Draco woke to the sound of tapping on his window. In his heavily hungover state, he dragged himself out of bed and opened the window, letting his owl in, with three envelopes gripped in its claws. Trudging into his en-suite bathroom, Draco realised that he was still fully clothed - albeit without a tie - and he had a huge blue stain on his once-white shirt.
Once he had finished showering and was dressed in fresh clothing, Draco made sure that the coin that Kingsley had given him was in his breast pocket. Both Kingsley and Harry thought that the escape would have happened on Friday but the day went by escape-free, meaning he was anticipating the heat of the coin to alert him at any moment.
A loud clattering from the other room drew his attention away from the fake galleon. Gripping his wand a little tighter, he silently walked towards his door and peered through the opening. From what he could see, there was someone in his kitchen, searching through the drawers. Swallowing nervously, Draco blinked a few times to clear his eyes and burst out of his room, pointing his wand at the intruder.
"If you so much as move one inch, I swear I will Avada you," Draco snarled.
The trespasser froze. Draco was surprised to see it was a woman – a mildly attractive one at that – but he didn't lower his wand.
"Who are you?" Draco asked, taking a step closer.
"You know who I am," the woman said uneasily. "We met last night at the pub."
"What the fuck are you doing in my flat?" Draco demanded, trying to place her in his hazy memories of the previous night. He couldn't seem to remember her, but he had got utterly hammered with Blaise.
The woman stood up straight and looked at him. "Well… you invited me here. You passed out before we did anything, though."
"That doesn't answer my question," Draco growled. "Why are you still here? And what are you doing in my kitchen?"
"I crashed on the sofa. I woke up a few minutes ago and decided to make some breakfast… I'm trying to find the egg-timer."
"You're trying to find the egg-timer?" Draco repeated, lowering his wand a fraction.
"Yeah. I dropped a pan… did I wake you?" the woman asked apologetically.
"No," Draco replied, still suspicious. "What's your name?"
"Bethany!" she answered, looking hurt. "I thought you might have remembered. Obviously not."
"Obviously not," Draco muttered. He lowered his wand completely. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Bethany sighed and frowned slightly. "Fine." She grabbed her bag from the chair and stormed out of the flat, slamming the door as she left. Draco listened to the crack of Apparition and shook his head in disbelief. It had been a while since he'd had to get a girl to leave in the morning.
Draco sighed and stared grudgingly at the messy kitchen. He didn't even own an egg-timer.
An hour later, the flat was tidied and Draco was lazily picking apart a stale blueberry muffin that had been in his cupboard for a few days. His mother would have been able to teach him a spell that either preserved food or made it fresh again, but she was in Paris and therefore unavailable to give him such information. He didn't know why he was so angry at her. He was the one that had suggested it in the first place. He supposed that it was because she didn't notify him first. Even though he was twenty-three, Draco still liked to know if his mother was going out of the country or not.
As he finished off the muffin, leaving the crumbs on the table for his owl, Draco heard a knock at the door. Cautiously, he picked up his wand and walked over to the door. No one knocked. No one magical, anyway. As he opened the door and peered through the gap, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Emma! What are you doing here?" Draco asked in surprise.
"I tried to Floo, but your wards must be up or something because I couldn't and –"
"Yeah, I forgot to take them down this morning," Draco cut in, gesturing for Emma to enter. "Not feeling my best."
"Busy night?" Emma asked timidly, walking into the flat and towards the living room.
"I can't remember, honestly," Draco admitted, following her. "It's a bit of a blur."
There was an awkward silence.
"What is it you're here for?" Draco asked again.
"Oh! Sorry," Emma apologised, fishing around in her bag. "I've finished the phones. We all worked really hard on them; stayed up all night."
"Great!" Draco exclaimed. "Can I see?"
"Yes, hang on." Emma tipped the contents of her handbag onto a sofa. "Here we are."
She hastily handed Draco three small rectangular objects. They looked like ordinary Muggle phones – plastic and black with a large screen – but without any buttons.
"How does it work?" Draco asked in wonder, turning one of the phones over in his hands. They were lighter than they looked and Draco could feel the magic radiating from them.
"They're quite clever, actually," Emma said proudly. "To activate them you just say a password – they're all set to your name at the moment – and you can do allsorts with it."
"Draco Malfoy," Draco said clearly. All three phones lit up: the screen turned white and a menu appeared. MTM's logo was at the bottom.
"The first button changes your password. The second one allows you to write a message to either of the other phones – or both – the third button lets you make a phone call between the phones and the fourth button is a Floo call function. You can hold the phone in front of your face and you can Floo anyone with a fireplace!You can also turn the sound off and on with the music symbol in the corner or lock it with the padlock on the other side."
"Wow," Draco said, in total shock. "These are better than I imagined. They're brilliant!"
Emma blushed. "Malcolm and Kevin did most of the charming. I just came up with the functions and design."
"They're brilliant," Draco repeated. "How do I use them?"
"It's simple," Emma told him. "You can control it with your voice or just tap whatever option you want."
"Well, thank you, Emma. These are great. I'll try them out right away," Draco said, offering a rare smile in Emma's direction. "How do I turn them off again?"
"Tap the padlock symbol at the bottom," Emma said, grinning out of pride at her work. "Or you can just say 'lock."
"Lock," Draco said loudly. The three phones' screens went black immediately. He couldn't wait to test them out.
"Kevin gave them wards, too," Emma informed him. "No one can listen to your phone calls through a third-party device or eavesdropping spell, they cannot be detected with anti-bugging devices or spells, they're equipped with water-repellent charms and they're indestructible against all attacking spells and jinxes."
