Summer in the City

Chapter 2

Draco could have sworn the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron was supposed to be right in front of him, but all he could see was a blank brick wall. The building didn't even have windows. Draco kicked the wall hard, howled in pain as his foot made contact with the bricks, and promptly sat down on the pavement, cradling the damaged limb.

It had taken him the whole afternoon to get here. London was like a gigantic maze, with streets, streets and even more streets. Draco had never seen anything like that. He was tired, hungry and unable to go home. He was also a bit scared - some people he'd seen on the way were even shabbier than the beggars and thieves in Knockturn Alley. And not only shabbier - they were like lifeless husks. Draco had seen a wizard like that once, when his father had taken him to Azkaban and showed him a recently Kissed convict. The eyes of these Muggles were like that man's eyes.

Draco hauled himself to his feet and slowly began to make his way in the general direction of Standard Place. It was dark now, and the city seemed more terrible than ever before. Shadows towered over him, washed over the streets and transformed people into monsters. Draco was surrounded by darkened faces; hands seemed to flex threateningly while alleyways breathed cool death against his skin.

Draco broke into a run, but he felt as if he was just diving deeper and deeper into the night. As he ran, he had some close encounters with cars which threatened to run him over. If it hadn't been for his reflexes, he'd have surely died. Give me a nice broom any day, he thought desperately.

When he couldn't run anymore, he stopped and looked around to get his bearings. He was standing in front of a railway station. He'd never been here before, but the light seeping onto the pavement from the station seemed so bright and so welcoming that Draco couldn't resist it.

As he turned around, he saw a familiar shape from the corner of his eye. Or at least Draco believed that for a moment. But when he looked there, he could only see a man in filthy clothes, and a dog. The same man and dog he'd seen near the Leaky Cauldron. Back then, the man - or, more appropriately, beggar - seemed absolutely blind, but he obviously wasn't if he was able to follow Draco like this. And his untidy exterior was a sure sign of hardened criminals, according to Draco's Defence Against Muggles textbook.

Draco didn't wait for the beggar to come closer. He dashed inside the station, and ran straight to the ticket office.

"A single ticket to Salisbury, please!" he said breathlessly. "Now!"

The clerk, a middle-aged woman, stared at him. "How old are you?" she asked in a not quite hostile tone.

"Thirteen," Draco said impatiently. "Would you please give me my ticket?"

The woman ignored his outburst. "Where are your parents?"

"They're home, and they're worried about me!" Draco said, barely resisting the urge to strangle the woman. "We live near Salisbury. I want to go home. Do I need to make myself clearer?"

The woman gave him a contemptuous look. "No, you don't. Now, tell me, why aren't your parents here?"

"Because I got lo-" Draco stopped in mid-sentence, realising he couldn't tell the woman he was lost, because she'd call the Aurors or whatever the Muggles called people who were allowed to kill other people at their Ministry's expense. "Because I got lots of books for my birthday but no chocolate. So I came here to buy some."

"Without telling your parents, I suppose?" the woman asked sharply.

"Er, yeah," he said, trying to look abashed. It wasn't that hard, really.

"Hmmm. Very well. A single ticket to Salisbury, reduced price. That would be - twelve pounds, please."

Draco decided giving her a Galleon would be enough. Gold tended to impress people. He held the coin up in front of the woman's face.

"Here."

The woman stared at Draco's hand. Draco followed her gaze, but he couldn't see anything, except the money and his fingers. All right, his hands were filthy. He'd had a close encounter with a stove earlier that day.

Suddenly, a hand touched his shoulder. Draco yelped, shook the hand down and whirled to see who it was. A middle-aged, well-dressed man was standing behind him. He smiled at Draco.

"Would you like to change that?" he asked, pointing at the gold coin Draco was gripping tightly.

"They don't - they don't accept Galleons here?" he asked.

"No, unfortunately not," the man said. "But I know a place where you can change it. Not far away. I can take you there."

Draco considered the offer, then nodded. "Thank you."

The man didn't seem dangerous at all, so Draco didn't object as he ushered him outside. But then, the man started dragging him towards those dark alleyways. Draco didn't like that a bit. He'd thought judging Muggles' motives would be easy. After all, they were supposed to be less intellingent than wizards, weren't they?

As the man turned towards him, and Draco saw the glint of a knife in his hand, he knew he'd been wrong.

"Wh-what do you want from me?" Draco asked, mentally reproaching himself for stuttering with fear. He should have been able to be frightened in a dignified way, at least. What a shame.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, except if really necessary," the thief said in a light tone. "All I want is your nice gold coins."

"C-c-can I keep the silver, at least?" Draco asked back.

The man seemed to think about that. "No," he said at length. "Sorry."

"Oh. Well... all right, then," Draco muttered. To tell the truth, he was somewhat disappointed. He had really expected he'd be allowed to keep the Sickles. Slowly, he reached into his pocket, and when he pulled his hand back, he was holding a handful of silver and gold coins. Tentatively, he held them out to the man.

But then, something occurred to him. What would his father say if Draco got home without any money? How would Draco explain to him that a Muggle had taken away his money by force? How would Draco explain that he'd let a Muggle know about Wizarding currency, and thus deprived the Wizarding world of its perfect camouflage?

Draco sighed, and slowly withdrew his hand.

"I'm terribly sorry, b-b-but it just wouldn't do to give in to your threats, as I am sure you don't deserve this money," he said as politely as he could. "By the way, isn't it unusual for thieves to use weapons?"

