Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Harry Potter owns me :D
A/N: Despite he will never read this, this chapter is dedicated to Ben without whom it would not have been written. He is the king of the all night supermarket stunt and most of the antics in here are based on his actual experiences.
As always thanks to saras_girl for her fabulous job at editing reviews of all kinds delight me :D
Chapter 7
Significantly Mundane
We do a whole lot of laughin'
At the shyness that surrounds us
I do a whole lot of looking, somewhere else
I don't need to look; no I can just feel you
Besides every time I see you
It just forces me to look at myself
Bliss like this –Ani DiFranco
Thursday, July 2nd, 1998. Grimmauld Place, London.
'I'm making tea, would you like one?' Harry asked as he pushed himself wearily from his chair and stretched languidly. Draco didn't respond, so he reached out to grip one of his toes and waggled his foot back and forth to get his attention.
Eyes wide with surprise, Draco peered over the top of his book, before pulling the headphones from his ears.
Harry grinned indulgently.
"You know, if you wanted to put some music on you could have used the stereo," he suggested, pointing to the speakers in the corner.
Draco blushed at the suggestion and struggled slightly before propping himself up on his elbows.
'I didn't want to intrude,' Draco explained and Harry rolled his eyes.
This would be the third time they'd had this conversation and Harry was incredibly moved and completely exasperated by the way Draco continued to try to disrupt Harry as little as possible. Harry wanted Draco to treat Grimmauld as his home. Still, it hadn't been very long; he hoped that he would get over it eventually.
'Draco, if you want to put music on, do so, this is your house too,' he insisted, knowing that it wouldn't be the last time he said this.
Draco pouted.
'That's all well and good, but I have no idea how to work that contraption,' he fussed.
'Come on,' he said holding out a hand, pulling Draco to his feet when it was accepted. He headed over to the stereo.
'If you'd bothered to look at it, I'm sure you could have figured it out,' Harry teased. 'But I'll show you, after all it wouldn't do for you to be afraid of something Muggle, now would it?' he finished, smirking when Draco's eyes flared with the challenge.
Draco shuffled over to stand behind him and Harry immediately began to wonder why he kept doing this to himself. Draco stood peering over Harry's shoulder and though not actually touching, he could feel the heat emanating from Draco's body whilst warm breath tickled the hairs on the back of his neck and he longed to lean back against him. Instead, he leaned forward.
'Okay, power, open,' he said, pressing the buttons as he said them. 'Disc?' He held out his hand patiently as Draco removed the CD from his personal player and put it into Harry's outstretched hand. Harry placed the disc in the tray. 'Close, play,' Harry finished, turning to face Draco as the first few chords filled the room.
'It's as easy as…' Harry stopped mid-sentence as he realised just how close he and Draco were now standing. Draco's eyes were the colour of the sea before a storm, what little he could see of them anyway, as the irises were rapidly being overtaken by the liquid black of Draco's pupils. Harry's breath caught in his chest as he gazed into Draco's eyes, feeling every bit like he was drowning.
Harry stepped back, reeling slightly, and bumped the backs of his knees against the cabinet as he tried to regain his equilibrium. He had been going to do something before all this had started, now if he could just remember what it was...
'Tea,' he announced suddenly and Draco startled slightly. 'I was going to make tea, would you like one? Harry asked, gratefully extracting himself from the gap between Draco and the stereo.
'Definitely,' Draco asserted, sounding just as relieved at the distraction as Harry felt. 'I went to make one earlier but there weren't any of those bags in the jar.'
'Ah, then we may have a problem,' Harry admitted. He checked his watch.
'Eleven twenty,' Harry muttered to himself, 'should be quite enough by now,' he asserted and headed over to the cabinet where he kept his jar of Muggle money. 'I need to do some shopping before we get any tea, I'm afraid,' he explained to Draco as he pulled several folded notes from the jar and slid them into his wallet.
'Is there anything you'd specifically like me to get whilst I'm there?' he asked, taking in Draco's confused expression.
'It's the middle of the night,' Draco pointed out and whilst Harry was tempted to offer a sarcastic reply, he realised that it wasn't a completely ridiculous observation.
'There's a twenty-four hour supermarket about fifteen minutes from here,' Harry explained and Draco's eyed widened in interest.
'Can I…' Draco flushed slightly and dropped his gaze. 'Can I come with you?' he asked tentatively, peering up at Harry through the blond strands of his fringe.
