Another chapter!!
I wrote a part of this chapter one day out on the balcony. I thought that you shouldn't be inside when the weather is so fine. So I sat outside and began to write. And then I thought, A cold beer would sure taste fine... Soooo, I took a beer and then another and then another. All of a sudden I started to get a little dizzy and I'm telling you, writing while you are under the influence of alcohol is NOT a good idea. I had to like delete half of this chapter 'cause it was totally screwed up. But I had a good time.
And I have GRADUATED!! No more school. EVER! And I am UNEMPLOYED! yay!
Then yesterday I returned from Sweden Rock Festival. It's a big three days music festival that only plays rock music and metal and stuff like that. Unfortunately it rained quite a lot and I'm telling you, when we watched Nighwish (a fabulous band from Finland) It was like all the water in the world had decided to rain down on us. Had I been standing in a shower, with all my clothes on, I hadn't been more wet.
Anyway, here is another chapter. I hope you don't think this chapter is to boring but the next chapter is hopefully coming up rather soon, I've written about 1/3 on it and I'm a little stuck, but only a little...
And for this chapter little wise words: Never drink something that is given to you in a plastic bag. Our Turkish tent neighbour down at the festival did this and when we told him it was probably home made booze he almost threw up...
Chapter 8
"Call the papers someone! Harry Potter has actually managed to not stumble whilst exiting the floo network!" Ron exclaimed sarcastically in a dull tone.
"Ha, ha, ha, you are so funny." Harry said as he swatted Ron playfully on the back of his head. They stepped out on the street which wasn't that crowded and looked in both directions.
"So where too lads?" Ron asked as he turned around to look at his two companions.
"Well, since Harry and I don't have much money with us I would suggest Gringott's. And then we must exchange some money to muggle money if we are going out in muggle London." Draco said and looked at the other two for protest. But he didn't get any. "Well, let's go then."
The three teens made their way down Diagon Allay towards Gringott's. They talked happily to each other and if you didn't know anything of their past and someone would have told you that those had been the worst of enemies before you wouldn't have believed him or her.
But about every witch and wizard knew who Harry Potter was and even though it's not polite to stare they turned their heads and looked again when they saw that Harry Potter was strolling down Diagon Alley. Some silent whispers like 'Isn't that Lucius Malfoy's son?' and 'What is a Malfoy doing with Harry Potter?', and 'Are they supposed to be friends?' where heard. But the stares and the whispers where ignored by the boys. Well, not all the whispers. When Draco heard a which, whom he thought looked hideous with her crooked noose and a big wart on it, whisper 'Wasn't he a Death Eater?' he gave her an evil glare.
But there was one thing that they were complete unaware of. The reporter that followed them and registering every single move that they made.
When they reached Gringott's Draco turned to Ron.
"Ron, I would like to speak to Harry alone for a few minutes, if you don't mind." He said.
"No sure. You go ahead and talk and do your Gringott's business and I will wait at Florean Fortescues for you." Ron said.
"You don't need to exchange any of your money into muggle pounds?" Harry asked.
"Nah, I got mine covered." He said as he begun to walk towards Florean Fortescues. "See you in a bit."
After that Ron had left to, well, probably stuff himself with ice-cream, Harry turned to Draco.
"So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Harry said as he looked questioning at the blonde.
"Well..." Draco begun as he looked around and then he dragged Harry off to a more secluded corner so those curious witches wouldn't hear or see them. "The Weasley's aren't exactly well off..."
"Wow, slow down boy!" Harry interrupted him. "If you are planning on offering them money, you might as well give up that thought right here and now, because they aren't going to accept it. Believe me, I have tried several times to give them money." Harry finished.
"Listen, there are two things you are forgetting here, first, you are a goody, goody, Gryffindor and I'm a cunning Slytherin. Second, you are the little cute 'Harry Potter' and I'm Draco Malfoy a very evil and intimidating person and then they better accept these money that WE are about to offer them because if they don't' we will leave. It's as simple as that." Draco said as it was the most obvious thing in the world. Harry only raised his eyebrow at this.
