"Draco? You finally decided to come out? I haven't seen you once during the entire holiday!"
The girl wore a sun hat and sunglasses and carried a light-pink handbag. Dressed in a white dress, she stood prettily before him, her voice filled with a mixture of irritation and delight.
Her outfit was rather glamorous, as though she were preparing to attend a grand banquet.
"You must have been confined to your house throughout the holiday. Whether I went out or not, you wouldn't have seen me."
"You could come to my house," Pansy said softly.
"Or I could come to yours."
"I get the feeling you're heading to a party," Malfoy remarked, pretending not to hear her.
Malfoy certainly did not have any spare time for entertainment. As for Pansy visiting his home, that was even more unrealistic.
Malfoy Manor had long since become a base for Dark Wizards, Werewolves, and Vampires from all over the world. Lord Voldemort could appear there at any moment, making it hardly an appropriate place for a date.
As for the ancestral home of the House of Black, even Malfoy himself had never returned there during the holidays.
"Of course! I've been bored at home all day. Now that I've finally managed to go out, I have to dress up properly."
Pansy rolled her eyes at him and pouted slightly, her tone half-complaining and half-annoyed.
Boys generally did not care much about beauty—or at least, they were rarely interested in the process of pursuing it.
"Why do I feel like you've lost weight?"
Pansy suddenly raised her head and frowned as she examined him closely.
Malfoy did not seem particularly different, except that he had grown taller and thinner. He was still wearing the same old-fashioned robe.
The dark-green robe no longer fit him properly as his body had changed.
"Let's get some new clothes first. This robe needs to be replaced," Malfoy said.
With the new school term approaching, it was time to prepare some new supplies.
New robes, new textbooks, replacement crucibles, and even new wands for those who had lost theirs. Many consumable items also needed to be replenished or upgraded.
The two walked along the cobblestone street.
The midday sun had heated the stones beneath their feet. As they moved forward, Pansy looked around and noticed how deserted the area was. Only an occasional figure hurried past.
"Things haven't been very peaceful lately," Pansy said softly, gently kicking a pebble away.
"Yes."
Malfoy sighed, though the meaning behind his words was far more complicated than the girl's simple complaint.
He knew much more about the situation than she did, but he had neither the ability nor the necessity to stop it.
Soon, they arrived at a shop with the words Tuofan Clothing Store written in black ink on the sign above the entrance.
"Two well-fitting, formal robes. One for a man and one for a woman, both in Slytherin colours."
Malfoy lightly tapped the counter.
The shop was filled with fabrics in a variety of bright and dark colours.
"All right. Please allow me to take your measurements first."
The shopkeeper stood up and tapped the counter. A measuring tape immediately sprang out from beneath it.
The enchanted measuring tape quickly extended, winding around their bodies and measuring their figures.
The shopkeeper then selected two pieces of dark-green fabric. With the aid of magic, she began cutting them, while dark threads flew rapidly up and down with every stitch.
Before long, two well-fitting robes had been completed. They were unfolded and laid across the counter.
"Still this boring colour."
Pansy stared listlessly at the dull black-and-green Slytherin uniforms before her and sighed.
"Aren't we going shopping?"
"There's nothing worth seeing. Let's go home."
Malfoy's tone carried a clear warning.
"Oh."
The girl looked somewhat disappointed.
"Florin Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour is closed."
Malfoy seemed to know exactly where she wanted to go and rejected her first suggestion in advance.
"A bookstore would be fine too. Could you help me choose some books? I might need a few supplementary texts to broaden my knowledge, right?"
The girl immediately changed direction towards the bookstore.
"This one… this one… and this one…"
Malfoy quickly selected several books that would generally be useful to a girl and finished in the blink of an eye.
Pansy's stalling tactics had failed.
Without her noticing, Malfoy slipped a piece of chocolate from his sleeve and ate it.
He tried to appear less rigid while pressing his temples, attempting to alleviate the unbearable dizziness.
"Let's look around a little longer."
"All right. We can wander around a bit more."
Malfoy glanced at the sky. There still seemed to be some time left to waste.
Halfway down the street, Pansy was attracted to a general store called Fantas Grocery Store.
Its signboard was tattered and appeared to have been made from old, bent pieces of straw stuck together.
