Harriett was, as she always was, the first one of the group to arrive at the Leaky Cauldron for their regular Friday pub night. She was hoping it would end up being a girls' night out and that all the guys would be at Tim's listening to the Quidditch game, she contented herself for a while picturing the table full of girls with not a single man in sight… until she saw Lorcan and Lysander.
'For Merlin's sake, will nothing go right for me today?' she thought to herself, dutifully waving the twins over and taking another large gulp of her stout, but she couldn't manage to match her facial expression to her enthusiastic wave.
"Why the long face, Harriett?" asked Lorcan, mimicking her grouchy expression.
"Get stuffed," Harriett mumbled into her glass. Instead of backing off, the pair pulled her into a giant hug.
Harriett scowled, and wriggled out of their hold. "So why aren't you guys listening to the big game tonight?"
Lysander shrugged. "I don't think Ree wants us back there, we made a little too much noise for her liking… and the neighbours… last time."
"My misfortune," Harriett muttered, taking another swig.
"Hey now," Lorcan looked a little upset, "you really can't be that unhappy to see us."
Harriet sighed. "I suppose I should know that it won't be too bad of a night with you guys around…"
"Of course it won't!" Lysander smiled. "We're staying and cheering you up, and that's final!"
"Yeah, and you're getting another drink as soon as this one's gone-" Lorcan started
"Before that one's gone!" Lysander interrupted
"Before that one's gone!" Lorcan agreed, "and it's on us." He winked.
"Oh fine!" Harriett surrendered, "But it will be the last one of the night." Lysander shook his head. Harriett knew they were stubborn and arguing would get her nowhere.
"Alright then," Harriett conceded. So do you two plan on being this irritating at the Christmas party?
"The Christmas party?" they asked in unison.
"Yeah, you know, the one at Wheatley Gamble's," she prompted.
"Wheatley Gamble… I remember that guy from Hogwarts" Lorcan said.
"And so you should, he works at the ministry with you too does he not?" she asked
"Yes, but he's with the Goblin Liaison Office."
"Well anyway, I was just asking because it seems he has asked just about everyone else this year but me." She told them grumpily"
"That tosser!" growled Lorcan.
"Yes, he is a tosser, and no, you don't need to hex him." She told Lysander who had a dark look on his face, stroking his wand. Lysander furrowed his brow.
"Why not? He's a bloody wanker!" Harriett nodded, but did not change her mind about hexing him.
"Do you fancy this Gamble berk at all? Most men that are acting stupid you encourage hexing on our part," Lysander complained.
"You're not wrong about that. I do love seeing you guys at work with your creative hexing ideas, it's just that…"
"It's just what?" Lorcan urged. Harriett sat there for a while contemplating how best to answer this. She really didn't fancy Wheatly in the least, but really she could not remember the last time she had been to a true party. She thought back to some of Wheatley' other parties and they really were true parties. Not out of hand or anything, but certainly fun.
She was stirred out of her own thoughts when Lorcan asked, "How long?"
"How long has it been since you've dated?" he asked.
"Where the bloody hell did that come from?" she asked, quite shocked.
"Oh Lysander and I were just talking while you were off in la la land there."
"Um, well if you must know," Harriett went red, "About two years…" she mumbled, trailing off at the end.
"Two years?" exclaimed Lysander. "How do you do it?"
"Oh, it's quite simple." She told them, Lysander furrowed his brow again. Harriett shook her head. "When you don't even speak the same language as anyone else around you, dates don't exactly happen." She reminded them that she had been out of the country doing work for St. Mungo's not exacty making it easy.
"That is a problem," Lysander muttered, "I haven't been able to go two weeks without going on a date."
"What about Lorcan?" asked Harriett," How long has he been able to keep it in his pants?" She smirked, knowing exactly what Lysander meant. Lorcan rolled his eyes and deferred her question.
"So are you going to any other parties or anything over Christmas?" He asked her politely but abruptly changing the subject. Harriett showed some mercy and allowed the change in topic.
"Well... Taylor is also having a party, one where I am invited, but I haven't got a date, and everyone else I know that is going does…"
"Why don't you bring Lorcan?" Lysander suggested.
"Oh, I couldn't bring Lorcan," she argued.
"Hey!" Lorcan looked hurt, "Am I really that repulsive that you wouldn't walk around with me on your arm for one night?"
