Resentment | Dramione

Chapter 45

Diagon Alley. Standing in front of a three story flat located right in between Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour – which was now an abandoned building – and the Daily Prophet Office were Draco and Hermione, both rather down spirited as this would be the fifth flat so far they were visiting, in search for a place that would not require them to do a lot of maintenance themselves – if that was even allowed from the landlord – and one where they'd actually feel at home.

"Hello?" A light tap on her shoulder made her turn around, landing her eyes on an old, pudgy man with a faded dark green hat toppling down his head, held in place only by his grey curly hair. "You must be Miss Granger, am I right?" She smiled at the man, nodding in confirmation. "Pleasure to meet you, my name is Bart Allerton." She shook his hand, and was pleased to see he turned to Draco afterwards. This was only the second landlord who had actually acknowledged his presence as well.

"Good to meet you too, Mr Malfoy," the man squeaked, having to crane his head up just to look at Draco, who seemed to tower over the old man. Draco offered the man a genuine smile in return, obviously glad as well that he wasn't left in the dark. "Well, come on right away and follow me!" The man exclaimed, opening the front door and leading them out of the busy street, into the peace and quietness of the building.

"I realize it didn't say in the newspaper, but the place we'll be seeing is on the third floor. I hope that's not a problem." Both Hermione and Draco shook their head as the man turned around, who nodded in satisfaction.

Even though the building definitely gave off an old vibe, it at least still seemed to be in a very good shape. Or, at least it was tried to be kept together as well as possible. The stairs weren't too noisy, and it seemed like the walls had recently been repainted into a fresh colour of white.

Taking the last set of stairs, they entered the third landing through two wooden doors, and immediately came at a stop at the first front door they saw.

Hermione looked to her right, waiting for Draco to notice her stare so he would turn his head to look at her. When he did, she offered him a hopeful smile. I swear to Merlin, if this is going to be another bad place, I'm going to scream. Draco let out a couple of quick breaths – something that was supposed to resemble a soft chuckle. I'll keep you to that.

Grinning, she turned her head to the door again as it opened, and her jaw immediately dropped as a ray of sunlight illuminated the floor in the far right distance, the silhouette of the casement windows in the living room playing on the floor.

Walking through the short entrance hall – which honestly wasn't much more than two feet long, yet still gave a more welcoming vibe than suddenly being thrown right into the living room – she tentatively scanned the space as she let her head turn around the corners.

At her left of the entrance hallway were two doors, and when she completely walked out of the hallway, she walked into a bit more of an open space on her right, which she assumed was the living room. Turning even more to the right, there was an arched doorway, that led straight into a well proportioned kitchen.

"As you can see," Bart said, walking alongside them into the kitchen and heading straight to the far right, he opened a wooden door, that revealed a nice open space with several planks stacked inside, "it has a well endowed pantry cabinet," and with a more excited spring in his step, he crossed to the far left corner of the room, and opened yet another door, "and a Potions cabinet! Great for storing freshly brewed Potions." He presented as if it was his biggest pride, but she couldn't help but smile in excitement nonetheless. It really could come in handy.

"How about the bedroom?" Draco asked. "Right, I'm sure you two would love to find out about that." The man said, a playful chuckle ringing in the kitchen as he hurried out and walked through the living room to a door on their left. Hermione shook her head at the man – though he couldn't see – but let out a chuckle anyway. Not only was the flat looking great already, but they even had a really nice landlord.