Disclaimer: All situations, characters, etc relating to Harry Potter belong to JKR.
A/N: I know I've been MIA, but before you pelt me with rotten tomatoes, just know that a lot of stuff has been happening in RL and I really needed to take a break and regroup with myself before writing more of this story. And then I had to do research for this chapter and next chapter. I'm doing my best though, thank you for sticking with me!
Chapter Twelve — July 14th (Part One)
Draco loved traveling. He really did. It was probably what kept him going on these international trips. So many strange and wonderful things to see and explore! Every country had its own sights and Draco wanted to see them all. And he didn't even have to pay to do it either! In fact, it was required of him, considering he was half of the infamous international Auror Team.
Such were the thoughts running through Draco's head as the stood on top of the Peak, looking down at the city from one of the balcony-like areas on the trail. Granger had been the one to direct them to the Peak. It was one of the more heavily populated areas for half-bloods. Seeing as it was also one of the largest tourist areas for muggles, few purebloods resided there. The trail was supposed to be where the entryway to the half-blood establishments were. Avril had made them all sign a blood contract vowing not to reveal any locations she gave them more specific than the district they were in to the Ministry before they got the addresses. It wasn't too unfair, Draco reasoned, considering Avril was putting her whole community in danger just to find help for her friend (even though Wyclyve was more of a stalker than a friend, in Draco's opinion).
"I think it's this one," Harry called out to him from behind a 'CAUTON: MAINTENANCE IN PROGRESS' sign. "It's disguised as a maintenance area, so the muggles won't notice — there really are too many maintenance areas in Hong Kong, just like Phier said. But this one's different," Harry said, drawing his wand, "Ostendis te." At Harry's words, the words 釋放你的血名 appeared onto the padlock that held the door in the metal walls closed. "Can you feel it? There's almost a hum coming from the magic."
"'Release your name of blood'," Draco murmured, casting a quick translation charm on the lock. "This is it, all right."
"You've got the unlocking spell?"
Draco reached into his pocket for the list. "Yeah, I got it. Takayama civitatem." The padlock clicked open, and the rusty chain slithered out of the way for them. "Let's go."
The two Aurors stepped inside the gate, astounded by the sight of the city around them. The city was elaborately built, designed to emphasize the traditional Asian buildings with a twist that combined modern-day muggle technology to the antique styles. Old-fashioned Chinese towers lined the streets instead of skyscrapers, magically altered cars zoomed past along the roads (and a few in the sky), but what caught the Auror's attention the most were the people. All were dressed in styles originally created by muggles, but these outfits had a life of their own. Literally. That is, the designs and patterns on the clothing moved — flowers on a skirt would sway when a breeze blew by, cats embroidered into a scarf meowed at other passer-by animals, a game of chess being played on a chequered shirt. And that wasn't all. The hems of pants would lift themselves up when the wearer stepped across a patch of mud. Ties loosened themselves when it grew too hot. Ribbons and hair clips refastening themselves when a strand of hair fell out of place.
If Draco hadn't preferred robes to muggle clothes, he would probably go crazy and run off for a shopping spree. Now that he thought about it, he still might.
"We should ask for directions to the places Phier has on the list," commented Harry as he took in the sights.
Draco shook himself out of his mental happy place — which may or may not include many piles of new clothing — and nodded, pulling the list out of his pocket. "Let's start with the Snooker Club on First Street. The girl there is an acquaintance of Phier's. She had to pull a few strings, but Phier wrote here that if she's around, she'll help us."
Harry nodded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a roughly sketched map of the city. "This way."
They walked down the street, drinking in the sights around them as they searched for the Snooker Club. The city was cleaner than Muggle Hong Kong, no doubt due to magical air filters and cleaning spells. It was refreshing.
"I believe it's this building," said Draco. He raised a hand to gesture at the tower at the corner of First Street and what translated to Firebird Street. It was shaped like one of the ancient Chinese towers, but was also designed and decked in trendy, modern décor.
"Let's go," Harry answered. They entered the building swiftly, Draco taking in the muggle security cameras hidden all around the entrance with notice me not charms. He had to admit, it was brilliant, the way the half-bloods combined magic and muggle cultures in there society.
"Hi, can I help you?" A young man approached them, dressed in a crisp white shirt and black vest, like a formal snooker player.
"We're looking for Emily Chung," Draco replied, looking down his nose at the shorter man. "Is she here?"
"Excuse me, sir, but who are you?"
