Down the Alleyway
"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, how good to see you! What would you like today?" a waiter at the West London Squatters Pub and Brewery asked with a huge smile on his face, in anticipation of a large tip he usually got when his favorite client came over.
"A seltzer and a couple of tequila shots," was the short reply.
"Would you care to have that with a side of fresh smoked salmon that we just got in this morning?" The unwavering smile on the waiter's face got larger, for whenever Malfoy ordered booze he tipped even more.
"Yeah, sure. And hurry up, I don't have time to wait around all day." He snapped back.
"Coming right up, sir!" the waiter winked and disappeared. He knew very well that Malfoy was not of age, but chose to disregard the little fact, figuring that he would rather have that young man as friend than as an enemy.
There was quite a crowd assembled at the joint today, and the door kept opening and closing, admitting and releasing more and more people as each minute passed. The patrons who have already gotten their food were barely paying attention to this frequent annoyance and were happily chatting away to whomever they came with without looking at the door.
Draco however, was watching it like a hawk. He sat alone in his favorite dark corner, unnoticed by anyone, muggle or wizard alike. His water arrived first, since it was always brought out by a random server, so that his waiter wouldn't have to bother.
He sipped the cold, lemon-y liquid and squinted at a group of girls that just walked in. They looked familiar and in the back of his mind he vaguely dismissed a thought that he most probably knew them. It didn't matter anyway at the time.
As soon as he decided not to worry about it, the hostess gave the room an appraising look and started walking the girls toward the corner where he was sitting. Oh shit, he thought, and quickly put up the menu in front of his face. As they have gotten closer he recognized the three of them immediately. Hermione Granger, the freaky mudblood Ravenclaw know-it-all, the gorgeous French girl that resembled a veela and competed in the TriWizard tournament, and Ginny Weasley, a good looking redhead that played on the Gryffindor quidditch team, who Draco somewhat liked. What the hell were they doing there?Draco angrily swore inside his mind and carefully peeked around the edge of his menu. They were being seated at the table, which was facing him full on.
He started panicking, he simply could not have them sitting at the next table when he was about to have an important, not to mention private, meeting. Desperately racking his brains for ideas on how to avoid being seen by them, he arrived only on one conclusion – he would have to leave and fast, before his other party arrived, and it would be too late. There was no way he could stay unnoticed once his party actually got there. He would rather risk seeming to have stood someone up, than stay there and inevitably get exposed.
At that precise moment he spotted his waiter happily nodding his head and pointing in Draco's direction before starting to lead another man over to him. Time to go. Draco almost knocked the table over when he flew up onto his feet, clumsily swirled around to face the back of the restaurant and ran like hell for the kitchens, which he knew would lead him out the back alleyway. The noise he made, caused the three young women sitting nearby to look over, and curiously stare at the quickly retreating blonde figure, which inadvertently paused in front of the kitchen entrance for half a second to look over his shoulder, but that second was enough –
"Draco Malfoy?!" Ginny and Hermione exclaimed in unison, just as he had finally disappeared through the double doors.
Harry walked out of the Healer's office, feeling significantly better. Even though they couldn't tell exactly what was wrong with him, they managed to find a potion which had subdued the symptoms and lifted his mood immediately. Caleb looked pretty relieved, and set out straight for the fireplaces which would promptly lead the two of them out of the hospital.
They decided to apparate back to the Malfoy Manor and see if Draco was home. As soon as they stepped out of the fire in the main living room they spotted Lucius crouching over an unfortunate house elf, who has apparently failed to inform him about where Mrs. Malfoy has gotten off to this morning.
"I'm sorry sir! I don't know where Mrs. Narcissa was going! I'm sorry, I am very very sorry. I must go iron my hands now!" The elf sobbed, while hitting his head against a nearby couch.
"Uh Mr. Malfoy?" Harry coughed to draw attention to himself. "Have you seen Draco?"
"Oh, hello Harry. How are you feeling today? My wife tells me that you have been under the weather lately?" Lucius's gray eyes studied the two young boys carefully. "Caleb." He acknowledged his son's other friend coolly with a nod.
