Chapter 10:

Draco spent the last week of his holidays at Diagon Alley with Crabbe and Goyle. All three families stayed at the Leaky Cauldron and spent their time up and around the alley. Draco spent most of his time looking in shops, buying new supplies, pigging out at the ice cream parlour all trailed closely behind by Crabbe and Goyle. Wizard's chess would be the evening activity by the fireside, but towards the end, became all too boring for Draco as it was too easy, and for both Crabbe and Goyle as their opponent was so hard to beat. Their fathers were spending their time at Azkaban prison, so the group of mothers were left together to speak to each other in hushed tones.

This meant that Draco, Crabbe and Goyle were left on their own to explore the shops and once took a trip down Knockturn Alley. Draco didn't like going down there on his own, but felt more assured now he had his friends with him. Going past a shop full of knives, an old beggar lady sat opposite Borgin & Burkes who suddenly grabbed on to the hem of Draco's cloak. Her hands were dirty and scabbed from bloody scratches and she sat huddled in filthy and holey robes. "Wait, young master, don't go so fast," she said croakily.

"Let go of me!" Draco was tugging at his cloak, but the old woman, surprisingly had a firm grasp. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him scaredly and backed away.

"Not so fast there, young master. I don't want anything from you; I want to give something to you." And with that, she let go of his cloak and he stumbled onto the dirty ground. "Listen," she croaked. Draco got up, but didn't leave. The old woman looked up, and to Draco's horror, saw two white-hollow eyes. "Yes, a horrible site, I know. I am blind but I see things that many do not see. I feel things many do not feel and I also have something for you. I see your future and if I'm not mistaken, you will be needing this," she croaked and rummaged around in her robes. She took out something from an inner pocket and grabbed at Draco's hand and placed it in his palm which she held open. "Give this to your future," she said and Draco straightened up to have a look at what was in his hand.

It was a silver locket suspended from a fine silver chain. He opened it and found a small piece of parchment folded up inside it. He took it out, unfolded the tiny piece of old parchment carefully and read out what was written on it. "There is always hope, if one believes in it. But what does this mean?" he looked down at where the old beggar lady sat.

But she wasn't there. Any trace of her existence had vanished without a trace, only for the faint croak that he heard in the back of his head that said, "Give it to your future."

Leah finally had a chance to talk to Chris on his second visit to her house. Their parents had gone off doing various things and Leah was left to entertain Chris. They sat in front of the fireplace and told jokes and stories of their doings. They talked as old friends, ignoring that they had a more intimate relationship and time naturally passed. Leah had a good time getting a lot of emotional load off her shoulders when she got to complain and carry on about 'certain people'. Chris also had a complaining session about his work colleagues and both were satisfied afterwards. They had a series of very competitive games of wizard's chess in their time together, closely watched and cheered by her uncle. But by the end of his stay, the score was a tie. Chris still kept to his opinion that he had won a round that had been interrupted. Leah also kept to her opinion that she had won that round because she had less moves to conquer his king.

The time for the Kettleburns to leave, once again, came only too soon and both families now stood in the hall way. Chris was acting in a funny way and didn't return her kiss when she gave him one in farewell. She looked at him with concern, "What's wrong?"

He took his time to answer but when he did, he said it very softly as if straining to get his voice out. "Leah," he said and looked at her in the eye. "I haven't been totally honest with you in the last couple of days."

Leah felt a pang in her stomach but urged on, "What do you mean, Chris?"

"We've got a special relationship; you know that, don't you? But for the last couple of days, I've felt that our relationship isn't really one of mutual love; do you know what I mean? What I mean, is that I'd feel more privileged if you'd be my friend, not my girlfriend.  I know this is going to be hard, and believe it or not, it's hard for me to say this to you too. I'm sorry if I've hurt your feelings but it just doesn't feel right for me and I don't want to keep on going like this and hurting your feelings even more. I hope you can understand that."

Leah stood there in a state of shock throughout Chris's break-up speech, but smiled weakly when he finished and held both her hands. She didn't need to cry. He quickly pulled her towards him, hugged her and patted gently on her head. The last she said to him before he disappeared with a 'pop' was "I'll see you around, friend," and smiled.

Leah sighed as she sat with Elise in a compartment of the Hogwarts Express. When she first saw Elise, she thought of the Kneazle hidden in her trunk and thought of the exciting things in store for Elise - later. By that time, she had explained to her what had happened during her time at home and just finished telling her story of her break-up with Chris.

Elise looked at her sympathetically and said, "At least he's still your friend. I don't think the situation of your break-up could have gotten any better than that."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. How was your holiday, by the way?" Leah realised that she hadn't heard Elise's side of the story yet.

"It was good as usual. I went out with Marcus a couple of times and I had a big family gathering on Boxing Day."

Leah suddenly perked up at the mention of a boy's name. "Who's this Marcus boy you've been seeing in the last fortnight?'

Elise reddened and said, "He's name's Marcus Flint and he used to be the Quidditch Captain for Slytherin. I met him earlier this year at the game against Gryffindor -"

"So that's who you're 'old friend' was! I was wondering who you were writing so many letters to." Leah burst out.

"Yeah, well I couldn't just go out and tell the world, could I? We went to Diagon Alley once, and we met up with Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Those three were staying there for a week, I think he said. But anyhow, Lucius Malfoy and Bevin Flint, Marcus's father, are kind of close friends – went to school together or something – so Marcus keeps up ties with Malfoy. Suppose knowing the Malfoys wouldn't be a bad thing; they've got a lot of influence and he also knows a lot of people."

"Except for one small fact; Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater. Didn't you say that you shouldn't meddle with people from the Dark side?" Leah pointed out.

