Punishment

Chapter 7 – Are They Ever Going To Go To Smeltings?

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"Bye, Alex!" said Cho with a smile.

Alex smiled timidly in return. Cho and Sirius drove off, Cho closing the window.

Sirius opened his window and looked behind them to check for cars. He closed his window and started the engine, seeing as there was no car behind.

"He's quite…" he started, looking for the right word.

Cho scrunched her nose. "There's this sort of mean impression he gives off. It was kind of unnerving, really. His eyes are like…" she winced, "and he looks somewhat like Malfoy, doesn't he?"

"Yeah." Sirius agreed, taking a turn to the right. "He even sounds like him." He commented. "D'you have the list?"

"The list?" Cho repeated, raising an eyebrow at Sirius. "What list?"

Sirius repeated her action. "Don't tell me you¯"

"Oh! That list! Of course. You could've just told me which, you know." She said, smiling "Why do you ask?"

"I need to add something." Sirius said, turning left.

"What?"

"Chocolate Milk."

"'Chocolate Milk'?" Cho repeated. "Now, why would Harry and Draco need chocolate milk?"

Sirius shrugged. "Dunno," he said, "just wanted to see what it looks like in Muggle shops."

"Oh, okay then…" Cho said, writing 'Chocolate Milk' in their list with a quill, since she hadn't quite worked out how to use a pen.

Sirius hit the breaks, slowing down first. They parked near a grocery with green lettering on top, reading 'Grocer-E', right next to a supplies store called, 'Write Place'.

"How ironic…" Sirius muttered. Cho giggled.

"Come on then!" she said cheerily, leading Sirius inside.

They passed through the doors that opened on their own as they stepped on the gray mat.

"Ooohhh…" Cho said, pulling Sirius in by the arm.

"Cho, cool it. Don't act too obvious." Sirius said, examining the shopping carts with great interest.

"And you are…?" she said with a smirk. She went near the shopping carts, where Sirius one. She pulled at the red plastic handle, which was the only plastic part as the rest were weaved metal wires. "D'you think we need two of these? Or just one?"

"I think one will suffice." Sirius said. "The list, please?"

Cho handed him the list; the two were oblivious to the stares of the passersby as they walked by wearing robes and holding a piece of parchment.

"Come on, then ¯" Cho was cut short when someone touched her shoulder. She nearly jumped out of her skin; she gasped. Sirius turned, tensed and sighed.

"Dung, don't do that. You'll give us a heart attack." He said.

"We need you in the HQ, quick!" he said, panting. Cho and Sirius looked at him in alarm. "Something… something happened."

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"Dumbledorewhathappened?!" Sirius said in one blow as he entered the office with a bang.

"Sirius, calm down. It's just minor. Miss Chang, Mundungus, chair?" he said, offering Cho and Dung a chair while Sirius caught his breath.

"The way ¯ Dung ¯ acted…" Sirius said, panting. "You'd think … they'd died… or… or something…"

"Sorry," Mundungus said, wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. "I was just in a hurry."

Cho and Sirius glared at Mundungus.

"It has come to out attention that the school supplies the boys need were not gotten yet since it was not yet in stock when Arabella had enrolled them. We need you two to buy those, too."

"Why didn't you just let Dung tell us, then?" Cho asked.

"Well, he didn't know the things to buy of course. And you can also buy them only in the 'Write Place', which specializes with Smeltings supplies. Which I'm sure you know the location of, it is only beside the grocery shop you went to. The form is here, and you also didn't have enough money, Bill Weasley forgot to look at the grocery list and make the necessary arrangements."

"But why did you go if you knew you didn't have money?" Mundungus asked Cho and Sirius.

"We didn't understand Muggle money," Sirius explained, "we thought we had enough."

"The form for the school supplies is here, it has been paid for, all you need do now is claim it. Mr. Weasley has given us the sufficient money for the grocery. Unless, of course, you added new items?" Dumbledore said, a twinkle in his eyes.

