Re: A Small Café

[Narcissa Black]

"Yes, yes it is." She replied with a cheerful smile. "And thank you." She paused for a moment to think. "For breakfast? I think I would have to go for... crepes. They're delicious. Or maybe oatmeal. Always a good food to eat. With just a little bit of cinnamon and brown sugar sprinkled on top." She laughed. She was talking about food. None of that stuff that Mother had always taught her to do. She was talking about food. It was something so simple, and yet they were enjoying it like they were talking about something important.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius' face lit up. "I love crepes! My house elf used to always make them on the weekends when I was younger," he recalled fondly, though that hadn't lasted because the house elf eventually got old and his parents had replaced it with a much crueler one when he was about nine. Just a little bit of cinnamon and brown sugar makes for a perfect crepe. Though, I wouldn't say no to some well made french toast either," he added with a grin.

[Narcissa Black]

Narcissa smiled at the way that Lucius' face lit up. It was quite nice to see him talk to her as an equal about the simlplest of things. "My house elf used to make the most delicious food. Though, he was old and we got a new one after that." She listened intently to Lucius before she smiled. "Frrnch toast is delicious." She wondered how Lucius grew up before she met him. She knew that most of the families were similar, but differences intrigued her.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius smiled, then noticed there was one bite left of their dessert. He took it onto his own spoon and offered it out to Narcissa. "I wouldn't be a gentleman if I didn't make sure the last of the creme brulee went to the prettiest woman in the room," he told her, smiling his usual charming smile as he waited for her to take the last bite.

[Narcissa Black]

Narcissa watched as Lucius offered her the last bite of the creme brulee. "The prettiest woman, hmm?" She laughed, "why thank you. I'll be sure to keep your flattery in mind" Narcissa took the last bite gratefully, and then looked up to see Lucius smiling ever so charmingly. "So tell me," she said, "how many people do you use that potent smile on?" she asked with a charming smile of her own.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius was a bit taken back by her question, but he came up with a proper answer without hesitation. "I only use it on the people I want to impress," he answered as he set the spoon back down on the plate. "Well, people I really want to impress, anyway," he added with a wink.

[Narcissa Black]

Narcissa smiled at him for a moment. "People you want to impress, hm?" she said, "I guess I should be happy then." She laughed at the fact that he winked at her before she looked out the window and the now darkened street of Hogsmeade. "Perhaps we should leave soon? Before it gets too dark?"

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius glanced out the window and sighed softly. "I suppose," he answered before paying the bill for their dinner. He stood up and offered his hand out to Narcissa to assist her in standing up. "I do hope you enjoyed yourself tonight, Ms. Black," he said in an overly formal tone, though he smiled to show he was only joking in his mock sophistication.

[Narcissa Black]

Narcissa took Lucius' hand when he offered it and smiled when he joked in an overly formal tone. "Why, thank you, Mr. Malfoy." She said in that same tone, "I did, I hope you enjoyed yourself as well." She smiled back at him and picked her clutch up from the table. She hooked her arm in with Lucius' and walked out the door with him. "We should do this again." She said happily. "I really did have fun."

[Lucius Malfoy]

"As did I," he replied as he led her towards the door. "We'll definitely have to do this again, so we can see more of each other." He stopped as soon as they were outside of the cafe, glancing up at the castle. It really did look nice at night when it was all lit up. Despite how many times he said he couldn't wait to get out of this place, he really was going to miss it. He realized that he should probably say something, and when he turned back to look at Narcissa, he leaned down and softly pressed his lips to hers instead.

[Narcissa Black]

Narcissa smiled up at Lucius. "We should. I see far too little of you." Narcissa followed his gaze to the castle. It was beautiful in a way that could only come with age. Narcissa waited for Lucius to speak next, as was polite, but instead he turned to face her. Narcissa was about to question the sudden move, but never had the chance. He leaned down and kissed her. At first, she was rather startled, but she went along with it for the moment. After a few moments, she pulled back. "So," she said, "this makes me your girlfriend now, doesn't it?" She smiled up at him, hoping she could please him.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Lucius smirked. With any other girl, a kiss meant nothing, but this was Narcissa Black, so of course this kiss meant everything. "Why, yes, yes it does," he replied with a grin, before leaning down to peck Narcissa on the cheek. He smiled once more, trying to ignore the fact that he was giving up his manwhoring ways, then intertwined their fingers as he led her back up to the castle.

