Disclaimer: all these characters belong to J.K Rowling, except for the ones she inspired me to create.
Chapter Two: A Strange Coincidence
Bailee slowly walked down the dark streets of Hogsmeade towards her small cottage. She fixed her cloak and walked inside her cottage. Her owl, Osiris was waiting for her with a bundle of letters and a Daily Prophet, the weekly wizard newspaper.
She took the letters from him and gave him a biscuit in return. She walked to her living room and collapsed on her black leather couch kicking her boots off. The first couple of letters were from her dad.
One of them was inviting her to have dinner at the Potter Manor that weekend, so Trent could propose to Clarissa. The entire Weasley-Potter clan would be attending, minus the kin still in school. The other letter was informing Bailee that Lucius Malfoy had passed away.
"Why the hell would he tell me that?" Bailee asked herself out loud.
She put her letters away and then ended up falling asleep on the couch. When she awoke she realized suddenly that she was late for work.
"Oh crap!"
Bailee ran out of her house fifteen minutes later barely dressed and ready. She managed to pull her hair back in a pony tail and put on heavy kohl eyeliner. She was clad in a black tank top that stopped right before her belly button, glittery black slacks and her black boots. She panted heavily as entered the Weasley Wizard Wheezes.
"Sorry I'm late!" She exclaimed trying to regain normal breathing.
Her uncles stood up with worried expressions on their faces. Fred walked up to her, "Bailee about yesterday, we're sorry. We were so worried…"
"Oh that…I ran into Trent and we hung out last night." Bailee replied sitting down on her orange chair, getting glitter everywhere.
"We want you to stay at Weasley Wizard Wheezes, we don't agree with your parents…but they asked us to talk to you and we couldn't say no." George explained.
"That's okay Uncles…really."
"Good, now that that is done with, we're hiring another employee to manage the floor."
Fred held up the ad he placed in the Daily Prophet while Bailee stared at him questionably. She propped her feet on the counter and used a spell to bring her name tag to her. "Why?"
"Well with all these visitors from Hogwarts, we're having a problem with stealing…normally we'd jinx the kid you know, but we can't catch everybody. So if we hire an employee solely for that purpose we're all set." George told her, messing with his shaggy red hair.
"Who is the new employee?" Bailee wanted to know.
Fred and George exchanged glances and then back at Bailee, "We don't know yet…we're interviewing the person this afternoon."
"Oh." Bailee replied.
The day went by slowly because all the kids were in school and most adults had no reason to go into a joke shop. It was around three o'clock when Bailee decided to take a break at get a butter beer at the Three Broomsticks.
Bailee had just sat down at one of the corner tables with her butterbeer when she saw someone rather familiar walk by. The woman she saw had long black hair, and she was wearing a forest green cloak that looked as if it were made of pure silk. She was none other than Raven Warner, Alec's pre-arranged wife. Raven noticed Bailee sitting at the table she'd just walked past and stopped in her tracks. Bailee's stomach churned with anger and hatred toward Raven. She wasn't in the mood for a huge confrontation, but on the other hand she'd longed to tell Raven exactly what she'd thought of her after all these years. Raven looked down at Bailee as if she were a dung bomb that had just exploded. "Oh, for the love of Merlin," she snorted, "I should have guessed I'd see you in here on of these days, bumming around, doing absolutely nothing with your pathetic life. Ah, well, it runs in the family, doesn't it?" "And what have you been doing with your life, Raven?" Bailee inquired coldly. "I supposed you've been jet-setting about, spending money that's not yours, shagging everyone you come in contact with...other than your husband, that is." "Oh, please," Raven sneered. "Don't tell me you're still all bent out of shape over the whole Alec thing. I mean, if it makes you feel any better, you can have him...because I left him. He never really meant anything to me, just money and breeding. In fact, it would have been rather amusing if he had refused to marry me, because then you would have been brutally killed. It would have gotten your father some more headlines in the Daily Prophet, though..." Bailee had enough. She couldn't just sit there and let Raven talk that way about her father, or Alec. Without even thinking, she grabbed her butterbeer and poured it on Raven. Then she left the Three Broomsticks - and a gasping, sputtering Raven - behind and stormed back to the joke shop.
