Chapter 10: inappropriate dress

„Draco, we´ll leave now.", Hermione announced as she went into the living room to get him for their shopping trip. They both were wrapped into their winter cloaks. Hermione´s was black with brown fur and Draco´s was a simple grey one – lent from Harry since his own drew too much attention to it. Taking one step out of the house so that they would still be invisible Hermione turned to him. "Take my arm. We will apparate side-along." Draco hated to do that but still he put his hand around her wrist.

"Oh, I almost forgot.", she said and flicked her wand first at him then herself. Not able to see what she had done since she apparated promptly after that Draco closed his eyes avoiding the swirling sensation. Feeling solid ground under his feet he opened them again and saw into light blue eyes. The woman he looked at had really short straight black hair and thin lips. Seeing the way he looked at her Hermione explained: " I had to change our faces." Draco finally let go of her wrist and palpated his face. His nose felt bigger, his eyebrows bushier and he had a moustache. When they walked to London Waterloo train station he could view his reflection in some shop windows. Light brown hair, a more masculine angular face, dark eyes.

Since wizards rarely used trains Draco had only been to London station a few times. It was hard to stick to Hermione in the crowd of muggles. Also he was easily distracted by muggle things. When the woman got their tickets out of a big grey box Draco could not look away from the big destination board above which switched the announcements of the trains every minute. "We have to go to platform 1." Her voice ripped him from his dazzlement. They made their way through the crowd until they stood in front of a row of small doors. Hermione put a ticket into the slit in a grey box. "You have to take it and walk through.", she whispered to him. Uncertain he did what she instructed him and the pair of small doors opened for him. Hermione knew well how confusing muggle things could be for wizards. Even the simplest things seemed like miracles to Mr. Weasley. Wizards were really ignorant when it came to muggle things especially electricity. For Ginny it was always like a visit to the amusement park when she went shopping with Hermione.

In the train Draco sat next to Hermione his eyes locked on a glowing sign that said ´ Reading `. Although he felt uncomfortable asking questions he lent closer. "What is this?" "It says that we take the train towards Reading and it will change whenever we come near the next station so that we know where we have to get off." He simply nodded still not sure if he had understood what she had told him. When the first stop was announced he quickly had his hand on his wand in his pocket. To calm him down Hermione slightly touched his arm and smiled. A sign that everything was alright. Finally the voice announced ´Staines´ where they exited so that Draco could relax.

On their walk to the shops he was quiet and wondered about all those muggle things. Not daring to ask Hermione further questions because it made him feel inferior he tried to look confident. He straightened up and put on a mask of indifference. Hermione should not think that the muggle world intimidated him. It took them several minutes and an almost accident when Draco overlooked the red light of the pedestrian lights to get into the pedestrian precinct. It was loud and crowded but because of the liveliness and the beautiful colors of the different booths the street had an appealing aura. Hermione pulled him towards her into a booth filled with all kinds of bags. "Help me choose a handbag for your mother." Between the bags a woman appeared smiling at them widely. "Oh, do you search for a present for your mother-in-law?", she asked addressing Hermione who simply nodded. "What is her favorite color?" Since Hermione knew close to nothing about Mrs. Malfoy she looked at Draco waiting for him to say something. "It´s blue.", he stated uncomfortable with the situation. Why would this woman think that they were married? When the seller turned around looking for a blue bag he bent over Hermione. "We are married now?", he murmured mystifyingly. "Yes, if she thinks so then we are. Just go with it.", Hermione hissed not to make the woman notice. When he still looked at her in disbelief she gave him a dig with the elbow. "Ow!" The woman turned quickly around looking if something had happened but Hermione had reacted fast hugging Malfoy´s arm tightly and putting on a fake smile. "So, what about these?" The woman presented two very different bags. One was light blue with delicate white embroidery the other one was night blue with pearls. Both were of small size. "That one.", Draco decided by pointing at the light blue one. "That will be 7,50 pounds, please." Hermione handed her the money and took the bag.

