action he always did when he was nervous or stressed. The car remained silent for a minute until Harry finally spoke.

"Look," He said facing Draco, "Tonight was a mess. Just… just let me do the planning from now on alright?" A crooked grin began to form on his face. "You're too damn greedy about what could be in the house to think straight."

Draco's mouth twitched slightly as he fought off a smile.

"I guess you're right. Better left in the hands of the master then eh?"

Chuckling slightly Harry pulled the bag they had filled with their findings into his lap.

"You mind driving? I want to take a look at everything we've got in here." Harry said motioning to the bag.

"Sure." Draco replied looking quickly inside of the bag. Pulling out the two laptops they had stolen from the house he said, "Let me put these in the trunk quick, then we can be on our way." As Draco left the car, Harry jumped over to the passenger seat and opened the bag.

Rummaging around through the items they had thrown in, he decided that this had been a total bust. Not one thing in this bag would sell for very much. Shifting through it some more he finally found something worth while. The locket.

Pulling it out he ran a finger along the cool surface of it. They could probably get about three hundred dollars for the necklace. He admired the locket for a few more seconds until he noticed a small latch on the side of it. Opening it up he saw a picture of a family. A rather large one at that.

There were nine people, each varying in age. In the middle was an older couple whom he assumed were the parents. Both had warm, kind smiles on their faces. Surrounding the parents were seven people he believed were the couple's kids. Every person in the picture had red hair, although the shades differed in color slightly. Freckles adorned the faces of everyone, some having more than others.

The thing that drew his attention the most though was a girl sitting in front of her father. She was the girl he had "met" in the robbery… he could remember those eyes anywhere. She had long auburn hair, and a light layer of freckles were dotted perfectly on her face, covering her cheekbones and the bridge of her nose. She wore a friendly smile, her face alight with joy. The thing he fancied most about her though were her eyes. They held an excited, fiery spark within them.

He was so absorbed in the picture that he didn't notice Draco had returned until he heard the car door slam shut with Draco sitting beside him.

Putting the car in drive and cranking on the tunes Draco asked, "Anything good left in there?"

"No," Harry said quickly. Glancing one last time at the locket he quietly slipped it inside of his pocket, "Nothing really."

Shrugging and mentioning something about being hungry, Draco sped off into the night to return home.

--

Turning over onto his back once again, Harry stared up at the ceiling. He just couldn't sleep. Sighing he rolled over onto his side and turned on the lamp. Harry looked to make sure the door was locked and listen for any sounds within the flat that would signify that his friend was awake. After hearing total silence for a good three minutes, Harry opened the drawer to his nightstand and started pulling on a long golden chain.

Settling back into the pillows, he held the golden heart shaped locket in his hands. He played with it for a few seconds before feeling something chiseled in the back of it. Flipping the locket over Harry saw there was an engravement in slanted, looped writing that spelt the words 'Always and Forever'.

Opening the locket back up he continued to gaze at the picture of the redheaded family and of course one person in particular. She was beautiful and something about her and her family comforted him. Snuggling further into the bed Harry continued to stare at the nameless girl until his eyelids began to get heavy. Harry eventually succumbed to sleep, dreaming of the mysterious redhead, a small smile on his face.

--

"Damn, we didn't get anything good!" Draco said for the millionth time, slamming his fist on the counter.

Harry sighed and took another sip of his drink. Draco and him were sitting at the old wooden counter of Max's, their favorite bar. Draco was in the middle of another rant about what a complete waste the other night had been for them. He had more than a few beers in him which made the conversation even more painful to listen to.

The atmosphere here was dull and quiet. Max's was filled with the smell of smoke and musty air. It was a pretty simple bar. The floor was covered in a dark green carpet that looked as though it had seen better days. The walls were painted a maroon color and the paint had began peeling some time ago.

As you walked in the door to the right was a long counter with barstools sitting underneath it. There were also a couple dining tables, pool tables, and some dart boards spread out in the dimly light building.

Behind the counter, there were many ancient bottles filled with various types of alcohol from all sorts of different places. Dust was collecting on most of them, as people only drank what was popular.

"Hey…" Draco started, thinking thoughtfully. "What about that locket? It'd be a healthy chunk of money, eh?"

"Um…" Harry had to think of a lie quickly. He couldn't let Draco get a hold of it and sell it. For an unknown reason, words of illusion spewed out of his mouth. "It wasn't in the bag, I must have dropped it. Either that or it fell out when we were making our escape."

