Hey, guys! My apologies for not updating yesterday! I was super busy! But better late than never, right? Enjoy the new chapter!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, though there is an OC named Anthea.

Chapter Forty-four

About another week passed and life with the Weasleys became a strange, new, pleasant kind of normal.

The process of selling my parents' manor house progressed gradually. We managed to get an advertisement in the paper, though no one had responded to it yet, and when Molly Weasley found out about it, she pulled me aside and asked me about it. I told her that I wasn't comfortable there anymore, but she wouldn't let the matter drop for the whole next day because that's what Ron had told her. Eventually, I sighed and gave into her.

"A lot of Death Eaters met there," I said. "The Death Eaters, Bellatrix, even Voldemort himself had meetings there. Voldemort tortured and killed people there. I can't stay there."

"Oh," she gasped, glancing down at her feet. "H-he never...hurt you...did he?"

My right hand started to shake like it did when I had nightmares, so I hid it behind my back, clasping my hands behind me.

Molly's eyebrows creased, and her shoulders slumped. "I'm so sorry." She pulled me into her arms and into one of her usual embraces, but it was firmer than usual. Like she was trying to force broken pieces of glass back together.

I thought I was getting better at figuring out her embraces, but this one threw me. It was like when Anthea would wake me in Azkaban after a nightmare. It made my heart constrict and my eyes prickle. Harry, Ron and Hermione might have seen everything, which comforted me when we talked about my nightmares, but this was different. It was calming and slowed the tremor in my hand, but the calm wasn't forced like my mother could somehow make happen.

Molly let me go but placed a hand on my shoulder. "If you want to take a break today, that's okay."

I was about to say that I was okay and didn't need to take the day off, but the words froze in my throat. In truth, talking about it had brought it all up again, and I didn't know if I'd be able to focus on the work.

"Why don't you head upstairs," Molly sighed.

I nodded and jogged up the stairs, retreated into my shared room with my textbooks. It was a lot quieter in the Burrows with Ginny and Hermione back at Hogwarts. George had also quieted down with Ginny's absence-I actually haven't seen him apart from dinner-so it allowed me an opportunity to study the healing magic in the textbooks.

I sat down on my bed, pulled a book from my trunk and opened it to the marked page. I tried to study the information written in the pages, but I couldn't focus. I had to read each sentence two or three times before I understood what it was saying. Images of the reason I opened a healing textbook in the first place kept flashing in my mind.

Talking about it with Missus Weasley was a bad idea. Normally I was able to distract myself from the memories with the work Molly had us do, but talking about it brought it all back to the forefront of my mind. I could talk about it with Harry, Ron and Hermione when I had nightmares, but not during the day where people could see.

I groaned in frustration and replaced the bookmark, tossing the book down on the mattress. I put my head in my hands and and tried to rub the memories out of my eyes, but it was no use. I was getting lost in a stream of never-ending flashbacks of torture and pain.

An insistent tap on the glass window reached my ears. I jumped and shouted in surprise, instantly snapping back to the present. I had to gulp down large breaths to try and slow my pounding heart.

The tapping came again, and I instantly turned to find an owl fluttering outside, pecking at the window.

It was just an owl. Not a Death Eater. An owl with a note attached to it and was trying very hard to fly through the glass. Not Lucius.

I sighed away my anxiety and got up from my bed, crossing the room to open the window. The owl glided through the window with a screech. The bird fluttered down onto my bedside table and held out his ankle. I carefully untied the note and broke the seal with my shaking hand. It was from Anthea with information about our upcoming date. Apparently, it was a surprise. She would Apparate to me at six tomorrow night, and she would take us to where we needed to go.

I ran my thumb over her curling signature at the bottom of the parchment. The thought of Anthea was more effective at keeping the racing memories at bay than my own efforts were. When we first met, I thought she would betray me somehow, but those doubts silenced with the time we spent together, surprising me.

"Okay. So for your date tonight, you need to dress fancy, but not too fancy because it might put her off if you're too upscale," Harry instructed.

"So he just has to dress how he normally dresses?" Ron mockingly wondered.

I huffed in amusement as I picked up one of my black suits and my toiletries. "If it's all the same to you, I'm gonna take a shower and actually get dressed, now."

"Yes. Go," Harry almost shouted, waving me off.

I moved into the bathroom and closed the door, doing exactly what I said. I took my time to make sure I looked the best I could for Anthea. I'm not in Azkaban anymore, so I couldn't still smell like I was.

I made my way back to my shared room and replaced my toiletries in my trunk, combing my hair through one last time.

"Good luck tonight, mate," Ron said, slapping my back before heading downstairs with Potter.

Did he just call me "mate"? He's never called me mate before.

I bided my nerve-filled time by reading one of the textbooks I brought with me, forcing myself to focus on the book instead of the fact that my date with Anthea in only a few hours.

But the time went by faster than I thought it would. It was six o'clock before I knew it, and I rushed downstairs, smoothing out the wrinkles in my suit. The members of the Weasley family-and Harry-wished me luck as I exited the house, and I took deep breaths to try to silence my nerves.

Anthea appeared at the end of the path that led to the house, wearing a casual patterned top and jeans. We met up halfway between us. "Ready to go?" she asked.

"I'd be a lot more ready if I knew where you were taking me," I answered, earning a laugh from Anthea.

"Trust me," she assured. "You'll have fun."

I internally recoiled when she told me to trust her, but I didn't know why. I did trust her, so why did the request make me feel like I couldn't?

Anthea took my hand and lifted her wand, making us both Disapparate. We appeared in an alley behind a building, but Anthea quickly dragged me around the corner and into an open space filled with Muggles and their vehicles. Ahead of us was a large building with large, glowing letters that spelled out "Arcade."

