dragynville @ December 30 2003, 09:37:55 UTC

HAHA, he took Harry out on a DATE! He even says At least Potter didn't demand I take him to Stonehenge. If they just went there as friends, Harry wouldn't need him to "take him to" anywhere. w00t! *fangirls* XD

sistermagpie @ December 30 2003, 09:48:10 UTC

LOL--well, presumably ps was playing tourguide because it was Harry's first trip to Wiltshire.

...which is pretty significant, isn't it? Did he go to Malfoy Manor? The idea of Harry visiting Draco at home seems pretty tremendous to me, what with Draco's father being an evil DE Harry would never go near!

I guess Harry really has just been happy with Remus back, and was just nipping playfully at ps in that other thread? And ps got a little flustered.:-)

dragynville @ December 30 2003, 09:59:12 UTC

I don't think he'd go to MM, that would just be foolish, but it seems he went close to in order to spend time with Draco. Or, at least, it sounded that way what with the mention of Cosenham and MM. Maybe Lucius was away though?

That thread was rather sweet. It's so rare for Harry to initiate the flirting and he's usually on the receiving end of the teasing. :D

sistermagpie @ December 30 2003, 10:31:03 UTC

Yeah, I think he just came to ps' neighborhood. Which is still very interesting. I love how Harry comes with his little guidebook wanting to see certain things. Harry's quite the little tourist on NA!

Somehow I don't think ps would want Harry to come to the Manor on some level...I don't know...it seems like he'd know underneath that would be dangerous somehow, in a lot of ways. I'd love to hear what Harry thought of the place, though. I mean Cosenham etc.

He has been to the Manor once, of course, to rescue Sirius from the duel.

dragynville @ December 30 2003, 11:15:54 UTC

I know, the White Hart of all places. It's so cute! :D

Yeah, I think he's very aware of all the ramifications to everyone, not just himself and Harry. Like that it could put his father in serious difficulty if V and the other DEs found out (if he brought Harry to MM) and so on.

black_dog @ December 30 2003, 18:41:59 UTC

Is this the first time they've gone somewhere on a trip together, just to hang out with one another? I love the image of the two of them together, by themselves, walking and talking their way through some pretty little tourist town, taking in the sights. I imagine Harry babbling randomly and Draco keeping up a sardonic commentary and both of them having a fine time.

I googled Castle Combe -- the "animal pound" is some kind of nature preserve that was created in honor of Dr. Doolittle, and the White Hart has been around for a mere 600 years. But even Draco's pose of impermeable disdain can't hide his amusement that Harry is so cheerful, or suppress the contrast between the aimless fun of the day and the insufferable pretention of his father's Egyption statue, sticking out like a sore thumb "as we haven't got a tomb to place it by." He's read his father's pompousness well in this little gift -- should we see a hint of a death-wish for him as well?

I guess Harry really has just been happy with Remus back, and was just nipping playfully at ps in that other thread?

Well, I wonder. This post really made me smile, but I can't see all that other angst and tension just disappearing. We have Draco's word that Harry is in an idiotically cheerful mood, but there's something almost forlorn about the way he wants to run off to an archetypical tourist town, "the nicest village in England" that maybe suggests an undercurrent of escapism, that reinforces the fact that he's slightly manic and just wants a time-out from his troubles. The day also echoes his afternoon in Diagon Alley with Hermione and Ginny, maybe he's trying to reproduce it with PS, too. There's something a little bit tragic about Harry when he's just defiantly being normal, enjoying the moment, because it's so good for him, and he deserves it, but it's also not his fate.

sistermagpie @ December 30 2003, 20:40:45 UTC

Yes--it reminds me also of Harry having Sirius take him to EuroDisney, though he seems to not have as unrealistic expectations. EuroDisney was something Dudley had gone to that meant something different to Harry. This was just seeing where ps lived, a place in England he hadn't seen.

I was surprised at his suggestion of starting a truth seeking service, why he came up with that and what it would entail...particularly given the house he lives with, and with whom.

Interesting that he's having a party for his birthday in the spring. Has he done that before?

black_dog @ December 31 2003, 03:23:03 UTC

This was just seeing where ps lived

Sometimes I'm just very thick. I assumed they'd chosen Wiltshire because of Draco's time constraints, but Draco is at pains to point out that Castle Combe is not Cosenham, so maybe Harry was expressing curiosity about Draco's turf, and it was a deliberate gesture of interest in PS on Harry's part.

I was surprised at his suggestion of starting a truth seeking service

At one level, I wondered if "truth detection service" wasn't a wizarding malapropism for "detective agency." Which might be just a nice cameo for Malfoy, PI (which, ahem, is long overdue for an update . . . ). At another level, of course, I imagine anyone growing up amidst Lucius' manipulations, Narcissa's self-deceptions, and his own craving for fantasy might be obsessed with truth-detection -- it's a bottomless subject for comment.

Interesting that he's having a party for his birthday in the spring. Has he done that before?

I don't think he did last year. But then last year he didn't have an anniversary with Harry that he might have wanted to celebrate without quite being able to acknowledge. Just a thought!