Yay, the second chapter, I just love these two. I want to write more, faster, but it's hard being in uni. I shall try though, I'm trying to graduate next year so lots of work. Anyways, read, review, much love.

Chapter 2 – The Coffee Shop

The next morning he woke with a jolt, sweat beading off his forehead, he in haled sharply pulling himself together. Draco remembered nothing but The Dark Lord's hand on his shoulder; he was certain that was what had woken him. He looked around his dark room; the sun was just barely starting to peak out over the horizon and the shadows bounded off his expensive furniture, it was peaceful the way everything woke up. Once his breathing had returned to its normal pace, he swung his legs out from his sheet, pulling his head into his hands. Would the nightmares ever stop? Would he ever be able to get a normal night's sleep? Not that he had had much sleep for many years now but maybe that was the problem. He was used to no sleep, he lived on no sleep because when he closed his eyes he saw everything so vividly.

He finally dragged himself to shower; letting the hot water hit his back. He stood there numb, just letting the water burn his skin. The bathroom off his room was rather large, larger than the average bathroom; everything was covered in a thick dark green marble, the hardware a harden silver colour was over the top, as was everything in the Malfoy Manor and it felt as if the warmth had been drained from the room. Draco snuck to the floor and let the tears mix with the scorching water, this was only place he let himself breakdown, away from everyone and everything.

He pulled himself together sometime later and dressed in silence as usual. He apparated, leaving the cold Manor behind without a thought or a goodbye. He knew where he was going before he even got there, he was through the brick wall before it had finished opening. He barely glanced at the filthy wizards sitting in the pub and finally breathed in the air of muggle London. It was stupid for him to go back to muggle London. He was being reckless, he told himself. He didn't seem to care much anymore as his feet touched the stone steps that he had only managed to make it up to the day before. Taking in a shaky breath he opened the door of the coffee shop, a little bell announced his presence, how irritating he thought.

He took in his surroundings with a short glance, as it wasn't very large; the counter at which he figured you ordered from took up most of the space with comically large chalkboards towering behind the overly happy young olive skinned boy standing behind the bulky counter. Tiny tables were crammed into an impossibly small space, that only held a few older women in the corner, a young man with a ponytail sitting by himself, and a person with their face crammed in a book, Draco figured that she was a female. The whole place seemed completely ridiculous to him as he walked towards the grinning boy.

"Good afternoon Sir, what can I get you today?" The grinning boy asked Draco before he had even reached the counter. He now looked up at the chalkboards that were filled with different coffees, teas, lattes and something called a cappuccino that Draco had never heard of before.

"I'll just take a coffee, regular, coffee." Draco said hastily, looking up at the daunting boards.

"Alright, that will be all for today?" The boy punch at a machine that made horrible beeping noises; Muggles were extremely abnormal.

"Yes, yes, that's everything." He wanted to get out of this weird shop as soon as possible.

"So you own me £8.65." He grinned largely at Draco, as he started looking for his money and handed him a galleon. The boy blinked at him in confusion. "I'm sorry Sir, we don't accept arcade tokens."

"Arcade token? What is an arcade and why would I need a token for it? This is a galleon!" He sneered at the boy who was now looking at him like he was crazy.

"Here Sammy, it's on me, he's just messing with you." He heard a voice laugh from beside him. Astoria, stood beside him, her hair was wildly braided he noticed as she handed Sammy a paper of sorts. Sammy smiled admiringly at her as he handed Draco a cup.

"Do you know him?" Sammy turned his attention to Astoria and Draco felt annoyance creeping into him.

"Oh yeah, he went to school with my sister."

"What school was that again?" He grinned at her.

"We should really go, I promised Daphne I would feed her cat…" She trailed off, "Come on Draco, lets go, "She said cheerfully and then hissed, "now." Under her breath so Sammy couldn't hear her.

"See you tomorrow," He waved at her as she waved back. Once out of the coffee shop Astoria shoved Draco unexpectedly into the alley.

"What the – " Draco started to yell,

"What are you trying to do? Expose the entire wizarding world!" She hissed at him angrily.

"Do you spend everyday in this coffee shop?" Draco blurted out.

"That's not even the point like – ugh – are you trying to mak – whatever – what are you even doing here?" She huffed, her face was red with anger; it was still pretty even as she scowled at him.

"I wanted a cup of coffee." He said defensibly.

"Yeah great, why don't you get one back in the wizarding world?" She hissed at him, "Muggles don't know what a galleon is, honestly how could you be so dense?"

"I don't need to take orders from a little nobody who doesn't know me at all." Draco fired back.

"I don't care what you do, as long as you don't expose the entire wizarding world while you do it." She sighed and rubbed her forehead, "Just go home, you know nothing about Muggles." She started walking away before turning back to him with an annoyed look, "And IF you insist in coming into Muggle London again, you better trade some of that gold of yours for pounds at Gringotts, pretty boy." She shook her head and disappeared leaving Draco without words in a vacant alley.

