Cho's Chic

Chapter 4

On Monday morning in the shop, Cho greeted Alan as he arrived for work. He looked at her carefully. "I see someone's had a good weekend," he observed. "I'll just hang up my cloak, and then you can tell me all about it. I want details, mind."

In a short while, Alan reappeared bearing two cups of camomile tisane. "Well," he said, "Spill the beans, my love. Uncle Al is all ears. Did he shag you?"

Cho nodded, her face crimson, but she said nothing. Alan looked at her again. "My, you've got it bad," he observed. "That good eh? The earth moved and everything? I can see it did. And the very fact that you won't talk to me tells me just as much as if you were shouting from the rooftops. You've always told me everything before, now you're secretive. You've fallen for him. Well, I hope for your sake he doesn't make a speciality of one night stands. Oh, come here," he said to her as her eyes filled with tears. "That's what you're afraid of, isn't it?" Alan put his arms around Cho, and she sobbed on his shoulder, trying to stop the flow of unwelcome tears. Alan dug in his pocket, and producing a large white hanky, he wiped her face carefully. "Come on, my sweet, best face on. The customers mustn't see you like this. We don't want mascara trails down your face, do we?"

Cho had just recovered her composure when the tinkle of the shop door bell announced the entry of a customer. Cho noted with surprise that it was Draco Malfoy. She smiled at him and said, "Hello, Draco. What a nice surprise. What can I do for you?"

The younger Malfoy spoke to Cho. His word were civil enough, but his tone was cold: "Hello, Cho. Did you enjoy your weekend at the castle? Father didn't actually let me know you were coming. I hope you achieved everything you hope for?" Was there a hidden meaning there? Did he know?

Cho chose to answer innocently, "Your father was kind enough to introduce me to a lot of potential clients. I'm hoping that at least a few of them will want to buy something."

Draco smirked. "Did you like the castle itself? I understand father gave you a tour?"

"Yes, he showed me round quite a lot of the place when I arrived. It's beautiful. You're very lucky to be able to live there."

"I understand the tour included the summer house?" Draco said pointedly. Cho paled, and gulped. He knew. But she had to brave this out.

"Yes, he showed me round the grounds. The loch and the mountains are lovely. He told me the land he owns goes from Glen Moy right to the other side of Ben Foy and includes Glen Foy, so everything we could see was his."

"Yes, my father has everything, doesn't he?" said Draco. Silently he added, Including you.

"Did you want to buy something, Mr Malfoy, or have you just come here to delight us with your company?" asked Alan, who, shrewdly observing the exchange between Cho and Draco, decided to deflect some of the venom on to himself.

Draco looked at Alan in a way reminiscent of his father. "I don't recall addressing you," he said icily. He turned to Cho again. "I'd like to buy a suit," he said in a neutral voice. "Father seems to think you're very good at what you do" - another pointed remark - "so I'd like to see for myself."

"Certainly," said Cho. "Did he explain the procedure? No? Well, this is how it works…"

Cho had sent Draco into the fitting room with Alan. It appeared his father hadn't filled him in on the fact that she had dealt with this personally for him, for which she was mightily relieved. She wondered whether Lucius had actually told his son about her, or whether Draco had seen them together - she went hot and cold as she thought of his sharp little face watching what they had been doing in the summer house. But she did not have long to muse on this before the bell announced the entrance of Hermione Granger for her first fitting. Cho smiled at her, and greeted her with relief.

"Hello, Hermione. I'm afraid the fitting room is occupied by another customer. Come into the flat and we'll do it there."

In the flat, Cho pinned the calico mock-up on Hermione's body. With a nip and a tuck here and there, she transformed the garment's shape to enhance the other woman's figure. Their idle girlish chatter, mainly about Hermione's planned party, helped to soothe Cho, and take her mind off the weekend. "Harry didn't come with you this time, then?" said Cho. "No. You know what men are like. He'd be bored rigid. He'll come for the final fitting to see what he's paying for. Oh, that reminds me. Look, we've agreed to tell Ron the total is a lot less than it really is, so he won't feel bad. We know he's already paying as much as he can afford. Don't let on, will you?"

Cho enquired about Hermione's work. She was doing research into Dark Magic at Transpires University. Much of it went over Cho's head, but she made what she hoped were intelligent comments every so often. Hermione was a nice girl, but she was one of those people who don't realise that not everyone can follow complicated arguments about difficult subjects with which they are unfamiliar. However, Hermione was not self-centred, and asked Cho about her business. She was very interested to learn where Cho had acquired her skill in tailoring.

"My grandfather was a Muggle. He worked in Hong Kong as a tailor. There it's still a very common thing, you can go into a tailor's and be measured for new clothes, and they have them ready for you in a couple of days. They're beautifully made, and very fast. However, they do use sewing machines, that's one reason why they're faster than me. Also, they work very long hours. My mother was taught tailoring by her father, even though they knew she was a witch - my grandmother was a witch and knew all the signs. But grandfather said it could never hurt her to have extra skills. She could sew really well from when she was a small child, and then learned the tailoring side when she was older. I used to watch her making things when I was little, and asked her to teach me. Then I discovered I had a real skill for it, and I could tell what cut would flatter people most. I made things for all my cousins, for free at first, but when I got really good I started to charge them. When I was thinking what to do when I left Hogwarts, I had the idea for the shop.