Bailee knew her face must be red as a beet and in a bad expression the way her uncles were looking at her as she entered the shop. "What's the matter, Bailes?" Fred asked as she took her place behind the counter again. "Oh, nothing, Uncle Fred," she lied as she sat down. He shrugged and began talking about business as usual. "Well, we made a decision on that new hire we were talking about," George said. "In fact, he's here right now, helping us out with a few things and getting to know the store a bit. He's in the stockroom now if you'd like to introduce yourself." Fred and George exchanged quick glances, which Bailee didn't notice. "All right then," she said, as she got up, went around the counter and into the stockroom, where she got the shock of her life. Alec Malfoy was standing in front of her, his arms full of crates of Fizzing Whizbees. As soon as he saw her he dropped the crates in surprise. "Bailee?" he said. Bailee was too shocked to speak. She just stood there as the seconds seemed to slow down to hours, not knowing whether to be happy or sad, to hug him, run away or slap him in the face. Alec stared back at her. "Well?" he said, "Aren't' you going to say anything to me at all?" Bailee did the only thing she could do at this point. She took his hand, shook it firmly as if they'd just met, and said in a formal, businesslike tone, "Welcome to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes." He gaped at her. "You're not serious, are you?" he asked after a few seconds. "Bailes, it's me, Alec. You act as if you don't even know me." "And you act as if I do," Bailee shot back. "Bailee, please," Alec said. "You know I never really wanted to marry Raven, that I was only doing it to protect you. Don't act as if you don't remember." "I remember quite well, thank you," Bailee said coldly. She turned and started to walk out of the stockroom. She felt as if the walls were closing in on her in there. "Bailee, let's meet tonight," Alec said, "I want to tell you everything that's been going on, and I want to talk about us." "There is no us, Alec, and there never really was," Bailee said. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I would have rather died at the hands of your grandfather than lose you? But no, you didn't seem to think about that when you trotted off into the sunset with Raven, did you? Oh, speaking of your Romanian Ice Queen, it seems as though she's bored with you...I had a nice, long talk with her in the Three Broomsticks, and she said she left you." "Why do you think I'm here, other than the fact that I wanted to see you so badly?" Alec replied. "Raven took all my savings. Every last galleon. So I'm actually having to take up gainful employment, rather than live off the Malfoy inheritance. To be honest with you, I feel better now that I have a real job." "You do?" Bailee said sceptically. "Why, yes," said Alec. "But I'll explain everything later, when we meet tonight." He looked into her eyes, making her knees go weak. "Please?" In spite of all the resentment she harboured against Alec, she still couldn't resist those eyes gazing at her that way. "Oh, all right," she said.
Right after work, Bailee went home and washed and changed. She wore a pink midriff sweater and low-cut jeans so that her bellybutton ring showed. She wore her hair down, and it fell down her back in long brown waves. If she was going to humour Alec by meeting him at Madam Puddifoot's tonight, she was at least going to make him see what he'd given up all that time ago. Bailee waited at one of the outside tables at Puddifoot's for only five minutes before Alec showed up. He was wearing dark blue wizarding robes, and his shoulder-length blond hair was pulled back, except for two strands that hung down his face in the front. Bailee's stomach did a few flip-flops when she saw him. It annoyed her that his mere presence still evoked so much excitement in her, but at the same time she was happy that he hadn't stood her up, as she'd been afraid he would do.
"Thank you for meeting me tonight, Bailee," he said, as he sat down. "You're welcome," she said, her tone still cool and reserved. "So, you're still obsessed with Muggle stuff, I see?" he teased her, gesturing to her bellybutton ring and her clothes. "What's wrong with all that?" Bailee asked, a little cuttingly. "Don't want anyone to mistake you for a mudblood?" "Don't use that word," Alec said bracingly. "Why not? I'll bet Raven uses it all the time." "Well, Raven and I aren't together anymore, are we? And I never used it to begin with. It's a terrible, ugly word, and just because I'm a Malfoy doesn't mean I use it. You know that, or you used to." Bailee sighed. "I don't know what I really know anymore, Alec. You come into my life after five years of nothing, no owls, no contact.... you just pop up one day and expect me to welcome you back as if nothing happened."
