Chapter 4: Hamburgers and Half-Assed Dates

"Take care of yourself, okay, Adam?"

Farrah reached down and hugged the boy as he reached for her. Adam's parents smiled at her from a few feet away, and as Adam let go and rushed to them, Farrah felt a slight bout of jealousy tumble around in her stomach. She watched Adam's mother protectively place her hand behind Adam's back as they walked away.

There were many difficult things about being an ER doctor: dealing with patients who claimed they didn't know how certain things got stuck into their buttholes (this situation was way more common than Farrah liked to admit), dealing with drug overdoses, heart attacks, emergency surgeries, death, informing families of death. Farrah couldn't even get started on how fucking horrible it was to be a medical student, and then a physician during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the hardest situations, though, was dealing with the kids that she saw. Thankfully, they were usually okay when they came into the E.R: broken bones, hand foot and mouth disease, or whatever other ailment they contracted from being around sick kids at school. It hurt Farrah watching them with their parents, turning to their mothers for comfort as they cried, and oftentimes - even if she didn't like the damn kid - Farrah wished they would look to her. She was a doctor, after all … but many kids feared doctors. It was a thing; parents threatened to take their kids to the hospital if they employed risky behaviors. So often, when kids came into the E.R., the last thing they wanted was to see doctors like Farrah, even if Farrah was nice to them. The kids only let up when she handed them a lollipop or told them they'd be okay, and those little hugs were worth it. They did enough to temporarily fill the hole in her heart.

"Hey, Farrah. What's the plan for tonight?" Kareem, her colleague, asked as he popped into the room, breaking Farrah from her thoughts. Farrah watched him out of the corners of her eyes as she placed her clipboard down onto the counter. He was brushing his black hair out of his eyes, trying to lean elegantly against the doorway. Farrah sighed internally. Turning around, she pointed at the clock.

"It's almost midnight. I'm going to sleep."

"It's not that late -"

Before she could give Kareem the chance to finish, she sped-walk out of the room, and then out of the building, only stopping to say hello to a few nurses and Debbie, the secretary who worked at the main desk. She would text Kareem later (she had all of her colleague's numbers) and apologize, blaming her rudeness on a toothache or whatever excuse she could extract from her brain.

Oh, Kareem. The man had been trying to get her to go to dinner with him for a while now. It wasn't that he wasn't handsome, or kind. He was, actually. Alice herself had ogled him many times whenever she came to visit Farrah at work (despite Farrah deliberately telling Alice not to visit her at the hospital, because it just wasn't appropriate most of the time). Since Alice was on the hunt to find Farrah a perfect husband, and Kareem was there, a willing man (also a Muslim, which was one of Farrah's criteria), she wouldn't stop badgering Farrah about him after the two met. Alice had gone on and on about how perfect Kareem was, how gorgeous his green eyes were, how deep his voice was, but Farrah shut her up immediately. It was funny. Despite being an E.R. doctor, who had gone to Northwestern for undergrad and Harvard for medical school, the one stressful thought Farrah could not handle was the idea of love or relationships. It was scary, how quickly her brain would turn off when having to think about these things. Sometimes, Farrah wondered if God did her a favor by making her infertile. Men, after all, sucked, most of the time, and Farrah was sure a younger version of herself would've gotten married early just to have children (adoption was another thing Farrah was thinking about. It was difficult to adopt a baby when her hours were impossible). Besides, Farrah was sure there was something glaringly wrong with Kareem that she had simply missed in all the time she spent avoiding him. So, as she walked to her car, Farrah vowed not to tell Alice about this interaction, as she was sure Alice wouldn't let it go.

The midnight air was cool, crisp. It battered upon Farrah's skin as she drove through the Boston streets with her windows cranked slightly open. As the pale moon glittered in the sky, she thought briefly about the Malfoy family. They all intrigued her. Each was special in their own way. Narcissa was a woman of little words (unless they were utterly condescending), but Farrah was sure Narcissa had many thoughts of great magnitude that were worth listening to. She seemed to have grown up in a society of properness and primness, and perhaps that was why she was so annoyingly rigid. The only time Farrah saw the more human side of her was when she was with Lucius, who she evidently loved dearly, or Draco. Oddly enough, although Farrah knew grandmothers to be among the most loving people, Farrah sensed a sort of tension between Narcissa and Scorpius. As she reached the parking garage to her apartment building, Farrah vowed to find out what was wrong between them, and fix it. She was usually good at "people problems" (except her own. Obviously.).

