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sodamnradd · 1 year ago

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Jewelry, rare books, all the opulent gifts he gave her, shoved into a box, sealed with Spellotape, and dispatched to Malfoy Manor. She returns everything but his old coat, then books a one-way Portkey to New York City.

It’s October, and it’s bleak and nobody in Manhattan spares her a smile. She hides her clenched fists in the oversized sleeves of her coat, shrugging off the phantom weight of his arms when he used to hold her in it.

Narcissa warned them everything would change when Lucius returned. But Draco left prison first, and for three years the two of them lived blissfully.

She sees him in the pale blond buzz-cuts of SoHo’s stylists. Who’s running her fingers through his hair tonight? He’s the all-black uniforms of Meatpacking’s hipsters and the tattooed baristas of Greenpoint and the tailored business men of Upper East, slicing through traffic with their ears suction-cupped to mobile phones. At the MoMA she is ferried back to Whitechapel Gallery, holding Draco’s hand as he scrunches his nose at the ‘Muggles’ peculiar talents’.

Weeks pass and seasons shift. London would be worse, she thinks. The sun sets earlier there and everybody recognizes her and––the obvious.

Hermione migrates from one shoebox apartment to the next, subletting whatever’s cheapest. She craves him when her breath frosts the air in her new studio and the heater jams up. She remembers her creaky, old Diagon flat and the way he always kept her warm in soft rumpled sheets.

She visits old bookstores, starts a jazz record collection, and takes up journaling in cat cafes. Her pockets fill with ticket stubs from comedy and drag shows and indie film festivals, celebrating the queer expression.

She feasts on oversized slices of pizza and fat doughy bagels slabbed with thick cream cheese. She thinks of his sweet tooth buying vegan brownies and wishes he could taste the peculiar smoky flavour of a campfire latte. In the back of a yellow taxi, braking so hard it makes her nauseous, she wishes she was on the back of his broom instead. Oh, how he’d laugh at that.

One November afternoon, Hermione dons her favourite coat and sets off to a local pottery class. The city is blurry in the rain, lights warbling; a swish of sound added to every beat of movement.

“Hermione!”

She doesn’t stop when she hears her name. It’s not the first time his voice deceives her. He lives in her head, disguised in the hum of traffic and drawling street conversations and music bleeding through automatic shop doors. It’s an awful trick, and she swallows the lump in her throat as she keeps walking.

“Hermione.”

She looks over her shoulder and the head-spinning pace of the city comes to a standstill.

His shirt clings to his chest, soft blond hair tousled around his temples, and all she can think to ask him is, “Where the hell is your coat?”

Draco looks into her eyes like he’ll lose her if he blinks. “Don’t you ever leave me again.” And then he’s striding forward, grabbing her face between his palms.

His mouth is cold and his hips are sharp and someone blares a horn behind them, but Draco holds her so fiercely it almost feels real.

She shoves him back, looking up into his cool grey eyes. They’re not grey like the clouds or the skyline or the sea, but something entirely different. She’d forgotten what it felt like being trapped in his gaze.

“I’ve been to France and Italy and Australia, searching for you. I was losing my damn mind.”

“How did you find me?”

He tugs on her coat. His coat. “I unboxed the package you sent me, and realised you never returned this rotten thing. You took it with you.”

“I love it.” She shoves her hands into the deep pockets.

“It’s yours,” he says, and she knows he’s not just talking about the coat.

“Your father––

“To hell with Father.” Draco shows his teeth. “To hell with home. To hell with everyone. I just want you.”

She’s shaky all over, her heart just catching up with the turn of events, and all she can think about over the sound of her erratic heartbeat is taking him home to her frigid studio so they can unthaw together.

He’s here. Draco is in New York.

“I have so much to show you.”

“Show me,” he says, drawing her into his arms again. “Show me everything.”