"I know, I know," Alec replied, "I'm sorry if I acted a bit presumptuous at the shop today. But everything I said was true. I've been thinking about you this entire time. Raven and I, well...we bought a lot of things together. But that's it. I never had with her what I had with you. Even now that's I'm virtually broke, it doesn't even matter, because that life is behind me now. It was just...things, and money. The only love I've received these past five years is the love of my house elf." "It must have been lonely," Bailee had to admit. "Yes, it was," Alec said. "There has been only one thing keeping me going all this time." "And what was that one thing?" Bailee asked. "You," Alec said. He reached across the table and took Bailee's hand. "Bailee, did it matter the first time, any of it? Our families and their old fights? It was just you and me, remember? I want us to be that way again." "Can I ask you something?" said Bailee. "Anything," Alec answered. "What would you have done if I'd refused to go along with any of it? If I'd tried night and day to destroy the whole arrangement, instead of just rolling over and accepting it?" "You would have died," Alec said. "I'm sorry, Bailee, but there was nothing any of us could have done. But now that my grandfather is dead, and my father, well, doesn't really care about me as long as I don't bring shame on the family, it doesn't matter anymore." Bailee didn't say anything. She was twenty-three years old, and it seemed as if the prospect of a happy life for her hinged on whether a rich old man was dead or not. She didn't quite know how to react to it all. "Can I take you dinner tomorrow evening?"
"Tomorrow?" Bailee inquired.
Alec nodded and stared at her quietly.
"I…can't…I mean I have a date tomorrow." Bailee lied.
"Oh, my mistake…I wouldn't expect you to be single after five years, after all."
"No, I don't suppose so."
They talked for about another half-hour, catching up on old times, mainly avoiding their time at Hogwarts, until Bailee looked at her watch. "I should be getting back," she said. "I have to work tomorrow, and so do you." "Let me walk you home," Alec offered. "No thank you, " Bailee said. "I know the way." "Why not? I thought we were, well, you know..." Alec trailed off. "Let's just get through this weekend first, all right?" Bailee said. Alec shrugged. "All right, then," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow." He apparated, and Bailee started home. She'd wanted to let Alec walk her home, but she was scared. No, terrified. The last time she'd gotten close to him, her heart had been broken. If she bared her heart to him again, with the same kind of consequence, she didn't know if she'd be able to get over it this time. That's why she lied about having a date, in her own way she wanted to get back at Alec. In fact, she realized just as she was drifting off to sleep on the couch again, she hadn't really gotten over it the first time, either.
Bailee awoke the next morning, knowing without even looking at the clock that she was late for work again. Luckily she worked for her uncles, in any other situation she'd been written up or worse, fired.
She left the cottage clad in a bright orange tank top, and dark blue jeans. She was in such a hurry (again) that she forgot her cloak. She apparated from her house to The Weasley Wizard Wheezes.
"Sorry I'm -"
"Late." Fred and George chimed in unison.
Fortunately for Bailee the store was empty, otherwise lying on the ground would have seemed very unprofessional. She looked up at her uncles from the floor, "is he here?"
They knew exactly who she was referring to. Fred knelt down beside his niece and stared at the ground, "no, not yet anyway…"
Bailee sat up and leaned her back against the counter. "Why are you two doing this to me? I mean the other day you told me that I was better than all this and then you go off and hire my ex-boyfriend. It's like you want me to quit!"
She was about to continue but just then Alec walked through the door. He had four Styrofoam cups of warm butter beer and walked over to the counter. He handed one to Bailee and then walked into the employee's lounge to remove his cloak. He came back wearing a black dress shirt with a green tie, black slacks and black dress shoes.
"Do you ever dress down?" Bailee inquired as Alec sat down on a bright red chair. He had his hair down again, and his appearance made Bailee want to melt. She forced herself to try and not think about him in that way. It would only make things worse for her.
"No, I don't own any causal attire…maybe you should take me shopping…" Alec responded before taking a sip of his butter beer.
"Maybe." Bailee replied closing her eyes.
"So are you excited about your date tonight?" Alec wanted to know. He was staring at her from his chair as Bailee was lying on the floor again. She placed her hands underneath her head and replied, "Yeah, 'course."
