Disclaimer: In case you have been living in a cave on mars with your fingers in your ears for the last ten years or so; JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and all terms and characters associated with the fandom. I only own the story, some characterisations and an occasional OC, I try to limit them as much as possible. Song lyrics which may crop up now and then will be attributed as appropriate.

Chapter 5 - Road to Joy

"I read the body count out of the paper
And now it's written all over my face
No one ever plans to sleep out in the gutter
Sometimes that's just the most comfortable place

So I'm drinking, breathing, writing, singing
Everyday I'm on the clock
My mind races with all my longings
But cant keep up with what I got..."

Bright Eyes

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Draco's eyelids fluttered as some noise in the background of his head sounded out and it took him several minutes to realise that it was the sound of someone banging rather loudly on the front door. He groaned, rolling off of the settee, Blaise was no where to be seen, he guessed he had crawled to bed at some point during the previous evening. Rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm trying to worm out the sleep from his eyes he got to his feet, grumbling to himself that they needed to get a house elf.

The boys had moved into the former Black family manor two days before and had been celebrating ever since. His own mother had put up more than a small fuss about him moving out of the family home, whereas Blaise's had managed to convince her it would be a good learning curve for the two of them, although they had received howlers from Lucretia Zabini each morning at eight promptly to get them both out of bed on time, something she sworn she would continue to do until they got a house elf.

He glanced at the clock on the wall in the hallway as he made his way to the front door, seeing that it was nine o'clock, he wondered why there hadn't been an early morning howler for a moment, until he realised it was Saturday and they did not have to go into the office on that day. Gripping the iron door handle, he turned it carefully, wondering how long he would have to continue opening his own front door as he did so. Stood on the doorstep was a harassed looking Wizard, Draco guessed from the ministry since he was carrying a long piece of parchment in one hand and a quill in the other. Draco raised an eyebrow at the man. "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Draco Malfoy? I have a delivery for Draco Malfoy or Blaise Zabini." The man huffed a little and pulled a dirty looking cloth hankie from his top pocket and mopped his forehead, wiping away several beads of sweat that had formed there. He was balding, overweight, his skin was puffy and an unhealthy red, not the kind of man Draco wanted stood on his doorstep for too long.

"Yes, I'm Draco Malfoy, what is it?"

"Delivery from the department of Muggleborn re-assessment, the first lot are being delivered this morning."

Draco furrowed his brow a little. "Wait, that's impossible, that's my department, I'm the one who does the assigning and I never put our house down for one yet."

The wizard shrugged his shoulders, "Well someone living in this house must have. Sign here." He held out the piece of parchment, pointing to Draco's address. Draco grumbled to himself, Blaise must have signed them up for one without him knowing. Well, at least they could have someone to answer the door until they got a house elf Draco thought to himself. As soon as his signature had been scribbled onto the parchment it was pulled from his hands and the man nodded to him. "She's just out here, we've got them all on a calming potion, make 'em nice and docile while they get assigned to new places."

Draco stepped outside, seeing what he assumed to be a girl since the man had called her a 'she' slumped down on the floor, wearing heavy looking black robes and a sack over her head. He raised an eyebrow and looked to the man. "What's the sack for?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. They all have to go out like that apparently, if they can't see where they're going, 'paraently they're a lot more calm 'bout it. Anyway, all yours." He held out a set of five chubby digits which Draco shook quickly and the man turned and started heading down the long path to the gates, to, Draco presumed, disaparate.

Draco looked down at the body on the ground and sighed to himself, tugged on the arm, he lifted her up off the ground and led her into the house and brought her into the living room, seating her on the armchair. Whatever they had given the girl appeared to have all but knocked her out, she didn't seem to have any idea of what was happening to her or where she was. Draco smirked to himself a little, the idea that while she slept, all it took was a quick signature and her life had been signed over to him. Undoing the knot tied at the bottom of the sack which had been placed over her head, he gave it a quick tug, to see what she looked like.

He raised an eyebrow, clearly, Blasé had been down to the holding cells to hand pick this one, long black hair fell out as he pulled away the sack. The hair was unwashed, but that could be sorted, she had olive skin and a full set of lips, muttering in her half sleep to herself something about her father being a wizard. Draco pulled the string on the black cloak, a torn set of Ravenclaw robes hung on the girl whose name he did not know, but recognised her face now he looked more closely. Cocking his head to the side he noticed the set of round hips and good sized breasts on the girl, just what Blaise liked. He sighed, obviously his friend had been thinking with his cock when he put their names down for a muggleborn.

