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Chapter 3: Darcy Who?
THE night of the date arrived quickly than Claire had thought. She'd woken up early in the morning, feeling rather fresh and excited. She had made a nice breakfast for Severus and herself, before they both went out for work and errand duties.
Serevus had given her a list of errands that needed to be done by today and Claire had spent a good amount of her time in London. By two o'clock in the evening, Claire had returned home, slightly tired from her morning errand duties.
She ate a simple sandwich for lunch before proceeded cleaning up the apartment and preparing a simple dinner for her house-mate. Then, by the time it was five o'clock in the evening, Claire had excused herself from all chores and spent the next hours of preparing herself for the date.
When Severus came back home at six o'clock, he had immediately began helping Claire taming her hair, as he had promised her the night before.
Instead of using the Sleekeazy's Hair Potion and Scalp Treatment, which the ex-potion Master had found it rather unhelpful, he had brewed his own version of Hair Potion and Scalp Treatment and poured it all over to her hair waited for fifteen minutes for the potion's effect.
At exactly seven o'clock sharp in the evening, Lucius showed up at the doorsteps. in his right hand, he'd bought along a yellow rose, for their new beginning of how he not needed to wait for anyone to answer the door as he welcomed himself in; using the copy of the house key he had.
The moment Lucius entered the apartment, he was greeted immediately with an interesting sight that made his eyebrows rose.
His good friend, still wearing his working attire; a black turtle neck long sleeves shirt and black jeans, was caught red-handed with a hair brush on his right hand, and a hair dryer on the other hand, and was halfway out of the Muggle's private chamber.
"Severus."
"Lucius."
Both men stared at each other in a long silence. Daring the other to speak a word using their eyes, before a loud cough interrupted them.
Claire, dressed in a white three quartered sleeves Chinese top with black floral laces around the neck area and at the bottom. To complete her attire, she wore a long black casual skirt. Her hair was straightened, and with the help of Severus, looked smooth and soft with a few hair clips to keep the strings out of the way. Claire had even made the effort to put on a Maroon lipstick to contrast with her with shirt.
Not forgotten his manners, Lucius handed her the rose before he kissed the back of her palm, not even leaving his eyes from her.
"My dear, you look astonishing."
"Thank you. I'm glad to see the efforts I've made finally paid off." She smiled at him, before turning to look at Severus. "Thank you so much for your help."
Severus gave her a brief nod.
"We should best be heading now. Severus, I shall see you sometime later." the smirk in his dark grey eyes spoke with volume at the dark haired ex-Potion Master's stiff appearance.
"Have her back home safe, Lucius." Severus' dark endless tunnel eyes stared intimidatingly at the older man.
"I shall, Severus. Good night."
"Red wine for you, Miss Claire?" Lucius asked, after the waiter had taken their orders and while waiting for them to order their drinks.
"Oh no thanks. I don't drink alcohols. Do you have Roselle Iced Tea instead?"
"Certainly, Madam." said the waiter. "Anything else for you, Mr. Malfoy?"
"No. That will be all. Thank you."
The waiter nodded and left their table.
Claire cleared her throat. "The first and last time I drank anything alcoholic, I ended up tasting my own vomit and the drink itself. Not a girl's first best experience and certainly not a best taste combination. Since then, I've been staying away from it."
"Delicate tongue, are we? Poor baby."
The drinks arrived shortly afterwards.
Lucius raised his glass for a toast and clacked Claire's mug of Roselle Iced Tea.
"To friendship."
"To friendship. Let's hope I do not ended up drinking my own vomit and the red wine itself after this."
He smirked at the glare Claire was giving him.
"The Sommelier seems to be familiar with you. Do you usually take your dates out to a fancy restaurant like this?" Claire asked, while waiting for their starters, mushroom soup, to arrive.
"Yes. And afterwards, we will be snogging for hours before we both ended up in bed for a night of passion."
Claire made a face. "We're not going to do that, are we?"
Lucius chuckled lowly and amusingly. "No, my dear. Despite your astonishing appearance tonight, you are not exactly the type of woman I would like to snog nor snag with. No offence."
Claire shrugged. "None taken."
"Your youth reminded me a lot of my son, Draco, despite you being older than him."
"Ah."
"How old exactly are you, Miss Claire?" Lucius asked, while sipping his bowl of Mushroom soup.
"Twenty-four."
"Well, you certainly do not look like one."
Claire shrugged. "Do I have to put on heavy make ups and wear skimpy clothes to look like my age?"
"Not really. Though a make up is preferable. Take no offence, Miss Claire, you do have a nice and flawless skin. But a bit of make up won't kill you－to show your maturity."
"Two words Mr. Malfoy: 'Au Naturale'. And for the record, I'd prefer to use my brain to show my maturity as you called it, than my appearance."
After a while, Claire opened her mouth, "How old are you, Lucius?"
"A Gentleman does not kiss and tell, Miss Claire."
Claire rolled her eyes. "Please. I know you're older than Severus, and he's thirty-eight. So you must be... Forty-two?"
