Chapter Text
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Tuesday 1st July 2025
Harry hated driving.
More than anything really: cooking, food shopping with his Mum as a teen, school, homework, education as a whole and yeah, you probably get the gist.
Why on earth he was the one taking the one hour drive up to Heathrow airport from Camden when the Heathrow Express tickets were down to fifteen quid each is honestly beyond him. Not to mention the monstrosity of the numbers gleaming at him on his touchscreen display: 06:23 AM. A monstrosity because A) Harry is almost never up before the hours flick to double digits and B) Their flight to France is at nine. Which, yes, could give them enough time to do what they needed to do before boarding the flight, but could also make them miss the damn flight. And that is obviously not ideal. Obviously.
He didn't even know what he expected really, accepting Luna and Blaise's request to pick them up on his way to the airport as the three of them live within a 20 minute radius of each other, it was bound to make him lose some precious time, but then again, there's nothing you can do about it now is there? His parents had assured him that your first holiday with your friends (or in Harry's case: extended not-quite-fully-friends friend group) was bound to have quite a few mishaps and dealing with them would be vital for character development. (Really he wasn't sure, just his Dad's words mostly).
The difference though between his parents' first holiday with their friends and Harry's own, is that they didn't even leave the country and considering the fact that Wormtail and Pads both forgot their IDs (freshly eighteen too), the absolute minimum they needed on that small trip, severely worried him.
Another difference though, is the fact that none of his travel buddies (they're not all his friends and therefore refuses to deem them as such) seem to be as dim witted as Wormtail and Pads. And probably not as dim witted as Harry, seeing as he was one of the two who’d stupidly decided to drive despite all the arguments he'd gotten against it.
Well, at least he had entertaining company, what with Luna blasting her newly curated 'Summer 2025' playlist as loudly as his red fiat punto would allow and Blaise openly expressing his hatred for 'Ordinary' by Alex Warren, he could say he was having an alright time. He loved Luna to absolute bits and Zabini has been growing on him since year eight (a friendship they both have to water down in front of Ron and Malfoy –the pointy git– in case they get offended or whatnot) as he's genuinely hilarious and one of the closest classmates to his house. It did start off as convenience but since, they've formed the type of friendship Harry would openly say he cared about. As corny as that is.
Ron, Hermione, Pansy (who wanted Harry to drive 45 minutes out of his way, on top of the drive to Blaise and Luna’s house to pick her up so she could spend some ‘quality time’ with Blaise as the two of them had gotten together a few weeks prior, or in other words asked for an absurd favour), Ginny, Neville, Dean and Seamus had all hopped onto their respective trains to get their efficiently –some of them meeting up beforehand– and according to the notifications Luna's siri had announced not that long ago, appeared to be arriving about ten minutes before themselves.
They should've just gotten the fuckass train. Hermione will never get off his case about timing if they're late.
Just as Harry began to get lost in his thoughts, daydreaming about whatever Hermione could possibly say to him when the arrived in a huffing mess (it was always something new and creative, he had to at the least attempt to prepare) his phone started to violently ring on his car cradle.
"Who is it?" Blaise poked his head forward from the backseat, straining to get a better look at the caller ID which read: bigoted big headed bastard. Blaise snorted and was about to open his mouth to, no doubt about it, call him something along the lines of stupid or petty, but Harry interjected.
"Don't be nosy, stuff it Zabini." Harry sniffed, trying and failing to seem offended but really couldn't give a damn less, (that was exactly what Malfoy was after all), "Luna d'you mind answering it for me? My hands are a bit full."
"Yeah." She swiped 'answer' as Harry heard Blaise mutter something incoherent, he suspected about his 'hands full comment', but he chose to be the bigger person and ignore him.
Harry was about to mumble some kind of greeting but was then side tracked by something he figured will be much more humorous, "Oh yeah Luna, can you play your spice girls playlist for a little bit?" Harry asked as innocently as he could muster when he started hearing rustling from the other line, causing Luna and Blaise to let out a fit little giggles; Malfoy despised the spice girls for some odd reason (all the girls loved them despite being decades late) and Harry personally didn't mind their music. If anything he actually enjoyed it. Not that he was going to go repeating that elsewhere, or anywhere for that matter.
