3. NELL GWYNN HOUSE

The man-servant, slunk along in front of them and hailed a black cab. After giving the man directions and fifty pounds sterling, he bowed, or rather crouched, before Narcissa, and wandered off.

'Squibs,' Draco sneered inwardly and then sat back in the uncomfortable taxi as it drove them along Kings Road and into the heart of Chelsea. It pulled up outside what muggles would have thought of as a 1930's art-deco building complete with a crescent marble-laid entrance. Above the white marbled awning stood a statue of Nell Gwynn herself, and it was HER that they were here to see.

Eleanor Gwynne, born in 1650, she had been a particularly powerful witch in her day and one of the first dark witches to have an open affair with a muggle. Naturally, as the long-standing mistress of King Charles II in a time when magic was by and large isolated to pure bloods, she was unusually powerful in both worlds. After her death at the age of thirty seven, her ghost had taken to haunting various buildings throughout Chelsea.

Narcissa, in particular, sought her advice from the time of her engagement to Lucius, and much preferred the grand marble entrance to the Nell Gwynn house to the pokey and cramped accommodations that were offered at the Leaky Cauldron.

"Eleanor haunts this building because of how the Shurffle-Hopkinnics spelled her name," Luna informed a tall vapid looking blonde sitting in the foyer.

Draco gave the woman an apologetic nod and walked over and taking Luna by the elbow, marched her unceremoniously up to suite number 636 where she happily began crossing wires in the muggle eclectircitaly (or whatever the wretched) system was called.

Draco felt his pocket grow hot, and pulled out the mirror, which reflected Blaise's tanned face, rather than his own, fair features. Zabini's sneer in miniature had the unnerving effect of making his eyes appear even more slanted than usual.

"WHAT," hissed Draco as he stalked down the hall away from Luna's room and the memory that they had so recently fought opposite to one another.

"Just thought you'd like to know that Flint just escorted in a few of the Gryffs who look surprisingly tame… more than usual, that is," Zabini added as a nasty afterthought and snickered at his own cruel wit.

The young Malfoy's eyes flashed with something unrecognizable before he slipped the mirror into his pocket, giving Blaise nothing more than a view of a Drooble's gum wrapper and the tip of a broken quill. Zabini, having lost sight of Narcissa, who had fallen deep into conversation with Eleanor's ghost, ducked into the men's loo to wait for his fellow Slytherin.

Draco quickened his pace down to the dungeons to meet his mother and Zabini, passing the blonde woman that Luna had alarmed. Taking careful pains to not meet her stare he marched purposefully past the insipid woman and ducked into the WC. He watched her pass through a small crack in the wooden door. Exhaling for the first time since he put away the two way mirror, he backed up and trod sharply on Zabini's toes.

"What the BLOODY hell was THAT for," roared Blaise as Draco spun around and promptly hexed him, glueing his cousin's tongue to the roof of his mouth.

"Shut is Zabini! Do you WANT my mum to hear you, or would you like for US to hear what it is that SHE has to say?" Draco gave him a withering look and Blaise could do little but scowl back. Both boys were so busy glowering at one another that they failed to notice the soft humming of Luna until she was standing between them with a look of absentminded amusement on her face.

Blaise tried to bark at her which resulted in a fabulous (although soundless) impersonation of a seal. Luna giggled and performed the countercurse wordlessly which cought both boys off-guard. Blaise had simply begun vocalizing every thought that came into his head and Draco, at who Luna had unintentionally been pointing a finger at Draco who bit his lip sharply and gasped.

Stomping his foot in fury, pain, and sheer determination to one-up Blaise, Draco pounded the slated floor until the pain had subsided and a small whoosh came from an archway that had folded up into the mirror. Without so much as batting an eyelash, Luna climbed up onto the sink and crouched in the opening and slid out of sight… leaving two perplexed Slytherin boys in her wake.

Check 'WORDS TO THE WISE' for updated A/Ns