Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, nor anything affiliated with it.
Draco's POV
Today is the first day of presentations and I'm stressing quite a bit. We've managed to get all the necessary parts for our idea to work, but we had some problems with malfunction machines during the week that we just managed to clear before today. Hopefully nothing of that sort happens during the trip, it would be just our luck if a muggle studies excursion ended in disaster again.
I continue packing my bag, but this time I pack it with the aim to be prepared to a) help us if we end up in a bad situation, and b) help if anyone forgets anything. It seems like that kind of thing a teacher would do, but I make sure to pack a small basic healing supply kit, a couple of small snacks, a few shrunken down water bottles, and other things we might need like incident report slips. I finish putting everything inside before grabbing my crutches from beside my bed, and knocking on Hermione's door to see if she's ready.
She doesn't answer the door immediately, but I know I heard a faint, 'just a moment', before hearing the sound of a lot of crashing and minor cursing. She opens the door with a slightly red and flustered face before apologizing for the wait.
"It's alright," I reply with a laugh, "you sure made it entertaining for me."
She blushes even harder when I say this and I laugh even more.
"Do you want some help cleaning up whatever that was?" I offer.
"Uh, sure. Do you know what time it is? I don't want to be late for this and we really should be there about 20 minutes early."
"Don't worry, we still have another 40 minutes to go." I say. "But if you don't hurry up we might be just a bit late."
"I'm hurrying, but I can't figure out what to bring. I know my purse can hold pretty much anything I want, but I don't want to clutter it too much. It's really annoying having to clear it out every now and then." She says.
"Trust me, we probably don't need half the stuff you're thinking of bringing. I'm already bringing a collection of small snacks and plenty of water. The main things we need now are muggle money, since I don't have a lot of it, bus tickets, and the survey and itinerary sheets."
"Alright then, but I am going to bring my healings potions with me. I'm not sure if you're bringing some, but I'd feel better bringing my own since I know what I have in there."
"That's true. You would have had to deal with the most amount of wounds from the war. You're probably more qualified to deal with and treat it than most of the nurses in St. Mungo's." She smiles a bit at my last remark, but when I look in her eyes I regret saying what I did. I can see the haunted look of someone who's having small flashbacks. I feel bad for reminding her of those horrors.
Before I can redirect the conversation, Hermione speaks instead, "Do you have everything prepared for lunch today?"
"Yes I do. Bipsy is heating up the food as we speak. We decided on a menu of lasagna, greek salad, and garlic bread. In terms of drinks, I thought hot apple cider and water would be okay." We wanted to serve food at the Manor so that it would be easier than finding somewhere else for us all to eat on the way, or booking a place. It's also a lot cheaper since we can purchase the ingredients in bulk.
"Excellent," she says, "I think everything is about ready then. I'm done packing all my stuff together so we should probably head down now."
"After you." I say, letting her exit first. I then close her door quietly behind me before we exit our dorm altogether to walk down to the classroom.
At about 8:50, we finally have everyone gathered including McGonagall. I try to get their attention, but it takes a bit more time than usual to do so today.
"Attention class!" I practically yell at them. By this point they've quieted down, but I wait a moment for it to be almost silent so I can speak.
"Just a reminder that lunch today will be provided at Malfoy manor and that we will be back in time for dinner. I hope all of you had breakfast before you came here, but there will be some light snacks on the train. Hermione has a few instructions for you guys in the meantime." I say, and step aside to let her speak.
"Can everyone please find a partner to travel with?" she asks. "Once you do please come up and get a copy of our itinerary to share and a small questionnaire from me please. Please fill out the form quickly, we need the information to finish planning the last portion of our day."
We wait while everyone does so and collect them all magically once they've finished. Hermione takes them and places them in a neat stack before clipping it together and placing it in a special folder for reviewing later. I turn back to our class and continue with instructions.
"All right, now that we've completed the tedious parts of this trip, we will head down to the train platform in Hogsmeade. Please try stay with your partners, but if you really want to split up, try to keep an eye on them at least. It'll be easier that way to make sure we haven't lost anyone." I say. Hermione then continues with the second half of our first bit of details.
"From there we will take a subway train to Kings Cross station in London. We will board a muggle public transit bus and take it to Diagon Alley. Make sure to stick with the group. If you do get lost however, please send me a text or call me at 555-4743. I'll find a way to get back and find you. As we're leaving, I will pass all of you a ticket. Please hold onto it as you will need it to get on the bus." With that, she walks to the door and passes everyone a small red ticket as we leave the classroom.