"I'm really lucky that my father's family are well off. They were an old Chinese wizarding family who escaped from China before the revolution, and kept all their wealth. First they went to Hong Kong, then they came here to England. So I borrowed capital from various relatives to start up. I have to succeed now, I'm in debt to so many of them. It's not just the money, I would lose far too much face if I failed."

When Cho was finished, she led Hermione back into the shop. Draco was leaning against the counter as Alan wrote in the diary. Hermione and Draco's eyes met, and both sets shone with undisguised hostility. "Hello, Hermione," said Draco condescendingly, "Fancy seeing you here. I would have thought this place was rather exclusive for you. What are you buying? A scarf?"

Hermione was shrewd enough to know better than to rise to the bait, so she forced herself to smile sweetly, and replied, "No, Draco, a dress for my birthday party."

Appointments were made for both of them, with Alan and Cho making sure that they were on different days. They did not relish the idea of a repeat of this meeting, and they were sure neither would Draco or Hermione. The two customers left, pointedly walking in opposite directions when they entered Diagon Alley.

Alan looked at Cho. "What's all this about a summer house? Let me guess. That's where you did the deed. Yes? And Draco knows all about it, so that leaves you two possibilities: either the bastard not only shagged you, but boasted about it afterwards to his son; or the creepy son actually saw you doing it. Not sure which is worse. I suppose there's a third possibility too: Malfoy senior is a regular user of the summer house for this purpose, so Draco may not have actually seen you, but just be making an educated guess. This is marginally better, but not very flattering to your ego."

Cho looked very miserable indeed. Alan's summing up was so accurate, she felt it was pointless to add anything. She just nodded in silence.

Draco Malfoy came in for his first fitting the day before his father, who had spaced out his appointments by choice, was due to come and pick up his finished suit. The usual procedure for male customers was that Alan helped them into the items being tried on, and then once the client was "decent", Cho would go in to them, armed with her pins: for Alan was an accurate and reliable taker and recorder of measurements, could sew with beautiful small stitches, and was generally wonderful with people, but he did not have Cho's skill in styling and fitting garments.

Cho therefore went into the fitting room to deal with Draco's calico suit mock-up. She began work, and at first they exchanged pleasantries as she would with any customer. Draco's tone was distant, but Cho put that down to his usual manner. Things changed when she knelt down, and began to alter the trousers. Draco suddenly put his hands on either side of her head, and held her firmly. She looked up at him as well as she could, gasping in shock, "Draco, what are you doing?"

Alan was at the counter, idly checking through the diary, when Cho's personal alarm went off. This was a Muggle device: a small radio controlled alarm that Cho wore on her wrist, disguised as part of her watch strap. A nudge in the right place set off a signal in the receiver under the shop counter, emitting a low buzzing noise. The sound was quiet enough not to disturb customers, and could be passed off as a stray insect, but Alan recognised it at once. He strode over to the cubicle, threw open the door, and looked in, to see Draco Malfoy naked from the waist down, holding Cho's head in a strong grip, and obviously attempting to force it down on to his erect member.

Alan was slender, but tall. He drew himself up to his full height, and said, in a firm tone rarely heard from him, "Mr Malfoy, I think it's time for you to leave. We don't need your kind of customer here. Let Cho go, and get dressed. I think we can leave you to do that on your own. If the pins stick in you, so much the better. Cho, come on out of there."

Draco's face was red with frustration and annoyance, and Alan noted grimly that his erection was rapidly deflating. He helped Cho to her feet, and supported her out of the cubicle. He held her upright whilst pretending that he merely had his arm round her, and led her into the main body of the shop. He sat her down in the chair generally used by older or infirm customers.

It was not long before Draco came out of the cubicle. He swaggered over to the two friends, and looked from one to the other. "So the shirtlifter is also a bodyguard, and the tart thinks she's too good for a Malfoy. You'll regret this." He turned on his heel, sneering, and stalked out of the shop. Alan followed him to the door, locked it, and turned the door sign to "closed". He turned to Cho. "Come on upstairs now, Cho. Never mind the shop. Tell me exactly what happened and what he said to you." He took her hand and led her up to the flat, sat her down, and made her a cup of mint tisane.

"Now," he said gently, sitting beside her, "Tell me."

Cho looked up at him, a picture of misery, her dark eyes brimming with tears. "It's such a mess, Alan. He could ruin the business."

"What did he say?" persisted Alan.

"He said he knew all about Lucius and me." Alan noted that Malfoy senior was now "Lucius". Well it was only to be expected. Cho was hardly likely to call out "Oh, Mr Malfoy" in the throes of passion. "He saw us in the summer house. He said he wasn't surprised, did I know that he'd taken numerous women there before? Of course, I knew that already. I didn't enjoy having my nose rubbed in the fact, but if that was all he'd had to say it would have been fine. Then he said he'd tell his mother about us. That would mean she'd make sure none of her female friends gave me any business. Then he said he'd spread the word among the men from the good wizarding families that I was "easy". That would ensure that the upright ones wouldn't come near me, and the others would expect special favours. Then he said he'd make sure that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger found out about Lucius and me. That would mean that none of their kind would give me any business either.

"Then he said I'd better get used to the idea of special favours because that was the only sort of business I could expect. I could start with him. That's when he dropped his trousers, and - well you saw him.

"Oh, Alan, what have I done? I thought at the least it was just a fling. I knew I might get hurt, but I didn't think it would affect the business."