Chapter 10

"City street lights, Even stop lights, Blinking red and green
As the shoppers rush home with their treasures."

Song - Silver Bells, by She and Him

10 December 2005

"Can't we just order the gift instead?" Harry growled, eyeing the queue of people outside the busy toy store with suspicion. "This is ridiculous."

"They're sold out everywhere, and it's all Teddy has talked about for months. When I called yesterday, they said they'd got a shipment in last night and it would be available today, but we had to be here in person." And Merlin, Draco had called at least two dozen toy and department stores. If he never had to use Harry's mobile again, it would be too soon. "You act as though I haven't explained this five times already."

Harry huffed out a sigh like a pouting child. Fitting, Draco supposed, for a children's toy store. "So, is everyone in line for the same toy? Surely they aren't that popular."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "I doubt they're all here for the same toy, but according to the clerk on the phone, they received several popular items yesterday. Just be glad he doesn't want something called a Lettuce Patch Kid. I guess they're even harder to find this year."

Harry snorted. "Cabbage Patch, and no, he actually already has one. Ginny got it for him when he was two."

"Is that the one with the squashed face?"

"Yup! Adorable, right?"

"Salazar, no. It looks like a drunken mandrake. Anyway, I imagine we only have to contend with maybe a quarter of these people for the lightsaber." He smiled as the line began to move, letting people into the store. "It's your fault, you know, making him watch Star Wars with you so many times this summer."

"He loves it!"

"You love it, and he loves you."

A soft smile crossed Harry's face. "Yeah."

"So let's just hope we get lucky and can find one before we have to wrestle it out of some old lady's hands."

"Please tell me you aren't going to make a scene."

Draco grinned. "I won't if they let me have one." The line moved quickly as they got close to the door. "Now come on. They should be on the far side of the building, row three. The kid on the phone said they'd be near the back of the aisle."

As they got through the entry, the other customers all scattered like rats, everyone hurrying towards their toys of choice. A decent-sized group, however, was heading in the same direction as Draco and Harry. "Come on, Potter! I will be the coolest cousin and you can't stop me!"

Draco didn't wait to see if Harry followed. Starting to run, he jumped past a woman his mother's age in a long, tartan peacoat, and brushed past a couple of middle-aged men arguing over something called a nerf gun. His stomach dropped as he saw a crowd of nearly two dozen swarming the aisle he was aiming for.

"Noooo, I need one!"

Three women walked past him, carrying three lightsabers each, laughing as though they hadn't a care in the bloody world. Three! What did they need with three when his poor little Teddy wasn't even going to get one?

"Excuse me. Pardon me. Excuse me." He pushed his way into the centre of the crowd, eager to get Teddy's dream toy. Suddenly, the crowd parted and there it was, one lightsaber still in the box, a stream of light falling upon it and ethereal music playing in the distance. Or maybe it was just what Harry called a fluorescent light and tinny Christmas music. Whatever, it didn't matter, because Draco was going to get the toy of Teddy's heart's desire.

Draco reached out, his hand falling on the toy right at the same time as another hand grabbed below his. He could have sworn he heard a screeching stop to the music he'd been humming to, but he couldn't pay attention to that because this harpy was about to steal his Teddy's toy! "Excuse me, but this is mine."

"No, it's not. I saw it first."

Draco glared. "And how do you suppose you're going to prove that?"

The woman, her shoulder-length curly hair bouncing as she spoke, narrowed her eyes. "Simple. My hand has a better grip, so it's clearly mine." She gave a tug, but Draco held tight.

Voices behind them began to raise, but Draco ignored them, refusing to take his gaze off the thief before him. "My little cousin has been asking for an electronic lightsaber for ages. This is the only one I can find, and I will get it for him."

"Well, my son wants one too, and he's needier than your cousin."

Draco straightened his shoulders. Oh, it was on.

"My cousin lost both his parents when he was only a month old. Then, his grandmother — his caretaker — got breast cancer, and he had to be shuffled around for months while his godfather and I took care of him. He's the most selfless little boy you'll ever meet, so don't tell me what your pampered little prince needs over my cousin."

The woman's face grew red and her lips drew thin. When she spoke, they seemed to barely move, which was really weird and creepy but not enough to make Draco back down. "My Mason is in a wheelchair."

"Then what does he need with a lightsaber?" Draco shot back. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped in shock. "Besides, are you suggesting that his being in a wheelchair is worse than losing both his parents? Surely not."