[Narcissa Black]

Narcissa smiled, pleased that she had found an acceptable boyfriend. Boyfriend. The term just felt so odd to her, and yet she had known that she would have had to choose or accept any offers. Lucius gave her a quick peck on the cheek before he intertwined his fingers in hers. The two of them walked back up to the castle, Narcissa enjoying that he was holding her hand. It felt nice - safe, even. "Then, thank you." she said softly, grateful that he had accepted her.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy walked in with Draco, heading over to a little table off to the side. A waitress came over and dropped off some menus for them and then left them to make their selection on their own. Pansy sat across from Draco, smiling over at him. She reached under the table and squeezed his knee before glancing down to look over the menu, picking something that sounded good.

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco smiled at her and reached his leg out, hooking his ankle behind hers as he flicked through the menu. Looking at it he found a spaghetti carbonara and put his menu down, waiting for the waitress to come back. When she did he ordered his food and a glass of water before facing Pansy again as she placed her order. He reached out and took her hand, "So how have you been? I haven't seen you for a couple of days."

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy laughed when he grabbed her ankle with his, finally deciding on a shrimp fettucine dish for her dinner, ordering it when the waitress came. She smiled and put her hand in Draco's, shrugging slightly. "I've been alright. Just trying to keep up with all the extra arithmancy work Professor Vector gave me. You?"

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco squeezed her hand and smiled, "Quidditch and a quick potions project. I think Slughorn is using me more and more for these small things now." He was proud of how things were working out in that class, all of his hard work paying off in tangible ways now.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

"So you're still being an excellent potioneer or whatever you would call it?" She laughed, moving her fingers so that they wove between his, deciding that was a bit uncomfortable while reaching across the table, and switching it back to how it had been before. "And of course you've got Quidditch taking up a lot of time. Got to keep that body in shape after all," she laughed. "Whenever you go running though, come find me. I can usually take a break from all my numerology nonsense I'm working on recently. And heaven knows Max could use a good run as well. He's getting quite bored being cooped up in the lounge with me so much."

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco nodded and smiled, "Of course. We should get him out soon before he starts eating our things instead of Astoria's. So what is the arithmancy all about? I've never really been good at it but it's always been fascinating the things that can be found using just numbers." He shrugged, looking up as the waiter put down a bread basket and reached for it, offering it to her before taking one of his own.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

Pansy shook her head as he offered her bread, wanting to save room for her meal instead. She grabbed a napkin and pulled a pen from her little clutch bag. "Well, like if I were to use arithmancy to tell me about you..." She wrote out his name, then wrote a number under each letter. Doing a little math in her head, she wrote out three new numbers, 5, 5, and 9. "Well, you're a person who's rather uncertain, somewhat unstable. There's a lot of change that comes with you, but you're adventurous too and you take risks. You tend to be a bit conceited, irresponsible. You're quick-tempered, I can vouch for that," she added with a smirk and a certain glance, "and generally impatient. However, you are very dedicated to service for others."

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco laughed and leaned over to look at the numbers as she was writing. He smirked back as she said he was quick-tempered, amazed with how much could supposedly be discerned from those numbers. "Wow, I hadn't realized that. Impressive. So what does your name say? And how do you get all those numbers?" He liked it when she explained things like this to him, seeing her fascination and pure love of learning coming out was incredibly attractive to him.

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

"Well each letter has a number attributed to it, and then you add up all the letters, all the vowels, and all the consonants to get the totals, and then each number has different traits associated with them depending on which total they represent." While she had been quickly explaining that, she had written out her name, the matching numbers, and the totals they gave her. "My name tells me that I'm apparently complete, whole, rather talented and energetic, as well as humorous and lucky. I suppose I am lucky, considering how many times I've gotten hurt goofing off with you and none of them have been too terribly serious." She laughed, continuing. "I also tend to be jealous and greedy, and power hungry from time to time." She grinned shyly, knowing it was very true. "Lastly it says I get things done quickly and logically."

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco watched as she wrote out the numbers amazed at how she knew to decipher them. "Well these numbers do tend to be accurate." He picked up the napkin and looked at the little lines, wondering how anyone had ever come up with this and how it managed to fit people so well. "So is this really what you do in arithmancy now? Use the numbers to read language?"

[Pansy Parkinson-Malfoy]

"Essentially, yes. You can take it much deeper than simply deciphering someone's name to find out their personality traits, but that's the basic idea. Some people use it for deciding silly things, like if they ought to be an auror or do potions or play quidditch, you can do arithmancy on those words and pick which gives you a result most accommodating to your own arithmancy results. Load of bollocks to use it for that if you ask me." She shrugged a little, and continued. "Mostly there's a new branch of it using arithmancy for more of a divination sort of thing, and that's what Professor Vector has me trying to figure out."

[Draco Malfoy]

Draco looked thoughtful imagining all sorts of repercussions, both positive and negative, from this sort of research. "Interesting, so it can really be used for anything? And are you working with someone on the divination readings or is this just a project for you?" He looked up as the waitress put down their food and leaned back to look at Pansy, leaving his food for a second while she spoke.

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