Comments | post_bellum: RP: The daily grind

pb_draco in post_bellum

RP: The daily grind

Mar 23, 2009 13:25

Characters: Draco Malfoy, open
Location: Slug and Jiggers Apothecary
Date: 23 March 2000
Status: Public
Summary: Draco's at work and none too pleased by that.
Completion: Complete.

( Stumble out of bed and tumble to the kitchen//pour myself a cup of ambition )

cho weasley, place: diagon alley, 2000 03, complete, draco malfoy

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pb_draco March 25 2009, 23:17:58 UTC

Draco grinned as he worked. "No, I wouldn't have guessed that. Figured you'd go into Quidditch or some sort of research field. Maybe if there'd been an orchestra at school, might have noticed your musical inclinations earlier, but a toad choir's not quite the same."

He scraped the ick off his hands and into a large stone bowl before he added a thin and orangish liquid. "Does a number on them sometimes. Supposed to be wearing gloves, according to all the Dear God You'll Hurt Yourself literature and lessons, but it's pointless to me. Sometimes just have to get in and feel what I'm doing. I've got this olive oil salve that I put on if I've really messed mine up."

pb_cho March 26 2009, 00:16:53 UTC

"That's what I wanted to do, for the Corps," said Cho absently. "Research. Still do it on my own, but it's not anything quite as monumental as I pictured." She grinned, shaking her head. "But Quidditch I'd like to get back to, very much."

And she would. She'd promised herself that, even if it meant making Percy a very fickle fan.

A somewhat sly look. "But Malfoy, isn't it worth saving your hands?"

pb_draco March 26 2009, 00:40:08 UTC

"Ravenclaw," he said, shrugging one shoulder in amusement. "Suppose you can't really help yourself with the research. Granger's like that. She can't stop it. All sorts of questions, always has to know more about what's going on. God knows, I can't keep up with her. Woman's a lot smarter than I am."

He glanced at Cho, eyebrow raised. "Isn't what worth saving my hands?"

pb_cho March 26 2009, 01:42:41 UTC

"Yes, I suppose. I make a very good Ravenclaw," Cho admitted. "I'm glad the hat decided against Slytherin in the end. No offense."

She made a face, grinning. "You were the one bothering me about mine. Little precautions, etc. Shouldn't you be more careful, if you're going to be a doctor?"

pb_draco March 26 2009, 02:05:02 UTC

Draco's shoulders tightened, hunched imperceptibly into his robes, and beneath his sleeves, his left arm tensed. "No offense," he parroted, voice distinctly, lyingly cheery. "Nobody likes Slytherins. Fact of life we all learn the first day of school. Earlier, for some of us." And wasn't it a kick in the arse to know from the time you were five or six years old that the only friends you'd make would be the ones you'd share a dorm with. Small surprise most of them didn't bother to try.

"Ah," he said, glancing at his hands, wrist-deep in the bowl and musing up a handful of small, stubby berries. "Well, it's not like I'm handling anything corrosive with bare hands. I'm not an idiot. It's mostly just getting dry skin from time to time. Granger's not complained, though, so I think the salves I use work well."

pb_cho March 26 2009, 02:12:17 UTC

"Oh no, it's not that," said Cho, furrowing her brow. "I don't care that nobody likes Slytherins. But if I'd been one, things would've been awfully different, and... You see, I'm quite glad with how my life turned out. For one thing, it would've been you or me for Seeker. I think, anyway. And I certainly can't imagine a world without the opportunity to see you face off against Potter for the snitch."

She giggled at the mention of Granger, and shook her head. "You'll have old man hands before you're thirty, and your girlfriend will either be appalled or highly curious."

pb_draco March 26 2009, 02:22:38 UTC

"Potter." Draco snorted and shook his head. "Let's not discuss him, shall we, or I might end up mucking this potion." Even if he'd promised to behave himself for Hermione's sake, even if he'd mostly given up on ever getting anyone to agree with him that Potter and Company were filthy cheats at Quidditch (and he knew filthy cheats), he was never going to forgive the Spectacled Wonder for attempting to kill him. Not as long as he still had his scars.

"She's always highly curious," he muttered, dumping the bowlful of ingredients into the cauldron and checking the flame. "It's her natural state of being. Don't mind so much, I suppose. It's encouraging to see how much she wants to know about being a witch. If I didn't already know her background, I'd never guess it, these days."

pb_cho March 26 2009, 02:34:04 UTC

"Oh, I nearly forgot." Cho smirked down at her knuckles. "So sorry."