"That scratches chocolate milk out," Sirius sighed.

Dumbledore nodded. "Here is the form. You may go now, or go tomorrow morning?"

"Tomorrow?" Cho turned to Sirius.

Sirius nodded.

"That settles it. You may go to the respective place you want to go." Dumbledore said, handing the form to Sirius. "Please don't lose it."

Sirius nodded again.

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Sirius opened the car door, went in, and slammed it shut, pounding the lock, rather than pressing it. "This is all your fault."

"What?" Cho said disbelievingly. "I asked you, didn't I?"

Sirius sighed, starting the engine. "Yes, but you didn't ask first; when 'tomorrow' would be."

"Well, if you're so clever, why didn't you ask?" Cho said.

"I was tired."

"Well, what if I was, too?" Cho said, buckling her seat belt.

"Whatever." Sirius said, driving out of Hogwarts gates.

"Oh, come on. You must be, like, really pissed off about it. I didn't think I'd hear that word ever from you." Cho said with an apologetic smile. "I, like you, didn't ¯"

"Know that 'tomorrow' would mean seven in the morning." Sirius finished.

"Well, there's no use fighting now," Cho pointed out, "only thing we can do is do what we set of to do."

"Wow," Sirius said, passing by Alex's house, "I didn't know you could fit three do's in one sentence."

"I proved you wrong, then…" Cho said.

"Cho," Sirius said, nearing a stop light, "what does the yellow light mean?"

"Slow down."

"What… does… the… yellow… light… mean?" Sirius said.

"Slow down."

"What…does… the… yellow… light… mean?" said Sirius, looking a bit annoyed.

"Slow down!" Cho emphasized.

"What…¯…does…¯…the…¯…yellow…¯…light…¯…mean?!" Sirius was irate.

"Slow down!!!" Cho clenched her fist to stop herself from punching table in frustration.

"Are you being sarcastic with me? Because we're really near it now…" Sirius asked.

"No! The yellow light means you should slow down!!"

"Oh!" Sirius' eyes widened as he slowed down. Cho rolled her eyes.

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"Okay, do you have any experience with this?" Sirius asked Cho, getting a shopping cart the way a Muggle before them did.

"Erm…no."

"Okay," he took a long breath, "this is going to be an adventure."

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Here are some snippets of when Cho and Sirius bought the grocery.

"Right then…" Sirius said, holding a carton of milk. "This is a very crucial decision, Cho. Do we take the carton with a red design… or the blue design? One small mistake could make a difference."

"I think we should take the blue one, for Ravenclaw, you know…" Cho said.

"Ah, of course! Red it is!"

- - - - - - -

"Apple juice, orange juice, mango juice or iced tea?" Cho asked Sirius.

"Well, apple juice is really… apple-ish… orange juice is very orange-y… and mango juice is very mango-some… iced tea is… cool. Get the iced tea."

Cho stared at him blankly.

- - - - - - -

"You think they like eggs for breakfast, cereal or pancakes?" Sirius examined the food.

"Dunno…" Cho looked thoughtful. "Let's buy 'em all."

"'Kay…"

- - - - - -

"Oreos, Chips Delight or crackers?" Sirius looked at the biscuits.

"The Oreos have blue packaging so it's really tempting… but the Koala with the chips delight is so cute! Let's buy that one!"

"You base what you buy on the characters? Is that why you liked the pancake mix? Because of Dough Boy?"

"Well, at least I don't base juice on their orange-ness and stuff like that."

"Hmph."

- - - - - -

"I have the sudden urge to buy them shoes…" Cho said.

"Cho, we're in a grocery, not a mall."

"Right, right, right…"

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"Hey, what's the hold up? Dumbledore's gonna get ¯ Harry!"

Harry turned, he scowled a bit. "Oh," he said blankly, "hi, Cho."

"Hi!" Cho said as if Harry hadn't scowled. "How are you? Here, Sirius…" she said, handing the groceries to Sirius.