(745 words, cross-posted from twitter)

“I've been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night;

And now I see daylight, I only see daylight…”

#dramione #draco malfoy #hermione granger #draco x hermione #dramione drabble #sodamnraddrabbles #sodamnrad #wantsgmarie

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bunvoyagesarah · 5 years ago

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Malaysia: Langkawi, George Town, & Kuala Lumpur

Langkawi Thursday, March 5 In the morning, I woke up with what I thought was plenty of time to eat before I got picked up to go to Langkawi, Malaysia by ferry. There were some other girls eating, so when a truck came by I thought it was mine and it was 15 minutes early. It was for them, but I knocked my whole plate of food over, breaking the plate and causing my ankle to bleed. The owner of the place got a broom and I went to clean up my foot. I still had time to drink my tea, but then as I came out of the bathroom the guy to pick me up was asking the front desk where I was. I went downstairs with him and asked the girl I was eating with to wash out my tea mug for me, which she seemed happy to help me with after witnessing this fiasco of a morning.

What I didn’t realize when I booked the transportation from Koh Lanta to Langkawi, is that it was mostly drive a few hours drive to Satun, Malaysia followed by about an hour ferry ride to the island of Langkawi, Malaysia. Luckily, there were a couple other travelers in the same boat as me (no pun intended). I made a run to a market for food with my remaining Thai Baht and could barely spend the $10 or so I had. The van then drove us to the Satun ferry terminal, where I was able to spend more of my Baht on a cold drink and snacks for the next few days. We had about an hour to kill, while this lady took our passports and returned them with our tickets. We out our exit stamps as we boarded the boat and then had upon arrival had new stamps placed in our passports.

The usual line of taxi drivers was waiting to pick us up and one gave me what I thought sounded ok, but then he followed and waited for me to get money out of the ATM. While in the ATM line, I got wifi and looked up the price on Grab, which was slightly cheaper. He agreed to that price. He tried to sell me on his all-day tour for the following day, which included going to ride ATV (but not the cost of the activity) while he waited in his car for me.

He took me the hostel and immediately someone came out and said this hostel had new owners and the hostel I was probably looking for was a couple miles away. He drove me there and I paid him. I got all checked-in and a guy from my room told me about the Thursday night market just down the road and people getting drinks later at the hostel. After settling in a little, I walked down to the market and quickly learned how Malaysia truly was different than the rest of Asia with a large Muslim population, as well as the more traditional Asian. I got some mint lemonade, which I thought had a strange after taste, and a pancake/chicken/falafel type thing that I ate wrapped up in paper.

I went back to the hostel and some people were hanging out, along with one guy, who I’ll call Wakanda because he claimed to be from Wakanda and I missed the joke, having never seen Black Panther, so I asked him what country that was. Wakanda offered to go to the store on his scooter and pick us up some drinks. He came back with beers for everyone, and told us some guy left his whiskey in the freezer and left that morning, so we also had that to drink. Before long, there was a group of us, including Fabio from Italy, who coincidentally looks just like a young, blonde Fabio, the actor.

Friday, March 6 I woke up and the owner of the hostel made the best free hostel breakfast I’ve ever had—eggs, sausage, beans, and toast. Normally, the free breakfast is just make your own toast and a weird assortment of jams, so I try not to let a free breakfast lure me into choosing that hostel when booking. But I digress, I ask to extend another night when the owner informs me they are having a barbeque for some of the people that have been at the hostel for multiple weeks and this is now their last night. I then go rent a scooter down the street.

Once on my scooter, I head up to the Langkawi Sky Bridge, which is said to be one of the best things to do in Langkawi. I drive up there and it’s like an amusement park type setup. I have to buy a ticket for the cable car to get up the sky bridge and then another smaller admission price to cross the bridge. This is apparently the thing to do here, so I buy the cheapest ticket, which also includes a ticket to the 3D Art Museum and a dinosaur “ride”. First, I head up in the cable car/gondola to the view point, get off there and then go up to the Sky Bridge. There’s some glass on the pathway of the bridge to look down the 125meters into the trees. There were some good views, but I found it overpriced for what I paid for. From the top of the cable car there’s a nature walk that goes down another 15 minutes that I also took advantage of, despite it being hot and humid in the middle of the day.

After the trip down in the cable car, I went into the 3D Art Museum, which has huge murals on the walls and if you place yourself in the mural and someone takes a picture of you, the mural becomes lifelike. I asked a few different people to take my picture with some of the murals, but there were so many it was hard to keep asking people. Then I went into the dinosaur “ride”. I had no idea what to expect here and arrived just before it set off, but was ushered into a building and then a “van” where I took one of the last remaining seats on a bench. A bar came down over our laps, a door opened, and then a screen had the dinosaurs on it while the van tilted around to stimulate the features of being on a real amusement park ride.

