A Taste of Magic

Chapter 111: 111th Course - Meet the Parents, Again

Daniel stopped and looked at his daughter with wonder. "You look beautiful," he said, his voice thick with emotion.

Lavender turned and smiled brilliantly at him. "Thanks, Daddy!" She said, twirling a little. Her dress was blue and she wore a light jacket on top of it. She put on a pair of small gold earrings and settled her hair band that kept her hair out of her eyes.

"It seems a bit much to dress up for dinner," he said in a half-joking manner.

Her transformation was sudden and complete. The smile and cheery expression dissolved and was replaced with something stern and piercing. "Daddy, do not ruin this," she warned.

"Ruin this? Ruin what?" He balked when she poked him in the chest.

"You know what! This is really important to me!"

"I'm just doing my fatherly duty!" he protested.

"Daddy, I promise, if you do something bad to hurt him and ruin things, I will hold this against you forever and will be sad and despondent for the rest of my days," she said seriously, maintaining eye contact.

"Seriously, what shows are you watching with Mum?" Daniel complained once more.

"Grandmum says you can ask her," Lavender sniffed. She looked down when Cokie walked up to her, holding a long ribbon in her mouth. Lavender took it from the poodle and tied a pretty bow that sat on her head, between her ears. "Daddy, please? I really care about him."

"I know," Daniel sighed. "I'm taking this seriously too, you know." He adjusted his tie. "I just have to do things as your father."

"Daddy, I'm not going to replace you." Lavender hugged him. "You are the two most important men in my life and I need you both to like each other. Okay? And Harry really likes you and respects you."

"Not fair, pulling that card on me," Daniel complained half-heartedly, hugging her back.

"It's true!" Lavender kissed him on the cheek and walked off with Cokie following her.

"Can you believe her?" Daniel asked, walking into the sitting room.

Leena smiled up at him. "I can," she said easily.

"Since when has she gotten that good at playing on my emotions like that?!"

"Probably from learning from Ariana, Andromeda, and her friends," Leena said prosaically. "Lavender has always been clever as it is. Her friends from the Pureblood families grew up playing the Game and doing that sort of political thing and Andromeda is frighteningly clever in that regard too whereas Ariana is just frightening in general."

She rolled her eyes at her husband. "Besides, this is Harry we're talking about. I know you feel the need to pretend to be the big gruff father figure to warn a boy to behave come hell and high water, but Harry is lovely and we have nothing to worry about."

"Pretend nothing," Daniel grumbled. "And yes, we've known about Harry for years and have known him for a few now and I like the boy well enough, but that's before he and Lavender started dating and are together. I have to see him in a new light."

"You really don't," she disagreed, looking back at the newspaper.

"I really do," he insisted.