"Fine." Harry said shortly. He turned to Sirius. "You know this ¯" he took a deep breath "her?"

"Erm, yes." Sirius said with an awkward look. "She helped me buy groceries." He said proudly, puffing his chest out.

"We bought you groceries!" Cho said happily. She made to put her hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Don't!" he said in panic, slapping Cho's hand away with a clothed arm. "Don't… don't touch me."

Draco looked at Harry quizzically. From what Draco had seen in their previous years, he had a crush on Cho and they had a brief fling. He knew it had ended but he didn't know why. Yes, before he and Harry had gotten this punishment, he had been kissing her, while Harry gave him breasts and rainbow colored hair, but he didn't hate Draco… not anymore… did he? Nah…

Cho smiled. "Oh, it's alright. I understand." She retreated her hand. "Well, we have your groceries."

"What?" Draco said; everyone looked at him. "We were supposed to get them now…"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "You didn't receive the letter?"

"What letter?" Harry asked.

Cho looked thoughtful. Harry looked like he'd've liked to punch her. "Dumbledore said he sent a letter by Muggle post…"

"Yes," Sirius agreed, "yes he did."

Draco and Harry's gazes met and their eyes widened in realization.

"That girl in the Front Office!" they said at the same time.

"Girl in the front office?" Sirius asked bemusedly.

Draco snorted. "Yeah, Harry's girlfriend."

"Oh, shut up, Draco." Harry snapped. His eyes trying not to look at Cho.

Cho smiled. "Harry has a girlfriend, Draco?" she said, knowing that if she asked Harry, he would ignore her.

"Uh…"

Harry glared at Draco, eyes narrowed to slits.

"She's not my girlfriend." Harry said looking up at Cho, directly into her eyes. "She fancies me. I think she's a drug addict. That's all. At least she, unlike you, is not a ¯"

Draco, sensing that Harry was about to swear, elbowed Harry and Sirius sent him a look.

"Right, sorry." Harry said not very apologetically.

"So…" Draco broke the tension that followed the tone of Harry's voice. "When do we get out groceries?"

"Ah, we'll drive it to your apartment after we pick your school stuff up." Sirius said, gesturing to 'The Write Place'.

"School supplies?" Draco asked.

"Yeah," Harry said in an off-hand voice. "Then we can get our school bags and envelopes and stuff before lunch. Then we can go to Smeltings after lunch."

"Right, then. Let's get our supplies?" he told Sirius.

"Yeah." Sirius nodded, he and Draco walked side by side to the shop, leaving Harry and Cho. Cho looked like she was in a distant place, but Harry couldn't see her as he was looking down.

Harry cleared his throat, eyes darting to the side in shyness. He stalked past her. She smiled at him from behind.

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They entered the car, supplies on Harry and Draco's lap. Sirius seemed to have lost the form and had found it after fifteen minutes in the car.

They drove off, Cho and Sirius at front and Harry and Draco at the back with 4 bags of groceries that could feed an army and their supplies in a plastic bag as well as their books.

They stopped at the familiar navy blue gate, the car stopped with the left side facing the gate and the other side facing the street. So, as Draco was on the left, he got out no problem. Sirius collected grocery 2 bags, which was more than he could handle. Harry had to come out the other way, facing the street.

"Ouch…" Sirius said, holding bags with the grace of Hagrid. "Ow… hey… no… no¯ hey¯ ouchouch…ow…" Draco wasn't making any effort to help him and was looking on bemusedly at the sigh of a supposed mass-murderer who couldn't even handle two grocery bags.

"I'll help," Cho said as she and Harry stepped out of the car at the same time. Harry apparently hadn't heard and took the path toward where Cho was going out, making their fronts bump.

"Oh, sorry…" Cho said quietly.

Harry jerked away violently, muttering something. He walked away, holding his supplies bag. He glared at her, a glare she didn't see since she was getting the groceries, Sirius didn't notice, too, as he was balancing the evil grocery bags of doom, but a glare Draco didn't fail to see. Harry stepped beside him, still looking as though he wanted to punch Cho again.

