Advice and Support

1st March 2005

Draco Malfoy

"You said it was urgent," I announced, walking into my living room.

Chris smiled and placed her cup of tea on the table, "It was."

"Well?" I asked impatiently, taking a seat on the sofa.

Tito, my house-elf, immediately served my usual cup of coffee - Italian style.

"You know, Draco, patience isn't really one of your qualities," said Chris, happy to see her old friend after so long.

"So I've been told," I replied mockingly.

Chris pretended to be offended. She sipped her tea and continued, "I expect you've heard the rumors buzzing around the Ministry recently."

"Nasty rumors. Yes, of course I've heard of them," I drawled."They wanted to get rid of suspected Death Eaters, idiots."

"Well, Colin happens to be a suspected Death Eater. They expect him to fight for the Ministry, without any plans made earlier," Chris said tiredly, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh, so what's your point?" I asked, once again impatiently.

"I came here for advice. Colin says he won't go if I asked him not to. But then, the Ministry would surely suspect him further and it would ruin his future,"

"I see, Chris. My advice is to play it safe, use the Fidelius Charm, keep Colin safe, both from the Ministry and Death Eaters," I suggested, suddenly turning serious.

"First time I've heard of a Malfoy playing it safe," Chris teased.

"Not when my best friend's the bait!" I snapped heatedly.

"Alright, I'll think about it," Chris said standing up, preparing to leave.

As Chris reached forward to hug me, she whispered, "Give your buddy a visit, might do him some good." I understood, and nodded though I know Chris couldn't see me nodding. Chris waved me goodbye, then apparated away. I sat back down on the sofa and sighed. I buried my face in my hands, thinking of Colin's fate. I ordered Tito to bring my breakfast. Tito prepared porridge this morning. Just as I was about to enjoy my breakfast, Hermione apparated in. I smiled at her and greeted, "Good morning."

"Good morning," Hermione said as she cuddled in beside me. She placed her head on my shoulder and whispered, "Hurry up. I've got a surprise for you!"

I grinned, wondering what in the world the 'surprise' could be. I pretended to eat slowly and laughed seeing Hermione's fake glare. She went to the chess set beside the fireplace and charmed the pieces so that they could move by themselves. Hermione started playing chess with the board. Once in a while, the pieces would yell, "Not me! Pick him!" or words like "you're not meant for chess!" and "sore loser!"

I laughed, keeping in mind not to tell Hermione that I charmed those pieces to give extra harsh and rude comments. The thought brought a realization to me, since when did Hermione know how to play chess?

"Hermione, you can play chess?" I asked disbelievingly.

"Of course," she replied proudly.

I smiled and continued eating my porridge. After a while, when Hermione had lost in chess 3 times, she started to glare (real ones) at me. I instantly downed the rest of my porridge and smiled at her. She gave me one of those 'took you long enough' looks and turned her back towards me.

"I'm taking you somewhere and you better hurry up, tortoise!" barked Hermione.

After switching trains three times, which took approximately an hour, Hermione finally ended up in a mall. A mall, I thought dryly.

"Shall we look at shoes first?" Hermione said sweetly to me and without waiting for an answer, took my hand and dragged me into one of the shoe shops.

As Hermione went around looking at shoes, I lazily picked an 'okay' looking sandal and looked at the price tag. It read: £2000. It shocked me at the amount of digits and started my calculations to change it to galleons. After my third attempt of trying to count without a piece of paper or a place to scribble or any form where I could concentrate my counting, I gave up. I looked at the sandal properly. It was just a thin string, about half a centimeter, and connected to it was another similar string and then a hook. It had several beads of sequin for decoration. All that for £2000? I thought. Hermione whizzed past me with a pair of high heels in her hands. She dropped herself onto the nearest cushion and started to try on the high heels.

I whispered to her, "Is £2000 a lot of money?"

"I think so; my father earns at least that amount for each serious dental surgery. A simple pull of a tooth will cost you about £35," Hermione explained.

"That's a lot of money for so little material, Hermione," I said as I checked the price for her high heels.

"That's the way things work here. The less material there is, the more money it's worth," she said smiling.

"I don't get it," I said as I screwed up my brows in frustration.

"You don't have to get it, you have to know it," Hermione snapped.

"I'm not paying for it," I said a bit louder than I meant to. Several heads turned towards my direction as the ladies picking their selection of shoes looked at me in disgust.

"I'm not asking you to pay for it. I've got my own money!" Hermione snapped again.

