Ok, so I'm going to quickly explain the whole…repetition of Blaise thing last time. Blaise said that he didn't think they could act civil towards one another, so Hermione said that she would act civil to him. To act civilly means to act with minimal tolerance for a person, so she and Draco merely acknowledged him, something that's not rude but not nice. I hope I'm making SOME sense?

And thanks for all the ideas! There were so many, I didn't know which to choose!:) They were all great, and I'm sorry if I didn't put yours in.

For the sake of my story, Walmart's Black Friday sale has moved up to May 25th. If England doesn't have walmart, then it's a department store.

Review!

Black Friday-The Muggle World I

"Walmart..." read Draco skeptically, as he regarded the large white block letters hanging above the entrance from a distance. "It looks…"

Hermione glared. "What does it look like huh?"

"Nice," supplied Narcissa, frowning at Draco.

"Horrid," provided Lucius, frowning at Narcissa.

Hermione frowned at Lucius.

"…alright," Draco continued on, forcing a smile. "Father, mother, shall we go in then?" he bravely asked.

"Oh Hermione," gushed Narcissa, as she headed forwards without any hesitation, "I just knew you would like our shopping trip. Look, you're taking us again already!"

"Shopping," said Hermione, with a nervous chuckle. "This isn't really the place you would go shopping Narcissa." But the woman wasn't listening. Narcissa turned back when she noticed her husband hadn't moved an inch. "Lou!" she demanded, pouting.

He sighed. "Can you see the mob of filthy people over there? If I go in there, I'd have to…touch them."

"God forbid," muttered Hermione, just loud enough for Lucius to hear. She rolled her eyes. "The mob will only get bigger Lucius, so I suggest we get a move on. I have to pick up a few things here before we go."

She proceeded forwards, frowning slightly at the truly immense amount of people. It was Black Friday—Walmart's biggest sale of the year. And she hated it. But for today, it would serve its purpose.

Draco ran to catch up to her, followed by Narcissa pulling Lucius along.

"Where are we going after this then?" he whispered into her ear, his hand grasping around hers.

She tensed and then relaxed. "Surprise," she smiled sneakily at him.

"You're really not going to tell me?" he pleaded.

She pretended to consider, quickly looking back to make sure Narcissa and Lucius were still in tow. They were watching them intensely. "Nope," she replied happily.

"Come on,"

"Nope."

"Fine." He changed tactics. "Do we really have to go in there Granger?"

She grimaced unwillingly. She didn't like the idea much either.

"See!" he declared, triumphant, "you don't want to either."

"Do you want to hear those words from your parents or not?" she snapped, annoyed that he had saw her through. "We have to go in."

He stared with wide eyes at the approaching store. "I don't think so."

"I think so."

"It's full of muggles." She took no offense in his words, knowing that he really didn't have much against them anymore. She could understand his discomfort.

"That's the idea." And without waiting for his response, she pulled him to a stop. She began again when Narcissa and Lucius caught up. "Just to be sure, if anyone gets trampled or pushed, crawl to the side and them apparate to where we were." She almost laughed at Lucius' outraged expression.

"You think I'd get trampled upon by mere muggles?"

"LUCIUS!" Narcissa admonished.

"Well, it's true," he hissed.

"You'd be surprised," answered Hermione simply. "You'd be surprised."

"It's not a possibility," Lucius stubbornly refuted.

Hermione smirked. "Want to bet?"

Lucius, for the first time in Hermione's life, actually cracked a slight smile. It was more of a cross between a smile and a smirk, but it was close enough. "10 galleons," he paused. "If you have that amount of money."

Hermione snorted, but discreetly looked at Draco, because Lucius was right. She didn't have 10 galleons to spare. Draco nodded briefly in assurance. She stuck out her hand, daring Lucius to refuse it. "10 galleons it is."

They shook on it, and Lucius determinedly stepped forwards. The rest followed.

Draco kept a close hold on Hermione, as they stepped into the throngs of people. The flow pushed them inwards, and they were futile to resist. In matter of moments, they were squeezed into the mass of people.

"WHAT IS THIS?" he screamed, above the noise. He tried to shrink away from a large bulky man to his right, only to bump into an elderly woman on his left.

"WALMART," replied Hermione, wincing as she was elbowed in the ribs. She took hold of his hand and pushed ahead, elbows out, barreling past people.

"MY PARENTS!"

"THEY'LL BE FINE," replied Hermione, turning and chuckling, "THEY'LL JUST BE 10 GALLEONS POORER."

But in the moment that she took to pause and turn around, the force of the flow of people had caught up with her and she was flung backwards, struggling to stand upright on one hand, and desperately trying not to fall on the other.

"GRANGER!" bellowed Draco, her hand slipping from his grasp. The disgusted sneer on his face fell into an expression of worry as he pushed a man aside. He grabbed Hermione by the waist and literally hauled her back up, setting her back on her feet.

She felt the heat rise to her cheeks. "THANKS!"