"No."
"Hello to you too Malfoy." He said, very smug indeed.
"Turn that shit off Potter." The drawl in his voice widened Harry's grin.
"Luna would you please turn off your playlist?" Harry snorted, shaking his head exaggeratedly, hoping she got the hint and kept holler playing in the background of their phone call. She did, luckily.
"Did she say yes?"
"Nope."
"I can't hear you. It’s too loud.”
"Yes you can, you're responding to me you idiot."
"Turn it off."
"Nope." This time Harry popped the 'P'.
"Stop being so incre-"
Their bickering was –thankfully– interrupted by an irritated Theo, who in his defence, absolutely loathed waking up early, for a holiday or not, and was unluckily made to hitch a ride with Malfoy. Harry would've stolen a car before anyone even suggested that: something he’d consider a nightmare.
"Stop pestering each other my head already fucking hurts. Hi Luna. Is Blaise there?" His voice sounded positively sleep deprived.
"Yes he is. Blaise, Theo's asking for you." Harry monotoned, rolling his eyes at the fact that Theo refused to even acknowledge him. There was no animosity or tension between them per se, but the fact that they had a little bit of a fling a couple months ago had made quite the shift in their extended not-quite-fully friends friend group and instead of Harry’s weird need to create awkward small talk when they happened to be together –after things ended quite badly he must say– Theo chooses to only talk to him when it’s absolutely necessary. Which is fine, obviously but makes it seem as though there’s tension between them, when there really isn’t (really Harry didn’t even like Theo like that that much anyway and preferred when they were not-quite-fully-friends). He hopes though to fix this trivial –it is trivial– snag over the next couple months since it is rather unnecessary and will presumably attract the attention of other members of their extended not-quite-fully-friends friend group –especially Hermione–. Not to also acknowledge the fact that it will put a damper on his mood daily and therefore his whole holiday.
"Mate, you should've seen how much crap Draco tried to bring along it was fucking ridiculous I swear to you." Theo grumbled and the sound of something suspiciously like a slap echoed through the line.
”I can imagine. He’s like a little girl taking all her toys to her first sleepover.” Blaise snorted, moving his hand to the front of luna’s seat and waving it to photo bomb her selfie.
“Thanks Blaise! Your hand is a nice addition to my photo; it will show that I’m not lonely.” Luna beamed. Both Harry and Blaise spluttered at that albeit being used to Luna’s eccentric statements.
”Draco, what the fuck is wrong with you?”
”Erm,” Harry glanced at Luna who looked concerned, “Is everything okay?”
”The trains to Heathrow aren’t running today. He was checking for fucking Wednesday.” Theo sounded extremely calm for what he’d just revealed as Harry, who shouldn’t even be giving a flying fuck about anyone else now except getting himself and the contents of his car to the airport in one piece, wanted to shut his car window on his neck. Luna sighed and Harry didn’t agree with anything more at the minute. It was 06:47 AM. How on earth were they not on their bloody way? And weren’t they taking the car?
“So, how’re you getting there exactly? I vividly remember you and Draco planning the songs you were to play on your way to the airport.” Blaise voiced exactly what Harry was thinking. Well, except the last bit; he doesn’t, even moderately, remember that conversation as he most probably wasn’t there.
”We fucking were,” Theo scoffed, “But Draco over here got his car keys confiscated!”
“My Father is extremely strict need I remind you-“
”Still your own damn fault.” Theo sounded as though he’d had this conversation a thousand times before.
“So, you’re both stranded?” Luna mused, shaking her head in disbelief.
”We took a taxi to Marleybone to-“
”Why on earth would you choose to go to Marleybone?” Blaise sounded incredulous too, “The hell is there for you?”
”Oh thank fuck you decided to make your way with Harry. God knows how i’d cope with you and Draco’s limited intelligence,” A sound of indignation could be heard through the phone and at the back of the car, prompting a huff of a laugh out of Harry, “We’re here to get the train to Heathrow, as you should know considering you’ve lived in London longer than me, but there’s no bloody trains and now we’re rotting away in McDonalds over those breakfast hash browns.”
The car was silent for a beat; everyone likely trying to think of an outcome of this development where they all make it to Marseille on the same day, well, for the people that can afford to miss a flight and then purchase another one most probably less than twenty-four hours in advance.