"Of course not—"

"Wonderful," he said with a smirk, pulling on the toy and nearly cheering as she didn't seem to have a good grip on it any longer. "I'm glad we agree."

"Wait!" she yelled, but he'd already turned, hugging the toy tight to his chest and pushing back through the rowdy crowd.

And then he froze, horrified as he watched his boyfriend being slapped into Muggle handcuffs and escorted away to the back of the store. "Harry?"

Harry's head hung low as he walked, hands behind his back, but Draco could see the hint of a smile at the edges. What the hell happened?


"What the hell happened?" Draco ranted nearly two hours later when he was finally allowed to see Harry. He'd tried to go along with them, but the security man had left the store, escorting Harry out into an automobile and taking him away. And Draco had to stay at the store and pay for the lightsaber, so it wasn't like he could follow. He did have priorities, and the hard-won toy was more important. Harry could handle himself for a little while.

But now, Harry was rubbing his wrists and exiting the building where the police worked, Hermione at his side. She grinned at Draco but gave him a quick shake of the head, so he closed his mouth and followed them to the alley from which they could Apparate back to Grimmauld Place.

Appearing back in the garden of their home, they filed into the kitchen where Harry put on a kettle for water before slumping into the kitchen chair. "That was bloody ridiculous."

Draco took a seat while Hermione gathered the makings for tea, as comfortable in their kitchen as she was in her own. "All right," he growled. "What the fuck?"

"Well, you disappeared," began Harry before pausing to Summon a jar of bruise cream from the pantry. Draco took it from him and started rubbing it on Harry's wrists, gesturing for him to continue. "Anyway, you dived into the crowd, and I stood back, waiting for you to do whatever it was you were going to do, fully expecting I'd have to pull you out of trouble."

"I do not get myself into trouble," Draco drawled.

Grinning, Harry ignored him. "So, while you were arguing with some lady, I noticed a man slide in at the back and shove his hand into a woman's purse."

Draco closed his eyes, fully aware now of where this was going, but he let Harry tell the rest of the story.

"Well, I couldn't just let him steal from her. She was about eighty years old and had a cane, so I figured she probably hadn't even noticed what he did. I came up behind him as he turned to go, tripped him, then grabbed the wallet out of his hand to give back to her."

"And, of course, that's when she noticed," Draco finished.

"Yes! So she picks up her cane and starts bashing it over my head and shoulders, screaming about how I stole from her, yelling for people to call the police."

Draco started laughing. He couldn't help it, it was just too damned funny.

"Obviously, I wasn't going to hit her back, and I couldn't leave because I still had her wallet in my hand. I kept trying to hand it over, but she kept screaming every time I attempted to get close."

Hermione set the teapot on the table and handed them each a cup, joining in on the laughter, even though she'd probably already heard it when Harry was in the police station, explaining it to the authorities. She'd been there as his lawyer, after all.

"How the fuck did I miss all this?" Draco asked, hiccuping another laugh.

"I have no idea because then, a couple of men with nerf guns came up and held them to my face like they were going to shoot me."

Draco snorted, and tears poured from his face. "Oh, Merlin, Harry!"

Harry shrugged and sipped his tea. "That's when the police got there and you finally noticed what had happened. The end."

"No, that's when you got hauled off to the police station and called me to come to straighten it all out," Hermione said dryly. "Only you, Harry."

"I have no idea how this stuff happens to me. We were just there to get a toy—"

"Which I got!" Draco interrupted loudly. "You didn't even ask about that, but I got it. And I didn't even half to beat a little old lady with a cane to get it." He grinned at Harry in triumph.

"I didn't beat—" Harry rolled his eyes. "Whatever. What colour of lightsaber did you get?"

"Wait, the colour matters?"

Harry opened his mouth as though he were about to say something, then simply sighed and shook his head. "Nah."

"I got it," Draco said again. "Success."

Harry and Hermione both just stared at him as though he'd lost his mind, but that's because they weren't going to get the award for the Best Cousin Ever.


A/N:

I had SO much fun writing this chapter. I played around with different ideas - at one point, Ron and Hermione both were going to be there, and both Ron and Harry would get arrested - but when I started writing, Draco insisted that this is how it played out. What can I say? This Slytherin knows his mind.

Tonight's question: What color would YOUR lightsaber be?
According to the quiz I took online, mine is white, which I didn't even know is an option. (I think the purple ones are prettiest, lol).