All Good Things

Chapter 2 - Wine and Dine

It had been entirely too long of a day, and Victoria was desperate for the drinks she knew she'd be getting tonight. She would have to hold back on how many she had though, lest she end up doing something on her date that she'd later regret.

Her townhouse had felt far too quiet when she had finally made it home to change. But the cold fabric of the green silk blouse she had picked out was soothing against her hot skin. She inspected her appearance in the mirror, raking her fingers through her shoulder length curls and smoothing her palms against her pants.

Her dark brown eyes had looked far too tired, and she'd had to put on some makeup to cover the circles that were prominent under them. With a deep sigh, Victoria grabbed her handbag and made her way out the front door.

The air was cool against her face, soothing some of the tension of her long day. The street outside was practically empty, leaving her plenty of time to get lost in the sound of her own footfall. Everything was so peaceful outside of the ministry's walls. No stacks of paperwork waiting to be worked, no stream of people looking for an audience, no irritatingly silent office space.

Victoria thought about the date ahead of her. It had been far too long since she'd been on any such outing, and she had been rightfully surprised when a run-in with Leander Prewett resulted in one such request. The ginger haired man had wasted no time in asking her to join him for dinner on Friday, causing both Garreth and Sebastian to practically spit their drinks all over the table at the pub they had stopped at after work.

It was entirely too common an occurrence for the two men to invite Natty, Ominis and Victoria to drinks when they'd had a particularly rough day. What was not common was Leander being present at said pub. They had been going every other Friday for three years, and he had never once been someone they noticed anywhere within the building.

So when he had simply waltzed up to their usual table and struck up a conversation with only Victoria, her friends had broken out in various sounds of amusement. Ominis had snickered, Natty had begun her drunken schoolgirl giggling, Garreth had teased her about going on a date with the whole table, and Sebastian had gotten irritable with Leander rather quickly.

Victoria had found herself agreeing to the date mostly to get him to leave her be, and partly because she needed to get out of the house. She didn't particularly dislike Leander, but he had made a number of unsuccessful attempts to court her when they were teenagers, and even more attempts to catch her eye by challenging one of her closest friends to constant duels. She didn't know whether she had found his attempts embarrassing or endearing at the time.

Now, here she was, walking down to the agreed upon restaurant with her heels clicking on the pavement beneath her. She had one hand tucked into the pocket of her pants while the other clutched her swinging purse. She hadn't realized just how far she'd walked until she was standing outside of the restaurant. Her breath was let out in a huff before she made her way inside, hoping to all that was good and holy that her fellow Gryffindors weren't in there to spy on her date for their own entertainment.

The restaurant smelled warmly of spices and alcohol, the space not as dimly lit as she would have preferred. Victoria spied Leander across the room, having already taken a seat at a small table near the back. There were two drinks on the table, indicating he had already placed an order of alcohol for her. Because of course he had. It wouldn't be a date with Leander Prewett if he didn't try to dictate what she did and didn't want.

She rolled her eyes before taking a deep breath and making her way to the table he had taken, trying to keep any expressions of distaste off of her face. Sliding into the seat across from him, Victoria took in the look of surprise on his face as he tried not to choke on the wine in his glass. Evidently, the thought that she might not show given the display her friends had put on the previous weekend had crossed his mind.

"Victoria. You made it. I was beginning to wonder if you might have thought better of it." Leander said the words with a hint of condescension. So he hadn't changed much from the snide fifth year she had known all those years ago. He smirked at her, his long features appearing even longer with the pull of his lips.

"I do believe we had agreed of six, did we not? I apologize if I misheard you over Natty and Ominis' snickering." She gave him a small smile in return, her eyes flicking to the glass awaiting her.

Red wine. Victoria had never been fond of the more mellow alcohol, preferring gin, but she wasn't one to pass up a drink when she'd had such a long afternoon. She slid one dark hand around the stem of the glass, lifting it to her lips and taking a sip. Too sweet.

She listened to Leander prattle on about himself, his life after Hogwarts and his job. He seemed all too proud to be working in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, boasting about his arrest record as if it would impress her. She knew all too well that most of his arrests had likely involved minor obstructions of justice, as there hadn't been any news of prominent dark witches and wizards in the years after the goblin rebellion.

Victoria had almost forgotten how full of himself Leander was, almost draining her entire glass of wine while he droned on and on about himself. She took the time to study him, her eyes trained on his face. While he had had long features as a teenager, his face had thinned out and drew out his features to appear much more bird like in subsequent years. It appeared he either struggled to grow facial hair at all, or he truly thought patchy stubble was what women were into these days. His freckles still dominated his skin in a way that rivaled both Garreth and Sebastian combined. Red hair was slicked back in a sad imitation of Ominis', sticking out at the ends like he had rushed through getting himself ready.

Leander was still as gangly and thin as ever, having not filled out hardly at all as an adult. She truly began to wonder if his arrest record was exaggerated in an attempt to excite her. His droning was finally silenced as a waiter arrived to take their order. She had barely opened her mouth to dictate her request when she was abruptly cut off by the ginger haired man across from her.

"And she'll have something light. Perhaps a salad, darling?" His dark eyes flicked to her and she scoffed.

"Excuse me? Darling?" Her brows came together, the irritation bubbling up in her chest.

"A salad then." The waiter was gone before she had a chance to argue with him.

"I am more than capable of deciding what I'd like to eat for myself, thank you." Victoria took a large gulp of the fresh glass of wine that had been poured for her. Merlin, she was going to need something stronger after this.

"Perhaps, but a salad is a much healthier option. All you women are obsessed with these days is watching your figure. Especially a woman like you." Leander had said the words like it was a fact of life.

She sat back in her chair, crossing her arms and scowling.

"What do you mean a woman like me?" She could feel her irritation with him building quickly, and she remembered exactly why she had rejected him so much during their school days.

"You know." He paused to take a drink of his wine before turning his attention back to her. "You sit in an office all day, Miss Finch. There's not much action to be had in your department, and I can imagine that would lead to a lack of exercise. It would just be wise to watch your figure if you want to catch yourself a proper husband."

If they hadn't been in the middle of a packed restaurant, Victoria would have hexed him with the wand tucked against her hip. Instead, she settled for grabbing her glass and splashing what wine was left on him.

"Well perhaps I'm not trying to catch a proper husband, Mister Prewett." Victoria stood, grabbing her purse and storming off toward the door. "Good luck in your endeavors."