CHAPTER 19: MUGGLE THINGS AND HOW AMUSING THEY ARE

Hermione tugged Draco up to the front desk and smiled sweetly at the man behind the table, flicking her hair back and leaning on the table with her elbows. "Good morning ma'am, sir, how can I be of assistance today?" The man behind the desk asked, smiling at her. His attention was focused on her, more so than Draco.

Normally, that would have bothered Draco, but he as far too occupied trying to figure out how the place worked to see anything. There were a couple of muggles around the lobby, dragging around huge bundles of suitcases in red uniforms. He watched them do all that by themselves, whereas usually it would have been done with magic, wondering how they didn't get tired already.

Hermione smiled, "well, we just got married, and I wanted to honeymoon in Australia, so my hubby said okay!" she flashed her stupid cursed ring at the man who nodded kindly, "so my hubby and I would like to book your best honeymoon suite and preferably not to be disturbed except for room service." She twirled a strand of hair around her fingers, smiling shyly.

Draco noticed that and dragged his eyes away from the muggles to stand next her protectively, not liking the look the muggle man was giving his wife. The man scowled at Draco and ignored him once more. "Congratulations on your wedding, ma'am. Our best honeymoon suite just so happens to be vacant! How would you like to pay for your stay?"

"Credit card please," she replied, handing over the rectangular card to the man who accepted it graciously.

Draco watched the transaction in confusion, not understanding what had just happened. He looked at the square thing on the desk intriguingly, he knew that the big box like thing and the flat screen thing was something called a box computing thing, that was used to store information and search up information, but nothing else was familiar.

Draco watched fascinated as the rectangular board was put into a bigger rectangular thing. He watched with his eyes wide open as Hermione pressed buttons on one of the rectangular things and then took the board back.

"All right then, I've arranged for a three-day stay in the Midnight Honeymoon Suite, would you like help with your luggage? No? Okay then, please make your way to the eight floor, and here is your key pass. Please enjoy your stay!" the man smiled, inclining his head in respect and passing her another board like rectangular thing.

Hermione grabbed Draco's hand once more and headed to the elevator. "Don't you have to pay for our stay?" he asked, wondering how muggle elevators worked and if they were anything like the ones in the ministry.

Hermione frowned at him before reminding herself that he wasn't familiar with muggle things and allowed herself to grin, "I did pay. This is a credit card, and it contains all my money, when I inserted the card and entered my pin, the machine reduced the required money from my account and put it into the hotel's account."

The elevator dinged and the door opened, they headed inside as Draco digested that news. "You know Granger, that's kind of genius. How come we don't have that at Gringott's? It would make things so much easier if we didn't have to carry all our money around in our pockets when we want to buy stuff!" he grinned, grabbing the card off her and poking at it.

She rolled her eyes and took it back, throwing it into her bag. Draco heard it bounce of something metallic and the undeniable sound of someone groaning and wondered what the hell she had in that bag of hers. And if he honestly wanted to know...it was Hermione Granger after all.

Hermione pressed the button for the eight floor, watching from her peripheral vision as Draco's eyes narrowed as the lift began to slowly go up, until the crazy ones at the ministry.

At first, he thought it would be boring since nothing really happened, and though there was some sort of music playing, it was boring too. But then, Draco discovered the buttons that lit up.

In the end, the ride up to the eight floor took almost half an hour because Draco was having way too much fun pressing all the buttons and watching them light up all different colours. He'd kept pressing the "emergency open" button, making the lift stop halfway up to the next floor and go back down so that he could press the buttons once more and hear the door ding open every time.

The elevator, being machine controlled, kept going back and forth between floor, and Hermione didn't try and stop him. He wouldn't listen to her any way, and she liked to watch him light up every time the machine operated voice said "emergency door opening, going down: one floor." He was having too much fun, and Hermione wasn't keen on ruining his amusement.

When they finally reached the eighth floor, Hermione pulled him out before he had the chance to press something and cause the elevator to go all the way back to the first floor, and instead rushed the only door on the floor, upon which it was written in cursive letters, "Midnight Honeymoon Suite."

She opened the door using the key pass and after ensuring that both Draco and the suitcases were inside too, locked the door tight and let out a small sigh of relief, only to see the room and feel her left eye twitch in irritation. There was nothing wrong with the room itself. It was huge and decorated beautifully, and the view outside of the window was one of a kind, but there was only one bed. Maybe asking for a honeymoon suite had been a bad idea after all?