"Alright there, Potter?" Draco asked. Harry didn't respond, he still glared at Cho. "Potter?"

Harry raised his eyebrows, surprise etched in eyes, "Yeah?"

Draco shook his head. "Nothing," he said, "you're godfather seems rather… entertaining."

Harry glanced at Sirius and Draco could see laughter in his eyes. Harry broke into a grin. He continued to ignore Cho until she said, "Come on, then…"

They proceeded inside; Sirius had his knee up to support the shopping bag and was hopping all over the place. Cho looked quite composed and Harry and Draco led the group.

As they passed the Front Office, Harry saw, quite conspicuously, the girl who had fancied him and Draco scowl as Cho entered behind them. He also saw her glare at Cho, fury and jealousy evident in her eyes. Harry smiled, for the first time he didn't mind what the girl was doing.

"This way…" Draco said absently, turning, "Sirius, would you like some help with that?"

They all turned to Sirius. Sirius stopped hopping abruptly. His chin locked the grocery bag to his chest, so he shook it, the bag wrinkling a bit with his movement.

"No, no, I'm fine…" but he didn't sound it. He sounded like he was being squished together by two walls. Harry grinned at his godfather's attempts.

Draco shrugged, "Alrighty then…" he said cheerfully.

They entered the house as Draco pushed the door open. He put his stuff on the coffee table in front of the sofa bed. Harry quoted his actions, save the fact that he sat on the sofa bad afterwards.

Cho and Sirius wasted no time looking around; they put the grocery bags on the table quickly. Sirius sighed deeply, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. He looked around the house, and smiled approvingly. Cho did the same, fixing her pony tail.

"Nice…" she said.

"Very nice…" Sirius agreed.

"Mmm…" Harry sunk into the pillows, "nine o'clock. Not bad. We'll have to grab a quick breakfast and then we can go to Smeltings and then buy our bags and stuff. Alright with you, Draco?"

Draco, who was drinking water, finished his glass and said, "Okay."

"Great. Thanks Sirius…" he paused, looking at Draco.

"Thank you, Cho." Draco said pleasantly.

"No problem." Sirius said and Cho nodded. "So, we'll leave, then?"

"Sure," Harry said, waving a hand absently, "oh, by the way, do you know a place we could eat breakfast in?"

"Well," Cho said, as she was sure that Sirius wouldn't know any Muggle places, "you could eat in McDonald's."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Is it sanitary?" he said testily. "I mean, since you've been there…" he muttered.

"Oh, very sanitary," Cho ignored what Harry muttered. "But you'll have to learn cook sooner or later."

As Harry was about to shoot a retort when the telephone rang. Harry wondered who it could be as he and Draco had no friends around the neighborhood yet. Well, except the Front Office girl.

Harry picked the receiver up, Cho, Draco and Sirius' eyes on him.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Harry!" A female voice sounded. She was excited and Harry knew the voice.

"Hermione!" he exclaimed. "How'd you call?"

"We went near the Ministry of Magic to use a telephone booth. Ron's here, too! And so is Dean, and Ginny, and Seamus, and Fred and George, and Colin, and Dean and Dennis, and Seamus and did I mention Fred?" Hermione said breathlessly.

"Really?" Harry's face split in a grin.

"Yeah! How are you? We've all been really worried you might've lost your way because the map was here! Dumbledore's not telling us anything yet. Oh, if something had happened to you… How's Malfoy? Ron said you were friends with him." She took a deep breath. "Is he being a prat? Are Sirius and… er… is Sirius there?"

"Yeah," Harry was all could say after Hermione's rambling. "Him and…"

"Don't worry. Ron and I warned her… anyway, everyone wants to say hello…" Hermione's voice was distant and from what Harry could hear, she said, "Say hello!"