The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs caused Draco to turn his head in time to see a somewhat excited looking Blaise come through the living room doors. "Is she here yet?" Draco smirked a little.

"Well that eliminates the question of just how she arrived."

Blaise smirked, moving and standing next to Draco, admiring the girl on the chair. "Su Li. Ravenclaw, our year. Know for a fact her dad was a wizard."

"And how do you know that?"

Blaise looked at Draco shocked. "Wei Li, Gobstones champion 1981 to 1987."

Draco rolled his eyes, his best friends Gobstones obsession had been in place as long as he'd known him. "So why did no one talk to him?"

"Can't he's dead."

"Oh."

"Saw her name on the list and knew it would be useless trying to argue with the committee, I'd just look like a mudblood sympathiser. So I thought I'd cut her a favour."

"Why exactly?"

"How exactly do you think I got through our History of Magic OWLs?"

Draco rolled his eyes with a sigh. "So you've already fucked her then?"

"A gentleman does not shag and tell."

"Bollocks to that you liar, there's no one with a looser tongue when it comes to women than you." Blaise stuck his tongue out at Draco and smirked.

"Well then, we better wait till that potion or whatever they gave her wears off and then we'll be able to explain to her what the deal is."

An eruption of green flames from the fireplace caused both boys to jump momentarily as they turned their heads to see Draco's aunt Bellatrix Lestrange appear in the fireplace, dragging somebody with her. "DRACO! I told you I wanted a good one! One that wasn't going to give lip. HOW could you stick me with this one?" With a firm grip on the arm of the girl she had with her, she pushed forward Hermione Granger, looking dishevelled and still clearly under the influence of the calming potion.

"I thought you'd be happy with that one Aunty Bella."

"HAPPY? Happy to have Potter's girlfriend in my house? Did you eat an aneurism for your breakfast?"

"I thought it would amuse you…"

Bellatrix stormed forward, causing both boys to move backwards as she did, Blaise almost tripping over the coffee table. "Well it doesn't and I'm not keeping it!"

"Well first thing Monday I'll do the paperwork and we'll get you a new one…"

"Forget it Draco!" Spotting the still knocked out Su Li on the chair, she let go of her grip on Hermione, allowing her to fall to the floor and grabbing Su. "I'll take this one instead."

"NO!" Blaise shouted out at her, instantly regretting it, but he did not want to see Su be dragged away to be the slave of Bellatrix Lestrange.

"No? This isn't a little girlfriend for you boy! They're supposed to be servants, your not allowed to fuck them." She quirked her eyebrow, stalking forwards. "Unless you feel sorry for it. One of your little girlfriends from Hogwarts, I'm sure we could tell the Dark Lord about the trouble your having with it, I'm sure he'd love to hear all about it."

Blaise swallowed a little, Draco looked at him like he'd gone crazy. "What I meant was that, they have to be registered. We've already signed for her, IT, we've already signed for it and you signed for Granger, it would be an administrational nightmare. We'll owl the office now and get them to send you out a new one."

"Tough luck." Bellatrix scooped up the sleeping girl and started dragging her to the fireplace. "It's your mess, you deal with it. I'm having this one." She stepped into the fireplace, throwing a handful of floo powder and within moments, disappeared into the flames.

The two boys looked down as a very groggy Hermione Granger looked up at them, Draco looked at his friend apologetically and sighed. "So… what are we going to do?"

Blaise merely sighed. "We'll sort it out on Monday."

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Author's Notes:

Thanks to everyone who left me reviews, you guys are awesome. It totally perks me up when I get those review alerts, especially since I have very limited time at computers these days.

UBER special thanks has to go out to saddlecreekrecords for uploading the Bright Eyes video to Four Winds onto youtube, which trust me, really helped me while I was writing this chapter. If you haven't seen it, you should go look it up… after you've left me a review of course ;)

Er, Chapter 6 coming soonish, not sure when, I need to get a chapter or two written for my other fics first or I might get hunted down by my Twists in the road fans.

I just have to go sob a little to myself now, I didn't want to send poor Su away, but she had to….