BANALITY : Draco Malfoy

87

I last another two days in the muggle hotel with my sanity. Pansy is let out of the hospital on the morning of the twenty-third and seeing her is somehow relieving. She doesn't have much to say to me. It's probably for the best anyway. That evening, Auror Dawlish comes and offers to secure Pansy and me in the shelter and Pansy actually laughs. As she sees it, we are more likely to be murdered there. If one person hates us enough, they can certainly find a way inside.

By the twenty-fourth, I cannot take it any longer.

"Just take a train to Brighton," Pansy walks in through the bathroom. She chucks a wallet at me filled with muggle money. "If I listen to you pace any longer, I'm going to go crazy. Also, you might make get a blister, and even that knowledge might kill me. Get out of here. Go home."

I do as she says. She doesn't need to tell me anything else.

From there, I take a cab to King's Cross, and then a train to Brighton, and then another cab. It's easy enough to do because I'm not thinking about what will happen. Some of the memories are certainly real, but I know Blaise fabricated some so that I wouldn't go back to them and foil my fake death. Really, I do anything to avoid thinking about them, Instead, I think about the beach and the marina where I could have worked in the summer if those memories are real. I think about all the physical things I love about my home.

Soon enough, I am on the street I grew up on, staring at the house. It is mine. My parents' cars are in the driveway. They are in there, and possibly my brothers, and even more possibly a nephew of mine that I have never met, Jane or Marty.

Any time is better than never.

I get up to the door and knock on it before I can think myself to death.

I hear people chatting inside. A male voice gets louder as it approaches the door. I can feel a lump in my throat. I try to swallow it.

Then, the door opens.

"Shite," my brother, Aaron, opens the door. He looks like he did in the picture, although in the picture that I saw he was smiling and cooing at Alfred's son, rather than staring at me with a jaw so agape he could swallow a horse. "Holy fucking Christ."

"Magic stuff," I cut in before he tries to ask questions. "It's complicated magic stuff."

"No fucking way!" Aaron rushes forward and pulls me into a hug. "This is fucking crazy! Mum, Da, Alfred! You'll never believe who is at the door!"

I don't even have the opportunity to walk into the house myself. Aaron picks me up off the ground, practically squeezing the life out of me. I cough a bit, and he squeezes harder, nearly throwing me from side to side. The Aaron I remember wouldn't be this excited.

"Aaron, love!" Mum rounds the corner. She is holding a rag, using it to dry her wet hands. Her eyes are on her fingers and not me, but then she looks up. Her sobs rush out of her, so loud her body shakes from the vibrations. She cannot even hold herself up, falling to the floor in tears.

My Da bursts into the hallway, checking on my Mum, and Alfred pops his head in. He nearly drops the tot in his hands. I look at the baby, who fusses as it looks at my Mum on the ground. Alfred is stuttering, and Aaron is laughing. Da still hasn't even looked over at me.

"Aaron, remember what that wizard said," Alfred warns. He struggles to juggle the baby while reaching his hand toward Mum and Da, offering it extended.

"You... you mean Draco, right?" I say as Aaron puts me down. "I told him to charm the torch keychains. He didn't know about torches. Or keychains."

Da finally looks over. He sees me and tears brim in his eyes. He looks between me and Mum, unable to divide his attention.