Blind Date Desperado

Chapter 2

Lavender Brown stared at her figure in the mirror Wednesday night at 10 o'clock in the evening. She wore a slimming, black dress underneath her robes. Her eyelashes were thick with mascara, her eyebrows had been freshly plucked, and her legs cleanly shaven. Parvati had lent her some lipstick and applied gloss over her plump lips. Ultimately, her blonde hair was pulled up in an elegant knot above her head.

"There. You look perfect, Lav," Parvati smiled encouragingly.

Lavender spun around. "I know," she agreed.

"Okay here's your briefing," Parvati said excitedly. "You're date will meet you inside the Room of Requirement in approximately fifteen minutes. When you're passing the room, just think 'I need a place for a romantic date." He'll probably already be inside. You're going to have a late night snack, you're going to dance, talk and cuddle in front of the fire!" Parvati was squealing with that 'hopeless romantic' expression on her face.

Lavender giggled. "Is he good-looking like I asked?"

Parvati gave her a look. "Of course he is! Here are some mystery details: he's in seventh year and in Ravenclaw. How great is that, Lav? He's an older man!"

Lavender smirked. "Perfect."

-

The hallways were quiet when Lavender arrived at the Room of Requirement. She followed Parvati's instructions and the door handle appeared before her expectant eyes. She took it and excitedly threw the door open. The room was dimly lit with floating candles. A small café table stood surrounded by two plush, red armchairs. Two glasses of what Lavender presumed to be Butterbeer sat on the table along with two slices of dark, gooey chocolate cake. Lavender licked her lips and looked around. He sat on one of two beanbag chairs on the floor before the fire. He was immobile.

"Hey there," Lavender called. The guy on the beanbag chair jerked and stood to face her. There was some drool on his face and his eyes squinted. Lavender presumed he had been sleeping.

"Oh, hey," the guy said. "I guess you're Lavender, right?"

Lavender walked in shyly. "Yeah, I'm Lavender," she replied. "And who might you be?" she asked endearingly.

"I'm Tristan Reese," the boy said, holding a hand out. He was good looking, though his face was plagued with some spots of acne. His brown hair fell around his head like a coconut, but he had some fine features. Tristan was shorter than Lavender imagined. He was only an inch taller than her. Still, that's not a bad thing, is it? "That's a beautiful dress you have," he stated.

Lavender stared at the hand that was held out toward her. Oh, he wants me to shake it, she realized stupidly. She reached out and shook it while thanking him for the compliment.

"So, Tristan Reese," she said. "Would you care for some cake?"

Tristan nodded. "Sure."

They sat in the cozy chairs and took some bites out of their cakes. Lavender enjoyed the bittersweet taste of the dark cocoa in her mouth. It was so soft!

"Do you like it?" she asked Tristan.

Tristan pulled the fork out of his mouth disdainfully. "I'm not fond of it," he said with distaste. "You can eat if you like. I'll wait."

Lavender didn't care very much for his unenthusiastic attitude, but continued to revel in the chocolaty goodness of the cake.

"You know, such sweets are very fattening," Tristan remarked quietly.

Lavender froze. What was he implying?

When she didn't reply, Tristan continued. "I mean, where are its healthy components? I don't think there are any. I would have preferred a healthier snack this late at night."

Lavender put down her fork as gently as she could and gave Tristan a fake smile. "What do you suggest?" she asked, sugar coating her voice.

"I guess we should have… carrots and celery with dip."

At that very moment, the cake cleared off the plates and was replaced with carrots and celery with Caesar dip. Lavender frowned, but Tristan was amazed.

"This is bloody fantastic!" Tristan exclaimed. "Did this room make these appear? I wonder what else it can do!"

While they munched on their snack, Lavender pouted. This was not the way she expected the blind date to go. The room brightened and bookshelves appeared against the walls. The romantic setting Parvati had created especially for the date disappeared completely as Tristan let his imagination stir.

"Books!" he cried joyfully. "Wonderful! Do you mind if we read?" he asked Lavender.

Lavender had been planning on dancing within the dimmed lighting and chat before the fire. This was not the romantic get-together she had been expecting. "No, I don't mind at all," she said dully. Tristan was already making his way to a bookshelf.

"Amazing! They have the first edition of 'Hogwarts a History!'" Tristan energetically exclaimed. He took several books and sat down in his bean bag chair to read. Lavender randomly picked a book and sank into the other beanbag chair. After about a half hour, Lavender decided that this had to be the most tedious date she had ever been on and that Tristan had to be the most uninteresting guy on the face of the Earth.

"Hey Tristan, what are your hobbies?" Lavender asked straightforwardly.

"Reading," he replied from behind a large book. His tone suggested annoyance.

Lavender didn't ask any more questions. His personality reminded her of Hermione Granger and that made her think of Ron Weasley, which led to depressing thoughts that thought made her want to cry. She slammed the book she had been pretending to read shut and put it down. She made a fake yawn of exhaustion and got up.

"I should be going now," Lavender announced. Tristan just nodded. "I'm really tired!"

"Bye," Tristan said. Lavender didn't bid him farewell. She believed that he wouldn't miss her.

When she arrived at her dormitory, Parvati was asleep. She guessed she would have to give her the gory details the next day. She dressed down into her night gown, took off all her makeup and let her hair down before lying in bed. She wasn't even sleepy. That Tristan was so awfully unexciting. She expected tall, dark and mysterious. Instead, she got short, nerdy and boring. Lavender sighed unhappily. Parvati had better have a better guy lined up for her next date.


A.N.

I apologize for any missed grammatical errors. I just had this amazing idea for Lavender and Parvati and I just had to write it down!

Flames are welcome, but they have to be constructive.

R & R please