Disclaimer: I own none of this Harry Potter stuff, anything you recognize from the books or the movies is not mine. I can only claim the spell, the club, and Tric (and her family).

AN: None of this is Betaed, I'm the only one who's edited it so sorry for any mistakes.

Chapter 10: Apartment of Opposites

While Pansy and Harry traipsed off to France the trio of club goers prepared for their night(s) of snooping. Once Blaise had the polyjuice, which actually took his supplier three days to acquire on such short notice, they gathered at Hermione's to choose what they wanted to look like. She had spent several hours visiting a variety of Muggle hair salons and barbers across the city taking down detailed notes on the physical attributes of each person whose hair she collected. Using her notes they each chose what they wanted to look like for the night and prepared a flask full of enough polyjuice to remain in their chosen forms all night.

Later that night, or really the next morning since it was around four am when the Dragon's Den finally closed, two young men walked out of the club and turned into a nearby alley. The shorter blond haired one glanced over at his worried looking companion and sighed.

"Look Weasley, Granger will be perfectly fine on her own. She's got both that cloak and her wand and she's faced Death Eaters before. Trailing after some Muggle will be easy for her." As he spoke Blaise's features started melting back into his own, it was quite a disturbing process as he also grew a few inches mid sentence.

"Yeah I know, but I can't help worrying about her going into an unknown situation without anyone else for backup. It's a bit hard to just lose the 'war' mindset we've been in for years." Ron had also morphed back into his original self during their conversation and he proceeded to pull out his wand. "Well 'Mione and I'll owl you later about what she finds out today, so, uh, goodbye." He and Blaise exchanged awkward nods and farewells before apparating away.

Hermione waited around for another hour, her appearance having changed back to her own while she was hidden under Harry's invisibility cloak. Finally just before five Tric locked up the club and walked down the street with one of the bouncers to an apartment building a few blocks away. She waved goodbye to her coworker, entered the building, rode the lift to the third floor and let herself into her flat. Hermione darted into the flat just before the door slammed behind Tric. They walked into the kitchen and Tric started the coffee pot. Walking down the hall she stepped into the farthest bedroom, pushed the occupant off the bed and yelled "HONEY, I'M HOME" right in his ear before darting out the door and back into the kitchen cackling madly all the way.

"GODDAMNIT, you EVIL SLUT! It's fucking FIVE AM," grouched the young man in boxers who stumbled into the kitchen.

"Yes, but then it always is," she smirked.

"I am so tempted to kick you out some days," joked Mark.

Hermione stared at the mostly naked man and tried to appraise him objectively. She was having a hard time imagining that Mark actually was the snobbish and studious Draco Malfoy. His skin was lightly tanned everywhere she could see and judging by how fit he looked it was likely that he spent a good chunk of time working out each week. Not that he looked like a weight lifter or anything extreme, but there wasn't any excess flab on his body either. His light brown hair was loose from it's ponytail and quite messy from sleep.

"Unfortunately for you I know you'd never do that," Tric gave a distant, sad, look to an almost vertical scar about four inches long that crossed Mark's left ribcage starting less than an inch below his heart.

"Hey! That wasn't your fault." Mark sternly declared as he pulled a mug out of the cupboard and handed it to her.

"Oh, sure. I am completely free of blame when you only got sliced open saving my stupid arse," she snorted as she turned to the pot on the counter and started pouring the first cup.

"It was my own fault for not thinking. I couldn't have left you there regardless; I promised Rose that I'd make sure you were safe. Being attacked by a group of thugs does not count as safe. Since I'd need to check up on you anyway why not save myself some trouble and just keep you here with me," he quipped back, smoothly handing her the empty cup he'd just pulled out of the cupboard in exchange for the full mug she'd already poured.

"Yeah, well you know now that Lucius is, er- dead, the last Malfoy-" she was cut off as Mark placed his cup on the counter rather sharply.

"Is Narcissa and she's only a part of that vile family through marriage. Good riddance to bad rubbish," spat Mark, glaring at his flat mate.

"Whatever, Mr. Grumpy. You do realize they won't just quit searching for Draco Malfoy," Tric called over her shoulder as she headed back to her room to sleep. "It doesn't matter that he's gone, they don't know he'll never come back, so they won't give up. You can't fully get rid of him if they still remember him."

"Bloody hell, I'm so glad there'll never be anymore of them. I hate Malfoys," sighing and rubbing his hand across his face he walked farther down the hall and slipped into his own bedroom to change for work.

Hermione sat stunned in the kitchen while the two other occupants of the flat moved about getting ready for bed, in Tric's case, and getting ready for the day, in Mark's place. That Mark, the man they had all pegged as Draco, had such a deep hatred for all things Malfoy didn't just complicate things, it almost totally destroyed all their leads. How could he sound like and act like a man he hated? Why was it that Tric had known who they were, and lied to them as if trying to throw them off track, if Mark wasn't Draco. They must have been hiding something else, but from the way they'd spoken about Draco and his family it seemed more likely that Mark would kill Draco than help hide him. Her train of thought was broken as Mark stumbled back into the kitchen, this time dressed and in a very goth fashion.

"Oy, Tric! My roots are starting to show and I'm out of dye, do you need anything from the store?" Mark called back towards Tric's room as he grabbed a grocery list that had been pinned to their fridge by a magnet.

"Sure, I need more bleach and dye for my hair too. Will you let me do some highlights on you this time?" She called back.

"No way."

"Okay. Hey, you're gonna need more solution for your contacts soon," came from the direction of the loo.

