A Turn For The Better (Completed)

Part 38

After a fifteen minute drive, we arrived at Aubergine. I nearly had to prise Draco from the cab, and he insisted that I let him pay the fare, he had gotten some Galleons changed into Pounds before he met me at the Leaky Cauldron. Apparently Gringotts accepted muggle money.

Once we were out of the cab and it had sped away, we started towards the door to the restaurant. Draco held the door open for me, he had obviously been doing some reading or research! We entered the restaurant and we were greeted by a man, he was the man in charge of checking us in. "Name please?" he asked. "Um, Granger." I replied. "Ah, yes. This way please." he said. He led us to a table by the window. It was a table for two. It was really very beautiful in here. "A waitress will be with you momentarily." he said as we sat down and he handed us menus, and then headed back to his station.

After a while of silently reading the menu, Draco spoke up. "So I can't tell, is this expensive, or is it cheap?" I laughed, of course he didn't understand Pounds. "Well, it's a little on the expensive side, not too expensive, but I am sure it will be worth it." I said. He nodded.

After a few more minutes of looking at the menu, and me telling Draco what each item was, we had finally decided what we wanted. We were both going for the vegetable soup for starters, I was going to have sweet and sour chicken with rice, as that has always been a favorite and something I missed whilst being at Hogwarts, ans strawberry cheesecake with cream for desert. Draco wanted to try what I was having, as he said he trusted my judgement, so when the waitress arrived to take our orders, we ordered the exact same thing as each other. "Would you like anything to drink?" she asked once she had taken down our food order. "Yes, can I have a bottle of the house red, and two wine glasses?" said Draco. "Indeed sir, and I will be back with water and breadsticks." she replied as she started towards the kitchen area.

"Draco, have you any idea how much that wine would cost?" I asked him when I was sure she was out of earshot. "I have a feeling its expensive, but don't worry, I have enough." he said. I knew he wasn't lying, Draco wasn't exactly scrapping the sickles together.

Five minutes later she arrived back with a jug of water, two glasses, the wine and the wine glasses, and the breadsticks. "It still baffles me how one person can carry all of that without using magic!" he exclaimed. "It's not that hard once you have a tray, Draco." I laughed.

During the starter we talked about what our plans were for the new year, and whether or not we were making any new years resolutions. I had decided that I was going to try and stop worrying so much, as it was definitely going to make me go grey by the time I turned 30. Draco decided that he was going to stop comparing himself to his father. He found that he was always convincing himself that he was just like him. Even though I knew full well that he was nothing like his father.

"Okay, before the main comes out, do you want your gift?" he asked after the waitress had cleared our table after we had finished the first course. "Go on then." I smiled. He pulled out a little box. "Don't worry, before you jump to conclusions, it's not an engagement ring! I don't think we are far enough down the road yet for that." he chuckled. I felt relieved, not that I wouldn't want to marry Draco, but we were both still so young, and we still had to go public with our relationship.

He handed me the little purple box. I opened it and found a beautiful ring. I gasped, "Draco, it's beautiful!" He smiled, "It's a mood-stone ring. Like the muggle ones, but this one is magical. It has a partner." He reached into his pocket and pulled out another one, this one was just a blue band. "This is its partner. You wear your ring, and I wear mine. If you get excited, your ring picks it up, and sends the same mood to my ring. It records all major feelings, hurt, anger, excitement and danger. Red is danger, Purple is excited, Pink is happy, Orange is anger and Blue is hurt. Mine will always be whatever yours is."