'Yeah, sure,' Harry confirmed, bemused. Heading to the hallway, he pulled on a light jacket and his trainers. 'We have to walk there, though, I'm afraid,' he called back towards the drawing room as Draco appeared. 'There aren't any safe Apparition points nearby,' he explained. Draco shrugged and pulled on his own jacket before following Harry out of the door.
They began down the street in silence. The only sounds were those of the warm summer breeze ruffling the leaves of the trees in the park opposite, and the far-off hum of traffic from a city that never truly rested.
When they reached the end of the road, Draco cleared his throat and caught Harry's attention.
'If I tell you this, you have to promise not to laugh,' Draco said cautiously, glancing sideways at him
Harry nodded and immediately began to wonder if he was going to be able to keep that promise. Often when Ron had asked him to promise not to laugh, he would then come out with something so ridiculous, Harry was left with little choice but to do what he'd sworn not to. Thoughts of Ron sobered his rather content mood and he ceased to worry if he would be able to take Draco seriously.
'I'd never thought about where food came from until just now,' Draco admitted. 'It was always just there.'
Harry looked slightly incredulous but managed not to laugh at just how spoiled Draco really was.
'Not even when we were learning about Gamp's Law in Transfiguration?' he asked, slightly bemused by Draco's confession.
'Nope, never even occurred to me,' he confirmed and then spotting that Harry was trying to suppress a smile he folded his arms and huffed slightly.
'Had you been bought up the way you were supposed to be, you wouldn't have a clue either, so I don't know what you're smirking at,' Draco said defensively.
'I know my family did okay, but they were nothing like you,' Harry chuckled slightly. 'No manor house, no house-elves,' he pointed out and watched as Draco arched an eyebrow.
'Well, not any more, no,' he conceded.
'What are you talking about?' Harry asked frowning.
'What do you mean, what am I talking about? I'm talking about your family, about the Potters,' he said, his tone picking up a touch of its old contempt, clearly thinking that Harry was being deliberately obtuse. He threw Harry another sidelong glance, picking up the look of confusion on his face.
'Merlin, you really don't know, do you? Did you never ask about your heritage?' Draco asked, disbelieving.
'I had my mind on other things,' Harry responded dryly.
'Conceded,' Draco agreed and they continued on quietly for a moment.
'Well you obviously know all about it,' reasoned Harry suddenly, 'so tell me.'
Draco's eyebrows shot up and he looked carefully at Harry.
'I only know what my father told me whilst he was drunk and banging on about the desecration of the Pure-blood families,' Draco explained. 'Your family was one of his favourite examples but the story I've heard is about as far from unbiased as it's possible to be.'
'I'll bear that in mind.' Harry nodded and then bumped Draco's arm encouragingly. 'Come on, tell me.'
Draco nodded his assent and took a deep breath.
'Well, the Potters are as old and as wealthy and, prior to your mother, as Pure-blooded as the Malfoys. Just without the mania,' Draco explained. 'From what I've been told, the Potter manor used to sit on the outskirts of Godric's Hollow.'
'Used to? Harry asked. 'Do you know what happened to it?'
'I'm getting there,' Draco scolded. 'Merlin, Harry, you really don't do patience do you?' he asked, smirking, and Harry smirked back.
'As far as I know, and this could be complete tosh as my father is far from lucid when he's drunk…'
'Lucid Lucius,' Harry muttered under his breath, drawing a quirked eyebrow and a quizzical smile from Draco. Harry smiled apologetically for the interruption.
'Well, as far as I know,' Draco began again, with a small indulgent shake of his head, 'when your father and mother left school your grandparents were still alive, so they found themselves a small house in the village. When your grandparents did die it was expected that your father would move his family into the manor but apparently, your mother objected to this idea.'
Harry considered this and nodded slightly; he could understand why his mother might be opposed to be moving into a huge manor house. The idea of moving to somewhere like Malfoy manor was unsettling to him and even Grimmauld seemed a little excessive at times.
'Anyway, I shall spare you my father's inebriated diatribes as to reasons for this, the upshot was that your father sold the manor and auctioned off the antiques, choosing to live in the home that he had made with your mother.'
'Oh,' Harry said, considering this for a moment. 'So, when you said, 'if I'd been bought up the way I was supposed to be', you weren't referring to my Mum and Dad but to my heritage?' Harry asked, and Draco blushed, looking at his feet.
'I didn't mean…' and he trailed off when Harry nudged him again.
'It's okay, I know you didn't,' Harry reassured and it was a strange thing to realise, that he really did know that Draco hadn't meant his comment insultingly.
