In another place, at about the same time that Leo found his motorcycle; important people in Leo’s future life were finding each other.
Light rain fell from leaden skies as Astoria walked up the wind-swept street and turned into the front door of the small terrace house. The little house had been the last place of refuge for her mother, Daphne, and Astoria after her father’s death and the loss of nearly everything they owned in the wizarding world over two years ago.
“Hello mum! I’m home.”
“At last! What have you been doing? The shop closed hours ago.” Olivia Greengrass was in the kitchen washing up the supper things for all the house residents.
Taking out her wand, Astoria cast a stream of housekeeping spells. The dishes flew to the sink and the scraper, the pot scour, and the dish cloths got to work on their own. Olivia Greengrass hugged Astoria; “I love you darling, I’d love you more if you got home earlier to do that.”
Olivia Greengrass was not banned from using magic, but she was reluctant to do so in case she was being traced. She did not trust all the new Ministry. They could easily make up new charges against her. She knew she was being paranoid, that was so easy to do these days.
“Your supper is in the oven.”
Astoria suddenly felt famished; “Goody!”
Olivia Greengrass asked her question again; “What have you been doing?”
Astoria placed her supper on the kitchen table and prepared to devour it; “I’ve been working on the computer. The boss is finding more customers online these days than come into the shop.”
Olivia Greengrass shrugged; “The things never work for me!”
It had needed some serious changes to get computers to work for the wizards and witches. After some research and experiments they found the secret. They set up the main part of the device under a copper mesh cover connected to an earth lead, and used long leads to the keyboard, screen, and mouse. The protection, and separation saved the computer from whatever it was in the wizards and witches that made the machines fail all the time.
Astoria had gone back to Hogwarts after the battle. Much to her surprise, she found that even though she had to use Daphne’s old textbooks, life at Hogwarts was tolerable despite her poverty. She acquired a different point of view concerning her fellow students. She could now see the signs of families who couldn’t give their children everything on a gold platter. Her parents had warned her about families like the Malfoys. They used their advantages to make life misery for anyone they could bully. Daphne could put Malfoy in his place with her sharp tongue. Astoria didn’t have the same edge to her speech. Hogwarts after the battle didn’t have the same conflicts. Astoria’s last two years there were calm, and she gained some healing to her soul after her father’s death.
Three months earlier, Daphne had joined the Goyle gang determined to hunt down the killers responsible for the family’s misery. The new ministry didn’t show much interest in investigating Mrs Greengrass’ accusation that a snatcher gang had murdered her husband Julius on the night of the battle at Hogwarts. Olivia had spent months training Daphne in the skills she would need to carry out the tasks that had to be done. All the Greengrass connections had not given Olivia any hint of who or where the killers were. The hunt would have to be carried out in the underbelly of the wizarding world. Daphne had set out to find any contacts that Goyle and his associates had who might be able to identify who the killer was. Daphne’s absence was painful for Astoria who needed her sister’s support.
The Greengrass family didn’t want to re-appear in the wizarding world, Daphne was still away on her quest which was looking more hopeless as each day passed. The family needed to be together again without anyone hounding them for debts and restitution. The couple they shared the house with were a muggle born wizard and witch who had been partners with Astoria’s father. They had set up their own herbal remedy business and were moving on with their lives. They offered Astoria a job in their business once she had decided to stay with her mother. Each task was easy to learn, but there were so many of them. Astoria had to learn muggle currency, how to use muggle mail, the telephone, and a computer and the internet. Talking to customers was easy. They loved Astoria and her knowledge of herbal remedies won many regular customers for the business. Thank-you Professor Sprout.
There was one private project Astoria had which she didn’t talk about. In her last days at Hogwarts she had received an owl from Draco Malfoy. The message was written on the back of a letter from Daphne to Draco. The letter was fake. It was in Daphne’s hand and was full of the sort of silly fluff that Daphne used to cover her true nature. Someone else had directed her to do it. Astoria sent Draco’s reply on to Daphne. Then she started digging out the truth about what Draco was really doing. She worked out that Draco was not living with his mother. The Malfoy relations had started arranging a marriage for Draco. The most important thing in this sort of marriage was the size of the dowry and how it would replenish the Malfoy vault. When Draco was told of this, he had reacted by leaving the house by the back door and ran until he was safe.
Draco disappeared from the magical world so completely that he could only be hiding in the muggle world. He didn’t have a wand. The terms of his probation ruled out his using magic and he had not used magic. If he had he would have been imprisoned.
Draco had learned to live as a muggle. He could still receive owls and send answers. The letter from Daphne proved that he was careful to avoid revealing his location. Astoria had to leave the trail where it was.
Astoria started to learn about the internet. She spent some time after work each day getting familiar with the computer. As an experiment, Astoria typed names of people she knew into a system called Google. The answers were lists of different people with the same name. The lists were endless and somehow fascinating. She tried ‘Draco Malfoy’, not expecting anything to come up, but it did. Astoria was dumbfounded or would have been if there had been anyone there to talk to. Draco was listed on the staff of a public library on the south coast.
