Blinded By The Past, Ignored In The Future
Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE: Selecting The Items
A/N: I must warn you all that I do NOT live in Britain though my good friend Sev did for two years. I have no idea of what kinds of stores are there/where they are. I'm making it up oh and I'm going to pretend that good music from now existed back then, OK with you all? (And if it's not pretend that it is.)
Thanks!
~Moony~
Response To Reviews:
Liz: I kind of felt bad when I locked them out but then I laughed at their situation. (Angina says, "hissssss!")
Marauder1prongs: People from Fanfiction will understand the daydream dumba**. And the chapter title will stick.
Miss Mina Murray: We'll be seeing a lot of Draco from now on.
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Previous Chapter: I hope you can keep up," Tom said, mounting his broom and taking off as soon as Hermione grabbed a hold of him, Draco not far behind.
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"Stop shivering, woman!" Tom ordered as they soared through the night behind Draco. Hermione's constant shaking was annoying to him after an entire hour of dealing with it.
"I'm cold!" snapped Hermione, trying to get comfortable yet not fall off of the broom.
"We're almost there!" Draco yelled. "Where do you want to go?"
"Muggle London!" Tom shouted back. "I feel like looking around!"
"It's your choice!" said Draco unsurely. "Let's land over there!" He pointed to an area that looked unpopulated and covered with trees. As soon as Tom's feet touched the ground Hermione jumped off of the broom as if she thought that she would never see land again.
"Gee, Tom, you really have a thing with woman, huh?" Draco smirked, raising an eyebrow.
Not for the first time Draco Malfoy reminded Tom of his father, Lucius Malfoy. The way he held his broom as he stood smirking made him think of the old Quidditch games Tom watched him and Ruby play.
He ignored Draco's comment and clapped him on the back as he handed him the broom that he had borrowed. "Shrink it and let's get going," Tom said.
Draco rolled his eyes and pulled out his wand. Once the task was completed Draco pocket the two brooms that looked like they were for action figures and the two boys walked off in the direction of the city. Hermione growled in frustration and ran to catch up with them.
"So how much money you got with you?" Tom asked Draco as the wondered down the streets of busy London.
"I have more than needed but I should warn you that I do not have any muggle money," answered Draco.
"No problem. Stay right here," Tom said, running ahead. He searched for the perfect victim and he saw a woman (with a think fur coat on) walking, alone and unsuspecting. Smiling to himself as he sprinted at her, he made it look like he had run into her on complete accident.
"I'm terribly sorry, madam!" Tom exclaimed, helping her up as gently as he could. The young woman seemed to relax at his kind act and even smiled. "That was awfully rude of me," he added as he handed the lady her belongs that included a purse and a bag of purchased items.
The lady looked him over and obviously was thought he was mental to ware what he had on: black robes. "I dare say, boy, open your eyes!" she snapped before walking away. Tom waved goodbye before hurrying back to where Hermione and Draco stood.
"You ran into her for what reason exactly?" Hermione inquired.
Tom smirked and pulled out a brown wallet from his pocket. He examined it slightly before tossing it to Draco. The Malfoy heir caught it, mouth hanging open slightly as he starred at it unbelievingly.
"You didn't!" shouted Hermione.
"Wicked!" Draco said. He cleared his throat and asked in his normal tone, "So where did you learn to do that?"
"I'm an orphan. I was taught to improvise," Tom replied as if it weren't a big deal. Hermione snatched it from Draco and took a look at what was inside.
"Look at all that money! We have to give it back!" she proclaimed, showing Tom more money than he could count.
"Yeah right!" Tom laughed. "After I just touched a worthless muggle to get it? Dream on, mudblood."
"If you don't go return it I'll tell Remus what you did!" Hermione threatened.
"Oh no you won't," said Tom, grabbing it from her and stuffing it in his robes pocket. "We'll leave you here if you even think of it."
Since Hermione wouldn't put it past Tom and Draco to do so she chose not to reply. She did, however, storm off ahead of them stubbornly, leaving the boys to shrug at her actions.
"So were you friends with my father?" Draco found the courage to ask as they walked. Tom nodded. "So you really are The Dark Lord as a kid?"
"Believe it or not," Tom responded.
"And to think I didn't believe it when I heard Potter and Weasley talking about it…" Draco trailed off. "So…did you and my dad have any other friends? I mean-you know-close friends? I imaging that since he was a Malfoy a lot of people respected him."
"Actually the respect others gave Lucius wasn't in fear. He deserved it then. He was a great Quidditch player, smarts expert, and an illegal Animagi with me. He stuck by my side just as Ruby did."
"Ruby?"
"Our other friend."
"Oh," said Draco. "What kind of animal was my dad?"
"If I'm not mistaken he was a falcon," answered Tom. "I'm a King Cobra and Ruby was the Albino Arctic Fox."
"Can you still transform?"
"I haven't done it in a while so I'm not dumb enough to try it," Tom said as they looked at all the stores to see which one looked more interesting. "By the way you still have to spend money on me when we get to Diagon Alley."
Draco shrugged. "I'll live with that thought. Don't worry."
