Disclaimer; I own nothing!
A/N Hi all! I have to say how truely disappointed I am in how few reviews I got for the last chapter. Please if you read, review. I helps me decide what everyone likes. I really like this story and probably will finish this before I begin on 'The Deal' again. I'm just stuck on that and need to get this story out first. So please review and happy reading.
A Trip to Diagon Alley
Three days. Harry had only three days to teach Malfoy the patronus charm. He woke up the next morning anxious to get started. By nine am Harry was pacing the floor wondering where Draco was. Impatient, he walked up the steps and banged on the door.
"Malfoy, wake up. We have very little time!" No response. Sighing heavily he pushed open the door only to find Malfoy's bed empty. He started to panic.
"Hermione, wake up!" he yelled to the lump of covers lying peacefully in the bed across the room.
He saw some stirring under the covers. Hermione poked her messy hair out of the covers.
"Thank gods Hermione, look, Malfoy is gone!" his voice had risen to an unusually high pitch. Just then Malfoy's blond head poked out of the other side of the bed. Harry's heart near stopped.
"What's going on?" Draco asked. Then he saw Harry's face. "Merlin." he said before flopping back down and hiding his head once again.
"What is this?" Harry asked not looking at Draco at all. Hermione's face blushed a deep red.
"I was just feeling slightly ill last night and I asked him to lay with me until I fell asleep. He must have fallen asleep as well. Nothing happened! Don't look at me that way Harry." Harry had taken a few steps backwards and sat on the empty bed. Nothing in the world could have prepared him for seeing his best friend in bed with Draco Malfoy. Even if he was not the prat he used to be, it was still not an acceptable way to start the day.
"Look Harry, we are fully clothed!" she said standing up and yanking the covers off of herself and Draco. "Harry, I am nearly nineteen." she scolded him.
"Hermione, I see how the two of you have been acting recently." he said looking deep into her eyes. "Malfoy, give us a minute." Draco thought about saying something akin to 'It's none of your business.' but thought twice about it and he decided it was best to hold his tongue. He nodded at Harry before exiting the room and shutting the door behind him. Harry held out his wand and magically locked the door. He did not want Ron overhearing this conversation.
"Harry, really." she said walking over and sitting next to her nearest and dearest friend who looked like he just found out Santa Clause was not real.
"I'm in shock." he said. "I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt but he proved he cannot be trusted in my home. I want him out."
"NOTHING HAPPENED HARRY!" she exclaimed. At least not last night. "I just needed someone to talk to. I asked him to sleep there. He was a perfect gentleman." her voice pleaded with him.
"Malfoy a perfect gentleman? Don't make me laugh." he half-chuckled although he felt sick to his stomach.
"Please Harry. He is a friend to me, and the rest of you as well. He did nothing wrong. Nothing I didn't ask him to do. Please trust me." she looked into the emerald eyes of her best friend and begged silently.
"Alright Hermione. But if he crosses the line, if he does something to hurt you…" he broke off with that statement and his face filled with hate. Hermione nodded. "And that's not to say I condone anything you freely choose to do with him either. I think you should keep it strictly platonic. Now is not the time to get involved with anyone."
"Thanks Harry." she said hugging him but not agreeing to his advice either.
"Send him down when he gets back. We only have three days."
Minutes later Draco entered the room and peeked around the door jamb.
"All clear?" he called. Hermione laughed.
"All clear."
"Whew!" he said. "That was…close."
"You have no idea. Anyway Harry wants you downstairs. He wants to get started now. Good luck."
Somehow her words didn't comfort him.
Harry was pacing the floor waiting for Malfoy. He couldn't believe that Hermione was lying in bed with him, but she had told him nothing had happened and he had no reason to doubt her. A minute later Draco came sauntering in the room with a smirk on his face that Harry couldn't help but hate.
"Ready?" Harry asked taking a deep breath and ignoring the smirk.
"Yes. Should I use the wand you leant me?" he asked holding up Sirius' old wand.
"No." he said strolling over and grabbing the old wand out of Draco's hand and placing it back in the glass case it came from. "The patronus charm would never work with another wizard's wand."
"Mine was lost long ago." Draco told him.
"I know, Hermione told me. We are taking a trip to Diagon alley."
"Diagon alley? How in the name of Merlin am I going to get there? Someone will recognize me!" he said and panic started to set in.
"Relax," Harry told him. "No one will recognize you." he handed Draco a small vial. "Polyjuice potion."
"Who am I turning in to?" he asked already knowing the answer.
"Ron. He is forever breaking his wands so no one will be suspicious of him buying a new one."
Draco wrinkled his nose in revulsion at the thought of turning into the red headed weasel.
"Will the wand still be the correct one for me? I mean if I look like the weas…I mean Ron, won't the wand fit him as well?"
"No, the wand is suited to your soul."
"Ok, how are we getting there? Won't I turn back into myself before we reach Diagon alley?"
"We are going to floo to Remus' apartment in Diagon alley and then just walk to Olivander's. His nephew is running the business until he is found."