Draco nodded, and nudged her to continue. Around him, muggles were literally scrambling to the shelves, clearing them off. Nearly every shelf around him was almost half empty, and it was only 10 in the morning! The store had only opened an hour ago. Muggles were so weird.

He suddenly felt a pull on his hand, as he watched the head of brown hair ease to one side of the rush. He looked up. Pharmaceuticals.

His eyes widened. Stephanie had brought him shopping to these aisles before.

By now, they were in a slightly calmer area. Oh, the aisle was still packed with people, reaching for all sorts of packages and boxes, but at least they weren't pushing and pulling.

Hermione must have noticed the look on her face, because she laughed outright at him. "I'm not getting tampons or pads Draco. Don't be so scared."

He tried to glare, but ended up only flushing. "Good."

She led the way to the back of the aisle. "Ah," she said, satisfied, "here we are."

He looked. He stared. Then, he glared.

"TOOTHBRUSHES?"

"And toothpaste!" she defended automatically.

"You made me go through ALL that, for…a toothbrush," he groaned.

"AND TOOTHPASTE! Besides, this toothbrush is usually two pounds, and now its only fifty pence! That's a quarter of the price!"

Draco groaned even louder, causing curious stares to arise around them.

"Let me get this straight. I just got trampled on, pushed around, nearly mauled over by about 100 muggles, to get a fifty pence piece of plastic with bristles." Hermione opened her mouth, but Draco cut her off. "And a tube with paste in it," he added.

Hermione shrugged and nodded.

"Let's just go alright."

"Not until I get my toothbrush!"

"FINE!" Draco gave up, allowing her to choose her purple toothbrush and vanilla flavoured toothpaste, before they once again fell into the swarm of people pushing in the other direction.

They stumbled their way along, nearly falling a couple of times, before nearing the cashier lines. The endless cashier lines.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Hermione shook her head. "Welcome to Black Friday." And then, she proceeded to get pushed right into his chest, reducing his curse to a loud cough instead.

It was an hour later. Coins jingled, as Lucius pulled out his coin purse. His manly coin purse, Hermione thought, amused. Grudgingly, he reached his hand in, pulling out a handful of gold metal pieces. Hermione opened the palm of her hands.

One by one, ten coins dropped. She smiled.

He tried to sneer, but it turned out as a grimace as the small wound on his face was stretched. "Trampled by muggles," he muttered mournfully, "of all disgraces."

"I told you so," Hermione replied, smiling at Draco and shaking the coins in her hand to show him. He laughed and shook his head.

"I don't know what my son is thinking," Lucius hissed to Hermione, his eyes narrowing and his voice lowering so that his wife couldn't hear, "but he'll snap out of it soon."

Hermione took this as a challenge. "I don't think so Lucius."

"You'll see."

"Want to bet on that too? Although I think it's a little unfair to keep stealing your money like this." Hermione grinned, her white teeth mocking Lucius.

He swallowed roughly. "Where to next?"

"This is next?" asked a stunned Lucius as he stood in line at the entrance gate. As he entered, he stuck his hand out, mimicking the rest of the people, as a small purple Spongebob stamp was inked onto his hand. He pulled back as if he had been branded with heated iron.

He stared at the mark on his hand. "It's a sponge. And it's smiling at me," he gritted out. He furiously tried rubbing it off, to no avail. "Get it away!"

Hermione looked at her own hand. "It's not so bad."

Hermione rolled her eyes, watching as Draco was doing a similar thing. She took his hands in hers. He looked up.

"Just leave it," she smiled. She pushed his hands forcefully to the side, and gestured all around her to the three guests in front of her. "This," she said, looking around, "is an amusement park."

"I'm not amused," retorted Lucius flatly, immediately. Narcissa bit her lip nervously.

Hermione ignored him, and walked over to Narcissa. "How about some lunch first?" she asked kindly. Narcissa immediately nodded, looking on last time at the towering machines above her.

Hermione led the way to a nearby stand.

"What are they doing to those children?" Narcissa whispered.

"Huh?" said Hermione.

"Look, they're torturing them! How can you stand for this!"

"Torturing?"

Nearby, the screams of children could be heard.

"Can you hear that!" Narcissa looked around, her head flicking from one side to another. "OVER THERE!" She pointed at the highest tower in the ride. She squinted. "Oh Hermione! They're strapping the poor babies onto the thing and dropping them!"

Hermione followed her gaze.

"We must stop them. This is evil."

Hermione wanted to laugh at the irony. Evil, from the mouth of a Malfoy would have seemed such a joke if she hadn't gotten to understand Narcissa's nature.

"No," Hermione insisted, "this is for fun."

"For fun?"

"They line up to go on these things."

"You mean..the children…want to go on these monstrous things?"

"They're called rides. And yes. You see, that's a roller coaster over there. We'll be going on one later."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" shrieked Narcissa, her voice shrill. "You surely don't mean…" Narcissa swallowed, looking up at the towering mass of metal tracks above her.