The supermarket loomed into sight at the end of the road, all bright lights and glass panels and as they crossed the sparsely occupied car park, Harry watched as Draco's eyes grew wide with wonder. He stood back and watched as Harry released a trolley and began to steer it through the doors. Absentmindedly, Harry leaned forward over the handle and propelled himself forwards, lifting his feet and gliding through the clothes aisle towards where the CDs were.
'Hey, don't leave me!' Draco exclaimed, speeding up to catch Harry.
'Sorry,' Harry apologised, turning and waiting for him. When he caught up, he eyed the trolley suspiciously and then Harry watched, amused, as with one graceful move, Draco situated himself inside it.
'Now you can't leave me behind,' he stated matter-of-factly 'Now, onwards!' He pointed forward and Harry hastened to comply, leaning into Draco and propelling them both down the aisle.
They'd managed to accumulate a handful of CDs and all the necessary fruit and veg, before the trolley became so full that it no longer served as a suitable chariot. Draco placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and fluidly climbed from his vehicle. Pet food was next, and Harry was about to skip right on past it until he noticed that a spare trolley had been abandoned there and this was one of the few aisles that didn't have a restock cage in it. A mischievous grin settled on his face.
'Race you?' Harry said, nodding towards the discarded trolley. Draco looked confused for a moment but as Harry manoeuvred the trolley towards the imaginary starting line, comprehension dawned on Draco's face and he retrieved the trolley, looking at it slightly nervously.
'What do I do?' he asked and Harry wondered if he was the first person ever to give a lesson in the art of trolley gliding.
'Just run a couple of steps and then push off with your feet and glide, but remember to lean right forward otherwise it'll overbalance on you,' Harry warned, smiling at the look of seriousness that settled on Draco's face whenever he was being shown something new.
'Okay,' Draco said carefully. 'On three, one… two…' He flashed Harry an evil grin and was gone.
It took Harry a second to comprehend that Draco had cheated, but he quickly gathered himself and set off in pursuit. Draco may have gotten the early start but he was a beginner at this and Harry caught him relatively quickly and reached the end of the aisle before him. Despite his defeat, Draco rewarded Harry with a burst of carefree laughter before abandoning his trolley and heading over towards the fish counter curiously.
'What do you like?' Harry asked, steering the trolley up behind Draco. 'I never thought to ask before. I've been cooking for over a month now and it never occurred to me to ask what you liked to eat. I've just been putting stuff in front of you. Hell, you might have been a vegetarian for all I knew,' Harry exclaimed, suddenly realising the extent of his rudeness.
'Fussiness was never really tolerated as I was growing up.' Draco shrugged. 'It's surprising, I know; you would have thought that I was allowed whatever I wanted and, on the whole, that was true. The thing is, table manners were always rather a big deal in my family and part of that was never turning your nose up at what was served. It is the height of bad manners to say you don't like something your host has offered and so it was never allowed.'
'Huh,' Harry said, considering this point. 'Still, you must have had favourites and things you weren't fond of,' he reasoned.
'Well, I never really liked broad beans,' Draco admitted, 'or sardines,' he said looking accusingly at the small fish.
Harry made a face in empathy, as he remembered the smell of the tinned sardines in tomato sauce that his uncle used to eat on toast for Sunday supper.
'No worries, no sardines ever,' Harry confirmed. 'Just the thought makes me feel queasy. But what do you like?'
'Tuna,' he said, nodding at the steaks sitting amongst the ice-cubes. 'Pork?' he said, closing one eye and thinking carefully, as Harry had the attendant wrap up some tuna steaks as well as several other items as he started planning meals in his head and wondering what Draco would think of Paella.
'It's the wrong time of year, but pheasant, and roast potatoes, and spinach and anything with apple or cherry,' Draco concluded, picking up enthusiasm as he went. 'And that lamb thing you made the first time,' Draco said, blushing slightly, 'when you went out of your way to prove you could cook.'
Harry grinned slightly. There was no question that he had gone slightly overboard the first time, trying to impress Draco, and he was rather pleased that it had worked. He simply headed off towards the next section, refusing to deny it.
Draco scanned the shelves with interest as Harry searched for the butter he liked.
'Muggles eat storks?' Draco exclaimed, surprised, 'and it comes in blocks?'
'What?' Harry asked.
'Here look, Stork,' Draco said, holding out the shiny gold block.
'It's the brand,' Harry explained. 'It's vegetable fat, not stork.'
'But why call a vegetable fat stork?' Draco asked, confused.