Who did this girl think she was? Draco thought feeling tired. That was all he felt after the war, not just tired; exhausted. It was different, he thought, when you are just tired you can wake up the next day, but when you are exhausted, it's in everything you do, every movement you take and every thought that you feel. And that was what Draco felt exhausted, exhausted of this girl who thought she knew everything, exhausted of his life and pretending not to be exhausted. He sighed deeply, and without looking if there were any muggles looking he apparated back to the Manor.
***

Astoria let out a huff once she had apparated back to her home and stormed into her favorite study in their absurdly large home. This study was one of three in their home, but this one was the smallest and the coziest of all. It had a giant fireplace set in the middle that always had a fire going in it and it had giant windows that faced their back gardens. Daphne Greengrass, her sister, who was sitting in the study with medical books surrounding her and only casually looking up when Astoria let out another breathe of air. Daphne's hair was wrapped in a tie knot at the top of her head and baggy clothes draped her tiny body perfectly, she looked perfectly not put together sitting there studying for her healer exam.

"You ok?" Daphne asked her putting down her quill.

"Fine, just – " She bite her lip not knowing if she should mention Draco Malfoy to her sister. It was true that Daphne had distanced herself from Pansy since they had graduated from Hogwarts but they since remained somewhat friends. " - Bothered." She finally said, laying down on the couch and kicking off her boots.

"Is it about mother again?" She asked her as she chewed on the top of her quill.

"Oh no, I haven't spoke to her in two days and no owl has arrived yet." Astoria told her, their mother had gone away to visit their uncle who was living in Ireland, which left Daphne looking after Astoria for the summer since their father would be gone till just before Astoria went back to Hogwarts in the fall on business in America.

"You should talk to her, she means well – ish," Daphne bit her lip looking towards her.

"Yeah, well you're the perfect daughter, Mum never gets mad at you." Astoria sighed; her mother was extremely against Astoria going into the muggle world especially after she had found out about her befriending Sammy, the coffee boy. It was unacceptable for a girl of her stature to be slumming it around with servants, especially muggle servants.

"You know I'm not perfect, I'm just more secretive about my rebellions then you are." She laughed,

"Yeah, sure – sure, Daphne, perfect daughter, medical healer, saving the wizarding race Daphne – rebellious, sure." Astoria laughed and rolled her eyes.

"You're very funny for someone who hangs around muggles all day," Daphne said in an endearing tone and Astoria grinned at her. Her sister's constant acceptance of her made her parents disapproval a bit easier.

"So – er – have you heard much from your old school friends? Like recently?" Astoria eased into her question.

"Mmm, not really. I ran into Tracy last month and her and Goyle are engaged who would have thought right?"

"Yeah, he always was a baboon." Astoria remembered him and Crabbe being Malfoy's bodyguards.

"Yes well, less so now after – " Daphne looked sadly down at her quill.

"I know we shouldn't speak ill of the dead but – " Astoria started,

"Then let's not." Daphne said sharply and looked apologetic for snapping.

"Have you heard from anyone else?" Astoria said slowly.

"Last time I saw either Millicent or Pansy was at that Ball a couple months ago. Millicent seemed ok, Pansy was Pansy. Oh you know, her and Draco they've been inseparable, 'oh he's such a tortured soul', she said, continued with 'how lucky he is to have her by his side the entire way through all the trails,'" She mocked Pansy with an eye roll. "A girl at the school was saying that her cousin works with Pansy at that weird little office she works in, that her and Draco haven't seen each other in months and months and that he wants nothing to do with her. The whole thing is hilarious really." Daphne said chuckling. She had been bullied by Pansy, just like the rest of them had, although Daphne was supposed to be Pansy best friend, if you could call her that.

"So no ones heard from Malfoy then?" Astoria asked curiously.

"I guess not, why are you so curious?" Daphne questioned her lightly.

"I'm not really, I just heard that the Malfoy trails were over that's all." She answered back in an impossibly light tone.

"Yeah, I guess Potter's word is as good as gold right now." Her mouth twisted in a weird way. It was hard for her family to accept Harry Potter as the token golden boy when her parents had supported Voldemort. Not that her parents had been directly involved in anyway, they had managed to stay out of the war because of her father's business' in the America's and their bloodline that was cleaner then soap. Daphne and Astoria had a hard time with the whole thing, especially coming from Slytherin but somehow Astoria had come out more accepting and enthusiastic about muggles then anyone in her family.

"Yes well, I'm just going to go get some food. I'll talk to you later, good luck with the studies." Astoria got up from the couch and made a quick beeline for the exit.

"Stori, careful when you're out in the muggle world ok?" Daphne said quickly as Astoria nodded, Daphne went back to her book. Once out of the she checked her bag for money. It was empty, mentally kicking herself for giving Malfoy her last bill. She would have to stop by Gringott's tomorrow she thought with a sigh.