Chapter 8: Mingling with Muggles
I awoke when an arm smashed into my face. Again. I grabbed Draco's wrist and shoved it off, kicking him in the side. He grunted and mumbled something in his sleep before turning on his side and facing away from me. I turned my back to his, grumbling in displeasure and returning to sleep. Next thing I knew, someone had grabbed me by the ankle and yanked me off the bed. I fell tailbone first on the wood floor and hissed in pain, my eyes watering.
"What the hell?"
"That's what you get, you bed hog." Draco's voice snapped sleepily.
"Bed hog? You're the one who keeps flailing around and smacking me in the nose!"
"Well, you don't leave much room for me to move, do you? You pushed me onto the floor!"
"Then now you have all the room you need! The floor is big enough to hold you AND your ego." I smirked, yanking my ankle from his grip.
"Shut your mouth, Gryffindor! Either you scrunch up against that wall and leave enough room for me to bloody breathe, or you can go sleep in the bathtub!"
"Malfoy, you are such a prat! Go hump a banshee!"
"SHUT IT!" Rob snapped, sitting up in bed. "It's three in the bloody morning! Get back in bed or you'll BOTH be finding a new place to sleep!" He flopped back down onto his pillow with a grunt. Malfoy and I sat in silence for a few more seconds before he got up and returned to bed. I crawled over him and snuggled back into my place, and though I'll never admit it, I lay closer to the wall to give him more room.
"Rise and shine!" A heavy weight sing-sang, falling on top of me. A familiarly heavy weight that would pin me down when I managed to sneak the last treacle tart from the icebox.
"ROB, gerroff." I whined, trying in vain to free myself from my brothers weight.
"Payback, little sis, for waking me up last night." He chuckled.
"Malfoy woke you up to!"
"OI!" A muffled voice called out.
"Oh, don't worry, he's suffering right along with you."
"Robert! Get off the children!" Mum's voice called, and the weight vanished. I sat up—rumpled from sleep—in time to watch Rob leave the room with the promise of payback in his eyes. Draco rolled over beside me and hid his face against my hip as mum opened the curtains.
"All right you two, it's time to get up." Mum said, walking towards the door. "And Bella, scoot over. You're not giving poor Draco enough room to swing a Kneazle." She added, leaving the room.
Malfoy raised his head and peeked open his eyes with a satisfied smirk on his face.
"Oh, shut it." I snapped, shoving him off the mattress. He fell to the floor with a satisfying thump. I stepped over him and hopped down the steps to the bathroom area. "Now shoo. Ladies first."
"Lady?" Draco asked, looking around the room. "Where?" I grabbed a tiny skin potion vile from the gift basket under the sink and launched it at him. It shattered on the wall above his head.
"Crazy bint!" He yelled in shock, his hands searching the top of his head for injuries.
"GET OUT!"
_
We ended up eating with muggles for breakfast in a boardwalk café.
"Order healthy, Bella. We don't want your willowy figure to go to ruin over bad eating habits." Narcissa said, skimming over her menu. I rolled my eyes, and was surprised when my mother agreed.
"So true, Narcissa. I was thinking of bringing her along to the Bodywork massage session we have planed."
"Oh! What a wonderful idea! It's never to early to start taking care of your body, you know."
And so my order of chocolate chip pancakes was vetoed, and replaced with a bowl of fruit salad and a glass of carrot juice.
"It's good for the skin." Mum had said. Rob and Draco had been biting their tongues to hold back laughter as their mothers continued to poke and prod in my eating habits. I knew doom was close at hand when the men and boys got up and declared they were going rock climbing. I quick got up, removing the napkin from my lap and setting it down on the table.
"And just where do you thing YOU'RE going?" Mum asked, leaning back in her seat and raising an eyebrow.
"Uh…rock climbing?"
"Not a chance. You're coming with us to our Bodyworks session."
"But mum-"
"End of story." I sat down gloomily and watched as the male half of the group walked away. Even frail little Sam was going along. Rob and Draco looked over their shoulders at me, and even trough their satisfaction in my discomfort, I could see they actually did feel sorry for me.