"Date? What date?" George spoke up forcing Bailee to open her eyes. She glared at him, silently begging him to be quiet but he didn't seem to notice.
"You haven't had a date in three years…I remember because it was Fred that set you up with what was his name?"
"Gareth…" Fred supplied.
"Thanks Uncle George." Bailee stated coolly. She sat up and then got to her feet tossing her cup in the trash can. "I'm going out for a bit."
She immediately proceed out the shop and walked down the street. She returned barely minutes later, with a pack of Turkish Golds in her hand. She was glad to find out that The Hog's Head sold cigars and cigarettes. She leaned against the cold stone building of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes and used her wand to lit her cigarette. She looked inside and saw her uncles handing out Hiccup Sweets to anyone dumb enough to take them. She didn't see Alec anywhere though.
"So you don't have a date tonight?" Alec inquired walking up to her.
Bailee almost jumped a couple of feet in the air, he surprised her so much. She turned and stared at him, wondering where he just came from. He had his black cloak in his hand and could tell that Bailee was freezing so he cautiously wrapped it around her shoulders.
"Thanks." She replied still staring at in him shock. She offered him a cigarette and he accepted, still waiting for her reply. She sat down on the cold side-walk and he sat down beside her, taking a drag.
"No, I don't have a date tonight…my uncle was right I haven't had a date since I was twenty years old…" Bailee shook her head, wishing it were untrue. She wish she had been on many dates since Alec. But the fact of the matter was, she was waiting for him to come back.
"Why did you tell me that you did have a date? If you didn't want to go out with me that's all you had to say."
"I know …it's just that I told you I had a date to -I don't know- make you jealous or something. I wanted to pretend that I had been doing fine without you." Bailee spoke forcing herself to not cry.
He stared at her silently, knowing that it hadn't been easy for Bailee. All this time he had thought about how he was going to cope without her all these years, but he never wondered how she'd manage to cope without him. "Bailee…"
"Look, Alec, I'm sorry…" Bailee shook her head, "there I are so many things I want to say to you, but dammit I just can't."
Bailee stood up and apparated to her cottage.
Chapter Two: A Strange Coincidence
Bailee slowly walked down the dark streets of Hogsmeade towards her small cottage. She fixed her cloak and walked inside her cottage. Her owl, Osiris was waiting for her with a bundle of letters and a Daily Prophet, the weekly wizard newspaper.
She took the letters from him and gave him a biscuit in return. She walked to her living room and collapsed on her black leather couch kicking her boots off. The first couple of letters were from her dad.
One of them was inviting her to have dinner at the Potter Manor that weekend, so Trent could propose to Clarissa. The entire Weasley-Potter clan would be attending, minus the kin still in school. The other letter was informing Bailee that Lucius Malfoy had passed away.
"Why the hell would he tell me that?" Bailee asked herself out loud.
She put her letters away and then ended up falling asleep on the couch. When she awoke she realized suddenly that she was late for work.
"Oh crap!"
Bailee ran out of her house fifteen minutes later barely dressed and ready. She managed to pull her hair back in a pony tail and put on heavy kohl eyeliner. She was clad in a black tank top that stopped right before her belly button, glittery black slacks and her black boots. She panted heavily as entered the Weasley Wizard Wheezes.
"Sorry I'm late!" She exclaimed trying to regain normal breathing.
Her uncles stood up with worried expressions on their faces. Fred walked up to her, "Bailee about yesterday, we're sorry. We were so worried…"
"Oh that…I ran into Trent and we hung out last night." Bailee replied sitting down on her orange chair, getting glitter everywhere.
"We want you to stay at Weasley Wizard Wheezes, we don't agree with your parents…but they asked us to talk to you and we couldn't say no." George explained.
"That's okay Uncles…really."
"Good, now that that is done with, we're hiring another employee to manage the floor."
Fred held up the ad he placed in the Daily Prophet while Bailee stared at him questionably. She propped her feet on the counter and used a spell to bring her name tag to her. "Why?"
"Well with all these visitors from Hogwarts, we're having a problem with stealing…normally we'd jinx the kid you know, but we can't catch everybody. So if we hire an employee solely for that purpose we're all set." George told her, messing with his shaggy red hair.
