THC: Round 8

House: Ravenclaw

Class subject: Herbology

Story Category: drabble

Prompt(s): [Situation] Not knowing anybody at an event (Alt, not knowing most people)

Word count: 984

Notes: I saw someone on tiktok say that she was a hired bridesmaid and thought the idea would be fun to write and Lavender fit this idea I had in my head. Non-Magic, Modern, AU.

Hired Bridesmaid

Lavender's job was—odd—to say the least. It's not what she set out to do in life, but she enjoyed it. Her friends knew the nature of her job and tried to get her to find some other place to work.

She was a hired bridesmaid and her friends made it out to be something completely different. It allowed her to play dress up and help someone have the best wedding they could. It gave her a sense of purpose. If she couldn't have her own love story, she could at least help someone else have theirs.

Typically, she only knew the bride and possibly the groom, but for this particular wedding, she had never met either of them in person. The bride reached out to her online, and due to the timeline of the wedding, she just received a link to the dress she needed to buy and the time and place she needed to be. She only had a week to get everything ready and it consumed most of her free time. Lavender found the dress, had it altered, and arranged for her hair and makeup to be done on the correct day, and then she was left to wait.

The high number of weddings that Lavender had been to over the past few years gave her some interesting stories. It also meant that she knew a lot about the inner workings of weddings. What cake flavors were the best, the best centerpieces, what colors not to choose, and who not to talk to.

Her interactions with the bride were left at a minimum. They worked on a story together that Lavender rehearsed so no one would know that she was an outsider at this wedding.

According to their story, she met the bride in college, and they had multiple classes together, becoming friends due to the amount of time they spent in those classes. It was a good cover; none of the other bridesmaids could discount this story, since none of them went to the same college as the bride. The only other person who knew the truth was the groom, and he hadn't bothered to talk to Lavender either. She didn't mind when the bride ignored her but usually, they'd help keep up pretenses.

At least the reception had an open bar that she didn't have to pay for. She had been halfway through her third watered-down cocktail when a man walked up to the bar. He gave Lavender a once over, scoffed, turning away with his glass of expensive bourbon.

"Do you have a problem?" It was a bad idea to talk back to one of the guests. Lavender's paycheck was on the line if she didn't behave, but she just could not stand by as some man scoffed at her.

"I heard you were hired to be here," he replied. "My sister could have at least paid for someone better looking."

"Like you're a supermodel yourself," Lavender bit back. This is why she hadn't been on a date in months. People thought she was too aggressive. They weren't wrong, but still. "Besides, why would a bride hire someone that had the potential to outshine her? I'd be out of a job if I was "better looking", not that it matters all that much to me."

He gave her another once over, "I suppose you're right. Why'd you choose this line of work?"

"I get to play dress up and usually a free meal." Lavender shrugged. "Plus, it pays well and I don't have to work every day."

"It's funny," The man chuckles, "I remember in college you were going to school to start a business."

Lavender cocked her head to the side. She looked the man over once more, yet she still didn't recognize him. How could he know what she had done in college? "I do have a business degree. That's how I run this business."

"You don't remember me, do you?"

"Not at all," she answered honestly.

"We sat next to each other in Intro to Business," he smirked at her. "It's how I knew your story with my sister was fake."

Lavender barely remembered her early college years due to the passing of time. Why would she remember who sat next to her in a class she took her very first semester? It had been a large lecture hall, an 8am, and Lavender couldn't even be bothered to show up half the time. The stranger thing was how this practical stranger remembered her after all these years from one singular class.

"The name's Blaise," He reached a hand out to her and she shook it.

"Don't you think it's weird that you remember me?" Lavender asked. "It's been about 10 years."

"You made that great of an impression."

"And your game plan was to come over here and tell me I'm ugly?"

"I never said that."

"It was implied," Lavender rolled her eyes. "But I guess it could be said that you didn't make any impression at all."

"It seems that now I have," He pulled his phone out and handed it to Lavender. "Let me take you out on a date?"

"I have to say, I would usually say no, but my curiosity is piqued."

She typed her number into his phone and handed it back. He winked at her as he walked away promising to text her the details. She went back to watching the wedding from the sidelines. Usually, she'd be thinking about how this seemed out of reach for her—having a wedding of her own. This time around she left the wedding with a little bit of hope that something good would come out of this date. That maybe this was a sign that she could have something more than just thinking about weddings. She hoped that she was right in thinking she had a chance at a happy ending.