Tea and Coffee (Blaise)

[ASTORIA MARIA GREENGRASS]

Being patient always paid out to those who could hold such a trait, or so she had always been told that if she was patient enough and was able to wait without worry or ill minded thoughts she would be rewarded in due time. Was easier said than done though. She had received a letter from a friend of hers, well you could say he was a friend as he was not an enemy and he was more than an acquaintance not to mention he held a decent conversation with Astoria which she was forever grateful to have especially when it was not a subject about boys or shopping and shoes and all that girly stuff her sister liked to talk about which was fine, it’s who her sister was but every so often she craved a decent conversation on something that actually mattered, and yes that stuff did matter to Daphne but not to her.

Her friend however, Blaise being his name, was someone she could have a conversation with and one that held her interest and sure the guy was hard to read at times, he always seemed to have the same facial expression on which made it a challenge to read what he was really thinking or feeling at times. With that in mind she made a mental note to challenge him to a game of chess one day she was certain he’d prove to be a challenge indeed. But no not right now, right now she was waiting for him on their agreed location, he had seemed rather bored in the letter her wrote to her or so she had read it as and getting out of the house for a bit was something she was more than willing to oblige with, hell she might have even met up with Pansy Parkinson if it meant getting out for a bit she was just pleased it was with Blaise instead.

Despite her attempt to wait she got bored of waiting and started fidgeting a little, not a very attractive look by any means but alas sure enough within a few more moments she potted Blaise off in the distance and waved to him, why who knew, it’s not like he wouldn’t have seen her, he was an easy target to see, just look for the guy with the stern look on his face she always thought but she smiled a little his way as he got closer “So your summer is just as dull as mine has been by the sounds of it”

[/color] she added opening up the door for them to go inside. It’s not like she expected him to open it or anything.




Notes --- my first posts always suck
Outfit --- here[/blockquote]

[BLAISE BERKO ZABINI]

Blaise was not used to the feeling of boredom; not even over the Summer months when the days stretched into weeks without companionship and school work to keep his mind occupied. Usually, during this time, he busied himself with catching up on schoolwork, getting reacquainted with his French family members and copious amounts of tea, coupled with a great deal of thought.

To his dismay, however, lately his mind just wasn't keeping him occupied in a manner he was accustomed to. He was undeniably bored. So when Astoria Greengrass had suggested they meet for some form of hot beverage, Blaise had been more than eager to oblige.

It was odd to be back so close to Hogwarts in the knowledge that this wasn't a weekend trip and he wouldn't be making his way back up to school at the end of the day. To his great surprise there was a certain sense of longing that he couldn't quite pinpoint and the fact that he missed his dorm mates was a shock to him. Sure, he enjoyed their company but he had never actively missed them before.

He determined to write a letter to them whenever he got a spare moment and over the Summer those tended to be in abundance.

As he made his way through the eerily empty streets, he gave some consideration to the girl he was planning to meet. She wasn't your average Slytherin girl in that she didn't seem to give much of a toss about shopping and marrying well – a trait that Blaise found oddly endearing. Though, he supposed, she might grow into that. It was one of the reasons he had such an aversion to marrying; if he was to settle down with someone he would like to think it was for the content of his mind and heart rather than the contents of his Gringott's vault.

He noticed a small figure ahead, standing in the alcove of one of the shops and smiled slightly at her waving, returning it lazily. As he drew closer, a small smile flitted across his face, though predictably enough, it didn't last. He nodded in greeting before she questioned him on the quality of his Summer. “Nothing to do and all day to do it, I'm afraid.”

He followed her into the little café, taking a seat in one of the booths and watching her sit down opposite. “How are your family? All doing well, I trust?” He questioned politely, lifting a drinks menu and letting his gaze drift over the options. He had never really planned to be anywhere alone with Astoria before; usually it was just chance that left the two in companionship, but this was nice.