"I wasn't going to worry," Tom assured him. Draco smirked as he pushed Tom to the ground. Shocked that Draco would do that, he looked up at the Malfoy who wore an innocent face. As soon as he got to his feet Draco took off running, knocking Hermione over in the process. She jumped up and ran after Tom who was chasing the blonde. Then, just as sudden as he had begun, Draco stopped running to stare at something in a store and Tom knocked into him. Seconds later Hermione ran into Tom, knocking them all to the ground.
Dazed, Draco tried to get to his feet. "What the hell was that, Granger?" he asked, rubbing his head. Tom, on the other hand, was still on the ground laughing uncontrollably. He got up and pulled Hermione to her feet easily.
"That was great," Tom told her. He smiled at the surrounding crowd that was starring at them due to their black robes. "Want something?" he snapped at them. Immediately they went about with their business as if they had never seen the three unknown teens. "C'mon."
Draco muttered something under his breath as he followed Hermione (who had smirked at him in a very Slytherin way) and Tom. "What exactly are we looking for?" he finally asked.
In front of him Tom shrugged, not paying him too much attention. Then he answered, "I guess I'm sorta interested in finding some device that plays music. I've taken a liking to the weird music that Remus listen to ever since I heard a muggle band sing a Christmas song not too long ago."
Draco stopped walking in shock then the next second he ran to catch up with Tom. "What?" asked Draco disbelievingly, starring at Tom as if he just promised Dumbledore he'd save the world.
"I said I like music," Tom replied, shortening his reply for he was busy looking at different stores' names.
"What kind of music player are you looking for? A cassette player or A CD player?" Hermione inquired, encouraging the idea of him putting his mind to something beside the Slytherin nature.
"Granger, this is Tom Riddle. There is no way he can be serious about this," insisted Draco. When he didn't even believe himself he added, "And there's no way that I'm letting him waste his money on-"
Hermione, still determined to work on the new side of Tom that she had seen when they were fighting to return to Hogwarts, pointed to a shop that looked like they would sell music possessions and exclaimed, "Look over there! They might have something." Tom walked ahead of them and Draco had time to glare at Hermione before she followed him and he did the same.
As Tom walked into the shop a bell from above sounded and a man behind a marble counter looked up at him. "Good day, sir," he welcomed. As Tom held the door for Draco and Hermione he glanced at the nametag on his shirt and saw that his name was Randolph. Nodding his head in respect, he looked along the walls at all the strange gadgets and he walked toward them, all the while feeling the money in his pocket.
He turned around, almost forgetting that Hermione and Draco were with him. "So, Herm-Granger. Which of these things is it that I'm looking for?" he asked then he muttered a bit too loud, "I hate technology from the future."
Hermione couldn't help but laugh at the situation. Here she was; in a muggle store with the Dark Lord and without permission from anyone; trying to find him something so he could listen to music. She pointed to a round, black CD player. "That looks like a good choice. It comes with batteries, it has all the essential buttons, and it fits your Slytherin personality."
Tom raised an eyebrow and, after blinking several times, he said, "You lost me at the first part." Draco nodded in agreement.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Batteries are what it uses to work. Sort of like electricity."
"Oh," Tom said.
"Huh?" was Draco's response.
"Would it kill you to take muggle studies?" Hermione asked Draco.
"Of course it would," Draco sneered. "Why would I waste a class on those filthy creatures?"
"Wow," Hermione said sarcastically. "Isn't it a wonder that those filthy creatures have survived all these years?"
"See, Granger? You're smarter than I give you credit for," Draco smirked.
"Okay, children, settle down," Tom sighed, putting his hands in-between them as a method to try and break up their fight. He pulled the CD player off of its place on the wall. "So this one?" Hermione nodded.
"Are you positive you want to waste your money on that?" Draco questioned Tom one last time.
"Yeah, I'm sure, Lu-" Tom stopped himself in shock and bit his lip once before trying again. "I'm sure, Draco." His tone indicated that the subject was over so Draco dropped it and went quiet, as did Hermione. "Where do I find the things that have the music on them?" he asked in an emotionless tone.
"They're called CD's and it looks like you can find them over there." Hermione pointed to the back wall of the store and Tom headed toward it, leaving the brunette and blonde to wait for him. The first thing that he noticed was that there were tons of different CD's on the racks. With an unsteady hand he picked up the first one that caught his attention and looked it over. Shrugging to himself he held onto it.
Since none of the artists looked familiar he grabbed CD's at random and didn't stop until he had about eight in his arms. With this many he was sure to keep himself busy for quite a while. When he returned to where the other two stood Hermione handed him something.
"I figured that you might want these. They're speakers that make it so if you plug them into the CD player you can listen to the music out loud," she told him.
"Thanks." Tom walked to the counter and put all of the items that he wanted to buy onto it. Randolph raised an eyebrow at him and when it came time to pay Tom could tell that the man suspected that he hadn't gotten the money from anyone willingly (which was true but not something to admit).
They left the store, Tom with his possessions, and just as they were beginning to make their way back to where they could bring out the brooms a piercing scream caught Tom's attention. He turned his head and whom else could he see but hooded a cloaked figure, heading straight toward them.
