Muggle Trouble
"Can you show me how to fly?" Hans asked Draco after they had returned to the Brickets' home.
"The flying teacher at Hogwarts will."
"But you do know how to fly, right?" Mr. Bricket asked with bright, wide eyes.
"Of course. Every proper witch and wizard knows how to fly. It's the best way to travel."
Hans grinned, eager to know more about the topic. "So you could show me, if you wanted."
"If I wanted, yes."
"It's part of your job, isn't it?" Mr. Bricket asked. "To show him how to fly?"
Draco scoffed. "I'm here to acquaint your son into the Magical World, and get him adjusted to the rules and structure of our society. This does not include teaching flying lessons."
Hans frowned. "I'm going to look like a ruddy idiot in front of everyone, and I'm sure all the other kids will know what they're doing. That's hardly fair, is it?"
Draco stopped himself from snipping at the boy and telling him that life wasn't fair. Instead, he grunted. "It pains me to say this—"
It really didn't.
"— but guilt doesn't work on me."
That was a fib. Draco had been made to feel guilty plenty of times, but a small child who knew little about him wasn't going to easily manipulate him.
"You know, I bet your boss would love to hear how great of a job you're doing with us. I'm sure it's not easy working with two people who are clueless about magic. I could write a letter of appreciation and give you a good word," Mr. Bricket offered.
Now this Draco could get behind. If a Muggle sent an owl off to the Golden Trio and the Minister, speaking good things about him, it could help his image immensely.
"If I teach him how to fly, you'll do that?" Draco asked.
They both nodded enthusiastically.
"Okay, I'll do it then, but I'll have to get my broom first."
Hans smiled and turned to his dad. "I get to learn how to fly!" he whispered excitedly.
"I wonder if he could teach me too!" Mr. Bricket spoke out wistfully. "Can you Mr. Malfoy? Can you teach me how to fly?"
Draco refrained from rolling his eyes at the Muggle. He released a sigh. "It's really unsafe for a Muggle to fly a broom."
"Why is that?"
"Brooms have a set amount of magic energy, but after a bit, they need a wizard to recharge them. They do this by harnessing some of the magic from a wizard as they're riding it."
"So it's like a battery then?" Hans asked.
Draco shrugged, having no idea what he was talking about. "I don't know what a battery is."
"It's something that holds energy to power something, but after a bit, that energy is drained. Some batteries are rechargeable."
"Then I guess it's similar to your rechargeable battery then."
"Could I maybe ride a little bit and then get off?" Mr. Bricket asked.
"Very little," Draco stressed firmly. "And trust me when I say this, if either of you fall to your death, they'll crucify me, so I'm telling you right now, you best be incredibly careful and not do anything stupid!"
"Promise!" they agreed in unison.
Draco set them up in a quiet place outside of Hogsmead. There was a tiny, secluded grassy meadow nearby, which made a perfect spot to practice flying in. Then, for good measure, he spongified the ground, should they fall off the broom.
Draco took his time showing Hans how to handle the broom. With Hans being a new flyer, he first had to 'introduce' himself to the broom. Brooms were charmed to not allow a new rider on them if they didn't properly introduce themselves. This had been done to prevent accidents by very young children who liked to tamper with things they weren't ready for.
It only took Hans twice before the broom floated up into his hand, accepting the boy quite quickly. Draco didn't have a school broom, so he was impressed that Hans has won his broom over so quickly. Advanced brooms were harder to lure.
Draco spent his time expressing the safeties of flying before he demonstrated how to fly himself. He didn't go up high, afraid Hans would think he could too.
"You'll only want to go about up four or five feet high," Draco instructed firmly.
He then allowed Hans to takeover. Hans mounted the broom, breathing hard. He wasn't nervous or anxious. He was eager for this.
Hans followed everything Draco had taught him. He didn't foul up anything. Draco struggled with hiding his surprise. When he was a boy, his first time had been a mess— of course, to be fair, Draco was also only two then, but he wasn't using an advanced broom either.
No, Hans had skill.
"You'll have to sign up for Quidditch next year," Draco told him. Hopefully he'd be a Slytherin.
"What's Quidditch?"
After Draco explained how the sport was played, it was Mr. Bricket's turn on the broom. Since he was a Muggle, the broom wasn't so willing to let him fly it, but after several attempts, the Muggle was permitted to mount the broom, and he was smiling the whole time.
"Look at me!" Mr. Bricket shrieked out, sounding like a little child. "I'm actually flying! This is great!"
Draco wasn't going to deny that the Muggle had skill too. He reckoned it had to do with the Squib blood flowing through him.
"You two could probably fly together, if you were extremely careful," Draco suggested. "Just make sure Hans charges the broom before you get on it, Mr. Bricket. Else you'll fall to your demise."
He took them home shortly after that. Mr. Bricket decided that he was going to buy both him and his son some training brooms. Draco warned him that he would need a secluded spot to fly in, and gave him an address to a spot that had a port key for wizards to use.
"I advise you to wait until Hans passes his flying lessons before you do this though."
Draco traveled back to the safehouse, where Potter was waiting for him.
"I'm waiting for Hell to freeze over," Potter said as a greeting. "A Malfoy teaching a Muggle how to fly? It's awfully scandalous."
"I'm sure it'll be in the papers by tonight," Draco grumbled. He didn't read the Daily Prophet anymore. Since the war, all it did was mock his family and praise about how great the Golden Trio was.
