Who: Henry and Heidi
What: The embarrassing speed-dating luau of doom...not so bad, actually.
When: This past Thursday night?
Henry was ready to kill someone. Anyone. Anyone that got into his path would soon suffer his wrath because this night had gone
terribly. What had he been
thinking? If Seth ever found out about this, he would never live it down, he would never be able to stop his brother’s laughter, he would
never be able to----
“I
love your hat!” the blond in front of him squealed, reaching forward and tugging out one of the loose straws from the top of his head. Henry stared, face hard with contempt as she twisted the straw around her finger. Her name was something silly and he hadn’t bothered to remember it, even though he had his booklet turned to her profile page. He ducked his eyes down and saw that her name was #9, Gigi. That just sounded like a speech impediment. Henry’s eyes rose back up to face her, and she was now playing with her coconut bra, adjusting the straps to hold herself in a bit better.
He couldn’t say he minded her physical attributes, but when your hobbies included ‘bubblegum,’ Henry had no desire to go the full ten minutes with this floozy.
“So like---what do you do?”
“I represent quidditch players,” Henry drawled; he supposed she couldn’t
read either. Gigi’s face contorted,
“Eww, I
hate quidditch!”
Henry’s eye twitched noticeably and was about to excuse himself when the bell to move to the next table rang, “Thank
God,” he said loudly, not bothering to say good bye as he got up and moved to the next, and final table. He buttoned up the rest of his flower print shirt and sat down without looking at the girl who was already seated at table #10. Henry flipped his pamphlet and read over her information before he looked up, “I’m Henry,” he said, sticking out his hand and looking like he’d lost all hope after nine terrible ten-minute speed dates. Number 10, Heidi, was pretty enough, however, and Henry managed a smile.
Heidi too had been having a terrible evening. She’d been trapped next to #9’s table for
hours now, and it seemed like all that it had done was put most of the men either into a terrible mood or make them act like a horny rabbit. She sighed, frowning to herself before Henry sat down and then trying for a brighter smile.
“You know,” she said quickly, before he could interrupt her, “I think that if I have to hear that woman’s giggle one more time I am going to have to sew her lips shut.” By this point, she really didn’t care whether that made her seem like a psychotic bitch. She’d spent enough time
actually being psychotic to know it wasn’t something she’d really
do, but she was thinking heavily about it.
“She is just. So. Loud. And you know, you really don’t have to introduce yourself, since we’re all wearing these … er, nametags.” Okay, so far this was going fine -- but Henry hadn’t even said two words yet. “...and now I’ll stop interrupting so that you can, you know, talk.” Because talking about her usually ended with awkward discussions about her late husband. On her list of ‘interests’ she’d put ‘the legal system’, for Merlin’s sake. What had she been
thinking?
He couldn’t help but laugh at her description of table #9. Henry could barely last the ten minutes he’d been allotted with her, so he couldn’t imagine having to deal with her for the entire night. He would have to give Heidi some credit for surviving that, “I suppose you have to be loud when you don’t have much to say.”
The conversations he’d had with the eight other women had mostly been them talking and commenting on how he looked familiar, and was he related to
the Seth Wadcock, which Henry denied each time (he’d stopped introducing himself with his last name after table three). There was no need for
his night of speed dating to be all about his brother. It made Henry wonder if he’d ever be able to get out of his brother’s shadow, but with the Magpies on their way to securing the cup, he didn’t find it likely.
Henry picked up the pamphlet and scanned Heidi’s information. “Ravenclaw, hm? You’re from a tolerable House, that’s always a good start.” He wondered how badly her image of Slytherins was, with the war having ended so recently. “I don’t see many Ravenclaws in my line of work.”
“True enough. I wish she’d just decided to come completely topless and left with the first man that she met up with here. It would have made everyone’s nights better.” Heidi blinked as he scanned her information. She’d … intentionally left out her last name. She wasn’t sure how many people were a) still vehement Death Eaters who had been the ones to work with her husband or b) people who’d judge her for having married a Death Eater in the first place.
He was a Slytherin, and he didn’t
look like a Death Eater … but, well. One could never be too careful. “Oh? And what line of work is that, exactly? Not working in a library, I’d guess.” Oh, that had been a terrible joke. Maybe if she moved on fast enough, he could pretend she hadn’t made it. “I suppose I could just check the pamphlet, if you decided you put it in there.” He’d left off his last name as well, which Heidi could at least … appreciate.
This was still an improvement so far, however -- the last three men she’d spoken to had spent most of their time with their eyes at a
very inappropriate level.
