BEHIND LOCKED DOORS

WARNING: Rated R for profanity and homosexual relations of the incestuous kind. But this actually a story with a plot, not plotless homosexual porn. Flames only keep me warm in winter.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I know I've been having gaps between my updates, and I'm sorry, but I'm still a very busy girl. I'm in the middle of my HSC at the moment (Three exams done, three to go. I have my Ancient History exam this Thursday, and my Legal Studies and IT ones next week, so wish me luck), plus there's been a lot of stuff going on in real life that's kinda kept me from working on any of my stories for more than a few hours at a time. Anyways, here's the next chapter, and I hope you all like it :-)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: A trip to Hogsmeade

Draco wandered aimlessly through the streets of Hogsmeade, knowing that he didn't have to be meeting with his friends in The Three Broomsticks for another half-hour. He was also planning on meeting with his father after meeting up with his friends, but until then, he had some time to kill. So he decided to go to The HogsHead in order to grab a drink and stock up on his cigarette supply. While it wasn't the nicest place to go to, it was a well-known (But rarely talked about) fact that the bartender who worked there would supply underage people with alcohol, and also supplied cigarettes (As far as the owner – whose name was Guil – was concerned, business was business, money was money, and age was unimportant), which had become surprisingly popular in the wizarding world considering the fact that they were a Muggle product. Better still, the place had a tendency to remain rather empty until the later hours of the evening and night. It was only early in the afternoon at the moment.

"Hello, Mr. Malfoy." The owner – and main bartender – greeted him in a heavy Welsh accent. "What can I be doing for you today?"

"Good afternoon, Guil. The usual, if you don't mind." Guil gave him a wry smirk as he placed what Draco referred to as 'The usual' on the bar. A glass of DragonsBlood Vodka mixed with orange juice, and two packets of Benson and Hedges Cigarettes, Extra Mild.

"You do know that those cigarettes are really bad for you." Draco shrugged, and handed over the money to Guil before sitting down and taking a deep swig of his drink.

"All the things that we enjoy in life are bad for us, so why care?" He retorted, a light smirk on his lips. Guil couldn't help but laugh.

"Very true, Mr. Malfoy. So drink, smoke and make the most of your life, for all you know you could die tomorrow." Draco's smirk widened as he raised his glass to the normally quiet bartender and took another swig. The vodka was hitting his system pretty fast, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth, but a warm rush through his body. The taste in his mouth was quickly sedated by the lighting of a cigarette. Before long, he had finished his drink, smoked two cigarettes and decided that he should be on his way.

"I'll see you in about a week, Guil."

"Until then, Mr. Malfoy."

It was a slightly happier and more 'buzzed' Draco that left The Hogshead, still having fifteen minutes to kill. He decided to go to The Three Broomsticks anyway and wait for his friends. The atmosphere there was a little more pleasant than The Hogshead, even if they didn't serve alcohol to minors. They at least allowed smoking, which was enough to satisfy Draco.

As he entered the place, Draco idly scanned the room for a familiar face. He spotted Lucas and Theo sitting at a table together with what looked like an unusually large pile of sweets from Hogsmeade on the table.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" He said in a mockery of Professor Snape's menacing tone. Lucas merely raised an eyebrow at the pale-blond youth, while Theo turned around and waved merrily, using his spare hand to stuff what looked like the remains of a sugar quill in his mouth. Draco raised an eyebrow at the both of them as he plunked himself down on one of the spare chairs at the table. "So tell me exactly where you got all of this. Did you both suddenly get money from your relatives and go on a mad shopping spree in Honeydukes?" Lucas smirked.

"I guess you could say that." He said. His eyes darted around, making sure nobody was listening, then he leaned in and beckoned Draco to do the same. "But if you want the full story," He said, his voice dropping to a barely inaudible whisper "Theo and I were a little bored so we both came up with the idea of seeing how much stuff we could raid from Honeydukes…With a little help from spells and extra pockets, of course."

"And now we're going to eat and eat until we can't stand the sight of this stuff anymore." Theo chimed in merrily, handing Draco a handful of chocolate frogs and using his other hand to grab a pumpkin pasty. Lucas snickered and opened up what looked like a box of charmed chocolates.

It only seemed like a few minutes before their friends began pouring in, all in little bunches. Pansy and Marcus were the first to arrive, followed not long after by Crabbe, Goyle and Millicent followed arm-in-arm, then Padma on her own, but Pavarti followed not long after, also alone for once. All of them grabbed chairs from empty tables and pulled them all to the table where Draco was sitting with the Nott twins.

"So tell us, Marcus." It was Crabbe who broke the silence. "Why did you insist that we all meet up here at the same time? Maybe you have something to tell us?" That was a lot coming from Crabbe, taking into consideration the fact that he was known amongst the Slytherins as 'a man of few words, who only spoke when he found it to be beneficial'.