I grinned sheepishly and followed Hermione to the cashier. After that, we left the shop.

"You know, you don't have to make it obvious that you have to pay for everything you know. I've got my own money, I worked for it and I want to spend it," Hermione said as she rested on a bench.

"Great, can we go now?"

"Draco, there's a favor I want to ask of you," Hermione started slowly.

"What is it?" I asked cautiously.

"I want you to join this vacation my cousins are planning," Hermione started.

I signaled her to go on.

"This would mean a lot to me. But it also means 2 weeks without magic, 2 weeks with Muggles surrounding you and 2 weeks doing everything the Muggle way."

"I must be mad to agree to this," I said determined to wheedle myself out of this trouble.

"I must be mad to agree to this," I grunted as I fastened my seat belt.

Hermione and I were on an airplane, heading on our way to Lake Tahoe, apparently Hermione's cousin's 'perfect' vacation spot.

"Oh come on, you get to meet my cousins," Hermione said as though meeting her cousins were the happiest thing ever.

"With Muggles everywhere…" I growled, looking around as if expecting someone to jump and me and shout, "Boo!"

"Well, that's what it's like traveling on Muggle transportation!" Hermione hissed dangerously under her breath, apparently dropping the effort to make this vacation feel less like Hell to me.

"Why must we use Muggle transportation anyway?" I said, feeling very uncomfortable.

"And what am I supposed to say to my cousins? That I'm Fire Girl and therefore possess the ability to travel through fire? Or that I just so happen to be gifted that I can appear out of thin air?" Hermione said, looking very annoyed.

"Fire Girl excuse would have worked if you'd practice on your lying skills," I retorted.

"Yeah, there's just a teeny weeny problem, I can't lie to save my life!" Hermione said heatedly.

I scoffed and closed my eyes, trying to sleep. Hoping that when I woke up, I'd realize this was all just a dream, a very bad dream. When I woke up, Hermione was asleep, so was everyone else. I made out that it was sleeping time. I picked a magazine and flipped through it. I saw Hermione stir and wake up. She smiled at me and gave me a small kiss. I told her I was going to use the toilet and made my way. Seeing that many people had woken up, a line was starting to form outside the toilet. I waited, and then I heard giggling behind me. It sounded strangely like Hermione's giggling. I turned around and saw Hermione talking to a guy. She laughed and the guy bade her goodbye, but not before leaning in to kiss Hermione by the cheek. I felt a hot, boiling sensation growing from inside my body. I felt like pouncing on the guy as he made his way towards me. He stopped beside me and I realize he was queuing for the toilet. I narrowed my eyes at him as he said, "She's gorgeous, isn't she?"

"Yeah," I said squeaking, trying to control myself not to use my wand on him.

"Wonder if she's still single…you think I got a chance with her?" the man asked me, looking admiringly at Hermione.

"I wonder," I said sarcastically.

The man laughed and patted me on my shoulder before saying, "It's your turn now."

I grabbed the door and snapped it shut. The light immediately flickered on. I rubbed my shoulder where the man had patted just now. How dare he say those things about Hermione in front of me? I washed my face and took a particularly long time wiping dry my face. Then I took my own sweet time inspecting my teeth, making sure they're sparkling white and finally, my hair. I exited the toilet when the man said to me, "Man, you took ages!"

"Well, it's a public facility," I retorted, not looking at him and went back to my seat.

Without knowing exactly why, I glared at Hermione. She looked at me questioningly and I ignored her. I watched a movie being played on TV. It's about this man who wanted to marry a lady. She brought him to meet her parents for a weekend and the whole weekend turned out to be a disaster. The movie was called, I later realized, Meet My Parents. I wondered if a weekend could be such a disaster, what would happen to me if I was there for 2 weeks. As the flight-attendant came to serve breakfast, I didn't know why but I refused to pass the food to Hermione, making Hermione take the food herself. I requested coffee and it tasted like the worst coffee I'd ever drunk. I choked and sputtered coffee everywhere and when I came face to face with Hermione, I had to turn away before I spit coffee directly in her face.

"Draco! What has gotten into you?" Hermione asked the moment we boarded off the plane.

"What?" I asked simply.

"Well, you were looking at me as if I'm a freak back in the plane!" Hermione said angrily.

I stepped into the San Francisco Airport for the first time in my life and ignored Hermione's statement.

Hermione stopped in her tracks and said, "Draco! Is there something you want to tell me?"

"Hermione, you're blocking the road," I told her, pointing out.