"Oh, thanks. I'd almost forgotten." He jotted down the last item and then folded the list and shoved it in his pants pocket. "Say, I think it'd be alright for us to switch again next week if none of their kind come in again. It'll have been long enough by then."

"You just hate giving other people tattoos."

"Obviously. See you for lunch?"

"Yep, I'll come by at the usual time. Have fun Honey!"

"I won't." With this parting shot Mark left the apartment.

Hermione sat patiently waiting for Tric to fall asleep before quietly rising and investigating the rest of the flat. It was really modest with only six rooms, one of which was a linen closet. The front, and only, door opened into a hallway that ran straight down the length of the apartment. The first doorway on the right led into the kitchen while the first doorway on the left led into a small den/living room area that housed a TV, video/DVD player, a stereo set with a small rack of CDs and a small bookcase. Neither doorway actually had a door in it so it was easy to see inside the rooms. Upon searching through the bookcase, obviously this was the first place Hermione looked, she found that all the books were fiction novels that ranged from sci-fi to historical fiction to Shakespeare with the exception of fantasy. Not a single book held any even vague references to magic; Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth were even left out.

Just beyond the kitchen was the door to a small linen closet that seemed to be mostly used as storage space with boxes and a full duffle bag piled high in the back. Across from the closet was the door to what Hermione assumed was Tric's room as she had gone in there and not come out. Avoiding opening that door she walked further into the flat. At the end of the hall on the left was a small bathroom that held only a toilet, a shower stall, and a sink with a mirror and medicine cabinet above it. Sitting on the ledge above the sink was an empty contact case next to a nearly empty bottle of contact solution. There were a few empty hair dye boxes in the trash bin, fuchsia and light brown. On the right was a closed door that led into the room Tric had woken Mark up in earlier. Silently she opened the door, slipped into the room and closed the door behind herself.

Flipping the light switch Hermione flooded the room with light and took in her surroundings. A neatly made double bed sat across from her with the headboard against the far wall. The wall to her left housed a large window that seemed to be one of only two in the whole flat; the other had been a small one at the end of the hallway. A worn plush couch was pushed against the wall under the window oddly with the back facing the rest of the room. Bookcases ran along the rest of the wall housing the door. Across from the window the fourth wall had a desk and decent sized wardrobe lining it. Since the desk was closer to the door than the wardrobe she looked through the contents of it first. Sitting on the desk was a well-thumbed psychology book that had a couple chapters marked and was currently open to the 'dealing with depression' section and a bible that looked thoroughly read. The bookcases were mostly filled with a wide variety of self-help and psychology books. The remaining third of the books covered theology, ethics, and morality. There was a small shelf seemingly dedicated to mortality, death, and the afterlife. None of the books looked new anymore and it was clear that Mark had actually read all of them more than once.

Done with her perusal of the books Hermione paced over to the wardrobe. Opening it she could see a variety of tees, polos, and even a few button down shirts hanging followed by the jeans, pants, and shorts. All the clothes hung in sections by type that were then color coordinated. Although she had seen him dressed in a distinctly goth style this morning most of Mark's clothes weren't actually black. He actually seemed to favor light colors and t-shirts with sarcastic sayings. The bottom of the wardrobe held three small drawers. The top one was filled with neatly folded boxers with a few briefs in the back. The second drawer held mostly socks, again neatly folded and arranged by color, with a few ties off to the side. The last drawer contained accessories, mainly chains and bracelets with only few collars and one or two hair ties.

In all, from her search through his room Hermione could tell that not only did this room belong to Mark but also he was the only one living in the room. He was neat to an obsessive degree. Based on his reading choices and the marked chapters in the book on his desk he was also quite possibly depressed and suicidal with low self-esteem, or he just knew someone like that. Also from all the theological texts and the worn bible it was possible he was a serious Christian. This however could be contradicted by the fact that his club was open both Saturday and Sunday nights until four am just like every other night of the week and she had heard him curse less than an hour ago. Maybe he was just a hypocrite.

After gathering all she could from the rest of the house Hermione chanced a glance into Tric's room. Almost the complete opposite of Mark's Tric had so many of her clothes and possessions on the floor that it was nearly impossible to find a clear spot. Her bed was a double like Mark's but her room lacked both a window and a couch. Her desk was covered in stuff, clothes, accessories, papers, and her bookcase was mostly empty. Almost all the books were either piled on the bed or strewn across the floor with her clothes. The wardrobe sat with the door open, only a few articles of clothing remained hanging inside, and one of the drawers was pulled almost all the way out. Picking her way cautiously through the mess Hermione noted that all of Tric's clothes were, while rather unique, along the same black goth lines she had seen so far. Interestingly enough every book that Hermione could make out was fantasy and all included magic of some sort. Closing the door behind herself Hermione quietly made her way back out of the apartment and out into the street. Still invisible she ducked into an alley and apparated away.

AN: Okay just letting you all know that Tric and Draco currently have a sort of sibling relationship going. Both of them had rotten families that didn't care about them and they sort of bonded and became each other's family over that. So they've never been 'together' in a sexual way.

SwarmOfFanGirls, Agatsuma Ritsuka, , xDrEaMeRx4xEVA, peace. love. artemis fowl Thanks a lot for you votes of confidence. This is my first fanfic, actually my first ever piece of writing this long, so it's great to know your opinions. I'll try to be snappy about the updates.

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KKool Thanks, it's great to know I have someone waiting for the rest of the story. I am having trouble moving on with the story because I feel like their relationship is perfect right now and like it shouldn't ever change. *tear* I totally get what your saying.

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