Disclaimer: All situations, characters, etc relating to Harry Potter belong to JKR.

A/N: I know I promised to post this chapter two days ago, but I had some RL business to finish before I could edit this chapter. My appologies.

Chapter Thirteen — July 14th (Part Two)

Draco and Harry had decided to stay a few hours longer at the Peak touring before returning to the Hotel to check up on Hermione's research. The Peak was the perfect place for tourists; it was filled with shops and entertainment to fit anyone coming from around the world. The environment was quite a difference from that of the cities. Trees surrounded two beautifully built skyscrapers, with an empty area between the two buildings for visitors to take in the sunlight and fresh air. The sky was blue and free of clouds, which was all the better, since cloudy summer days in Hong Kong was equivalent to clammy humid days. Up so high on the mountain, one could catch a cooling breeze, a brilliant change from that of the cities.

Of course, if you still couldn't handle the heat, the A/C in the buildings was always freezing cold. And Draco could not handle the heat.

"Bloody heat. Does it ever get any cooler?" Draco complained as he scurried back inside the building.

Harry laughed at him. Draco gave him a mock glare, but couldn't help the corners of his mouth from curling upwards. "Ooh! What's that?" Draco's hand was snagged and pulled toward a shop featuring wax figurines and hands. "What's this?"

"Wax-hand souvenirs," the shopkeeper answered cheerfully. "Would you like to make your own? All you have to do is pick your colours, and dip your hands in!" Glancing down at their joined hands, he continued. "Or maybe you could make one together! We have styles for the best of friends, family, or even lovers." He winked.

Draco's eyes grew wide as he realised neither he nor Harry had dropped each other's hand after being dragged over to the wax counter. He glanced at Harry to find his partner staring at him. Draco flushed a bit and looked away quickly. He dropped Harry's hand in the process, all the while contemplating why it hurt to see the disappointment that flashed across Harry's face and why he wasn't nearly as adverse to the idea of he and Harry as lovers as he really ought to be.

"Let's make one," Harry said quietly.

Draco whipped his head back around to stare at Harry. Harry's face was well composed, once again, but in those large emerald eyes staring up at him, Draco could see that Harry was actually nervous. But why would he have reason to be nervous? "Together?"

"Yes." Harry replied firmly at first, but then seemingly registering the strange look Draco realized he must be giving him, started backtracking, "I mean, if you don't want to —"

"No." Draco interrupted, schooling his expression into a calm, emotionless mask once again. When in doubt of your emotions, don't show any. "Let's make one. We're mates, after all, are we not?"

"Yes, of course, as friends," Harry said quickly, looking away. Draco almost thought he looked sad for a moment, but the expression was gone before he could be sure. Draco shook his head at himself. Of course Harry wasn't sad. It was such a silly thought. "We'll make one as friends then."

The shopkeeper smiled happily at them at Harry's words. "We start with the wax, and then the colours. Have you thought about what hand shapes you want to do? A hand jointly made between good friends represents an everlasting friendship," he suggested, waggling his eyebrows at them. "Of course, it means something different for family and lovers. But you wanted to make one as friends, correct?"

"Yes, of course." Draco replied smoothly. "Shall we begin, then?"

xXxXxXx

They ended up making a wax figurine of their hands joined together, as the shopkeeper suggested. After dipping their hands until the wax was thick enough, they dyed it a mixture of red and purples, swirling throughout the wax. Red was a colour of blessing and happiness, the shopkeeper had mentioned, and purple signifying physical and mental healing, and therefore also strength. Harry latched onto the symbolic meanings at once. There was just something about these Chinese superstitions about good and bad omens that interested him.

Afterwards, they had wandered around the building, enjoying their day in each other's company. Draco had dragged Harry into a jewellery shop, claiming that he had to buy his mother a souvenir or she would rip him a new one. Truthfully, Harry didn't think Narcissa Malfoy would like something that was made by muggles, but then again, she may accept it since it was a gift from Draco, whom she adored.

Harry was admiring a golden chain with a feather pendant when Draco sidled up next to him. "Pretty, isn't it?"

Harry nodded absently, turning away from the case. The chain was too expensive to even consider. Not that Harry couldn't afford it, since a good portion of the Potter and Black fortunes were still sitting unused in his vault, but he just wasn't used to spending so extravagantly.

Draco, however, had different ideas. "We'll take it."

"Draco-I-I couldn't buy something like that. It's too much for someone like me."

"Nonsense," Draco drawled. "You've always been golden, Harry. Something gold would suit you nicely. And it's muggle-made, which suits you perfectly since you like muggles so much."

"No, really, Draco, I—" Draco, ignoring Harry's protests, fastened the chain around Harry's neck.

"See? Beautiful. And if the price really bothers you so much, I'll do you a favour and I'll buy it. Consider it a gift from me. Seriously, Potter, treat yourself to something nice once in a while. You deserve it."

