Some Like It Mild
By Kukaburry
Chapter 11- A Shady Encounter
"I hope you know what you're doing." Blaise grumbled at Draco. "Why are we stalking her again?"
Draco rolled his eyes. "It's not stalking, it's gathering information and it's because I want to see what she enjoys. It'll be easier to talk to her on Monday if I have something to impress her with. Maybe she'll forgive me for the way I acted all those years."
Blaise snorted. "You weren't exactly sweet to her. From what you told me, you put her down every time you saw her. Then you publicly humiliated her by telling all of her boyfriends to date someone else, just because you were jealous. I mean, that's low even for you." Draco glowered at him.
"The past is the past. I've admitted I was wrong, haven't I? Can we just focus on this afternoon? What did her friend tell you earlier?"
"She said she was going to take Rye over to Gladrags and then the ice cream parlor," Blaise repeated for the third time. "This is going to be so boring, and creepy. How are we supposed to explain why we're in Gladrags if they spot us? It has mostly girl clothes."
"We'll be in disguise of course. I bought a concealing potion from the apothecary over the summer." Blaise shook his head, unconvinced.
Nothing was more important to Draco than finding a way to apologize to Laurie.
"I still can't believe Rye is that nerd you were obsessing over. They don't even look like the same person." Blaise chuckled. "It's kind of poetic." Draco punched him hard in the arm.
"Ow, I'm serious. You said the only thing wrong with that girl was that she was kind of ugly. Look at her now." Blaise's eyes glazed over. "So hot."
Draco smacked him upside the head. "Focus. Don't talk about her like that," he growled protectively.
Rubbing his head, Blaise growled, "Fine, fine. Then treat Lily with respect the next time I take her out. I remember how you treated her that one night I was out with Rye."
"I treated her perfectly well. I didn't do anything inappropriate." Draco countered, rummaging through his possessions.
Blaise rubbed his head tenderly. "It kind of feels like we switched girls. I never thought I'd have a girl leave me for you," he mused.
Draco grimaced at the implication. "Whatever, I claimed her first in third year. Oh! Here it is." He said happily, pulling a murky-looking bottle from his trunk. "When are they leaving again?"
"They're leaving thirty minutes from now," Blaise sighed.
"Excellent, let's get ready and head over before they get there. We'll pretend to be browsing." Blaise grudgingly agreed, pinched his nose and took a swig of the potion.
"Rye, hurry up. You are walking so slow." Lily tugged Laurie's arm. "Why are you dragging your feet?"
Laurie stared at Lily bewildered. "Why are you in such a hurry to get to the shop? Are they closing soon?"
"No, I just want to get there before it gets crowded." Lily lied, tugging harder on Laurie's arm. "If you had been ready sooner, we wouldn't have to rush. Come on, I'm going to pick out the prettiest dress in there for you."
"I have a bad feeling about this. When you get excited about dresses, I end up wearing something frilly," Laurie warily allowed herself to be dragged along quickly.
They entered the shop huffing and puffing. "Oh look at that. The shop is almost empty. That's odd." Lily stated a little too obviously. There were only two other people in the whole store.
Laurie looked at Lily suspiciously. "Oh yes, so odd. It's not like it's nice enough to go swimming today or anything," she answered sarcastically.
"Oh shush. When we get something nice on you, you'll be singing a different tune."
Laurie rolled her eyes and strolled down the nearest aisle, picking at each piece of clothing. A gorgeous dress on the next rack caught her eye. "What color should I look for?" Laurie said, standing on tiptoe, staring through the rack.
"Look for something green." She heard Lily say softly, almost giggling.
"But I like blue," Laurie pouted, staring at the beautiful blue dress in her hands. The lovely satin felt smooth and fine in her hands. "I wish I could afford you." She mumbled to the dress.
The hairs on her neck began to prickle. She turned her head slowly and looked around. A skinny, be speckled guy with sandy brown hair stood at the end of the aisle looking at slightly used dress robes. He stared at the robes intently. He seemed around her age.
"Do you need help finding robes?" She asked quietly.
The guy jumped, startled. He looked at Laurie warily for a couple of seconds and finally nodded his head.
"I can give you some advice if you like." She kept her voice low. "It looked like you were having trouble." She didn't want to sound like she was assuming anything.
He looked away and shrugged casually. "What would you suggest?" He asked, keeping his voice equally low.
Laurie smiled reassuringly. "Trust me, I'm great at picking out outfits for people. It's funny because I hate when people pick out outfits for me." The boy looked unsure.
