Chapter 2

Draco woke up to the smell of freshly cooked bacon. The aroma was truly mouth-watering, especially if it's days since you've eaten properly. His stomach rumbled loudly. The memories of last night faded away, leaving little trace, as they usually did when morning came. Along with the deliciously tasty bacon smell, there came soft singing from the kitchen. The young woman, standing in the kitchen, not seen by the young man from where he was, had a very good voice and a very good song. Draco liked it because it so reminded him of him self, lost and confused in his life.

She wants to go home

But nobody's home

That's where she lies

Broken inside

There's no place to go

No place to go

There she broke off, obviously forgetting the words but quickly recovering.

Blah blah blah blaaaah

Broken inside

Even despite the little sadness he started to feel every time he heard his song, Draco couldn't help but laugh out loud. The woman obviously heard him, judging by the fact that she stopped singing and started laughing herself.

"Oi, Sleeping Beauty, glad you're awake! I was thinking about waking you myself sometime soon", the voice shouted from the kitchen.

"As long as it is with a kiss, I wouldn't have minded", Draco shouted in return, smirking. And where the hell this habit came from, he always wondered.

"Yeah, sure, a kiss from a bucket of water. Quite a wet one, in my opinion, just like yours are", she teased, coming through the kitchen doorway that led directly to where Draco slept. The girl was tall, slender but not skinny and mildly tanned. She had beautiful radiant marine colored eyes and strait sleek long black hair.

Draco looked offended, "Come now, Violette, what are you talking about? I am the greatest kisser!" And where the heck did this arrogant self-confidence come from? He hadn't the mildest idea but sometimes it formed such bold sentences out of his mouth.

Violette giggled like a school girl even though she was two years older then Malfoy, "Okay, but you'll have to prove it then".

She stepped closer to the bed the young man was still in. Only now Draco noticed that she was wearing his t-shirt which looked like a mini dress on her, although she was quite tall but never as tall as Draco. Violette noticed him looking and blushed, "You don't mind me making my self at home. I didn't want to cook in my suit. So when I came in an hour ago I just changed into your shirt".

Draco gave a soft laugh, "Of course I don't mind! How many times I asked you to move in with me? Mm? And you know that you don't even have to work…"

Violette sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, "Lets not start this again, please", she said gently, "You know I love my job. You know I always dreamed of being a lawyer and it is not because of money…"

Draco looked at her pitifully.

"Oh, don't give me that look again, you know I can't resist it", Violette said, just pretending to be angry, but she couldn't help but smile at her man, "Look, Draco, I still have to make my living. What if we break up-"

The young man frowned, "I personally don't intend to do so and you, do you?" He looked jealous. Well, he was! This woman was his only link to life for four years already. Heck, if it wasn't for her, he just wouldn't have a life at all. He could just recall the day they met…

The day of June 5th, his nineteenth birthday… It was a little after noon. Draco Malfoy was already fully awake and dressed. He was hungry so he made his way through the building to the hospital canteen. Today was more crowded then ever, all the healing staff rushed around, helping sick people in and out of room. There were so much of burned once and not just burned. Two nurses rushed past Draco, shoving him accidentally into a wall, with a man. The poor guy's right side of the face and neck was covered in sickening acid green substance that came out of his burns it seemed and was dripping on the floor with loud hissing, leaving scorch marks all over. And the man wasn't the only one like that. There were women and children too and many of them. No wonder the nurses and all the staff were running around chaotically!

Draco didn't know what was happening till he reached the St. Mango's canteen. There he caught up with the reception lady, a neat elderly woman with a soft heart. She drank her coffee shakily with a troubled look upon her face that still had traces of weathering beauty.

"Gladys, good afternoon", Draco greeted her politely.

"Oh, I am not that sure it's a good one. In fact one of the worst I ever saw around here since You-Know-Who…" she stopped her self, looking at the young man uncomfortably. Everybody avoided the topic with him, he had no idea why, and no one would tell him what happened, not that he tried to find out desperately. It seemed very important not just as a great historical event, which it was, but personally important. And it was very strange that he remembered none of anything whatsoever. In fact it was like half of his life disappeared, although erased was only a year, along with people who were around him. Heck, he wasn't even sure if Hogwarts still stood.

Draco knew better then to press the subject of his memory but he was interested in today, "But what happened? What is all this commotion about? I mean so much wounded…"

"Oh, Mr. Malfoy", it was another mystery for him, that everyone referred to him as MR, so respectful, "Today in the Diagon Alley one maniac, a horrible lunatic, blew up half the street, including himself, with an unknown spell. Oh, terrible terrible person. Seven are dead on the spot. Thirty eight are badly injured. No one knows how many can actually survive… in a bad state most of them, yes…"

"And the man?"

"Oh, the man laughed, laughed coldly, crazily till he died here, in St. Mango's already, tortured by his own spell. I'd say he was mad. Gone mad, if you'd ask me, after You-Know-Who", Draco drew his breath then, not wanting to interrupt. No one has ever spoken about You-Know-Who with him. The old lady forgot that, busy feeling sorry for all the injure and dead, "after You-Know-Who died. I have not the slightest idea how he was let off the case. Never went to Azkaban after that, no, though I think he deserved it the most. And poor sweet Harry Potter… "she broke off, looking around fearfully, "I think I said too much… I've got to go help…"

Gladys got up to leave, setting her half-empty coffee cup down. Draco's insides fell, he knew everyone concealed something important from him but why? Why can't anyone just tell him everything?

"Wait, Gladys", she stopped, looking at him as if he was a dynamite about to explode, "What is his name? Of the lunatic?"

The look in Gladys eyes was of a painful thinking. She muttered to herself rather then to anyone, "I guess he has to know already…" Then she addressed Draco, "Look, Mr. Malfoy, I am not a psychologist of any sort so its not for me to tell you everything but today I was supposed to ask you to move out of St. Mango' s. Do not worry about material things. You have plenty of riches. Plus a social worker is supposed to arrive any minute to fill you in about… about you life, to put it that way. I think you'd be let known everything you need to… to go on". Gladys paused, looking down the corridor, "ah, yes, I can see the person coming right now…" The elderly receptionist turned to leave.

"Gladys, wait… who was it?" Draco could feel with his very gut that the name of importance.

"Lucius Malfoy".