We exit the school and walk down to Hogsmeade. From there we head to the station and go to the platform. There on the tracks, lies a much cleaner version of the subway train we procured just over a week ago. The doors of the train are open so that we have easy access to all the compartments for now. The two of us turn to the class to address them once more before we get on the train to travel to London.
"We're going to head out now. You may have about ten minutes to explore the train. Unlike the Hogwarts Express, you cannot move between cars once we've started moving so pick your car carefully. Every train car has two small TV-like screens, which will play a small video presentation once we start moving, and a small metal cart that contains some small snacks." Says Hermione.
We choose a car in the front of the train. When we walk in, we see that no one else is in here except for McGonagall and the conductor. We got quite lucky by finding her, she's a squib but she knows how to operate the train for us and happily took the job. It was a lot easier since it meant we wouldn't have to obliviate anyone.
In addition to the other upgrades we gave the subway train, we also put in two small tables on either end for people to play games on and whatnot. We decided to keep the posters and ads on the train since it would make it more realistic, but it also might provoke independent research of anything they might not know about or be curious of.
I turn to look at Hermione to see her looking at the bars along the ceiling with a thoughtful expression.
"You do know what they're for, right Hermione? It wouldn't do for the 'brightest witch of her age' to not understand something from the muggle culture she grew up with." I say in a bit of a teasing tone.
She snaps her attention to me and shakes her head as if to clear it. "What? Oh yeah. Of course I know what it is, the real question is if you know what it is." She replies with a hint of playfulness.
"Alright, alright, no need to get defensive."
"Defensive? How on earth was that defensive? You asked the question."
"That's true, let me elaborate. Why were you staring at the pole as if you couldn't figure out why it was there?"
"Oh! I was looking at it like that because I was wondering if I could hang from it. Not a lot of people know this, but my parents used to send me to gymnastics and dance classes before Hogwarts, and sometimes during the summer. I was never anything special when it came to that stuff but I did keep a couple tricks up my sleeve. One of the only things about it that I was good at was flexibility. I'm not as good as I used to be, but still better than most people our age. The trick I wanted to try in particular is where I would put my legs over the bar and… you know what, it would be a lot easier if I just showed it to you." She then pauses and looks very pensive for a bit.
"So why don't you?" I ask after a while, slightly confused.
"While I have no doubt that the bar could support my weight or that I can physically do it, I don't want to get in trouble with…" She says and gestures vaguely in the direction of the Headmistress. I grasp her meaning immediately.
"I'm sure she's fine with, you're the Golden Girl. No one would tell you off, you're every teacher's favourite. Well except for Snape, but he never liked anyone."
A voice called out from the front of the train compartment, "Do not presume to know what I do and do not approve of Mr. Malfoy. However Ms. Granger, I trust that you will not injure yourself just as I know that you know your abilities and your body's limits."
"I guess that's a yes then." Just as I say this, the train starts to move with a sudden jerk and I fall over since I lost my footing and crutches aren't the best for balance.
"Oh my gosh!" says Hermione. "Are you okay?"
I grunt in response as I sit up. She picks up my crutches and passes them to me while I grab a pole for support and stand up.
"Thanks." I say as I sit down across from her.
"No problem, but are you sure you're okay?" she asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Ego's bruised but other than that I'm good." I pause before continuing. "Are you going to try and get up there?"
"Oh right! I'll just take my purse off first." She then puts her stuff on one of the seats before moving to a section of the ceiling bar near the doors where there's more space.
Since she's a little shorter than most of the people in our year, she jumps a bit to get some more grip on the bar. She then tucks her legs up to her chest and leans back to hook them over the bar. After she does this, she lets go with her hands and arches her back to look at me. She smiles at me and waves before reaching back up to the bar.
I stare at her in wonder, amazed at how someone who is such a bookworm and nerd can just get up and hang from a bar as if it's the easiest thing in the world. She looked so happy doing it and I'm sure she's really proud of herself. As I think about this, she grabs the bar only to pull one leg off and lower it to touch her head as she leans back again. She finishes by getting off the bar and doing what I later find out is a 'present'.
"That was… very cool." I say, at a loss for more sophisticated words.
"Indeed Ms. Granger. You always provide many surprises." comments McGonagall from her seat at the front. She doesn't look up when she says this as she seems to be marking the video we made as it plays. We both smile to each other at her words.
Hermione then sits down next to me after gathering her purse. We talk for the rest of the ride as the video we prepared for our class ends and the compartment is just filled with our conversation.
I turn to look at the crowd of people milling around the bus stop and try to look for the right number. We've arrived at King's Cross and now we have to find the bus we're supposed to take to Diagon Alley. I try to find the map of bus stop locations that Hermione told me about, but there are too many people. I'm about to head back to the group when I finally spot a small metal stand with plenty of guides on it for the King's Cross bus depot. I grab one quickly before practically sprinting back to the group.