“I’m confused,” Luna stage whispered (or what Harry thought was a stage whisper; you could never know if it was on purpose or not with Luna),”What are they doing in McDonalds?”
“We’re here because instead of getting a taxi straight to the airport, which would’ve gotten us there on time by the way, Theo here hypothesised we’d be able to just test our luck with the trains and get to hop on one as soon as we arrived. And anyone who’s brandishing their ample knowledge of trains in London should know damn well that they’re unreliable.”
“Malfoy you can take a breath you know.” Harry snickered, he just really couldn’t help it at times especially when it came to Malfoy. He just felt this sort of joy every time he said something to him he knew would be irritating. He also didn’t know what that said about himself as a person. But that's not the point. Like at all.
"Potter, shut the fuck up." He also didn't know whether the fact he got a thrill out of making Draco react like that whenever he riled him up said about him as a person, but again not relevant.
"No Draco, you shut the fuck up, quit your ranting. Those guys in those hood things are eyeing us down." Theo said the last bit in a whisper.
"Are they those hoods with only the eye slits, where you can't see anything even their neck?" Luna demanded, seemingly involved in conversation yet again. Blaise gave her a look that screamed 'it's not time for one of your little moments'; something Harry had gotten very used to whilst spending a lot of time with their extended not-quite-fully-friends friend group. Or ENQFFFG.
"Yes, why?" Draco sounded as though his mouth were full of hashbrowns. Harry's jealous voice in his head supplied. Oil with a side of potato. Utterly mouth-watering.
"They're going to rob you."
"Luna! Don't jump to drastic conclusions like that, you'll only make Dray panic and then he'll somehow misplace his passport and wallet and then it'll be everyone else's but his issue." Blaise guffawed at his own joke (something incredibly common for him to do but denies it every single time). Harry and Seamus are always the ones to point it out, to Pansy mainly as they'd heavily suspected Blaise's crush on her which would really embarrass him but really, Harry though Pansy found it endearing.
"Firstly, do not call me Dray you imbecile and secondly-"
“Draco I told you to shut the fuck up,” Theo cut in, like he’d already exhausted every ounce of patience he had left for the morning. “This is literally your fault anyway.” Harry heard Blaise make a little noise from the back of the car; Malfoy was not going to like that anymore than the nickname ‘Dray’.
“My fault?” Draco said sharply.
“Yes, your fault,” Theo replied, not even attempting to not sound patronising, “Because you can’t work the bloody train app.”
“I can work the train app,” Draco snapped.
“You checked Wednesday.”
“It defaulted to Wednesday!”
“And you didn’t notice,” Theo said flatly.
Harry let out a snort before he could stop himself. If only he could put Malfoy in his place the way Theo, Blaise and Pansy did.
“Oh, brilliant,” Draco muttered. “Potter’s laughing now.”
“I’m trying not to,” Harry tried to sound believable though he absolutely wasn’t succeeding.
From the backseat Blaise leaned forward between Luna and Harry. “So just to recap– you two took a taxi to Marylebone, dragged all Draco’s luggage with you, and now you’re sitting in a McDonald’s because he checked the trains for the wrong day and you fancied hash browns, something we’d all quite like thank you very much.”
“We are not sitting here because of that,” Draco said stiffly.
“You literally said you were eating hash browns.”
“That’s not the point.”
“It really sounds like the point,” Blaise grumbled.
Luna tilted her head slightly toward the phone. “That’s quite unfortunate.” And if it was anyone else, Harry would’ve said something along the lines of ‘great deduction, wow, who would’ve even guessed that?’ but it’s Luna so he opted for silence.
“Thank you, Luna,” Theo sighed, like she was the only sane person present. (When Harry was literally right there! Like hello?)
“Don’t encourage him,” Draco mumbled under his breath.
Theo ignored him completely. “If someone had just spent three seconds reading the date properly we could’ve already be on our way to Heathrow since we actually would’ve known there were no trains and taken a different route instead of sitting in a McDonald’s at-” there was a pause, “-seven in the bloody morning.”
“It was six when I checked it,” Draco said defensively.
“That does not make it better.”
“You’re acting like you’ve never made a mistake before.”