"Well Mr 'It's as simple as that', for the first isn't is supposed to be Hufflepuff's that are supposed to be goody, goody? If I remember it right, Gryffindor's are the stubborn ones." He said emphasising the word stubborn. "And then I don't think that evil and intimidating look of yours is going to work on them. Oh and one last thing, those were three things you mentioned..."
"Oh shut up Potter! I swear, one day I will kill you." Draco muttered annoyedly.
But Harry only laughed and smiled at him.
"But if you want to try to give them some money I guess WE could give it a go then. But..." He said silencing Draco who had begun to smile and was about to say something to him. "Only on one condition. You let me supply for the money." Harry said leaving no room for argument.
"What? No! Exactly why should I do that?" Draco said sounding upset and offended.
"First, because I owe you big time for taking care of me these last three days, second I have more money then I will ever spend and I am NOT insinuating that you don't have enough money so there is no need to look offended, and third you should let me pay because you know I am right and because I love you and you love me." Harry said smiling and the offended look was gone from Draco's face.
"Say that again." Draco said in a low tone.
"I love you." Harry repeated and took a step closer to his companion.
"I love you too." Draco said and he threw a look over Harry's shoulder to see if anyone saw them but he couldn't spot anyone. He lent forward and planted a quick but intense kiss upon the raven haired boys' lips. What he hadn't seen was the reporter that had lurked in the shadows with a camera, lucky for them he hadn't heard what they had said but he did after all have a camera...
"So, what do you say, will you let me pay?" Harry said hopefully.
"Hmpf, oh, alright." Draco said giving up. They then went into Gringott's to take out some money. First they went to Draco's vault and he took out some money and then they went to Harry's. When he opened his vault door Draco just could help himself.
"Holy fuck Potter! You really are stinking rich!" He exclaimed when he saw all the piles of gold and treasures that reached from floor to roof.
"Elegant as ever Malfoy." Harry said dryly.
"Yeah, but come on Harry, there must be a shit load of money in here!" Draco said sounding like he was on an amusement park.
"I inherited both my parents' and Sirius' so yeah, I guess there is quite a fortune in here." He said unenthusiastically whist he grabbed some money and put in his pouch.
"Quite a fortune? Hell I bet you are one of the most riches wizards in the whole wizarding world!" Draco said gesturing widely with his arms.
"You know, maybe I am. But people have had to die for me to get this money. I would rather have my parents and Sirus alive than all this money here. Any amount of gold can never, ever replace them! So I would appreciate I you would please shut up." Harry nearly shouted at the Slytherin.
"I'm so sorry Harry, I didn't think about it like that." He said remorseful with a soft face expression but Harry wouldn't look at him at first. "Harry, please look at me, I got a little carried away there realising that you are probably richer then the Malfoy family ever were. Lucius is probably rolling over in his grave now." He said in a week attempt of a joke but it seemed to have worked at least a little.
"Richer than the Malfoy's eh?" Harry said looking up at Draco with a faint smile on his lips.
"Yeah, richer than the Malfoy's." He then was silent for a few seconds before he continued. "If you want to I can look over your little fortune here, see how much it is and if you got any other assets." Draco spoke very carefully when he said this and hoped that Harry wouldn't be mad at him again. But he was lucky.
"You know how to do that?" Harry said surprised.
"Lucius taught me, he never trusted anyone else with his money and always said that when it was my turn to take over the Malfoy estate I better know how to handle the money and paper work."
"I have actually thought about letting someone do that because I have absolutely no idea how much money I got and even thought I don't like the way I got the money it can be pretty good to know how much you got. But then I didn't like the idea of letting some complete stranger looking into my financial stuff, but then if you say you want to do it..."
"I would be more than glad to do it." Draco said enthusiastically. "I have always loved stuff like that." (Author gags, hates bank papers)
"Okay, it's settled then Draco Malfoy, my new bank man." Harry said smiling.
The ride back was as pleasant as the ride there. Harry looked completely white when they stepped out of the cart but Draco looked as, well, pale as ever but at least he wasn't white. He motioned for Harry to sit down as he went forward to talk to one of the goblins who sat behind the counters that stretched around the main hall in Gringott's. He soon returned to Harry with a very large bunch of papers. Harry looked down at the papers, then up at Draco, then down at the paper and then up at Draco again.
