The first thing I do when I get back to the Manor is find Mother. She is usually within nagging-distance of the front door when I get home, but now she is nowhere to be found. Though, it is a couple of hours earlier than I'd usually be finished working, and she probably doesn't just sit by the door waiting for me. Not every day, anyway.

So I roam the hallways, which are significantly dustier than when we used to be allowed to have House Elves, and eventually spot her sitting in a chair in an unused office in the Guest Wing.

"Mother! You wouldn't believe today-" I begin, then stop short as I take in the room.

Father is at the desk. Mother is in the corner closest to the door, and sat opposite the desk is none other than Vanessa Trilby.

I feel my mouth drop open, and a million curses flit through my brain. And curse-words too, for that matter. "What is she doing here?"

"Oh come on, Draco. The least you could do is be hospitable, since you ratted me out to the Ministry." Vanessa says, idly. Do I detect a hint of an American accent? Has that been there this whole time?

"I wasn't talking to you." I snap at her. "And I didn't rat you out - you got caught. I just happened to be there when you did."

"Now, you two," says Father, gesturing for me to sit down, which I do, with a scowl on my face and my arms crossed. "Hopefully we can work something out so this benefits all of us."

"How can harbouring a criminal possibly benefit us?" I point out. "We're supposed to have turned over a new leaf. She should be arrested. I should arrest her right now."

"Come off it, first years can't arrest anyone." Vanessa snaps at me.

"I can." I snap back, a complete lie. But Father doesn't have to know that, so I turn to him again to make my point. "I'm very well placed within the Ministry right now, Father, and I've already done wonders for our reputation. All that would be undone if we don't turn her in."

Father looks as though he's contemplating my point. Then his eyes flick to Vanessa, giving her permission to speak to him.

"My father wouldn't appreciate it if I was thrown out of here and arrested." Vanessa says, sitting back in her chair, comfortably arrogant.

"Your father isn't anybody," I snap, "or I would have heard of him."

"Jack Trilby is a fine man." My father says sharply, contradicting me. At my confused look, he explains. "He and I went to school together. His parents are an old pureblood family from Manhattan, but those American Academies are a joke, so Jack was sent to Hogwarts. The ladies loved his accent, and he was reasonably clever - Ravenclaw got him."

"Right, so we're going to endanger our whole family just because you made friends with a Ravenclaw-"

"Oh, we weren't friends." Father says, with a nostalgic glint in his eye, ignoring the seriousness of the situation. "I called him a blood traitor and he broke both my legs. Good times."

Confused, I glance around the room. Mother corroborates Father's story with a nod, and Vanessa looks seriously smug.

"Alright, but we're getting away from the point. Vanessa here broke the law - several laws, actually. And if the Ministry finds out she's here, and that you helped her and knew all about her, then what? We'd be accomplices. All our hard work restoring our reputation will be wasted." I say, like I would if I were explaining all this to a slow child.

"But the Ministry won't find out, unless you tell them." Vanessa says. "So what's the harm in helping an old family friend?"

Father looks as though she has a good point.

"The harm is…" I start, confident that I must have a good point, right on the tip of my tongue. Somewhere. "The harm is… that it's clearly… what I mean is - well, it's a conflict of interest." I finish, lamely.

"You mean it conflicts with your interest in Harry Potter?" Vanessa says, eyebrows quirking.

"No." I snap. "But if I'm ever going to be an Auror-"

"But you're not going to be an Auror, Draco." Father interrupts. "We had an arrangement, and you fulfilled your duties. Now, as a family, the least we can do is help out a friend in need. Jack would do the same for you, if you ever found yourself in Manhattan and in need of help."

"I can't fathom a circumstance where that would be the case." I say flatly. "And I can be an Auror if I want to be, I'm quite good at it actually, even the Minister says-"

But Father just waves his hand dismissively. "The Minister. He's no Minister of mine - he'd have our Manor and turn it into a Muggle museum if it were up to him. Let's not forget whose side you're on here, Draco. Are you a ministry dog, or are you a Malfoy?"

My head spins. "I know whose side I'm on." I say, though I feel less and less sure because everyone keeps changing sides. "You were the one who signed me up to the Auror program in the first place. I can't exactly drop out."

"No one's going to care, Draco, they'll just think you were dropped for incompetence." Father says with an absent wave. "Anyway, the decision has been made. Vanessa will be staying here until her return to Manhattan."

Now as well as my head spinning with confusion, my stomach drops at how little my father thinks of me. I want to slink away and be alone for a while. But with Vanessa here, where is alone? Not my room, she could walk in any minute.

So I turn at the next corridor and head down the marble staircase to the front door. I know where I have to go.

Grimmauld Place's curtains are closed, but I see a strip of light coming through them from the inside. I ring the doorbell and try to take a deep breath. Am I sure of what I'm doing here? Should I go back? Should I still be trying to be the type of Malfoy that my father wants me to be? Is it cowardly to be running away?

It's Granger who opens the door, clearly expecting someone else, based on her expression when she sees me. And I see her hand dip into her pocket. The one she keeps her wand in. "Malfoy, what-"

"I need to speak to Potter." I say, with as much authority as I can.

