Yay! a new chapter! OH! if anyone wants to message me im open for that! i like messages :). but here is another Zuko bit for you all! Huzzah!
The rest of the trip through out Diagon Alley was mostly Lucius yelling at Zuko "hurry up," "Don't slouch," "Don't misbehave," "Cover your scar," and many other words that the prince shouldn't repeat were directed towards him. Zuko wondered how the boy Draco could live with a father like that, but then he remembered his own father, his scar, why did he want to return? why did he want his father's acceptance, something he could never have? Zuko looked over at Draco, he mostly kept to himself while at home, but when he met some of his friends he noticed that the boy got cocky and acted like a big shot. The entire family just seemed to ride on the power of their family name, Azula would have a great time with these three. The prince just kept his mouth shut and head low, hoping not to get in trouble again. He was being scolded by parents like some sort of commoner's kid, he was a prince of the fire nation and shouldn't be treated like some stray was a prince, a banished prince he remembered, touching his scar as if he could feel the pain. he was no better than a commoner.
The sun was starting to go down in the streets, they must have been shopping for hours. Mrs. Malfoy went into every single jewlery store there was and every single clothing store just looking around. She would pick something up then lay it down again debating whether to make the purchase then leave the store buying nothing. The only store that Narcissa left from with packages was a clothing store called Twillfit and Tattings, it was an uptown store with only the most expensive and fashionable wear. Narcissa practically bought all of it. Each package that came out in Narcissa's arms landed in Zuko's hands, he felt like a common pack mule.
People started to exit shops, probably just getting out of work and heading home for the day. They too were about to turn towards their house when a Portly little man with rumpled grey hair walked towards them calling the Malfoy family over. The man was wearing a green bowler hat which covered some of his grey hair and a pinstrip dress robe with a red tie. in his left hand Zuko noticed a magazine with the mans face on it, the picture moving of course, with golden letter that said, "Most Fashionable Wizard of the Year!" he thought they must have made some sort of mistake.
"Oh Lucius! Good thing i caught you," the portly man gasped and breathed as if he had run a mile, sweat beaded on his brow.
"Good evening Cornelius," Lucius shook hands with the man, then Draco, then Narcissa, then the man stopped and looked at Zuko.
"My Lord who is this?" he said Gaping at the scar on Zuko's eye. the prince looked away and set down the packages so he could great the short man.
"This is one of my distant foreign relatives Zuko Malfoy. Zuko this is Cornelius Fudge the Minister of Magic," Lucius said a bit hesitantly. Zuko knew he didn't want to introduce him to the man, but Zuko acted as if he didn't notice his tone and gave a respectful bow to Cornelius.
"Oh! I do like this boy," The man chuckled, "Treats me like royalty, you going to tranfer to Hogwarts then? " Zuko nodded in return. "Well i do expect a man like you to be the top of the class!" Zuko noticed Lucius and the other Malfoy's giving him a dreadful sneer. Draco looked as if he were jealous of the prince for receiving a compliment. "Well now Lucius i almost forgot!" the portly man said turning towards the elder Malfoy. Lucius snapped out of the stare and spread his mouth into a wide grin. Fudge rummaged through his striped robes and protruded an envelope with Malfoy's written in green ink on the side. "I am inviting you to come to the Quiddatch World Cup three days from now and join me in the minister's box! Some friends are coming along and there will be a small get together with the two teams at the end of the game! Oh what a treat! There are four tickets in there, three for the family and a plus one but i assume that the ticket would be going to young Zuko here" the man just stood there talking about the wonderful sport and the arena but it all seemed like a foreign language to Zuko, he never heard of Quidatch before.
"well," Lucius said, cutting off the pin stripped man, "We should be going, Have a good night Minister,"
The man paused then nodded, "You too Lucius! Good day!" the malfoy's turned to head home. A few feet later Zuko heard a pop! and turned to see the small wizard had disappeared into thin air. The prince turned forward and followed the family down the street towards the house. "So what is quidditch anyway?" He asked any one who would answer.
"Well its a wizard sport," Zuko was surprised to hear Draco's voice answer him,"Where two teams fly around on brooms sticks trying to make goals on the opposing side of the field."
