Chapter five
Harry and Draco burst though the grand oak doors and walked out, descending the stone steps to freedom. It wasn't as dramatic an exit as the Weasley twins had made in Harry's fifth year but it caused as much if not more havoc.
Students stopped and stared as the two walked out, teachers did nothing to stop them and neither looked back as they walked down the sloping grounds, past the quidditch pitch and out the school gates.
Draco wasn't entirely sure of what the reactions were that day at the school but eye witness reports said that all hell had broken loose, panic had settled in and the students were starting to pack their belongings.
Oblivious to this Harry and Draco walked down the cobbled streets of Hogsmead, neither had property that they could seek refuge in, none of the Malfoy estates would be safe and Harry was not going to show up on the Dursley's doorstep with Draco in tow and beg for a place to sleep.
All they had were the clothes on their back and Harry's overly large Gringotts bank account, which if they were honest would last them both three lifetimes over so their first stop was to be Diagon Alley.
With it only being just past lunch time they were in no rush to do anything, it was still sinking in for both of them that they were free of Hogwarts, however it had meant giving up the security that the castle had provided. No hotel room was going to be as safe but Harry had already started to form a plan in his mind.
"Do you fancy some lunch?" Harry suggested as they slowly passed a small café type shop next to the post office. It wasn't too busy and it was nice enough to sit outside and enjoy the last of the summer sun.
"Why not" Draco responded, he was craving to take hold of Harry's hand but he reframed, blaming the Fire Whiskey flowing through him for these thoughts. They entered the simple café that had been decorated in reds and whites and ordered two toasted cheese sandwiches before taking a seat on the patio chairs outside.
The September sun was weak against their backs but there was slight warmth to it that they enjoyed immensely. Both felt entirely relaxed but did not dare start talking until the smiley witch that was serving them had delivered their food to them and scurried off back inside to watch from afar.
"There is one thing that I have to do, something that will show Dumbledore that I'm not just disappearing for the night and I'll be back in the morning, it's time to show him what life without me would be like." Harry said, "I want to do an interview for the Daily Prophet and I want Rita Skeeter to write it."
Draco was shocked by this revelation; he had never thought in a million years that Harry would want that horrible woman to write anything for him, the reputation between the two wasn't exactly savoury.
"What exactly do you want her to write; it isn't as if you can expect her to tell the truth." Draco pointed out and he was very right in doing so. Rita Skeeter had not only worsened as the years went on but she had got smarter, picking her targets carefully and leaving Harry Potter well alone no matter what the ministry said.
"That's the point though, she'll take whatever I say and make the situation seem ten times worse, which is why it has to be her that writes it. Believe me when the article comes out it will well worth it."
"I believe you, the news that Harry Potter is gone is most likely going to cause uproar, especially towards Dumbledore if you mention the fact that it was he who pretty much forced you from the castle and said that you were no longer welcome there." Draco said with the trademark Malfoy smirk on his face.
"Exactly, he'll be begging me to come back to the castle, but that's only if he can find me first, he may be a hot shot in the wizarding world but in the muggle world he's nothing and that's exactly where we're going. A place where no one recognizes me or respects him."
"The wizarding world won't know what's hit it and if we get a meeting with her today we'll make the morning prophet." Draco said happily.
"Let's let him stew a little first, what's the fun in causing all the trouble in one go, for today we'll get sorted, find a place to stay and get completely and utterly wasted, then tomorrow we'll find Skeeter." Harry said finishing off his sandwich. "First however I need to swing by my Aunt and Uncle's, I left something there that could be of use to us."
Draco wasn't about to disagree with Harry's course of action and happily allowed him to take a hold of him and apperate him away once they had finished and paid for lunch. Where they ended up Draco had no clue, but he was sure that it was a muggle neighbourhood, when Draco voiced his curiousness to where they were Harry responded: "Where I was dragged up."
This seemed to be an odd sort of term to use referring to his childhood but Draco didn't question it, he knew very little about Harry's life before Hogwarts and he didn't want to upset Harry by asking questions.
Harry led him down Privet Drive and up the gravel path of number four; nosy neighbours were staring through netted curtains slightly pulled back so they could peek round them.
Parked in the drive way was an overly fancy car that looked as if it had been shined recently, the garden was immaculate, the grass trimmed to perfection, the hydrangeas clipped into tidiness. There was nothing about the house that was messy or damaged, it was creepy it was so perfect.
Harry strode up to the front door and rang the door bell, after a few moments where no one answered Harry got tired of waiting, subtlety withdrew his wand and muttered the unlocking spell, there was a soft click and the door opened to them.
Harry faltered, looking worried. "What's wrong?" Draco asked once seeing the expression etched upon his face.
"The car is in the drive way and the door was locked." Harry said quietly.