"I know, but what's the harm in knowing them? It's not like I'm signing a lifetime contract."

Leah looked at her worriedly, "Alright, but just watch your step. I don't want to lose a friend already."

Elise looked at her and smiled, "Don't worry so much, Leah. That's something that you do too much now a days."

It was around about this time that the door to the compartment slid open and three people came in. "Why, if it isn't Leah and Elise!" Draco said in a 'thoroughly delighted' voice and rubbed his hands together with glee. Ok, so what happened to the whole 'Muggle-lover' thing? thought Leah.

"Hi Draco and what are you doing here?" Leah asked, not amused.

"Oh, just come for a little chit-chat," he said airily. Crabbe and Goyle slumped down either side of Elise who looked a little intimidated by the two boulders sitting next to her. Draco sat on the other side of the seat Leah sat in, and Leah, not happy with the arrangement scooted as far away from Draco as possible. Draco saw this and said, "Look, I'm not going to bight." She looked at him with distrust and Draco scowled at her.

Elise gave an uneasy look between the two and changed the subject. "So, Draco," she said, raising the tone a little. "What did you get up to in your holidays?"

"Nothing special; went back home, opened a few presents, then spent some time with my friends," he didn't bother asking the two girls about their holiday.

"Oh, hi Draco!" a loud interruption came from the compartment door. Pansy stood, in a leaning-against-one-side-of-the-door pose. A shiver was visible, running up through Draco's spine at the voice. "Hi Pansy," he's voice was reluctant. "Well, we'd better be off!" he said and motioned for Crabbe and Goyle to follow, but soon was stoped by Pansy.

"Going so soon?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice. "Why, you only just came in. how about you stay longer and tell us all about your holiday. I'm sure you've got lots of things to tell us about."

"No, really. I've got to get going. We only came in here to say a quick 'hi', isn't that right guys?" Crabbe and Goyle nodded their heads and Draco's uneasy face was starting to perspire.

Pansy looked disappointed and said, "Well, maybe some other time." And Draco, Crabbe and Goyle hastily left.

As soon as Draco's relieved face had passed Pansy, her expression changed to a scowl and she growled at Leah, "You just had to put him off didn't you?" and stormed off.

"Boy, does she have a major mood swing or what," Elise said quietly.

Leah agreed, "yeah, from here to Morocco."

Draco's head popped around the edge of the door and said, "Has she gone?"

"Yup," Elise said, shooting a look at Leah that made her giggle.

"What's your problem?" Draco demanded.

"Nothing," Leah said quickly and seised laughing. Draco raised an eyebrow. Leah cleared her throat, "Um, where's Crabbe and Goyle?"

"Hiding out somewhere," Draco said carelessly. "I told them that they shouldn't move a muscle or else the evil dragon will find them."

Everyone cracked up laughing. Once it had died down, Elise asked, "So tell me; why are you here?"

"Simple – better company."

"Aww, I'm so honoured," Leah said sarcastically.

"You should be," Draco said. "No, seriously. What are the chances of me, out of the seven billion people in the world, sitting here in this particular train, out of all the trains in the world, talking to you, out of all the people in this train?"

"Don't know, don't care," Elise said as Draco went through another long list of odds.

'Well, you should. It's important to know how lucky you are to be in my presence," Draco said, looking important.

"Listen; do us a favour and leave. If we're so lucky to be in your presence, then the whole world would be unlucky that they would have died out in the first place," Elise said.

"That's a bit harsh," he said looking hurt.

"Oh, I can be worse than that."

"Gees, what's up your -"

Crabbe and Goyle walked in looking around quickly and behind their back, acting all spy-like. "Don't worry, Draco. There're no dragons around here now."

Draco rolled his eyes and said, "You idiots, I was refiring to Pansy. Honestly, you two are so stupid that you'd have to draw on your forehead with lipstick to make up your mind."

Leah half-kicked Draco and said, "Don't be so mean," though she was laughing while saying so.

Draco smirked and looked at Leah, "So are you Miss Do-right, or something?"

"Well, if you want to keep a friendship, you shouldn't go destroying it."

Draco considered and said, "True," and went on talking as if nothing had happened at all.

While Draco exercised his mouth, Leah looked around at the mob in the compartment. There were the two giants, Crabbe and Goyle, sitting with their broad shoulders hunched topped off with blank faces. They bore no intellectual facial expressions – just a straight, feelingless, stupid face. In between the two boulders of a kind was Elise. She sat there, a bit bored of Draco's holiday anecdotes. Her long, straight brown hair was loosely tied back and her chocolate coloured eyes came to meet Leah's. Leah smiled and Elise winked, hidden behind a lock of hair that hung around her face. She then went on to the last person in the room, apart from herself. Draco, the loudest, keenest and the most boastful of the five that sat in the compartment, sat next to Leah. His white-blond hair was perfectly slicked back as always, and he wore a black robe with silver linings. His hands moved animatedly with his stories and the green scarf that hung around his neck was now laid on the seat in between them, forgotten.

Draco's turn of speech was over and he finally moved the subject onto Elise. She started talking and Draco sat politely interested in what she had to say. But his attention wasn't lasting long enough and his eyes moved towards Leah and met.

Leah blushed, being caught in the act, and tried lowering her gaze to the ground, but was captured in the endlessly grey eyes. His eyes, she thought. His eyes were grey, grey as always, but something had changed in them. Leah disconnected from his eyes and looked out of the window. She realised looking out at the cold winter-driven sky; his eyes were grey, but weren't cold.

Elise saw that the eyes of the two people in front of her had met and she smiled slightly, knowing secrets that neither of them knew.

A/N: R&R please!!! I really need some constructive criticism! Thanks!