One-Way Ticket

Chapter 23: What Really Happened Part I

Draco had left the quiet town of Hermione's suburb, and was driving out to the city on the other side of the motorway where he usually parked the car in an overnight carpark whilst waiting for the morning to come. It was dusk and the sky was streaked with sombre amber and blue, among the purple-flutters of clouds, as the car cruised along the grey-walled motorway. Trees, rooftops, and poles with telephone wires zipping by as he drove onwards and onwards. The windows were down, and the wind brought with it a faint taste of wood smoke and bitterness that he could taste, as if chewable, on his tongue, as the car continued it's journey. All around him traffic kept paces and never got too far ahead or behind him; always surrounded, by the same grumpy passengers that were edging for their break in the motorway exits, he would do the same.

This was quaint, the muggle world, it really was. There might've been no magic, and no wave of a wand (not that it solved most things these days), and no wonderlust and the soft touches of ingenuity magic bought, it was, as some notable people would describe it - boring, and completely devoid of all elements which made life interesting. No flying, no conjurations out of thin air, no sense of convenience with simply wound complex pieces of magic to make household or daily tasks easier, but yet...there was a sense of solidity about it. The muggle world. Cars weren't bad, thought Draco, and he was sure there were some intricate secrets behind how their mechanics worked. Perhaps less showy than magic, but there was something about it all the same. And the mundanity of it all, people living about their daily lives, using the muggle contraptions all around, getting about their daily lives with little regard for anyone else, but yet all coexisting and overlapping in the same world, and the freedom of choice. He felt like he could continue his job as a bouncer if he wanted, or quit any minute, or pick up a new job in a muggle movie theatre, or even more. In some ways, the muggle world felt so so free, shades of free that he never experienced, not at his...the wizarding world came back. All the blood politics and notions of old or notable families came rushing back. In some ways, his role in the wizarding world was trapped, bound, by something he wasn't even fully sure he wanted.

"The toll's broken-" a gravelly coarse voice said, deeply rich with tobacco.

"Huh-" Draco wound down his windows a little bit more.

Tall, broad-shouldered and imposing, a man with short spiky hair and weathered face glanced back from where he had been leaning against a metal machine that Draco vaguely knew beeped everytime he drove past. With a lurch he realised all the times traffic drifted to a stop and then started again, that had been absentmindedly passing him by as he drove, was due to this guy pulling everyone over as they passed the machine and having a word or two with them.

"Yeah the toll's broken. Once in a 10 or 15 year repair needed. You see this? Electromagnetism..." his knuckle rapped the side of the bulky metallic box sharply, and Draco suddenly felt a dull headache come over him. He hadn't known enough 'muggle' to know what that meant, but he knew enough to know it was broken. "Parts wore out. It's not going to work going back the opposite direction. No toll fee, no passage. We block all traffic going in that direction for a while," the man said, his gruff voice unforgiving as his fingers remained pointed at the box, as if ready to personally pounce in and attack the driver if they dared show no signs of comprehension.

"How long?" asked Draco, licking his lips nervously and changing grip on the steering wheel. He had about the night and the next half day or so before Hermione's parents would start to really notice his absence and give him hell for it - or her, both were unpleasant.

"Three days. It takes some time for the specific repairman for this to travel here. Good day, and DON'T, even try to think about worming your way out of a toll fee," he said, leaning in and waggling his dirt-covered fingers at him. A globule of spit nestled between his teeth and lower lip, as a cigarette butt hung out of his mouth, as if ready to spit into the car seat of any driver who dared show the slightest sign of disagreement. Draco was once again reminded of how tall and broad he was. Almost enough to give the only half-giant he knew; Hagrid from Hogwarts - a run for his money perhaps.