"Hi Mr. Malfoy." Caleb squeaked uncertainly, unable to tell whether Draco's father was mad to see him in his house without a prior invitation.
"I have not seen Draco today, Harry. Have you seen my wife?" Lucius went on, as if Caleb hasn't spoken.
"Uh, no, no I have not. I was feeling awful and haven't seen anyone but Dobby the house elf, who helped me get dressed this morning."
"Hmm. Well, you should get something to eat in the kitchens, the lunch was excellent." With that he turned around and grabbing the elf by his ears dragged the creature out of the room.
"That was odd," commented Caleb, staring at the door through which the two just disappeared.
His friend chose to ignore that.
"So, want to go eat then? I'm starving. For the first time in days." Harry chuckled. He was now quite cheerful and the prospect of having the Malfoy cook's famous omelet patties elevated his mood even more.
"Sure, I hate hospitals and having some food in my stomach might make it stop tingling with that negative sensation." Caleb grinned and followed Harry through the complicated maze of rooms, downward across the mansion and into the large, decorated in the French fashion, kitchen.
The cook was busy clearing away the uneaten lunch remains. The "remains" turned out to be a massive amount of untouched snacks and entrees, since the only person who came down to eat was Mr. Malfoy. Harry and Caleb happily relieved the chef of the majority of the above-mentioned provisions, taking it all into the nearby guest bedroom to diminish away from prying servants' eyes.
"I weallee wondew where Dwako hezz gotten to" Harry managed to squeeze out despite of all the food he was currently chewing. Caleb was digesting an even bigger amount in his mouth, and therefore did not reply right away.
Swallowing hastily, he suggested – "We should go to London and visit his flat, maybe he is there."
"Yeah! Great idea. And that way we could also stop by the Diagon Alley and check out the new version of the Firebolt. It was supposed to go on sale last week." Harry cried enthusiastically before biting into his chocolate croissant. Not that he needed a new broomstick, considering that Mr. Malfoy bought Harry and Draco a new one almost every month, and they had more than thirteen forgotten broomsticks each, which have been sitting in the kitchen closet, unused for ages.
"Let me just run upstairs and get my money bag, in case I want to purchase something." Harry swallowed the last piece and got up from the bed.
"Ok, lets go." Caleb grabbed a few more pecan tarts and stuffed them in his pocket before strolling out of the door.
Having flooed themselves to London, the boys got out of the fireplace and looked around the flat. There was a steaming cup of coffee sitting on the living room table and a fresh newspaper tossed to its right side.
"So, I'm guessing Draco has already been here…" Caleb spoke, after surveying the deadly silent space around them.
"Looks like it. Want to see if there's any food in the fridge?" Harry moved toward the kitchen, Caleb at his heels.
"You're kidding! We just ate a freaking cow, are you still hungry?" His friend laughed, vividly remembering Harry's usual displays of gluttony back in the Hogwarts walls.
"Ha Ha." Harry replied while stuffing a piece of chicken into his mouth and closing the refrigerator door. Turning around he strode over to the couch and plumped down in front of the tv.
"We're not watching that, are we Harry? I hate that muggle box thing." Caleb whined, and prodded the remote with apprehension, as he sat down next to him.
"Nah, let me just digest my lunch for just a second. And then we'll go." He smiled glancing at the table in front of him and leaned all the way back, closing his eyes and getting comfy. "Wait. What's that on the front page?" He re-opened his eyes and suddenly pointed to the paper, which was tossed aside next to the half empty cup of coffee. Caleb picked it up and handed the slightly wrinkled, coffee stained Daily Prophet over to him.
There, in the moving black and white picture was an image of Draco's aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange. The short blib below it was accusing her of Death Eater activity and illegal money laundering.
"What in the world..?" Caleb was reading it over Harry's shoulder with his mouth hanging open. "Did you know this Harry? That's Draco's aunt, isn't it?" He asked, surprise evident in his every muscle.
