The Adventures at the Burrow!
It was a glorious morning, or it would have been if the Stupid System had kept its trap shut. Draco was looking extremely disgruntled, mildly irritated, and totally frustrated.
"But why can’t I just skip today?" Draco whined, which turned into a growl by the end of the sentence.
"Because when I told you not to stray from the storyline too much, it was you, mind you, who very graciously asked for additional tasks instead of letting Harry just be," the System chirped.
One of these days, Draco was going to find that voice button to turn this Stupid System mute. (Very rude.)
"How was I supposed to just leave Harry sad on his birthday?" Draco asked. "Remind me again, what stupidity am I supposed to do for this Task?"
"Get Harry noticed by Lockhart."
"But that can happen without me, right?"
"Yes, which brings me to my second part of the task. If you are not there, your father won’t get into a fight with Arthur Weasley, hence failing to drop the Diary into Ginny’s cauldron, which, I remind you again, is a canon event of utmost importance."
"That still makes me feel like the worst kind of human being. I’m not comfortable knowingly letting that girl get hurt."
"I feel you, but take it up with the author, not me. If you fail, my boss will not be happy. Let me just tell you my boss makes Miranda Priestly look like an angel on a good day, so I am not getting on its bad side. Sorry."
"I will like to make my official protest and tell you I hate you."
.....
"Draco!" Harry was like an octopus, surrounding Draco in a giant bear hug.
"How have you been, sweetie?" Draco finally got out of that hug and moved a step back to give Harry a proper look over.
Harry looked better. Not good, but better. He didn’t have dark circles or look paler due to lack of proper food. His dress fit him nicely (Draco would hope so; he had spent some big bucks to get Harry those muggle clothes), and Harry looked cheerful and happy.
"I’m great. Fred, George, and Ron came to get me early morning, and we had breakfast at the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley makes the best food. You should come and try it someday," Harry relayed as they moved along Diagon Alley to Gringotts. "I saw gnomes. Oh Draco! Have you seen them? They are so gnarly. And then, We had a competition to see who could throw them the farthest; I think Fred cheated. And did you know cars could fly? Mr. Weasley has one. Oh, shoot! I wasn’t supposed to tell that." Harry looked flustered and too excited to stay still. He was practically bouncing on his spott. Draco couldn’t control it even if he had tried. Draco started laughing so hard it became difficult to stay standing. He loved Harry like this, a twelve-year-old excited to see magic for the first time.
"You know you are cute as a button." He bopped Harry’s nose, and Harry turned as red as Weasley hair.
"I saw your dad," Harry tried to change the topic, "in Knockturn Alley. Didn’t you come with him?"
It was Draco’s turn to get flustered. He didn’t even want to think about what his father was doing.
"Oh!" Draco exclaimed. "No, I came with mother. She’ll pick me up at 4 o’clock. Are you sure it was my father?"
"Yeah, he looks just like you. I wouldn’t mistake him," Harry assured him.
"What were you doing in Knockturn Alley? Teenagers aren’t allowed there," Draco asked, fully knowing the ‘accident’ Harry had.
"I… uh… I got lost in the Floo network," Harry scratched the side of his head, abashed. "It was my first time, and I really don’t know how to use it."
"You should be really careful with that. We’ll practice your Floo technique," Draco said, worried despite knowing Harry was safe. "You didn’t get hurt, did you?"
"Oh no, I’m fine. Hagrid found me."
"Harry! Draco! Over here!"
They both looked up and saw Hermione standing at the top steps leading into Gringotts. She ran down to them, her hair flying in the air. (Draco should ask Pansy to help Hermione with her curls.)
Harry repeated his adventures with gnomes to Hermione, who was fascinated and interested in meeting the gnomes.
"Harry! Thank Merlin, you’re fine. What happened?" out of nowhere Mr. Weasley appeared with his army of redheads.
Harry told them about Knockturn Alley. Fred and George were asking for details, living vicariously through Harry, Ron was jealous (Draco should work on that. / You know not everything has to be a Personal Task./ Shut up, Stupid System. I’m still mad at you. / Huh!)
After a lot of fussing from Molly Weasley, they were finally able to go into Gringotts, which was crowded. Hermione exchanged her muggle money, Weasleys and Harry took money out of their vaults, and Draco waited patiently for them.
(Can I get the Cup from Bellatrix’s vault? / Not without going through proper procedures to get ownership of the vault. / Wait, it won’t affect the storyline? / Not really. As long as you have Harry raid the bank, it will be fine. / Stupid System. And Stupid canons.)
As they went out of Gringotts, they separated into smaller groups to cover more items on the list. They were told to meet back at Flourish & Blotts within an hour with no wandering to Knockturn Alley.
Draco, Ron, Harry, and Hermione strolled along the cobbled winding street. Harry was overspending his coins to buy knickknacks for his friends and ice cream. (Draco should probably teach him about managing his finances.)
They ran into Fred, George, and Lee Jordan in the Joke shop. (Draco should talk to the twins about investing in their joke shop.) They met Percy and were promptly shooed away.
It took them 45 minutes to make their way to Flourish & Blotts. Hermione and Mrs. Weasley went into fangirl mode as soon as they saw Gilderoy Lockhart being photographed. Ron and Draco scrunched their noses and shared a look of irritation at these turn of events.
The System gave the Task notification again, and Draco pushed Harry (playfully, of course) to send him into the photographer fussing over Lockhart.
"It can’t be Harry Potter?" as Lockhart jumped on Harry, Draco busied himself with the books on the shelves, least he interrupt and help Harry as he wanted to.
He came upon a book on werewolves and was reminded of the photograph of Snape, Sirius, and Remus. (Hey, can I solve the mystery of that photograph this year? / Sure, you can try…. but you need a better Connection with Snape to ask him questions about that. / So, it won’t affect any canon events? / No, it won’t. as long as you do this in the current story path. It might affect your future story paths though. So you should probably hurry.)
Draco was so focused on what the System had said that he completely missed the fight breaking out between Arthur and Lucius Malfoy. He turned to look at them and saw an upgrade in System screen.
Everybody had a bubble on their head, showing their identity and details regarding their specialty and skills. He had to agree with the System; this was a nice perk.
"Draco, you need to stop your dad," Hermione was saying to him. So Draco moved between the two adults to break the argument.
"Draco!" Lucius Malfoy exclaimed, "Clearly I need to teach you to keep better company." Lucius sneered at the sea of redheads and pushed Draco towards the exit. (Draco did notice Lucius didn’t shove him, as he expected him to, but nudged him very politely at that.)
"Here, girl! - take your book," Draco saw Lucius push the Diary into Ginny’s cauldron. "It’s the best your father can give you." Lucius sneered for good measure and left, his robes billowing, a proper villain swag exit. (Draco should probably learn to do that.)
He looked at Ginny, feeling helpless. (Are we sure I can’t save her? / Yes.) Then waved at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were giving him sorry looks and genuinely looked afraid for him and told them, "I’ll see you guys at school," as he left.