"That is a whole lot's of papers." Harry said. He had expected it to be like ten or twenty papers at most not hundreds. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to. I can get someone else to look over those. There seems to be quite a lot of work involved there." He said nodding towards the paper pile that Draco just put in a black briefcase that had come with the papers. The briefcase was charmed so that it could fit any amount of Gringott's papers and you could not put a falsified document in the briefcase. The only disadvantage of it was that you could not put a shrinking charm on it due to all the other charms that had already been placed upon it.
"Are you kidding me? This is going to be even more fun then I thought! Come on, let's go find Ron, he probably wonders what happened what happened to us." He said as he pulled Harry up from his seat and began so drag him out of Gringott's.
"Wait! We forgot to exchange some muggle money!" Harry then said as he suddenly came to a halt.
"I already took care of that, now come on you stubborn mule, I want ice cream!" He said weary.
"Oh, what happened to Mr Positive-All-This-Paperwork-Is-Going-To-Be-So- Fun?" Harry said teasingly as he poked him in the shoulder.
"Well he is gone on a vacation and has been replaced with Mr I-Want-To-Have- An-Ice-Cream." Harry only laughed at Draco's response and the bickering couple slowly made their way towards Florean Fortescues. Once again some witches and wizards turned their heads and whispered when they saw the bickering couple but his time neither of them noticed or if they had noticed they wouldn't have cared. They soon reached their destination and it wasn't that hard to spot the bright tall redhead sitting at the tables eating at his ice cream.
"Hey! There you two are. I began to wonder what had happened to you, you sure took your sweet time. And what is that?" The redhead asked pointing at the black briefcase as he put another spoon of what looked to be strawberry ice cream in his mouth. He then lent back in his chair and balanced it on its two back legs.
"You know, you shouldn't do that." Draco said pointing at the chair. "It can end very badly, but then again, I could use a good laugh so go ahead, lean backwards as far as you like. In fact..." He said as he walker around the table so that ha stood behind Ron. "I think I will give you a little help." Draco took hold of the chair and then he tipped it backwards so that Ron almost fell to the ground but he never let go of it. Ron gave a yelp and held a secure grip around his ice cream with one of his hands and with the other he took hold of the table. Both Harry and Draco almost doubled over in laughter at Ron's facial expression. He was red as a tomato in his face and glared a deadly glare at the blonde Slytherin.
"Fucking hell Malfoy! You really are evil! You almost gave me a heart attack there." The fuming redhead said.
"But it was so fun!" Draco said and gave him a small smile.
Harry and Draco pulled out two chairs and sat down at the table and when Draco had assured Ron that he wouldn't do something like that again the ordered three new ice creams. Draco promised to pay for Ron's as a peace offering. Ron again asked about the briefcase. When Draco explained that it was Harry's bank papers that he was going to look through, Ron only wrinkled his face and looked Draco with distaste. When Draco then said that it was going to be fun, Ron wrinkled his face even more, which made him look like a human raisin. They didn't have to wait long for a witch to come and take their orders, but the other boys couldn't help looking at Draco in shock when he ordered his ice cream.
"First I would like one scoop of vanilla ice swirled with chocolate and one scoop of plain vanilla. On top of that soft chocolate ice cream and then a little bit whipped cream, but not too much. As topping I would like one third of a banana sliced into thin slices and do you have fresh chocolate sauce?" He asked the witch that had taken down his order.
"Yes we have that Sir." She answered.
"Then I would like some fresh chocolate sauce between the ice cream scopes and the soft ice cream and then some chocolate sauce on top of it all. Oh and could you stick one of those long round cigar looking biscuit's in it?" Draco finished. The witch only nodded and noted everything down and she didn't look troubled or irritated at all at his specific order.
"And what would you two gentlemen's like?" The witch asked Ron and Harry, who were busy gaping at Draco, still surprised at his order.
"Eh, I'll take the same I think." Harry said as he registered what she said.
"And you Sir?" She asked as she looked at Ron.
"I'll take a milkshake. Vanilla." Ha managed to get out.
"Nothing else?" She asked and looked as she looked at all three of them but they only shook their heads as an answer.