'Because…' Harry paused. 'You know, I have no idea, it's a stupid thing to call it.'
'This candle smells like your house,' Draco declared as Harry dumped a couple of boxes of vanilla votives into the trolley.
'No, my house smells like that candle,' Harry corrected.
'That's ingenious,' Draco enthused. 'Muggles came up with this?'
'Who knows?' Harry shrugged. 'They probably stole the idea off of us at some point. Some inventive Muggle-born figuring out how to corner the market, creating a Muggle version of a wizarding product,' he speculated as Draco inspected the numerous boxes of candles, which took up quite a large area in the store's first floor home-wares section.
'What other scents do they have?' Draco asked grabbing a box of what looked like lavender candles and inhaling deeply. 'Urgh, smells like my Grandma Druella.' Draco scowled, dropping that box and snatching up another. 'This one smells like you,' he said thoughtfully, and threw the dark red candles into the trolley.
It took a good ten minutes before Draco was fully satisfied that he had smelt all the different candles and several more unusual fragrances had joined Harry's normal vanilla before he allowed himself to be dragged away.
When he went to get washing powder, Harry lost sight of Draco for a moment. The next thing he knew, Draco was bounding up behind him, brandishing a packet of brightly coloured plastic cutlery.
'Look at these, Harry,' he said, excitable. 'We need these,' he insisted.
'Sure, why not?' Harry agreed, delighted when Draco beamed at him and dropped the packet into the trolley.
'Oh, forgot toilet roll,' Harry exclaimed and abandoned the trolley, heading back towards the previous aisle in search of the elusive product, Draco trailing behind him. Retrieving the loo roll, he turned back and realised that Draco was standing about halfway between himself and the trolley. An idea came to him and he hugged the packet to his body, dropping his stance slightly.
'It's Potter with the Quaffle and only Malfoy stands between him and the hoop,' he commentated.
Draco picked up on his plan immediately and dropped his own stance spreading his arms wide. Harry ran forward and Draco came to meet him, making a grab for the toilet roll. Harry dropped a shoulder and rolled around Draco, twisting away from his grasp and darting forwards
'And Potter's past Malfoy, can nothing stop him now?' he teased and something soft collided with the back of his head, causing him to stumble in surprise and sending him sprawling.
'Ooooh, Bludger to the head. Nasty!' Draco's voice came from close behind him. 'That's what overconfidence will do for you,' he added as he skipped over Harry's prone form and scooped up the fallen prize in one swift movement.
Harry scrambled to his feet as Draco reached the end of the aisle and deposited the 'Quaffle' in to the trolley with a flourish, looking back at Harry with a smug smile.
'Ah, now I know what I'm doing,' Draco said with certainty as they returned to the ground floor and entered the wine aisle.
'Go for it,' Harry nodded, 'only three, though, I have a finite amount of cash on me,' he added quickly, suddenly realising the danger of letting Draco run riot.
'I suppose I could get one of the elves to bring us a selection from the cellar at the manor,' Draco mused as he perused the many bottles on the shelf.
'Yeah, you can have a look at the cellar at Grimmauld as well if you like, I didn't want to throw any of it away, but at the same time I was a little wary of drinking anything that had once belonged to Walburga Black,' Harry suggested.
'Wise, very wise,' Draco agreed. 'I imagine a lot will have spoiled,' he said, a touch of sadness in his voice, 'not all wines are up to being laid down for a long time, but some of them will be. I'll happily sort through them and get rid of the vinegar,' he agreed, 'but this should do us for now.' He placed two bottles of red and a bottle of white in the trolley.
Sweets came next and once again the excitement around Draco became palpable as he looked around at all the different confections.
'What are those fruits doing to each other?' he asked suddenly whilst Harry was selecting some chocolate for a dessert he was planning to try making.
He wandered over to Draco's side, having learned that getting Draco's take on all things Muggle was a small price to pay for allowing this shop to stretch into its second hour. The bag of chewy fruit strips were brightly wrapped and had cartoon fruits printed on them. Harry leaned in over Draco's shoulder to take a closer look.
The image on the lemon chews depicted a lemon and a green man; the lemon sitting between the green man's legs had a blissful expression on its face whist the green man gripped hold of it, leering. The entire scene was very lewd.
'Fuck me,' Harry muttered.
'No, he's fucking a lemon,' Draco asserted, 'and don't even ask me what is going on with the cherries.' He chuckled and grabbed a couple of bags from the shelf, 'We have to have these,' he announced and Harry nodded, slightly dumbstruck.
