A/N: I apologise profusely for the long wait. I'll be honest, had a lot of trouble with this chapter, and did a lot of editing before I felt it was ready. Hopefully what you've been left with is worth the wait! Please also see the end for some LONG overdue, personal thank yous!
Draco was dreaming. In his dream, he was walking through Malfoy Manor. The house was dark and quiet, and he was alone. Pictures of ancestors, which had always lined the walls of the manor, were blurred and he couldn't make out their faces. He was aware he was looking for something for the Dark Lord. He had no idea what this was, but he knew he had to find it quickly. Only, the further he walked, the more he realised that there was something wrong. The corridors made no sense, they kept changing - lefts where there should be rights, rooms from the ground floor now up on the first. He started to panic - how was he going to find what he was looking for if he couldn't find his way around?! He started running through the corridors, which seemed to go on forever, twisting around on each other in impossible ways. He turned a corner and suddenly, up ahead, was the Room of Requirement. He ran inside, the door closing behind him, and found himself in the Room of Hidden Things. He began to weave between the various piles of objects, when a voice called out to him.
"Draco! Over here!"
He turned; Astoria was stood there, her hair wild and windswept, a look of terror written across her face.
"Draco! Quickly! He's going to find us! We have to go!"
And immediately Draco wasn't looking for something for the Dark Lord, he was running from him. He hurried over to Astoria, grabbing her arms in his.
"Quick, in here!" she said, and he realised they were next to the vanishing cabinet. They opened the doors just as he heard the door to the Room of Requirement open, and knew without looking that it was the Dark Lord.
They stepped inside, Draco still holding onto Astoria's arm, closing the doors behind them. Only nothing happened. Why wasn't it working?! They were still there, and Draco could hear the Dark Lord coming closer and closer. The cabinet was completely black, he could see only a slip of light from the crack in the door, hear the panicked breaths of himself and Astoria as he comes closer.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"He's in here!" Astoria suddenly shouted, banging loudly on the cupboard walls, and Draco whipped his head around to look at her, shocked and confused.
Only, it wasn't Astoria anymore, it was the face he'd never forget; Muggle Studies professor, Charity Burbidge, and she stared at him, her eyes burning through him.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"He's in here, oh Dark Lord, come and find him!" she snarled, her hate-filled eyes never leaving his face, and Draco could hear the footsteps getting closer and closer, he was almost there, the cupboard door started to open-
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Draco woke with a start, realising after a few moments that someone was knocking on the front door of the house.
He opened the door to his room just in time to see Astoria disappearing down the stairs, wrapping herself in a dark pink dressing gown as she went. After finding his own dressing gown, Draco followed, Astoria's voice becoming clearer as he descended.
"I'm sorry," she said, evidently trying not to laugh, "You're the what?"
"I'M THE BROCCOLI MAN, OF COURSE, WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUY SOME?" A loud, male voice replied in a strong Welsh accent.
"I...I erm..." Astoria stuttered.
"It's the best produce, fresh from the ministry!" said the man in a much more contained voice.
"Fresh from the..? Oh! Of course, I should have known. Come in, come in!" said Astoria, stepping aside and letting the man through the doorway.
As soon as the man came into view, Draco realised what Astoria just had; he must be from the Ministry of Magic. This was partly due to the clue he'd just given in his last sentence, but was mostly because he was in such a bizarre assortment of clothes that even Draco knew he couldn't possibly be a muggle. He wore a strange hat that seemed to have a small umbrella attached to the top, a pair of sunglasses moulded in the shape of a tropical island, a lime green shirt which he had tied in the middle rather than doing up the buttons, and a tutu. On his feet was a pair of oversized purple slippers in the shape of cats. He also held in his hands a large box full of broccoli. Draco felt that his own blunder in the world of muggle clothing was rather minimal in comparison.