A muffled choruses of 'Hello, Harry!'; 'Hiya, Harry!'; 'Hi, Harry!'; and, Harry suspected it was the twins; 'are you sad, Harry? Be sad! Be sad, Harry! Please!' He laughed out loud. Hermione came back.

"Want to talk with Ron? He's here beside me." she asked.

"Sure," Harry said.

Draco smiled, he knew no one would be there for him, but all the same, he was happy for Harry. Cho grinned at Sirius, who smirked. They could hear everyone. As Harry and Ron talked about Quidditch, Sirius turned to Draco.

"So," he said, "anything new?"

"Not really," Draco said casually, "but he nearly gave me a heart attack this morning. He was bending over me and woke me up by prodding me. First I thought I was dreaming but when he blinked I almost died. Good lord, it's not good at all to wake up with your ex-enemy's face leering over you."

Cho and Sirius laughed. "That's Harry," Sirius said.

"Draco," Harry turned from beside the sofa bed, "it's for you,"

"What?" Draco said, honestly surprised.

"It's for you." Harry repeated, "Come on!"

Draco smiled uncertainly. Certainly no one was there for him. Draco held the phone to his ear, unsure if it was right as he had never used a telephone before.

"Er," he said into the receiver.

He heard someone saying, "Now!" distantly, and at once he heard choruses of 'Hiya, Malfoy!'; 'Hello, Malfoy!'; 'Hi, Malfoy!' and, he was sure it was the Weasley twins, 'are you sad, Malfoy? Be sad! Be sad, Malfoy! Please!'

Something clinked then he heard a familiar voice. "How are you, Draco?" it said enthusiastically.

"Pansy!" Draco said. "I'm great! We just bought groceries and our school supplies."

"Oh, we miss you here! We're completely lost!" she said disdainfully. "Crabbe and Goyle fought over a chocolate chip cookie, Blaise and Millicent fought over whether they should use black ink or red ink! And, oh, Draco! I don't know what to do! Some even fought over whether to eat apples or oranges, but then it got really bloody! Draco, what do I do?"

Draco sighed, shaking his head. Harry and the others were listening because Pansy's voice was so loud, you can't help but over hear. "Okay," Draco said, "Go to the kitchens and ask the house-elves to bake a dozen cookies and split it in equal parts. Give it Crabbe and Goyle; that should stop them fighting. Tell Blaise and Millicent to use black ink if they're going to write and red if they're going to check something. Tell everyone else to get a life because it's not fair that you loose organization because I'm not there. I'm not going to stick up for them each and every time they get into an argument."

"Okay, thanks, Draco, send the Gryffindor's and Slytherin's regard to Potter."

"Yes, alright."

"Okay, bye, Draco. All Potter's classmates say 'bye', too." Pansy's said, Draco could hear the smile in her voice.

"Okay, yeah, okay, bye Pansy." He put the phone down.

He turned and saw all three looking at him with amazement.

"Wow," Harry said.

Sirius whistled.

Cho was nodding in awe.

"What?" Draco asked.

"I can't believe you said that to Pansy in one blow! And you gave advice really fast, too. No wonder they're lost without you." Harry said with a wide grin.

Draco straightened his clothes, even though there was nothing to straighten. "Yes, well…"

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Okay it's a bit shorter than usually (is it?). Yeah, the last two chapters were supposed to be about Smeltings already but all the plot holes and stuff, I had to cover them, so I had to make a lot of adjustments. Hopefully, they're going to go to Smeltings in the next chapter. Anybody hate Alex? Someone told me he/she did… I don't mind; I made him to be… no… I ruin it for you; do you think he'll be good… or bad? But you'll definitely see more of him. I've already made the classmates and their characterizations! Hahahahaha!!! I love my original characters, each one has a different personality and their personalities play a major role, such playfulness!! There's a girl obsessed with blue, the girl who… and the boy who… I won't ruin the surprise, don't worry! I usually hate oc's but it's vital in this story, especially in the middle, they play a big role! Agh! I'm so excited to write! Ahem… sorry. Plus, why Harry hates Cho! Review, people!