The first installment inThe way we polish silver The sequel to The brass beneath Harry


Little Jamie Potter sat on a train, which lugged its way towards Britain, from France, under the sea. A strange man sat across from him, reading a book of which little Jamie had never seen before. The binding on the book, the pages that turned and the gold leaf titling shone 'money' to the little boy that hardly knew what money was.

It was quite cute, how Jamie's eyes lit up every time the page turned, or how whenever the blonde man across from him coughed. Draco couldn't help but giggle in a very un-Malfoy like manner.

"Jamie?" He asked casually.

"Why… why are we going on muggle transport?" And even though the question had been asked many times, and the answer explained, Draco gave into the shyness of Jamie and repeated.

"One must be educated in all walks of life, not just one and not just two. There are many ways of living in this world and because I am now your legal guardian I insist that we put our faith in humanity and not in one false idol."

"Okay." Jamie nodded, trying to understand.

"Shall I elaborate for you?"

"Please?" Jamie asked uncertainly.

Draco patted the seat beside him, beckoning the small boy closer. "Well," He began as Jamie plodded himself next to Draco, "Take muggle religion for one; You do know what religion is don't you?"

Jamie nodded, "Believing in God!" He said triumphantly.

"Precisely. There are many religions which the muggles follow although you can only have one religion, many different people hold different faiths from each other. Do you understand?"

"No."

Draco sighed, "Okay, take Christianity for one. There are an estimated two billion followers of that religion all over the world and even though Christianity is like an umbrella over the individual raindrops of different forms of Christianity, there are two billion different followers of that particular religion."

Jamie nodded, letting the information sink in. "So there are more religions?"

"Yes," Draco nodded as he downcast his gaze to Jamie, "There are many more."

"Like what?"

"Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Rastafarianism…"

And as Draco went on to name the many religions he could remember, and explain the many ins and outs of those said religions, the train they sat on sped with determined ease towards England, London, Home.

XxXx

"Hermione, gerrof me!" Harry shouted as she pushed him about the house, making sure everything within it was tidy. The brunette woman had grown tired of Harry being lazy, and she was sure that since Draco had left the negative effect on Harry had gone slightly haywire.

"Harry," She warned, "Narcissa Malfoy is coming round today to collect Draco's things. So you really wish to make her feel unwelcome with you untidy excuse for a home!"

"I have no care," Harry began, "As to whether Narcissa cares of my lack of tidiness or not!"

"Well I do!" Hermione snapped, and with that Harry was truly scared. Hermione never snapped, she merely found an un-noticeable way to make you do what she wanted.

"Okay, Okay!" Harry pleaded, trying to wipe away a curry stain on his countertop and the tension within the room.

"Have you spoken to Draco recently?" Hermione asked.

"Not for about three months…" Harry responded dejectedly.

"Harry," Hermione soothed, "Three months ago he-"

"Yes I know Hermione!" Harry bit, "He left three bloody months ago!"

"Alright Harry, your being rude. I'm leaving you to your cleaning down here and am going to blitz upstairs!"

And like they always do, another person rejected Harry for somewhere away from him. What a sad excuse for a man he had turned into.

XxXxXx

The doorbell rang, and Harry had no choice but to answer it, even though he was extremely tired from cleaning his house from top to toe. He casually looked himself up and down, making sure the trousers he wore were un-marked and the shirt was immaculate. It wouldn't do to have Narcissa mock him on his inability to keep house, nor himself.

He pulled the door open with etiquette and smiled broadly, "Narcissa, so good to see you!"

The blonde Lady on the other side of the door smiled back, with slight smirk on her face, "Don't try and flatter me young Potter, my high opinion of you has been severely hindered."

Harry's face dropped, however he stood aside and let the woman in. "Coffee? Tea?" He offered.

"Why thank you, coffee would be brilliant." Harry led her into the sparkling kitchen and thanked heavens when the cups, coffee and every other appliance he owned held no grudge against him, instead they acted very highly of themselves in front of Narcissa, even though most of Harry's crockery was from Ikea.

"How have you been keeping?" Narcissa asked as she made her way to the breakfast table, sitting down with an air of grace Harry wished he could emit.

"In all honesty?" He asked, knowing the answer.

"I would see right through any lies you chose to tell me!" She gave a little laugh.

"Since Draco left, I cant sleep, don't eat and have taken to being a slob quite well." He smiled and passed Narcissa her coffee whilst seating himself.

"Has your friend, the pretty one, been round?"

Harry nodded, "She might well still be upstairs, tackling the mess up there."

"You left someone upstairs to tidy for you?" Narcissa looked shocked.

"Yes, she insisted."

"Such work," Narcissa started, her voice reverting back to that of high society, "Should not be done by witches, nor wizards, especially under my watch!" She tapped her wand against the table and whispered 'Tink'.

"Yes Mrs. Malfoy?" A little house elf asked as the creature landed in front of Harry and Narcissa.

"The entire cleaning staff are to be here at once, please, and clean this house, thank you." And with Harry looking shocked from root to tip and Narcissa looking pointedly at Harry, the house elf disappeared.

"Why, thank you Narcissa." Harry smiled, feeling truly grateful.

They sat in companiable silence for a few seconds, before a shriek from the upstairs rooms came bellowing through the house.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed as she ran into the kitchen, "Who said you could order a cleaning team here?"

"I did," Narcissa commented whilst standing to pull the dishevelled Hermione into an embrace, "Its good to see you!"

"You too Narcissa." Hermione giggled whilst hugging the woman back.

"I need your help," Narcissa whispered into Hermione's ear, "He needs a new wardrobe, new furniture and some help around this house before little Jamie is to be introduced into it."

XxXxX

Authors letter;

My dear readers,

It has been to long but I lost my internet due to lack of funds within my home, therefore couldn't post you anything for a while. I started college too, so my workload has been heavy.

I have decided to post the sequel with the original story, because I feel there is no need to start a whole new reviewing point and have any future readers have to find the original.

So here it is. The way we polish silver.

Many well wishings,

Ashes of Stars