04 July, 1997 (6:42p.m, Wednesday)

Scarlett was in the process of packing an overnight bag, she was invited to Astoria's to stay the night and since she didn't have her dance lessons the next day- she said yes.

Surprisingly.

She didn't talk to Astoria much, this summer being the first time they've really ever conversed.

She was pretty sure the only reason that Astoria wanted her to come over was to gossip about Adrian, Draco, and Theo.

Regardless, it'd be nice to get out of the house, especially since Theo was there again. Gosh, didn't he have other friends?

She put one last shirt in the bag and then walked from her room down to the fireplace.

She stepped into it and a few moment later appeared in the fireplace of Greengrass Manor.

It was about forty minutes away from Malfoy Manor so the chances of running into Theo was slim.

But never zero.

She stepped out of the fireplace and greeted the Greengrass house elf, he gave her directions to Astoria's room. When she finally made it up the winding stairs and walked into her room, Astoria stood up and ran over to her, pulling her into a hug, "I thought you'd never get here!"

Scarlett awkwardly laughed, she didn't like hugs.

"I have so much planned for us, mum said it'd be okay if we went into the Alley and eat there instead of with her and my dad. Daphne is gone for the week, she went to Italy with the Bulstrodes. I was going to see if Draco and Theo wanted to come with us to eat."

Scarlett shook her head, "Theo and I aren't speaking right now."

Astoria frowned, "Because of Adrian?"

"If I tell you, you can't ever tell anyone, especially not Draco."

Astoria nodded, "I pinkie promise."

"I accidentally kissed him the other night, the next morning he came and apologized to me and I told him I didn't like him and that he bothers me. He told me he was sorry and would never bother me again."

Astoria blinked, "Oh.. Wow."

"Yeah, it's a lot."

"But you like him, don't you?"

Scarlett shook her head, "I don't. I could never date him. I like the attention he gives me, but we're so different, we just wouldn't work."

"Well you wouldn't know that until you try."

"I can't try regardless because I'm technically dating Adrian."

"What Adrian doesn't know won't hurt him. Just hang out with Theo, see how it goes. It's not cheating if you aren't labeling it."

Scarlett nodded, Astoria had a point. In a slightly fucked up way, she had a really good point.

Scarlett was about to respond but a knock came at the door and Astoria walked past her to open it, Mrs. Greengrass walked in, "Girls, if you're wanting to go to the Alley, you need to be going soon. I expect you both back by 11 o'clock at the latest."

"Yes, Mum, we were thinking of asking if Draco and Theo would like to come with us. Would that be okay?"

Mrs. Greengrass nodded, "A double date?"

Scarlett shook her head, "I'm not dating Theo."

"Yet." Astoria mumbled under her breath.

Mrs. Greengrass nodded, "I suppose that would be okay. I trust that you two will act like the young ladies you've been raised to be? I don't want to hear anything bad back about how you two act, I'm sure Narcissa wouldn't like to hear anything back either."

Scarlett nodded, Narcissa would kill her if word got back to her. She knew she was always to be on her best behavior. Draco could get away with more than she could. It was just what happened when you were a Pureblood girl. Most eyes were already on you because of you're blood status, but even more were on you if you were a girl. You were raised to be polite, respectful, and extremely well behaved in public.

"Yes of course, Mum."

"Then I don't care if the boys go." With that, Mrs. Greengrass walked out of the room and Astoria turned to Scarlett and started bouncing, she grabbed Scarlett's hand and squealed.

"Why are you so happy?" Scarlett asked.

"Because I'm going to fix you and Theo's problem!"

Scarlett sighed.

-

"What have you two done today?" Draco asked once the girls sat down across from them. He and Theo had beat them to the Leaky Cauldron by fifteen minutes.

"Oh, not much, just a lot of talking." Astoria informed him. She was sitting directly across from Draco, which left Scarlett sitting right across from Theo- which she hated. He was staring at her. She was hot. Why was it so hot in this place? It felt like he was going to burn a hole through her with his eyes.

She cleared her throat, "I think I'm going to run to the restroom."

"Oh, I'll come to!" Astoria exclaimed, sliding out of the booth beside her.

Scarlett turned and began walking to the left of the restaurant, heading all the way to the back.

"What's wrong?" Astoria asked once they were far enough away from the boys.

"He's staring at me. I can't sit across from him, he won't stop looking at me."

"Well, let's swap then. I'll sit across from him and you sit across from Drake."

Scarlett shook her head, "I hate sitting across from Draco, I get no foot room."

"Okay, well I'll sit by Draco and Theo can sit by you. Then he can't stare at you the whole time because Draco would ask questions."

Scarlett nodded, "Sounds good."