Once out of sight Hermione let go of his arm and shoved the bag into his hand. "Um, was it too expensive?", Draco asked taken aback by her action. Noticing that she had overreacted Hermione shook her head no. "Actually it was quite cheap. I just stopped pretending to be your wife since she can no longer see us." He lifted one eyebrow. "Why did you pretend to be in the first time?" A sigh. "It´s just the easiest way to go along with what people think." They walked along the street in silence until Draco asked out of the blue: "Why did you buy a bag for my mother anyways?" "It´s for our emergency plan.", Hermione stepped closer so that only he could hear her. "Since Snape told you of Grimmauld Place we want to make sure to be prepared for the case of intrusion." Draco studied the tiny bag in his hands. "Makes sense; but what do you need the bag for?" "I will enlarge the inside volume so that your mum can put all her things inside."

Next they want into a big shop where Hermione helped him to find out his muggle cloth size since she explained to him that fitted clothes were expensive and it took long to get some. They got him two new pairs of pajamas and one for his mother (figuring that she had the same site as Hermione), four pairs of jeans – two dark blue, two black-, sweaters, t-shirts, socks and underwear( which was the only thing Hermione did not help him to choose so she could get some stuff for Narzissa). In fact Hermione had not chosen one item for herself yet. Draco who was laden with shopping bags had a hard time in the crowd. "Aren´t you going to buy something for yourself as wel-?, he asked as Hermione suddenly came to a halt and he nearly bumped into her. In the window display was a female mannequin wearing a long red dress. "I want something from this shop.", she answered and entered the shop. Opening the door a bell rang and an elegantly dressed woman came towards them. "Oh, good lord!", she exclaimed as she saw Draco with all his shopping bags. "Let me put these down for you." Not letting him answer she snatched the bags out of his hands and put them away coming back right after that. "How can I help you?" "I need a dress for a formal ball." "Hmmmmm….. formal.", the woman mused. "So it should be a long dress." She scanned Hermione. "Turn around, please." Although she added the word ´please´ she said it as an order. Slowly Hermione turned around. When she faced the woman again she frowned and said: "Wait here."

Several minutes later she came back with a variation of dresses laid over her arm. Quickly she ushered Hermione into the fitting room telling Draco to sit down in the armchair facing it. After she had tried on three and had presented them all to Draco Hermione declared: "I think that´s it." "No, no, no. You will try all of them, dear; otherwise you will never know which one is the best." Finally exiting the fitting room wearing the last dress the woman asked: "So, which should it be then?" But instead of addressing Hermione the woman had turned to Draco. "I should choose?" Glancing at Hermione he could see that she was not pleased with what the seller demanded. He gulped his throat suddenly dry. "I liked the green one." The saleswoman locked eyes with him and smiled. "A gentleman you are choosing the dress that made her décolleté most prominent." Hot blood pumped into Hermione´s head. She felt embarrassed and angry at the same time. Her knuckles were white because she balled her hands into fists. There they stood. Hermione glaring at him with her cold eyes in her alarming red face and Draco with a hint of red on his cheeks trying to look as apologetic as he could. Without them noticing the seller had went to the cash till and had put the dress into another shopping bag. "How would you like to pay?" Suddenly Hermione changed to calm indifference ignoring Draco as she paid and walked out of the shop not waiting for him to grasp his shopping bags together.