The rest of the night happened in a blur. Farrah repeated her blissful routine. She made a cup of tea, watched an episode from Modern Family's earlier seasons on Netflix. Then she did her five-step skincare routine, did fifteen minutes of yoga, and laid down on her bed, settling in underneath her comfortable pile of blankets. She scrolled through Facebook for a bit. It was only when her fitbit read 1 A.M. and her eyes were still wide open that Farrah realized that maybe, just maybe … Alice was right about finding her somebody. Farrah had had a long, exciting day at work, and all she wanted to do was tell somebody about it rather than sleep. She wanted to talk about that kid Adam and his adorable blue eyes, or about the fascinating conversation she had with Debbie in the morning about CRISPR/Cas9, or how awkward it felt bumping into Dr. Jones after his Islamophobic comment last month. She couldn't call Alice. As her and Alice grew older and Alice settled into her relationship, it became less and less appropriate to call Alice over the little things, especially during the night, when Alice and her boyfriend would be … well. But someone who was laying in bed with her, Farrah surmised, couldn't run away. And she could tell him all about her day until they both fell asleep. Laying in her bed, Farrah couldn't help but feel excruciatingly lonely, for what must've been the hundredth time that week.

Then she heard gut-wrenching cries from the room next door. She immediately recognized it as Draco's bedroom, since their two balconies almost connected. Surprised, Farrah turned to the wall behind her bed, and realized that was the wall she shared with Draco. He was crying … but why? Farrah's exhausted brain searched her memory for a reason until she remembered that his wife was dead. Farrah felt a pang of sympathy for the man. It must've been difficult, losing the love of his life like that. Farrah promised herself she would visit the Malfoys when she woke up. She drifted asleep uneasily to the sound of Draco's sobbing and her own heavy, mismatched breaths.

"Alright, everybody. Let's talk about what we're going to do to get out of here. Okay? Dad, you can't say a word complaining about what I've done, and granddad and grandmum, if you say one nasty thing about muggles or muggle-borns, especially Rose, then I will not hesitate to leave you in America, by yourselves, while dad and I leave."

"I really hope that's not what you're planning on saying," Draco snorted. Scorpius leapt from his position in front of his mirror, where he was practicing his grand speech to his family. His cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.

"Dad … I just wanted to make sure grandmum and granddad knew not to … well …"

"Scorp, why don't you have a seat?" Draco sat down on Scorpius' bed, patting the spot next to him until Scorpius sat down. "I'm going to tell you something, and I need you to listen to me closely." Scorpius nodded his head, slightly dreading what his father was about to say. Whenever his dad's voice took on a low tone, Scorpius knew he was in for a surprise.

"I know you're eager to leave, to get back with Rose, to find us a way out of here. However," and at this, he paused, "I know it is your intention that my parents … or really, all of us … adopt a more tolerant lifestyle, especially regarding your relationship with Rose. Do you agree with me?"

"Yes," Scorpius said dutifully, feeling gratitude for his father.

"Wonderful. Then, in my opinion, we should stay for as long as Granger - I mean, Granger-Weasley - has prescribed. She suggested a few months, and quite honestly … we could all use them. Your grandparents need time to adjust. Three days hasn't changed them, Scorp. They need to go out, see the world. And quite honestly, I am finding London to be quite suffocating nowadays, where our surname is a household name, not for the right reasons. It is nice to be in America right now, where we are complete strangers. Scorpius … this is selfish of me. And I apologize. But I need to get away from that name, that history, just for a few months. And perhaps you could use the time away from Rose. We may all benefit from this."

Scorpius watched his father in awe as he continued talking. His dad wanted to stay in muggle America? It came as quite a shock, and while Scorpius would surely miss Rose, part of him was admittedly curious about life in muggle America, in this strange city called Boston. Before he knew it, Scorpius was nodding along for a third time to what his father was saying. Draco looked pleased.

"Wonderful. So keep that lovely speech to yourself, eh? Come on, let's go."

The father and son duo stood up and entered the kitchen, where Narcissa was staring with frustration at the meager food Draco had stolen from the muggle store using spells. When he came home earlier that day with barely anything, his parents had gotten angry. Draco had justified it by saying that the muggles were "always around," which was somewhat true, in a city like Boston. However, he had purposefully returned with little food in an attempt to convince Narcissa and Lucius to go out and eat.