"Correct." Marcus' pale face had broken into a surprisingly wide smile that was considered unusual for him. He paused for a moment. "Well, almost correct. You see, I'm not the only one who wishes to break news to all of you." Using his free hand, he pulled Pansy – who was sitting on his right-hand side – to her feet. "Come on, Pansy. You have to let them know too."

Pansy smiled in what was an uncharacteristically shy manner for her, then held up her hand to reveal the beautiful ring she had shown Draco only a week beforehand. Grins split the faces of all the boys at the table, and squeals were emitted from all of the girls, with the exception of Padma, who just smiled as widely as the boys.

"I asked Pansy to marry me the day after Christmas." Marcus said, the wide smile never leaving his face.

"And now we plan on getting married after graduation." Pansy added, her smile as wide as Marcus'.

Within the fraction of a second, the table was alive with noise – squeals of joy from all of the girls, and whoops of joy from all of the boys. Marcus was bombarded with slaps of congratulation on his back from all the guys, and near-suffocating hugs from all of the girls. Pansy in turn was trapped in a group hug from all of the girls as well as demands to have a closer look at her ring so it could be complimented and stared at with awe, while all of the boys proceeded to each give her a friendly, one-armed hug combined with a peck on the cheek.

Once all of the noise had started to calm down, the small group then sat back down. Some of them lit up cigarettes while Marcus then proceeded to shout everybody a round of FireWhiskey – Not just to celebrate, but also because he was the only one of them that was old enough to buy alcohol – before Pansy shouted a round of Butterbeers.

Before they knew it, more than two hours had gone by, and Draco realized that if he didn't leave very soon, he would be late in meeting up with his father. His father was a stickler for punctuality. After explaining that he had some family business he remembered he had to attend to while in Hogsmeade, he congratulated his two friends on their engagement once more before saying goodbye to the group and leaving The Three Broomsticks.

"Arriving right on the stroke of five 'o' clock, I see." Was the greeting he received on his second arrival at The HogsHead. Lucius was sitting in one of the little corner booths, nursing what appeared to be a glass of FireWhiskey.

"Hello, Father." Draco greeted him, sliding into the booth. "I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier, but-"

"It's perfectly alright, Draco." Lucius interrupted, raising a thin, white hand for silence. "You were here on time, and that's all that matters. I came a little early anyway so I could have a drink. Would you like me to order you one as well?" Draco nodded in acquiescence, deciding for some reason that it would be wiser not to mention that he had already started drinking that day. His Father turned and called for Guil to bring an alcoholic ButterBeer to the table, then turned back to Draco.

"So I trust that things have been going well for you at school?" His voice was unusually soft and earnest. Draco pursed his lips and shrugged.

"It could be worse. To be honest, Father, there's been a lot of changes going on around me that I've started to notice. I guess that most of them are good. Goy- ah, I mean Gregory and Millicent are together now, and they both seem to be a lot happier because of it, which I'm actually glad of. Marcus and Pansy are engaged now as well. That's the reason I was late. They asked for all of us to meet at The Three Broomsticks so they could announce it, and we were celebrating." A light smile played on Lucius' lips as Draco recounted all of this.

"That's all very well, Draco, but what I'm mostlyinterested in is how your life has been going ever since you returned to school. Are you happy? Have you run into any problems in particular? Do you think you are going well in your subjects?" Draco paused for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts and come up with a proper answer while he took a swig of his drink.

"I guess I'm happy. I mean, I'm not particularly sad or depressed at the moment, but I do still have my insomnia, and that can be a bit of a pain at times. When it comes to problems, my biggest problem seems to be the fact that I miss being around you." His voice dropped to an almost inaudible whisper. "I really would like to be around you more often, Father, and I'm sure that you feel the same way. It's nice to be able to meet up with you at Hogsmeade, but that's not the kind of meetings I like. I want to be able to meet up with you away from prying eyes and inquisitive ears, but somehow I don't think that it's going to happen unless you or I can create another special portkey for a place where we can be alone." There was a moment of silence after Draco finished talking. It wasn't an uncomfortable one, more like a silence in which you can tell that the people it is between are both deep in thought.

"Well, I don't see why I can't do that all over again." Lucius said, breaking the silence. "It will take me a few days – after all, I do have to go to work, and that cuts into my time – but once I am finished, I shall Owl you the Portkey with a letter explaining how it works." Draco smiled.

"That sounds like a plan to me."

After that, they continued to talk idly about other things that came to mind, such as what Draco planned on doing after he would no longer be in school, what they had both been up to since they had last contacted each other, and the usual banter that a father and son had. But for Malfoys, they were not being particularly observant that day. Had they both been their usual observant selves, maybe they would have noticed that not only had Draco been followed to The HogsHead, but that they were also being spied on by none other than Blaise Zabini, Slytherin pariah.