The Firefly and Dragon Restaurant

Querulous

Lucius Malfoy was drunk.

He was thoroughly enjoying the bottle of Chaval des Andes he'd ordered and had proceeded to drink nearly it all, by himself. Though he had, rather begrudgingly, offered a glass to Arthur Weasley.

He'd already enjoyed a couple of glasses of Chablis with his lobster, which he hadn't pre-ordered but Potter just happened to have a spare half in the kitchen. Both had been rather delicate and delicious. In fact, he'd never had such a delicate and delicious starter but he wasn't about to admit that.

He took another sip of the Chaval des Andes before slicing a piece of his fillet steak. It appeared to melt in his mouth.

It turned out that Harry had wisely reserved a long table for eighteen along the long window edge of the restaurant for his family and close friends on the opening night. It meant that the only way the Malfoys could eat at the restaurant was to join the Weasleys, Andromeda Tonks, and a couple of Harry's closest friends. Eighteen-month old Teddy was tucked up in a cot in Harry's spare bedroom in the apartment with Mimi's sister babysitting.

Narcissa persuaded Lucius that perhaps it was the best way to be seen in public after the war; you know, fraternising with pure-bloods who were on the 'right side'.

Draco persuaded Lucius that perhaps wearing black from top-to-toe was not the best impression for someone to make if they were trying to convince the world they'd moved away from the 'wrong side'. Lucius conceded to a grey-blue shirt and relaxed slightly after Narcissa's eyes widened (in a good way) and she quirked a little smile he hadn't seen on her face for a very long time as she inspected him before they left.

'It brings out the colour of your eyes,' she said, her voice rather more sultry than usual, and she kissed him on the cheek fondly in a way that reminded him of when they were just married, before he'd got mixed up in all that distressing Dark Lord business. 'Can I fishtail-braid your hair, just like when we were younger?' she asked.

He nodded, too stunned to object.

He was sitting at the head of the table, fairly surprisingly, but the others had insisted. Narcissa was on one side and Arthur on the other. He was a little startled when his son had offered to take his very expensive dress-coat, expecting him to eat in just his shirt and trousers but, when he surveyed the other diners in the restaurant and saw they were all also jacketless and rather relaxed, he conceded.

He even tried smiling; it was quite hard.

He thought he was performing remarkably well. In fact, he thought he deserved an Order of Merlin medal. He only winced a little bit whenever George and Ronald cracked a lewd joke at the far end of the table. He'd had a fairly intelligible conversation with William and his wife Fleur about Gringotts Bank. He tried hard to ignore the presence of Ms Granger and his niece Ms Lovegood, partly because he was embarrassed about holding them captive at the manor during the war but mostly because he was incredibly mortified by his sister-in-law's behaviour in his house and the fact that he was unable to stop Bellatrix, even if he'd wanted to. He was considerably surprised to see a very elegantly-dressed Pansy Parkinson sitting amongst the fray, he was nearly certain she was there with George but he didn't dare ask. They were certainly flirting a lot. At least she balanced out all these Gryffindorish-oafs he was sitting amongst. Though, as he understood it, Hannah Abbott was a Hufflepuff. He glanced warily at Ginevra, she was somewhat scary and just a little impressive as a professional Quidditch player. He wasn't sure what to make of the moderately staid Percy and his fiancée, Percy just seemed grateful to be there and Audrey looked overwhelmed. He did shake a noticeably startled Neville Longbottom's hand for getting rid of that ghastly snake, he didn't think he'd ever be able to stop seeing it glide along his dining room table in his nightmares. He still sneered at Arthur's job but only a little because he wasn't exactly in a position to be too condescending since he wasn't allowed near the Ministry anymore. Narcissa seemed to be enjoying herself with Andromeda and Molly so he tried to put his discomfort to one side.