"We're aur—"
Draco cut Harry off. "I said, we're looking for Emily Chung." His tone was cold and unwavering, as if daring the Chinese man to make him ask again. "Where is she?"
The other man stood defiantly. "She's not here."
"Sorry for wasting your time," Harry said quickly, tugging on Draco's arm. "Common, let's go. We can come back later."
Draco didn't move. "I'm not asking you again," Draco growled lowly, he leaned forward slowly until he was all the other man could see. "Where. Is. Emily. Chung."
The man leaned back; his eyes were looking around wildly and his voice shook as he spoke, but he still stood tall. "This way."
Draco snagged Harry's arm and followed quickly after the man.
"How did you know he was lying?" Harry whispered.
"The order of his words," Draco replied under his breath. "If she was really gone, why would the first thing that he does is ask us who we were instead of telling us she wasn't here?"
"He may have done it for security's sake?"
"No way. He was nervous, but not scared. He was fidgeting with the corner of his shirt; you can see the wrinkles from it. He was also breathing at an irregular pace and his face was strained, as if trying not to blink. Conclusion? He was hiding what we wanted to know and he's a failure at lying. It's obvious what people are feeling if you take enough care to look."
Harry gave a nod and a grin of appraisal, and then glanced away. Draco followed his gaze to the man leading them, who had stopped in front of an office door.
"Miss Chung is inside."
Draco nodded, waving him off, before rapping twice on the door.
"Come in!"
xXxXxXx
Harry followed Draco into the office, where a woman sat typing away on a muggle laptop. She wore a simple white shirt dress with a bright blue neckerchief wrapped loosely around her neck. Her hair was long — albeit not nearly as long as Avril's — and intentionally messy. Straight bangs accented her large brown eyes, which were dark even against her slightly tanned skin.
Emily tapped the keyboard one last time with a flourish, before leaning back and swivelling her chair to face the two Aurors. "Take a seat." The two men did. "Now, have you two been causing trouble, in which case I'll just take away your membership and kick you out, or are you the two airhead idiots that Phier begged me to talk to?"
Harry could practically hear Draco grinding his teeth in annoyance, and jumped in before his (work) partner could do anything rash. "We're Aurors. Phier mentioned that you might have useful information about Robert Wyclyve for us."
Emily pouted. "It's no fun if you don't rise to the bait. You can't just filter through my insults like that."
"Sorry to disappoint. Had a lot of practice is all," Harry joked, glancing at Draco. They had been, after all, enemies at one time, and when they became friends, one of the first things Harry had to learn was to ignore, ignore, and ignore all of the insults Draco threw his way just because it was fun.
"Oh, very well." Emily replied dryly before sobering. "What do you need to know?"
"What is your relationship with Robert Wyclyve?"
"We used to be…acquaintances, you might call it? He used to drop by the club quite a bit." She shrugged. "Our 'companies'"—she made air quotes with her fingers—"constantly owed each other favours, so we worked together quite a bit."
"Is that the extent of your relationship?"
"Well, for a while I thought not, but that's all I think it'll ever be now," Emily sneered.
"Elaborate," drawled Draco.
"He was always so fickle. It was always 'You're so important to me, Emily' or 'You look so beautiful today, Emily' or 'Let's hang out at Red Box all night together, just the two of us, okay, Emily?" Emily made a distasteful face before continuing. "But I was never important to him when it truly counted. He'd seemingly court me, but blow me off whenever he wanted. I hated him for never being around when I wanted to see him most, but then he would always come back and I have to admit it did pacify me. I think I might have fancied myself in love with him for a while. But then four years ago, he dropped everything. Sent me an SMS saying that he couldn't keep leading me on, that it wasn't 'staying true to his feelings'." She scoffed. "That's Robert for you. Always thinking about what his emotions told him but never factoring in anyone else's."
Harry nodded, leaning over Draco's arm to peer at his record of the meeting. "And you are positive this was four years ago?"
"Uh, duh! I had to get a new phone; I threw my old one into the ocean after I got that SMS from him," Emily replied, giving a little hair flip.
"What did he mean by 'not staying true to his feelings'?" asked Draco.
"He wasn't in love with me, I would assume. Why else would he tell me that he couldn't keep leading me on?"
"Perhaps he was two-timing you? Or maybe he was in love with someone else? Have you considered it?" Draco asked. Harry nearly made a move to tell him not to let on too much, but Draco merely raised a brow at him and Harry sat back down. It was almost sad, how well they could read each other nowadays, Harry mused as Emily made her reply.
