His feet carried him down the stone stairs into the cellar. His wand light split off to fill the sconces on the wall as he reached the landing at the bottom, and there he saw the old man, Ollivander, and the tiny, pale frame of Luna Lovegood.

She looked up at him when the room illuminated, squinting from the light that her eyes weren't used to. A smile lit her face, making Draco feel worse than usual. She stood up and strode over to the gate, leaving Ollivander looking after them.

"Is it Easter already?" Luna asked. "I suppose I've been a few days off in my counting-"

He had a pair of sandwiches in his hand, reaching through the gate to hand them to the girl. She took them with another sweet smile and walked back to Ollivander, giving him one of the sandwiches.

"I hope things haven't been too bad while I was gone-" He said.

"We're still here, aren't we?" Luna said, taking a bite from her sandwich as she walked back towards him.

"That isn't necessarily a good thing." Draco said, some brand of guilt eating at his insides. "I could have gotten you out if-" He continued under his breath.

"You'd only be in more trouble then." She said airily. "Don't worry, Draco. We understand."

"We can't all be Gryffindors." Ollivander added between bites.

Draco peered at the man, not saying anything.

"How is everyone?" Luna asked.

"Most are in hiding. Things are getting even worse at Hogwarts." He said. He remained with Luna for a short while, telling her what he knew of the D.A. and informing her of what he could. She was always an avid listener and very impartial. She was one of few people who never truly seemed to judge his past or the Dark Mark on his arm.

"It's nice to see you again, Draco." Luna said as he prepared to go back up the stairs.

He looked back at her for a moment, "You too, Lovegood."


"It's gotten quite dismal here, hasn't it?" Daphne said, moving to link arms with Remington. She was already arm-in-arm with Tracey on the other side. "All these 'Wanted' posters and such. Florean's has even closed."

"Hopefully things will get sorted out soon. Summer without Florean's is no summer at all." Tracey added. "At least Sugarplum's is still open. What do you two say we get some sweets to eat with our tea?"

"I haven't had a chocolate frog in ages." Rem remarked. "I'm all for some Sugarplum's."

Daphne laughed. "I'm glad you could come, Rem." She said.

"We know Draco's really concerned about you, but a girls' day was well overdue." Tracey added. "I would have asked Pansy to come, but she's in France with her aunt for the holiday. Besides, you two haven't always gotten along-"

"I think we've made a lot of progress." Rem argued. "Haven't we?"

"True. She was horribly jealous of you fifth year." Daphne said, "Over Draco of all people-"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Rem asked curiously.

"Well, he was never really overly kind to her." Tracey said, "Sometimes he'd be nice, but usually there was a lot of ignoring on his part."

"He liked the attention," Daphne explained, "But he didn't want any strings attached. She had a hard time accepting that. Particularly when you came along and he gave all his attention to you."

"All of us who knew Draco well enough knew something was up." Tracey said, "He'd never taken interest in anybody like that before."

"Like what?" Rem asked as they slipped inside the door to Sugarplum's Sweets Shop.

"Like someone other than himself was actually worth his time and effort." Tracey explained, heading towards the chocolate section as soon as they were inside. Daphne went for the sugar quills. "Don't get me wrong," Tracey said, folding her arms as she assessed her options of candy. Rem grabbed a couple chocolate frogs, but listened to what the girl was saying, "He'd fiercely defend some of his friends. He's not heartless or spineless as some people think, but he's always been most concerned about looking out for 'number one', if you know what I mean." The Slytherin girl grabbed a chocolate cauldron and a small bag of fudge flies, looking back at Rem. "And then there was you."

They went to the counter to pay, each girl with her own selection of sweets. Remington's interest was piqued. It wasn't often that she heard someone else's view of Draco. That is, not including the Gryffindors that hated him. These girls, who'd known Draco far longer than even she had, were talking about how he'd reacted to her the past couple years when she hadn't been around to see him.

"What do you mean there was me?" Rem inquired as they left the shop.

"Well," Daphne began, "He wasn't usually very subtle when talking about-"

"What she means is," Tracey cut in, "That he was very boastful about encounters with girls. For example-"

"Tracey-" Daphne said warningly. It was very obvious that the two Slytherin girls were nearly opposites when it came to socializing. Tracey was very upfront and blunt. She said things exactly as they were with little filtration. Daphne was polite and tactful, and conscious of what a person should and should not say to each individual person. Daphne was the perfect, prim, and proper young woman of pure-blood aristocracy. Tracey was the product of a family of all men in a way that made it hard to assume otherwise.

Tracey either didn't hear Daphne, or didn't bother to listen. "When he felt up that Beauxbatons girl after the ball in fourth year-"

"Tracey, you really-" Daphne tried again, to no avail.

"Pansy was royally pissed, she'd been his date to the ball, you see-" Tracey said, "Practically told the whole House about it."

Daphne cleared her throat, "But with you," She began as they finally reached Rosa Lee Teabag. They walked inside, settling down at a table, pulling out their candies as the waitress brought them tea. "We'd know he'd have been with you for some of the day, or had conversation with you or something and he wouldn't say anything about it."

"Draco Malfoy," Tracey said, "Keeping his mouth shut for once? Unheard of."

Rem laughed, dropping a sugar cube into her teacup. She hesitated for a moment on whether to take more sugar, but decided against it. She usually could get away with three sugar cubes at home before her mother noticed and scolded her. Her sweet tooth was insatiable.

"I heard you're staying with Blaise for the rest of the holiday." Daphne said, raising her cup to her mouth.

"Yes," Rem replied. "I'm actually going to meet him at the Leaky Cauldron after this. Draco's worried about me being at home, I guess, for some reason or another." She added a bit irritably, stirring her tea with her lips pursed.

"Draco worried about someone?" Tracey said, breaking off a piece of chocolate something and popping it in her mouth. "Unheard of."

Rem laughed with her, "Stop it."

"Tell us about your friends, Rem." Daphne said suddenly. "I've always thought Slytherins and Gryffindors could be great friends if it weren't for this childish rivalry. What goes better than ambition and bravery? And now I guess you're a novelty, our Gryffindor friend." She grinned, "I want to know about the other Gryffindors."

Rem chewed her chocolate frog thoughtfully. Her friends? Half of them were in hiding, whether it be in Hogwarts or otherwise. She knew she needed to be careful what she said. "Fay Dunbar has been one of my best friends from day one." She said, "She was my first friend when I moved here. We get along great, all except for me dating Draco. It's caused a lot of problems, actually. With all of my friends. They actually kind of resent me for hanging around with Slytherins so much."

"Well poo on them." Tracey said.

"Tracey!" Daphne chided.

"What? You can't have friends in your rival House? What troll crap-"

Rem laughed, "No, it's not just-" She started to say. "They were my closest friends. They had my back and I had theirs and we went through a lot together, and now I'm kind of ditching them to make new friends. With people they don't exactly get along great with."

"I like them already." Daphne said brightly, "Can I come with you to see them?"

Remington laughed harder. "You- what?"

"Daphne, you're such a princess, you know that? Always happy, always liking people, ready to chat, perfect manners." Tracey accused.

"I want more Gryffindor friends." She said in explanation. "Sue me."