"I was numb throughout my trial," Draco began. "I guess I was just mostly relieved it was over and that Voldemort was dead. I was rather giddy with it, actually. Do you know I tried to find a way to help you to kill him? Since I believed I would soon be dead, I reckoned it couldn't hurt to find his weaknesses and somehow get a message to you. I couldn't find any weaknesses, though, except for a fondness for inflicting punishment. I didn't discover till almost the end that Snape was still helping the Order, that he really wasn't Voldemort's man. Had I known, I could have confided in him more, though it still wouldn't have helped him."

"So I came into my trial just feeling drained. I really didn't care what they did to me at that point. My parents' death hadn't really hit me until about then and I had just given up. I was ready to go to Azkaban. I knew I deserved it. In trying to kill Dumbledore I had hurt Katie Bell, Ron, and Madam Rosemerta. I was in big trouble but it didn't seem to matter. As long as I never saw anyone I knew again, I reckoned I could take it. But then one by one they started showing up at the trial. And I sank lower and lower. I'd confessed. Wasn't that enough? But the Wizengamot wanted to make an example of me. After all, I was one of the few Death Eaters left alive and I was Lucius Malfoy's son. They wanted every last scrap of information out of me. I gave it. I told them everything. Everything I'd ever done. I allowed them to use veritaserum on me without a whimper and I believe they were shocked. You see, I hadn't actually killed anyone like they thought I had. And they believed I enjoyed being a Death Eater, not that I was actually frightened to my roots about it; or that I obeyed all of Voldemort's commands not out of pleasure but because I feared for my life and the lives of my parents. They didn't want to believe and they used the potion on me over and over again until Horace Slughorn told them to stop because it might prove dangerous to my health."

"What did I care? I had two choices, as far as I knew. They were either going to execute me or send me to Azkaban for life. Either way would have suited."

"And then Dumbledore came. He was the one person besides you that I never wanted to see again. And then the both of you showed up. You looked at me like I was some kind of an animal. You were right, of course. But Dumbledore. I couldn't look at him. I couldn't face him. But not once did he have a sour word for me. He stopped them from sentencing me to Azkaban. Explained what all my testimony meant, all that I revealed under the veritaserum, and they agreed instead to break my wand and forbid me from ever performing magic again."

"I was shocked at first. And scared. I didn't really know what that meant. But once everyone had gone and I was escorted from the Ministry by a secret back way, they set me loose and told me never to come back. I didn't understand. What was to happen to me now? And then the wizard escorting me turned to me. 'You're exiled, Malfoy, that's what it means,' he said. 'You're no longer a wizard. You're forbidden to use magic. You're a Muggle, my man. Have a good life.' He sneered and slammed the door on me and it suddenly disappeared."

"I just stood there looking at the wall that had once been a door. Even then I couldn't comprehend it. I was free? No prison, no execution? But I was now to be a…a Muggle? That was when the panic set in. I couldn't breathe. I threw myself against that brick wall and pounded on it, screaming for them to let me back in. What was I going to do? Where was I going to go? They'd taken Malfoy Manor and all my assets. I was nothing. I had nothing. I cried. I slid down the wall of that stinking alley, sat in the filth, and I cried. For hours, I think. When I had nothing left to cry, I had decided. I was going to kill myself. I told you about that already. And how the Chocolate Frog card of you ultimately saved my life. So I couldn't even kill myself. And then I knew I had to get on with it. With life. As a Muggle, no less. But I didn't have the first clue how to go about it."

"I slept under a bridge that first night with a lot of other blokes worse off than I was. Funny how I'd gone through such a change of heart so quickly. At any other time, I would have felt so entirely put upon and that I didn't deserve this. But the tide had turned so completely that you certainly wouldn't have recognized my character. Merlin's beard, I know I didn't. By morning, the sun was just making a yellow sky, and these blokes started heading in all the same direction. They were Muggles, so I supposed since I was one now I should see what they were about. So I followed them and they went to a shelter and got a hot breakfast and a shower. I stood outside, not certain whether I wanted to go in or not. It was cold outside. I could see my own breath and I hadn't a cloak so I was clutching myself, just watching these chaps go in and get bowls and bread. I felt like the world's biggest loser, embarrassed, I guess. Then this black chap with dread locks came out. His name tag said 'Chad'. 'Oi,' he said to me. 'Ain't you comin' in?'"

"I shook my head. 'That's for lads down on their luck,' I said, trying to keep my voice even."

"He looked me up and down. 'And you ain't?'"

"I didn't know what to say so I kept silent. He could tell my clothes were better than theirs and not too soiled yet, even though I was a bit damp from the weather. 'Been thrown out of the house?' he asked softly."

"That was true enough so I nodded."

"'Any chance of their taking you back?'"

"'None,' I told him. 'I'm out for good. I've got no money. No home.'"

"'Friends?'"

"And then I couldn't contain it anymore. Because of course I had no friends. Not a one. No family and no friends. I burst into tears. He stepped forward and embraced me. Just like that. This Muggle. He didn't know me from Merlin's left arse cheek."

"We're all just people under the skin," said Harry.

Draco wiped his face and raised his chin to the road again, peddaling. "Am I telling this, or are you?"

"Sorry. Go on."

"So he just…he just let me cry on him. And then he led me inside and got me some oatmeal and some bread and some tea and sat down with me. He let me eat and talked about the shelter and how long he'd worked there while I ate saying nothing. I was getting near the end of my meal and I deliberately slowed down because I thought the moment I'd finished I'd be chucked out. But he smiled at me and said, 'If you want a job, we need someone to wash dishes. It ain't much pay, but there's a cot in the back to go with it. Just something to get you off the street and back on your feet.'"