"Who is the new employee?" Bailee wanted to know.
Fred and George exchanged glances and then back at Bailee, "We don't know yet…we're interviewing the person this afternoon."
"Oh." Bailee replied.
The day went by slowly because all the kids were in school and most adults had no reason to go into a joke shop. It was around three o'clock when Bailee decided to take a break at get a butter beer at the Three Broomsticks.
Bailee had just sat down at one of the corner tables with her butterbeer when she saw someone rather familiar walk by. The woman she saw had long black hair, and she was wearing a forest green cloak that looked as if it were made of pure silk. She was none other than Raven Warner, Alec's pre-arranged wife. Raven noticed Bailee sitting at the table she'd just walked past and stopped in her tracks. Bailee's stomach churned with anger and hatred toward Raven. She wasn't in the mood for a huge confrontation, but on the other hand she'd longed to tell Raven exactly what she'd thought of her after all these years. Raven looked down at Bailee as if she were a dung bomb that had just exploded. "Oh, for the love of Merlin," she snorted, "I should have guessed I'd see you in here on of these days, bumming around, doing absolutely nothing with your pathetic life. Ah, well, it runs in the family, doesn't it?" "And what have you been doing with your life, Raven?" Bailee inquired coldly. "I supposed you've been jet-setting about, spending money that's not yours, shagging everyone you come in contact with...other than your husband, that is." "Oh, please," Raven sneered. "Don't tell me you're still all bent out of shape over the whole Alec thing. I mean, if it makes you feel any better, you can have him...because I left him. He never really meant anything to me, just money and breeding. In fact, it would have been rather amusing if he had refused to marry me, because then you would have been brutally killed. It would have gotten your father some more headlines in the Daily Prophet, though..." Bailee had enough. She couldn't just sit there and let Raven talk that way about her father, or Alec. Without even thinking, she grabbed her butterbeer and poured it on Raven. Then she left the Three Broomsticks - and a gasping, sputtering Raven - behind and stormed back to the joke shop.
Bailee knew her face must be red as a beet and in a bad expression the way her uncles were looking at her as she entered the shop. "What's the matter, Bailes?" Fred asked as she took her place behind the counter again. "Oh, nothing, Uncle Fred," she lied as she sat down. He shrugged and began talking about business as usual. "Well, we made a decision on that new hire we were talking about," George said. "In fact, he's here right now, helping us out with a few things and getting to know the store a bit. He's in the stockroom now if you'd like to introduce yourself." Fred and George exchanged quick glances, which Bailee didn't notice. "All right then," she said, as she got up, went around the counter and into the stockroom, where she got the shock of her life. Alec Malfoy was standing in front of her, his arms full of crates of Fizzing Whizbees. As soon as he saw her he dropped the crates in surprise. "Bailee?" he said. Bailee was too shocked to speak. She just stood there as the seconds seemed to slow down to hours, not knowing whether to be happy or sad, to hug him, run away or slap him in the face. Alec stared back at her. "Well?" he said, "Aren't' you going to say anything to me at all?" Bailee did the only thing she could do at this point. She took his hand, shook it firmly as if they'd just met, and said in a formal, businesslike tone, "Welcome to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes." He gaped at her. "You're not serious, are you?" he asked after a few seconds. "Bailes, it's me, Alec. You act as if you don't even know me." "And you act as if I do," Bailee shot back. "Bailee, please," Alec said. "You know I never really wanted to marry Raven, that I was only doing it to protect you. Don't act as if you don't remember." "I remember quite well, thank you," Bailee said coldly. She turned and started to walk out of the stockroom. She felt as if the walls were closing in on her in there. "Bailee, let's meet tonight," Alec said, "I want to tell you everything that's been going on, and I want to talk about us." "There is no us, Alec, and there never really was," Bailee said. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I would have rather died at the hands of your grandfather than lose you? But no, you didn't seem to think about that when you trotted off into the sunset with Raven, did you? Oh, speaking of your Romanian Ice Queen, it seems as though she's bored with you...I had a nice, long talk with her in the Three Broomsticks, and she said she left you." "Why do you think I'm here, other than the fact that I wanted to see you so badly?" Alec replied. "Raven took all my savings. Every last galleon. So I'm actually having to take up gainful employment, rather than live off the Malfoy inheritance. To be honest with you, I feel better now that I have a real job." "You do?" Bailee said sceptically. "Why, yes," said Alec. "But I'll explain everything later, when we meet tonight." He looked into her eyes, making her knees go weak. "Please?" In spite of all the resentment she harboured against Alec, she still couldn't resist those eyes gazing at her that way. "Oh, all right," she said.