The man pressed the knife against his throat. "It is unusual, but as a free man, I have the right to use whatever supplementary materials I want. And I don't think you're in a position to judge what I deserve. This is the age of consumerism, boy. Everybody wants to get what they want. And I, for one, am particularly good at that. The ends justify the means."

"I m-m-must admit that my father would probably agree with you," Draco said carefully against the blade.

"See?" The man grinned at him. "Now -"

He never finished the sentence. Something big and black and furry smashed into him, knocking him off his feet. The man released Draco and tumbled to the ground.

Draco steadied himself, remembering to tuck the coins safely away in the depths of his pocket. His eyes widened as he realised the man's attacker was a huge black dog. He watched the struggle with awe. The dog was just as dirty as the blind beggar who was standing behind them, waiting. His eyes were like the dull gold of Galleons. And somehow he was staring at Draco, even though Draco knew the man was blind and couldn't see him.

Meanwhile, the vicious dog made a show of biting the man's wrist so he dropped the knife. That seemed to encourage the dog, because it turned its attention to the man's rear part. It opened its mouth, then closed it. Draco heard a very fleshy sound. Then the man screamed like a girl. As far as Draco was able to judge, the dog had removed a big chunk from the man's buttocks.

"Let him go, Padfoot, please," the blind man said.

The dog bit the man on the butt once more, but in the end it did what he blind beggar asked. The thief scarpered. Draco was glad to see him go. But the blind man's unseeing gaze was still fixed on him. Draco, a bit uncertainly, returned the gaze.

I'm in a staring contest with a blind man, and he seems to be winning, he thought. Weird.

"Thank you for saving me, sir," he said, a bit confused. "Uh, first I thought you were the bad guy, because, er, you're dressed in rags, and, er, your personal hygiene is far from satisfactory. I'm very sorry I let your looks - and smell - er, cloud my mind. With thick clouds of odour. I mean, let's just say I've been wrong. And thanks again."

"You're welcome," the blind man said. "What's your name, boy?"

Draco hesitated, but the man was a Muggle, so he wouldn't know who the Malfoys were. "I'm Draco Malfoy."

The dog perked up, and the next moment, it jumped for Draco's throat, teeth bared. Draco screamed - but of course, that wasn't girlish. It was a very high-pitched but manly yell.

The blind man's hand darted out and grabbed the dog by its collar, pulling it back. "Padfoot, no! Stop!"

The dog didn't seem to pay attention to him. It just kept snarling at Draco. Finally, the blind man had to pin the dog to the ground and sit on its back so that it couldn't harm anyone.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Padfoot usually likes children."

"I'm not a child!" Draco protested. "And your dog is crazy."

"I don't think so. On the contrary; I believe my dog is far too clever for his own sake," the blind man said thoughtfully.

"So, it's a he," Draco concluded.

"It is."

"What breed?"

The blind man looked even more thoughtful. "A very pure breed, I think. Aristocratic. Most noble and ancient."

The dog whined under the man's weight. Draco eyed both of them critically. "He doesn't look like a pure breed to me. More like a mixture of Newfie and German Shepherd. I mean, he's as big and black as a Newfie, and as aggressive and thin as a German Shepherd."

"Oh, he wasn't so thin before," the blind man said. "We're both a bit undernourished, I suppose."

Draco hesitated a bit, then presented a gold coin from his pocket. He took a step towards the blind man, but stopped when the dog started growling menacingly.

"Look," Draco began, "I don't like giving money to beggars, so I don't know if I should give you anything. And I've almost been robbed of all my pocket money a few minutes ago, so I'm not feeling too generous right now. But - but you haven't been begging, so far, and you've saved me from that knife-wielding idiot. So. Iwaswonderingifyouwouldacceptthis."

The blind man slowly extended one grimy hand towards Draco. Draco considered jerking his arm away, but Malfoys didn't do that. So he let the man touch him and find the coin on his palm. Eww.

"It's much more than I would give willingly," Draco hurried to say, "but now I owe you my life, sort of, and life debts must be honored by either killing your rescuer, or giving them a big reward to shut their mouth. So my father said."

The blind man smiled and folded Draco's fingers over the coin. "Keep it, Draco. I'd never accept money from a child."

At that, the gigantic black dog whimpered even more piteously. It sounded almost like hysterical sobbing. Draco, on the other hand, was relieved. He wiped his hand on his trousers and smiled amicably at the blind man.

"Well, that's very decent of you, Mr. Beggar. I tell you, you're the nicest Muggle beggar I've ever met," he said. "Not that I had the chance to meet too many Muggle beggars before. What's your name?"

"Just call me Moony," the beggar said. "What are you doing here in the city alone? I overheard you telling the ticket clerk that your parents were worried about you."

"I got lost," Draco confessed. "And I've also lost my wa - my walking cane."

Even if Moony found it strange why a healthy boy of thirteen would need a walking cane, he didn't show it. "What were you doing on Charing Cross Road?"

"Um, I was looking for an inn, the address said it should be there," Draco replied. "But the address must have been wrong. Listen, I need to get back to Standard place. I think there are some people there who could help me go home."

"Standard Place?" Moony sounded surprised.

"Yeah. To Mrs. Arabella Fletcher. She's an apothecary."

"Hmmm. I think Padfoot and I could take you there," Moony offered. "Is that all right?"

Draco thought it over. "Yeah, I think it's all right. Thanks. Shall we go?"