"I was astonished. No one I had ever met treated me this nicely except for my parents. No one who knew me. I sneered at him. I didn't believe him. Not at first. But he didn't wait for an answer and just took my arm rather firmly and lifted me to show me. He showed me the kitchens-really quite filthy, even by house elf standards-and the little room with a cot and a basin. It was very depressing, but it was better than being under the bridge another night. I told him I'd do it and he smiled again. 'Then we start now, mate,' he said and took me back to the kitchens. He gave me an apron and showed me the sink. I stood there a moment frozen."

"'I…I don't know how to wash dishes,' I said lamely."

"He looked at me as if I'd turned green. 'What the bleeding hell do you mean? Everyone knows how to wash dishes!'"

"'I don't. I've never done it. We had…had servants.'"

"He laughed. Loudly. 'Well, your majesty, as you can see, things are a bit different now.'"

"'I can see that!' I snarled, a bit of the old fight coming back. But he ignored it."

"'This is the soap, this is the sponge, there's the tap. And it's hot, so mind it. Clean goes there, dirty there. Anything else?'"

"I shook my head."

"'What's the name, mate?'"

"'Draco. Draco Malfoy.'"

"'Draco? What sort of name is that? Sounds spooky.'"

"'It's a very old family name and I rather like it!'"

"'No problems, then. If you need me, Draco, I'll be out in the dining hall.'"

"So I did dishes. Day and night I washed dishes until my body was sore and my hands were chapped red. But no one bothered me and I had free food and a place to stay. I didn't have to think for while. And that's what I wanted. I just didn't want to think about any of it. But after a few weeks of it, I began to get antsy. These homeless men who never seemed to better themselves. It depressed me. I wanted to get out. Chad helped me find another job at a tea shop. I was grateful for all he'd done and I told him so, promising to send money someday."

"Was that shelter on the east end?" asked Harry.

"Yes."

"So that's what you were sending in that Muggle post. I wondered what Hedwig was going to do with it."

"Oh. You saw that."

"Yes, Draco. Caught you doing a good deed. It's the end of the world as we know it for sure."

He sneered at Harry. "I was grateful, okay? I told Hedwig to drop that in the first post box she saw and I guess it worked."

"She's pretty clever."

"Can I get on with it?"

"Go ahead."

"So I got the job at the tea shop and I was bloody awful at it. Didn't know the first thing about any of it. I cashiered at first but I couldn't figure out Muggle money. Still can't much. But I flirted a bit with the manager-this old hag of a woman-and kept the job until her husband came back. He served in the Muggle military. He wasn't cowed by my ignorance, but by then I'd secured another job at another tea shop. Strangely, it made me happy making tea and just serving. No one really talked to me. I was as invisible as a house elf. But on my days off, I'd spend my money on Muggle alcohol and get good and drunk. I missed work the following day once because I'd gotten so pissed I didn't know what day it was. Got sacked. But I found another job quickly. I never saw anyone from the Wizarding world. I never made friends. I never dated. I just went on day after day, believing that this was the sum of my life. Believing I deserved it. And I got drunker and drunker and sometimes drank even my days on. It was only a matter of time before something killed me; a lorry, the drink, my bosses.

And then that fateful day. I didn't notice you at first. It had been a bad day because I'd just been kicked out of my flat with little more than my kit. And I was wondering where I was going to spend the night. There was a chubby girl who did the books and she was always eyeing me. I thought I might be able to shag her just to get a place to stay for a bit. And then I went to table number 6 and waited for the stupid prat to come up for air out of his bag so I could get on with it, and who could it be but Harry Potter."

"To tell you the truth, it scared the living hell out of me. At first I thought maybe you'd come to finish the job. Found me after two years and all. Revenge. But then I noticed you were just as surprised as I was. And then I thought, 'there is no way in bleeding hell I am going to serve you.' Because I knew you'd laugh at me. And even though I could have kissed the ground you walked on, I couldn't bear for you of all people to laugh at me."

"I'm sorry it still hurts," said Harry quietly.

"I know it shouldn't-"

"This is the first time you've told anyone. It should hurt less from now on."

Draco sniffed, wiped his face, and continued. "So after I faced you down I turned and left. But the manager saw me and we had a row in the back about it. I lied to him and said you were a thief and you cheated me and I wasn't going to serve you but he wasn't having any of it and sacked me on the spot…which I guess you know."

"And the rest, as they say, is history."

Draco smiled. It warmed a face that had grown sallow with the pain of his past. "Yeah. Harry Potter who turned out to be a ponce had a 'thing' for Draco Malfoy for years. How was I to know that when he invited me to stay?"

"That's not why-"

"Oh protest all you want. It had to be the underlying reason. I simply cannot believe that even you are capable of taking in one's former mortal enemy. If it had been Voldemort disheveled and destitute at your door, would you have welcomed him in?"

Harry considered. "Well, I might have just given him some money and sent him on his way."

Draco hooted with laughter. Harry didn't think it was so funny.

They pedaled in silence before Draco said, "And now you. You promised to tell me about Voldemort."

"So I did." He took a deep, steadying breath. "I guess I need to start with Horcruxes."


On to Chapter Three
"Harry Potter and the Seven Horcruxes"

Back to Chapter One
"Honeymoon"

Chapter Index

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