"Maybe they went for a walk or they went on holiday." Draco said not really understanding the snort of laughter that Harry couldn't contain at the thought of his Uncle going for a walk.
"You obviously don't know my Aunt and Uncle, just be careful and be alert," Harry warned as they stepped inside the front door.
The hallway was lit with afternoon sunshine; it gleamed from the mirror sending beams of light reflecting off the white walls. There was a feeling of unease about this place that Draco didn't like and his feelings were confirmed when a strong metallic smell greeted them as they went further into the house.
There was a layer of dust on everything, Draco took no notice of this but Harry knew that it was not a good sign, not with his house proud aunt so anal about the cleaning. The living room, kitchen and dinning area downstairs were all free of clues and looked as if no one had lived there for a good few days. Next the two of them ventured upstairs where the smell became stronger and more sickening.
Harry went in first, slowly and cautiously he ventured into his Aunt and Uncle's bedroom, what they were to see inside made Draco gag, and despite the fact that it was Harry's own family he didn't even flinch.
Draco couldn't stand to stay in the same room so Harry asked him to check the other bedrooms and the bathroom, Dudley's room was empty, he had obviously been at boarding school when it had occurred and Harry's room had been trashed.
"Petunia and Vernon had a particularly nasty curse put on them, I can't remember what it's called but its purpose is to turn oneself inside out, they're dead and have been for a while. The Dark Mark is also burned on to the ceiling so we know who the culprit was; it also means that it isn't safe here."
"That bedroom is untouched" Draco said motioning towards Dudley's room, "And that one is completely trashed." Harry immediately entered his room to find that Draco had put it lightly, everything had been turned upside down, furniture and all.
"This was my room," Harry explained as he pushed his upturned bed out of the way and shoved some old school papers aside so that he could gain access to the floor boards. He went down onto his knees and pried up one of the boards before delving his hand into the dark space below. "And lucky for me they didn't find what they were looking for." Harry said with a grin bringing out an antique looking tome.
"What is it?" Draco asked sounding fascinated, even with his fathers own extensive collection of magical texts that he had familiarised himself with he had never once before seen this one.
"It is an ancient magic spell book, dating all the way back to the Druids and Pagan's of before Henry VII and the wars of the roses. It is one of the most precious magical artefacts known to the wizarding community." Harry explained.
"And how is it that this precious book came to be in amongst your property?" Draco asked him as he replaced the floor boards so no one that came later would know that anything was removed.
There was a loud crash from downstairs that sounded like glass breaking; Harry placed a finger to his lips, motioning for Draco to be quite. Harry got to his feet in such a fashion that he made no noise and withdrew his wand, then as quietly as possible he put up an undetectable silencing charm around the room.
Harry then gripped Draco's hand within his own and apparated them away. Whoever had been downstairs wouldn't have played nicely having discovered them at the scene of a crime with no evidence that it wasn't them that committed it, or if it had been a deatheater or another witch or wizard then things wouldn't have gone any better.
Draco looked around and realised that Harry had apparated them into an ally, whether this was intentional or not he didn't ask, he wasn't about to question what on earth they were doing in an ally in the middle of the afternoon, although there were some wicked ideas for what they could be doing down a dark ally in the middle of the afternoon going though Draco's mind currently.
"This way" Harry said breaking Draco from his rather pleasant train of thought that included a number of things that they could occupy themselves with in their current location, Draco followed him to the opening and saw that they were now on a muggle street, which explained the empty ally.
"Where are we?" Draco asked as they inconspicuously exited their hiding place and joined the flow of people with bags of shopping, Harry clutching the book tightly to his chest as if his life depended upon it.
"London" Harry told him as he quickened the walking pace, Draco knew that he meant muggle London, the two of them were far too easy to pick out in a crowd so Draco hurried after Harry not complaining about the fast pace.
Suddenly Harry took a turn and Draco followed leading them into a small lobby of a hotel, it wasn't overly posh but it looked comfortable enough. The Lobby itself was unfurnished apart from a couple of old looking arm chairs opposite the check in desk.
There was an old, grumpy looking woman standing behind the desk a book in hand, she barely even acknowledged the two of them. When Harry approached her, without even bothering to look up she said, "We don't do hourly rates if you want a room you pay for a night."
"We were actually looking to spend a week here" Harry said pointedly, "We want a large twin room on the first floor." He instructed, at this point the woman bookmarked her place and put the book down.
"May I take your name and details, a deposit of fifty pounds is required in case of loss or damage of motel property." The grumpy muggle woman said, "You will be given a key to the front door and your room but it is frowned upon to be coming and going between the hours of midnight and six."
"The name is Cameron Shan, we have business to take care of near by and the lateness of our hours can on occasion be unavoidable but of course we will be respectful of other guests and come and go quietly." Harry said handing the woman what looked to Draco to be a flat plastic thing. "How many other guests are here currently?"
