Author's Note:

Wow, here I go. My first fanfic. You'll have to forgive my chapter title. Aftershock of the 3rd movie. I was supposed to write a Hermione/Draco fanfic thing but I haven't formulated a proper plot for them yet, not to mention I'm kind of a rookie where the Harry Potter series is concerned so I decided to stick with what I know. Hope I do the real thing justice. Apologies to New Yorkers as I'll probably get a bit of the geography wrong. Would gladly welcome help with directions (and probably some of the Latin too) Appreciate any and all reviews. Thanks for reading!

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THE MUGGLE WAY

Something wicked this way comes

He brushed past her nonchalantly.

Sierra Davenport was knocked slightly to one side and glanced up briefly but she was too busy rifling over her papers to be offended or to register that one such as he should not be in such a place in the first place. “Oh, hello, Malfoy,” she muttered carelessly before she went on with her business.

Draco Malfoy stopped in mid-stride as soon as he passed her and looked back, his forehead creased. He wasn’t aware that he knew anyone in the building. He wasn’t aware that he knew anyone in the country. “Do I know you?” he prompted haughtily.

Sierra slowed down in walking, seeing nobody else in the hallways. She turned around questioningly. “Sorry?” she asked.

“How do you know who I am?” he asked. Draco was certain everyone in the magical world would be aware of who he was but not in the muggle world. Certainly not in such an unfamiliar place such as this.

She blinked at him skeptically. How could she notShe thought and then realized he probably didn’t recognize her. Of course. She just shrugged plainly. “Uh, we went to school together,” she said as-a-matter-of-factly. “Hogwarts…?” she supplied.

Draco raised an eyebrow. She knew about Hogwarts. She was a witch then. But she didn’t look the slightest bit familiar. And what was she doing here? In a library. In America.

“I’m Sierra Davenport—well, Willowbrook if you wanna get technical,” she relayed. She narrowed her eyes when he still looked vague. “I was a Slytherin too,” she informed him. “Only we didn’t quite move around in the same social circles.”

He blinked. “Oh.” Then he nodded in affirmation. She would be. He’d hardly bothered in getting to know the other students back then anyway, even in his own house. As long as everyone knew who he was, if he knew them was irrelevant.

She watched him strangely. He seemed to still be trying to get his bearings. “Uh are you lost or something?” she asked.

He blinked at her again then shook his head firmly. “Of course not,” he replied. “I was just—looking around,” he fibbed unconvincingly with a nonchalant shrug.

“In the…library…?” she prompted, giving him a curious look and a once over. Draco Malfoy was casually dressed, as if he should be outside, in his neat, crisp clothing, looking very much like a young British aristocrat, the same as she remembered but slightly older. Apparently, he’d grown into his looks. Same white blond hair, pale gray-blue eyes. Sierra remembered quite a lot of girls fawning over him at school, not so many years ago. She would imagine they still did now and more so. Draco shot her an offended what-do-you-care-it’s-my-business look.

She raised her hands up in defeat quickly, as well as she could with her arms full of books and loose pieces of papers. “Fine, fine,” she backed away. “Shutting up,” she said then went on her way.

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Draco watched her leave, still frowning. It didn’t please him to be as disoriented as he was. It certainly didn’t help his reputation—or the reputation he was going to have to manage while he was here. He kicked at the side of a bookcase frustratedly then his eyes widened in dread as the bookcase shook as if to tip over. At the tip of his tongue was Immobilus! his hand fumbling in his pocket for his wand, but then he bit his tongue as he remembered, No magic. Upon his aunt’s request, his wand was still tucked away safely inside his suitcase that he hadn’t even bothered to unpack back at the manor.

Fortunately, only several books toppled down from the bookcase, not the whole thing itself, disturbing the layer of dust on the floor. Draco groaned in distaste, then looked around cautiously too see if anybody had seen him before he continued walking down the hall, ignoring the books scattered on the floor.

