A/N: I think this story is going downhill-but never mind. You people
seem to like it good enough. Enjoy it while you can.
Harry groaned. Something was poking him in the stomach, and it was
hard, and bony. Bony? He thought, and rolled over. Lying next to him on
the carpet was someone else. The place wasn't Hogwarts, the floor was too hard.
And no four-poster bed, too. Harry felt around for his glasses, and found them
half-squashed beneath his head. After cleaning them on his robes, he could see
where he was. He was-had been sleeping on the floor next to Draco Malfoy whose
elbow had been poking him in the stomach, in a house unknown to him. Then he
remembered Malcolm, Australia and all the rest of it too. So he got up,
stretched a bit, and then went downstairs to find some food-he was hungry.
When Harry got to the foot of the stairs, he couldn't detect any signs
of life. After examining the digital clock on the windowsill which had
obviously seen better days, he worked out it was 6 o'clock. Of course, he could
have just looked at his wristwatch instead, but Harry was pretty sure it was
set to the wrong time.
While making a lot of noise looking for edible food, Draco, Jodi and
her sister, Cheryl, had woken up and come downstairs. By the time Harry finally
got himself out of the cupboard, he had found a loaf of wholegrain bread, and a
sticky bottle of strawberry jam. There were some clean plates on the table, as
well as a stack of cutlery.
"Well," Harry said, "I guess this is breakfast." He plonked the bread
and the jam on the table, helped himself to a plate, took a seat, and started
spreading the jam on the bread.
Draco picked up a knife, and examined it carefully. "It looks like it's
clean. It will have to do." He said, and commenced attending to his own slice
of bread. "You going to find some pumpkin juice for us, Potter?" he asked,
after swallowing what was an exceptionally dry bit of bread, by the look on his
face.
"Pumpkin juice? What's that?" Jodi asked, her eyes round. "We only use
pumpkins for soup." She informed them.
"Um…ah…Potter-you can tell them." Draco said, eyeing her apprehensively
like a bomb that was about to go off.
"Never mind about pumpkin juice, why don't I find something for you guy
to drink?" Harry said, evading the question. Obviously these children were
muggles, or at least, they weren't being raised in a wizarding household. Harry
got up from the table, bread in hand, and went to the fridge. He tugged it
open, and looked inside. Harry wrinkled his nose. "Something's gone off in
here." He commented, then began rooting through it, bread stuffed in his mouth.
After years of helping-no, working at the Dursleys, he knew exactly what he was
going about. Soon, rotten veggies, off ham, and other bits and pieces were
flying out of the fridge and into the bin.
"Funny, you haven't got any letters from the Ministry of Magic yet."
Draco said, and went back to masticating the bread. It had heaps of big and
little seeds in it, and they kept getting stuck in his teeth. He picked one
out, and placed it delicately on the plate.
"I expect that the Ministry hasn't got a big enough presence out here
for that, also, I do believe we're in at least a half wizarding house." Harry
mumbled, as he dragged out the bits of celery stuck in the back corner.
Less than fifteen minutes later, the inside of the fridge was clean,
white and shiny. It didn't stink anymore, and Harry had found a bottle of
orange juice that thankfully hadn't expired. He got out some clean glasses, and
poured some OJ for each of them.
"I see they have pumpkin juice after all." Draco said.
"Oh, so this is pumpkin juice!" Jodi exclaimed as she took her
glass.
"Yes. Although I must say it smells slightly rancid." Draco drawled, as
he took a sip from his glass, although it didn't come out quite as a drawl.
"What the hell is this, Potter?" he yelled, as he spat it out onto the table.
"Orange juice. Don't you read?" Harry said calmly.
"Orange juice?" Draco yelled, "You stick cloves in oranges and
hang them on your Christmas tree! You don't drink orange juice!" he pushed his
chair back, and stomped away, up the stairs.
Cheryl looked as though she was going to burst into tears, and Jodi was
just sitting there quietly watching, as Draco disappeared up the stairs.
"Well, shall we continue on, then?" Harry said, as he pulled another
slice of bread from the bag, and spread jam on it. Cheryl smiled, then stuck
her knife into the jam jar, scooped out a huge glob of jam, then put it into
her mouth. Jodi resumed her systematic pulling apart of a slice of bread,
rolling it into balls, and eating them.