"There are three couples and a young family." The woman responded taking the card Harry had handed her. When she handed it back she also gave them two sets of keys. "Your room is number 8, through the doors behind you and it's the room on the far left." She instructed before picking up her book and allowing them to get on with it.
Neither Harry nor Draco thanked her, she had been curt and verging on rude so the two of them just turned and began to follow the woman's directions. The room in which they found themselves in was only just bigger than the room Harry had occupied in Privet Drive.
Everything was either cream or white and the bathroom had a horrid pink suite and very little space to move around in. It certainly wasn't the nicest of rooms and Draco, used to the luxury that the riches of the Malfoy's could afford was disgusted by it.
"It isn't much but it's a nice place, I've stayed here a couple of times before and it pretty much goes unnoticed a lot of the time." Harry said as Draco glanced around looking disgusted. "Plus I don't want us to be spending much time here anyway, take tonight for instance, we're going out."
"And where is it that you intend on taking me as I have no idea where we are or the kind of bars that they have around here." Draco said looking directly into Harry's emerald green eyes and feeling a fluttering in the pit of his stomach.
Draco didn't know how it was that he was going to survive living with Harry while plagued with his teenage hormones, the teen now standing before him was driving him mad and he didn't even know it.
"Where we're going comes later, first things first is shopping, we have to get some clothes, not that school uniform isn't very becoming but it isn't very practical." It was one of the things that Harry lived for, shopping.
It was a shame however that they had not changed their appearances before checking in, however it was something that they were going to have to live with, of course that didn't mean that they weren't going to make changes, it wasn't worth the risk of being recognized.
Harry magically hid his scar and the Dark Mark on Draco's arm before deciding that some slightly more complex magic was in order. To all muggles they would appear as they normally would but to witches and wizards (except one another) they looked like Cameron and Max.
The next move was to head out for the shops, on their way out they didn't even bother to acknowledge the check in lady who was still sat there with her book. As for Harry's book he had cloaked it and hidden it well within the room not to mention erected a fair few locking, anti-apparition and security spells on and around the room.
Draco couldn't yet understand the full value of this book but he appreciated that Harry protected this book with his life and therefore it must hold more worth than the entire of Gringotts bank.
From experience Draco knew not to ask questions, his father had taught him that after many beatings, if Harry wanted him to know then he would tell him so he pushed the matter with the book no further and allowed Harry to take him shopping.
Muggle London was a far cry from Madame Malkin's in Diagon Alley; the clothing range that Harry was purchasing for them both was weird, wonderful and classy all at the same time. Outfit after outfit was tried on and purchased. The most outrageous shoes were bought and accessories obtained through the excessive use of Harry's plastic card.
They didn't stop until it was well into the evening and the shops were about to close, at which point the two of them struggled back to their motel room weighed down with at least a hundred odd bags each. The amount of items they had bought was ridiculous even by Draco's standards and he was a spoilt little rich kid.
The check in woman had obviously gone off shift as there was a young, friendly looking man behind the desk now, he was looking slightly bored but smiled as they came in.
"Hey, Cameron, mum told me you'd checked in earlier, wow, you've been shopping I see, that's certainly a load, need a hand?" He offered politely with a huge grin on his face.
"No thanks Reese, I'm sure we'll be ok but thank you anyway, we'll see you later, are you working tonight or will you be going down to the Pink Flamingo?" Harry asked paused in the lobby, Draco standing behind him propping the door open feeling slightly ignored.
"I'm on till eleven; I'll join you guys down there, who's your friend Cameron?" Reese asked eyeing Draco with suspicion, Draco glowered at him wishing that Harry would hurry up, the jealousy that was about to go into over drive was going to make him insane, they weren't even an item and he was getting jealous when other men spoke to Harry.
"This is Draco, he's a friend, he'll be down at the Flamingo tonight, anyway we have to go get ready, see you down there." Reese nodded and waved goodbye, Harry smiled and returned the nod before following Draco down the hall to their room.
"A friend of yours?" Draco asked as they clumsily fell into the room and threw all of their bags onto the bed. Harry turned to him and raised an amused eyebrow at the blonde.
"If I didn't know any better I'd say that you were jealous Draco Malfoy." Harry said with a faint trace of a smile showing at the corner of his lips. At once Draco's heart soared, the fluttering returned in the pit of his stomach and he could feel heat rising up his neck and onto his cheeks. "Get ready to go out; I'm going for a shower." Harry said deciding that watching Draco blush, while being entertaining it was also making him want to jump him there and then.
Draco watched as Harry hurried into the bathroom, he left the door slightly ajar but unfortunately for Draco he couldn't see anything of interest. He heard the water start and the glass shower door close.
At that moment Draco let out the breath he didn't know that he had been holding. Harry, he was certain, had a mission to drive him to a point of insanity. He turned and began to rummage through his bags in hope of finding a distraction and also being ready to go when Harry emerged from the shower.