[ASTORIA MARIA GREENGRASS]

Astoria nodded her head at Blaise's responce, she could understand that all to well sadly and it was a sad thought in her mind. Despite there being all this free time one would assume the young could fill it with something but when you had already done so much it became all but dull and pointless in the end leaving you with a big fat nothing and a big fat amount of spare empty time to do it in. "Ah. I understand that all too well"

[/color] she responded before she took a seat across from him.

It was not often she ever spent time alone with Blaise, Daphne always showed up and it was never planned when she did spend time alone with him it always seemed to be the odd occassion, having planned to have met him almost felt un-natural, well in many respects it was but hey if it meant being able to have a nice chat without being interupted for a change then this was indeed a very pleasent encounter... so she hoped it would remain as such.

She put her small bag beside her and picked up a menu, how could one place have so many drinks to select from, how was she ever supposed to pick a just one, totally unfair! Her eyes though drifted from the menu to Blaise and she lowered it to give him her complete attention and smiled a little nodding her head. "Yes they are doing well... as well as ones family can be at least. Mother has been keeping herself rather busy as of late though I don't understand how she can find so many things to do, it's beyond me. Father is almost always working..."[/color] she added and couldn't help but think to herself probably to earn back the money his wife and Daphne have spent in the past several weeks but alas kept her thoughts to herself. "And Daphne is doing just fine, she is normally out shopping..."[/color] and I am surprised father has not cut her off yet with the amount of money she has spent she thought again, her thoughts seemed to be rather ill at the moment, she must try to mend that later on today.

"And your own family? How is your mother doing?"[/color] she had not heard anything ill of Blaise's mother but she also had not heard much about the woman at all this past several weeks and besides she was sure Blaise had to have done something interesting with his family at some point, Astoria saw so little of hers over the summer she might as well have been alone, maybe though it had been the same for Blaise, she would soon find out no doubt about it.

[/blockquote]

[BLAISE BERKO ZABINI]

He smiled despite himself, “I've already finished my homework. Merlin, I hate the no magic outside of school rule – if I had the opportunity, I could at least use this time to brush up on my spellwork, but alas.” He shook his head, irritated once more by the fact that such a rule existed. It was probably due to the fact that muggleborn students couldn't be supervised by a magical adults, but Blaise didn't think it was fair to put purebloods at a disadvantage like that just because they were naturally better than their muggleborn counterparts. As usual, he didn't vocalise any of this, instead simply seething inwardly at the injustice of it.

Having read through the menu, he finally settled on an Americano. He called a waitress over, flashing her a winning smile. He had found that it was always of the utmost importance to be pleasant to the people who were serving you in a public setting – that way they were less likely to spit in whatever you were ordering.

“Hello... Eleanor.” He read her nametag aloud, wincing inwardly. Sounded pretty muggle as far as he was concerned. "Might I trouble you to bring me an Americano and a...?” He raised an eyebrow at his friend, realising that he hadn't asked if she was ready before calling the waitress over.

His smile disappeared as he watched the waitress retreat, turning his attention back to the conversation at hand. “I suppose she does what she must to keep herself entertained. They're all a bit like that, privileged people tend to place more importance on trivial things if they have no real worries to occupy them.” He realised too late that this might come across as quite insulting, “My mother's the same. Every new ball gown is the be all and end all of her existence.”

He smiled fondly when Astoria mentioned how Daphne was always out shopping. “I'd be more surprised if she wasn't, if I'm honest.” That girl was impossible. He pitied her future husband's bank balance, if the girl was given free reign over it. “I'm surprised she hasn't been dragging you with her. Do you know, she wanted me to go shopping with her last week. Honestly, do I look like a bag carrying house elf?” He shook his head bemusedly.

He grimaced at the mention of his own family. “Oh, you know my mother... She's as well as she ever is.” Although Blaise was extremely fond of the woman, the same could not be said about the company that she kept. The most recent man in her life left a lot to be desired... But then, Blaise wasn't expecting to have to put up with him for an extended period of time. Not that that exactly made him feel any better. “We visited some cousins in Paris last week... They're all as well as they can be, given that they're French. Though I wouldn't advise mentioning that to Daphne, she'll be outraged if she knows I went to Paris without her.”