Draco nodded, completely oblivious of the lie that just came from his best friend's mouth. "Well, maybe next time will be better."

"Yeah," Harry agreed carefully, taking another sip from his drink.

As he put down his beer, a commotion was heard at the door. They both turned to see what all the ruckus was about, and discovered it was Michael Corner and Zacharias Smith being rather obnoxious. Harry simply turned and groaned, while taking another swig of beer. He thought he'd probably need it if they were to come over, but tried not to draw attention to himself. Draco though, being more than a bit drunk, made a much louder, and much more verbal comment at the sight of them.

"What in the hell are those bloody gits doing here?" Draco demanded rather loudly drawing the attention of the two boys near the door.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the famous Harry Potter and his sidekick Draco Malfoy."

Harry took a look at the two idiots who had walked over towards them. Zacharias Smith was a sixteen year old, tall, skinny blonde with a look of superiority plastered on his face. He wore expensive clothing to show off his wealth, which was not achieved by successful robberies which he liked everyone to believe, but from his wealthy parents.

Michael Corner was a bit shorter than Smith reigning at five feet, seven inches. He had medium length brown hair and was sixteen also. He had the stronger build of the two but not nearly as strong as Harry or Draco. He played the part of the bodyguard in their duo whereas Smith was the brains. Although neither was very smart. Michael came from a decent family and not from the streets where he wanted everyone to think. He was just another cocky kid trying to defy his parents at every turn.

Standing up from his stool, Draco kicked it aside and spat back, "Well if it isn't the slimy, pompous, prick Zacharias Smith and his lapdog Michael Corner."

Sneering at Draco, Smith opened his mouth to make a nasty retort when Michael stepped up and pushed Draco back into the counter.

"I'm nobody's lapdog Malfoy… you better watch your tongue."

Draco's face twisted in anger as he reeled back his fist to get in a good punch. Harry, not wanting to get into anything right then, stepped in between Draco and Michael.

"Knock it off Draco, let's not get into anything right now."

Draco looked at Harry then glanced back at Michael and snorted with disgust.

"They're not worth the energy." Draco picked up his stool, sat back down and returned to chugging his drink.

Harry began to turn as well when Smith finally spoke up again, "Do you always have to fight his battles Potter? Oh right, how could I have forgotten, you wouldn't want anything to happen to your precious boyfriend would you? Now, I'm curious as to how you got along without him while you were in juvi? Did you get off yourself or have other people help you while you were in the showers?"

Harry merely raised an eyebrow in question, looking between Michael and Zach.

"Speaking from personal experience Smith?" With that he too turned around and began to drink once again.

Shaking with rage, Smith balled his hand into a fist, looking as though he would strike Harry at any given moment. Just as he began to pull his hand back to give power to the punch, a man called out from behind the counter.

"Any trouble over there?"

All four teens looked up to see Max, the burly barman and owner of Max's, glaring at Smith and Corner. Immediately Smith lowered his fist and scowled at Harry.

Hissing under his breath so that no one but Harry could hear he said, "We'll continue this later." With that he turned on his heels and headed out the door, with Michael right in toe.

Looking towards Max, Harry nodded gratefully, "Thanks for that Max, I didn't have the patience to deal with them right now."

Chuckling, Max picked up a wet glass from the counter and began to dry it.

"Anytime Harry. I know those kids seem harmless but you better watch your back just incase, they're real idiots… who knows what they might try to pull.

Draco, nodding his head in agreement, lifted his drink to his lips and whispered, "Bloody wankers," before taking another swig.

--

Author's Note: Hi everyone. Sorry about the long wait… I've been having some connection problems with my internet and haven't been able to log onto the site. Thank you to those of you who reviewed, I appreciate it. It's nice to have people give some feedback. In response to a few people who had some questions about the story let me clear up some things.

1. Yes this is a muggle story.

2. Harry and Draco are both seventeen. I mentioned it in the prologue but I realize I maybe should make that more pronounced in the next chapter. In this chapter I did say Michael and Zacharias are sixteen. I know (believe?) they are really the same age as Harry in the books but I wanted Harry to be at least a year older than the two of them.

3. I will be adding more things to the story that you may have questions about so just hang tight, I'll get to it eventually. And if I don't eventually answer questions you have, tell me and I'll try to add it into the story.

8 more reviews and I'll update the next chapter!