Author's Note: well, a reviewer asked me to post an explanation of their screennames, so here goes. Hermione is 'PattyCakeOtter.' Hermione's Patronus is an Otter, and Patronus whares a first three letters with 'patty cake.' A great, incognito s/n, huh? Draco's is actually "JaketheSnake.' Snake being his Slytherin ties, and Jake rhymes with snake and Drake, which is short for Draco. I figured this would give him some anonynimity so Hermy wouldn't put that brilliant mind to work and immediately see through him.

Chapter 10

As the summer drudged along mercilessly, Draco began to bore of sitting around reading. Of course, there wasn't much else to do in his Aunt's house. She had two entire rooms filled with books! He adored reading, that was true. And it wasn't like he could go flying or concoct some evil potion to use on the cat (though he would have loved to see Mr. Whiskas with pink polka dots). Here, he had to be all inconspicuous about his magic. He couldn't wait to get out of the stupid muggle town and back to Hogwarts. Once he was done with school, he'd be eighteen and legally on his own.

Draco got up from the large ivory arm chair and strode purposely out of the room. His aunt barely glanced up from her knitting.

Great Aunt Ethelridge had been hoping that he wouldn't simply sit there, holed up with a book all day. He seemed like such a nice kid, if he were just a bit more social. Then again, his parents weren't the nicest people on the planet when they were alive, so there was no reason he should be any better. She shrugged, and went back to her knitting, quietly.

Draco, searched every room that day, looking for some sort of entertainment. And when he found it… he knew he'd hit the jackpot.

The day Draco found the computer in a dusty room in his Great Aunt Ethelridge's house was the first day of what would become a surprisingly enjoyable summer. He read all the manuals he could find and, by the end of July had it hooked up and ready to go. After a bit more reading in his aunt's two libraries, he figured out how to hook it up to the internet.

Draco sat down in front of the computer one day and decided to search for Hogwarts in a search engine. He got exactly one link. That was the day he found the Hogwarts chat room. There he met a girl who went by the pseudonym PattyCakeOtter.

Over the next week, he came to know her as a soon to be 7th year Gryffindor. They had already established that their friendship would never amount to anything, because of their different houses, but Draco had offered to meet her in Diagon Alley anyway. They would meet at the ice cream shop a day before the trip back to school. Draco knew how foolish it was to meet someone he'd only known online, but somehow, she seemed familiar to him. It wasn't like she was a stranger at all. And he felt like he should know what her screenname meant. It was there, at the edge of his mind, but he just couldn't grasp it.

Pretty soon the summer had whittled down to a mere two weeks. Draco had heard nothing from PattyCakeOtter in days. The last thing she'd sent to him was an email accepting his proposition to meet. Draco began feeling moody at having been ignored for days. What was she doing that was so important?

Now, Draco sat next to a window that faced the empty house next door. He leaned his chin upon his right palm. His elbow lay against the red armrest on the armchair. He was completely and utterly bored. He watched as a flock of birds took wing outside his window, and wondered what sound or sight may have scared them off. He leaned toward the window, interested, and saw a moving truck, rolling down the road. It was fairly large and white with the words, "We Move 4 Less" on the side.

Draco watched the truck pull into the driveway of the abandoned house next door. He could imagine the sound of the gravel hitting the underside of the truck as it made its way up the drive. As the truck screeched to a stop, the front bumper tapped a gargoyle-like statue, knocking it over.

Draco snickered, and opened the window a crack to hear the stupid driver be reprimanded. No such sounds came. "How disappointing," muttered Draco, as he watched the movers hop out of the cab of the truck.

They all seemed quite in awe of the house they had just pulled up to. A few shielded their eyes from the sun as they looked up to the rooftop.

"Silly commoners." muttered Draco, but he could see why they might be slightly intimidated. It was a large, gothic house, nearly the size of Draco's own old manor. He missed it, and was thinking of his old home when a beat up silver volvo pulled into the next driveway, behind the moving truck.