He actually flexed his chest muscles.
But Rhiannon still wasn't watching. As far as Harry could tell, she wasn't even aware that Draco was in the vicinity. Draco looked vaguely frustrated, as though he realised that and didn't know how to counter it.
Harry lowered his voice. "I'm surprised you went swimming instead of going over to talk to her."
Draco made a face. "Well, that lout of an uncle was yelling at her at first. For being late again. Poor breeding on his part, if you ask me. But in any case, I thought I'd better give her some time to forget she was related to such a toad. Besides, I didn't want her to say again that I didn't look like I ever went swimming."
"Perhaps you should mention as well that I wanted Harry present when you dropped his name," said Snape.
"Yeah, that too," Draco said, a bit sourly. When he slicked his hair back again, his hand was shaking a little, but any nervousness he might be feeling didn't show in his voice. "Well, prepare to be dazzled, and not just by her radiance. You're shortly to find out that I know exactly what I'm talking about when it comes to recognising quality."
Rhiannon looked up at the noise of the chain-link gate being unlatched and pushed open. "Oh, hello there," she said, in kind of a careless voice. "Darren, wasn't it?"
Draco pinkened and stood a little bit straighter. "Draco, actually."
"Oh. Sorry."
She didn't sound it, Harry thought.
"You remember my family, I think?" Draco didn't stop walking until he was at the foot of her chair, and then he beckoned Harry closer. But it was Snape he introduced first. "This is my father, Severus Snape. He's a professor."
Rhiannon shifted in her chair, her whole attitude seeming to somehow harden. "Maths?"
Weird guess, Harry thought.
"No." Draco dropped his voice and almost whispered. "Potions."
Rhiannon's blonde eyebrows drew together. "Pardon?"
"Chemistry," Harry rushed to say.
"Oh. Science." Rhiannon's smile was thin. "How nice."
Quite clearly, she didn't think it was nice at all. But the fact that she hadn't heard of anyone teaching potions was proof enough, wasn't it?
Not for Draco, apparently. "And you met my brother already. Harry Potter."
Rhiannon's glance at Harry was entirely disinterested. "Uh-huh."
"The Harry Potter. You know." Draco's voice dropped still further. "Want to see his scar?"
Rhiannon actually recoiled. "What?" Then she glanced at Harry in that way people have, when they're trying not to look at someone in a wheelchair, but they can't help staring. Except, she was looking square at his stomach, and she was braced as though expecting to see some horrible disfigurement across his midsection.
"It's here," said Harry, sweeping his fringe aside. By then, he felt sorry for her. She clearly didn't have a clue what Draco was talking about.
"Oh. That's rather weird." Rhiannon tensed then, as though she hadn't meant to be rude. "Um, car accident, was it?"
"No--"
Draco hadn't said a word since Rhiannon's failure to recognise Harry's name. Harry was starting to feel sorry for him, too. It must be an awful shock. A humiliation, even, since he'd been so intent on proving Harry wrong about everything.
But clearly, Draco was neither shocked nor humiliated. He just looked... thoughtful, actually. Like he was figuring something out. Starting to understand something that had eluded him.
"So I thought you might like to have a bite of lunch with me when you got off," he said, leaning on Rhiannon's tower as he looked up the short distance to where she was sitting. "Three o'clock, wasn't it?"
Rhiannon flicked a glance toward the pool office. "Er... I'm working until five tonight. I just found out."
Harry figured that was her uncle's way of trying to make her show up on time.
"And after that I've got rehearsal."
"Mozart." Draco nodded. "Is that at the same theatre where we saw you perform? Can I take you out for late supper when you're done there, then?"
"I have to get straight home."
Harry thought was torn between feeling bad that Draco was getting nowhere, and a kind of befuddlement that he didn't appear to be perturbed by the fact that Rhiannon was a Muggle.
"Can I watch you rehearse, then?"
This was getting to be embarrassing, Harry thought.
Rhiannon glanced at Snape. And then at Harry. "All of you?"
"No, just me." Draco threw a challenging look at Snape as he said it.
"Hmm. Well, the director does like to hear from people who've seen us perform. Especially if they're knowledgeable about opera." Rhiannon shrugged as though she didn't care one way or another. "Oh, very well. Half-past five at the theatre."
"I'll be there."
"Come to the back door." Rhiannon gave Draco one last absent nod before she turned back towards the children playing in the pool.
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Draco was grinning as he and Harry went into the changing rooms to get dressed so they could leave the pool. "So, that went well, I think."
"You really don't care that she's a--"
"Shhh," said Draco, motioning to some children coming in. They only looked to be about ten or so, and they were chattering with one another. Probably wouldn't hear a word that Harry or Draco would say, but Harry could just hear his father lecturing on discretion.
"But you don't care?"
"Nothing to care about," breezed Draco. "You don't get it yet, do you?"
Leaning over, he whispered in Harry's ear. Just two words, but they made Harry's heart sink like a stone in the deepest sea.
"She's passing."
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Coming Soon in A Summer Like None Other: "Bewitched"
Comments very welcome,
Aspen in the Sunlight and Mercredi
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Author's Notes:
If you'd like to be notified when more of this story is posted, then send an email to ayearlikenoneother-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ayearlikenoneother/join to subscribe to the Yahoo group set up to for author alerts. After you have joined the group and are choosing your options, select any email option other than "No Email" in order to receive notices about future chapters or stories in this universe.
Chapter 9: Bewitched
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=13093&chapter=9
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A Summer Like None Other
by Aspen in the Sunlight
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Chapter Nine: Bewitched
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Draco was feeling rather pleased when they Apparated back to Devon.
Harry, of course, was determined to make sure that the feeling didn't last.
"Passing?" he demanded the moment the three of them were alone in the meadow. "Look, I know you mentioned it before, but that was when all we knew was that she was on the stage. Now the girl's a lifeguard but she's still a witch passing as a Muggle? Are you mental?"
Draco grinned. Not even Harry's sour mood could spoil his elation. His brother might be dense enough to have overlooked all the clues Rhiannon had strewn about, but Draco had noticed them, every one.
"I take it you don't mean passing fair," drawled Severus.
"This is serious!" objected Harry. Well, he never had been very good at banter, had he?
Draco ignored him. "That's right, Dad," he said. Hmm, the name felt a little bit deliberate. Which of course it had been, but not because he wanted something. Well, actually he did want Severus to agree that Draco could attend Rhiannon's rehearsal, and attend it alone, but that still wasn't why he'd said dad. He'd decided to try to get used to saying it, that was all.