Several stalls had been set up outside the shop, displaying all kinds of unusual trinkets.
There were alarm clocks shaped like roses that simulated the changing stages of a flower.
In the morning, they appeared fresh and vibrant, their buds on the verge of opening. From noon until the afternoon, they burst into fiery bloom. By midnight, they withered and faded, only to begin the cycle again the next day.
There were also hair clips and ornaments that changed colour or shape according to the weather and their surroundings.
After offering a few polite compliments about the trinkets he did not understand, Malfoy moved towards the other shelves.
Clearly, the things that interested girls and the things that interested boys belonged to two entirely different worlds.
A product resembling a toothpaste box caught Malfoy's attention.
Celt Magic Glue! Your perfect household companion, created from a unique blend of Komodo dragon saliva, slug blood, and other adhesive substances. Whether you need to repair torn boots or broken wands, it can easily meet your daily needs!
The shopkeeper hurried over to Malfoy and began enthusiastically promoting the product, which seemed to have been a long-standing favourite.
He was a greasy, middle-aged man with an oily, shining bald head, a thick beard, and a tattered shirt covered in seven or eight patches.
"It can even be used as a trap to stick to a Werewolf's claws while you wait for an Auror to rescue you!"
"If it becomes stuck to your body, please visit St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries immediately."
The glue even came with an instruction manual.
However, perhaps because it was so effective, very few people dared to use it.
A row of glue containers sat inside simple outer casings, each covered with a thin layer of dust.
Malfoy casually waved his hand towards the products.
The stopper of one of the glue bottles suddenly opened. Slippery liquid was squeezed out and drifted towards two wooden tables nearby, spreading along their edges.
Then, as if the edges of the tables had become magnetised, the two tables slammed together and stuck firmly to each other.
"My God! What are you doing? Do you know how much effort it will take to separate those tables now?"
The shopkeeper screamed and rushed over.
"My table!"
Malfoy ignored him. He lightly tapped the wooden table in front of him with his wand.
The table collapsed with a crash, sending the goods scattered across the floor.
"Diffindo!"
Malfoy examined the broken pieces of wood.
Even after being struck by the Severing Charm, the areas covered in glue remained firmly bonded. Despite applying controlled pressure, most of the pieces still refused to separate.
In terms of effectiveness, it was indeed far superior to ordinary sticking charms—and it did not consume any magical power.
"You're lucky."
Malfoy looked at the glue thoughtfully.
"It seems I need to get out more often. Otherwise, I'll miss out on many interesting things."
He had obtained numerous evil spells and objects from the ruins of Dark Wizards.
However, items with this level of practicality were genuinely rare.
Calling him a homebody was not entirely accurate, either. Apart from dealing with the unruly and disorganised factions within Malfoy Manor, he had spent a considerable amount of time surviving in the wilderness.
"Where are the Aurors?! I need to report this! Someone is vandalising my property!"
The bald, middle-aged man quickly fell silent when he noticed several additional Galleons lying on the table.
"I think this amount should be sufficient."
"This is…"
The man rubbed his hands together, clearly wanting to exaggerate the value of the payment and boast about it.
But when he met Malfoy's cold, pale-grey gaze, he immediately shut his mouth.
Temperament was an intangible and seemingly elusive thing.
But it certainly existed.
Especially after spending a long time commanding others, Malfoy had inevitably developed the presence of someone in a position of authority.
Whenever one of the Werewolves or Vampires expressed dissatisfaction, they were struck down by a spell. As a result, a faint, almost imperceptible scent of blood still clung to his body.
He stood close to the top of the power structure established by Lord Voldemort.
After paying, Malfoy placed all the toothpaste-shaped containers of magic glue into his bag.
Pansy carefully selected a butterfly-shaped hair accessory and gently pinned it to her head.
The accessory was light pink and sparkled beneath the sunlight. For a moment, the butterfly seemed to flutter and move.
The two stepped out of the general store and continued walking slowly along the cobblestone street.
Although Malfoy deliberately controlled his pace, they reached their destination in no time.
At the end of the alley, beneath the shadow of a weathered, mottled wall, Pansy waved at him.
"Draco, see you at school!"
There was a hint of reluctance in her voice.
"Goodbye."
Malfoy raised an eyebrow, his expression unreadable.