Right after work, Bailee went home and washed and changed. She wore a pink midriff sweater and low-cut jeans so that her bellybutton ring showed. She wore her hair down, and it fell down her back in long brown waves. If she was going to humour Alec by meeting him at Madam Puddifoot's tonight, she was at least going to make him see what he'd given up all that time ago. Bailee waited at one of the outside tables at Puddifoot's for only five minutes before Alec showed up. He was wearing dark blue wizarding robes, and his shoulder-length blond hair was pulled back, except for two strands that hung down his face in the front. Bailee's stomach did a few flip-flops when she saw him. It annoyed her that his mere presence still evoked so much excitement in her, but at the same time she was happy that he hadn't stood her up, as she'd been afraid he would do.
"Thank you for meeting me tonight, Bailee," he said, as he sat down. "You're welcome," she said, her tone still cool and reserved. "So, you're still obsessed with Muggle stuff, I see?" he teased her, gesturing to her bellybutton ring and her clothes. "What's wrong with all that?" Bailee asked, a little cuttingly. "Don't want anyone to mistake you for a mudblood?" "Don't use that word," Alec said bracingly. "Why not? I'll bet Raven uses it all the time." "Well, Raven and I aren't together anymore, are we? And I never used it to begin with. It's a terrible, ugly word, and just because I'm a Malfoy doesn't mean I use it. You know that, or you used to." Bailee sighed. "I don't know what I really know anymore, Alec. You come into my life after five years of nothing, no owls, no contact.... you just pop up one day and expect me to welcome you back as if nothing happened."
"I know, I know," Alec replied, "I'm sorry if I acted a bit presumptuous at the shop today. But everything I said was true. I've been thinking about you this entire time. Raven and I, well...we bought a lot of things together. But that's it. I never had with her what I had with you. Even now that's I'm virtually broke, it doesn't even matter, because that life is behind me now. It was just...things, and money. The only love I've received these past five years is the love of my house elf." "It must have been lonely," Bailee had to admit. "Yes, it was," Alec said. "There has been only one thing keeping me going all this time." "And what was that one thing?" Bailee asked. "You," Alec said. He reached across the table and took Bailee's hand. "Bailee, did it matter the first time, any of it? Our families and their old fights? It was just you and me, remember? I want us to be that way again." "Can I ask you something?" said Bailee. "Anything," Alec answered. "What would you have done if I'd refused to go along with any of it? If I'd tried night and day to destroy the whole arrangement, instead of just rolling over and accepting it?" "You would have died," Alec said. "I'm sorry, Bailee, but there was nothing any of us could have done. But now that my grandfather is dead, and my father, well, doesn't really care about me as long as I don't bring shame on the family, it doesn't matter anymore." Bailee didn't say anything. She was twenty-three years old, and it seemed as if the prospect of a happy life for her hinged on whether a rich old man was dead or not. She didn't quite know how to react to it all. "Can I take you dinner tomorrow evening?"
"Tomorrow?" Bailee inquired.
Alec nodded and stared at her quietly.
"I…can't…I mean I have a date tomorrow." Bailee lied.
"Oh, my mistake…I wouldn't expect you to be single after five years, after all."
"No, I don't suppose so."
They talked for about another half-hour, catching up on old times, mainly avoiding their time at Hogwarts, until Bailee looked at her watch. "I should be getting back," she said. "I have to work tomorrow, and so do you." "Let me walk you home," Alec offered. "No thank you, " Bailee said. "I know the way." "Why not? I thought we were, well, you know..." Alec trailed off. "Let's just get through this weekend first, all right?" Bailee said. Alec shrugged. "All right, then," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow." He apparated, and Bailee started home. She'd wanted to let Alec walk her home, but she was scared. No, terrified. The last time she'd gotten close to him, her heart had been broken. If she bared her heart to him again, with the same kind of consequence, she didn't know if she'd be able to get over it this time. That's why she lied about having a date, in her own way she wanted to get back at Alec. In fact, she realized just as she was drifting off to sleep on the couch again, she hadn't really gotten over it the first time, either.