"Here I'll prove it. There's nothing I like more than a good challenge. I'll have you looking like a gentleman in no time!" She grabbed the boy by the elbow and took him to a changing booth. "Now you sit there. I'll bring you some things to try on. I know you'll like them, just trust me." The boy nodded and Laurie began her hunt through the store.
She found a solid black pair with strange lace on the cuffs. Next she found a pair of red robes and gold robes, very reminiscent of Gryffindor's colors. She carried these two back to the dressing room and had the boy try them on. The black robes fit well, but made him look like a washed-out granny. "No, these don't look right. Try the next on." The boy looked physically ill just looking at the red and gold robes. "Hmm, maybe these aren't your color." The guy bobbed his head in agreement, handing the robes back gratefully.
"Give me one more chance," she said quite cheerfully. This was the most fun she'd had in the last week. "I never let anyone down." She scoured the racks, looking for the perfect set of robes until she saw it. The robes were green and black with a silver trim. It was amazing, but incredibly expensive. She hesitantly pulled it off the rack and walked to the back dressing room. "Here, I'd like you to try this on."
The moment the guy saw the robes, his eyes lit up. Still avoiding Laurie's direct gaze, he went inside and put the robes on. He emerged a few moments later and Laurie was amazed at how nice the robes looked on him. "These fit perfectly." He said, keeping his low tone.
"Yes, they look a little big on you though, but that'd be easy to fix. The only problem is that they are way too expensive. I wasn't even going to pick them up, but I thought you might want to try them on just for fun."
The guy nodded and looked down at the price tag. "I see." He murmured, heading back into the dressing room.
"Rye! Hey there you are. Have you found any dresses yet?" Lily skipped towards her, a chubby guy with bright orange hair puffing along behind her. "Sorry I didn't come to you earlier. I was talking to a new friend. His name is erm.. Sven."
The guy seemed to cringe a little bit. "Nice to meet you miss Rye," he said in a raspy voice. "Sorry to keep your friend delayed. Have you seen my cousin Damion around here? He's skinny and has brown hair."
"Yeah, I was helping him with his dress robe situation. I couldn't really find him anything, unfortunately."
Sven cocked his head to the side and pointed towards the front, "Then why is he buying that set of robes?"
Laurie turned in the direction Sven was pointing. Damion indeed had the black and green robes in his hands and was handing over a couple handfuls of galleons. "No! I told him not to buy those. They're too expensive," Laurie moaned, smacking her forehead.
"Don't worry about Damion, he is plenty wealthy. He can buy what he wants," Sven rasped. "He likes your taste pretty girl."
Laurie looked back to Sven, suddenly very suspicious. "Do you two go to Hogwarts?"
Sweat beads broke out on Sven's face. "No, no. Damion and I are just visiting a relative for the weekend. We go to a school somewhere else."
"Oh, but you both have British accents. You must be from around here," she commented innocently.
"No, we are both originally from Czech. We grew up with our Aunt, but had to return to Czech for our schooling."
"I see, that is a shame." Laurie pretended to look sad. She knew exactly who these two were; they would make a mistake soon. This was going to be fun.
Damion returned to the group. "I think I have found a suitable set of dress robes." He narrowed his gaze at Sven and nodded towards the door pointedly.
"Damion?" Laurie batted her eyes balefully. They couldn't get away that easily.
Damion seemed confused for a second by the name, but recovered quickly. "Yes?"
"Would you and your cousin like to join Lily and me for ice cream?"
Damion shifted and looked towards Sven for confirmation, "Yes, alright." He replied quietly, still avoiding Laurie's gaze. "We can spare a few minutes."
"What about finding you a dress?" Lily pouted. "I wanted to find you something beautiful."
Laurie could tell Lily was in on this plan. 'No wonder she practically pulled my arm off to get here'. "I'll come back on my own. I can't look for dresses when ice cream is on my mind." Lily frowned, but agreed. Laurie remained resolute. 'I'll surprise them in the shop.'
They strolled down the street, enjoying the warm air. "I love the month just before Fall. It's always the most beautiful, don't you agree Damion?"
"Erm, yes. Yes of course it is." Damion agreed hesitantly.
Laurie pondered how to goad them into revealing who they were. They reached the shop and ordered sundaes. Laurie popped into the loo for a minute and returned to find them sitting down, eating. "Over here Rye!" Lily waved. Laurie sat down next in between Lily and Damion. "Damion paid for your ice cream. What a gentleman, yeah?"
A brilliant idea popped into her head. "You know who else is a gentleman?" Laurie asked while taking a bite of her ice cream. "My boyfriend, Draco Malfoy."
And here is another chapter for my lovely readers. Thanks for the amazing reviews. You keep me going!
The best defense against a person like Professor Snape is Buckbeak. ~Kukaburry