"No, I most certainly have not!" The woman fumed. "I have no doubt that he didn't feel the same way about me as I did him, but I think I have the right to believe I was beautiful and witty enough to be the only one on his mind!"
Harry and Draco exchanged a look.
"Are you done questioning me yet?" Emily asked demandingly. "I don't want you here any longer than you have to be."
"Not quite." Draco flipped a page in his notebook. "You mentioned a place called 'Red Box'. What and where is it?"
"It's a karaoke place. If you haven't noticed, we Chinese are the ones who got the karaoke craze going when we picked it up from Japan. There's one in Windsor Plaza, Causeway Bay. They serve lunch, happy hour, in the middle of the night…" Emily trailed off, thinking. "I only go late at night though. Maybe happy hour once or twice."
"Anywhere else the two of you hung out?"
"Mainly here. We hung out at the disco a few buildings down a few times; he always helped me to keep an eye on the competition. Can't have two mobs in one area going after the same businesses. There's also the mahjong place a street over. I suppose we've also been to a few dinners or movies. You know, date stuff," Emily sniffed. "And don't ask me to list those all out to you because I can't remember all those insignificant places we've been to once or twice."
"Will you show us the mahjong club and disco?" Harry asked.
"Why should I?" Emily sneered. "You don't need a membership to get in. Go yourselves. I'm a busy businesswoman. I can't be bothered to show you all around town."
"Perhaps you could write down the addresses for us then?" Harry prompted patiently. After so many years of being an Auror, Harry had become a bit less hot-headed when dealing with people like Emily: the stubborn ones that got off on pissing off others.
As expected, it worked; Emily scribbled the addresses on a pad of paper on her desk, ripped it off, and slid it across the desk to them. Harry picked it up, looked it over, then handed to Draco who did the same before sliding it into his pocket.
"And you've only met in this city? You've never met in Wyclyve's territory?" Draco asked.
"We've met in muggle districts all over Hong Kong before, but never in the territory of Robert's people. He thought it best since some of his goons don't get along with mine."
Draco nodded, watching as the Quick Notes Quill scribble away. "And lastly, what is your relationship with Phier?"
"We've bumped heads a few times. A bit indifferent about here, really, but the head likes her, so I play nice whenever our businesses cross. I don't know her that well. I did owe her a favour, though, hence this appointment," she shrugged nonchalantly.
"Very well, that should be all," Draco looked to Harry for confirmation. Harry nodded, and the two Aurors stood from their seats. "Pleasure working with you. If we have any other questions, we'll contact you."
Emily nodded as she led them out, but as she turned around, Harry heard her mumble "Hope you won't have any more questions then. Aurors. Hate the lot of them."
xXxXxXx
"Think we got anything useful?" Harry thought aloud to Draco as they headed away from the hidden city and back towards Muggle establishments.
"I believe so. Wyclyve obviously never let Chung find out anything about his feelings or his relationship for Phier," Draco murmured. "That's something to look into."
"Definitely. We'll ask Hermione about those places she mentioned; they might have been mentioned in those books Phier let Hermione read," Harry agreed. "But that's enough for now. Wanna get lunch?"
Draco grinned. "You bet."
**Notes:
Ostendis te = Show yourself
釋放你的血名= Release your blood name (The half-blood society gave up their pureblood surnames and everything that goes with those names [money, power, etc] when they entered the society)
Takayama civitatem = City of the High Mountain (This Half-Blood's city is on The Peak, one of HK's mountains.)
Firebird Street = The Firebird is a magical creature from Russian folklore. I chose it because Russia is close to China, so geographically it is possible for there to be common magical creatures living in the area.
Also, to clear up confusion regarding Wyclyve name, I want to make it clear that I am aware that it's not a Chinese surname. I did this on purpose, because 1) China does have an immigrant population, 2) Wizarding names are a bit different than muggle names, and 3) Wyclyve has spent time trying to blend into different places; it would only make sense for his name to not be vividly unique for when he's living in England or the hidden half-blood society here.
Also, I have recently found out the English word for "sticker pictures". Apparently they are called Photobooth pictures, only when you print them, they come out as, well, stickers. I'll edit the old chapter when I get around to it.
A/N: Hope you guys liked it; I'm splitting this chapter into two again because of its length. Next half will be posted in 2-3 days. Over half of that chapter is pure fluff and no case; I tried to weave more romance development in-between the business-y part of this half, but if you don't notice it, well, you don't have long to wait :)
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