BANALITY : Draco Malfoy

42

Harry explained that the goal of our future sessions is going to be to teach me how I can escape as quickly as possible. He would try to teach me to apparate if it weren't extraordinarily dangerous. Apparating is apparently not just a hazard for my fractured mind, but all wizards. Ron apparently splinched badly when apparating. Harry actually knows someone who's permanently lost a body part since they apparated incorrectly while hit with a spell. He says it's not worth helping me relearn.

Instead, we will work on stunning spells. He insists that it is impossible for Goyle, Pansy, and their friends to access the house we are staying in. However, if I run outside again someone might find me, be it someone who wants to do me harm or not. Our focus will be on the disarming spell, since if I can get it powerful enough, I'll be able to disarm a couple of wizards who are standing close together. It's my only hope to make it out alive, really. The spells that they will be aiming my way will be much stronger than any shield charm could ever stop.

Once Ginny gets home, I'm lost on whose turn it is to make dinner. They end up getting takeout. There is a delicious Indian restaurant nearby that they order from. None of them have a cellphone or a home line, so Harry goes in person to get place the order. He waits there for it to be ready since it wouldn't be possible for anyone, muggle or otherwise, to deliver food to this location.

We eat, while Ginny talks about Quidditch. She explains some of the rules, and that she is a chaser for an all-women team in Wales. She takes the floo there every day, which she says is uncomfortable and arduous. Ginny and Harry hope that once they renovate the Black family home, they can remove the charm that hides this place from outsiders. They hadn't yet because Ron and Harry were using it as a hideout while they tracked down Death Eaters after catching someone named Yaxley. They were waiting for the official dissolution of their task force on Death Eaters before removing the charm.

Now, it is a boon that the home is hidden.

"It's not quite a secret home anymore anyway," Ginny laughs, "I mean, practically all of our friends know the secret."

"Yes, well they know not to show up unannounced," Harry points out. "Besides, we've told everyone that the worst doxy infestation in the history of England has taken over the whole house. Don't mention to Draco that others are in on the secret. We told him that I'm the secret keeper and only Ginny, Ron, and Hermione know."

I help them with the dishes. Existing in this house as I did before is entirely strange. Now I feel once more like I am the long-lost twin of someone who died. Everything they think of when they look at me happened to someone else. At least, the stuff that they remember about Marty didn't happen to me. I arrived last Wednesday. It is Thursday.

We move into the sitting room. Ginny is trying to make a plan for a housewarming party tomorrow for two of their friends from school. Harry nods along but is obviously distracted.

She shoves him playfully, but forcefully, "would you listen? I'm trying to figure out a way for all four of us to attend without leaving Draco alone in the house!"

"If you're that concerned, I'm sure Seamus and Dean won't mind if you can't make it," Harry shrugs.

Ginny nearly glares at him, "Dean knows me too well. He'll think I'm avoiding him, or that I'm bothered that he and Seamus are serious, or something else ridiculous. Half the DA and Gryffindor will be there, so there is no way that I can miss it."

"What day is tomorrow?" I ask, looking over at them.

"The nineteenth," Harry looks over at me. "Why?"