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 16 – One foot in front of the other


"If you walk away, I'll walk away
First tell me which road you will take
I don't want to risk our paths crossing some day
So you walk that way, I'll walk this way….

I'm drinking the ink from my pen
And I'm balancing history books up on my head
But it all boils down to one quotable phrase
"If you love something, give it away."….

A good woman would pick you apart
A box full of suggestions for a possible heart
And you may be offended, and you may be afraid
But don't walk away, don't walk away….

You'll be free, child, once you have died
From the shackles of language
And measurable time
And then we can trade places
Play musical graves
Tell them walk away, walk away, walk away…."

Bright eyes

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Draco wondered for a moment why Blaise had stopped laughing with him, until he glanced sideways, seeing the two scowling faces of both of their mothers glaring down at them. He sighed inwardly, there was no chance that the evidence of their drinking would be able to be disposed of, he knew they were defeated before they began.

"Get. Up. Now." Said Narcissa, her face fixed upon her son. "The pair of you are an absolute disgrace!"

Draco looked to Blaise, reaching out and grabbing onto his friends shoulder as they both attempted to get to their feet. Supporting each other helped a little, although Draco worried that if Blaise lost his footing, it would send them both flying backwards, it took them five solid minutes to reach an almost vertical position with arms locked around one another's shoulders.

Lucretia shook her head at the two of them. "In Merlin's name, Blaise Zabini! If your father could see you now…"

"Oh if my Dad could see me now, what - Mum?" Said Blaise, looking angrily at his mother. "Whenever I do something you disapprove of slightly you bring up my Dad and I'm bloody sick of it!" He released Draco's shoulder and started to over gesture drunkenly. "Oh my Dad would be ashamed of me would he? For what, having a few firewhiskey's? When your mouth is permanently attached to the Black Vodka bottle?"

Draco looked to his friend, putting his hand on his shoulder, partly for balance, but to mainly attempt to calm him down. "Steady on there mate, that's your mum."

"I know who it bloody is, I could recognise the look of disappointment from fifty feet away." Replied Blaise with a look of contempt in his eyes. "You know mother, I am of age, I have received my inheritance and I don't live with you anymore, you've got no bloody hold over me anymore!"

"Blaise Zabini!" Said Narcissa, moving forward and grabbing hold of his shoulder. "I think that's quite enough young man, I think you should go to bed, sober up and apologise to your mother when your common sense has returned to you!"

Blaise looked at Narcissa, then his own mother, he wanted to shrug her hand away and tell her to mind her own business, but a lifetime of pureblood mentoring prevented him from being so rude to his best friends mother. Blaise simply shook his head instead and walked away from them, heading into the house where he wasn't sure what he was going to do.

Lucretia's eyes welled up a little, she wasn't used to her son showing so much contempt and disrespect to her. She looked to Draco and sniffed loudly. "How much have the two of you drank for him to get into such a state?"

Draco closed his open jaw, her question snapping him back from the shock of Blaise going losing his temper at his mother and storming off. "Not sure." He glanced down at the half empty bottles on the ground. "About a bottle of firewhiskey." He said, looking back up at the two mothers. "But we've drank loads more than that before and he's never gone off on one at… " He stopped, seeing the looks he was getting from the two women. "Oh come on, we've lived independently for over a year, you don't think this is the first time we've had a good drink do you?"

Narcissa shook her head with a slight sigh, resigning herself to the fact that her son wasn't a child anymore and had probably been drunk more times than she cared to know about. Although it didn't mean she had to be happy about it. "Well there must be something wrong with him Draco."

"Well if there is, I don't know about it. He's been in a really good mood today…" Draco paused, realising this was probably not what the two women wanted to hear, although he wasn't sure what else to tell them. "It's probably the booze talking..."

Sighing slightly, Narcissa looked to her friend. "Do you want me to ask Lucius to come around and have a quiet word with him?"

Draco cringed at the mention of his father's name and looked to his mother. "Why don't I just go talk to him when he's calmed down? I'm sure he'll want to apologise."

Starting to object, Cissy opened her mouth, but quickly closed it again, she knew that Lucius had spoken to her numerous times about allowing her son to exert his impendence. She reluctantly nodded her head, "Alright Draco, that seems a more suitable situation."

He sighed with relief, even with his intoxicated mind he was fairly aware that although he was having trouble standing, it was less trouble to be able to talk his mother round to his way of thinking. "So, Mother." He began, placing his hand on the closest thing he could, the wall of the house, to steady himself. "Was there a reason for this visit or was it just so I could enjoy the pleasure of your company?"

-----------------------

Draco wondered to himself why exactly he had opened his big mouth.

"Keep still!" Said Ms Sanders, the apprentice seamstress at Madam Malkin's who was currently trying to get the bottom his robes to hang properly. "Your bottom will end up skew whiff if you don't stop moving around."

"Sorry." Draco mumbled. Back at the house his mother had sniffed that her and Lucretia had come to take their sons to Diagon Alley to purchase them new robes as a reward for getting promoted. Draco had begun to protest a little until he saw how upset both his mother and Blaise's mother looked after the argument and couldn't quite bring himself to deny his mother her indulgences.

