Ok here I go again with another chapter.


In six months

The changes in Draco at first were so subtle. He didn't buy much the first few weeks of being paid and he gave as much as his mum would let him to her, but there were small things, almost unnoticeable. Bands round him wrist, some gel in his hair, a new bag. To anyone else it was insignificant, but to Draco they were all milestones. He had the power to change himself, with his new financial backing he could try and fight back the taunts of 'tramp' and 'poor boy', but not yet, he needed self belief before he could do that.

It was three weeks before Draco brought anything of substantial monetary value. As he walked into the small skate shop in Heathfield Draco felt an odd sort of power, he could buy things now, for himself, with his own money, anything he wanted. Moving to the shoe section he stared at the wall of trainers. A black pair with white stripes caught his eye, as he picked them up he was approached by an assistant.

"Want to try them? What size are you?" She asked brightly.

"Umm, yeah. Size 11. Please." Draco replied as he sat down.

It all passed too quickly for Draco and soon he was standing at the counter taking out notes from his new wallet to pay for his new trainers.

"Thank you, have good day." The assistant said just as brightly.

Draco looked away from his box of trainers to her, she smiled at him.

"Yeah, err Thanks." He mumbled and turned and walked out of the shop with a smile on his face.

It was Saturday and Draco was working, he hurriedly made his way back to the café with his bag in his happiness forgetting to get himself some lunch.

"Hey dude, what you brought?" Blaise called to him as he walked back in to the café.

"Trainers." Draco said grinning.

" 'bout bloody time." Blaise said, earning him a poisonous glare from Angela.

"I swear your old ones are going to fall apart in the next few minutes." Blaise said laughing.

Draco rolled his eyes and went to the staff room, he put his box carefully in to his locker, making sure it was locked he pulled off his battered hoody and tied on his apron. Working Saturdays was generally quite fun, he, Blaise and two waitresses Draco had never spoken to worked in the restaurant from 9 till 6 with an hours break each for lunch. It was a long shift, but neither Blaise or Draco minded as, in truth, they didn't really have anything better to do. They laughed and joked with each other and teased Angela and the regular customers. The three old women Draco had served on his first shift came back regularly and loudly commented on the two young 'boys' serving them.

Working in the café had helped Draco in more ways than he could imagine. Not only had it given him a source of finance, it helped him gain confidence. He had to deal with customers for hours on end every shift. He had to be friendly. He had to deal with the customers when he got orders wrong. Most of the time they were fine about errors on bills and such, but you got the odd couple who were very bitchy about it. Draco had to learn to deal with these people, to stand up for himself when they were wrong, and gracefully accept the truth when he had made a mistake. The change in Draco's confidence was noticeable, he met peoples eyes when he spoke to them and he walked with his head up and only stared at the floor when he walked past Harry's gang, who still took every opportunity to bully him when they could.

After closing up for the night Draco and Blaise walked to the bus stop through the high street. Passing a music shop Draco stopped to stare through the window.

"Ok Draco we do this every week." Blaise whined.

"Shut up." Draco said lazily.

Draco was staring at the brightly coloured electric guitars hanging in the window. His mum had taught him to play a beaten up old acoustic guitar of hers when he was very young and he still played. He wanted an electric guitar though.

"I'm going to buy one. Not right now, obviously. But I'm going to save up and buy one." Draco said firmly.

"Sounds like a plan." Blaise said. "Hey we should set up a band, you know I play bass."

"Yeah just the two of us." Draco laughed.

Blaise scowled at him.

"We'd have to find a drummer, and a singer of course, dummy."

"What makes you think I can't sing?" Draco asked.

Blaise sniggered.

"Shut up."

"Come on Dray, you're good enough. I'm, well, I'm pretty good, ish." Blaise cajoled.

"I'll think about it." Draco conceded.


As Draco opened the door in to his house he noticed that only the lights in the kitchen were on, it was strange because his mum should be home, therefore most of the downstairs lights should be on. He flicked on the corridor lights and put his shoes down in the hall.

"Mum?" He called.

He walked into the kitchen, slight feelings of worry creeping in to his mind. As he turned he saw his mum, she was lying on the floor, it looked like she had fainted.

"Mum! Shit! Mum!" He shouted.

He ran over to her and checked she was breathing, she was but it was very shallow. Draco knew he couldn't move her, he didn't know what had happened, she might have had a seizure or something. Running to the phone he dialled for an ambulance. Then sat holding his mums had until they arrived.

Sitting in the back of the ambulance Draco was in shock. This had never happened before, he knew it might, but it had never happened. The paramedics had said that it looked like his mum had fainted, but they couldn't be sure why so she needed to go to hospital for tests to be taken. She still hadn't come round. At the hospital, doctors took a lot of blood tests and waited for her to regain consciousness. Around three in the morning her eyes opened groggily.

"Where am I?" She croaked.

Draco was instantly alert.

"It's OK mum, you're in the hospital, you must have fainted. Don't worry, I'll just go and get a doctor."

Draco stayed at the hospital at his mums side all day on Sunday despite her protests that she was 'fine really, he could go home and do homework or something.' Late in the afternoon a doctor came to see them, he had the test results.


Draco came in late to college on Monday. He walked into English and sat at his place without a word to anyone. The teacher glared at him but carried on talking about the theme of love in Much Ado About Nothing. Draco was oblivious. He paid no attention to the teacher and for once he just sat and completely ignored Hermione and her sniffs of disapproval and sideward glances laced with irritation of him being there.

Pulling out his notebook he began to doodle. Over the front and back page words were written, over and over. At the end of the lesson Draco picked up his bag and left, he forgot his notebook. Hermione looked at it, sighed, picked it up and began to follow him. She stopped as she saw the doodles and began to read them. She didn't understand, the same phrase was repeated over and over. It ran all over the front and back covers and crisscrossed over each other. It said:

"In six months"

Again and again and again.


I hope people understand that last bit. A bit fillerish in places but it all needs to be there. Review review :D btw, havent actually proof read this so please ignore any mistakes, or tell me about them and i'll fix them. J.