BANALITY : Draco Malfoy

35

The days continue in much of the same ways. Ginny and I stay home once more on Friday. By Saturday, I have finished Lord of the Flies and I am debating starting 1984. The language is far more complex than that of Lord of the Flies and the first page is too difficult to tackle.

Potter, who had mostly been working with Ginny straight after coming home from work, sits with me in the living room. I had only seen him once since Thursday morning. It was Friday evening. He and Ginny had managed to get me into the shower by putting me under an invisibility cloak and casting a few hexes at a portrait as I ran by. I clean myself to the best of my abilities and then was ushered back downstairs, where I have remained since.

There are no windows that I've seen. Consequently, the passage of time has been rather confusing. I never realized how important it was to see the absence of the sun. At least, to see the night. The pushing and pulling of the fabric of time make the days feel strange. I last saw Draco Thursday morning. It is Saturday.

"Hermione and Ron are coming over," Potter says. "With our combined knowledge, we should have a bed for you to sleep in soon."

All I can do is nod. Some magic seems easier to break than other magic.

"What do you all do, exactly?" I ask, looking over at him. "Draco mentioned you and your friends are good at what you do."

Potter puts his coffee down next to him, "what exactly did he say?"

"You killed the ringleader of some group that hated people like me," I say, "people without magic, I mean. He said that you're famous and powerful."

Potter's eyebrows crease, "yes, well, we do wizard jobs, I guess. He is right though, we took down Voldemort. Ron and I work as aurors, which are similar to coppers, but also to bounty hunters. Well, we're like cops who don't bother with vandalism or speeding. Dark arts stuff. Ron and I were members of a task force to apprehend the Death Eaters originally, and next week the task force is disbanding since the trial of Silas Selwyn has just started. He was the lowest level Death Eater we caught. We're going to be tracking down anyone lower than him. Anyway, Ron says he's going to quit working with me so that he can work at his brother's joke shop, and I'll believe him one of these days. I'm still considering applying to work at Hogwarts, the wizard school, to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"Hermione works for the ministry. She only left Hogwarts a few months ago, so right now she's trying to promote the welfare of house-elves. They're like Christmas elves more than the ones from Lord of the Rings, but they enjoy working as servants. We have one, but he's not allowed to leave the top floor of the house until you are gone. Anyway, some people treat them very poorly, and she wants to help them.

"Ginny plays Quidditch with the Holyhead Harpies," Potter hesitates. "She's an athlete, but the sport is played on brooms that fly and it's kind of like a combination of American football, basketball, and baseball, but that's an oversimplification. Anyway, she's really good. The harpies signed her when she left Hogwarts around the same time as Hermione."

All the information fills my head. I press against the information about the war and try to create more space. There are wizard coppers who aren't very similar to coppers. There are non-human creatures that I don't know about. Ginny plays a sport that I couldn't fathom.

"Well, what do you do? Before you came here, anyway," he asks.

I shrug, "I worked at an inn. I was a housekeeper."

"Cleaning the muggle way all day sounds awful," he points out. "I'd much rather be chasing after Death Eaters."

"Your job is way more dangerous," I point out, almost smiling. "Don't get me wrong, working as a housekeeper is not pleasant in any way, but at least it's safe."