"Sorry about that Miss, got to keep in character you know, can't be too careful. I'm Mervyn, I work in the Auror office. Been asked to come here today just for the implementation of a few protective enchantments, as they're as you might say, my particular area of expertise. Now I can't say they're foolproof, but a stronger anti-hex charm you will not find on this side of the border, if I do say so myself," said Mervyn proudly, holding on to the front of his shirt with both his hands and causing it to gape strangely.
"Now I'll cast a few on the place, and then I'll just have a quick word with you about the possibility of using some more powerful magic," he said, before turning towards the now closed front door and taking out his wand (which had been concealed in the box of broccoli), and began muttering incantations.
Astoria turned to Draco, a contained grin on her face, and subtly gestured towards the kitchen, which was the furthest point from the front door in the house. Draco followed her, and as soon as they reached their destination he could not help but whisper,
"Please tell me I looked slightly less ludicrous than that."
Astoria almost doubled over in silent laughter, and Draco couldn't help but be slightly pleased with himself that he'd made her laugh on purpose for once.
"I can't believe that nobody with a bit more sense told him what he looks like!" she said once her giggles had subsided.
"Oh, I don't know, not sure I would've either," said Draco with a sly smile.
Astoria grinned back at him, and the gold in her eyes sparkled.
This kind of pleasant interaction had so far been a rarity; more often than not, Draco and Astoria were at odds, or at best enduring awkward and stilted conversation. With no real objective beyond waiting for the Ministry to allow him to leave, Draco found himself at a loose end. He was free in a way that he had not been in many years, but he was also completely unprepared to deal with any and all feelings about his recent past, and what he was going to do (or, more likely, what was going to be done with him) after this temporary confinement.
As a result, Draco needed distraction, desperately, and with little else to occupy himself would usually be found following Astoria around like a lost puppy. To her credit, Astoria never told him outright to leave her alone, but neither did she appear wholly comfortable with his company. At times, she would be happy (or, at least, politely cooperative enough) to show him a muggle device or form of entertainment, whilst at other times becoming guarded and defensive, shutting off the device and asking him brusquely what he wanted. He supposed he did not help matters himself; his automatic response of sneering distain at anything muggle was difficult to avoid, and it was obvious that Astoria felt this to be a personal attack. As neither of them was particularly keen to examine the reasons behind their own reactions, this usually resulted in the exchange of a few sharp words, followed by a tense silence.
More pleasant exchanges like now had so far happened only a few times before. The first, and the most memorable, had been when Astoria had first seen Draco making smoke animals with his wand.
This had been a private habit of his for a long time; in fact, the spell for this particular trick had been one of the first he'd ever learnt. He had learnt it in his first year, idly leafing through a book he'd found in the library. He had thought it to contain dark magic, initially, due to its title: Magic of the Shadows. He should have known, of course, that this was unlikely, given that it wasn't even in the restricted section. However, it wasn't until he got it back to his room that he came to realise that it was simply a small book about amusing spells based on shadows or shadow-like substances. Nevertheless, with little else to do (Crabbe and Goyle had gotten themselves into detention with McGonagall for god-knows-what), Draco had looked through the book anyway, hoping to find something interesting.
He wasn't sure why he stopped at the Smoke Creature Spell, but he had been somehow intrigued by it. The creatures made were nothing like a Patronus; these were much smaller, more wispy, and made of a dark-coloured smoke which rolled and curled in a way unlike the bright solidness of a full Patronus. The caster was also able to create more than one creature at once, which would then interact - play, fight, comfort one another; all manner of interactions were possible. The spell proved both an easy one to master and one which Draco came back to time and time again, especially when he needed time away from his thoughts.
Draco had been up early one morning a few days after his arrival, having slept badly, and had come down to sit in the living room. It was not long until he had fallen back on his old pastime.
"Wow that's...amazing," said a voice behind him, and Draco turned to see Astoria, dressed in a long turquoise skirt and a beige blouse decorated in a light floral pattern, and staring in wonder at the smoke animals.
He had made two foxes, who were currently circling each other in a playful manner.