'Can you grab a couple of baguettes?' Harry asked Draco as he grabbed a packet of crumpets off the shelf.
Draco walked over to the baskets that held the baguettes and selected two. He weighed one in his hand and then looked up at Harry though his hair, mischief causing his grey eyes to flash. Harry's stomach flipped over and he knew he was in trouble. Draco could get him to do anything he wanted with that look.
The blond threw one of the sticks of bread at Harry and he caught it skilfully, watching as Draco turned sideways, slightly shifting his weight to his back foot and sliding his front foot forwards. He extended the baguette towards Harry and folded his free arm behind his back. He swept the baguette up in front of his face in a simple salute and then back down again before circling his wrist to come at the side of Harry's head.
Wielding his baguette more like a broad sword than a rapier, Harry just managed to parry and twist under Draco's blow. They battled back and forth for a few minutes, Harry's movements becoming increasingly frantic whilst Draco remained wonderfully composed. When Harry spotted an opening he swung his bread at Draco's waist. Unfortunately for him this was just what Draco was hoping he would do and, parrying downwards, the other boy span into Harry's personal space brining the baguette to Harry's throat. They stood nose to nose, chests heaving with the exertion, each unable to tear their eyes away from the other.
Draco leaned almost imperceptibility closer, his breath ghosting over Harry's lips.
'I win,' he whispered.
A clunking sound behind them caused them to spring apart again and they looked around to see an employee had arrived in their aisle to stock the shelves. Sighing, Harry dropped his slightly battered baguette into the trolley.
It was probably for the best. Draco was relying on him for somewhere to live right now; if he'd kissed him, everything would have changed, everything would become unsure and unstable, and right now they both really needed a little stability. He'd wanted to kiss him, though, oh yes.
'We forgot pumpkin juice,' Draco exclaimed as they made their way towards the tills.
Harry glanced around for employees, suddenly aware after their interruption that they weren't as alone in this supermarket as they felt. Thankfully, the coast was clear.
'We'll have to get some from Diagon Alley,' Harry said in a low voice. 'Muggles don't drink pumpkin juice.' When he caught sight of Draco's pout, he hunted around for something to appease him.
'We can go and see what other juices they have, though; there are usually loads of interesting flavours,' he suggested
Draco's smile returned slightly and Harry turned them toward the drinks.
'Apple juice, orange juice, tomato juice,' Draco muttered, scanning the shelves. 'Carrot juice, really? Prune juice? Ewww,' he exclaimed.
Harry nodded in agreement, picking up a multi-pack of apple and another of orange.
'Mango juice,' Draco muttered continuing his inventory. 'Guava juice, I don't even know what that is. Ooooh…' He reached out to snatch a couple of cartons from the shelves. 'Cherry Juice,' he stated, his eyes gleaming excitably, and dropping the two cartons into the trolley before grabbing two more.
'What if you don't like it?' Harry asked, not really all that worried.
'It's cherry, Harry, there's nothing to dislike,' Draco dismissed simply.
Harry smirked in response and grabbed a bottle of Cherry Coke as they headed for the tills.
The woman behind the checkout looked tired and irritable as they loaded their purchases on to the conveyor belt and Draco watched with amazement as she ran the items across the barcode reader. When she got to the alcohol, she looked up at Harry, a suspicious look in her eye.
'Confundo,' Harry thought with a tiny wave of his hand. A wandless, non-verbal Confundus Charm was never going to be very strong but the cashier was already inclined not to bother and all he needed was for her to forget that she hadn't asked him for identification.
Back in the kitchen at Grimmauld, Harry bustled around putting away the shopping whilst Draco made tea.
'You know, it's most amusing how much you enjoyed that, all things considered.' Harry grinned at Draco as he passed him the milk.
'Well I'll let you in on a secret,' Draco said conspiratorially, 'I've always loved all that stuff. It's all so practical,' he enthused, 'and so different.'
'I think you like it because you weren't allowed to,' Harry suggested.
Draco gave a lazy one-shouldered shrug and handed Harry his tea.
'I think you may be right,' he conceded.
'Still, I find it quite surprising just how quickly you've accepted all this Muggle stuff,' Harry observed as they took up their acknowledged seating arrangement at the kitchen table.
'Yes, well, I don't know... I think maybe after the last couple of years the Muggle world seems quite safe. After all, we have wands and magic on our sides,' Draco mused as he sipped at his tea.
'Peace through superior fire power,' Harry teased and Draco smiled at him.
'Something like that,' Draco agreed.