If only Veronica hadn’t been particularly persistent that Draco and his mum come to America to meet her mother’s relatives, he wouldn’t even be here in the first place. But apparently making nice with the future-in-laws was imperative if the union of the two wizard bloodlines was to be successful.

Draco rolled his eyes. If only Veronica wasn’t such a whiny, spoiled little prat, it wouldn’t have been necessary for him to duck out on her and therefore find himself lost in the middle of mudblood country. His only hope was if Veronica happened to step into the library to find him. Much hope with that, he thought knowingly. He himself had only mistaken this building for a museum before he realized it was more like a damn labyrinth.

He made a face as he passed rows and rows of dust-collecting books. He didn’t know how these pathetic little muggles managed to even find a book in the midst of all this without a spell or a summon. He shook his head to himself in ridicule wandering into another section of the library where there were bookcases as tall as the ceiling, rows of desks, and muggles quietly reading.

Draco realized, the perpetual frown on his face deepening, that he might actually have to speak to one of them to ask for directions. Then he spotted that girl from before and casually stepped behind another bookcase to be out of plain sight.

She was seated at a table across the room, looking very comfortable, looking very much like a regular muggle, and looking very busy reading books and taking down notes. He couldn’t fathom why any witch would possibly want to live in such a non-magical world as this.

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Sierra was busy. She wasn’t anywhere near done with this research, was on flunking alert from class from way too many absences, on firing alert from her part-time job, something she couldn’t very well afford since she was also flat broke.

But even though there were times she wished she was back in London where she lived with her mom before the divorce—London, where everything was in order, everything taken cared of, everything to be done a certain way, everything neat as a pin—Sierra absolutely loved New York. She was born here and found most of the qualities of city living in the free world to her advantage.

Over here, most nobody cared about anybody else’s business, which suited her present needs very well. And this week was turning out to be worse than she thought but it could easily get worse any minute, which was why she needed to finish this research as soon as possible. Her forehead creased at her reading.

…and the armor of snow shall shine…woe to the dragon for his banishment hastens on…

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a speck of white move and glanced up to see Draco Malfoy stepping back warily from a tall bookcase from which several books seemed to have dislodged and were looking to make a drop right on top of him. She looked around suspiciously with a crease in her forehead as these New York Public Library bookcases were the heavy oak types, especially these ceiling-high ones in the reading area, adding to it the ton of books it shelved should’ve made it impossible to move—by muggle standards, that is.

Sierra cautiously slipped her wand out of her backpack, pointed it at the direction of the bookcase and called out her spell. ”Pristinum status incognito!”

Instantly the books went back to their original state.

“Sssshhhh!” came the automatic disapproving hiss of the librarian and Sierra winced. But then she looked around the room to see if anyone else had seen what had happened and smirked in satisfaction when nobody seemed to notice or seemed to care that a whole bookcase would have toppled over in the room where the bookcases were spaced only a few meters apart and would have therefore all come crashing down domino-style if even one tipped over. She slipped her wand back into her bag and continued with her reading.

After seven years in Hogwarts, then going back to the “real” world, the divorce, other exasperating aspects of life like college and other worldly problems quickly took over Sierra’s life. There was just hardly the proper place for magic amidst the cramming and midterms and traffic and being broke. Apart from the occasional time to do chores when magic came indispensable, she’d easily gotten used to the muggle way of doing things again. Magic was a tiny comfort in the modern age.

Not to mention the rule to keep a tight lid on magic recently. The Ministry would most certainly not be happy to know she was practicing magic in public places again. But then again, Sierra rationalized, nobody cared. She was sure anyone who might have heard her spell earlier would have assumed she was just babbling or talking to herself. But then there was a stir in the magical communities in the city—the Diagon Alley of New York in the East Village. Something was up. Sierra just didn’t know exactly what.

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Author's Note:

(sigh of relief) Aaahh! How was that? Comments please!

Thanks to my sister for doing beta on this chapter. She's more advanced in the Harry Potter ladder of fanfic writing than I am.
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