Merope Gaunt was moving in. Merope Gaunt, the mother of Voldemort, was going to be moving in. This thought, and little else, was all that was going through Al's mind as he made his way as quickly as he could back to the home he was staying at. He'd run to the store for a few items almost immediately after inviting the woman to stay with him, and was trying to make it back before it both became dark and his guest arrived.
Of course, he'd only realized on his way to the store that he wasn't sure when she was going to be arriving, as she hadn't said and he hadn't thought to ask, but he didn't want to risk her showing up and him not being there. So he was hurrying, his purchases shrunken and placed within his pockets in order to speed up his progress.
He could have Apparated, he knew, but the last time he'd tried it he'd ended up directly in the path of two vampires who were about to fight. Needless to say, he'd learned his lesson on that one and had limited such travel by emergency use only.
Besides, he reasoned as he drew near to the street corner that he needed to cross at, he wasn't far now. Just across the road, down a block and around the corner. Less than five minutes, really.
Provided the light changed and let him cross, that is.
So preoccupied with studying the light as he approached and hoping that it would change so he wouldn't have to slow down his 'brisk paced walking', he didn't notice the person already standing there waiting as well. He likely wouldn't have noticed them for a few moments, either, if they hadn't spoken.
...bloody Muggle contraptions...
The words slammed into Al and he abruptly came to a stop. He'd know that voice anywhere. He'd heard it for seven years at school. He knew it almost as well as he knew his own.
"Malfoy."
The name was muttered, not with disgust or hatred, but rather with wariness. He'd done a fantastic job of avoiding his school rival since they'd both found themselves here, and was a bit dismayed to realize that good luck was about to come to an end... just when he actually had someone to be, too.
Just my luck, he thought with a mental sigh before finishing the distance between them. As he drew up beside the other wizard, Al's good manners had no choice but to kick in and he murmured lowly, "Hullo, Malfoy. Fancy seeing you here."