When Jodi and Cheryl had finished eating, Harry took their plates and
glasses, and washed them all. After drying them, he returned them to their
rightful places.
At 8:45, Harry heard a shout from downstairs pertaining to Draco and
himself. He put the book he was reading down on the table, and went downstairs.
On the way, he dragged Draco away from the bathroom mirror, and took him
downstairs with him.
"Get in the Nimbus now!" Malcolm was shouting at Jodi and Cheryl
outside, when Harry stopped in the living room. Quietly he commented to Draco,
"I didn't know they made multi-passenger nimbuses. Must be a new model." Draco,
understanding what he meant, nodded, and they both continued outside to the
garage.
Harry and Draco strolled into the garage, expecting to see an
extra-long broomstick or something like that hovering there, waiting for them
to get on. Instead, there was a car. A silver car, with a three-diamond symbol
on the boot and the bonnet. It looked like a station wagon, except instead of
having an extra big boot; there was an extra row of seats. Harry looked around
the garage for a real Nimbus-a Nimbus 2000. He spotted an old broomstick in the
corner, except it looked like it had a blue plastic thing for holding in the
twigs, not like a flying broomstick that Harry was used to. Still, it might
work. So Harry made his way towards it, signalling for Draco to stay where he
was. Malcolm was yelling at his children from inside the car. When Harry got
the broomstick, he whispered "Up!" at it. It didn't twitch. It didn't even roll
over. It certainly didn't jump into his hand. So Harry picked it up, and
carried it back to where Draco was standing.
Malcolm knew that those pesky Hogwarts students were creeping around
his garage. He didn't really mind them, they were only temporary. What he did
mind was his own children wilfully disobeying him. So he yelled at them. He had
decided to be nice to the poms, to try to get them on his side for a while.
However, when one of them was waving a broomstick around treacherously,
Malcolm's self preservation and aggression instincts kicked in.
"Get away from me, you English pansy! How dare you come in here and try
to attack me with a broomstick? After all I've done for you, I've brought you
here, I've fed you, I've cloth-hang on, forget that. Well, what have you to say
for yourselves?" he shouted, and gave them no time to answer. Harry had barely
opened his mouth before Malcolm began again. "Ah, who gives a damn? Just get in
the Nimbus, before I decide to do something to you with that broomstick!" He
waved his hands around menacingly, but Harry could see that his best weapon was
the bunch of keys in his hand. Harry would've taken him on, but the fact that
he was now very much smaller, scrawnier and generally younger than what he was
normally used to made him stop.
So Harry dropped the broom, and moved towards the car. "And don't
scratch the paintwork!" Malcolm snarled as they climbed in the backseat with
Cheryl. Jodi was sitting in the front.
On closer inspection, the car actually was a Nimbus-albeit a Mitsubishi
Nimbus, but a Nimbus nonetheless. Why they would call such a good broomstick
after a car like this was beyond Harry's knowledge, but then he realised the
broomstick had been around longer than the car could ever have been.
It took Malcolm three times to get the car working, and even then it
didn't sound too healthy. But it managed to work long enough to get them to the
school, which ordinarily would have been 5 minutes away by car, but on this
run, took them fifteen. As they were parking, the bell rang.
"Dad!" Jodi wailed, "You've made me late for school again!" and with
that, she hopped out of the car and raced into the school. Cheryl followed suit
only moments later.
Malcolm turned around and looked at Draco and Harry.
"Well, hurry up! Get out of the bloody car, you have to go to school as
well!" he growled, as he turned off the engine and got out. Harry and Draco
meekly got out as well, and followed him up the steps at the front of the
school.
"Now wait here!" Malcolm said menacingly as
he went inside. "If I find either of you have moved an inch, I will do horrible
things to you." And with that, the door closed, and Harry and Draco were left
in the crisp, cold morning of a Melbourne autumn day.
A/N: A big thanks to everyone who has
reviewed-I won't put your names down here-you know who you are.
A little bit of assistance is needed- do
you poms know what Milo is?
Now there's a reason to review. Tell me
whether you guys have Milo in England. Please? Well, I'm sure you'll review
anyway. If you don't, bad things will happen to your computer…the back button
will not work…ffn will be down…MWAHAHAHA!!!!
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Erm. Yes. Pencilmort and Computermort have
joined their forces together…oh dear.