Continued from here

---

"Do you want to find a booth or something? First drink's on me."

She reached for Ariadne's hand, already turning to pull her date towards the tables and booths quickly being snapped up. "So do you just write a lot of about Quidditch games or is there more than meet's the golden snidget's eye?"

“Oh!” Ariadne allowed herself to be led, but was caught out by the question.

“Yeah, uhm, I do write a lot about Quidditch games, but it’s not everything, and I’m you know, learning on the job. I’m not - It’s not super dull, honestly. I mean, I’ve done super dull. I worked at Madam Primpernelle’s before that, and trust me that was duller than dishwater.”

They snagged a booth and Ariadne slid onto one of the benches, noting the tables strewn with heart confetti and a pink tealight. To her relief, there was also a cocktail menu.

“Oh damn, is this a Felix Felicis kind of moment of Amormentia,” Ariadne turned the menu back to Dido. "All I know is that I definitely don't ever want a Granny Ripper...!"

Madam Primpernelle’s! Dido pulled a face, sympathetic to the experience. She was admittedly vain but the idea of having to talk face creams and beauty potions all day long seemed like a waking hell; and why couldn't people just come in, buy what they want and leave? There always had to be a little spiel.

"I used to work at Reducto," Dido offered as she took off her shearling lined denim jacket to reveal a low cut black sweater over her jeans. "Was constantly being lectured by older guys too stupid to realise I either know more than they do or I just don't care. Not as bad as Primpernelle's though."

She raised her eyebrows at the cocktail menu, laughing at the description of a Granny Ripper.

"We might be pretty cute with white hair," the American shook her head from side to side, her curls bouncing. "Buuut we can pretend to be everyone's grandmas later. Let's go lucky," her finger slid down to Felix Felicis, tapping, "to start with anyway."

Dido felt weirdly at ease with Ariadne, which was a good sign. And she was really glad to be on a date with a girl, having checked out the older dudes in the crowd.

“Let’s go lucky, to start with anyway.” 
“You gotcha!” Ariadne clicked her fingers and pointed with both forefingers at Dido. Then realised herself and looked momentarily mortified. “I er, mean, yeah, sure, I’m all for that too.”

There was the faint sound of laughter, and Ariadne glanced round, almost convinced that Virgil had seen, but it was probably all in her imagination.

“You worked at Reducto?” Ariadne picked up on the earlier comment. “I always thought that would be the coolest place to work when I was at Hogwarts. You’d get to hear all the latest stuff and the worst you’d have to know an alphabetising spell.” There’d never been any openings when she’d tried over the summer, which had led Ariadne to other Diagon businesses.

“Honestly, I was desperate.” Ariadne continued, “Primpernelles was full of excruciatingly preened witches. The other girls there spent their breaks charming each other’s nails and reapplying their beauty potions. I mean, I get it. If they look pretty and say they’re using the stuff, then the customers think they can be like it too. But then there was me.” Ariadne pressed her hands to the sides of her face. “I think the manager thought she could transform me or something. I mean, you don’t see the - uhm, nothing!”

She cut herself off before she shoved her foot and ankle into her mouth by suggesting that Primpernelle customers and girls weren’t lowered to signing themselves up to a Witch Weekly blind date.

“It took all my self restraint not to drop some boil potion in their skinny lattes the day I got to quit.”

Ariadne sat up again, reminding herself to take proper interest in Dido rather than moan about her short-lived beauty career. “But you said you were someone’s PA? What do you want to be?”

Neither of them could have been very far from having graduated, and it was hard not to wonder if she would have made friends with someone like Ariadne if they'd gone to school together. She seemed to, like, talk straight, which was hard to find. None of that mindgames bullshit. And she was awkward, in the funny roll-your-eyes kind of way. But Dido had been a total bitch in school.

            “It took all my self restraint not to... the day I got to quit.” Ari finished, after recovering from a potential foot-in-mouth moment.

Dido snorted out a laugh - snorts were her real laugh - and grinned. "You should have," she brushed her hair back, tying it into a low ponytail, "and watched 'em buy Pimpernelle's out of boil remedies."

The question that followed touched again on the one thing she didn't know about herself. Her ambitions. It sounded better coming from someone her age than it did from her mom, though.

"I'm Ballentyne's PA but I don't know if I want to, you know, work in the Werewolf Wing all my life," she shrugged and slid out of the booth, "I'll grab the drinks, just a sec!" Dido casually clapped a hand on Ariadne's shoulder as she left for the bar.

Busy as it was, the Death & Co was on its toes tonight and it wasn't long before she returned with two golden, glimmering shots of Felix Felicis. "Here we go!" she got comfortable again, "Where were we? Oh, yeah, what I want to be. No idea. The last time I actually knew what I wanted to be... I must have been like six. Mermaid diplomat or something silly."

She used to love mermaids and sirens. Everything was more magical back then.

Ariadne’s hand went to her shoulder where Dido’s had just left. In her assigned date’s absence, she glanced about at the other booths, and reminded herself of her expectations. To go with the flow. Best situation, a nice friend would be made, worst case, she’d excuse herself. So far, no immediate red flags. Ariadne glanced over her shoulder to see if she could see Dido at the bar.

As her partner reappeared, drinks in hand, Ariadne beamed quite automatically. She reached out for the glimmering shot, and waited, poised, for Dido to get comfortable again.
“… what I want to be. No idea…” She filled Ariadne in. “… I must have been like six. Mermaid diplomat or something silly.”

“Mermaid diplomat isn’t that silly,” Ariadne retorted, thinking of her uncle Ceph. “But I imagine you’d have to be good at swimming.” She laughed and raised her shot.

“To a lucky night,” she proposed.


—


A witch stomped across the floor of the bar far too heavily for her high heels. Her handbag was clutched firmly in one hand and her shoulders, initially hunched, suddenly lowered into that dangerous, assertive pose.

“Oh,” Ariadne stopped what she had been saying, attention drawn, “someone should have had some Felix Felicis…”

The witch pointed her wand at her date but didn’t cast. The threat was enough for the figure she left behind. Ariadne could make out some raised hands in placation.

“I guess we’ll read about that in Witch Weekly next week,” Ariadne giggled, ducking back into the booth to continue her conversation with Dido. “I’ve never been that girl,” she remarked as the witch made an exit into the February night. “I think my mum was though - she split with my dad when I was little. I mean, I don’t want to be that person, but it seems like everyone around me has been there threefold with exes. Maybe that’s my luck. What about you?”