On the way out of this Oriental Park, I saw a bunny petting zoo. I went in there and there must have been 50-70 big rabbits and their bunnies that could be played with. That was pretty unexpected! I then scootered to Temurun Waterfall. It was only about a five minute walk from where I parked to the waterfall. However, there was absolutely no water coming down or through the river bed. Hello, dry season, but at least I tried!

I then drove up into the middle of the island, where at the top of the hill sits a nature preserve called Gunung Raya. It was a scenic ride up that took about an hour with lots of twists and turns in the road and no traffic. The top should have been a lovely view, but I could barely see 50 meters out due to all the clouds. I didn’t even spend five minutes up there before heading all the way back down the other side of the island to where this place called Legends Park was. It was supposed to have some sculptures that told some Chinese legends. However, I never found this park despite driving past it on Maps.me three times. This wasn’t the first time in the past couple weeks that Maps.me had failed me. At this point, I also was getting hungry and wanted to go back to my hostel to book transportation for the next day to George Town.

I arrive back to the hostel, book the early ferry to George Town and go get food and walk along the beach. It soon begins to rain, so I walk back and sit with my last beer from the night before. Soon the guys that had been living there are cooking chicken and making punch for this barbecue. Most of the hostel was there enjoying this late night feast into the wee hours of the night when the punch ran low.

George Town, Penang Saturday, March 7 I got up pretty early to return my scooter and get some food before I was going to be picked up at the hostel. When I arrived at the scooter place no one was there. I tried contacting them through WhatsApp. Finally someone arrived, only to not speak any English and then go off into another business that I assume she worked at. Another 15 or 30 minutes later, someone came that actually worked there. I told him I was just returning my bike and he quickly gave me my deposit back. I just got a muffin from the 7/11 because no other places were open this early and knew the hostel wouldn’t be serving breakfast until 9am and I am supposed to be picked up right at 9am.

Then I walked back to the hostel, hung out for a little bit, and sure enough the owner asks if I want breakfast before I go. It’s the same delicious breakfast I had the day before and I do my dishes all before the driver comes to pick me up right at 9 o’clock sharp.

I’m squished in the backseat with another couple that is traveling long term while this guy drives us 30 minutes to the ferry station. When we get out, he hands us our tickets to George Town. By this point, I have no idea how long this ferry ride is. Some couple recommended flying to George Town from Langkawi because it was half the time for the same price, but I didn’t know until I already had the ferry ticket.

On the walk to my hostel I am seeing how culturally different George Town and Malaysia is. George Town is one of the only places you can find a Hindu Temple, Muslim Mosque, and Christian Church on the same street. I end up walking this row of holy places on my way to my hostel on accident and then see even more temples, churches, and mosques along the way but not as close in proximity. My German friend, Michael that I met in Koh Lanta had studied abroad in George Town so he gave me lots of tips for where to stay and what to see while I was there. I was at Drippin’ Dragon hostel, which were the same owners as the hostel he recommended that I couldn’t get a reservation for called Tipsy Tiger. I arrived and they didn’t have my reservation but honored the booking confirmation I had. I went for a walk to Pinang Peranakan Mansion, which is a home once owned by Chinese tycoon, Chung Keng Quee. The home is dedicated to the Peranakans, which are considered the first wave of Chinese settlers in the Malay Peninsula and Indonesian Archipelago. It was a beautiful home. On the way back to the hostel, I walked around the streets a bit, finding a fair amount of street art that Michael had also told me to look for. I also cooled down with some of the best unique ice cream I’ve had at Coko. Then I had a more substantial meal from a street cart of some noodles.

Back at the hostel, I had some happy hour drinks, which quickly became drinking games with people. Everyone then left for Antarabangsa Bar, which was just a beer store with a bunch of plastic tables and chairs outside. Michael had also hyped this place up a lot, so I was excited to see it with my own eyes. It was hot though. It had to have been after 10pm and the place had over 100 people oozing out of the “bar” and everyone was just sitting, trying not to move, and sweating.