"You look very fine Draco." Narcissa said, beaming at her son. "Very handsome." She pulled a green velvet purse from the inside of her sleeve and opened it carefully, removing a silver engraved seal. "I need to mark the receipt with our seal Ms Sanders so that my husband can pay when the bill is sent to him."

The seamstress didn't look up from her task, she merely pointed vaguely in the direction of the counter while concentrating hard on the hem of the robes she was working on.

Narcissa moved over to the counter and left the Malfoy's seal on the parchment laying upon on the counter. "Draco." She said. "While you're finishing up in here I'm going to have a quick look in Slug and Jiggers, you can meet me there if you're done before I get back."

"Alright mother." He said, sighing slightly with relief as his mother vacated the shop. It had so far turned into a painful day and it was not improving with his increasing soberness. He made a mental note to throw cold water over Blaise for subjecting him to a shopping trip with his mother alone. At least Lucretia, not seemingly in the mood anymore, had opted to go and wait in the Leaky Cauldron until it was all over, so Draco did not have to trudge around with her as well.

Ms Sanders motioned for Draco to get down from the podium he had been stood on so she could inspect her work. As he stood, down from the box, the door of Madam Malkin's opened, the bell above the door sounding out, making him turn his head to see Victoria Frobisher enter the shop. Draco rolled his eyes and started trying to remove the robes as quickly as possible, only to be stopped by Ms Sanders. "Not yet!" She said, pulling the robes back on him. "I need to adjust the left sleeve."

"Hurry up then!" Snapped Draco, angry he was now trapped in a shop with Frobisher.

"Don't tell me you're not pleased to see me Draco." Smiled Victoria. She was carrying a bag which appeared to be full of books, although the top of a bottle of Ogden's clearly poked out of the top of the bag. "I saw you in here and thought I would say; hello." She said.

"Well you've said it now." Draco said with more than a hint of contempt in his voice. "Cheers, hope I don't see you soon."

She laughed, "Oh don't be like that Draco." She said, pulling a quill out of her bag and a piece of parchment from her pocket which she began scrawling on. "I'm going to be seeing you tonight anyway."

"I doubt it very much Frobisher, I've told Blaise if you must interview him, you can do it at your office." He said, glaring down at the seamstress to hurry up and finish adjusting the sleeve.

"Are you mental?" She asked, placing the quill she had been using in her chignon. She moved forward and handed him the piece of paper she had been scribbling on. "The party tonight, Blaise said ages ago that I could come round for a drink before hand and there's no way I'm going to skip out on his invitation. Give that to Blaise will you?" She said, nodding her head at the parchment she had given him.

"Party? What smegging party? We're not having a party." Draco said, protesting. "I would know if we were having a party, believe me, I bloody live there!" He looked down at the piece of paper in his hand. "What's this? A love note? I'm not passing this on, give it to him tonight."

"Draco seriously, have you lost the plot?" She shook her head at him. "That's just a note telling what time I'll be there and stuff. I think they're overworking you at the ministry, you should ask for some more time off. See you tonight." She said, turning her back on him and leaving the shop.

"Not bloody likely." Draco said, muttering to himself. There was no way Blaise would throw a party and not tell him about it. Unless it was a surprise party, but it wasn't his birthday and there wasn't another occasion he could think of. 'Frobisher was probably just winding me up.' He thought to himself. He knew Blaise too well, he would sort this out with him when he got home. "Are you finished yet?" He asked the seamstress.

She looked up at him and nodded her head. "It's done, you can take it off now. Would you like them to be delivered or are you taking them home yourself."

"I'll just take them home." Said Draco as he removed the robes and handed them to Ms Sanders who took them over to the counter to fold and place inside a bag. He looked down at the noted in his hand and unfolded it.

Blaise,

I'll be at yours around 7.30. Then we can

have a good drink or whatever before the

party starts.

Love

V. xxx

Draco shook his head to himself, something was definitely going on and he was going to find out what it was.

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Author's Notes:

Hello all… See, I'm not dead and neither is this story. So, I bet you're wondering where the hell I have been since October.

Well, it all kinda started where I took a month to participate in Nanowrimo in November. 50,000 words in 30 days, it takes it out of you a little bit when you have written a novel in 30 days flat. Then December was a bit crazy between Christmas and work, then January was a little equally insane, so here I am, February and I'm back.

Big apologies go out to my Beta for making her wait so stupidly long and then not even uploading the chapter to the story she's actually interested in reading… Sorry Sugar, still love me?

Anyway, I hope the chapter was worth the wait, it was one I was looking forward to writing very much. Although I will be completely honest with you lot, since the characters have kind of taken over and done their own thing instead of what I intended them to do, I no longer have any idea how many chapters this is going to take to get to the crucial point.

If you're interested in anything else I've written, please visit my profile as I have a poll going which is open to anyone to answer, regarding what I'm going to write in the future.

As always please R&R even if you only wish to shout at me loudly for making you wait so flipping long.