The night before Draco was set to arrive, Aria laid in bed thinking about her classmate. She wondered which Draco would show up at Spinner's End. Would it be the boy that strutted about like the proud pureblood he was, or would it be the boy that visited her at midnight in the hospital wing? Would he actually be up to doing all the activities she and Harry had planned? What if he was not impressed with the Muggle world?

A small part of her desperately wanted him to like the Muggle world. To be as fascinated with it as she was with the magical world. She wanted to show him the movies and the television, get him into a car, show him how to buy a ticket at the train station. She knew he had traveled to the continent and suddenly wondered if England would not impress him if he had seen the great cities of Europe.

She rolled over.

Why was Draco coming to spend the summer now? Snape had alluded to the fact that Lord Abraxas Malfoy did not know where he lived. Was Draco coming to stay with Snape because his grandfather was making life unbearable since getting out of Azkaban? She knew that the Malfoy lord had not been wasting time since getting out of prison. She remembered Buckbeak. Mr. Malfoy had wanted Hagrid fined and the hippogriff taken away to some sanctuary, but Lord Malfoy had convinced whoever was in charge that Buckbeak needed to be executed. Though the hippogriff had mysteriously disappeared . . . she thought she had seen Fred and George share a look when Dumbledore had announced that at the End of Year feast.

What would life be like without Lord Malfoy? Would she and Draco have been friends from the start? Or would they have just tolerated each other without hating or liking one another? Or what would have happened if she hadn't been sorted into Slytherin? She would still be friends with Harry, she could not imagine being friends with him, but what would her relationship with Draco be like? Would she be just another Muggleborn student in the year? An academic rival but no one of consequence since she wasn't in Slytherin? Would Draco Malfoy even be on her radar if she had been sorted somewhere else? Or would he have just been the boy she met at Madam Malkin's and that was it?

Sometimes, if she was not careful, Draco's screams from her vision of the future would echo in her mind. What would Draco's future be like if Abraxas was not alive?

How was it possible that people could be so cruel? She recalled Abraxas' anger in the vision and his complete disinterest in Draco's well-being as well as the well-being of his son and daughter-in-law. How could a person be so callous towards their own family? Granted, her own grandparents wanted nothing to do with her or her dad, but she still could not imagine them actively allowing people to torture and . . . and . . . do that.

Shaking her head to dispel the horrible thoughts and memories, Aria squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself to go to sleep. Tomorrow Draco would be there; she and Harry had already decided to slowly introduce him to the town and take him to the pool. Robert, Tommy, and Samuel had all assured her that their work schedules allowed them to be at the pool in the afternoon so that gave her and Harry plenty of time to show Draco around, get lunch, and then go to the pool for an hour or two.

The fact that Severus Snape had a godson who was coming to visit seemed to be the biggest news on the street. Aria was certain that several people were peering through their curtains when she and Harry met Draco outside Snape's house in the morning. Draco was impeccably dressed as all the pureblood children seemed to be. It was nothing fancy per se, but for Spinner's End he definitely was coming off as posh and out of place.

"Don't you own a pair of jeans?" Aria asked. She knew that jeans were something that both the wizarding and Muggle worlds shared. At least with the Hogwarts students. Tracey Davis had a pair, though she did have to admit, that Pansy, Millicent, and Daphne were very rarely in anything but skirts. Daphne would sometimes where nice slacks when in Hogsmeade, especially during the colder months.

"No," Draco retorted. "Why would I? What are you wearing?"

Aria and Harry looked down at what they were wearing. Harry was wearing a pair of basketball shorts, a t-shirt, and sneakers. All brand new. Aria was wearing a pair of denim shorts, Converse, and a Doctor Who t-shirt.

"These are perfectly acceptable clothes," Aria said.

"But your pants are half missing!" Draco cried.

"Oh . . . these are shorts, Draco. Muggles wear them when it's hot out."

Draco looked absolutely scandalized.

"Come on," Aria encouraged. "Harry and I are going to show you around and then we're going swimming. Did you bring swim trunks?"

"I brought a bathing suit, yes."

"Great! You'll meet some of my Muggle friends. Harry and I've carefully put together a schedule for your visit here."

Draco looked even more nervous at that.

Aria showed Draco the library, the shops, the mill where her dad worked before they got takeout for lunch. Draco, she found out, had never had shawarma so they ordered several different Middle Eastern dishes for him to try. Draco seemed apprehensive of the food at first, but he ended up liking the food, so Aria took that as a win.

Afterwards they went back to Spinner's End to change into their bath suits. Harry took a t-shirt over for Draco to wear so that he did not have to walk to the pool bare chested, only for Harry to return laughing.

"I have to take him some shorts," Harry said, darting up to his room to grab a pair.

"Don't tell me he's got Speedos," Aria cried, horrified at the idea.

"No. Let's just say . . . his swimsuit kinda goes with the general fashion trends of the wizarding community."

That could mean a lot of things. Aria envisioned a wacky suit with trinkling stars or Golden Snitches that zoomed around or a swimsuit more suited for the Victorian era.

"I cannot believe you're making me wear these!" Draco whined as they walked to the pool. He had been given a pair of flipflops and he kept stepping out of them. "How do you walk in these?"

"Practice," Aria answered.

"I feel very exposed."

Aria shrugged.

