Chapter 28: Limited Vocations

Draco crumbled a failed potion idea into his fist and opened it into a nearby trash can. Groaning, Draco leaned back into his desk chair, closing his eyes and massaging his temple with ink-stained hands. It was a day and a half since the Universal Championships had completed, and Draco was already up the nose with contracts to complete and bills to sign off on. Really, muggle currency and its limitations was so irritating. He had a potions invention to work on, and he was quite fine with giving his shoulder of the work to Harry to do. Harry, on the other side of the room, was scribbling diligently with a quill on long scrolls that had lots of 'conditions' that were already pre-signed. "Draco, do you have lunch money? I'm hungry."

Draco couldn't even see his lips move from around the big flop of raven curls, that didn't even shine a brunet due to the afternoon cast of sun shining mostly on Draco. Draco swept away a loose bang and turned around. "Lunch? Harry, It's two-o'clock." Draco had finished his afternoon snack, a PB&J, a hour ago, and wasn't that ravenous as Harry was now. "Well, I'm starving. We ate breakfast at nine am, remember?" Harry whined.

Draco rolled his eyes and fished for his wallet in his robes. As if sensing the searching, Harry got up out of his seat and perched by Draco's as he pulled out his wallet. "What do you want, Indian?" Draco hoped. Indian was the cheapest thing on the menu at their University's cafeteria buffet, as Draco had already splurged greatly with his now-inputted allowance (after the war, their great bank investments went mostly to keeping his father in good condition) with the Universal Championships and all, he had to keep his money in good keeping."Maybe you can ask Hermione for more money."

Harry shrugged, "Maybe. Think they have noodles?" Draco laughed, mostly in relief. At least Harry, the dim-witted git, hadn't caught on to his cheap choice. "What? I like noodles, just like any person who likes Indian." Harry responded indignantly. Draco stood up and did a quick cleaning charm on his hair in case there was any sweat caught in his locks. "I'm sure there's noodles, it's a Indian buffet." Draco shook his head. Sure, they had been mostly eating at fast food places and cafes lately, but Harry ought to remember main foods at their own University cafeteria. Oh well, there was no curing the Gryffindor's one track mind.

They headed out, passing Ronald's door, and to Draco's chagrin, Harry stopped and knocked, which led to them being followed by the red-headed weasel. They were currently chatting about the Quidditch results. "I can't believe he didn't even notice! The snitch was right in front of him!" Ronald yelled, causing someone on the way down the stairs to give him a glare. Draco held in a snort. Weasley gulped out a apology while Harry grinned. "I hope you have money for this, Weasley." Draco called out, as Ronald was already down the hall with Harry following close behind. Draco, however, had no reason to run. "We'll go over that later!" Ronald called back out.

.~.~.~.~.

Harry wandered around the buffet before remembering the Indian food was by the East entrance. Ron was checking his flip-phone for any messages from Hermione, a habit they'd got into after they ended up with hardly any classes together. Harry hardly even looked at his flip-phone, something Hermione greatly admonished him about. But that wasn't important. What was important was getting some noodles down his belly. "Ron, got any spare change?" Harry asked, making Ron look away from his phone and grab for a few knuts in his robe pockets, barely even registering the question before looking back down again.

Draco appeared behind him, something he wouldn't even realize without Auror training because of how sly the bastard was, and spoke into Harry's ear. "Wow. You need even more money than what I gave you, huh? And here I thought the Black heir was just overflowing with money." Draco muttered, heavy with sarcasm. Harry rolled his eyes and inclined back into Draco's neck, wanting to feel close even though they were in a cramped cafeteria with visually no privacy. "And? You know I spend half of that bank income on charity." Harry snapped back, grabbing a tray before going back to his spot near Draco.

"And I love you more for it. But you need to start saving money, mister." Draco admonished, turning around Harry to grab his own tray, keeping an eye on Weasley in front of them in the process. "And your best mate needs to learn to watch where he's going." Draco said, watching as Ron, just at that moment, bumped into Marcus Flint, who thereby turned around and glared daggers at Ronald, a whole foot shorter than him, and Ronald was pretty damn tall. Harry cringed as Ron looked up and glared back, never backing away from a fight. He quickly apologized to Marcus for him and pulled Ron back before he could take a swing.

"Geez, mate! What was that for?" Ron asked, a hurt ego. Harry shook his head and scooped some curry onto his tray, giving Draco a look. "We should be focusing more on what we're going to be doing next year than fighting." Harry told. Ron rolled his eyes and scooped a handful of rice onto his tray, "I'm going to try my luck in business, remember? Maybe work with George." Draco groaned and plopped his tray onto the sliding metal to get his own scoop while giving Ron a side eye. Harry ignored him and pushed on. "And you think I'd do well in schooling, right?" Harry asked. He wanted his validation.

"Totally. You're great with kids. You might have to work more on whatever subject you're going to teach, but you could do good, mate. Work at Hogwarts, though." Harry laughed nervously and put his knuts onto the counter to be paid. Draco put a calming hand on Harry's back while putting his own knuts there as well. They headed to a free table. "I sure hope so." Draco smiled at him and put a thumbs up.