There was nothing else available about him. If Astoria wanted to know more, she would have to go there and find out herself. The branch library which Draco was working in had only one staff member. The website also gave her the opening times.
Astoria worked out a simple plan. Early on a Saturday morning, she would apparate to a park nearby. The local council website had a map and photograph of the place. That was enough to apparate. Then she would have to wait until the library opened. Saturday morning was the least likely time to have any witnesses.
The plan worked well. There was no one about when she emerged from a thicket in the park. Best of all, along the street was a coffee shop open for breakfast. The Saturday opening time came. Astoria strolled into the library. There was no one at the front desk. Astoria waited until Draco came out from the back room.
“Good morning, may I help you?”
“Yes Draco, you certainly can.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know you……Oh! Astoria Greengrass! What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you. I know you don’t want to be found. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you’re here. I want to know your story. How you learned to survive and apparently do well in the muggle world.”
“Oh! Umm! I don’t know where to start. Who else knows you’re here?”
Astoria decided to take the pressure off. Her gentle Legilimens touch had shown her how panicked Draco was. He was not going to say anything to her if he could help it.
“Look Draco, why don’t I come back at a later time. Meet me for a meal at a place near here after you’ve closed.”
Draco paused, he realised he had to find out which side Astoria was on. If she was hostile, then he would have to run again. Goyle wanted to kill him and his gang were still dangerous.
The little Italian café served authentic well-known dishes; the conversation started slowly, getting Draco to say anything was hard work. Astoria told Draco everything about herself and her family. Eventually, he had agreed to write to Astoria and give her his history since Hogwarts. Letters came and went over the following months. They were both happy that the magical world ignored such things as the muggle postal service. Draco was not happy about Daphne being on the run with the Goyle gang. Eventually he accepted that he was still safe. Astoria was not going to betray him.
A letter delivered by muggle mail came from Draco to the terrace house. Astoria opened the letter. Olivia Greengrass waited for Astoria to give her the edited version of the contents. “He has agreed to come with me to Gringotts to open his own vault.”
Olivia Greengrass gave Astoria a stern look. “You know, not everyone will be happy about you and Draco. Has he asked to see you again?”
“Yes, he has. I wasn’t expecting that. He asked me to go to his place for a picnic on Sunday. I just realized that I was happy with seeing him socially.”
Olivia Greengrass was still unimpressed; “Don’t go all girly over him. His family gave us a hard time in the bad old days. But I suppose he is showing a semblance of good sense in asking you out.”
The day came. Astoria apparated to Draco’s rented house, then apparated to Diagon Alley with Draco coming by side-along-apparation. Draco had asked Astoria to find a wand he could borrow in case there was trouble. He didn’t want to meet a Goyle ally unprotected. As they approached Gringotts, Draco was grabbed by Ron Weasley and a bunch of aurors. Astoria had managed to stop Draco drawing his wand by hanging on to his arm. Weasley took Draco to a local law office to question him.
Draco was furious. Accusations had been made about Draco being involved in burglary and murder. The accusations were obviously made up. Draco had missed his appointment with Gringotts. Hours later, Draco was released. Astoria was waiting, she apparated them both back to his house.
“How am I going to do anything in Diagon Alley if that happens just because I show up there. It was all nonsense; they knew it was nonsense when they took me in.”
Astoria waited until the angry flow subsided. “Draco, I know why they did it. They were waiting for us to show up. Gringotts must be quite chummy with the Ministry now.”
Draco stopped pacing around the sitting room and stared at Astoria.
“What happened?”
“I was deliberately bumped into by one of the trainee aurors, a distant relation. She took me to a tea-room and chatted on and on. I filtered a message out of it. The Ministry will give Daphne a free pardon if she surrenders right now and tells the aurors everything she knows about the Goyle gang.”
Draco blinked; “Why couldn’t they just ask you?”
Astoria smiled. “They didn’t know how I would react. We just have to work with what we’ve got. Mum has an owl at her place. As soon as I get back there, I will send a coded letter to Daphne. By the way, I went back to Gringotts and asked to open a vault for myself. We can arrange for any galleons that are owed to you to be paid into that, so you can cut one more of your mother’s holds over you. I will give you access to it; I don’t have any galleons to go in it.”
Draco went back to work in the library. He waited for weeks. Finally, the news came from Astoria. Daphne had talked to the aurors. She wrote out her story; it impressed so many that she was asked to do a version to be published in The Daily Prophet. Daphne was asked to submit more articles for the paper. All Goyle’s gang and his Death Eater family had been arrested and would be given a fair trial followed by a long sentence in Azkaban. The weight lifted off his shoulders. It had been there for so long.
Draco never mentioned his studies to Astoria apart from learning about the everyday muggle world. Draco was progressing towards a qualification in librarianship. He wanted to continue working in the muggle world. The continuing hostility from his family and wizards in general made it an easy choice.
At the same time, he wanted to keep his relationship with Astoria. Draco wrote to Astoria asking her to visit him regularly. She suggested coming to her mother’s house for a visit.
Draco had one thought, “Uh-oh.”
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