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The Possible Start to a Happy Ever After
A pleasant light breeze grazed the pavement and buildings lined up on either side of Charing Cross Road as people wandered along it, on their way to pubs and parties and discos and a generally fun Friday night. The sky was devoid of clouds and the stars twinkled down on the very much alive city.
One pub on Charing Cross Road was full of regulars, tourists and a few locals who had never really stopped in, though not many people out on the street noticed it despite the fact the room was full of more music and laughter than air.
A small stage was set up in the corner which was empty for now though the sign by the bar announced that in five minutes it would be in action as it was karaoke night.
The middle-aged woman behind the bar was smiling and chatting away to the customers and quite a few people in their twenties of early thirties were there. A red haired woman in her mid-twenties leant against the bar as she talked happily to the young woman who was helping the bartender behind the bar while a group of men laughed loudly over their dinner in the corner.
The door opened as a man in his very early thirties entered the pub and glanced around the room and hesitated before slowly making his way over to the bar. He avoided the redhead's eyes, hoping she wouldn't recognise him, though she couldn't have many memories containing him. Luck appeared to be on his side tonight as she left the bar before he reached it, making her way over to where a large group sat laughing happily. His eyes lingered on them before he turned away, hoping none of them would spot him. Not that he didn't like the family, he just definitely didn't want to have one of the older females notice him.
The young blonde from behind the bar left and went over to the stage as he mother handed him his drink.
She took out her wand, dimmed all the lights and created new ones to shine down onto the stage. Next she pointed her wand at her throat and spoke to the crowd who were all watching her eagerly.
'Welcome everyone to this nights' karaoke. We already have quite a few people signed up and if you want to sing or sing again just go over to the bar, write your name and the song you want to sing. It can be either muggle or wizarding but please keep the swearing to a minimum and try a song that no one else has sung,' she explained in a cheerful voice. 'So let the night begin.'
The crowd applauded, everyone's eyes on the stage as the blonde – Pria, Padma, Mona, something like that the young man thought as he sorted through memories, vaguely recognising her. A Hufflepuff, that much he knew – and a Longbottom but her first name escaped him. The Longbottom girl called out a name and a woman with sun-bleached hair got up, her bright dress barely covering her.
She began to sing a muggle song he remembered parts of though names didn't seem to be his forte tonight. He took a seat at the bar and listened to the song though the woman's voice was a little too shrill.
The crowd applauded politely as the woman climbed down at the end and Longbottom called the next person forward.
The night continued and the man became more relaxed as more songs were sung, a few familiar faces standing out. He smiled as the eldest Potter boy got up who, although not the best singer, was a very enthusiastic dancer, the man noted his smile widening slightly, glad to know the boy hadn't changed.
A slim blonde Weasley girl also got up and sang a muggle song which he recognised as one of Avril Lavigne's songs.
At quarter past ten a tall redhead got up, her clothes as dark as ever, a pair of silver hoops hanging from her ears and a devilish grin he remembered all too well.
She climbed up onto the stage as Longbottom called her name. Dominique Weasley raised her wand to make her voice reach every corner of the room. Quiet music began to play and the man recognised the tune immediately, hi mind flashing back to his fifth year at Hogwarts.
'We've become nothing at all,' Dominique sung and he smiled; bittersweet twist to his lips as he eyes focused mainly on her cousins who sat at the front. 'Lead through the back of my spine, and as our heads hit the floor, we were dead seventeen times.'
Her voice reached out to everyone in the room and his eyes were fixed on her figure, her every word ensnaring him.
'And every minute regret, that sank it's teeth in my mind, said all that needs to be said, and said it seventeen times,' she sung and he found himself mouthing the words.
'So don't give up on me…yet,' she chanted and her eyes moved over the crowd and landed on him, her voice faltering for a second before she kept going strong, he blue eyes boring into his. 'I still can't forget, and while I'm still late, some might say, some might say, I'll be your biggest regret.'