Bailee awoke the next morning, knowing without even looking at the clock that she was late for work again. Luckily she worked for her uncles, in any other situation she'd been written up or worse, fired.
She left the cottage clad in a bright orange tank top, and dark blue jeans. She was in such a hurry (again) that she forgot her cloak. She apparated from her house to The Weasley Wizard Wheezes.
"Sorry I'm -"
"Late." Fred and George chimed in unison.
Fortunately for Bailee the store was empty, otherwise lying on the ground would have seemed very unprofessional. She looked up at her uncles from the floor, "is he here?"
They knew exactly who she was referring to. Fred knelt down beside his niece and stared at the ground, "no, not yet anyway…"
Bailee sat up and leaned her back against the counter. "Why are you two doing this to me? I mean the other day you told me that I was better than all this and then you go off and hire my ex-boyfriend. It's like you want me to quit!"
She was about to continue but just then Alec walked through the door. He had four Styrofoam cups of warm butter beer and walked over to the counter. He handed one to Bailee and then walked into the employee's lounge to remove his cloak. He came back wearing a black dress shirt with a green tie, black slacks and black dress shoes.
"Do you ever dress down?" Bailee inquired as Alec sat down on a bright red chair. He had his hair down again, and his appearance made Bailee want to melt. She forced herself to try and not think about him in that way. It would only make things worse for her.
"No, I don't own any causal attire…maybe you should take me shopping…" Alec responded before taking a sip of his butter beer.
"Maybe." Bailee replied closing her eyes.
"So are you excited about your date tonight?" Alec wanted to know. He was staring at her from his chair as Bailee was lying on the floor again. She placed her hands underneath her head and replied, "Yeah, 'course."
"Date? What date?" George spoke up forcing Bailee to open her eyes. She glared at him, silently begging him to be quiet but he didn't seem to notice.
"You haven't had a date in three years…I remember because it was Fred that set you up with what was his name?"
"Gareth…" Fred supplied.
"Thanks Uncle George." Bailee stated coolly. She sat up and then got to her feet tossing her cup in the trash can. "I'm going out for a bit."
She immediately proceed out the shop and walked down the street. She returned barely minutes later, with a pack of Turkish Golds in her hand. She was glad to find out that The Hog's Head sold cigars and cigarettes. She leaned against the cold stone building of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes and used her wand to lit her cigarette. She looked inside and saw her uncles handing out Hiccup Sweets to anyone dumb enough to take them. She didn't see Alec anywhere though.
"So you don't have a date tonight?" Alec inquired walking up to her.
Bailee almost jumped a couple of feet in the air, he surprised her so much. She turned and stared at him, wondering where he just came from. He had his black cloak in his hand and could tell that Bailee was freezing so he cautiously wrapped it around her shoulders.
"Thanks." She replied still staring at in him shock. She offered him a cigarette and he accepted, still waiting for her reply. She sat down on the cold side-walk and he sat down beside her, taking a drag.
"No, I don't have a date tonight…my uncle was right I haven't had a date since I was twenty years old…" Bailee shook her head, wishing it were untrue. She wish she had been on many dates since Alec. But the fact of the matter was, she was waiting for him to come back.
"Why did you tell me that you did have a date? If you didn't want to go out with me that's all you had to say."
"I know …it's just that I told you I had a date to -I don't know- make you jealous or something. I wanted to pretend that I had been doing fine without you." Bailee spoke forcing herself to not cry.
He stared at her silently, knowing that it hadn't been easy for Bailee. All this time he had thought about how he was going to cope without her all these years, but he never wondered how she'd manage to cope without him. "Bailee…"
"Look, Alec, I'm sorry…" Bailee shook her head, "there I are so many things I want to say to you, but dammit I just can't."
Bailee stood up and apparated to her cottage.
