BANALITY : Draco Malfoy

33

It is dark out by the time we get to King's Cross. Potter says we will eat at his house. We once more have to negotiate apparating. This time, Potter takes us both, with the others handling our luggage. We disappear outside of King's Cross, and take form on a dim lit residential street. I sit down in the middle of the road, closing my eyes. Draco and Potter each take an arm of mine and drag my stiff body onto the sidewalk. Granger and Weasley are already waiting there for us, our stuff in their hands.

"Blimey, I'm starved. Do you think Ginny will have enough for us?" Weasley asks.

I'm struggling to open my eyes, but then I hear Weasley's laugh.

"You're joking," his laugh is bitter. "You didn't tell her?"

"Well, I didn't exactly have an owl," Potter says. "She'll have to understand."

"She will have your head in," Weasley jokes again.

As I am finally able to hold myself up on my own though my head feels like it might split, I notice that Granger is looking around. She draws her wand out of a belt loop, glancing around the street.

"Tell them, Harry," she says.

Potter sighs. He leans forward, his voice a thick whisper, "the headquarters to the Order of the Phoenix is 12 Grimmauld Place."

Draco looks up and smirks.

I follow his gaze. A house seems to expand out in front of me as if from nowhere. It pushes numbers 11 and 13 asunder, and then there is a house. It is another bit of magic that has happened that I hadn't previously thought possible.

We walk up to the house. Potter pulls out his wand and taps it against the door. The sound of metal snaps and clicks in the door, coming from several spots. Potter lets us in.

"We're back," he calls into the area.

We all take off our shoes. Granger hurries inside after Potter, trying to escape the cold. Weasley nudges past me after her, nearly snarling at Draco as he walks in.

"Oh, are they staying the night?" a voice calls from the kitchen.

Draco glares at the place, his nose scrunched as if the smell is pungent. I can smell coffee coming from the kitchen, as well as some sort of meat pie. It's not offence, at least. Once my coat is off, I begin to walk into the house. Draco grabs my arm to pull me back, but I shrug him off. Instead, he trails after me.

The first floor is quite lovely, though a bit barren. The floors are all new wood, and the walls are cream beneath a dozen pictures and paintings on the wall. The people in the photographs are moving. The flowers in one of the paintings seem to blow in a breeze. In the room closest to the front, there are two brown sofas and a couple of cozy chairs made of red and yellow fabric. A large fireplace made of wood and brick pokes out from the wall. It is much older than anything else here. I move out of the room and follow where Potter went down the hall.

"Gin," Potter begins, "there's-"

"The food is going to get cold," Ginny's voice carries into the room. "Would you and Ron set the table? Hermione and I can manage to bring the food out into the dining room."

"We're going to need an extra plate," I can see Ron standing near the doorway. He sees me and steps forward into the room.

She pauses for a second, "Harry, you could have at least owled me before you asked me to feed half the aurors! When it's your night to cook, you can invite them over."