Hermione bit her lip, and was relieved to see the hot dog stand in view. "LUNCH!" she declared happily.

She skipped forwards, suddenly thrilled to be in the park again. She hadn't been here since she had been in third year.

"Four hot dogs please," she asked the vendor. The man smiled brightly at her and nodded. Draco appeared beside her.

Hermione was slightly shocked that he didn't seem surprised by the type of food.

"Stephanie took me to eat one of these once," he answered, seemingly reading her thoughts. "They're good." He smiled at her, his eyes twinkling in anticipation of his parent's reactions. She smiled back.

She handed the vendor the money, thanked him, and picked up two of the hot dogs. Draco grabbed the other two.

She walked over to the table where Lucius and Narcissa were hovering above. Hermione sighed.

"What's wrong now?"

Narcissa pulled out a handkerchief from her purse and wiped the table and chairs. Then, as if it were the dirtiest thing in the world, she threw it into the garbage can.

Hermione bore a smile. "Is it cleansed yet? Pure yet? Sterile yet?"

Lucius snarled. "I suppose it will do." He gingerly took a seat down, sitting at the edge of the seat. Narcissa did the same. "What's that?"

Hermione handed him the hot dog, taking a seat for herself.

"It's called a hot dog."

"We're eating dogs?" demanded Lucius.

"No, that's just the name!"

"So we're not eating dogs?" asked Narcissa, relief in her voice, "cause how I do love those creatures."

"I assure you, muggles do not eat dogs. They aren't monsters."

"Those ones that trampled on me were certainly monsters," defended Lucius. He stared at the food in his right hand. Slowly, watching his left hand, he brought it to wrap around the hot dog as if touching food with his hands would hurt him.

"Just wrap you hands around like this," instructed Draco.

"This is disgusting," grimaced Narcissa, shaking her head. She took a small bite of her bun. "Can't we eat this like civilized people? With forks and knives?"

"It's a hot dog," replied Draco, "this is how you're supposed to eat it."

"You've eaten this before," cried Lucius.

Draco smiled tightly. "With..Hermione."

Lucius sneered. "Of course."

Hermione ignored them, taking a large bite out of her hot dog. Ketchup rubbed onto her chin. She chewed loudly, on purpose, and even grinned halfway before swallowing.

Draco could barely contain his laughter.

"Hermione," he whispered, picking up a napkin from the table. She turned towards him, and watched as he tilted her chin up with one hand, and wiped away the ketchup with the same hand.

"Thanks," she mumbled. She brushed away a crumb off his cheek with her fingers.

He smiled at her. Her heart sort of clenched. But she figured it was heartburn from swallowing too much hot dog too fast.

Lucius cleared his throat, and finally bit into his food.

"How is it?" asked Hermione eagerly.

He chewed slowly, his face unreadable.

The tension was high, as all three of them watched the eldest male.

Finally, after seemingly forever, he swallowed.

"It's…acceptable." He quickly took another bite.

Hermione and Draco grinned to each other. Draco winked.

Hermione playfully hit him in the chest. Playfully being the key word that Lucius obviously didn't get.

Lucius pushed out his seat roughly and stood up, his eyes alight. "HOW DARE YOU HIT MY SON LIKE THAT," he sputtered.

"I just—" whimpered Hermione.

"YOU—"The half eaten food in his mouth fell into his throat, as he began to choke, coughing and wheezing.

Draco rushed up.

Hermione rummaged through her bag, pulling out her bottle of water. She handed it to Draco, who quickly uncapped it, and poured it down his father's throat.

Narcissa tapped her husbands back, trying to ease the flow of air.

Lucius' face turned red, as he sputtered and began to breathe once again. But it was only a few moments before he returned upright and glared at Hermione.

"THAT WATER TOUCHED YOUR LIPS!" he bellowed. "FILTHY MUGGLEBORN LIPS! I THINK I'M GOING TO BE SICK. " And with that, he threw down his hot dog, ketchup splattering all over and stomped away.

"I don't even get a thank you," muttered Hermione. "Do you suppose I should have told him it was a new bottle of water?"

Narcissa looked frightened. "I'm so sorry," she apologized. "I'll go find him. We'll meet up later."

"Let them wander for a while," whispered Draco to Hermione. To his mother, he raised his voice, "The front entrance at four mother!"

She nodded, before scurrying off to find Lucius.

And then…there were two.

Hermione and Draco looked at each other, before bursting into laughter. They held their hotdogs up like glasses, and pretending to clink them together in celebration.

"A mission well accomplished," grinned Draco.

Hermione shook her head. "It's only just begun." She checked her watch. They had four hours of a break before the act would start once again. She looked around her.

Draco caught on.

He stood up, pulling her along. "Come on," he said, surprising her, "show me what this world has got. These things don't look so scary."

Hermione only grinned.

She could imagine it now.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART II.