"Something you will only get to see if you behave," Lucius sneered as they approached the house's steps. Narcissa noticing the rising feud of the situation guided her son inside, where Zuko knew he would probably be watching from the window.
Zuko glared back at the man, "But i was invited by the minister himself! How dare you-"
Lucius pulled out his wand and pointed it toward the prince, "How dare i what?" he threatened him with the puny object. "You aren't starting out on a good note if you want to attend the tournament,"
"You can't order me around like a commoner!" Zuko started yelling, "I was invited! if you had any honour you would allow me to attend!" His face was heating up as blood surged through his body. Zuko's wrath let go through his fingers as he lit flames in his fists. If he were going to be threatened by a stick, he was going to threaten him back. Lucius just gave a single wave of his wand and Zuko's fire went out, a sort of power left his body making him feel weak. He tried to light his hands again, but nothing came out. "What?" he gasped, staring at his hands. He couldn't bend. "What did you do?" he yelled at the blonde haired wizard.
"Just a little demonstration of real power, i took your bending away temporarily, it should ware off by morning. Now are you going to behave or should i teach you another lesson?" The man threatened him with the magic stick. they locked eyes and gave each other glares, daring each other to make a move, but without his bending Zuko knew it was a lost cause. he looked away from Lucius and studied his feet. "That's what i thought," the man said haughtily and tucked his wand back into his robes. "now go up to your room and don't come out for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we shall be packing our bags for the Quiddatch campground, it is then that we will determine if you are going or not," Lucius turned on his heals and huffed away into the house. Zuko slowly followed him in.
Inside he headed towards his room, Draco stood near the stairs gaping at him as if he pitied the prince. He stopped and looked at the boy, "I don't need your pity," he grumbled then headed up to his room and slammed the door.
He started yelling and screaming at himself for being so stupid. Why did he have to talk back to him like that? now he couldn't bend. "stupid!," he cursed at himself a couple times before settling down. He took deep breathes to calm himself and melt away his temper. the anger didn't go away but his rage was lifted from him.
Finally calmed down Zuko decided to sleep off the curse Lucius put on him. He walked over to the wardrobe and undressed, changing into sleep shorts he headed towards his bed when his door opened. "Gosh didn't you hear of the word privacy?" he growled turning to find Draco standing in the doorway.
"Can i come in?" he asked but he stepped into the room anyway and sat down in a chair near the bed.
"No," Zuko started but knew it wasn't going to help.
"okay let's get down to business, i know how you can get on father's good side," the blond boy said, staring at zuko with his blue eyes. "With my help you can get what you want,"
"Look," zuko sighed, "That's not the first time i've heard those words, and last time i heard them bad things happened, and now im here. i dont want things to get any worse for me and i don't need your help." Zuko stated bluntly. the kid looked at him puzzled. the boy so young reminded him of the Avatar, he couldn't beleive that kid got hurt so badly. He was probably dead, but why did Zuko care? did he do the right thing for his nation by assisting with the attack? if he did why was his uncle hating him so? Zuko hung his head with a mixture of sadness and frustration, why was life so difficult?
"What happened to you that made you lose your trust in people?" draco said, noticing the princess sudden change in mood.
Zuko turned his back on the boy, shutting him off. he was afraid by talking his eyes would tear up. Zuko was afraid to open up because he knew bad things happened when other's knew your weaknesses. The prince knew people saw and exploited other's short comings like Azula. This family, who reminded him of his sister, would not hesitate to do the same. He didn't trust people because he felt like he couldn't.
"Sorry i bothered you," The boy sounded hurt as he left the room mopeing. Zuko thought he heard some sadness or care in Draco's good night as he closed the bedroom door. Did the boy care?
"Impossible" he muttered to himself as he crawled under the sheets for the night, "Impossible".
Zuko woke up to a knocking on his door. "Get up! Hurry up boy start packing! You need to get up!," He looked over at the clock, it was only six thirty and lucius was already yelling at him. Zuko snapped his tired body into a sitting position. Today was the day, judgment day. He had to please Draco's father if he was going to go on the trip. "Hurry up!" the voice screamed from the other side of the door before giving one last bang on the wood then stomping away. This might be harder then the young prince thought.