On their way back Hermione neither talked to Draco not looked at him. This made him even more nervous than is she had yelled at him. It could only be the calm before the storm. Draco should learn this as soon as they arrived in Grimmauld Place. She violently pushed him through the hall into the living room. Fred and Lee Jordan who had come to visit his godchild George looked at them in confusion. Slamming the door into the guys´ nosy faces Hermione stomped towards Draco. "You.", she hissed narrowing her eyes dangerously as she came closer. He would have backed off but he already stood right in front of the armchair. "How dare you looking at my chest, you perverted creep." Her face slowly transformed to her real one making her look even more threatening. "I didn´t.", he tried to defend himself. "Oh, really? Then, please, explain to me how the seller could have come to this conclusion?" Her high-pitched voice and how she moved in front of him made her look like his aunt Bellatrix to him – just as dangerous and crazy. Angered by her accusation he grabbed her by her shoulders. "Look, Granger, I just chose that dress because it´s green and I happen to like that color. So stop going all berserk on me. I would not want to look at your chest. And even if I did then it was only unconsciously and it´s your fault anyway for dragging me into that damn shop." With a quick harsh movement she freed herself from his grip. "Don´t touch me, Malfoy!", she turned away from him almost freezing in the motion as she came to a halt near the door. Again her knuckles went white as she stomped towards the door. But instead of exiting the room she bent down, picked something from the floor and brought it close to her lips. " FRED WEASLEY!", she shouted into what looked like an ear in her hand and a loud grunt could be heard from outside the room. With her shopping bag in hand she stormed up the stairs revealing Fred and Lee smiling widely at Draco barely able to hold back their laughter.

The rest of the day Draco stayed with his mother to void anyone else. Narzissa was a lot stronger thanks to Kreacher and Hermione and could leave the room if only for a short time. To keep herself busy she tried to fix the Black Family Tree tapestry. When it was almost time for dinner he brought her up into her room to rest. Dinner was awkward. While Hermione kept silent, Ginny told Draco that he had chosen a nice dress and Fred fluttered his eyelashes at him while abusing oranges as boobs. "Oh Draco, baby, how do you like jugs.", came it from Lee who made his voice higher while holding oranges under his shirt. For that Angelina hit both of them on the back of their head. Silently he thanked Merlin that Weasel and his wife were not present. After that he went straight into the living room to go to sleep although he would have liked to read in the library but since Hermione was probably there that was impossible. Later that evening Hermione woke him by entering the room. "Malfoy, did you look at my chest or nor?", Draco who had not expected her to ever talk to him again took some time to think about his answer. "Maybe." He could hear her turn away from him almost feeling how she gave him the cold shoulder.

"For what do you need a dress anyways?" A long sigh. Rustling of the blanket. Hermione was facing the sofa again. "Cormac McLaggen is one of our informants and he insists on only talking to me. Whenever he knows something new he sends a card with date and place. He thinks it´s particular nice of him to always meet in muggle bars or as in this case at a muggle mask ball. Since I´m muggle-born he thinks that I will feel more comfortable that way." She sighed again. "Always he sends me an outfit that is quite inappropriate, that perv." Yet another sigh. "Last time he even sent matching underwear with it." Draco clicked his tongue. "And you call me a perverted creep." A short humorless laughter echoed in the room.

"Draco, Harry wants you to come into the kitchen.", Ginny announced and Draco left his mother with her tapestry fixing. In the kitchen everyone was sitting at the table seemingly waiting for him. Kingsley was the first to speak: "Mr. Malfoy, after your interrogation we had decided to monitor Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson. As you had implied they seem to be reluctant to serve you-know-who. We have decided to go into their house and bring them to a safe place if they are willing to join us. We want you to come with us but be aware that your father is currently staying there because Malfoy Manor burnt down." "Wait, our house burnt down?", Draco interrupted visibly taken by surprise by these news. Shacklebolt proceeded with his calm voice: "It seems like your mother put the manor on fire – fiendfyre. Two burnt bodies were found inside. Apparently your father wants you-know-who to believe that you and your mother are dead." Malfoy had turned pale again and looked as if someone had punched him right into the stomach. A grimace of pain of his face. "We could understand if you don´t want to come with us.", Molly Weasley said pitying the man. "No!", Draco straightened up, his face proud. "I will come with you." He would not run away from his father instead he would face him and show that he is not like him. "Good, it will go down tonight."

/ so that´s it for chapter 10. I hope you enjoyed the shooping trip. so now one question: should I make more passages and make them shorter in the chapter so you can read it easier?

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