"Forty, Miss Claire."
"Ah. Good to know."
"How's your rack of lamb, Miss Claire?"
"Juicy. The mushroom sauce is tasteful as well. Just the way I like it."
"Good to hear that. Have you noticed we were being stared at by the others?"
"They must have thought of us as Father and Daughter dining out."
"Doesn't that bothers you?" Lucius asked, wondering.
"Not really. We aren't lovers or a couple."
"You don't pull your punch much, don't you, Miss Claire." Lucius grinned and sipped on his wine.
Claire simply shrugged.
"Enlighten me, Miss Claire, have you ever been with a man before?"
Claire choke on the small piece of lamb she was in mid-swallowing. Reaching for her glass, she drank it desperately.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Lucius. What possessed you to ask me that question?"
Lucius shrugged. "You seem like an innocent little girl. I was just wondering and midly curious."
"I assure you, I'm hardly innocent. But I'm not that vile either. Though it's none of your business to know in the first place." She muttered at the last sentence.
Lucius raised an eyebrow. A coy smirk spread across his lips. "Do tell, Miss Claire."
Claire felt the hot air between them (or was it just her?). Cutting the lamb slowly, she refused to meet with his gaze.
"I'm still pure, Mr. Malfoy. Untouched by any men. and, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'd prefer to keep it that way until my wedding night with the right gentleman. So there you have it."
Lucius' smirk grew widened. He lifted his glass and silently drank it.
"I've heard from Severus that you enjoy reading books, Miss Claire?" Lucius asked after the waiter had served them dessert; a Vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and peanuts.
"Oh, yes. Classical Novels by Jane Austin are my favourites. It's a Muggle's classic loved by women all around the world."
"Ah, is that so? I've never really into romance, myself. The shelves back at the Malfoy's library are mostly consist of educational, political, and magical references books. My late wife and I encouraged Draco to be knowledgeable about the world as he much as he could. Though, when I think about it now, maybe it would benefit him to read other things such poems and short stories after all."
"I feel sorry for your son."
AFTER their not-too-horrible-yet-not-that-perfect dinner, Lucius took her for a long walk to home and walked off the heavy meals they just had.
Lucius was the first to break the awkward silence. "I must say, Miss Claire, never before have I ever experience a date such as tonight."
"Is that a good or bad thing?"
"I'm not sure. Frankly speaking, I feel a sense of relief to know that tonight, I don't have to entertain my date with wisdom and flirtatious words in order to get her to my bed."
Claire snorted. "Casanova, aren't we?"
They took a left turn from the corner. The apartment was merely a distance away when Claire spoke, "You know, Mr. Malfoy-"
"Lucius." He corrected her.
"Lucius. Despite my first impression of you, you turned out to be a rather tolerable date."
"Only tolerable, Miss Claire? I'm hurt."
"I'll give you more credits when we go on our second outing."
"Deal. Frankly speaking, you don't turned out to be a petty date as I'd imagined earlier today, Miss Claire. I think if this keeps up, we might be able to tolerate each other's existence."
"So I take it you'll be moving back to the Apartment now?" Lucius slowly nodded his head.
"You'll pay for your share of the rent this time right?" Claire narrowed her eyes at him. Again, Lucius nodded his head.
"Good!" She smiled at him. "Oh, I allow you to bring over your toys to the apartment, BUT, make sure you keep it down. I don't need the neighbours to think it's me you're shagging."
"Got it. Anything else?"
Claire thought for a moment before shaking her head. "Not at the moment."
They soon landed at the front door.
"Well, this is my stop. Sure you don't want to sleep in tonight?"
Lucius shook his head.
"I have other matters to attend to, Miss Claire. I may not be able to dine with them, but that doesn't mean I don't seek out for their companionships afterwards." He smirked.
Claire raised an eyebrow. "Riiight. You go and enjoy yourself then."
"Goodnight, Miss Claire." Lucius leaned down, and kissed her forehead.
"Wow. For a moment there, I thought you'd actually wanted to kiss me!"
"Do you want me to?" His voice was sultry in her ears.
Claire quickly shook her head. "Save your lips for those who want it, Lucius."
She turned the key and unlocked the door.
"Oh, for the records, Lucius before I forget, you remind me of someone－Fitzwilliam Darcy." She then shrugged. "I don't know. Must be something about you two being a powerful man of your time and all. Come to think of it, you two do have the same personalities, more or less. Oh, sorry for my ramblings. You should be heading on your way now. Good night, Lucius!"
Claire shut the door and locked it.
Unknown to her, Lucius was still standing before the door and didn't backed away. His own eyes were serious and unreadable for a minute, before his walking stick tapped on the ground furiously as he walked out of the apartment.
Lucius Malfoy did not spent his with his companions that night. Instead, he went back to his Muggle's Office, terrorised his secretary and personal assistants the whole of the night in search for a man whom his young date had claimed that he shared similarities with －Fitzwilliam Darcy.