"There you are, we were worried you had gotten lost!" says Hermione as I cross through the barrier to Platform 9 and 3/4. She sounds exasperated, but there's an amused tone in her voice that makes me smile.
"Well it's quite busy out there and I couldn't find the maps you were talking about. Anyway, here's a guide to the whole depot. Our bus, the 56 should be near the main exit of the station."
"Great. Do you want to address the class?"
"Sure." I clear my throat to get their attention before they distracted once more. "Does everyone have their bus tickets?" I'm met with a chorus of 'yes's and a couple people raising their tickets in the air. I nod before continuing. "We're about to head out now. It's quite busy, so stay close. We don't want anyone getting lost today." They acknowledge me so we turn around and exit Platform 9 and 3/4 through the barrier.
As soon as we exit on the other side we get jostled around by everyone else rushing to wherever they're headed to. Hermione takes the lead and after about five minutes of walking we find the stop we need. We line up with a couple of other muggles and wait for the bus to arrive. Just a couple minutes after we arrive, a bus pulls up. It's about 1/3 of the length of the subway train and I notice how it lowers a bit when it pulls up to us.
We just manage to get everyone on board and the bus pulls away from the station. Hermione takes a brief count of everyone to make sure we didn't lose anyone and she looks satisfied with her tally so I assume we have everyone. It's quite crowded on the bus and we're pretty much standing shoulder to shoulder.
Many times throughout the bus ride, it stopped suddenly so many of us stumbled on fell onto other people. One of the times this happened, a muggle man fell onto Pansy. I look at her just in time to catch a glimpse of the look of utter horror, hate, and disgust on her face before she hides it and just looks at a poster with a very indignant expression. Her reaction makes me cringe and I can't believe that I used to be like that.
When we finally get far enough that our stop is next, Hermione pulls a wire along the inside of the bus to signal that we want to get out. We get out and our group enters the Leaky Cauldron. As we walk through the pub to the back entrance, I notice that there are a lot less people than usual but I guess it's because I only come during peak season.
We move through the pub and out to Diagon Alley. Once there, we find the floo points. I go first so that they all know where to go and so that there's one of us on either side to supervise. I walk out of the fireplace and immediately to clear space for the next person. Soon everyone is gathered and we get them to refer to the itineraries for the next activity.
"Alright, the next item on the agenda is lunch, though we are about 20 minutes late it. Since we're a little late we will have to cut lunch down to 40 minutes, but I don't think it'll be too much of a problem since most people finish their food in about 20. If everyone could please follow Draco to the dining room that would be wonderful." Hermione says.
I then lead everyone out of the living room and down the hall to the dining room. I hear some people marveling at the artwork displayed on the walls. Even though I did sell a lot of the art collection to help pay for this, it only took up about 30% of it which in itself is worth millions.
I didn't have to extend the dining room with an undetectable extension charm. The room is meant to hold a full Malfoy family or business meeting so it was large enough. Once everyone is seated, I call for Bipsy and ask her to start bringing out the food. I notice a couple of disapproving looks from some of the classmates but I just ignore them and join her to help get all the stuff from the kitchen. Hermione joins in as well and together we serve the class.
When we're done serving, Hermione and I get our own portions and sit down next to McGonagall. Lunch passes in a fairly quiet manner, but some of the groups have a bit of quiet idle chatter which reminds me of when we used to hold business functions here. Once most people are done, Hermione and I collect the dishes with a couple simple charms and bring them to Bipsy to wash in the kitchen.
"Is everyone done with lunch?" asks Hermione to the room. Immediately everyone quietens down and they acknowledge. "Excellent. We'll be heading outside now to the field land around Malfoy manor so please leave any belongings that aren't necessary to bring here. That way Bipsy can keep an eye on everything and reduce the chance of anything being stolen."
We then congregate outside just past the gardens that Bipsy maintains in memory of my mother. It's not quite the same, but still quite beautiful. My mother used to plant many different plants in the garden so that even when it was winter, there would be plenty of evergreen plants so it would never look dead.
We walk out to the field and many of the students are surprised to see a whole bunch of different muggle transport items. Thankfully it is sunny today so we didn't have to worry about anything getting wet or damaged. We get everyone to gather in the middle of the field and then give them instructions.