"Oh, it's just a little amusement, you know..." said Draco, slightly self-conscious.
"I...forgot how much I missed it," said Astoria, coming up to stand next to the sofa, watching as one of the foxes jumped over the other before turning to chase it.
"Missed what?" asked Draco.
"Missed magic," she said, and her smile was wide, warm and lovely, even if there was a hint of sadness in her eyes.
"Well, that's that," came Mervyn's lilting voice again, breaking Draco's reverie, "so, a fidelius charm, what do you think?"
"I..uh..." stumbled Astoria, a slight flush staining her cheeks.
"Oh I do apologise Miss, my mistake," said Mervyn good-naturedly, "A fidelius charm means that this location is unplottable, meaning nobody can reveal, find or even see its location. Only those who already know your address, or who are told it by the Secret Keeper can find it. Now, I have to tell you that historically the fidelius charm has been rather...dangerous to the Secret Keeper. But in this case I'd say it's pretty low risk, if you even choose to use it at all."
Astoria turned to Draco, her eyebrow raised in question, and Draco shrugged noncommittally. He would never admit as much, of course, but the notion that the fidelius charm was even being considered made him feel tense and slightly queasy. Was he really still in so much danger? He'd thought his time in 'hiding' might be drawing to a close quite soon, but it seemed that quite the opposite was true.
"Well I guess it sounds...okay?" said Astoria, after a long pause.
"Brilliant! Well, as you're the most obvious and convenient choice, are you happy to be the Secret Keeper?" said Mervyn.
"Can you even be a Secret Keeper?" said Draco before he could stop himself.
"Of course I can, Draco. Magic works on everyone, even muggles - surely you would know that," snapped Astoria.
"Yes, I suppose I would," spat Draco, before storming back up the staircase to his room.
"Shit, I didn't mean..."
Draco heard her say as he closed the door to his room with a bang. The dream from that morning was still fresh in his mind, taking him back to that time in the manor. Only now he was remembering all the muggles too - the ones the Dark Lord had killed, the ones he'd taken back to the manor to torture. Even worse, when Bellatrix tortured them, and there was no place in the house that their screams couldn't be heard...
A few hours later, Draco decided that he could no longer stand to remain in his room. He had started at every crack, ripple, and piece of blistered paint on the entirety of the walls and ceiling, had closed and opened each set of drawers on this sideboard at least three times, and had made smoke-animals with his wand until he couldn't think of another one. None of it had helped him take his mind off his memories, and the longer he spent in his room, the more ridiculous he felt for having stormed off in the first place. It was obvious that he'd touched a nerve with his comment, and as Astoria herself had claimed, she probably hadn't meant what she said in the way he'd taken it. Besides which, a delicious smell of cooking was beginning to waft under the door, and Draco was beginning to feel very hungry.
Before he could change his mind, Draco left his room and wandered downstairs, finding himself back in the kitchen, where Astoria was stirring a pot of soup on the stove. They stood in silence for a while, Astoria never looking up from her spoon and Draco watching as the ripples moved slowly over the surface of the rich red liquid.
"So I agreed to the fiddly-us charm, or whatever it's called. Guess I'm a Secret Keeper now, hopefully won't be too much of a bother, though I guess that's it for impromptu house parties. Not that you could fit more than five people in here anyway. Um, you can have some of this soup if you want, it's just tomato and from a tin, but it's pretty nice. And, er, sorry."
Astoria's conversation was so meandering that he almost missed the last part entirely.
"Me too. For the soup I mean! I mean I'll have the same as you, the soup," blundered Draco.
He hadn't meant the soup at all, and he wished he was able to make himself say so. Astoria handed him a steaming bowl and a spoon, a gentle smile on her face, but said no more.
A/N: Man, although I had a lot of trouble with this chapter, there were some bits that flowed really naturally and I really enjoyed writing. Also, I hope you liked Mervyn at least a little bit because I have a little bit of a soft spot for him and he'll probably be appearing again at some point :)
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