And with a last clap on the window's edge, the man withdrew his hands and face from the inside of the car, Draco felt his heartbeat slow and the hair on the back of his neck drop as his foot on the accelerator took the car forwards once more, breaths slowly back down to normal as he inched further and further into a city that was suddenly becoming all the more foreboding, yet home - as it would have to be - for the next few days, as he absentmindedly drove toward a series of white buildings with sparkling waterfall fountains in front. He sensed a little more than a carpark would have to do for the next two nights and day, and he was on the lookout for the place that called to him. He suspected that when the man said 'three days', he meant the repairman was likely to arrive on the third and due to working hours tending to finish earlier than at night, it was likely the repair work was going to be finished before the day was over so he could have time to drive back before night really fell - earlier perhaps. But he did need a place to stay for the next two nights.

The city was big - bigger than the one in Hermione's hometown, he could tell. In fact, Hermione's hometown almost seemed a smaller and more homely derivative of this. For starters, there were tall buildings - skyscrapers, the word vaguely came to mind, that stretched high into the air, and they seemed scattered like huge stalks of grass, this way and that. One skyscraper wasn't an oddity or something special or anything, but there were literary so many, scrawled across the horizon and landscape. Walkways of glass and plastic hung between buildings, a million other different stores, each specialising in their own thing, sprawled around the city. Cars, and cars with the four letter word 'taxi' scrawled about drove between buildings and roads, as he navigated the narrow city streets, looking for a place to park. This was bigger, and more interesting too at a glance. Excitement started flooding into his arms and fingertips, as his mind mapped different city streets and things to do like a rally on the Quidditch pitch to seek the snitch at the fastest pace possible. This was new, this was exciting. Perhaps the original downturn with the toll being broken wasn't the downside he thought it was, and it was the start of a new good adventure.

The car slowed to a stop where the traffic waned, Draco stared through the tinted glass of his car window. A tall building, see-through glass front with black marble walls glittering with a tiny thousand sparkles embedded within, a fancy sort of lobby was briefly seen from his vantage point. Shrubs and hedges cut into perfect animal shapes, a sprawling white fountain with glistening blue sheens of water sparkling and bubbling from the top, splashing down, with an almost comical amount of butterflies or insects fluttering about near the front. Pretty little flowers in a bloom of colours decorated the shrubs and hedges, he could hear the faint strains of piano music wafting out. This was the one, a hotel to stay in for the night, something called out to him.

He had Hermione on dial as he found the entrance to the indoor carpark, parked his car and got out. She picked up within two rings.

"Hello?" she said, sounding so smooth and polished, and so blissfully aware and happy of all difficulties as he heard her voice flood over the phone.

"Hello, hope chores and dinner are going well with you," he said, remembering what Hermione was absentmindedly saying to him before he left, "You remember what I was doing with the car?" He felt just a bit nervous as he reached the elevator, he'd seen them going up and down on the sides of see-through glass buildings so he had the vague feeling what they did, but this would be his first time figuring them out - or what he thought was an elevator anyway.

"Mm." It was hard to tell what Hermione was thinking.

Draco pressed on, "You know how I park my car in the free carpark with overnight parking on the city at the other side of the motorway?"

"Mmm," came her response.

"Well usually there's a low fee toll, charges a different price depending on what vehicle it is. You know, car, truck, trailer, and so on. And well...the magnetism for the car one is malfunctioning at the moment. They say the internal parts broke down, as they do once every 10 or 15 years or something, so the toll's closed for cars a bit, and they're having a repairman come and fix it as soon as possible-"

"How long would that be?" came Hermione's response.

"Uh, a few days. I won't be able to drive back through the toll way side for several days. There's a nice hotel here...let me see," Draco was lucky the elevator finally opened as he said it. He had debilitated whether to press '1' as it seemed the first level on the ground, and he knew he parked in the first underground level G1, but the 'G' level between them just seemed too innocuous to miss, and apparently the underground levels were G1, G2, etc, whilst G was the ground level of the lobby, he realised, as the doors opened and he was greeted with tinkling piano music, a bubbling water fountain near the end, incensed rooms and a receptionist who looked up slowly with a smile of acknowledgement before returning to her work.

He ignored the plush couches and white marble table with a vase of floral bouquet on it as he found a see-through stand containing stacks of pamphlets. "bed and breakfast. Affordable with my wages..." he said, grateful that he had remembered to bring his wallet with him before he left and aware of how it was conveniently in his pocket.