"I think he's at the office." Granger replies quietly, looking at me oddly. "Isn't that where you should be?"

"No, we were sent home early, I thought Potter would have-" I start to say, but then I realise I'm wasting time, and I don't owe Granger an explanation. "Look, I just need to talk to him."

"Well, if work let you all out early, he might have snuck upstairs." Says Granger, unsurely. "Come in, let's have a look."

I squeeze past her down the hallway, and she makes a shushing motion and points at the pair of curtains on the wall.

"Oh, don't worry about Aunt Walburga." I reply. "She adores me."

But she still tiptoes upstairs, two flights, and takes the third door on the right. She knocks twice and turns the doorknob. "Harry?"

It's not locked, so she pushes the door all the way open and steps in, and I start to follow. "Hermione, wait-"

"Oh! I'm sorry! Oh dear!" Granger squeaks, and bumps into me in her hurry to back up. The door closes on its own, and Granger pushes her hands through her hair, looking slightly horrified.

"Right, well, let's wait downstairs?" She suggests, pushing and nudging until I acquiesce, confused and annoyed.

"What's going on?" I say.

"Harry's busy." She says, "he'll be down in a minute."

She leads me to parlour, and offers me a drink. I decline.

"So, have you heard about the Quidditch World Cup being scheduled for next year?" Hermione says, passing for small-talk.

"Hm? No." I say. "I didn't know we had much of a team left."

"I don't think we do." She frowns. "But it'll be a nice way to bring people together. They're talking about hosting it in Zambia. Might be nice to go and watch."

I nod, wondering how long I'm going to have to fake being polite. Maybe I will need that drink after all.

Thankfully it's not long, as Potter appears momentarily. His hair is rumpled and his t-shirt is twisted on his torso. Was he sleeping?

"Potter." I step forward. "I need a fa-"

I pause mid-sentence as the Weasley girl comes in behind him, and tucks herself under his arm.

"Sorry. Gin, Hermione, could we have a minute?" Potter says, his face reddening.

"Of course." Granger throws a stern look at Potter, and he throws an apologetic one back.

When they've gone, he closes the door and turns back to me. "She, uh, she ditched Hogsmeade to come surprise me." He says, as though he owes me an explanation. " Did Hermione offer you a drink? What were you saying?"

My head has started to spin, quite a lot. As though drinking at lunch on a long, exhausting day wasn't a good idea. "Erm, I was just. My father-"

I pause while I try to figure out how to explain everything, without actually explaining anything, but the events of the day are chasing each other around in my mind, being confusing and annoying. "We've had a disagreement. I need a place to stay. Temporarily. And since this place is technically Malfoy property..." I leave out the fact that Potter is probably my only friend in the world right now. And I can't face going back to the Hog's Head.

Potter smiles, as though he's relieved. "Of course, we've plenty of rooms. What was the argument about?"

"Oh, you know. The usual. Father-son stuff." I say, deliberately vague.

"Doesn't ring a bell." Potter says, flatly.

"How about that drink?" I say, to change the subject.

That sets him off into Host Mode, and he leads me downstairs to the kitchens, where Granger and Weasley are chatting and laughing.

"Draco will be staying here for a bit." Potter says, by way of explanation, as the girls throw him quizzical looks.

"Oh?" Granger says. "Is that… is that wise?"

Potter shoots her a look full of so much subtext, that it might as well have footnotes. Which successfully ends that conversation. Works for me, I don't want to be fielding a bunch of half-baked questions anyway.

He pours me a pumpkin juice, and one for himself. Weasley slots herself, again, under his arm as soon as he stands still for a millisecond. "So how was work? Any closer to finding the imposter?"

"Not really." Potter says, subtly shrugging her off so he can switch the hand his drink is in. "Vanessa's dropped off the face of the Earth, and we still have no idea who her accomplice is. Do we, Draco?"

I do my best not to flinch at the very word accomplice. I take a sip of juice to compose myself. "No clue, even after you stripsearched all the Aurors."

Weasley looks up at Potter with pure delight on her face. "You got to strip-search the Aurors?"

"Not all of them." Potter says, coming across casually but shooting me a glare. "Only the train…" He trails off mid-word, and a look of realisation hits him. "Malfoy, we only searched the trainees."

I have the same realisation. Of course another trainee wouldn't be capable of helping Vanessa. It would have to be someone with access to her marks. Someone with training. Someone who could get Polyjuice potion.

"But who..." Potter looks like he's trying to get a clock working with about six cogs missing. "I've worked with all of them…"

My brain is working overtime. "Vanessa's family is from Manhattan. Is anyone at the Auror department from there?"

"I don't ask where people come from." Potter says, as though the very notion is offensive to him. "But it will be in their paperwork somewhere."

"Well now is the best time to look into it, while the office is empty."

"Is that alright, Gin?" Potter says to Weasley, who had rested her head on his arm.

"Hm? Oh, go ahead. Work is work. I should get back anyway, before someone rats me out. See you Harry." She pecks him on the lips, casual as anything, and then smiles at me. "Bye Malfoy."

I turn away and head back up the stairs, and Potter says goodbye to his friends and follows me up. "You didn't have to be rude, you know." He reprimands me lightly, as we close the front door behind us.