RP: Scouting

[shh_draco]

Date: May 17, 2005
Character(s): Draco Malfoy, Eloise Midgen
Location: Streets of Stoats, Just Desserts
Status: Semi-public (they'll be at the shop)
Summary: Draco needs a suitable place to handle his business.
Completion: Complete

One would think that since he'd been present at half the battles in the bloody town, Draco wouldn't have been surprised that

Comments

[shh_eloise]

"Bloody fucking buggering hell," Eloise cursed as she dropped the pan onto the counter. Her fingers were burned, but that wasn't the problem. She'd been working on this idea for days, but it just wasn't going well. The chocolate had finally become the right flavor, just a little sweet, but the peanut butter wasn't cooperating. The peanuts themselves were either overcooked or undercooked, and the peanut butter wasn't hardening properly. She wanted people to enjoy the sweet, not break a tooth taking a bite

[shh_draco]

Draco stepped into the shop proper and looked around. Eloise was helping a customer, and he took a brief moment to wonder how the hell he was going to do that same thing every day. Perhaps he could hire someone before they opened?

He didn't have time to examine the foolishness of that thought before she was looking up and greeting him in a voice that was far too cheerful. His eyes flitted to the customer she'd been helping briefly before he inclined his head. "Begging your pardon," he drawled. "but I'm here for chocolate, unless you've an underground gambling ring below your floorboards."

[shh_eloise]

Eloise waited for the customer to leave before she gave Draco a saucy grin and winked. "Trying to see below my floorboards already, Malfoy? It takes more than a smirk from a good looking bloke to know all my secrets."

"So, chocolate? Did you want more mint fudge or are you feeling adventurous today? There's a milk chocolate with strawberry filling that I've been selling a lot lately."

[shh_draco]

When she grinned and winked at him, he scoffed, though he might have lifted a corner of his mouth, slightly. "Make no mistake, Midgen. I want no part in your shady dealings below the floorboards. I'm an upstanding citizen, of late."

He smirked and moved to the counter, browsing a bit. "Yes, I suppose I'll take the risk." He glanced around again before he turned back to Eloise. "How's business?" he asked casually, resting an elbow against the counter.

[shh_eloise]

"What about the shady dealings above the floorboards?" she asked innocently. "There's an attic, you know, and people are more inclined to gamble underground if the location isn't actually underground."

At his agreement, she went behind the counter and put two of the sweets on a napkin before she handed them over. "One is strawberry and the other is a mint creme. Since you like the mint fudge, you might enjoy it."

"Business is good," she said. "People seem to like getting chocolate, which is definitely helpful. I'm not exactly sure how all the numbers balance, as I'm great in many areas but utterly horrid with columns of numbers, but we get quite a few people in here during the course of the week, so it's all good."

[shh_draco]

"Is that where you're keeping it, then?" he asked, tilting his head. Well, it's no longer a secret where your overhead for this place comes from, is it?"

When she handed him two sweets on a napkin, he nodded and waited for her to charge him. When she didn't, his brows knit. She'd given him free chocolate each time they'd met. If she did that for other people, she couldn't be making much of a profit. He'd certainly not be handing freebies out left, right and centre when he started his own business.

He nodded when she indicated business was going alright, but his eyebrow winged when she mentioned not having a concept of the numbers with no measurable amount of concern. "Good lord, Midgen," he murmured after eating the first piece of chocolate. It was rather tasty, some sort of truffle with smooth mint filling. "'It's all good?' How the hell would you know that with no clue whether your numbers balance?"

[shh_eloise]

"I know because it's my business," she said simply. "Numbers are important, of course, but there's more to running a shop than just numbers. I've got product available, there's money in the till at the end of the day, and trade isn't as frequent as paying with some variation of money. So, I don't really need to know what the columns say to know things are going well."

"As long as there's chocolate for sale and some money made, then the business is doing what it should," she added. "I don't really care how much money is left once supplies are bought and my employee is paid. My own expenses aren't that much, after all, and a chocolate shop isn't like a cafe where people go all the time, so I'm pretty lucky so far, I think."

[shh_draco]

He resisted casting his eyes to the ceiling. "Yes, but how much of that money you've left in the till is what you started with at the start of the day?" he began, mildly incredulous. "Have you any idea how much money you really have, for that matter, when you account for exchange rates while you're accepting those 'variations'?" If this had been one of Rabastan's holdings, he'd have put in his report to have this place audited immediately.

Taking a moment to eat the other bit of chocolate, he tried to bite his tongue. What did he give a fuck about her chocolate shop, anyway? He next words made him look up, though.

"I don't believe in luck," he said sharply. "Whether you're a success is entirely up to you. I'm sure it must be nice not to care how much money you make, but most of us don't have that luxury. At any rate, you've good product," he added begrudgingly, "but you'll need all of your 'luck' if you expect to stay afloat thinking that's all you need."

[shh_eloise]

"It must be sad to not have faith," she said, feeling rather stupid after he basically attacked her methods, such as they were. "And I've learned not to care a lot about money. My father worked for the Ministry, so we didn't have much when I was growing up. It was easier to not want anything so I'd be happy with what I did have. Then he remarried and they had Marian and Ford, which meant I had even less. I don't consider it a luxury at all, Malfoy. It's just a fact of life."

"You know, I might not be as smart as you or good with numbers, but at least I'm out here trying to do something. I don't want it to fail, of course, but I look at all the numbers and they just don't make a huge amount of sense. I can follow a recipe exactly, but that's where my talent ends. From what I can tell, I'm making a profit, albeit a small one, and that's good for a new business, I think."

[shh_draco]

Oh, bloody hell. He'd certainly be pants at dealing with customers if he'd affronted Eloise so easily. "Yes, well, fact of life or not, you need to worry about such things in a new business," he said, his tone slightly less acerbic than it had been. "It's nice to say you aren't worried about money, but you very well should be."

"Look, I'm sure it's very fulfilling to be out doing something for yourself," he said, hoping that he'd have the same feeling sometime soon. He moved away from the counter, frowning slightly as he looked over the shop, mind running over details.

"According to my research so far, you most new businesses can't expect more than a small profit, if any, in the first year, so I'm hardly discounting that," he said, somewhat distracted, turning back after he noticed a door on the opposite wall. "And numbers aren't terribly difficult to learn, when considering the time and money you'll save down the track."

[shh_eloise]

"It seems a waste of energy to worry about something you can't really control," she pointed out. "I'd just be stressed all the time, cranky and rude, and it still wouldn't mean more money in the till."

She watched him closely when she realized he was acting strange. He was always a little odd, which was probably one reason she rather liked him. Sure, he was nice to look at, and she definitely didn't mind the view, but he was an arse when he was using good behavior so she could just imagine what a rude git he'd be in a temper. Yet, she really did enjoy their conversations.

And the one this afternoon wasn't about her inability to manage a budget, she realized. "Your research? Are you opening a business?" she asked, not at all subtle with her nosiness. "They've always been difficult for me. I didn't take Arithmancy for a reason."

[shh_draco]

"It's not," he replied simply. This was common sense to him. "When you consider the time and energy you'll surely waste when you need to figure this all out later. And you will, just as soon as your oven needs replaced, or your suppliers up their rates, and you'll need to worry about more than what's in the till