Draco was waiting out on the curb when Aria got out of the photo studio. She waved good-bye to the other models, several of them adults as this particular photo shoot had involved both adults and kids and sat down on the curb next to him. He passed her a bottle of Coke which he had taken a liking to, and she popped the top.
"I see you braved the Muggle world all on your own," Aria teased.
"I even picked up your photos," Draco said, waving envelopes. Aria had bought several disposable cameras to document their adventures over the last couple of weeks. Draco, use to cameras like the one Colin Creevey toted around the school, had at first not believed that those little things were cameras.
"See, Muggle money really isn't that hard," Aria said as she opened up the first envelope. "You just got to get use to identifying the coins."
"At least they all say the value on them," Draco muttered. "Hey, why aren't the photos moving?"
"Our photos don't move," Aria said.
"But they do on TV."
"That's different. There's a whole different type of camera for that."
The first set of photos was from their visit to Liverpool. She, Draco, and Harry had spent the night with Dean and his family. His mum and stepdad and little siblings were all excited to meet other classmates besides Seamus (not that they disliked Seamus). They had toured the Beatles' museum and gotten a few records for Draco to take home. Gramophones did not take vinyl records, according to the clerk at the record store, but Draco wanted to try and make it work.
After Liverpool Aria, Harry, and Dean had gotten Draco onto a train and they went up into the Lakes where they met up with Justin and his family at their summer home on Lake Windemere. They had spent several days swimming, kayaking, and learning all about Beatrix Potter.
Another weekend Remus, Kenneth, had taken them over to York. Snape had even joined them. They had walked all around the city walls, taken a tour of York Minster, and taken the stairs up to the roof, and had even spent the night in The Golden Fleece which was supposed to be the most haunted inn in the city, but they did not encounter any ghosts or witness anything out of the ordinary.
Kenneth had returned home a day ahead of everyone because of work, but Remus and Snape had taken an extra day to go through the Yorkshire Dales. Aria was reminded of the old show her mum use to watch, "All Creatures Great and Small" and had immediately rented several episodes on VHS from the library when they got home to show Draco and Harry. The boys had immediately decided that Hagrid would have loved the show and that care of non-magical creatures seemed just as stressful as caring for magical ones.
They had had other, small adventures too. Aria had taught Draco how to use Muggle money and she and her friends had introduced him to Muggle swim trunks and a wide variety of food. Not just Muggle junk food, but other country cuisines that one did not get in the wizarding world unless one traveled. Draco had tried Middle Eastern, Indian, Greek, and Chinese food. So far, his favorite had been any kind of Middle Eastern food, though Greek was a close second.
"Oh, that's a nice one," Draco commented. Aria paused on a group photo that Mrs. Finch-Fletchley had taken of them at the World of Beatrix Potter. Aria was holding the stuffed Peter Rabbit Draco had purchased for her. It sat pride of place on her bed.
"I'll make a copy for you," Aria offered.
"I'd like that," Draco said. "Don't know where I'd hide it though."
"Why'd you have to hide it?"
Draco gave Aria a look.
"Yeah, your grandfather wouldn't like it," she conceded. "Where does he think you are right now?"
"Oh, he knows I'm with Uncle Severus. He just doesn't know where he lives. He wasn't very happy with my parents sending me away, but he's been . . . harsher since he got back from Azkaban."
"He doesn't know it was because of you that he got sent there does he?"
"Merlin, no! I don't think I'd be alive right now if he did know. I shouldn't have been snooping about in his study in the first place, which is where I found that . . . thing." Aria shivered at the mention of the horcrux.
"Anyway," Draco continued, "I got a letter from my mother. Grandfather's very busy at the ministry right now, so she's gotten permission to go to her chateau in France."
"Your mother owns a chateau?"
"It was a wedding present from her aunt and uncle, Sirius' parents. I think it might've been part of our dowry technically . . . but she always said it was a present."
"I don't know which part of that is unbelievable," Aria cried. "The chateau, the dowry, or the fact that she needs permission to go visit her own summer home."
"You've met my grandfather, Aria."
"Unfortunately."
"As I was saying, Mother's going to France and she wants me to join her. Father'll come eventually and we'll get our usual few weeks abroad together."
"Your grandfather won't follow you?"
"Grandfather doesn't like to travel. If it's not British, he doesn't want it."
Aria frowned.
"Isn't Malfoy French?" she asked.
"Yes." Draco nodded. "We're technically a cadet branch of the original Malfoys in Aquitaine. We came over during the Norman Conquest with King William. In fact, Mother is more British than the Malfoys if we really want to get technical. The Blacks were English nobility long before the Normans came. They just integrated into the Norman court."
"See, this is the stuff we should be learning in History of Magic," Aria complained. "Why doesn't Dumbledore just get rid of Binns?"
Draco shrugged.
"Your dad's on the Board," Aria said, "can't he do something about it?"
"I'm sure if I . . . said something, Father would bring it up."
"Please say something."
"I could also give you some books that you can read?"
"That too!"
Draco laughed.
"As it's my last day here, would you . . ." Draco gulped at his soda. "Would you want to . . . go to dinner. With me?"
Aria blinked in surprise.
"Dinner? We've gone to dinner together before."
Draco huffed, annoyed.
"I meant together!" he cried. "Just you and me."
"Like . . . a date?"
Draco's face turned bright red.
"Yes! I mean . . . no . . . I mean . . . only if you want it to be a date. Otherwise, I'm happy for us to just go as friends. I don't want to pressure you into anything, and I think we both know that even if it is a date nothing can really come from it because of my grandfather and—,"
Aria laughed, cutting Draco's rambling off. He gave her a worried look and waited until she stopped laughing.