At the pool, Robert, Tommy, and Samuel were already there claiming a set of chairs with umbrellas. Draco gaped at the three older boys who had already stripped off their t-shirts leaving them in their swim trunks. Aria took a brief moment to admire their abs before turning her attention to Draco who revealed that his swimsuit was very suited for the turn of the century. It was even striped blue and white!

Robert, Tommy, and Samuel were speechless.

Not as speechless as Draco though when Aria slid off her shorts and t-shirt, revealing her one piece. If his bathing suit was anything to go by, she suspected that the female suits would be similar.

"Close your mouth or you'll catch flies," Samuel said. Aria pushed him into the pool which broke the tension that had built between them all. Tommy grabbed Aria and tossed her in after Samuel. Harry walked into the pool from the shallow end. This summer was the first time Harry had ever been in a pool, so he was still learning to swim. Robert was helping him.

"Come on, Draco!" Aria called, waving at Draco who stood standing on the side of the pool. "Jump in!"

"What's that smell?" Draco asked.

"It's chlorine. It's how the pool is kept clean."

"It smells like something that'll melt off my skin."

"Well, it won't, so get in."

Draco continued to hesitate. Aria sighed, hoisting herself out of the pool. She grabbed Draco and, before he could protest, yanked him over the edge into the water.

"Not funny, Bourne!" Draco shouted once he had come up for air. "I don't go about pulling you into bodies of water."

Aria sniggered, swimming off for a pool noodle.

"So . . . you're Draco Malfoy," Samuel said, floating by Draco in a donut.

"Yes," Draco answered, treading water. Aria passed him a pool noodle and showed him how to use it to just float.

"You're the boy that yanked Aria by the hair across a courtyard," Robert said from where he was teaching Harry to float. He glared at Draco.

"I can't believe you guys remember that!" Aria cried.

"How could we forget?" Tommy demanded.

"You told them that?" Draco cried.

"Yeah, back in the summer after first year. Not recently!"

Draco huffed.

"You're not going to make Aria's summer difficult, are you?" Tommy asked Draco. "If you are, we can fix your attitude."

"You'll do no such thing!" Aria snapped. Last thing she needed was the three boys roughing up Draco. That would endure him to Muggles!

Draco gaped like a fish at the three older boys before turning to Aria.

"What is it with you and older children deciding to be your bodyguards?" he demanded. Aria raised an eyebrow at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Paddington? Attlebury? Flint? Lawrence? Treworgy? Weasleys? Wood? It's like people take one look at you and decide you need to be protected at all cost."

"Oh . . . I thought that was a normal reaction to meeting Aria," Harry said, doggy paddling around Robert. Aria sputtered indignantly.

"I don't need protecting!" she cried.

"Didn't two kids get expelled for attacking you?" Robert asked.

"Not the point. Draco seems under the impression that I've got bodyguards running about. And I don't."

"Then what's Potter?" Draco demanded.

"My best friend. Not a bodyguard."

"I just stand by her side and look handsome," Harry answered. "And hope the pure awesomeness will enter me by osmosis."

"Oh my god, you guys make it sound like I'm popular or something." She turned to Robert, Tommy, and Samuel. "Don't listen to them!"

Her three friends laughed and splashed her.

After the pool Aria and Harry led Draco home, each of them dripping wet. There was a healthy flush to Draco's cheeks though, so Aria counted the trip to the pool as a win. Robert, Tommy, and Samuel peeled off for their homes while Aria gave Draco strict instructions to get into dry casual clothes and come over to her house for dinner.

Draco appeared after twenty minutes and stared in a wild fascination as Aria and Harry started getting dinner ready. Harry had told Aria that in the Weasley household they had and oven and stove that ran on magical induced and controlled fire and heat, but it was becoming clear to Aria that Draco was just too rich to have actually seen kitchen appliances, either magical or Muggle. She showed him how each worked, which knobs to use and what each number meant. Then she showed him the microwave, refrigerator, and freezer. He kept opening and closing the freezer, sticking his hand in and out.

When the lasagna was in the oven, Aria and Harry took Draco into the living room and showed him the lamps and the radio and the television.

"How do the people live in the television?" Draco asked, walking around the electronic in bewilderment.

"They don't live in the television," Aria said with a laugh. "Most of the things we watch as recorded and played back on the television. Then there are things happening Live and those are broadcast onto the television just as things happen. Like soccer games and the news." She showed him the BBC. It was showing something that was happening in France.

"So you don't have newspapers?" Draco asked.

"We've got lots of newspapers," Harry answered. "Way more than the wizarding world. But the news sometimes changes so fast that getting it from the radio or television keeps you up to date."

"That's . . . that's . . . I don't feel like this gets covered in Muggle Studies."

"How would you know?"

"I . . ." Draco's face went red. "Might've talked to Professor Burbage."

"Professor Burbage could do to study the Muggle world more," Aria complained. "Remus could teach Muggle studies better than her. I could teach Muggle Studies better than her."

Draco played around with the remote and the television while Aria fetched the list of ideas she and Harry had created. Settling on the couch next to Draco she held it up excitedly.

"Harry and I've figured out what we're doing with you while you're here," she told him.

"Do I get a say in any of it?"

"Nope!" Aria grinned at him. "Think of this like an immersion experience. You'll come to a greater understanding on how we Muggleborns feel just being tossed into a brand-new world a few weeks before starting a new school."

She held the itinerary out to Draco, and he carefully took it from her, handling the lined Muggle paper like it might explode. She watched as he read it

"Wait?" he cried. "Thomas and Finch-Fletchley? Really?"

Aria and Harry laughed.