Funny, funny.

But what he said next -- encouraging and all that, she clammed up somewhat. Cho had never been very comfortable about blood status. It intrigued her how much stock people put into it, though she'd never really bought into the idea herself. Unfortunately, there'd been enough issue with it during the past few years that most of the time she'd really... Really rather not talk about being a halfblood. As a child, Cho had mostly assumed that that sort of thing was reserved for her family in China: putting up a fuss about things a person couldn't help, much less their chemistry. Going to Hogwarts had changed that preconception very rapidly.

"We always thought the hat was a cheat, for keeping her from Ravenclaw."

pb_draco March 26 2009, 03:33:54 UTC

Draco laughed as he stirred the cauldron. "I'm actually surprised she never ended up in Slytherin. Well, I mean, not surprised, I know why she wasn't there. But I think she could have been a real asset." She had the specific loyalty that was a part of so many Slytherins, a defense of those she cared about. She had ambition - her work with Goshawk was evidence enough of that. And she could be ruthless when necessary. She would have made a good Slytherin, if not for her birth status. "Think she would have been brilliant just about anywhere, really. Except Hufflepuff, she'd have been wasted there."

pb_cho March 26 2009, 03:43:11 UTC

"Hmm," said Cho, thinking.

Would she have liked Hermione more in school if she'd been a Slytherin? True, everyone'd always thought her a misplaced claw, but if she'd actually been in Ravenclaw there would have been horrible spats.

She wrinkled her nose at Hufflepuff. "Oh dear. Yellow wouldn't be her color, I shouldn't think." And that was it, honestly. She had no place in saying it would've been a waste -- that implied that everyone else in it was, too.

(Then again: as far as Cho was really concerned, there'd only ever been one great Hufflepuff. Sorry, Cedric, but the line did end with you.)

pb_draco March 26 2009, 04:39:44 UTC

"Yellow and black. She'd look like a bee. Admittedly, she can sting like one when she needs to, but it wouldn't have been the place for her. Far too brilliant." Even as he spoke, he heard what he was saying, and he remembered who he was saying it to, and who she'd been with back in school. His expression didn't change, but the Draco that scolded him in the back of his mind winced. Diggory.

He didn't apologize, though. There was only one long-held opinion he'd changed his mind about in the recent years, and the proof of that was the girlfriend he couldn't ever stop smiling about. His stance on Hufflepuffs was a harmless lark, in comparison.

pb_cho March 26 2009, 04:53:54 UTC

For a moment they were silent: perhaps it was in honor of something, but Cho had finally... Finally gotten the hang of thinking (and speaking?) of Cedric in a casual way. It was just as well. She'd come to see that if he were alive today they'd be best friends, probably -- he'd think her situation was terribly amusing. Anyway, a smile like that didn't warrant all the crying she'd done.

So she grinned instead. "They got the short end there, too. Black and yellow! Horrendous."

pb_draco March 26 2009, 17:26:27 UTC

"Never did make any sense to me. Did you ever notice that? Everyone got a metallic color except Hufflepuff. Slytherin silver, Gryffindor gold. Ravenclaw bronze. Hufflepuffs got nothing." He made a few stirs, watching the cauldron carefully. "Lead, maybe, but that's really just a dullish grey. The only thing I can think of is antimony, but if that's black, it's unstable. Not exactly flattering to the badgers."

pb_cho March 26 2009, 17:42:08 UTC

"I wonder if it's a sign," said Cho. "When they were setting up the houses ... Hufflepuff must've been like the tagalong friend no one has the heart to say no to."

pb_draco March 26 2009, 18:15:31 UTC

Draco snickered, with said snicker just a touch on the nasty side. "Dunno, I want to say that I don't see much sense in the house itself, could probably do without it just fine, but then...." He tapped the stirring rod on the edge of the cauldron and watched a glob ooze off it back into the mixture. "But then people say that about Slytherins, so. Reckon at least Hufflepuffs are likable."

pb_cho March 26 2009, 18:20:04 UTC

"Yes, they're mostly nice, aren't they."

Cho was remembering Cedric's friends: they'd all welcomed her well enough, and sometimes had been her only source of comfort ... Afterward.

"But that's just it. They're mostly nice, and that's really all you can say." She giggled, shaking her head. "Ah well. Shouldn't be too mean."

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