Mary (not_too_soon) wrote in fourteenshades, @ 2014-08-23 07:08:00 |
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Current mood: | chipper |
Entry tags: | gregory goyle, mary macdonald |
Dinner Party - Mac & Greg
WHO: Mary MacDonald & Gregory Goyle
WHAT: Making friends?
WHERE: Malfoy Manor Gardens
WHEN: Saturday 23 August
RATING: PG
STATUS: Started in GDOCS, to be continued here.
Mac liked getting an individual invitation for once. She loved Colin, but being someone's “Plus One” got old. Her independence was important to her. She didn't run out on her wedding for no reason. Of course, it wasn't Colin's fault that etiquette usually called for sending him an invitation (or that more of his generation seemed to throw parties), but Mac appreciated Astoria's gesture all the same. The girl was a bit younger than Mac, but Mac liked her anyway. They had fun shopping together. Besides, Mac thought Astoria was more mature than some women several years older so what was age other than a silly number?
She arrived with Colin, but she decided to strike out on her own after making the rounds with him. The town was small, but there were still so many people she didn't know. She bounced around from person to person until thirst got to her.
She popped by the refreshment table and poured herself some sparkling cider. There was plenty of time for alcohol. She needed to pace herself. She took a big sip and glanced over as a shadow hovered over her.
Greg wasn’t sure what he was doing there. Sure, Draco was his friend (he kept hoping they were still friends, anyway), but still, he felt a little out of place. He had always thought that dinner parties were for classy, sophisticated people, and he was neither thing. In fact, he kept looking around in search of looks of disapproval or traces of anything he might have unknowingly knocked off a table.
Feeling that he ought to have a small drink to relax a little, he advanced to the refreshment table. “Hi,” he said to the girl in front of him. His eyes were on the table, so he didn’t stop to see if he knew her or not, but he still felt it was a good idea to be polite.
Mac glanced up with a smile. She saw Greg around sometimes, mostly at the food court, but she recognized him as Draco’s friend. Colin was decent about keeping her up to speed about people from his generation although putting together the stories with the faces was difficult considering she hadn’t lived through either war. Peter kept asking why she considered him a friend, but truthfully? The future felt like a story she kept reading, but didn’t connect with. The Chasm War in the village woke her up some as did Gilderoy’s aging, but it was too easy for her to push the truth aside when things were normal. In short? She didn’t really know much about Greg outside his name and she was ripe to make a new friend, considering they had people in common. “Hullo!” She greeted happily. “You are Gregory, yes? I am Mary, most call me Mac. I’ve seen you around some. How are you?”
The excited greeting took Greg by surprise. This girl was definitely not from his time, as his fellow students were usually less effusive and somewhat wary when they met him. He was sure he had seen her somewhere, though, but given how small the village was, that was inevitable, really. “Uh, yeah, I’m Greg.” He hoped he didn’t look too confused - or that he wasn’t blushing. He could never tell when he was blushing, though his sister had once told him he always did it when talking to strangers. “’m fine, thanks. You?”
“You are Draco’s mate, yeah? I am Colin’s girlfriend.” She took another drink from her cup and nodded toward the general crowd of people. They seemed to be having fun. “What are you doing over here by yourself? Batting the girls away?” She winked playfully.
“Oh. Right.” That’s where he knew her. Draco was friends with Colin Creevey, he knew that, though he hadn’t spoken much with the bloke. Her question, however, took him a little by surprise. “Huh? I don’t think I ever…” He blinked. “Was that a joke?” There was no accusation on his question, and no offence - just confusion.
Now Mac looked confused, but she shrugged it off. “Yes, silly. Just teasing...although...do you have a girlfriend here who gets jealous or something?” She couldn’t understand why he’d be so confused about her little joke. “You shouldn’t date jealous girls. They get tiresome, you know.” Never mind she often got envious of girls buzzing around Colin.
“Uh, no. No girlfriend.” Greg didn’t really think he was the type girls ever looked at as potential boyfriend material. His chances had always been so low he ended up going to the Yule Ball with his best mate, after all. It was actually a bit soothing for his ego that Mac seemed to think he could have a girlfriend, though, and that she’d be the jealous type. “Thanks for the advice, though.”
“You are welcome. Always ask a lady about other ladies.” She finished off her drink and sent it to the waste bin with a quick spell and flick of her wand. “You should meet my roommate, Autumn. She is such a lovely girl! How old are you?” She wasn’t sure why she decided on Autumn, but something told her Greg could use a dance with a cute girl and Autumn certainly fit the bill.
“Eighteen,” he replied, a bit hesitantly. Was he being set up on a blind date? He read occasional notes on his journal by a girl called Autumn, but he didn’t really know her. Was there something wrong with her if her roommate was trying to introduce her to someone like him?
“Oh, around her age then!” Mac liked putting people together. Maybe it had something to do with her being so happy with Colin? Of course, she didn’t think anyone needed a romance - not truly - but it was fun to have, wasn’t it? “Are you finished then?” She gestured to the table. “You should dance with me and then we’ll find Autumn! She is a pretty thing. And fun. So fun. Almost as much fun as me.”
Greg’s eyes widened. “D-dance? I can’t dance.” He glanced around the room nervously, looking for someone who might save him - and this girl’s feet.
Mac cocked her head. Her expression was half amused, half incredulous. “Oh, love, you just sort of bob. I am from the seventies. Merlin knows I am probably way behind the times!”
Greg glanced nervously around him again, but sadly no rescuer was near enough to notice. “I… I reckon I might still stomp on someone even if I just bob,” he admitted.