“No, no libraries,” he laughed, taking a glance over at table nine and seeing that she was leaning so far over the table that the candle in the middle could quite possibly burn through the straps of her coconuts. Henry blinked and looked back at Heidi, unable to hide his complete bewilderment of the other girl. Heidi, thankfully, was tastefully dressed. Henry suddenly remembered that he was wearing a stupid hat that the host had placed on his head around table five, and he quickly swiped it off the top of his head and pushed it under the table.
“I represent quidditch players, I’m an agent,” he explained, clearing his throat. The moment working in the quidditch was brought up, he either received a response like Gigi’s or was bombarded with questions about who he
knew and did he hang out with them, “It’s not as cool as it sounds...not that I’m trying to make it sound cool, or interesting, it’s really just---” He felt his ears redden; what a great way to build yourself up, “It feels like babysitting, but with a lot more paperwork.”
Heidi watched with some amusement as Henry tore the hat off of his head and tried to covertly shove it under the table. Well, he did look a lot better without it. It showed his eyes much better, not that she would say something that sappy out loud. She was still having a hard time believing she’d worked up the nerve to
come to this thing, even if it was completely stupid and juvenile. She’d still been feeling …
guilty about her husband’s death, and the thought of seeing someone else -- even after more than a year.
And -- oh, oh no. He was an agent, he represented Quidditch players. That meant that he probably --
someone had to have talked about what happened with Drystan Fawcett, if he found out her name he was going to think she was
nutters. Heidi cleared her own throat, then.
“Paperwork is kind of nice though, sometimes. I mean, I’m sure I’d deal better with books than people most of the time. Not that I’m trying to make myself sound like a stereotypical Ravenclaw or anything.” She managed a small smile for Henry.
“People are definitely not my forte, either.” Henry gestured around the room, indicating that he probably would not be here if that weren’t the case. With his job, sure there were lots of parties to attend and social events to go to (mostly to make sure his clients didn’t make asses of themselves), but it rarely left him time to actually mingle and meet people. Seth had tried to get him to go out, but that drunken night really just left him with a headache and a long, babbling attempt at trying to get the random bird to go home with him. Not one of his best moments.
Henry took a drink, his eyes catching sight of the timer. What! They couldn’t almost be done, the other sessions had gone on for
ages, he was sure they weren’t sticking to the supposedly strict ten-minute timeline. He coughed, trying not to look concerned, “And what does a non-stereotypical Ravenclaw like yourself like to do on the weekends?”
Innocent enough question, right? Might as well set some sort of foundation.
This was probably not the time to be honest and say that she stayed at home studying paralegal stuff when the weekend rolled around. It was just that -- well, working and studying actually helped distract her from the fact that she was still living in a tiny apartment with almost none of the things that she’d had before, and that her overprotective brother was still worried she’d go completely insane again.
“Well, I live on a constant stream of coffee …. so occasionally I like to venture out of the house for that.” That was reasonable enough, right? They’d had a good conversation, they hadn’t tried to kill each other, and now he was hinting that he actually wanted to see her outside of this horrific luau.
“I mean, when I’m not coming to shady bars dressed in a pair of slacks under a grass skirt.” A moment later (and several deep breaths, along with a sip of her own drink), she grinned a little more. “So if you want to come with me for one of those coffee runs sometime soon, I think I could handle that.”
Now, even though he’d tried to, Henry couldn’t hold back his grin. That helped his situation a whole lot. He’d gone through with this whole night with the intent of finding at least
one woman who he could see again, and even though it took all ten tables, Heidi seemed to fit the bill. Of course, all he knew about her was that she couldn’t stand being around the ditzy blond that was Gigi and was addicted to coffee but...it was the first time in a while that he hadn’t been completely put off by a girl in the first...well, ten minutes of meeting her.
You should
see the groupies he had to deal with all the time.
“All right, a...coffee run it is,” Henry said with a smile, ripping the bottom piece of Gigi’s profile page to scribble down his address so she could owl him. He wouldn’t dare ask for hers, he was a gentleman, of course. Henry folded the parchment neatly and held it out for Heidi to take just as the big red, flashing countdown from ten second began to tick loudly in their ears, “Just let me know when.”
Heidi was relieved that Henry was giving him his address, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to give him hers. It wasn’t that she thought ALL Slytherins were Death Eaters, of course -- it was just that she still didn’t trust people very easily, after everything that had happened. She nodded, taking the piece of parchment from him with another smile.
Definitely too soon to kiss him even on the cheek, but the thought passed her mind briefly. That was a good sign, right? She didn’t want to completely run away from him the moment that he actually agreed to go out with her. Also a good sign. When the countdown started to flash, she managed to shout over the ticking, “I’ll see you Saturday, okay?”