Harry was silent for a good minute and a half. And then he spoke. "No. I think this is a load of bullshit to tell you the truth. Daily Prophet often prints completely unsupported totally absurd libels…" He bit his lip and looked up at the wall, thinking in a semi daze.
He didn't really know what to say to Caleb. Harry scratched his head and thought to himself – I think she was at the Manor a few days ago… If it wasn't all in my head as part of my feverish hallucination. It has been so long since he had seen and interacted with any family members at the Manor, that even though Draco had visited him in his "sick" room at least once a day, it seemed as if two months have passed since Harry has fallen ill.
"I don't know, Caleb." He groaned and closed his eyes one more time, rubbing them with his hands. "Let's go to the Diagon Alley like we talked about and then if Draco isn't back home by tonight, we will send him an owl… I am getting a little worried, he did not visit me yesterday and now that I feel better I distinctly remember noticing that he has not been looking healthy lately. It didn't really register before, when I felt like I was dying, but now I realize that he truly did look bad."
"You know, he was acting a little weird when I saw him last week. He seemed uneasy and preoccupied. That's not the usual Draco! I don't suppose that had anything to do with you?"
"I doubt it. I didn't really begin to worry about my semi conscious state until two days ago, so Draco didn't have a reason to either. Something else must have been bothering him." Harry ruffled his hair and sighed. Staring out into the space, he looked rather pensive, for the first time in many years.
It was not often that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had something to worry about. Nothing ever went wrong in their lives, so the events of the past few weeks were far out of the ordinary to say the least. Now that he thought about it, everything really has changed quite a bit in the past year. Lucius and Narcissa no longer seemed happy; she spent a lot of time away and he all but stopped living at the Manor altogether. Draco didn't spend much time around his parents anymore and what's more - he wasn't bothered by it. Three or four years ago, this never would have happened. No matter how busy Mr. Malfoy used to be, he always found time to come home at least once a day, and now he stayed away for four to five days in a row. Although the Malfoys still acted like a passionate couple in public, to the people who were close to them it was rather obvious that a drift in the marriage had surfaced.
Narcissa gradually grew cold and distant from the two boys as well as the rest of the household. She used to be a charming and a friendly woman. She always treated Harry like an equal, never talking down to him or ignoring a single thing he had to say. And lately she has become apathetic in respect to him at best. She often used to say that he looked a lot like his dad, with whom she went to Hogwarts all those years ago. She'd tell him a story or two about disrupted classes and impromptu detentions, laughing bitterly at the memories of her own youth. She didn't talk that much, and when she did, the topic almost always revolved around reminiscences of her own days at Hogwarts. But Harry was grateful for whatever he could get. Nobody else had ever mentioned his mother and father to him; not even once. Harry was beginning to think that someone made them up, and they had never existed in the first place. That is why he often looked forward to the few fleeting minutes every week when he would see Mrs. Malfoy and she would have some time to spare and talk about the past. Harry often sensed that it was painful for her. He assumed that was the reason why no one else had ever mentioned the Potters; it must be painful for them too. It was an awkward but enjoyable relationship; both Harry and Narcissa were okay with it.
But it has now been months since Harry heard her mention Hogwarts. She stopped talking to the boys at breakfast, and only smiled pleasantly, whenever he had caught her eye by accident. She never mentioned her husband and all but ignored Draco whenever his friends were around.
Lucius also began to scare him more and more with his prolonged mysterious absences. Soon, Harry stopped trusting him completely. Especially after the trip to his aunt's, details of which were becoming blurrier and blurrier in his mind every day. He still had an uneasy feeling that Lucius might have had something to do with his inexplicable blackout and maybe the illness itself. He had a lot of time to think when he was laying ill, but found himself losing consciousness every time he tried to come close to any memories of Lucius.
Rubbing his scar, Harry Potter sighed again and turned to look at Caleb. He toyed with the possibility of telling his close friend those thoughts, but decided against it.
"Ready to go?" He asked dryly.
"Yeah. Let's." Caleb replied just as unenthusiastically.
Together they grabbed fistfuls of floo powder and one by one disappeared into the fire.
A/N Do review ! and enjoy reading chapter 11 )