Astoria left Scarlett and walked back to the table, Scarlett stood at the mirror of the bathroom and attempted to fix a stray piece of hair- it didn't work, so she sighed and walked out.

Taking her new place at the table, beside Theo, she scooted into the seat, her leg brushing his a tiny bit- when she realized she quickly pulled away, he didn't turn to look at her anymore. Instead he began to talk about quidditch with Draco.

Astoria started to talk about some tea party she and her mum would be attending later on that month. The two would be going to Paris to visit family. She wanted to know if Scarlett wanted to come.

All was going well until she rested her hand in the space beside her and Theo, realizing that his hand was already there and she'd just laid hers on top of his.

He side eyed her. Had she meant to do it?

As if matters couldn't get any worse, Adrian Pucey walked over to them. "Scarlett, I thought you were busy tonight and that's why you couldn't come here with me?"

Scarlett looked at Astoria and then back at Adrian, "I am busy. I told you I was going to Astoria's, we're eating and then going back to her house."

"Oh, well you wouldn't mind if I join, right?" Adrian asked.

"I actually would mind, you're not coming to my house." Astoria chimed.

Adrian rolled his eyes, "Not to your house, just to eat." Not waiting for an answer, he slid in beside Scarlett, which pushed her to practically right on top of Theo.

She was shoulder to shoulder with Theo, she turned to him and gave him a sympathetic smile. He nodded.

Adrian began to talk, to no one in particular because no one was paying him any attention. He placed his hand on Scarlett's leg with a loud smack, he began to rub it.  Theo looked down at it and then back to Scarlett, he rolled his eyes. He couldn't stay quiet anymore. 

"Who failed at raising you, Pucey?" Theo asked.

Draco, who was trying to ignore the whole situation by keeping his mouth to his water glass so he wouldn't have to speak, snorted. Which he quickly covered with a cough.

"Pardon me?" Adrian asked.

"Did your dad not teach you table etiquette? I wouldn't be surprised if he skipped that seeing as he sure as hell skipped out on teaching you how to respect a woman." Theo continued.

"I'll have you know that-"

He was cut off by Theo, "I wasn't finished speaking, actually. Every time we see you you're always touching on Scarlett, can't you see that she doesn't like that. Stop groping her, we're in public, get your fucking hand off her leg. Just because you can go in public and no one pays attention to you doesn't mean that happens to her. Everyone watches what she does, so stop being an embarrassment to her. If you like her so much then you should care more about her reputation. But I forgot, you don't actually like her, you just like the little bit of attention you'll get when you escort her into the ball."

Adrian scoffed, "What is your issue, Nott? Every time I do anything to her, you throw a fit. Stop being a little bitch about everything. Is it illegal to touch my own girlfriend? Or are you just mad that I'm the one touching her and not you?"

"Enough! Stop talking to him like that, Adrian. I'm not some kind of object. Not everyone is a threat to you. Theo's right, all you talk about is how this is going to give you attention, you don't even care about me. I don't like you touching me. We're in public, people are all around. You're making me look bad. Either get it together and treat me like a human or we are through. I'll see you at dance, it's time for you to go home now." Scarlett had turned red, she didn't think she'd breathed once while ranting.

Adrian nodded and got up, practically stomping away from them. Even though there was now space in the booth, Scarlett remained where she was. Theo placed his hand over hers, rubbing his thumb on her hand. He gave her a little squeeze and then let go.

"I'm proud of you, Scar." Draco told her.

Scarlett nodded, "I really don't like him."

"Trust me, I know. It's very evident on your face anytime he's near."

Scarlett frowned, "Really?"

"Yeah, you get pale and you look at everyone but him." Astoria informed her.

"Oh." Scarlett looked down at the table. Should she thank Theo for standing up for her?

-

An hour or so passed and the four of them walked out of the restaurant, Astoria decided that they should go get ice cream and then grabbed Draco's hand and began to pull him down the alley.

Scarlett grabbed Theo's arm and stopped him from following, she led him to a corner in the shadows, where no one would see them. "Thank you for standing up for me."

He shrugged, "It's what anyone would do."

"Well no one else did except for you. So thank you."

"It's fine. We can go back to not talking now, I didn't mean for anything to happen."

She shook her head, "I don't want that."

He raised an eyebrow, "If I recall correctly, you're the one who said-"

She cut him off, "I want to be friends. I shouldn't have said what I said."

He nodded, "If that's what you want then that's what I want as well."

authors note:
me writing adrian this way has
now given me an ick and i think
i'm gonna have to put my adrian
book on hold. (id had a plan to
publish it when i finished this
book) lol.

i also have no idea when the ball
is supposed to be. i've completely
forgotten my plan for that but i feel
like i've written it somewhere in
here so i'm just going to give it a
new date. it'll happen in 4 chapters.
i'm deciding that now.