I had expected Hermione to look behind and apologize but she didn't. Instead, she placed her hands on her hips and stressed her actual question, "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"Your cousins are here, Hermione; they're waiting for you. Come on," I said, not smiling and walking away.

Didn't Hermione realize she was blocking a road? And making me embarrassed like that, what was she thinking? I walked away, not caring if Hermione was following. I just kept walking. Soon, as expected, Hermione came running up beside me.

"Draco, I'm really sorry. But is there a specific reason you treated me like that back in the plane?" Hermione asked.

"Look, Hermione, it's bad enough that you forced me to deal with your cousins for 2 weeks, but at least just let me breathe. Not everything will go your way, Hermione. Maybe it's just me, but I don't enjoy you flirting with other guys right in front of my eyes," I told Hermione angrily.

I kept walking fast; Hermione had to jog to keep up with me.

"What do you mean 'flirting with other guys', Draco? That I'm cheating on you?" Hermione asked ridiculously.

"Technically, yeah! I would call that cheating!" I shot back at her.

"After all the efforts and tears, why would I?" Hermione said quietly, stopping in her tracks.

I turned back and saw her eyes, glistening with tears and it just made me feel sorry. Great! Now I feel like a jerk! I cursed in my thoughts.

"Hermione, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean it that way," I said, pulling Hermione into a hug.

The hug was brief, but it made me realize I was childish to feel jealous over such small matters. Besides, I would've flirted naturally if I met someone good-looking.

"Oh, there they are!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly.

I turned to find a group of people waving at us. I tried to smile but the butterflies in my stomach prevented me from doing so. Hermione walked towards them and I followed suit.

"Mom, Dad," Hermione said, pulling each of them into a hug.

I exchanged handshakes with them. I smiled at the rest.

"Draco, these are my parents. Steven and Emily," Hermione introduced.

"This is Kelly Matthews, my cousin and her brother, Chester."

Kelly was a young girl around the age of 19 with fiery red hair. She wore a cute tank top that revealed her stomach a little with fitting jeans and a denim jacket over her top. Chester was quite well built. He was around his late teens with chestnut brown hair. He wore a simple jumper with baggy jeans. I shook hands with both of them, and by the looks of it, they both seemed to be very athletic.

"This is Adrienne and Michelle, both adopted by my parents," Hermione said, pointing to two girls around the age of 10.

Adrienne wore an elegant looking gown with a small little jacket over it. Her black hair was wavy and pulled back into a ponytail. Michelle wore a similar dress except that this one had a cardigan over it. Her own black hair was tied into two plaits. Draco smiled at them and gave them both a kiss on the cheek.

"Is there anyone else, Mom?" I heard Hermione ask behind me.

"So, Draco, is it?" Chester asked.

"Yeah, Draco Malfoy," I introduced.

"So, what did you graduate in?" Kelly asked.

"Er…" I screwed my forehead, trying hard to think of something, "Er…business," I finally spluttered out.

"Ah…hey Haley! What did you graduate in?" Kelly asked.

"Medicine," she answered simply.

"So, who's older?" I asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Kelly is, she's 19 and I'm 18," Chester replied while Kelly nodded.

"So what is it that you're studying?" I asked again.

"Well, we're both into sports. Chester is in an Honors Program for athletics training. He plays basketball. And I cheerlead, believe it or not," Kelly joked.

"Hey, there's one more person we have to wait for, then we can leave," Hermione told me.

"Thanks, honey," I replied.

"So, you've been dating Haley for long?"

"High school crush, we fell for each other while we patrolled the corridors every night. Spoke to her a bit, realized she's not so bad," I said smiling, remembering some quotes I picked up from some muggle movie I watched before.

"That's all?" Kelly said, sounding a bit disappointed.

"What were you expecting? Lots of rocks and obstacles?" I asked jokingly.

"Something like that," Kelly replied.

"Well, we just got together. Haley and I, we tend to fight a lot. Then, get together. But this was the first time we got together as a couple since high school," I explained.

"I see, well, here comes Derek Whitefield. Used to have a big time crush on Haley, we'll see how you deal with him," Kelly said walking away.

"Draco, this is Derek; Derek, Draco. Derek used to be my playmate when I was younger," Hermione added.

"That's until you moved to some boarding school!" Derek joked and I got a good look at his face for the first time.

I was shocked. He was the man I met on the airplane!

A/N: Looks like Draco's got some competition! Hehe...think this is interesting? Next chapter would be EVEN interesting...no magic and learning to snowboard, can this get any better? Review!