They chatted for awhile about everything and nothing and Draco told them about how a punishment from Snape can look like if you have done something particularly bad like forging a sign from him to be excused from a lesson to sneak out to Hogsmead and then get caught or sneak out to Hogsmead, manage to get hold of some alcohol, get drunk and then get caught. The punishments from Snape made McGonagall's look like a child play. By then their ice creams had arrived and Draco's eyes practically shone up when he saw his masterpiece arrived.
"Look at this beauty!" He said as he took the biscuit from it and licked the whipped cream from it. He then got an evil idea in his head and looked at Harry and he slowly, seductively drew the biscuit out of his mouth and then he sank his teeth in it and bit through it. Harry almost had to sit on his hand so that he wouldn't ravish him right on the spot.
"Hello! Harry's best friend here! STOP THAT!" Ron said panicking when he saw Harry's reaction to what Draco did. He did not want his best friend making out with Draco Malfoy in front of him and he seriously doubted that they wanted to that either in the middle of Diagon Alley either. Harry blushed and mouthed 'You're evil'. Draco only chuckled and turned his attention towards his delicious ice cream.
"Oh Ron, I forgot to mention one thing." Harry said as he took another spoon of his ice cream. It actually tasted quite good and he could understand why Draco had gone through all the trouble ordering it.
"What, you want a divorce and you are running away with the kids?" Ron answered.
"No, well, at least not this week, I think..." He said looking as he was in deep thought. "No, no that's what I have planned for next week, if you don't mind that is?" Harry asked his friend looking carefully at him asking for permission.
"On no, not at all. You go ahead and do as you please." Ron said and did a little wave with his hand. Then Draco decided to interfere in the conversation.
"This proves it. Gryffindor's really are crazy, and I am NOT joking here." Draco looked at them with a strange face expression but the two Gryffindor's only laughed at him.
"No, seriously Ron, Draco and I thought that that we would go up and check on the apartment, see in there is anything we have forgot or so." Harry said as he had stopped laughing.
"Your apartment? You live here in Diagon Alley?" Ron curiously asked Draco who only nodded his head as an answer.
When they had finished their ice creams Draco paid for all four of them, he insisted on paying for both of Ron's and threatened to hex him if he didn't agree for him to do so. When Ron saw that Draco pointed his wand at him and looked very serious he agreed. After that they went to Draco's apartment. When they stepped into the living room Ron looked around surprised.
"Is it something wrong with my apartment Weasley?" Draco said in his drawling Malfoy tone.
"What? Oh, no it just that it doesn't exactly look like I thought it would." He answered as he continued to look around.
"And how exactly did you think it would look?" The Slytherin asked in a little friendlier tone.
"I don't know. I mean it doesn't exactly look like you are filthy rich and the son of Lucius Malfoy." Ron whilst he inspected the kitchen, he then went to check out the bed room.
"Well, Lucius is dead if you have forgotten that and the only one in here who is filthy rich in here is Harry. Thank you very much. Now would you PLEASE stop snooping around my apartment?" He finished as Ron opened the toilet door to see what he had hidden in there.
"What are you afraid that I'll find those dead bodies of yours?" Ron said as he turned around and grinned mischievously at Draco. But the blonde only ignored him.
"There is actually one thing I can inform you about Malfoy, someone left a note on your kitchen table, or it's an old letter. And I did not read it if you are wondering so I don't know who it's from." Ron informed him and Draco went out in the kitchen and fetched the note from the table.
"Who's it from?" Harry asked as he began to search through his trunk for some decent muggle clothes to wear for their trip to muggle London. He decided on a pair of old, khaki trousers and a white t-shirt.
"It's from Snape." Draco answered shortly.
"Well, what does it say?" Harry said impatiently.
"He writes that he was here before to see how you were doing. When we weren't here he assumed we were out and that you were doing just fine. He wants us to write him a note when we've read this so he'll know how everything is." Draco said as he read the note. After that he looked up at Harry and the clothes that he held in his arms. "Please tell me you are not going to be wearing that today." He said looking horrified.
"What? It was the best I could find. I had planned on finding some new clothes today you know. I haven't exactly been out shopping much in the muggle world." Harry said looking around to see what Ron was up to now. He was now exploring Draco's book titles. He was probably looking for something embarrassing so that he could tease Draco about it.
