Stuck With You / drarry

Prologue

Narcissa Malfoy to be released from Azkaban this Thursday. A giant moving picture of her mug shot being taken covered the whole front page of the Daily Prophet, and the massive title hovered above it. Draco folded the paper from his hands and placed it downwards on the sticky table in front of him so that he didn't have to look at his mother's empty eyes staring out of the picture. He was sitting at a booth of a small muggle pub somewhere in London, waiting for his engagement to arrive. Draco thought that choosing a muggle pub may have been a mistake, when he gave an unsympathetic glance at the place – all the tables and chairs were painted black, the dirty windows permitted only scarce sunlight to illuminate the dust that had stuck to the sticky coating that covered almost every inch of every surface in this Merlin forsaken place. Clientele was ample on a late afternoon, and the bartender seemed to only be continually polishing one area of the bar with his dirty rag. Unfortunately, this was a good place for him to show his face, among muggles who couldn't have known who he was, during dinner time in the crowd, the perfect place to hide while still in public, even though Draco had to restrain himself from casting a cleaning charm on the place and then on himself for being there. He had only been in London a handful of times after leaving nearly ten years ago, and did not fancy showing his face in the wizarding community after his father being locked up in Azkaban for being a Death Eater for the rest of his miserable years. His mother receiving nine long years for aiding in the atrocities. He had almost faced the same sentence, if it wasn't for–

Now a short man entered the pub, and after performing a quick sour scan of the place, recognized Draco sitting at one of the booths and scurried over quickly. They shared an uncomfortable greeting. The man was in his fifties, wearing old but neat black robes and carrying a flat briefcase.

This was a meeting Draco wanted to get over with quickly, not only because of the unpleasant environment, but also because he did not find dealing with English wizarding folk overly pleasant in the last ten years. Now the man in front of him opened his beat-up briefcase to pull out pieces of parchment, a quill, and some ink.

"Now, Mr. Malfoy, sir, there are only a few places for you to sign, the seller has already done so, as you will find," said the man, spreading the parchments on the table in front of Draco, "here is the deed to the house, detailing the features of the lot, as well as the few movables that come with it, you're welcome to have a look once more..." he continued timidly and started uncorking the ink. Draco had already gone over the paperwork a thousand times, but made sure that Narcissa Malfoy was listed as the primary owner of the property, and him as the co-owner.

"Everything is in order I'm sure," Draco said simply, and signed the two papers. He handed the real-estate agent his quill back and slid over to himself the third piece of parchment with the property information. The documents were creased from being shoved in a briefcase and Draco instinctively started to smooth out the edges. The real-estate agent placed the other signed paper in his briefcase and looked a bit unsure what to do next.

"I assume this concludes our business," Draco asserted and looked the man in the eye. He wanted to get this business over with as swiftly as possible, so that he could get his mother to her new home the next day. After Voldemort had been defeated, the Ministry had determined the Malfoy Manor to be a crime scene, and closed it for use, permanently. They had only allowed Draco to fetch some personal belongings, thoroughly checked for dark magic of course, after declaring that it will never be in private use again. Draco felt ill at the idea of his home being turned into some kind of a war memorial in the future.

Now the man was getting up from the booth. "Right, right," he shuffled, "I will be sure to get the copy of the deed to the previous owner." He looked as though he wanted to say something else, but decided against it. Draco was relieved at that.