Sunday, March 8 In the morning, I took a bus to Penang Hill, which was supposed to have a good viewpoint. I figured I would hike up this hill, but when I arrived I couldn’t figure out where the trail was because there was this massive cable car station. I did not want to go up another cable car. I walked around and finally found the start of the trail, which they were clearly not advertising. It was entirely uphill for all 833 meters.

I found one other girl hiking up who lived in Georgetown and was a teacher. Within 30 seconds she asked me my age and if I was married, which I laughed at because of the pressure she has in her own culture to get married. I was extremely hot and sweaty and she was wearing an entire headpiece, long sleeves, and long pants. This entire conversation happened at one of our resting points. Then I continued on and never saw her again. I hope she made it to the top though.

After reaching the top, there was a food court I ate and took a rest in. I walked around a little bit enjoying the view. And then I headed down, a different way, a way that would lead me to the Botanical Gardens. It was so much downhill that I’m not sure which way was worse. Both had stairs for the bottom half. Once in the Botanical Gardens, I walked around a bit, but there wasn’t a lot to see except for the well-manicured grounds.

I bought some more water and asked him about the bus, which he said comes just down the street. As he goes to fetch me change for the water, the bus I need pulls into the lot and starts to loop around. I fear I’m going to miss it, and wave him down, but he waves his hand, flashing four fingers at me. Then he stops at the bus stop just ahead. By the time I get there, the bus is closed up and the driver is gone, and I am thinking, “What did he mean by ‘four’?” I turn around looking for the driver, and see him over on a shady bench taking a nap. I look at my watch and see it’s 3:10pm. I realize he meant he’s on break until 4pm. I figure I can walk another kilometer or so and catch a different bus. I wait for that bus for ages but it finally comes and I arrive back at the hostel to a pool party going on, which is exactly what I needed. I change into my bathing suit and get into the decent sized above-ground pool. A lot of people are hanging out until the shade starts to cover the majority of the pool. I get out for a shower and want to go to Chulia Street, where a bunch of food vendors set up shop at night. A guy says we can go together, but I end up waiting so long for him, I just leave without him. He finds me there with some other people from the hostel and we all sit together. I get more Coko ice cream on the way home then rejoin people by the hostel bar. A much smaller crowd goes out tonight and the bar we went to the night before is closed. This place is more of a restaurant turned bar and we were outside in more plastic chairs and one long table of people from our hostel. There’s pretty lights hanging from above and live music just inside the bar.

Kuala Lumpur Monday, March 9 In the morning, I took a bus to Kuala Lumpur (KL). It took some time, as the bus driver didn’t understand the ticket I had been issued by the office. I had to go to a different office and they didn’t understand either but gave me a new confirmation code. Then I was able to get on the bus, got all settled in and then was told I was actually on the next bus that was arriving in 15 minutes. It did not arrive in 15, but 30 minutes from another station in Penang. Finally, this bus left around noon. Once in KL, I got on the metro to my hostel. I stood in this terminal for the metro for a couple minutes trying to figure out which train to get on, when someone came over and gave me perfect directions for the train I was looking for.

It was just as hot in KL and I knew I had plenty of time to chill here, before the weekend in Singapore. I hung out at the hostel before getting some food at the next street over, Jalan Alor, which had dozens of places to eat. I sat back at the hostel talking to the Brazilian couple that worked there before going to bed, calling the day a travel day.

Tuesday, March 10 The hostel was right next to a restaurant where we could order free breakfast of toast or this roti with curry dish. I got the roti dish every day. Then this girl comes up to me and asks about going on a hike today. I said sure, and she found some more to come to share the cost of the grab, but it became an issue as we were sure if it would be open with coronavirus, and we were half waiting on this guy to find his lost room key. By the end of this whole conversation, we end up walking to Chinatown.

On the way there, just outside our hostel, we could see some monkeys playing on the electrical cables and all this commotion. We look up and there is a monkey, not moving in the mess of cables at the pole. A firetruck is now below it, trying to grab this other monkey that is clearly trying to rescue his friend but also not electrocute himself. The fireman pulls the one alive monkey down and when we return the other dead monkey is no longer there.