"If THAT was the best you could come up with, then you are borrowing clothes from me today, because I am not going to be seen together with you in those things..." Draco said as he pointed and looked suspiciously at Harry's clothes.
"Lucky for you I'm not offended, 'cause I hate them to." Harry said and tossed them aside.
"For crying out loud!" Ron suddenly busted out from the bookshelf and the two males looked over to see what he was doing. "There is absolutely nothing here that I can use against you. Only boring books about potions and defends and other boring wizarding things. Oh sure you have some novels, but nothings embarrassing I can tease you about!"
"Maybe I've put a glamour on those really embarrassing books Weasley?" Draco said to him mischievously.
"Have you?" Ron asked quickly.
"Oh, I'm not telling you, you'll just have to check them by yourself, one by one." He answered grinning evilly. "Now come on scar head, lets find you some decent muggle clothes to wear for today's little shopping trip." The blonde said and dragged Harry with him into the bedroom. Draco opened up one of his wardrobes and began to look through it and then pick out more and more clothes.
"I only need ONE pair of trousers and ONE shirt. Not like 5 of each." Harry said looking at the growing pile of clothes at the bed.
"We need to mix and match you know. Well, judging by the clothes you choose before, maybe you don't know..." Draco said jokingly. This earned him a pillow in his head.
After some bickering manly about that Draco was such a girl because he was so obsessed with clothes they (or Draco) managed to find both of them some clothes. When they emerged from the bedroom Harry was wearing black, snug jeans and a white tight t-shirt. Draco was wearing a pair of light blue jeans that fitted him perfectly and a tight olive green t-shirt with that. They found Ron right where they left him, standing by the bookshelf examining books for glamouries. He was waving his wand over one book after the other but found nothing.
"So have you found anything interesting yet Sherlock?" Draco asked him and Ron jumped slightly.
"What? No. Unfortunately I haven't." Ron turned around and faced Harry and Draco. He stood silent, observing Draco who only raised his eyebrows in a questing gesture. After a few seconds he opened his mouth again to talk. "Do you have ANY idea at all of what kind of opportunity this is? I, Ron Weasley, am in Draco Malfoys apartment."
Harry and Draco just stood there and looked at him like he just had lost his marbles or something like that.
"Don't you get it?" Ron asked them.
"Noooo..." Harry responded looking questioningly at his friend.
"Why do you think I searched his books for? I'm in a perfect situation here to find out some really nasty details about Draco Malfoy! I mean, I could find THE most perfect extortion material here!" Ron finished exited almost jumping up and down.
"I have said it before, I'm saying it again. You Gryffindors really are insane." Draco said as he shook his head. He picked up his and Harry's cloak and held out Harry's cloak to him to take it, but Harry just shook his head and pointed out that they were after all heading for muggle London and you didn't wear cloaks there. But Ron did put his cloak on.
"You can leave it here if you want to and we'll just come back for it later." Draco offered him, thinking that he didn't know what he should do with it.
"Oh, no I'm not going with you to the muggle part of London." Ron said casually.
"Why not?" Harry wondered.
"Well, I thought you might want some time alone, that's not something you'll get at the Burrow, I can promise you that!" Ron said laughingly.
"Are you sure you don't want to join us?" Harry asked looking at his friend.
"Nah. I'm alright. You go along by yourself. I'll just go home and tease Ginny and the twins." He said with a sparkle in his eye and a malicious grin.
"If you're sure..." Draco said as they left his apartment and went towards the Leaky Cauldron.
"Oh for Merlin's sake! I'm sure! You two go along by yourselves now before I hex you." Ron said playfully swatting Draco on his shoulder. As they entered the Leaky Cauldron Ron grabbed some floo powder from his leather pouch and went towards the fire place.
"See you later then." He said and gave them a slight wave.
"Yeah, bye!" The other two boys chorused and they went separate ways, Ron flooed back to the Burrow and Harry and Draco went towards the door that would take them to the streets of London.
Another chapter to an end... Sad isn't it?
Weemphasizingll as I've mentioned before the next chapter is coming soon, I hope...
Now please please please review. Those reviews are the only thing that makes me keep on writing on this story.