"For the rest of the afternoon, it's pretty much free time. Based on the partners from the beginning of the year, one of you will either be a muggleborn or you'll both be half-bloods. You should then have at least one person who will know roughly what all of this is. You can explore the different transport items here and Hermione and I will be circulating to keep and eye on everyone and offer assistance where needed. Do you want us to go over what we have here?" I ask once I've finished the rough briefing.
"Yes please!" says Hannah.
"Alright then." says Hermione. 'To our left we have two simulators, one is for a rocket ship used to travel in space, the other is an airplane simulator. We never did get to go on the the full trip back in November so we decided to include it here. To our right we have two cars you can try driving. Behind me there are a collection of bicycles and scooters. In front of us we have motorcycles. The only thing we could not find a way to acquire was a boat. You may go and explore now." She says.
They split off and the two of us keep an eye on everyone else. Neville and Cho try driving and i'm quite glad that I thought to put up magical barriers. They prevent one from leaving a certain area and in this case prevented Neville from mowing down Hermione and his girlfriend, Luna. His expression when he realized what had almost happened was hilarious, though I was still quite annoyed that he almost hit Hermione with the car.
Surprisingly, Blaise was one of the first to try using the motorcycle and proved to be quite adept at it. He only used for about 5 minutes the first time, but he kept going back to use it. I get the feeling he's become quite attached to it. Pansy on the other hand proved to be quite mopey about the whole trip and just sulked everywhere, refusing to participate in anything.
We finally call everyone back as the sun starts to set. Technically it's only about 3:50, but because of where the sun is, it feels like it's 6:00 pm. "Hello everyone, I hope you all enjoyed this trip. We will be heading back towards Hogwarts now. We should arrive shortly before dinner begins barring any incidents that may occur on the way. Same rules apply with the trip back. Remember that Draco and I can take away house points for any misdemeanors, as can McGonagall." says Hermione.
We lead everyone back inside to the living room so we can floo back to Diagon Alley. Before we do that however, we take a short stop at the dining room to collect people's belongings. I"m the first one through the floo once again, but before I go through I make sure to let Bipsy know what she needs to do in terms of cleaning up and leave her pay on the counter. Once everyone is through we head out to muggle London to wait for the bus to get us.
The bus is much quieter now since it's not quite rush hour. Most of us get seats, but Hermione, McGonagall, a couple of the students and myself stand. Since there are less people we get to the station much faster than I thought it would based on our earlier journey. We make our way in through the station to Platform 9 and 3/4. The train is already waiting for us and we board as quickly as possible since most of us are hungry and can't wait till we get back to school.
Hermione and I find the same compartment as before and we sit next to each other. As soon as we sit down and I place my crutches next to my seat, Hermione leans her head on my shoulder and lets out a huge sigh. She holds my right hand and fiddles with my fingers.
"Well that wasn't a complete disaster, but it was quite tiring. How were things on your end?" she asks me.
I think a bit before answering her. "It was okay, but I can't believe Neville almost ran you and Luna over. I mean I'm not the most knowledgeable on these subjects, but I'm pretty sure its a big no no to run your girlfriend over in both muggle and wizarding circles."
She laughs and I smile at the lightheartedness of it. "That's true. Luna wasn't too fazed by it though. In fact I think she found it quite funny."
"Well then. By the way did you see Blaise? He spent as much time as he could on the motorcycles." I say.
She lifts her head off of my shoulder to lean over and laugh properly. At first I'm sad that she moved away, but I grin when I see the expression of pure mirth on her face. "That's hilarious. I only know one other wizard who loved them, and that was Sirius Black. As long as Blaise doesn't become as much as a rebel as Sirius. He even has the black hair to match though."
I myself laugh at the thought of Blaise being compared to my second cousin. I haven't really met him, but the stories I've heard of him from listening in on the Golden trio back in sixth year are enough for me to understand what she means.
We discuss some other stuff on our way back to school, but it's just nice to have Hermione sitting next to me and chatting. When she leans on me it just makes me feel relaxed and warm. It's quite sad when we get to Hogsmeade and when she gets up; I feel a little colder without her next to me.
We take the class up to the castle and once they head off to the Great Hall for dinner, Hermione and I head back to our rooms to rest a bit before joining the crazy group of people that is our friends.
Author's Note: I'm really sorry about the wait for this chapter, my excuses are exams and culminating projects. I just realized while writing this chapter that I put Cho Chang in with the Eighth years even though she's actually one year older and would have already graduated. I'm sorry about that mistake, but for now we'll just pretend she's in the same year as them. Another note, I know the movies cast Blaise as an African, but the Blaise I'm familiar with is the fanon/Italian version of Blaise. I don't want to be whitewashing, I'm just used to Italian Blaise. Thanks for the support, but please review! Have a great week, till next time!