Draco ignored the obvious distress on her face and looked around the room, nodding in approval at the sight. "I must admit, Granger, muggles know how to live luxuriously." He walked around the huge room and stopped near the plasma T.V on the wall, hesitating in front of it cautiously. Looking at her to make sure it wasn't dangerous, he poked at the black screen, drawing his hand back before he could get bitten or something.

Hermione didn't know whether to face palm or laugh at his action, but the fact that they were now no longer in front of prying eyes, made her relax just a bit, so she smiled at his antics.

"What the hell is this thing, Granger?" he asked turning back to face her, pointing to the television mounted on the wall.

Hermione smiled as she grabbed the remote of the bedside table and turned the TV on. At the sight of the black screen changing colour, Draco scuttles back and sat heavily on the edge of the bed, watching with wide eyes and the once dark screen was now filled with yellow coloured figures running around and talking to each other.

"What the hell is this?"

"That's called The Simpsons. It's a show to watch. And this thing, it's called a television, TV, for short. This is what muggles use to watch things on, when they're bored or need to catch up on things happening around the world." She explained patiently.

She glanced at Draco was now leaning forward from his position on the bed, watching with the expression of a child on Christmas morning. "Muggles invented this?" he muttered to himself, his voice holding awe and slight alarm. "I didn't know that they were that smart!"

Smiling to herself, Hermione changed the channel turning up the volume as a dramatic scene from a show turned up. "Jessica! How could you cheat on me? I thought you loved me! How could you sleep with my brother?" the man on the screen shouted, holding his hands to his heart melodramatically.

Draco stifled a shriek, and almost falling off the bed, pointed at the TV in horror "Hermione, why are the people so small? What happened to them, how did they get trapped inside the belly-pinion?!"

Hermione jumped onto the bed, laughing at his baffled expression, and failing to hide her amusement when that only made him look at her in horror. "Relax, Draco! There's no need to be so horrified, they've been filmed and the video had been broadcasted. It's like a wizard photo, except the muggles made it so it shows things more than just what a photo could." She sat down next to him and waiting to see his face, flicked the channel again.

She wasn't disappointed. As soon as the music came on, he flinched like he still couldn't believe that there weren't people trapped behind the contraption.

"Someday, I'll be, living in a big old city, and all you're ever going to be is mean!"

Draco looked at her, "you know, we need things like this in the wizarding world. How come we don't have belly-pinions and clomputters and crediting cards?" he muttered. She shrugged easily and settled into the bed, enjoying the feel of the silk sheets.

Draco glanced at her relaxed expression and nodded in satisfaction. At least she was calming down now. he turned his focus on the belly-pinion and then at the rectangular thing in her hand that seemed to be controlling the belly-pinion, and in one swift motion, stole it off her, wondering why everything was so rectangular in the muggle world. Did they not know that there were other shapes out there?

"Hey!" she protested half-heartedly, reaching for the remote, but she was enjoying his child like behaviour far too much to really stop him. He poked at one of the buttons and watched as the song disappeared along with the pretty blond lady and instead there were men in underwear punching each other.

Hermione groaned, "how is it that you don't even know how to operate the remote and yet, you land on wrestling? Yuck!" she groaned. Draco ignored her and watched in amazement as the man in the black underwear punched the one in the red underwear in the face.

He cringed when he saw the blood but grinned as the man in the red kicked the man in the black in the stomach, making him doubled over in pain, and then the first man with the bloody nose kneed the second man in the face and broke his nose.

Draco's amazement at the muggle fighting turned to dismay as one of them fell over, looking quite dead and unmoving. There was lots of blood everywhere. "Granger!" He yelled, his voice conveying shock, "what is this? Why are they killing each other? Is it because they're both trapped inside the belly-pinion?" he looked so horrified by it, Hermione couldn't help but laugh at him, he, however stared at her like she was insane.

"He isn't dead Draco, they weren't even hurting each other, it's fake. They're acting it all out!" she smiled as he turned to look at the screen, his mouth hanging open in shock.

"All of that was fake?" he asked incredulously, turning to watch her, "even the blood and the breaking bones and the blood?" she nodded slowly as a look of horrified understanding crossed his face. "And muggles watch this for entertainment?" he asked dubiously.