"Let's do it then." he said holding up the vial and saluting Harry. "Bottom's up!"
Draco downed the vial in one gulp and slammed it on the side table next to where he was standing. Suddenly he felt like he was going to vomit. Falling to his knees and clutching his throat he felt the potion running through his every vein. He looked at his body it was changing. His pale skin became marred with tiny brown spots. Freckles. His nose was elongating in front of his very eyes and when his hands reached up to his head, all of the baby fine white blond hair he treasured had morphed into a tangle of a wiry red mop. He dreaded looking into the large gilded mirror that hung on the opposite wall.
"This is a nightmare." he stated. Harry couldn't help but giggle. He knew it was Malfoy's worse fear. Turning into a poor Ron Weasley.
"You look fine." Some of Ron's robes were draped over the back of the sofa. "Put these on." Harry told him. Draco slipped them over his head.
"Am I convincing?"
"If I didn't know better, I would swear you were Ron." Harry grinned knowing it was annoying Malfoy.
"Let's go." was all Draco could manage. They walked over to the fireplace and Harry grabbed a handful of dust from the pot on the mantle.
"Remus' flat." he said throwing the powder into the fire and stepping into the emerald flames. A whirl of fire and he was gone. Draco followed suit and soon they both were standing in Remus Lupin's living room.
"He hasn't lived here for quite a while." Harry told him when he noticed Draco wrinkling Ron's nose at the modest accommodations. They made their way to the front door and down the narrow staircase and emerged on the main road of Diagon alley. A short walk and they were standing in front of Olivander's wand shop.
"I haven't got any money." Draco whispered. For the first time in his life he felt what it must really be like no to be able to afford luxuries, or basic needs like a wand for that matter. Instantly he felt ashamed for comments he had made to the real Ron for years while they were in school.
"I've got it." he said handing Draco a handful of galleons. Draco didn't know what to say.
"Uh…thanks." he whispered before entering the shop to a tinkle of a door bell.
Olivander's nephew came teetering out of the back stock room almost on cue. Harry almost did a double take. He had Olivander's silver eyes, and a crooked walk. You could definitely tell the two were family.
"Gentleman, how can I help you today?"
"My friend Ron here broke his wand. He needs a new one." Harry stated. Draco smiled uncomfortably.
"What kind of wand was the broken one?" he asked eyeing the pair suspiciously. Draco stood there mouth ajar not knowing what to say.
"It was Willow with unicorn hair, 14 inches." Harry said quickly. Olivander's nephew looked at him for a moment and returned his gaze to Draco.
"You cannot speak for yourself I expect." he said making Draco shift uncomfortably.
"He had his memory modified. He is just gaining some back so I am helping him around Diagon Alley." That seemed to satisfy the man and he led Draco and Harry over to the counter and began piling wands on the counter in their dusty boxes.
"I wish my uncle had some sort of organizing system." he said coughing up the dust. "Let's try this one first." he said handing Draco a box. Upon opening it Draco scowled. He liked his old wand and had not quite gotten over losing it. Inside the box was a birch wand. 10 inches. Dragon Heartstring. Draco picked it up apprehensively and waved it. It shattered a mirror that was hanging above the opposite display case.
"I don't have quite the knack my uncle did I'm afraid." he told them putting the wand back in and handing Draco another. And another. And then another after that. It seemed that since Olivander's unexpected departure the quality of wands had suffered greatly.
"Try this one, although it does not seem to suit you in my opinion. It is an unusual wand." he said darkly.
Draco opened the box and gasped at the wands quiet beauty. It was ebony, 12 inches long and highly polished.
"What is the core?" Draco finally spoke.
"Dragon Heartstring. From a Hungarian horntail." he said reading the box through his smeared spectacles.
Draco waved it and spoke an incantation.
"Lumos." The end of the wand lit up brightly and responded to Draco's every movement.
"I think we have a winner." the man said. "Shall I wrap it up for you?"
"No, I'll just take it with me." he said.
"Eleven galleons, five sickles please."
Draco paid the man quickly and placed his newest possession in his robes pocket and he and Harry exited the shop.
"It feels weird to have a wand of my own again. I thought the wand I would get would be more like my old one, but this one seems to suit me better." he smiled patting his pocket enjoying the sense of knowing that he had one again.
"What was your old one?" Harry asked as they rounded the corner.
"Hawthorn and unicorn hair. 13 inches." he said as if remembering fondly.
"Let's get back to Remus' apartment." Harry said as they approached the brick building. They entered the front door and climbed the steps. By the time they got to the top Harry was feeling very uneasy. The door was ajar.
"We closed and locked that door didn't we?" he whispered to Draco. Draco nodded and reached into his pocket pulling out his new wand.
"Time to test this I suppose." he whispered back. Harry nodded and pulled out his own wand.
"On the count of three." Harry murmured. "One…two…three!" He pushed open the door.
"Merlin." Harry muttered as Draco followed him in.