I turned to Anthea in confusion. "What is this?"

"It's called an arcade."

"Yeah, I can see that. " I gestured to the bright sign. "But what is it?"

Anthea smirked and rolled her eyes. "An arcade is a building filled with what are called video games and claw machines. They are a popular Muggle pastime." She started to walk towards the building, and I followed closeby her. "My father would take me here when I was a kid. I always had fun, so I figured that we could have fun here, too."

I followed Anthea through the doors and to an odd machine. She inserted some Muggle money into it, and a plastic card popped out. She accepted the card and took off through the Muggles crowding between the rows of blowing and beeping machines. "Come on!" she called.

Anthea taught me multiple Muggle games. I didn't tell her, but if I'm being honest, it was very strange and uncomfortable to be playing them. The machines responded to small touches like some spells did, and if you won, bright letters appeared on the screen and loud, jarring noises blared from it to tell you that you did, small paper tickets spitting out of the bottom of it.

After a while of playing "video games", Anthea led me to a ramp that had three rings on the wall at the end with three-digit numbers printed on each ring. Anthea messed with the machine for a minute, causing a row of balls to slide down into a slot next to the ramp.

"Okay. you grab a ball, roll it up the ramp and aim for the center ring," Anthea explained. "Don't toss it over hand. Roll it up the ramp, and if you're feeling lucky, you can aim for the smaller tubes up in the corners."

She leaned down and picked up one of the heavily scratched balls and handed it to me. I shrugged and went with it, doing as she instructed. Apparently, there was no way to lose this game as long as you got the points.

Eventually, we each had a fist full of strips of tickets, and Anthea pulled me over to a desk that had rows of prizes behind it. Anthea took the tickets from my hand and submitted them to the man behind the desk. She asked for the man to come closer and whispered something in his ear.

The man turned around and reached into box under a shelf, taking out two stuffed dogs and handing them to Anthea. She turned to me and presented one of the animals to me. "Surprise!"

I smiled at her and rolled my eyes as I took the toy from her. I never had any stuffed toys as a child, and I didn't think I'd enjoy them now. She seemed happy to give it to me, though, so I didn't mind taking it.

"I don't know about you, but I'm starving," she said, pulling me away from the counter. "Let's get some food. How 'bout pizza?"

"What's pizza?" I asked, having never heard the word before.

"Do PureBloods really know so little about the Muggle world?" she laughed, stopping me at a different counter that had glowing signs above it with pictures of different Muggle foods.

Anthea stepped up to the counter and ordered two slices of pepperoni pizza. They got the "food" to her quickly, and she led me to a small, round table and sat down. I followed her lead, and she handed me a paper plate with the triangularly shaped pizza on it. The thing on the plate was so covered with grease that it didn't even look edible.

"At least try it, Draco," Anthea encouraged.

I looked at her, mentally asking her not to make me eat it.

"Come on. Don't you trust me?"

"I do," I sighed, picking up the slice.

I took a small bite of the pizza, resisting the urge to hold my breath as I swallowed. It actually wasn't that bad, but it wasn't what I was used to, either. I placed the pizza back on the plate and glanced at Anthea but found her looking down with her eyebrows drawn together and her shoulders tensed.

"Are you okay?" I wondered. I reached out to touch her shoulder but thought better of it, placing my hand back on the table.

"Yeah," she muttered. "I'm fine." She jerked her head up to look at me, a thin smile stretching across her face. "Do you like it? It's okay if you don't, but I'm glad you tried it."

I nodded. "It's not bad. Not normal food, but it's not bad."

"Good." She smiled a bit too hard.

I've put on a fake smile and an appearance that I was fine so many times that it was easy to recognize that Anthea was doing the same thing. "Seriously, though. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she laughed, dismissing her behavior with a wave of her hand. "Just something at work." She glanced at her watch. "We should probably get going, actually. It's already ten."

Anthea grabbed the two stuffed dogs and stood. I followed her lead, trailing slightly behind her as she walked out of the building. I scanned her expression as we walked, hoping that she wouldn't catch my gaze. There was something going on, but she wouldn't tell me. I wanted to help her, but with no information to act on, I had no idea how.

Anthea led me to the same alley we appeared in and took hold of my hand. She Apparated us away from the arcade and back to the field and dirt path outside of the Burrows.

"Here you go," Anthea sighed, holding the stuffed, toy dog out to me again.

I gave her a small smile and took it from her. "I had a good time. It was fun."

"Glad you thought so," she responded.

"Hope everything gets sorted out at work." I watched her gaze, waiting for her reaction.

Anthea hesitated for only a second before sighing with another forced smile. "Yeah. Me too."

Her hand brushed by mine, and she leaned in closer. My heart jumped, and I moved to close the distance between us, but she pulled back, clearing her throat.

"Sorry," we both said.

"I've got to go, but feel free to write to me," Anthea added.

I nodded in answer, and she turned down the path, walking away a few steps before Disapparating.

I started down the path in the opposite direction, heading towards the Burrows. In truth, I did enjoy spending time with Anthea, but there was something off about her. She was nervous about work, but it seemed to relate to me somehow. I hated to think that she was lying to me, but she might be. Anthea might be hiding what was happening at her work because it was something small that could be sorted out quickly, or because it was the exact opposite.

I had to give her the benefit of the doubt. For the past three years, I've always had to second-guess both myself and everybody else. Anthea was the first person I didn't have to do that with since the beginning of those three years. I had trust her until she proved otherwise.

In all honesty, I mostly paired Draco up with a HalfBlood because I wanted to see him do Muggle things. The other reason will become more clear later. Hope you enjoyed it, and see you soon for chapter 45!