“Not one that involved missing an entire train that could result in us missing our flight.”
Harry shook his head, really trying to hide his smile as he drove. “You two are unbelievable.”
“Potter, shut the fuck up,” Draco all but growled over the phone.
“No Draco, you shut the fuck up,” Theo said immediately, sounding exhausted. “My head already fucking hurts.”
Blaise laughed under his breath.
“Honestly,” Theo continued, “we could’ve been halfway there if you hadn’t insisted you knew exactly what you were doing.”
“I did know what I was doing.”
“You opened the app, looked at the wrong day, and confidently announced the trains were running.”
“Well excuse me for trusting technology.”
“The technology was fine,” Theo tittered, “The user was the problem.”
“Very funny,” Draco said dryly.
From the backseat Blaise wiped at his eyes. “This is the best thing I’ve heard all week.” Harry thought he was being a tad dramatic; it wasn’t that funny. Although suggesting that Draco Malfoy, a student studying engineering at sixth form couldn’t easily use technology was quite comical.
The car fell quiet for a moment except for Luna’s music humming through the speakers.
Then Luna spoke, thoughtful as ever.
“We could pick them up.”
All four boys went silent.
Harry blinked at the road.
“Absolutely not.”
Blaise leaned back from where he was bracing the edges of Luna and Harry’s seats and seemingly tuned out of the conversation.
”And why not Potter?” The fact that Malfoy sounded accusatory, irked Harry in such a manner that he glared at his own phone where the words ‘bigoted big headed bastard’ glared back at him.
“Because, firstly, your cologne stinks and secondly we’re already on our damn way?” Harry bit out, trying –and failing– to keep any indignation out of his voice. But what can he say? Implying they go all the way to Marleybone to pick them up is downright ridiculous.
"My cologne does not stink Potter, thank you. Just because it isn't purchased from superdrug-"
"Oh shut up." Harry would've –on any other occasion– ended the call right then and there. But, considering the circumstance and the fact that Malfoy had the key to the accommodation they would all be staying in, him missing the flight would be nothing short of detrimental to their whole holiday. His own included.
There was a pause after that, the kind that always meant Draco was gearing up to say something either infuriating or unnecessarily theatrical.
Harry hoped, briefly, that the call would just drop. Blame it on the horrible connection or whatnot.
It didn’t.
“Well?” Draco prodded eventually.
“Well what?” Harry snapped back. Given that they were all practically adults Harry would've just assumed that they could sort the situation out themselves without dragging him into it as if he were some kind of emergency chauffeur.
“Well are you going to help us or not?” Draco continued, tone clipped, like Harry was the one wasting his time.
Harry blinked at the road ahead of him, hoping a storm could suck him up and allow him to wake up at any other point in his life (much like Mike O'Donnell in 17 again).
“Help you how exactly?”
“Oh I don’t know,” Draco replied dryly, “perhaps by picking us up.”
“Malfoy, we’re already on our way to Heathrow. I literally just said this!”
“Yes.” The fuck did he mean yes?
“In the opposite direction.”
“It’s not that far.”
“It is that far!”
Theo’s voice cut in before Draco could respond.
“It’s about fifteen minutes from your route if you cut through Paddington.”
Harry’s eyebrows shot up.
“And how would you know where we are?”
There was a brief pause.
“…Luna shared your location earlier,” Theo admitted. He seemed slightly ashamed but not overall apologetic.
Harry slowly turned his head toward the passenger seat.
Luna gave him a cheerful little wave.
“Oh good,” Harry muttered, eyes returning to the road. “That’s just brilliant.”
Blaise leaned forward between the seats, resting his forearms along the headrests, mirroring his position from not too long ago and shifted around to face Harry, sporting a trying-so-hard-not-to-laugh expression.
“Oh he’s thinking about it.”
“I am not thinking about it.” Harry gave Blaise a withering look that he hoped conveyed just how much he didn't want to have to take Malfoy, Theo and their a thousand pieces of luggage with them to the airport. God knows how much luggage storage they purchased. Harry was restricted to one large suitcase and a rucksack, which was fine with him and almost too much space if he were being honest, but something he'd definitely not be telling the two of them in fear of being bullied over his three-in-one shampoo, conditioner and body wash.
