Chapter 1
Draco stepped into the noisy bar, slamming the door behind him. A few heads turned to notice his presence, and for a brief second, the place became just a tad quieter. Then the noisiness returned as the heads turned away and people resumed their drunken socializing.
Draco rolled his eyes. He mumbled under his breath as he made his way toward the bartender. He ignored that some people were eying him as he walked across the bar and sat down on a stool in the corner, where-- thankfully-- there was no one sitting on the few stools beside it.
"Oy! Nott!" Draco called out snappishly to the bartender. "Two shots of Fire Whiskey!"
Theo Nott looked over his shoulder and shot his friend a smirk. "Ah, Malfoy!" He sauntered over to face him in the corner. "You're alone…what a bold move."
Draco rolled his eyes again. "Nott, just give me my fire whiskey or I will curse you into oblivion."
"Ah, ah, ah," Theo shook his index finger. "You can only do that if you have a wand, ya know."
Draco narrowed his eyes. "I can find other ways to curse you without my wand," he spoke in a threatening tone.
Theo snickered. "My, someone's in a bad mood." He turned to start preparing Draco's drinks. "Well, I can't say I'm not amused. The Ministry of Magic has been treating you Malfoys like garbage, which has only prompted you to come to this bar more often and help me earn a couple extra galleons." He placed the two glasses of Fire Whiskey in front of Draco and fixed his friend with a wry smile. "Now that the Ministry has confiscated your wands, I shall look forward to seeing your presence here much more frequently."
"Shut up, Nott," he took a swig from one of the glasses of Fire Whiskey. "Like I said-- I don't need my wand to stay on top of my game." He took another swig, trying to stop himself from thinking about what had taken place earlier. The Ministry of Magic had found out Severus Snape and Bellatrix Lestrange were still alive. Arthur Weasley, the most influential wizard in the Ministry of Magic, suspected that Snape and Bellatrix may be plotting with other former Death Eaters to resurrect Voldemort, since Arthur Weasley refused to believe that Snape had truly been helping Dumbledore years ago. Thus, Arthur saw to it that they confiscate the wands of all those who were former Death Eaters, as well as those who were currently related to a former Death Eater by blood.
Thus, Draco and his family had to hand over their wands, which meant they lost all their wealth and all their rights to their Manor. Their elite status and wealth were dependent on their pureblood ancestry, but without their wands, they were no different from muggles. Hence, the Malfoys lost their reputation as elite purebloods, and were forced to make a living by taking on jobs in the muggle world like any ordinary muggleborn.
Draco and his family had moved in with Snape and Bellatrix, who were also forced to give up their wands and live like muggles. It was pathetic-- his deranged aunt was too much to handle whenever he was at home. The only thing he was grateful for was that Lucius and Narcissa had enough people-smarts to win influence of some noteworthy muggles, so that they were all hired to work for one of the richest companies in the muggle world.
But of course, that meant Draco had to spend lots of time networking with muggles as a member of such an elite muggle company. Which only reminded him of why he was in such a situation in the first place. It was all thanks to that stupid Arthur Weasley for harboring such prejudice against his own family and influencing the rest of the Ministry of Magic to share the same prejudices as well. How dare they-- how dare Arthur freakin' Weasley-- for confiscating his family's wands and putting them in the circumstances they were in, simply because they were suspicious that the Malfoys were engaging in old Death Eater ways with Snape and Bellatrix. What a loathsome arse.
Theo chuckled smoothly. "I say….despite losing all that you had because of your wand confiscation last month, your family has already made quite some progress in the muggle world. You guys are fraternizing with that elite company, which shows much more potential than bartending like I'm doing."
Draco looked at his friend. Nott was also the son of someone who was a former Death Eater member. Hence, the Nott family also had their wands confiscated and were forced to make a living without magic. However, he chose not to immerse himself in the muggle world and instead decided to simply bartend to wizards to make his living. It seemed to work well for him, however. Nott had married Luna Lovegood, who turned out to be one of the wealthiest wizarding families second to the Malfoys. Apparently, they had just kept quiet about how wealthy they are and never got acquainted with other rich purebloods, purposefully to keep a low profile. So despite Nott's subpar use of his skills, he was still able to come home to a gorgeous wife in their beachside mansion.
Draco shot Theo a glare. "Cut the crap, Nott." What an arse Theo was for pretending like he was worse off when he obviously wasn’t. Draco couldn't help but give his former Slytherin classmate a wry smile, though. Perhaps the Fire Whiskey was kicking in.
He was just about to shoot Theo a good-natured jeer, but then there was the sound of a door-slam. Theo's shifted his gaze away from Draco to the man who had just walked into his bar. He raised an eyebrow. "Well, well. Look who else decided to drink away their problems tonight."
Draco looked over his shoulder to see who just came in. He nearly spat out his sip of Fire Whiskey.
It was Potter.
He had a look of fury on his face. He stomped up to the stool next to Draco, sitting down without even noticing who was next to him.
"Four shots of Fire Whiskey," he huffed, looking like he was about to lunge at Theo and beat the snot out of him.
Theo gave a quick snicker. "You got it." He walked away to prepare his drink, purposely leaving Draco alone with the former Gryffindor.
Draco suddenly felt like beating the snot out of Theo himself.