"Clever Whitby."
"Of course, once you're back, we can manufacture these properly," Emma carried on professionally. "We'll need to promote them and perhaps even use MTM as a network. I looked at Kevin's research… the Muggle companies make a lot of money through this credit thing. Customers pay a certain amount of money a month to use their phones."
"There's potentially a lot of money to be made," Draco agreed. "It's just trying to market them."
"We could even look into putting more spells on them," Emma continued excitedly. "For example, people could be sent the newest Daily Prophet straight to their phones!"
"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves," Draco warned gently.
"You're right," Emma said apologetically, "we'll have to wait until you get back from wherever you're going." Emma looked at Draco hopefully, silently hinting that she would very much like to know what exactly he was doing with the Aurors.
Draco rolled his eyes. "You know I can't tell you."
"I know."
There was another awkward pause.
"So, what have you got planned for the weekend?" Emma asked casually.
Draco thought for a moment. "Nothing, I don't think. Why?"
"I just thought that –"
"Hang on! I do have plans… I'm invited to a birthday this evening," Draco recalled, remembering Hermione's invitation. He wasn't planning on going. Why would he want to be surrounded by a crowd of Draco-hating losers?
"Oh, okay," Emma said quickly. "What about tomorrow?"
"I don't think I'm doing anything," Draco said slowly, trying to force his still-hungover brain to work faster.
"Good! I mean, I was hoping we could get some coffee together," Emma rushed, blushing furiously.
"Okay," Draco said, nodding, "good idea. By having a meeting tomorrow, I can let you know if I have any problems with the phones which need to be amended before – before I leave."
"Yes," Emma said disappointedly. "A meeting."
"You can relay anything I say back to the other two," Draco told her, oblivious to Emma's reaction. "I'll meet you at Broomstix at twelve."
"Yes, of course, twelve," Emma mumbled. "Well, I best be getting home."
"Of course," Draco replied. "I'll take the wards off and you can Floo."
"Thanks," Emma said gratefully.
Draco placed the phones carefully on his coffee table and removed the wards. Emma was just throwing in the Floo powder when Draco frowned. "Hang on, how did you find my flat?"
Emma blushed again. "Um, I looked in your office and found your address on an invoice…"
"Say no more," Draco said awkwardly. "It's fine. I'll see you later."
"Bye!"
Draco watched as Emma ran his fingers through his hair, placed his left hand on his hip and stared at the three phones, which were face down on the coffee table. They were truly magnificent; his company's best invention yet… and he wasn't the one who had created them. Yes, he had come up with the original idea, but he hadn't been around for the making of the product, which was his favourite part of the process.
Sighing again, he picked the phone with 'ONE' engraved on its back. After he said his name, the phone lit up immediately, showing the menu. "Change password," Draco said nervously. He was sure he looked like an idiot, talking to a plastic rectangle.
The screen changed to show a keypad that looked like a smaller version of a Muggle computer keyboard with thephrase 'New password' above it. Draco typed in his password carefully and then said his name again when the phone instructed him to. Pleased with himself, he did the same with the other two phones, altering the password slightly on each one. He then went back to the first phone and decided to try out the other functions.
"Message," he said slowly. The phone showed another menu which asked him to choose who to send the message to. "Two."
Again, a keypad popped up along with a space for the message to be written and a button to send it. Draco decided to use his voice to write the message instead of having to fiddle around with the small keys. "Hello. This is a test."
The words appeared on the screen and Draco happily pressed the 'Send' button. Almost immediately, phone number two beeped once and lit up with the words 'New Message'. Draco picked it up, said his password and read the message he had just sent. So, the message function worked, but what about the phone call function? Picking up phone number three, he said the password and selecting the 'Call' button, choosing phone number one to test it on. After a moment, phone one beeped twice and flashed up with 'Incoming Call' Draco pressed the answer button. "Hello?"
Draco's own voice echoed back at him in the other phone. Grinning, he hung up both phones and picked up phone two again. The last button was the Floo call function and it was the one he was most intrigued about. Somehow, the phones could be linked up to the Floo network and were able to show his face in the flames of the recipient's fire, which he was completely baffled at. He had underestimated his team's abilities.
He pressed the button and was met with another keypad for inputting the address or name of the person he wished to contact. Wanting to try the voice recognition again, Draco cleared his throat and lifted the phone up so it was in front of his face. "Draco Malfoy."
Immediately, his fireplace roared into life, showcasing Draco's head in the flames.
"Hello. This is a test," Draco said again. The Draco in the fire spoke at the same time. It was a little unnerving so Draco ended the call and locked each phone again. He couldn't wait to show everyone what Emma and the others had created, but knew that no one other than Hermione would really understand the significance or the beauty of the three ordinary-looking objects in front of him.
His mind drifted back to the prospect of the party that evening. Even if the occasion and company were dire, at least he could show them the phones and briefly explain their use. He wouldn't stay for long, or make an effort at all and he certainly wouldn't bring Hermione a gift.
A/N: I thought I'd post this chapter now, before my English exam as I'll be distracted and probably forget to upload it. Had no reviews for the last chapter... not complaining or anything but the feedback really helps me and makes me want to write more/faster for you guys. Chapter 26 will probably be ready in about a month (end of June/beginning of July) and it's when THINGS START HAPPENING. You have been warned. Thanks to my beta, who you can follow on twitter - amberkayfanfic. Please read/review!
xoxoxox