[ASTORIA MARIA GREENGRASS]

Astoria silently agreed with Blaise’s homework remark, it did though seem pointless this silly no magic until you reached a certain age outside of school rule, pointless and pathetic and there was no reasonable reason for it either, the law should be changed and people should not be punished to use the very basic of their nature it was like telling a rabbit it couldn’t hop when it got home for countless months on end, it denied them the very basic need, the very thing that made them what they were.

Upon hearing the waitress approach and Blaise mention her name she looked up from her menu upon hearing Blaise order his drink, she however was unsure on what to get to drink, something hot or cold, milky or not, sweet or strong, there were countless options and that was before she even hit flavours. Glancing to the waiter spotting Blaise’s recent raised brow at her she shut her menu and handed it to the waiter “Regular white iced chocolate without the cream thank-you”

[/color] she said letting her hands fold before her on the table as she turned her attention to Blaise. An Americano was a coffee drink, right? She had no idea she tended to stick away from coffee though tea might be nice, maybe she should have gotten a tea instead of an iced chocolate drink it was not exactly anything exciting now was it.

The frown returned to Astoria’s face for a moment in time upon hearing Blaise’s words, she had to wonder if he often thought before he spoke though also understood the basic speak before thinking rule where the brain acted before a thought could be processed to prevent the words from escaping ones mouth before it was too late. She knew many people like that, it even happened to her at times and who could blame her, she was still young and alas, so was Blaise, they would learn from their words and mistakes as time passed them. She could not hold his words against him, there was little point and he cleared himself upon mentioning his own mother causing her to nod her head in response.

“See I never understood that personally. Perhaps that’s why Daphne gets along easier with mother than I do, they both understand such things as that where I see little to no point in it”[/color] she added not that either Daphne nor Astoria had a tight relationship with their mother but Astoria always thought her sister got along better with their mother as she personally got along with her father better. Then again with a comment such as her own she could find herself in trouble, what pureblood girl in high class society did not like shopping especially for the be all end all gown and fashion.

A bit blind for a moment she did not witness the fondness that took over Blaise’s complexion upon mentioning her sister’s name not that it would have made much sense to Astoria if she had noticed the reaction. A snort though escaped Astoria’s lips as she picked up the sugar container twirling it in her hands before she looked up to Blaise “My sister and me have very different opinions on what is and what is not fashion and what money should be spent on…”[/color] she added with a shrug putting he container down “She attempted to drag me out one day though I refused. I believe she had Pansy attend shopping with her that day, if I recall correctly”[/color] she added her brows colliding for a moment, her sister had dragged someone else off, she couldn’t even stay with Astoria for the day at home instead, no she had to go shopping and spend money not worth spending.

Smiling to herself she nodded her head “You got off lightly then, I’d count my blessings if I was you, Daphne sure knows how to drop especially her bags on other people. It would not matter if you were a house elf or not to her”[/color] she added which was a fair point. The less Daphne had in her arms the more room she had for shopping. Astoria was the same when shopping for books and art supplies or even on her own little bursts of clothes shopping which was not a common thing, she had no interest in such things, she was young, why would she.

It only seemed polite though to enquire about his own family though upon witnessing his grimace she could not help but react the same, perhaps she should have picked another topic, changed the subject to something else though upon further thought hadn’t Daphne gone to Paris at some point this summer. Maybe she was unsure she couldn’t keep track of her big sister and frankly didn’t want to Daphne could do whatever she wanted wherever she wanted and there would be no stopping her that much was for sure. Astoria raised her hand to keep his secret though why he was so worried about what her reaction was unknown to her, she would find out sooner or later and she wasn’t in control of Blaise so he shouldn’t be worried about Daphne and her reaction, not in her mind. “Don’t worry I won’t say a word, you should though tell her at some point, she has a way of finding information out you know and coming from the original source is much better than her finding out from someone else.”[/color] she added, after all Daphne was a Greengrass. [/blockquote]