1
Good morning New York City
Chapter 1:
Draco flipped through the TV channels and groaned. He was laying on the large sofa, in front of his TV, in the living room, a large bowl of vanilla ice cream in one hand and the remote in the other. To any other person he probably looked like he was hanging around, but he was in fact working. It had been three years since he left the magical world, and he didn’t regret it one bit. Here in the Muggle world, with a job as a TV guide journalist, life was actually good.
Flash back (two years and seven months ago)
Draco sat on the roof at Justin Finch-Fletchley’s house lost in thought. It was three months after the fall of Voldemort. Three months after Harry Potter, the savior of the magic world, finally defeated Voldemort and the long war had come to an end.
Draco had been living at the Finch-Fletchley house ever since he began hiding from the magic world - the world that looked at him with fear, hate and disgust. He was spying on Voldemort at the time of the war, but to many he was still his father’s son. Draco couldn’t blame them; after all, the resemblance between them was too much to bear, and his father was a cruel man that had tortured almost every family that didn’t swear allegiance to the Dark Lord and his followers.
So when Justin offered Draco the chance to stay at his house in the Muggle world for a while, Draco took the offer with both hands. He and Justin had become really good friends during the war, especially when they discovered they both shared the same sexual preference. They never become more than that, though; maybe it was because of the war, or maybe it was simply the fact that they were two completely different people, but the two best friends never crossed the line between friendship and love.
“Penny for your thoughts,” came a voice from behind him, bringing him back from his pensive thoughts. Justin climbed from the window, holding two mugs of hot coffee. He gave one to Draco, who took it with a grateful look and held it for a while, letting the heat warm his freezing hands before taking a little sip of it. He then answered Justin’s question, “I just wish I could stay here forever.” Justin give him a funny look and asked, “You want to live on the roof,Dray?I don’t know, wouldn’t you get awfully cold up here? Your ass would feel like ice lolly.”
Draco gave him a friendly smack on the head and answered, “No, you moron, you know what I meant.”
Justin smiled, “Yes, I do, and Draco…”
“What?” came the soft reply.
“You can.”
Draco gave a bitter laugh, “No, I can’t. I need to find a job and move on with my life.”
“Draco, you can...”
“No.” Draco cut him off, “There is no way I’d let your family support me. I mean support me more than they have to, because they’re obviously supporting me now.”
Justin sighed, “For someone who didn’t get sorted in to Gryffindor you’re awfully proud, you know? But that doesn’t mean you need to go back to the magic world; you can work in the Muggle world…”
“Oh, yes...” Draco cut him off again. “Doing what, exactly? I don’t have any degrees here. I didn’t even go to elementary school, not to mention high school or college. Who on earth would want to hire me?”
“My father’s friend,” came the short answer.
“What?” Draco was taken aback by this.
“ Yes, my father’s friend. He’s an editor at some Muggle newspaper here in England. Anyway, he decided to resign because he wanted to return to his hometown ofNew York, and start publishing some revolutionary TV guide magazine. He is looking for fresh, shrewd, bright, young people for journalism jobs and my father recommended you.”
“Really?”
“Actually his exact words were, ‘I never met anyone that could kill you with a couple of statements like this young man’.”
Draco smiled. “I guess he didn’t completely get over our first meeting.”
“That’s a total understatement; he really thought you were the devil when he first met you.”
Draco chuckled. “So I guess it’s a good thing he doesn’t know I really am capable of doing just that with less than a couple of statements.”
“Yes, good thing indeed.”
It’s true that at first he was a little worried that he couldn’t handle the job, considering the fact that he didn’t know anything about the television industry, and the first and only time that he had actually watched TV was at Justin’s house, but he soon found out that he had nothing to worry about. All he needed to do was watch some shows and write what he thought about them. Apparently people loved to read his cynical come-backs about the shows he watched. He even got some fan letters from time to time, (especially from women) telling him how they enjoyed reading his articles and how they thought he was brilliant.
Yes, life is good, Draco thought to himself, except there is nothing worth seeing on that goddamn TV.
He flipped again and luckily this time one of his favorite shows was on-‘Days of our Lives.’ He smiled as he started watching the dramatic lives of Hosting, Semi, Hope and their other friends from Salem.
Just then the door of the apartment banged open, and Kelly, his roommate, entered muttering to herself. “That bitchy old lady! Who the fuck does she think she is?” She crossed the living room still muttering, this time in an old British accent (apparently to imitate the old lady she was talking about).
“Oh, no, no. Don’t be ridiculous. Puffy doesn’t drink regular water, only mineral.”
