Whatever You Want, Draco Malfoy || Drarry

Chapter Nineteen

"So what are we doing again?" Jarold asked.

Draco spun on his heel to walk backwards, leading them away from the Leaky Cauldron where Jarold had asked to meet, "And I said it would be more fun as a surprise."

"I don't like surprises," Jarold said, furrowing his brow.

Draco sighed melodramatically but answered all the same, "A park."

Jarold's brow furrow deepened, "Why?"

"Well, you wanted to go to one before. My friend suggested that if we went at night, there wouldn't be anyone to glare at us," Draco said. He turned back around and waved for Jarold to keep following him. "There's one around here, I think."

"Yeah," Jarold said, pointing, "That way."

Draco gave him a look.

"It's the one I tried to go to before," Jarold said.

Draco nodded and shorted his stride to walk next to Jarold, conceding the pathfinding to the other bloke. "How did you find it the first time?"

"What?" Jarold asked.

Draco shrugged. "Well. I wouldn't say you look scared to be in muggle London, per se-"

Jarold frowned.

"-but you certainly look uncomfortable. I can't imagine you spend a great deal of time here," Draco said.

"Yeah, well," Jarold said a bit defensively, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his loose jacket. "Don't really have any reason to be here, do I?"

"I wouldn't know," Draco said carefully. "We haven't actually talked that much."

Jarold nodded and was silent for a long moment. Finally, he said, "When I was little, my mum would take me with her shopping around here. She said that muggle shops had things we didn't."

"Didn't you say you had too much accidental magic as a child?" Draco said.

Jarold nodded, "Yeah. She'd only take me when it was quiet, early in the morning and stuff."

Draco waited, but it seemed Jarold had no interest in continuing the conversation.

Draco broke the silence, "There are a terrible lack of wizarding playgrounds, aren't there? You'd think we'd have at least one in Hogsmeade."

Jarold shrugged one shoulder, "Yeah, I guess."

"Then again, all wizarding children are prone to accidental magic, so it could be dangerous." Draco kept talking, letting his mind wander, "But when I would have play dates as a child, they were never dangerous. The accidental magic we did do was almost always to prevent injury. Although I did once make a hedge sculpture of a hippogriff come to life in a fit of pique, which scared me so badly, I screamed like a banshee, and it burst into flames. I don't know If I did the second part or if it was one of the house elves watching us. I had nightmares for months about that."

"Sounds a bit dangerous, that last bit," Jarold said.

"Doubtful," Draco waved off the idea, "And even if we were hurt, it was nothing magic couldn't fix."

Jarold brow furrowed.

"Perhaps if you were to build a wizarding playground, you'd always have to have someone there keeping an eye on things, like muggle lifeguards-"

"What's a muggle lifeguard? It's- life isn't something you can like protect like that," Jarold said.

"They work at muggle swimming pools, and save someone if they're drowning," Draco said. "I suppose if I were being pedantic, I would describe them more as protecting against accidental death, but guarding life does have a nicer ring to it."