And then Draco turned and walked away, conveniently ending the conversation and leaving a very bewildered Harry standing there staring after him.

xXxXxXx

"Hey Hermione," Harry greeted his best friend happily as he plopped down on the chair next to her. "Good day?"

Hermione returned the smile, sitting back in her chair. "Yes, very. I learned quite a few new things about Chinese magical history. Did you know that the wizarding queen from three thousand years ago was a gambolling addict?"

"Er…no." Harry replied slowly.

"Why would someone find that important enough to put into records in the first place?" Draco asked, his lip curling in distaste.

"It caused a series of events leading to the downfall of an entire dynasty."

Both men stared at Hermione, who laughed aloud at their alarmed expressions. "Relax! That was centuries ago! What you might find important, though, is that I've finished going over all of the personal profiles that Avril's given us. I have my own list of possible suspects, but I thought you'd like to draw your own conclusions before you see mine."

"Yes, thank you, Granger," Draco replied as he finished putting their shopping bags into the closet and headed into the parlour to join the two of them. As he took a seat in the remaining chair, Hermione began,

"We'll start with LaBa. Twenty-Seven years old. He's loud, as his name implies, and he's observed as 'annoying, but productive'. He has a strange sense of style, as we can see from pictures of him; he dresses like any other gang member off the street, but in tacky colours and nearly feminine jewellery draped on his head like a hat. That's why he doesn't let his hair grow out longer than a buzz cut; it's because his hair will get tangled with the chains. He's been working for the mafia for a long time, now, sixteen years to be exact. He's in charge of the saunas and spas that their mafia owns, along with loan sharking. He also pitches in at the Disco from time to time. LaBa has never been arrested, not even taken in for interrogation, for breaking any wizarding laws. He has a high disregard for muggle laws, however, and has gone to jail numerous times, and has always been able to afford to bail out. He's been stopped by muggle authorities for creeping out random people on the street more times than can be accounted for and is proud of this accomplishment. He's noted here that he is a self-proclaimed 'badass', to which his fellow members have denied in the margins of his profile.

"The next in the files is Hallah. Technically, she's a level down from Avril and the others, working under Avril. However, she's Avril's most trusted and is allowed to listen in on some meetings that usual people of her ranking are not allowed to know about. Her profile isn't complete, but that could be due to the fact that she's a new member. And by new, I mean, she's only been around for a few months. I have no idea how she became so powerful in so little time; there's nothing written here about it. She rarely hangs out among the rest of the group, however, that can once again be put off on the fact that she's not of the same ranking as the rest of them. She been dubbed the 'gossip queen' in their society; she knows everything that's going on between the half-bloods and the purebloods. However, Hallah tends to follow Avril's lead in many areas, which is why she hasn't gained a spot in the upper class yet. One of these things is clothing style; while Avril sticks to green, Hallah prefers an electric blue. Avril's been teaching Hallah ways to enchant muggle items so they can be used the way the half-blood society uses them, as well as dark artefacts trading. Nothing else about Hallah is recorded.

"Then we have Heart and Kenneth. Heart, twenty-three, and Kenneth, twenty-six, are probably the strongest couple among the upper levels of the mafia. The two of them are practically married, and probably would be too, but getting married would involve the law and the ministry, so they've decided they don't need it. 'Stupid piece of paper that's not worth having our names come up in the ministry', were the exact words they used. Heart likes to sport Easter-pink hair streaks and 'cutesy'"— she made air quotes — "clothes while Kenneth prefers to give a very 'protector-like' image. Ironically, he claims this is to 'scare away the bad guys'. Heart was born to two squibs that used to work in a muggle mafia. They were both murdered while trying to escape capture when Heart was ten, and Heart has fought her way to power under the instruction of her Aunt. Kenneth and Heart met when Heart murdered her Aunt in order to steal her seat in the half-blood underworld's hierarchy. Kenneth was the only one who figured out what happened and somewhere in between their trying to get a one-up on each other, they fell in love, so to speak. They joined forces, and worked their way up the power ladder as a unit until they've reached the highest level. The couple works with everything pertaining to vehicles. They usually deal with auto theft, reassembling, and parking spots. Parking spots are where they block the public parking spots on the street and require people to pay a fee to park there, with a car wash option for an additional galleon. They have also noted here that they're willing to enhance anything vehicle-related with the dark arts for a price. If it wasn't for that fact that we were bound by blood oath, I'd arrest them for that right now," Hermione growled. "Some of their cars fell into muggle hands once, and it caused a lot of trouble. They're violating the Statute of Secrecy by not thinking about the risks!"

"Kenneth's cars drive brilliantly though," Draco remarked dreamily.

"And how would you know?" Hermione snapped.

