Suck It Up

First Dates Bite

"How do I look, Lee?" I asked my best muggle friend, Leah. She glanced up from my bed where she was reading a magazine and frowned, shaking her head patiently. I sighed, looking at myself in my full-length mirror. I'd grabbed out a pale blue sweater and some black slacks, which I paired with black flats.

"Hermione, you need something...I dunno...sexier," she said, looking back down to her magazine and flipping a page. I sighed again and walked back to my closet.

Leah Melione and I had been best friends since grade school and had even survived me leaving every year for Hogwarts for the past five years without one missed beat in our friendship. Of course, she thought I just went to a really strange private school. Now, though, she had agreed to come over to help me pick out my outfit for my first date with this guy I'd met at a bookstore.

"So, Hermes," she began, using my silly nickname she'd been calling me ever since she found out about the Greek God, "What's his name again?"

"Leonardo Brocelli," I answered automatically, scrutinizing a purple blouse hanging in my closet. Leah "tsk"ed before rolling onto her back and hanging her head and arms upside down off of the end of my bed, dropping the magazine onto the floor with a huff.

"Is he from Britain?" she asked quizzically, now trying to reach the magazine upsidedown that was only an inch or so from her fingertips.

"Nope," I said brightly, pulling the purple shirt out and laying it across the chair that sat beside the mirror. "He's from Italy."

"Hermione, no matter where he's from, I swear if he sees you in that top he's going to run screaming in the other direction," she said quickly, rolling off my bed and snatching the blouse off of the chair, holding it out at arm's length. "Was this your mother's or something?"

"...Maybe. But that doesn't matter," I muttered, pulling it from her and throwing it at the bottom of my closet with all of the other rejected outfits.

"Ugh, I'll never find anything!" I suddenly exclaimed, throwing my hands up into the air in surrender and plopping down onto the floor, sprawling out in a hopeless position. Lee chuckled and shook her head as she walked into my closet, still looking for something to save me.

"Um...Hermione...is this yours?" she asked a moment later in a stunned voice. I looked up and, my face going scarlet, saw exactly why she would be asking me that question. A year ago, my aunt Lorenda had gotten me a crimson dress that was made of extremely soft satin. I loved the color, but the dress had just been too low-cut and...body-hugging for a fifteen year old.

"Yeah, aunt Lorenda got it for me. Why?" I asked hesitantly, wondering how on earth she found that thing when I very well knew that I had shoved the box completely out of sight the day after my birthday.

"Wear it," she commanded, holding it out to me. My mouth opening in outrage as I looked at the skimpy little dress.

"Leah, I met the guy in a bookstore. I do not think he'll want me to go to wherever we're going in a-a-"

"-an extremely sexy dress?" she suggested coyly, waving it in front of me like an adult would a piece of candy to a small child. My mouth twitched into a smile as I considered what she was saying.

"Come on, Hermes. Do you honestly want to be 'Hermione Granger-Brainy Bookworn' for the rest of your life?" she asked, slowly lowering her arm and frowning at me. I pursed my lips as her words echoed in my mind. Did I still want to be known as an "insufferable know-it-all"?

"Give me that damn dress."

* * *

I stood there waiting for her, knowing that tonight would be safe. She didn't attract me, at least not physically, so we could both walk away tonight with nothing more than a nice evening at the club, The Bite, that I planned on going to, me with my current vegeterian status still intact and her with her blood still in her body. A win-win for everybody, even if she wasn't the prettiest girl town, which was good.