Chương 40: ITW,H - Chapter 40 - (3) Christmas Break

(Word Count: 1, 116) The next day, it was already December 21st, so he had to do his last minute Christmas shopping today. Harry had been so focused on his studies at Hogwarts that he hadn't been able to do any shopping yet. If Malfoy was to spend the day with him, then he would just have to come along for the ride. Early in the morning, Harry came down the stairs to the fireplace in the sitting room. Remus poked his head out from the kitchen as he heard him coming down the stairs.

"Good morning, Harry! You're heading over to the Malfoys today, right? Do you want me to come along?"

"No, I'll be fine. Thanks!" Harry said. He took the floo powder from its place on the mantle and threw it into the flames.

"Malfoy Manor!" The Malfoy's floo place was locked to random visitation, so he needed someone on their end to open the way for him. So instead of walking through, he stuck his face in. Harry could see a posh sitting room, similar to the one he was in currently, but with polished tile flooring. Soon enough, a house elf appeared with a swirl. It was Dobby.

"Hello, sir. How can Dobby help you?" Dobby asked. He was ringing his dirty pillowcase dress. Nervously.' Hmmm…' He never did understand why a lot of the "noble" houses allowed their house elves to be dressed so dirty. Doesn't a house's servant represent the house? Take now for instance. One of the very first things he saw was a very dirty house elf. It wasn't exactly the best impression.' Poor Dobby, the Malfoy's were terrible masters. I'll have to be sure to free him next year.'

"Sir?" Dobby asked again.' Oh, right,' Harry snapped out of his thoughts.

"Hello. Could you please tell Lady Malfoy that Harry Potter is at the flu?" As soon as his name left his mouth, Dobby's eyes grew wide eyed in awe.

"T-t-the great Harry Potter!" Then he grew confused.

"... says please? To Dobby?" Dobby wailed, sobbing into his pillowcase. Harry was left there, with his face pushing out on the flames, in an awkward position.' How do I calm a crying elf?'

"Erm… Dobby, you may want to calm yourself down there. I can't imagine Lucius would take too kindly to it. I wouldn't want you to be punished for something like this on my account." At the mention of Lucius, Dobby froze in fear and quickly slapped his hands over his mouth to muffle his crying. Eventually, Dobby calmed down and dried his eyes with his pillowcase.

"Dobby's sorry, Mr. Potter. Dobby has heard of your greatness, but never of your kindness! I'll go fetch master right away!" Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. He disapparated excitedly. Soon after, he heard the click of heels on the marble flooring, and Narcissa approached.

"Hello, Harry. You're free to come in." With permission granted, the floo opened and, because Harry was already "in" the floo network so to speak, he was automatically pulled through to the other side. He came spilling out onto the hard floor.

"Hello, Aunt Narcissa," Harry greeted her as he laid there on the floor, grinning shamelessly. At this point, he just came to accept that floo travel disagreed with him. He had improved somewhat in catching himself, so he didn't faceplant all the time, but he did have moments like now. Narcissa's eyebrow twitched.

"Draco will be with you shortly. He's finishing up breakfast right now. Where did you say you were going to take him?" She asked. Harry picked himself up off the floor and gave a wave of his wand to clean himself of the ashes.

"I still need to go shopping for my gifts, so I'm taking Draco along. We'll be heading to Diagon Alley, and we may even floo back to Hogsmeade if the Alley doesn't have everything I need." Narcissa nodded to herself. That seemed like a reasonably safe plan for two boys to do on their own.

"And you'll have him back before dinner." That wasn't so much a question as an order. Harry nodded.

"Of course. And in one piece too."

"Good," without further things to say, Narcissa left the room. Harry didn't want to just stand around doing nothing as he waited for Malfoy—the arrogant ponce would probably make him wait a while just to annoy him—so he grabbed his copy of The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring, and lounged across the nearby couch as if he owned the place. It took Malfoy 30 minutes before he decided to show up, and he strutted in with a smug smile on his face.

"Sorry for the wait," he said with a tone that said he wasn't sorry at all. Malfoy then registered what he was seeing.

"Why are you lounging on my couch? Get off!" Malfoy frowned in annoyance. Harry titled his head back all the way to look at him, and grinned like he wasn't doing anything wrong. Now that he was fully aware of all the high-society customs and social faux pas, it was fun to intentionally ignore them to piss off people he didn't like.

"Hey, Draco!" Harry rolled off the couch onto his feet, and started towards the fireplace.

"Finally ready? Let's go!"

"Wait a minute, you haven't explained where we're going yet!" Draco said angrily.

"Right now, we're heading to Fortescue's to meet another of my friends."

"Ugh, don't tell me we're going to meet with your mudblood friend." Harry froze midstep, and turned around to face him with a smile.

"Easy there, Draco. I'm sure your Mum and Daddy dearest wanted you to make friends today, and that sort of language won't fly around me." Draco scoffed, "So? What are you going to do? We're inside the Malfoy House's wards. You can't touch me."

"I don't need to. But I do have to wonder, how would Lord Malfoy react when I tell him how his heir chickened out on a wizard's duel he initiated?" Harry smiled innocently as Malfoy's face paled. Wizard's duels were only ever mentioned in the first book, but they were an actual thing in the wizarding world. They were legally binding and held in high regard. If it got out that the heir of House Malfoy had failed to show up for a duel he initiated, it would follow Draco for the rest of his life.

"Y-you can't prove anything!" Malfoy stammered.

"Hmm… I believe Ron and Neville were there to witness it." Malfoy turned red, "Alright, fine! I'll stop calling her mudblood! Happy?" Harry smiled.

"Yup. Come on! We're running late already." They grabbed a pinch of floo powder.

"Diagon Alley!"