Of Doves and Dragons

Chapter Thirty-three: Domesticated Runaways

"I wanna see the sunrise and your sins, just me and you."

-Zayn, Dusk Till Dawn 

They spent three days locked in that hotel room by the Rideau. Words between them came easier as the days passed. Each day that went uneventfully by gave them more reassurance that they might just skate by underneath the radar entirely.

The second day, the two of them discovered the television. Draco, bored, had begun to inspect the room as Ember lounged on the bed with one of the books she had managed to stash. He opened the drawer of the nightstand to discover a long rectangular remote. They both stared at it curiously before he pushed down the large, beckoning, red button and the black box across from the bed came to life.

Draco had dropped down, eyes just over the bed, as a tall Asian man began talking to them through the box while chopping up an onion. It then slid together like a puzzle piece in Ember's mind that the black box was a television. She laughed at Draco's reaction and explained to him that it wasn't magic and was intended for entertainment purposes only. After she had shown him how to change the programs, Draco found himself entertained for the rest of the day, completely mesmerized by the stories unraveling before him.

By the third day, both of them were getting stir crazy and tired of eating sandwiches at every meal. Draco kept making overdramatic disgusted faces as they ate their lunch of cold turkey on rye and with one more snarl, Ember snapped. "Alright, we need to think about where to go next."

Draco flung his half-eaten lunch down, glad to be distracted from the pathetic excuse of a meal. "Agreed. Where did you have in mind?"

She swallowed the last bit of her own lunch and gulped down some chilled water. "I think it's smarter to stay near bigger cities. It will help us blend in."

"Yeah," He mused. "But if they are searching for us, they'll bet on us staying in cities. Of course, I believe they all underestimate us. They probably just think we went a few cities over, not another continent."

"Let's hope." Ember looked at the space between them. "Snape knows. He's the only one that might be able to deduce our thought process, but still I doubt he would jump to the conclusion of Canada."

Draco watched her closely, only now realizing how deep her connection to Snape might have run. She hadn't shown an ounce of remorse for leaving anyone behind, mostly because she didn't have anyone; except she did, in the perpetually bitter potions master.

"I like the idea of moving around, but we can't sustain that forever. We'll need to find a place to settle down eventually, even if it's only for a few months at a time." He stated, trying to steer the conversation back to the future rather than fixate on the past.

"Where do you want to go?" She asked.

He bit the inside of his lip, mulling over what the best possibility for them might be. "Let's stay in Canada. No one would ever think that we'd come this way, but let's go further out and less metropolitan. Somewhere with just enough tourists to conceal us but not enough to make it a tourist attraction. Plus, we won't have to keep changing the currency."

Ember got up from her seat and walked back towards their bag. They hadn't unpacked it in the case that they needed to apparate in a hurry. She dug out one of the maps she purchased when they were in the café the day before and brought it back over to the table. Draco had already put his feet up on her seat and she glared at the intrusion before he rolled his eyes and relinquished his foot rest. She sat back down with a humph as he brushed away the remains of their lunch and unfolded the map.