He paused as she looked away but stood up in the end and moved forward as her gaze returned to his face.
'So don't give up on me yet,' she sung softly before pausing and then entering the second verse.
'And everything that I said, was just a slip of the tongue,' she sung and his heart couldn't help but shift slightly as she stared at him, something unreadable yet clear as day on her face.
'Let me fall, so far away, and say it seventeen times, yet,' she murmured before taking a deep breath and breaking into the chorus.
'I still can't forget, and while I'm still late, some might say, some might say, I'll be your biggest regret,' she sang loudly as everyone in the pub listened to her, entranced, not by the quality of singing, not that she was bad, but because of the emotion pouring into the words stole their attention.
'The pain was never inept, oh lay oh, oh lay oh, so don't give up on me,' she sang quietly, barely above a whisper then her voice rose, filling every corner of the room, 'yet, oh lay oh, oh lay oh, oh lay oh, oh lay oh.'
She finished the song to much applause and Dominique sent a grin to where her cousins cheered the loudest.
She climbed down from the stage and headed over to the bar as the Longbottom girl called someone else forward. He hesitated before taking hold of all the Gryffindor courage he had and bade his way over to the girl who was his first girlfriend, first kiss, in a deserted corridor after an argument.
She didn't need to look up to see who it was when he sat down in the chair beside her.
'I didn't expect to see you here,' she said before turning to him and searching his face for answers to unasked questions.
He found her inscrutable gaze as intense as it always had been and he nodded in agreement as he finally spoke, 'I'll agree that seeing you here was not in the plan.'
'Where's Rebecca?' she asked, an icy note in her tone and he grimaced.
'We got divorced four months ago,' he replied and she raised her curious blue eyes back to his face.
'I'm sorry,' she said after a pause and he shrugged.
'I'm not that bothered ot be perfectly honest,' he said and she raised her eyebrows incredulously.
'You're not upset that you're seven-year-long marriage has ended?' she asked, her voice as disbelieving as her expression to which he just shrugged once more, knowing that it did sound crazy.
'Things have been changing these last couple of years.'
'Meaning?'
He stared at the bar top, wondering how to put everything that had happened into words. 'I'm not sure how to put it exactly but we've been a bit rocky for a while, as if one wrong word and everything would go up in flames.'
'Something happened then, to cause the change?' she asked quietly and he nodded.
'Yes, something happened,' he replied, unwilling to go into more detail with her. Dominique didn't need to know about the wild accusations and screaming matches and tears. Nor did she need to know about the note left on the pillow or the dry eyes that read it.
'Are you okay?' she asked and he paused, wondering for the first time if he was. He'd always replied with a 'fine' not wanting people to pry but Dominique was different.
'I think so,' he said slowly and truthfully. 'If not know then I will be.'
'That's good,' she said raising her drink up to her lips. A silence fell over them that made him feel both uncomfortable and relaxed, as if he felt at home with her. But that was insane. It had been years since they'd really spoken to one another, too long, her mused before attempting to snap out of it.
'You alone?' he asked casually and she shook her head, his stupid heart dropping in disappointment.
'That unruly mob at the front was my planned company for tonight,' she said, casting an amused glance at her laughing cousins and relief sent his heart soaring no matter how much he told it to stop.
'Well, maybe I could buy you another drink,' he offered and she sent him and searching glance and after a moment she grinned and leant back in her chair and waved a hand as if to say 'go ahead'.
He handed her the glass the bartender handed him and ignored her curious eyes though Dominique responded with a wink before turning her attention back to him.
'So Alex, what were you doing here?' she asked, her eyes trained on his and the answer rose effortlessly to his lips, his heart beating faster and, with the encouragement of the glint in her eyes which he remembered from those two sweet months, he answered.
'Finding you.'
Well? What did you think? Alex is one of my own characters and is also in one of my other stories 'The Brilliant Shades Of Fire And Snow'. Please don't favourite without reviewing!