The Past, Present, and Future

Draco Malfoy looked at his own reflection in the mirror. His silver blond hair was combed back neatly, his pale white face was shaven, and everything about him looked perfect ..except for one thing.

"Muggle clothes..." he whispered in a disgusted voice. "I, a Malfoy, am wearing Muggle clothes." He cast one last hateful look at the mirror and walked out of the bathroom, making sure to slam the door loud enough so that even the house elves that were two stories down in the kitchen jumped with fright.

"If I didn't have to do this, if it wasn't for Potter, the stupid scumbag, trying to -", he muttered as he walked down the hall, making sure to kick any house elves that were unfortunate enough to get in his way.

When he reached the large entrance hall, he stopped and glared around the empty room. "ELF!?" Immediately, a house elf appeared.

"M-master?" the young house elf approached its master, shaking so violently it looked like it was having a seizure.

"Where is my suitcase?!" The elf shook even more, if that was possible, when Draco yelled at it.

"M-master, Sukie will g-get it now sir!" It disappeared with a pop. A few minutes later, the same elf reappeared, this time balancing a black leather suitcase on its head. Draco took it and then give the elf a hard kick in the head, making it squeal in pain, then disapparated away.

Draco reappeared several seconds later in a dark alley. Looking around and making sure no one saw him, he began to walk and eventually came to a busy and crowded street in muggle London. He found a taxi, got stuck in an hour of traffic, paid the driver an extra hundred dollars because he didn't know muggle money, and all the time, he was muttering curses under his breath.

Draco looked up at the large building in front of him. People were everywhere, pulling large suitcases on wheels. Cars were parked all along the road, and signs with arrows and directions were everywhere. Draco sighed. He had arrived at the airport, and he was to ride the 'airplane' to Russia. Why did he have to do this? Why couldn't he just apparate or floo?

Because of Potter, he thought hatefully. He had taken over his father's job at the ministry, and like his father, he was also working for the Dark Lord, serving as a spy for Voldemort. He was very valued due to the large amount of important information he provided, however, Voldemort had not marked him as a Deatheater.

"I will not give you the Dark Mark. You have too many enemies in the Ministry. There is a likely chance that they will check you for the mark, and if you are caught, my source of information will be gone. I will not risk it."

Draco protested, he had assured his Master that no one would dare to check on him, but no luck. So Draco was always the last one to find out about gatherings, and most of the time his fellow Deatheaters never bothered to inform him of meetings when they were called. And now, because of Potter's new rule, every portkey and floo network was watched carefully by Aurors. Also, a record of anyone apparating was kept, and though it was impossible to read all the locations and names, Draco knew that they were keeping a special eye on him.

This was why he had to travel by the muggle way. On an airplane, across the Pacific Ocean for 17 hours, just for a conversation (or a torture session) with Voldemort. Growling at the thought of how much trouble Potter caused him, he picked up the suitcase that had been sitting on the floor, and walked through the automatic glass doors.

~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~

Faye looked at her watch for the third time in 5 minutes. "Will you quit that?" Ginny slapped Faye's wrist.

"Sorry! It's just that we been here for forever! And no one has come to pick us up yet!"

Ginny snorted. "Oh yes, 30 minutes. That is forever." She said in a mocking tone. Faye gave Ginny a shut-up-before-I-punch-you look .

"Ugh! You can sit here and wait, but I'm bored. I'm going to explore the airport, and I promise not to get anymore food." She said quickly when Ginny began to protest.

"Fine, just don't stay away too long." Ginny said, and watched her friend skip away happily.

Ginny and Faye had settled themselves in one of the several rows of plastic chairs. She stared at the few people that were sitting in her area. A lady with a brown carpet bag was sitting few feet down to her left, a large red-faced man with a cowboy hat was sitting in the seat across from her, and a group of loud noisy teenagers were several rows back.

Hmm...I don't think any of them are witches or wizards...this is so like the Ministry Magic, always late.

Getting bored, she reached into her purse and pulled out a book, Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, opened up to the page she had just left off, and began to read.

~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~~ * ~

Draco walked to one of the 10 small screens that displayed the schedule for the plane lift-offs. His eyes scanned down the long list of schedules and checked for the time of his plane's departure.