"If we eat dinner outside, at a restaurant," he had said, "then we can easily, and subtly, confound our waiter into letting us leave without paying. And it would be simple, since the restaurant would have private booths, and there would be none of those beeping machines at the stores that would tell us off for walking out without paying."

Although Narcissa and Lucius were adamant against the idea earlier, watching Narcissa frown at a bowl of fruit convinced Draco that he was winning in the argument. As he stepped up to his mother, she gave him a grimace. "Alright, Draco," she finally agreed. "Let's go eat at the bloody restaurant."

Twenty minutes later, the four of them stepped outside, each dressed in the same clothes they had arrived in days ago. Draco noted that using scourgify would only help them for so long; they needed new clothes. He made a mental note to ask the neighbor, Farrah, where they could each buy a new outfit, although he was sure his mother would throw a fit at wearing anything other than the most elite wizarding dress robes. As they made their way to the restaurant across the apartment complex - Scorpius happily noting it was called "Chef's Kiss" - Draco noticed his family receiving strange glances from other people. He revisited the priority list in his head and realized they would have to get clothes the very same day.

And Scorpius - oh, how he would need to talk to his son! - could not strip his eyes away from the women. It seemed that the people in this country, especially (Londoners were rather modest, with the constant rain and all) did not cover up. That did not bother Draco as much as it evidently bothered Narcissa and Lucius, who were whispering to each other in disdain of American society and "impropriety." However, Scorpius was now openly ogling the women as they walked by, wearing their short dresses and skirts or their tank tops. Draco nudged Scorpius with his elbow.

"Shall I tell Rose of your unwavering eyes the next time we all chat as a family?" Draco remarked dryly. Scorpius finally looked away, looking slightly shameful.

"Sorry, dad. It's a different culture."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Scorpius, it is not mindful - nor proper Malfoy behavior - to make women uncomfortable. We do not look at women in this manner -"

"I thought you bullied Ms. Granger-Weasley when you were back in school, and remember auntie Pansy? I thought you two -"

"Oh, do shut up," Draco said hurriedly, pushing his son aside as Lucius turned to the pair attentively. They continued to walk awkwardly until they entered the restaurant and were seated at a table in the center of the restaurant, where they could be stared at by, seemingly, everybody.

"What - what is a hamburger?" Narcissa asked distastefully. "These muggles … their taste in food is appalling."

"What I would kill for a butterbeer," Draco agreed underneath his breath.

Suddenly a flurry of white overtook Draco's vision, and he lifted his gaze only to be met by Farrah's friend, that girl, Alice. She was wearing a white jumper, or whatever it was that the people that worked there wore, and she had an overtly friendly grin on her face. "Malfoys!" she shouted, capturing the attention of a few people around them. "It's a pleasure to see you. You know, after you made my best friend cry," she said, with a pointed glare towards Draco. Draco lifted his menu and buried his face in it, hoping the girl would go away. "I'll be your personal chef this afternoon," she continued. Merlin's beard, did this woman ever stop talking? "I'm actually the sous chef. I saw your blonde hair and weird robes from a mile away, and thought, hm, I should go say hi to the Malfoys! I wouldn't want somebody to spit in your food or whatnot, right?" Another pointed glare. "So, what can I get you? Also, I hope you have the money to pay for this meal. It's a pretty expensive restaurant. You can do that, right?"

"We can," Scorpius reassured Alice, who softened upon hearing from his son. Scorpius, as annoying as he could be sometimes, was far more charming than Draco. Draco chuckled to himself, remembering what a right brat he himself was when he was younger. Scorpius pointed at random items on the menu, choosing the meals for each member of the family. Alice squinted at her notepad, surprised at their choices, and then whisked away. Draco muttered a breath of thanks for her departure.

When she came back later with these hamburgers, which all of them noted with disgust was meat, cheese, bread, and a select few vegetables formed into a rounded, sandwich shape, Lucius began to lecture Scorpius. "Grandson, I hope you understand now why it is better for you to not be among these … muggles," he finished with a whisper. "This is disgusting! If you stayed with Rose, she would probably expect you to meet up with her grandparents, each such revolting food -"

"Merlin's beard, this is delicious," Draco exclaimed, completely oblivious to the conversation his father was having with his son. He had given up halfway through due to his hunger and was now halfway through his hamburger. Somehow, Draco had forgotten the Malfoy rules of propriety from the first bite, and now sat with cheese, sauce, and whatever else was in that sandwich dripping down his fingers. The other three Malfoys sat in contempt, watching Draco eat. Lucius clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

"This is the failure we raised," he groaned to Narcissa, who stared at Draco curiously.