“You definitely are.”
“I’m literally not.”
“You’ve gone quiet,” Blaise pointed out smugly.
“I haven’t gone quiet!”
“You have that face.”
“You cannot see my face!”
“I can hear it.”
Harry opened his mouth to argue that that was absolute bullshit and then shut it again because that wasn’t entirely untrue.
He had, in fact, gone quiet.
Mostly because he’d glanced at the time again.
07:01.
Which was… not ideal.
If they drove straight to Heathrow they would arrive with enough time to check in before Hermione started pacing the terminal and delivering one of her lectures about punctuality.
If they turned around-
Harry groaned softly under his breath. Yeah, not something he'd like to think about.
Luna tilted her head toward the phone again.
“It wouldn't take that much time.. we could just go,” she suggested, tone light.
“Luna,” Harry groaned much more pointedly, “no.”
“You sound conflicted.”
“I am not conflicted!” Harry was rather confused over this conviction; in no universe ever would he choose to say yes to that request. Him and Malfoy are sworn enemies who are forced to be within proximity of each other first off (that's a story for another day) and him and Theo haven't spoken nothing more than a few words to each other since their epic falling out over their failed fling. So yes, maybe he is being a little bit selfish -when is he not, honestly- but there is no way he's enduring a car ride that bloody awkward if he can avoid it.
“You are a little conflicted,” Blaise chimed in.
Harry shot him a look through the rear-view mirror.
“Whose side are you on?”
“Oh I’m not on anyone’s side,” Blaise replied breezily. “I’m simply observing.”
Draco cleared his throat down the phone, impatience bleeding through the speaker.
“Potter.”
“What?”
“If you’re quite finished arguing with your passengers-”
“They are not my passengers.” He wanted to add another 'shut up' in there for good measure but Malfoy beat him to it:
“-we are still waiting for an answer.”
“You already have one.”
“No, you gave us a complaint.”
“That was the answer.”
Theo exhaled loudly.
Harry drummed his fingers against the steering wheel.
This was ridiculous.
Utterly ridiculous.
He’d left his house at six in the morning to avoid complications like this and somehow he’d still ended up right in the middle of them.
The satnav chimed politely and an exit toward central London appeared on the screen.
Harry stared at it and must've been very obvious because Blaise noticed immediately.
“Oh my god.” He all but shouted, startling poor Luna out of a daze.
“Blaise, there’s no need for that reaction,” Luna murmured calmly, blinking at him like she'd been sleeping for ages. Which Harry was sure she hadn't been.
“There absolutely is,” Blaise insisted, leaning forward between the seats with the sort of triumphant enthusiasm Harry normally associated with people who had just uncovered a very good secret, nothing like this crap, “He’s thinking about it.”
“I am not thinking about it,” Harry returned immediately, eyes still trained stubbornly on the road ahead. Now that he thought about it, maybe the glasses his Mum had recommended he purchase would do him some good since the ones he's got on his head now were about three years old, which-
“Yes you are,” Blaise said, far too pleased with himself. “You’ve got that look.”
“What look?” Harry snapped.
“The one where you pretend you’re not about to do the responsible thing,” Blaise explained breezily, wriggling his eyebrows as he did so. For what reason, Harry wasn't sure.
He scoffed, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. “I am not pretending anything. I’m driving myself, Luna and you to the airport. That is the only thing happening right now.”
On the other end of the phone, Draco made a soft, skeptical noise.
Theo, sounding just as tired as before, muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “Can't he just fucking say yes.”
Harry rolled his eyes so hard he nearly missed the turning entirely, the satnav chiming again with polite insistence as if it too had decided to weigh in on the matter. The universe was clearly not in his side today.
“Potter-”
“Don’t say anything,” Harry warned.
“So you are coming?”
Blaise grinned, probably wanting to make a dirty comment or something. Or-
“So you’re saying yes?”
Harry stared straight ahead, resigned.
“…yes.” So much for all that supposed stubbornness his Father and Uncles claimed he got from his Mother.
~~~~~
"Who is it Luna?" Harry stuck his hand out the window to apologise to the red lorry he -might've- stolen a parking space from, "I'm trying to park."
Luna supposedly didn't hear him