Things in Chinatown were just opening and all of us had just eaten breakfast. We walked around a bit and Tilly bought some pants and Linus bought a Blackhawks jersey for cheap. We went through another street market and stopped to get smoothies. Then we walked to the Botanical Gardens and sat by a nice fountain for a while before getting a Grab back to our hostel and seeing the National Mosque of Malaysia from the car on the way back. We had talked about going to an infinity pool, which Michael from Koh Lanta had said I should do. We sat in the hostel trying to research free infinity pools for a bit before deciding we were just hungry and we left to Jalan Alor together for food. We ended up getting a bunch of beers and sharing a bunch of seafood dishes and snails. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten with a group of strangers where everyone was so open to so many dishes. It was all delicious and then I went to use the restaurant’s bathroom and saw a huge rat sneak by my foot. It was too be expected of a restaurant row with all their kitchens opening into their outdoor seating, but still I was happy to have been done eating and glad we were in the process of paying. Overall it was a fun, very unplanned day.

In the evening, I met some new people at the hostel bar, which had unlimited drinks for like $11 for an hour as their happy hour special. Then everyone goes up the street, where ladies drink free. All of these places were completely empty though, so after being with this indecisive group standing outside another empty bar, I left and went home.

Wednesday, March 11 In the morning, Tilly, a Swedish girl she met from our hostel, and I set out in a Grab for Batu Caves. It is beautiful with a huge Buddha standing next to this massive ombre colored rainbow staircase.

The staircase was actually quite frightening if you don’t like monkeys. There are four parallel sections of the staircase and I chose the one with the least amount of monkeys, but they run and hop so much between them that it didn’t really matter which one I chose. I have never bolted up a staircase so quickly in my life. I waited for Tilly and the other girl at the top.

This cave is open at the top, but massive and hardly anyone is there as coronavirus looms more and more each day. We don’t spend too long in the cave before heading back down, taking some pictures with the cool stairs in the background, and then walking the grounds.

Tilly had heard from her friend that the place to go for an infinity pool is Aloft Hotels. We then head straight there. We weren’t guests but had heard no one checked at the pool, so we walk straight up to the escalator and take the elevator to the top floor which opens up into the pool. We all change and I laid my towel down in the shaded chair. It was another hot day in KL, so the pool felt great. We hung out there the rest of the afternoon, getting lunch from the restaurant inside. Once it started to rain and cooled off around 5:30pm, we went back to the hostel.

The Brazilians, Cristina and Rodrigo, that I had hung out with the first night at the hostel, invited me to go to this bar with them, which I did. First, we went to a nice cocktail, rooftop bar with an amazing view of Petronas Twin Towers. It was pretty empty when we first arrived so we were able to get a good spot to soak in the view. By the time we left, it was pretty full. While a lot of people recommend Heli Bar to see the Towers, you do have to pay to get in there and get one free drink. This bar, Vertigo Bar was free, arguably nicer as it was part of Banyan Tree Hotel.

Then we walked through a bunch of construction for 15 minutes and along the side of highways to reach this strip of bars located in a new complex called TREC. The first bar in the strip was one that someone had recommended to me for its live music. It also had a ladies night deal that had just started, so we started there. The place was called Iron Fairies and was beautiful, with thousands of vials of glitter hanging from the ceiling, bowls of handheld iron fairies in different positions at every table, and huge glass jars of more glitter behind the bar and up the two floors. We staked out a spot to listen to the music. Cristina and I were given the option of two cocktail drinks that we drank for free for the rest of the night. Rodrigo had a few beers that were cheaper outside on the patio, so during the set breaks we went out there. After the ladies’ night special ended and the music was finished for the night, we went into another space they had called the Butterfly Room which had paper butterflies hanging from fishing wire from the ceiling. We took a grab back to our hostel shortly after that.

Thursday, March 12 In the morning, I walked to the Petronas Towers, as I still hadn’t seen them up close or during the day. Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) also has a nice park right in front of the towers that I walked past. I took some pictures and then got lunch in a nearby mall.

At night, I went out with some people from my hostel to Jalan Alor for some bahn mi sandwiches that they knew were good and then we walked to the Towers for the light show at the fountain. We only caught the second half of the show as it only lasted about five minutes and we were a minute late and we also were sprayed with water from the fountain. Some of the girls hadn’t seen the towers yet, so we sat along a bridge taking more pictures of the Twin Towers.

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