It was amazing how much stuff they had actually managed to buy in the few short hours that they had been shopping, he removed a pair leather trousers from one of the bags and looked at them wondering whether or not he'd actually manage to fit in them.
Deciding to give it a go he began to strip down to his boxers, it was while he was contemplating what top to wear when Harry emerged wearing nothing but a towel. His hair was still wet, droplets dripping onto his nicely toned chest and back.
The sight of it made Draco's jaw drop, Harry looked practically edible, a god in a white towel. "Could you turn around while I put my boxers on, I forgot to take a pair into the bathroom with me."
"Oh, of course, sorry." Draco said getting embarrassed all over again, this would not do, he couldn't go on with this much longer he was practically dying to throw Harry down on to the floor and shag him into next week.
"You can look now." Harry said and Draco turned around to find him in a pair of black silk boxers. "Decided what to wear yet then?" Draco shook his head.
It took them near enough an hour and a half before they finally had decided what it was that they were going to wear. Harry had chosen leather trousers that were skin tight paired with knee high new rock boots along with a plain black tee. Draco on the other hand preferred figure hugging navy jeans with a black netted tank top and similar boots to Harry's.
Paired together they looked both gorgeous and dangerous. Harry couldn't remember ever feeling so sexy in his entire life; he couldn't remember ever thinking about a guy in the same way that he was currently thinking of Draco.
Draco was having the same problem, just looking at Harry's figure hugging outfit made him want to throw him down onto the floor and have his wicked way with him right there and then.
At the end of the third day and Draco was shocked at how much had happened, a part of him wanted to just stop and take it all in, give himself time to breath but the other part of him, that was by far the more dominant and bossy, screamed that if he didn't go out with Harry tonight then he may miss the perfect opportunity to make his move.
As usual the pink flamingo was bustling with gay and curious men, the volume of the music almost unbearable but the atmosphere was buzzing. The bouncer waved them in without the mention of queuing with the others which made Draco wonder how often Harry came here.
They were greeted by an older man who shook Harry's hand before turning to Draco and eyeing him up and down. "I see that you've brought us some fresh blood Cameron, he's certainly edible, where did you find him?"
"I can't give away my secrets Jasper, you know that, but if you buy me a drink I may just be persuaded to tell you." Harry said in a very flirtatious tone that made the little green monster inside of Draco flare into overdrive.
"For the price of a drink I may have to take you up on that offer, however tonight I'll have to pass, I'll allow you to have fun with Blondie here, he looks like he knows how to have a good time." The young and handsome man, apparently called Jasper said.
"We'll see you later." Harry said giving Jasper a kiss on the cheek before linking arms with Draco and dragging him towards the bar.
"And who was that?" Draco asked as Harry placed an order for drinks.
"He's the manager of this place, he so wants to fuck my brains out but I've been turning him down ever since I started coming here." Harry explained as they were given two extremely gay looking cocktails.
"Oh really so he's not going to like me very much now is he." Draco said removing his drink from the bar and taking a sip.
"And why is that?" Harry asked intrigued.
"Because I'm his competition," Harry raised an amused eyebrow at this statement but he said nothing, instead he downed his drink and watched as Draco did the same.
Harry took Draco's hand within his own and led him to the centre of the dance floor where they attempted to find a rhythm. It was after an hour of rubbing very close to each other and touching each other that Draco snaked an arm around Harry's waist and pulled him closer.
Their lips only inches apart now they slowed their dancing down, both were hot and coated in a layer of sweat that made their skin glisten in the light from the disco ball that rotated above them.
An over enthusiastic dancer moving past Harry accidentally knocked the back of Harry and their lips met. First the kiss was almost non-existent until Draco took the chance and parted Harry's lips with his tongue.
So shocked at the suddenness of the kiss Harry allowed Draco's tongue to freely explore while kissing the other teen back just as passionately. Their first passionate embrace a complete accident but one that felt so right for them both.
They heard a number of cat calls directed at the two of them from others on the dance floor, many disappointed that the two cutest guys now seemed to be an item. Draco's heart was beating twice as hard as it should normally, he couldn't believe that after so little time he had actually managed to kiss Harry Potter.
Both were grinning ear to ear as they parted, Draco, unsure of what to say or do next said: "I'll go and get some drinks." Harry nodded and continued to dance.
Draco strolled confidentially to the bar prepared to order something with an extremely high alcohol content to steady his nerves. He had just passionately kissed Harry James Potter!
As Draco made his way back to the dance floor with two pink coloured drinks he spotted his beloved Harry Potter standing in the middle of the dance floor kissing another man.
Sorry this took a while, I've just moved into University and the internet connection has only just been installed. But fear not chapter six is being written as you read this no doubt. Phoebe xxx