"I am hungry, Lucius," Narcissa said gently, "and this seems to be our only option at the moment." Then, to Draco's surprise, Narcissa Malfoy began to eat a hamburger. With her hands. Now it was Narcissa that was the object of Lucius' stares, although, Draco noted nauseously, there was a twinkle of arousal in his eyes.

When Alice came back to the table about twenty minutes later, she noticed that all of the Malfoy's plates were empty. She appeared to be pleased that they had liked her expensive hamburgers. "Props to the chef," Scorpius said, raising his cheese-covered napkins. Lucius whispered a confundus underneath his breath, and before long, the four Malfoys had walked out of the restaurant, feeling nothing but fullness and the laughter that accompanies trying a new and exciting experience.

"I'm telling you. They are so weird," Alice insisted, waving her burger around. "Also, aren't you going to eat that?"

Farrah picked at the burger in front of her. It was one of Alice's many talents, making something as greasy and fatty as a burger taste like Michelin Star food. She wasn't hungry, though. The caramelized onions and aioli weren't doing it for her today. "Alice," Farrah started, "Can we talk about something?"

"I'm not done though," Alice continued. "Seriously, they are strange. When they came into my restaurant today, I was expecting them to be rude, but they were nice. And they were wearing the weirdest fucking outfits ever! They looked like robes, but really fancy. And if I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure they're the same things they wore to your dinner the other day."

Farrah grimaced at her friend. "So they need clothes. I'll pop by their house and ask them if they want to go somewhere."

Alice appeared crestfallen at Farrah's lack of excitement, and Farrah felt immediately guilty. "I'm sorry, Alice. I've just been feeling … pretty lonely, lately. I didn't mean to be uninterested or rude. You just know it's been kinda rough, and, yeah."

Alice waved her hands, dismissing Farrah's apology, and brightened considerably at the idea of being allowed to be Farrah's matchmaker. "One word. Kareem."

Farrah groaned, watching doctors, nurses, and patients pass by in the courtyard of the hospital. It was a beautiful day out: the birds were chirping, the flowers were rustling with the breeze, and the sun was out and shining. There was a grand contrast between the way the world looked and the way Farrah was feeling on that cursed afternoon. "Okay. Say I did say yes to Kareem. What would happen if I liked him? Alice, I couldn't do it."

Farrah felt Alice's piercing gaze on her. Then, Alice sighed and cleared the table to make room for her to hold Farrah's hand. "Farrah … I know how you feel about love, and relationships, all of that stuff. It feels overwhelming when you're not in it, but I promise you, with the right person, love is much easier. You know, with Dan? It's easy to love him. When you're in a relationship with somebody that's your friend, you won't find yourself with those anxious feelings. Trust me. If it goes badly with you and Kareem, then that's great, because you'll never have to worry about him chasing after you again. But if it goes well, that means you have a shot at finding love. And isn't that risk worth it? It's just one dinner. I'll go over to your apartment, help you figure out what to wear. Or we could buy something from the mall!"

Although her stomach was sinking with nerves, Farrah found herself agreeing verbally with Alice. "Okay. I'll text him. My shift ends in three hours; want to meet me at my apartment after?"

Alice burst with joy, jumping up and down. It was only when she sat back down when the two of them realized Alice had knocked Farrah's burger to the ground, where it was currently being swarmed by pigeons.

"Ugh. Stupid little things," Alice said, kicking at the birds, who refused to budge. Farrah just laughed, staring off into the distance, where cars were being loaded into the ER. She couldn't show it to Alice, who was over the moon with excitement, but the last thing Farrah wanted to do was get dinner with Kareem. Her phone pinged immediately afterwards, a text from Kareem, letting her know that the dinner was on.