“What was that?” Draco asked leaning on the sofa, so he could watch Kelly as she came out from her room after changing into something more casual. Kelly climbed on to the sofa, took the ice cream from Draco’s hand and started eating.
“Just some really, reallyyyyy annoying lady at the store today. Don’t you just hate those people who think that just because they can afford an Armani suit for their dog they can treat people like shit?”
“Oh, yeah. Those people are really something.” He nodded and thought to himself, what would Kelly do if she knew he had been one of those people not so long ago? He sighed. I was really fucked up back then.
“What was that?”
“What? Oh, nothing,” he replied quickly. “You just made me miss the part when Jena discovers that she is not Hope.”
Kelly frowned. “Didn’t you just watch this episode yesterday?”
“Yes, and your point is…?”
She rolled her eyes. “Never mind.”
They watched the rest of the show in silence, until the commercial break when Draco caught the sight of green eyes on the screen. He tried to switch quickly to another channel before Kelly noticed that Harry Potter and his non-stop commercial were on the air. AGAIN.
“Hey, switch back, it’s Harry.”
Damn! He wasn’t quick enough.
“So I noticed,” Draco said in dry voice.
“So switch it back. I want to see the commercial,” Kelly pouted.
“You’ve seen it already.”
‘For the one-hundredth time’, he muttered to himself.
“Yes, and your point is…?” Kelly answered him with the same reply he’d just given her.
“Oh, come on, Draco. I just miss seeing him so much, you know, especially now that his late night show is off.”
“Yes. You and the rest of the U.S,” Draco grumbled.
“Except you. You don’t fancy him at all. In fact, it’s like you hate him or something.”
Draco gave her a strange look. “Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t hate him. I don’t even know him,” he barked out.
“Okay, okay. You don’t have to be so grumpy.”
“What’s so great about him anyway?”
“Um, I don’t know. I guess Harry is just absolutely divine.” Her voice had changed back to its fake British accent.
“Kelly.”
“What?”
“Your gay British accent is even worse than you regular British accent.”
“Oh, like yours is any better?”
Draco turned to face her, raising one eyebrow.
“I believe it actually is,” he said with his perfect accent.
“Show off.”
Draco look amused.
“Why? Because I’m talking the way I always do?”
Kelly frowned “You…” But she never finished saying what she thought Draco was, because just then the commercial break ended. Draco hushed her and returned his attention to the show.
They had just finished watching the scene where Semi listens to a conversation she isn’t supposed to hear when Kelly spoke again.
“Oh, that reminds me.” she stood up and walked out of the room, still talking.
“You got some mail fromHot95.” She turned back from her room and gave him the envelope.
Draco took it, a suspicious look on his face. “Why does that scene remind you that I received a letter fromHot95
He looked at the envelope. “Kelly, did you read the letter?”
Kelly gave him a hurt look. “I am shocked. How can you think I would do such a thing?”
“Because the envelope is open.” He took the letter out from the envelope and unfolded it.
“So it still doesn’t mean I actually read it.”
Draco frowned. “It has coffee spots all over it,” he paused and sniffed it, “and it has your perfume smell as well.”
“Okay, okay. I read it, but come on, Draco it was from Hot95. How could I not?”
Draco chuckled. “You mean: I am Kelly Tomas, how could I not?”
Kelly dismissed him with her hand. “Yes, that too. So what does it say, what does it say? I am so excited!”
Draco gave her a funny look. “You ALREADY read it.”
“I know. I just got caught up in the moment.”
Draco scanned the letter. “They’re offering me a job as a broadcaster on the morning show, oh my god! I don’t believe it! That’s so cool.”
“So you’re going to take it?”
“Are you kidding me? Of course I am going to take it!”
“Alright!” She jumped off the sofa, looking totally enthusiastic.
“Excuse me, but what are you so happy about?”
“Now you can ask Harry to the show and then I’ll meet him.”
“Oh, I hardly think that I get to pick out the guests for the show. Even if I did, I don’t think I would choose to invite him.”
Harry sat on the spinning chair in his agent’s office. The chair was turned so that Harry was facing Brian, his agent, who was pacing the room back and forth, instead of the big desk that was covered with so many papers you could barely see it.
Brian looked frustrated and he kept muttering unclear sentences as he paced the room.
Harry, on the other hand, looked pretty relaxed and slightly amused. He played with a little ping pong ball throwing it up and catching it. He didn’t even bother to looked at it, his eyes fixed on Brian as he moved.
“Would you stop that? You’re going to make a hole in the floor.”
Brian just glared at him and kept pacing the floor. “I’ll stop when you tell me it’s just a big joke.”
Harry sighed. “It is not a joke; I already accepted the offer. I just need you to read the contract so I can sign it.”