Hermione sat up and grinned despite herself. "Some do, not everyone enjoys wrestling though, there are hundreds of channels, all with different things to watch and you can pick and choose which one appeals to you." She explained.

Draco was silent for a moment, but then he smiled brightly, surprising Hermione. "That is bloody brilliant!!!" he drew his wand from his sleeve and muttering something under his breath, began to write on his palm.

Hermione scuttled closer and looked over his shoulder, snorting when she read what he'd written so carefully.

Get belly-pinion for manor. Most important.

Seriously, he was like a child, it was almost tempting to show him all the other muggle things that she'd taken for granted and knew all about, just to see him react like to it all.

He pressed another button on the remote and the channel changed to motorcycle racing and he watched it with wide eyes.

Hermione took that time to get off the bed and observe the room that she'd rented for three days. It was like a whole house in one huge room there was an adjoining kitchen and the only other room in the room, led to the bathroom, which was also huge.

Under any other situation, she would have enjoyed the splendour of what was before her, but currently, her mind was focused on the next steps to take from here onwards.

Staying with Malfoy, she had expected things to get a but tough, especially since Rita Skeeter was supposed to be covering the murders, but Hermione hadn't expected things to get so rough already. She'd made preparation in case of a worst case scenario, but none that included dragging Draco Malfoy along with her. All her safe houses were for one person and all the supplies she had would last them all of two weeks with the both of them.

Plus, all the dead ends that she'd lead the Aurors down, meant that more than half of the houses she'd secured for her stay couldn't be used anymore since they were all being watched, the only ones she could access at a moment's notice were in Russia and Canada, but travelling that far through apparition, with Draco was going to take a huge toll on her, her energy would be almost non-existent, and if it came to a fight, she would end up being useless.

And there was no way that Harry would stay away from here for more than a day at the most. He was not always an idiot. She headed inside the bathroom and washed her face with cold water to wake herself up. Things were moving far too quickly for her to handle easily.

"Oi, Granger? Come here for a sec." Draco called from back in the room. Hermione dried her face and made her way to the main room.

Draco had managed to flick to the 24-hour news program and dread crawled into her stomach as she read the breaking news.

"...several reports of missing people from all over the United Kingdom. It appears as though there are no links connecting the fifteen victims of the serial kidnappings and no dead bodies have been found. Most kidnapped victims were taken from the King's Cross Station, and consists of both men and women and several children too. As an ongoing investigation, the police are not releasing any information regarding the event, however, the public have been warned to stay inside after hours and refrain from dangerous activities..."

Hermione grabbed the remote off him and turned the TV off, her heart pounding in her chest. What was going on? Why were there people going missing now? Something was wrong. The moment she was on the run again and Harry was close to catching up with her, the moment she began to depend on someone else, whoever was behind this was changing things up too.

There was no way that people from King's Cross station were going missing without it being a message to her. Why would he take people? Kidnapping didn't fit the profile that she'd built up about this guy.

"Granger?" Draco looked at her. She was biting her lip and her eyebrows were furrowed in deep thought.

"This isn't right. Something's changed." She muttered, more to herself than him. Draco nodded tersely, understanding that she was in her mode right now, thinking about everything at once, like she always did. He knew that expression all too well. He'd become familiar with it during their last year at school together, it was the face she made when something hadn't gone the way she wanted it to and she was making up another plan to fix it.

"Talk aloud Granger, tell me what you're thinking." He prompted.

Hermione looked up and licked her lips, "this doesn't make any sense. So far, all he's done is kill people close to me, and now he's going after muggles too? And kidnapping is not in his profile at all, so he's taking people for some other reason than killing them to place the blame on me." She paused to pace back and forth for a second, her arms crossed.

"I can presume that they were the ones who stole my list of spells, so I can therefore presume that they're testing out those spells then...but why wait until now to do anything with those spells? What's changed...?" she turned to look at Draco and her eyebrows furrowed deeper.

"I see..." she muttered.

"Granger?" Draco asked, looking at her worriedly. Hermione shook her head and smiled at him, the worry on her face disappearing. "Don't worry about it, Draco. I've got this."

She grinned again, but the smile didn't reach her eyes and Draco felt the undeniable feeling of dread seep through him. She wasn't telling him something, and somehow, he knew that this wasn't going to end well.