Hermione's voice was less than enthused, "you're stranded, for several days?"

But what had caught Draco's attention was a series of revolving side doors, which lead to a casino, small gym and sauna area. The white paned glass turning round and round seemed to showcase each glimmering world for a split second, before disappearing as the spokes turned, as if reminding him of how much limited time he had to spend here and get the most entertainment out of it before the two nights and three days were quickly over. It seemed the music was slightly louder in the casino, faint stains of tobacco smoke, but a more exquisite type, wafted out like fresh fingers beckoning him in. The little bit of trepidation that had gathered when he was confused about the elevators came back in his stomach, his chest, his fingertips which were just jumping with excitement, and he found his gaze drawn to the casino for a few long moments before he returned his reply, "Stranded. Think of it like being stranded with new adventures in an unfamiliar area for several days! The city is way bigger than I thought now that I've gotten out of the carpark and walked around! It's cool!" he said, and the small trips to just the overnight carpark he parked in before returning back to Hermione's home town seemed paled by comparison. Now that he had gotten out of the carpark and walked around (albeit in his car) or just, truly taken a sightseeing tour around the city, it had seemed infinitely bigger and more complex than just the small route from toll way, to overnight carpark, and back, he had done before. Previously he had mostly been too tired and just relieved he found a place to park his car to do anything more.

"I'm going to have to explain your absence to my parents for several days?" Draco felt a stab of annoyance, why was it that people never acted the way you thought they would? But he was here now, and all he needed was an explanation and to comfortingly nip Hermione's woes in the bud before he could be free to explore what he liked, the thought of that sent blood racing through his body.

"That would be correct. There's no other way. I can't make the time pass quicker. Hey, this says 'card or cash', he said, distracted by a small rectangular like object he hadn't noticed before, "Does that mean I can use the card somehow to pay instead of going to a bank and drawing money? And what do all the packages mean?" he said, staring at the 1&1, 2-for-1, family fun, etc, signs on all these complicated little placards and pamphlets he didn't seen notice or consider before. It seemed muggle administration was even more of a hassle than wizarding administration was - which wasn't much for most pureblood families when they went to the bank or abroad for the wizarding world was so much more simpler in a way, and there wasn't as much complex information to record or divulge, "When we go on holidays my family knows the hotel owner generally, so we just stay for however long and whereabouts in the hotel we want, and after the duration they give us the sum and we just pay it..."

"I-I suppose there has to be a way to think of something," said Hermione, Draco realised with a jolt that the onus of explaining his absence and concocting a lie would all be completely on her, despite the fact that he was probably more comfortable with lies and pretenses than she was, even to her parents, anyway, but then, wasn't it always harder to lie to your own? "Uh, you just tap the card on a telephone shaped thing-"

"Found it," said Draco, and realised with annoyance the lapses in the piano music he heard wasn't actually from the piano music lapses, but rather his phone which was crackling and breaking up it seemed. A similar thing happened with patronuses in unfamiliar atmospheres too. Ah, these life inconveniences were present in both worlds. "Sweet. It looks cool, hey what's that..." he said, noticing a small subsection of the casino full of upside down champagne flutes and bottles, with what looked like a table and many chairs drawn up about it, and many more bottles of bubbling liquids or smoking sheens surrounding it. Like a muggle version of potions class, and for the first time, the muggle world felt magical too. As if he was seeing the muggle version full of it's own muggle-magic of the mundane version from his world.

"If anyone asks you're 16 by the way," came Hermione's response.

"Alright," said Draco, as his phone crackled up some more. He supposed it may be one of those things where the longer it went on, the more crackly it would get if it was already going to be crackly. He'd witnessed the exact same thing with patronuses his parents received from associates or friends throughout his childhood enough times to see the haunting similarity. "Hey, I think the phone's breaking up," he dropped his voice for Hermione's benefit so she could hear his thoughts but didn't want anyone else to catch wind of him being a wizard or anything out of the ordinary here, not that there were that many people around, though he spotted a few burly figures in the far edges of the bar, the gym, and moving about from the elevator in the clear glass-section at the end of every corridor he'd observed before driving into the carpark of the hotel, "sometimes patronuses aren't more clearly heard in certain atmospheres too," sharp footsteps and the raise of the hair on his neck told him he had company. He straightened up, didn't want to make a dour impression on the first (interesting) person he would meet in a hotel like this. Afterall, he'd had good experiences with his muggle friends Henry, Alfred and Lidge, and Hermione's friends as well, in a new and unfamiliar environment. He could do with a nimble and interesting friend who knew his way around these parts of he was able to chance to encounter someone like that.