Potter's eyebrows pushed together in thought. "I tracked and watched you all day today, Malfoy. You really can be a nice fellow when you want to be."
"When people give me the chance," he corrected him, giving the man a glare.
"When you allow people to give you the chance." Potter returned, giving him a stern look.
Draco looked away, uncomfortable with Potter's unsubtle scolding. "Why are you here?" he asked, trying to sound bored. In reality, he was tired and wanted to go to bed. Excited, bouncy Muggles sucked his energy dry from him.
Potter handed him a piece of parchment. "This next charge will be extremely delicate."
Draco looked over the paper. There was a picture of a girl with strawberry blond hair tied into two thick pigtails. She was sitting at a bench, eating a sandwich. There were other kids in the background, but no one was sitting with her.
"Jessica James is an orphan," Potter informed in a serious tone. No doubt, Potter felt he related to this girl simply because she had no parents. "She lives in a home for orphaned children, and from what I've seen, she's pretty moody. Actually, she reminds me a lot about you back at that age, minus your self-righteous attitude."
Draco rolled his eyes, but he bit back an insult. He looked at the address Potter had supplied him. Draco wasn't going to outwardly admit, but he was grateful that Potter was straight to the point when it came to providing Draco a new charge to work on. All Draco really wanted was an address, a picture and a name. Anything more was overbearing and redundant and anything less was measly.
Potter was the perfect in-between; straight to the point.
But Draco would never say this to Potter.
"I'll work with her tomorrow then," he assured Potter who nodded.
"Keep up the good work, Malfoy." Potter said nothing more to him before he stepped into the floo and went off to his own home for the night.
After a good night's rest, Draco ventured off to Reading, Berkshire the next day. The city only had one safe house, and it was the largest one in the country, so Draco actually had to take a Muggle bus, otherwise he'd spend the entire day walking.
He settled in a seat up front, close to the exit, feeling dreadfully uncomfortable around so many Muggles. To keep himself calm, he listed a library of books he had read in the past few years, thinking about them; what he liked most about each one, what he hated about each one, and which books he would never recommend to anyone.
Before long, he reached his stop, and released a massive-sized sigh and made a hasty escape. He was surprised he survived the whole ordeal.
Draco still had some walking to do. The weather here was pleasant enough, except for the bright sun and so he slipped on a pair of sunglasses to shield his eyes from it. Since he had fair skin, earlier that morning, Draco had applied a salve to the skin that was going to be exposed. He did this every day, no matter if it was spring, summer, autumn or winter. He didn't want his skin to turn into leather before he was forty.
Draco walk through a pair of gates with a fence standing around the perimeter of a three level building and a large lawn that was littered with an abundance of children's toys. Children ran around him,unaffected by his presence, screaming and shouting during their play.
A skinny woman who looked around Narcissa's age stood at the entrance of the steps, looking in his direction as he approached her. She glanced here and there, keeping an eye on the children.
"Can I help you, sir?"
"I need to speak with whomever is in charge."
"Ah, that would be Gloria." She took something off her belt and spoke into it. "Beth, come outside for a minute." The device made a beep before Beth responded to let her know that she had heard the message.
"Lance!" the woman shouted at a boy, clapping her hands. "Don't pull Chasey's hair!"
"But she took my car!" a very young boy whined out. He threw himself to the ground, bursting into tears just as another woman appeared outside, this woman Draco assumed was Beth.
"This man needs to speak with Gloria," the woman announced to Beth, walking off quickly to attend to the boy.
"Right this way," Beth gestured him inside, and Draco welcomed the silence once the door was shut. They traveled down a hollow hallway, passing unoccupied classrooms as they did so.
At the end of the hall, Beth stopped at a door with a sign hanging on it: Mrs. Hunter. She knocked on it before opening the door up.
"This man needs to speak with you, Gloria," Beth announced to a chunky older woman with curly grey hair.
"Okay, thank you, Beth!" To Draco, she said, "Come in, come in, I'm Mrs. Hunter, the warden. What brings you here today?"
"I'm here to speak about Jessica James."
Mrs. Hunter raised her eyebrows up, shocked. "Whatever about?"
"Have you noticed anything unusual about her lately?"
She frowned, thinking about it. She shook her head. "Jessica doesn't act any differently than any other child who has endured what she has."
"And that is?"
"She was abandoned at a shopping center last year."
Draco set his jaw. He had no doubts as to why that was. He kept his anger buried into the pit of his stomach though.
"That's unfortunate," he muttered
"Yeah," Mrs Hunter agreed. "So naturally, she's working on things about herself that aren't going to be fixed overnight."
"There's a school that just might help her with that."
"You think so?" Mrs. Hunter looked genuinely hopeful.
"Yes, it's called Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
Mrs. Hunter's lips thinned, unamused. "Get out," she growled at him with a low voice.
Draco's throat tightened. "Excuse me?"
"I said, GET OUT!" She uprooted from her desk, throwing something at him. Draco darted out of office as she chased him down.
"YOU THINK THIS IS ALL A JOKE, YOU LITTLE COCKROACH, GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!"
Draco pushed himself out the main door, dodging around the children who had all gone still when their warden had started screaming.
She stopped chasing him after he was out of her sight, and he slowed his breathing, puffing out an exhausted sigh.
Draco took his wand out. "She's Furious to the Extreme, unable to Reason, and Running me down without Even wanting to Talk."
He sent off the message, attempting to catch his breath. The Golden Girls would have to step in now, the Muggles were going to need some magic treatment before he could proceed.