Zuko stood up and walked over to his wardrobe. opening it he found new wizard attire. the robes looked slightly used but seemed to be his size, i guess the wouldn't pay to give hime new ones. Zuko didnt have a taste for wizard fashion anyway, he bypast the worn robes and picked up a fire nation tunic and pants. slipping the red cloth on he felt a bit homesick, not homesick for his father or sister,but for the four nations in total. He missed watching the water benders waves, the earth bender's kicks and punches and the fire nations power, he most of all missed Uncle Iroh. Zuko sat down in the middle of the room in lotus position, he needed to get the distracting thoughts of home out of his mind if he were to please Lucius today. Breath in, breath out, Zuko meditated and focused his energy on one spot. He pointed his fingers towards a small candle on the bookshelf across the room. With a little jab of his hand, a small spark left his finger tips and hit the wick of the candle. A smile stretched across his face, he could bend again. "Fantastic" he murmured to himself.
Zuko opened the door ready to seize the day when he almost ran into Draco at the door. a small thing beside him caught his eye, "Draco, what is that?" He asked pointing at the weird thing. A small creature was standing at Draco's side its head only reaching about his waist. Big tennis ball eyes with huge bat ears stared back at him. The creature had a crooked nose, almost as if it had been broken multiple times before, and the only thing it wore was a tattered bed sheet, that Zuko assumed use to be white but hoped he was wrong.
"Oh this? this is Gringle, he is a house elf. We have come to help you pack for the trip." Draco gave the house elf a little shove into the room and he followed in.
The house elf went to work searching through Zuko's drawers and pulling out his clothes, "It's okay gringle i can handle packing by myself," Zuko motioned for the house elf to step away.
"The prince is not happy with Grigle's work?" the house elf trembled, tears and panic itched its squeaky voice. He then grabbed the dresser drawer and started hitting himself in the head cursing at himself while simultaneously giving Zuko an apology every other second.
"Hey! what are you doing?" Zuko exclaimed, it hurt the prince just to watch the elf.
"Hold on a second," Draco stopped the bender from intervening, just as a man burst into the room.
"What's going on here?" Lucius walked in claude in all black as always then a small flick of pleasure crossed his face when he saw the situation.
Draco stepped forward, "Zuko was having the elf pack his things when he tripped over the creatures big ears," as Draco began his lie Lucius looked even more pleased with each second. "He then had Gringle punish himself because he refused to touch the dirty elf,"
It hurt Zuko to even hear those terrible words come out of anyone's mouth. the treatment of the house elf was full of unjust and unfair tactics but Lucius only smile, "Ah, Zuko, you are getting the hang of the pure blood honour. Very well you may continue" The man quickly left the room and closed the door.
Draco walked over to Gringle and forced him away from the cupboard, "Okay Gringle that is enough,"
"What was that for? why would you hurt this poor Creature?" Zuko yelled at the young blonde boy.
"I just got you the ticket to the world cup,"
"Yeah by mistreating this elf!," Zuko fumed, fire licked his lips wanting to burst out, but he did his best to contain his wrath. he felt a tug at the sleeve of his tunic. Gringle looked up at him with a small smile.
"Girngle was happy to help with the plan, master Zuko," He stated, "Draco told Gringle the plan before entering the room and i was happy to serve my master and help get you that ticket. I didn't hit myself on the head that hard anyway," the house elf gave him a little wink then trotted around the room packing Zuko's bag for him.
The fire bender glanced up at Draco who gave him a shrug, "My father appreciates people who teach lower creatures their place, i just had to make a show so my father would think you were like him," Draco had a look that made it seem like he didn't care, it reminded Zuko a bit of Mae how she just never fazed between emotions.
" Well thanks," Zuko said, still a bit shocked by the total experience. the boy shrugged as if he didn't care but zuko saw a small flick of a smile cross his face.
"Gringle will take your bag down," he muttered, with a louder voice he commanded Gringle to follow then he left the room. The small elf gave Zuko a big bow then heaved his newly packed bag out the door.
Zuko sat down on his bed and gave a little smile. he was going to see his very first quiddatch match in the morning. he could hardly wait.