" ..7:30, that means," he looked down at his watch. "I still have an hour left .." He looked around the building for anything that might interest him for an hour, and suddenly, his eyes caught a large Starbucks sign. He grinned, almost childishly. "Ah ..caffeine. Excellent."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Faye was on the other side of the airport now. In her right hand, she held a large strawberry banana shake, in her left was a enormous cinnamon roll. She had felt extremely guilty when she bought the foods, but she shrugged the feeling away, telling her self that strawberry and bananas were very healthy, and cinnamon rolls do NOT contain several hundred calories.

Smiling happily at the taste of sugar, she skipped around the airport, stopping every now and then to look through gift shop displays. She finished her cinnamon roll, licked all the icing off her fingers, and scanned the area for a trash can to throw her empty cup in. Seeing one a few feet ahead of her, she ran to it.

It was extremely unfortunate she did so, because she never reached the trashcan. Faye, who had her eye only on the trashcan, did not see a man running toward her direction. Before she knew what had happened, she was on the ground, rubbing her head furiously.

"Miss! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah ..I wasn't looking at where I was going. My fault. Merlin, my head hurts!"

"What did you just say?" Faye froze. She had completely forgot that she was in the muggle world, and she had just used a wizard term in front of one! She looked up at the man bending over, trying to think of a quick excuse to explain what she had just said.

"Did you just say Merlin?" Faye had just opened her mouth to say that she meant 'Good mercy!' when she froze for the second time. The man kneeling next to her had messy black hair, and a pair of green eyes were looking at her through round glasses. But what had caught her attention was not the fact that this young man was extremely good looking, nor the fact that he had a very nice figure. What had caught her eyes was a scar shaped like a lighting bolt on the forehead of this man.

"You ..You're Harry Potter!" she said, pointing a finger at his scar. The man gave her a curious look.

"You're a witch?" he asked, lending her a hand when she tried to stand up.

"Yeah! Wow, this is so cool! I didn't expect to meet you until I got to the Ministry! But on the day I arrive!" Faye was smiling widely, her headache completely forgotten.

"Wait, you work at the ministry?"

"Oh no ..well, starting today we are. My partner and I have been recruited. We just got here from Australia. Some lazy idiot's suppose to come get us but no one's came yet."

Suddenly, Harry's face begin turning red.

"Oh ..well actually, I'm the idiot who's suppose to pick you guys up .."

"Oh." Now it was Faye's turn to turn a dashing red.

"Well come on, let's go get your partner and we can head to back to the headquarters." Faye simply nodded as the gorgeous Harry Potter walked ahead of her.

Wow ... Ginny is going to jump out of her skin when she sees this hotty!

* * * * *

Ginny put down her book and scanned around her surroundings for what seemed like the millionth time that day.

"Where is that stupid ministry guy? And I wonder what happened to Faye .." She mumbled quietly. She was starting to miss her friend's company.

She picked her book up and tried to read but after a minute, she closed it again.

It's no use. I can't concentrate at all. My eyes are too tired from all this muggle travelling. I wonder if they have a Starbucks here?

* * *

With his nice cup of steaming cappuccino, Draco walked over to the waiting area and took a seat in one of the many plastic chairs. He placed his leather suitcase carefully next to his foot, and was just about to take a sip of his drink when he felt a tap on his back. Slightly disgruntled, he turned around to see who dared to touch him and was about to say something nasty, but the person in font of him spoke first.

* * * * * *

"Excuse me sir, I was wondering if you could tell me where you got that ..." Ginny suddenly froze, her mouth forming a perfect 'O'. The man who was staring back at her mirrored her expression.

"Oh my...." She couldn't believe it. First day back in London and she's looking at her most hated enemy right in the eye.

"Draco Malfoy... I certainly did not intend to see you here." A trace of surprise and hate was in her voice.

Quickly getting over his shock, he replied in his usual mocking tone.

"Well well, Weasly, you don' t look too trashy. Too bad your poor as hell. What are you doing back in London?"

Ginny stood up, and looked down at Draco in the eyes. "Don't EVER comment on my looks, and even if I am poor, I'm far better off than you. As to what I'm doing back in London, it's none of your business."

She picked up her suitcase and prepared to leave, but stopped and walked back to where Draco was sitting.

"More importantly," her voice was now filled with suspicion, "what are YOU doing here in a muggle airport?"

Suddenly, Draco looked like a deer caught in headlights. Lucky for Draco, he never had to answer that question.

"GINNY! I found our Ministry man!"

Ginny looked up at the sound of her name. It was Faye, running down the aisles, her blonde hair flying everywhere. And running right behind Faye was...

"Harry?"