"Well, no…" she hesitated, she was unfortunately quite attracted to Lorcan truth be told, she just didn't feel like this was quite… allowed? Besides he didn't like her that way, she was just a little sister to him.
"Do you want to bring someone to Taylor's party?" Lysander pushed further.
"Well, yes… but Lysander, I was looking for a date!" She shouted, letting out some of her frustration. This was exactly why she was hoping for all girls tonight, instead none of them showed up and she was getting hassled by these two.
"So you'd prefer to show up and be miserable all night?" Lorcan asked.
"No, I would prefer to just not go at all." She huffed.
Lysander cut in, "Oh come on, you can't actually want that, I can see it in your face," Harriett pursed her lips and glared at him. He hated that the twins could read her so well. She decided to deflect the attention away from herself.
"So Lysander… You're some boyfriend, Jennifer still hasn't shown up and you haven't even seemed to have noticed," she pointed out,
"Hey, I will have you know that I am an excellent boyfriend!" Lysander insisted, affronted.
"Well then, where's Jennifer?" Harriett smirked.
"I don't know…" Lysander shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Harriett and Lorcan were now both looking at him accusingly. Lysander got up out of his chair and started walking away slowly. "But I intend to find out," he added feebly. Lorcan rolled his eyes and then looked back to Harriett. He grabbed her hand much to her surprise and caught her eyes.
"Look Harriett, I know you wanted to show off a date and have a good time with him at Taylor's and I also know that you don't think of me in that way…" he took a deep breath, "but for time's sake, I really think you should bring me and let me treat you like a princess for one whole night, I know you want a date, but I may be the closest thing you can get with such short notice. I promise, Harriett, I will be the perfect pretend boyfriend for one night."
"Well, absolutely not!" said Harriett heatedly.
"Why not?" Lorcan asked, confused at her anger, was he seriously that bad of a choice that she would rather go alone or not at all?
"Because!" Harriett's temper was flaring and her cheeks were heating rapidly. "Because I don't want it to be pretend!" she let out, he felt hot tears forming in her eyes and beginning to roll down her cheeks, tears of embarrassment and anticipated rejection. She ran out the door of the pub, hoping that Lorcan didn't see the tears.
Lorcan sat there stunned for a few seconds, before chasing Harriett out the door with a wide grin on his face.
"Seriously?" she asked through her tears as she looked up to see Loran's grinning face exiting the pub. "You're seriously following me to mock me?" she shouted, misinterpreting the grin.
"Not mock you, never mock you." He told her, sitting down on the bench next to her. He caught her face in his hand as and she went to look back down. He wiped away her tears with a stroke of his thumbs on either side of her face. "Harriett, I only said pretend because I never thought you would agree to go on a real date with me, I thought I was just like… an older brother or something to you." he told her, looking into her eyes. Harriett had a hard time believing his words, but just by looking at his face, in his eyes, she could tell this was no joke.
"I... well… I actually thought the same thing about you… only sister…" she confessed, a little embarrassed about the ridiculousness of the situation.
Lorcan smiled, "You're so silly," he told her as he caught her mouth in a kiss, just light and gentle for now. Harriett was enjoying the warmth of his lips but pulled away long enough to point out something important.
"Well in that case so are you," she stuck her tongue out at him. Lorcan looked at it, not bothering to care that she was teasing him, he just wanted a taste of what she was blatantly displaying to him. He brought his mouth down to kiss her again, this time a little less gentle, and a lot more deep.
"Hem hem…" they heard someone clearing their throat and it sounded quite close. It was beside them on the bench. They broke apart to see Lysander sitting there grinning at them, Jennifer standing next to the bench, looking a little lost as usual. "What was that you always say about PDA? Oh yeah, it's disgusting!" Lysander teased, clearly not caring about the PDA but rather being very happy for them. Lorcan shoved him playfully.
"So where was Jennifer?" Harriett asked, seemingly the only one to notice her standing there.
"Oh…" Lysander rubbed the back of his neck," she forgot what time we were meeting… and she got lost…" he told them awkwardly.
"Umm, it's always been the same time and the same place." Harriett pointed out.
"Yeah well…" Lysander shrugged. Jennifer really wasn't the brightest witch, but she made him happy so they tried not to make fun of her… too much. Harriett and Lorcan exchanged glances and sniggered behind their hands a bit as they followed the other couple back into the pub to enjoy some drinks and each other's company. Harriett was in far better spirits than she could have ever expected when she sat down in here about an hour earlier.