"someone's coming over. I believe I have to smalltalk for a bit before everything's finalised and it'll be okay for the next few days," he said, thinking of how the receptionist looked like she was expecting him to say something after he took his time about at the start. Yep, definitely more complicated and he would definitely had to go through a series of information exchanges with the receptionist in the muggle world before administration was finalised, he had the sense of, "I'll give you one last call before dinner alright?" he asked, feeling like it was probably going to happen in the next few hours following the administration and everything.

"Alright," said Hermione, before her end of the line clicked shut.

"New fella around the block eh?" The voice was thick with dulcet tones, a finger tapped on his shoulder and Draco spun around to be faced with a man who strongly looked like an older version of one of his friends. He was taller than Draco by a good head or so, bed of unruly blonde-brown curls, with hazel eyes and a jovial sort of upturn of the mouth as he smiled. He was dressed in blacks and browns with a long flourishing travellor's cloak, a silvered pair of handcuffs sticking out his back pocket, and either a long stick or a short cane the length of his forearm - Draco couldn't tell, that was mostly black with a sharp white tip at the end of it. Perhaps it disguised a knife end. Draco had seen these handcuffs around police officers enough to know they were for restraining people if mixed with the wrong end of the law. There was an emergency pair in the nightclub he worked as a bouncer at for that record, but he was told to not use them unless it as a last resort as police didn't know they had them, and he supposed like guns, they were something you more or less equipped with if you dabbled on the wrong end of the law. Things in a friend that could come in handy in this part of the city.

"Yes just passing through. Haven't travelled here before, not quite what I'm used to," he said, thinking that it was stupid to try and pretend he was a regular, especially if this guy was, and it was so plainly obvious he might as well make it apparent here he wasn't used to it, but he tried to make it out to be he was used to travelling and this was just one of his locations. As if he was familiar or well-renowned in his home turf or domain somewhere, not that he was really a regular in any establishment or club. Even his job at the nightclub wasn't close to true membership or regularity with a gang or just affiliated with some purpose really. And suddenly he felt like a dandelion head, drifting listlessly through the wind, unmanned to a particular purpose out here.

"Ah, well you must see the sights and experience the highs and everything. This is a star casino, and there's a good bar over there - you have to visit at least once. I can tell you a number of good stories about this place," he said, leading him towards the shining revolving door that lead exactly towards the casino which had caught Draco's attention earlier.

"Please," Draco said, allowing the man to lead the way, thinking a few stories were interesting. And if he needed to get out, he could easily lie that the receptionist was waiting on him for something administration related, he hadn't really checked in yet besides choosing the bare minimum package and paying, but there was room to pretend he needed information about other things. His slytherin instincts were kicking in in this new place.

"Wonderful young boy. I bet you have a few amazing stories of your own to tell," he said, a smile and Draco noticed he had three golden teeth, two spread out and symmetrical about a centre one on his top row of teeth, "and so do I, as I've said. Let me tell you, we will have an amazing time and I will show you amazing things around here. You won't regret," he said, a flash of otherwise dazzling teeth before the revolving doors swung a full revolution behind them, they were firmly in the casino. It was colder in here, fresh scent of mint and lavender wafted out, the day's events caught up to him and suddenly Draco felt tired and a thirst for something to drink.

Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading, if you're still sticking with the story, and sorry for leaving it for so long! I was unexpectedly busy, but life is still looking busy about now so this story's updates are truly irregular, I can't promise when the next chapter comes but enjoy this one~~

Thank you once again for reading, and pretty please review! It would be lovely to still see responses after such a long time! C:

Cheers,

-WhymsicalBell