“But why?”
Brian stopped pacing and moved to his desk, and Harry spun the chair to face him.
Brian stood in front of his desk and looked through the papers on it. “Of all the offers you’ve received – HBO, NBC, FOX …” Brian threw every single in front of Harry’s eyes as he spoke, “You choose a fucking broadcast at a radio station! It’s way out of your league, way out!”
“It’s what I want,” Harry said, crossing his arms stubbornly.
Brian sat in the chair in front of the desk that was opposite to Harry. He sighed as he lowered his head, placing his hands on his forehead. Then, just remembering something, he suddenly stretched again and reached under the desk.
“Oh, how could I forget?” he said as he opened a drawer to pull out another package of papers .
“This just came this morning.”
“What is it?”
Brian handed him the papers and Harry took them, narrowing his eyes.
“Read it,” was all Brian would say.
He came to stand behind Harry, looking at the pages as Harry read them.
Harry scanned the pages “I don’t believe it! An offer to play a main character in Steven Spielberg’s new movie?” he said as he read through it.
“You better believe it.”
Brian grinned and seemed to relax a little now that he had Harry’s attention far away from all thoughts of radio.
“And did you see …?” Brian paused as he turned a couple of pages. He stopped at one of them and pointed at the line where his salary was written -$20,00000 on it “That?” he finished, smiling like he had just won the lottery.
Harry looked stunned; the bid was definitely appealing, but he forced himself to concentrate on what was more important right now. So shaking his head he said, “I don’t want it.”
“What?!” Brian was all but screaming.
“What do you mean, you don’t want it? Do you realize how many actors get this kind of offer for their first movie? I will tell you how many!”
He lifted one finger.
“One. Just one, and he is standing right in front of me.”
“Brian, I don’t want it. I am going to take the radio offers and that is my final decision.”
Brian raked a hand through hair and turned around to start pacing the room again. “Brian …” Harry said, trying to grab Brian’s hand to stop him. Brian yanked his hand from Harry’s touch, but turned around again to face him.
“You are crazy, you know that, to turn down that kind of offer. Don’t you get what it can do for your career? It can take you to the next level Har’. You will be more famous than you ever dreamed.”
“But the thing is, Brian” Harry said in a soft voice, “that I didn’t dream it; I didn’t want it all. You dreamed it, remember? Remember how this,” he gestured to the room with his hand, “all started?”
“Of course I remember; how can I forget?”
Flashback: (two year ago)
Harry walked back to his hotel; it was 8 p.m and he felt exhausted. He had spent all afternoon and most of the evening checking apartments but couldn’t find any that suited him. Either the apartment was too creepy or the rent was too high for him.
He was tired and frustrated; it was his second week here in L.A. and he was getting sick of the hotel room. As he walked he noticed a little bar and deciding he really needed a beer, he entered.
It was very nice inside; it reminded him of the Three Broomsticks so when the bartender asked him what he wanted, he almost said a Butterbeer, but he bit his tongue and replied smoothly, “A beer, please.”
As he waited for his drink, he looked around the bar, and that was when he noticed a familiar blond talking on his cell phone not too far from where he sat.
‘Could it be? Justin?’
The bartender gave him his drink and Harry walked to where Justin was sitting. He reached him just when Justin was about to finish his conversation. Harry, standing behind Justin, just managed to catch the end of it. He heard Justin ask the person on the other line, “Are you sure you can’t come ?” There was a pause while he waited for the other person to answer, then he said: “ Okay, so some other time then. Bye, sweetie.” Another pause, and then he chuckled and said: “I know, I know bye-bye.”
Harry made a little sound, and Justin turned around. Harry could see the emotions run across his face, confusion changed to overwhelmed, and then to happiness.
“Harry oh my god, what are you doing here?”
Harry smiled; it was very nice to meet a friendly face among the entire strangers.
“Just thought I needed a change of surrounding, you know.”
“But L.A. isn’t a little change of surrounding.”
Harry shrugged, and preferring to ignore the implied question, asked one of his own. “So what are you doing in L.A.?”
Justin knew that Harry was just trying to change the subject, but didn’t press him; he knew Harry well enough to know when to keep his nose out, or get burned. But then again you didn’t need to be close to Harry to know that; after the war everyone knew that an angry Harry meant nothing but trouble.
“Doing business, what else?” he answered simply.
“You work here in the U.S ? Do you mean you live here?”
“Hmm... yes, why?”
“Are you by any chance looking for a roommate? Cause I’ve been here for two weeks now and still can’t find a decent place.”
“Harry, I would love to have you as a roommate.” Harry eyes lit up.