"No. There is NO WAY I'm letting some karate weirdo jab me in the back as I lie on a towel half naked. It's just not going to happen." I said, crossing my arms. And of course, Mum and Narcissa together proved to be powerful foes, and I found myself blushing into a pillow as a masseuse did just that. I grunted as I head something snap.
"You need to relax, Miss." The man had said, repeating the instructions he had been saying for at least ten minutes now. I was out of angry remarks, so I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, pretending nothing of this madness was happening.
I startled out of sleep when something pricked me in the arm. I had been turned on my back and several employees surrounded me. And they had needles in their hands. Afraid to move, I cast my eyes downwards and saw that I was completely covered in the little needles. Acupuncture. I groaned and closed my eyes again.
"Oh, she tensed."
"Here, I'll get it."
A tingling sensation flowed through my body, and I drifted off to sleep once again.
I coughed and gasped for air. I got a mouthful of steaming water instead. Scurrying to my feet, I found myself waist deep in a hot spring. Seems like I must have slipped out of my seat.
"She's awake again."
"Again? Get her good this time, we can't have her waking up during the spinal manipulation."
The WHAT?
Once again I got the tingles throughout my body and felt my knees go weak beneath me. Hands held my up by the arms.
This was getting old. Real fast.
The next time I awoke, it was to a loud swear and some scrambling. I opened my eyes weakly and turned my head. Draco Malfoy was standing in the middle of our room, blushing deeply and looking around franticly for a way to get out of the situation he was in as I looked on from the tub.
…from the tub.
As quickly as I could manage I glanced down and realized I was completely submerged in opaque green water from the chest down, but my naked state was still very obvious. Draco was now opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water, unable to form a coherent sentence. In my sluggish state, I also had nothing to say, watching him with half lidded eyes. A few seconds latter, he seemed to compose himself and turned his back to me, rushing out of the room. I let my head roll back before placing my hands slowly on the sides of the tub. The green water seemed to consist of strong smelling herbs, and proved to be a solid mass other than water. Squishy green goo was my educated guess. It took a lot of effort—the smell of the herbs made me want to go to sleep—but I managed to pull myself out of the tub, only to fall in a disgraceful naked heap on the floor. Now that I was free from the slime, my body seemed to respond more quickly, and I scrambled to my feet, grabbing one of the towels from a stack and wrapping it around myself quickly.
"Bella, darling, are you alright?" Mum said, gliding into the room with a bath robe on. I glared at her in silent defiance, biting back the countless snappy retorts I had to her question.
"Come now, get yourself cleaned off an presentable so we can go to diner. A dress would be appropriate." She said, pulling out her wand and pointing it to the tub. "Evanesco." The contents of the tub disappeared. "You have five minutes."
As soon as she left, I hurried to get the last of the green goo off my body at the sink. Rummaging through my trunks, I found a comfortable white cotton dress. Pulling on some knickers and then my dress, I pulled on some sandals and ran my drying brush trough my hair. Since it was hot my hair fell into waves, which were more frizzy than I'd like them to be but could probably pass off as windswept. I knew I'd get a comment from mum and Narcissa, but my five minutes were up, and I walked downstairs so we could leave for diner. Draco shot me an awkward look, but managed to smirk. We lagged behind the rest of our company, and he turned to me.
"I didn't see anything, you know."
"I'd be surprised if you could see trough that slime they stuck me in." I chuckled dryly.
"Oh, that's right," Draco smirked, all awkwardness replaced with playful teasing. "How was your 'Bodywork session'?"
"Honestly, I don't remember most of it." I admitted, scrunching up my nose in though. Draco looked surprised.
"You can't remember it? You were gone all day!"
"They kept knocking me out…something about not being able to relax." I knew I had made a mistake in telling him as soon as the words left my mouth. He doubled over in laughter, clutching his sides. "Oh, come off it. It's not that funny." I huffed, walking ahead.
"No no, wait, I'm coming!" He gasped between laughs.