Scorpius heard the scream before he saw her. It was a loud and boisterous, "Fuck!" Since their door was open, Scorpius rushed out of their apartment and banged on Farrah's door, hoping to get to her in time. Although Scorpius was sure muggle healers - or doctors, as they were called - couldn't necessarily operate on themselves like wizarding healers could with their magic, he hoped Farrah could fend off whatever she was fighting long enough for Scorpius to call for help. The door slammed open, and Scorpius was greeted with the image of Farrah's botchy, red face (probably from tears), which was wearing an expression of frustration.

"Oh, it's you," she breathed with relief, her face relaxing. "Come in."

It was the first time Scorpius, or any of the neighbors, had seen the inside of Farrah's apartment. It was significantly different to their own, which was empty. Farrah's apartment was bursting with life. First, there were the plants. There must've been at least a hundred plants in the apartment, which was bizarre, but somehow, the woman had made room for them all on a large shelf that sat by the large window. Then there were books, plenty of books that made Scorpius feel a pang of nostalgia for the Granger-Weasley home. Farrah's apartment walls were covered in bookshelves, and Scorpius found himself wondering whether he could borrow some of her books in the future. There were also pictures of an incredulous amount of people. This was interesting to Scorpius, who always thought Farrah lived a lonely life, besides her friendships with Alice and her boyfriend Dan.

"Who are these people?" he found himself asking before he could stop himself. Farrah showed him a lovely smile, bearing her white teeth, and showed him each and every picture frame. There were her parents, who were living in Chicago, and then her sisters and brothers. She had four siblings, two brothers and two sisters. Then there were the friends from college, who were apparently dispersed across the States (Scorpius realized then that the country itself was so large, it wasn't easy for Farrah to visit her friends. After all, none of them had the accessibility of a portkey). Farrah also had pictures of friends from high school, her grandparents, who had passed away, and her coworkers from the hospital where she worked. There were also frames that held awards, her "degrees," as Farrah called them, among other things that Scorpius didn't understand. Finally, there was a little frame in between two potted plants, that Scorpius found most curious. Inside this little frame barely the size of his hand was a picture of a man, who had a thin face coated in stubble, curly brown hair and an indecipherable eye color.

"That's nobody," Farrah said, taking the frame away from Scorpius. She set it down and flipped it in the opposite direction, causing Scorpius to smirk. If this person were indeed a nobody, Farrah would've told him who the man was, or at the very least, not had a picture of him so far away from the rest of the picture frames in her living room.

"Are you alright?" Scorpius asked, finally taking a closer look at the distress that seemed written on Farrah's face.

Farrah shook her head and sighed, sinking into her living room couches. "I'm not. I have a dinner with this man, who I can barely stand, for the sake of my friend and 'finding love,' but … never mind. Anyway, Alice is coming over and she's going to find me something to wear, but I can't find anything that screams: 'I look nice, but I'm not really interested!'"

Scorpius watched as she shoved her head dramatically in her hands. "If you don't like this man, why are you going to meet with him? Don't you deserve to choose?"

"Do I look like I have a line of suitors at my door?" Farrah claimed dramatically. Scorpius sighed and shifted his way through the living room to meet her on the other side of the couch.

"I think your friend Alice is wrong," Scorpius said kindly. "You shouldn't settle for somebody you don't want. If anything, you should find that guy you clearly do want. Like that guy in the picture frame." Before he knew it, Farrah had hurdled a pillow at his face. Both of them fell apart with laughter.

"You're a nosy young man," Farrah said, wiping at her eyes. "Before I tell you about this guy, I think we should get your family some new clothes. Has anyone ever told you how ridiculous you look in those robes? Seriously. I'll text Alice and Kareem and cancel - see if your family would be willing to get some new clothes."

Author's Notes:

Hey readers!

I'm so sorry it took me forever to update. I'm a college student, so this semester with COVID-19 was rough. I also lost a loved one due to COVID-19, which completely ruined my motivation to write. I'm back, and hope to update regularly! Hopefully once every week or every two weeks! I'm also more motivated by your follows, favs, and reviews - thank you to my first lovely reviewer! 3 I'm sending you all my love. And this is just a little passion project of mine - I'm hoping to make this story super long - but I get more motivated every time I realize somebody out there is actually reading what I write, so thank you all for the motivation!

I know this chapter isn't as involved when it comes to character depth and relationships - I basically posted this to let you all know, yes, I'm alive and well and WILL continue updating - but hopefully, the next few chapters will be very vulnerable and great to read! That being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

dreaminginsilver