"Sure," she agreed. "It's a date."
Aria tried to ignore the butterflies in her belly and the fizzy feeling in her chest as she and Draco walked down one of the nicer sit-down restaurants in town. It served a combination of Greek and Turkish food, which did not surprise Aria, what with Draco's new food obsession.
They started with a small meze platter full of haydari, babaganoush, hummus, Turkish salsa, stuffed grape leaves, and served with lavash bread. As the restaurant served family-style, meaning all food was shared among the table, they ordered a lamb guvev, tabbouleh, and a mixed grill kebab which came with döner, chicken shish, adana kebab, chicken beyti, and lamb beyti. For dessert they got kunefe, and two pieces of baklava to go.
It was a wonderful dinner. Draco kept a lot of the conversation going by asking Aria questions about the Muggle world, and answered any questions she had about the wizarding world. They talked about the upcoming Quidditch World Cup and both of them were planning to go, and what plans Draco had for when he was in France with his mother and father.
"We always visit Paris," Draco told Aria. "Perhaps . . . I'll bring you some macrons?"
Aria and Draco shared a shy grin as if Aria hadn't figured out who had been sending her anonymous packages of macarons at Christmas in second year.
The walk home got a little awkward. Aria wanted to hold Draco's hand, not sure if she should. A few times his hand brushed against hers, but she was not sure if that meant he wanted to hold her hand or if the sidewalk was just too narrow.
Stopping on the sidewalk just in front of both of Aria's house and Snape's, the two stared at each other for a minute.
"That was . . . that was great, thanks for dinner," Aria finally said. "I really enjoyed it."
"You did? Great. I mean . . . good." Draco scratched the back of his neck. "Um . . . I guess—,"
"Oi! No kissing you hear?"
Aria turned to glared across the street and Robert who was leaning out his bedroom window to yell at them. Mortification filled her from her head to her toes and she was certain her face was as red as Draco's.
"Shut up, Robbie!" she shouted back.
"You're too young, Aria!"
"Go to hell!"
Robert pulled back inside, cackling. Aria turned back to Draco who suddenly looked like a deer caught in the headlights. She turned around to see what he was staring at and found Remus and Kenneth casually sipping tea on the front porch, staring them down.
"Um . . . good night," Draco muttered, fleeing into the safety of Snape's home. Aria groaned and stomped up onto the front porch.
"Thanks a lot, you guys," she muttered. She might have gotten her first kiss if it wasn't for meddling neighbors. She walked into the living room to see Harry on the couch, a disappointed look on his face.
"Draco Malfoy?" he questioned. "Really?" Aria decided to ignore the slight upturn of his mouth and spun on her heel, making sure to be extra loud on the stairs as she made her way up them.
"You got mail," Kenneth said, coming back inside. Aria huffed, stomping back downstairs, her tantrum ruined.
Kenneth picked up an envelope from the coffee table and held it out. It was a thick envelope, a bit on the heavy side, and stiff. Intrigued, Aria opened the letter and pulled out a gold edged invitation.
ARIA BOURNE is cordially invited to attend the
Young European Potioneers Symposium
in Amsterdam, Netherlands
July 18-20
Please present invitation at symposium entrance
"You got an invitation to the YEP Symposium?" Remus asked. "You haven't even done anything!"
Aria immediately ran out of the house and over to Snape's, knocking on the door three times before barging in. Snape turned down the top of his newspaper to stare at him. She held out the invitation and he snatched it from her, his eyebrows raising as he stared at it. Draco appeared in the doorway.
"What is it?" he asked.
"It's an invitation to the Young European Potioneers Symposium," Snape answered. Draco whistled.
"I hadn't realized you had . . . done anything to warrant an invitation," Draco said.
"What is it?" Aria asked.
"It's a very exclusive youth symposium," Draco answered. "Only the best students are invited. You can only attend if you're invited. They're usually inviting students based off OWL scores. Or whatever tests they take on the continent. Sometimes younger children can submit applications to be considered before that . . ." he trailed off.
"It must be because I sent Belby and Babic letters of introduction," Snape guessed, handing the invitation back to her. "My own reputation precedes me. I am a speaker at the symposium this summer. Many have tried to get letters of introduction from me, and I receive a great many letters. I do not send many out. Someone must be curious as to why I'm doing so now."
"You didn't say you had a potions project going on," Draco said.
Aria shrugged.
"It's still in very early stages," Aria told him. "It might not go anywhere."
"Well, you cannot squander this opportunity," Snape told her. "Go home and tell your father that, if he is agreeable, I will chaperone you to Amsterdam as I was meant to be there anyway."
"Really?"
"Indeed. And tell him, just to emphasize how unusual an invitation of this magnitude is . . . tell him most invitations are issued 6 months in advance."
Aria gaped at him. Did that mean the other young students she would meet there had been invited around Christmas or the New Year? She really wondered who might have gotten her an invitation.
Hurrying back home, she told Kenneth exactly what Snape had told her to say. Kenneth sighed and looked at the dates.
"You'll be gone a lot this summer," he told her. "First this and then the Quidditch World Cup is only a few days after this."
"I want to go! Maybe I'll get some ideas for lycanthropy!"
Remus patted her shoulder.
"Fine, fine!" Kenneth cried, lifting his hands in surrender. "But you're paying for it." Aria snorted.
"That shouldn't be a problem," she said. She had, after all, slain a basilisk.