“I’ve had my feet stepped on plenty,” Mac assured him. She touched his arm gently. “I could show you. If you do stomp, well, that is why some of my best mates are healers.” She flashed a wide, teasing smile again. “Nothing could be worse than some of the awful blokes my parents set me up with while I was a teenager!” She rolled her eyes as she thought about the various suitors (one more horrid than the other) her parents pushed on her over the years.
He still hesitated, not just because of his knowledge that he just could not dance, but also because Mac seemed… well, crazy. Eventually, though, he realized there was really no way out. “Er… ‘kay.”
She clapped and grabbed his hand. She was used to getting what she wanted. If the hat hadn’t placed her in Gryffindor, she knew Slytherin was the only other House for her. “Ready?” She asked after she led him to a less crowded spot on the dance floor. “This is a good song too.”
“Is it?” he asked in a low but puzzled voice as he let himself be led along. He was trying his best to follow her example and bob to the sound of the music, but he felt too strange and awkward as they did it. Was this really meant to be fun?, he wondered, as his concern over everybody else’s well-being (Mac’s especially) were too strong in his mind for him to find the experience at all enjoyable.
It made her sad that he didn’t seem to let loose. Mac really was a wee bit crazy (she maintained in a lovable way), but her heart was in the right place. Even in school, she always liked finding those on the outskirts She was never one of the elitist types, which was why she stuck out like a sore thumb to Mulciber types. “You are not into this,” she said in what she hoped was a kind tone. She reached for his hand again. “No one is watching,” she added. “Look, everyone is doing their own thing. And my feet? So far, so good!”
“Sorry,” he promptly said. It was probably the word he most often uttered at school, usually followed by “Professor” or “Draco”. Still, it wasn’t an automatic response this time, as he knew he probably looked ridiculous just standing there. “How do I get ‘into this’, though? I dunno how.”
She was no dance teacher (or McGonagall). She didn’t care about perfect steps or where anyone’s arms were. She just liked listening to the music and jumping around. For slow songs, she liked feeling Colin’s arms around her. “Do you like music?” She asked. “Do you ever just listen and let it…” She paused. “You know, do you feel it?”
“Well, yeah,” he said, a bit unsure. “I mean, I listen to it, but I dunno, I never really danced.” In fact, his only experience with music was exclusively as a listener, and he never thought that was such a bad thing.
Her smile was kind. At the end of the day, Mac wanted people to be happy, even if she sometimes (often) got frustrated or annoyed by situations. “Because you don’t want to?” She asked. She didn’t add “or are you afraid to” because she knew blokes got tetchy about that sort of thing.
Greg gave her a confused look. “I dunno, I never really thought ‘bout dancing.” Now that he thought about it, the Goyle household had never been one for dancing - or anything that involved pursuing a hobby of any thought. The unspoken rule had always been that if either of the children showed an interest in a hobby their parents would be supportive, but they had never taken an active role in getting Greg or his sister interested in anything.
Mac nodded. “Well, thank you for dancing with me. I enjoyed it and if you ever do want to think about dancing again, think of me, yeah?” She was pretty much just standing in the middle of the crowd by that point, but she didn’t really care what anyone thought of her. She was trying to get to know this bloke. “You still should meet Autumn,” she added. “Do you ever come by Strikes and Skates?” Mac still hated her job, but she had to admit it was a good place to get to know people.
“‘s okay. And yeah, I’ll do that.” He wasn’t still sold on the idea of dancing, but he meant it - mostly because he was still convinced this girl was crazy and would probably do something worrying if he ever decided to dance and not think of her.
He paused at the mention of Strikes and Skates. “Isn’t that the place where they play a game with a sort of Bludger?”
“That? Is the perfect way to describe it! Merlin, it is not a bludger, but it sure would hurt getting smacked with one.” She rolled her eyes. “I knew nothing about bowling before they gave me that job. Thank Godric for Charity! She is a muggle-born, you know. She helps with the bowling and the roller skating because I have no idea how to properly do those things. Bowling is less dangerous though. You should stop in!”
Greg shrugged. “I’m a Beater, so I dun mind the danger.” He pondered about the rest of Mac’s explanation. He wouldn’t touch the “muggle-born” reference, as he was still getting used to the idea of accepting them as normal people, but shrugging off the word kept getting easier with time. “It sounds brill, though. I might try it.”
“I go to Quidditch games just to wave signs and have an excuse to yell.” She knew enough about the sport to get by, but it wasn’t her favorite thing to do. “You should. I like when people visit me. It is the only good thing about my job. You work at Mike’s Corner, yeah?”
“Yeah, people yell a lot. Good way to release energy.” He never considered being more than a spectator until the Beater spots were available, and as a spectator the yelling was his favourite part. “Yeah, Corner’s a cool bloke. You dun like your job, then?”
Mac shrugged. She didn’t really know Mike outside of being Bee’s boyfriend. However, she could talk about her dreaded job. “I am not a muggle,” she pointed out. “I have muggle-born mates, but that doesn’t really help.” She said the word again, not realizing why it might make Greg uneasy. “I didn’t grow up in their world. I feel like I am doing it all wrong. I suppose that is how muggle-borns feel when they first join the Wizarding World, huh? Colin helps me too, but, still. I think I might be better somewhere else. But!” She interrupted herself excitedly. “I do like throwing events there so that is something.”
Greg nodded. He still didn’t know anything about the muggle world, so even though he wasn’t going through it, he felt he had some idea how Mac was feeling about working in a place she knew nothing about. “Yeah, that helps, I’m sure.”