"Kenneth gave Draco a car after he beat all the street racers with his madman driving while drunk," Harry replied with a shrug. Hermione eyebrows shot up. "What? He did. And then proceeded to drive us to lunch the next day driving the same way, I'm sure, only he was sober."

"I am a perfectly good driver," Draco snipped at Harry, who grinned at him.

"Suure," Harry replied, drawing out the word. "Of course, I was quite impressed with your skills. I'm so proud you didn't crash!" He teased.

Draco narrowed his eyes, a silent challenge accepted message being sent between friends. Hermione sighed and slapped a hand on each of their mouths. "Boys! We are not still in Hogwarts! You two fight like children on a playground pulling each other's pigtails while striving for each other's attention. Honestly. You need to focus on the case."

Harry blushed, but nodded, as did Draco. "Please continue."

Hermione waited until both men seemed calm, and then continued, "Heart and Kenneth have been captured by neither muggle authorities nor the ministry before. They're strong in defence spells, and very well versed in the dark arts. They're also very good with finances, and are the richest among the high levels. If the amount that they've reported in is correct, they have a fortune that may even rival the Malfoys."

Draco's eyes grew wide. "That's not possible!"

"If their records are indeed accurate, then I'm afraid it is," Hermione replied sadly. "They've used this fortune to bribe and buy their way through the muggle world. Thus, their connections throughout muggle society are many, and strong.

"However, that doesn't mean that they're acting the role of the Don. Although he is the youngest among the heads, that would be G-man. G-man was admitted into the mafia eleven years ago, which means he was fifteen when he started. He is now the head of the gambolling arena since Wyclyve left. Before, he was in charge of drugs and prostitution, especially those in discos and nightclubs. Frankly speaking, he went from being pimped out to being the pimp. No one knows his history previous to when he joined up with the mafia. According to the records, G-man was hired as a rent boy by one of the past upper-class mafia several times, and this man thought G-man had enough potential to work for him. When he died, G-man took over his spot and became the most successful member his age. As you can tell from the pictures, G-man always wears a blazer with a T-shirt underneath. His fringe is always bleached blond, and he seems to dress as if trying to mock formality. Out of everyone mentioned, G-man was the only one who was truly close to Wyclyve, other than Avril, of course. He and Wyclyve are the same age, and it seems that this fact helped their friendship move along. You see, G-man was surrounded by people older than him who pushed him around when he was first allowed in. Wyclyve helped him adapt, which is why they grew close. Also…" Hermione flushed a bit "G-man wrote here, er, well, you can see for yourself."

Draco and Harry both peered at the words scrawled into the paper. "He's gay. Figures. You think he fancied Wyclyve?"

"It's possible," Draco mussed. "Perhaps that's part of the reason why he's angry at Avril."

"He's probably the most obvious suspect," Harry said. "No matter how you look at it, G-man does seem to be very loyal to Wyclyve. When you were at the disco, G-man seemed angry at Avril for driving Wyclyve away. Now that Wyclyve is back, I wouldn't put it past him to help his best friend and possible crush. I also saw someone that looked like G-man that one day sneaking around a pure-blood area, which Wylcyve was known to frequent when he was hiding in other countries."

Hermione tapped her pen in acknowledgement, "Yes, that's what I thought as well. However, I also thought that we should be wary of Heart and Kenneth. The two are the most dangerous out of all of them, including G-man. In their case, although we don't know what motive they might have, they certainly have the money and power to be a spy. And even if they're not spying themselves, they could always pay someone under them to do the spying for them. Kenneth gave you a car for no reason; I think that's a little suspicious, don't you?"

Harry turned to look at Draco, who was biting his lip in thought. Draco has really nice lips, Harry thought, distracted for a moment, Perfect for biting. He shook himself and tried to pay attention to what Draco was saying. "That's true. I didn't think of that, Granger. I'll be careful with the car."

Hermione smiled at him. "And that's it. Quite helpful, don't you think?"

"Yes, very." Both Draco and Harry agreed.

"Perhaps we should meet with them and see if they confirm our suspicions. I'd like to meet with Avril again for more information on the mirror, as well," Draco proposed.

"All right, how about tomorrow?"

"Yes, tomorrow sounds good," Harry grinned at his two friends as they got up. They were finally making progress, and might even get a break on the case as well. Brilliant.

"Oh, and Malfoy," Hermione called out, "Your gift came while you were out today. It's on the bed." She blushed again, and Harry felt himself flush a bit himself. He had been a bit bold this time, and definitely didn't meant for Hermione to see the gift this time, but since Ting Ting was the one controlling when the gifts were mailed (so Draco couldn't use his Auror skills alone to track the gifts back to Harry) he didn't have much choice.

Holding his breath, Harry waited for Draco's response to the present as he watched the blond approach the bedroom.

"AN UNDERWEAR BOUQUET?"

A/N: Questions? Comments? Can I bribe you with more fluff for some reviews? Tell me what you think! ;)